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Tour Stop, Excerpt & Giveaway: Coming Back by Lauren Dane

coming back daneTitle: Coming Back by Lauren Dane
Ink & Chrome Series Book Three
Publisher: Forever
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic, Romance, Menage
Length: 320 pages

Summary:

The men of Twisted Steel are great with their hands.

And they’re not afraid to get dirty.

Mick Roberts, the newest partner at Twisted Steel’s custom hotrod and motorcycle shop, looks like a man with everything. But secretly he still craves the connection he lost when his best friend Adam and the love of his life Jessilynn walked out. Then, he wasn’t ready for the pleasure they promised. Now, things have changed.

Rich, powerful, and insatiable, Adam Gulati is used to getting what he wants. And there’s nothing he wants more than Mick and Jessi. He hasn’t seen either in over a year, but the second he sets eyes on them again his memories-and his desires-can’t be denied.

After trying to live without them, Jessi Franklin realized no one else can satisfy her like Adam and Mick. The three of them need one another-in more ways than one. It’s time to stop pretending and submit to the hunger they all share. But once they go down this road, there’s no turning back. As deeply devoted as they are, no one knows what great bliss their forbidden fantasy will find-or the price they may pay . . .

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Excerpt

“Things just unraveled for me when Mick left. Watching Jessi try to process, trying to be there for her and not managing it very well. I felt like an asshole, felt like I’d been tossed away. Felt like I needed to be someone else to see if that’s what I should do for the rest of my life,” Adam said.

His leaving—the way he’d done it—had been a way to allow himself the space to take what he wanted and gorge on it.

Jessi lifted her face from where she’d been buried in Mick’s shirt, locking her gaze on his.

Adam hated that she’d been hurt. Hated that it had been necessary in any case, to step away and be Adam in a completely different context.

“And did you like what you found?”

Adam took her hand. “It was something I had to do. I’m back to you now. For keeps.”

Which didn’t make it any less harsh, he knew. He had a lot of fucking sins to make up for when it came to Jessilyn Franklin. He just had to hope he was man enough to do what it took.

And that she found it within her heart to understand. One day.

As for Mick, that was still complicated, only in a different way.

“For keeps like we’re all close friends again? We hang out and share our lives?” Mick asked, wariness in his voice.

Jessi wore the sweetest confused expression, and Adam refused to think about how terrifying it was that she got to him the way she did just by being herself.

“I didn’t want to assume,” Adam said.

Jessi rolled her eyes. “You realize that all three of us showed up after years of being apart. We all clicked back together pretty much immediately. And now it’s like we’re all shy? After all we’ve shared? That’s what this is, then? We’re all friends but not like before? We just forget those times? You two want to see other people?”

“Is that what you want?” Adam asked carefully.

You left, Adam. After you left, Mick. I didn’t want to walk away. You two did. So asking me that question sort of makes me mad.”

“You’re the one who lived with someone else and was going to get married,” Mick mumbled.

“You guys are such assholes sometimes. Despite what you both put me through, I accept that you needed to step away. But you come back to me with this? No, thank you. If you want to just be friends, all right. I can deal. But you need to be up front and you can’t be kissing my fingers and Mick needs to stop grinding his co*k into my a**. Friends don’t do that.”

“I just wanted you to know I didn’t expect you to hop into bed or anything. I didn’t want to assume,” Adam repeated.

Jessi looked up to Mick. “And you?”

Mick was smarter than Adam, though, because he hugged her tight. “If it was up to me, I’d want us to all be together. Really together.”

“Suck up.” Adam rolled his eyes.

“She’s on my lap though, so I declare that a win.”

Adam reached out to snatch her from Mick’s lap, bringing her to his own. “Looks like she’s in my lap now.”

“Something friends don’t do,” Jessi reminded him. Adam took her cheeks in his hands and then claimed her mouth before she could say anything else.

It slammed into him so hard—a wave of regret that he’d put this aside—that he gasped, sucking in the sigh she gave him.

A sweet enough kiss. For now. Hunger, barely leashed, filled him. He wanted. Wanted what had been freely offered before he’d truly understood how rare and special it was.

“I’m always your friend,” he spoke against her mouth. “But I’d be a liar if I claimed I didn’t want everything from you. Being away from you only underlined it.”

“I was so lonely without you both.” She closed her eyes a moment to avoid his seeing all that pain, but he saw it, felt it cut him to the bone.

“I’m sorry. I was lonely too.” Adam had filled every moment with a pursuit of pleasure, but this was something totally different. Something he might not have really recognized if he hadn’t been without it.

But what he did see was he’d have a job of earning her trust back, even if she was being easy enough right then.


Author Bio

l daneThe story goes like this: While on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of down time, so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it. Today, Lauren is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 60 novels and novellas across several genres.

Author Links: Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads


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Saturday Spotlight, Guest Blog & Giveaway: The Eskimo Slugger by Brad Boney

Coming Home: Discovering the Boy’s Baseball Book

When I began writing my third novel, The Eskimo Slugger, my knowledge of baseball was pretty slim. The book is about an MLB rookie sensation in 1983 who meets and falls in love with a regular Joe. I knew the story would take place almost entirely off the playing field, but I wanted the characters to talk about the sport in a realistic way. I had always loved baseball movies like Field of Dreams and Bull Durham, but I found the simple act of watching a game unbearably boring. I knew that if I stood any chance of writing a good book, I had to find a way to fall in love with baseball.

So I began by watching the Ken Burns documentary. That was a good start, because it’s eighteen hours of nothing but men (and a few women) talking about how much they love baseball. I started going to baseball games, I talked to my dad, I watched ESPN, and even read the sports section. Then I found an article about early 20th century baseball books that were written specifically for young boys. One of the authors mentioned was William Heyliger, so I went onto Ebay and looked for one of his books. I found an old Boy Scout edition of Bartley, Freshman Pitcher.

pitcher

It’s about the star pitcher of a college team, Edward Kennedy, whose position is threatened by the arrival of a talented young freshie named Richard Bartley. It extols the virtues of loyalty and teamwork while illustrating the negative consequences of pride and bad behavior. It also has one of the best dedications I’ve ever read: “To the clear-eyed, robust boys who find a constantly increasing joy in the king of sports baseball.”

pitcher 1

After I read this book, I finally understood baseball on an emotional level, and a few weeks later I began writing The Eskimo Slugger.

Here’s another one of the illustrations:

pitcher2

I love the way the two boys are leaning into each other. And here’s the cover of a different Heyliger book:

leaguer

It’s amazing the way the artist depicted the explosive action at home plate.

The good news is, all of these books are now in the public domain. I understand that most of Kathy’s readers aren’t interested in a baseball book for kids. But, I also know a lot of my readers are women with young children, so if you have a son (or daughter) you read to or who is just starting to read, I strongly recommend Bartley, Freshman Pitcher. You can download a free and completely legal PDF of the original hardback version at this address: https://archive.org/details/bartleyfreshmanp00heyl Just click on the PDF link in the “View the book” section. It’s easy to read on a tablet and much better than the Kindle version, which gets all scrambled in the scan translation. I downloaded it right to my app:

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There’s also a sequel called Captain of the Nine, which can be downloaded at the same location. And I hope everyone will sample The Eskimo Slugger when it comes out on September 29.

In the meantime, take me out the ballpark…

(And as a tribute to Mr. Heyliger, I named the love interest in my next book Bartley.)


eskimo sluggerTitle: The Eskimo Slugger by Brad Boney
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, Romance
Length: 230 pages

Summary:

It’s the summer of 1983, and Trent Days is Major League Baseball’s rookie sensation. Born in Alaska to an Inupiat mother, the press have dubbed him the Eskimo Slugger, but a midseason collision at home plate temporarily halts his meteoric rise to the top.

Sent back to Austin to recuperate, Trent visits his favorite record store, Inner Sanctum, where he meets amiable law student Brendan Baxter. A skip in the vinyl of New Order’s “Blue Monday” drives Trent back to Brendan, and their romance takes them into uncharted territory.

As Trent’s feelings move from casual to serious, he’s faced with an impossible dilemma. Does he abandon any hope of a future with Brendan and return to the shadows and secrets of professional sports? Or does he embrace the possibility of real love and leave baseball behind him forever? As he struggles with his decision, Trent embarks on a journey of self-discovery—to figure out who he really is and what matters most.


Giveaway

Mr. Boney is giving away one digital copy of The Eskimo Slugger. Here’s how to enter the Saturday Spotlight contest:

You must Do TWO of the Following:

1. Sign up for e-mail updates (upper left corner). One email daily with the day’s posts.

OR:

2. Be or become a fan of Book Reviews & More by Kathy Facebook page

OR:

3. Follow me on Twitter (@BookReviewsMore)

Make sure you have filled out the contest entry form:

4. To be eligible to enter contests on Book Reviews and More by Kathy you MUST fill out the contest entry form (found HERE). This form only needs to be filled out ONCE. Your privacy is important to me, and I will not share your information.

And don’t forget to:

5. Fill out the form below by 5 PM Mountain Time Monday afternoon.

CONTEST OVER

*I am the only person who will have access to info that is submitted to me UNLESS a publisher or author has donated an eBook for the giveaway. For a prize donated by an author or publisher, I will forward your e-mail and format selection to the person responsible for distributing the eBook. In the event the contest form is not working, please leave your book selection in the comments below.*

It’s that easy! The winner will be selected using random.org. Mr. Boney will e-mail one lucky winner the eBook of their choice in their preferred format. The winner will be posted HERE on Tuesday.

***The eBook in this giveaway has been donated by Brad Boney.***

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