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Exes and O’s
Lakeshia Poole
Publication date: November 24th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
For some the game of love and college seems rigged. After a few tough losses they resort to doing things they thought they would never do to turn their challenges into championships…
Ciara and Xander each came to Aurbor Grove University with the perfect game plan. She would score another chance at finally living up to her college dreams and the high academic expectations set by her mother. He would become the star quarterback and hometown hero he was groomed to be. Yet they find themselves entangled in drama—from the exes who refuse to live without them to the financial struggles that make it seem like college is meant only for the elite to win.
Their friendship has a rocky start, but as the semester passes along they find that their most peaceful moments are spent with each other. Will the pains of the past and pressure on the fields of love and learning squash all hope for their future?
Exes and O’s is Lakeshia Poole’s drama-filled, romantic sequel to Don’t Let Me Fall.
Want a signed copy? Signed paperback copies available on promotional website!
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EXCERPT:
Aurbor Grove University didn’t feel like just a place. Not anymore. It was a living part of Ciara Capers. Like a phantom limb, she felt remnants of her life from before dangling, but not really there.
Families carting luggage, mini refrigerators, and large containers whizzed by her. Housing assistants offered bottled water and waved directional signs pointing the herd to the appropriate check-in lines. AGU’s village of residence halls towered over everyone. The flurry of move-in day activity made Ciara feel so small, like a period in a sweeping, 100,000-word epic novel.Her eyes darted away from her old dorm, Caldwell Hall. It glowered at her anyway, demanding she acknowledge its presence and her past.
The line for MacDonald Hall spilled from the front desk all the way outside, curving around the gushing fountain in the center of the Village courtyard.
Ciara loosened her grip on the duffle bag stretched to the seams.
“You’re not getting tired on me already, are ya?” Nick asked, stopping at her side.
“Not yet.” The edge of her lips curved up into a half smile.
He craned his neck, peering over the line slowly edging forward. A black AGU baseball cap shaded him from the South Georgia sun beating down on them. Still the dense heat reddened his cheeks and created dark gray splotches on his t-shirt.
“I don’t have much,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“If we ever get your keys, it shouldn’t take too long to unload everything.” He pulled a bottle of water from his khaki cargo shorts and handed it to Ciara.
She took a sip, leaning into him. “I know. I’m just—”
“Having second thoughts?”
“No, I’m glad to be back.”
The lie rolled off her tongue smooth and easy, because Ciara had practiced. She’d repeated it to family members, friends, and even herself with the high pitch of fake excitement.
When she decided to return to AGU after a yearlong absence, so many thoughts of what could go wrong raced through her mind.
What if my ex comes back too? What if the classes are too hard? What if everyone still blames me for what happened to Tala?
Ciara kept last summer’s pain and unspoken secrets tucked away, but ever so often regret popped up, tapped her on the shoulder, and whispered in her ear: ‘You do not deserve this.’
She brushed that voice and the perspiration turning her bangs into a crinkly mess to the side. She shaded her eyes with one hand and looked up at her new home: MacDonald Hall or the Mac as many lazily, coolly called it.
The Mac offered a long list of amenities like free yoga classes, private bathrooms, and walk-in closets, which made it sound more like a resort than the typical dormitory. A breezeway bearing AGU’s iconic, cursive A connected two 12-floor towers of curfew-free, coed living. Trees lined the sidewalk, their leaves and branches forming an arc over the sliding door entrance.
Ciara felt an urge to fix the maroon and white ‘Welcome to Move-In Day!’ banner hanging crookedly, but turned to Nick instead.
“Thanks for being here with me today.”
“No problem. You’ve gotta promise me you’re not quitting again.” The lightheartedness of Nick’s joke didn’t dull the sting of his words about her being a quitter.
With every mishap, Ciara wondered if the universe wanted her to quit again. A pre-dawn text message from her sick father left her scrambling to find help. Then an accident on I-75 turned her ride from Atlanta into a five-hour, stop-and-go nightmare. And now she stood in a line that didn’t seem to move.
She closed her eyes, willing the negativity away.
Today’s a perfect day to begin again.
While antsy, red-faced students and families rushed for the doors, Ciara took in the special moment marking her second chance.
She breathed in the hot, magnolia-scented air, held on until she couldn’t stand it anymore and let go.
I’m ready.
Author Bio:
Lakeshia Poole is an award-winning public relations professional and author. Whether it’s landing a feature in The New York Times, developing a YouTube short or creating a series of blog posts, she believes in telling positive and compelling stories. Poole graduated from the University of Georgia with dual degrees in public relations and sociology. When she’s not writing, she spends her time with family and her dog JoJo Dancer.
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Book Title: Perfect Ruin
Author: Nashoda Rose
Genre: Erotic Romance
Release Date:December 14, 2015
Hosted by: Book Enthusiast Promotions
Kai
There is nothing I care about.
No attachments.
No connections.
Outwardly, I’m a perfect gentleman.
Until my target sees my knife.
I fear nothing, not even death.
In my world, death is considered a privilege.
But my life comes with unbreakable cruel strings and
when I met her, I should’ve walked away.
I didn’t.
I was too selfish.
And that sealed her fate.
Because one week with me led her into the hands of ruin.
London
We all have unique layers that make up who we are.
What makes us vulnerable or strong.
What we fear and what excites us.
But peel back those layers and you’re left naked and exposed.
They did that to me.
Each piece was slowly stripped away then burned.
I merely existed.
But there was one layer they overlooked.
The most important of them all—the tie to one man.
The man responsible for me being this way.
The man who found me.
And the killer who would do anything to protect me.
Perfect Ruin is the dark erotic story of Kai and London.
Their beginning.
And the continuing story of Vault.
Must be read in order:
Perfect Chaos (Unyielding, #1) Deck and Georgie
Perfect Ruin (Unyielding, #2) Kai and London
Perfect Rage (Unyielding, #3) Connor’s story
“If there was no deal, would you want me? Do you want me?” he drawled.
Did I? Yes. I wanted the man who had held me in his arms and told me he’d always come for me. I wanted him. I’d always wanted him. “Yes,” I whispered.
“Good. Then this is day one,” he murmured against the back of my neck as his lips made contact.
“Please. Tell me… I need something to make this… okay.” Nothing would make this okay. I knew that. This was a deal and I was trading my body for my father’s safety to a man who was obviously dangerous.
It was just sex. That was all.
But no matter what I told myself, I knew sex with Kai was more than the act. I felt it the second my body reacted to him and my mind fought him.
He suckled on the lobe of my ear and desire spread like wildfire. “You’re safe with me. Always.”
“And if I don’t believe you?” But the fucked-up part was that I did believe him.
He pulled back slightly, just enough so I no longer had the heat of his body against me, but still felt the closeness. “That’s up to you. But your body trusts me and if there is one thing in life you should trust, it’s your body.”
He released one of my wrists. Brushing my hair aside from my neck, he replaced the touch of his finger with his mouth. His lips trailed a path of gentle, light kisses of heat over my skin and some of the tension left my body.
“What if my body is wrong?” I closed my eyes and curled my hands into fists, unable to move. Afraid to. Wanting to.
“Your body doesn’t know how to be wrong. The only lies are the ones your mind feeds it.”
“I’m scared,” I admitted.
“I’ll make it go away, baby.”
When she isn't writing, she can be found sitting in a field reading with her dogs at her side while her horses graze nearby. She loves interacting with her readers and chatting about her addiction—books.
On SALE for just 99¢ (for a limited time)
Hunting Moon
by Rebecca York
Series: Decorah Security
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Light Street Press
Cover Designer: Earthly Charms
Publisher: Light Street Press
Cover Designer: Earthly Charms
Release Date: December 14, 2015
Witnessing the murder of New York mobster, Johnny Denato, is only the beginning of the terror closing in on nightclub dancer Tory Robinson. Kidnapped and spirited off to an isolated upstate New York sanatorium, she’s held captive by a sadistic doctor who drugs her and insists she’s there for psychiatric treatment. But his focus is on getting information about Denato.
Enter werewolf Brand Marshall, out hunting in the deep woods when he discovers Tory’s dire predicament. Getting her out alive will take all of his courage and cunning, but Brand's ultimate challenge is convincing Tory that she is his destined mate.
The last thing Tory Robinson expected to hear was the sound of gunshots.
She’d been sitting on the comfortable couch in Johnny Denato’s luxury Central Park South condo. When he’d excused himself to take a business call, she’d walked to the outsized living room windows to enjoy the ten million dollar view of the park.
Behind her, a door opened, and she heard Denato’s voice change abruptly. Someone must have come in, and he was demanding to know what they wanted. As the voices grew louder, she whirled around in time to hear a series of popping noises and catch a quick view of men with guns running past the living room door.
Fear threatened to turn her body to stone. But she knew that if she stayed where she was, she was a dead woman. Dropping to the floor behind the sofa, she crawled toward the heavy drapes that pooled at either side of the window and worked her way behind the nearest panel. Praying that the gunmen were still in the back of the apartment, she eased to a standing position and pressed against the wall, the cold plaster raising goose bumps on her arms.
Her mind’s eye flashed to the coffee table in front of the sofa where she and Denato had been sitting. He had left a glass of bourbon on the glass top, but she’d told him she didn’t want a drink. So an extra glass wouldn’t give her away. And thank God she’d taken her purse with her. The men wouldn’t see that two people had been in the room—unless they noticed two depressions in the back sofa cushions.
Voices conferred in low tones, the words like the roaring of surf in her ears. When heavy footsteps approached the window, the blood froze in her veins, and she braced to feel rough hands shove the drapes aside and yank her out like a rabbit plucked from its burrow.
An eternity ticked by before she heard a sarcastic voice say, “High class view.”
“It won’t do him no good now,” another man answered.
“We better get the hell out of here, in case somebody heard the action.”
“Right.”
As footsteps receded from the window, Tory closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall, taking deep breaths as she ordered herself not to faint. For long seconds after the front door closed, she stayed where she was, imagining that the gunmen could be waiting to see if someone crept out of hiding.
But finally she knew she couldn’t stay where she was.
Cautiously, she eased one edge of the drapes aside and looked out. The apartment was just as she remembered it—until she saw a pair of black-trouser-clad legs lying on the marble floor of the foyer.
She recognized Johnny’s dress pants—and his Italian designer shoes.
“Johnny?” she whispered, hurrying toward him, stopping short when she saw the red circle in the middle of his forehead and the pool of blood that had spread around his head like an evil halo against the pale floor. There was nothing she could do for him now.
Haven't started the series yet or need to catch up?
The Decorah Security Series
On Edge
Dark Moon
Chained
Ambushed
Dark Powers
Hot and Dangerous
At Risk
Christmas Captive
Destination Wedding
Decorah Security Collection
Rebecca has authored or co-authored over 65 romantic thrillers, many for Harlequin Intrigue’s very popular 43 Light Street series, set in Baltimore, and many with paranormal elements.
Her many awards include two Rita finalist books. She has two Career Achievement awards from Romantic Times: for Series Romantic Suspense and for Series Romantic Mystery. And her Peregrine Connection series won a Lifetime Achievement Award for Romantic Suspense Series.
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