Antonia Aquilante
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Cyber Monday Sale!

11/28/2022

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NineStar Press is having a great Cyber Monday sale today! Get 50% off your order with code CYBER22, and if you haven't read them yet, all of my books are eligible for the promotion. Don't miss out—you deserve to treat yourself to some new books!
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Thanksgiving Book Recs

11/23/2022

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I don't think I've ever done a Thanksgiving book rec post, so I thought it might be fun to list some Thanksgiving romances I've enjoyed in case you're looking for some seasonally appropriate reading this weekend.

Vincent's Thanksgiving Date by R. Cooper: This short read is so sweet and lovely! In it, Vincent, who is so shy and socially anxious, is drawn out of his shell by his neighbor, Cory. Who Vincent has had crush on. In Vincent's point of view, we see how much he wants to connect and how the burden of his shyness and anxiety stops him. But the way Cory treats him is so gentle and wonderful. It makes for such a beautiful romance that will absolutely make you smile.

A Midnight Feast by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner: This book is part of the authors' Fly Me to the Moon series, focusing on the space race of the 1960s, but you can read it out of order. Mitch and Margie's twenty year marriage has been in trouble for a while. They're hosting Thanksgiving, and Margie plans to use the preparations and guests as a buffer. But, their guests cancel, leaving them to spend a whole weekend alone together. There are flashbacks to when they met and different points in their marriage. The story feels like an emotional second chance romance (despite their never having broken up).

Take Me Home by Lorelie Brown: This novella (again part of a series, but stands alone just fine) begins at Thanksgiving. Keighley loves her family—but she is very tired of her Christian Fundamentalist aunt giving everyone grief because Keighley is a lesbian. So she decides to bring a fake girlfriend to Thanksgiving. That Thanksgiving dinner—during which they save and kidnap a mistreated dog—sets the stage for the romance that follows.

A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau: This first book in the Holidays with the Wongs series is set at Canadian Thanksgiving, but I feel this counts for this post—it's Thanksgiving, even if the timing is a bit different. Nick and Lily meet at a bar and have a one night stand the weekend before Thanksgiving. When Nick arrives at his parents' house in his small hometown, he finds out that his parents and grandparents have set him and his siblings up with blind dates for Thanksgiving. Lily is his brother Greg's date. This situation—and the fact that Nick, who doesn't do relationships, hasn't been able to stop thinking about Lily—causes Nick to tell Lily he wants more. It's a fun novella with a sweet romance, a wacky meddling family, and some spicy scenes too.

Thankless in Death by JD Robb: Okay, so this is more futuristic mystery than romance (there absolutely is romance in this series, but by book 37, the couples are well established), but I'm adding it to the list anyway. I always love to revisit Eve and Roarke and their friends, who are a wonderful chosen family. In this one, even as they're solving a murder, they're also preparing for the holiday—something Eve isn't really used to.

Do you have any favorite Thanksgiving books? 
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Rainbow Snippets November 19-20

11/20/2022

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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 switched over to The Envoy's Honor for a bit, sharing snippets to celebrate its second birthday this past week. In The Envoy's Honor, a delegation of dragon shifters arrive in Tournai, ostensibly to ascertain that the secret of the existence of dragon shifters is not at risk because a dragon shifter will be marrying into Tournai's extended royal family. Griffen is not only a diplomat and negotiator for the crown, but also the brother of the man marrying the dragon shifter who started the whole situation. He's trying to protect both his country and his family, but Kirill, one of the dragon shifter envoys, is trying to protect the existence of his people. As they try to work the conflict out—and inadvisably fall for each other—a murder and the discovery of a treasonous plot further complicate the situation. This snippet is another conversation between Kirill and Romilly, but this time they're talking about an encounter between Kirill and Griffen. Romilly, of course, has opinions.
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“Nothing to talk about.” But he saw no reason not to admit it to his friend. “Yes, we’re attracted to each other. Yes, we’ve seen each other outside these meetings. But nothing has happened. Mostly, we make polite small talk while hoping to pick up some information from each other.”

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“Mostly?” Romilly was too sharp for their own good--or perhaps Kirill’s.

“Last time, we had a small disagreement—over Ederic’s behavior.”

Romilly shrugged gracefully. “Which is abominable. I assume Lord Griffen believes so as well, but I know you couldn’t have come out and said so. What happened?”

“Nothing. I left. But if I hadn’t, we might’ve kissed.” He’d spent too long obsessing over what had happened. He couldn’t remember when or why he’d put a hand on Griffen, couldn’t remember which of them had stepped so close to the other. Or had they both moved closer to each other?

“Really?” Romilly’s large eyes betrayed their surprise. “Why didn’t you?”

“Romilly.” He leveled a repressive look at his friend. “It would hardly have been appropriate.”

Another shrug. “Maybe not, but you might have enjoyed yourself.”

You can find more about The Envoy's Honor here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're all staying safe and well.
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Rainbow Snippets November 12-13

11/13/2022

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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 switched over to The Envoy's Honor for a bit, sharing snippets to celebrate its second birthday this past week. In The Envoy's Honor, a delegation of dragon shifters arrive in Tournai, ostensibly to ascertain that the secret of the existence of dragon shifters is not at risk because a dragon shifter will be marrying into Tournai's extended royal family. Griffen is not only a diplomat and negotiator for the crown, but also the brother of the man marrying the dragon shifter who started the whole situation. He's trying to protect both his country and his family, but Kirill, one of the dragon shifter envoys, is trying to protect the existence of his people. As they try to work the conflict out—and inadvisably fall for each other—a murder and the discovery of a treasonous plot further complicate the situation. In this snippet, Kirill and Romilly, another of the dragon shifters, reflect on how poorly the beginning of talks are going, all due to one of their own.
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When they reached the guest wing, Ederic strode toward his rooms, continuing to talk at Byram and Stasia who followed in his wake. With Ederic ignoring the rest of them, they dispersed without a word. Romilly followed Kirill into his sitting room and closed the door behind them. Romilly walked directly to the liquor cabinet without a word. Kirill didn’t blame them--Ederic was enough to drive anyone to drink--but if this became a habit every time they had to deal with him, they were going to spend most of their stay in Tournai at some level of inebriation.

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Romilly turned, a glass of wine in each hand. The sunlight streaming through the window made their red hair appear to be aflame. The rich hue of their emerald-green jacket and pants had already heightened their dramatic coloring even without the light, but with it, Romilly glowed. If Ederic hadn’t been drawing everyone’s attention in the palace corridors with his ire, Romilly would have drawn a very different sort.

“Here you are.” Romilly handed him one of the glasses and toasted him with a wry twist of their lips with the other.

Kirill huffed out a breath but returned the gesture. “What do you think?”

“The wine is good,” Romilly said. “It’s a nice crisp white. The meeting was a disaster.”

Find out more about The Envoy's Honor here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well!
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My October Reading

11/11/2022

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Hello, my darlings! October was a not great month for reading for me. I had high hopes—this is my favorite time of year, and all I wanted was to wallow in some cozy autumn witchy books. But I kept borrowing witchy romances from the library, starting them...and they just didn't work for me. Sigh. I finally did a few rereads of autumn favorites (I put together a list of my favorite books for this time of year over here), which was much better. And I did read a few new-to-me books this month that did work for me:

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu: Mooncakes is an adorable YA graphic novel about a witch who comes across a white wolf in the woods—who happens to be her childhood crush. The story takes a through a sweet romance between Nova and Tam while they also have to figure out and fight some evil magic and go on a journey of self-discovery about themselves and home and family. The story is heartwarming, and the art is lovely.

Spirited Situation and Vortex Conundrum by Louisa Masters: Witchy books might not have worked for me this month, but ghostly ones did. I binge read these first two books in the Ghostly Guardians series (and am waiting impatiently for book three!). Both books are set at a historic hotel that is haunted, but these aren't scary ghosts. In fact, they are absolutely part of the found family that has grown among some of the employees of the hotel and are pretty hilarious (there is some creepy stuff with another creature and the history of the hotel that our characters have to deal with, but it's not super scary). In the first book, a man who has been able to see/hear/speak to ghosts his whole life and has lost friends and family and jobs over it finds a job and a home (and love, of course!) at the hotel, where everyone believes in ghosts and loves their own exasperating group of them. The second book picks up with a new couple at the hotel and the continuing story of the supernatural situation there.

The Forgotten Dead by Jordan L Hawk: I've had this book on my Kindle for far too long, but maybe October was the right month to read it! The Forgotten Dead is a modern set paranormal romance, very heavy on the paranormal story and less on the romance. And the ghost story here is suuuuper creepy (I should not have read before bed!). The mix of creepy ghosts in haunted house and human evil created a very scary story. The romance itself was incredibly sweet with little angst (which seemed totally fine in such an otherwise creepy story). Medium Oscar and parapsychologist Nigel are adorable together, and I'm looking forward to how their relationship develops over the series. Also, Nigel is trans and Oscar's ghost-hunting team includes a nonbinary person and a queer woman, and everyone is absolutely accepting—there are no issues with any of it and no bigotry, just the way it should be. Definitely looking forward to the next book.

What have you read and loved lately? (And does anyone have any witchy romances to recommend to me?)
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Rainbow Snippets November 5-6

11/6/2022

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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'm sharing snippets from The Spymaster's Secret over the next few weeks to celebrate the book's third birthday. The Spymaster's Secret is an opposites attract romance between a flirtatious, outgoing royal with hidden depths and an older, serious widowed father with very mysterious work. Which our young royal is quite curious about. And you know what they say about curiosity. Last week, I shared a snippet from Alexander and Faelen's preparations for the masquerade ball. This week, I thought I would give you a glimpse at the ball itself...and Alexander's flirtation with Marcus there.
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Alexander tilted his head as he contemplated Marcus. “What is it? What are you thinking?”

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Marcus needed to divert Alexander away from his actual thoughts. Because he couldn’t tell him, not when Marcus had been trying to avoid those feelings. Before he could find the words, Alexander’s eyes darkened, something coming into them as he watched Marcus steadily. His lips curved more, just a hint of a seductive smile, and Marcus shook his head immediately in denial.

“Alexander.”

His smile didn’t falter at Marcus’s quietly voiced admonishment. If anything, it grew. “Marcus.”

His name in that low, teasing tone rippled through him, leaving heat in its wake. “We can’t do this.”
Alexander’s eyes widened behind the mask, before he lowered his lashes to veil them. “I didn’t ask you to do anything. But maybe I will now.”

“Alexander.”

He ignored the repressive tone again. “Dance with me.”

“You—you want me to dance with you?”

“We are at a ball.” Those peridot eyes glittered flirtatiously. “At balls, 
people dance. I enjoy dancing. I think I might enjoy it very much with you.”

You can find more about The Spymaster's Secret here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're staying safe and well!
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    Antonia is a writer and a reader and a copy editor/proofreader. She loves books, travel, art, photography, baking, pasta, and shoes.

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