BAD BITCH BLOG TOUR

Bad Bitch, Hardass, Total D*ck

Bad Bitch Series

Release Date: July 5, 2016

Swerve

Contemporary Romance

They call me the Bad Bitch. A lesser woman might get her panties in a twist over it, but me? I'm the one who does the twisting. Whether it's in the courtroom or in the bedroom, I've never let anyone - much less a man - get the upper hand.

Except for that jerk attorney Lincoln Granade. He's dark, mysterious, smoking hot and sexy as hell. He's nothing but a bad, bad boy playing the part of an up and coming premiere attorney. I'm not worried about losing in a head to head battle with this guy. But he gets me all hot and bothered in a way no man has ever done before. I don't like a person being under my skin this much. It makes me want to let go of all control, makes me want to give in. This dangerous man makes me want to submit to him completely, again, and again, and again...

I cave in to no one. My hardass exterior is what makes me one of the hottest defense lawyers around. It's why I'm the perfect guy to defend the notorious Bayou Butcher serial killer - and why I'll come out on top.

Except this new associate I've hired is unnaturally skilled at putting chinks in my well-constructed armor. Her brazen talk and fiery attitude make me want to take control of her and silence her - in ways that will keep both of us busy till dawn. She drives me absolutely 100% crazy, but I need her for this case. I need her in my bed. I need her to let loose the man within me who fights with rage and loves with scorching desire...

I’m your classic skirt chaser. A womanizer. A total d*ck. My reputation is dirtier than a New Orleans street after a Mardi Gras parade. I take unwinnable cases and win them. Where people see defeat, I see a big fat paycheck. And when most men see rejection, it’s because the sexiest woman at the bar has already promised to go home with me.

But Scarlett Carmichael is the one person I can’t seem to conquer. This too-cool former debutante has it all—class, attitude, and a body that begs to be worshipped. I’ve never worked with a person like her before—hell, I’ve never played nice with anyone before in my life, and I’m not about to start with her. This woman wasn’t meant to be played nicely with. It’s going to be dirty. It’s going to be hot. She’s about to spend a lot of time with the biggest d*ck in town. And she’s going to love every minute of it…

EXCERPT BAD BITCH

I rose and grabbed her up in my arms. She made a surprised noise as I pushed through

to her bedroom and laid her on the covers. She scooted underneath them as I slid in next to

her.

“Presumptuous much?” she asked. The challenge was back in her voice. But I knew her

secret. She wanted me to break her will, to accept her challenge and defeat it. I would do it

again and again. As many times as she’d let me.

I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her into my chest. She moved to protest but I

kept my arm around her. She settled in, breathing deeply against my chest. Her exhaled

breaths tickled against my skin.

We were silent for a long while. So long that I thought she had fallen asleep.

“Did you know that I was never very popular with your persecutor friends?” Her voice

was barely a sound.

“My prosecutor friends, you mean?”

“They don’t really like me.”

“I can’t imagine why not.”

She snorted and pinched my nipple hard. “You had that coming.”

I nodded. She was right.

She continued, “I’m smart. I’m pretty—”

“You are exquisite, not pretty.” I ran my hand along the smooth skin of her back.

She sighed.

“You don’t even know me.”

“I know you’re a bad bitch—”

She laughed against me, her mouth grazing my skin. “I know they call me that. All of you

over there at the courthouse. I don’t care. I like it.”

“I know you do. You’re strong. Shit like that doesn’t get to you.”

“It used to. I used to hate that word. Bitch. I used to be …” she seemed to struggle with

the right word, “sensitive? I guess it was sensitive. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I wanted to

help people. All that shit. The reasons we go to law school in the first place. I wanted to be

that person. The shining beacon. You know?”

“I do.” I knew exactly what she meant, though I was astonished – and pleased – to hear

that she ever wanted to be that sort of lawyer.

“Of course you do. You’re doing it, just not the way I wanted to do it. I wanted to help

people, not white collar criminals, but people who’d been railroaded, taken advantage of, or

let down by the system.”

She had more layers than a birthday cake. I wanted to taste them all.

“What stopped you from doing those things?”

She shook her head against me, as if chiding herself. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not what I

do. Now I’m on the defense.”

“You could have fooled me earlier this week.”

She laughed. “That? I had to give you a shot right out of the gate. See what you’re made

of.”

“And what am I made of?”

She traced her nails over the lines of my ink before digging her fingernails into the skin

over my heart. “Hmm, not sure just yet.”

I rubbed her back in silence for a while, waiting for her to tell me more about herself or

even myself. The music continued playing in the living room, the whine of violins combining

with the more tangible notes from a piano. I looked around her bedroom in the soft light.

There were no pictures of any family or friends. Nothing to distinguish this room from a

tasteful hotel suite in some swank high rise.

“Don’t you get lonely here?” I asked.

I could tell she wanted to deny it by the way she tensed. But then she softened. “I have

work. And there are people there. Lots of them, actually. I’m surrounded by people all the

time. This city makes sure of that. But, even so. I do get lonely. Sometimes. Do you?”

“Sometimes.”

DEVIL AND THE DEEP SPOTLIGHT AND GIVEAWAY

Second in NYT & USAT bestselling author Julie Ann Walker’s new romantic suspense series featuring former navy SEALs

The former SEALs of The Deep Six return in a sizzling series from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julie Ann Walker.

A COVERT MISSION

Maddy Powers’s life revolves around cocktail parties, political fundraisers, and charity events — but she can’t forget the daring former SEAL who appropriated her father’s yacht a few months ago … or the scorching kiss they shared before he disappeared into the deep blue sea.

SPARKS A FLAMING DESIRE

Bran Pallidino carries a dark secret behind his lady-killer eyes — one that keeps him from pursuing a serious relationship with Maddy. But when she’s taken hostage during a trip to the Dry Tortugas, the men of Deep Six Salvage drop their treasure hunt for a sunken galleon and embark on a dangerous mission to save Maddy.

WITH EARTH-SHATTERING REPERCUSSIONS

As they fight her merciless kidnappers, they discover this isn’t a simple hostage situation, but something far more sinister. Passion boils between Bran and Maddy, but what good is putting their hearts on the line if they don’t survive the dawn?

Julie Ann Walker is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Black Knights Inc. romantic suspense series. You can find her on her bicycle along the lake shore in Chicago or blasting away at her keyboard, trying to wrangle her capricious imagination into submission. She lives in Chicago, IL.

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EXCERPT

7:10 p.m.…

I can’t believe this is happenin’ again! Maddy silently screamed.

She’d already been held hostage once. Surely that was enough for any one lifetime. And later—that is if she lived through this and had a later—she planned to have a very stern conversation with Fate or Destiny or the Big Man Upstairs, whichever one of them was responsible for this horseshit. But for right now, she had to concentrate everything she had on staying strong for the girls. Staying calm so they would cue off her and stay strong too.

Oh, and she also needed to keep from revisiting the corned beef sandwich she’d had for lunch all over the beach…

When Louisa glanced at her, Maddy rolled in her lips and nodded, hoping to convey confidence. Concerned confidence, but confidence nonetheless. She must have come close to hitting the mark because Louisa dipped her chin, squared her shoulders, and tightened her hold around Sally Mae, who was quietly sniffling and trying her best not to flat-out cry.

“Stop blubbering!” one of the four men who’d stormed the island thundered at Sally Mae. For a couple of seconds after the fishing vessel dropped anchor, Maddy and Ranger Rick had simply stood there like a couple of lollygaggers wondering who the new arrivals could be. Well…Rick had stood there wondering. Something had told Maddy it wasn’t Bran. And since it wasn’t Bran, any curiosity she’d had about the newcomers was overshadowed by the large crack of disappointment that opened up in her heart.

That large crack of disappointment had quickly been replaced by a huge fissure of terror when, through the gathering darkness, she’d watched four hooded figures board a dinghy and zoom toward her, white water rooster-tailing from their outboard engine and the sound of gunfire echoing across the beach as they aimed their weapons in the air.

“Get to the ranger’s station!” Rick had yelled.

Despite a heart frozen with fear, Maddy had sprung into action, racing after him to the spot on the beach where the girls had been in the process of setting up their gear. She’d herded them in front of her on the mad dash to the tiny cottage at the end of the beach. They’d just piled through the front door—Rick making a beeline for the satellite phone in the corner—when the scary-looking masked gunmen wielding even scarier-looking machine guns burst in and ordered them all to halt.

“Run!” Maddy had screamed to the teens, throwing herself in the line of fire as the girls raced for the back door. But Louisa was the only one who made it out of the cottage. After a ten-minute chase around the tiny island, she’d been marched back to join the group already under guard. A few minutes after that, the gunmen had paraded them all back to the beach. Now the girls were huddled together, kept in a tight mass by two of the balaclava-wearing assailants.

They’re just kids! Maddy wanted to scream, rage boiling in her chest like a teakettle getting ready to blow. Stop pointin’ those things at them! But she wisely kept her mouth shut because a third gunman was keeping her dead center in his sights. As for the fourth masked man? Well, he was busy aiming the business end of his weapon at Rick.

“On your knees!” Masked Man Four yelled at Rick. “Get on your fucking knees!” He punctuated his order by jabbing Rick in the kidney with the barrel of his weapon, causing Rick to cry out.

“Lord almighty! Take it easy!” Maddy yelled, unable to stop herself. “He’ll do what you say! Just give him a chance!”

She nodded at Rick as he sank down, hands still raised above his head. Each of her breaths came hard and fast. Her knees felt as liquid as the tepid wave that crawled up the beach to swirl around her ankles for a couple of seconds, leaving a crab to scuttle after it when it retreated back across the sand.

“All of you, put your hands behind your backs!” Masked Man Four bellowed. Then he sucked his teeth like he had something stuck in them. It was a tic. A disgusting habit that left a sour taste on Maddy’s tongue.

Or maybe that’s just fear, she decided, complying with his command.

When she felt her captor tighten a zip tie around her wrists—his hands were warm, sweaty, but his touch chilled her to the bone—she was brought back around to her original thought…

I can’t believe this is happenin’ again!

“I said shut up!” the guy—correction: the asshole—who’d yelled at Sally Mae bellowed at the teen again, causing Sally Mae’s mouth to gape open like a ugly wound even when no other sound emerged.

“Don’t you holler at her!” Maddy shouted. Then she winced when Masked Man Four left Rick to take a menacing step in her direction.

Full darkness had long since fallen. The only light on the island glowed from the crescent moon, the few spotlights on the seawall surrounding the moat, which in turn surrounded the fort, and the small lighthouse atop the garrison that warned away passing vessels. But all combined, it was enough illumination to show the threat in the man’s eyes as he leaned close.

“In case you missed it, honey.” His words were slightly muffled because the balaclava he wore was ninja style. The kind that covered everything but his eyes. Even so, she heard him clearly enough and thought, Oh, no he did not just honey me! “You’re not calling the shots here. We are. So keep that pretty mouth of yours shut, or I might be tempted to put it to better use.” He sucked his teeth again, and Maddy was reminded of the sound a rattlesnake made when it readied itself to strike.

“Don’t you h-hurt her!” Rick gritted.

Masked Man Four—apparently he was the leader since he was doing most of the talking—looked over at Rick, his eyes cold and dark and devoid of any human emotion. Rick swallowed and tried his best to hold the masked man’s gaze. In the end, he couldn’t manage it. He dropped his eyes to the sand in front of him, his dark hair shadowing his face.

“That’s what I thought.” Masked Man Four nodded, his voice cold enough to freeze an open flame. Then he turned his attention to his cohorts. “I think we’re finally ready.” Suck, suck. Maddy was fairly certain she was going to hear that sound in her nightmares.

“Time to head out to the boat?” The other man who was guarding the girls spoke for the first time, his Southern accent thick and telling of a youth spent south of the Mason-Dixon Line. If Maddy had to make a guess, she’d say Georgia or Alabama.

Of course where he grew up wasn’t important because… The boat? Oh, sweet Jesus! She knew the worst possible thing she could do was allow the masked men to take them to a secondary location. That was pretty much How To Survive Attempted Abduction 101.

“Please,” she beseeched Masked Man Four. Like the Temptations sang, she wasn’t too proud to beg. “If it’s money you want—”

“I warned you what I’d do if you didn’t keep your pretty mouth shut, didn’t I?” Suck, suck. The barrel of Masked Man Four’s machine gun was suddenly an inch from Maddy’s nose. Her eyes crossed when she attempted to stare down its black throat.

It was hard to determine if the whooshing sounds she heard were the waves shushing against the beach or her own blood pounding in her ears. She stopped trying to figure it out when the strangest thing happened. Movement in the surf caught her attention. And if her hands hadn’t been tied behind her back, she would’ve used them to rub her eyes.

Suddenly he was there.

Like the great god Poseidon himself rising from the sea, water sheeting off his dark head and broad shoulders. Her friend. Her hero. The man who had stormed into her life like a hurricane.

Bran…

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THE CURSE OF TENTH GRAVE (CHARLEY DAVIDSON #10)

As a Part-time PI and fulltime grim reaper, Charley Davidson has asked a lot of questions throughout her life: Why can I see dead people? Who is the hot supernatural entity following me? How do I get gum out of my sister’s hair before she wakes up? But, “How do I trap not one malevolent god, but three?” was never among them. Until now. And since those gods are on earth to kill her daughter, she has little choice but to track them down, trap them, and cast them from this dimension.

There’s just one problem. One of the three stole her heart a very long time ago. Can the Razer, a god of absolute death and destruction, change his omniscient spots, or will his allegiances lie with his brothers?

Those are just a few of the questions Charley must answer, and quick. Add to that a homeless girl running for her life, an innocent man who’s been charged with murder, and a pendant made from god glass that has the entire supernatural world in an uproar, and Charley has her hands full. If she can manage to take care of the whole world-destroying-gods thing, we’re saved. If not, well… 

Release Date: June 28, 2016

St. Martin's Press

Charley Davidson #10

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza’s Review:

I fell in love with the Charley Davidson with the very first book. Darynda Jones has pulled me into Charley's crazy world and each new book is like a new amusement park ride. I was super excited to see what happened with Charley and crew after Charley got her memory back and they headed home.

I wanted to love The Curse of Tenth Grave as I love this series. However, it really fell a little flat for me. I'm fine with multiple story lines going on, as I've gotten used to that with the series. However, I'm not fine when Charley and Reyes are fighting or at least not talking to each other. I feel like the story misses something when Charley and Reyes aren't working together or at least getting along. I loved all the time with Cookie and Charley and their friendship is part of the reason I love the series.  I felt like the mysteries of the runaway girl and the innocent man charged with murder were both really strong. However, I felt like both mysteries were overshadowed by the men seeking Charley because of a video that had gone viral. Add in I felt like the ending was rushed, and I just felt like something was missing with this book.

While I didn't love The Curse of Tenth Grave, there were parts of the story that I really did love. I loved finally seeing Charley and Reyes reconnect. I also absolutely loved any mention of Beep and loved when Charley visits with Rocket. I also enjoyed getting to learn more about Reyes and Charley's world, but wish more focus had been on it. That being said, I plan to read Eleventh Grave in Midnight when it comes out next year, as I need to see where Darynda Jones will take the series.

Rating: 3.75 stars (B-)

THE BILLIONAIRE BACHELOR

Title:  The Billionaire Bachelor

Author: Jessica Lemmon

Series: Billionaire Bad Boys

On Sale: June 28, 2016

Publisher: Forever

Contemporary Romance

Manwhore. That's what the board of directors—and the tabloids—thinks of billionaire bachelor Reese Crane. Ordinarily he couldn't care less, but his playboy past is preventing the board from naming him CEO of Crane Hotels. Nothing—and no one—will keep him from his life's legacy. They want a settled man to lead the company? Then that's exactly what he'll give them.

Merina Van Heusen will do anything to get her parents' funky boutique hotel back—even marry cold-as-ice-but-sexy-as-hell Reese Crane. It's a simple business contract—six months of marriage, absolute secrecy, and the Van Heusen is all hers again. But when sparks fly between them, their passion quickly moves from the boardroom to the bedroom. And soon Merina is living her worst nightmare: falling in love with her husband…

Nikki’s Review:

Remember when you were a child, and you got your mitts on a tasty treat? Remember the barely restrained manner in which you opened said tasty treat? That is exactly how I feel every time I get my mitts on a, Jessica Lemmon release! The cover alone for this book reduced me to a giddy child!

Reese Crane is a businessman through and through. He doesn't have time for emotional entanglements. But there’s something that even his readily available billions can't secure for him. Now that his father is retiring, he wants the position of CEO of Crane Hotels. In order to obtain that he needs an image makeover. He needs to shed his playboy persona. 

Merina Van Heusen wants nothing more than to secure her families’ legacy, The Van Heusen Hotel. But the " Sewer rat in a suit " has bought her hotel out from under her. Reese offers her an opportunity to get the hotel back; marry him for six months, help him show the Board of Directors that he's settled down and can represent his family's company...then it's all hers.

This is a modern spin on a marriage of convenience. This is a well loved trope of mine! These two think they're going to treat this arrangement as a business transaction; feelings and mushy stuff won't get in the way. Silly silly people. The heart has its own agenda! 

I really liked, Merina! She has such a spunk about her. She's smart, stubborn, and has a sense of humour that constantly put a smile on my face. Reese is her exact opposite. He's all business all the time. His life is organized and spotless...at least that's what everyone believes. He's hurting. He's struggling with life changing events from his past. When, Merina comes barreling into his life, his world is knocked off its axis...in a fantastic way!

These two together are a hoot! They build a fragile friendship and reluctantly move to lovers. Sex muddles everything up, right? But lust is often stronger than the conscience. And thank goodness for that! I was biting my nails for these two to finally make the bedsprings creak! In true, Jessica Lemmon fashion, I wasn't disappointed. She writes sultry love scenes that make can make your cheeks flush. I really loved that even during intimate moments there was some humour. It was well placed. It didn't detract from the love scenes, it made those postcoital moments beautiful and funny! 

Jessica Lemmon is a brilliant writer. She writes characters that I want to invest my thoughts and time in. I want to really know them. I'm always sad when I hit the last page. I feel like I have to say goodbye to friends. She also has the uncanny ability to make me laugh on one page, and then bawl on another. She does those " black scenes", the moment you think that the characters can't come back from, like a boss! Ms. Lemmon tears my damn heart to shreds and puts it back together flawlessly. 

I'm excited that this is book #1 in the series. It means that I have a lot more awesomeness to look forward to! I can't wait to see, Tag Crane fall hard for his heroine. Of course, he won't go down easily, but the journey will be outstanding! I'm just going to throw out there that you should read EVERYTHING that Jessica Lemmon has written. She's that damn good! I've never walked away from one of her books feeling anything less than fantastic. Wait! That's a lie. I always walk away disappointed. Disappointed because the book is finished and I have to wait for the next one. I wonder if Ms. Lemmon would consider giving up any kind of social life or sleep to pound out more books? Just joking...kinda :)

5 Stars (A)

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