Okay, I'm going to try something new for me and that's blogging on a semi-regular basis. I get overwhelmed trying to think of thought-provoking, cutesy ideas, but then I decided, you're here for the books...mine and other writers. So, I'm going to try to post once a week on either what I'm working on...a teaser, pic, etc or if I'm reading something outstanding, I'll post about it. Because all writers are readers first, right? Right!

This installment is about my current project, LEAVE THE NIGHT ON, which I'm super excited about! How could I not be since it involves awesome cars and hot men?? I'm using my husband quite a bit for research purposes. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

For the cars, people! Get your mind out of the gutter! He's a car buff and we have two project cars in our garage at the moment. Twice in the last few years, he's commandeered our kitchen table to rebuild an engine.

Note: Not my hubby, but he's pretty cute too:) Wyatt Abbott is the hero of LEAVE THE NIGHT ON, and Sutton is his heroine. Here he and his fraternal twin brother Jackson are discussing the state of their "relationship."

Jackson grabbed his arm and forced him around. “You like her.”

“Everyone likes her. She’s nice,” Wyatt said.

“I mean, you like like her.”

Twin powers were very annoying. “I maybe, sort of like her. What’s wrong with that? She’s single; I’m single.”

“She’s been single for less than a week. She’s using you.”

“Maybe I’m using her. You ever think about that? It’s been awhile since I hooked up.” Wyatt had to look away from his brother’s gaze once more which prompted a muttered curse from Jackson.

“Do not fall for this woman, Wyatt. Whether she means to or not, she’s going to rip your heart into little pieces and feed it to the gators before she goes back to her old life.”

“We’re not getting serious. She wants to have some fun, get a little crazy, and I’m more than qualified for the job.”

“As long as you don’t delude yourself into thinking it’s anything more than that. She’ll be back with Tarwater or someone like him by Christmas.”

Because the worry had already burrowed into his chest, Wyatt’s reaction was knee-jerk and defensive. “Someone like him?”

“You know, sophisticated. Worldly. Rich. Well-connected. Well-groomed.”

“Fuck you,” Wyatt shot back, but there was little heat to it. Jackson was right. “I’ve been told I clean up real nice.”

A rare smile bloomed over Jackson’s face changing his entire vibe. “Doesn’t count if it’s from a female relative over the age of sixty.”

“Sutton and I are hanging out and having fun. That’s it. No need to worry yourself over me.” They finished tidying the pit and took up posts on opposite sides of the open bay door. The sun trekked toward the horizon and threw orange and purple across the sky like a three-year-old finger painting.

“I don’t suppose you have a tuxedo I could borrow?” Wyatt finally asked.

Add LEAVE THE NIGHT ON to your GOODREADS shelf!
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And don't leave without signing up for my newsletter (on the left sidebar)...I like to giveaway lots of goodies:)

Super-duper, beyond excited that THEN HE KISSED ME was named a Best Romance of July not only by Barnes and Noble but Amazon as well!You can check out the links here:

BARNES AND NOBLE Best Romance for July
AMAZON Best Romance for July

I'm in the company of writers I've read and admired for years like Jill Shalvis, Susan Mallery, Joanna Lindsey and so many others!

The reviews for all the Cottonbloom Novels have blown me away. Thrilled that my quirky, divided little town on the Mississippi/Louisiana border has resonated with so many people! Check out an excerpt here.

​Buy Then He Kissed Me Now
Amazon
B&N
iBooks
Kobo
​GooglePlay

VIKING WARRIOR REBEL (Book 2 of the Viking Warriors series)
ISBN: 978-1492618874

Blurb
She can’t let him discover…Immortal Vikings are among us.

Astrid Irisdotter is a Valkyrie, a fierce warrior fighting to protect humanity from the evil god Loki and his brutal minions. She’s on an urgent mission for her queen when everything goes hideously sideways. Undercover agent Luke Holden arrives on the scene just in time to save her life—and put his own on the line. Luke may have saved her, but that doesn’t mean Astrid can trust him. Tempers flare as they hide secret upon secret from each other, but Astrid’s inner warrior knows what it wants…and it will not take no for an answer.



Bio
2016 double RITA finalist Asa Maria Bradley grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse mythology, which inspired the immortal Vikings and Valkyries in her paranormal romances. She arrived in the U.S. as a high school exchange student and quickly became addicted to ranch dressing and cop shows. Asa currently resides on a lake deep in the pine forests of the Pacific Northwest with a British husband and a rescue dog of indeterminate breed. She graduated from the Inland Northwest Center for Writers program at Eastern Washington University with an MFA in creative writing and also holds an MS in Medical Physics from University of Colorado. Visit her at www.AsaMariaBradley.com, or follow her on Twitter @AsaMariaBradley.
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Pre-order links:
Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/0fx3ut
Barnes & Noble: http://hyperurl.co/2ojqh6
 
 
 
 

Race the Darkness: Cover Reveal and Excerpt

It’s precisely 7:22 pm ET, the sun has just set in the Eastern Time zone, and it’s starting to get dark.
We are excited to reveal the cover of Race the Darkness, a dark, gritty, emotional and sexy romantic suspense novel by debut author Abbie Roads!

I'm so excited to be able to share Pintip Dunn's upcoming release THE DARKEST LIE. Pintip writes thrilling YA, both dystopian (Forget Tomorrow series) and contemporary. This particular book finaled in the prestigious RWA Golden Heart® which is how I met Pintip. And, with no further ado, enjoy the cover, blurb, and an excerpt...
PS. Make sure you enter the Rafflecopter for a prize pack of amazing books!

 ABOUT THE DARKEST LIE
 
“The mother I knew would never do those things.
But maybe I never knew her after all.”
 
Clothes, jokes, coded messages…Cecilia Brooks and her mom shared everything. At least, CeCe thought they did. Six months ago, her mom killed herself after accusations of having sex with a student, and CeCe’s been the subject of whispers and taunts ever since. Now, at the start of her high school senior year, between dealing with her grieving, distracted father, and the social nightmare that has become her life, CeCe just wants to fly under the radar. Instead, she’s volunteering at the school’s crisis hotline—the same place her mother worked.
 
As she counsels troubled strangers, CeCe’s lingering suspicions about her mom’s death surface. With the help of Sam, a new student and newspaper intern, she starts to piece together fragmented clues that point to a twisted secret at the heart of her community. Soon, finding the truth isn’t just a matter of restoring her mother’s reputation, it’s about saving lives—including CeCe’s own…
 
THE DARKEST LIE: Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble  

The Darkest Lie, by Pintip Dunn
Excerpt
It’s time to view the body. Family first.

Well, technically, me first. There was always only three of us in the nuclear unit, and Dad’s been locked in the den for the past seventy-two hours. I’ve only seen him once, when he shuffled upstairs like a pajama-clad zombie and asked me if I’d eaten.

That was it: Did you eat?

Not: I prefer the cherry wood casket. Or: Let me make your grandma’s travel arrangements. Or even: I know this was Mom’s favorite dress, but isn’t the neckline a little...low?

Did I eat?

Yes, Dad. I had soup from the can and microwaved pizza rolls and a bowl of cereal. The food sloshes in my stomach now as I walk down the runner to the casket I picked out because of its mauve tint.

Calla lilies pile in urns around the viewing room, and the air-conditioning wars with the sweat along my hairline. My mom smiles at me from a portrait erected behind the casket. Her eyes are hesitant and a little wary, as if she knew, somehow, some way, she would wind up here. Lifeless. Pumped full of formaldehyde. About to be gawked at by a town full of gossips.

This was only going to end one of two ways—with Tabitha Brooks dead or in jail. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d give anything to see my mother behind bars.

I wade through the dense, chilly air and stop a few feet from the body. Behind me, my grandmother and aunt sit, a box of tissues between them, blowing their noses like it’s a sport.

“Look at our Cecilia,” Gram sniffs. “So brave. Not a single tear shed.”

If she only knew. I’m not brave. Fifteen minutes ago, I was retching into the toilet bowl. Five minutes from now, when the doors open for the visitation, I’ll be long gone, leaving Gram to shake people’s hands and deal with the bit lips, the knowing eyebrows, that inevitable speaking-in-a-funeral-parlor whisper. I can hear the titters: “Is it true? Tabitha’s heart stopped while she was boffing the high school quarterback? Why, she must’ve been twenty years his senior!”

Twenty-three years, to be exact, and a high school English teacher to boot. But she didn’t actually die during sex. Instead, a few days after Tommy Farrow came forward with their affair, my mother took her own life.

What could be a clearer admission of guilt? She might as well have been caught in the act. The investigation was shut down before it even began.

I take a shuddering breath. Two more minutes. A hundred and twenty seconds and then I can leave. I steel my shoulders and walk the final steps to my mother’s body.

Oh god. It’s even worse than I thought.

The room whirls around me, and nausea sprints up my throat. My hands shoot out to grab the casket, stopping short of actually touching the corpse.

This . . . this thing . . . can’t be my mother. She never smiled like that, all serene and peaceful-like. She never wore this much makeup; her red hair was never chopped so closely to her head. My mother was chaos and passion, devastation and joy. Dad used to say you could reach deep into her eyes and pull out a song.

Well, her eyes are closed now, and I’m not sure there’ll be any music in my life, ever again.

So this cover has been out and about for a few months, but I've haven't shouted about to the world because it only went on preorder recently. I love it so!! I don't usually base my characters on a celebrity or model. They take on their own personality and look in my head. But, for covers, I have to try to impart what I *see* to a cover artist. Well, let me tell you that Angela Waters from Samhain killed this one--in a good way! The couple on the cover looks exactly how I envision Rafe and Minerva. Out of all the covers I've had from publishers, this one is the best, truest reflection of the characters that live in my head. Plus, like the book, it's hot as hell. I mean, COME ON!!

A BRAZEN BARGAIN is an enemies to lovers tale with a hint of Beauty and the Beast.  Honestly, it was only after I was finished writing that I realized I named the cook Mrs. Potts. My subconscious was working overtime:) If you've read Book 1 in the Spies and Lovers series, then you already have a feel for the contentious relationship between Rafe and Minerva. Along with AN INDECENT INVITATION, this book finaled in the 2014 Golden Heart (as Wild and Wicked Wind). With no further ado, I give you....

A BRAZEN BARGAIN
Love soothes the deepest of scars.
Spies and Lovers, Book 2
Minerva Bellingham is at her wits’ end. Her younger brother, Simon, will have them penniless and on the streets if his extravagant gambling habit isn’t curtailed. An enormous debt to Lord Rafe Drummond is the final indignity.

Signing over her dowry is their only choice. Until Lord Drummond suggests something much more scandalous. She can keep her dowry—in exchange for the Bellinghams working three months as a housemaid and stable boy.
Scarred from his service to the Crown, Rafe recognizes the young Simon Bellingham has the makings of a good duke. Minerva is a different story. Her pure, delicate beauty only underscores Rafe’s tarnished, bleak soul.

Yet he delights in cracking Minerva’s icy reserve to reveal a fiery, stubborn woman. And Minerva discovers the gruff master of Wintermarsh has the heart of a poet. But before they can find a future safe in each other’s arms, a menace from Simon’s licentious past slithers back into their lives, forcing Rafe to plan the most important rescue mission of his life.
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Warning: Contains a paragon of the beau monde who gets the hang of polishing silver, and a master of the house who’d like her to make his bed—preferably with him in it. Also passion unleashed with the mere touch of a finger. Readers are encouraged to swoon.

Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Samhain 

Wow, so it seems like I was posting for my last release just a few days ago! If you missed Caught Up in the Touch, you can read an excerpt here. And, it was RWA week, so I know most people did miss it! Lol.

For now, I'd like to jump back in time two hundred years or so...to England during the Napoleonic Wars. Although, my first published books are small town contemporaries, the first books I wrote were Regency historicals. They were (are) my crack. AN INDECENT INVITATION was the first book I wrote. I learned to write by rewriting (and rewriting and rewriting) this book. It got the attention of my agent and finaled in the Golden Heart in 2014. It's always going to be special. Plus, it's a seriously good time!

"Trentham is careful not to settle for easy answers or simple explanations, making for a tale full of unexpected twists and turns and emotional complications." -- RT Book Reviews, 4 stars.

"Danger, intrigue, and passionate love--what more could a Regency romance lover want? The first in Trentham's "Spies and Lovers" series is a well-written, engaging, and very steamy delight.--J. Harris, Library Journal

"Witty, compelling, and sensuous, Laura Trentham's is a fabulous new voice in historical romance." -- Valerie Bowman, bestselling Regency author

How about an excerpt:

Gray smoothed back his damp hair, took a deep breath, and peeked around the doorjamb into the drawing room. His dip in the chilly pond had done wonders for his tattered self-control. Lily hadn’t noticed him yet. Her face was a study in concentration, brows drawn in and teeth worrying her lips, keeping them red. Combs held her hair in check, but part of the thick mass obscured the white slope of her neck and delicate collarbone.

She worked the picks in synchronicity. Her focus was the most difficult lock of the set. He glided into the room and kept the settee between them as if it offered some protection from her allure.

Christ, she was beautiful and brave and made him laugh…and she wanted to be his friend. One of the pathetic beaus orbiting her sphere would be the first to kiss her, the first to awaken her sensual nature, the first to bed her. She deserved to be a duchess and rule London. Logically, an arranged marriage made perfect sense.

But the completely illogical part of him, situated somewhere between his legs, scoffed. It was only a kiss, after all. She wanted a basis of comparison, she said so herself. Why not offer himself up as illustration?

She straightened from her task and blew a stray tendril off her forehead with a gust of air. “I give up. What’s the trick? Will you show me?”

Less than five minutes in the room together, and he was back where he started. He wanted to kiss her. Why deny it? Why not surrender, at least temporarily, to the madness she inspired? Turning back to the door, he closed it with a soft snick.

He moved faster now that the decision had been made. Standing behind her, he brushed her hair over one shoulder, leaving a side of her neck bare. “Let’s try it this way,” he whispered.

He wrapped his fingers around hers, surprised not to see the sparks that made his fingers twitch. The full length of his body pressed against hers, and her sweet, rounded bottom notched into his pelvis.

“Like this?” She leaned over the desk, her voice trilling high. Somehow, their entwined fingers found the lock. His moved on instinct alone.

His body curved over hers. She would have no idea how tempting their position was. His erection had grown to undeniable proportions, and he canted his hips away. He didn’t want to send her screaming from the room.

Their fingers worked clumsily, but he didn’t care. His lips sought the warmth of her skin but stopped an inch away from her neck. Slow, deep breaths of rose-scented woman escalated his desire. Never letting his lips touch her, he skimmed them down her neck to her exposed collarbone and back up to her temple. Fine hairs along her nape stood at attention, aware of his sly machinations.

At some point, they gave up the pretense. Their hands dropped to the top of the davenport, their fingers still tangled. Finally, he allowed his lips to fall to her neck. The kiss he laid beneath her ear made her wriggle back into him. Her head notched into his shoulder, and her buttocks cradled his erection. She didn’t scream but let out a breathy moan.

He allowed his lips to follow his earlier path, this time dropping small kisses, licks or nips along her bare skin.

“G-Gray, is this a lesson?”

Perhaps it was. He spun her and lifted her to sit on the sloped top of the desk. Shoving her knees apart, he filled the void with his hips. She grasped the sides of the desk.

He needed to slow down, calm down. He wove his hands through her hair, thumbs framing her face. Her eyes were enormous pools of uncertainty, lips parted in shock. This was her first kiss. He should be tender, say something romantic and soothing.

“Lily,” he said, his voice like gritty sandpaper, “if I find you in a garden kissing one of those other fools, I’ll rip their bloody arms off. Do I make myself clear?”

A small sound of acknowledgement escaped her throat.

With effort, he didn’t allow his mouth to crash down on hers but tightened his hands in her hair with a desperation he didn’t understand. He wanted to plunge his tongue inside her mouth as a claiming. Instead, he forced his lips to settle over hers with insincere gentleness.

Soft and pliant, her lips tamed his frenzy until, instead of domination, he sought to give pleasure. Brushing his lips back and forth over hers, he drew her full lower lip between his and sucked. She slipped her hands under his arms, curling them around his shoulders.

In equal amounts of ardor and innocence, she returned his kiss. Her explorations gave him time to seize control over his urges. Mimicking his play, she sucked on his bottom lip. He darted his tongue over her top lip, foretelling his intentions. She opened her eyes, inhaled against his mouth and whispered his name.

He released his hold on her hair and cupped her face. “Close your eyes and open your mouth for me. Do you want a real kiss or not?” Simmering raw, elemental desire hid behind his teasing voice.

A trust he didn’t deserve radiated from her blue eyes before she obeyed, closing them and parting her lips. His tongue made gentle forays inside her mouth. Startled at the invasion, she pulled her tongue back, and he rumbled deep in his chest. Like with all her lessons, she was a quick study, and soon she stroked her tongue boldly against his. A low groan escaped his throat.

She ran her hands up his chest and wrapped them with a clutching intensity around his neck. Her body flowed against his like molten metal, and like metal, his cock responded in kind.

One hand left her face to press into her back, arching her even farther into his chest. The other slipped under her skirts to grasp a silk-covered calf. Smothering the echoes of his father’s warnings, he lifted the hem of her dress higher, needing to feel the tantalizing bare skin of her thigh. An inch would surely satisfy this compulsion.

Questing fingers brushed soft, naked skin. His lips craved the same, and he dropped kisses along her neck. Her head lolled back, thrusting her breasts upward.

He spread his fingers wide over her outer thigh. As soon as he brushed the lawn of her drawers, he would retreat. Except his fingers continued onward until they curled around her bare hip. His passion-fogged brain slowly processed the implications.

“Where are your goddamn drawers?”

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Keeping her safe is difficult, keeping a proper distance from her is downright impossible.

Warning: This book contains spies, scandals, naughty liaisons in houses of ill repute, men who think they know everything and women who know they do not.

Happy reading!

Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks |Samhain

CAUGHT UP IN THE TOUCH is out in the wild and available for your eyeballs! I’m especially proud of this book because it has garnered some really great reviews. It received RT Book Reviews TOP PICK and a STARRED review in the Library Journal.

“The electrifying chemistry and sassy banter between her protagonists is decidedly fun, but their clumsier, awkward moments are perhaps a bit more endearing, adding a sweet note to this all-around success.” — RT Book Reviews, 4 1/2 star TOP PICK

“Reliable characters coupled with passionate and genuine love scenes complete the package.” — Library Journal STARRED review

“It’s funny and touching and sexy and irresistible. I loved every single minute of this book!” — Romantic Reads and Such

“Caught Up in the Touch steals my heart!” — Romancing Life book blog

How about a short excerpt?
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They didn’t talk on the short drive to Lilliana’s. He turned the truck off but made no move to get out. Neither did she. Instead, they turned toward each other, still in-sync, their fingers twining. He dropped a kiss on her temple. “I don’t suppose you’d let me smooze with you a little?”

She darted her eyes around the truck cab. “Here? You could come in. We are adults.” She craned her neck to look to the side of the house. “And, I don’t see Lilliana’s SUV.”

He circled his hands around her rib cage, a couple inches shy of her breasts. His breathing turned shallow. “I can’t wait that long. I’ve been dying to kiss you again. Dying, baby.”

“Can you die from sexual frustration?” she teased.

“I don’t know, but I heard-tell you can go blind from too much masturbating. Thanks to you, I already need glasses.”

“Logan, you are so bad.” Her laugh was one of scandalized amusement.

He hummed and nuzzled under her ear. Goose bumps broke over her arms. He moved his hands closer to her breasts. She squirmed and arched toward him. Satisfaction twisted his guts. She was as hot for him as he was for her.

“What do you want?” He hoped she didn’t recognize the thread of desperation in his voice. While the context was sexual, what he really wanted to know was where their flirtation was headed.

“I want”—her eyes closed, and she inhaled slow and deep—“a kiss.”

“That’s all?” Again, he was after more than a sexual answer.

She kept her eyes closed, her answer vague and dreamy. “I don’t know.”

He’d never had to broach the subject of getting serious with a woman. Either the woman brought it up, sending him backpedaling, or they were both in it for fun. He had no idea where he stood with Jessica. The only thing he was sure of right now was that she was in his truck and wanted a kiss.

His lips touched hers with a promise he couldn’t put into words. He would be patient. If things stayed uncertain, then he would enjoy her in any way he could, but he’d lay in wait for a signal she wanted more than sex.

The kiss deepened naturally, and her hands slid around his neck, a soft needy noise coming from her throat. He heeded the call, skimming his hand from her waist to the underside of her breast.

“Yes,” she hissed against his mouth.

He smiled against her lips, liking it when her assertive nature edged into their private moments. Would her passion or her logic dominate in the bedroom?

He cupped her breast, his thumb stroking her nipple. It came to attention beneath the layers of fabric.

“Let’s take this inside,” she whispered, skimming her lips along his jaw. She nipped at his earlobe, and pleasure suffused his body. Yet, he hesitated.

Was the bedroom the final destination or a pit stop? He definitely got the irony of the situation. He was worried she wanted only sex, and if he gave her what she wanted, would she lose interest. For the first time, this wasn’t fun and games for him. It felt more like life or death.

Headlights flashing through the cab saved him from choosing between the call of his heart or his body. “We’d better make it another time and place, darlin’”

She looked out the back of the cab. “It’s Lilliana. I guess I’ll see you at Adaline’s?”

She scooted away, but he grabbed her wrist and leaned in for one last too-brief kiss. He watched Jessica and Lilliana walk into the house together, his body screaming in frustration and his heart cramping with longing.

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And…..in case you’re interested, here are some convenient links:)

Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks