Book Blitz & Excerpt: Holiday in Hiding + Giveaway

SECRET SANTA HOLIDAY IN HIDING

I am so excited that HOLIDAY IN HIDING by Lily Michaels is available now and that I get to share the news! If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below. 

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a self-care box courtesy of Lily & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.

Title: HOLIDAY IN HIDING: A Secret Santa story

Author: Lily Michaels

Pub. Date: December 6, 2022

Publisher: Pride Publishing

Formats:  eBook

Pages: 181

Find it: GoodreadsBooks2Read

FROM EXCITING AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA ROMANCE LILY MICHAELS

A Secret Santa story

Hiding from his past may wind up leading Liam to the merriest Christmas of his life.

Constantly looking over his shoulder has become Liam Carlson’ s norm after five years in witness protection. Living with his new identity has come with a major downgrade in lifestyle and a lack of any meaningful connections. But when he loses his minimum-wage job and the rundown apartment he called home, he finds himself in the middle of a Texas state park waiting for the marshal in charge of his case to help with relocation. A sudden, ferocious storm destroys many of his belongings, including the tent that offered him some protection, but it also heralds in a sexy-as-hell park ranger, Jax Gallagher, who taunts Liam’ s long-neglected libido.

Jax and his wife, Megan, have had an unconventional relationship from the beginning, with a military romance that blossomed into marriage. Their mutual desire to share their love with a third member resulted in several blissful years with another man that ended when they left the service and took on civilian careers. An unexpected visitor in the form of a drenched Liam is the first glimmer of hope since then that they can reclaim the happily-ever-after they thought they’ d lost. Their attraction grows with every second they spend together. While they become closer, another lifesaving rescue also manages to open the door to a career Liam never fathomed.

But the truth of the criminal world Liam grew up in threatens to destroy the still-tenuous bond the three are forming and the bright future Liam never believed possible.


Excerpt:

Prologue

Nate—Liam

A perfect circle of cold steel penetrated through my thin cotton dress shirt. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and fought to keep my hands from shaking. They’d found me…again. It was only a matter of time. I’d known that.

Fuck.

“Don’t move.” The gravelly voice behind me uttered the completely expected command.

I rolled my eyes toward the inky sky, barely noticing the full spectrum of stars. “Exactly how predictable are we going here, Joe? Full-on cartoon villain or just generic mobster? I want to make sure I keep my expectations realistic.”

A laugh, roughened undoubtedly by decades of smoking, was the response. “Name ain’t Joe, but I know exactly who you are, Nathaniel Cogliano.”

“Left off the middle name there, Joe. That’s how you really strike fear into the
hearts of your prey. Take a tip from my ma, since she’s the one paying you to be here.” I sucked in a lungful of air. “And I call all you guys Joe. No need to learn your name, since you pass through soon enough.”

The barrel pressed harder into my back and the man behind me growled. “You think you’re something special? I’ll have you back to the boss man, collect my money and send your ass to the bottom of the river before breakfast.”

That was the moment I knew I could smile. The banter had bought me enough time to center myself and call my nerves under control—a sad fact for ole Joe. I was exactly the protégé my mother had always hoped I’d be. “The river? Really? Can’t we do something just a little more creative? Maybe a warehouse in midtown or a cabin somewhere upstate that you set on fire to cover the evidence? Work with me here, Joe. Bring something to the table so I remember who the fuck you are five years from now.”

“I’m about done with your ‘Joe’ bullshit, and you ain’t gonna live to see another day, much less another year.”

My grin widened. Irritating the latest thug who’d been hired to kill me was almost too easy. Getting the other man frustrated and off his game was the first step to controlling the situation. “Give me your real name or give me a reason to remember you—otherwise I’m just gonna keep calling you Joe, right up until I don’t need to call you anything anymore.”

I wished to every higher being I knew that I could see the man’s face. It was certain to be mottled and reddened from frustration. Fucking with these guys—the ones who were always hiding in the shadows waiting to deliver me into the hands that would destroy me—was one of the few pleasures I could find in my world these days.

Even a night at a strip club didn’t hold the same allure as it once had, which was a damn shame. But surgically enhanced tits shoved in my face weren’t enough to hold my attention when I was looking over my shoulder, literally and metaphorically.

The goon pushed the metal deeper against my spine and I counted to three in my head. As soon as my internal voice whispered, ‘one’, I spun around, grabbing the man’s wrist and twisting it behind his back until he let out a piercing scream and the firearm clattered against the pavement. I might be trying to claw my way out of the life of crime I’d been born into and live a more normal, law-abiding life, but the insidious part of my soul relished his painful cry.

The dark beast within me threatened to trample over all my good intentions, and a list of ways to break the hitman now kneeling before me in agony trickled through my mind. I tightened my hold on his arm just a fraction more and wrenched it back a little higher before I pulled my phone from my back pocket with my free hand and hit the number one contact on my speed dial.

Another anguished scream tore from the man’s mouth before I could utter a greeting. “Quiet, Joe. This is important business.”

“Fuck, Nate, what the hell did you get yourself into this time? You’re supposed to be lying low until the trial.” Deputy Xavier Brower’s frustrated and exhausted voice echoed across the line and managed to irritate my nerves that were still pulsing with adrenaline at the latest attempt on  my life.

The nearly animalistic howls ramped up another octave, and I sighed. He was going to wind up attracting a hell of a lot of attention that I wasn’t in the mood to deal with. I released his wrist, brought my knee up to his face and slammed it into his nose. Once he was flat on his back, I lowered my hand in a perfect slice against his carotid artery and he passed out before I’d even straightened my stance, grabbing my phone from the ground where it had fallen in the brief mêlée.

“Still there, Deputy X?” Although the assault had been brief, the events leading up to it combined with the actions to make my breathing slightly labored. It had been a long-ass time since I’d done any hand-to-hand combat, either in training or out in the world. I was clearly getting too soft.

An annoyed exhale was his first response, punctuated by a weighted silence. “Yeah, I’m here. Send your location and restrain the guy. If you’re going to live long enough to testify against your mother and her crew then we are going to have to hide you away.”

They were words I’d known were coming for a long time, but I’d deluded myself into believing I wouldn’t have to hear them until after the trial came, right on the heels of that statement. “Pack your bags, Nate. You’re going into witness protection.”


About Lily Michaels:

A medical professional by day and writer by night, Lily is a huge believer in love being available for everyone. Her novels always include an over the top happily every after for her characters. 

If you want to connect with Lily, find her on Twitter or Facebook and check out her website and book blog.

Website | Twitter | Instagram |TikTokGoodreads | Amazon | BookBub


Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a a mystery gift box of self-care items perfect for a “book date night, US Only.

 

Ends December 17th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BBNYA Semi-Finalist Spotlight: The Vicar Man, by Amelia Crowley

BBNYA 2022 Spotlight Banner

This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the 50 books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website or take a peek over on Twitter: @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (If you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.


The Vicar Man
by Amelia Crowley
Publisher: Self-Published
Length: 196 Pages
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Comedy, Satire
Age Category: New Adult, Adult
Date Published: 20 August 2021

Dora is a barmaid.

Usually her life is fairly simple: she gets up, cleans the inn, feeds the chickens, argues with the increasingly obstreperous cockerel, listens to the woes of her fellow barmaid, avoids doing the laundry, and serves drinks to the motley crew of islanders who lurk about the taproom every night.

The same old routine, day in, day out.

Tonight, though, is different.

Tonight, just one week before the vernal equinox, after a catastrophically bad harvest the year before, a stranger has walked into the bar…

Amazon CA / US / UK
Goodreads


Author Bio

Amelia

Amelia lives in Yorkshire with her family.

At least she definitely had a family around here somewhere, but to be honest she’s spent so much of the last year staring into a word processor she thinks they may have wandered off.

Her writing is fuelled by mugs of terrible, over-sugared coffee, much better chocolate, and the occasional macaron, and is punctuated by her soulless whimpers and the sound of her head hitting the keyboard.

She posts updates on her books and writing at https://www.ameliacrowley.com/ When she remembers.

Spotlight & Giveaway: City of Ruin, by Charissa Weaks

City of Ruin tour stops (blog)

Cover - City of Ruin

City of Ruin
by Charissa Weaks
Published: 9/27/22
Series: The Witch Walker Series #2
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
Intended Age Group: Adult
Pages: 504
Publisher: City Owl Press

Book Blurb:

The night the Prince of the East razed her village, Raina Bloodgood’s life changed forever. Forced into someone else’s war—and into the arms of the Witch Collector, Alexus Thibault—Raina discovered that everything she believed was wrong, and that she was capable of far more than anyone imagined.

Now, the Prince of the East has taken the Frost King as a pawn in his war against the Summerlands, causing Alexus’s life to hang in the balance. To thwart the prince’s endgame and prevent the Tiressian empire from returning to an age of gods, Raina, Alexus, and a band of Northlanders race against the sands of time to reach a mystical desert land where merciless assassins lurk around every corner.

In the midst of tragedy, Raina and Alexus fight to stay together and alive, all while a nefarious presence follows them straight to the jeweled gates of the Summerland queen’s citadel—the City of Ruin. With much to fear, it’s the terror of a past she shouldn’t remember that Raina cannot cast from her dreams.

A past that’s determined to find her. One way or another.

City of Ruin is book two in a thrilling romantic fantasy series, perfect for fans of Naomi Novik, Sarah J. Maas, and Jennifer L. Armentrout.

Universal Link / Goodreads

Content/Trigger Warnings:

Shown on Page (things clearly told to the reader):

  • Explicit sexual situations (consensual)
  • Adult language
  • Graphic violence/gore
  • Death or dying
  • Death of a loved one
  • Death by burning
  • Fire situations
  • Blood
  • Swears/curses
  • Sexual language
  • Rituals
  • Nightmares about traumatic events
  • Decapitation
  • Stabbing
  • Grief/guilt

Alluded to (things only mentioned in passing or hinted at):

  • Suicidal ideation

Universal Link / Goodreads


Author Bio & Information:

Author Photo - Charissa WeaksCHARISSA WEAKS is an award-winning author of romantic and historical fantasy. She crafts stories with time travel, magick, myth, history, and the occasional apocalyptic quest.

Charissa resides just south of Nashville with her family and two wrinkly English Bulldogs. When she’s not writing, you can find Charissa lost in a good book or digging through four-hundred-year-old texts for research.

Social Media Links:
Author Website
Instagram
Facebook
TikTok
Goodreads
Bookbub
Amazon Author Page


Giveaway Information:

Prize: A Signed Paperback Copy of City of Ruin!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Direct link

Starts: December 1, 2022 at 12:00am EST
Ends: December 7, 2022 at 11:59pm EST

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