COVER REVEAL

The Alchemist's Kiss

 

Cover Reveal

 

by AR DeClerck

 

A  Magical Steampunk Adventure

 

 

He will have to face his past to save his future.

 

Icarus Kane is the warden of London, having taken the city and its people under his protection. A dark wizard has come to call, threatening Icarus' home, his friends, and his life. It will take all of his ability as a wizard and alchemist, and all his courage as a man, to fight his oldest enemy. Magic alone cannot defeat this threat, and Icarus will have to rely on science to help. With his companions, Cora Mae Jenkins and Archimedes Merriweather, Icarus will have to face his past to save his future.

 

 

 

Cover design by Rachel Olson (No Sweat Graphics)

Preorder available now!

 

http://www.amazon.com/Alchemists-Kiss-AR-DeClerck-ebook/dp/B010MOJXRE/ref=

 

 



A NEW RELEASE BY PAIGE MATTHEWS

 

BOOK 3: In The Zone Series

 





 

Roughing:

Brianna:

Ten years. 

It’s been ten years since he ripped my heart out and left me broken and destroyed. 

Ten years of rebuilding, of moving on. 

But do you ever really move on from your first love? 

Now faced with the past, how do we deal with the future? 



Colin 



Ten years. 

She left me a hollow man. No one has captured my heart since. 

Ten years spent focusing on my career and having fun. 

That is until she reappears in my life. 

Can I convince her to give us a second chance? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roughing: http://amzn.to/1Ag4F6C

 

About Paige Matthews:

 

Paige Matthews resides in Western Connecticut with her husband, two children, and dog. When she is not balancing work, school, and family, she can be found writing her next sexy smut or reading some. A lover of literature and an avid hockey fan, she is usually glued to the TV watching the Rangers or writing about sexy dominant players. She enjoys relaxing with some rock music and an adult beverage! You can keep up with her ramblings at www.paigematthews.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

THE HOTTEST SUMMER READS!

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All that’s required to ignite a revolution is a single spark rising.

Two hundred years after the cataclysm that annihilated fossil fuels, Sparks keep electricity flowing through their control of energy-giving Dust. The Council of Nine rebuilt civilization on the backs of Sparks, offering citizens a comfortable life in a relo-city in exchange for power, particularly over the children able to fuel the future. The strongest of the boys are taken as Wards and raised to become elite agents, the Council’s enforcers and spies. Strong girls—those who could advance the rapidly-evolving matrilineal power—don’t exist. Not according to the Council.

Lena Gracey died as a child, mourned publicly by parents desperate to keep her from the Council. She was raised in hiding until she fled the relo-city for solitary freedom in the desert. Lena lives off the grid, selling her power on the black market.

Agent Alex Reyes was honed into a calculating weapon at the Ward School to do the Council’s dirty work. But Alex lives a double life. He’s leading the next generation of agents in a secret revolution to destroy those in power from within.

The life Lena built to escape her past ends the day Alex arrives looking for a renegade Spark.

 

 

 

Kate Corcino is a reformed shy girl who found her voice (and uses it...a lot). She believes in magic, coffee, Starburst candies, genre fiction, descriptive profanity, and laughing over wine with good friends. She was raised around the world as an Army Brat, moving every three years. Perhaps that enforced flexibility is what led to her belief in the transformative power of screwing up and second chances. Cheers to works-in-progress of the literary and lifelong variety!

The nomad finally settled with her family in her beloved desert Southwest. She is currently celebrating the publication of IGNITION POINT and SPARK RISING , the first books in the Progenitor Saga, a near future dystopian adventure series with an urban fantasy feel with romantic elements, science, a hint of magic, and plenty of action.

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Giveaway Info:

Win 1 signed paperback copy of Spark Rising and 1 kindle copy of Bound to You by AR DeClerck by signing up for the newsletter at the top of the page.

 

 

 





TEASER TUESDAY

AN EXCERPT FROM

A Story of the Future:

 

 

They waited in line for the auto. It slid silently to a stop and the door opened. Tilan slid in first, folding his long legs. Rand went next as Onedra sat across from them. It was roomier on the inside, but the windows were small.

“Full view.” Tilan smirked a bit as he glanced at Rand.

Rand jumped as the walls and floors of the auto disappeared, becoming invisible to show the whole of the city around and below them. The auto began to move, and the frantic passing of the scenery made Rand’s stomach turn.

“Visitor mode, please.” Onedra said after a moment, taking pity on his grimace.

The auto slowed, allowing them to see the landscape more clearly as they moved along.

Rand jumped when a dull voice came through speakers he could no longer see.

INDICATE DESTINATION.

“Outer rim, fifth district.” Tilan rolled his eyes as the speakers beeped in answer.

THAT AREA IS RESTRICTED.

“Passcode Alpha-Beta-Delta-Nine-Seven-Six.” He swiveled to catch Rand’s eye. “Most people don’t have the clearance from the city leaders to go this far, but we’re lucky that Farris likes our work. He’s influential enough to make sure we can go where we need to go.”

“What do you do for him, anyway?” Rand asked, his eyes skimming over building after building and street after street, each one identical and all of them covered in the nickel silver coating.

“We procure things for him. Items he needs for experiments, or tech that appears from the Tempus. The occasional eggiser if we get there first.”

“You’re scavengers, then?”

Onedra stiffened. “We don’t steal, and we certainly don’t skin our victims alive.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you do.” Rand crossed his arms. “You’re telling me the scavengers are dangerous, then? That anyone who survived the Tempus Motus might have been skinned alive?”

“Probably not.” Tilan raised a shoulder at Rand’s glare. “I’m just being honest, Dr. Hazen. Scavengers have no use for the city or those that come from it. They’re as likely to kill a wanderer as cook him for dinner. But the travelers from the Tempus are important commodities.”

“Explain.”

“There are types of technology we no longer know how to produce, despite what may appear to be our advancements. Things from ancient times that scientists in this time would make a lot of money by re-creating.” Onedra’s hand was firm on Rand’s knee. “People like you, Dr. Hazen, who have knowledge of science and tech from the past, are very valuable.”

“So the scavengers might sell them to the highest bidder, then?” Rand’s mouth was dry as the complex dangers of this new world were slowly revealed to him. “Aren’t there laws? Police?”

“The gendarme have authority inside the city, but in the outer rim there is no law. Scavenger tribes do as they please and are only hunted down if they encroach on city property.”

“Is that why you’re trying to convince me that Farris is the lesser of the evils in this place?” Rand looked to the city as the buildings began to space farther apart, some crumbling and the protective coating peeling away. The rust below was visible in some, and the streets below were layered with the nickel-silver dust, gone dull as it fell. Some of it floated about in the air, glinting like silver snowflakes in the desert sun.

“Auto, show map of the world, please. Indicate cities with red dots. Scavenger tribes in blue.” Tilan pointed to a hologram that appeared between them, suspended in mid air. A three dimensional map of the Earth was formed, and then spread flat as a myriad of red and blue dots appeared.

“There are so few cities.” Rand saw perhaps a thousand, spread far and wide over the world. The blue dots, indicating the scavenger tribes, were far more prolific. “What happened here?” A large area in what had once been Asia was empty of any dots at all.

“3015, China began geo-thermal fracking in an effort to survive the energy crisis. In 3240 an earthquake measuring 8.8 decimated the area. The destruction was so great that the fissures in the crust leaked lava. The continent is still mostly uninhabitable.” Onedra pointed to another, smaller, empty area on the map. “In the area once known as Mexico a deadly outbreak of a virus decimated the population in 3330, requiring quarantine of most of the country. The virus was contained, but the source was never determined. To reduce the possibility of a world-wide threat several chemical weapons were deployed over the contaminated area. The area is still off limits.”

“What is the total population now, then?” Rand asked. He thought back to 2018, when their own energy crisis was just beginning, and the population was peaking at 8.1 billion people.

“Three point seven billion.”

“So few. Are there procreation laws?” Rand had been present when several such laws had been discussed in his own time.

“As I told you when we picked you up, there are no longer live births from the womb. Instead, fetuses are carried in synthetic wombs, and delivered to the appropriate family system.”

“Surely the scavenger tribes don’t adhere.” Rand could not imagine the lawless tribes abiding by this type of procreation.

“Women of this time no longer have reproductive systems, Dr. Hazen.”

Rand coughed, sputtering as Tilan slapped him on the back. “You mean you actually can’t conceive children?” he asked when he could speak. “How?”

“Long ago, I assure you. A genetic manipulation of an entire generation that has become the dominant trait today.”

Rand did not miss the slight narrowing of Onedra’s eyes as if it caused her some kind of pain. Women had biological drives to parent, he knew this as well as he knew his own name. To be denied such joy as it could bring to birth a child… he wasn’t sure he could understand it as a man, but he knew it must hurt deeply.

“How do the scavenger tribes proliferate, then?”

Tilan answered, “They steal children, from time to time. Sometimes they come into the city and take the orphans and the street rats, like the ones we saw today. No one is turned away from procreation, no matter their suitability for parenthood. There are the inevitable orphans, and the scavengers adopt them as their own, so that the tribe doesn’t dwindle out.”

Rand sat in silence as the auto continued on, the city thinning as the desert began to eat it up. He gathered his thoughts, compartmentalizing and logging everything he’d learned, filing it away in his memory. He looked to Tilan as the outer edge of the city began to show on the horizon. “What kinds of ancient tech are the scientists after?”

“Whatever they can sell. I assume it was much the same in your time.”

“Yeah.” Rand remembered the money race. The first to discover, the race to be the first to get the grants and the recognition and the first to change the world. No matter the cost in the end.

“Auto, slow.” Tilan leaned over Rand as the auto slowed, the Drogher beginning to loop here back toward the city. This part of the beltway was empty, theirs the only auto to be seen. He pointed below them to the span of empty desert that butted up against what Rand could only describe as a tenement. The buildings were one or two stories at most, made of baked adobe and some metal, rusted and corroded from the elements. They leaned and some even touched at the roof. Rand could see laundry hanging, and animals like dogs lying below in the sandy pseudo-streets. Still, among the dull brown sand he saw boxes of bright flowers on windowsills here and there. Finally, the color he’d been longing to see.

“What is this?” he asked, staring down at what could have been a scene from any major city in 2018. It seemed the fortunate and the less fortunate would forever be separated, even three thousand years in the future.

“They choose to live out here, between the scavengers and the city dwellers.” Onedra moved to sit next to Rand so she could see the area, too.

“Why?” he asked.

“When you are born to this world you have two choices, Dr. Hazen. You can accept the life you have been born to, as most of the city dwellers do. Grow, take a job, take a mate, procreate, and die, all while abiding by the rules and expectations of the city in which you were born. Scavengers, too, must choose to remain in their tribes and live by the rules of their people. Or you can turn your back on all of it and choose to live life by your own rules, as these people do. They are without the comforts of the city or the harsh realities of the scavengers, but they are free.”

“Are the people in the cities slaves, then?”

She grinned. “Slaves to entitlement and expectation. Slaves to comfort and blind faith, perhaps.”

“So there’s a revolution on, then?” Rand hated politics. He had always let Lane handle the politics and he worried about the science. How had he ended up in a future version of 17^th century France, he wondered.

“A revolution?” Tilan laughed so long and so hard that he had to take a moment to catch his breath.

“I said something humorous?”

“Only naïve, Dr.” Onedra’s smile was a bit apologetic. “To have need of a revolution the city dwellers would have to care, and that is the issue. Apathy. A great big bowl of not caring. They wake, they eat, they work, they sleep. They return to it all again the next day. Alive but automatons, never really aware of the world around them.”

“It’s called society.” Rand shook his head in exasperation. “It’s been this way since the dawn of time. A few radicals want to shake things up and take the world from a flock of sheep to productive humans. It couldn’t be done in my time and I doubt it can be done in yours.”

“You didn’t have the Tempus Motus.” Tilan pointed to the mountains that separated them from the wormhole. “It’s the key to changing everything.”

“And you think Dr. Farris is the one who can change it all? I thought you said you’re only loyal to his money.”

Onedra laughed. “We may have exaggerated.”

“What’s so wrong with this world that you’d need to rip a hole in space and time to fix it?”

“At last!” Tilan threw his hands into the air, “You’ve asked the important question.”

“Well, answer it, then.”

“The answer, Dr. Hazen, is that this world is dying. Unless something changes, and soon, Earth will be gone in less than one hundred years.”

 

 

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Please welcome Paige Matthews, author of the In the Zone series:

Paige Matthews resides in Western Connecticut with her husband, two children, and dog. When she is not balancing work, school, and family, she can be found writing her next sexy smut or reading some. A lover of literature and an avid hockey fan, she is usually glued to the TV watching the Rangers or writing about sexy dominant players. She enjoys relaxing with some rock music and an adult beverage! You can keep up with her ramblings at www.paigematthews.com.

 

 

Interference 

 

Jessica:

Twelve years ago I lost everything I loved. I lost the ability to play the one sport that I had given every sweat and tear to. A career ending injury and a three-day coma left me hearing the words a player never wants to hear. 

Since that day, I have made it my goal to break into the one world a female hasn’t entered yet: The NHL and specifically- Head Athletic Trainer. Finally getting my chance to prove myself I will not let anything or anyone stand in my way of my new dreams…until he shatters every ounce of control that I’ve hidden behind for years. 

His arrogance, his determination and his god damn near perfect body set my body on fire. The more I try to stay away, the more I am drawn to him and the one night I give him- I lose. 


Micah:

I value nothing more than dominating on and off the ice. Nothing can deter my focus or my attention from taking my chance to prove to the world that I can capture the ultimate goal: the Stanley Cup. Coming off a heartbreaking loss in last year’s finals, the new season is full of promise and records. Until she walks in… 

The newest Athletic Trainer of the NY Hawks and sister of my biggest rival, Jessica McAdams sets my body on fire: a response I haven’t felt in a long time. From the first time I saw her at the club and heard her name mentioned around the locker room, I was taken. 

I could see through her walls, the false defenses she put up. She tries to pretend she is a stone cold and in charge woman, but I see the promise of what is underneath. As much as she pushes me away, the more I come to desire her, need her and want to dominate her. What starts as a mission to dominate the rough exterior becomes something I can’t live without- and she becomes the one thing I need more in my life than anything else, even if she doesn’t want me back. 



 Interference: amzn.to/1FHqoQV

 

 

Deflection:

Mackenzie: 

I had everything I wanted in life until one day I lost it all. A career ending injury and parents that turned their back on me, I was determined to make something of myself again. 

Until Ryan Jameson walks into my life and changes it. Everything I thought I wanted, everything I thought I knew, was just that-thoughts. 

The connection is undeniable, the lust unrelenting. He changes everything…but will it last? 

Ryan: 

I value my privacy. 
I rely on my dominance-on and off the ice. 
I believed I had everything I ever wanted or needed…. 
Everything was fine until she walked into my life. 


The connection we have is indescribable; the passion never ending. 
I never thought I’d fall again, but I couldn’t get enough. 

Now the past I’ve worked so hard to keep protected threatens to tear us apart before we have even begun. 

Can we overcome it or will it just be another deflection? 

 



 

Deflection: amzn.to/1FOhczv

 

 

 

Roughing:

Brianna:

Ten years. 

It’s been ten years since he ripped my heart out and left me broken and destroyed. 

Ten years of rebuilding, of moving on. 

But do you ever really move on from your first love? 

Now faced with the past, how do we deal with the future? 



Colin: 



Ten years. 

She left me a hollow man. No one has captured my heart since. 

Ten years spent focusing on my career and having fun. 

That is until she reappears in my life. 

Can I convince her to give us a second chance? 

 

Roughing: http://amzn.to/1Ag4F6C

  

(18+) An excerpt:

 

Deflection:

        “I’ve been waiting for you to step away.” His deep, hushed tone filled my ears as I inhaled his scent.

“Is that so?” I asked, unable to turn around. He had me pinned against the bar with his body. I could feel the hardness of his muscles against me, including his erection against my ass.

“You feel this too, don’t you?” he asked, his finger now trailing down my arm.

“Yes.”

“Good. Ever since I saw you the other day, I’ve needed more. And just my luck here you are.”

“Coincidence?” I asked, not needing an answer. My body was heated, and I could feel the wetness increasing between my legs. He hadn’t even touched me more than running his finger up and down my arm, and I was ready to jump him.

“Maybe, but I don’t believe in those. But I will take it as a sign.” He moved his lips to my ear. “Name, doll?”

“Mac,” I blurted out. The heat from his whisper, combined with the nip of my ear, had me fighting hard to keep my calm.

“Mac. I like it,” he laughed, moving his left hand around my hip and settling it on my stomach. “Want to join me somewhere a little more private?” His fingers ran across my skin, and I could feel the calluses of his fingertips on my tingling flesh.

“Yes.” I didn’t know what this man was doing to me, but my God, I was ready to burst. I was at the point where I would have let him do anything he wanted to my body. I hadn’t felt this much pull toward someone in a very long time. “One condition,” I was able to blurt out.

“Yes?” he purred again in my ear.

“Only tonight.”

“I can’t agree to that,” he said, keeping me faced away from him, his hand now teasing the waistband of my skirt.

“Why not?” I asked, taking in a breath as he moved his hand lower.

“I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with only one night, nor do I believe, by the way your body is responding to me, the way I can smell your arousal, that you’ll be able to walk away after tonight.”

“I’ll be able to walk away. One night – that’s all I can give right now,” I answered back, my brain fucking with my hormones.

“I’ll take tonight, but I promise you it won’t be our last.” His fingers now danced across the front of my soaked underwear.

 

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Thanks for joining me today, Paige! Best of luck with all your work!

 

 

 



From my current W.I.P

 

Rand Hazen's lover has been swallowed up by a mysterious wormhole that appeared near a Nevada desert town in 2018. His only hope to find her and bring her home is to follow her down the rabbit hole, and he finds himself alone in a strange city far in the future....

 

 

 

He was not well for another two days. The food was palatable but never solid, a blended mix of vegetables, meat and vitamins that Farris claimed as standard fare in 4567. Rand missed the textures of food, and color. Damn, did he miss color. Everything in Farris’ lab was gray or metallic, but nothing so vibrant or engaging as a red or a blue. By the third day Rand demanded to leave the small room he’d been assured was the infirmary. He was relieved to see Onedra and Tilan there to escort him away from the dreary room.

“Will I need to carry you?” Tilan joked, flexing his pecs. Rand noticed they dressed in browns and greens, and something akin to leather as opposed to the drab gray cotton of the uniforms he and Farris wore.

“If it means I see something other than these walls, I’ll be more than happy.” Rand agreed, standing. He studied the pair as they flanked him and the door slid silently open before him.

“Are you apprehensive?” Tilan asked, tying back his snowy hair into a long queue. Onedra’s eyes flickered in his direction, but Rand answered with a shrug.

“Should I be?”

“Have you been able to deal with your emotional loss?” Onedra asked, and she ignored Tilan’s groan of embarrassment.

“No.” Rand shuffled with them down a long corridor of more pale gray. Was there nothing here besides these two that had any color? “It’s nothing that can be ‘gotten over’.”

“A mate, then?”

“Onedra!” Tilan shook his head at his sister. “I’m sorry, Dr. My sister is far too nosy for her own good.”

“No, she is right. As close to a mate as we had in my time.” Rand did not miss the way the siblings communicated with their eyes. “Tell me,” he said, watching their faces carefully, “about the city.”

“We don’t spend much time here, usually.”

Rand watched Tilan’s expression as he spoke, and he caught some hesitant twitches as he spoke. These two were careful not to say the wrong thing. He stopped short as Farris appeared from a blind corner on the right.

“Ah, Dr. Hazen, good to see you about.” Farris was paler in the light of the hallway, his eyes clearer and near to colorless. His pupils darted as he looked Rand over from head to toe. “Tilan and Onedra will show you the way, and I will join you later to talk.”

“Sounds good.”

“I assume you have many questions.”

“I do. I guess you have done this a few times before for other travelers.”

Farris’ eyes did not light up with the smile that stretched his mouth wide. “Indeed.”

Rand was not surprised to see the look that shot between Tilan and Onedra. As his gut had supposed, there was something unsettling about Dr. Farris and this place. He sensed no real deception from the brother and sister, but Dr. Farris couldn’t seem to string together two words of the truth no matter what he was saying.

“Yeah, okay. I look forward to our talk.”

Farris bowed and walked away, leaving Rand with the strange pair. He looked at them both, crossing his arms over his chest. “I want to go outside.”

“Of course.” The answer was a bit too smooth, and Tilan did not meet Rand’s eyes as he spoke. He pointed down the hallway to a group of doors. “Let’s get you changed into suitable clothing.”

Rand followed the man as Onedra fell into step beside him. She didn’t speak, but he met her eyes. He raised an eyebrow as she gave him a subtle shake of her head. She motioned with her hands toward her brother and the door ahead and Rand pursed his lips in understanding. It was not safe to talk here, she was saying. Follow Tilan. Rand was silent as they moved on toward the doors, his mind spinning. What kind of future world had he landed in? His gut was telling him that he may be in over his head already.

 

 





New Release by Linnea Alexis



Heart Strings by Linnea Alexis

 

 

 

 

A love that cannot be denied…

Rock star Sammy West has one last opportunity to make things right with Bree Elise, the woman who had packed up her bass guitar and walked out on him. He never stopped loving her and thought he’d never see her again until a contest essay leads Sammy to Bree. When he shows up to present the winning guitar, Bree is forced to face a painful past and reveal a secret she’d buried many years ago. With hurt on both sides, unless they learn to forgive they’ll never be able to recapture the deep love they once shared.

 

Lying to herself would be easy. She’d lied about her pain for so long, it had become second nature. But maybe something good would come from her attending the ceremony. After all this time, seeing Sammy again might force her to come to terms with the heartache and ghosts she’d locked away in a tattered guitar case for thirty years. Maybe…

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Strings-Linnea-Alexis-ebook/dp/B00XVCWGW4/ref

 

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