Padme's Library: 06/14/17

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Black Dawn by Mallory McCartney

Title: Black Dawn

Author: Mallory McCartney

Genre: Fantasy, New Adult, Young Adult

Release Date: February 14, 2017

Publisher: Clean Reads Publishing

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Summary:
“The end of an Empire. The rise of a Queen.”

Emory Fae enjoys leading a quiet, normal life that is until two mysterious, and dare I say handsome soldiers show up at her apartment doorstep and the life she knew is instantly whisked away. Coming from the magical and ravaged world of Kiero, Emory is brought back not realizing that both men are darkly woven in her past. Discovering she is the long lost heir to the Royal Line Emory is thrown into Black Dawn Rebellion with a dynamic role to ignite the rebels and reclaim her throne. With both lives clashing Emory uncovers hidden secrets from her past, a power held long dormant, and will soon realize there are worse things than supernatural humans, love, loss, betrayal, and a Mad King.

Some things are better left in the shadows.

What is the biggest influence/interest that brought you to this genre?
Thanks for having me! My biggest influence that brought me to fantasy/ epic fantasy books was reading Harry Potter and The Song of the Lioness series. I have always loved reading but these books got me obsessed with this genre. As a kid, I would roam outside for hours on our family farm, envisioning what my own fantasy world would look like and the characters that would be there. If I had not read these series at a young age, maybe I wouldn’t have developed the same passion that I have for writing fantasy.

When writing a book, what is your favorite part of the creative process(outline, plot, character names, editing, etc)?
I adore mapping out plot lines. It’s kind of thrilling when each character’s storyline becomes clear, and the surprises that happen there!!! Especially in book two, Queen to Ashes, we will see the characters go down some dark roads. As the author, it still gives me that same kind of rush as we experience them, as I hope my readers will feel the same 😊

When reading a book, what genre do you find most interesting/intriguing?
I am a fantasy lover through and through. Though, I do enjoy a good YA contemporary, I am most of the time drawn to YA fantasy.

If you could co-author with any author, past or present, who would you choose?
Oh, Sarah J Maas!!!!! How I would fangirl! But seriously though, her writing is amazing and as an author, I find her inspiring.

Have you always wanted to write or did it come to you "later in life"?
A bit of both to be honest. I started writing at the end of Grade Eight and this is when I finished the first manuscript of Black Dawn. After that though, I left writing alone for seven years. I continued to read for pleasure, but it wasn’t until after I married my husband and we were talking about books and authors we liked, and It was an enlightening moment for me. A deep gut feeling that I had to rewrite Black Dawn, and I started this at twenty-two, and haven’t looked back since 😊

Author Bio:
Mallory McCartney currently lives in London, Ontario with her husband and their two dachshunds Link and Lola. Black Dawn is her debut novel, the first in a series. When she isn’t working on her next novel or reading, she can be found dog grooming, book shopping and hiking. Other favorite pastimes involve reorganizing perpetually overflowing bookshelves and seeking out new coffee and dessert shops.

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Back Home by RJ Scott

Title: Back Home

Author: RJ Scott

Genre: M/M Romance

Release Date: May 24, 2017

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Summary:
Falling for his brother's boyfriend broke his heart. Now he's back home and falls in love all over again.

One birthday kiss and Kieran realizes he is in danger of falling for his brother’s boyfriend, Jordan. Leaving for college, then moving to another country is the only way to ease the ache in his heart.

But, when his father becomes ill and his sister begs him to come home, Kieran returns for good. He finds the family business nearly bankrupt and Jordan, the man he ran from, beaten down by despair and guilt.

Friendship is what they promise each other as they work to repair the business, but it could never be enough for Kieran. When secrets spill, and there are vital decisions to be made, Kieran realizes two things; he’s back home, and he wants to stay with Jordan for good.

Now he just needs to convince Jordan.

Back Home is a re-release for the author but it is completely new to me as I've never read any of the previous editions. Jordan has been trying to hold everything together, his life, his deceased partner's family, their business and in the process he gets hurt because he's neglecting his health. Kieran has been living in London after having run from his feelings for his brother's partner. Fate has found away to bring these two back into the same time zone where they have to face their grief, their choices, and their feelings.

I think we can all see where this story is headed but that doesn't mean it's predictable or boring. Sometimes the real story is not in the destination but the journey getting there and that is what Back Home is, a journey of love, of family, of heart. Through some flashbacks from both Jordan and Kieran we get to see how and why the choices they made came about. That's not to say you won't want to bang their heads together and scream "Open your eyes!" but then where would the fun be if there was no conflict to get the blood pumping?

Back Home will make you cry, laugh, scream with equal amounts of frustration and joy, and it will make your heart break but it will also make it bloom with love like a garden of flowers after a June rain. I seriously can't believe I've never read this RJ Scott tale before but now that I have, it's already penciled into my future re-read list.

RATING:

“Where’s Hayley?” he asked.

“She slept out last night,” Anna said as she spooned eggs onto a plate for him.

“Where did she say she was going?” Jordan asked again. He slipped into the familiar big brother role as easily as pulling on his jeans in the morning. After all, he damn was like a big brother to her, especially with Brad gone and Kieran on another continent. He had a right and a reason to be worried. As soon as Anna told him that Hayley hadn’t been home, he started fretting even though he knew he had to accept that the girl he thought of as five with pigtails had actually reached adulthood and had even had sex. He didn’t want to think about that in too much detail.

“She’s twenty-two, sweetie. If she wants to stay out, that’s her choice. Maybe she was with that nice young man Alex.”

Anna sounded so accommodating; as if it didn’t worry her that her youngest child was out God knows where with God knows whom. Alex might seem like a good guy, and Jordan had even grudgingly admitted he appeared to be a solid stable influence on the normally flighty Hayley, but still, he knew exactly what was in a twenty-five-year-old man’s head. After all, he was only twenty-nine himself, and he had a good memory. Resentment built inside him, sudden and bitter; after Brad, they should have been more careful knowing where their kids were and what they were doing.

Shit. Where had that thought come from? Brad had been a grown man. What had happened to him had nothing to do with Anna and Phil. They were good parents, and they had made a good family. It also wasn’t their fault Kieran was gone. He ruthlessly pushed down the irrational imaginings to where they belonged, way down where he stored his own guilt.

“Should’ve told us,” Jordan snapped in return, anger fighting with fear in his gut. She was so little, even at twenty-two, slim and petite and so blindly trusting of everything and everyone around her.

“Jordan…” Anna turned from the skillet, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and looking at him with that patented mother expression that she did so well. It never failed to calm him down. “She texted to say she was okay. That is as much as we’re going to get. We know she’s okay—she said so.”

Jordan grimaced. Recently all he seemed able to do was focusing on the shit that was happening, or on the worst that could happen. It was so easy to let a million thoughts race through his mind, every one colored with death and blood and fear. He could imagine a kidnapper taking the phone and texting as her, or her being coerced… Jesus, it didn’t bear thinking about.

“I’m going to be having words with her,” he grumped, concentrating on the plate of food that Anna placed in front of him. He wasn’t even hungry, anxiety nibbling away at him until his stomach was one big knotted mess. Patiently, and acutely aware that Anna was watching him as she had done ever since his accident, he forked eggs and bacon into his mouth, the taste of them like ashes.

Eating didn’t stop him from brooding, and being watched didn’t stop his mood from spiraling lower. If anything, the combination of the two made everything worse. The appointment at the bank was still looming, and he was worried about what they would say.

Jordan had to go on his own; Phil wasn’t well enough to be there with him, but he was determined to be involved in dealing with the company's finances. He wanted to be hands-on, it was his company and on and on. Whenever Phil started talking that way, Jordan listened as patiently as he could, trying not to feel too hurt Phil was determined to hold on so tightly. After all, hadn’t he been running the company just fine for the last two years?

When the kitchen door opened, and Hayley took a step into the battleground, Jordan was on her like a ton of bricks, launching to his feet with temper running through him like fire.

“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been damn scared you were in a ditch or something. For God’s sake, your momma was worried.” Jordan’s voice was loud and quick and his temper on a rare high. He saw Hayley look at her mom with raised eyebrows, receiving a small smile and a shrug of delicate shoulders in return. She wasn’t taking him seriously. God damn it, she needed to take him seriously.

“Jordan—” Hayley started quickly, but he interrupted before she could get any words out. He took a step towards her, his free hand gripping her arm.

“You should have let us know where you were.”

“I—”

“Just so I don’t go ripping up the area looking for you.” He realized he was shaking her, unaware of anything else, his temper making his actions sharp, until a hand rested on his arm.

“She was with me.” A low voice was in his ear, lost in the sound of a gasp from Anna, then complete and utter silence for a second as a tableau of shocked, frozen people engraved itself on Jordan’s mind.

It was Anna who broke the awkward silence, launching herself at the son she hadn’t seen in too long. Jordan’s softly spoken “Kieran” was drowned out by Anna’s squeal, the rush of hugs and welcomes and the refrains of why didn’t you tell me? Everyone talked over each other with laughter and jokes.

Typical. After all this time, Kieran freaking Addison walks through the door, and suddenly everyone conveniently forgets how he ran out and left them all.

Jordan stared at the man who had shaken his world to the roots. He struggled to see the boy who had left only days after that rainy Tuesday when they had buried Brad. This was a different Kieran —not a boy, but a man. Gone were the uncoordinated lankiness of youth and the floppy blond bangs that were forever determined to cover his gray eyes. Instead here was a man in control—tall, strong, with styled, shorter hair, and a gaze that wouldn’t meet Jordan’s. When it came down to it, Jordan felt the shock driving into him that Kieran Addison had deigned to return to the Addison fold at all. He waited, watching Anna welcome home the prodigal son, allowing the moments of reconnection. Then he said the first thing that came to his mind as he looked at Kieran and cursed his arrival for so many reasons he couldn’t begin to list.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Author Bio:

RJ Scott is the bestselling romance author of over 100 romance books. She writes emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, millionaire, princes, and the men and women who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn't with family either reading or writing.

The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn't like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.

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Release Day Blitz: Kingdom Volume 1 by RJ Scott

Title: Kingdom Volume 1

Author: RJ Scott

Series: Kingdom #1-3

Genre: M/M Paranormal Romance

Release Date: June 14, 2017

Cover Design: Meredith Russell

Summary:
The three books in this volume were previously published titles available separately. There have been no changes to the stories. Previously known as the Supernatural Bounty Hunters series.

The Vampire Contract #1
A vampire guilty of murder on the run from justice to prove his innocence. A werewolf sent to retrieve him with one thought – that only the guilty run.

Vampire Micah Jamieson is found guilty of killing his human husband. He runs from the execution he is facing to get home. He just has to pray he’ll reach home before supernatural law enforcement, in the shape of a Glitnir Court Retriever close in on him.

Wolf shifter and Retriever, Connor Strand easily captures Micah and he’s fully prepared to take the runaway in. But his wolf has other ideas.

Something about Micah challenges Connor and his long held beliefs. What if Micah is actually innocent? Will Connor put to one side his own prejudices, and then risk both his life and career to keep Micah safe?

The Guilty Werewolf #2
Declan Finlay is the best Retriever that Glitnir has.

Well, he is now that Connor Strand has gone rogue.

He is sent to find Connor - the guilty werewolf. But he doubts that his best friend could ever be guilty and he resolves to track him down and find out why he ran with the renegade vampire.

When the Fae Alliance, reporting to Glitnir, demand that he not go alone he is forced to accept the Incubus, Levi Tiernan, an assassin, as his companion on the journey. If Declan doesn't kill Connor, then Levi will.

What happens when old lust and love dictate action and suddenly Declan is questioning everything he loves.

The Warlock’s Secret #3
In a world where magic is rare, Joseph Jamieson is one of the most powerful holders of power. Orophin Tiwele, or Phin to his friends, is the son of the Elf King and has magic of his own. The rules say two supernatural beings with magic cannot be together and Joseph and Phin have lived by that rule despite their attraction to each other.

The resistance is growing larger each day, but traitors threaten everything Joseph has built. He wants peace, but soon comes to realize the way to peace, is through war.

When the only thing that will save lives is Joseph and Phin working together, it becomes impossible to see where magic and passion end and where love could begin.

Author Bio: