


Lisa A. Traugott is an award-winning author and World Championship public speaker semifinalist — who also spoke five lines on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She lives in Austin with her husband, two kids, and English bulldog, Bruno.



Lisa A. Traugott is an award-winning author and World Championship public speaker semifinalist — who also spoke five lines on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She lives in Austin with her husband, two kids, and English bulldog, Bruno.





You’ll never get anywhere by sitting down and giving up.”
New life was born from hopeless despair.”





He returned to New York with more muscles, more money, and a taste for revenge…
Robert Donovan left New York as a broken-hearted boy. To avoid scandal ruining his older brother’s engagement, Robert was packed up and sent out West to live with his uncle. He spent his time there wisely, growing into his good looks and gathering money at the card tables. His plan was to return to New York a most desirable man, to catch the eye of the woman he had loved all his life and who hadn’t returned the feelings. Then he could turn the tables on her and make her feel the kind of loss he suffered.
Becca O’Hare had grown up with all three of the Donovan brothers, but it was the middle son Brandon who stole her heart. He left shortly after announcing their engagement, to pursue a lead for the family business, and never returned. Now, five years later, her family is pressuring her to move on and find another suitable husband. She can’t help but notice how much Robert has changed. From his muscled body in a suit to his fancy hotel business, he has become the type of man any woman would want.
Can Becca let go of her guilt and let her heart fall for the new man Robert has become? Will Robert go through with his plans for revenge if she does? Or can the two of them find a new future together?
Out on April 25. Amazon preorder link: Dancing-Devil/B0BZTMPKG7

Emma Brady is an author who resides in Kansas. She went to school to be a librarian but now works for a company that sells fine art online. She has two nephews and two dogs, with whom she enjoys spending time. Her long-time interest in Victorian love stories led to her becoming an author.
Follow Emma on Facebook: hotbooklover2


Welcome to the hometown everyone wants to call their own.

My favorite small-town Texas series is back in the form of a spin-off trilogy. This first book Sweet Comfort lives up to its title with its familiar (from Comfort Stories) and newly-introduced characters welcoming readers with warmth, charm, romance, cozy mystery, and best of all, gourmet chocolates.
It always feels like a homecoming whenever I read a Comfort story by Kimberly Fish. She writes a smooth-flowing, slow-burning story featuring fully fleshed-out characters set in a place that makes me want to visit and revisit often.
This latest installment delighted me especially because Gloria Bachman is the main protagonist. I was intrigued with her in Comfort Foods and I’m happy she gets not just one but three stories that are focused on her life and relationships in the Comfort and Joy series. Now that I’m a Golden Girl myself, I love reading stories centered around people of the same generation proving we still have a lot to contribute to society despite our advancing years. Gloria, with her new venture into business ownership and her deepening involvement in the Comfort community, proves that and more.
It was entertaining to read her vacillate between openness and reluctance in dealing with her neighbors, business associates, and potential love interest in Mason Lassiter. I loved that Ms. Fish infused her with kindness, smarts, and savvy as well as lingering baggage from her past, a healthy suspicion about strangers, and occasional self-doubt that made her a well-developed person.
Truly, all the named characters in this story are multifaceted, from Drue to Wanda to Joynella and even the hapless Ted Bodine. The only character that needs more fleshing out is Mason. I guess we’ll know more about him in book two Finding Comfort, which I’m really looking forward to reading.
I enjoyed this story immensely. I do consider it more contemporary women’s fiction than a cozy mystery though. The murder mystery aspect lacks suspense, a sense of urgency to find out the identity of the killer, and a direct threat to Gloria’s well-being that would have created more tension.
A solid start to a new craveable series.



Kimberly Fish has been a professional writer in marketing and media for over thirty years, with regular contributions to area newspapers and magazines. As an accidental historian, she wrote two novels, The Big Inch and Harmon General, both based on factual events in Longview, Texas that changed world history. Kimberly also offers a set of contemporary women’s fiction novels and novellas, based in the Texas Hill Country, that reveal her fascination with characters discovering their grit and sweet, second chances; all four of the novels have won distinguished awards. Sweet Comfort is her latest novel, the first book in the Comfort and Joy Trilogy.

How do you choose between the career you thought you lived for and the love you can’t live without?
For Dr. Liam Jacobs, becoming the chair of a prestigious university opera program is one step closer to his dream of having his own opera company. Getting involved with a student could cost him everything he’s ever worked for. But once he hears Melynda sing, he knows he’ll never want anyone else.
Melynda Taylor’s dedication to becoming an opera singer takes her directly to Liam, her professor, and the one man with the power to make her come undone and risk everything. But in her experience, men don’t give, they take – sometimes without permission. And they definitely don’t fall in love with women like her.
When a dark shadow from Melynda’s past makes their entanglement even more complicated, they are each forced to decide how much they are willing to sacrifice for love. Now the music that drove them both forward and bound them together, could also be the thing to tear them apart.
Indiscreet is a standalone, high-heat, forbidden romance with a guaranteed HEA, and the first book in the Love Song series.
Buy Link: amazon.com/dp/B0BMHYKHPP
Cara has always had an overactive imagination. Her aunt tells the story of 4-year-old Cara demanding that she pretend to “be a doctor who’s really a wolf who’s pretending to be bad but is really good.” Now she knows, she was just a romance reader at heart!
She has been an English teacher, professional musician, and nonprofit administrator. When she’s not reading or writing romance, Cara loves cooking, Broadway musicals, and all things Disney.
She lives in a small town in New England with her family and two cats (who want all the attention).
Author Links:
Website: caradion.com
Instagram: @caradion.author
Facebook: @caradionauthor
Linktree: caradion

Stealing Time, December 20, 2014, 319 pages
A devastating hurricane. A time travel betrayal. Will Ronnie survive the witch hunt or forever be lost in time?
Stealing Time is the first book in the “breathtakingly original” Stealing Time Series of time travel wrapped in a hurricane. If you like strong-willed modern women and gripping stories that transport you back in time, then you’ll love KJ Waters’s Books.
As Hurricane Charley churns a path of destruction towards Orlando, Florida, Ronnie Andrews scrambles to prepare for the storm and seeks shelter at her boyfriend’s weather lab. What she finds there is more terrifying than Mother Nature’s destruction.
During the peak of the hurricane, Ronnie is hurtled back in time to eighteenth-century London where she is caught in a web of superstition, deception, and lies in a life and death struggle to return to her own time. Her best friend Steph is thrust into the middle of the hurricane.
New Zealand Romance with Spice
While I got slightly breathless by the fast pacing of Ellie and Sam’s romance, I also appreciate the decisiveness of their actions. There wasn’t much push-and-pull that could get annoying if overdone. I like the effort made to be inclusive and diverse and I love the involvement of friends and families.
Overall, a promising debut by Trinity Wood. I enjoyed my return visit to New Zealand through this book.



Katherine Vareck is in for the shock of her life when she learns upon her husband Meri’s accidental death that he had married two other women. Her entire business, along with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be a royal supplier, is everything she’s been working for and now could be destroyed if word leaks about the three wives.
Meri’s far more upstanding brother, Christian, Duke of Randford has no earthly clue how to be of assistance. He spent the better part of his adult years avoiding Meri and the rest of his good-for-nothing family, so to be dragged back into the fold is…problematic. Even more so is the intrepid and beautiful Katherine, whom he cannot be falling for because she’s Meri’s widow. Or can he?
With a textile business to run and a strong friendship forming with Meri’s two other wives, Katherine doesn’t have time for much else. But there’s something about the warm, but compellingly taciturn Christian that draws her to him. When an opportunity to partner in a business venture brings them even closer, they’ll have to face their pasts if they want to share each other’s hearts and futures.
Buy Links:
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With its wild premise, easy-to-root for main characters, fascinating set of secondary characters, easy pace that kept the story moving, and low-angst conflict, A Duke In Time gives Janna MacGregor’s new The Widow Rules series a promising start.
Janna has always written strong and resolute female leads and Katherine is a remarkable example of them. Her occupation and hidden background provide for a refreshing change from the previous heroines who were born into nobility. Her backstory allows for a better understanding of her decisions and actions throughout the story.
Christian, the titular duke, is himself an admirable character with his care for war veterans and his taking up the responsibility for his brother Meri’s three widows and the menagerie that kept on coming. His kind treatment of the people under his employ and his resolve not to follow his father’s debauched ways make him immensely likable.
I like that Kat and Christian formed tight friendships with each other and with others. I like that while there was an instant attraction between them, they didn’t act on it until they established a bond. I appreciate the absence of excessive push and pull. They satisfied their physical desire with agreement on both parties without coy protestations.
While there are some aspects of the story that could have been better fleshed out (I’m still unclear how Katherine managed to start a business on her own with two hundred pounds to her name) and the lack of flaws in Christian’s characterization, I recommend this light and easy read to fans of “modern” historical romance.



Janna MacGregor was born and raised in the bootheel of Missouri. She credits her darling mom for introducing her to the happily-ever-after world of romance novels. Janna writes stories where compelling and powerful heroines meet and fall in love with their equally matched heroes. She is the mother of triplets and splits her time between Kansas City and Minneapolis with her very own dashing rogue, and one smug, but not surprisingly, perfect pug. She loves to hear from readers.
Social Media Links:



Gunnar Bond is broken.
Three years ago, he lived through the car crash that took his wife and twins away from him—though “lived” barely describes his current state. Giving up professional hockey, going off grid, and drinking himself into oblivion are his coping mechanisms. Another is texting his dead wife about his days without her. Therapeutic? Doubtful. Crazy?
Definitely. But those messages into the ether are virtually the only thing stopping him from spiraling to even darker places.
Until someone texts back . . .
Sadie Yates is losing it.
Suddenly guardian to a little sister she doesn’t know and a misbehaving hound she’d rather not know at all, she’s had to upend her (sort of) glamorous life in LA and move back to Chicago. The nanny has quit, the money’s running out, and her job is on the line. The last thing she needs is her sister’s hockey camp counselor, a judgmental Viking type, telling her she sucks at this parenting lark. Thank the goddess for her sweet, sensitive, and—fingers crossed—sexy text buddy who always knows the right thing to say. In the same city at last, they can finally see if their online chemistry is mirrored in real life. She just needs to set up a meeting …
A ruined man who claims to have used up all his love is surely a bad bet, but Sadie’s never been afraid of a challenge … even one that might shatter her heart into a million pieces.
Purchase Links:
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USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Originally from Ireland, Kate cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Harlequins thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.
Author links:
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Kate is giving away $25 Amazon gift card to one lucky winner. Open internationally. Ends today August 2. Click on photo to enter.
Book Blitz provided by:



From Jodi Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Mornings on Main and Indigo Lake, comes this heartwarming new novel set in Honey Creek, Texas—a small town where family bonds and legends run deep, and friendship and love are always close at hand . . .
Piper Jane Mackenzie, mayor of Honey Creek, won’t let a major scandal rip her quirky hometown apart or jeopardize her dream of one day running for higher office. So she’s willing to welcome undercover detective Colby McBride, hired to help solve the mystery behind her wannabe fiancé’s disappearance. Colby’s cover? That he is an old boyfriend now begging Piper for a second chance—always when there are plenty of townsfolk around to witness his shenanigans.
Piper hardly knows whether to laugh or cry, especially when she finds herself drawn to the handsome rascal. He’s not the only newcomer she has to deal with. There’s a new interim preacher in town, Sam Cassidy. Drifting from one assignment to another since his one love died, Sam isn’t sure he’s the right fit for Honey Creek. But as Piper knows, this is a place chock-full of surprises. And if she can keep her town—and her heart—from going completely off the rails, there may be a sweet, unexpected future in store . . .



This was a hoot, a zany, funny light read that’s sure to entertain readers who like romantic fiction that’s set in a small town and that contains a little mystery to liven things up.
Breakfast at Honey Creek Café tells the intertwined stories of three couples – Piper and Colby, Sam and Anna, and Pecos and Kerrie. All different, all romantic in their own way.
Piper is the mayor of Honey Creek whose rumored boyfriend went missing and is now under suspicion of foul play. Colby is a trooper who was sent by her Texas Ranger brother to investigate the case and also to protect her. The cover story they came up with has Colby posing as an old suitor so that he can get the townspeople to talk to him. Both have bad experiences with relationships in the past that made them wary about their attraction to each other. With the entire town looking on, their pretend courtship soon turns oh-so real.

Sam is a former firefighter and former soldier who takes up the position of temporary preacher originally meant for his deceased father. After the death of his girlfriend, he found himself drifting along without any real purpose until he came to Honey Creek. There, he realizes that preaching isn’t for him, but Anna, the feisty world-saver definitely is. Their snappy banter made me laugh out loud.
The third story–told from the point of view of Pecos, the graduating high school student who wants to leave town to be somebody–is the one that touched me the most. Pecos has the most tremendous growth of all the POV characters. He made me tear up with this line: “That living through any storms with her was better than facing the world alone.”
Jodi Thomas described a setting that’s quirky enough to be fictional, but also familiar enough to be realistic. There’s a lot of named characters necessary to paint a complete picture of a community. My favorite is the generous Mr. Winston.
This book is a different style from what I’ve read of Ms. Thomas’s work before. It’s more comedic and less angsty. It’s still her usual heartwarming story and I love that. My only critique is in the inconsistency of the tone. It started really serious with the mystery of the missing boyfriend but as the book went on, the graveness was abandoned in favor of attempts to elicit laughter from the reader. Also, the ending was a tad rushed, with the villain’s motivations not fully fleshed out. But all of that is minor compared to my overall enjoyment of the book. How could I not when this quote from Anna expresses my carpe diem motto exactly?
“We don’t know what the future holds, but we want to step into it together. It’ll take some work, but we’ll fit each other in our lives.”


With millions of books in print, Jodi Thomas is both a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over fifty novels and countless short story collections. Her stories travel through the past and present days of Texas and draw readers from around the world.
In July 2006, Jodi was the eleventh writer to be inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. With five RITAs to her credit, along with National Readers’ Choice Awards and Booksellers’ Best Awards, Thomas has proven her skill as a master storyteller.
Thomas was honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas and served sixteen years as the Writer in Residence at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas.
When not working on a novel, or inspiring students to pursue writing careers, Thomas enjoys traveling with her family, renovating an historic home, and “checking up” on two grown sons and four grandchildren.
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