Friday, 17 July 2026

Cover Reveal - The Challenge by Penelope Ward



Title: The Challenge
Author: Penelope Ward
Genre: Standalone Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Single Dad, Second Chance, Forced Proximity
Friends to Lovers, Small Town, Found Family
Cover Design: Letitia Hasser, RBA Designs
Photographer: Robert Dahey Photography
Model: Beau Carrillo
Release Date: August 30, 2026


BLURB

From New York Times bestselling author Penelope Ward comes a new, STANDALONE contemporary romance…

Nothing says welcome home like accidentally moving in with your first heartbreak…and his little girl.

Coming back to my small Wyoming hometown was supposed to be temporary. I only planned to stay long enough to help my ailing mother and sort through the mess of my family’s old belongings.

Instead, I somehow ended up living in Evan Ricci’s house. The single dad now owned a bunch of properties and one of them was the place I’d rented. He’d taken it off the market and moved in before I got there. I just never got the memo. Unfortunately, there was no other place in town available, so Evan let me stay.

Evan—the guy my parents took in years ago after his mother died.
The same Evan who used to dare me into ridiculous challenges that somehow always made me stronger—a game we’d dubbed The Challenge.
The same guy who ultimately rejected me before I left for college after I’d finally garnered the courage to shoot my shot.

Now Evan was a rugged single dad with an eight-year-old daughter, a cocky attitude, and a dangerous ability to make me forget every reason I should still hate him.

Sharing a house with him should’ve been unbearable. Instead, it felt dangerously familiar, nearly making me forget that I had a life and a job to get back to in Chicago. I realized the biggest challenge wasn’t surviving living with Evan Ricci.

It was not falling in love with him all over again.







PRE-ORDER LINKS

Special pre-order price of $3.99
(price will go up after release)

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Will be free in Kindle Unlimited


Audio Preorder will go live in mid-August.
The current paperback preorder is for the alternate cover only.
A model-cover paperback will be live on release day.






WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

SINGLE DAD
SMALL TOWN
FRIENDS TO LOVERS
SECOND CHANCE
FORCED PROXIMITY
FOUND FAMILY






AUTHOR BIO


Penelope Ward is a New York Times, USA Today and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of contemporary romance.

She grew up in Boston with five older brothers and spent most of her twenties as a television news anchor. Penelope resides in Rhode Island with her husband, son, and beautiful daughter with autism.

With millions of books sold, she is a 21-time New York Times bestseller and the author of over forty books. Her novels have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in bookstores around the world.


AUTHOR LINKS



OTHER BOOKS BY PENELOPE WARD


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Excerpt Reveal - Red Wine Lover by Kristin Jeffries



Title: Red Wine Lover
A Small Town Romance Perfect
for Lovers of Growly Guys and Kissing K9s
Series: Tales from the Chocolate Lab Café #2
Author: Kristin Jeffries
Genre: Small Town Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Golden Retriever/Black Cat, Love at First Sight
Found Family, OTT Protective MMC, Meddling Fur Babies
He Falls First, Forced Proximity, Later in Life Love
Release Date: August 21, 2026


BLURB

Their dogs tricked them into one bed, but will their secrets kick them out?

Lauren escaped to Dogwood to start over, taking her Papillon dog, Baby, and her secrets with her. Running from her toxic ex and those who said she was too poor, too weak, too good-girl to make it at her age.

She’s ready to stand on her own two feet—well, her own two red, high heel, De Luxe Chucks. And she found the perfect place to launch her dream French bakery just down the street from her bestie’s café.

Unexpected distraction…or attraction? A certain tatted, black-bearded, sooty-eyed Frenchman, whose dimples don’t quite make up for his over-the-top watchful ways.

Wine seller Jean-Luc was struck by a coup de foudre—thunderbolt of love—the stormy night they met. He promised to return to his family wine estate, yet he can’t get the stunning and sassy Lauren out of his head.

Sure, Lauren parked Jean-Luc in the friendzone—she needs friends more than flings right now. But why is the recovering bad boy so hot to protect her at any cost? And why does he hide from thunderstorms just like his rescue Bernese Mountain Dog, Cabernet?

When instant BFFs, Baby and Cab, force the couple into sharing one bed, the stakes just get higher. Will they unleash their deepest desires? Or will they fall prey to their regrets and run from forever love?

Can Lauren and Jean-Luc trust each other with their hearts…and ALL their secrets?

Red Wine Lover is a swoony, spicy romcom featuring a belly-button-baring wine tasting, matchmaking fur babies, meddling found family, and all the rich, full-bodied feels.





PRE-ORDER LINKS

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
UNIVERSAL





EXCERPT

Prologue - Valentine’s Day almost twelve months ago…

Lauren

“Jean-Luc? Jean-Luc?” my friend Rose called out. “You’ve got some thirsty tasters out here. And where’s that candied bacon you promised?”
The shop appeared deserted even though wine bottles marched in a line down the long high bar on the right, each in its own anonymous brown paper bag. Long-stemmed glasses sat next to small plates of sliced baguette and bacon bites, along with a pitcher of water.
To the tune of another clap of thunder, I struggled to pull off my raincoat. We were all soaked, despite our vow to run between the raindrops from Rose’s Chocolate Lab Café to Dogwood Wine Merchants a few blocks down the street.
I was up from Sonoma to Portland for the winter dog show, and Rose had invited me to join her and her friends for a Valentine’s Day blind wine tasting at her neighborhood wine shop.
The love is blind theme worked for me. Turned out, the other four women were unattached on this most romantic day of the year. But I was happy to take a break from…all the pre-dog-show schmoozing.
Except now I’d lost track of the dog in question.
“Baby? Oh, Baby, come back.”
The moment I’d set my giant yellow tote on the floor, my little girl had jumped out and raced toward the back of the shop, her nails ticking against the wood floor.
Crackles and pops sounded overhead as I wove between stacked open boxes and crates, pursuing Baby to the back. She disappeared through a door, and I pushed it all the way open when I reached it.
My breath caught in my throat.
The tiny Papillon had crowded between two monsters…in size, at least. Though at five foot nothing, I saw monsters everywhere.
But my Baby was fearless. She stood facing a humongous Bernese Mountain Dog, her butterfly ears perked forward, her tail on the wag, ready for anything. When she didn’t get the expected play bow, Baby sat down and scooted closer, tilting her head in inquiry.
I started forward to rescue my girl, then stilled. The poor big baby had wedged himself between two rows of wine crates, shivering and whimpering and whining at each blast of thunder.
A monster of a man knelt in front of the Bernese, crowding Baby from the back. A fine sheen covered his face, even under his closely trimmed dark beard. His corded and veined forearm, visible below the rolled-up sleeve, trembled as he reached around Baby to offer a bacon chunk to his pup.
Thick, longish, midnight-black hair glimmered under the harsh bright light, like it had a life of its own.
Even kneeling on the floor didn’t disguise his brawny shoulders, towering height and muscular thighs.
“It’s all right, ma petite,” he rumbled, wrapping his other huge hand around Baby to prevent her from getting closer. “Cab’s just afraid of loud noises.”
Baby resisted his efforts to hold her back and moved forward to nudge the big dog’s throat with her muzzle. Cab gave one last shudder and settled down on his stomach, head on paws, peering at this new part of his world.
The man swung his head toward me and then jerked back, like I’d surprised him. At the same time, a boom shook the walls around us. Had lightning struck nearby?
I met his stare in alarm and was instantly sucked in. Sooty thick lashes surrounded eyes so black they seemed out of this world. The intensity of the moment must have caused his pupils to dilate, drowning the more common brown beneath.
Nobody had eyes like that in real life, right?

Jean-Luc

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from la belle who stood frozen at my side. The reverberations from the thunder rolled right through me, shaking me to my core.
Sleek honey-blonde hair curved around her cheeks, framing delicate features in a heart-shaped face…delicate except for her generous mouth. Even though her lips clenched together—in concern? in fear?—there was no mistaking the plump, sensuous Cupid’s bow.
Made for kissing, for…sucking.
Her petite yet perfect form shivered once, then twice. Was she cold from the rain? Where was her raincoat? Did she need a jacket? Mine was upstairs in my apartment… I’d get it, but I couldn’t leave Cab when he was like this.
All I really wanted to do was gather this beautiful stranger in my arms. Wrap her close to my heart. Make sure she was safe.
What stopped me? Aside from the whole stranger part.
Her eyes. The shadows of bruising beneath, the lines knifing from the corners. The denim blue lurking under half-lowered lids. All still vivid against her pale skin, damp from the rain.
Like she hadn’t gotten a good sleep in a long time. Like she had too many worries to share. Like she hid secrets I wanted to uncover.
Was the fabled French coup de foudre—love at first sight—a real thing? The thunderbolt to the heart? Or was I exhausted from the usual memories, the usual panic, that came with a storm and not thinking clearly?
I shifted to face la belle, never breaking eye contact, when Rose, the café owner from down the street, burst through the door.
“There you are, Jean-Luc. Have you met my friend Lauren? She’s visiting from California for the dog show.” Rose paused for breath. “Besides dogs, you guys have a lot in common. Lauren and her husband own a vineyard in Sonoma County.”
I blinked. Struck down before I could even rise to claim her.






AVAILABLE NOW


AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
UNIVERSAL

Free in Kindle Unlimited






AUTHOR BIO

Kristin Jeffries writes about her favorite escapes—romcoms and dogs—from her home in Portland, Oregon. After years in health care marketing, she decided to prescribe a dose of healthy escape from daily stress for romance readers like her. Kristin draws her inspiration from her family’s past Chocolate Lab Café in a small Midwest town. Plus, she’s married to the original red hot roaster who advises her on all things coffee. And she injects her affection for a long line of smouchy pups, including an IRL Pirate, into her tales.


AUTHOR LINKS



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Thursday, 16 July 2026

Release Blitz - The Chosen by T.K. Leigh



Title: The Chosen
Series: Hunter Trilogy #3
Author: T.K. Leigh
Genres: Dark Romance/Romantic Suspense
Tropes: Captive Romance, Enemies to Lovers, Age Gap
Morally Gray Hero, Hades & Persephone Retelling
Revenge Romance, Forced Proximity
Release Date: July 16, 2026


BLURB

She was supposed to be a pawn. Now I’ll burn down the world to keep her safe.

I thought I knew what evil looked like.

I was wrong.

For years, I believed Victor Kane was the monster at the center of everything...

The man pulling strings, destroying lives, and hunting the people I love.

I was prepared to burn down the world to stop him.

But Victor was only a distraction.

The truth is darker. Older. More sinister.

And it’s been watching me far longer than I ever realized.

Now Ariana is caught in the crosshairs of something far bigger than revenge.

Something that doesn’t just want power.

It wants obedience. Devotion. Sacrifice.

I’ve hunted monsters my entire life.

But this time, the monster isn’t in the shadows.

He’s been standing beside me all along.

The Chosen is the epic conclusion to The Hunter Trilogy, a dark captive romance. Grab your copy today.





PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
UNIVERSAL / WEBSITE






ALSO AVAILABLE


AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
UNIVERSAL / WEBSITE



AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
UNIVERSAL / WEBSITE






AUTHOR BIO

T.K. Leigh is the USA Today Bestselling author of romance ranging from fun and flirty to sexy and suspenseful. Originally from New England, she now resides outside of Raleigh with her husband, beautiful daughter, special needs rescue dog, and three cats. When she’s not writing, she can be found training for her next marathon (of which she has run over twenty fulls and far too many halfs to recall) or chasing her daughter around the house.


AUTHOR LINKS



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Release Blitz - Ruthless Vow by Brooke Summers



Title: Ruthless Vow
Series: Boston Elite Syndicate #1
Author: Brooke Summers
Genre: Mafia Romance
Tropes: Arranged Marriage, Mafia Heir Hero
Possessive Alpha Hero, Touch Her & Die, "My Wife"
Release Date: July 16, 2026


BLURB

The marriage was never about love. It was about power.

Quinn Delaney becomes a bride only after her sister walks away, and two syndicates need the problem fixed. She is quiet, careful, and replaceable. Exactly what the alliance requires.

Lorenzo Mariano is the most dangerous man in the room, and he never pretends otherwise.

He gives Quinn his name, his protection, and his rules. He keeps his distance. He expects her to survive it.

She tries. But being overlooked hurts more than being hated.

When lies from Quinn's past reach Lorenzo before the truth can, the distance between them turns to ice. He married a stranger. Now he's not sure who he's living with.

He never promised to love her. He promised not to care.
Breaking that vow may cost him everything. Keeping it will cost him her.








PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
UNIVERSAL

Only available at the following
retailers for a limited time

B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS






COMING SOON


Releasing February 25

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
UNIVERSAL






AUTHOR BIO


USA Today Bestselling Author Brooke Summers is a Mafia Romance author and is best known for her Made Series.
Brooke was born and raised in South London.
She lives with her daughter and hubby. Brooke has been an avid reader for many years.
She's a huge fan of Colleen Hoover and Kristen Ashley.
Brooke has been dreaming of writing for such a long time.
When she was little, she would make up stories just for fun.
Seems as though she was destined to become an author.


AUTHOR LINKS

WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
NEWSLETTER
AMAZON
BOOKBUB
TIKTOK



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Release Blitz - To Desire a Devil by Victoria Holliday



Title: To Desire a Devil
A Revenge Obsession Mafia Romance
Series: Bellucci Brothers #1
Author: Victoria Holliday
Genre: Dark Mafia Romance
Tropes: Obsession, Childhood History
Forced Proximity, Revenge Sex, Possessive MMC
Morally Gray MMC, Masked Hero, Knife Play
Release Date: July 16, 2026


BLURB

She's his past, his pain, his revenge... and his biggest weakness.

Fiero
I’m finally where I deserve to be: Don of the Bellucci mafia family and free of the monster who raised me. They call me the Devil for a reason. I’ve avenged every person who’s ever wronged me, except for one: Pfeiffer McAllister.

Fifteen years after she broke me, her uncle’s debt lands her in my club. I vow to make her remember exactly who I am, and to ruin her the way she ruined me.

But revenge becomes dangerous when obsession takes its place. And the more she trembles beneath my fingers, the more I realize I don’t want her begging for freedom.

I want her begging to stay.

Pfeiffer
One month working for the masked owner of New York’s most exclusive club, and the debt disappears. Simple. Until the mask falls, revealing Fiero Bellucci, the quiet boy my uncle forced me to torment when we were children.

He’s grown into something terrifying—a beautiful monster wrapped in bloodshed and Brioni, determined to ruin me for every scar I inflicted.

But somewhere between his cruelty and possessiveness, I stop wanting to escape. Because the most frightening thing about Fiero Bellucci isn’t that he wants to destroy me.

It’s that I think I’d let him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author note: This is a standalone dark mafia romance with many of the triggers you would expect from a novel of this genre. Reader discretion is advised.








PURCHASE LINKS

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
UNIVERSAL

Free in Kindle Unlimited






COMING SOON


Releasing September 23

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
UNIVERSAL






AUTHOR BIO


Victoria Holliday is a contemporary romance author who writes dangerously delicious romance. When she isn’t daydreaming about her husband or dirty dons and hot heroines, she can be found running around after either a) a small child b) a dog with slippers in his mouth c) one of three flighty chickens, or d) all of the above.


AUTHOR LINKS

WEBSITE
NEWSLETTER
INSTAGRAM
TIKTOK
FACEBOOK



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Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Release Blitz - Not a Gentleman by Lani Lynn Vale



Title: Not a Gentleman
Series: Don't Date Him #7
Author: Lani Lynn Vale
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Tropes: Marriage of Convenience
Grumpy (Her) / Sunshine (Him), Enemies to Lovers
Release Date: July 14, 2026


BLURB

Gentry found Sage on the worst day of her life.

He saves her from a fate worse than hell, and in return, she ruins his life.

Not on purpose, though.

No, the men who think to rule her life don’t like that she has a champion on her side and realize the best way to get back at her is to go through him.

They find a really great way to do it, too.

They frame him for a crime he didn’t intentionally commit and sentence him to spend thirteen years in prison. As an added bonus, they take his child—the one thing that matters most to him— just to remind him that they hold all the power.

But Sage will never let them have any power over her.

That’s why, the day before he’s sentenced to prison, Sage offers the only protection she can think to give him. Her hand in marriage.

For seven years, Sage fights to get her husband-in-name-only free.

Just when she thinks she’s close, she gets the news. Her husband has died in a prison riot, leaving her free to marry another.

That’s when she decides to run.

And where does her running take her? Right into the arms of a man who was supposed to be dead.





PURCHASE LINKS






ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE
DON'T DATE HIM SERIES


AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU






COMING SOON


Releasing August 4

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU






AUTHOR BIO

Lani Lynn Vale is an American author of humorous romantic suspense novels. Born in the Great State of Texas, she has lived the majority of her adult life in East Texas where most of her novels are based. She’s married to her high school sweetheart whom her readers refer to as “LLV’s Bearded Half.” She published her first novel, Boomtown. in the summer of 2013 after the birth of her third child. She’s gone on to publish over 100 novels, with most of them going on to become USA Today Bestsellers.


AUTHOR LINKS

FACEBOOK



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