Dakota’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” The gold of his wolf eyes flashed. “Exactly what I should have done days ago.” Dakota inhaled a sharp breath. From the dark look in his eyes, she almost expected him to strip the belt from his jeans and use it to make the bare skin of her ass a dusky shade of pink. The thought of her bent over his knee sent an unexpected wave of heat through her core. Her mouth went dry as adrenaline coursed through her. “Blaze?” she breathed again, prompting more from his non-answer. His chaps and belt were cast aside now along with his Stetson. The shirt came next. “Showering,” he ground out. His tone was harsher, more hardened than usual. She didn’t exactly dislike it. “Exactly like you are,” he growled. “What else?” He turned on one of the showerheads in the adjacent stall block facing her. Another cloud of steam filled the room. “Here?” she nearly squeaked. “What?” he snapped. “We’re both warriors, coworkers as you put it, and I may not be as drenched as your clothes were, but we’re both covered in blood.” His shirt was on the floor now, and those large…

Hi everyone, I’m A.J. Locke, author of the upcoming urban fantasy novel, MAGIC DARK, MAGIC DIVINE with Entangled Publishing. Today I thought I’d share a fun interview with my four main characters, Pennrae, Callan, Gideon, and Toji, as a way of introducing them so you can get to know what they’re like before you meet them on the page. The answers they give don’t just pull from the book either! You’ll learn tidbits about them here that don’t echo in the novel, so it’s a great bit of insight into who they are as well as what their relationships with each other are like. I hope you enjoy getting to know my crew a bit. Q1: Give one word to describe the others Penn: Oh, this should be good… Gideon: Unflattering descriptions will be heckled. Toji: Gideon is one of the most fiercely caring people I know. Penn is unfathomably protective of those she cares about. I don’t know Callan very well yet, but he has to be strong if Penn has him by her side. Callan: I definitely need my strength. She throws a mean punch… Penn: Watch it before one really comes your way. Gideon: Me next! Toji,…

We settled into a silence that was less awkward than I’d worried it would be. Colin played with his phone—he’d discovered a daily crossword puzzle app that could keep him occupied for hours. I thought about sketching, but decided I had a better way to spend the time. I pulled up a website I’d scoped out earlier on my phone. “Hey, Col?” “Yeah?” “Can I ask you some questions?” “I guess. Why?” I shrugged. “Oh, I dunno. To get to know you better.” “Sure, shoot.” He turned his attention back to his game. “Would you like or dislike inspecting a roof for leaks?” “Considering I have no idea how I’d do that, dislike.” “No, but, pretending you did know how to do it, would you like doing it?” He looked off into the distance for a moment, and I took the opportunity to make sure Evelyn’s house remained still and inactive. “Yeah, I guess if I had the skills, I’d like it. It would get me outside.” I clicked like on the form. “Okay, cool. What about analyzing the structure of molecules?” “What? No. I’d be in a lab all day.” He shuddered. Dislike for sure, then. “Coordinate a business…

“I did what I was told. Now, do whatever you’re supposed to do to allow me to remember my past.” “What?” His face scrunched up. An errant bit of unruly hair fell across his forehead and tickled the point at the top of his sculpted nose. Cameras must love his symmetry and angles. “You know me, right? You know who I am? Is Nova actually my name? Have we met before? Please, I need to remember.” “I don’t know you,” he said. He didn’t know her? He had to. Her phone vibrated against her racing heart, likely another countdown warning. Task accomplished. She’d gotten him out of the subbasement. Did she need to get him out of the club for the miraculous recovery of her memories? “Why was it important I leave downstairs?” he asked. “I don’t know.” She wanted to text back “Unknown” to report her success, but, “Unknown” probably wouldn’t respond. She’d replied to the texts the moment she woke up and never got anything back. “I think we have to get out of the club. Something might be about to happen.” His head whipped to the side to search the dance floor. “I have business to attend…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Abigail Owen! Writes: Abigail Owen writes award-winning paranormal romance. Enjoy huge worlds that you can get lost in, adventures that will capture your imagination, and characters that you will wish you knew in real life. You deserve to lose yourself in stories that guarantee you a true escape and happy endings! About: Multi-award-winning paranormal romance author, Abigail Owen loves plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of HEAs! Other titles include wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, spreadsheet lover, eMBA, organizational guru, Texan, Aggie, and chocoholic. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: My ideal reader match for my latest book, THE CURSED KING, must love… wounded dragon shifter heroes feisty phoenix heroines whose powers are dormant a villain who needs taking down a cast of creatures including wolf shifters, gargoyles, witches, demons, hellhounds, and more swoony worthy connection and chemistry a wild ride What to expect if we’re compatible: If we are compatible,…

I’ve written nearly a dozen Christmas stories and the challenge for each of them is writing something new and different. From lost and found reindeer to Highland kilts and mystery and romantic suspense, to billionaire wolves, white wolves, red wolves, SEAL wolves, and even jaguars, I’ve enjoyed giving them the holidays to look forward to. I think the hardest part for me is figuring out what people should get for Christmas. I have the same problem with picking out gifts for family and friends. When they have a Christmas wish list, I do much better. Wouldn’t it be neat if the characters in my stories all had Christmas wish lists too? It would make my life so much easier! I have lived in the south or in moderate climates for most of my life: Florida, Texas, California, so snow isn’t usually a big issue in the winter. Though with the weirder weather we’re getting, who knows what the future will bring. In the Houston area, we had temperatures in the teens for a week last year, breaking all records and we had lots of snow too. But I’ve also lived in places where we’ve had regular snowstorms—got stuck in them,…

1–What is the title of your latest release? PRETTY LITTLE LION  2–What is it about? Really attractive miniature lions! Just kidding. It’s the second book in my Third Shift series, featuring various supernatural beings and humans in a post-2016 election world. This one sees lion shifter Elijah Richter, a gruff but deeply loving team leader, joining forces with celebrity influencer Meghna Saxena-Saunders, who is not exactly what she appears to be. The two must stop a would-be supervillain and deal with their sizzling attraction while other beloved Third Shift operatives grapple with problems of their own. 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  It’s New York City—and even in an alternate universe where things have gotten worse for marginalized communities, it’s one of my favorite places in the world to write about. It’s a city with a heartbeat—and its heart is comprised of people from all walks of life.   4–How did your heroine surprise you?  I invented her, so I kind of knew what she was up to. Other characters in the book surprised me, because I saw angles in their arcs I hadn’t thought of before, but not her. Meghna is a badass. In many ways,…

Instead of trying to find your perfect match in a dating app, we bring you the “Author-Reader Match” where we introduce you to authors as a reader you may fall in love with. It’s our great pleasure to present Nina Croft! Writes: Hi everyone, I’m Nina and I love to write hot, sexy romances. All sorts of romance, from contemporary to paranormal to science-fiction. And often a mixture. My latest release, INSURRECTION, takes place five hundred years in the future when humanity (and a few other things, vampires, werewolves, demons….) have fled a dying Earth in search of a new home. About: I’m a full-time writer who lives on an almond farm in the remote mountains of southern Spain. I love the sun and the sea and the mountains, strong heroines, sexy heroes, and animals of any kind (I share my home with a lot of them!) When I’m not writing, my favorite pastimes are reading, riding my horse, walking my dogs, talking to my pig, and lying under the shade of a fig tree, drinking wine. What I’m looking for in my ideal reader match: I’m looking for like-minded readers, willing to go anywhere and do (almost) anything in search of the perfect happy ever after. A…

As a group, the four witches turned to catch sight of him standing there. That’s when the zing rebounded be­tween him and Ruby Thorne and he had to tighten his hand on the doorjamb to keep his knees from buckling. One corner of her mouth rose and his watered be­cause he knew what she tasted like. And until right then, he’d forgotten just how much he’d missed his lips on hers. And now she was home and they were both six years older and wiser. He sure hoped he was because a woman like the one he currently stared at deserved that. “Well, hey there, Damon Dooley,” Ruby said, the smile taking over her entire face as she approached him. She’d been pretty six years ago, but she was lumi­nous now, her magic around her shoulders like a man­tle. He wanted to roll around in her, coat himself in her. Damon reined it in, assuring the wolf they’d get to that point but it was important to wait for the right time. Rather than a handshake, Damon opened his arms, waiting a beat to be sure she had the chance to stop her trajectory. Thank the lord above, she came…

1—What is the title of your latest release? HER WOLF IN THE WILD. It’s out from Carina Press now! 2—What is it about? Christiana—a young bisexual woman—is on the run from her abusive boyfriend, who also happens to be a member of Arizona law enforcement. She gets picked up off the road by Micah, a butch biker who runs the Hounds of God, a local motorcycle club. Except it turns out the MC is a cover for the local werewolf pack—of which Micah is their alpha—that already has some trouble with the cops going on. The last complication these two need is finding out that they might be fated mates. 3—What do you love about the setting of your book?  It was really nice to go back to Arizona, metaphorically speaking. I lived there when I was twenty, and putting a supernatural edge to the desert was a lot of fun. I also liked exploring the background of LGBTQ+ motorcycle clubs, since that’s not what comes to mind when most people think of an MC. 4—How did Christiana surprise you?  She’s a younger and less experienced protagonist than I usually write, so finding her voice and motivation took a different…