Saturday, 4 May 2013

Paris Love Match by Nigel Blackwell Giveaway & Excerpt

 To celebrate the release of Paris Love Match by Nigel Blackwell, we have an excerpt from the book and an ebook giveaway! 


Book Description:
Getting a taxi in Paris can be hell.
Piers Chapman expected a boring business trip to Paris.
What he didn't expect was to fight over a cab with a beautiful girl.
After a bad meeting, Sidney Roux just wanted to hail a cab, go home, and have a glass of wine.
She didn't expect to fight over a cab with some pompous British tourist.
Neither of them expected another man to jump in their cab.
Or to be involved in a gun fight.
Or a car chase through the streets of Paris.
Or for the man to die.
But they're thrust together when the mob demands they return what the dead man stole.
Will Piers and Sidney work together?
Will they find what he had stolen?
Will they stay alive?
And will they do the last thing they expected?
Will they fall in love?

Paris Love Match was released by Bandit Publishing on 2nd May and is available at Amazon UK, Amazon.com & Barnes and Noble.
 You can find it on Goodreads here
 
Excerpt from the book: 
She stomped off, taking the umbrella. He watched her dance around the phone box, standing outside it, inserting her money, and holding the receiver with the tips of her fingers. She kept it at a distance from her mouth, spoke loudly, hung up, and walked back. “Done.”
“Where did you tell them we’d been spotted?”
She pointed back the way they had come. “Down the street, turn left, then ten more blocks.”
“What? So this is the quickest route?”
She nodded, “Yeah.”
“Oh my god.” He slapped his forehead. “We wanted to get rid of them, not bring them to us.”
Around the corner shouts broke out among the police officers. With a squeal of tires, a string of police cars headed in their direction. Piers grabbed her hand, ready to run. She pulled him back, shoved him against the wall, and pressed herself hard against him. She popped open the umbrella and flipped it over her shoulder, blocking them from view, then pressed her face into his neck.
Piers heart thumped. “I—“
She shushed him and wrapped her leg around his, rubbing the back of her ankle up and down his leg. “Act natural. No Parisian will notice a kissing couple,” she whispered, “just don’t you dare let your hands wander.”
“I—“
“Shut up, I know it must be difficult for you, but act like you’re enjoying it.”
He folded his arms around her and stroked her back. Her breath was warm on his neck. He tilted his head to press his face to hers. He could feel her bra and the softness of her body pushing against him. She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, squeezing his biceps playfully.
The tension in his limbs dissolved and a warm glow spread through him. A calm smile spread across his face. She rubbed her hand across his shoulders and her long hair brushed against his ear. He closed his eyes and squeezed her tight.
“You only have to act like you’re enjoying it,” she said.
He opened his eyes and loosened his hold. “I am,” he cleared his throat, “acting.”
“You better be.”
A cavalcade of cars and motorbikes raced by, sirens blaring. He pulled the umbrella in closer to make sure their faces were obscured. The sounds diminished and he risked looking out. “They’re gone.”
Sidney slid from him. He let his arms fall away slowly. He breathed out, stifling a sigh, and didn’t breathe back in. Her leaving him felt like a physical blow. It took all his willpower not to reach out for her. The rain had made her tousled curls a vague memory, but her eyes were bright and, even in the cold, her high cheekbones had a natural tint to them, the slightest of pinks, just enough to accentuate the flawless white of her skin.
He watched, mesmerized, as she opened her mouth. “Now what?”
“Huh?”
“I said now what? I did my bit by phoning from the pee-box. What’s next?”
He shook his head and took a gulp of cold air. The adrenaline and tension returned to his muscles. “Right, we have to go.”
About the Author

Nigel Blackwell was born in rural Oxfordshire in England. He has a love of books, a PhD in Physical Chemistry, and a black belt in pointing out the obvious. As a teenager he toured Europe and loved seeing the wonders of the world and the people in it. Since then he has been fortunate enough to travel across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Japan, and hasn't been anywhere that doesn't have the potential for a story.
He now lives in Texas with his wife and daughter, where they enjoy the sunshine and listen to the coyotes howl at night.

Author social media links:
website:  http://www.nigelblackwell.com


Want to win an ecopy of Paris Love Match by Nigel Blackwell? 

Books will be gifted from Amazon or Barnes and Noble from AToMR Tours. 
The Winner will be announced Tuesday 7th May and will have until Sunday 12th May to contact us & tell us if they want it gifted from Barnes and Noble or Amazon. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Event organised by AToMR Tours

Nicole Edwards Giveaway ~ winners updated

Due to some winners for the UK giveaway being ineligible (they've provided us with non-uk address'), new winners have been selected by Random.org. 

Updated winners list is below.


UK: 
Winner of the signed copy of Conviction ~ Angela Craney
3 Runners up of bookmark packs ~  Rebecca Delbacaro, Emma Newton and Arabella Brai

Non-UK: 
2 Winners of an Ebook of Nicole's ~ Jessica Cross and Dorey Dittmar
2 runners up of bookmark packs ~ Susan Turkowitz-Sia and Alyssa Chen.

Thank you to Valerie Degeorge who already has a bookmark pack and kindly offered for another winner to be picked in her place.

Congratulations, winners of the ebooks will need to tell us what book you would like and winners of the bookmark packs and the signed copy of Conviction will need to email your postal address to theromancecover@gmail.com please.



Crush (Crash 3) by Nicole Williams

Reviewed by Donna & Willow 

What Donna says: 3 Stars

I hate to say this, but this book seriously peed me off..I have loved this series but I think that perhaps it was one book too many..the book started out really slow and whilst I was glad they got their HEA (which they also got in the last book) what I had to read to get there just seriously irritated me beyond belief…Lucy just totally morphed into a different person and one that I did not recognise and one that I disliked…

This book carries on from book 2..Jude gets drafted into the NFL and is now a millionaire…so what would a man that has always had nothing..not two dimes to rub together want to do…he is going to want to spend…and who would he want to spend it on…yes his fiancé of 3 years (yes 3 years but that is another thing I will rant about in a minute)…

·         He buys her a new phone – she moans

·         He buys a new house – she moans

·         He buys a new car – she moans

·         He keeps asking her to marry him – she moans

·         He treats her to fancy restaurants – she moans

It is just one big moan fest from Lucy for a majority of the book…these two absolutely adore each other, you can still see that to some extent…she still has her aspirations of becoming a dancer and he knows that..she knew that he wanted to become a pro footballer, he gets his wish and she just seems to resent that..I appreciate her fears and worries that money can change people, but seriously, give the guy a break..how he put up with that is beyond me. To keep asking to get married and constantly being told soon…I would have given up…and the reasons for not getting married were very feeble..too young, I want to be a pro-dancer blah blah blah…if you love someone that much to agree to marry them, you should at least be prepared to get married!!

Jude was a bit caveman in this book which was a bit overpowering at times, but then he says to Lucy, so you can be a pro-dancer I will give up my career as a footballer once my 3 year contract is up..I will have made enough money to keep us forever in those 3 years…that is what I call love!!! He was prepared to give up everything to keep her happy..then something happens and she does not tell him WTF!!!! I can appreciate it can be daunting to say, hell I have been there 3 times..but I could never keep it a secret that long..OK his reaction in the car park was not the best but he did not realise that it had already happened, he was just talking from a long term view…however, his reaction when it did finally come out was totally inexcusable and I for one do not believe that the “old Jude” would have said it…them 3 words…so hurtful, he never would have said it!

Anton just peed me off, I do not condone cheating and for him to even try and pry Lucy away from Jude was just wrong..especially knowing she was his sisters best friend, but also, Lucy should have taken herself out of that situation once she knew what his intentions were.

Was lovely to see Holly and little Jude in this book and glad that they were there for Lucy.

Overall, disappointed but loved the ending…communication between the two of them was extremely lacking in this book..Jude just did everything he could for them, to give them a better life, Lucy just turned into some selfish moo that seriously got on my nerves..Holly and little Jude cheered the book up a bit and the ending made me happy…but other than that..not much more to say.
What Willow says: 

I loved Crash, I really enjoyed Clash so I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into it. I ended up putting it down and not finishing it, something I don't take lightly, in fact I've only done it once before. Maybe ill go back to it another time, but for now I feel that there are just too many good books out there that I don't want to waste time on something I'm not enjoying.

So what was so bad? Well admittedly I only made it half way through the book, but I just didn't get it. Jude and Luce had a HEA in the last book, I was happy with that.

In this book Luce was irritating me so much, why did she not want to marry Jude " now" poor guy having to ask that much, I agree with Donna, I would have given up and her reasons were not very good in my opinion. As for the buying gifts, Jude never had money, where as Luce had parents that were well off, so surely she could understand why it was important to Jude! she seemed selfish.

Jude didn't seem the same "Jude" I loved him in the other books and although he still showed how much he loved Luce, his bad boy persona just wasn't there, except  for one incident. I get people change, but it felt like he was missing something, something fundamentally Jude, maybe it comes back further on. 

To sum up it just didn't engage me enough, it was easy to put down. I felt disappointed and would happily find something else to do but read - something I never do. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance, maybe I'm just in a book funk, but for now, for me it's a DNF. :-(  


Emancipating Andie by Priscilla Glenn

Reviewed by Donna 5 Shiny Stars

Priscilla Glen does it again, this was a slow building love story…but it needed to be slow..it was beautifully slow…I loved it!

Andie does everything by the book, she is as straight laced as they come…she had something happen in her past that made her realise that actions have consequences and by not doing what you are supposed to do can have far reaching consequences indeed…so Andie does what she is supposed to do. Her mother always told her “Love with your head and you’ll be safe, you love with anything else , you find yourself in big trouble”…so Andie did safe and she is in a relationship with Colin…he is safe, he has a good job, good prospects etc etc etc…it starts 17 months earlier…Colin takes Andie to an engagement party, his friends house is a huge mansion..Colin leaves to talk to someone and Andie decides to explore…she ends up locked inside a cellar…however, there is already somebody down there…Chase..he is having a crafty cigarette and whilst they are temporarily locked in the cellar together Chase manages to be the biggest asshat that ever lived and just pisses her off…they rub each other up the wrong way severely…Andie does not like Colin’s friend Chase… Colin does not know about this little meeting either as Andie was embarrassed to admit she had been snooping!
 
17 months later, still in her relationship with Colin, they have been invited to the wedding, Colin has to go early as he is part of the bridal party so Andie is making her own way there..however Andie will not fly so is doing a two day road trip. Colin asks Chase to keep her company as he is worried about her, he agrees…when Colin tells Andie what he has organised leading her to believe that there were no flights available for Chase, Andie is not best pleased, how can she possibly spend 2 days in a confined space with him…it is going to be one lonnnnnggggg drive.

The road trip was brilliant, you totally see a different side to Andie and Chase…Chase weedles his way in and manages to break down some of Andie’s walls…they are both imagining things they shouldn’t be, it is a great piece of writing

“It was harmless, his playful taunting. He had no intention of making a move on Andie, but still, in the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn’t be needing her. Yet, as he slid into the passenger seat next to her, he also knew it would be difficult to stop.”

The conversations these two had were hilarious, in the beginning they absolutely got on each others nerves, they just had the knack of riling each other…the best bit, Andie getting her own back after a particularly testy bit of the drive, she slams the brakes on whilst Chase is drinking and he gets soaked..

C - “What the hell was that”
A - “Payback”
C - “I seriously can’t decide if I‘m more angry or impressed right now”
Chase takes his shirt off and cleans himself up, Andie ogles….
C - “What”
A – “Are you gonna put your shirt back on?”
C – “Why? Is this bothering you?”
A – “I just…..I mean…(sputtering) what if we get pulled over or something?”
C – “If we get pulled over, this could only work in your favour” he said rubbing his hands all over his chest.
A – “My god, you’re insufferable”

The banter between them makes for a fabulous read.
The chemistry between these two is fab, they both realise it is there but will they act on it..Chase does not want to do wrong by his best friend Colin and Andie is tortured between head and heart…can she end it with Colin and give herself to Chase???

This is a cute romance story, hardly any angst, it is not dark but is a smooth read that has you laughing and smiling a lot!! It is a great pick me up read that I adored from start to finish…there are a lot of hidden messages in this book…there is no cheating whatsoever…
I love Priscilla Glen’s writing and can’t wait to read the next book…I am sure I will love it!!