From the New York Times bestselling author of Forever My Girl: The Motion Picture, Heidi McLaughlin delivers a contemporary football romance that will leave you ready to hike the ball.
Kelsey Sloane’s love of books leads to her dream job as an acquisitions editor for an up and coming publisher. What their company needs to really make a name for themselves is a hit release, and Kelsey thinks she may have found it. That is, if the football aspects of the sports-themed love story make sense. Completely clueless on the subject, she calls the local NFL team—the Portland Pioneers—to teach her the basics.
Portland Pioneers center, Alex Moore, gets the short end of the stick when he’s tasked with teaching new to town, Kelsey Sloane, all about football. Fresh off a break-up with his long-term girlfriend, the offensive lines blur for Alex when he finds himself attracted to Kelsey.
Oblivious to who Alex is, Kelsey isn’t enamored by his fame or begging for tickets on the fifty-yard line. Her only interest is learning about the sport he loves.
Her impromptu internship over, it’s time for Kelsey to return to wading through stacks of manuscripts. But Alex isn’t ready to say goodbye. Can he find a way to keep the football novice in his life? Or will their differing careers be the flag on the play that keeps them apart
Heidi McLaughlin is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of The Beaumont Series, The Boys of Summer, and The Archers.
Originally, from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in picturesque Vermont, with her husband, two daughters, and their three dogs.
In 2012, Heidi turned her passion for reading into a full-fledged literary career, writing over twenty novels, including the acclaimed Forever My Girl.
Heidi's first novel, Forever My Girl, has been adapted into a motion picture with LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions, starring Alex Roe and Jessica Rothe, and opened in theaters on January 19, 2018, and is now available on DVD & Digital.
To stay connected with Heidi visit www.facebook.com/authorheidimclaughlin or heidimclaughlin.com
Book Title: How Did I Get Here? -Traveling The Road To Resilienceby Andrew Fitzgerald Category: Adult Non-Fiction (18+), 110 pages Kindle, 208 pages for Print Genre: Memoir / Self-Help / Inspirational Publisher:Fitzy's Branded Books Publication Date: Feb, 2023 Content Rating: G - For Everyone and no bad language or explicit scenes
HOW DID I GET HERE?
As he woke up after dying for the second time, Andrew Fitzgerald asked himself, “How did I get here?”
As he and his wife left Ireland and stepped foot on American soil to begin their lives in the US, he asked himself, “How did I get here?”
As his wife delivered their baby after four miscarriages, he asked himself, “How did I get here?”
As he sat in a customer sales meeting and negotiated the new listing, authorizations, and launch for what is now the no.1 Hard Seltzer in the USA, he asked himself, "How did I get here?"
As he stood on the first tee about to play golf with one of his sporting heroes and a three-time major champion, he asked himself, “How did I get here?”
As he sat in a board room meeting, asserted himself, and rebuked some negative assertions about him, he asked himself, “How did I get here?”
In this poignant memoir about resilience, Andrew Fitzgerald shares his story of immigrating from Ireland to America, only to return to Ireland, and then back to America for good. He explores his struggles with health crises, corporate culture, miscarriage grief, and adapting to his new country.
You’ll follow Andrew’s story as he shares his key learnings from the highs and lows of his journey, such as:
Talk about your challenging experiences; find someone to help you process your feelings
Follow your dreams; know they’re right for you no matter how they sound to others
Give yourself time to adjust; when making big life changes avoid running back to what was comfortable
Be true to your values; define what your values are and stick to them
Learn to trust; trust yourself, have confidence and don't forget your purpose in everything you do
Negotiate in partnership; practice techniques that are customer-centric and deliver a win/win for your customer and company
Celebrate success; you deserve it
Andrew will affirm and demonstrate in his book that the journey is just as important as the destination, with the stark realization that the journey filled with highs and lows is sometimes more fulfilling than the destination. So come with Andrew on this journey to learn how he overcame the various obstacles in his life, flourished, and ultimately traveled the road to resilience a key trait you too can develop in your personal and business life.
Andrew Fitzgerald is a native of Ireland and now resides in Oceanside, California. A father, husband, and author, he speaks on what it takes to be successful in the corporate world, and how to overcome health crises and loss. He has recovered from serious setbacks to flourish and thrive with resilience. Andrew enjoys all sports, plays golf, and loves to cook and hike when he is not thinking about the next big brand launch.
About THE NEW ONE by Evie Green (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; March 28, 2023)
A suspenseful, cutting-edge novel about two parents who finally get the daughter they’ve always wanted—it’s too bad she isn’t real. From the author of We Hear Voices.
For Tamsyn and Ed, life is tough. They both work long hours for very little money and come home to their moody, rebellious daughter, Scarlett.
After a tragic accident leaves Scarlett comatose and with little chance of recovery, Tamsyn and Ed are out of options until a lifeline emerges in the form of an unusual medical trial. In exchange for the very best treatment for Scarlett, a fully furnished apartment, and a limitless spending account, the family must agree to move to Switzerland and welcome an artificial copy of their daughter into their home.
Suddenly their life is transformed. Tamsyn and Ed want for nothing, and the AI replacement, Sophie, makes it feel just like having their daughter back—except without all the bad parts. Sophie is engaged, happy, and actually wants to spend time with her parents.
But things take a turn for the worse when Scarlett makes a very real recovery and the family discovers that the forces behind their new life are darker than they ever could have imagined.
Evie Green is a pseudonym for a British author who has written professionally for her entire adult life. She lives by the sea in England with her husband, children, and guinea pigs, and loves writing in the very early morning, fueled by coffee.
Praise for We Hear Voices by Evie Green
“Prepare for major goose bumps.”—PopSugar
“We Hear Voices is startling in both its prescience and premise. Deliciously chilling, this is also a book filled with heart—the terror experienced by Rachel when she discovers her little boy has survived a terrible virus only to suffer from voice-hearing is breathtaking in its realism. While the plot is perfectly paced and races to a terrifying climax, the relationships between the characters are gorgeous and stay with the reader long after their heart rate returns to normal.”—C. J. Cooke, author of The Nesting
Berkley Trade Paperback Original | On sale March 28, 2023
PROLOGUE I listen for a long time before any of the words make sense. When they do, I can grab only a word here or there. Soleil. Le weekend. I try to hold on to the other words but I can't reach them. Everything comes and goes. I am floating. After a while, I realize I am not floating. I have a body. I am in a body. I am a body. My eyes are closed, and after a long time I think that since I am back in my body, I might try to open them. After some more time, I try. It doesn't work. I know there is noise, but I can’t make sense of it. My sense of smell seems as if someone switched it on, and it is unbearable. The smells crowd into my head and I want them to go away. It smells like medicine, clean things, and chemicals. Not home. Things hurt. People do things to me. They poke me and move me, and sometimes it hurts and sometimes I don’t feel anything. I sense light outside my eyelids. It goes away and comes back. It gets darker and then lighter. I drift back to my dark place, and I come up again. One day the sounds start to form shapes and I find that I know a word. I know that it is the word for the person I need, the person who will pull me out of here. I try to make my mouth say it: “Mum.” Chapter 1 Five months before November She had been daydreaming. The water had evaporated and the cauliflower was sticking to the bottom of the pan and the potatoes were burning, because she'd forgotten all of it. It was salvageable, but she didn't want it. "Oh, shut up," she told it nonsensically and turned off the gas ring. Everything annoyed her. She tried to focus on the television. It was a reality show, one that usually distracted her just enough. Tonight, though, it wasn't working. Scarlett wasn't missing. She was out. If she hadn't overdone the cover story by throwing in Leanne, it wouldn't have been worrying yet. It was still all right. She messaged her. Please just send a text. Nothing happened. She messaged again and called her phone and she didn't answer. She turned the TV off and messaged Ed, hating the fact that she was admitting defeat again. He replied at ten forty-five. Fuck's sake honey! Again?!???? Yeah, I'll find her. At least he replied to her when it was about Scarlett. Since he worked late nights and she worked early mornings, they hardly saw each other. That was why they were still together. She looked at the photo on the wall. They had been happy once. It was a picture of the three of them taken when Scarlett was about four. They had been on the beach at Perranporth, standing in front of the Atlantic Ocean, the beach wide and sandy around them. Their hair was blowing around and they were laughing. Scarlett stood between them, holding their hands. They had been happy because Scarlett had been a dreamy child. They had been happy because their relationship was newer, and they weren't ground down by life. Scarlett had been an adorable little girl, always asking questions about everything. They had kept her supplied with books from the library, had tried to find the answers she needed, had done everything they could to help her have a better life than they did. She had learned to read before she went to school, and together they had all learned a bit of French from an app. Her parents agreed (as all parents probably did) that their daughter was exceptionally bright and brilliant, and as the years went by, they encouraged her to do her homework, to be top of the class, to excel at everything and keep her options wide open. She was exactly average-sized for her age, which seemed like a good thing: she could never be teased for being too big or too small. She had curly dark hair and intense brown eyes, and she would climb into bed with them at night, cuddling up and whispering, "I love you so much, Mummy." She used to ask for a baby brother. Her favorite color was blue. She wanted to see snow. She wanted to have snowball fights, to climb mountains, to see the pyramids. She wanted to do everything. She had been the best child ever. And then, a few weeks before she turned thirteen, Scarlett had changed.
It’s been four years since the Killing Game turned Reis and Edgar’s lives upside-down. Believing the past to be behind them, they’ve tried to move on with their lives. Edgar has returned to freelance computer programming, while Reis is training to become a Bureau agent. Emily is about to marry, and Reis’s biggest concern is what to wear to the wedding as they navigate the rocky seas of their gender identity.
The peace they won is soon cast into doubt as Tony Anvas is released from prison. Shortly after, Edgar and Reis are thrust into a conspiracy more deadly and dangerous than the Killing Game when Anvas stages a coup d’etat, forcibly severing the Twin City-States in a bloody and brutal attack.
It’s once again up to Reis and Edgar to save the day, but Edgar is still suffering the after-effects of trauma and Reis is trying to determine whether to go ahead with medical transition. Can they outwit Anvas’s machinations once again and emerge whole—and if so, what will it cost them?
Edgar jolted awake, gasping for breath. It took him too long to realize he was at home, in the safety of his bed. Reis slept on beside him, their breathing shallow and even despite the stifling summer humidity.
He threw the sheets off and set his feet down on the floor, putting his weight on them slowly so he didn’t jolt the mattress. He knew where every floorboard in their home creaked and measured his steps carefully, tiptoeing around the problem spots like a ballet dancer. The ritual set his mind at ease a little as he cleared the bedroom without Reis so much as stirring. From there, it was a simple matter of padding across the hallway to the bathroom, where the cold tile floor against his feet helped him to shake off sleep as he emptied his bladder into the toilet and flushed.
He peeked out from the bathroom and heard a gentle snore from the direction of the bedroom. Reis slept on, oblivious to the fact that Edgar was awake at two in the morning again, having been torn from a fitful sleep by the nightmares that haunted him.
The terrors of his subconscious along with lack of sleep had come close to driving Edgar over the edge. He wiped the sweat from his brow and started the long journey down the stairs, grateful for the thick carpet they’d installed as it muffled his footfalls. The open-plan living room gave way to a massive kitchen they rarely seemed to use any more. Reis could cook, but they seemed less inclined since they’d started working at the Bureau. Reis often came home late and rose early. Sometimes he and Edgar would go without seeing each other for days. It was a far cry from the way they’d met, stuck with each other for weeks as they fled the people who wanted Edgar dead.
Edgar poured himself a glass of water. He thought about coffee; he could get some work done on the computer if he started early. The best thing about running a freelance business was he could work whenever he felt like it, sociable hours be damned. It was surprising how many clients seemed to respond at odd hours, and Edgar wondered if they couldn’t sleep either.
Maybe he should go back to his therapist. Reis would support him; they’d both spent a good amount of time in therapy, both together and individually, after the Killing Game they’d suffered through four years ago. Edgar had talked at length about everything bothering him—how he didn’t feel safe leaving the house, how he was becoming a hermit, the nightmares and night terrors. But there was one thing he’d never opened up about because he feared the repercussions, and the suppressed secret slowly crushed him now, bearing down on him like the weight of a skyscraper.
Every night he pulled the trigger on Ash. He watched Ash’s chest explode in a shower of blood and bones, and that was something he could never talk about. Not even to Reis. Especially not to Reis. Reis was a natural born killer—a soldier at heart, even if they’d chosen to use that talent to protect others. Edgar was a lover. Reis could separate and cut that part of themself off, but Edgar couldn’t. His brain traced patterns in moments of downtime, wondering how the world’s destiny had been irrevocably altered without Ash in its timeline. Like a line of code that had been deleted, Ash was gone, forever. He’d ceased to exist.
Ash was viral code, Edgar tried to reassure himself. He’d been involved in a terrorist attack that had cost a dozen or more lives. Ash had tried to kill him, in addition to burning down Reis’s apartment, destroying the last connection they had to their mother—the piano she’d bought for them. Ash had been about to murder Reis—and he wouldn’t have hesitated like they had. Edgar had been left with no choice but to pull the trigger and do what Reis had been unable to.
Maybe it would have been easier if Reis had hated Edgar for it, but their attitude seemed to have been largely one of resignation, despite Ash being their former lover. Their relationship had been abusive, Reis had admitted, seeming more relieved than heartbroken at his death. Ash had chosen his dark path not because of belief in a cause, but as an agent of chaos, determined to cause harm to a world that had hurt him so. All of that was true, but still—
Edgar had put the bullet that had ended him in Ash’s chest. He’d taken a life, even if it was for the purpose of saving one.
He decided against coffee, noting the tremor in his hands as he placed his empty water glass in the sink. He browsed the fridge for a snack to distract him, but it was a buffet of out-of-date salad vegetables and moldy leftovers. Reis never touched the fridge since they’d been introduced to the joys of Bureau catering. Edgar contemplated emptying it all into the trash, but a shard of resentment lodged itself in his heart and he closed the door, wondering why it was his job and not Reis’s. He worked full-time too, even if his career didn’t take him out of the house. He took on the lion’s share of the chores as it was. No, Reis could clean the damn fridge. He was sick of doing everything, damn it.
He slumped into his computer chair and let out a long sigh. No, his frustration wasn’t about the fridge. None of their little spats lately had been about the minor nuisances they purported to be. They were the manifestation of Edgar’s festering agony vented out into their shared living space, poison leaving his body by the fastest available route. He hated that this unresolved fragment of history had lodged itself in his heart and was ruining his present. He wanted to spill the beans and tell Reis what was bothering him, but something held him back. What if Reis dismissed his nightmares as irrational? Reis had killed more than once: they’d slaughtered a squad of highly trained mercenaries trying to protect him. What did Edgar have to complain about, really? If Reis could handle that, why couldn’t Edgar handle putting one bullet in one of the most despicable human beings he’d ever come across?
Edgar eyed the gun cabinet where Reis’s sniper rifle sat, locked away. He would have sold the gun if he’d had the option, but it wasn’t his to dispose of. It was Elias Torell’s rifle, the gun that had ended a war and started Unification. It was Reis’s last link to their father, and despite the fact his reputation had become rather tarnished in Reis’s eyes, they weren’t likely to get rid of it to silence Edgar’s demons.
Besides, without that gun, Reis would be dead. Edgar knew it and reminded himself of it daily. He’d done what he needed to do. He’d taken the shot to save Reis’s life, and he couldn’t bring himself to regret it, even as he tormented himself with it. Reis was safe and alive. Working toward their dreams, instead of lying in a coffin six feet under the earth. Given the choice between Reis and Ash, of course he chose Reis, every single time. But he was still a killer, and it was something he couldn’t reconcile with, even now, four years after the fact. His fathers had been singers. He was a programmer. He came from a long history of makers and lovers, of creative people who brought wonders into the world, not took them away. He glanced over at the mirror set into the back of the living room door and wondered if his eyes gave away the fact he’d destroyed a life.
He opened the locked drawer in his computer desk and took out a tiny box. He opened it. A flat, silver band with the sigils of Anver and Kasyova—the snake and the braid—entwined upon its surface sat cushioned against blue velvet. The engagement ring had sat in his drawer for a year now, waiting for the right time, but that time seemed further away than ever, now. They were becoming strangers, torn apart by the tides. Edgar had to fight the urge to wake Reis right now and get down on one knee.
No, he wasn’t fool enough to think marriage would make all their woes go away. They were enduring a test and cheating on it would only come back to bite them in the long run. He’d hoped Emily Vos’s upcoming wedding would give him the moment he needed, but the timing was all wrong with Ash’s specter looming over his shoulder.
Edgar closed the box, put it away, and locked the drawer. Part of him wanted to lose the key, to give up, to stop coming down here in the early hours and tormenting himself with things that had already happened and things that might never come to pass.
Reis Asher (he/him) is a transmasculine author living in rural Pennsylvania with his husband and four cats. He loves video games, reading, technology, and of course, writing.
He enjoys shining a spotlight on queer characters and their adventures in a diverse range of worlds, from the fantastical to the everyday.
Catch him on Twitter where he’s happy to interact. You can find Reis on Twitter.
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Comedy is everywhere if you allow yourself to see it—to feel it. It can be subtle or overt, dark or joyous, adorable or cheeky. Such ageless versatility is beyond compare. Curated with that in mind, author R.A. Clarke proudly presents sixteen humorous stories to the world.
Between these covers, you'll find short fiction in several genres. Each tale is infused with unique characters and comical situations, some rooted in reality, others certainly not. Flip the page and join a jewel heist executed by bumbling thieves at a gastronomy party, meet a lowly soul gifted the fantastical chance to redo an all-consuming moment of regret, or sweat alongside a father as he realizes his daughter is growing up too fast. Turn another page and you’ll enjoy clowning around while meeting Mr. Right, then zoom in on a perfectly focused meet cute, or feel Mother Nature’s wrath as a rebellious fishing excursion goes all kinds of wrong. There is something in this collection for everyone to enjoy, including eight never-before-seen stories.
Allow yourself to be entertained and whisked away. Let humour in all its glorious forms tempt your lips to move. Don’t fight the urge. Embrace it. Go ahead and let your lips twitch.
R.A. Clarke is a former police officer turned stay-at-home mom from Portage la Prairie, MB. She shares life with a sport-aholic husband, two adorable children, and an ever-expanding collection of novels-in-progress. Besides sipping coffee and escaping to the lake, R.A. enjoys plotting multi-genre short fiction, and also writes/illustrates children’s chapter books as Rachael Clarke. She has won international short story competitions such as The Writer’s Games, Writer’s Weekly, and Red Penguin Books humour contest. In 2021, she was named a Hindi’s Libraries Females of Fiction finalist, a Dark Sire Award finalist, and a Futurescapes Award finalist. R.A.’s work has been published by a variety of publications, including Sinister Smile Press, Cloaked Press LLC, and Polar Borealis Magazine, among others.
Taken, I’m bound inside the home of a dangerous man. He may have saved me from his sadistic cousin, but it seems I’ve only traded one monster for another. Fans of The Five Families series by Jill Ramsower will love Violent Ascension by Giorgia Blake, a steamy, enemies-to-lovers, forced marriage, mafia romance.
Yet I’m here. Taken and bound inside the home of Alessandro Parisi.
A dangerous man who holds my life and my secrets close to the chest.
He has all the answers but refuses to answer any of my questions.
All he’s told me is that I’m his and the key to his ascension.
He saved me from his sadistic cousin, but it seems I just traded one monster for another.
The first one stalked and taunted me until I was convinced death was around every corner.
This one orders me to cooperate, bend to his touch, and obey.
Too bad obedience isn’t in my nature and sacrifice is my birthright.
We probably won’t make it out of this blood war alive…The likelihood of my heart surviving Alessandro is even less.
Violent Ascension is the first book in the Made Men of Chicago Collection and can be read as a standalone. It is a forced marriage mafia romance with themes of organized crime, violence, and BDSM. If this is your type of romance, the happily ever after will knock your socks off!
I feel her presence the moment Isabella is nearby. That’s the way it's become between us the past few weeks. In Jane Eyre, There’s a moment where Mr. Rochester tells Jane that he feels the presence of an invisible string connecting the two beneath his left rib. He claims with a fervor that if that tether ever snapped, he’d bleed inwardly while she would forget he ever existed. Rochester was old, hardened by the world, and prone to outbursts of anger; while Jane was young, innocent, and talented. The world before her, his criminal past behind him; if he didn’t protect the frailty of that string with his life, then he would lose her forever.
When I first read it, I thought it was sentimental dribble. I saw it as a passage of words to muddle through in order to get to the end of the book. At this moment, I have a different view of that passage. Charlotte Bronte herself must have felt that snap or she was an emotional savant. I feel the snap of the string that kept Isabella in my universe the moment I hear her soft steps turn the corner. She’s holding my mother’s pistol and it seems fitting. I’d want her to have it.
My silly, brave, and disobedient girl.
The betrayal in her eyes lets me know that she heard what the bastard just said and she’s more than pissed. She’s hurt. I lied to her, and now she’ll be more determined than ever to escape. Too bad I’ll never let her go. I need her too much. My need has nothing to do with the Romano Ascension but everything to do with the warmth of her sun. I won’t live in the cold without it.
“Father?” Her eyes stay focused on me, and I realize she’s asking me if what she heard is true. Even now, she’s praying I’m not as monstrous as I appear to be. But I am.
I’m dismissed before I can even respond... Her attention turns to Matteo as she closes in on the truth.,
“You’re Matteo Ricci?” Her voice is strong and sure. Her chin held high, she faces the man that created and abandoned her.
Matteo eyes her carefully. He assesses her with a detached interest. I wonder if she feels it. I pray to God her anger at me does not distort her discernment. That’s a skill I’ve admired her for since we met. She read me like a book within moments of meeting me.
“I am. Come closer child. I want to have a good look at you.”
“Stay right where you are.” I bark. “Don’t move.”
Matteo scowls. “Is this how you’ve been treating my daughter? Like some dog, you can call. She’s a Ricci and she should be treated like a queen, something you promised you would do.”
His feigned care is starting to really get under my skin. He’s up to something, and I’m not letting Isabella anywhere near him until I know exactly what it is. Matteo is a dangerous and unpredictable man. It was one thing for him to want her back because she’s his. That’s the mafia way. I expect that from a man like him. It’s something else entirely if he attaches value to her. Assets can be traded or sacrificed like pawns on a chessboard.
I'm a contemporary romance author dedicated to the dangerously delicious world of Mafia Romance. Every story will dare you to believe in the power of love, even when there doesn't seem to be one sane reason to do so!
My stories feature sexy alphas and smart heroines finding love in the most breath-stealing of circumstances. If someone can't die at any moment–it's not a Giorgia Blake Romance!
Every plot is full of heat, suspense, and steamy passion that would make the Karma Sutra blush.
So come join me on this wild ride...you won't regret it!
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