Title: Hard Stick

Series: A Breakaway Novel

Author: L.P. Dover

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: June 13, 2017
Publisher: Random House/Loveswept

He carries a big stick. And he’s not afraid to use it.

On the ice, I’m Kellan Carter, powerhouse enforcer for the Charlotte Strikers. Off the ice, I’m just a regular guy. The last thing I want is to get mobbed by a bunch of groupies who are only after me for my fame and money. My ideal woman knows how to enjoy a little good, clean fun—and maybe some not-so-clean fun too. That’s the kind of girl I’d never let go.

When Kristen Robinson, the gorgeous, down-to-earth bartender I’ve been crushing on, agrees to let me take her out, I’m thrilled. We have an amazing night together, culminating in the most electrifying kiss of my life—and that’s it. Kristen tells me we can’t see each other again, but I know that kiss meant as much to her as it did to me. What I don’t know is that Kristen has a dangerous secret. . . .

I’ve proved to Kristen that she can trust me with her body and her heart. But when her past comes back to haunt her, I need to prove that she can trust me with her life. And I might have to get my hands dirty after all.

** Hard Stick is an action-packed romantic suspense. Just to warn you, the story line does NOT center around hockey. The main character plays but a lot of the book is set outside of the rink. **

“So what happened to Maddox? I couldn’t help but notice his face.”

Dallas and Braeden glanced at each other and chuckled. “Kellan fucked him up in practice,” Dallas replied.

I gasped. “Why?”

He finished off his beer, and I could tell he was feeling it by the lazy smile. “It’s what he does. Maddox was being a dick and Kellan put a stop to it. It’s why he’s our captain.”

“Wow, that’s craziness.”

I ran his card and held it out to him, but he grabbed on to my hand. “You haven’t agreed to go out with him, have you?”

“Who? Kellan?” I asked. The girls gawked at me and snorted.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“No, why?”

“Just asking,” he said with a shrug. He put his arm around the blonde and they started for the door. “It’d be nice to get the five hundred dollars.” They stopped and he smiled at me over his shoulder.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.

Braeden sighed and smacked Dallas on the back of the head. “Stop fucking with the girl.” Then he turned to me. “It was just a stupid bet.”

“Stupid?” Dallas laughed. “You put three hundred on it, so I don’t want hear that shit.” In a drunken haze, he smiled over at me. “Just do us a favor and don’t go out with him until after the weekend. We made a bet that he couldn’t get you by the end of the week.”

Braeden hit him again. “What the fuck? Shut the hell up.” He pushed Dallas out the door and they all followed him. So Kellan agreed to the bet? That was mighty bold of him.

I could hear steps on the hardwood floor behind me. “You all right?” Chris asked.

Turning on my heel, I smiled. “Yep.” If Kellan was trying to win the bet, he wasn’t trying very hard. But then again, maybe five hundred dollars was nothing compared to the money he earned. I used to make a good living, but at least I was able to retrieve the money I had in the bank before my supposed death. Having that money helped, especially since I didn’t make nearly as much working at the pub. Hopefully soon I’d be back to doing what I loved.

“Why don’t you go home? I can finish up here,” Chris offered.

“You sure? I don’t mind staying.”

He shook his head. “Go. You do enough here as it is.”

I hurried behind the bar and grabbed my purse. “Thanks, Chris. After all the training Aylee puts me through, I’m exhausted by nine o’clock.”

“I can imagine.” He laughed. “I know not to mess with you now.”

Aylee taught me many self-defense techniques and how to fight. Before, I had no clue what to do if someone attacked me. After everything that happened with Mitchell and Cole, I had to make sure I was ready for anything. At least now, I wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

I waved goodbye to Chris and then walked out the door. The night was cool and I breathed in the clean air; the smell of rain was near. We needed it after the long, dry summer we had. Looking over at my car, I didn’t realize there was a truck parked next to me with someone leaning against it. It wasn’t just anysomeone, either.

“Where were you tonight?” I asked, looking straight at Kellan’s smiling face. He had on a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips with a snug green T-shirt that showed off his perfectly sculpted arms. Why did he have to be so sexy? Not to mention, he had perfectly straight, white teeth, which I thought would be a rarity among hockey players.

“So you missed me, huh?”

His smile was infectious and I caught myself smiling back. “I wouldn’t say missed, but I was curious where you were. I saw what you did to Maddox.”

He shrugged. “It had to be done. Maddox has a large fucking head and needed to be brought down.”

I held up my hands. “You don’t have to explain. I, of all, people know what kind of head he has.” It was the size of the entire country.

Chuckling, he stepped forward, his gaze roaming over my body. “You seem different tonight. It’s not very often you smile.”

I hadn’t had a reason to, but I couldn’t tell him that. “Maybe it’s because I know something you don’t.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Uh, I don’t know, perhaps something about a bet?”

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author L. P. Dover is a southern belle living in North Carolina with her husband and two beautiful girls. Before she began her literary journey she worked in periodontics, enjoying the wonderment of dental surgeries.

She loves to write, but she also loves to play tennis, go on mountain hikes and white water rafting, and has a passion for singing. Her two youngest fans expect a concert each and every night before bedtime, usually Christmas carols.

Dover has written countless novels, including her Forever Fae series, the Second Chances series, the Gloves Off series, the Armed & Dangerous series, the Royal Shifters series, the Society X series, the Circle of Justice series, and her standalone novel Love, Lies, and Deception. Her favorite genre to read and write is romantic suspense, but if she got to choose a setting in which to live, it would be with her faeries in the Land of the Fae.

L.P. Dover is represented by Marisa Corvisiero of Corvisiero Literary Agency and Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo Helin & Fountain Literary Management for dramatic rights.

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Title: Dark Experiment

Author: Lana Campbell

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Release Date: May 21, 2017

Christian is the exception to Tiffany’s rule that all males are louses. For years Tiffany has lusted after Christian and of late she can’t help but wonder what it might be like to have a brief fling with him. The opportunity to explore her secret fantasy appears when Christian offers her a job as the IT person for his practice, the V clinic. She knows if he gives her the green light, she’s going to have a romp with her sexy vampire. When the night finally arrives and she and Christian have sex, the experience is so overwhelmingly powerful, Tiffany backpedals and tries to turn down the heat between them. She’s human. He’s a vampire. She can’t afford to fall in love with him. 

Christian has other ideas. During their sexual encounter, he discovers Tiffany is his life mate and he vows to change her thinking. His intentions are put on hold when he gets caught up in an angel of death’s vicious plan to chemically terminate V clinic patients’ pregnancies. Tiffany herself falls victim to a lethal dose of arsenic and Christian can only save her by turning her into a vampire. She’s furious when she wakes from her turning and discovers what Christian has done. She wants nothing to do with him ever again, but when she’s kidnapped by this angel of death and used as a guinea pig for deadly experiments she only has Christian to turn to save her life.

Dark Experiments by Lana Campbell

Releasing May 21st from Zombie Cupcake Press Dark Experiments by Lana Campbell Pre-Order is Available: hyperurl.co/uwkwuf *

Christian’s heart was pounding when he pulled up in front of a huge machine shed, just the size and color Tiffany had described. He knew in his heart she was inside. The confirmation was the black Jeep Cherokee sitting in front of the overhead doors. The license plate number was an exact match to the Jeep in the Walmart video footage.

He’d found her!

Christian wanted to ram the overhead door with his truck and tear apart anyone who blocked his path to his woman, but logic prevailed. This offensive attack needed to be organized.

Nathan’s men began to pile out of the SUV’s, all packing semi-automatic weapons and covered with body armor. Like ants they split apart. Half streamed single file around the building looking for other entrances, the other half positioned themselves in front of the overhead door, weapons drawn. Christian, a split second behind them, hopped out of the truck and retrieved a twelve gauge shot gun from the bed. He handed off another to Asa then headed toward a side door right of the overhead.

“Try to keep a cool head, Chris. I know you’re chomping at the bit to get to her, but organization is paramount.”

Nathan along with Dominic and Dimitri approached him. “We’re going to do this swat team style. This side door comes down then we enter behind my men.” He nodded at the six positioned around the door. “No renegade justice if possible, Christian. I want to take them alive.”

“No arguments here. We need Charla alive in particular. She created the serum and I have to know what’s in it if I have any hope of treating Tiffany and the other women.”

Nathan nodded then gave a hand signal for his men to proceed.

Christian shucked a round into the chamber and waited as two of Nathan’s men positioned a battering ram in the middle of the door. One mighty thrust and the door caved inward, hanging awkwardly by the top hinge.

Nathan’s men rushed inside, Christian at their heels. He flipped up his sunglasses and looked about the inky darkness of a huge garage, plenty luminous for vampire eyes. Another standard door led to the belly of the building in the far right corner. He headed toward it, behind Nathan’s six men. Asa, Dominic and Nathan took up the rear, single file behind him.

At this point most everyone inside had surely heard the door come down. Christian needed to alert Tiffany and make her ready for whatever transpired once they emerged into the building’s interior.

We’re here. Get ready. Say nothing and stay calm. I’ll be there before you know it.

You’re here? Thank God, Christian.

Are you alone?

Yeah, I’m still alone and tied down to this damned bed. My heart is about to beat out of my chest. That’s my only tell, but no one except a vampire could here it.

I’ll hear it soon enough and it will be music to my ears.

Be careful.

You too.

Two of Nathan’s men took the battering ram to the interior door. Once it was relieved of it’s hinges, Christian rushed inside behind four of Nathan’s men. He expected to be met by the very least the brother armed to defend his turf, but instead two young thin vampire girls with hideously gray skin and gaunt features stood in a long hall just out a doorway to his right. The scent of chili wafted from the room, and Christian assumed it to be a kitchen.

The two girls appeared terrified, frozen in place, eyes wide and flitting from one armed man to another.

“Hands in the air!” one of the humans ordered.

They instantly obeyed.

Christian raised the barrel of his gun toward the ceiling. These poor little things were no threat. “Are you here by choice?” he asked them.

Both shook their heads, still wearing petrified expressions.

“Take us to the four women they brought here three days ago,” he demanded.

Just then a man walked out the doorway, hands in the air. Christian saw a holstered gun on his hip. The others must have too. Every man took aim on him with their weapons.

“Get down! Face down on the floor. Hands behind your head!” two of the human men yelled.

He did their bidding without a word. Seconds later he was swarmed by three humans, stripped of his gun and handcuffed.

Christian glanced at Asa who stared at the two frightened vampire girls with pity. He felt the same emotion himself, but he needed them to lead him to Tiffany and the others.

“Where are the women?” he asked again with less rancor.

The one closest to them finally answered. “D-down this hallway, take a left and you’ll find them in the curtained cubicles.”

Christian wanted to bolt in the direction they’d indicated, but he held back, glanced at Asa then behind him at Nathan, Dominic and Dimitri. They all wore an expression similar to what was on his mind. This was just too damned easy.

“Are you Terry, Charla’s brother?” Christian asked, stepping up to the head of the prone man who craned his head to glare up at him with equal doses of hate and spite.

“How do you know my name?”

“Never mind that. Get up and lead us to the women.” Christian yanked him up and onto his feet so fast, he’d probably dislocated his shoulder. A harsh grunt of pain said he was correct, but he didn’t care. This man was part of this kidnapping and drugging ring. He deserved a bullet between the eyes, but right now he’d serve just fine as a hostage.

The young sickly girls did not deserve such treatment. “Dominic, Dimitri, could you escort these young ladies out of the building? That is if you want to leave. We’ll make sure you get home, back to your lives, families, whatever.”

Both shook their heads adamantly and the two men corralled them around the small posse in the entryway then out of the building.

Christian shoved the barrel of his gun against the man’s spine. “Lead us to them now.”

Terry, craned his head back and gave him a look of disgust. “I’ll lead you right to them, vampire, but it won’t do you any good. By now they’re all on their way out. I’m sorry about that. I really am. I liked that one with the mouth.”

“Tiffany.”

“Yeah. That’d be the one.”

“You’d better qualify that comment and quick if you want to live. Where are they being taken?”

“I couldn’t answer that, but maybe you can. Where do vampires go when they die?”

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Join here ⇒ Home | Forever and a Night Lana Campbell

Lana Campbell is author of the Forever and a Night series with two books, Forever and a Night and Dark Experiments. Writing is her passion and she loves all things paranormal, both reading and writing books. She lives in Avoca AR with her husband and oldest daughter and a cat named Felix. 

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Release Date: June 13, 2017

Designer: Rachel Connolly

Photographer: Sara Eirew

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I’m Griffin Reed—cutthroat entrepreneur and competitive bastard. Trust is a four-letter word and everyone is disposable…except Britta Stone. Three years ago, she was my everything before I stupidly threw her away. I thought I’d paid for my sin in misery—until I learned we have a son. Finding out she’s engaged to a bore who’s rushing her to the altar pisses me off even more. I intend to win her back and raise our boy. I’ll have to get ruthless, of course. Luckily, that’s one of my most singular talents.

Sixty days. That’s what I’m asking the gritty, independent single mother to give me—twenty-four/seven. Under my roof. And if I have my way, in my bed. Britta says she wants nothing to do with me. But her body language and passionate kisses make her a liar. Now all I have to do is coax her into surrendering to the old magic between us. Once I have her right where I want her, I’ll do whatever it takes to prove I more than need her.

This book is the second in the More Than Words series. The books are companions, not serials, meaning that backstory, secondary characters, and other elements will be easier to relate to if you read the installments in order, but the main romance of each book is a stand-alone.

This book contains lines that may make you laugh, events that may make you cry, and scenes that will probably have you squirming in your seat. Don’t worry about cliffhangers. HEA guaranteed! (Does not contain elements of BDSM or romantic suspense.)

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More Than Want You, Book 1

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More Than Love You (More Than Words, Book 3)

Available for Preorder – Arriving February 13, 2018

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Shayla Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than fifty novels. For nearly twenty years, she’s written contemporary, erotic, paranormal, and historical romances via traditional, independent, foreign, and audio publishers. Her books have sold millions of copies and been published in a dozen languages.

Raised an only child, Shayla occupied herself with lots of daydreaming, much to the chagrin of her teachers. In college, she found her love for reading and realized that she could have a career publishing the stories spinning in her imagination. Though she graduated with a degree in Marketing/Advertising and embarked on a stint in corporate America to pay the bills, her heart has always been with her characters. She’s thrilled that she’s been living her dream as a full-time author for the past eight years.

Shayla currently lives in North Texas with her wonderfully supportive husband, her teenage daughter, and two spoiled tabbies. In her “free” time, she enjoys reality TV, reading, and listening to an eclectic blend of music.

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