Spotlight-Excerpt & Giveaway: TWISTED BEAUTY by Maggie Blackbird

Twisted Beauty

by  Maggie Blackbird

Publisher:  Extasy Books

Cover Artist:  Martine Jardin

Release Date:  November 3, 2023

Genre: M/M Dystopian Romance, LGBTQ+, First Nations Romance, Native American Romance

Tropes: Enemies to lovers

Themes: Trust, Learning to love

Heat Rating:  4 flames

Length:  63 360 words/222 pages

It is a standalone story ad does not end on a cliffhanger.

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Buy Links

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His community or his enemy.  He can’t have both.

Blurb

Deep in the badlands, long after the fall of modern civilization, Hunter patrols the area as the war chief for his Lakota community.  His latest mission is to hunt down a marauder who robbed his neighbors of their precious goods.  He’ll act as this man’s judge, jury, and executioner.

Having lost everything at his former Ojibway encampment, Chassis is far from home.  He wanders the badlands, a grim reaper bringing death to those with what he needs to survive.  But there is one man courageous enough to challenge him.

When the duo faces off, neither expects the sizzling chemistry to erupt between them, nor for their duel to touch what both have denied themselves.  Now they must choose to either remain together and sacrifice their beliefs, or go their separate ways, losing what they’ve spent their lives searching for—love.

Warning:  Dubious consent, violence

Excerpt

Until assistance arrived, Hunter needed to keep his wits about him. For instance, why a knife and not a gun? This told him the marauder didn’t possess firing artillery, which wasn’t easy to come by. Acquiring such weaponry meant stealing guns and ammunition or scavenging them when taking down parasites—as Hunter had done many times—or daring to infiltrate the walls of Minneapolis to pinch the precious resources, something his community also did.

Voodoo Canyon had been built on heavy artillery ever since Hunter’s great-grandfather had started the village.

The knife blade now lay horizontal across his throat. His peripheral vision caught the marauder squatting to retrieve the .38 Special. Hunter wasn’t surprised when the tip of his gun was placed against his temple and the knife sheathed.

“Where is he?”

It was best to play dumb. “Who?”

“You know who I’m talking about.” The marauder ground the gun deeper against Hunter’s temple. 

“He’s not here. It’s just me.”

“I know you didn’t take a stroll out here by yourself, so how far away is he?” 

As if Hunter would admit the truth. “Not far…at all.”

“I see. He walked here, as well? Or did he drop you off maybe a mile or two back? Is that why I never saw headlights or heard the car engine?”

Great. Hunter’s gut instinct was right all along. The marauder was crafty.

Before he could reply, the whistle of rawhide being released invaded the quiet night that contained only their breathing and conversation. Even worse, the rope was tightened around his right wrist. The marauder yanked, ensuring the tough material was taut enough to cut off Hunter’s circulation. Then the bastard forced Hunter’s arm downward and secured his other wrist.

Under another circumstance, Hunter would admire the marauder’s ability to snap the rawhide like a whip wrapping a man’s legs, but not tonight.

His predicament was…precarious.

Nobody had taken him captive before.

Or would he be a prisoner?

Highly doubtful. If bound, it’d be easier for the son of a bitch to put a bullet into his…

Hunter threw out his leg at an extended angle. His boot clipped the marauder.

A grunt echoed through the night’s chilly air.

The marauder dug his fingers into the knot of Hunter’s bandana, fighting for leverage, but gravity took them down together.

They hit the ground.

The gun…

Hunter attempted to roll. Before he could turn a full 380, strong thighs sank onto his chest. The marauder unsheathed his knife.

The look Hunter faced…tilted eyes crazily wide, slim lips tight, and head cocked so the braid fell over the marauder’s chiseled shoulder. No doubt it was taking every ounce of self-control for the motherf*cker not to kill him.

With eyes colder than the temperature and his mouth curling at the corner, the marauder pressed the point of the blade into the smooth dip beneath Hunter’s Adam’s apple.

About the Author

An Ojibway from Northwestern Ontario, Maggie resides in the country with her husband and their fur babies, two beautiful Alaskan Malamutes.  When she’s not writing, she can be found pulling weeds in the flower beds, mowing the huge lawn, walking the Mals deep in the bush, teeing up a ball at the golf course, fishing in the boat for walleye, or sitting on the deck at her sister’s house, making more wonderful memories with the people she loves most.

Author Links

 Web Site  |  Facebook Page  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads 

BookBub  |  Linked In |  Amazon Author Page 

eXtasy Books Author Page  |  Newsletter Sign-Up

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Spotlight-Excerpt & Giveaway: EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN by Jessica Redmerski

EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN

New York Times Bestselling Author Jessica Redmerski

Genre: YA/NA Crossover, Dystopian

Publication Date: August 28, 2017

Atticus, struggling to conform to the cruel nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. Thais, fighting to stay out of the hands of men like him. Forced together, they fall in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the worldís population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

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This book will take you on a long, dangerous, exciting journey. These characters will stay with you and you will fall so in love with them! I want to read it again, and again, and again!

- ImJaclyn reviews

That was an epic read. Pure epic! ... Jessica Redmerski... is an absolutely incredible writer. I fall in love with every book she writes, every character, everything.

- Louise Seraphim Reviews

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- Enter Praise3Author

Purchase Links

Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Paperback)

Excerpt

“One more night,” I said, not looking at her. “Give me one more night and I’ll get you out of this city.” All I could see in front of me was the scenario: I’d wait until very late, after most of the city was sleeping, and then I’d dress her in my military clothes, make her pin up her hair underneath a cap, strap a rifle to her shoulder, a backpack full of goods on her back, and set her atop the mare waiting at the stables.

“But there’s nothing for me anymore,” Thais said, wiping away the lingering tears on her cheeks. “There’s nowhere for me to go, and no one waiting for me there if by some miracle I make it alive. My mother and father are dead. My sister”—she looked up at me, and although I didn’t meet her gaze, I could feel her eyes on me—“my whole family is dead, and this world is dead and my soul is dead and everything that was once good and beautiful and right, is dead.”

I looked at her then, her words stirring me.

“That’s not true,” I said, and got up from the chair and crouched in front of her. “You may be the only good thing left in this world, and I’ll be goddamned if I let your light fade.”

Tears tumbled down Thais’ cheeks.

I took the gun that had fallen from her hand, tucked it into the back of my pants.

“Promise me you won’t try anything,” I said as I went toward the door. “Promise me on your sister’s soul, that you’ll stay in this room and wait for me.”

“Where are you going?”

“To get your supplies.” I placed my hand on the doorknob. “Don’t open this door for anyone.” I opened it to blackness; the candles that had been lit in the hallway had burned down.

“Wait,” Thais called out, and I stopped.

She stood up on wobbly legs.

“You said to get my supplies—are you sending me away alone?”

I thought on it for a moment. I’d never had any intention of going with her. I couldn’t. Not if I was going to keep others from following her.

“No,” I finally said. “You’re not going alone. I’ll go with you, at least until I can get you somewhere safe.”

“Is there anywhere safe, Atticus?” Her voice was soft, hopeless, and hearing her say my name like that did something to my heart. “Do you know where you’re taking me?”

I sighed. And I looked at the wall.

“Yes,” I lied, and then stepped out into the hallway.

Just before I closed the door I added, “Promise me.”

Thais nodded.

“I promise,” she said. “I’ll wait for you.”

Book Tour Schedule

Follow the book tour from July 9 - 21, 2018.

Visit each tour stop daily and discover more features, excerpts, reviews, interviews, fun facts and more! To check the latest tour schedule, visit the Everything Under the Sun Book Page at Book Unleashed.

About Jessica Redmerski

Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, international bestseller, and award winner, who juggles several different genres. She began self-publishing in 2012, and later with the success of THE EDGE OF NEVER, signed on with Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Jessica is a hybrid author who, in addition to working with a traditional publisher, also continues to self-publish. Her popular crime and suspense series, In the Company of Killers, has been optioned for television and film by actor and model William Levy.

Official website

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Giveaway!

WIN FREE BOOK AND MORE

Prizes up for grabs:

Three Everything Under the Sun (signed paperback) with signed bookmarks and post cards (US and Canada only)

Contest runs from July 9 - 21, 2018.

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New Release-Excerpt & Giveaway: ROGUE by Amanda Cashure (Ned Kelly #1)

ROGUE

Amanda Cashure

Series: Ned Kelly Book 1

Genre: Historical re-imagined, Dystopian, Australian, Erotica, 21+

Publisher: Sparkle Publications

Publication Date: May 31, 2018

Ned Kelly with Sex and Magic

"Taking an Australian Legend and rewriting it into an apocalyptic future where magic exists, gold fever is upon us, and a corrupt legal system once again makes bushrangers our heroes," Lancy's Reads.

Ned Kelly's story is infamous, but this is not Ned Kelly's story. This is the story of a young man named Kelly, inspired by some crazy Australian legends, but all written as pure fiction.

With the addition of Victoria, a feisty and suddenly abandoned woman right on the verge of marry-or-perish age. Her fate is all Kelly's fault and she plans on making him aware of that - winds up saving his life, after he saves hers, and the whole time whilst running from the law.

The world has been hit by an event that has turned all metal into a conductor of magic. The stuff is lethal. Which means no more cars, no more phones, no more pots and pans. Give it a few decades and the dust has settled into a colonial/settler landscape. Horses, carts, and old world values.

Marriage is essential, careers for women are very uncommon and the domestic workload is massive. But a woodcutters daughter like Victoria doesn't have many options. She hates them all and dreads the conversation with her parents, but resigns herself to suffer in silence. She will marry whomever her father arranges.

Which just might be the local law, who has the darkest most painful fantasies about her.

Then her father makes the mistake of offending a handful of outlaws on the way out of town and the men follow the family home. They forcefully join the family for dinner, changing Victoria's life forever when she emerges from her room the next morning having slept the night with a convict. Never mind that she did it to take their attention off her younger sisters, or that her father created the whole mess by saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, Victoria is ostracised. Tossed out then and there. Barefoot and with nothing but an old woodcutter's hand-me-down dress - and dresses are damned useless for running around in the bush in.

She would be free of her marriage dilemmas, small consolation, if the local law didn't take up the hunt and put a price on all of their heads. Being found by him would be an endless fate worse than death.

Which begins the whole saga of trouble, villainy, brutality, lust, revenge, mateship and good old Australian larrikiny.

"Hilarious and dark," Samantha's Book Reviews.

18+ warning... maybe even 21+. This book takes readers to some dark scenes, including rape.

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Purchase Link

Available now on Amazon.com

Excerpt

Kelly and Victoria meet and it unfolds like this from Victoria’s point of view…

“I’ll tell you what, if you can manage to say my name, then I’ll stop,” he whispers.

Sitting up, he looks me in the eye.

“You know what my name is, don’t you?” 

I nod, my heart pounding so hard it’s stopping my lungs from functioning.

“Then say it,” he commands.

I slip my bottom lip between my teeth and hold it tight. 

“No?” He smiles, lowering his face down to mine, our foreheads touching. “Last chance.”

…Which leads to this later in the book from Kelly’s point of view…

“It’s because of you that my father threw me from the house and—”

I shush her, resting my arm against the wall, and using all my willpower to keep from resting against her soft body.

“You didn’t ask me to stop,” I say.

“You tied me up!”

“Your mouth worked fine.”

“You… You… ”

“I… I… left you still dressed and unharmed. More than I should have.”

Her lips part, flashing perfect white teeth. Then she rushes past me. “I think I shall wait with the horse.”

And I’m left wishing I’d grabbed her arm and kept her against the wall.

About Amanda Cashure

Amanda Cashure is the pen name of otherwise Childrens and Young Adults author Cassandra Webb... 'but the persona of Amanda is far wilder than I could ever be!'

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Giveaway!

WIN $10 GIFT CARD, FREE BOOKS AND MORE

Prizes up for grabs:

1) $10 Amazon Gift Card
2) Three eBook copies of Life: Book One in the Kemla Saga Series
3) Three Paperback copies of Life (Australian residents only)
4) Three eBook copies of Rogue: Ned Kelly with Sex and Magic

Also, all Australian residents go in the draw to win a paperback of "Rogue: Ned Kelly with Sex and Magic" when the paperback is released later in the year

Contest runs from July 2 - 8, 2018.

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Back 2 School Special: SCI-FI-Includes Giveaway!

REJOICE! The children are back in school.

For those who live to read...here are some awesome books provided by the incredible authors who wrote them. All in celebration of the new school year.

While a few of these books might be oldies, but goodies...others could be new and fresh off the presses.

Relax and find your new favorite author.

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SCI-FI

Science Fiction in traditional literary terms is a literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments,environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets,forms part of the plot or background.

Please enjoy these books that focus on sci-fi and all its sub-genres. The list is available in alphabetically order by title.


Don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter for a chance to win an Amazon Giftcard.

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Burn District by Suzanne Jenkins

Sci-Fi

What do you do when the world as you know it ends? Run! A perfect life slides into despair when a trusting neighbor whispers a warning, and Mike and Laura Davis’s world crumbles. Dreams and goals come to an abrupt end, but a new existence waits in the future. Survival depends on the ingenuity of family and friends. First, they must hide in a safe place.

King Arthur's Sister in Washington's Court by Kim Headlee

Sci-Fi/Time Travel

Are you sick of US politics? Afraid of what will become of America because your chosen candidate didn’t prevail? Do you believe the world is doomed now that King Donald has claimed the Oval Office throne?

Refresh your spirit and allay your fears by laughing along with what Mark Twain might have written about today’s political falderal.

“Entertaining.” –Publishers Weekly.

WINNER 2016 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal for Science Fiction & Fantasy.

Morgan le Fay, sixth-century Queen of Gore and the only major character not killed off by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, vows revenge upon the Yankee Hank Morgan. She casts a spell to take her to 1879 Connecticut so she may waylay Sir Boss before he can travel back in time to destroy her world. But the spell misses by 300 miles and 200 years, landing her in the Washington, DC, of 2079, replete with flying limousines, hovering office buildings, virtual-reality television, and sundry other technological marvels.

Whatever is a time-displaced queen of magic and minions to do? Why, rebuild her kingdom, of course—two kingdoms, in fact: as Campaign Boss for the reelection of American President Malory Beckham Hinton, and as owner of the London Knights world-champion baseball franchise.

Written as though by the old master himself, King Arthur’s Sister in Washington’s Court by Mark Twain as channeled by Kim Iverson Headlee offers laughs, love, and a candid look at American society, popular culture, politics, baseball… and the human heart.

Memory of the Color Yellow by Suzanne Jenkins

Sci-Fi

In a world ruled with military precision, a misspoken word has the power to generate enough rage to turn life upside down in the story of a post apocalyptic world on the brink. Steve Manos and his family live in Europe Town, a segregated area where people of European descent live in the Coalition; formerly the United States. The necessities of life are minimally met by the government and everyone works for the good of the leadership. Life for the people is almost intolerable, but that is when change happens.

Only the Dead Don't Die by A.D. Popovich

Sci-Fi/Dystopian/Horror

Scarlett Lewis doesn’t realize the United States is succumbing to a horrific pandemic. Until Scarlett begins to notice the bizarre events occurring around her . . . Travel with Scarlett on her perilous journey as she discovers the dark fate of the human race. Along the way, she meets other survivors who may not have her best interests at heart. With hope as her last weapon of defense, Scarlett must learn how to survive in this creeper-infested world without sacrificing her own humanity.

Public Secrets by Liza O'Connor

Sci-Fi 

Carla Simon is a best-selling novelist besieged by death threats and lawsuits because her stories keep turning out to be true. She is considered an extraordinary researcher, uncovering facts unknown by field experts.

Scavenger's Mission by Liza O'Connor

Sci-Fi 

In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger. While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.

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New Release & Giveaway: AN IMPOSSIBLE WORLD by S.P. Cervantes

An Impossible World

Author: S.P. Cervantes

Genre: Contemporary Dystopian Romance

Release Date: July 26, 2017

What would happen if terrorism spread and hate took over? What would the world become?

Isabella (Belle) Grey trained her entire adult life to protect those around her––training that would prove invaluable in her quest to make a new life. Forced to live in an impossible world, terror was not only outside the walls of her protected community but also raged behind the walls of her very own home.

No longer willing to put up with her husband’s drunken abuse, Belle made the desperate decision to run away from the safety of her community and escaped alone into the broken world beyond.

Chased by death as bombs exploded in the distance, her next decision could not only save her life but could potentially bring light back into her darkened soul.

When faced with the impossible, Belle found strength in an unsuspecting stranger who set her path in a new direction––one she never considered.

Fear. Love. Revenge. Strength ... all come together in this epic tale of fate and survival.

S.P Cervantes is a young adult and adult contemporary romance author, who after writing short stories in middle school, followed that dream until taking the plunge, penning her popular Romance/Fantasy series Secrets of Shadow Hill. This was the turning point in her career. Followed up by her contemporary romance stand alone series, A Broken Fairy Tale, and the stand alone romance, The Wife, S.P. has earned the praise of readers and received excellent reviews as well as reaching Kindle’s paid Best Seller list for her Broken Fairy Tale anthology. 

S.P. Cervantes graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from California

State University Fullerton, and has a Master’s Degree in Education. She lives in Orange County, California with her husband and three children, where she is a teacher. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing, reading, and running, but is always thinking of an idea for her next novel.

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