Release Day - The Bartender by Piper Rayne

Title: The Bartender

Author: Piper Rayne

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: February 1, 2017

Source: ARC from Publicist

Buy the Book: Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon CA / Amazon AU

Who knew sleeping with the enemy could be this fun?

Was the one night stand a good idea?

Well, no. Probably not in retrospect.

In my defence I had just moved back into my grandparents’ house, I’d lost my dream job, and a guy on Tinder had stood me up. It was like life had suddenly stamped ‘LOSER’ on my forehead.

So when the guy behind the bard started giving me THE look…you know, the one that promised I’d be screaming his name into the wee hours of the morning? When that guy also has the perfect amount of scruff on his chiseled chin, biceps bulging out of his t-shirt, and a cocky grin you knew he’d earned in the sack…when he gives you that look, you don’t bother to figure out what your six degrees of separation are. You jump on that horse and ride it!

Pun fully and completely intended. And accurate by the way.

I fully admit to feeling sorry for myself and acting impulsively, but by the time I’d figured out WHO the bartender was, I was already falling for him.

I'll be honest right from the start and admit it: the cover is totally what caught my attention when it comes to Piper Rayne's The Bartender. No jokes, I saw the cover and thought to myself "this looks like something I would read," because I'm me and these days, 90% of the books I read feature partially clothed guys on the cover and I'm not ashamed to admit it. So yeah, I totally wanted to read The Bartender because of the cover. And I'm glad that the cover caught my eye the way it did because I totally enjoyed this story. In fact, I was taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed the story , probably because I pretty much had zero expectations when I started reading. And on top of that, The Bartender reminded me how great it is to pick up a book you know nothing about and just see where the story takes you. So often, I'll read a book because I know the author, or because someone recommended it to me, or just because it's been majorly hyped up. With those, there's usually a whole lot of expectations involved. And in a way, all those expectations can sort of take of way from my enjoyment of a book at times.

But now I'm getting sidetracked.

So. The Bartender. I'm a sucker for a good enemies to lovers romance, especially one where the characters have a history. That's exactly what happened here with Whitney and Cole. Granted, sometimes the enemies part felt like it was only coming from Whitney since Cole seemed pretty happy with Whitney from the start. I really enjoyed seeing their relationship change and grow, first as a sort of forced friendship, but then something more romantic as they got to know each other outside of whatever preconceived notions they may have had about each other. Even when they were unsure about each other, they just made sense to me (though that could have just been because I knew I was reading a romance and the whole point is that they end up together, but that's not the point right now). This story wasn't just about those two, though, and I'm curious to see what Piper Rayne has in store for Whitney's two best friends, Lennon and Tahlia.

Long story short? Piper Rayne's The Bartender is proof that deciding to read a book based solely on the cover can sometimes pay off in a really good way.

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Release Day - Smut by Karina Halle - Excerpt

Title: Smut

Author: Karina Halle

Release Date: May 16, 2016

Buy the Book: Amazon / iBooks / Nook / Kobo
Add it on Goodreads

What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the sheets?

All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career. 

What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a posy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick her her ass (though it’s a brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.

When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s make-up sex now.

But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction.

Excerpt

She holds my gaze for a moment and something passes over her. Regret, maybe. Then she nods. “Sit down. Let’s work.”

And so we do. And for the first time in a long time, it’s strained. I’m about to suggest maybe we need the Estonian vodka anyway when she lets out an exasperated sigh over something she’s reading.

It happens to be something I wrote.

“What?” I ask, wondering what I did wrong.

She gives me the are you kidding me? look. “Okay, I was ignoring it earlier but I think you need to get a grip on some of this shit. This simply does not happen.”

“Explain, please.”

“I just think it’s unrealistic for there to be so much talking, let alone the fact that the first time they do it it’s in a public place.”

“Too much talking?”

“Yeah.” She scans over the document. “ You know, give me your cock, oh you feel so good, harder, harder, you’re so big, fuck me harder big boy.”

“Have you even had good sex?” I ask incredulously.

She flinches. “Of course I have. And it’s non elf your business.”

“We’re writing about sex. It’s completely my business. I’m not letting you interject your edits based on your personal experiences about sex because believe me, if the sex is good, you’re moaning my name.”

She raises her chin. “Maybe all those girls were faking it.”

Oh, brilliant. 

“Excuse me?” I say, hands pressed against he table, nearly getting out of my chair. “You have no idea. I pride myself in giving a girl as many bloody orgasms as she can handle.”

“Bloody orgasms don’t sound like fun,” she jokes softly. 

“They can be if you’re into knife play,” I tell her, even though that’s not exactly what I meant. Still, she scrunches up her nose. “Don’t know it until you try it, but that’s neither here nor there. When you were with Alan, he must have made you come at least a few times.”

If he didn’t, I feel like finding the guy and showing him a thing or two for wasting four years of her life.

“Yeah,” she says flatly.

“And in the middle of that orgasm, didn’t you want to yell a few things?”

“Sometimes.”

“And why didn’t you?”

She looks at her nails as if they’re suddenly fascinating. “It didn’t seem right. It was…too intimate. I would have felt dumb. He didn’t like any of that stuff.”

The plot thickens. “Any of what stuff?”

“Sex that didn’t involve the missionary position or the bed.”

My mouth drops open. My brain and my penis can’t compute this. “I feel so sorry for you.”

We must remedy this.

She glares at me. “It’s not like I didn’t want to do it. I did. And he did try it. Most of it. But it always went back to the same old.”

I knew it. She’s a nerd on the streets and a freak in the sheets.

“I don’t mean to brag,” I tell her in all seriousness. “But you do realize that I could give you an orgasm in thirty seconds.”

Her eyes widen. I can’t tell if she’s horrified or intrigued. “I don’t believe you and I don’t want you to try.”

She’s not getting it. I frown, trying to explain. “If you’re having good sex and it’s with someone you’re comfortable with, you won’t worry about holding back. You’ll cry out all the nonsense you want, you’ll make noises like a pig and scream like you’re on fire because you truly can’t have a good orgasm unless you’re letting go on all accounts.” I lean back in my chair and study her, running my fingers along my jaw. “I would venture that every time you came with your ex, you were only experiencing half of what you should have been. How is it with your vibrators?”

I expect her to tell me to fuck off, that I’m getting too personal but to my surprise she gives me a small smile. “It’s better. But I do have a roommate with exceptionally good hearing.” She clears her throat. “Anyway, so I guess I’m wrong. The heroine can make all the noise she wants.”

“And have first time sex in public.”

“I don’t know…”

“Believe me, when you finally get a chance to fuck, you don’t care where it is. That’s why I always have a condom in my pocket. And the more public the sex, the sneakier you have to be, the hotter it is.”

“But in the book you would never get caught.”

“You don’t always get caught in real life too.”

I can see she wants to ask me where I’ve done it but she loses her nerve. “Okay.” She looks back to the document. “I accept defeat.”

But I don’t want her to. I want to prove to her I’m right and not have her take my word.

Is there a non-creepy way to show her just how amazing good sex can feel? I’m thinking not.

Or…maybe there is.

About Karina Halle

Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.

Halle is represented by the Waxman Level Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.

Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. you can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sale and more.

Release Day - Play On by Michelle Smith Excerpt & Giveaway!

Today is the official release day for Michelle Smith's absolutely fantastic Play On. I've been lucky enough to have already read this book and I absolutely loved it. You can read more about what I thought in my review. In honour of the book's release, I have an exclusive excerpt and giveaway to share with you guys. Keep reading to find out more about the book, the author and to get a sneak peak!

About the book

Find Play On on Goodreads

In the small town of Lewis Creek, baseball is everything. Especially for all-star pitcher Austin Braxton, who has a one-way ticket out of town with his scholarship to a top university. All that stands between him and a new start sone final season. But when Austin starts flunking Chemistry, his picture-perfect future is in jeopardy. A failing grade means zero playing time, and zero playing time means no scholarship.

Enter Marisa Marlowe, the new girl in town who gets a job at his momma’s flower shop. Not only is Marisa some home-schooled super-genius, she’s also a baseball fanatic more than willing to help Austin study. As the two grow closer, there’s something about Marisa that makes Austin want more than just baseball and out of Lewis Creek—the wants a future with her. But Marisa has a past that still haunts her, one that she ran all the way to South Carolina to escape.

As Austin starts to peel back the layers of Marisa’s pain, it forces him to look beyond the facade of himself and everyone he thought he knew in his town. What he sees instead is that in a small town like Lewis Creek, maybe baseball isn’t everything—maybe it is just the thing that ties them all together.

Get your copy of Play On today!

Amazon / B&N / Book Depository / IndieBound

About the author

Website / Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr

Michelle Smith was born and raised in North Carolina, where she developed a healthy appreciation for college football, sweet tea, front porches, and a well-placed “y’all.” She’s a lover of all things happy, laughs way too much, and fully believes that a little bit of kindness goes a long way.

Michelle lives near the Carolina coast with her family.

Excerpt!

In this excerpt, Marisa surprises Austin on the baseball field…in more ways than one.

     I pass the bat to her, watching her face light up like a full moon on a summer night. “Now, it’s a little heavy,” I joke. “Think you can handle it?”

     Her eyes widen. “I don’t know,” she says breathlessly. “I may need the help of a big, strong, baseball player. Because we both know that baseball is so superior to softball.”

     I shake my head. “That’s not entirely true. You balls are bigger.”

We start at each other. Stare. Stare some more. She’s the first one who breaks, bursting out laughing. It’s one of the best sounds I’ve heard in a long time.

     “Here,” I say, still laughing. I carefully place my hands on her hips, helping her square up over the plate. “In case, you know, you’re too out of practice.”

     She bites back a smile. “Yeah. Because I’ve totally forgotten how to square up for a pitch.”

     “Two years is a long time.” Resting my hands on her shoulders, I remind her, “And relax these. You’re too stiff.”

     She hands her head. “You’re killing’ me, Smalls.”

     I walked right into that one. She relaxes her shoulders. Slowly, my hands move down her arms until they rest on top of hers. They’re so warm, fit so perfectly in mine that it almost hurts to let them go. But I do, because, you know, friends.

     “There,” I say on an exhale. “Ready?”

     Her lips curve up. “Let me have it, Floral Prince.”

     My mouth drops open. “All right. No mercy, Marlowe.”

     I grab the ball and jog out to the mound. I gotta say, she’s the prettiest batter I’ve ever been up against. Taking a deep breath, I wind up and let my fastball fly.

     That girl smacks the hell out of the ball.

     Holy…I turn, watching it sail all the way back to the fence. When I while back around, she grins, pointing the bat at me.

     “And that’s how it’s done,” she calls to me, setting the bat in the dirt. She wipes her hands on her jeans.

     All I can do is gape. Some of the guys on our team could take a lesson from her. It’s not like I thought she would be bad, but damn. I pull of my cap as I walk toward her. As soon as I tug it onto her head, she laughs.

     “Are you going to have any of these left?”

     “I have an endless supply.” I nudge the brim of the cap, so I can see her eyes. “And you’ve earned that one.”

     She quirks her lips into this little half-smirk that makes me pure weak in the knees. Takes a step closer. Another. And another. I swallow hard. My hands ache to touch her, to pull her to me and kiss the daylights out of her.

     But friends, though. 

Giveaway!

Does Play On sound like something you want to read? Then enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win a copy of the book or some other great prizes! US only.

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