#BookBlast Finding Her Dream by @Jennah_Scott

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jennah will be awarding a $10 Gift card (to the winner's choice of e-book retailer) to a randomly drawn commenter via the Rafflecopter at the end of this post. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour. Remember, the more stops you visit, the more chances you earn to win.

It wasn't until she watched her best friend find the man of her dreams that RayAnne Hill realized there was a part of her missing. She knows the empty space can only be filled by finding her own true love, complete with kids and the white picket fence. Fear of letting someone in stops her cold, and it's much bigger than just finding Mr. Right.

James Shaw moved away from Kentucky and the family business to chase his own goals, settling in the small town of Kimmswick, Missouri. His business is succeeding, now he's ready to complete his life with a wife and kids. One night, one look and he's found her. RayAnne is everything he's been searching for.

As hard as James has fallen for RayAnne, can he be enough to help her overcome her worst nightmare? Or will he decide he can't wait forever, and walk away to find happiness?

Now enjoy an excerpt:

“I’m sorry, Ray.”

What? She whipped around to face him. “Why?” she squeaked.

“For that night. For being late. For letting you down. All of it. I hated not getting to spend some time with you.” James clasped his hands in front of him. Her gaze lingered a little below his belt. He cleared his throat and she jerked her head up. At seeing his smirk Ray’s cheeks warmed. She’d been caught.

“I should be apologizing to you, James. It was wrong of me to ignore you. I was being selfish, too worried about myself and how much I wanted to have dinner with you. Everything ended up okay, right? I mean I know it’s been a while, but…” she trailed off. Rambling would get her nowhere.

James grinned. The cooling fire inside ignited once again. “Yeah, sugar. Everything’s good. Shadow was perfect and her foal, Levee, is a beauty.”

“Levee? That’s an odd name for a horse isn’t it?”

“Maybe. I don’t care. She’s named after the Levee Apple Pie at the Owl.”

“Why would you name your horse after an apple pie?” Ray didn’t know much about horses, but she figured an odd name like that had to have a story.

“It’s not the apple pie. Once upon a time I met this girl and I screwed up. So this was my way of reminding myself what can happen if I don’t pay attention.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Born and raised in Texas, Jennah is a transplant to Missouri long enough ago she should probably consider that her hometown. But she will forever be a Texan. She loves to write any story that will make a reader smile, laugh, and maybe even cry (although you won't ever hear her admit that she cries). Whether the next story she writes is contemporary, urban fantasy, LGBT, or whatever other crazy idea she comes up with, there will always be love and romance in the midst of trials and turmoil.

When she's not writing you can find her on Twitter, with her family, or buried in a book trying to escape reality for just a minute.

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#BookBlast Random Acts of Fantasy by Julia Kent

From New York Times bestselling author Julia Kent comes the third in her Random series:

You ever really think that you'll win the lottery? Meet Mr. Right? How about two Mr. Rights?

Somehow the universe is handing me everything I want (except for that lottery part...), and I don't like it. Not one little bit. Because just when you get all your dreams handed to you on a silver platter, that's when an airplane dumps its sewage on your house. Or your mama's diabetes takes a bad turn. Or your mobile phone gets stuck in your hoohaw.

(What? It happens…)

Boring old average me got everything I wanted already, moving from small-town Ohio to big-city Boston to follow my heart. So when the fancy invitation offering me a pile of money to come with the band, Random Acts of Crazy, to perform on an island resort and be their manager arrived, I thought it was a cosmic joke. Enough money to help my mama get what she needed, five days in sunny paradise, and a shot at greatness for the band? Unreal. One big shoe was waiting to drop. On my head.

Just like no one really ever finds a naked man wearing only a guitar standing by the side of the road hitchhiking and ends up falling in love with him and his friend and moving halfway across the country for true love, no one gets an invitation to come to what turns out to be a resort where people make what me and Joe and Trevor do together look like a chaste peck on the cheek. But...

Well.

I guess these things do happen.

To me.

–-

Pre-order links:

Amazon 

iBooks

Friday Recipe: Tea Cake Cupcakes with Frog Decorations

I recently made a tea cake as cupcakes then decorated them as frogs. I admit, I couldn't find a step-by-step on how to make what I saw and have absolutely no artistic talent for taking what I see and recreating it. I improvised but it didn't come out exactly. And I still have no idea how they got the fly wings on the mini-chocolate chip!

To the right of the screen is what I found. To the left is what I made. Everyone loved them, though!

I used spearmint leaf candies for the eyes with mini-chocolate chips. Blue colored Buttercream Icing:

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Ready In: 15 Minutes Servings: 20

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners' sugar 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and vanilla. Blend in the sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered until ready to decorate.

Irish Tea Cake

Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 40 Minutes Ready In: 50 Minutes Servings: 10

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 2 eggs 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup milk 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch round pan.
2.	In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the batter alternately with the milk. If the batter is too stiff, a tablespoon or two of milk may be added. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
3.	Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack, then turn out onto a serving plate. Dust with confectioners' sugar right before serving.

DIY Thursday: All Natural Fertilizer

Earth Day was Tuesday so in honor of that (and so I'm not saving the planet on only one day a year), I'm posting a DIY way to naturally fertilize your garden. Sure, it's faster and easier to buy a bag of something from the local big box store, but in my quest to make my life more natural, and safe myself money by doing it myself, I found this.

For Christmas I received a small kitchen compost. With no directions. Thank you HGTV for your article! In addition to my small compost (small pot, large garden, I'm getting there!) I also decided to try a couple from House Logic: Make Your Own Inexpensive Garden Fertilize (first set) and a couple from Organic Authority (second set). They both recommended fireplace ash. Use the links to see what else they recommend, I only copied what I used. I kept in their links, but added my own comments with links in parenthesis. Good luck!
House Logic:
First, Test Your Soil (I didn't us a professional. I did this from Frugal Living)

Test your soil to determine which nutrients it lacks. You don’t want to add, say, a nitrogen-rich fertilizer if nitrogen already is abundant.
A professional soil test costs less than $20 and will tell you everything you need to know about what’s in your soil. Contact your local extension agent to find a soil-testing laboratory near you.

Soak Your Plants in Epsom Salts

Why: Epsom salts consist of magnesium — critical for seed germination and chlorophyll production — and sulfur — key for protein production and plant growth. A dose of an Epsom salts solution increases fruit and flower production in roses, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and houseplants.
How: Combine 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts to 1 gallon of water. Spray foliage with the solution for best results.

Save Your Wood Ash (I did do this! Saved all my ash from my wood stove and tilled it in with the leaves and grass cuttings.)

Why: Wood ash not only adds calcium (good for root growth) and potassium (promotes seed and fruit formation) to soil, but it also raises the pH of highly acidic soil, making it friendlier to neutral pH-loving plants, such as most vegetables. (Don’t use it in blueberry gardens, which like acidic soil.)
How: Apply wood ash straight from the fireplace to your garden: Dig in 5 lbs./100 sq. ft.

Organic Authority:
Compost Tea

Caution: Be sure to use a finished compost. Unfinished compost may contain harmful pathogens, and compost that is too old may be nutritionally deficient.

1. Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 full of quality finished compost.
2. Fill with water to a few inches below the top.
3. Let the mixture steep for 3-4 days.
4. Stir the tea as often as you can.
5. Strain the mixture, through cheesecloth or any other porous fabric, into another bucket. Add the remaining compost to your garden or put it back in your compost bin.
6. Dilute the remaining liquid with water using a 10:1 ratio of water to tea. (Your watering cans contents should have the look of a weak iced tea.)
7. Fertilizer the soil or use with a foliar sprayer and spray the leaves.

Grass Fertilizer
Grass Fertilizer is rich in nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus. Caution: Be careful not to use grass treated with herbicides.  

1. Fill a 5 gallon bucket 2/3 of the way full with fresh grass clippings.
2. Fill with water to a few inches below the top.
3. Let it sit and steep at room temperature for 3 days, making sure to stir it once a day.
4. Strain the liquid off.
5. Dilute the “tea” with equal parts water.
6. Fertilizer the soil or use with a foliar sprayer and spray the leaves.

Wednesday Victorian: Wicked Seduction and the 1889 Parisian World's Fair

In Wicked Seduction, Victoria sees several pavilions in the Parisian World's Fair. Unfortunately, she does not get to climb Eiffel's Tower.

As with Philip and Lillian in Seduction of my Proper Wife, Victoria does see the Egyptian Pavilion and the Danse du Ventre. Now called belly dancing, this scandalous dance was done by dancers who wore authentic Algerian and other ethnic costumes.

She and her men also visited the Galerie des Machines. It was remarkable for its vast exhibition hall, made possible by exploiting a new structural innovation, the three-pin hinged or portal arch. Although used previously in bridge construction, this was the first application of the arch on such a large scale.

One final stop, though she does tour the majority of the fair, is the Renaissance Exhibit. Not a lot on that exhibit, but it just sounds cool.

#BookBlast Catch Me by Katherine Grant @comecloserbooks

Katherine Grant is a 28-year-old avid reader, writer and soon to be author in Southern California (who likes to talk about herself in the third person in bios because it makes her feel important). Raised in a town in Michigan so small you've never heard of it, Katie used books as a way to travel. As a child, she talked so much that her family suggested she started writing her thoughts down. And thus, a lifelong dream and career was born. She has been everything from a short-order cook to a teacher to a music journalist.  She's finally embarking on being a novelist full time, and she couldn't be more excited.

When not hard at work, Katie enjoys hanging out with her dog, lying on the beach, promising herself she'll one day learn how to surf (although it will never happen), making her boyfriend crazy by refusing to do the dishes, and getting lost in books. Also, cookies. She really, really likes cookies.

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Katherine will be awarding a $25 Amazon giftcard to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Here's a list of all the stops, the more you comment, the better your chance to win!

Blurb:

Adam. Enigmatic. Arrogant. Unwilling to take no for an answer. Everything about him threatens my carefully constructed life. Everything about him makes me want him more.

Isabelle Jennings has it good. She’s a self-proclaimed guys’ girl (football, beers, and kicking back with her “bros”) who has worked hard for everything she’s gotten. And she’s succeeded. Only twenty-six, she already has a startup company – one that helps her atone for past sins. She has (well, had) a healthy sex life, a great apartment and an even better group of friends. No romantic entanglements. No mess. Just how she likes it.

Enter Adam Weston, a young, ambitious businessman in Chicago. Between his money, looks, and charm, he’s never had a problem with women. Until Isabelle.

Overwhelmed by her attraction to him, Isabelle does everything she can to avoid the charismatic playboy. But Adam won’t give up that easily. He dares her to be with him, promising sex sans strings. Isabelle’s burdened with a nightmarish guilt she can’t outrun. And Adam won’t settle for less than everything. He’s breaking down her walls, one touch, one look, at a time.

** Due to language and strong sexual content, this book is recommended for readers who are 18 and older. **

Although Catch Me is the first book in a series, it is a standalone novel.

Excerpt:

I woke up to the sound of my laptop chirping, alerting me to a new email. My thoughts were blurry, still caught in the horror of my nightmares.

The email was from an address I didn’t recognize. It was probably spam, I assured myself.

But the subject line didn’t look like spam.

You can run, but … you know the rest.

A video download was attached. I really shouldn’t click. But some masochistic compulsion had taken over my body. When you’re a kid, and you think there are monsters under the bed, you have three options. Option one was to stay in bed and yell for your parents. Mommy, Daddy, I’m scared, you’d say. They’d turn on the lights, and check under the bed for you. Nothing’s there, sweetie. Don’t worry. Go back to sleep. And, comforted with their love, you could.

The second option was to cower under your covers, close your eyes, and tell yourself that monsters weren’t real. The third was to brave it, to face it. Get out of bed and look yourself.

I’d always chosen option three. That wasn’t about to change now. Even if the monsters were real.

I downloaded the file, and a grainy video popped up. I recognized the scene. It was from Poltergeist II. I hated scary movies but Simon had made me watch it anyway. I suspected he’d liked how I’d snuggle against him, covering my eyes. It made him feel powerful.

A little blonde girl sat in front of a child’s pink toy telephone. It rang and she answered. She turned to look at the camera.

“They’re baaaaaack,” she singsonged.

At the bottom of the  video were four words, words that made my throat close.

Did you miss me?

Buy Links:

Amazon

Amazon UK

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Smashwords