Tag Archives: hurt-comfort

Release Blitz: Bleeding Dawn by Layla Dorine

Bleeding Dawn |Layla Dorine

Road to Rocktoberfest 2022

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Release Date: October 28th, 2022

Publisher: Desolate Press

Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Length: 321 pages

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Buy Links

Amazon US | Amazon UK

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Blurb

Melt into the desert, bleed into the dawn, follow the melody, the music knows the way.

Identical in appearance, twins Winter and Tripp are as different as night and day when it comes to everything but the music they’ve spent the bulk of their lifetimes composing. Now they’ve attained the fame they always hoped for, and it’s as empty and meaningless as the remains of route 66, and about as broken too.

Would help if Winter could see it. Tripp’s sure he’ll lose his shit completely the next time some random groupie leaps on the hood of his car and begs to take a selfie, but to Winter, every night is a party, he lives for the crazy hookups, lives for the crazy, period.

Another place they differ.

Tripp would kill for one season to slow down. Just three months where he and Zakk could melt into obscurity and be whomever they wanted, together. Only Zakk’s band, Tattered Angel, is on fire too and it’s starting to seem like the music he’s always loved is hell-bent on keeping him from exploring love of a different kind. Last year’s Rocktoberfest was an amazing triumph, this year, it’s starting to feel like the road to the desert is burning him alive.

Would be so easy to slip off across the sand, melt into a dune on the back of some strange, psychedelic serpent, never to be heard from again. If only there was a way to ensure Zakk took that last ride with him.

Bleeding Dawn is part of the multi-author The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022 series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but why not read them all and see who hits the stage next? Hot rockstars and the men who love them, what more could you ask for? Kick back, load up your kindle and enjoy the men of Rocktoberfest!

Characters from a previous Rocktoberfest book, Tattered Angel, do appear and feature prominently.

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Excerpt

“Okay, I’m sitting, my supper will apparently have to remain raw a little longer.”

“It’s all for a good cause, I assure you.”

“It better be, I skipped breakfast.”

“So nibble a graham cracker and open your ears. Don’t try telling me you don’t have any when Winter said you have s’mores at least three times a week when you’re home.”

Huffing, Tripp yanked the drawer open and snatched the package from inside.

“Thank you. Now, they need small shows, we need some soft runs on the new material, so I was thinking…”

“No, hell no. Fuck you for even thinking we should go back on the road again. I just got a new couch. We haven’t even broken it in yet. Not a single divot.”

“Thought that’s what you and Winter would be writing the new songs on.”

“We have, doesn’t mean we’ve made a suitable imprint yet.”

“Okay, guess we’ll put off working the kinks out. Too bad. Jesse suggested we invite Riley and his crew to give them a chance to work on their new material. I hear Dez and Zakk have almost two albums worth of material. It’s a good idea, if you ask me. Oh, and get this, Saint’s Seduction reached out to Dez, again, and tried to get him to come back and play for them. The way I heard it; he never took the call. James gave them the flat ‘no’ Dez had conveyed to him the previous time and hung up on them.”

“Can’t say I blame them, the guy is talented.”

“If you think so, why do you two end up foaming at the mouth every time you’re in proximity to one another? I can practically hear you snarling from across the room.”

Tripp sighed, ‘cause he’d asked himself that for a couple of months now and what he kept coming back to was a relationship he didn’t know what to do with.

He was jealous.

Not of anything musical when it came to Dez’s ability and experience, but of the man himself and the time he spent with Zakk. Even the knowledge that Dez was dating Riley didn’t dull the possessiveness he felt towards a man he was barely lucky enough to see six times a year.

Wait…

Something clicked in his brain, along with a voice telling him to stay the fuck outta his own way before he fucked things up, again.

“Are you saying it would be us, Tattered Angel and Wild Child?” Tripp asked, excitement beginning to surge through him.

“Yup.”

“And who the hell would book that insanity?”

“James and Russ are raring to be unleashed on the project, but there are a few hiccups to iron out.

“Like?”

“Who would headline?”

“We’ll rotate, everyone should be good with that.”

“Band members are, a few of the venues are not.”

Why did it sound like he was chewing? He’d better not be eating anything good after the way this conversation had derailed Tripp’s meal.

“Hey, did you hear what I said about the venues?”

Tripp pulled the phone away from his ear, scowling at it for several seconds before warily drawing it close again. “My ears were working just fine until you bellowed in them!”

“Then pay attention, damn. Now, what do we do about the venues.”

Grumbling beneath his breath, Tripp tried to figure out why he was being asked to problem-solve for an issue he wasn’t completely on board with being a part of yet. Still. It would provide plenty of opportunities to spend time with Zakk. “Okay, so, we give them what they want and schedule the rest of the rotations around it.”

“Good idea on the surface, but when you see the emails I sent you about the locations, you’ll see why the issue came up.”

“Yea, okay, I’ll take a look. Next.”

“Besides the animosity between you and Dez?”

layla dorine

About the Author

LAYLA DORINE lives among the sprawling prairies of Midwestern America, in a house with more cats than people. She loves hiking, fishing, swimming, martial arts, camping out, photography, cooking, and dabbling with several artistic mediums. In addition, she loves to travel and visit museums, historic, and haunted places.

Layla got hooked on writing as a child and she hasn’t stopped writing since. Hard times, troubled times, the lives of her characters are never easy, but then what life is? The story is in the struggle, the journey, the triumphs and the falls. She writes about artists, musicians, loners, drifters, dreamers, hippies, bikers, truckers, hunters and all the other folks that she’s met and fallen in love with over the years.

Sometimes she writes urban romance and sometimes its aliens crash landing near a roadside bar. When she isn’t writing, or wandering somewhere outdoors, she can often be found curled up with a good book and a kitty on her lap.

Social Media

Facebook | Twitter | PinterestTumblr | Website | Goodreads

Giveaway

Win one of five ebook copies of Tattered Angel.

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Release Blitz: Hidden Blade by Kaje Harper

Hidden Blade | Kaje Harper

The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022 #1

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Release Date: October 4th, 2022

Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Length: 86,000 words

Buy Links:

Amazon US | Amazon UK

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Blurb

Sometimes willpower isn’t enough.

Cam

Social anxiety’s been my constant companion for twenty-three years, sometimes in the background, sometimes silencing me and yanking my guts out in the nearest trash can. No matter how much I love playing music, I’m never going to get up on a stage and perform in front of a crowd. But since I met Erik, and was asked to join his band Hellsbane, that knowledge hurts worse.

No heart (even Erik’s) or dick (even Erik’s) is big enough to carry me past my limits, but God, I wish there was a way.

Erik

Life’s damned unfair when a guy with the voice of a hard-rock angel and a songwriting talent like Cam’s can only post anonymous videos online. But you can’t cure anxiety with wanting, or willpower. My drummer needs to quit trying to push Cam onstage with us before he breaks.

Rocktoberfest’s still our goal, and touring with Hellsbane was my only ambition, until I met Cam. Now I can’t have everything I love in one place, but dammit, I wish there was a way.

A first-times, life challenges, coming out, rockstar romance.

Hidden Blade is part of the multi-author The Road to Rocktoberfest 2022 series. Each book can be read as a standalone, but why not read them all and see who hits the stage next?

Hot rockstars and the men who love them, what more could you ask for? Kick back, load up your kindle and enjoy the men of Rocktoberfest.

HB OUT NOW

Excerpt

Cameron

“You suck.” I glared at Andre as I clutched the puke bucket between my knees.

“Hey, you did it, dude.” He took his eyes off the road for a second to grin at me. “You got through a whole set and walked off that stage with your head held high.”

“And my intestines climbing out my mouth.”

“Ew, gross image.”

“You’re a nurse. You eat gross images for breakfast.”

Andre threw his head back and laughed. “Okay, you got me. But seriously, wasn’t that even a little bit cool?”

“The bit where I puked in the john before I went onstage, or the part where I got as far as the dumpster down the block afterward?”

“Oh, the dumpster. For sure.” He patted my knee. “I won’t push you anymore. But you were a hit. If you wanted a job or a good fuck, they were lining up to offer it to you. Maybe both at the same time.”

“Hah. Bullshit.” I’m skinny and beanpole-tall and I haven’t cut my hair in years because reasons, and I have this nose that I only don’t hate because it’s just like my dad’s was.

“I mean it.” At the stoplight he fished in his pocket and pulled out a card. “Lead singer of this group was drooling all over your set and he came looking for you like a moose hunting its mate when you were done.”

“You make him sound so appealing.” I took the card from his fingers. “Apparently I could’ve fucked a moose. Wow.”

“Or been fucked by.” The light turned and Andre hit the gas. “He wasn’t that bad, for an older dude. I know you like them with some years on ’em.”

“Shut up, Bones.”

“Only the truth, Spock.”

I chuckled, despite the acid still churning around in my stomach. No one on the planet knew me as well as Andre, and in one regrettably truthful moment years back I’d spilled my attraction to silver foxes and solid older men. He liked to tease me, but never in a mean way, and he kept bigger secrets of mine than that one. “I’m not trying to get laid.”

“You should be. Seriously, Cam, you’ve been with what, two guys in your whole life? A man has needs, or so I tell Lyssa every day.”

“That girl is way too good for you.”

“Woman, Cameron. Don’t let the g-word cross your lips. And you’re damn right she’s too good for me. The key is never letting her figure that out, am I right?”

“Sure. Whatever you say.” Andre was the best. His clowning was intended to distract me, keeping my anxious brain from fixating on what-the-shit-did-I-just-do??? Which I shouldn’t have let myself think about, dammit, and I flipped the card over in my fingers to focus on something else. Hellsbane. A familiar band logo and on the next line, Erik Svenson – lead guitar and vocals. With a phone number, an email, Instagram, Bandcamp, and Twitter.

Hellsbane’s business card! I’d known they’d be there, of course, even if we deliberately arrived only just in time for my set, so I hadn’t heard them play. And if they’d been in the audience, I hadn’t recognized a single face in the one panicked look I’d allowed myself. Although… There’d been a big blond, bearded guy up front who might’ve been their lead singer… Our eyes had met, and he hadn’t laughed at the fear in mine.

Was that Erik? Watching me? Fuck, maybe I should’ve played my new song, even if the chorus wasn’t polished yet. Or not skipped that instrumental bridge, except if I’d stopped singing, I might not’ve started again. How bad did I screw up in front of Erik Svenson?…

kaje-harper-logo1000

About the Author

I get asked about my name a lot. It’s not something exotic, though. “Kaje” is pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname, and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I’ve been writing far longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty-five years*), although mostly for my own entertainment.

I write M/M romance, often with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi, paranormal… I also have Young Adult short stories (some released under the pen name Kira Harp.)

After decades of writing just for fun, my husband convinced me I really should submit something, somewhere. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out in May 2011. I now have a good-sized backlist in ebooks and print, both free and professionally published, including Amazon bestseller The Rebuilding Year and Rainbow Award Best Mystery-Thriller Tracefinder: Contact.

A complete list with links can be found on my website “Books” page at https://kajeharper.com/books/.

Social Media

Audible Profile | Blog/Website | Newsletter Sign-upFacebook | Facebook Group: Kaje’s Conversation CornerGoodreads Author page | BookBub

Giveaway

Win a choice of one of five ebook copies from the author’s backlist

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Blog Tour: Pierced Peony by Dahlia Donovan

Pierced Peony | Dahlia Donovan

Motts Cold Case Mystery #2

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Release Date: May 1st, 2021

Publisher: Tangled Tree Publishing

Cover Artist: Booksmith Design

Word Count: 51,000

Buy Links:

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Blurb

As spring rolls into summer, Motts settles into her cottage. She’s enjoying a daily stroll when a body in the sea destroys her peace and quiet. It brings yet another mystery for her to solve.

How does a woman who vanished from Polperro three years prior wind up battered by waves?

Motts is drawn into the investigation despite her best attempts. She finds a family in turmoil and loads of suspects. With no easy answers, she tumbles further into chaos and ever closer to danger.

Can Motts find the killer before she’s the one put on ice?

Will she survive a bone-chilling brush with death?

On a casual walk along the Cornish Coast, Pineapple “Motts” Mottley stumbles upon a body and a perilous new murder case in the second novel in the Motts Cold Case Mystery series.

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Excerpt

A cat, a turtle, and a stranger face off in the garden. The stranger blinks first. Right. The joke still needs some work.

“Do you always let your turtle and cat out in the garden together?”

“They’re friends. They like to gossip.” Motts set her trowel to one side and got to her feet. She dusted the grass and dirt off her knees. “They both need fresh air and sun in moderation. Are you lost?”

The man didn’t seem lost despite having popped up beside the back fence around her garden. He looked like a police officer. Though not quite as broad-shouldered, he stood as tall as Teo Herceg, the detective inspector she’d met in April and had been dating for over a month.

“I’m hoping to speak with Pineapple Mottley.” He sounded like a policeman. His suit, while nice, appeared rumpled from driving; his short grey hair, however, was gelled and styled perfectly. “I’m Detective Inspector Dempsey Byrne with the Metropolitan Police’s cold case unit.”

“Cold case?” Motts’s heart stuttered in her chest. She rubbed her fingers together nervously. “Jenny. You’re here about Jenny.”

Jenny Cleverly had been her lone best friend through her early childhood. Motts had stumbled across Jenny’s lifeless body on her way home from primary school while walking through a park, hidden behind a hedge. She still had nightmares about finding her.

The unsolved crime had haunted Motts. She’d developed an obsessive curiosity about cold cases as a result. And at least once a year, she searched online to see if anyone had been arrested for Jenny’s murder.

“Ms Mottley?”

“Motts.” She had a sudden sense of déjà vu; she’d had a similar conversation with Teo in April. He’d been investigating the murder of a Rhona Walters, who’d been buried in the garden behind her cottage. It had been an auspicious start to her life in Polperro. “Cactus.”

Her beloved Sphynx cat had leapt onto the fence and then over to the detective’s shoulder. Detective Inspector Byrne didn’t bat an eyelid. He simply reached up to pat Cactus on his head.

Well, he certainly approves of the random strange man intruding on our afternoon.

Intruding inspector intrudes introspectively.

Introspectively?

Not my best alliteration.

“I don’t often see a flowerless garden.” He glanced slowly around at her rows of fruits and herbs. “None at all?”

“My allergies try to drown me if I’m around them for too long.” Motts kept flowers far away from her cottage. Real ones, in any case. She made and sold origami and quilled floral arrangements as part of her small business, Hollyhock Folded Blooms. “Why don’t you come in for tea? Cold case curiosities can converse comfortably.”

Don’t frighten the fancy London detective with your peculiarities.

The judgmental voice in her head sounded suspiciously like her mum, who meant well but couldn’t always relate to Motts’s more unique traits. She didn’t understand her wayward autistic and asexual daughter. Motts had given up trying to fit into neurotypical moulds.

I am who I am.

Alliterations and all.

Oh, fun accidental alliterations are the best.

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“Wouldn’t you?” Motts stared blankly at the man, unable to decide if he was being polite or not. “You drove from London. At least a five-hour drive on a good day. Tea isn’t imposing. Sleeping in my garden and trampling the herbs would be.”

MEME1 - Pierced Peony

About The Author

Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters.

An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.

Social Media

Website: http://dahliadonovan.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dahliadonovan

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DahliaDonovan

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahliadonovanauthor/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8184061.Dahlia_Donovan

QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/dahlia-donovan/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dahlia-Donovan/e/B00KFNZFHU/

Giveaway

Dahlia is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card with this tour:

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