July 14, 2015 – Mama Likes To Read Book Blog

We are thrilled to bring you the release day launch for Kat & Stone Bastion’s THE ESPIONAGE EFFECT!

THE ESPIONAGE EFFECT is a standalone, full-length, action-adventure romance filled with plenty of the sexual tension, deep emotion, and scorching scenes the Bastions are known for.

Do you like romance a little more erotic, edgy, darker, filled with action-adventure, toned with mystery, complete with a twist…or two?

If so…

Be sure to preorder your copy today!

Amazon * KOBO * iBooks* B&N

About The Espionage Effect:

When desire sets you free…control is a matter of perception.

I’m Devin Hill.

Darkness taints my soul.

I’m suffocating. Drowning.

The sweet promise of air? Pure illusion.

Tested as a genius at age seven, I hide my emotions, become what they expect…bury my secrets. At nineteen, I trudge toward a predestined path, blinders on, heart safeguarded.

Until I dare to be wild.

Until Alec Marquez crashes into my world.

Until all that follows redefines everything I’ve ever known.

What happens when you stumble into a world of spies…and discover you belong there?

Excerpt

When I woke, the remnants of an exhausting dream kept a sticky hold on me. Heavy eyelids prevented me from taking in my surroundings too quickly. After several minutes of opening then shutting my eyes, two slow yawns, and one lazy stretch, awareness of someone else in the room pricked at my senses, and I finally pushed myself upright.

Alec. I inhaled his scent before I spotted his silhouette across the room.

At some point, he’d turned off the bathroom lights, swathing the room in darkness once again. Only a dim blue-white glow that emanated from beside him cast light into the suite.

He sat at the large desk. His features, focused in concentration, were bathed in the soft illumination from a penlight affixed in some way to the top corner of an open laptop. As I couldn’t recall any baggage thrown over the balcony with his unorthodox means of arrival, the laptop had to be Anna’s.

Curious, I pushed off the bed. My bare feet landed toe first onto the cool floor tiles. I padded closer in silence, not wanting to distract him.

“You slept like the dead.” His comment came without inflection of judgment, merely statement of fact. And he didn’t move from his studious position. Nor did he attempt to hide what he was looking at.

My pulse accelerated as I smoothed my hands down the thin cotton tank top and boxer shorts I still wore, my thoughts drifting over the reasons I’d slept so soundly. “I suppose orgasmic endorphins followed by a meal heavy in carbs and fat will do it.”

At that, he swung his gaze my way, arching one of his brows. “Orgasmic endorphins?”

I paused. The toes of my right foot slid just over the edge of the first step that led down to the sitting area. I curled them down over, rooting myself as I swayed under his sudden scrutiny.

Even in the dim light, I could see the heat in his gaze. I certainly felt it, my skin beginning to warm from the second his attention had shifted toward me. “Well, actually, many chemicals accompany orgasm: endorphins, dopamine, testosterone, norepinephrine, serotonin…oxytocin.”

The muscles at one corner of his mouth twitched, tugging his lips into a sinful smirk as his gaze drifted a few inches lower. “That sexy mouth of yours keeps spouting intellectual factoids. I keep wondering what it’ll take to render you speechless.”

My mind froze. “Speechless?”

A full smile now played at his lips. “Oh, yes. I’m taking it as a personal challenge to blow your mind to the point you cannot describe an event that happens between us with mere words.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say. Couldn’t fathom it. Then, I began to want it…

“See. You get the idea. We’ll leave it there for a while.”

Why? To let the anticipation build? Already, my heart rate quickened, my breath shallowed, my…mind analyzing the possibilities of orgasmic chemicals once again.

He turned back toward the desk with an unaffected expression, carefully smoothing his hands over a large, thin paper he’d spread across the surface—as if he hadn’t just dropped a nuclear bomb between us and set the timer for detonation.

About Kat & Stone Bastion:

Kat Bastion won several awards for her bestselling debut novel Forged in Dreams and Magick.

Kat and Stone Bastion’s bestselling first novel No Weddings and the No Weddings series were named Best of 2014 by multiple romance review blogs.

When not defining love and redemption through scribed words, they enjoy spending their time mountain biking and hiking in the beautiful Sonoran Desert of Arizona.

Be sure to follow Kat & Stone’s social media pages to keep informed:
Facebook | TalkToTheShoe Blog | Kat’s Twitter | Stone’s Twitter

P.S. ~ Have you joined their new-release list?

One lucky subscriber will win an eBook of their choice from their backlist AND a $10 Amazon or B&N Gift Card each time they send out a preorder or new-release announcement.

(They solemnly promise to email only a handful of times a year to announce preorders and new releases.)

Enter Kat & Stone’s Giveaway!
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At the Heart of the Deep

Carrie L. Wells

Purchase Link: http://amzn.com/B00Y5ZAPC4

About the Author:

Carrie L. Wells crosses genres, writing everything from newspaper editorials and textbooks to paranormal romance novellas. Her first fiction publication, The Heart of the Deep, will release in June 2015, followed by Playing with Magic in October 2015. A New England native, she spent her childhood on the beach and inland, fishing and dancing, before moving to Florida. And while she doesn’t tan, nothing keeps her from a walk on the beach.

Carrie earned her Master’s degree in English with a minor in Psychology from Hardin-Simmons University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida. With a love of chocolate, books, and her family, Carrie braves the world and chaos only children can bring. She currently lives in Florida with her fire-medic hubby and three children. She is an English instructor at Eastern Florida State College.

Connect with the author online:

Blog: http://www.carrielwells.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carriewellswrites
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/clwellswrites/
Newsletter: Subscribe to receive VIP novel excerpts and information http://eepurl.com/bgYN3X

Blurb:

Oceanographer Luke McAllister races to figure out why the ocean depth is changing off Florida’s Treasure Coast. But before he and his crew discover what’s transforming the deep, he stumbles upon an even greater mystery. Leagues below the waves, he swear he sees…a mermaid?

Anya isn’t allowed to get close to humans. But when a golden-haired researcher gets too close to her island, she can’t afford to stay away.

Together, this unlikely pair will seek to discover what’s causing shifts in ocean floor. While their new alliance is forbidden, Anya will risk everything to save her beloved ocean. The only problem is, she’s not sure what’s really luring her in, her love of the sea or the tempest Luke has stirred in her heart. Either way, Anya knows that the dangers facing the sea are nothing compared to what will happen to her when her father learns she’s broken the merfolks’ most sacred law.

Can Anya and Luke discover what lurks at the heart of the deep before it’s too late?

Short Excerpt:

I caught sight of his cut, thought a moment, and swam away. He floated there, treading water and wondering what would happen next. At that point, his face conveyed the pain in his side. I watched an intense sting replace what I knew of the original burning sensation of a coral abrasion, and the open wound spilled into the ocean at a steady pace.

Conceivably, I had underestimated the severity of the cut. Maybe the coral cut deeper than I thought. The blood clouded the water surrounding him, and now the problem remained of how to take the injured man across the reef without doing further damage. We still needed to cross at least two miles and climb a rocky beach. Or did we?

Before he had time to contemplate any other option, I approached him from below. I swam up to him slowly, and he did nothing. He didn’t dive to meet me or attempt to swim away. He hung vertically in the water, waiting.

He must have felt me before he could clearly see me. The water shifted as I neared, my physicality changing the flow of the ocean around me. He knew I was there, but he didn’t dive below. Was he afraid? Too hurt to move? Instead, he stayed still, moving as little as possible, allowing my approach, and keeping the blood loss at a minimum.

I moved below him and then up, along his body, until my head emerged from the inky blue water and he stared into my eyes. He let out a fast gasp and quickly sank below the surface.

Interview Questions:

What is your favorite mermaid story or myth?

Growing up in New England, it seems all stories were about the ocean. I know it is cliché, but I remember sitting on my grandmother’s porch, looking at the water, and wondering if Marina, the “real” little mermaid was actually out there. I guess she started it all for me.

What was the inspiration for your mermaid novella?

I spend a lot of time down in Vero Beach, FL where my sister lives, and since it is on the Treasure Coast there are plenty of stories about buried and found treasure. I wanted to mix pirates with mermaids, and while I didn’t quite do that here, this leads into the next book in my series, The Mark of the Mermaid, which does just that.

Cast your characters. If your novella was made into a movie, who would play your main characters?

Anya would be a Drew Barrymore type, independent and a bit silly. I could see her tripping in front of Luke and just laughing it off. Luke, well, I wrote him with the surfer version of Matthew McConaughey in mind. Focused and fun, at home in the water, and cut!

What was most challenging thing writing about mermaids?

The challenge was determining how much time to put them on land. It isn’t easy to offer mermaid human interaction in the middle of the ocean, so you need a plausible world where they walk on land.