North Star, Yule Lads 2 by TA Moore

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: North Star, Yule Lads 2

Author: TA Moore

Publisher: Rogue Firebird Press

Cover Artist: Tammy Moore

Release Date:  December 15, 2024

Pairing: MM

Tense/POV: third person/alternating POV

Genres: Urban Fantasy

Tropes: Opposites attract, Secret lovers, Us against the World, Tough Guy in Soppy Love

Themes: Family is what you make it, Love Languages

Heat Rating: 4 flames    

Length: 50 000 words/ 130 pages

It is the sequel to True North. It does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Amazon US    |   Amazon UK

Dylan Hollie saved Christmas, not that he can tell anyone about it.

Blurb

Dylan Hollie saved Christmas, not that he can tell anyone about it. 

Now all he has to worry about is finding out who killed the previous Santa and set everything in motion.

It should be easy enough. He's got plenty of suspects. Between Santa's ambitious relatives, who all think they could do a better job of filling out the red suit, and the impenetrable mire of Winter Court politics there were more people who wanted the jolly man dead than alive.

Right now the prime suspects are the Yule Lads. Santa's magically contracted bodyguards; the Lads have been at this too many centuries to fail so comprehensively all at once.

Dropped into the middle of this, in a world he'd never believed in, Dylan has to try and work out who to trust, and that maybe the answer is no-one.

He'd also like to know if Santas ever retire. The benefits are good, and the health insurance is insane, but he definitely doesn't want to be Santa this year! 

Excerpt 

“Just to be clear, it’s not a Christmas party,” the dark-haired man said as he ushered the two paramedics off the lift and onto the floor belonging to Demre and Hill Finances. “It’s an end-of-year celebration.”

Nobody had asked.

Dylan hefted his jump bag up onto his shoulder and cocked his head to one side as he looked the man up and down. 

“Huh,” he said.

Normally he would be all for a non-denominational December. Not everything had to be about Christmas. In fact, right now, the less he heard about it the better. That said, it seemed a little disingenuous to make that claim on the twenty-first of December while wearing a Santa suit.

The man was self-aware enough to look awkward as he adjusted the fur-lined collar of his suit. He flushed and pulled the fake beard down under his chin. The elastic dug into his ears.

“This was…for the children,” he said.

Dylan glanced at his watch. The second hand ticked along inexorably as the date on the face quivered a minute away from clicking over to the twenty-second. 

“Really?” he asked.

Alice stepped past him

“You’ve made his day,” she said cheerfully. “He hates Christmas.”

The man preened just a little under her attention. Alice tended to have that effect on people. Sometimes Dylan wondered what the fact they’d been made partners said about him.

“I don’t hate Christmas,” Dylan responded on autopilot. “It just shouldn’t start in—”

“August. I know,” Alice said. She gave the not-Santa a megawatt smile and rolled her eyes in mock-exasperation. “That’s how long he’s been complaining about the Dollar Store having reindeer dog toys in stock. So what’s the problem? Your call said someone had an accident?”

The man started to answer, stopped himself, and pulled a dubious face.

“I guess?” he said. “You kind of have to see for yourself.”

He gestured for them to follow him and headed across the lobby toward the smoked glass doors that led the way into the Demre and Hill’s offices. Dylan leaned over to mutter to Alice as they started after him.

“You don’t see Easter eggs in October.”

She jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow. “Give it a rest.”

Fine. Dylan gestured his surrender and stretched his legs to catch up with Not-Santa as the man held the doors open for them. The speaker-distorted sound of the latest poppy Christmas hit spilled out through the gap, saccharine sweet and quick paced.

“It’s Spotify,” Not-Santa said defensively before Dylan could even hitch an eyebrow. 

It might be. That wasn’t enough to help his case, though. Maybe he could pass the colored paper chains off as a craft project, but the six-foot decorated spruce in the middle of the office would be hard to pass off as anything but Christmas. 

If Not-Santa wanted to live in denial, though…far be it from Dylan to burst his bubble.

“Can you give us any idea what happened?” he prodded instead.

As they headed through the office, the deflated-looking partygoers shuffled awkwardly out of their way. One of them caught a glare from Not-Santa and quickly pulled the paper crown off his head to stuff in his pocket.

About the Author

TA Moore is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural, seaside town fostered in her a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide.

Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.

Author Links

Blog/Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter 

Instagram  |   Newsletter Sign-up  |  TikTok

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The Historic Homes Series by R.J. Koreto

SERIES TOUR - THE HISTORIC HOMES SERIES

The Historic Homes Series by R.J. Koreto

Publisher: Level Best Books

Available in Kindle, Paperback and Audio

Series Blurb

Young architect Wren Fontaine specializes in restoring grand historic homes in the New York City area. She finds these homes contain mysteries, which also connect to modern crimes, all of them centered on the magnificent mansions. She's assisted by her girlfriend, chef/event planner Hadley Vanderwerf, a descendant of one of New York's great Gilded Age families. 

They contain the same main characters, and can be read in any order. 

Each book in the series ends with a solid conclusion.

Genres: Contemporary, Murder Mystery and Suspense, Romance

NOTE: All three books in this series take place in the present. However, my protagonists spend a lot of time researching and discussing characters who lived in the past.

Pairing: FF

The central romance is between the sleuth/protagonist, Wren Fontaine, and her girlfriend, Hadley Vanderwerf, which starts in the first book and grows and deepens throughout the series. A side romance exists between Wren's mentor, Professor Lavinia Suisse, and her wife, Angela, a prominent physician. 

Overall Heat Rating for the series: 1 flame - The characters have active sex lives, but there's a kiss, fade to black, and then someone is making omelettes the next morning.

Buy Links for all books

Amazon US   |  Amazon UK 

BOOK DETAILS

BOOK 1

Book Title: The Greenleaf Murders

Length: 250 pages

Release Date: November 29, 2022

Tense/POV: third person, past tense

Tropes: Forbidden love, friends to lovers, love triangle, great families, righting past wrongs, obsessions

Themes: Coming out, forgiveness, the importance of family, class differences, revenge

Goodreads

As young architect Wren Fontaine renovates a Gilded Age mansion and starts a tenative romance with a member of the distinguished family that owns it, she finds that both old homes and new lovers can hide dark secrets.

Blurb 

Young architect Wren Fontaine lands her dream job: restoring Greenleaf House, New York's finest Gilded-Age mansion, to its glory days. But old homes have old secrets: Stephen Greenleaf—heir to what’s left of his family’s legacy—refuses to reveal what his plans are once the renovation is completed. And still living in a corner of the home is Stephen's 90-year-old Aunt Agnes who's lost in the past, brooding over a long-forgotten scandal while watching Wren with mistrust.

Wren's job becomes more complex when a shady developer who was trying to acquire Greenleaf House is found murdered. And after breaking into a sealed attic, Wren finds a skeleton stuffed in a trunk. She soon realizes the two deaths, a century apart, are strangely related. Meanwhile, a distraction of a different kind appears in the form of her client's niece, the beautiful and seductive Hadley Vanderwerf. As Wren gingerly approaches a romance, she finds that Hadley has her own secrets.

Then a third murder occurs, and the introverted architect is forced to think about people, and about how ill-fated love affairs and obsessions continue to haunt the Greenleafs. In the end, Wren risks her own life to uncover a pair of murderers, separated by a century but connected by motive. She reveals an odd twist in the family tree that forever changes the lives of the Greenleafs, the people who served them, the mansion they all called home—and even Wren herself.

BOOK 2

Book Title: The Turnbull Murders

Length: 260 pages

Release Date: September 12, 2023

Tropes: Romance, past wrongs, class differences

Themes: Obsessive love, jealousy, family ties

Goodreads

Young architect Wren Fontaine, along with her girlfriend Hadley, renovates a 200-year old house for movie star Nicky Tallon, and finds a pattern of murder that connects a long-gone sea captain with Nicky's two enigmatic girlfriends. 

Blurb 

Movie star Nicky Tallon selects architect Wren Fontaine to renovate Turnbull House, where he'll be filming his next movie. Even to Wren, used to old homes, this one is a 200-year-old federal-style home on a private island in New York harbor, designed by the most celebrated architect of the day. But Turnbull House hides many secrets, such as the disappearance of the sea captain who built it. That's just a historical curiosity, until a studio executive no one likes is killed.

Wren just wants to keep her worksite safe, but then another murder occurs, and she starts noting eerie connections between the mysteries surrounding the Turnbull family and Nicky and his entourage. The handsome star seems to have two girlfriends, a childlike folk singer and a cynical fashion model. Meanwhile, renowned actress Veronica Selwyn renews a friendship with Wren's father, which Wren finds more disturbing than she wants to admit. She concludes it's time she and her girlfriend Hadley take the next step and find a place together, an exciting but stressful change.

As the attacks continue, Wren realizes she will have to solve the mysteries surrounding Captain Turnbull and Nicky Tallon. Turnbull House speaks of order and harmony, and Wren must dig deep to see how the house has affected its owners, old and new. Fortunately for her, the eminently practical Hadley is by her side, pepper spray at the ready—because a frighteningly clever killer is about to find that Wren is getting too close to the horrific truth.

BOOK 3

Book Title: The Cadieux Murders

Length: 238 pages

Release Date: October 15, 2024

Tropes: Forbidden love, great families, righting past wrongs

Themes: Obsession, the importance of friendship, the importance of family, the difficulties of coming out and LGBTQ acceptance.

Goodreads

As young architect Wren Fontaine, along with girlfriend Hadley Vanderwerf, works on a twisty modernist house, built 70 years ago by a renowned architect as a gift of love for its owner, the pair finds that not everyone appreciated that love—and someone is crossing the line into obsession.

Blurb 

The ink is still wet on the contract, but Wren Fontaine is already running into trouble as she renovates Cadieux House, a modernist masterpiece on Long Island's exclusive Gold Coast. The home's architect was the brilliant and eccentric Marius Cadieux, her father's mentor, and Ezra doesn't want Wren to change as much as a doorknob.

And the home itself comes with a dark In 1955, it was the site of the never-solved murder of its owner, Dennis Blaine. Cadieux himself was alleged to be having an affair with Dennis's wife, the stunningly beautiful Rebecca. It seems like yesterday's headlines, but then someone starts killing people with a connection to the house. The home's new owner—bestselling novelist Bronwyn Merrick—may be using the house to launch a fictionalized account of the 1955 crime. But someone may not want to her to. Just how far will Bronwyn's armed bodyguard go to protect her?

As Wren untangles the threads, she finds they all lead back to the house. Rebecca apparently inspired the strange, yet alluring residence, and both the home and its mistress may have caused uncontrolled emotions that led to tragedy. Wren uses all her architectural skills to decipher the hidden message Cadieux cunningly wove into the home's design. She must think back 20 years to when, as a little girl, she met Cadieux. Deeply impressed with Wren, he gave her a clue about the house—and his unusual friendship with Rebecca. With her girlfriend Hadley at her side, Wren eventually solves the mysteries of the home and the people who lived there, develops a grudging respect for modernist architecture—and learns something about the difference between love and obsession.

About the Author 

R.J. Koreto is the author of the Lady Frances Ffolkes mystery series, the Alice Roosevelt mystery series, and the Wren Fontaine Historic Homes series. His short stories have been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

In his day job, he works as a business and financial journalist. Over the years, he’s been a magazine writer and editor, website manager, PR consultant, book author, and seaman in the U.S. Merchant Marine. Like one of his heroines, Lady Frances Ffolkes, he’s a graduate of Vassar College.

He and his wife have two grown daughters and they divide his time between Rockland County, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Author Links

Website/Newsletter sign-up  |   Facebook  |   Twitter    

Instagram   |   BookBub

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Christmas Beau by Amy Aislin

NEW RELEASE

Book Title: Christmas Beau

Author and Publisher: Amy Aislin

Cover Artist: Morningstar Ashley Designs

Photography by: Wander Aguiar

Release Date: November 29, 2024

Tense/POV: third person/past tense

Genres: Contemporary M/M Romance

Tropes: Single dad, small town, dog dads, crafty guys, Christmas 

Heat Rating:  3 flames  

Length: 50 500 words / 220 pages

It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads 

Buy Links - Available in Kindle Unlimited

Universal Link

Blurb

Hank Beaufort's life is a mess.

Oh, he looks like he has it all together, but the reality is that he's freshly retired from an unimpressive minor hockey career, and the ink is barely dry on his equally unimpressive second divorce. Now he's the hockey director at the community center in a small town that treats Christmas like Santa Claus is real, and he's not sure his new career is any more impressive than the last. As the new guy in town, he'd be lonely as hell if it weren't for his dogs.

The one spot of brightness?

Scott Jersey, the adorably awkward single dad who brings his son to practice every week.

Hank's not interested in a new relationship so soon after the disaster of the last one, but when doggy play dates lead to real dates, will he be able to set aside his reservations to be someone's Christmas beau after all?

Christmas Falls, Season 2 revisits a small town that thrives on enough holiday charm to rival any Hallmark movie. It's a multi-author M/M romance series.

Excerpt 

Hank joined the back of the line for the pet pics, and because his dogs were well-behaved, they sat when he told them to. The man ahead of him was trying to put a headband of felt reindeer antlers onto his Shetland sheepdog, but the dog kept ducking out of the way. It wasn’t until the man stepped into his dog’s space again and grumbled an annoyed “Fallon, will you just hold still for five seconds?” that Hank realized the man was Scott.

Hank’s heart jolted against his ribs.

Teddy, who’d been standing in front of Scott and thus hidden from Hank until Scott moved, spotted Hank and waved a mittened hand. “Hi, Hank.”

Scott whirled, tangling himself up in his dog’s leash. The dog scrambled out of Scott’s way, but in the process of doing so, somehow managed to bump into Scott’s legs.

Scott dropped the reindeer ears. His arms pinwheeled, and his eyes went wide as his body weight went backward. “Whoa!”

Leaping forward, Hank grabbed a fistful of his coat and righted him before he could fall into the couple ahead of him.

“Such a disaster,” Teddy whispered with no small amount of awe, seemingly to himself.

“Are you okay?” Hank asked.

“Talk about a comedy of errors,” Scott said with a laugh, stooping to pick up the reindeer ears. “This definitely isn’t how I imagined you getting your hands on me for the first time.”

Teddy’s jaw dropped.

Hank rolled his lips inward to hide a smile.

Scott went as red as the Santa suit the corgi in line ahead of him was wearing.

“Wow,” Scott said, passing a hand down his face. “And I thought the dog had no game.”

His dog was currently sniffing the butt of Hank’s shy Australian cattle dog. Kinsey looked up at Hank forlornly, his expression a clear why are you letting this happen?

“The dog is Prince Charming by comparison,” Teddy said.

“Hey. Be nice,” Scott chided gently. “Yuri’s up ahead with his mom. Why don’t you go say hi?”

“But I don’t want to miss the next disaster.”

Obviously struggling not to laugh, Scott jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Beat it.”

“Fine.” Teddy’s sigh was long-suffering, but he picked up the backpack at his feet and went.

Hank had wondered about Scott this morning because he hadn’t been at the fair. Instead his quilts had been looked after by a short older lady with white hair cut into a chin-length bob. Hank had noticed Scott greet her warmly yesterday, so Hank could only assume she was his mother.

His presence here explained his absence at the fair, and he looked adorably rumpled with his hair curling out the bottom of his ball cap and the laces of one of his boots halfway untied.

“Yuri is Teddy’s best friend,” Scott told Hank, even though Hank hadn’t asked. “They’ve been thick as thieves for years.” He shoved the reindeer ears in his pocket. “So? What brings you here?”

Amusement tickling the back of his throat, Hank looked down at his dogs. “Pet pics with Santa?”

“Right.” Scott’s laugh was self-deprecating. “Obviously. Us too."

About the Author 

Amy’s lived with her head in the clouds since she first picked up a book as a child, and being fluent in two languages means she’s read a lot of books! She first picked up a pen on a rainy day in fourth grade when her class had to stay inside for recess. Tales of treasure hunts with her classmates eventually morphed into love stories between men, and she’s been writing ever since. She writes evenings and weekends—or whenever she isn’t at her full-time day job saving the planet at Canada’s largest environmental non-profit.

An unapologetic introvert, Amy reads too much and socializes too little, with no regrets. She loves connecting with readers. Join her Facebook Group to stay up-to-date on upcoming releases and for access to early teasers, find her on Instagram, or sign up for her infrequent newsletter.

Social Media Links

Blog/Website  |  Facebook  |  Instagram

Newsletter Sign-up  |  Facebook Group 

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a signed paperback of Christmas Beau

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Humbug: Scrooge Before the Ghosts by Sarah Whelan

AUDIO and BOOK BLAST

Book Title: Humbug: Scrooge Before the Ghosts

Author: Sarah Whelan

Publisher: Mascot Books

Narrator: Charles Robert Fox

Release Date: November 7, 2023

Pairing: MM

Tense/POV: First person, past tense

Genres: Historical

Tropes: Forbidden love 

Themes: Prequel to classic story, redemption, recovery from loss

Heat Rating: 2 flames

Length: 344 pages

Audiobook Length:  9 hours and 29 minutes

It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.

Goodreads

Buy Links

Audible US   |  Audible UK 

Amazon US   |   Amazon UK 

In this retelling of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge recounts the defining moments of his life, revealing his love affair with business partner Jacob Marley, the reasons why he hates Christmas so much, and what turned him into the scowling, penny-pinching old man we think we know so well.

Blurb

A Christmas Carol shows us one terrible day in Ebenezer Scrooge’s life, but have you ever wondered what came before his fateful encounter with the ghosts of Christmas time? What happened to turn him into the scowling, penny-pinching old man we think we know so well?

There is so much more to this character—possibly more than Charles Dickens himself could ever have imagined.

Scrooge has compelling reasons for hating Christmas, for rejecting his fiancée and his precious nephew, and for employing Tiny Tim’s father, despite his obvious incompetence. He is a doting uncle, beloved brother, successful businessman, and passionate lover, but a dark secret puts both him and his loved ones at risk. Scrooge struggles to embrace his true self and live in defiance of the Victorian era’s repressive moral standards. Soul-crushing losses and his own destructive choices shape his fate into a twisted path of sorrow, frustration, and uncertainty—but also happiness, fulfillment, and love.

Scrooge’s own words sum it up best: “How delightfully queer life is.”

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

MERCY

1850

The phantom looms over my deathbed, his skeletal form shrouded in the same hooded cloak as the first time he appeared to me, on Christmas Eve some seven years ago. He is silent, as before, but his mission is a different one. Instead of the redemption he and his fellow spec- ters offered on their previous visit, he has come to collect and deliver me to the spirit world.

“Do not take me yet, Phantom.” My voice is as shaky as my resolve.

A tear trickles down my cheek, but I lack the strength to wipe it away. It lingers there, stalled halfway through its journey, just as I remain teetering at the edge of a desolate chasm between life and death.

It is not the fear of dying that keeps me here, for I know what awaits me in the afterlife. I redeemed myself after Jacob Marley and his ghosts left me with a soul churning in regret. I embraced my penchant for com- passion, loved and was loved in return, and undid some of the damage I had inflicted on the souls of others, as well as my own. It took the better part of my life to amass the courage needed to reject the moral constraints society imposed and overcome the obstacles I had embedded in my own path. True happiness came only when I gave myself completely to the person I loved most.

I earned my rightful place in eternity, and my heavenly sanctuary awaits just beyond the mortal realm. But I choose to endure, despite the agony, as spasms tear through my body and I shiver with cold, though the blankets weigh heavily upon me. I offer this suffering willingly in ex- change for the opportunity to revel in the memories of my seven decades on this blessed earth.

In my final moments, I wish to honor those who walked beside me through a lifetime comprised, in turns, of misery and happiness, selfish- ness and altruism, isolation and kinship, bitterness and love.

On my knees, hands clasped against my chest and head bowed to the towering shadow figure, I beg, “Grant me time enough to remember. Then I will surrender my soul. I will offer no resistance. Will you have mercy on your old friend Scrooge?”

A single nod is the phantom’s response.

Grateful for his gift of a temporary reprieve, I grip his bony hand.

“Lead on, generous spirit. Let us journey to the past.”

About the Author

Unlike Scrooge, SARAH WHELAN loves Christmas: the decorations, the music, the traditions—everything. She is excited to make her own contribution to the holiday with a new twist on Charles Dickens’ classic tale. Sarah is a full-time professional writer, and her nonfiction has appeared in a variety of magazines. Her first novel, The Struggle Within, was published in 2018. She lives in Connecticut and loves spending time in her favorite city of Boston. 

Social Media Links

Audible Profile   |   Blog/Website  |   Facebook  |   Instagram  

About the Narrator

Charles Robert Fox is an experienced professional narrator, performer and general storytelling wizard. He has over 100 titles listed on Audible. Location: England, United Kingdom

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