Title: Son of a Beard
Series: The Dixie Wardens Rejects MC #3
Author: Lani Lynn Vale
Genre: MC Romance
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Monday, January 30, 2017
Cover Reveal - SON OF A BEARD by Lani Lynn Vale
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Release Day Blitz - PIECES OF HEAVEN by Natasha Madison
I didn’t want this life.
But sometimes you’re forced to make the best of the crappy hand you’ve been dealt. I wanted to teach my daughter that. No matter what happens you face your problems head-on.
Never cower. Never give up.
Then someone took her and I had to put my faith in a system that had failed me, and my hope in a man I didn’t know.
Serve. Honor. Protect, are the only things I’ve ever cared about until her case was dropped on my desk. As we searched for her missing daughter, the last woman I thought I’d fall in love with became my reason for living.
Then the world came crashing down around us.
One secret would change everything, but I had one more hand to be dealt. And if I played my cards right, maybe, just maybe we’d get our piece of heaven.
But sometimes you’re forced to make the best of the crappy hand you’ve been dealt. I wanted to teach my daughter that. No matter what happens you face your problems head-on.
Never cower. Never give up.
Then someone took her and I had to put my faith in a system that had failed me, and my hope in a man I didn’t know.
Serve. Honor. Protect, are the only things I’ve ever cared about until her case was dropped on my desk. As we searched for her missing daughter, the last woman I thought I’d fall in love with became my reason for living.
Then the world came crashing down around us.
One secret would change everything, but I had one more hand to be dealt. And if I played my cards right, maybe, just maybe we’d get our piece of heaven.
Chapter Eleven
Marissa
The bells over the door ring every single time someone walks in. I’ve been on edge ever since I got in this morning. Lucky for me it’s been non-stop people coming in, so my mind hasn’t been able to wander to Lori.
Now that it has been quiet and I’m filling the salt and pepper shakers, my mind wanders. It wanders to my baby girl, who is somewhere out there begging to come home. The sound of her voice plays in my head on repeat. My hands start to shake, so I close my eyes and sit down on a chair before my knees buckle.
I blink away the tears threatening to fall over, my heart starting to beat so fast I hear the echoes in my ears. A plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and gravy is shoved in front of me. Phyllis’s eyes greet me when I look up.
“Eat that and then go home. You are done for the day. You’ve been here for fourteen hours.”
I look over at the clock hanging behind the counter that reads 8 p.m., realizing she’s right.
“I’m just going to finish filling the shakers then I’ll take off.” I know she’s about to argue with me when the bell over the door rings again, making us both look up.
His eyes find me right away. My heart that was starting to calm down is now speeding up. I focus on my meal, cutting a piece of meatloaf and dipping it in the gravy before popping it into my mouth. I try to ignore the heat of his stare, try to think of anything but him and that naked woman from last night. His girlfriend. I was so stupid to think that he would actually want me. I’m a used up stripper whose daughter ran away from home. I’m the opposite of what he wants or needs.
The chair in front of me is filled with his big frame. The scent of his aftershave, of cologne lingers around us. Musky, rich, and woodsy. It’s the smell that has seeped its way into my memory along with the way his lips felt on mine. The way that I just fit, like I was made for him. I blink away the memory, looking up at him.
“All the seats in this place are open and you sit in front of me?” I ask him before scooping up more food. I didn’t notice how hungry I was till I started eating.
“You didn’t text me back.” His voice is hard, his muscles tight, his jaw ticking.
I take out my phone. “Oh, I put the do not disturb on under your name. Maybe that’s why.”
My phone is snapped out of my hand in a blink of an eye. “What the fuck?” I see him touching the screen angrily and turning it off.
“You know you’re doing that for nothing since I can turn it on again?” I finish off my whole plate, making my stomach hurt since it’s the first thing I’ve eaten since last night.
“What if I had information on Lori?” Bulls-eye, hit straight through my heart. He must see the color drain from my face as I realize that I fucked up. I’m not going to admit it to him, though.
“I don’t have Jackson’s number blocked, and he would have called me.” I shrug my shoulders, picking up my plate to bring it to the gray bussing bin.
Walking over, I wipe down the table right when Phyllis comes out from the kitchen.
“There you are! I have your order ready. It’s being boxed up. Did you want dessert with that?”
His eyes never leave mine. “No, that’s okay. Thanks, Phyllis.”
I grab my phone from him, putting it in the front pocket of my waitress pouch. “I’m taking off. My feet are killing me. See you tomorrow, Phyllis.”
I don’t wait for her to say anything to me before I walk out the door to my car. Turning it on, I drive home, determined not to give Mick another minute of my thoughts. Just one problem with that plan, though. No one mentioned to my head that I wasn’t thinking about him because his eyes flash in my mind, the hard lines around them. The sorrow that is buried there, the sadness that he thinks no one sees but is there, if you look long enough.
I make my way into my apartment, taking my shoes off my throbbing feet at the door.
Walking into the kitchen, I take out the tips from my pocket and count them out. Three hundred and seventeen dollars. Two hundred of that is going to that damn debt that I’m still paying off. I can’t fucking wait till it’s over. I walk over to Lori’s room like I do every single night, turning on the light to see if maybe something has been misplaced or moved.
I’ve put scotch tape on the drawers to alert me if they’ve been opened, but it’s still intact. I’ve labeled her clothes hanging in the closet by number, and I count them, seeing that none have been taken either.
The bed is exactly how she left it. I crawl into her bed and grab her pillow, breathing in her scent. Tears run down my face, seeping into the pillow. This has become my nightly routine. I sleep here so I’m closer to her. I lie in this bed, talking to her. Telling her about my day, praying that she calls me again. I tell her stories about when she was small, about the day they placed her in my arms. The tears never stop. It’s like an endless river.
The soft knock at the door has me raising my head. Walking slowly to the door, I look through the peephole and see that Mick is in the hallway. His hands are braced against the doorframe, his head hanging down.
I place my forehead on the door, take a deep breath in, and open the door. His eyes land right on mine. The tears continue to roll down my cheeks, right off my chin on their way to the floor. He brings his thumb up to my chin, catching them.
“Marissa,” he whispers, and it’s all I can do before I collapse into his arms, sobbing. Begging. Pleading with him to bring her back to me.
He picks me up and carries me inside. Sitting on the couch with me curled into a ball in his lap, my tears soak his shirt. I’m so exhausted from the fear, stress, and worry. I’m just too tired to move.
“I’m a good mom,” I whisper to him. “I was tough on her only because I wanted better for her. Wanted her out of this life. Wanted her to be something.” My hand lies on his chest, the beat of his heart pounding against my palm.
“I know, baby, I know.”
I don’t say anything more. I just continue to soak up the feeling of his heart beating as it calms me. My eyes droop, and the exhaustion drags me under.
I don’t move from this position all night. I wake the next morning with the same heart beating against my hand.
When her nose isn't buried in a book, or her fingers flying across a keyboard writing, she's in the kitchen creating gourmet meals. You can find her, in four inch heels no less, in the car chauffeuring kids, or possibly with her husband scheduling his business trips. It's a good thing her characters do what she says, because even her Labrador doesn't listen to her...
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Friday, January 27, 2017
Release Day Blitz and Review - PUT OUT by Lani Lynn Vale
Title: Put Out
Series: Kilgore Fire Series #5
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Angie is a survivor. Anything you could throw at her, she could overcome.
After her father left her like a pile of unwanted trash, she began fighting. Fighting to build a life. Fighting to keep her child. Fighting to matter.
She thought she had it all figured out.
Then Bowen Race Tannenbaum walks into her life, turning it into a flurry of confusion, hope, and then ultimately despair. He tore down, brick-by-brick, her carefully constructed world, leaving her heart in tatters and longing for more. Such as a happily ever after, something that wasn’t ever going to happen for her. Not when she couldn’t give him what he wanted. He’d break her, and she couldn’t be put back together a second time.
Bowe wasn’t always so jaded, but when you keep drawing a losing hand, it tends to affect a man. He didn’t mean to lash out so carelessly. But he was so over being told no. He was done being lied to. He was through with being cheated on.
This time, his heart was getting what it wanted. If Angie wasn’t able to see what he was offering, what was right here in front of her, well then, he’d just have to damn well show her.
“As always an amazing story from Lani Lynn Vale. Her writing always draws me in so that I am fully immersed into her stories.” - 5 Star Review from KinkyGirlsBookObsessions
“It kept me on my toes and had some hot and steamy scenes in too. Loved it!” - 5 Star Review from Hellbenders Book Blog
I headed toward the yelling. The closer I got, the louder it became.
At first I wasn’t sure what it was. Then the closer I got, the more I realized that it was someone cheering. Some sort of competition from the sound of it.
The moment I rounded the corner of the firehouse, I could see what everyone was cheering and yelling about.
The firehouse stood on a large hill or sorts, and the moment I cleared the building, I could see down into the valley below the hill, not far, but far enough that I could see over the men’s heads, straight for the obstacle course below.
Bowe had already started his testing.
Feeling like shit that I’d left him with Elise too long, and he’d had to bring her with him, I automatically started scanning for her, and found her with PD.
Once I saw that she was happy, I moved my gaze back to the course, and was amazed by how fast Bowe was moving.
A man was also running with him, and upon closer inspection, I realized it was Booth.
Booth, I’d heard, held the best time on the course.
And it looked like Bowe was holding his own.
He wasn’t winning, no, but for him being off for so long, I thought he was doing pretty damn good.
Then instead of taking the last flight of stairs with his patient, he jumped over the side, cradling the dummy.
It, of course, wouldn’t work in real life.
Not with someone that was sick or in need of life saving measures.
But it worked for now.
Laughing out loud, I yelled.
“Go, Bowe! Go!” I screamed, cupping my hands around my mouth to project the sound further.
He didn’t hear me over the crowd, but my daughter did.
She turned her head, and immediately started to clap her hands as she realized it was me.
Grinning from ear to ear, I walked towards her, glancing over her shoulder at Bowe as I moved.
I weaved through the throng of men, some firefighters
Bowe had just crossed the finish line, Booth very close at his heels, when I reached Elise.
“Hey there, baby,” I cooed.
She giggled, but didn’t hold her hands out for me, so I chose to let PD hold her for a few more seconds as I turned to the field.
That’s when I saw Bowe.
Shirtless.
Laughing his ass off while he shook Booth’s hand, who, conveniently, was also shirtless.
Both men were wiping sweat out of their faces with their shirts, talking about what I’d guess was the course they’d just run, when Bowe’s eyes lifted and found mine.
I waved, and he grinned, full out.
His beard and sweat slickened hair made him look rough and delicious, and I wanted to freakin’ throw myself at him.
I had a little bit of decorum, though, and managed to give him a small peck on the cheek the moment he arrived at my side.
“When did you get here?” he asked, slightly out of breath.
I started to lean back when he started to lean forward, and his eyes started to dance as he moved with me.
“About two minutes ago,” I giggled when he captured me around the waist and hauled me against him.
“My wife doesn’t kiss me like that when I’m sweaty,” a man from my side whined.
Yes, a grown man with six foot two inches of solid muscle, whined.
I gave him a look, which clearly, he read, causing him to grin.
“The name’s Luke.” He offered me his hand. “And I’m the SWAT team leader.”
I shook his offered hand and dropped it after two pumps, trying in vain to disentangle my body from Bowe’s.
“The problem, old man, is that you give her a choice,” another, a redhead this time, called from somewhere behind me.
“Miller,” someone said. “Mercy would kick your ass if she thought you were not letting her have her way.”
Put Out is the fifth book in the Kilgore Fire series and I’ve
been impatiently waiting for Bowe’s book.
Bowe is craving what his friends have – a wife and family. He sees how happy they are and wants that
for himself, and he wants Angie. Oh, and
he is so determined but keeps being shot down by her.
Angie knows what heartache is after her father abandoned her
and her family. She knows she doesn’t
want a man in her life because she feels she will always be
disappointed. She sure didn’t expect
Bowe to pursue her like he did either.
Add in an insane ex who wants to make her life a living hell. This guy is one loser who I hated from the
beginning. I did enjoy how that played
into a suspenseful side story that made me want to keep reading.
However, Bowe doesn’t give up, and I’m so glad he didn’t. Angie is the woman he wants and nothing will
stop him. She puts up quite a fight, but
who could deny sexy as hell Bowe? Not
me!
As usual with Lani Lynn’s writing, the characters are so
enjoyable and easy to love. I love all
of these guys and their families. Bowe
and Angie are so perfect for each other and Bowe is exactly the type of man
Angie needs to heal. She needs a man who
will stand the test of time and not abandon her. This 4 star book is the perfect blend of hot,
sexy, and engaging. This series is a must
read!
I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 5, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.
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