Book Blitz & Excerpt: Keeper of Souls + Giveaway

Keeper of Souls

Keeper of Souls
by Harper Ray
(The Revenant Trilogy, #1)
Publication date: June 29th 2021
Genres: New Adult, Paranormal

“What would you do if Death gave you a second chance?”

Most people who escaped death were relieved, happy to be granted that second chance at life. In my case, it was more of a curse than a blessing.

Everyday I woke, I was tortured with another soul. They all wanted something from me, but I couldn’t give it to them. Instead, I ignored them. I neglected the pain they had laced beneath their hollow eyes. I dismissed the screams that shattered my eardrums every time my head hit the pillow.

The souls took pleasure in patronizing me. They were a constant reminder of why I shouldn’t have been granted a second chance.

I had managed to escape Death twice, but the third time was my undoing. He came back with a heavy vengeance. Suddenly, I was thrown into a battle between two brothers. Heaven and Hell. Light versus Dark.

They both needed me on their side, but after facing Death for the third time, I wasn’t sure I would survive the cruel fate he had planned.

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Keeper of Souls

EXCERPT:

Slowly, I managed to pull myself off the hard ground, and rise to a standing position. I glanced around and noticed that all the souls I had seen earlier were gone. My lips dipped into a frown. That’s weird.

“Well, things just got…interesting, didn’t they, Ace?” the guy with dark hair taunted.

Ace sighed. “Why are you here, Deagan?”

His body was radiating an un-humanly amount of heat, so I took a few steps back, looking for an exit. The animosity between these two had me ready to bolt, but for some reason, I didn’t think Deagan would let me leave that easily.

I took another step back. Deagan took a few steps forward. There was something about him that made me want to run for the hills. He was dangerous, and that cocky smirk he had plastered on his lips told me that he knew it too.

“Where do you think you’re going, sweet cheeks?” he asked.

“Away from you,” I sneered.

His brows raised. “We’ve got a feisty one here. I like it.”

I clicked my tongue and turned around to bolt in the direction towards the exit. My ear-shattering scream filled the cemetery when Deagan materialized in front of me. I glanced behind me and back to him. “How did you do that?”

His sharp gaze was full of amusement. He was getting off on being a jackass.

A hand landed on my shoulder, pushing me back as Ace stepped between us. “I suggest you leave. You have no purpose here, Deagan.” His words came out clipped, and somehow, even I felt threatened just being in his presence.

My eyes narrowed. “I don’t need you to defend me.”

Ace glanced over his shoulder, and his gaze turned to slits.

Great, now I was on his shit list too. Why the hell was I still standing here?

“Already protecting her, huh?” Deagan pursed his lips, and the temperature outside raised the humidity twenty degrees. Sweat started leaking down my forehead.

Ace’s jaw ticked.

“Did you forget what happened the last time you interfered?”

Ace whipped his head in Deagan’s direction and crossed his arms over his chest. “The real question of the hour is what you’re doing here. We both know whose territory this is.”

Deagan’s stocky body stiffened. His obsidian gaze hardened. For a brief moment, I could have sworn I saw flames dancing in the darkness of his eyes. I shook my head, I really needed to get out of here, it seemed that I was on the verge of losing my mind.


Author Bio:

As an author of young and new adult romances, Harper has a passion for writing stories that readers enjoy reading over and over again. Her imagination is the creative tool that helps her come up with several intriguing story lines that she hopes to share with the world. Her fans call her the “page turner author” because with each story she sucks the readers in, instantly hooking them from page one.

If Harper’s not busy writing her next book, she’s either digging into a sappy romance novel, binge watching Harry Potter or going to school full time.

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

 

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Book Blitz & Excerpt: Flowers Under My Pillow + Giveaway

Flowers Under My Pillow by Nell Iris

RELEASE BLITZ

Book Title: Flowers Under My Pillow

Author: Nell Iris

Publisher: JMS Books

Cover Artist: Written Ink Designs

Release Date: June 26, 2021

Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance

Trope: Soul mates

Themes: Older characters (40+), instant connection, meet cute 

Heat Rating: 3 flames

Length:  17 477 words

It is a standalone story

Goodreads

 

Buy Links 

JMS Books  |  Universal Link 

Amazon US  |  Amazon UK

 

flowers under my pillow

Smiling brown eyes. A dark beard. Dandelions. Sunny, happy dandelions.

Blurb

Smiling brown eyes. A dark beard. Dandelions. Sunny, happy dandelions.

For thirty years, Frode’s had the same dream. Every Midsummer’s Eve since he was a kid accompanying his sister to pick flowers to put under his pillow, he’s dreamed of the same man. A dream he never shares with anyone, that makes him wish for impossible things…like true love.

“It’s you.”

Then one Midsummer’s Eve, the man of Frode’s dreams stands before him in the flesh. Both men recognize each other despite never having met in real life. Both men are instantly drawn to each other and want to know more.

“Who are you, Viljar? Are you even real?”

Their questions are many but do the whys and the hows matter? Or should they allow the Midsummer magic that brought them together to lead the way into each other’s arms? Into each other’s hearts?

Traditional Swedish folklore tells you that if you pick seven kinds of flowers in silence and put them under your pillow on Midsummer’s Eve, you’ll dream of the man you’ll marry.


Excerpt

When I look around to take in my surroundings, I realize my feet have carried me to the cottage without me noticing, and something catches my attention on the lawn on the other side of the fence.

A closer look reveals a tripod with a big, professional-looking camera attached on top. And underneath it, a man lies on his back, surrounded by a starry sky of tiny white flowers growing low in the grass. I don’t want to disturb him and I’m just about to sneak away when he turns his head toward me. 

Warm brown eyes, with crow’s feet radiating out from the corners, meet mine. But it’s his full beard, scattered with dandelions, that makes my heart tumble over itself in my chest. 

Smiling eyes. A full beard. Dandelions. 

Dandelions

My hand flies to my chest as I forget how to breathe. 

It’s him.

****

The man’s eyes widen, then he springs to his feet, banging his knee into the tripod almost making it topple over, but his arm shoots out, his big hand landing on the camera, stopping it from crashing down onto the grass.

“It’s you,” he says, his voice a deep rumble emanating from the pit of his stomach, vibrating its way to me, settling in my core.

It’s you. 

What does he mean? Does he recognize me, too? 

“It’s you,” he says again as he takes a few hesitant steps in my direction. His eyes never leave my face. 

“It’s you,” I echo, brows furrowed. 

The improbability of it all, of my recurring dream materializing and standing in front of me, makes me take a step backward. He leaps forward, dislodging a couple of the dandelions from his beard by the sudden movement, and I watch them sail to the ground. 

When I look up at him again, it’s as though I’m zooming out of my body and look at the two of us from a distance. Two men, separated by a white picket fence, staring at each other as though they’ve seen a ghost, as though they both think they must be hallucinating. His features are so familiar; I know every line radiating from the corner of his eyes, every strand of his beard. I know all the nuances of brown in his dark eyes; as though someone swirled chocolate into a deep well of coffee and then sprinkled some gold into the mix to make it irresistible. I know the sensitive setting of his mouth. I know the intense gaze.

It makes me dizzy, and I stumble but manage to keep myself upright. I take another wobbly step backward.

“Don’t go,” he says. “Please.” He stops but holds out his hand as though he wants to touch me to make sure I’m real. 

The feeling is mutual. How is this even possible? How can the man I’ve dreamed about every Midsummer these last thirty years be right here a few steps from me? As though I’ve dreamed him into existence. 

I drag my gaze away from his face and take in the rest of him. He’s tall and broad-shouldered, his biceps are straining the short sleeves of his button-down shirt. He’s got a rounded belly and meaty thighs filling out his faded jeans, and his big wide feet are bare in the grass. 

Heat stirs between my hips. God, he’s not only the literal man of my dreams, but he’s hot as sin, too. When I force myself to look away from his body, our gazes meet. 

“You recognize me, too,” he says, eyes pleading. “I can tell from your reaction.”

I dip my chin once. “I do.”

My heart flutters in my chest like the wings of a colibri. Another dandelion falls from his beard and my gaze follows it down as it lands softly on the ground. 

My mind spins with questions and it’s making me dizzy again. How can the man from my dreams stand before me in the flesh? A living, breathing human being? A living breathing human being who recognizes me too?  

When our eyes meet again, I read the same confusion in him. 


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  |   Instagram   |  Goodreads

Pinterest  |  BookBub  |  Newsletter

 


Giveaway

Enter the  giveaway for a chance to win 1 of 3 ebook copies from Nell’s backlist

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Book Blitz & Excerpt: Do You Know Dorothy?

do you know dorothy

 

Do You Know Dorothy?
The Juliana Series, Book 5

by Vanda

LGBT Historical Fiction

Published: May 2021

Publisher: Sans Merci Press

Can a group of elderly drag queens save a 1950s nightclub from being taken over by the mob?

It’s 1956 and television is stealing Alice’s nightclub audience. Known as Al to everyone in the club scene, she has to try to prevent the mob from taking over her crippled club and turning it into a strip joint.

Her one solace: Juliana, the woman who haunts her memories and fuels her dreams of a brighter future. But the last time Al saw her was the day Juliana’s husband caught them in bed together.

On the brink of losing her love and her livelihood, Al makes a bold decision. She arranges an extravagant production starring aging female impersonators, even though funding the show means going into debt.

Will the show succeed in saving her club and helping her find her way back to Juliana? Or will Al’s big risk result in losing everything? Although the book is the fifth in the series it can read as a standalone.

DO YOU KNOW DOROTHY? is the fifth book in the Juliana series of historical LGBT fiction, but you can also enjoy it as a standalone novel.

Purchase Link

Amazon


Other Books in the The Juliana Series:

 

Juliana

The Juliana Series, Book One

She went looking for fame, and found her true self, instead.

Olympus Nights on the Square

The Juliana Series, Book Two

What if your love was illegal? What would you do?

Paris, Adrift

The Juliana Series, Book Three

She wanted a safe harbor for their love. But rough waters could destroy any hope of starting over…

Heaven is to Your Left

The Juliana Series, Book Four

How far would you go to save the person you loved?

Amazon


Excerpt

Max sat up straight on the couch as I entered the living room. “My god, what happened to you?”

“Don’t you like it?” I adjusted my blue and white striped skinny tie, shook my shoulders so my blue suit jacket and held out one foot to show off the black cowboy boots. I pulled the jacket open and grabbed the belt on my black jeans. “And look!” I stuck my hips out. “A fly!”

“Cover yourself!” He shielded his eyes with his hand. “You didn’t wear that in public!”

“Yeah! Well, I took a cab home.”

“You could’ve been killed walking around with that on your head. What is it? Halloween?”

“I’m a butch!” I turned my back to him. “See? This is a DA. That means duck’s ass for you old fogies.”

“Does it come off? We can’t have you at the club looking like that.”

“I can set it with those darn curlers and get it back to my boring page boy.”

“I better not see you at the club wearing anything remotely similar.”

“Of course not, but on my off hours…”

“You can’t take chances like you did tonight.”

“I know.”

“Getting arrested is the best that could happen to you.”

“I know.”

“Where’d you get them?”

I went shopping.”

“What store would sell you clothes like that? They’re for men.”

“I went as a man.”

“What?”

I was so scared they’d figure it out and show me the door.” I sat on the coffee table.

“Sit on the couch like a lady.”

I plopped onto the couch without worrying about which way my legs went. “I walked right into Macy’s and…’

“Macy’s! Oh, my god.”

My friends, Freddie-Faye and Lady Day taught me.

Who’s Lady Day?”

A female impersonator I know.”

You should not be with someone like that. Someone who doesn’t even know what their sex is. She’s, he’s mentally disturbed.”

She is not. She’s real nice. She has a nephew who sometimes stays over. She leant me his dungarees. Then she gave me this hair style. I went to the men’s department with my friend. I bought my own Men’s clothes. I was scared the salesman would figure it out, but he just called me ‘sir’ and showed me things and let me go into the fitting room.

“Watch me comb it.” I jumped up. “Butches have to comb their hair different from everybody else.” I reached into my back pocket and slid out my new comb. I jutted my chin out and slapped the comb against the palm of my hand. “You’re sposed to do that first.”

Why?” Max asked.

“Pay attention.”

He wrapped his hands around his knees. “Listening.”

Watch. You hafta hold your comb between your first two fingers like this. Then you flick your first three fingers through the front of your hair and, uh…” I stared at my two fingers holding the comb and the one extra finger sticking out by itself.

What’s the matter?”

I’m sposed to make a curl come over my forehead. It seems it’d be easier to do with just my fingers, but then what do I do with the comb? Oh, well, there’s a whole ritual to combing your hair when you’re a butch. Like there’s the show combing. Stop grinning like you’re not taking me serious. Butch’s comb their hair in public to defy the rules that get thrown at women. Butches are independent. When they look in a mirror…” I stepped over Max’s white rug and saw myself in the mirror. “They tilt their heads like this and then to the other side like this. That’s to show they know they look good, and everybody wants them. I swear I’m gonna be one, Max!” I grandly threw my comb on the rug.

Get that comb off my clean white rug!

I picked it up.


About the Author

Vanda wrote her first novel in eighth grade, with encouragement from her teacher, Mr. James Evers, who said, “My children will read your words.” She went on to win an Edward Albee Fellowship among other awards for playwriting. One of her plays, VILE AFFECTIONS, was a finalist for the National Lambda Literary Award. She is now writing a series about LGBT history. The characters are fictional, but the history is fact. The books have all received awards in some form. The third in the series, Paris, Adrift was a Category First Place winner in Chanticlear’s Goethe Award for Late Historical Fiction. This same book was also a finalist in the Lesfic Bard Awards.

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