BLOG TOUR: Undaunted by Ronnie Douglas

Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for Undaunted, the first book in the Knights in Black Leather Series, by Ronnie Douglas!

Genre:

New Adult

Contemporary Romance

Series:

Knights in Black Leather, #1

Publish Date:

September 15, 2015

Publisher:

William Morrow Paperbacks

Synopsis:

Being fearless has never looked so good . . .

Aubrey Evans needs to get her life back on track after her father is indicted for embezzlement. All she has to do to hightail it out of small-town Tennessee is save up money for college tuition and steer clear of hard-muscled boys on motorcycles. Yet there's no ignoring someone like Zion. A knight in black leather, Zion looks like every bad idea she's been told to avoid, but she can't resist him. Whenever she's in trouble, he's there. Appealing as his rough exterior may be, it's the protective, principled man beneath who tempts her like crazy.

Zion knows Aubrey doesn't intend to stick around. She claims to want only friendship, but he senses there's a naughty girl hiding on the inside—one whose intense desires match his own. For now, he'll be patient and play by her rules. But he knows it's just a matter of time before he weakens her resolve.

As they join forces to figure out who's behind a local crime spree, it's clear that the danger goes deeper than Aubrey guessed. And when she needs someone tall, dark, and undaunted to keep her safe, Zion intends to be there—now and always.

     

  

*Excerpt*

Time ticked by awkwardly as I stared at the man in front of me. Now that he was crouching in front of me, I could see more details. He was tall, built, and no older than twenty-six. His weathered jeans weren’t snug, but they fit well enough to make it very clear that there was no fat hidden on him. It didn’t make sense, but he also looked familiar. I didn’t know where from, but I could swear I’d seen him before.

“I’m . . . Zion,” he said. “You’re Aubrey, I gather.”

“I am.” I squinted at him, trying to decide if he was any less attractive if I didn’t stare at him quite as full-on. He didn’t get any less gorgeous, but he did seem increasingly familiar. I just wasn’t sure why. “How do you know my name?”

“You corrected Quincy,” Zion said.

Great, he fought like violence was beautiful, looked like he’d been modeled on Renaissance paintings, and listened when people spoke. Where was he when I was looking for a distraction earlier?

“Thanks. He was insis . . . insistingt. . . pushy, but not . . .” My skill with words—which was usually pretty good—was apparently still a bit absentee. I cleared my throat nervously and added, “Paint-thinner flavored booze, bad for the vocab’lary.”

“Are you here with someone?” Zion asked. “Someone you could call or we could find.”

“Nope.” I folded my arms over my chest, not thinking about the friends I’d summarily cut out of my life when my father made the news. “Don’t know anyone here. I don’t belong in Tennessee, you know? Was second year Reedie . . . in Portland. That’s where I belong.”

“That’s a college?”

“Uh-huh. Reed.” I sighed and squinted at him. “This isn’t Portland.”

“Tennessee is a long way from Oregon.”

“Exactly!”

When he stared at me, I tried to figure out what to do next. My brain was too fuzzy to stay focused on much of anything, and truthfully, I wasn’t great at social skills even when I was sober. People always seemed to be doing and saying a lot more than the actual words they used, and sometimes it left me at a complete loss.

After a few quiet moments, Zion scooped up my bright red jacket from where it had fallen when Quincy was pawing me. “Let me take you home.”

“To Portland?”

“No,” he said, dragging the word out a little. “Wherever you’re staying here in Williamsville.”

I pushed away from the tree and lurched into him. He was warmer than the tree, but just as firm. I tilted my head and looked up at him as he pulled me to my feet. My chest was smashed against his, and he wrapped his arms around my waist to steady me. I could feel what I suspected was a gun strapped to his side under his jacket. I’d never been that close to a gun before, and for a moment, it made me nervous. He had rescued me, but the gun made me considering stepping backward.

“You seem like a bad man. Why are you helping me?” I asked.

~~~~~

**About the Author**

Ronnie Douglas is the writing name for the multiple New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Drawing on a lifetime love of romance novels and a few years running a biker bar, she decided to write what she knew—dangerous men with Harleys and tattoos. Her debut “Ronnie book” was indie-published as part of a series she created and wrote with friends in 2014.

Stay connected with Ronnie Douglas

  

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***The Giveaway***

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Organized by

BLOG TOUR: Bounce by Noelle August

Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for Bounce, the third and final book in the Boomerang Trilogy, by Noelle August (authors Veronica Rossi & Lorin Oberweger)! In this final chapter of this fun and steamy New Adult trilogy, Bounce features two aspiring musicians who must choose between their careers...and their sizzling attraction for each other.

Genre:

New Adult

Contemporary Romance

Series:

Boomerang Trilogy, #3

Publish Date:

August 25, 2015

Publisher:

William Morrow Paperbacks

Synopsis:

Following in the bestselling tradition of Molly McAdams and J. Lynn, this final chapter in the fun and steamy New Adult trilogy by Noelle August features two aspiring musicians who must choose between their careers...and their sizzling attraction for each other.

Playing the occasional club gig just isn't cutting it for twenty-two-year-old cellist Skyler Canby, who's trying to support herself and her mother back home in Kentucky. Persuaded by her best friend Beth to accompany her on an audition for the first feature film launched by Blackwood Entertainment, she figures why not? Beth's a shoe-in for the lead, but maybe Skyler's newly dyed pink hair will help her stand out enough to score a small speaking part.

Never in her wildest dreams does Skyler imagine she'll land the lead role or that she'll have her shoes knocked off her feet by the kiss her audtion partner, Grey Blackwood, plants on her--a kiss that feels very real and not at all "acted."

After throwing a party that causes thousands of dollars of damage to his older brother's home, reckless musician Grey Blackwood gets roped into working off his debt on the set of his CEO brother's newest project. Grey spends his days fetching coffee and doing odd jobs around the studio, be he lives for nights when he performs with his band. He knows if he can stay focused, success as a singer is just around the corner. But that's tough with a distracting pink-haired girl occupying his every waking thought.

Skyler and Grey have every reason to resist each other. But, like a song neither of them can get out of their minds, they have no choice but to go where the music takes them.

     

   

*Excerpt*

Skyler's Point-of-View

Chapter 20

Good lord in a basket, it’s him all right. Grey. Illuminated by the golden lights coming on along Venice Boulevard. With suds and water sluicing off his ridiculously ripped body, cascading from his massive tattooed biceps, running down his taut muscled abdomen. His swimsuit sags dangerously low, clinging to his sturdy thighs, making, um, everything, pretty evident.

And evidently pretty impressive.

Probably, this would be a good time to actually speak some words, but even in a town full of hot, hot people, this is kind of stratospheric.

“Yep, it’s me.” Grey reaches back to turn off the shower, which breaks the spell, so I can at least avert my gaze like a decent person. Then he rubs a towel vigorously over his gleaming body and tucks it around his waist.

He has a strange look on his face—peevish, embarrassed, and it feels suddenly like we’re intruding on something. Or maybe it’s just me. I think about that moment in my trailer. His fingers on my skin. My wanting and not knowing what to want.

“Uh, so, what are you up to?” I ask in an effort to win the prize for most obvious question ever. “I mean, I can see what you were up to.” Seriously, Sky? “But, uh, were you just in the water? What brings you out here?”

“I’m crashing nearby. At the garage where my band rehearses.”

“Really?” asks Mia. “Why?”

Grey looks from me to Mia and then back to me, weighing something. Maybe whether or not he can trust us. He’s got this hot, coiled energy all the time, like he’s always holding back. Like he’s an animal caged inside a human body.

“Just staying there for a few weeks.”

“Because of your mom?” I ask. It was obvious from their interaction on set that there’s some bad blood there, though compared to my mom, she seems kind and thoughtful, whip-smart and curious without being overbearing. Which makes sense, given her offspring.

Then I remember that Grey’s not really her offspring. He said “stepmother,” and the way he said it really answers my question.

Which is good, because he doesn’t actually answer it. Instead, he gathers up his stuff—surfboard, wetsuit—and gives us a grin. “I gotta head out,” he says, as though nothing’s hanging there between us. He looks away for a second, following the path of a guy in an Obama mask as he weaves his way up the boardwalk on a ribbon-festooned unicycle. “Told some friends I’d hook up with them tonight.”

“Wait,” says Mia. “So, you’re just sleeping in a garage? Like on an air-mattress or something?”

Grey shrugs. “A couch. It’s okay.”

“And taking freezing cold showers out on the beach? That doesn’t sound great, does it, Sky?”

“No, it doesn’t,” I say, but I’m afraid of where she’s going with this.

“Can’t you stay at a hotel or something?”

He shakes his head. “Money’s a little tight right now. I’m giving Adam almost every penny to pay him back for the house, and I don’t really have…” Again, he goes silent, and I can feel, literally, the tension of him wanting to talk, wanting to say more to someone. Needing it.

“Why don’t you come stay at our place?” Mia blurts. We have that in common. The blurting thing. “I mean, I’m just about all moved out, so there’s room.”

Ay, dios. No. No.

But I can’t say anything. I can’t tell my best friend, who knows I’m talking to Brooks, starting to maybe, sort of, think about where that could go, that having Grey in my apartment, so close all the time, is a very dangerous, very bad idea.

Grey shakes his head. “Nah, I appreciate it, but I’m cool here. I promise. Thanks, though.” He takes a few steps toward a squat gray building with weather-beaten shutters and a tiny, shed-like garage in the back. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Hang on,” says Mia, pulling me along. She gives me a look, tipping her head in his direction, like she’s tapping me in for the debate. “You’re cool with it, right, Sky?”

“Of course.” Not. In no way. “But it seems like he’s got it under control here. So, if—”

My words disappear, though, because Grey’s pulled up the garage door, the muscles of his broad back and shoulders shifting smoothly as he thrusts the door up along its rusting track.

“See?” he says, pointing to a lumpy white couch sporting what looks like a half-century’s worth of mystery stains—a perfect complement to the funk of beer and weed and sweat potent enough to make my eyes water. “Perfectly fine, right?”

But, like me, he’s lousy at hiding his feelings. Even turned away to shove some empty beer cans into a garbage bag, his body language tells me everything.

He doesn’t want to be here in this musty space, crowded with furniture and audio equipment, the only natural light coming in from the tiny half-moon windows set into the garage door, which faces a dim alleyway.

“You should come stay with us,” I say, surprising the hell out of us both. “I mean, this is…”

“It’s fine,” Grey insists. “I don’t need much, and I’m hardly ever here.”

I think how different he is from Brooks, who says what he means, tells you—without hesitation—what he wants.

“Come on,” says Mia.

“Seriously,” he tells us. “It’s really nice of you to ask, but I’m fine. I can’t afford—”

“I paid up on the place through the end of the lease,” Mia says. “You can just chip in on food and utilities. I’m sure you can manage that, right? It’s only for a few weeks. And you’d be rooming with two awesome, super hot girls. How can you say no to that?”

He looks at me, and I can see he’s worried about the same things I am. Rooming together. Being too close, constantly one second away from making a really dumb choice. He’s young and too reckless for me. And a musician, on top of it all. He’s everything I don’t need sharing my space.

But something tugs at me, makes me put all of those concerns aside. I see it in his smoke-gray eyes, which are so alive, so deep and full of thoughts. Some pain or fear lives there. Something that makes it so hard for him to accept. To take a simple kindness. It’s not just about me but about trusting. Anything.

Seeing that, I can’t let him spend another night in this crappy place. Just…alone.

“You should come home with us,” I say. “It will be…a lot better than this, I promise.”

~~~

Don't miss the previous titles in the Boomerang Trilogy!

 

         

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**About the Authors**

Noelle August is an anagram for Veronica Rossi and Lorin Oberweger. Just kidding, it's a pen name!

Veronica and Lorin met at a writing workshop and just knew they were destined to create awesome things together.

Stay connected with Noelle August

   

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Veronica Rossi is the author of the New York Times best-selling Under The Never Sky trilogy for young adults. The books are available in more than thirty countries and the film rights have been optioned by Warner Bros.

Veronica completed undergraduate studies at UCLA and lives in Northern California with her husband and two sons. She is fond of dresses with pockets, fluffy dogs, and cheese and chocolate -- but not together.

Stay connected with Veronica Rossi

   

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Lorin Oberweger began her storytelling career by captivating her first-grade class with tales of her summers on a kibbutz in Israel.

Lorin had never been to Israel.

While teacher/parent night put an end to her first experiments in fiction, she'd already caught the bug eventually made a career of all things story.

As a long-time independent editor and story development guru, Lorin's client successes range from small press publications to major best-selling novels. She's an award-winning author and has also worked behind the scenes as a ghostwriter on a variety of projects. Her work has received starred Kirkus reviews and glowing mentions in The New York Times.

Oh, she did get to see a kibbutz, eventually, and found out she had it pretty much right all along.

Stay connected with Lorin Oberweger

   

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***The Giveaway***

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Tour Organized by