EXCERPT: Rules of Friendship by C.A. Harms

RULES OF FRIENDSHIP by C.A. Harms releases August 6th!

PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE NOW!  
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As a guy, the number one rule to being best friends with a girl should be simple…

Never, and I do mean never, fall in love with her. 

Oh and you should never fantasize about her either.

Believe me, that situation can get messy really fast and leave you with nothing but one hell of an awkward mess on your hands—literally.

Reese and I have been through everything together; our bond is deep. But I am going down fast, and I fear there is no way to stop it. I spend most of my time hiding my body’s reaction to her because like I said: just friends.

But things are changing. We are changing. 

I no longer see her as just Reese, my best friend. When I look at her now, I see a gorgeous woman that takes my breath away. I see my future. But what if she doesn’t see me the same way? 

I can’t risk losing her… 

The fear of screwing everything up is excruciating. So that’s why I have chosen to stick to the rules. The Rules of Friendship that is. 

She was off limits. Plain and simple. 

But then in she walks wearing her tiny shorts and those tight tops. Come on, a guy can only have so much restraint before he caves…

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EXCERPT REVEAL

It is time for me to stop moping, time to stop avoiding Reese. The girl is too much a part of my life, and even I have felt her absence over the last week or so. I can’t avoid her. How is avoiding her even possible when everything in my life revolves around her in some way? It has for as long as I can remember. She has been there in everything I do. Every choice I ever make, I subconsciously think of what Reese would say. 

I guess I never realized it before . . . until now. 

This attraction I have for her feels crippling at times, and I was stupid enough to think that if I remained distant, it would just go away. The only thing it manages to do is make me want her more. Make me crave her touch, desire the feel of her body pressed to mine. The fear I felt long ago has diminished and is now replaced with a need to know. To know if what I am feeling is something she’s feeling too.

Even as I sit at a high-top table surrounded by her friends and mine, she is all I can see. Her laughter rings out above all. Her smile is like a beacon of light I can’t ignore. I have never before been so aware of another’s person movements. So conscious of each shift. Each look. Each breath. It is almost like a switch has been flipped and the years of feeling nothing more than friendship no longer exist. It makes me wonder if the attraction has always been there, buried underneath the surface, hiding under the comfortable state we’ve lived in for so long.

“You gonna watch her all night ?” Kevin nudges my elbow with his own. “Or you planning to do something about the shit you feel finally?” 

I look away from Reese who stands a few feet away laughing with Heather and another girl they invited along. 

“I don’t know what you—”

“Bullshit,” he interrupts, tipping his beer back and finishing the last of its contents. “I see it. I’ve seen it, and you can keep pretending it isn't there, but let me assure you it’s written all over your face. Every time she walks into a room, it’s almost like you know without even looking. You gravitate to her, and I know you both think that it’s because you’ve known one another for so long, but I don’t buy that shit one bit. You feel something, and she feels something, so I’m just wondering when the two of you are gonna face it.”

MEET THE AUTHOR:

C.A. Harms is an avid romance and mystery reader. She's always had a love for books, getting lost in writing and storytelling even as a young girl. She enjoys happy endings and HEA love stories. 

She lives in Illinois and enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. She holds an addiction for Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha’s and KitKat when she should really be focusing on water and maybe a fruit or two to make herself feel less guilty, but that feeling quickly passes...thankfully. 

She is easy going, fun, and although she may seem like one of the quiet ones at first, you just wait until she gets to know you better...that quietness changes, fast.

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RELEASE DAY: Darkest Perception by Shari J. Ryan

Release Date: May 17, 2018

Cover Design: MadHat Books

Synopsis

I was young, innocent, and looking to start my career in psychology. However, it turned out I was in the wrong class, with the wrong professor, at the wrong time. One decision to become an apprentice changed my entire life.

After being left with nothing, including my true identity, money, family, and friends, I was evicted from my apartment. I knew I’d have to run and hide while struggling with starvation, but then a shady job offer became an appealing option in the midst of my desperation.

I was fully aware of the risks involved, but I’m well versed in reading people and assuming their intentions. Therefore, I was confident I wouldn’t end up being that woman who ran into a trap that was decorated with luxurious accommodations and high-class amenities. I also wasn’t the type to reach for bait disguised as a gorgeous man with lust pooling in his eyes.

As it turns out, though … I was wrong about everything—almost everything.

I fell into the rabbit hole where nothing was as it seemed from the outside, and I had no clue I was the puppeteer of it all.

Goodreads

Amazon US ~ https://amzn.to/2In7iNt

  Amazon UK ~ https://amzn.to/2ILiEdf

  Amazon CA ~ https://amzn.to/2wLjx0F

  Amazon AU ~ https://amzn.to/2Io4zTO

Well, well, well… I feel like Ms. Shari Ryan has been holding out on us! Now… I’ve loved her other books especially Last Words but Darkest Perception was something completely different. It is not like anything that I would have expected from her and I LOVE that she completely rocked me and took me by surprise! Darkest Perception is about Harley and Axel and I mean, right there she had me! Those names are completely IT! I just want to jump up and down and SQUEEEAL!! That is so not like me! I just loved the suspense and the action… it’s what I really needed at the time. The betrayal and secrets were just amok in this book! It was so darkly delicious that I couldn’t look away!

I’m thrilled with the way she unraveled this story. They way she created it and unfolded everything. There were times that I sat on the couch with my mouth wide open… shocked and dumbfounded! This was just so out of what I’m used to with Shari Ryan and I LOVED it! I’m sorry, I know, I know, I’m repeating myself and if Ms. Ryan reads this don’t think I didn’t love your other books, I did! This was just so unexpected and different! I really hope you continue to shock us! Live outside of that box and keep giving us books like this! It doesn’t have to be the dark; you can go to the light. Just write what’s in your heart and we’ll (or at least I will) continue to devour your words!

I received an ARC of this book with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that... my opinions.

Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card

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About the Author

Shari J. Ryan is an International Bestselling Author of heartbreakers and mind-benders. Shari was once told she tends to exaggerate often and sometimes talks too much, which would make a great foundation for fictional books. Four years later, Shari has written eleven novels that often leave readers either in tears from laughing, or crying.

With her loud Boston girl attitude, Shari isn't shy about her love for writing or the publishing industry. Along with writing several International bestsellers, Shari has split her time between writing and her longstanding passion for graphic design. In 2014, she started an indie-publishing resource company, MadHat Books, to help fellow authors with their book cover designs, as well as assistance in the self-publishing process.

While Shari may not find many hours to sleep, she still manages to make time for her family. She is a devoted wife to a great guy, and a mother to two little boys who remind her daily why she was put on this earth.

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TEASER: THE REAL by Kate Stewart

Check out this teaser for THE REAL by Kate Stewart! Don't forget to add it to your TBR!

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2DPWCjm

Contemporary Romance

Stand Alone

Blurb:

They say it happens when you least expect it.

It did for me.

It started the moment I saw the simple message pop up on my computer screen:

Cameron’s Mac: Hi.

And when I met the eyes of the gorgeous man messaging me from across the coffee shop, I never thought my reply would lead to the most intense, sexual, and passionate relationship of my life.

We both agreed to check our bags at the door and put our future hopes and aspirations on the table.

It worked.

I fell in love with his no holds barred attitude, sexy smirk, and undeniably good heart . . . and for a while we forgot about our baggage. We happily tripped over it to get to the other, neither of us willing to show the contents of our pasts in the off chance it could ruin us.

We built our love on a foundation of gray.

It was life in black and white that threatened to tear us apart.

About the Author:

Kate Stewart lives in Charleston, S.C. with her husband, Nick, and her naughty beagle, Sadie. A native of Dallas, Kate moved to Charleston three weeks after her first visit, dropping her career of 8 years, and declaring it her creative muse. Kate pens messy, sexy, angst-filled contemporary romance as well as romantic comedy and erotic suspense because it's what she loves as a reader. A lover of all things '80s and '90s, especially John Hughes films and rap, she dabbles a little in photography, can knit a simple stitch scarf for necessity only and does a horrible job of playing the ukulele. Aside from running a mile without collapsing, traveling is the only other must on her bucket list. On occasion, she does very well at vodka.

Contact Kate- Email-authorkatestewart@gmail.com

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EXCERPT REVEAL: Sick Fux by Tillie Cole

When Ellis Earnshaw and Heathan James met as children, they couldn’t have been more different. Ellis was loud and beautiful – all blond hair, bright laughs and smiles. Heathan was dark and brooding, and obsessed with watching things die.

The pair forged an unlikely friendship, unique and strange. Until they were ripped apart by the sick cruelty of others, separated for years, both locked in a perpetual hell.

Eleven years later, Heathan is back for his girl. Back from a place from which he thought there was no return. Back to seek revenge on those who wronged them.

Time has made Heathan’s soul darker, polluted with hatred and the thirst for blood.

Time has made Ellis a shell of her former self, a little girl lost in the vastness of her pain.

As Heathan pulls Ellis out of her mental prison, reviving the essence of who she once was, down the rabbit hole they will go.

With malice in their hearts and vengeance in their veins, they will seek out the ones who hurt and destroyed them.

One at a time.

Each one more deadly than the last.

Tick Tock.

Dark Contemporary Romance. Contains explicit sexual situations, violence, disturbingly sensitive and taboo subjects, offensive language and very mature topics. Recommended for ages 18 and over.

Please note : this is excerpt is unedited and subject to change.

I placed the foot of my cane on the floor and looked to the left. The sound of light breathing came from around the corner. I made to move, but my heart slammed into a fast beat, stopping my feet in their tracks. My nostrils flared as I closed my eyes and tried to suck in deep breaths. I never did this, never had this kind of reaction to anything. Not in eleven years. Not when I was trapped in darkness. Not even when the guards came to “meet the young kid.” Not when we got out—bloodily, savagely, darkly. Especially not when my knife plunged into the guards’ hearts and I watched the life fade from their eyes, the pure fascination of losing one’s life essence occupying my mind.
But this was Dolly. The only person I’d ever given a shit about.
A slick tar pumped through my black heart as I thought of her. She was the blood that gave me life.
I had no idea what state I would find her in. Whether or not her fragile mind had been destroyed. Whether or not her glass heart had been shattered. No hope of salvation.
I had no idea if my only reason for living could be saved. I shook with venomous anger when I let my mind imagine the hell those sadistic cunts would have put her through in my absence. But Chapel’s words rang in my ears . . . Unleash the anger only on those who deserve it. Let it build within your heart like a well swelling with water . . . then unleash hell on those who took your freedom.
Opening my eyes, I breathed through my rage and silently rounded the corner . . . I stopped. There she was, sitting in a chair. I sucked in a breath and heard it rattle in my ears. Her hair. Her hair was pulled back into a long braid, the woven strands falling to her lower back. And she was dressed in black. Long, baggy sleeves covered her arms.
Motherfucking black. Dolly didn’t belong in black. Only color. Blue and white and gold and motherfucking pink.
I edged around the perimeter of the room until I faced her. My heart tore down the center and I had to hold back a loud snarl when I saw her curled up on the seat, a thick blanket over her thin legs and waist as she stared lifelessly out of the window. The window that overlooked the once-manicured lawns, now nothing but high-reaching weeds and too-bushy trees. I looked across at what she was watching, in the direction of what held her so captivated.
My heart was severed completely, the two parts of its flesh repelling the other, trying to escape the rage and pain and fucking consuming darkness.
She was staring at the spot where we used to play as kids. Where she had found me all those years ago, ripping the colorful butterfly apart in my hands. I moved into her line of sight, but her blue eyes didn’t lift to meet mine, just stared through me as though I wasn’t even there. I crouched down and studied her face. Porcelain skin. Full lips. Fucking perfection.
But there was no life left in her.
I had never felt fear before, but I imagined the sinking hole I felt dropping in my stomach was something like it. A sinking feeling that Dolly had gone to a place from which there was no escape, a prisoner in her own mind.
Fragility consumed.
“Dolly darlin,’” I rasped, my voice fucking breaking.
Twenty-one. She was twenty-one and more beautiful than I could ever have imagined.
Perfection.
My living doll.
A strand of hair lay over her face. My fingers clenched and unclenched as I tried to force myself to touch her. But I couldn’t. I hadn’t touched or been touched in years. I didn’t know how to anymore. Allergic to human affection. Repulsed by the degrading feeling of touch.
I . . . I . . . I couldn’t.
As I opened my mouth to speak to Dolly again, a loud gasp sailed through the air behind her. I straightened, gripping my cane, to see a familiar old face appear. I watched, the sinking hole quickly replaced by dark satisfaction as the blood drained from her face. “Good Lord,” she whispered as I smoothed down my black cravat and vest.
I glared at the bitch. Leaning casually on my cane, I said, “More like Lucifer, I would think.” I nodded in her direction “To you, anyhow.”
Mrs. Jenkins swallowed and tried to back out of the room. “Ah-ah,” I tutted and shook my head. She immediately stilled, eyes fixed on mine.
“He . . . Heathan James . . . it’s . . . it’s not possible . . .” she stammered and ran her eyes over me. Every inch of me.
“Rabbit.” The bitch flinched at my correction. “I am Rabbit. The motherfucking White Rabbit. So never fucking utter that peasant name to me again.”
Her skin paled, and her eyes fell to Dolly sitting on the chair. Dolly still hadn’t moved. I shifted my grip on the box I had brought inside, about to hold it out to Mrs. Jenkins when she asked, “How are you here?”
I threw the box across the room. It landed right at her feet. “Dress her.”
“Wh-what?” Mrs. Jenkins asked.
I pointed to the box at her feet. “Dress her. It wasn’t a request.” Mrs. Jenkins shook as she picked up the box and moved to where Dolly sat. Dolly didn’t look at her either. Mrs. Jenkins opened the lid of the box and gasped again.
Her old, wrinkled eyes snapped up to mine. “No—”
Before she had even finished the sentence, I had reached into my pocket and pulled out my knife. I ran the flat side of the blade down my cheek. Slowly. Controlled. Watching her terrified gaze track my every move. “You’d best do as I ask, Mrs. Jenkins. My patience and tolerance for you appear to be at an all-time low.”

Tillie Cole hails from a small town in the North-East of England. She grew up on a farm with her English mother, Scottish father and older sister and a multitude of rescue animals. As soon as she could, Tillie left her rural roots for the bright lights of the big city.

After graduating from Newcastle University with a BA Hons in Religious Studies, Tillie followed her Professional Rugby player husband around the world for a decade, becoming a teacher in between and thoroughly enjoyed teaching High School students Social Studies before putting pen to paper, and finishing her first novel.

Tillie has now settled in Austin, Texas, where she is finally able to sit down and write, throwing herself into fantasy worlds and the fabulous minds of her characters.

Tillie is both an independent and traditionally published author, and writes many genres including: Contemporary Romance, Dark Romance, Young Adult and New Adult novels.

When she is not writing, Tillie enjoys nothing more than curling up on her couch watching movies, drinking far too much coffee, while convincing herself that she really doesn’t need that extra square of chocolate.

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