Monday, June 29, 2020

Closer Than She Know by Kelly Irving

Closer Than She Knows

by Kelly Irvin

on Tour June 22 - July 24, 2020

Synopsis:

A serial killer bent on revenge . . . and striking too close to home.

Teagan O’Rourke has always loved murder mysteries. In her job as a court reporter, she has written official records for dozens of real-life murders. She’s slapped evidence stickers on crime scene photos. She’s listened to hours of chilling testimony. But she’s never known the smell of death. And she never thought she might be a victim.

Until now.

A young police officer is murdered just inches away from her, and then a man calling himself a serial killer starts leaving Teagan notes, signing each with the name of a different murderer from her favorite mystery novels.

Panicked, Teagan turns to her friend Max Kennedy. Max longs for more than friendship with Teagan, but he fears she’ll never trust someone with a past like his. He wonders how much of God’s “tough love” he can take before he gives up on love completely. And he wonders if he’ll be able to keep Teagan alive long enough to find out.

As Teagan, Max, and Teagan’s police officer father race to track down the elusive killer, they each know they could be the next victim. Desperate to save those she loves, Teagan battles fears that once haunted her in childhood. Nothing seems to stop this obsessed murderer. No matter what she does, he seems to be getting closer.

Book Details:
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Published by: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: June 9th 2020
Number of Pages: 352
ISBN: 0785231862 (ISBN13: 9780785231868)
Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Read an excerpt:

“We’re almost there, Ms. O’Rourke.” Officer Moreno came to a full stop at the corner of Park and Academic Court, where the glass-covered police department recruitment center and property room facilities glinted in the late-afternoon sun.
A smile brought out dimples on Moreno’s cherub-cheeked face. Her assignment to escort a court reporter and the evidence to the property room was almost to the halfway point. Teagan had told Moreno to call her by her first name, but the patrolwoman couldn’t seem to manage it. “I’ll get us through security, we’ll stow the evidence, and I’ll have you back to your car in a jiffy.”
Did people still say “in a jiffy”? Teagan’s grandma might, but this woman was no more than twenty-four. A couple of years younger than Teagan. She studied the officer’s face as she turned onto Academic Court and accelerated. The woman was for real. A straight shooter determined to be successful in a man’s world.
Teagan smiled, but Moreno had already returned her gaze to the road, hands at the proper ten and two positions on the wheel. “I know there’s plenty of other things you’d rather do than babysit evidence—”
The driver’s side window exploded.
The force knocked Teagan’s head against her window. Sudden pain pricked her face. Fragments of glass pierced her cheeks and forehead.
The car swerved, jumped the curb, and crashed into the wrought-iron fence that protected the academy.
Was this what Mom felt the day she died? The inevitability of it?
Air bags ballooned.
Teagan slammed back against her seat.
I’m sorry, Max.
I’m sorry I never said it.
A second later the bag deflated. The smell of nitrogen gases gagged her. Powder coated her face. The skin on the back of her hands burned.
Time sped up in an odd, off-kilter tick-tock.
Teagan struggled to open her eyes. Pain pulsed in her temple. Her stomach heaved. Waves of adrenaline shook her body as if she’d grasped a live electrical wire.
I’m alive. Today’s not my day to die.
The evidence. Protect the evidence.
***
Excerpt from Closer Than She Knows by Kelly Irvin. Copyright 2020 by Kelly Irvin. Reproduced with permission from Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.

Author Bio:

Kelly Irvin is a bestselling author and two-time Carol Award finalist. She is a former newspaper reporter and retired public relations professional. Kelly lives in Texas with her husband, photographer Tim Irvin. They have two children, three grandchildren, and two cats.

Visit her Online:
KellyIrvin.com
Goodreads
BookBub
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook

Enter To Win!:

This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Harper Collins and Kelly Irving. There will be 1 winner of CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS by Kelly Irving (print). The giveaway begins on June 22, 2020 and runs through July 26, 2020. Open to U.S. addresses only. Void where prohibited.

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Thursday, June 25, 2020

Memoirs of a Hockey Nobody by Jerry Hack

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jerry Hack will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Would Probably Never Guess About Jerry Hack

1. I am the world’s worst (or best) procrastinator. I will almost always leave things until the last possible moment. I once did my Christmas shopping at 5:00 on Christmas Eve. I had to buy seven presents. I did it at Blockbuster Video and 7-11. I tell my wife that I work best under pressure. She just rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

2. Compliments make me very uncomfortable. I like to hear them, but I will almost always quickly change the subject.

3. I am the king of useless information. A walking encyclopedia of things that don’t matter. For some reason trivial details will stick in my brain forever, like song lyrics or lines from a movie or small details that no one in their right mind would ever remember. But if I need to remember something important, like doctor’s appointments or family events, or answers to a test, it goes right out the window.

4. I saw the movie “The Exorcist” when I was 15. That night I couldn’t sleep a wink. I had to go to school the next day and I was like a zombie. I had trouble sleeping for a whole year. To this day, 43 years later, I can not watch that movie, it freaked me out so bad. Funny thing is I read the book before I saw the movie and it had zero affect on me.

5. I once had a boss who was, shall we say, the smartest person in the room only when he was by himself. I had a really bad headache one day and I asked him if it was okay for me to go home. His response was “why do you have a headache?” I told him, with a straight face, that in a previous life I was a soldier in the War of 1812 and one day, when I was on furlough, my girlfriend and I were in a field behind her house doing what young people do, when her father happened upon us. He hit me in the head with a rake causing a small fracture in my skull and it still gives me problems from time to time. He just stared at me blankly and said “I hope she was worth it” and let me go home.

Memoir of a Hockey Nobody is the unlikely true story of an average Canadian kid who grew up playing street hockey. Although he didn't learn how to skate until his late teens, he took a shot at entering the world of professional ice hockey with, shall we say, haphazard results.

This is an "against all odds" tale of one man's journey from Vancouver, to all over Western Canada, California, The Yukon, and Alaska. Seemingly blocked at every turn, from managers who believed that someone who came from such humble beginnings couldn't be any good, to coaches who would rather see big names with bigger reputations. It's a story of tragedy, triumph and determination. A roller coaster ride with hilarious anecdotes of all the characters he met along the way.

This is a tale for those who dare to live their dream!

Read an Excerpt

Just one final note about my senior hockey career. I’ve never been a big believer in statistics. I like the quote from Bobby Bragan, who was a baseball player in the early 20th century. I’m paraphrasing but I believe he said, “The problem with statistics is, if you have one foot on fire and the other in a bucket of ice, according to the statisticians, you should be perfectly comfortable”. In the 4 seasons that I played for the Rebels, I won the Best Goalie trophy every year. 11 other goalies came and went during that time, some specifically to take my spot. I also won the league trophy for Best Goals Against Average every year. In 35 years of playing competitive hockey, I won a lot of trophies. The danger of winning that many is that you can start to think that you’re better than you are, (I call it “The Red Light Lonnie Syndrome”). I only kept one trophy from all those years and my wife is under strict instructions to show it to me if my head starts to get too big. I assumed that when the league bought the trophy that year, they sent it out to be engraved in a shop that didn’t employ sports fans. When I won the Best Goals Against award and it was presented to me, I read the inscription and it read:

“Best Average Goalie” “Jerry Hack”

How apt is that?

About the Author:

I was born and raised in Burnaby, British Columbia. My sisters and I were raised by hard-working blue collar parents. We were and are a tight knit family. I grew up loving sports but hockey most of all. In fact, it was my passion. I read about it, watched it and played it. I was an average student and a good athlete. I could play most sports without looking out of place. But I was born to be a goalie. I graduated from high school in 1979 and a year later began my journey playing ice hockey. 40 years later, I am happily married with a 12 year old daughter and loving life more than ever.

Website: http://jerryhack.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Memoir-of-a-Hockey-Nobody-108751680786091

BUY LINKS

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Hockey-Nobody-couldnt-proved-ebook/dp/B086BM79H2/
Indigo/Chapters: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/memoir-of-a-hockey-nobody/9780228828037-item.html
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/memoir-of-a-hockey-nobody-jerry-hack/1136740350

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Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Hard Lust by Tina Donahue

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tina Donahue will be awarding a $10 Amazon Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five things you’d never guess about me

1. The best place to begin baring my soul is with my writing. Although I author hot erotic romances, in real life I’m horribly shy. I’m the kid in school who buried my nose in books even during lunch. Although I have a talent for writing witty – or snarky – dialogue in my stories, as I was growing up conversation for me was exceedingly painful. Like most kids, I tried to be cool, but failed miserably. After that, I listened more than anything else, which might be why I’m so good at writing dialogue now since I heard so much of it. ☺

2. I didn’t experience my first kiss until I was seventeen. Yeah, I know, weird huh? I recall my sixteenth birthday being a terrible day. I kept hearing that phrase ‘sweet sixteen and never been kissed’ over and over in my head while I was at school. Of course, school for me was all-girls, which was one of the reasons I hadn’t been kissed. There were no guys around. The only time I saw any were at mixers with the all-boy schools. Gah. Talk about feeling like you’re on display. That didn’t do much for my quiet personality. In fact, it only made me crawl further into my shell.

3. An English teacher at my all-girl high school told me I’d never be able to write anything except my own name. She was a real sweetheart. For some reason, she loathed me from the day I walked into the first class. Constantly berated any answers I gave when called upon even if they were correct. The other kids in class noticed and called her on it. For one assignment, we had to write descriptive sentences. I worked on mine nonstop for days. Even then, I knew I wanted to write. She gave me a huge ‘F’ and a ‘see me after class’ on my paper. When we were alone in the room, she told me she knew I had someone else write the sentences because they were too good for someone as untalented as I was. A backhanded compliment if ever there was one.

4. I wrote my first published novel in three days. I had been writing thrillers, without success, and my agent said I should try romance given that there were romantic elements in my books. I read as many romances as I could, liking romcoms the most. I developed my plot then wrote it nonstop, finishing it in three days. I shipped it to my agent. He sent it to a NY publisher on a Monday. By that Wednesday, I had a contract for it and two other books. The easiest sales I’ve ever made.

5. My most embarrassing moment happened freshman year in high school. Some girls I knew were talking about their boyfriends. I didn’t have one, but wanted to be cool so I mentioned this guy I’d seen at a mixer. For some reason, it never occurred to me that these girls would have also seen him there. I told them he asked me out (total lie) and our date was awesome (complete fabrication). One of the girls frowned then said her BFF from another school was dating him and what I said couldn’t be true. If it was, he was in huge trouble. Honestly, I can’t recall what happened after that – it’s a blank. I do know I wanted to die on the spot. After that, I never lied about boyfriends again.

Don't ever trust a demon. Unfortunately, Megan has learned that lesson too late. The deal she made to save her sister's life has landed her in hell about seventy years early. And now she has three sexy demons trying to tell her what to do.

Nope. Not going to happen.

These guys have never had to deal with such defiance. Andros figures she's due for some erotic discipline, which he'll happily provide. Racan's pure alpha, his hardcore plans include bondage and submission. Quiet yet intense, Vespar expects endless kink to spice up their carnal play.

Who would have ever expected she'd end up falling for them? Too bad demons can't be trusted...because someone is trying to kill the magic and threatening her stay in this lusty world.

Read an Excerpt

Megan looked at him. “Do you guys ever get men down here?”

He shook his head. Having nothing except female condemned was a feature, not a bug, and a perk he wouldn’t give up without a fight. “Let’s go. Your time’s running out.”

She trotted to keep up with him. “My half hour started already?”

He stopped. “Twenty minutes.” He jabbed his finger at her. “You heard what Racan said. Don’t try to put anything over on us, because you can’t. Got it? Or would you care to try for fifteen minutes? Possibly less?”

Her lower lip trembled. “Why are you being so mean? You’re not that way really. You seem like a nice guy.”

He stepped back and bumped into the wall. “Guy?”

She flicked her wrist. “Demon. Devil. Entity. Whatever.”

“Try fallen angel.”

Her mouth rounded. “Get out. You started up there?” She pointed toward Heaven. “I knew it. You are a good man.”

He wasn’t Attila the Hun or Vlad the Impaler, but he wasn’t as great as she’d said.

“You’ve forgotten how I spanked you?”

Her cheeks got rosy, her face dreamy. “Uh-uh.”

He leaned in. “Are you turned on?”

“What?” She blinked and frowned. “No way.”

Her taut nipples told another tale. “There’s something you should know.” He tapped her chin. “I am not a good man.”

“Demon then. And yeah, you are. Andros told you to discipline me. You didn’t do it on your own.”

He’d been itching for the chance when Andros presented the opportunity. “Don’t be so certain.”

“I am.” She stroked his tat.

His gums tingled.

“What happened in Heaven? How’d you get down here?”

Bethshiba. His, Andros, and Racan’s crime hadn’t been that bad. They’d simply wanted to be heard and considered. Instead, they received the ultimate sentence—banishment.

“The reason isn’t important. This is.” He touched the handbook. “You need to learn everything you can. There isn’t much time.”

She screwed up her mouth. “I thought I was here for eternity.”

“Do you ever stop arguing?”

“I will, I swear. On one condition.”

He held back laughter at her gall. “On one what?”

“Help me, please. Show me the way out of here. At the least, get me an audience with Satan so I can plead my case.”

Poor girl was losing it. “Begging doesn’t work down here. With him or me. We need to go.”

“Not yet.” She pressed closer to stop him from leaving, her nipples poking his pecs, her cunt smack against his groin.

Heat rose between them, unmasked desire sparking in her eyes. His hair stood on end. Her musk and the scent from his leather pants mingled to create one fucking great fragrance. She rocked her hips slowly, sensuously, arousal parting her lips. “I was… Uh, I was… That is, I was…”

He pumped against her, his already massive erection increasing by the second.

She met him thrust for thrust, their gyrations lewd. “Wait.” She kept grinding into him. “I need to say this.”

“Sure.”

They maintained their carnal dance.

“Go on.” He wanted to hear this.

She pulled in a huge breath. “I was taking law classes at night before I got here. I know how to present a case. I’m a great litigator. It’s in my blood. I’ll make Satan see reason. I won’t lose.”

She couldn’t have killed the magic between them faster if she’d tried. He stopped pretend fucking and stepped away. “There’s no winning down here for the condemned.” The moment she opened her plush lips, Satan would vaporize her then bring her back and get his rocks off on torture…the kind she wouldn’t like. “It’s not possible.” He grasped her biceps. “You need to get a grip and accept your fate.”

“Screw that.” She stroked his fingers.

Remarkable heat and delight shot up his arm and landed in his balls and cock, both still ready to boogie, her effect on him more than it should be or what he seemed able to stop.

About the Author:Tina’s an Amazon and international bestselling novelist who writes passionate romance for every taste – ‘heat with heart’ – for traditional publishers and indie. Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Romantic Times and numerous online sites have praised her work. She’s won Readers’ Choice Awards, was named a finalist in the EPIC competition, received a Book of the Year award, The Golden Nib Award, awards of merit in the RWA Holt Medallion competitions, and second place in the NEC RWA contests. She’s featured in the Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Before penning romances, she worked at a major Hollywood production company in Story Direction.

On a less serious note: she’s an admitted and unrepentant chocoholic, brakes for Mexican restaurants, and has been known to moan like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally while wolfing down tostadas. She’s flown a single-engine airplane (freaking scary), rewired an old house using an ‘electricity for dummies’ book, and is horribly shy despite the hot romances she writes.

Author Website: http://tinadonahuebooks.blogspot.com/
Author Blog: http://tinadonahuebooks.blogspot.com/
Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/tinadonahue
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DonahueTina1
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinadonahuebooks/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/146988.Tina_Donahue
Newsletter: https://tinadonahuebooks.blogspot.com/p/newsletter.html

Purchase Link:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089F9L6B5/

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Counting on Trust by M. Ferguson Powers

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A randomly drawn commenter via Rafflecopter will receive a digital and an audio copy of the book. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

I write in this genre out of my career interest in globalization and its impacts, and it allows me to use my academic background in microbiology. I also have been personally interested in how relationships have evolved in an age of social media and limited privacy. The suspense thriller genre seemed like the right way to weave all those interests together.

What research (or world-building – for fantasy/paranormal/Sci-fi) is required?

I like to write what I know. My story ideas tend to originate from my own experiences (career and personal) and various literary influences. For example, there were several factors that contributed to the writing of Counting on Trust.

First was my interest in globalization and its impacts, especially with regard to China and its relations with the U.S. This began when I accompanied my husband on a trip to China in 1978 with a delegation of faculty members from the University of Pittsburgh. At that time, China was just opening up to the West. What I saw and learned there suggested some interesting story ideas.

Next, the idea for a story involving corporate intrigue came while my husband and I were living in Nebraska. There was a lot of research on GMO foods being done at some of the universities there. We lived on a small lake, and I decided to invent a fictional company, Omniprotein, that was doing research on GMO fish. The theft of this company’s intellectual property by a Chinese general kicks off all the subsequent action.

A third influence was my interest in the work of Jane Austen. She explored relationships and challenged the social norms around romance and marriage in her day. I wanted to similarly explore how relationships are changing in modern times.

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

That re-establishing trust after it is broken is much harder than creating it in the first place.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

One of the things I enjoy most about writing is creating the characters that will populate a story. Like many writers, my characters are built up from an amalgam of people I have known at different points in my life. I like to mix and match physical traits, personality, temperament, and behavioral quirks. Often I will exaggerate these a bit to provide more depth and interest for my readers. Then I like to give each character a backstory that provides a rationale for their behavior. Lastly, I like to play out little scenarios to see how they would interact with each other based on all that, and make adjustments.

I like to think of it as being a kind of “character chef”: you might have a recipe of sorts, but the real fun and creativity comes with experimenting and tweaking until it you get something that feels just right. Then I “play dolls” with them to see the character dynamics hold up.

Are you a plotter or pantser?

Overall, on the spectrum, I’m closer to plotter than pantser. I am more of a plotter in laying out the story line, and getting flow carefully laid out. I’m more of a pantser when it comes to character creation.

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

The Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains. I live on Whidbey Island in the northern Puget Sound and my house faces east with a view across the Sound to the Cascade Mountains. I’m in a glass enclosed sun room with this view and I have found to be the perfect spot to write and reflect.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

I’m currently taking a break from my writing due to the recent, sudden death of my husband of 54 years. Before this happened, I had been sketching out a few ideas for the next book which would probably involve some of my favorite characters from Counting on Trust. But those will have to wait for a while.

In this suspense-charged, touching novel, Counting on Trust, information is stolen from a U.S. genetic engineering company (Omniprotein) by an employee promised payment by a Chinese general who wants to profit from selling the company’s technologies in the military region of China he commands.

• To force quick payment the thief attacks fellow employees and threatens to continue until his money arrives. Will his next targets be: young lovers, computer geek Gabriel and gorgeous biologist Selena, who are discovering loving sex while trying to overcome post-traumatic effects of Selena’s girlhood rape.

• Company president, Eleanor, who’s determined to keep some privacy and intimacy although her job’s high profile and her husband, Charley, has just had prostate cancer surgery.

• Venture capitalist, John, who plans to duplicate Omniprotein’s facility in China and reunite with his ex-wife, fashion designer Ziyi, who returned to Shanghai after their only child died.

The personal stories of these couples explore how privacy, intimacy and trust are changing in our social-media age. They paint a compelling portrait of our time.

Listen to an Excerpt

Excerpt – Disturbance - https://www.facebook.com/countingontrust/videos/391102768302904/

About the Author:

Themes of novels by M. Ferguson Powers reflect the author’s varied interests, including preservation of the natural world and its creatures;

Challenges of building and maintaining loving relationships in a culture with decreasing respect for personal boundaries and privacy

Influences of globalization on world events and how the U. S. and other nations relate to one another

Public policy issues such as controlling the military-industrial-political complex and requiring the health care industry to be more respectful of its clients

The need for cooperation across governments, cultures, and societies to address global challenges such as climate change

Developments in business and university administration and management

Powers has taught microbiology, headed a university office of research, served as executive director of two university-business partnership programs, and co-authored two books on university administration. She has a bachelor of science degree in bacteriology from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in experimental psychology from George Mason University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

She lives on an island near Seattle with husband David R. Powers and their two shelties. Her first novel, Each Unique and Fascinating, about a bullied young girl whose father has gone to war, was published in 2012. OrcaSpeak, a novel of relationships and suspense, was published in 2013, and its prequel, Counting on Trust, was published in 2017.