Game of Love Series by Khardine Gray Genre: Bad Boy Mafia Romance

She was the innocent I was meant to resist, but she feels like my last chance at redemption.
She’s the beautiful fiery angel.
You look at her and you forget… everything.
Past, present and future. You just forget.
I’ve been called many things in my life.
Marine, agent, hacker, thief, killer…
Now I’m a fraud.
I’m here for one single reason – to steal from her father, the Vegas Mafia King .
Eliminate him if I need to.
Greedy mobster…he got caught up in something above him and dragged her in too.
I dropped my guard and got lost in her.
Mind, body, and soul.
The angel drew me in at hello.
With a body made for serious sinning, Jia Marchesi reminded me of what I wanted and never had.
I want her to be mine.
But… the more I dig the more secrets I find.
The more I realize what’s going on is above me too.
Danger and death are on the horizon.
Sorry, Bellezza. You got dealt a cruel hand.
I should have stayed away from you..
You were my big mistake. I was always a threat.
In the end, there’s no way this will end well.
Not for me
Nor for you.
Please note Ace of Hearts is book 1 in the Game of Love series. This book ends with a Cliffhanger. Xander and Jia’s story continues in Tease of Spades and Queen of his Heart.
Tease of Spades
Game of Love Book 2
I wasn’t sure which was worse.
Being with her or being without her.
Both seemed to carry its own weight of grief.
Maybe it would have been better to just leave, get out of her life and she’d never see me again.
I’d shared several moments with this woman I shouldn’t have had.
She’d looked desperate to me. I just didn’t know at the time what the desperate was.
The desperation was to be saved.
Freedom.
People like that were best left alone if you couldn’t help them.
Not only had I potentially blown the mission, but I’d made her life worse just for being with her.
Now all hell was breaking loose.
My enemy has returned and he knows she’s my weakness.
It’s only a matter of time before heads will roll.
Please note Tease of Spades is book 2 in the Game of Love series. This book ends with a Cliffhanger. Pretty please read the books in order for your enjoyment of this series. Xander and Jia’s story continues in Queen of his Heart.
Queen of His Heart
Game of Love Book 3
Better to be on the right hand of the devil than in his path.
I stole the mafia princess and lost her all in one breath.
She was the innocent in the mix.
I broke every rule in the book with her.
I didn’t just involve her in a top-secret mission, I got involved with her.
It made me reckless and I slipped up.
I had to make the deal with the devil if I wanted a chance to get her back.
Death and danger are on the horizon.
Jia belongs to me and I won’t allow her to die.
Please note Queen of His Heart is book 3 in the Game of Love series.
This book is the continuation of Xander and Jia’s story. Pretty please read the books in order for your enjoyment of this series. xx
Khardine Gray is a USA Today Bestselling author who loves writing sizzling hot contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and paranormal romance.
Her books have sexy, drool-worthy heroes who will make you melt, and sassy, fun loving, ambitious heroines.
She simply adores her readers and loves spoiling them.
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Daughter of the Sun Cult of the Cat Book 1 by Zoe Kalo Genre: YA Contemporary Mythological Fantasy

Daughter of the Sun
Cult of the Cat Book 1
by Zoe Kalo
Genre: YA Contemporary Mythological Fantasy
EGYPTOLOGY. MAGIC. MYSTERY. AND CATS, LOTS OF CATS…
Sixteen-year-old Trinity was born during a solar eclipse and left at the doorsteps of a convent along with a torn piece of papyrus covered with ancient symbols. Raised by nuns in the English countryside, she leads a quiet life until she’s whisked away to the Island of Cats and a grandmother she never knew.
But before they can get to know each other, her grandmother dies. All that Trinity has left is a mysterious eye-shaped ring. And a thousand grieving cats. As Trinity tries to solve the enigma of the torn papyrus, she discovers a world of bloody sacrifices and evil curses, and a prophecy that points to her and her new feline abilities.
Unwilling to believe that any of the Egyptian gods could still be alive, Trinity turns to eighteen-year-old Seth and is instantly pulled into a vortex of sensations that forces her to confront her true self—and a horrifying destiny.
Storyteller at heart…
A certified bookworm and ailurophile, Zoe Kalo has always been obsessed with books and reading. The pleasure of writing and sharing her fantasy worlds has remained. Today, Zoe passes her stories to you with lots of mystery, adventure, a hint of romance, and the delicious sweep of magic.
Currently, she balances writing with spending time with her family, taking care of her clowder of cats, and searching for the perfect bottle of pinot noir.
Connect with Zoe Kalo on the web.
An ancient Egyptian themed gift related to the book (I need to decide which, as I have several possibilities)
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Once in a Lifetime Opportunity by Jessica Hardy as told to Lizzie Ashworth Genre: Memoir

Publication Date: November 4, 2019
In the mid-20th century, an entire generation of women found themselves caught up in a revolution. Young women tossed aside society’s rules that had governed women with an iron hand for hundreds of years. Suddenly women had agency, the right to their own identity. And their own sexual adventures. The story of Jessica Hardy and her seven-year marriage to Parker Grant brings that enormous cultural shift down to the personal level. As she enters college in 1966, Jessica is desperate to break out of her strict upbringing. Parker is her salvation, a graduating senior who becomes the love of her life. Newly married, they immerse in Parker’s duties as an air force officer and a world of their own making—nights in Las Vegas, windy Pacific beaches, and long summer days in the Philippine Islands. Slowly, with Parker’s encouragement, Jessica gains self-confidence and a sense of herself. But Jessica has a problem. She wants more. More knowledge, more experience, autonomy. Leaving no stone unturned, Jess breaks one rule after another—illegal abortion, drugs, one man then another, even time in jail. It’s an unexpected spiritual awakening that opens the door to the rest of her life. Once in a Lifetime Opportunity reveals this tumultuous time in a gut-wrenching portrayal of a woman determined to find her own way and the man who loved her.
Early years of my life raced by with little time for writing as I pursued a technical career, raised children, and made questionable progress in learning to paint. Finally with time to write, I dedicate myself to stories of pleasure as well as the occasional editing project. I enjoy cooking, gardening, and time at the Pacific coast. Sunrise and sunset bring special moods, the twilight between two worlds–fully of creative energy. I love snuggling up with a good book most of all–and a cat or two.
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The Rebound Effect by Linda Griffin Genre: Romantic Suspense, Psychological Thriller

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc
Publication Date: July 15, 2019
In the small town of Cougar, struggling single mother and veterinary assistant Teresa Lansing is still bruised from a failed relationship when Frank McAllister sweeps her off her feet.
Frank is a big-city SWAT officer who moved to Cougar only four months ago. He’s handsome, charming, forceful, very sexy, and a bit mysterious. He had his eye on Teresa even before they met and is pushing for a serious relationship right away.
Teresa finds his intense courtship flattering, and the sex is fabulous, but she doesn’t want her deaf six-year-old son to be hurt again. Her former fiancé cheated on her when he got drunk after being unjustly fired, but he loves her and her son, and the whirlwind romance is complicated by his efforts to win Teresa back.
And then there’s the matter of the bodies buried at Big Devil Creek…
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I began my career as a reference and collection development librarian in the Art and Music Section of the San Diego Public Library and then transferred to the Literature and Languages Section, where I had the pleasure of managing the Central Library’s Fiction collection and initiating fiction order lists for the entire library system. Although I also enjoy reading biography, memoir, and history, fiction remains my first love. In addition to the three R’s–reading, writing, and research–I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.
My earliest ambition was to be a “book maker” and I wrote my first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library to spend more time on my writing
My stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, The Binnacle, The Nassau Review, Orbis, Thema Literary Journal, and forthcoming in Avalon Literary Review, and and in the anthologies Short Story America, Vol. 2 and The Captive and the Dead. Four stories, including two as yet unpublished, received honorable mention in the Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction contests.
Member of RWA and Authors Guild
$25 Amazon gift card
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Sycophant by Meagan J. Meehan Genre: Horror

Sycophant
by Meagan J. Meehan
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Alban Lake Publishing LLC
Dawn Daniels has always been aware of the dark force within her; a possession that is both the bane of her life and her fierce protector, Dawn must find a way to accept her reality and embrace her destiny.
Meagan J. Meehan is a published author, poet, cartoonist, and produced playwright. She pens columns for the Great South Bay Magazine, Blasting News, KidskinthaBlog, and Entertainment Vine. She is also a stop-motion animator and an award-winning abstract artist. Meagan holds a Bachelors in English Literature, a Masters in Communication, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Educational Psychology. She is an animal advocate and a fledgling toy, game, and shoe designer.
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Jack the Ripper Victim Series by Alan M. Clark

Alan M. Clark’s Jack the Ripper Victims Series is comprised of five novels, one for each of the canonical victims of the murderer. These stories are not only meant to appeal to those interested in the horror that was the Autumn of Terror, but also those interested in the struggles of women in the 19th century. They are well-researched, fictional dramatic stories meant to help readers walk in the shoes of the victims and give a sense of the world as each of the women may have experienced it. The timelines for the stories run mostly concurrently, so it doesn’t matter in what order the books in the series are read. They are simultaneously drama, mystery, thriller, historical fiction, and horror. They are novels concerning horror that happened.
A Brutal Chill in August
The First Victim of Jack the Ripper
by Alan M. Clark
Genre: Crime Horror
Publisher: IFD Publishing
Publication Date: December 7, 2019
We all know about Jack the Ripper, the serial murderer who terrorized Whitechapel and confounded police in 1888, but how much do we really know about his victims?
Pursued by one demon into the clutches of another, the ordinary life of Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols is made extraordinary by horrible, inhuman circumstance. Jack the Ripper’s first victim comes to life in this sensitive and intimate fictionalized portrait, from humble beginnings, to building a family with an abusive husband, her escape into poverty and the workhouse, alcoholism, and finally abandoned on the streets of London where the Whitechapel Murderer found her.
With A Brutal Chill in August, Alan M. Clark gives readers an uncompromising and terrifying look at the nearly forgotten human story behind one of the most sensational crimes in history. This is horror that happened.
Music Video
The song sung by the ghost that haunts Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols
Apologies to the Cat’s Meat Man
The Second Victim of Jack the Ripper
Publication Date: June 9, 2017
This novel is part of the Jack the Ripper Victims Series. Each novel in the series is a stand-alone story.
Annie Chapman led a hard, lower class life in filthy 19th century London. Late in life, circumstances and and her choices led her to earn her crust by solicitation. After a bruising brawl with another woman over money and a man, she lost her lodgings and found herself sleeping rough. That dangerous turn of events delivered her into the hands of London’s most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper.
Contrasting her last week alive with the experiences of her earlier life, the author helps readers understand how she might have made the decisions that put her in the wrong place at the wrong time
Say Anything But Your Prayers
The Third Victim of Jack the Ripper
Publication Date: June 11, 2017
This novel is part of the Jack the Ripper Victims Series. Each novel in the series is a stand-alone story.
An imaginative reconstruction of the life of Elizabeth Stride, the third victim of Jack the Ripper. The beast of poverty and disease had stalked Elizabeth all her life, waiting for the right moment to take her down. To survive, she listened to the two extremes within herself–Bess, the innocent child of hope, and Liza, the cynical, hardbitten opportunist. While Bess paints rosy pictures of what lies ahead and Liza warns of dangers everywhere, the beast, in the guise of a man offering something better, circles ever closer.
Of Thimble and Threat
The Fourth Victim of Jack the Ripper
Publication Date: September 28, 2017
In Victorian London, the greatest city of the richest country in the world, the industrial revolution has created a world of decadence and prosperity, but also one of unimaginable squalor and suffering. Filth, decay, danger, sorrow, and death are ever-present in the streets. Catherine Eddowes is found murdered gruesomely in the city’s East End. When the police make their report, the only indicators of her life are the possessions carried on her person, likely everything she owned in the world. In Of Thimble and Threat, Alan M. Clark tells the heartbreaking story of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper, explaining the origin and acquisition of the items found with her at the time of her death, chronicling her life from childhood to adulthood, motherhood, her descent into alcoholism, and finally her death. Of Thimble and Threat is a story of the intense love between a mother and a child, a story of poverty and loss, fierce independence, and unconquerable will. It is the devastating portrayal of a self-perpetuated descent into Hell, a lucid view into the darkest parts of the human heart.
The Prostitute’s Price
The Fifth Victim of Jack the Ripper
Publication Date: August 30, 2018
A novel that beats back our assumptions about the time of Jack the Ripper. Not the grim story of an unfortunate drunken prostitute killed before her time, but one of a young woman alive with all the emotional complexity of women today. Running from a man wanting her to pay for her crimes against his brother, Mary Jane Kelly must recover a valuable hidden necklace and sell it to gain the funds to leave London and start over elsewhere. Driven by powerful, if at times conflicting emotion, she runs the dystopian labyrinth of the East End, and tries to sneak past the deadly menace that bars her exit.
Although THE PROSTITUTE’S PRICE is a standalone tale, and part of the Jack the Ripper Victims Series, it is also a companion story to the novel, THE ASSASSIN’S COIN, by John Linwood Grant. The gain a broader experience of each novel, read both.
Author and illustrator, Alan M. Clark grew up in Tennessee in a house full of bones and old medical books. His awards include the World Fantasy Award and four Chesley Awards. He is the author of seventeen books, including twelve novels, a couple of novellas, four collections of fiction, some of them lavishly illustrated, and a nonfiction full-color book of his artwork. Mr. Clark’s company, IFD Publishing, has released 42 titles of various editions, including traditional books, both paperback and hardcover, audio books, and ebooks by such authors as F. Paul Wilson, Elizabeth Engstrom, and Jeremy Robert Johnson. Alan M. Clark and his wife, Melody, live in Oregon. www.alanmclark.com Visit his blog: https://ifdpublishing.com/blog
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via Smorgasbord Cafe and Bookstore – New Book on the Shelves – The Old Gilt Clock by Paulette Mahurin

Truth and Dare: The Dangerous Allure of the Horror Story

Victoria Dougherty's avatarCold

Char zombie halloween The disco zombie from Studio 54

My middle daughter, who’s fifteen, is pretty crackerjack at horror make-up. Ever since going to theater camp when she was eleven and taking a special FX class, her Halloween costumes have been killer.

But it’s my twelve year-old daughter who really loves horror. She binge-watches anything from Twilight to the Halloween franchise, devours Stephen King, and writes her own stories all the time – often from the point of view of some deranged, but charming psycho. Nothing goes too far or is off limits for her. Not demonic possession or vomit-inducing gore or heinous monsters or wicked cults. And she sleeps like a baby at night. Go figure.

Jo pre Halloween This girl is fearless.

I watch her with a mix of envy and awe. I’ve always been fascinated by horror. The sneaky way in which it toys with our psyches, revealing even the most oh, so…

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Sweet Talkin’ Lover A Girls Trip Novel by Tracey Livesay Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: December 30, 2019
Tracey Livesay delivers the first novel in her sexy new series about lifelong friends and unforgettable love stories.
When everything is on the line,
surrendering completely to love is your only choice…
Marketing manager Caila Harris knows that the road to success in the beauty industry doesn’t allow for detours. She’s forsaken any trace of a social life, working 24/7 to ensure her next promotion. When grief over her grandfather’s death leads to several catastrophic decisions, Caila gets one final chance to prove herself: shut down an unprofitable factory in a small Southern town. But as soon as she arrives in Bradleton, she meets one outsized problem: the town’s gorgeous mayor.
Wyatt Bradley isn’t thrilled about his nickname, Mayor McHottie. He’s even less happy to learn that his town might be losing its biggest employer. If he has to, he’ll use some sneaky tactics to get Caila on his side. Yet even as he’s hoping she’ll fall for Bradleton, he’s falling too—right into a combustible affair that shakes them both with its intensity.
Two stubborn people, torn between loyalty, ambition, and attraction. But when you’re willing to give it your all, there’s no limit to how far love can take you…
Tracey Livesay’s latest release is Love Will Always Remember. She writes smart, sexy and emotional contemporary romances where strong, successful heroines find love with powerful, passionate heroes. She’s past president of Virginia Romance Writers, volunteers on several national committees for Romance Writers of America and is a member of their Published Author’s Network. She’s been featured in Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post and on CBS This Morning. A former criminal defense attorney, she finds crafting believable happily ever afters slightly more challenging than protecting our constitutional rights, but she’s never regretted following her heart instead of her law degree. Tracey lives in Virginia with her husband-who she met on the very first day of law school–and their three children. When not answering the call of wife, mother or author, she runs marathons and daydreams about designer purses.
$20 Amazon
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Retaliation The Oceanstone Initiative #2 by Haley Cavanagh Genre: SciFi Romance

Publisher: Covey Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: December 27, 2019
One doctor, one alien lover, one botanist, and one engineer on a desperate mission to save earth from human destruction.
Sakota saved Astraeus and her friends from certain death, but in doing so, she gained the attention of the Oreck, who will stop at nothing to destroy everything in their path.
With their ship severely damaged, Sakota and her crew land on a nearby planet and seek sanctuary while they make repairs to return home. But nothing on this perfect planet is as it appears, and Sakota soon learns they’ve traded one danger for another.
Hunted and targeted, will Sakota be able to carry out her mission, or will everyone she cares about be destroyed?
Astraeus
The Oceanstone Initiative #1
Publisher: Covey Publishing, LLC
Publication Date: October 12, 2018
One pre-apocalyptic Earth. One desperate space mission to find a solution. One unexpected alien.
When Dr. Sakota Thorell signed onto the mission to scout out a new, habitable planet, she knew discovering extraterrestrial life was always a possibility. But she never expected to find an alien adrift in space, nor for that alien to be so intriguing. Sakota feels an instant and undeniable attraction to Astraeus, but he represents a million possibilities, and just as many threats.
There are others hunting Astraeus, and his rescue may cost Earth its last hope.
Book Trailer
Haley Cavanagh is a military veteran, wife, and mother. She is an alumna of Columbia College, a musical theater nut, and she loves to dive into any book that crosses her path. Haley resides with her family in the United States and enjoys spending time with her husband and children when she’s not writing. She loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media.
$25 Amazon and autographed paperback bundle of The Oceanstone Initiative series and swag
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