Publication Day Post - Last Prophecy of Rome by Iain King

I’d like to wish a happy publication day for action-packed, gripping conspiracy thriller Last Prophecy of Rome by Iain King.  Iain’s first novel Secrets of the Last Nazi came out last year and caused a storm and got some fabulous reviews. 

 

Last Prophecy of Rome

An ancient empire. A terrifying threat to the World’s Superpower. Only one man can stop it. 

ROME: Maverick military historian Myles Munro is on holiday with girlfriend and journalist Helen Bridle. He’s convinced a bomb is about to be detonated at the American Embassy. 

NEW YORK: A delivery van hurtling through Wall Street, blows up, showering the sky with a chilling message: America is about to be brought down like the Roman Empire. 

Juma, an African warlord, set free by the Arab Spring, plans to make it happen. 

When a US Senator is taken hostage, a chilling chain of events begins, and Myles finds himself caught in a race against time to stop Juma. But, he’s not prepared for the shocking truth that the woman he once loved, Juma’s wife, Placidia, has now become a terrorist. 

An electrifying edge-of-your-seat thriller that will have you coming back for more.

Iain King has worked in warzones, politics, teaching and journalism. In Afghanistan he served alongside both of Britain’s most senior casualties, and in more frontline bases than any other civilian. He is one of the youngest people ever to be made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE).

Once a student at Oxford University and later a Fellow
at Cambridge, he has given talks at the UK’s Defence Academy and lectures to the Royal United Services Institute. He now leads the UK Government’s research unit on conflict, and writes a column about military history for a

popular monthly magazine. Iain King has also been a professional speechwriter for high-profile figures, a journalist, and a report writer to the UN Security Council.

He is already the author of two very successful non-fiction books, Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo, How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time. The Myles Munro books are his first works of fiction.

Iain wrote his first novel Secrets of the Last Nazi almost entirely in secret - a double- life he kept from both his wife and children, and his employers and coworkers - until just days before publication, when a friend accidently broke his cover with an innocuous post on Facebook, which caused mayhem.

  

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1jAc5cI

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1IqGrKG

www.facebook.com/iainkingsbooks

www.twitter.com/IainBKing

http://iainbking.com/

Cover Reveal -Trivial Pursuits by Aven Ellis

Landon Holder is exactly the kind of man Livy Adams should stay far away from. 

The flashy, flirty star defenseman for the Chicago Buffaloes is known for hooking up with women all over Chicago. Livy finds herself attracted to Landy, but his sexy good looks and charm are irrelevant. She had her heart shattered by a cheating athlete in college, and Livy vows she will never let her judgment lapse like that ever again.

Yet Livy knows she can’t spend the rest of her life focusing on building her jewelry line during the day and her evenings playing TriviaPlayOrPass! on her phone, either. Even though she does have fabulous conversations with a player named Scott, it’s time to get back in the game—in real life. While Livy tries to figure out her career path in jewelry design, she knows it’s time to take a chance on romance again, too.

But in a strange twist of fate, Livy finds herself getting to know Landy on a much deeper level. Sometimes people aren’t always as they appear to be. Just like a diamond, you have to look closely to see true clarity.

As Livy unwraps the layers around Landy to see the man behind the image, will she have a change of heart? Can she leave her past behind for a future with Landy? Or is it all a game of trivial pursuits?

Aven Ellis has been writing fiction since she was sixteen. She studied communications at a large Midwestern university, and after graduation, Aven worked as a reporter for a community newspaper, followed by a stint at a public relations agency.

But writing about city council meetings and restaurant franchises was not as much fun as writing for young women trying to figure out their careers and potential boyfriends. So Aven got herself a job in television that allowed her to write at night. Connectivity is Aven’s debut novel; Waiting For Prince Harry and Chronicles of a Lincoln Park Fashionista are her other novels.

Aven lives in Dallas with her family. When she is not writing, Aven enjoys shopping, cooking, connecting with friends on social media, and watching any show that features Gordon Ramsay.

Blog Tour - A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love by Linn B Halton

Genre: Chick Lit

Release Date: 15 January 2016

Publisher:  Choc Lit

A Little Sugar, A Lot of Love

Life isn’t all love and cupcakes …

Katie has had her fair share of bad luck, but when she finally realises her dream of opening a bakery it seems things can only get better.

But the reality of running a business hits Katie hard and whilst her partner, Steve, tries to help she begins to sense that the situation is driving them further apart. Could Katie be set to lose her relationship and her dream job?

Then, one winter’s day, a man walks into her shop – and, in the space of that moment, the course of Katie’s life is changed.

But nobody finds happiness in the blink of an eye. Sometimes it takes two Christmases, three birthdays and a whole lot of cake to get there …

Previously released as Sweet Occasions by the author. Revised and edited by Choc Lit December 2015.

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

Grandma Grace peers at me with interest over the top of her glasses, taking the box from my hands and placing it on the side. She wraps her arms around as much of me as she can reach, being at least a foot shorter, and gives me a fierce hug.

‘Thank you, my dear, but the only present I wanted was to see you standing here in one piece. It’s such a long journey and the weather! That rain is relentless, so many places are flooded. To think of you at the side of the road worried me to death and I will admit to saying a few little prayers as one hour turned into two, then three …’

She raises her eyebrow sternly, but it’s a brief moment before those twinkly blue eyes are full of love and laughter again.

‘My boy is here and that’s all that counts.’

‘Grandma, I haven’t been a boy for many years,’ I retort, softly, as she releases me with a tender pat on my back. She might be in her twilight years but her spirit is strong and her mind as sharp as ever. We all thought she’d fade away when Pop died, but the truth is he’s the one who would have faded if she had gone first.

‘You will always be a boy to me. Now, tell me more about this guardian angel of yours.’

While the tea is brewing and the cake is sliced, I hang around the kitchen as I did when I was growing up. Grandma Grace was always easy to talk to; she seemed to understand even when the words wouldn’t come. Her instincts filled in the gaps at times when even I couldn’t make sense of what was going on inside my head. After this failed relationship I began to despair of ever finding someone special.

‘You can’t hurry love,’ she’d told me. ‘It takes time to find your soulmate and in the process you change and grow. That’s why young love often withers, as Pop would have said. Two people either change and grow together, or they grow apart. Love is about sustaining what comes after that first hormonal rush.’

‘But that wasn’t the case for the two of you,’ I remember pointing out.

‘There has to be an exception to every rule,’ she’d replied, with a wicked smile. ‘We were lucky. Fate was kind to us. But with hindsight, we were too young and naive to understand that until much later in life. Don’t fret, Adam, there’s a wonderful young woman out there for you when the time is right.’

Sadly, when I reached that point it too turned out to be yet another huge failure. This time the consequences had been more painful than I could ever have imagined. Kelly was everything I thought I wanted in a woman and, after adjusting to the shock of an unplanned pregnancy, she was a fantastic mother. With hindsight I can see now that parenthood came too early in our relationship, we hardly knew each other. Suddenly I was a family man and yet, surprisingly, the role seemed to come naturally to me. I loved Sunday mornings the best. When a little head would appear on the pillow next to me at some unearthly hour and a warm little hand would wind its way around my neck.

Lily Grace is my sanity, my raison d’être.

“I’m a hopeless romantic, self-confessed chocaholic, and lover of coffee. For me, life is about family, friends, and writing. Oh, and the occasional glass of White Grenache…”

An Amazon UK Top 100 best-selling author with A Cottage in the Country in November 2015, Linn’s novels have been short-listed in the UK’s Festival of Romance and the eFestival of Words Book Awards. Linn won the 2013 UK Festival of Romance: Innovation in Romantic Fiction award. Linn writes chick lit, women’s contemporary fiction and psychic romance for Choc Lit, Harper Impulse and Endeavour Press.

Website/blog: http://linnbhalton.co.uk/
Twitter: @LinnBHalton FB: Linn B Halton Author
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/LittleSugarLotOfLove

 

Contest Open Internationally – No Purchase necessary

1^st Prize - £25 Amazon Voucher

2^nd Prize – Cupcake themed Swag Bag

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Interview with Sarah Stephenson

Hi Sarah

Welcome to Comet Babes Books.

Thank you for having me on your blog today

Can you tell me about you book Dougal’s Diary?

It’s about a dog dealing with the complexities of modern life and the unusual characters he comes across.

When Dougal leaves the quiet of Kent for Greenwich, he has no idea what sort of dog he’ll turn into, no clue about London life, or whether he’s chosen his owner well and landed on his paws. Dougal documents the first 18 months of his life through the highs of Wimbledon, the Olympic, birthday parties, bonfire night, playing a sheep in a nativity play and getting into trouble with his young mate, Jacob. And the lows of puppy classes, dealing with a chaotic owner and her eccentric friends, going on a booze cruise to Calais and coping with his own obsessions; his health, balls, eating socks and Sat Nav skills.  Dougal is convinced writing his diary, saved his sanity.

Can you tell us the inspiration for the story?

I do have a dog called Dougal. The moment I got him home, I realised he was very different from any I’d had before.  He was a lover of life and adventure: a social animal, a party goer – rather more human than dog. I felt his character was asking for a story.

What are your future book plans?

I’m planning a series of cozy crime thrillers set in various home in Britain, Europe and the states. Recipe for Death (working title) is set in Gloucestershire, another in Palm Beach and one in Mallorca

Tilly Carey, a recently trained chef is sent to work for various client. Her own family run through all the books, so does her assistant, a student from Tbilisi. A young man Scottish man, she meets on a train brings in the love interest.

Can you tell us about your writing journey?

I was told Dougal’s Diary would be hard to place. It didn’t fall into any particular genre. It wasn’t a non-fiction story about a cute Labrador, nor a fictional children’s book.

Luckily for me, Elaine Everest saw that Crooked Cat Publishing, a young ebook company was open for submissions and suggested I sent it in. Funnily enough, although they have a cat logo Crooked Cat had meant Crooked Category, and was originally for books that fell between the usual genres. They were the first people I sent it to.

How long have you been writing?

When I was young and couldn’t write, I made up stories that my brother and I acted out. They went on for days. As a young adult, I wrote long letters, followed by a diary which turned into a vast meandering, chaotic memoire. Then I started on a treatment for a film.  The hero was a hamster working in the kitchen of a recording studio.  It was a rodents and humans versus the enemy, story.  I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. Then, three years ago I was lucky enough for find a wonderful writing class, The Write Place run by writer, Elaine Everest. Thanks to Elaine I have a far better idea of what I’m meant to be doing.

Who are your writing hero's?

Edward Albee. Jane Gardam. Tom Sharp. Paul Scott. Alan Bennett. PD James. Angela Carter.

Which best selling books of all time do you wish you had written?

The Diary of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend or Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

What's on your desk/writing area?

Piles of exercise books filled with scribble that’s waiting to go onto my laptop. I write in long-hand first. A dictionary, thesaurus, pencils and pens.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to write a book?

Don’t dither about, just do it. Start small; a short story or even flash fiction. Nothing too daunting: something achievable. Join a class if you can and subscribe to a writing magazine. They are packed with useful information and loaded with competitions.

If you were invisible for a day what would you do?

I’d probably hang out with a bunch of homeless people in The Strand or under the arches at Waterloo. Hear their stories and find out exactly what their lives are like.

Can you share a peek at what you're writing at the mo?

We’re frequently told to write what you know. So, having spent the last twenty years as a free-lance chef; cooking in Britain, Europe and the States in the homes of the very wealthy. I am sending Tilly Carey, a young inexperienced chef down to a crumbling mansion in Gloucestershire to cook for a funeral. She arrives to a frosty reception and a quarrelling aristocratic family. Death occurs. Poison. Was she to blame? In order to clear her name and prevent further deaths, she needs to discover what’s really going on. Can she do it in time?

Best/worst thing about social media?

 Best.

I’ve caught up with old friends from school and colleagues I worked with in France and other parts of the world. It’s great for keeping in touch.

Worst

It can take up hours of one’s time, become a dreadful duty or guilt-making machine. You feel bad if you haven’t posted something, read something or missed someone’s birthday.  I have a love /hate relationship with it.

 

Thank you for answering my questions today.

Has he chosen his owner well and landed on his paws? Dougal the Labradoodle puppy, a complete hypochondriac and Boris Johnson’s No 1 fan, arrives in Greenwich with great expectations. 

He longs to travel the world on Virgin Atlantic, dine at royal banquets and either become a superstar and party the night away or work as a doorman at the Savoy. 

Behaviour classes were never on his wish-list, neither were cliff-hanging experiences on the Thames, booze cruises to Calais or obsessions for eating socks. 

Can he survive life with a chaotic owner and her eccentric friends? Can he deal with his jealousy when a foster puppy comes to stay? And as for his dreams, will they ever come true? 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dougals-Diary-Its-Dogs-Life-ebook/dp/B019BCEVMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450085771&sr=1-1&keywords=Dougal%27s+diary+sarah+stephenson