BOOK UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: THROUGH A BROKEN HEART BY COLLEEN MEISSNER

Five Questions to the Author

Hello and welcome to FLY HIGH, Colleen.  My first question for you is ... How did you do research for "Through a Broken Heart?

This book was written primarily from my own journey and education. My education which includes a Master’s in Clinical Counseling, has helped me to understand why people think and act the way they do, why they repeat patterns – like dating the same type of guy over and over again or why they avoid relationships all together.

UNFORGETTABLE LOVE: A PORTRAIT FOR TONI BY ANNETTE LYON & GIVEAWAY

Unforgettable Love is A Clean Romance Event Hosted by I Am A Reader

During the month of June we will be featuring several fabulous authors who write clean romance. There will be giveaways, free ebooks and great deals on books. Have you checked our previous posts?  And don't forget to stay tuned for the next ones! The book featured today is A Portrait for Toni by Annette Lyon. Discover more about this novel and take your chances to win in the giveaway. 

SPOTLIGHT ON ... SILENCE INTERRUPTED BY SANIA SHAIKH

About the book

Two months before Troye Saavedra’s senior year of high school, his father’s drinking problem skyrockets. When Troye’s parents make an impulsive move to Georgia in order to “help” him finish high school on a positive note, he is forced to leave behind everything he knows. Things couldn’t get worse for Troye. That is, until he meets three enigmatic teenagers: Adelaide, an independent violinist with radical ideas; Zaidan, fiercely loyal and always funny; and Arabella, a girl who harbors secret struggles. Together, the four friends try to pick up the jagged pieces of their lives without getting hurt themselves. An insightful tale of perseverance, Silence Interrupted is a young adult novel about the beauty and peril of traversing the world as a teenager.

Buy the Book:  Amazon

Author's Bio

Sania Shaikh is a junior at Cambridge High School. Inspired to write from a young age, she worked on Silence Interrupted, her debut novel, starting in eighth grade.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

SPOTLIGHT ON ... EVERLASTING LIES BY BARBARA WARREN

About the Book

Edina Paxton is kissed at twelve, seduced at fourteen and married with child at fifteen. She immediately regrets her marriage to Charles Vernon and is relieved when he leaves to fight in the trenches during WW1. She soon finds love, comfort and sexual satisfaction with Bill, another soldier and the boy who first kissed her.

Charles is invalided out of the army and is sent to India on a hospital ship. There, he becomes a manager of a coalmine in Britain’s Indian Empire, with all the privileges that his position rewards, including sexual favours from female employees. At the end of his army service in 1920 he returns to England to collect his family and return to India, only to be greeted with the news that while he was away Edina was at play. She is pregnant.

Reluctantly, Edina and her three children sail for India with Charles and Edina gives birth to her fourth child while sailing south on the Red Sea. On reaching India Charles finds his Indian mistress is pregnant and Edina finds Charles’s Indian boss to be very attractive. It’s a mutual attraction. Neither Edina nor Charles is a saint.

BLOG TOUR - SPOTLIGHT ON ... IF WE WERE A MOVIE BY KELLY ORAM + GIVEAWAY

If We Were a Movie by Kelly Oram (Power of the Matchmaker #3)

 Music meets Movies in this sweet college romance from the bestselling author of Cinder & Ella. NYU freshman Nate Anderson is a triplet who is desperate to escape his wild and crazy brothers. After they screw things up for him one too many times, Nate flees his housing situation and takes the first available room for rent as far from his brothers as he can get. Enter his new roommate Jordan--a quirky LA girl who believes that everything in life has already been done in the movies. In this heartfelt tale of love, friendship and family, Nate learns how to deal with his new adult life using Hollywood films as a guide.

What readers just like you are saying about If We Were a Movie:

"WOW! This book is great! The concept is so inventive, and the writing is brilliant."

"I thought Cinder & Ella jerked with my emotions too much but this one might have it beat."

"I finished reading If We Were a Movie yesterday. I loved it! I fell hard for Nate. Jordan was amazing! And Pearl's timing was perfect! "

"Amazing concept with movies as chapters, and fantastic storyline." "I loved this story and was humming along to the songs from the book whilst reading. I can see this book becoming the movie it was written to be." "If We Were a Movie made me want to binge watch movies, listen to old playlists and re-read it all at once."

SPOTLIGHT ON ... PIMPERNEL BY SHERALYN PRATT + GIVEAWAY

Pimpernel by Sheralyn Pratt

 They seek him here; they seek him there. For centuries, the elite of the world have sought the Pimpernel everywhere. Some want to kill him, others want to hire him, but Jack Cavanaugh knows that the love/hate relationship comes with the job title. At present, Jack is trying to dismantle an investment scheme centered in Las Vegas, but "trying" is the operative word. It's been a month since he put the face of the scheme behind bars, yet the scam is still going strong. As Jack tries to uncover who has stepped in as the new head, what miniscule evidence there is all seems to point him back to Claire Ramsey, an introverted PhD student studying at UNLV. If ever there as an unlikely head of a investment scheme, Claire's it. She has a genius IQ, but from all Jack has seen, Claire’s intelligence is as much a blessing as a curse when paired up with her acute OCD. Claire can barely make conversation with the cute guy down the hall, which makes it hard to believe she could be the charismatic salesperson who is getting international businessmen to invest $5—50 million a pop. So what is Jack missing? What is the real story behind Claire Ramsey? And once Jack learns it, will he be able to walk away?

   

SPOTLIGHT ON ... "WHEN THE LOST ACT LOST" BY TERRI BLACKSTOCK

If I Run tells the story of protagonist Casey Cox. When her life becomes complicated, she resorts to lies - even crime - to survive.  

Casey Cox has had her fair share of struggles, but after her best friend is found dead, Casey's life is turned upside down. When her DNA is found all over the crime scene, she knows talking to the police is useless; they have failed her abysmally before. At the age of 12, Casey found her father dead, and while police ruled it a suicide, she knew it wasn't. She's carried that great sense of injustice into adulthood, mistrusting all authority figures. Casey knows she has to flee before she's arrested . . . or worse. The truth doesn't matter in her world anymore, and it certainly won't set her free.

 

War-weary veteran Dylan Roberts is hired to find Casey, but as experienced as he is at solving crimes, his personal problems can get in the way. PTSD forced Dylan from the Army, and adjusting to his new normal has not been easy. Dylan knows bringing Casey home could redeem both his life and career. Blackstock did extensive research into PTSD in preparation to write If I Run. "I was shocked to learn how many of our veterans are coming home from war with PTSD," she reveals. "If they don't get the help they need it can impact their relationships for the rest of their lives. There are treatments that are successful in helping them. It's a wound that is as deep as a physical wound, and it should be treated just as aggressively so they can live normal lives."

WHEN PC MEANT POLICE CONSTABLE - SPOTLIGHT ON ... JAMES ROBERTS AND HIS PARDON ME: A VICTORIAN FARCE.

Pardon Me: A Victorian Farce

The year is 1896 and following a brief, if lively, spell in the diplomatic corps, Madagan Rùn is being executed for Treason. The prima facie case against him is compelling. Madagan coerced the normally temperate Dr Jameson into raiding the Boer Republic, then tipped off the Boers and pocketed a cheque for 30,000 krugerand.

Now here's the pity of it. All his unfathomable schemes have been driven by a selfless devotion to Queen, Country and Empire. Trouble is, to save himself he must perforce lay bare the grievously stained undercarriage of Victorian high-society: starting with fantastical revelations vis-à-vis the making, lending and subsequent mislaying of the world's first ever celebrity sex celluloid.

No less an august triumvirate than Cecil Rhodes, Joseph Chamberlain and Prince Victor Albert have reason aplenty to pray Madagan takes his secrets with him to the gallows. Sadly for them the florid and faintly familiar Mr Melmoth has just posted a Remington Typewriter® to the Tower and instructed his chum Maddy to tell the old Queen everything. Pardon Me.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE ECHOES OF LOVE BY HANNAH FIELDING - WIN A PAPERBACK COPY!

 The Book

The Echoes of Love is a touching love story that unfolds at the turn of the new millennium, set in the romantic and mysterious city of Venice and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany. It is a tale of a lost love and betrayal, unbleached passion and learning to love again – and a terrible truth that will change the lives of two strangers forever.

Venetia Aston-Montagu has escaped to Italy’s most captivating city to work in her godmother’s architectural practice, putting a lost love behind her. For the past ten years she has built a fortress around her heart, only to find the walls tumbling down one night of the carnival when she is rescued from masked assailants by an enigmatic stranger, Paolo Barone.

Drawn to the powerfully seductive Paolo, despite warnings of his Don Juan reputation and rumours that he keeps a mistress, Venetia can’t help being caught up in the smouldering passion that ignites between them.

When she finds herself assigned to a project at his magnificent home deep in the Tuscan countryside, Venetia must not only contend with a beautiful young rival, but also come face to face with the dark shadows of Paolo’s past that threaten to come between them.

Can Venetia trust that love will triumph, even over her own demons? Or will Paolo’s carefully guarded, devastating secret tear them apart forever?

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! AUTHOR CECILIA LATELLA PRESENTS A MEDIEVAL STORY OF SILENCE AND CHANGE: IN ABSENTIA

Celebrate and discover the amazing world of comic books on Free Comic Book Day! To celebrate here at FLY HIGH! comic book author, Cecilia Latella, presents her latest digital creation, In Absentia. Win a copy in the giveaway contest below this post! 

When her husband leaves for the Crusade, Lady Dionea remains alone to take care of her castle and of her two children. Inexperienced in such a role, she feels frightened by the task. Her children’s tutor, Giacomo, a cleric, seems at first hostile to her. Dionea will have to gain the support of her husband’s council, the trust of the population of her fief, as well as the friendship of Giacomo in order to discover her own quiet strenght.

Set in an imaginary fief in central Italy as the time of the Third Crusade (1189-1192), In Absentia is a stand-alone comic that appeals to lover of intimate graphic novels, Middle Ages and romances featuring members of the clergy. Drawn in 2102 with the support of an Indiegogo campaign, this new edition features also all the sketches done for the campaign backers.   

“The world that Cecilia Latella creates in this comic is a Middle Ages that I recognise. Not only is it familiar to me as a historian, but Lady Dionea and Brother Giacomo are characters in their own right. They are not clichés of the desperate noble lady, or the vice ridden monk. No, the characters are there to explore the more universal issues of solitude, duty and the gulfs that this can create. Where masks are seen, but never really removed. All of this is done using only the sparest dialogue to communicate. This is not a story where things happen all at once, but it is a full story nonetheless. The quiet and tension of absence lets change flourish, not just for Lady Dionea, but also for the her land.” (From the introduction by historian Anne Holloway.)

DREAMING OF VENICE WITH LAURA MORELLI'S TRAVEL GUIDE BOOKS + AWESOME GIVEAWAY

Planning a trip to dreamy Venice? Just dreaming of being there one day? Or you've already been there and would like to leaf through your beautiful memories? These wonderful travel guides by Laura Morelli will be of great help and I'm really glad to give you the chance to know more about them and even win them in the giveaway you'll find right below this post. Good luck and happy dreams, everyone!

Traditional Arts of Venice

( guest post by Laura Morelli) 

By its very nature, Venice is a walking city. Devoid of automobiles and bikes, Venice requires your feet—and occasionally a boat—to get where you want to go. The city is replete with opportunities to window-shop, to pause and chat with a shop owner, to linger over unexpected treasures and finds among the maze-like streets and squares in which you will find yourself inevitably lost.

When I stroll along the alleys and quaysides, my mind flashes with images of what Venice must have been like some five hundred years ago: a city-as-artisanal-factory, its doors open to the streets, its wares spilling out onto the cobblestones. It is easy to conjure the ring of the blacksmith’s hammer and aroma of hot coals from the forge; to envision glassblowers twisting molten shapes at the end of their blowpipes; to imagine woodworkers, painters, and gilders sweeping sawdust flecked with red pigments and gold out into the alleys from the thresholds of their doors. That’s because, in spite of cycles of decline and renewal in its artisanal enterprises over the past three hundred years, Venice maintains its place as a world capital of the handmade, the beautiful, the richly colored, the impossibly ornate.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE NOVICE BY MIRELLA SICHIROLLO PATZER + BOOK GIVEAWAY

A young woman on the verge of taking her vows to become a nun. 

A desperate flight from a murderous massacre. 

One honorable man comes to her rescue. 

Another becomes her nemesis and captor. 

And a life and death search to reunite with her one true love.

In 10th century Naples, Saracens run rampant, annihilating villages, murdering women and children. Death and despair is everywhere. Alone in the world, Sara is a young novice plagued with doubts about taking her final vows to become a nun. When her convent is attacked, she flees for her life straight into the arms of a group of Saracens who leave her to die alone in the woods. An honorable cavaliere named Nicolo comes to her rescue and offers to take her to the safety of Naples. As they journey together, they are irresistibly drawn to each other. Believing Sara to be a nun, the honorable Nicolo is torn between love and duty to respect her vows. Heartbroken, he does what honor demands and sets her free before she can tell him the truth that she is not a nun. In her search to reunite with Nicolo, she encounters Umberto, a dark and dangerous man who will stop at nothing in his obsession to possess her. With her sharp intellect, and her heart, Sara must rely on her own courage and strength to escape her abuser and find the only man she will ever love. A story that burns with intensity, intrigue, and passion from the author of the highly popular novels, Orphan of the Olive Tree, The Contessa’s Vendetta, and The Betrothal.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... UNDER A GEORGIA MOON BY CINDY ROLAND ANDERSON + GIVEAWAY

 Under a Georgia Moon by Cindy Roland Anderson

Addie Heywood thought she was doing okay after her fiancé dumped her just weeks before their wedding, claiming he’d found someone else more compatible with his health food tastes. But when he marries the other woman three months later, Addie needs to get away. Leaving her home in Idaho, she escapes to Mitchel Creek, Georgia to visit her Aunt Janie. She just wants to spend the next two weeks enjoying her aunt’s southern cooking, not dodging the guys her aunt is determined to set her up with. Chase Nichols isn’t looking for love. His dream is to trade his computer mouse for his guitar and make it big in the country music world. If he can land a job in Nashville, he might have a shot at getting discovered. His plans get derailed when he does his neighbor a favor and picks up her niece, Addie, at the airport. Things get even more complicated when his ex-girlfriend comes back into the picture. That’s when he hatches a new plan. Since Addie wants to avoid her aunt’s matchmaking schemes, and he wants to avoid his ex-girlfriend, they’ll fool the world by pretending to date. What neither of them counts on is actually falling in love.

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Praise for Under a Georgia Moon

“This is just the kind of sweet romance that I love. I thought the plot was fun and the writing well done, was paced well and kept me wanting more. Throw in some swoony moments and I was hooked.” –Kathy (Bookworm Nation) 

BLOG TOUR + GIVEAWAY : FORGET ME NOT & REMEMBER ME BY STACEY NASH

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 Forget Me Not

Anamae is drawn into a world which shatters everything she knew to be true. Since her mother vanished nine years ago, Anamae and her father have shared a quiet life. But when Anamae discovers a brooch identical to her mother's favorite pendant, she unknowingly invites a slew of trouble into their world. They're not just jewellery, they're part of a highly developed technology capable of cloaking the human form. Triggering the jewellery's power attracts the attention of a secret society determined to confiscate the device - and silence everyone who is aware of its existence. Anamae knows too much, and now she's Enemy Number One. She's forced to leave her father behind when she's taken in by a group determined to keep her safe. Here Anamae searches for answers about this hidden world. With her father kidnapped and her own life on the line, Anamae must decide if saving her dad is worth risking her new friends' lives. No matter what she does, somebody is going to get hurt.

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo

SPOTLIGHT ON ... KITTY HAWK AND THE CURSE OF THE YUKON GOLD + INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY

Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold is the thrilling first installment in a new young adult series of adventure mystery stories by Iain Reading. This first book of the Kitty Hawk Flying Detective Agency Series introduces Kitty Hawk, an intrepid teenage pilot with her own De Havilland Beaver seaplane and a nose for mystery and intrigue. A cross between Amelia Earhart, Nancy Drew and Pippi Longstocking, Kitty is a quirky young heroine with boundless curiosity and a knack for getting herself into all kinds of precarious situations. 

After leaving her home in the western Canadian fishing village of Tofino to spend the summer in Alaska studying humpback whales, Kitty finds herself caught up in an unforgettable adventure involving stolen gold, devious criminals, ghostly shipwrecks, and bone-chilling curses. Kitty's adventure begins with the lingering mystery of a sunken ship called the Clara Nevada. As the plot continues to unfold, this spirited story will have readers anxiously following every twist and turn as they are swept along through the history of the Klondike Gold Rush to a suspenseful final climatic chase across the rugged terrain of Canada's Yukon.

Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold is a perfect book to fire the imagination of readers of all ages. Filled with fascinating and highly Google-able locations and history this book will inspire anyone to learn and experience more for themselves. 

SPOTLIGHT ON ... LACING SHADOWS: ANTHOLOGY

Lose yourself in the Shadows…

Five young women each encounter a different supernatural force: seductive werewolves, shadowy vampires, dangerous fae, mysterious ghosts, and nightmare creatures.

Asia, a young college student, struggles between two seductive temptations. Farren is desperate to escape her heart-wrenching grief when she encounters vampires. Holly finds herself home alone on winter break when she rescues a handsome Fae. Lena has always been aware of a world beyond our own when she attempts to help a mysterious ghost. Ruby is entranced by a creature made of nightmares...

Lace yourself in scintillating tales of fated meetings, undying love, and eternal life.

Lacing Shadows features New Adult paranormal tales from five talented authors.

Spirit of the Wolf

Asia, a young college student, struggles between two seductive temptations—her boyfriend, Jesse, and a new friend, Nati. Meanwhile, hidden forces strive to draw out the wolf spirit inside her. Will she embrace her nature…or have it driven out against her will? In the end, the spirit of the wolf may be the only thing that can save her and those she holds dear.

SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE TEEN WYTCHE SAGA BY ARIELLA MOON + GIVEAWAY

The Teen Wytche Saga by Ariella Moon Think magic will solve your problems? Bring you love? Cure you? Protect you? Help you find someone who is lost? Think again. Magic tests friendships. It hisses, chirps, stinks up the room, backfires, and explodes. Magic forces you to make tough decisions. Shatter limitations. Discover your true self. When you use magic, expect results in the ultimate triple-un—unpredictable, uncontrollable, and so undeniable. And you thought navigating high school was tough.

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SPOTLIGHT ON ... LOVE SPELL BY STAN CROWE + WIN $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD

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Love Spell Clint Christopherson’s love life is a running joke. When a crazed gypsy curses him with the best wish he could ever ask for, the punchline stops being funny. Now, even his barest touch drives girls mad for him. Desperate to reverse the curse, he turns to his last hope: an attractive private investigator who may be able to locate his missing gypsy. If only Clint knew who it was he just hired...

Amazon

Author Stan Crowe

 Stan had a pretty normal, middle-class American youth. He was lucky enough to change that by convincing an exceptional woman to marry him in 2000, setting him on a much more fulfilling life course. Four years later, Brigham Young University awarded him with a Bachelors of Science in civil and environmental engineering. He then he spent several years designing homes, prescribing work for bridges, and even exploring the mortgage industry. In the midst of all this, he produced two science fiction anthologies in 2006 and 2007. In 2012, Breezy Reads Publishing picked up his romantic comedy The Cinderella Project. And thus he transformed himself from Captain Kirk into Don Juan. Stan lives with his wife, children (final count to be determined) and two cats in Utah.

SPOTLIGHT ON COMEDY! STUDIO C SEASON 1&2 NOW ON DVD + GIVEAWAY

 

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SPOTLIGHT ON ... THE MARLOW INTRIGUES SERIES BY JANE LARK: THE PASSIONATE LOVE OF A RAKE & THE ILLICIT LOVE OF A COURTESAN

The Passionate Love of a Rake

Just released! This is book two in the Marlow Intrigues series from exciting new author, Jane Lark. If you love historical romance, you must have a look at this "Spotlight on ... " post. And, by the way, Jane Lark is my guest blogger at my other blog too, My Jane Austen Book Club.  Have a look at her piece about The Theatre Jane Austen attended in Bath. It's really interesting. 

Blurb

The only woman who had power over notorious rake Robert Marlow was now walking away from him, again. He'd heard Sutton had died, and known Jane was free, but he'd always thought his desire would only be for revenge, not her. Yet here he was, unable to deny what he felt for her… what he’d never felt for any other woman…

Read an excerpt  

“You are such a liar, Jane.”

His tone was no longer angry, but it held a cynical humor, and the pupils in his eyes had widened, large dark onyx circles darkening his gaze with long dark lashes defining it.

A warm ache settled somewhere in her chest then spiraled to her womb like a rolling penny when his lips lowered to hers, catching at them gently, a soft caress.

She echoed it without thought. Her eyes closed as he continued to kiss her, and she opened her mouth when his tongue touched her lips. Her very bones melting, her arms reached about his neck, and her bodypressed against him, and then he stopped and pulled away.

Her eyelids lifted. She faced a knowing smile and felt the chill of his desertion.

“As I thought, a lie, Your Grace, all of it. You do want me. Like it or not, Jane. Admit it or not. You want me. You are found out, my dear.” His eyes narrowed as he continued. “But why not admit it. I cannot make you out. And there I presume is the dilemma which has you so distracted and upset. Whatever it is that prevents you admitting it, I mean.”