May 25, 2018 | Blog, May 2018, Samantha Chase
Until there was Us by Samantha Chase is the perfect book for your holiday weekend. There is something magical about this book that left me satisfied and longing for more! If you’re a fan of The Montgomery Brothers series than this book is sure to tick all the boxes.
When Megan Montgomery meets a cute guy at a family wedding she does the unthinkable, spends the weekend with him. What will he do when he discovers the “real” Megan? One weekend without regrets was fabulous, but can it be a foundation for a long-lasting, forever kinda relationship? Time and distance ultimately put out the flames.
Alex Rebat went to a wedding and left with the one woman who just might complete his forever story. When she mysteriously lets him go, it will take time before he can move forward. Oh, the heartbreak. But can he really move on? No amount of time can erase the one woman he wants. I adore Alex and am so happy that he has his own story and will have a happy ending. :).
It’s time for Megan to make a change and that involves moving across the country. While staying with her cousins she will reunite with Alex and their reunion is better than I expected. There are things left to be resolved, secrets that could destroy their reunion and leave them heartbroken all over again. Who will uncover it? What will happen? This journey is smooth, fluid, and perfectly plotted that you don’t even realize how deep you are until you are living in the story. Samantha, I need to be with these characters, they need a movie ;). Lifetime, Hallmark … anyone?
Readers, your holiday weekend deserves this second chance must read romance adventure that starts with a slow burn, and then when you are settled into your journey, it becomes a toasty sizzle packed with witty dialogue and tons of humor. There is this organic connection that makes it so special, these two characters can’t avoid the obvious. Now is the time for two people to step outside their comfortable and orderly world to discover that sometimes trying something new isn’t scary and taking risks is the only way to find a happy ending. However, it takes courage, trust, and a leap of faith. Do Alex and Megan have that?
A few golden nuggets for readers are Maylene the dog and a few updates on characters we’ve missed! This family is amazing and one you wish you could be a part of. Since we can’t, we’ll dive into this story and for a few hours be a part of a world where family is first, friendships are lifelong, and the ones you can’t live without will someone be with you forever.
Sinfully Sweet – Hotter than sweet with bedroom romance that tingles in all the right places, and a dash of spice to satisfy that slightly spicy craving.
I received this ARC from the publisher for a fair and honest review. While this is part of a series it can be read as a standalone. However I prefer to read this series in order to appreciate the cast of characters and all the love, shenanigans, and updates. If you choose to only read this book, you won’t be lost, you’ll still feel the Montgomery love and discover a master story teller who is sure to be on your one-click list!
ICYMI:
The Extra Shot with an EXCLUSIVE excerpt
Author Info
Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
Website
May 17, 2018 | Blog, May 2018, Tawna Fenske
Chef Sugarlips by USA Today Bestselling Author Tawna Fenske is almost here! This sexy and sweet story will invade your dreams with yummy goodness from the Ponderosa Resort.
Amber and her sister run a reindeer ranch down the road from the Ponderosa, and for fans of Studmuffin Santa, there is lots to love here! Two sisters are hoping to cash-in during the “holiday off-season” by using their ranch as a rustic wedding venue. When they find themselves without a chef, it’s time to think outside the box and ask for help. Perhaps the Ponderosa would be willing to help out, after all, they aren’t even open for business yet. There is just one little issue to work through, the Chef is about to turn Ambers world upside down ;).
Sean Bracelyn is putting the finishing touches on his new resort when a vision from his past walks through the door. Will he be able to keep his feelings in check? A childhood crush has returned and is standing in his kitchen and he’s about to discover that the little girl he dreamed of is now a grown woman he won’t be able to forget. This is sooo good!
What happens when the famous chef and reindeer rancher reunite? One-click and discover a story full of fabulous one-liners, honest revelations, and the discovery that all families are not created equal but everyone has family issues to navigate. Throughout this story we are introduced to Sean’s siblings which is great news! That means there is more ranch excitement to be released in the future! The question is, whose story is next?
Dive into this story and satisfy that gourmet palate with some decadent eats. Be forewarned, you will find yourself hungry from the hot cooking and even hotter chemistry ;). Amber and Sean will discover that sometimes you need to have a little faith that friends can be trusted and that family isn’t perfect. Like relationships, they are often full of imperfections and in need of a little love to grow and be amazing.
Readers, this is one Scorchin must read! Caution, may lead to unexpected need to turn on the A/C.
I received this ARC from the author for a fair and honest review.
Author Info:
When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.Tawna’s Links:
Author Website: www.tawnafenske.com
Author Blog: http://tawnafenske.blogspot.com/
May 17, 2018 | Blog, May 2018, Tawna Fenske, The Extra Shot
Welcome to The Extra Shot where we bring you EXCLUSIVE content from Authors who have books releasing in the near future.
Stay connected with Rae Latte and Books I Love A Latte for Book Reviews, Excerpts, Teasers, Coffee With (Interviews), Giveaways, Authors Dish, Book Sales, and other Tasty Tidbits.
Today you’ll find an EXCLUSIVE excerpt from Chef Sugarlips by USA Today Bestselling Author Tawna Fenske to jump start your weekend along with a fabulous giveaway too! This book releases tomorrow.
Be sure to stop by the blog later today for my review on Chef Sugarlips, you don’t want to miss the first book in the Ponderosa Resort Romantic Comedy series! If you read Studmuffin Santa you will recognize a few familiar characters who have their own standalone read! Haven’t read Studmuffin Santa? Be sure to check out the giveaway below!
I watch her exit my office in the corner of the barn and make her way to the side door and out into the crisp spring afternoon. The second the barn door closes, I yank my sweater off one shoulder and sniff my bra strap.
Nothing. It just smells like the lilac body lotion I’ve been wearing lately.
But I know I smell something, and I’m pretty sure I’m on the right track. I pull both arms inside my shirt sleeves and contort my hands behind me to unhook my bra. Mission accomplished, I snake it through the left sleeve of my sweater and pull it out at the wrist cuff like a deranged magician.
I hold up the bra for inspection, but it looks fine. Lavender and lacy, it’s one of my nicest pieces of lingerie. But when did I last wash it?
I hold it to my nose and have just started to inhale when the barn door flies open.
“Amber, hey—oh.” Sean freezes halfway to my office, blinking against the dim light of the barn. And at the sight of me smelling my bra.
Slowly, I lower my cupped hands to the desk and lay the lacy scrap there like a dead pet. “Sean.”
He looks at me, then at the bra, then back to my face, detouring only a little at my unsupported assets hidden beneath magenta cashmere. “I—uh—” He steps forward, hesitating at the door of my office. “Your sister said you were out here. I came by to grab my coolers?”
A quicker-thinking woman might shove the bra in a desk drawer or try to pass it of as a hanky.
I’ve never been that quick.
“So—I—right.” I take a deep breath and gesture toward the lavender lace laid out on my desk with the cups pointing jauntily at the ceiling. “I suppose you’re wondering why I’m smelling my bra.”
“The thought did occur to me.” He leans against the doorframe, and I can tell he’s trying not to smile.
I drop into my desk chair with a little more bounce than expected. Sean’s eyes flicker, but he keeps them on my face.
“Right, see, there are certain things no one really tells you when you’re a girl.”
He hesitates, then settles into Beth’s vacated seat. “Okay.”
“Like everyone knows you wash your panties every day, right?”
“One can assume.” He’s having a harder time holding back laughter, I can tell.
“But no one ever sits you down and says, ‘here’s how often you should wash your bras.’ Like is it once a week? Every few days? Monthly? I honestly don’t know, and then how do you remember which ones you washed when and whether there’s this one random bra in the back of the drawer that got skipped the last time you did delicates, and now you’re pretty sure it’s been years since the damn thing saw soap and water?”
My voice has risen to the pitch of a crazy person, to say nothing about my actual words. My God, he must think I’m insane.
Slowly, the smile spreads over his face. He folds his hands on the desk, and I’m conscious of the fact that his knuckles are scant inches from my favorite bra. Is it wrong that I’m wishing my boobs were still in it?
“You remember what I said in the chapel?” he asks. “About how you’re way different from Ethereal Mermaid Amber I used to imagine?”
I nod, not trusting myself not to say another damn word.
“I like this Amber better,” he says. “The quirky one who says stuff other people are probably thinking, but don’t actually say? I’m digging that about you.”
. 
CLOSED
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Coffee With
Authors Dish
Tawna Fenske: When Tawna Fenske finished her English lit degree at 22, she celebrated by filling a giant trash bag full of romance novels and dragging it everywhere until she’d read them all. Now she’s a RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author who writes humorous fiction, risqué romance, and heartwarming love stories with a quirky twist. Publishers Weekly has praised Tawna’s offbeat romances with multiple starred reviews and noted, “There’s something wonderfully relaxing about being immersed in a story filled with over-the-top characters in undeniably relatable situations. Heartache and humor go hand in hand.”
Tawna lives in Bend, Oregon, with her husband, stepkids, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets. She loves hiking, snowshoeing, standup paddleboarding, and inventing excuses to sip wine on her back porch. She can peel a banana with her toes and loses an average of twenty pairs of eyeglasses per year. To find out more about Tawna and her books, visit www.tawnafenske.com.
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May 9, 2018 | Blog, Marina Reznor, May 2018
GDPR and how to get in Compliance.
Has your inbox been filling to the brim lately with online businesses suddenly reviewing their privacy policies? Are you being asked to re-opt-in to mailing lists you never knew you signed up for in the first place? Welcome to the GDPR Panic Club.
As businesses scramble to get in compliance with GDPR regulations scheduled to go into effect May 25th, Rae asked if I’d do a guest blog about what authors and bloggers need to know about the new regulations (yes, they do apply to you). Thank you, Rae for this opportunity to write about a topic near and dear to my online heart.
My name is Marina Reznor and I’m a romance author. My other day job is web developer, and I firmly believe that the two most important things an author owns are their website and their mailing list. I don’t care if you’re an independent author or have a five book deal with a major publisher–you should control your name and have direct access to your fans.
You should also want to be perceived as a professional who takes their reputation seriously, so complying with GDPR is a good idea. The fixes are not difficult, and if you can edit your own website they won’t cost you anything.
What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for the General Data Protection Regulation. It goes into effect May 25, 2018 after a two year roll out. You can read the entire text here OR watch a video here.
In a nutshell, the EU has ruled that a person’s personal information – name, email address, IP address (sort of a computer serial number), location, etc, are their property and not yours. And because it’s not yours, you have to handle it responsibly.
Why did they have to pass a law?
Because businesses were handling personal data in a sloppy fashion and people had no recourse. Yes, data breaches happen to the best of us, but they are happening too frequently. Even more frequently, information gets lost, stolen, shared, or otherwise in the hands of people who were never intended to see it. (Oh, hi Mark Zuckerberg).
Is GDPR enforceable?
Yes, although enforcement relies on customers reporting non-compliance. The old law didn’t work very well because it didn’t have an enforcement mechanism. The new regulation is much tougher, and will come with a big fine because asking nicely didn’t work.
But I’m an American, and this is a European thing.
GDPR specifically states that it applies to you if you store information on just one EU citizen. The huge fine – upwards of 20 million Euro’s (about $25 million US dollars) – is for big fish like Amazon and Google. But they have said they will not hesitate to go after smaller fish.
It only takes one EU citizen to rat you out. Please don’t give them the opportunity to make you their US example.
What’s this re-engagement thing?
GDPR rules say that all information collected (email addresses, primarily) must have been collected using the new rules, even though those rules were not in effect when you collected those emails. Nothing is grandfather’d in.
There is a silver lining – having a bloated email list is expensive, and trimming it down will save you money. I’ve received some clever re-opt-in email requests from authors that have made me happy to re-engage with, I’ve listed them below.
What should you do? 6 things to do to get in compliance:
1) Put a privacy policy on your website (keep reading for some technical points and examples). Great news! Google loves websites with Privacy Policies, and will reward you with a better page ranking.
2) If you are using cookies, put a cookie warning on your website.
3) Make sure your mailing list is using double-opt-in for sign ups. This is a good practice anyway; look at it as even more engagement opportunities with your new friend. (Note: for some reason, last October MailChimp made single-opt-in the default. You will have to go in and change that to double-opt-in).
4) Password protect your data, and be careful of who has access to it.
5) Make it easy for people to unenroll or delete themselves. Most email services like MailChimp and MailerLite have very good ‘unsubscribe’ buttons, but if you require commenters to sign in to your website, make sure it is easy for them to delete themselves.
6) What you can do if there are emails on your list that were not directly enrolled (meaning you bought, borrowed, swapped, or scraped them)? Do a re-engagement email campaign, where people can re-opt-in.
What should you NOT do? 4 things:
1) Don’t share your mailing list, sell your mailing list, or buy mailing lists. You can, however, use your mailing list to suggest that your subscribers might like to subscribe to other mailing lists and provide the links.
2) Don’t send unsolicited text messages via mobile phones.
3) Don’t send unsolicited emails.
4) Don’t refuse to delete or unsubscribe people who request it.
Does this apply to my Facebook, Goodreads, and other social media groups?
These social media providers have their own policies and data protection responsibilities. You are not responsible for them.
What about cross promotions?
Tricky question. Both Instafreebie.com and BookFunnel.com have changed their policies. After May 25th, Instafreebie.com will no long feature giveaways with mandatory opt-in. BookFunnel has made some big changes as well.
** Some technical points **
Privacy policies – should be tailored to fit your exact circumstances. I like Privacy Policy Generator Template. In most cases, creativity is not encouraged in privacy policies so it’s okay to duplicate verbiage. And in all cases, make sure to include contact information if anyone has any concerns.
Log data – If someone leaves a comment on a blog post, or buys something from you, the event comes tagged with quite a bit of log data. This is the time of visit, your IP address, your location, and many other things that you can’t help but collect. Most privacy policies have a section that discusses how log data is handled.
Do I have to have a cookie consent? Cookies are little files that store information about a user’s interaction with a site. They don’t identify you personally, but collect information about your habits. It’s how targeted advertising is created. If you are using any types of advertising plugins, you are probably collecting cookies. Good video about cookies from Guardian UK.
Do I have to send a re-engagement email to everyone on my email list? No, only the ones that you do not have a record of them signing up using two-part verification.
Good news if you’re using WordPress: The next version, currently in beta, will offer a privacy policy page template, give users the ability to remove themselves from your site, and the ability for users to opt out of cookies. Check out this article.
** Who’s doing it right? **
My privacy policy. It’s okay to be a little irreverent, the new law specifically says the wording must be clear and understandable. I’m a writer, and my job is to be entertaining.
Rae’s privacy policy, golf clap.
Excellent re-engagement campaign email – Nancy Stopper from nancystopper.com
Books I Love A Latte re-engagement campaign email – Rae Latte from booksilovealatte.com
Great terms of service
Good variation on the privacy policy generator
You’ve made it this far, congratulations.
Having a website is tough, and this is one of the biggest changes I’ve seen come down the pike in a long time. I do a monthly email, Marina’s Academy, where we discuss author websites and mailing lists. It’s free, and you also get access to my resource page of tech topics for writers. Click here and scroll to the bottom (the footer) and click in the box that says ‘Academy’. You’ll be taken to a form where you can freely and knowingly sign up. I’d love to have you join.
Questions? Comments? Please post them below so we can all see them – if you have a question there’s a good chance ten other people do as well. Also feel free to email me at marina@marinareznor.com
** pictures are from Pixabay
May 7, 2018 | Blog, Blog Tour, May 2018, Michelle Hazen
Readers if you haven’t read Playing the Pauses (read my review and thoughts here ) I highly recommend reading that first. Tie Me Down by Michelle Hazen is what happens after the last page in that book.
It’s time to see how Danny and Kate are now, will they really have their happy-ever-after? It’s an adventure that shows what we really need isn’t always what we get. Further more, it isn’t always how we planned or what those in our life expect. However, if we don’t ask, then how can we get it? We deserve everything we want and shouldn’t stop until we have it.
Danny O’Neil and Kate have it all, dream jobs, hot chemistry, and they both live hard and play harder. Will their love survive the new challenges with Kate’s job? Will Danny find a way to communicate his feelings when things take an unexpected turn?
Living the life of a rock star has its challenges and managing one requires control, order, and the ability to put others before oneself. Sometimes. Will Kate finally risk it all to save the one thing she can’t live without? Is Danny really ok with all of Kate’s traveling despite his frequent gifts?
Don’t miss the conclusion – it’s full of heart squeezing moments, life changing decisions and the creative expression we discovered when we saw Danny and Kate last. I have a new appreciation for art and am feeling inspired.
I received this ARC from Barclay for a fair and honest review. I give this book three flames of heat. Spicy – Best enjoyed with your favorite iced-beverage, a cozy chair, and maybe a fan.
From the Author **This is a sequel to Playing the Pauses, not a standalone. However, you don’t have to read the rest of the series to understand these two.**
TIE ME DOWN Excerpt
Copyright © 2018 Michelle Hazen
In my purse, a text message waits on my phone, but I don’t check it.
My assistant needs more supervision than I can afford to give him, the production manager’s blood pressure could really use me running interference between him and the neurotic pyrotechnics specialist, and I should ride the bus tonight to try to repair my working relationship with the backup dancers. I have a hundred places to be and the only one I want to inhabit is Danny’s apartment, in his beautiful silence that always stretches to make me a comfortable part of it.
It’s enough to make me wish Danny said I love you. He thinks it’s absurd to repeat a sentiment I already know is true, but in moments like these where I’m falling a little short in every area of my life, I could really use the simple comfort of those three words. I pull out my phone to check his text, even though I know it won’t say what I need it to.
Sure enough, the screen doesn’t fill with words. Instead, it’s a picture.
I squint in the dim backstage lights, turning up the brightness until I can make out a sketch in the spare, soft lines of his characteristic charcoal.
It’s of me, asleep with my hair pooled beneath my relaxed cheek. The lines of my face are graceful, more beautiful than they ever look in the mirror. The care with which he constructed my image just from memory makes me catch my breath, tears burning at the corners of my eyes.
He misses me. And this is the only way he can say it.
Enter to win a $35 Amazon Gift Card & Three-Runner Ups: PLAYING THE PAUSES eBook!
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About Michelle Hazen:
Michelle Hazen is a nomad with a writing problem. Years ago, she and her husband ducked out of the 9 to 5 world and moved into their truck. As a result, she wrote most of her books with solar power in odd places, including a bus in Thailand, a golf cart in a sandstorm, and a beach in Honduras. Currently, she’s addicted to The Walking Dead, hiking, and Tillamook cheese.
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