A CHRISTMAS PROPOSITION (DALLAS BILLIONAIRES CLUB #2)

“I need to get married…

And the only one who can help me is you .” 

Trading one scandal for another, Stefanie Ferguson must marry to save her brother’s political career. Luckily, her brother’s best friend wants to help. But until this moment, Emmett Keaton has been off-limits. Now their convenient vows on Christmas Day unleash a passion too long denied. Will this marriage for scandal become a marriage for real?

Digital Release Date: December 1, 2018

Print Release Date: December 4, 2018

Harlequin Desire

Contemporary Romance

Dallas Billionaires Club #2

Review copy provided by publisher

Nikki’s Review:

This was such a fun series. Jessica Lemmon never disappoints. The characters and spot on writing, made reading this book in one sitting a blast!

Stefanie Ferguson is a hoot. I love a sassy heroine, and she has sass in spades. She’s strong and feisty, but still soft and caring. She’s everything I love in a well-rounded character. 

Emmett is my favourite kind of hero. He’s alpha and broody; the strong silent type. You really feel his vulnerability coming off of the pages. He’s so unsure of his own appeal and worthiness of love. 

The marriage of convenience trope is loads of fun. I loved seeing these characters fall head over heels for each other when it’s absolutely not what they had planned. Emmett’s stubbornness just slowed down his ability to admit it.

Like all of Jessica Lemmon’s novels, you get all the feels in this one. I found myself giggling (the part with Zach’s naked backside...hilarious!), sniffling during the “dark moment”, and feeling joy when Stef and Emmett found their way back together again. 

I truly enjoyed this series about the Ferguson family. I’m sad that it’s over. I’d love to see a short story with some updates on the couples. Hint hint Jessica! 😉

Rating: 4 Stars (A)

CHRISTMAS CAKE MURDER (HANNAH SWENSEN #23)

It’s Christmas many years ago, and topping young Hannah Swensen’s wish list is becoming the go-to baker in Lake Eden, Minnesota. But as Hannah finds out, revisiting holiday memories can be 
murder . . .
 
With her dream of opening The Cookie Jar taking shape, Hannah’s life matches the hectic December hustle and bustle in Lake Eden—especially when she agrees to help recreate a spectacular Christmas Ball from the past in honor of Essie Granger, an elderly local in hospice care. But instead of poring over decadent dessert recipes for the merry festivities, she instantly becomes enthralled by Essie’s old notebooks and the tale of a woman escaping danger on the streets of New York. Hannah’s surprised by Essie’s secret talent for penning crime fiction. She’s even more surprised when the story turns real. As Hannah prepares to run a bakery and move out of her mother’s house, it’ll be a true miracle if she can prevent another Yuletide disaster by solving a mystery as dense as a Christmas fruitcake . . .

Release Date: September 23, 2018

Kensington

Hannah Swensen #23

Mystery

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's Review:

The Hannah Swensen series of mysteries is one of my favorites series ever. I've always wonder how Hannah ended up opening her store The Cookie Jar and am happy to say with Christmas Cake Murder, we finally get all the answers.

I love the entire Swensen clan and loved going back to the beginning to see where it all started. We saw so many of my favorite characters in this flashback story of Hannah's life. As it takes place right after her father's death, it could have been a very emotional read, yet Joanne Fluke's voice brought so much humor along the way to the story. It was still very emotional to see Mrs. Swensen begin to step back into the land of the living, as she had been mired in grief for so very long. I loved seeing her daughters come together to help find ways to get her moving and out of the house and give her a purpose to live again. Of course not to be outdone by her daughters, she not only starts living again, but wants to help make each of her daughter's lives better along the way.

I loved seeing Mrs. Swensen step up to help make Lake Eden resident Essie's dreams come true by recreating the Christmas Ball. Of course she need each of her daughters help to make it a reality, as well as Michelle's best friend Lisa. I loved when Hannah found the story Essie had written; she shared it with her family in bits and pieces. I quickly realized there was way more to the story than it being just a work of fiction, but was happy to be surprised about some of the facts in the story. Once again we were given a wonderful mystery that pulled in Hannah and her family to solve. 

Christmas Cake Murder was a wonderful addition to the Hannah Swensen mystery series. Readers were given the complete background to how Hannah was able to start her business. I loved getting so see a younger Hannah to see how much she has grown as a person over the course of the series. I highly recommend the entire series of books to fans of cozy mysteries and while I generally don't believe in reading books out of order, if you wanted to read Christmas Cake Murder first, it would be a great way to get a feel for some of the characters in the series.

Rating: 4 Stars (B+)

BACK TO YOU COVER REVEAL

BACK TO YOU BLURB:

His second chance is his only chance

Parker Drake wants exactly one thing—to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor. Between his reputation as a rule-breaker and the six years that have passed since his first internship ended in disaster, he knows he’s only getting one shot at a second chance. He’ll do anything to put the past behind him and reach his goal…including work with the gorgeous ex-wife he’s never gotten over losing.

All work and no play make surgeon Charleston Becker a very happy woman. But when she’s tasked with mentoring her ex-husband through his second chance as an intern, her signature calm is put to the test. She’s not interested in re-hashing the heartbreaking circumstances that ended their marriage, and the six years that have passed haven’t made Parker less reckless. The last thing she’s willing to do is trust him—even if she does find him sexier than ever.

But familiarity breeds forgiveness, which then becomes a passion that threatens the careers Parker and Charlie have worked for. Can they turn their second chance into a happy ending? Or is history bound to repeat itself?

This steamy contemporary medical romance can be read as a standalone. 

** It's a standalone medical romance, a la Grey's Anatomy, only hotter. Anyone who has read my Station Seventeen (firefighter) series will recognize a few cameos, but this is NOT part of that series. It's a brand-new thing! All contemporary, no suspense, but plenty of action in the emergency room AND the bedroom.

** Release day is February 12, 2019

BUY LINKS

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SNOWFALL ON LIGHTHOUSE LANE (HONEYMOON HARBOR #2)

Lose yourself in the magic, charm and romance of Christmas in the Pacific Northwest as imagined in JoAnn Ross’s heartwarming Honeymoon Harbor series. 

Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, Jolene Harper is forever indebted to the mother who encouraged her to fly—all the way to sunny LA and a world away from Honeymoon Harbor. Although Jolene vowed never to look back, returning home isn’t even a question when her mom faces a cancer scare. Which means running into Aiden Mannion all over town, the first boy she ever loved—and lost—and whom she can barely look in the eye.

Aiden’s black-sheep reputation may have diminished when he joined the marines, but everything he’s endured since has left him haunted. Back in Honeymoon Harbor to heal, he’s talked into the interim role of police chief, and the irony isn’t lost on the locals, least of all Aiden. But seeing Jolene after all these years is the unexpected breath of fresh air he’s been missing. He’s never forgotten her through all his tours, but he’s not sure anymore that he’s the man she deserves.

Despite the secret they left between them all those years ago, snow is starting to fall on their picturesque little town, making anything seem possible…maybe even a second chance at first love.

Release Date: November 1, 2018

Harlequin HQN Books

Honeymoon Harbor #2

Contemporary Romance

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's Review:

Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane is the latest release from JoAnn Ross's Honeymoon Harbor series. I love a good second chance romance story, and Ms. Ross did an amazing job in Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane.

I adored seeing Jolene and Aiden reconnect even as they initially tried to avoid each other when they were both home for a wedding previously. I think part of what I liked best about them reconnecting was the fact they started back as friends first. As they hadn't seen each other in years and never kept up with one another, it really worked for me that they slowly moved from friendship to more. Their relationship totally worked for me and was so very fun to watch it grow and become more.

However, my favorite part of the entire story was the relationship between Jolene and her mother, Gloria. I'm a huge fan of the show Gilmore Girls and I adored how much both women loved the show and really seemed to be so much like Lorelei and Rory. Their relationship gave me all the happy feels and was every bit as important to the story as the romance was to the story. I love when there is a secondary story that only adds to the main story of a book, and if felt like Jolene's relationship with her mom was every bit as important and her romance with Aiden.

Snowfall on Lighthouse Lane was a really beautiful story. Both the romance and the strong relationship between mother and daughter were so very well done.  I've read books by JoAnn Ross for years, yet had missed her last few releases. I have to say after reading her newest story; I have gone back and added all missed books to my to-be-read list. I highly recommend adding books by JoAnn Ross to your list of books to read if you enjoy reading emotional and uplifting stories.

Rating: 4 Stars (B)

THE CAIRNS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS

The Cairns: New and Selected Poems Bill Brown: Author

The Cairns: New and Selected Poems represents over

thirty years of writing and publishing poems, by author

Bill Brown, beginning in the early 1980’s. The title

poem uses cairns, stacked stones, metaphorically: “I

stack words to remember what words alone / can’t say.

The tongue is an eye, a poet wrote, / not just a choking

muscle, fumbling with age. / The earth a grave of lost

words, stones / and children’s bones; a cairn, itself,

crude and holey… .”

Words About The Poetry Of Bill Brown

Bill Brown has been honing his craft and writing some of the most emotionally

engaging poetry available. With this new book, he has achieved what few

contemporary poets have, a voice that is intellectually rigorous and linguistically

accessible. These are poems in which love—desperate, dangerous, and

courageous—brings us here, to this poet’s world, in all its evocative power.

—Kathryn Stripling Byer, Descent

About The Author

Bill Brown is the author of ten

collections of poetry and a writing

textbook on which he collaborated with

Malcolm Glass. During the past thirty

years, he has published hundreds of

poems and articles in college journals,

magazines, and anthologies. In 1999,

Brown wrote and co-produced the

Instructional Television Series, Student

Centered Learning, for Nashville Public

Television. Since 1983, Brown directed

the writing program at Hume-Fogg

Academic High School in Nashville. He

retired from Hume-Fogg in May, 2003

and accepted a part-time lecturer’s

position at Peabody College of

Vanderbilt University. In 1995, the

National Foundation for Advancement

in the Arts named him Distinguished

Teacher in the Arts. He has been a

Scholar in Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a Fellow at the Virginia Center for the

Creative Arts, and a two-time recipient of Fellowships in Poetry from the Tennessee Arts

Commission. In 2011, the Tennessee Writers Alliance awarded Brown: Writer of the Year.

Selection From The Cairns: New and Selected Poems

 The Cairns

They’re stacked beside the creek

on a hidden gravel road—patience

and craft, the artful searching,

seeing, chipping, shaping. Mostly

limestone, each rock—millions of years

forming, fossilized, story-filled—itself a cairn.

The hours spent in rugged contemplation,

water burble, wind in leaves, the forest’s sway—

a present for those who pass as the earth

crumbles in time what human hands have made.

I stack words to remember what words alone

can’t say. The tongue is an eye,  a poet wrote,

not just a choking muscle, fumbling with age.

The earth a grave of lost words, stones

and children’s bones; a cairn, itself, crude and holey.

The gift is in the labor , mother taught—

 scraped palms, broken nails, tired backs,

the ordered wonder of shape.

About The Press

at the confluence of culture and creativity

3: A Taos Press is a multicultural and ethically voiced independent publisher

committed to fostering and honoring the work of writers of all cultures.

The publisher is pleased to host readings, book signings, workshops, and

ekphrasis events throughout the year across the United States featuring

its list of contributors.

Our editors and authors may be contacted at www.3taospress.com or at:

3taospress@gmail.com.

Purchasing Information

ISBN: 978-0-9994848-0-7

Publication Date: November, 2018

The Cairns: New and Selected Poems is available directly from the publisher for

$25.00 with free shipping

3: A Taos Press Bookstore: www.3taospress.com

The book also is available from Amazon.

3: A Taos Press

P.O. Box 370627

Denver, CO 80237

Please contact the publisher for special price for classroom sets:

3taospress@gmail.com