TBR Thursdays

House of Shadows

Nicola Cornick

houseofshadows1

PUBLISHED BY GRAYDON HOUSE OCTOBER 17, 2017
GENRE(S): ADULT, HISTORICAL FICTION, MYSTERY
PAGES: PAPERBACK 464
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The wooded hills of Oxfordshire conceal the remains of the aptly named Ashdown House–a wasted pile of cinders and regret. Once home to the daughter of a king, its secrets will unite three women across four centuries in a tangle of romance, deceit and destiny… 

1662–A queen 

Bound by sex and birth to live for everyone but herself–and to love always in secret–Elizabeth Stuart entrusts a pair of arcane artifacts to her faithful cavalier to keep safe for her rightful heir. But fate will not be generous to the Winter Queen, throwing the question of succession into turmoil, the aftermath of which will resonate through the generations.

1801–A courtesan 

Lavinia Flyte wanted so much more from life than to be a courtesan at the mercy of the cruel Lord Evershot. He has brought her to Ashdown, the home of his ancestors, for reasons he guards greedily. But the maids’ whispers of hidden treasures–a pearl with the power to foretell the future–consume her with a curiosity she confides only to her diary, unaware of the misfortune that threatens.

And the mystery that binds them 

Alarmed to hear her brother has gone missing at Ashdown Park, Holly Ansell is inexplicably drawn to the clues contained in the journal of a Regency courtesan who was living at the historic home when it burned to the ground two hundred years ago. Lured by the tragedy at Ashdown, Holly’s search leads her not only to the truth about Lavinia, but deeper into her own connection with the Winter Queen.

I believe I won this book on a giveaway from Shelf Awareness. I haven’t read that many historical fiction novels, but this one sounds really interesting — a tangle of romance, deceit and destiny is definitely something I would be into. Hopefully I get to this sooner rather than later… Oh you know… I just have to get through several books in my insanely out of control TBR.

What are some books on your TBR right now? Any thoughts about this book? Well, thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!

Sincerely Karen Jo

Cover Reveal – Indiscretions of a Porn God

Indiscretions of a Porn God
Sunniva Dee
(Porn Star Boyfriends #3)
Publication date: January 16th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

I’m not a saint. That’s not why I left the mafia.

I left because I’m god, because I need no one, and fail at nothing.

I’m Isaias Di Nascimbeni, owner of Lucid, the biggest adult entertainment studio in L.A. Son of Il Lince and second generation Italian in the U.S, I’m dirty rich and adored by highlife as well as lowlife.

Whatever I focus on turns to gold.

On the Richter’s scale of eye candy, I’m a twenty.

I’m a hunter who tests limits.

A warrior who goes shady when the law becomes dreary.

While conducting business at the St. Tatiana,

the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen enters my radar.

Isn’t it interesting that her name is Tatiana?

Isn’t it bizarre that she’s a nun?

Isn’t it wild that she’s unimpressed by me?

Isn’t it fucking insane that I can’t get her out of my head?

She doesn’t acknowledge me when I return to her church.

It’s unprecedented. Unheard of. Not happening.

But the hunt is my fetish.

Novice or not, she’s only postponing the inevitable.

Beautiful Tatiana asked for this.

By the time I’m done, she’ll worship me, because now

it’s game on.

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EXCERPT:

The condo is a three-story narrow affair with small rooms on all floors. On the top floor, I look into each bedroom and find the last room—the master bed—closed. I don’t knock before entering.

She’s splayed out on the bed, and the view is even sexier than I could have imagined. Despite her nun hang-up, despite the flawless business suit she wore all day, Tatiana isn’t an orderly girl; it seems she stepped right out of every item she was wearing, leaving them in a crumpled heap by the window. I picture her now, doing that with the drapes wide open like this. I stride over and close them.

At the center of the room, a modern simplistic canopy bed holds court. It’s fit for royalty, with tall mattresses on top of each other and wide enough for a foursome to pass out comfortably after a good fucking. My ice queen is breathtaking on it.

Thick duvets and a dozen pillows matched in my mother’s favorite colors, mustard yellow and rusty brown. Long sheets of silky hair fan out around Tatiana’s porcelain features. It’s like she was airborne before she flopped to her back. She appears even more ethereal than usual, so perfectly in need of the ultimate desecration. I’m just the monster for the job.

I shake my head slowly to myself; she’s damn near unreal. The smooth curves of an arm are naked, daintily spread out to a side, and she’s fully asleep, lashes fluttering inside her dream world. Hell, if she’s wearing anything at all, it’s hidden by sheets.

The beautiful Tatiana of the Valley must have misunderstood me. I bite my lip as I sit down on the edge of the bed, reaching a hand for her and stroking two rough fingers down her throat. She thought I was giving up the master bed to her. Of course I wasn’t.

I’m no gentleman.

The perfect arc of a thin, mahogany eyebrow lowers in sleepy confusion at my touch. Oh, she’s in for a surprise. I think I like this.

I lean toward the nightstand and switch the light on. Sluggishly, her eyes glide open. She can’t quite focus at first, but when she does, those crystal-grey stunners widen with surprise.

I grin. “If you’re to hang out with me, you need to sleep with an eye open. I run with wolves.”

“Bandits,” she counters. “You run with bandits.”

I shrug, pulling a thick strand of silk between my fingers and pulling downward. “Main thing, you can’t afford to sleep soundly, and with the door wide open at that.”

“It’d been a long twenty-four hours.”

“No matter. You forgot your drapes too. Good thing you have bodyguards.”

She huff-chuckles, squirming deliciously beneath her duvet. “Those two goons downstairs?”

“Yep, and me.”

“You are the wolf. I don’t see you as much defending me as eating me.”

Oh hell yeah. “Now we’re talking. On that note…” I steady myself on my arms, biceps hardening as I lower toward her and find her throat. I give her two chaste pecks before I let my tongue out to taste her. She shivers.

“What are you doing?” That voice is soft and inviting, not at all hesitant. Interesting. Small hands slide cautiously around my back. I feel them flutter over my shoulder blades and down to my waist. Fuck yeah.

“Kissing you.” I run my nose up her throat, meeting her jaw. Then I turn her face enough to lick her lower lip. It’s freaking succulent is what it is, so I drag it in between my lips and suckle on it.

“Isaias…” For one indecisive moment, she pulls away. “You shouldn’t be here.”

STACKED PAPERBACKS

I take her jaw between my thumb and index finger and make her mouth connect with mine again. Her reaction is a quiet whimper that shoots straight to my cock. Tatiana’s lips slide apart, giving access to my tongue. She tastes how she smells, like warm sugar, woman, and addiction in its purest form. Fuck, I’d do this forever.

Her chest is heaving under me by the time I draw away. I lower my forehead, touching hers with mine. I stare at her, breathing heavily as I work to control my impulses. I want to peel her free of everything in my way, rip her open, and stuff her with myself. I need it now, in this second, and I want to roar doing it.

“I beg to differ,” I manage to say instead, picking up the thread she’s already forgotten. “This is my room. But with you in it, it’s ours.”

I do it now, with less violence than my testosterone reserves dictate: I pluck the duvet off her, crumpling it at her side. She gasps but doesn’t object when I wiggle the sheet off her too, revealing so much smooth, silky, delicate flesh, I feel my throat roll in a swallow.

I sit frozen for a second, taking in the vision she is. All she’s wearing is a lingerie set that makes my mouth water. With her flawless, creamy skin, the light pink color of that transparent ensemble has me groaning. The entire bra is made of floral lace. The pattern heightens the allure of the puffy, rose-colored nipples I’m seeing for the first time.

“You’re exactly like I knew you would be,” I whisper, letting my first, full feel of her start at the top of her chest. I slide my hand downward, the sensation of her sigh shivering under me as I fill my palm with a breast.

My eyes stray down the soft outline of her ribs to the slight valley of her stomach. My ice queen’s navel becomes an upright oval as she arches her body for more of my touch.

“But this,” I murmur, sliding over the miniature ribbon decorating the top of her underwear. I run my pinkie down barely-there flowers covering the small dark triangle that tempts me below. “It’s my first time seeing nun panties, and I could never have imagined the perfection they could be.”

 

Author Bio:

Sunniva is a reader, a lover of everything beautifully written no matter the genre.

As an author, she pens flawed characters and seeks the flip side where the soul hides. Once there, Sunniva wants to be pulled out of her comfort zone by stories taking on a life of their own.

She has written paranormal and young adult. She’s done contemporary romance verging on erotica and dabbled in supernatural mystery. But Sunniva’s heart is rooted in new adult of the true kind: young adult all grown up, with conflicts and passions that are familiar to college-aged readers and us who remember those days like they happened last night.

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