Title: Death Days
Author: Lia Cooper
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: August 6, 2018
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 70000
Genre: Paranormal, college, teaching, magic, dark, slow burn, age gap, vampires, shifters
Title: Death Days Author: Lia Cooper Publisher: NineStar Press Release Date: August 6, 2018 Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex Pairing: Male/Male Length: 70000 Genre: Paranormal, college, teaching, magic, dark, slow burn, age gap, vampires, shifters Add to GoodreadsSynopsisBy day, Professor Nicholas Littman works as an itinerant professor at a small college in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches seminars on mythology and the intersections of folklore and magic in the ancient world. By night, he’s the local necromancer, a rare magical talent that has left him alienated from other practitioners. All Nick wants from life is to be left alone to run his magical experiments and teach kids the historical context of magic without anyone being the wiser. Unfortunately, his family is sworn to sit on the council of the Order of the Green Book—a group of magicians dating back to the Crusades—and they aren’t willing to take Nick’s no for an answer. As though that wasn’t bad enough, a coven of Night Women has arrived in town, warning Nick that there are wolves at his door he had better take care of. But what can one necromancer do when every natural and supernatural card seems stacked against him?ExcerptDeath Days Lia Cooper © 2018 All Rights Reserved One: The Professor “Today we’re talking about the elision that occurs between Thoth worship in pre-Ptolemaic Egypt and early Greece. Let’s break into four groups for seminar,” Professor Nicolas Littman said, eyeing the half-empty teaching theater. He divided the room with a sweep of his arm and glanced at the clock on the back wall. “We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes to discuss your thoughts as a group. And I want every small group to come up with a question to pose to the rest of us.” He felt gratified at the way they began shuffling together into little clusters without further prompting. “One of you should go use the lounge outside,” he said, waving absently at the small group at the very back of the room. He didn’t care if they took the direction or not. He trusted in every student’s desire to escape the four walls of the classroom given a millimeter of freedom. All that mattered was that he now had thirty minutes of his own time in which to play hooky. Nick grabbed a book and the vape out of his bag, and slipped out of the left-hand exit. Why someone in the administration had decided to give him a corner theater for this class was beyond him. Four credits on Hermetic Mythologies and Cosmologies was hardly in demand. Especially when it was offered as a four-and-a-half-hour option on Saturdays. But if it meant they got a spacious room and the otherwise empty SEM II C building to themselves, he shouldn’t complain. His students could spread out to their hearts’ content, leaving him to steal outside to smoke without anyone around to gripe at him. “Not even a proper smoke,” he muttered, flicking the round silver device on, warming the metal under his hand. Nick sat on the concrete with his back to the building’s cement exterior and his knees bent, pressed the tip of the vape between his lips, and held down the button for a long, comforting drag. He closed his eyes to the bright sun and tipped his head back against the wall. Vapor streamed out of his pursed lips in a thick, fragrant cloud and pooled in the air above his head. “Hiding from the students again?” an amused voice asked from above. “I’m not hiding,” Nick grumbled. A thin body lowered itself down onto the ground next to him, all long spidery limbs that folded with the kind of soft careless agility Nick hadn’t felt in a decade or two. He looked over at his—teaching assistant wasn’t the word. Technically, Josiah didn’t work for him at all. He was just an independent contract student working on an eight-credit history project, but he let Nick use him like a TA so that’s how he always thought of him. “What do you call this?” Josiah asked, knocking their shoulders together. “Seminaring.” Josiah’s face crumpled up with amusement. His flexible mouth stretched into a laugh while his shoulders shook. Nick held out the vape on offer and waited for Josiah to notice. “Is it peppermint?” he asked. Nick nodded. “No thanks.” “I’m not buying cake or whatever it is you like.” “Are you trying to say there’s something wrong with cake?” Josiah returned Nick’s stony look with a nonplussed expression. “It’s unna—” “First of all: I don’t remember tobacco ever coming in ‘peppermint flavor’ before, and second: everything you do is unnatural, so that’s not a valid argument coming from you, Professor Littman.” Nick grimaced. “Don’t call me that.” “Nick.” He sighed and took another long drag off his vape, waiting for the nicotine to soothe the flutter in his heart that Josiah’s words had kicked up. Nothing he did was natural. The kid had no idea just how right he was. Nick glanced down at his empty hand, automatically checking his nails for pesky traces of dirt, but there was nothing unusual to see. He’d scrubbed up hard the night before. Done a thorough job not to leave any of those unnatural traces that might have given Josiah a better-formed picture of what his professor and academic adviser got up to in his free time. Shit, even in his head, he sounded like a pervert. “You’re wrong. Some things I do are perfectly natural.” “Like what?” Nick gave the young man a slow look. “You have a very active imagination, Mr. Wexler.” “The imagination is a hungry organ, seeking perpetual nourishment. I like to think that it’s not so much I’ve got an active imagination, but rather a well-fed one.” “That you feed on thoughts of me?” Nick smiled, playing the comment off as a joke even though it left something low and hot in his body to sit up with interest. A curl of amused interest that quivered at the thought of a bright young man captivated by thoughts of him, even if they were merely frustrated or prurient or the passing whim of childish fancy, as he suspected was the case. “Sometimes,” Josiah admitted, looking away. The two of them sat in companionable silence until the phone in Nick’s pocket hiccupped its alarm to let him know that the requisite thirty-minute small group had passed, and he had to return again to face the lethargy of his classroom. “Did you need something?” he asked, using the wall to push himself to his feet, and slipped the vape back into his pocket. Josiah pulled out a sheaf of printouts from his backpack and held them up for Nick to take. “Two new chapters. I wanted to get your thoughts on them before I continue. It took a—the narrative took a direction we haven’t discussed before.” “All right. I’ll see what I can do.” “Thanks.” “Do you want to come in?” “Nah, I’ve got to meet Jen. Talk to you next week?” Nick nodded. Above them, the sky had dimmed as sure as if someone had taken a dimmer switch to the sun. Dark clouds cast a clear, watery gray light over campus, the edges of the quad hemmed in on all sides by towering dark trees that only helped to feed into the illusion of night creeping over them. The air smelled as though it were about to rain, bitterly cold and damp. “Do you think it’s going to snow?” Josiah asked, climbing to his feet. Nick shook his head. “Not a chance.” He filed back into the teaching theater behind the stragglers. Sixty minutes for discussion and in-class readings, and then he’d be free for the rest of the weekend. Nick perched his feet on the edge of his desk, saw the streaks of mud clinging to his shoes, and dropped them again. He cleared his throat and looked out at the crowd for the first person to meet his eyes. “Ah, Amelia, why don’t you start us off with a brief summary of what your group discussed.” He folded his arms over his chest and listened with half an ear while his focus strayed repeatedly to the darkening sky and the promise of rain.PurchaseNineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | KoboMeet the AuthorLia Cooper is a twenty-something native of the Pacific Northwest, voracious reader, pop-culture addict, and writer. She cultivated an early interest in writing through fandom and completed writing her first full length novel with the help of NaNoWriMo. In the years since, she’s dabbled in catering, barista-ing, and working as a pastry chef before finally returning full time to the thing she loves most: storytelling. When she’s not glued to Scrivener, Lia enjoys playing video games with friends and reviewing books for her booktube channel.Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTubeGiveawaya Rafflecopter giveaway
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It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets. The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ+. I've been sharing snippets from The Merchant's Love for a while now, and I though it was time to mix it up a little. Today, I have a snippet from A Dance of Water and Air for you. Dance will be out on October 1st from NineStar Press. This is the first book in a fantasy romance duology that isn't connected to my Tournai series. It's the story of Edmund, a prince who must leave his kingdom to marrying the queen of a neighboring kingdom to seal a necessary alliance, and Arden, the queen's brother. They become friends and then fall in love, which is a problem considering who Edmund is supposed to marry. Then someone tries to kill the queen, and Edmund is blamed. Arden saves him, and while on the run, they have to figure out how to keep their kingdoms out of war and somehow be together. Edmund is cis and demisexual; Arden is trans and bi. The fantasy story carries over to the second book (expected to be published in March 2019), but Edmund and Arden get their HEA in this book. And after that long introduction, here's a snippet from the beginning of Dance. Edmund swam, long limbs slicing through the clear, warm water. His mind quieted in the repetitive motion, in the weightlessness and the comfort of being surrounded by his Element. Everything washed away, leaving him calm and relaxed, the only time he ever was lately. If only he could stay there. He imagined it for a moment. Spending his life swimming and sailing. All his time in the soothing embrace of the water, or at the shore or bank, feeling Water’s power, learning to use its magic. It was a lovely dream. A lovely, impossible dream. With that thought, tension—the tension his morning swim had briefly dispelled—came flooding back. I'll have more for you about Dance soon. Thanks for stopping by today!
These days, days sometimes feel like weeks and weeks like months, but summer is still flying by and somehow it's August already! I hope you've been getting some good reading in at least. I finally listened to KJ Charles's Charm of Magpies series in audio. I love the books, but this is the first time I've listened to them, and I loved the audio too. The narrator is fantastic and added a whole other dimension to the stories. I also listened to Harper Fox's Once Upon a Haunted Moor, which is the beginning of her Tyack & Frayne series (which I also love), and I enjoyed the audio of that too. Here are some other books I read and enjoyed in July: Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore: Wild Beauty is a young adult magical realism story that is just gorgeous. The Nomeolvides woman have tended the garden of La Pradera for generations, making the flowers grow, but if they fall in love too deeply, the garden takes their lovers. Only now it's given someone back. The beautiful cover drew me to the book first, but the story and characters didn't disappoint. The Queen's Game by Carla de Guzman: I loved the premise of this royal romance. It's set in a small island country near the Philippines and has a prickly heroine about to be crowned queen and a cinnamon roll of a hero who is the prince of a neighboring country. Gutter Roses by Jude Lucens: Gutter Roses is a very a short story, but it gives a lovely introduction to the world of this series. I have the next book, and I'm looking forward to settling down with it. Balefire by Jordan L Hawk: I adore the Whyborne & Griffin series. It's one of my favorite series, and Widdershins is a place I wish I could live (despite the monsters). I loved this new addition to the series, and my only complaint is that the next book is the last (I'm not ready!). Go read this series from the beginning! Briarley by Aster Glenn Gray: This is lovely m/m Beauty and the Beast retelling set during World War II. The beast takes the form of a dragon, and there is an acknowledgement that maybe the punishment didn't really fit the crime. Unfit to Print by KJ Charles: July was an embarrassment of riches for new books, including this new historical. It's a friends-to-lovers, second chance romance between a erotic bookseller and an upright lawyer who are long lost friends and only encounter each other again when lawyer Vikram goes looking for a missing boy. It's a long novella, but a bit short for me because I wanted more! The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick: I've read a ton of Amanda Quick's Regency and Victorian historicals over the years, but this is her first set in the 1930s and it was a lot of fun. A Gentleman Never Keeps Score by Cat Sebastian: I adored the first book in this series (they do stand alone but go read It Takes Two to Tumble anyway because its so good and happy-making), and I loved this one too. Hartley and Sam were both wonderful characters who were wonderful together. I loved the family they built and the sense of warmth this book left me with. What have you been reading lately? Title: Push Me Pull Me Author: Amanda Rhodes Publisher: NineStar Press Release Date: July 30, 2018 Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex Pairing: Female/Female Length: 20000 Genre: Contemporary, lesbian, pansexual, BDSM Add to GoodreadsSynopsisAt twenty-four, Mallory Grant is still struggling with adulthood. She can’t seem to make it in to work on time and deals better with her Tumblr friend on the other side of the world than a face-to-face with a real live human. But when her boss threatens to fire her as a rental agent, Mallory has to buckle down with her new client or end up jobless. Corinne Ibori is moving to the Chicago area and needs a place to call home. Mallory’s goal is to find just the right location for Corinne’s needs and show her boss she’s turned over a new leaf. Corinne is thirty-five, self-confident, beautiful, flirty, has a French accent, and knows what she wants. Mallory is finding it hard to believe that what Corrine wants might be her.ExcerptPush Me Pull Me Amanda Rhodes © 2018 All Rights Reserved Today has to be a new record for me. Forty-five minutes late for work and I’m sitting in the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru behind a line of cars at least a half mile long. One might think I have no respect for punctuality. And they’d be right. I’ve been on a losing streak lately with my alarm clock. It tries so hard to wake me up with the beeping and the screeching. I have to have my coffee before I meet the day head-on, though. Therefore, I wait. Might as well be productive while I sit here. I text Helena, asking her if she’s seen my Tumblr post with the new pictures of Charlize Theron. She’s cut all of her hair off, and it’s sexy as fuck. Maybe she did it for a new movie role, maybe just to torture me. It’s hard to say. Helena replies back, “Duh, Mallory. Of course, I’ve seen it.” She immediately saved it to her hard drive for safekeeping. This is why we are friends. Unfortunately, though, she lives on the other side of the ocean so most of our conversations are in the form of emails and texts. I don’t really do so well with live humans unless I’m getting paid to customer-service them. I’m perfectly content with the friends that live inside my computer as far as my personal life goes. Helena gets me, and I make her laugh. Works out perfectly. A few more cars move, and I’m almost to the ordering screen. I check the clock. 9:15 a.m. Yikes. This is super late, even for me. Silently, I pray that my boss isn’t in this morning—still traveling or has tripped on her kids’ Legos and sprained her ankle. “Mallory, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to make it in today. You’ll be able to hold down the fort without me, right?” “Absolutely, Shelly. You can count on me. I’ve been here for hours now. Everything is going smoothly.” “Perfect. You’re an amazing employee. I’m definitely giving you a raise and maybe even an expense account. Also, I think you should take a month-long vacation when I get back. Honk.” HONK. HONK. HONK. The person who’s waiting behind is obviously super pissed by my delayed response. “Sorry!” I yell from inside my car where no one can hear me. I wave, hoping they forgive my idiotic daydreaming. Quickly, I pull through, order my coffee and the bagel I swore to myself I wouldn’t get. When I make it to work, I realize that my daydream was exactly that. There’s a sticky note lying on my desk from Shelly. See me when you get in. There’s no “Thanks!” or her name with a smiley face. She knows that I’ll be aware of exactly who wrote the note. And she knows that I’ll be aware of exactly what I need to see her about. The sense of dread I feel at moments like this never motivates me to do the right thing (i.e. show up on time), but only serves to remind me of how much I suck at life. That nasty little voice in my head is chanting “loser alert!” over and over. Staring at the note, I take a minute to contemplate my next move. I could fake the stomach flu, invoking her pity. Well, at least temporarily. I’ll have to face the facts at some point, and that some point might as well be now. Sucking it up, I throw my things on my desk and do the walk of shame to her office. I could easily walk through this maze of dull gray cubicles with my eyes closed. I’ve done it so many times. The chatter of twenty different people on the phone, scheduling apartment viewings, fills the air. Ben’s giant pair of green foam Hulk hands sit atop his bookshelf. I give them a fist bump. Ben glances up from his phone call, nods, and winks. He’s the only tolerable human here. Almost every desk has one or two framed pictures of loved ones, boyfriends, kids, husbands. A candid of a group of friends at a wedding taunts me as I walk past Tracy’s desk. She also has a Post-it note holder in the shape of a red high-heeled shoe. She thinks it’s cute, and I think it’s hideous. Each time I have to make the trip from my desk to Shelly’s, I’m forced to think about the absence of pictures and mementos on mine. Yeah, I could frame a picture of my brother or of my childhood dog, Scrabble, but I don’t actually want anyone here to know that much about me. Peeking around the corner, I check to see if the boss-lady is on the phone or possibly reaming some other poor soul a new asshole, in which case I can hightail it out of here. No such luck. She peers up from her desk, her face the picture of annoyance. She extends her hand, waving me in. “Hi, Shelly! You wanted to see me?” I ask cheerily. “Save it. Sit down. We need to talk.” Her tone isn’t angry, just fed up. Honestly, this makes me feel even worse. She used to like me. And she’s stuck her neck out for me more than once. I’ve disappointed yet another person in my life. I might need to start a spreadsheet in order to keep track. Awkwardly, I take a seat across from her, trying to work out if I should cross my legs or leave them uncrossed. Which leg position makes a person seem less like a failure? “Listen,” she says, sighing deeply. “I know this isn’t your dream job. Nor would I expect you to treat being a leasing agent as such. But I do expect that you show some respect for me. I don’t make office hours for shits and giggles, Mal. You had an appointment this morning with a client. She sat in the lobby waiting for you for almost an hour.” Fuck. Me. “Exactly.” I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud.PurchaseNineStar Press | Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & NobleMeet the AuthorAmanda Rhodes watches way too much TV and has a ridiculous amount of books on her to-be-read pile, yet she keeps buying them. She’s been writing since… well for a long time. Amanda loves the paranormal, sci-fi, and fantasy but could never ever write it herself. She’ll leave that up to the weirdos who do it best. Amanda lives in Chicago with her wife, four children, and pitbull who is a lazy bum.Website | Twitter | InstagramGiveawaya Rafflecopter giveaway |
AuthorAntonia is a writer and a reader and a copy editor/proofreader. She loves books, travel, art, photography, baking, pasta, and shoes. Archives
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