Eighty-Eight Keys

By Catherine Lavender

Blurb

Leah is a young woman who is trying to break free from a strict religious background and pursue her dream as a pianist in the world of show business. While trying to find her independence her heart is held captive by Jason Rowe a local basketball star who established an organization to help troubled youth. When Jason is found murdered in his home, Leah is determined to get answers from a closed investigation. During her state of emotional turmoil, Leah finds comfort not only in the melody of her music, but in the arms of a married man named Calvin. With her dreams at her fingertips, Leah is tangled in a web of lies and deceit. Despite the fear of learning the truth, Leah has to realize that only the truth can set her free.

A dead lover, with a trail of broken hearts…

A married man, with a double-life…

A dream chaser, with a killer at her heels…

A piano, with eighty-eight keys…

Excerpt

The jarring ring of the telephone pulled Leah back into the present. It took her a couple of rings to find the buried cell

phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Leah, it’s Quincy. I was just calling to check up on you.”

She settled back into a small section of the couch. “Hi, Quincy. I’m doing okay.”

“You sure?” She could hear the concern in his voice. “You sound a little sad.”

The picture of her and Jason crumpled in her fist. “Well, you know how it is. I’m surrounded by ghosts at every turn.”

Her inner voice urged her to change the subject quickly. “How are you doing?”

“Well, that kind of brings me to the second purpose of this call. Would you mind coming in this afternoon? There is still

so much to do for the gala, and we can use all the help we can get.”

Leah looked at her watch, then at the mess in her living room. “Yep, I can be there in a couple of hours.”

Saying her goodbyes, Leah hung up the phone and made a mental note to pick up, packing boxes along the way.

When her lease was up, she was moving to her neon oasis—Las Vegas. Leah was going to be a pianist.

Running thirty minutes late, Leah pulled into the parking lot of Bright Horizons Youth Group. She didn’t see Mrs.

Turner and Rosa until she almost collided into them.

“Oh, oops, sorry,” Leah said, fumbling with her purse and notebook. “I, um, didn’t see you there.” The look on Rosa’s

face was pure anger.

“Well, we are certainly glad you’re here,” Mrs. Turner said with an airy smile. “There is just so much that needs to be

done, and well, it is your business to know how to do this.”

Leah smiled, situating her purse on her shoulder, and avoided eye contact with Rosa in case one of the thousand

daggers thrown from her eyes would penetrate. “You know, I am just happy to help,” she said to the older woman.

Leah cringed at the overly eager sound of her own voice.

“And we are so glad you are helping, swallowing your pride for the good of Bright Horizons.” Mrs. Turner wore her

Armani dress like it was a second skin, her makeup and hair flawless as always. Her smile was etched, and didn’t quite

spread to the rest of her face.

“I don’t understand why…” Rosa said. Her hostility spoke volumes.

Leah braced herself for a very vocal confrontation.

“No, dear.” Mrs. Turner put a beautifully manicured hand on Rosa’s forearm. “You don’t understand, and you never

will if you don’t check your attitude.”

A car horn caused all three women to look around. “Ah, that’s for me.” Mrs. Turner pulled a sheet of paper from her

book, not acknowledging the impatient student honking.

Leah didn’t want to know why the University’s current basketball star was sitting in Mrs. Turner’s car.

“If you both will excuse me, I have more important mat-ters to attend to.” She handed Leah a long list, “Be a dear and

see if you can crank this out.”

The two women eyed each other warily.

Rosa brushed past Leah. “Don’t you dare screw this up,” she hissed.

“Why would you think that?” Leah usually kept to herself as far as Rosa was concerned, but the implication bothered

her.

Rosa slid on a pair of sunglasses. “Because you screw everything up.”

Author Bio and Links

 

Catherine Lavender is from Baltimore, Maryland but now resides in Tampa, Florida with her miniature schnauzer name Ripken. She is an animal activist, as well as a supporter of the organization First Book which helps supply literature for underprivileged children. In her spare time, Catherine enjoys reading classic literature and playing the acoustic guitar.

Links:

Website: http://www.catherinelavender.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Lavender/186543831472093

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lavenderpages

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6641425-catherine-lavender

Buy Links:

Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eighty-eight-keys-catherine-lavender/1114281705?ean=9781936167838

Books-A-Million
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Eighty-Eight-Keys/Catherine-Lavender/9781936167838?id=5491362841818

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Eighty-Eight-Keys-ebook/dp/B00BB0MZ06/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1360124072&sr=8-13&keywords=Eighty-Eight+Keys

Addicted to Ansley

By: Linda Kage

 

Through all the years that passed, the memory of their love never faded.

 

Motivational speaker and drug rehab counselor Ward Gemmell can hold an audience in the palm of his hand-because he knows what it’s like to have everything he loved slip through his fingers. When a particularly heartfelt speech reunites him with the daughter he never knew he had, suddenly the love of his life is back within his grasp. What could a guy like him do to earn a second chance?

 Good girl Ansley Marlow was heartbroken the day Ward revealed his hidden life-the kind of secret that would tear anyone apart. But so many years have passed and so much has changed that it isn’t as hard now for her to believe in fate and redemption, even when those around her are unforgiving. All she needs is the strength to reach out and reclaim the beautiful life she should have had so long ago.

 

Author Information:

Linda grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now she lives in Kansas with her husband, toddler daughter, and their nine cuckoo clocks. She works a day job in the acquisitions department of a university library and feels her life has been blessed with lots of people to learn from and love. Writing’s always been a major part her world, and she’s thrilled to finally share some of her stories with other romance lovers.

You can find Linda on the web at:

Website – http://www.lindakage.com/

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/linda.kage

FB Fan Page – http://www.facebook.com/authorlindakage

 

 

 

I read this and yes it was FAB!! I have to clear the decks a little to give a few great books proper credit.

 

 

Book synopsis:

Rick and Liam are two small-time con artists who live in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles–Rick is addicted to internet porn and dangerous women, while Liam is a functioning alcoholic who loves the New England Patriots as much as life itself.

The partners push their luck one time too many, and while Rick is recovering from a life-altering beatdown he received at a casino, he falls in love with a mystery woman online, a webcam-girl known as Amethyst. When Rick learns that she lives across the city, where she has been forced into prostitution by a gang of Russian sex-traffickers, he sets out to save her.

In order to do that, however, he must betray his longtime partner and steal their savings, which Liam has built up with a series of shrewdly-placed sports bets. Rick makes his move, just as Liam places the mother of all wagers, on his beloved Patriots.

Things go horribly wrong, and the two friends find themselves scrambling for cash to stave off their leg-breaking Korean bookies. With only three days to raise all the money, the partners hatch a desperate scheme to blackmail a philandering US congressman. At the same time, their friendship is threatened by Rick’s wild, unpredictable new girlfriend.

Can the three of them pull it together and pull off their audacious plan? Will jealousy and suspicion tear them apart? Finally, what is Amethyst’s dark secret, and can these two screw-ups survive long enough to learn the terrible truth?

It’s all-in for Rick and Liam, in this sexy, fast-paced crime thriller – the debut novel from Mycroft Magnusson