Romantic Times Booklovers Convention 2016 - April 12-17!

Get ready for this years RT Booklovers Convention, which kicks off in Las Vegas, Nevada!

You won't believe the lineup of authors who will be attending and partaking in book signings, not to mention the exciting Teen Day event for lovers of YA fiction such as myself.

Mark the date down on your calendar and get ready for a mindblowing experience.

Some of the authors who are attending RT's Giant Book Fair:
 

GENERAL ADULT FICTION

Brenda Jackson
Sabrina Jeffries
Christina Lauren
Lora Leigh
Susan Mallery
Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Mary Jo Putney
Julia Quinn
Alexa Riley
Lynsay Sands
Nalini Singh
Nancy Thayer

Kristen Ashley
Robyn Carr
Kresley Cole
Sylvia Day
Sonali Dev
Christine Feehan
Heather Graham
Larissa Ione
-aka Sydney Croft

YOUNG ADULT

Kody Keplinger
Julie Murphy
Kiera Cass
Kass Morgan
Lauren Oliver
Katie McGarry
Kami Garcia
Jennifer L. Armentrout
-aka J. Lynn
Julie Kagawa
Alexandra Bracken
Ellen Hopkins
Tamora Pierce
Victoria Aveyard
Richelle Mead
Catherine Stine

NEW ADULT

Cora Carmack
Kristin Cast
Jay Crownover
Anna Todd
Rachel Van Dyken


Okay, now for the real exciting part of the convention ...

Clear your calendar for April 16, 2016 - TEEN DAY PARTY!

It's the ultimate YA book lover's dream.

Workshops, games, gifts ... gifts! The first 500 TEENS who register will get an amazing swag bag (yes, If I Could Turn Back Time is replaying in my head). Don't worry, there's still lots to do. The only way you'll miss out is if you don't show up.

Why is TEEN DAY PARTY the greatest? Read more about it HERE.

You can go a little crazy. It's okay. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

Here's an interview from Catherine Stine (author of Witch of the Cards and the Fireseed series) that should keep you going until the big event.

Author Interview

Who are your favorite authors? And books you feel have had a heavy influence on you?
In YA, I’ve read many of Nancy Werlin’s novels. She has a good mix of romance, thrills and suspense in her work. In adult fiction I am on a huge historical fantasy kick so I’ve been reading Paula Brackston’s witch novels and Posie Graeme-Evans’ romantic forays into the 1300s and 1800s. I was heavily influenced as a kid by Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, and no matter their age, I try to make my heroines have as much bravery, verve and fun as Pippi always had.

Do you write every day? Do you set yourself a schedule?
When I’m not super-busy releasing a new book, I write most afternoons. My best writing time is between 3 and 8 pm. I cannot write in the morning (I’ve tried!). I’m a member of an official writing space, which I can walk to. I also attend two writing retreats a year to get a concentrated burst of writing done and talk shop with author buddies.

What's up next for you?
I’m working on a new romance series, written as Kitsy Clare. I’m also plotting out a new witch novel. And I always have a YA up my sleeve. * rubs hands together and chuckles * The best way to keep up with my books is to subscribe to my newsletter via my website: catherinestine.com.

Why do you enjoy coming to RT? What are you looking forward to at this RT?
This year I’m on the “You’re Never Too Old for YA” panel on Tues. April 14 at 11:15 am, which will be a blast (with tons of swag for attendees)! You can also meet me at the FAN-Tastic Party or on YA Alley at the Book Fair. I love to meet fans and new readers so come see me! Also, as an attendee, it’s truly inspiring and energizing to mingle with fellow authors, readers, bloggers, editors and the like. The panels are always amazing. And hey, it’s Vegas, baby! I’m not a gambler, but I’m heading out to see Brittany Spears one night.

What's your favorite romance story?
Hmmm, that’s a hard one to pin down. In YA I like my own, Heart in a Box characters, Joss and Will because they fight so hard to keep their relationship. And it’s a sweet one.My favorite tropes are the love triangle and the love-hate push and pull. I keep thinking of TV shows for these. One favorite right now is Empire, with the fiery Cookie and Luscious Lyon.

Author Links:

Website ¦ Twitter

Blog Tour Excerpt & Giveaway - Escape from the Past: The Duke's Wrath by Annette Oppenlander

Escape from the Past: The Duke's Wrath
Author: Annette Oppenlander
Genre: YA Historical Fiction, Time-Travel
Release Date: July 31st, 2015

Book Description:
When fifteen-year-old nerd and gamer Max Anderson thinks he's sneaking a preview of an unpublished video game, he doesn't realize that 1) He's been chosen as a beta, an experimental test player. 2) He’s playing the ultimate history game, transporting him into the actual past: anywhere and anytime. And 3) Survival is optional: to return home he must decipher the game's rules and complete its missions—if he lives long enough. To fail means to stay in the past—forever.

Now Max is trapped in medieval Germany, unprepared and clueless. It is 1471 and he quickly learns that being an outcast may cost him his head. Especially after rescuing a beautiful peasant girl from a deadly infection and thus provoking sinister wannabe Duke Ott. Overnight he is dragged into a hornets' nest of feuding lords who will stop at nothing to bring down the conjuring stranger in their midst.

Buy Links:

Amazon ¦ B&N ¦ Indiebound

Cover Reveal & Giveaway - Fighter Girl by Kathryn James

Fighter Girl

Author: Kathryn James
Published by: Swoon Romance
Publication Date: May 17th, 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Artificial by Jadah McCoy

Artificial
Author: Jadah McCoy
Genre: NA Sci-fi
Release Date: April 4th, 2016

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Book Description:
She struggles to feel human.

In 2256, the only remnants of civilization on Earth’s first colonized planet, Kepler, are the plant-covered buildings and the nocturnal, genetically spliced bug-people nesting within them: the Cull. During the day, Syl Bher home in the sewers beneath Elite City to scavenge for food, but at night the Cull come looking for a meal of their own. Syl thought gene splicing died with the Android War a century ago. She thought the bugs could be exterminated, Elite city rebuilt, and the population replenished. She’s wrong.

Whoever engineered the Cull isn’t done playing God. Syl is abducted and tortured in horrific experiments which result in her own DNA being spliced, slowly turning her into one of the bugs. Now she must find a cure and stop the person responsible before every remaining man, woman, and child on Kepler is transformed into the abomination they fear.

He struggles not to.

For Bastion, being an android in the sex industry isn’t so bad. Clubbing beneath the streets of New Elite by day and seducing the rich by night isn’t an altogether undesirable occupation. But every day a new android cadaver appears in the slum gutters, and each caved in metal skull and heap of mangled wires whittles away at him.

Glitches—androids with empathy—are being murdered, their models discontinued and strung up as a warning. Show emotion, you die. Good thing Bastion can keep a secret, or he would be the next body lining the street.

He can almost live with hiding his emotions. That is, until a girl shows up in the slums—a human girl, who claims she was an experiment. And in New Elite, being a human is even worse than being a Glitch. Now Bastion must help the girl escape before he becomes victim to his too-human emotions, one way or another.

Buy Links:

Amazon Kindle│Amazon Paperback

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Chasing Eva by Camellia Hart

Chasing Eva
Author: Camellia Hart
Genre: Adult Contemporary Fiction/Romance
Release Date: April 5th, 2016

Book Description:
Author Camellia Hart’s debut contemporary romance novel about a man and a woman whose lives are about to get sizzling hot…

After living through her share of disloyal relationships, Evangeline Avery will be damned if she lets another man cheat her. A beautiful and confident woman, Eva is the owner of an interior design firm at the brink of collapse. She swears to bring her company back to its past glory, even if it involves sweet talking the one man who caused this turmoil in the first place – Clive Stanton.

Notorious playboy Clive Stanton is a powerful businessman and a formidable enemy of many. He doesn’t do love, or at least not until he meets her again, fifteen years after he saw her last. Eva, his crush from teenage years, the one that got away, is back in his world and he is determined to do anything to make her his.

Will passion and lust bring them together or conflict and the unforgettable scars from their pasts forever tear them apart?

Buy Links:

Amazon ¦ Kobo

Blog Tour Guest Post & Giveaway - Provenance of Bondage (Deadly Veils Book 1) by Kyrian Lyndon

Provenance of Bondage
(Deadly Veils Book 1)
Author: Kyrian Lyndon
Genre: YA Dark Suspense
Release Date: January 6th, 2016

Book Description:
Sixteen-year-old Danielle DeCorso watches in fear for two men in a dusty black sedan who keep circling the house and harassing her with phone calls.

The old house in Glastonbury was an eerie place to grow up. Danielle would lie in her bed at night, listening to the sounds of darkness. But those predators in the black sedan—they had drugged her, along with her cousin, Angie, and held them captive in their home for hours.

Angie will not share her truth of that horrendous day, and Danielle's credibility is in question. Danielle remains guarded, obsessed, and withdrawn in her now tumultuous world. She finds herself in a position of needing to sort out her confusion while dealing with her troubled family. She craves normalcy in an ongoing fight for her sanity. Grief and guilt spiral her to an even darker place until startling revelations awaken her newfound spirit, inspiring a once naive girl to grow into a woman of defiance and courage.

Buy Links:

Amazon ¦ B&N ¦ Smashwords ¦ iBooks ¦ Amazon UK

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Under the Trees by Ashley Maker

Under the Trees
Author: Ashley Maker
Genre: YA Historical Romance
Release Date: March 20th, 2016

Book Description:
Desperate to prevent an abusive arranged marriage, Princess Araya flees to a neighboring kingdom, only to land at the mercy of the impulsive Crown Prince Thoredmund, who provides refuge in a secluded forest and teaches her survival skills. Her surprise at the unexpected hold the prince has on her heart mirrors his shock at falling for the one girl he can’t have.

As the young couple’s feelings for each other grow, the fragile alliance between the two kingdoms threatens to break apart. With a vengeful duke and an enraged king fast on their trail, Thor and Araya must decide how much they’re willing to risk for love.

Even if staying together means starting a war.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Steamsworn by Eric R. Asher

Steamsworn

(The Steamborn Series #3)

Author: Eric R. Asher

Publication date: April 5th, 2016

Genres: Steampunk, Young Adult 

Book Description: 
The world dies in war only to be reborn. It is the way of things, and always will be.

Forged in the Deadlands crucible, and armed with the knowledge of their true enemy, Jacob, Alice, and their allies bring the fight back to Ancora. They’ll liberate their homeland, or die trying.

The wounds cut deep in their darkest hour, but in the end, vengeance will light their path.

Buy Links:

Amazon ¦ B&N

Blog Tour Spotlight & Giveaway - Dark Money by Larry D. Thompson

Dark Money
Author: Larry D. Thompson
Publisher: Story Merchant Books
Pages: 420
Genre: Legal Thriller

DARK MONEY is a thriller, a mystery and an expose’ of the corruption of money in politics.

Book Description:
Jackson Bryant, the millionaire plaintiff lawyer who turned to pro bono work in Dead Peasants, is caught up in the collision of money and politics when he receives a call from his old army buddy, Walt Frazier. Walt needs his assistance in evaluating security for Texas Governor Rob Lardner at a Halloween costume fundraiser thrown by one of the nation’s richest Republican billionaires at his mansion in Fort Worth.

Miriam Van Zandt is the best marksman among The Alamo Defenders, an anti-government militia group in West Texas. She attends the fund raiser dressed as a cat burglar---wounds the governor and murders the host’s brother, another Republican billionaire. She is shot in the leg but manages to escape.

Jack is appointed special prosecutor and must call on the Texas DPS SWAT team to track Van Zandt and attack the Alamo Defenders’ compound in a lonely part of West Texas. Van Zandt’s father, founder of the Defenders, is killed in the attack and Miriam is left in a coma. The authorities declare victory and close the case---but Jack knows better. The person behind the Halloween massacre has yet to be caught. When Walt and the protective detail are sued by the fund raiser host and the widow of the dead man, Jack follows the dark money of political contributions from the Cayman Islands to Washington to Eastern Europe, New York and New Orleans to track the real killer and absolve his friend and the Protective Detail of responsibility for the massacre.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Blog Tour Guest Post - The Brotherhood of the Scroll by David L. Lantz

The Brotherhood of the Scroll

Author: David L. Lantz

Release Date: April 5, 2016

Pages: 326
ISBN: 978-0692646281
Imprint: Black Hawk

Book Description:

The Brotherhood of the Scroll is a fast-paced story of international intrigue and war set during the turbulent sixth century BC. The story begins in 605 BC, when Jeremiah delivered a prophesy that Jerusalem would be carried into Babylonian captivity for 70 years. In that same year, Babylon defeated Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylon, and within a year, carried the first of three groups of Jews into exile. Jeremiah, seeing his beloved Israel caught between these two superpowers, forms an inner circle of faithful zealots, including two future prophets of Israel, a teenager named Daniel and his friend, Ezekiel. Weaving the testimony of the Bible into the historical drama of this period, The Brotherhood of the Scroll will captivate the attention of those who enjoy an international spy thriller, as well as anyone interested in how spiritual and political issues intertwine.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ Createspace ¦ Paperback ¦ Book Page

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Exiled by RaShelle Workman

Exiled

(Immortal Essence #1)

Author: RaShelle Workman

Publication date: January 17th, 2016

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult 

Book Description:

WORLDS DIVIDED THEM. DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER. ONLY LOVE WILL SAVE THEM. 

Venus isn’t from Earth, she’s from Kelari. On her planet she’s next in line to rule, but there are those who will go to great lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen. Including frame her as a traitor.

Accused and sentenced, the gods of her planet exile her to Earth. They’ve given her one week to help a human find his true love. If she doesn’t succeed, she’ll die, but if she does she might lose her heart.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Blast & Giveaway - You Can Have My Heart, But Don't Touch My Dog by Dixie Cash

You Can Have My Heart, But Don’t Touch My Dog
Author: Dixie Cash
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy

Book Description:
After two divorces, Sandi Walker, entrepreneur extraordinaire, is on her own and loving it. As a devout animal lover, she has made a success of the only gourmet pet food bakery in Midland, Texas. She’s also a pet foster parent and has fifteen assorted abused and unwanted animals at home. When a golden-colored stray dog with an abundance of personality appears at her door, she can’t refuse him and she can’t keep from falling in love with him. She names him Waffle and gives him a permanent home.

General Manager of the Flying C Ranch, Nick Conway, has searched for months for his lost dog, Buster. Giving up on ever finding him, he looks for a new dog and finds a puppy at a pet grooming shop. While he went to the shop to see a puppy, he also encountered a beautiful redheaded woman he can’t put out of his mind. Little does he know that she found Buster in an alley and has now claimed him as her own. Sparks fly between Sandi and Nick when he steals Buster and sues her in court for custody. It will take a mouthy parrot, a sitting judge, the matchmaking skills of the Domestic Equalizers and Cupid himself to resolve this conflict.

Buy Links:

Amazon

Blog Tour Spotlight - Banished Threads by Kaylin McFarren

Banished Threads
(Book 3 – Threads Series)
Author: Kaylin McFarren
Publisher: Creative Edge Publishing LLC
Pages: 258
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Book Description:
A valuable art collection disappears turning a treasure-hunting duo into crime-stopping sleuths committed to vindicating family members in Kaylin McFarren's action-packed suspense novel, Banished Threads.

While vacationing at the stately Cumberforge Manor in Bellwood, England, Rachel Lyons and Chase Cohen attend an elegant dinner party hosted by her uncle, Paul Lyons, and his aristocratic wife, Sara. Before the evening ends, a priceless collection of Morris Graves's paintings are stolen from her uncle's popular gallery, throwing all suspicion onto his wife's missing granddaughter. Determined to clear Sloan Rafferty's name and, in the process, win Paul's favor, Chase scours the countryside looking for answers. In his absence, the police accuse Rachel's uncle of an unsolved murder and secrets surrounding her grandmother's death and the deaths of Sara's former husbands turn his wife into the most likely suspect.

With the true villains hell-bent on destroying Paul Lyons and his family, solving both crimes while ensuring her uncle's freedom not only endangers Rachel's life but that of her unborn child. Will Chase save them before the kidnappers enact their revenge or will the ultimate price be paid, as predicted by a vagabond fortuneteller?

First place - 2016 Hudson Valley RWA Hook, Line & Sinker Contest

Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Blitz & Giveaway - Life in the Lucky Zone by Patricia B. Tighe

Life in the Lucky Zone
(The Zone, #2)
Author: Patricia B. Tighe
Published by: Swoon Romance
Publication Date: April 5th, 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

Book Description:
Seventeen-year-old Lindsey Taylor has been living a charmed life—always the lead in school plays, possessor of a healthy entourage and a hot boyfriend. But halfway through her junior year, the unthinkable happens. Her boyfriend dumps her. She screws up her audition for the spring play. And to top it all off, her theater teacher wants her to run lines with Trey Berger, a gamer guy who irritates her practically every time he opens his mouth. Lindsey needs to find some better luck and quick.

Trey Berger can barely tolerate Lindsey Taylor. It’s bad enough that their best friends are dating and he has to see Lindsey at group hangouts. Now they have to rehearse together. Berger would rather do just about anything else, even chill with his grandmother, whose dementia has forced her to move in with his family.

But as the semester continues, Berger discovers there’s more to Lindsey than the drama queen

persona she puts on for everyone else’s benefit. And the person behind the mask might be someone he cares about. A lot. So what exactly is he going to do about it?

And while Lindsey desperately tries to change her luck and heal from the breakup, she slowly realizes Berger has become her best friend. This video-game-playing boy makes her laugh. And holds her when she cries. Could he possibly become something more?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Blog Tour Guest Post & Giveaway - Musings of an Earth Angel by Suzanne Adams

Musings of an Earth Angel
Author: Suzanne Adams
Release Date: September 11th, 2015

Book Description:
""Musings of an Earth Angel" is a mystical story that's fresh, inventive and will linger with you long after you are finished reading. Spirit junkies will relish this exciting new adventure and hunger for more." -Gabrielle Bernstein, New York Times best-selling author of Miracles Now

ABOUT THE TRILOGY 22-year-old Samantha Kingston had the perfect job, perfect boyfriend, and perfect Friday nights. When disaster strikes she loses everything and is propelled into a journey where evil and good, dark and light are battling for her destiny. Will the Demon Brigade viciously destroy her? Or will her Angel team and the Divine help her to elevate and see her real truth as an Earth Angel?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Blast & Giveaway - Fibers by Jennifer-Crystal Johnson

Fibers

Author: Jennifer-Crystal Johnson

Genre: Science Fiction

Book Description:

Anna Reynolds is caught up in the middle of a secret interdimensional government agreement... and she doesn't even know it.

There's a medical anomaly loosely dubbed Morgellons disease afflicting a number of people. Symptoms include open sores that produce colorful string-like fibers, fatigue, and nightmarish visions of shadowy figures. No one knows where it came from. No one knows what causes it. There is no cure.

When Anna begins having nightmares and waking hallucinations of the shadow people, her uneasiness about her condition grows. Enlisting the help of her doctor and some friends, Anna is determined to find out what's really going on and why Morgellons is such a mystery.

With her health declining and doubts about whom she can trust, is Anna doomed to become a slave to her condition? Or will she and her unlikely group of would-be heroes come through, saving her... and, ultimately, the world?

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK