FEATURE & FOLLOW FRIDAY (3): PICTURE BOOKS

Happy Friday! 

Feature & Follow is a blog hop hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog. This way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs, meet new bloggers and make friends.  

This Week's Question:

What are some of your favorite picture books - either current ones or ones from your childhood?

EXCERPT REVEAL: THE DARE by Rachel Van Dyken

Title: THE DARE (The Bet #3)

Author: Rachel Van Dyken (Website | Twitter)

Expected Publication  Date: July 8, 2014

SYNOPSIS: 

From #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Rachel Van Dyken, comes the third and final book in the New York Time's Bestselling Bet Series...

Boring Beth Lynn has always lived up to her nickname... until she wakes up in a hotel bed next to a sexy as sin state senator she re-connected with at a wedding the previous night.

The biggest problem? She can't seem to remember anything about the night before except for crying into a box of cookies, and she's pretty sure Grandma Nadine slipped something in her drink. And what should have been a one night stand turns into a six day adventure when Grandma whisks them off to Hawaii to save them from the ensuing media firestorm.

Jace isn't looking for commitment -- he believes he made that clear when he left the wedding with Beth. Then again, he can't remember much of anything other than the way her skin felt beneath his hands. Now he's stuck with her at some lame couple's retreat and trying his hardest to fight the attraction only a woman like Beth could invoke.

He doesn't think it can get any worse.

But one spider attack... A donkey ride from hell... And an unfortunate episode with Viagra tea -- and there's one thing Jace knows for sure: He should never have agreed to Grandma Nadine's suggestion in the first place.

COVER REVEAL: ILLICIT DESIRE by Taylor Michaels

ILLICIT DESIRE by Taylor Michaels

 September 16, 2014

BOOK SUMMARY

Raphael is everything I should run away from…

Cora Milan came to Miami to get a fresh start, away from the memories and stigma that followed her and her brother at home. When she’s mugged, Raphael Ortiz rescues her. He’s sexy, successful, and dangerous—Miami’s most eligible bachelor and it’s most elusive. A cartel lord who lives on the wrong side of the law, with only a veneer of respectability. He is the exact opposite of a clean slate, and he makes no apologies for wanting her.

When Raphael forces his way into her life, Cora knows she should run. But the attraction between them is undeniable, and Raphael is a man accustomed to getting what he wants. The more she loses herself in him, the deeper she is drawn into Raphael’s criminal world.

But when her past, and his present collide, both of them will be left grasping for the only thing that can save them from the darkness around them—each other.

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY: BOOMERANG by Noelle August

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that I or us, readers are eagerly anticipating. Here's my pick this week ...

Title: BOOMERANG

Author: Noelle August (Website | Twitter) 

Publication Date: July 8, 2014

SYNOPSIS 

The first book in a sensational New Adult trilogy from Noelle August

Welcome to Boomerang.com, the dating site for the millennial gen with its no-fuss, no-commitments matchups, and where work is steamier than any random hook-up

Mia Galliano is an aspiring filmmaker. Ethan Vance has just played his last game as a collegiate soccer star. They’re sharp, hungry for success, and they share a secret.

Last night, Ethan and Mia met at a bar, and, well . . . one thing led to another, which led to them waking up the next morning—together. Things turned awkward in a hurry when they found themselves sharing a post hookup taxi . . . to the same place: Boomerang headquarters.

What began as a powerful connection between them is treated to a cold shower courtesy of two major complications. First, Boomerang has a strict policy against co-worker dating. And second, they’re now competitors for only one job at the end of summer.

As their internships come to an end, will they manage to keep their eyes on the future and their hands off each other, or will the pull of attraction put them right back where they started?

Add BOOMERANG on Goodreads. 

RELEASE DAY LAUNCH: HARDER by Robin York

I am so  thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for Robin York's HARDER!! HARDER is a New Adult contemporary romance being published by Random House’s Bantam imprint and is the 2^nd novel in Robin York’s Caroline & West Series. This book, y'all.

   Synopsis for Harder: 

In Robin York’s provocative new novel, two young ex-lovers find themselves together again in the shadow of tragedy—and an intense, undeniable attraction. 

Caroline still dreams about West. His warm skin, his taut muscles, his hand sliding down her stomach. Then she wakes up and she’s back to reality: West is gone. And before he left, he broke her heart. Then, out of the blue, West calls in crisis. A tragedy has hit his family—a family that’s already a fractured mess. Caroline knows what she has to do. Without discussion, without stopping to think, she’s on a plane, flying to his side to support him in any way he needs. They’re together again, but things are totally different. West looks edgy, angry at the world. Caroline doesn’t fit in. She should be back in Iowa, finalizing her civil suit against the ex-boyfriend who posted their explicit pictures on a revenge porn website. But here she is. Deeply into West, wrapped up in him, in love with him. Still. They fought the odds once. Losing each other was hard. But finding their way back to each other couldn’t be harder.

   

Amazon *** Barnes and Noble *** iBooks

Advance praise for HARDER: “Bursting with chemistry, emotion, and heart, Caroline and West’s story will take your breath away!”—Katy Evans, New York Times bestselling author of the REAL series “Robin York writes exceptionally real characters in achingly real situations. Harder had a hold on my heart and didn’t let go until the very end.”—New York Times bestselling author Cora Carmack

And don’t miss the first book in the Caroline & West Series….DEEPER!

Advance praise for DEEPER: 

“The perfect new adult story . . . West will make you swoon!”—New York Times bestselling author Monica Murphy “Beautifully written and full of swoony tender moments, toe-curling chemistry, and delicious, twisty angst . . . Stop whatever you’re doing and read this book.”—Christina Lauren, author of the Beautiful Bastard series  

SALE BLITZ: PULLED BENEATH by Marni Mann

What happens when you uncover years of secrets and find out everything you thought to be true was a lie?

Drew Stevens finds her world turned upside down when her parents are brutally murdered. Soon after, she learns she inherited a property in Bar Harbor, Maine, from recently deceased grandparents that she believed had died when she was a baby.

Drew travels north to settle her grandparents’ estate, but finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn’t expect to find was Saint, whose reputation is as tumultuous as his past. But the very thing that brings them together is the same thing that keeps them emotionally caged.

With Saint's scars so deep and Drew's so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?

Top 5 Things - Drew

1. Aside from Drew’s natural beauty, her sharp, pointed features, the most dominant detail on her face is her eyes. They’re teal and powerful. They’re demanding.

2. Drew’s life seems almost perfect. She recently graduated from college, her and her best friend are about to get an apartment together, she’s pursuing her dream job as a photographer…until her parents are brutally murdered. The only survivor from the attack is Bella, her parents Yellow Lab, who Drew adopts.

RELEASE DAY BOOK BLITZ: GOODBYE TO YOU by AJ Matthews

Goodbye To You

by A.J. Matthews

Release Date: 07/01/14

Swoon Romance

New Adult

Summary from Goodreads:

Europe? Nope. Mexico? Nope. Key West?

Not me. This summer, I'm playing nursemaid to my sister. Yeah, I know. Relatively good looking twenty-two-year-olds don't spend the summer bedside in the cancer ward, but that's the plan - until my sister threatens me with bodily harm unless I get on the plane.

That's when I met him. He likes me. Really likes me. But more than that, he loves my boobs -- like can't get enough. I have no idea how to tell him that they'll be gone soon. Courtesy of a preventative double mastectomy. Yep. That's what testing positive for the breast cancer gene mutation will do to a girl.

But don't feel sorry for me. I'm enjoying him, holding on until the last possible minute, while I muster up the strength to tell him, and watch him walk away.

I love my boobs.

From the way the sultry-eyed, dark-haired, “I wonder if he’s a J. Crew model” god is staring at them tonight from the other side of the large wood and brass-railed bar, I think he likes them too.

Maybe more than I do.

“Hey, Thea, we started with your name.” My friend Bennie slurs a little, which is weird because we just started drinking tonight.

Maybe she’s still hung over from last night.

She slides a shot of clear liquid down the bar, and the bartender slips a salt shaker and a plate of limes in front of Bennie.

Tequila. A drink that makes me do wicked things I otherwise wouldn’t consider.

RELEASE DAY BOOK BLITZ: PERFECTED by Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected

by Kate Jarvik Birch

Release Date: 07/01/14

Entangled Teen

Summary from Goodreads:

Perfection comes at a price.

As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.

Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.

But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.

For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

I sat in my room on the couch near the window staring out at the last bit of gold staining the sky. I couldn’t place the feeling growing inside me. It was as if the flavor of Ruby’s butterscotch and Penn’s music still lingered on my tongue, a taste that was both bittersweet and totally divine.

This place was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined, but it was more confusing, too. It felt as if a conversation was going on around me, but I could only hear bits and pieces of it, and now I was trying desperately to string those bits together to make a sentence that I could actually understand.

The room was growing dark, but I didn’t feel like turning on the bright light of the chandelier that hung at the end of my bed. In the shadows, I almost became a part of the room.

Miss Gellner had always admonished us to go to bed by nine o’clock each night. “Sleep feeds beauty,” she always used to say. But I wasn’t at all tired.

Just as I was about to get up from the couch to crawl into bed, there was a small tap at the door. Before I had a chance to respond, the door cracked open, letting the yellow light from the hallway spill into the room. The Congressman’s large body stood silhouetted in the doorframe.