Endre by S.T. Bende!

We're celebrating the release of Endre (Elsker Saga #2) by S.T. Bende!

That's right....it's finally here!!!!
 

Endre (Elsker Saga #2) by S.T. Bende

Upper YA/NA Paranormal Romance

Blurb:

Sometimes, finding your destiny means doing the exact opposite of what The Fates have planned.

Winning the heart of an immortal assassin was a dream come true for Kristia Tostenson. Now she’s knee deep in wedding plans, goddess lessons, and stolen kisses. But her decision to become immortal could end in heartbreak -- not only for Kristia, but for the god who loves her. Because while Ull would do anything to protect his bride, even the God of Winter is powerless against the Norse apocalypse. Ragnarok is coming.

And the gods aren’t even close to ready.

Excerpt

When I came to, my chest heaved with sobs. Cold sweat cloaked my body from my forehead to the backs of my knees. My hair was damp, my pulse was racing, and my fingers gripped the sheets so tightly my knuckles ached. I was in my room at Ýdalir, the one place I had always felt safe. Only now I was absolutely terrified.

I ripped the covers off and wrapped my arms around my legs. My nose twitched at an unfamiliar smell. I pulled the cord on the bedside lamp, and looked around to see what might be burning. There was no smoke in the room; all of the furniture seemed to be intact. But when I glanced down, I saw the hems of my pajamas. They were black, singed from the fire I’d desperately hoped had been part of a dream.

This time things had gone too far. If my smoldering pant legs were any indication, being injured in a vision could have far-reaching worldly consequences. And if Elfie had come that close to killing me . . .

Ull had his rules, but I no longer cared. I jumped out of bed and raced down the hallway. When I reached his door I pounded on the distressed wood. Tears streamed down my face but I didn’t bother to wipe them away. The downpour was too intense; it wouldn’t have done any good anyway.

The door flew open and Ull stood on the other side. He wore a loose pair of grey sweatpants and nothing else. Oh hot bejeebus. There was no way this guy was for real. It just wasn’t humanly possible to look that good.

Oh, right. Ull wasn’t human.

Despite the agony coursing through my awakening consciousness, this was a moment of glory I’d remember forever—the first time I saw Ull’s naked torso. His sweats hung low on his hips, affording me a view of the cut just above the bone.

Holy Lord.

“Kristia?” Ull rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He took in my matted hair, tear-streaked face, and shaking hands. “Great Odin. What happened?”

He pulled me to him, crushing my face against the muscles of his chest. The knot in my stomach loosened infinitesimally. Just being near Ull gave me peace, but being this near Ull was like taking a sedative. Breathing in his woodsy smell made my panic subside. And when he pressed his hands against me—one to my hair, the other against the small of my back—my gut knew I was safe. Nothing bad could happen to me so long as I was in Ull’s arms. I inhaled again, letting his familiar scent fill me from the inside until my shaking stilled. Then I pressed my lips against his skin. Hard.

“Sweetheart?” he asked again.

“I had another vision and it freaked me out. Can I stay with you?” I didn’t take my lips off his chest as I spoke. I couldn’t. He tasted divine—like spruce and soap and home. There was a very real possibility my mouth might be permanently adhered to his flesh, like a kid who’d tried to lick a frozen railing.

Only this was far less unpleasant.

The Amazon bestselling Upper YA Paranormal Romance series inspired by Norse mythology and featured in USA Today.

What reviewers are saying about The Elsker Saga:

"The characters will leave an imprint on your heart and mind for a long time to come." -Lisa (Bound by Books)

"Bende takes classic bits of Norse mythology and throws in original elements to create her own tasty Nordic blend... I'll definitely be checking out the sequel!" -Bookalicious Reviews

"One of my favorite books of the year." -White Zin Bookends

"Action packed with a heart pounding romance!" -Curse of the Bibliophile

"This book was nearly impossible to put down and I'm dying for the sequel!" -Brittany and Bianca Blab Books (now BiblioBelles)

Tur: An Elsker Saga Novella (Prequel)

AMAZON - BARNES&NOBLE - KOBO

Inga Andersson is the envy of every girl in Asgard. On the surface she has it all -- great friends, a job as Odin’s personal fight choreographer, and a happy ever after with her realm’s hottest assassin. But when evil invades Asgard, her perfect world comes crashing down. Someone is planning to kill off the gods, and Inga’s best friend Ull is first on their list. With the Norse apocalypse a nanosecond away, Inga has to decide how she’ll spend her final moments of freedom. Because from the moment this battle begins, Inga’s happily ever after will be nothing more than a memory.

Some things are worth fighting for.

Elsker: The Elsker Saga Book One
AMAZON

You don't win the heart of an immortal assassin without making a few enemies along the way. Kristia Tostenson prefers Earl Grey to Grey Goose and book clubs to nightclubs, but when she transfers from her one-stoplight town to Cardiff University in Wales she falls in love with Ull Myhr. Her new boyfriend isn't exactly what she was expecting. He's an honest to goodness Norse God - an immortal assassin fated to die at Ragnarok, the battle destined to destroy Asgard and Earth. Kristia's crazy visions are the only thing that can save their realms.

Her orderly life just got very messy.

Author Social Media Links:

Before finding domestic bliss in suburbia, ST Bende lived in Manhattan Beach (became overly fond of Peet’s Coffee) and Europe… where she became overly fond of McVities cookies. Her love of Scandinavian culture and a very patient Norwegian teacher inspired the books of The Elsker Saga. She hopes her characters make you smile and that one day, pastries will be considered a health food.

Find ST on Twitter @stbende or her blog (http://stbende.blogspot.com). While you’re at it, introduce yourself to @UllMyhr -- when he’s not saving the cosmos from dark elves, he loves meeting new friends. Especially the human kind.

Blog - ST Bende on Twitter - Ull Myhr on Twitter - Facebook - GoodReads

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Interview with Ava O'Shay, author of Entrusted.

 Romance author, Ava O'Shay, stopped by for an interview!

 

How do you choose your character names? Do you ever change their names mid-process?

I LOVE to name things!  I get dogs just to name them…fish even!  The names for my female characters have either been names I would have used if I had a girl or students I have had in my classes.  Names kind of come to me as I write and often times during church when I am reading my bible instead of listening to the pastor.

Have you ever read a book that you expected to enjoy but didn’t or, vice versa, read a book that you didn’t expect to enjoy and fell in love with it anyway? Which book? 

I am embarrassed to say I did not enjoy any of the Harry Potter books.  Well I didn’t read any more than the first few chapters of the first book but I am sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed the others.  Don’t throw stones at me please.  I have a really difficult time reading that genre.

When writing, do you share chapters with friends or beta readers as you go or do you keep your projects secret until they are complete?

I do not share anything with immediate friends or family.  I have had a few beta readers but they usually bail on me so as of now I work with my friend and editor Kara and that’s about it.

What was your favorite subject at school? 

I loved history.  Not because I love history but because I love to do research and that was the class where I was encouraged to research.  All my books have some aspect of research in them because it is a chance for me to do what I love.  

Please describe your perfect day.

 My perfect day would be a day hiking, mountain biking, or kayaking with my boys.  I love the outdoors and I love my family so doing physical activities outside is my favorite time with them.

Buy links:  Entrusted by Ava O'Shay  (is on sale for .99cents right now!)

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

  Main Attraction by Ava O'Shay will be available July 15th in ebook only in paper back right now

Amazon

Serenity by Ava O'Shay

Will be released July 30th

Ava will start a Barnes and Noble signing tour through the Pacific Northwest on the 15th and there will be facebook contests throughout the months of July and August:   For more information, check this out!

Visit Ava's Amazon author page!

Check out Ava's Blog and sign up for her newsletter!

An Interview with Helen Rena, author of Into the Blind

 Helan Renam the author of Into The Blind, stopped by for an interview!

In a world where everyone is gifted, be it in dancing, lightning-bringing, or death-giving, Ever is born…all-powerful.

For this gift, she is kidnapped and trafficked at birth. Fifteen years later, Ever still hasn’t seen even a glimmer of her powerful gift. Locked in an abandoned mall in New York City, she’s fighting to survive her captivity, her brutal guards, and the other gifted kids in her cell. She would do anything to escape.

Fox is gifted in time manipulation. Like Ever, he hasn’t come into his gift yet; like Ever, he hates the mall; and like Ever, he longs to be free. But there’s one thing he values above his freedom—it’s Ever’s love…

…yet, when the two make a desperate attempt to escape, this attempt proves so dark and twisted that it just might destroy Ever’s love for Fox.


Check out Into the Blind on Amazon!

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- How do you choose your character names? Do you ever change their names mid-process?

- OMG…character names…I tend to agonize over them because they are obviously so important. In Into the Blind, my debut novel that's just come out, I favored telling names. You know like when you call your evil character Mr. Slime-Pants. Since Into the Blind is about a fifteen-year-old girl who must choose between her boyfriend and being all-powerful, I decided to give her a dual hyphenated name. The first part of the name was intended to be just a generic girl's name and the second, the name of a powerful queen. However, the queen I chose at first was just too obscure. The reference fell flat. So I had to scramble and find another queen. And that's how my protagonist became Ever-Jezebel.

- Have you ever read a book that you expected to enjoy but didn't or, vice versa, read a book that you didn't expect to enjoy and fell in love with it anyway? Which book?

- Last summer I decided to finally read Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I didn't expect to enjoy it. In fact, I didn't even expect to finish it because Dostoevsky is heavy going. Some of his books, especially the ones told by insane narrators, like for instance The Double, are too much for me. I'd like to stay sane, thank you very much. But I wanted to try reading The Idiot—it's one of my mom's favorite books—and surprisingly, I liked it. It was brilliant, and okay, in places it was a bit over the top, especially when the characters started going off the crazy end, but overall, it was an amazing book.

- What is your favorite game?

- I love Scrabble, but I can never beat my husband. Somehow he always finds longer words or words that would go over the tallest stacks of letters so he always ends up with the most points. Oh, and also I think he cheats sometimes. Once he swore that a word "zog" exists and that it's a physics term. Since we didn't have a dictionary handy at that time and I'm a humanities person, I had to believe him. Zog my elbow, right?

- What was your favorite subject at school?

- It was…okay, I don't remember what it was called or what it was about. Maybe it was First Aid because it was taught by our school nurse. Now, why I loved it was because we had it in our teachers' lounge (they must not have had an available room during that period or something) and there was a huge head of Lenin in that lounge. Yes, it was a Soviet school, and yes, it was Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution of 1917. So the teachers had his head in their lounge. Not even a bust. Just a head. And it was huge, the size of a couch standing on its end. And it was bald of course, because as historical justice would have it, Lenin got canonized as a baldie. So, back to the (maybe) First Aid class. The nurse, who naturally was not hired to teach us, but to take care of our scrapes, got constantly called out of the teachers' lounge, and we were left to our own devices sometimes for the duration of the entire class period. Yes, that was life. My friends and I chatted and gossiped, and what made it even better was that I did it while leaning against Lenin's head and patting him on his bald top. Hamlet with his poor Yorick's skull has nothing on me.

- Please share a favorite line from your newest book.

- Only one? But I like all of them. Okay, okay, I'll behave. I'll quote a bit from the first chapter of Into the Blind. It's when Ever-Jezebel gets caught kissing someone other than her boyfriend Fox:

And so I put my hands on Sinna’s shoulders, preparing to push him away, when I realized that his mouth tasted of strawberries, and his lips were fuller than Fox’s, and softer, and not as hot. And come to think of it, I’d never kissed anyone but Fox in my life. I began mapping Sinna’s mouth with my tongue.

And then there were steps—and a voice—Fox’s voice: "Ever, what the hell are you doing?"

 Thanks for stopping by Helen!

A Seal's Mission by Rachel Kall.

 

A SEAL's Mission
by Rachel Kall
Love and Scandal #2
Publication Date: July 14, 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense
 

 


Purchase from: Amazon •

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Synopsis: When renowned journalist Rowena Murphy uncovers the biggest story of her career, she was prepared to take some risks. But when she learns that more than her life is at stake, she doesn't know who to turn to...

After Navy SEAL Scott Ranger rescued investigative reporter Rowena Murphy in Afghanistan, he thought his mission was complete. But it’s six months later, and he still can't get her out of his head. The game changes when her life is threatened once again... As they start to uncover just how deep the conspiracy runs in Washington and abroad, Scott vows to keep Rowena and her sources safe--even if that means temporarily dropping the story. But for Rowena putting her investigation on hold isn't an option. Loyalties are tested and passions ignite as Rowena and Scott race to complete A SEAL's MISSION.

  About the Author: Rachel Kall writes romantic suspense. She enjoys writing spicy and suspenseful stories to keep readers guessing. Rachel is a member of Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death, and Georgia Romance Writers. She loves animals and is active in animal rescue. She enjoys adding loveable pets to her stories. She lives in Georgia with her husband and five furkids—two dogs and three cats.

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

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Because I'm Disposable by Rosie Somers.

Because I’m Disposable is a YA contemporary by Rosie Somers, out now!

Sixteen-year-old Callista Tanner was in the bathroom slitting her wrists the night her father took a fatal plunge down the stairs. People around her think she attempted suicide because she found him dead -- or worse, because she had a guilty conscience. Few know the truth; Michael Tanner had been beating her for years.

The freedom that should have come with her father's death becomes a cage of rumors and self-doubt. Callie seeks escape in the most destructive ways, bringing her emotional scars to the surface for the world to see.

One bright spot exists in Callie's dark world.

Lincoln Devaux refuses to let Callie sink fully into the depths of her own depression, stepping into her life when she needs someone the most. She tries to push him away, but Link is determined to save Callie from herself. Even when she doesn't think she's worth saving.

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About the Author

Rosie Somers is a YA author who lives in Florida, soaking up the year-round sunshine. She can often be found in her favorite spot on her favorite beach, nose-deep in a good book.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Rosie is giving away a kindle!!
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Happy Fourth of July!

Wishing you all a safe and festive Fourth of July!

Copyright: tomwang / 123RF Stock Photo

Dark Paradise by Angie Sandro.

Available today: Dark Paradise by Angie Sandro!

About DARK PARADISE:

DARK LEGACY
Mala LaCroix has spent her whole life trying to escape her destiny. As the last in a long line of "witch women," she rejects the notion of spirits and hoodoo and instead does her best to blend in. But when she finds a dead body floating in the bayou behind her house, Mala taps into powers she never knew she had. She's haunted by visions of the dead girl, demanding justice and vengeance.

DEADLY SECRETS
Landry Prince has always had a crush on Mala, but when Mala discovers his sister, murdered and marked in some sort of Satanic ritual, he wonders if all the rumors about the LaCroix family are true. Yet after Mala uses her connection to the spirit world to identify his sister's killer, he starts to form his own bond to her . . . a very physical one. As they move closer to each other and closer to the truth, Mala and Landry must risk everything-their families, their love, and even their live

About Angie Sandro:

Angie Sandro was born at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Within six weeks, she began the first of eleven relocations throughout the United States, Spain, and Guam before the age of eighteen. Friends were left behind. The only constants in her life were her family and the books she shipped wherever she went. Traveling the world inspired her imagination and allowed her to create her own imaginary friends. Visits to her father's family in Louisiana inspired this story. Angie now lives in Northern California with her husband, two children, and an overweight Labrador.

Angie’s SM:

http://anjeasandro.blogspot.com/

http://facebook.com/pages/Angie-Sandro/253044268078356

@AngieSandro

Buy links:

B&N: http://bit.ly/1rImn9K

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1jWBWFM

iTunes: http://bit.ly/1lVTNkk

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rImtOy

Excerpt from Dark Paradise by Angie Sandro:

Landry’s truck sits in the driveway when I stroll out of the house at a quarter to eight in the morning. I’m in such a glorious mood that I don’t bother trying to sneak off without him catching sight of me. It would’ve been easy, I learn upon climbing on the bumper and sticking my head through the truck’s open window. He has the seat pushed back and his legs stretched out kitty corner across the passenger seat. Snores, loud enough to scare a bear, echo through the cab.

            I reach in and poke his shoulder a few times. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”

            Landry’s thick lashes flutter then open to meet mine. “I’m supposed to be woken with a kiss, not a jab.”

            I snort. “I don’t kiss slimy critters. You’re playing double duty as a frog, and I throw them in a frying pan with a little butter and garlic.”

            “Oh, so now you’re trying to butter me up?”

            The heat of a blush rises. “Saints, boy. You’re fraying my last nerve.” I plant my hands on my hips, toe tapping. “What are you doing here? In case you forgot, I’m mad at you.”

“No you’re not.” He grins and runs his fingers through his thick hair. My breath catches as my brain stutters. I shake my head to dispel the wave of pheromone-induced stupidity that washes over me. My noses twitches. Why does he have to smell so good? Like cinnamon and brown sugar. “Did you forget yester—”

An oily paper bag flies in my direction. I grab it out of the air before it drops to the ground. It’s warm in my hands, and the smell makes my mouth water. “Ooh, cinnamon rolls,” I mumble around the melting mouthful of cinnamon-y goodness. “I love these.”

“I know,” Landry says, throwing open the truck door.

I hop off the bumper with a scowl. The arrogant jerk thinks he has me eating out of his hands; all he has to do is flutter those insanely long eyelashes, smile to show off his pearly whites, and tempt me with fresh, warm buns.

“These are mine?” I clutch the bag to my chest as I eye him in suspicion.

“Yeah, they’re your favorite, right?”

“Mmm hmm.”

Landry props his elbow on the open window and ducks his head. Black hair tangles across his face, hiding his eyes. “I hoped you’d be more accepting of my apology if I bribed you with sweets. Forgive me for being an ass yesterday?”

Lucky guy. He figured out the fastest way to soften my heartstrings—sugar. Wait how does he know they’re my favorite? Stupid question. It’s like him knowing my nickname and my job. He pays way too much attention to me, and I’m kinda scared to ask why. I stare at my sticky fingers, then lick the icing off one by one. Landry’s gaze draws my attention. He’s staring at my mouth. My gut tightens in response, and I slowly lick my lips. Get a grip. Don’t trust him just because he says he’s sorry.

            I concentrate on the mouthful of cinnamon roll. Each chew echoes the rapid patter of my heart. God, why does my body react like this when I’m around him? Why? He’s still staring at me. Can’t he tell I’m uncomfortable? Oh, I get it. He’s irritating me on purpose so I can’t totally ignore him.

I pass the empty bag to him. “You’re not going away, are you?”

“Nope.” He smiles.

 
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