Blog Tour: Grading on Curves by Tara Mills
Cover Reveal: Breaking the Rules by HB Heinzer
Cover Reveal: Losing Control by Desiree Wilder
Cover Reveal: Alternate Connection by Chris Almeida and Cecilia Aubrey
Today we have Tara Mills and her book Grading on Curves on our blog!!
***Content Warning: contains sensual sex***
Available now at Beachwalk Press, Amazon, Amazon UK, and Barnes & Noble
Blurb:
One-on-one instruction never felt so right—or so wrong.
There’s nothing unusual about Mia Page’s attraction to the young science teacher at the middle school. After all, she’s not the only one who finds him enticing. But when he pulls her son aside to ask for her phone number, she knows she’s in serious trouble. Since her divorce four years earlier, she’s been out of circulation, choosing to focus on parenting instead, and she’s not entirely sure she can handle an entanglement with the sexy Mr. Walden.
There are also other reasons why getting involved with Curt would be a bad idea. He’s two years shy of thirty, and she’s on the downside of that unmentionable number. He’s adamant about never having kids, and she has a son. Even the guy’s romantic gifts are suspect. Energy saving light bulbs? He has to be kidding.
On the other hand, he’s fun, sweet, and smart. He stimulates her intellectually, emotionally, and Lord help her, physically, opening her eyes to life outside her comfortable world. Yet their differences quietly gnaw at Mia even while she succumbs to their undeniable chemistry.
As their romance deepens, so do Mia’s fears that Curt will eventually hurt her. On edge, all it takes is an innocent comment to provoke her into drawing first blood. Mia recklessly wounds Curt, learning only too late that this blade cuts both ways. Frantic to make amends, she fears it might be too late to admit the feelings she’s tried so hard to suppress.
Read the First Chapter
Here
My Review:
Oh Mr. Walden... if only I could have had a science teacher that was as sexy as you!!! Grading on Curves was a quick, easy read with plenty of story, sex, and laughs!! I love how Tara Mills took a "cougar" type woman and made her story typical for what many single middle aged women everywhere are going through!
Mia is a single mom of a teenage boy who married too young and married her best friend, not a lover. Her life has been at a stale mate since she has been divorced and she has focused all of her attention and energy on her son and not herself. Her love life is non-existent, she is best friends with her ex husband, and her day to day is a routine rut! All that changes when she meets sex on legs Curt Walden. Mia sees Curt at a coffee shop while with her friend and she feels an instant zing. However, their lives do not really cross until Mia's son breaks his wrist at school and his teacher has to take him to the hospital. Little did Mia know, that the sex on legs guy from the coffee shop and the teacher are one in the same!
Grading on Curves follows the story of Mia learning to date, letting go of herself and giving her heart away again. Will she let the age difference between her and Curt be an obstacle or will she follow her heart and pursue a real relationship with him. I give this book 4 stars on the knock my socks off scale! I love the way the ending wrapped up the story, but also left it opened for a second book. Kudos to Tara Mills!!
Author Info:
I write stories I like to read -- contemporary romances with identifiable characters and themes. Life is hard, love makes it bearable. If you like stories with heart, heat, and humor, I have a title for you.
In the real world I'm a pampered wife, lucky mom to three amazing sons and one wonderful daughter-in-law, and I just became a very young grandma. I should probably underline the word very. Oh heck, why not the word young too? Nah, you get the point. I'm also the daily monitor of one naughty dog with an attitude.
Author Links:
Website
Facebook
Giveaway (Two Digital Copies of GRADING ON CURVES)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour Schedule:
June 17th-
Flirting with Romance
SMI Book Club
June 18th-
Romance Bookworm
June 19th-
Toots Book Reviews
June 20th-
Books and Buttaflies
Paranormal Romance and Beyond
June 21st-
ToBeThode
June 24th-
Emily Wood, Author
My Book Muse
Tiffany Talks Books
June 25th-
Romance Addict Book Blog
June 26th-
Reading is my Time Out
June 27th-
Busy Moms Book Reviews
June 28th-
Romancing the Book
A Passion for Romance
Check out the cover reveal for Breaking the Rules by one of my faves HB Heinzer!!!
Release Date 8/1
Synopsis:
Growing up in small town Wisconsin, Carly Turner couldn't wait to escape when she graduated high school. Now, she's living the life in New York City, even if she isn't seeing her name in lights like she used to dream about at night. She's living paycheck-to-paycheck, working behind the scenes in small theaters off Broadway. When there's an equipment malfunction the week before opening night, Carly makes a call that winds up changing everything.
Life in the city isn't all it's cracked up to be. While she feels like she's getting closer to making the move from behind the scenes to center stage, she misses being surrounded by people who understand the quirks that come from living in a town of five thousand people. That, and the fact that he's sexy as sin, make Adam everything she feels like she's missing.
The only problem? He's her best friend's kid brother...
Adam Sanders wants to settle down, find a good woman and start a family like he sees so many of his friends doing. But how is he supposed to meet Ms. Right when he's constantly on the road for work? When he's sent to New York to handle a repair that would typically be contracted out as a favor to his boss, he's just about to his breaking point.
Everything changes when the stagehand sent to open the theater for him is none other than his big sister's childhood friend. The same girl he lusted after as a teenager. Could this be fate's way of showing him that he was looking in the wrong place for love?
As Adam and Carly's friendship develops, lines will be crossed and rules will be broken. Will they be able to come out the other side without destroying everything they had back in Brooklyn?
Author Bio:
With the exception of three years spent in the middle of Nebraska, H.B. Heinzer has called southern Wisconsin home. During that time in Nebraska, she imagined one of her favorite authors living on the far western edge of the county, just south of the highway. At the time, becoming a novelist was a distant dream for her. Now, she is the author living in that location. Ironically, she later found out that same favorite author lives just outside the town HB lived in for the first eighteen years of her life.
Now, HB lives in the middle of nowhere but still close enough to the city to not feel isolated. It's the perfect place to let her two kids run and explore their huge yard, teach them about the food chain as they prepare their first-ever garden and debate building a chicken coop. It's one of those dreams that is only possible thanks to the amazing opportunities that have come through writing.
Social Media Links:
Facebook | Website | Twitter | Goodreads Author | Goodreads Book
Check out this HAWT cover for Losing Control (Losing Control Series, #1) by Desiree Wilder!!!!
Coming August 2013…
Synopsis:
Gia feels broken inside after several miscarriages and a failed marriage. Now she’s just looking to have some fun…
During her marriage, she and her husband tried for several years to have a baby, she got pregnant three times and miscarried all three. Her husband couldn’t bear to give up his dream of having a family so they grew apart and eventually divorced. Gia feels like a total failure since she couldn’t carry a child. But now, it’s time to move on. She just wants to have a little fun. She needs to have a little fun. Secretly hoping of a wild sexual encounter with someone who craves to devour her inch by inch, she and a group of her closest friends set out to have a wild weekend at a rock festival which they look forward to every year. This is what she wants and what she needs, but is she really ready for this?
Ethan has been working too hard for the past ten years to have a serious relationship, but he’s always fantasized about one woman…
Ethan’s put his heart and soul into this venue and this year it looks like he might finally make a profit. Each year it hosts a rock festival and every year he looks for one person, the same person, the problem is he doesn’t know anything about her, he doesn’t even know her name. Finally he meet’s her and she’s everything he always hoped for, except for one thing…she seems to be looking for a wild sexual encounter. This causes a bit of a dilemma since all he really wants is to get to know who this mystery woman is. He needs to know who she is. While trying to fulfill her every desire he gives her the most carnal sexual experience of her life, hoping she will open up to him and give him a chance to discover who she truly is.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I am a small town girl living in the beautiful Midwest. I love to bake, read, camp and spend time with my crazy, yet supportive family. I'd felt for a long time that something was missing in my life. Then I started writing and found my passion! I couldn't believe I had lived without a creative outlet for so long! I feel very blessed to have found this passion and get to use it to fill me up everyday. I also love music and going to concerts, which you'll totally see in my debut series, 'Rock Hard'. I hope you all find your passion, whether it's reading, writing, music or whatever, and let it guide you to success in making your dreams reality!
ALTERNATE CONNECTION is the third novel in the COUNTERMEASURE SERIES.
The next installment of the COUNTERMEASURE SERIES has a tentative release date set for November 5th, 2013. The story continues where TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE left off and pursues a parallel between Trevor and Cassandra Bauer’s quest and a daring attack on US nationals.
BLURB
CIA operative Nathan Nelson has built his life on secrets. Secrets about events that have shaped him into the man he has become. Events that taught him to keep his shields up. He has kept them buried in the past and nobody—not even Cassandra Bauer, the woman he claimed to love—knows of them. Now, those secrets have come barreling down on him at the worst of times.
Foreign Service Specialist Rachael Moore's personal crusade puts her in the crosshairs of very dangerous people. She would risk everything to achieve her goal even if it means exposing her battered heart and deeply concealed dreams to a man who doesn’t know the meaning of love.
Unbeknownst to both, their reconnection may not only bridge the chasm between the two of them, but shed light on a puzzling mystery. Their perilous journey becomes a race for their lives, leading them into a conspiracy rooted deeper than the tangled emotions between them.
Will their collaboration shatter the tenuous link woven in the past or forge a bond they never expected could exist in the future?
EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 5
Nathan shook his head and pulled out the first folder containing the personal file of Gerald Blair, U.S. Envoy to the Middle East. The report was thorough and contained a detailed account of both his professional and personal life. He raised his eyes to Hanson. “Do you want to split’em?”
“Nope. I’m done with them. They are all yours.”
“When—?”
“While I waited for the fax. I’m a fast read, Nelson. Keep that in mind.” Hanson’s lips quirked in a cocky grin as he leaned his seat back and closed his eyes. His disheveled appearance and the hickeys decorating his neck a clear indication he needed some shut-eye. “Let me know when you’re done so we can discuss the details.”
Nathan sank in his own seat, his mind teeming with questions. Questions he didn’t think he would have answers to any time soon. He had a long analysis ahead of him considering he was also looking for pieces of a puzzle unknown to Hanson. Unlike Hanson’s, Nathan’s focus also encompassed the files belonging to the two agents and two drivers who’d been killed in the attack.
With that in mind, he returned his attention to the folder and began studying the first of the people they were supposed to know inside and out before they set off for ground zero. As he read through the pages, he looked for inconsistencies, hidden information, or activities that could have made Blair a target. Anything that could have put them all in the crosshairs of whoever had taken them.
The situation was more complex than the usual hostage kidnapping. While religious extremists were quick to claim responsibility, those who’d abducted the six remaining members of the diplomatic convoy two days earlier hadn’t made any demands through the media. They’d simply dropped off the radar as if they’d never been.
There had to be a reason for that divergence from the usual and that reason could very well be tied to Nathan’s prime directive. The answer could be in any of their past or present and, if he was to be successful, he had to find it.
He beat his way through Gerald Blair’s file and took notes as he moved through. Blair had been in extensive contact with Palestinians and Israelis—unavoidable contact since it was an integral part of his job to mediate peace in the region—and that in itself could have placed a target on his back.
Nathan set Blair’s file aside and moved on to the next in the bundle. As he flipped it open, his whole body stiffened in his seat. A buzzing noise flooded his ears, and his sight dimmed. His field of vision narrowed to the picture on the page and the name listed—Moore, Rachael. Status: Widow. Rae.
His blood iced in his veins. For a moment, he felt detached from reality expecting someone to pop up in the seat in front of him pointing a camera and screaming, “Gotcha!” He fixed his eyes on the file again. Phillip Moore’s wife. Was that why Hanson had made that comment about setting personal involvements aside? Nathan stared at her familiar image for a moment before diving in. Some of the information in it was known to him. Some was brand new. He read the declassified report on Phillip’s death with a heavy heart and the thumping in his chest rose to such a loud racket he thought it would wake Hanson from his beauty sleep.
The more he read about Rachael, the more his frown deepened. Why was she working at the embassy in Israel? How had she come to be assigned as a personal assistant to Blair?
Phillip had been crazy about her, and Nathan understood why as soon as he’d met her. At the time they met, she’d been working on a business associate degree with some difficulty due to the sudden transfer to the US. Neither had mentioned she dabbed in international politics back then. Had she made a career change after Phillip’s death? Guilt punched him in the gut and he held his breath, squeezing his eyes shut to keep self-flagellation at bay.
He’d gone through that cycle many times before. He wasn’t about to slide down that road again. If that was how he could redeem himself, he was going to take it.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Writing had touched Chris Almeida’s and Cecilia Aubrey’s lives in different ways through the years but had never taken flight. It was in 2010, when Chris and Cecilia met and began role-playing online as a hobby, that writing placed itself front and center in their lives.
Chris and Cecilia have since chosen to release all their titles independently. They have several short stories and two novels published under their own label, Éire Publishing, and are vocal supporters of independent publishing done right. They are currently working on the third novel in their series. Through all the chaos and laughter, they still hold true to their roots, bringing their favorite role-play characters and stories to life.
You can find them at:
Facebook:
Chris Almeida -
http://www.facebook.com/Chris.Almeida.Author
Cecilia Aubrey -
http://www.facebook.com/cecilia.aubrey.author
Authors Facebook Page -
https://www.facebook.com/Authors.ChrisAlmeida.CeciliaAubrey
Countermeasure
Series Facebook Page -
http://www.facebook.com/Countermeasure.Series
Websites:
Chris & Cecilia-
http://chrisalmeida-ceciliaaubrey.com
Countermeasure Series -
http://countermeasureseries.com
Twitter:
Chris -
http://twitter.com/CAlmeidaAuthor
Cecilia -
http://twitter.com/CAubreyAuthor
Photography by Jenn LeBlanc of Studio Smexy for Illustrated Romance
You can enter the draw for one of 10 Countermeasure Series Swag Packs containing nine bookmarks and a bracelet (I <3 ALPHA GEEKS) and also enter the giveaway for a chance to win a digital ARC signed copy of ALTERNATE CONNECTION once it becomes available.
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ARC Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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