Book Blitz & Excerpt: Resolutions for an Arbitrary Holiday + Giveaway

Book Title: Resolutions for an Arbitrary Holiday

Author: Nell Iris

Publisher: JMS Books 

Cover Artist: Written Ink Designs 

Release Date: December 30, 2020

Genre/s: Contemporary, holiday M/M Romance

Trope/s: Meet cute

Themes: Being true to yourself, New Year’s Eve, holiday

Heat Rating:  1 flame

Length: 20 849  words

It is a standalone story.

Blurb

Petter sneaks out of the New Year’s party he didn’t want to go to and treks to an old burial site he’s dying to see. Alone. Without telling anyone on a freezing December night. Without cell service…a huge problem when he twists his ankle.

Someone passes by Isak’s house on the path leasing to the stone ship. When the person never returns, Isak worries and sets off to investigate. What he finds is Petter, a pack of sparklers, and an instant connection.

Under a starry sky, they learn they have a lot in common. Will the attraction burn hot and fizzle out like the fireworks going off over their heads when they return to the real world? Or will it deepen, grow, and turn into something real? Something everlasting like the stone ship?

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Buy Links 

JMS Books  |  Amazon US  |  Amazon UK 

B&N  |  Kobo  |   Apple Books

 

Two strangers, a twisted ankle, an ancient stone ship, and a New Year’s Eve they’ll never forget

Excerpt 

“Did you come here to ring in the new year?” He nods toward the bottle still positioned between my legs.

“Yeah. I’ve always wanted to visit this place and since I was dragged to the village, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I even brought sparklers.” I pull them out of my pocket, holding them up for him to see.

“Bubbly and sparklers by the stone ship. Sounds like the perfect New Year’s celebration to me.”

I stare at him. He sounds serious enough, not like he’s mocking me. And he doesn’t know me, so he won’t know what buttons to push to get me to agree to do shit I don’t want to, like my friend Jonas, who’s the sole reason for me being here. “You can’t be alone on New Year’s Eve, Petter. Only losers and people with no friends stay home alone on holidays. Besides, you don’t want Maja to think you’re not her friend, do you?” Bastard played me and used his girlfriend to get me to agree, knowing how much I like her. More than him, most days. 

But this guy, this stranger, seems honest. “You really mean that?”

“I do.” He grabs the bottle and takes a swig, his face scrunching up in a grimace.

“Yeah, I know,” I snicker. “It’s vile. Serves me right for grabbing someone’s bubbly from the fridge before heading up here.”

“I’m not a wine expert, but that was…”

“…too sweet,” we say simultaneously. 

He nods. “Exactly.”

I smile.

“Listen. What do you say we ring in the new year a bit early? New Year’s is just an arbitrary mark of the passage of time invented by humans anyway, so who says we can’t do it now? Light some sparklers, tell each other our resolutions. Try not to barf as we drink more of this.” He holds up the bottle. “Then I can help you down. Call a doctor if you need one. Or take you back to your friends if you prefer. I assume you’re at the Andersson house for the party?”

I raise an eyebrow. “How did you know?”

“It’s a teeny tiny village. Everyone knows what’s going on in their neighbors’ houses.”

“Really? That can’t be good?”

“It has its downsides, that’s for sure. But I’m mostly fine with it.”

“Okaaaay.” Because surely, he doesn’t mean the neighbors know everything? Not what other people have in their nightstands and stuff? Ew. 

“So what do you say?” He nudges his knee against my leg.

“Sure. I approve of the plan.”

Isak removes his gloves and holds out his hand. “Let me light the sparklers. Did you bring a lighter?”

“Yeah, hang on.” I dig into my pocket without taking off my mittens—my fingers are pretty cold—until I find it. “Here you go.”

“Awesome. Are you the kind of person who makes resolutions?” 

“Usually not.” I accept the lit sparkler he holds out to me. I’ve loved these things since I was a little kid, even more than fireworks, and up here, in the howling wind with a sky full of stars above my head, in the company of a kind stranger and huge ancient stones, they’re more beautiful than ever. 

“But this year is different?”

“Yeah. I’m doing some…significant changes in my life this coming year, so I thought ‘why not?’ It can’t hurt, right? Even if I agree with you about the arbitrariness of this so-called holiday.”

“You do?”

“Sure. It’s not a thing we celebrate because of some natural phenomenon, like the solstice. It’s just to mark that the Earth has done another lap around the sun. I mean, that’s great and all, but why do we need to celebrate it?”

Isak’s face lights up in a wide grin. “Yes! This is what I always say when people complain because I refuse to embrace the spirit of the holiday.”

I return his smile. “Exactly!”

“I’ll drink to that.”

Nell Iris RFAAH 4

 

About the Author 

Nell Iris is a romantic at heart who believes everyone deserves a happy ending. She’s a bona fide bookworm (learned to read long before she started school), wouldn’t dream of going anywhere without something to read (not even the ladies room), loves music (and singing along at the top of her voice but she’s no Celine Dion), and is a real Star Trek nerd (Make it so). She loves words, bullet journals, poetry, wine, coffee-flavored kisses, and fika (a Swedish cultural thing involving coffee and pastry!)

Nell believes passionately in equality for all regardless of race, gender or sexuality, and wants to make the world a better, less hateful, place.

Nell is a bisexual Swedish woman married to the love of her life, a proud mama of a grown daughter, and is approaching 50 faster than she’d like. She lives in the south of Sweden where she spends her days thinking up stories about people falling in love. After dreaming about being a writer for most of her life, she finally was in a place where she could pursue her dream and released her first book in 2017.

Nell Iris writes gay romance, prefers sweet over angsty, short over long, and quirky characters over alpha males.

 

Author Links

Blog/Website  |  Facebook Author Page  |  Facebook Profile

Twitter: @nellirisauthor  |  Instagram: @nell_iris  |  Goodreads

QueeRomance Ink   |  BookBub

 

 

Giveaway 

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Book Blast & Excerpt: Bolder Blindsided + Giveaway

Bolder Blindsided
by Janice Tremayne
Supernatural Suspense Thriller

An Australian alpine ghost town. A priest turned supernatural detective. A missing persons cold case. Will bolder track down the voracious demon?

When Detective Wellock hushers in Zack Bolder to investigate a missing person case in the Australian ghost town of Walhalla, they form the most formidable tag team of supernatural investigators, working for the police branch for unexplained crimes. Perched amongst the alpine area, this tourist backed ghost town is renowned for its gold mining past and stories of hardship, deprivation, and death. It becomes a perfect setting for an unexplained missing person’s cold case.

When Bolder realizes every demon has a weakness—it’s blindside, he confronts the demonic presence, head on for an ultimate encounter to save the town. As this evil entity is sly as a fox with more turns that a two-mile car racetrack, Bolder must be at his best to overcome the devil that has cursed the town since 1876.

Can Bolder uncover the curse that strangleholds the town and thrust out the evil entity before more innocent people go missing and suffer an imminent fate?

Bolder Blindsided is the first book of the Zack Bolder Supernatural Suspense Thriller Series. If you like a fast-moving, energetic, and nail-biting supernatural suspense thriller guaranteed to raise your heartbeat, then you will love this story by 2020 USA Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards Finalist in Supernatural Fiction, Janice Tremayne.

Pick up your copy today and meet Zack Bolder!

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Read an Excerpt

The screams continued to play out on the phone. Jamie was not holding it during the attack, but it laid on the floor next to him with the video running.

“He wanted us to see it,” said Bolder.

“Who, what do you mean?”

“The demon…he purposely put the phone on an angle so it could capture his possession of Jamie.”

“He wanted us to watch the whole dastardly act?”

“More than that…he wanted to make us sick. Frighten us into submission—give up and walk away.”

Fixated on the five-minute video; images of Jamie handled by the demon played out in the act of evil. The devil tied his feet and hands, and they slowly lifted him from the ceiling upside down—hanging like a bat. Jamie screamed in pain as the demon ripped off the skin from his torso to prepare the marking of the pentagram. Blood oozed from the deep red exposed flesh as agonizing cries of help went unanswered.

It was an evil creature with huffs and a tail…hairy lower body in the shape of a dog. The upper torso of the demon was human, and it still managed to stand on two feet. A face with an elongated nose, pointed ears and sabre like teeth that slithered with an extended tongue. Pale, and it looked like death with bloodshot eyes and deep crease lines along the cheeks. It had no hair on its head other than pultruding blue veins that looked ready to burst.

About the Author:

Janice Tremayne is an Amazon bestselling and award-winning ghost and supernatural writer. Janice is a finalist in the Readers’ Favorite 2020 International Book Awards in Fiction-Supernatural.

She is an emerging Australian author who lives with her family in Melbourne. Her recent publication, Haunting in Hartley, reached number one on the Amazon kindle ranking for Occult, Supernatural, and Ghosts and Haunted Houses categories, for hot new releases and bestsellers.

Janice is well-versed in her cultural superstitions and how they influence daily life and customs. She has developed a passion and style for writing ghost and supernatural novels for new adult readers.

The concept of writing the Haunting Clarisse series was spawned over a cup of coffee many years ago, and she has not looked back since. Her books contain heart-thumping, bone-chilling, and thought-provoking ghost and paranormal experiences that deliver a new twist to every tale.

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