Release Blitz & Review ~ Hard Wood, Ash Brothers #1, by Jenika Snow

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The Dirty Bits from Carina Press give you what you want, when you want it. Designed to be read in an hour or two, these sex-filled microromances are guaranteed to pack a punch and deliver a happily-ever-after.

A new supersexy insta-love novella from USA Today bestselling author Jenika Snow that has a gruff lumberjack yelling T-I-M-B-E-R for the woman he’s been waiting for.

The Ash Brothers—they know how to handle their wood.

I’m a hard man. A loner. Or so town gossip says. After having my heart sent through the chipper, I’ve kept to myself. I prefer the quiet of the woods to the ramblings of clingy women who think they can tame a wild mountain man.

Until Mia. Now she’s all I think about.

I should have stayed away. She’s too sweet for a brute like me, but I can’t stop wanting her, picturing her sated in my sheets.

Mia knows just what kind of wood I’m working with. She’s the soft to my hard, the sugar to my bitter bark.

And I love seeing her walk on the wild side.

This book is approximately 15,000 words

For those times when size does matter. The Dirty Bits from Carina Press: Quick and dirty, just the way we like it.

“Um. I feel we should probably talk about...” My throat grew tighter. “You know.” I averted my gaze as embarrassment flooded me. I took another drink of the firewater. When he didn’t respond I chanced a look at him. He wore a smile but was making himself busy with the first aid kit. Several seconds passed before he finally stopped what he was doing and looked at me.

“Yeah,” he said, his voice sounding deeper, thicker. “I was wondering if that would get brought up.” He was still smirking. Damn him.

I finished off my drink. I watched as he did the same. Maybe he was just as nervous as I was? He took the now empty glass from me and smiled. It was genuine, and not the cocky one he’d been sporting earlier.

For long moments neither of us said anything, but the heat, the electricity and the chemistry were there, like fire licking over our bodies. Surely I wasn’t the only one experiencing it?

“I wanted to say I’m sorry for being on your property and...” I cleared my throat. “And sorry for watching you in a very private moment.” God, I was actually going here with him, and it was humiliating.

“I knew you were there, watching me.” I snapped my head up and stared into his eyes.

“What? You did?” I didn’t know why I felt so shocked right now. I had wondered if he’d done it on purpose. I mean who jerks off in the middle of the woods right after they finish chopping logs?

Review

Mia always felt like her life wasn't meant for the city, and now that's she in Rockbridge she's feels like she's home.

Noah Ash has been happy in his life to some degree. He's loved and lost before and isn't looking for love again.

The moment they locked eyes, their whole world turns upside down. And when I storm brings them, the sparks ignite into a burning inferno.

Now the only question now is... when will they come up for air because one thing is certain, neither are letting the other go.

Hard Wood is fun, sassy, sexy read that is the perfect quick read to get your pulse racing and panties melting.

I love how Noah and Mia knew with just one look that they are meant to be together. Even their little interlude in the forest shows how connected they were even before they finally get together.

What really endeared me was how Noah was such a private person, but when Mia comes into his life, he open about his love.

So if you have just a few minutes and needs something naughty and dirty to get your pulse pumping, then I highly recommend you pick up Hard Wood. Let Noah make all you deepest, naughtiest lumberjack fantasies comes to life.

Jenika Snow is a USA Today Bestselling Author that lives in the northwest with her husband and their two daughters. Before she started writing full-time she worked as a nurse.

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Chapter Reveal ~ Hard Wood, Ash Brothers #1, by Jenika Snow

Amazon | Nook | Kobo

The Dirty Bits from Carina Press give you what you want, when you want it. Designed to be read in an hour or two, these sex-filled microromances are guaranteed to pack a punch and deliver a happily-ever-after.

A new supersexy insta-love novella from USA Today bestselling author Jenika Snow that has a gruff lumberjack yelling T-I-M-B-E-R for the woman he’s been waiting for.

The Ash Brothers—they know how to handle their wood.

I’m a hard man. A loner. Or so town gossip says. After having my heart sent through the chipper, I’ve kept to myself. I prefer the quiet of the woods to the ramblings of clingy women who think they can tame a wild mountain man.

Until Mia. Now she’s all I think about.

I should have stayed away. She’s too sweet for a brute like me, but I can’t stop wanting her, picturing her sated in my sheets.

Mia knows just what kind of wood I’m working with. She’s the soft to my hard, the sugar to my bitter bark.

And I love seeing her walk on the wild side.

This book is approximately 15,000 words

For those times when size does matter. The Dirty Bits from Carina Press: Quick and dirty, just the way we like it.

Noah

Being part owner of Ash Lumber made it so technically I didn’t have to do the dirty work. I had employees who worked under me to do that. But just because I co-owned the company with my two brothers didn’t mean I didn’t want to get my hands dirty. Not only did we deal with cutting down the trees for production, over the last few years we’d even dabbled in development and construction. It was just one more branch of the business that was expanding.

I was a lumberjack right down to my very marrow.

I liked chopping wood, slinging it over my shoulder and hauling it to where it needed to go. This was a family owned and run business, and it also helped keep me busy, kept my mind from wandering. And that was the main reason I worked just as hard as the men who worked for my brothers and me.

For nearly my whole life I’d lived in Rockbridge, Colorado, a picturesque lumber town. We had mountains on three sides of us, the town situated so the snowcapped peaks could always be seen. The thick forest was our backyard, and this was the only place I’d ever felt comfortable, ever felt was truly my home.

This was the only place that I ever felt I belonged.

There had been one time in my life that I’d moved away, one time where I’d been out of my element and miserable as fuck. And I’d done it all for a woman…for what I thought was love. I’d agreed to move to the city, to allow Amelia to pursue her dreams, even though skyscrapers and concrete would surround me, would be my coffin.

We only lived in the city for a few months before tragedy struck, but I’d hated every second of it. Traffic had been my alarm clock, and steel and glass had been my view. It was because of my emotions and the hope that things would be better, that I stuck it out, knowing that in order to make things work I had to sacrifice what I wanted for her to be happy.

But even though I wanted her to be happy and successful, maybe it had been my own selfish thoughts, the fact that I hated living in the city so much that I found myself despising everything about it.

And things had started to become tense between us, strained. She was working constantly, and her attitude toward me became cold. In just those few months I’d seen a change take over her, watched as she started putting her career before our relationship. We’d grown detached, and it had felt more like I was with a roommate.

But before we worked anything out, if we even could or would have, I lost Amelia to a drunk driver.

I blamed myself for not trying harder with her, for not making her see we needed to focus on each other. But in just those short months we’d grown apart to the point I don’t know what the future would have looked like for us anyway. Even after all that, though, self-hate and guilt had eaten at me.

So I moved back home, jumped back into the family-owned lumber business, and tried to move on with my life.

Ten years passed, and I hadn’t been with a woman since, had never even wanted to have one by my side or in my bed.

The years had hardened me to a point, had made me despise the kind of emotions that falling in love and being with somebody invoked. Because I knew it didn’t last. It never lasted. People drifted apart, love was lost, and loneliness was the only solid thing you could count on.

I was happy in my current situation, content with working day in and day out. I enjoyed keeping to myself. And that’s how it would stay. Because even if I did find a woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, hell, to share my bed with, I feared I’d be no good for her.

Being celibate, focusing on work, on being the loner I’d become, had worked out well for me. I didn’t deny that I jerked off plenty of times, needed some kind of outlet for pent-up arousal, but that’s as far as I went. Women didn’t interest me, and another relationship sure as fuck wasn’t in my future.

Keeping to myself was best for everyone all around. At least that’s what I’d been telling myself this whole time.

Mia

I said goodbye to the life I’d known for far too long, packed up all my belongings, and headed to Rockbridge, Colorado. Although Rockbridge was only a couple hours northwest of Denver, where’d I’d been living and working for the last few years, it felt like a whole other world.

In my previous life, before I’d moved to the city for work, I’d lived in Thornton. It had been an up and coming place to live and had its quaint points. But over the years even those homegrown scenic views had been eaten up by restaurants and supermarkets, doctors’ offices and housing developments. Hell, they’d even built over a gorgeous prairie dog field that had been right behind my housing development.

Dammit, I’d loved those prairie dogs.

And now I was dropped into some postcard town, where evergreens and aspens surrounded me, and the smell of Christmas filled my head.

Mountains surrounded the town, the peaks reaching for the very heavens, and forests touching the edges of the roads. The houses were quaint, cabin-like.

I felt freer, like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders as soon as I arrived in Rockbridge.

I pulled open the sliding glass door to the house I was renting for the time being and stepped out onto the small deck. Evergreens and aspens were my backyard now. I could see the snowcapped mountains peeking over the treetops, and I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I’d been so worried about moving, so stressed out about starting a new job and leaving everything else behind, that I hadn’t really been able to appreciate how good this would be for me in the long run.

I brought my mug up and blew a light brush of air over the top, the steam from my tea disappearing into the fresh, clean air. I had been here for a few weeks now, my new position that of an executive accountant for the one small real estate company in town.

Truth was, executive accountant was a term far too fancy and sophisticated for the small business I was working for. I was a glorified number pusher, but the pay was decent—not exactly what I’d made before, but good enough for me to be comfortable. And this small rental property with an acre of land that I’d found had sealed the deal about making this new jump in my life.

So, I’d put in my two weeks at my former position and never looked back.

My energy had been drained living that life. I felt the weight of working for a large corporation and coming home to the same four walls, the same postage stamp–sized yard every day. I knew if I didn’t make a change my health would suffer.

I found myself smiling, and was thankful there were no neighbors around. They’d probably think I was insane, standing here alone, my mug pressed to my lips, a huge grin spread across my face.

I might’ve only been here a few weeks, but I already felt like this was home.

Copyright Carina Press and Jenika Snow 2018

Jenika Snow is a USA Today Bestselling Author that lives in the northwest with her husband and their two daughters. Before she started writing full-time she worked as a nurse.

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Release Blitz & Review ~ Hard Wood by Lauren Blakely

From #1 NYT Bestselling author Lauren Blakely, comes a hot and hilarious standalone romance about what happens when you have one week to convince your best friend’s little sister that you’re the one for her. What could possibly go wrong? It looks like things are about to get hard in the woods...Don’t miss the laugh-out-loud and insanely hot story, Hard Wood!

Now available on all retailers! Grab your copy today, and get Hard Wood in your hands!

✮✮✮ Hard Wood is here! Grab your copy today! ✮✮✮

From #1 NYT Bestselling author Lauren Blakely comes a hot & hilarious new standalone romantic comedy...

Women often say a good man is hard to find. And a hard man is even better.

That's why I'm quite a catch-- good, hard, loaded, and wait for it...I'm ready to settle down too. But the woman I want to pitch my tent with lives clear across the country. Neither of us wants to get lost in those woods. All I have to do is resist her for the week she's in town.

I try. I swear I try. But yeah, that doesn't work out.

And after one fantastic night with my good friend Mia, I'm ready to give her years of nights under the stars. What's a few thousand miles when love's involved? But there's a hitch in my plans -- she just hired my adventure tour company. If there's one thing I'm committed to, it's running a squeaky clean business. Number one on my list of iron-clad rules?

Don't screw your customers.

But what's a guy to do when she's so hard to resist? How hard can it be to keep our hands off each other for a quick group tour down the hills and over the trails? I'm about to find out, and I have a feeling I'm going to need a new badge of honor because things are about to get very hard in the woods.

You can find this sexy standalone romantic comedy available across all retailers now!

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Paperback | Audible

✦ The audiobook is narrated by Sebastian York! Get your copy today! ✦

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“Hard Wood is the kind of heart-racing, hope soaring, face-flushing love story that I love to read! It was sexy, romantic, funny and an absolute pleasure to read.” ~ Red Cheeks Reads

"Hard Wood was such an adorable love story! A hot guy and his famous cat looking for their happily ever after ... Perfect #RomCom!" ~Bianca at BJ’s Book Blog

"I never fail to fall in love with Lauren Blakely's stories. Hard Wood is a swoony romance that will warm your heart and possibly other body parts." ~ Peggy Lee, Reading Keeps Me Sane Book Blog

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Excerpt

I haven’t seen Mia in almost a month, since the last time she was in town staying with Max. I didn’t realize she’d be back a full week before her other brother Chase’s wedding, and am I ever glad to see her again.

She makes all parts of me quite happy indeed.

By happy, I mean hard as a rock.

Okay, fine. It’s not like I’m operating at full power this second. I’m thirty-three, not fifteen. I have plenty of self-control in the “when and where to pitch a tent” arena. All I’m saying is this woman gets me going, and I feel that zip down my body when I see her.

She’s on the phone, her eyebrows pinched, her expression harried. She drags her hand through her caramel-blond hair. As I walk closer, I hear her say, “I understand. Yes, I understand. Things happen.”

And that’s the sound of someone being disappointed.

Which is a terrible thing for this sexy-as-a-fiery-sunset woman to experience.

When she stops and ends her call, she spots me. She tilts her head, her eyes piercing, her brow furrowed, and her dimples killing me with cuteness. Her eyes roam from me to Zeus, and then she points at my boy. “I don’t know if anyone has told you this . . .”

I raise my eyebrows. “Tell me. What could it possibly be?”

Her eyes drift to the ground then back up. In a deadpan tone, she says, “But there’s a cat in your hat? Well, on your back, actually.”

“There is?” I crane my neck to peer over my shoulder. “You’re right. How did he get there?”

She parks her hands on her hips. “You’re in big trouble.”

“I’ve been bad, have I?”

She pushes my shoulder then wags her finger at me. “How did you keep this from me?”

I quirk an eyebrow. “The fact that there’s an awesome new Italian place down the street? It opened last month, and I planned to tell you.”

She huffs, rolling her eyes. “I’ve known you for months and you didn’t tell me you had a cat. Friends don’t hide pets from friends.”

She’s not in town that often. She hasn’t ever been to my apartment. And I don’t take Zeus upstairs to Max’s. But I’m not going to state the obvious. I’m going to have a little fun with her. Flirt with her. Because . . . that’s what we do.

“There’s a reason for that.”

Her eyes go wide, and she taps her toe, waiting. I drag a hand through my hair. Evie says my light brown hair is floppy, and she tells me this is a good thing. The ladies love floppy hair, she says. She’s been right so far. My hair’s been a big hit with the ladies, and other parts have, too.

“It’s a good reason,” I add.

“I’m waiting, Patrick. This really isn’t the type of intel you should hold back.”

I heave a sigh as if I’m going to make a huge admission, then I park a hand on her shoulder. Because, well, I’m a sneaky bastard and I’ll look for any opening to touch her. “Look, I’m going to be blunt. If I told you I had a hiking cat who rides shotgun in a backpack and can purr like he’s a jazz superstar, you’d have had no choice but to fall in love with me.”

Review

What do you do when the person you've been crushing on and desire to make a move but that person lives on the other side of the continent?

You decide if the person is worth it to make a long distance relationship work no matter how difficult it may be.

Patrick Milligan wants more than friendship with the stunning Mia Summers, but the distance between them seems too daunting for him. But the longer he spends in her company the harder it becomes to keep her in the friend zone.

Mia wants to see where things can go with Patrick but she's scared. Not because of the distance, although that weighs on her mind, but because of a previous experience with guy that used to be her brother's friend.

The sexual tension continues to grow between the two until it combusts into a burning inferno. The sparks fly when these two finally come together. Patrick proves to Mia that being hard is so, so good.

But no matter how great that are in the bedroom, and out of the bedroom, their living arrangements is still substantial. Can they find a way to make this work or will the distance just be too great?

Hard Wood is fun, sexy, sassy read that will keep you entertained from start to finish. Patrick is hero that knows his way around the wilds of the city and of the woods. A guy you want to have around when you get yourself into a jam.

Mia is spunky, hilarious, smart, talented, and a down-to-earth woman. She works hard and dedicated to helping others. There isn't anything she wouldn't do for her family and friends.

The chemistry between Patrick and Mia is electric. I love how they navigate through the bumps to build a strong and lasting relationship.

I loved every second of this friends-to-loves rom-com. It's witty banter, gripping storyline, and sexiness can't be missed. But I would be remised if I didn't mention that start of the show.... Zeus. I promise that if by chance you don't fall in love with Patrick and Mia, you will undoubtedly fall for the most enchanting cat ever.

And don’t miss Lauren Blakely’s other standalone Romantic Comedies!

Big Rock | Mister O | Well Hung | Full Package | Joy Ride

✮✮✮ Enter to win this amazing Hard Wood Giveaway! ✮✮✮

The Hard Wood Urban Adventure Pack ($380 value) is filled with:

✮ A stylish Michael Kors backpack for when a purse is not enough for your shopping adventure

✮ $50 Gift Card to The Body Shop to pamper yourself after a long day

✮ Your very own plush Zeus to snuggle with

✮ A Smores Making Kit for a backyard adventure

Enter The Giveaway!

About Lauren Blakely

A #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that's hot, sweet and sexy. She lives in California with her family and has plotted entire novels while walking her dogs. With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than eighty times, and she's sold more than 2 million books. In October, she'll release Hard Wood  the final standalone romantic comedy in the Big Rock series. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter!

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Cover Reveal ~ Hard Wood by Lauren Blakely

Hard Wood is coming October 23, 2017! A standalone romance told from the male Point-of-View, Hard Wood is the final hot and hilarious book in the Big Rock series. Pre-order your copy today! Kindle users—stay tuned for the pre-order right before release! And don’t miss the hot, new cover below!

Cover Design by Helen Williams with Photography by Wander Aguiar Photography

About Hard Wood

Women often say a good man is hard to find. And a hard man is even better.

That’s why I’m quite a catch— good, hard, loaded, and wait for it…I’m ready to settle down too. But the woman I want to pitch my tent with is precisely the one I need to stay far away from.

After that fantastic night with Mia Summers, I’m ready to give her many more. But there’s a hitch in my plans — she just hired my company. If there’s one thing I’m committed to, it’s running a squeaky clean adventure tour business. One of the iron-clad rules?

Don’t screw your customers.

I can follow my own guidelines. After all, it’s only a week-long trip with Mia and her employees over the trails and down the hills I guide them on. I can obey the rules—even if it’s hard in the woods.

I’m about to give myself a badge of honor when the storm of the century hits, sending everyone else running for cover, but us—my biggest temptation and me, alone for a long weekend. You don’t screw the client, especially when you’re already in love with her . . .

But what’s a guy to do when she’s so hard to resist?

Pre-Order Your Copy Today!

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About Lauren Blakely

A #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Lauren Blakely is known for her contemporary romance style that's hot, sweet and sexy. She lives in California with her family and has plotted entire novels while walking her dogs. With fourteen New York Times bestsellers, her titles have appeared on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Lists more than eighty times, and she's sold more than 2 million books. In September, she'll release Most Valuable Playboy, a standalone sports romance. To receive an email when Lauren releases a new book, sign up for her newsletter!

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter | Goodreads