Release Blitz, Excerpt & Giveaway: Something Borrowed By Lily Morton

Confetti Hitched, Book 2

Stan has never let his blindness hold him back, but he’s beginning to realise his love life is keeping him from moving forward.

He can’t remember a time when he wasn’t in love with his best friend. Rafferty is everything to him—his partner in crime, his confidante, and the person who understands him best. But Rafferty is incapable of reciprocating Stan’s feelings.

As a successful wedding planner, Rafferty is passionately committed to helping newlyweds begin their happily-ever-afters, but after a rootless childhood he’s equally determined not to seek his own. How can he trust in love and marriage when so many of his brides and grooms are repeat customers?

Stan is the glue that keeps the pieces of Rafferty’s life together, and as such Rafferty has always kept Stan safely in the friend box where he can’t lose him. However, lately that conviction has wavered and now Rafferty is bursting with complicated feelings for his best friend. The timing couldn’t be worse because Rafferty has realised he’s in love with Stan just as Stan is moving on.

From bestselling author Lily Morton comes a friends-to-lovers story about realising you have the perfect man when you’re on the brink of losing him.

This is the second book in the bestselling Confetti Hitched series, but it can be read as a standalone.

Excerpt

I moan despairingly when I see the time. “It’s ten o’clock. Oh god.”

      “Is there a problem?”

      Instead of answering, I tap a familiar number on my phone’s screen. “Come on, come on,” I mutter, pacing as I listen to it ring. “Climb off Lachlan’s dick and answer the phone.”

      “Who are you talking to, sweetheart?”

      The call connects. “What?” Joe says cautiously into my ear. I can’t begrudge him his air of worry.

      “I need a favour.”

      He groans. “Last time you said that we got fined for causing a public disturbance.”

      “No, this time it’s really bad,” I whisper. “I need you, Joe.”

       “Joe?” the man asks from behind me. “Who the fuck is Joe?”

      “Who’s that?” Joe asks.

      “No one,” I say over the insistent voice of the man who is now frowning at me—the man who appears to think we’re married.

      “It doesn’t sound like no one,” Joe says, his voice rich with amusement as my bedmate paces the room and shouts about people who cheat.

      “Well, it is,” I say in a quelling voice. “Joe, I’ve got the Hollis wedding today.”

      “Yeah, I know. You’ll be fine.”

      “That might be true if I’d gone to bed at an early hour in my own bed. Sober,” I add with emphasis.

      “Oh god,” Joe says.

      I walk back into the bedroom. “I know,” I whisper. “I woke up naked, and apparently, I’m now in some sort of a relationship I have no memory of agreeing to. I leave that sort of behaviour to you, mate.” Joe laughs. “This is serious,” I hiss. I look at my watch and groan. “The bride will arrive at the church in an hour.”

      I look over at my bedmate, who’s joined me in the bedroom and is still frowning. I ask him, “I don’t suppose you have a spare morning suit hanging around?”

      “I don’t know any dead people,” he snaps.

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From bestselling author Lily Morton, the first book in her Confetti Hitched Series. 

Confetti Hitched, Book 1

Joe Bagshaw doesn’t believe in love or marriage anymore, which is rather a hindrance for a wedding planner.

His own marriage was a whirlwind affair that ended before the ink could dry on the wedding certificate. Nevertheless, even with his divorce pending, he’s getting by. Or at least he was until he finds himself snowed in at a remote Scottish hotel with the wedding party from hell, a terrible ABBA tribute band, and his soon-to-be ex-husband.

Lachlan has missed Joe from the second his husband walked away. He wants Joe back and is prepared to do anything to get him. Being snowed in together seems to offer the chance Lachlan needs, but does he have what it takes to get Joe to trust in love and their marriage again?

From bestselling author Lily Morton, comes a romantic comedy about love, matrimony, and the best of second chances.

This is the first book in the Confetti Hitched series.

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About Lily

Lily is a bestselling gay romance author. She writes love stories filled with heat and humour.

She lives in sunny England with her husband and two children, all of whom claim that they haven't had a proper conversation with her since she got her Kindle.

Lily has spent her life with her head full of daydreams, and decided one day to just sit down and start writing about them. In the process she discovered that she actually loved writing, because how else would she get to spend her time with hot and funny men?

She loves chocolate and Baileys and the best of all creations - Chocolate Baileys.

Connect with Lily

Facebook | Lily's Snark Squad Facebook Group

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Amazon Page | Goodreads | BookBub

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Release Blitz, Excerpt & Giveaway: Mann Hunt By Peter E. Fenton

FROM POPULAR AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA ROMANCE PETER E. FENTON

Declan Hunt Mysteries, Book 2

How far would you be willing to go to keep a secret?

When writer Malcolm Tull is discovered dead at his writing desk, all signs point to suicide. But Malcolm' s editor isn' t so sure. There' s the matter of the man' s missing computer, a mislaid manuscript and the fact that he didn' t seem the type to take his own life.

Declan Hunt and Charlie Watts are called into action and make their way to the mysterious Hoodoo House nestled on the edge of the Badlands of Alberta. Soon they are embroiled in a case involving blackmail, gay tricks and possibly even murder.

As the secrets of Hoodoo House come to light, Charlie discovers that his boss has been keeping a few secrets of his own, secrets that could impact their romantic relationship outside of the office. And before this investigation is done, Charlie will have to get to the truth, even if it means this might be his final case for Declan Hunt Investigations.

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Excerpt

Henry often seemed wiser than a boy of his age. Although he was only her ward, she thought of him as the child she’d never had and due to their age difference, he had taken to calling her Gramma Carol. She patted him on the shoulder. “Now, clear up your mess and set the table. Then you can go and tell Mr Tull breakfast is ready.” Henry quickly did as he was told. Mrs Cameron smiled as she looked around. The kitchen was her domain and nobody in Hoodoo House would dare to question anything she did here or, frankly, anywhere else on the property. She was the housekeeper, cook, scullery maid and holder of just about every other staff position one could imagine. She was as permanent a fixture in the building as the ancient stove or the kitchen’s large wooden prep table and she loved every scrap of wood and broken-down fixture in it…almost as much as she loved young Henry. Writer Malcolm Tull, however… An acrid smell hit her nostrils. “Damn.” She ran towards the oven. A cloud of smoke filled the air as she pulled out the tray of burnt baking. “You damned fool,” she muttered to herself as she removed the biscuits and placed them on a cooling rack. She could scrape the char off the best ones and they’d be fine. The others she’d save for crumbling up for the chickens, or perhaps the centres could be used for stuffing. Either way, they would end up inside a chicken. She checked the coffee perking in the pot and dabbed the fat off the freshly cooked bacon. She turned back towards the kitchen table and was startled to see Henry standing at the door, his eyes wide, his mouth open. It took him a moment to speak. “There’s something wrong with Mr Tull.” “Well, what’s wrong?” she asked. “He’s asleep on his desk and he’s lying in his own sick.” Mrs Cameron hurried to the writing room. Henry followed. She went to the desk and examined the prone man. She’d been around long enough to know when something wasn’t alive, but to be certain, she checked for a pulse—nothing. “Henry, leave the room and don’t touch anything. And don’t come back in here.” She scurried past the boy and headed back to the kitchen where she called the doctor…and the police.

FROM POPULAR AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA ROMANCE FICTION PETER E. FENTON

Book one in the Declan Hunt Mysteries series

Mann Hunt

How far would you be willing to go to finish the job?

Declan Hunt is having a bad week. His kidnapping case is showing little progress, his office assistant has left him on short notice, and his latest investigation has left him literally battered and bruised. But things change when he hires twenty-four year old Charlie Watts to help out at the office. They form an unlikely partnership trying to solve two seemingly unrelated cases whose threads begin to weave together when the missing person case turns to murder.

The investigation takes them from the dark alleys, gay bars and bath houses of Calgary, to the richest parts of the city during the world-famous Calgary Stampede.

But will they be able to discover who the killer is before another life is lost? And will Declan be able to solve the mystery of his relationship with Charlie who is clearly attracted to him — especially since it is evident that the attraction is becoming mutual?

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About the Author

Peter E. Fenton's first book, The Woodcarver's Model came out in April of 2022 and was a four time nominee in the Goodreads M/M Romance Readers' Choice Awards.

His second book Mann Hunt was released in August of 2023 and was also a nominee in the Goodreads M/M Romance Readers' Choice Awards.

Mann Hunt is the first in the three part Declan Hunt Mysteries series, with the release of Hoodoo House adding a second book to the series . The final installment will come out in the summer of 2025, (all through Pride Publishing).

2024 will also see the release of his first teen romance novel, Not Not Normal, with Lorimer Publishing.

All of Peter's novels are proudly set in Canada and are filled with humour, heart and unforgettable characters.

Previous creative work was focused on writing for the stage, including award-winning productions of The Giant’s Garden, Newfoundland Mary, and Bemused which have played across Canada. His newest play, The Detective Disappears just finished a six week tour throughout Canada.

Peter spent many years working in palaeontology in remote locations including the Canadian Rockies, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

He currently lives in Toronto, Canada with his partner of more than twenty years.

Connect with Peter:
Website: www.peterefenton.ca
Blog: www.peterefenton.ca/blog/
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Release Blitz, Excerpt & Giveaway: Blood and Bone By Patricia Logan

U.S. Marshals I.S.R. (Interspecies Response), Book 2

Aristotle Brown is starting to like his new job with the U.S. Marshals Interspecies Response unit. If anyone would have told him vampires, shifters, werewolves, and space aliens existed a few months ago, he would have called them crazy. But meeting his new partner has proven to be the best part of the I.S.R. He’s settling into the new job and the new man nicely. When he moved out to Los Angeles from Lexington, Kentucky a few months ago, he thought he might try finding a guy, but he never expected to feel that way about his new partner.

Eoghan Sapphire thinks Ari is beautiful and brilliant, and that’s probably a good thing since they spend a lot of time together. Very quickly, he realizes that the feelings he’s having for the man, aren’t purely professional. He wishes things would slow down for just a minute but when work gets in the way, he realizes they can’t stop moving for even a minute. On the way to northern California to help the local sheriff locate a fugitive shifter Eoghan once put behind bars, he and Ari drop in on a friend before coming face to face with a couple of unexpected predators. If their life wasn’t crazy enough, a couple of cephalopods give chase.

Better still, a case involving a vampire with a very unusual oral fixation, has both of them grateful for the blood-sucker’s restraint. Just when both men think things might settle down and there’ll be an end to the madness, they’re tasked to meet a couple of the scariest shifters they’ve ever heard of. And just to put a cherry on top of the assignment, it turns out these guys aren’t exactly the forgiving kind. As Eoghan and Ari enter a world neither could have prepared for, they come face to face with something thought to live only…in legend.

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Excerpt:

Ari was completely unprepared to witness the change of the two shifters. If he’d thought his life was strange before, standing in the dining room of a modest home in the middle of suburbia watching two men become drooling predators in a matter of seconds, really took the cake. And seeing two huge grizzly bears where the sheriffs had been only moments before, totally freaked him out. His hand went reflexively to his sidearm, pulling the Glock before he knew what he was doing.

Only Eoghan’s near-painful grip on his wrist, stopped him from killing their fellow law enforcement officers as the men lunged at what appeared to be a large opossum where Colt Wilkins had been standing seconds before. The opossum made a squealing sound as it propelled itself backward, slamming against the wall and wedging itself into the corner, doing its best to make itself invisible.

“Stand down, Ari!” Eoghan shouted as he moved in between him and the grizzlies. He tugged on his wrist until his senses came back to him, and he lowered the weapon. Even as the weight of his gun dropped, Eoghan was turning and shouting at Two Trees and his deputy, telling them something similar to the order he’d given Ari. The buzzing in his ears was making him feel disoriented as they stared at the scene in front of him. Both bears had lowered their heads and were roaring at the opossum which stared at them with wide, glowing, violet eyes. Ari had fleeting thoughts about how it would look if he shit himself right there in Riversong’s living room every time one of the bears roared.

Review To Follow

Check out Book 1 in the U.S. Marshals I.S.R. (Interspecies Response) Series: Tooth and Nail

The very last thing U.S. Marshal Eoghan Sapphire wants is a new partnership. Worse yet, the transfer from Lexington, Kentucky is a civilian. That means it’ll be Eoghan’s responsibility to break him into the I.S.R. and the unique way their particular U.S. Marshals Service unit operates. He decides being a jerk to him and keeping him at arm’s length just might be the way to handle things…until he meets him.

Aristotle Brown isn’t like anyone Eoghan’s ever known before. He’s polite, willing to learn, and most of all, devastatingly handsome. Eoghan’s actually happy they’re thrown into a dangerous situation with a WITSEC protectee the first day his brand-new partner is on the job. Dealing with this particular man will let Eoghan know what Ari Brown’s made of. Will he break under pressure?

Dealing with humans is standard everyday stuff in the U.S. Marshals Service but other non-human species like shifters, other paranormals, and aliens from distant star systems…well, that’s where things promise to get downright interesting. Their second day on the job is no different. And he’s not prepared for Ari’s cool-headed composure when he comes face to face with an example of everything the I.S.R. deals with every day.

To top it all off, the marshal sent to back the two men up when things get dicey in Griffith Park isn’t as reliable as Eoghan had hoped. The impulses of the guy nearly get them all killed but fortunately, Ari performs like a dream, helping extract everyone when things go from bad to worse. Eoghan is sure of a couple of things…acting as this man’s training officer isn’t going to be such a struggle after all, and keeping his hands off him is going to be the hardest part about this assignment.

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About the Author

International bestselling author Patricia Logan, resides in Los Angeles, California. The author of several #1 bestselling romances in English, Italian, French, and Spanish lives in a small house with a large family. When she’s not writing her next thriller or paranormal romance, she’s watching her grandchildren grow up way too soon, and raising kids who make her proud every day. One of her favorite tasks is coaxing nose kisses from cats who insist on flopping on her keyboard while she types. Married to a wonderful man for 36 years, she counts herself lucky to be surrounded by people who love her and give her stories to tell every day.

Pick up your favorite Patricia Logan Book from Amazon

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Email her at patricialogan.author@yahoo.com. She loves to hear from readers more than anything and will respond to all emails.

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Release Blitz, Excerpt & Giveaway: Stacked By Linden Bell

Stacked

Mars Fitness, Book 2

By Linden Bell

Sawyer

I've been in love with my best friend and roommate since the first day of boarding school over a decade ago. But Preston has always been oblivious, obsessed with his PhD research, and more importantly, straight.

When the new, sexy grad student walks into my gym, I have to wonder... is it time for me to move on?

Preston

Some guy is trying to steal my best friend. I won't let him. Sawyer's mine.

Maybe I haven't appreciated Sawyer enough over the years, but that's going to change now. I'll do whatever it takes to keep him by my side. Even if it means kissing him.

Stacked is a best friends-to-lovers, bi-awakening, nerd/jock MM romance between possessive, protective, and co-dependent roommates. Expect the most tender caretaking, slipping into each other's beds in the middle of the night, and adorable clinginess. It is the second book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

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Excerpt:

“Who the hell are you?”

Mom and I spin around at the new voice.

In the doorway is another boy, shorter than me and scrawny. The school uniform he’s wearing is wrinkled, one pant leg is caught in a sock, and the tie is loose and off-center. He’s got a mop of black hair and thick black-framed glasses, but what really catches my attention are his eyes.

They’re blue. Like the ocean. Like the sky. And they’re zeroed in on me with such intensity that my lungs stop working. My brain stops working. The only response I’ve got is whoa and cool.

Beside me, Mom clears her throat and steps forward. She puts on her mom voice when she speaks. “This is Sawyer and I’m his mom, Ms. Paige. He’s moving into this room today. And you are?”

The mom voice works because the boy shrinks back and clutches the textbook he’s holding closer to his chest. “Preston Boyer,” he says, eyeing Mom warily.

“So nice to meet you, Preston.” Then she hooks her thumb over to my side of the room. “Would all this be yours?”

Preston’s eyes dart from Mom to the bed, piled high with clothes, to me. There’s a little furrow in his brow like he’s trying to think of a response and drawing a blank. Like maybe all this stuff isn’t actually his.

Then he blurts out, “You’re not my roommate.”

Mom’s in front of me, so I can’t see her face, but I know exactly what it looks like. Her eyebrows are halfway up her forehead and her lips are pursed into her “What did you just say?” expression.

Oh shit. Preston’s in trouble.

“As a matter of fact, he is. Sawyer’s enrolling as a student at Westbourne and he’s been assigned to this double room. So your choices are to become friends and get along or find another room to sleep in. Either way, you need to move your things. Now.”

With each word coming out of Mom’s mouth, Preston shrinks into himself even further. I kind of feel bad for him, even if he’s being a jerk. Getting on Mom’s bad side is never a good idea.

“Hey, Pres. What’s taking so long?” A pretty blond girl wearing a cheerleading uniform materializes behind Preston. It takes a second for her to notice me and Mom in the room. “Oh! Hi! You must be Sawyer.”

She squeezes past Preston and approaches Mom with a big smile plastered on her face. The girl is brave. “I’m Madison. Preston’s girlfriend.” She extends a hand for Mom to shake, then does the same with me.

“Mads!” Preston hisses like Madison is consorting with the enemy. “What are you doing?”

Madison glances back at him. “I’m welcoming them. Come on, Pres, don’t be a jerk. You knew you were getting a roommate.”

“No, I didn’t!” Preston shuffles into the room, staying behind Madison like she can protect him from Mom. Madison looks like she can hold her own, but no one can stand in Mom’s way if she’s determined.

“Yes, you did.” She rolls her eyes and turns to the mess on Preston’s desk. “The Residence Office sent you a letter, remember?”

She shuffles through his things, tossing them around as Preston’s expression grows pained. He’s probably one of those people who has some weird ass filing system that only makes sense to them.

“Here it is!” Triumphantly, Madison holds a crumpled piece of paper high in the air. It’s the same thick cream-colored stuff that my acceptance letter was printed on. “Sawyer Paige. Moving in September twentieth. Please clear away any personal items that have been stored on the other side of the room.”

As one, we all stare at the personal items that have definitely not been cleared away.

Silence stretches for long moments before Madison breaks it. “No worries! I can help! It shouldn’t take too long.” She marches over with a big grin and grabs a stack of books off the desk.

“No! Wait!” Preston drops the textbook he’s holding and reaches for the ones in Madison’s hands. “You can’t just move stuff around! I have a system!”

Ha. Called it. This guy is strange. Living with him is going to be a drag, but at least I don’t have to worry about being the token loner.

“Fine, here, I’ll hand you the stuff and you put it wherever you want, okay?” Madison takes him by the shoulders and spins him around so he’s facing his side of the room again. “Just keep it all over there.”

Did she say she was his girlfriend? How the hell did a confident, pretty cheerleader end up with this disaster of a guy? I exchange a look with Mom, who has to be thinking exactly the same thing.

Then she sighs and pats me on the shoulder. “Looks like you’re all going to get along just fine.”

It’s going to be a long year.

Check out Book 1 in the Mars Fitness Series:
Ripped

Sometimes heartache is a blessing in disguise.

I thought my life was perfect. I lived with my amazing boyfriend. I worked with my ride-or-die best friend. I was on track to made-it-ville.

Then I came home one day to find my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend.

Now I’m lost with no one to turn to except Donnie, the silver fox who lets me crash at his house until I can figure out what the hell went wrong and how I’m supposed to fix it.

But once I’m there, I’m not sure I want to leave.

Donnie’s a lot older than me and he’s still grieving the death of his husband. My life is a trash fire and my career is non-existent. He’s a svelte spin instructor and I’m a film geek. We couldn’t be more different, but we need each other like we both need to breathe.

So maybe my boyfriend sleeping with my best friend wasn’t the worst thing to happen. Maybe it was the best. It brought me to Donnie.

Ripped is an age gap, nerd/jock, opposites attract MM romance between roommates who cuddle on the couch while watching classic movies. Expect steamy shower rooms, teary confessions, disapproving family, and brand new starts. It is the first book in the Mars Fitness series and can be read as a standalone.

CW: off-page sudden loss of a spouse, off-page homophobia, cheating secondary characters. Happily ever after guaranteed.

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Linden Bell writes contemporary MM romances that heat you up and make you

smile.

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Release Blitz, Exclusive Excerpt & A Giveaway

Title: Mint to Be 

Author: F.A. Ray

Release Date: 12th March 2024

Boyfriend Café, Book 4

I’ve given up on love by the time tall, dark and handsome sweeps me off my feet — literally.
Mal
Everyone around me is sickeningly in love. And I’m happy for my friends. I really am. But when is my turn coming? Why am I still a disposable hookup?
I’m ready to give up on love entirely by the time a bunch of drunk jocks decide to jump me on my way home from the Boyfriend Café. But before a single punch can fall he sweeps in, my dashing hero, my literal tall, dark and handsome, the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.
Please tell me this isn’t a dream.

Omari
The second I hear a scream I run toward it without thinking. My own teammates are threatening someone, and I rush in to stop them. But the man I save is … beautiful. And funny. And smart. And he brazenly gives me his phone number right then and there.
He has no idea that he just gave his number to the most hunted man at this university.
I’m Omari Carter, a football player everyone assumes is destined for the pros. Scouts are hounding me. Coach is pushing me to decide on my future. My whole family is depending on me. But Mal doesn’t know or care about any of that.
With all the expectations weighing me down, I don’t have time for love. So why can’t I walk away from this?

Mint to Be is an opposites attract MM romance with a major size difference, a grumpy/sunshine dynamic, an athlete meeting a lovable fashion nerd and spicy open door scenes.

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Excerpt #1 

Broccoli cocks his hand back. I stumble away, but I’m not looking and my foot catches on the curb. I fall backward onto the sidewalk, screaming in terror as I thump to the ground. It’s a real scream, too, a full-throated shriek of panic as my doom approaches. I cover my head in my hands. It won’t do a bit of good, but I don’t have anything else to protect myself with. I can’t run. I can’t hide. I can’t talk my way out of this. When that fist comes down on me, I’m pulp on the sidewalk.

“Hey. Assholes.”

Everything stops as someone shouts at the football bros. Broccoli hesitates, his fist in the air, his dumb neanderthal face going slack with surprise as he sizes up the man sprinting toward us like his shoes are on fire. Seriously, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone that fast in my life.

He doesn’t slow down when he reaches the group, either. He keeps running, slamming into Broccoli and tackling him to the pavement. They grunt and shout, but the new guy has the upper hand. He doesn’t seem drunk, for one thing.

“Cut it out, Derek,” New Guy says.

“Fuck, Omari, what the hell? That really hurt!” Broccoli says.

“As much as it would have hurt that dude you were about to punch? What is wrong with you, man? You really think Coach won’t sit your ass on the bench for that shit?”

“I don’t know, man. I was drunk. He was in our way. He said some shit. I got mad.”

“Well, get un-mad. Real quick. And then get the fuck out of here, understand?”

Broccoli nods, and New Guy lets him up. I’m still on the ground, mouth agape as I watch this interaction play out. The other guys in the group all mutter apologies before they drag their buddy away. And then it’s just me and that new guy, the one they called Omari.

He turns toward me, and I instantly forget how to breathe.

People jokingly call Albert tall, dark and handsome, but this guy is literally tall, dark and handsome. He might be taller than Albert, and he’s built from nothing but lean muscle. His every movement bears an athlete’s grace. When he looks down at me, his eyes are deep and vast and dark, nearly as dark as his close-cropped hair and beard. He extends one smooth brown hand toward me.

“Are you okay?” he says.

I don’t know how to answer that with my heart flailing around in my chest.

I just got superhero rescued by the most gorgeous man on this entire campus

Exclusive Excerpt 

When our hour together comes to a close, my heart lurches in my chest.

I came here out of curiosity. I came here to run away from other things. But the moment I know I have to leave, I yearn to stay, to remain in this quiet, bright world full of biscuits and tea and soft conversation. It’s the antithesis of everything I know in the rest of my life, and I reach for it with a hunger no amount of delicate baked goods will ever sate.

“Let me walk you home,” I say on a whim.

Mal is halfway out of his chair when I speak. He freezes, blinking at me. He recovers after a beat, rising to face me as we stand around the little table where we sat and chatted.

“I still have to clean and close up with the other guys,” Mal says. “It’ll take fifteen or twenty minutes.”

“That’s okay,” I say. “I don’t mind waiting.” Oh God, what am I saying? Why am I being so forward? “Besides,” I rush to add, “we did meet because you got attacked on your way home. I didn’t come all this way to let it happen again.”

“My hero,” Mal says with such an achingly beautiful and wry and sassy smile I almost lunge forward to taste it. “Okay then. You can walk me home. There’s a deck table out in the back. Do you mind waiting there?”

 

About the Author

 

F. A. Ray started writing fiction as a child and has never stopped. When they aren’t writing, they enjoy rock climbing and hiking in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where they live with their partner and cat.


Catch up with F.A. Ray

Visit linktr.ee/faraywrites to find out more. You can also sign up for my Patreon, where I post WIPs, updates, bonus scenes, deleted scenes and short stories that don’t appear anywhere else.

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Author: Matthew Angelo

Title: A Sacrament of Sin

Series: The Midnight Agency #4

Heat Level: 1 - No Sex

Pairing: No Romance

Length: 30k

Genre: 

Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, 

Paranormal, shifter, urban fantasy

Publisher: Self-Published

Release Date: October 15th, 2021

Book Description

Working as a paranormal private investigator has its trials. I’m busy, which is excellent, but there are more people, alive and otherwise, after me than ever before. The Other Side has stepped up their game. The Fallen are trying to strong-arm me into joining their ranks; they feel I’m the perfect person to aid in their eventual rise to world power, and they don’t give a damn what I have to say about it. Then there’s the Catholic Church. Apparently, they’ve painted a giant bullseye on my back. That keeps you looking over your shoulder, I’ll tell you.

Oh, and did I mention the bastard who abandoned my mother and me when I was born wants to repair a relationship we never had in the first place?

Just another day in the life of Rian MacCaren—that’s me, by the way. I solve mysteries, and I see things… things other people don’t. First, dreams plagued me. Now they’ve escalated to visions. Aside from keeping myself alive, my next step is to use my gift, or curse however you want to look at it, to figure out who killed the woman we just discovered in the basement of an abandoned house. Who was she, and why is she dressed in a wedding gown?

Goodreads

Excerpt

I heard laughter from the other side of the screen. It wasn’t the kind that speaks of madness, but the evil supervillain type. While I love the sound of truth, this sound chilled me to the bones and left me unclean.

“Sister Catherine…I should’ve known. As for you, my little angel, I’ll send you back to heaven.”

“Not today, buddy.”

A ripping sound hit my ears as a clawed hand burst through the screen and wrapped around my neck. It pulled me through the wall that divided the confessional. I tried to struggle out of its grip, but the preacher held on for all he's worth.<em> Yeah, that’s gonna leave a mark</em>.

I kicked at his face in the hope he’d release his hold over my throat. “Sorry, but choking isn’t my thing.”

The priest slammed me against the wall, knocking what air I did have out of my lungs in one exhale. I switched the safety off my gun and tried to raise it. Let me tell you that trying to fight for your life while being choked wasn’t that easy. I tried, though. <em>Look at me being all optimistic and shit</em>.

The father saw the gun. His eyes widened in anger as if the weapon was an insult to the sanctuary of the church. I may have had a gun, but I wasn’t a pedophile molesting kids and stealing their life force from them. Nope, I was a simple angel trying to get by in the world. By get by, I mean shoot the bad guy and rescue the children, thereby being the hero that saves the day.

Whoever the priest had become gripped me harder and threw me through the confessional door with one movement. The cracking of the wood against my back hurt, and the sound of screaming reached my ears. What hurt the most was hitting the floor and sliding across the carpet. I also heard the sound of my gun as it fell from my hand, bumping into something.

Movement from in front of me caught my attention. I attempted to get up, but the ceiling above me spun like a top, and vertigo kept me from moving too much. Massaging my neck, I could breathe easier, but the joy of still being alive didn’t last long.

There he stood. The possessed priest looked like a devil out of a bad <em>CW</em> series. Both his arms stretched longer than natural and ended in clawed, veiny hands. The skin on his face looked tighter and a bit like leather. The look someone gets after they tan in one of those cancer coffins too long.

Purchase Link

Amazon

Meet the Author

Matthew Angelo is a part-time writer, dog trainer, and photo enthusiast in the Northern Colorado area. In his free time, providing he has any, he practices Krav Maga, reads, and continues writing. He has written fantasy, science fiction, and urban fantasy stories amongst others.

Author Links

Website : Instagram

Facebook : Twitter

Email:

matthewangelocreative@gmail.com