Dante's Release Blitz

֍֍֍ RELEASE BLITZ ֍֍֍

Dante by +Bethany-Kris Bragdon 

Filthy Marcellos, Book 3

Erotic, Romantic Suspense, Organized Crime

Add to Goodreads TBR

BLURB

Dante Marcello’s life has been a carefully planned event as an heir to a Cosa Nostra throne. For as long as he can remember, he’s had one goal in mind, and that’s becoming the Don. With his father ready to step down, it’s Dante’s turn to step up. But without a wife at his side, his seat as the boss is on shaky ground. Until she shows up with an offer he wants to refuse, but can’t.

With her, he’s got everything to gain.

Catrina Danzi is known for her angel face and a predator’s grace. For over a decade, she’s worked as a successful Queen Pin dealing with a repertoire of clientele who can’t afford a scandal. That’s why they ask for her and why they call her Queen. Marrying Dante Marcello means giving up the business and status she loves in order to gain protection she can’t provide on her own, but she no longer has a choice.

Without him, she’s got everything to lose.

The rules for their arrangement are simple: no intimacy, no emotions. Dante isn’t looking for love and Catrina doesn’t need attachments. In the end, life has a way of breaking down walls when you least expect it to, and once love gets in, there’s no bleeding it out. Together, they make a formidable team the Commission won’t be able to ignore. Catrina’s secret of what she’s kept safe will put the entire Marcello family in danger when it finally catches up with her. The Marcellos have yet to be beaten, and they’re not about to start bowing down now.

Even the most beautiful things are a little filthy.

BUY LINKS

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Google Play

TEASERS

REVIEWS FOR DANTE SAY: 

"5 BELLO STARS. Well, I must say that I think Ms. Kris saved the best for last. Dante Marcello, the heir apparent/up and coming Don of the Marcello Cosa Nostra – his story was fantastic!" 5 out of 5 Stars - Suzanne, Guest Reviewer for the Slut Sistas Blog

"I was not disappointed his book was fantastic, best in the series!!!" 5 out of 5 Stars - Shanny, Goodreads Reviewer 

"This is my absolute favorite book in the series. Dante and Catrina's chemistry together is hot hot hot!" 5 out of 5 stars - Ashley, Goodreads Reviewer 

EXCERPT:

Red manicured fingernails, the same shade as her hair and lips, dragged along her outer thigh to the hem of her dress, forcing Dante’s stare downward.

Cristo, she had gorgeous legs.

He bet they would look even better wrapped around his waist.

“Are you drinking?” Dante asked, his tone rough.

“Not tonight.”

Dante blinked, stunned. The thick Italian accent coating her words set him back a step. He hadn’t expected that and for some reason, it put him on edge.

“It’s a club, dolcezza. There’s isn’t much else to do on a Thursday night when you’re sitting at the bar.”

She smiled sweetly—too sweetly. “Oh, I’m doing more than sitting, bello. And I don’t need to drink to do it.”

Her voice was demure, her words rolling off her tongue quietly, but surely. The straightness of her back in the stool spoke of class while her blatant regard of him gave an air of confidence.

She dazed him.

Dante’s wasn’t accustomed to that.

A soft pat-pat-pat sound gained his attention to where her finger hit down on the bar. On the inside of her left index finger, one word was tattooed in fancy black script: Queen.

The edginess burrowed in deep again. When things felt off for Dante, they usually were. This woman made his insides scream it. Both in a good and bad way.

Dante chanced a glance back at the table where his brothers were standing, readying to leave as they pulled on their jackets. They were still talking, though. But the man who had annoyed Dante the most—Gaetano—wasn’t paying Lucian or Gio any mind. No, he was watching the woman at Dante’s side.

Not with interest, as if she may have caught his eye by chance, but instead, he looked at her with the familiarity of a friend.

Dante’s thoughts raced when what he really needed was for his mind to be silent. During the entire meeting, none of the men had spoken of their boss in direct context or out of it. The Marcello brothers had continually referred to the unknown leader of the group as a he because that’s what they assumed they were dealing with in whatever game the men were playing.

Dante was only now realizing they were wrong in doing so.

“You know, you surprised me,” the woman said, drawling her words out with a sensuality that could make a man’s mouth water. Again, she dragged her gaze from Dante’s leather shoes to his green eyes. “You’re much more handsome in person than I thought you would be, Dante Marcello.”

Three things in life made a man most vulnerable: sex, love, and children.

Sex occasionally led to love, and for some, it also led to children. As Dante was incapable of having children, he had no interest in love. Sex, however … well, that was something he simply couldn’t do without.

It was just too damn bad the need left him exposed and it had to be now he learned the lesson to never think with his cock when business was in play.

The woman swiveled fast on her chair at the same time Dante lurched toward her. He found himself between her thighs, crowding her back forcefully to the edge of the bar, nearly pushing her off the stool. The magnum he always kept hidden at his back in a holster was seated in his palm before the woman could speak and the barrel pressed under her chin at her throat.

Dante ticked the gun at her jawline, making her tilt her head back under the weight. She stared him head-on, unabashed and unafraid, smirking mischievously. Her hazel eyes danced with amusement and menace.

He hated her unfazed attitude at his warning only made him hot.

Something sharp nipped at Dante’s groin. Without needing to look down, he could feel the blade of a knife threatening to cut into his balls.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“Go on, cock your hammer back, bello,” she urged low. “You wouldn’t be the first to try and take a bite out of me, Dante. I’m not a little girl who frightens easily.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Dante demanded.

“Catrina Danzi.”

His gun dug harder into her jaw. Her knife reacted accordingly at his sac.

“What do you want from me?”

Catrina flashed white teeth in a wicked smile. “I heard you need a wife.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to three very young sons, one cat, and two dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a spouse calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something ...when she can find the time.

Find her on Facebook, her blog, her website www.bethanykris.com, or Twitter - @BethanyKris.

Sign up to Bethany-Kris’s New Release Newsletter email list to receive notifications when new releases are out. 

GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Walking the Edge Character Interview and Review

Today, I have Zee Monodee talking about her first in the Corpus Brides series. Bear with the long post - this book is amazing. You don't want to miss any juicy info. And my review is at the bottom:

Title: Walking The Edge

Author: +Zee Monodee 

Series: Corpus Brides, Book 1

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Blurb:

Walking the edge

The next step might be the last...

A woman without a past

Left amnesiac after an accident, Amelia Jamison’s instincts slowly rise from the depths of oblivion to question her life as the wife of a cold, manipulating and distant man. Wisps of a dream show her another man she may have known intimately, but is he a memory, or a figment of her imagination?

A man with too much information

After many aliases, today Gerard Besson is simply a police commissaire in Marseille. When a mysterious woman starts to follow him, he is suspicious. But things aren’t what they seem, and as he reluctantly gets closer to her, dredges of his painful, buried past spring to light and make him question her identity.

Each seems to have led two different lives

But neither is prepared for what awaits them when they cross the fine line between knowing your true self and that of your alter ego.

Danger is the name of the game, and as it catches up with them in the French Provence, both know they better be ready for the inevitable fall.

As he turned to scan the other side of the road, something—or someone—lunged at him and knocked him into the solid garage door. Reflex kicking in, he took a deep breath to fortify himself against the stinging pain in his body. Honing his senses, he lashed out on the side from which his opponent had assaulted him.

His fist connected with a jaw and he heard a grunt. Male. So not the woman from the bistro. Could she have sent someone after him? He had no time to ponder—a heavy booted foot collided smack into his stomach and sent him to his knees. The gun dropped from his hand. He could barely see the man kick the Sig away. Now’s the time to hit him.

But he wasn’t fast enough. The thug smashed a hard blow to Gerard’s temple. Black dots danced before his eyes.

It would take more than this to knock him out, though. He looked up and staggered an exhale—he’d be no match against the gun his assailant yanked from inside his jacket. A weapon with a silencer screwed on. Definitely a man out for a kill.

Time stood still while he tried to breathe and remain conscious.

And then something happened so quickly he had trouble grasping it. The guy howled and went down, his free hand clutching his neck as Gerard caught sight of a cherry-red flash.

The thug lifted and aimed his gun. Another red burst haloed the first.

Two shots rang, and the man slumped.

Gerard moved his gaze to where the flashes had appeared. His Sig lay in the hands of the one who’d saved him.

Legs braced, back straight, she held the gun in both hands, the left cupping the right. Wisps of smoke gently drifted from the barrel.

He blinked when he focused on her face.

It can’t be. The same woman who’d met him at the bistro. Yet, at the same time, not her. Her features looked different, harder, and, he realized with dread, completely focused yet expressionless.

Something told him to take another look. She hadn’t dropped the gun, and for an insane moment, he wondered if she’d aim it his way and shoot. There had been no hesitation in her two shots, and, as his eyes took in the way she held the Sig—one hand curled around the grip and the other anchoring it—realization clattered in his brain.

She held it like a professional, and merde if she hadn’t shot like a professional, too.

Finally, she lowered the weapon and stepped up to him.

From his previous deduction, he hadn’t expected her to be trembling or bumbling her way about, but still, the efficiency with which she sidestepped the body and crouched at Gerard’s side sent warning bells off in his head.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked, aware the thought had made it into words.

Buy Links

Amazon

Add to Goodreads

Releasing February 2, 2015

Before The Morning (Corpus Brides Book 2: The Prequel)

In this stand-alone prequel to the explosive Corpus Brides romantic suspense/espionage series, found out how everything started when one of the agency’s deadliest became the target of a rogue faction.

Before the morning

...is the time of greater darkness...

A trained killer with borderline sociopathic tendencies

Rayne Cheltham traced out her life's path when she was twelve: she would marry her best friend and bear his children, and in the process, stifle the restless edge in her. When he vows never to marry, she gives in to the darkness and becomes a clandestine agent—until the day he walks into her world again, and her carefully fabricated façade crumbles.

A former cop burned by life and his personal demons

When Ash Gilfoy meets a woman who reminds him of his childhood best friend, he starts upon a path that leads him down into the abyss once again. The day Rayne waltzes back into his life, he knows she is his second chance, and the one who will save him.

Each thinks the other is their redemption...until they discover how deep darkness goes inside both of them

The secrets between them make them sit on a keg of gunpowder with a lit fuse in their hands. Rayne’s whole life is built on a lie, and the truth is threatening to explode in their faces. But that is not the only menace they have to face. Someone is out to get Rayne, and she must disclose her secret past before it is too late.

Can Rayne and Ash survive all that’s thrown in their path? Can they hang on to the last thread of their relationship, and can they emerge, still together and still alive, in the morning after the deepest darkness?

Releasing March 2, 2015

Let Mercy Come (Corpus Brides Book 3: The Conclusion)

In this stunning conclusion to the Corpus Brides Trilogy, find out what happens when the dust settles in the aftermath of the mutiny inside their ranks. Danger is still lurking, though... as is death...

Let mercy come

...and wash away our sins...

A woman on the run

Valeriya Morozova has managed to carve out a do-over for herself away from the clutches of the Corpus agency. The one formerly known as Anastasiya still lives on the edge, paranoid anyone will bust her secret and turn her in. Agency leaders believe her to be at the heart of the failed mutinous plot to overtake command, and the price of that betrayal—never mind that she is innocent—will be her life, paid in blood.

A man who’s always followed orders

In his decades inside the Corpus agency, case officer and former super-spy Graeme Whitman—aka Scott—has always paid heed to rules and obeyed all his orders. When he is chosen to bring the traitor Anastasiya back into the fold, Scott knows it will be just one more job he will successfully complete. After all, doing the right thing is atonement for your past mistakes, right?

Secrets running deep

Scott has secrets; who doesn’t? But he isn’t prepared for the full cupboard of skeletons Anastasiya carries with her...starting with the reason why she ran away from the agency. The more he digs, the less he is certain of, until he comes to ask himself why everyone has falsely painted her as a hard-hearted sociopath.

But is Anastasiya a victim, or a skilful manipulator? When her past collides with her present, the future as both she and Scott conceived it shatters. They’ve answered the call of duty all their lives—will they have to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of love?

Author, editor, smitten wife, in-over-her-head mum to a tween boy, best-buddy stepmum to a teenage lad, bookaholic, lover of all things fluffy & pink, chronic shoeholic, incompetent housewife desperate to channel Nigella Lawson (and who’ll prolly always fail at making domestic goddess status)...

Zee hails from the multicultural, rainbow-nation island of Mauritius, in the southern Indian Ocean, where she grew up on the figurative fence—one side had her ancestors’ Indian and Muslim culture; the other had modernity and the global village. When one day she realised she could dip her toes into both sides without losing her integrity, she found her identity.

This quest for ‘finding your place’ is what she attempts to bring in all her stories, across all the genres she writes. Her heroines represent today’s women trying to reconcile love, life, & relationships in a melting pot of cultures, while her heroes are Alpha men who often get put back into their rightful place by the headstrong women she writes. Love is always a winner in her stories, though; that’s a given.

**Find more about the latest on Zee and her works in her monthly newsletter http://eepurl.com/5GULr

**Read about her life & her books at her website/blog http://zeemonodee.blogspot.com/

**Friend her on Facebook (she loves to make friends & meet new people!) https://www.facebook.com/#!/zee.monodee

**Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/ZeeMonodee

**Email her at this addy (she loves to talk...prolly too much, even!) zeemonodee@gmail.com

Character Interview:

These questions could be for hero or heroine. You choose.

They’ll be for the heroine, Amelia.

I’ll try to make it work since she has amnesia – I love a challenge J

Where and how would you like to spend a night of no responsibility, all expenses paid?

Hmmm... You don’t hold back the punches, lady! That’s a tough question. I’m currently on the run from a maniac who was keeping me virtually prisoner, and I’m chasing another man who eyes me with suspicion. Not exactly restful...so let’s say a tropical island, in a villa with its own private beach where you can see the sea for miles on end and the endless array of stars in the clear night sky. A breather would be nice, in fact...

What memory keeps on intruding on your thoughts?

That second dream I had after taking the new regimen of drugs, the one where I saw Gerard for the first time since I’ve been struck by amnesia. You might say it was a dream, a figment of my imagination, but I know it’s a memory; I know I lived that moment, because my heart remembers. I won’t let it drop until I find out the truth behind that memory.

If you could change anything about your story in the book, what would you change?

Lol, I wouldn’t give myself amnesia, that’s for sure! I have a feeling life itself is hard, so not having any frame of reference makes it even worse to deal with. But then Zee wouldn’t have had a story to tell if I hadn’t lost my memory.

Name one significant thing that happened to you before the book.

The accident that gave me amnesia. Peter – the man who claims to be my husband – says I survived a bomb blast aboard a yacht on the Cote d’Azur, that I’d been there with my lover who had invited me on board his friend’s yacht, said friend who was the target of the explosion. I don’t buy it, though... I know something happened, but it’s not as Peter says.

What flavor do you favor? Vanilla, chocolate, or caramel?

Caramel. It goes with everything, lol.

Tea, coffee or soda?

I have a feeling it’s coffee. I seem to power on better with some caffeine in my system.

What band or group of musicians would you like to listen in on their studio recording?

Ack, toughie! I’m not really into the music scene right now, and I don’t remember my past tastes, either. Let me think... There’s this French DJ, David Guetta, getting into collaborations with many international artists. I kinda like his upbeat music, so yeah, probably David Guetta, then.

Give your life motto at the start of the book.

To find the truth, at all costs!

Are you a sunrise or sunset person?

I’ve had to hit the ground running all the time, so I’m not really sure. I don’t think I really like mornings, though.

Where were you born? Where would you have rather been born?

Now, I have absolutely no clue! That’s what amnesia does to you. Peter says I was born in Pretoria, in South Africa. There might be some truth to that because my accent sure doesn’t sound British, like his.

If you could time-travel, what time period would you like to visit and why?

Any time Versailles held court! I love court intrigue and would’ve relished living at the castle with a king in residence.

If you could and were inclined to get a tattoo, what would it be of?

A psychedelic sunburst – I’d get it on the nape of my neck. I’m not sure why I never got a tattoo, by the way. I rather like that idea.

If you could have three wishes to last for a day, what would they be?

That my memory would come back.

That Gerard would acknowledge me for who I’ve been in his past.

To finally find peace of mind...

If you had to go out to space to live on a planet and could take one item with you, what would it be?

Nothing, really. Got a feeling I don’t get attached to things. I can make do with whatever lands in my lap.

If you could ask your author any question, what would it be?

Why me? Why did you choose to give me a story?

What would be the most romantic / sexy thing a partner could do for you?

To accept me for all I am...to know me better than I know myself...

Thank you, Amelia, for stopping by. Great learning more about you.

My Review:

Walking the Edge had me "walking the edge" or holding onto the edge of my seat right from the start. I was taken right into the action and the suspense and I immediately vied for the heroine to find her way. Amelia wakes up from an accident with a husband who gives her the creeps. The hardest part is she has amnesia and remembers very little from her past life. We can tell from her descriptions of her "husband" that he doesn't have her best interests at heart. When he becomes violent, she escapes to France and tries to find a man who haunts her dreams who turns out to be a police commissioner. But there's so much at stake and she can't remember enough. And Gerard doesn't trust her yet he's drawn to her. To top it, their lives are in serious danger.

The sex scenes were awesome, tender yet smoking hot. This was a great read - it will keep you invested the whole way through and there are many mysteries to unfold. There's plenty of action and you'll be desperate for answers right to the end.

I give five stars.