At Midnight by Lainee Cole, Lynn Crandall, Rena Koontz is a Kindle Unlimited pick #fiction #ku #giveaway
Title: At Midnight
Author: Lainee
Cole, Lynn Crandall, Rena Koontz
Genre: Fiction Anthologies
Book Blurb:
Midnight Casanova by Lainee Cole
Stranded at midnight by a broken-down car, dog trainer Maddie Lockhart finds
refuge in a deserted farmhouse. When the owner of the house, Chance Marlow,
tries to oust her, Maddie uses the stray mutt he calls Casanova to convince him
she can help with his collection of homeless animals. While their paths seem
incompatible, working side-by-side to rescue animals, they discover otherwise.
Two Days Until Midnight by Lynn Crandall
Time is running out for reclusive billionaire Tamier Rein to save himself from
transforming into a cheetah, and bird-shifter Lark Ellis is his only hope for
surviving past midnight.
Midnight Deadline for Love by Rena Koontz
T.B. Amanscott is Harrison City’s wealthiest man and his kidnappers want one
million dollars ransom by midnight or they will kill him. Every possible
resource is available to Sergeant Ariana Jeanne Lozione, who is heading up the
rescue attempt. There’s only one problem. A.J. wants him dead.
Excerpt:
Midnight Casanova
Thwap-Clap.
Maddie jumped at the sound
of the large doggie door snapping shut behind her as she crawled into the dark
farmhouse. Hear pounding, she scrambled back against the door, listening for any
sounds coming from within.
A resident dog would have
greeted her in one way or another before she ever made it this far. And even if
it didn’t, she was confident in her abilities as a dog trainer to handle any
surprises.
What she couldn’t handle
was turning into a pumpkin at midnight. She tipper her head back and closed her
eyes.
Baby, her trusty Ford
Mustang, had malfunctioned as soon as the clock turned midnight. Despite her
foot mashing the gas pedal to the floor, the car had slowed and the speedometer
dropped. She’d gripped the steering wheel and barely made it onto the shoulder
before the car shuddered to a stop. The dah lights dimmed, the headlights
flickered, and then both had gone out, leaving her stranded on a dark country
road.
Talk about
experiencing a Cinderella moment.
Maddie sat in the darkness,
thinking about her life. She’d loved fairy tales since she was a little girl.
In some ways, she was living her very own, having been adopted by doting
parents. But she knew nothing about being a princess or a pumpkin. Well, aside
from reading Cinderella many, many times.
Unlike the horses in her
favorite childhood fairy tale, the horses under her hood hadn’t turned into
mice and scuttled away, but their magic had definitely expired. Taking shelter
in a deserted farmhouse in freezing cold Illinois was not how she had planned
to spend her New Year’s Eve.
There were some positives.
One, Baby hadn’t turned into a pumpkin so once she was fixed, Maddie still had
wheels. Two, she was dressed in comfortable jeans. No dresses or fancy glass
slippers for her. And three, there was no prince. She would have to save
herself.
---
Two Days Until
Midnight
“Drat! Drat! Rat!” Tamier
Rein stared at an email from an assistant engineer in his company and raked his
fingers through his hair.
Mr. Rein: Please see
the attached weekly status report for each project I’m managing. As you’ll see,
the timetable for only one project has been delayed.
A slow boil churned in his
gut as he perused the list and suddenly, he couldn’t stand the clutter on his
desk another second.
He razed the top of his
desk, shoving aside papers, files, and the stapler in one fell swoop of his
arm. He watched everything flutter and fall all around him. His pens and
pencils clattered to the stone floor.
“Damn Her!”
Fuming anger propelled him
around the desk in his home office and out onto the upstairs balcony. Fresh air
might help calm his rage. He leaned on the wooden railing and sucked in deep
breaths. Thoughts chased each other in circles, turning his mind into butter.
He wrapped his fingers around the railing, squeezing as though his life
depended on his grip.
He had to get control of
the beast inside him before it was too late. If it took over, he would have to
wait for an explanation for why one of his engineering and architectural firm’s
large projects was at a standstill. Deadlines for licenses and permits loomed.
And now this glitch. Wasn’t preventing this kind of obstacle to purchasing the
large piece of property in Crescent Point a reason he hired an assistant
engineer four months ago?
He went back inside to this
desk and grabbed the handset for his landline but paused before punching in
Lark’s phone number. His hand shook.
He swiped away the pesky
sweat running into his eyes, willing his body to stay still. He ground his
teeth, begging the beast to disappear. Maintaining calm didn’t always prevent
the takeover, but it was his only method.
---
Midnight Deadline For
Love
She
had until midnight.
Until
then, each minute that passed shortened the hostage’s life. His life.
The man she once...
A.J.
could literally watch the time tick away to midnight on the oversized analog
clock hanging in the center of the wall in the squad room, its shiny white face
accented by black digits and two fat hands. In between, a spaghetti-thin second
hand jumped from one dash to the next, in deliberate motion. Tick. Tick. Tick
to the kidnapper’s deadline.
Her
colleagues stood around the room waiting for her orders, staring at her as if
she were the timepiece eating up their precious minutes. On the wall, the
second hand jumped another notch. When most of the detectives and office staff
had already gone for the day, A.J. could not only witness time marching on
while she sat at her desk, she heard it. One monotonous click after the next.
It
echoed in her ears now. Each hand movement, large or small, shrunk the open
window for her to locate and rescue Harrison City’s richest man. Thirteen hours
and counting. Unlucky thirteen. Or maybe not.
This
morning, the squad room felt overly warm and her breakfast bar lay heavy on her
stomach. Or did the situation she found herself in make everything more
uncomfortable?
His
office staff reported T.B. Amanscott missing when he failed to show up for a
charity sunrise breakfast this morning. A.J. listened to the news account on
her way to the police station after interviewing the owner of a jewelry store
whose business was robbed the day before.
As
always, she cringed at the mention of Tobias’ name. Probably hungover, or
coming down from a cocaine high, or shacked up with some bimbo his wife turned
a blind eye to. It wasn’t only her. The entire city looked the other way at
Tobias Benjamin Amanscott’s shenanigans because he was a wealthy benefactor for
so many causes. Every time the man got his tit caught in the wringer, he bought
his way out of it. He had the money. And the political connections. And the
stones.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and
BookBub):
Barnes&Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/at-midnight-lainee-cole/1134712718
What makes your featured book a
must-read?
This anthology is three
different stories each dealing with love, hope, friendship, power, greed,
revenge and the most powerful of all relationships! Three authors whose stories
will bring back the true meaning of love.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $40 Amazon
gift card:
https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/92db7750239
Open Internationally.
Runs November 7 –
November 16, 2023.
Winner will be drawn on
November 17, 2023.
Author Biography:
Lainee Cole: Lainee
Cole’s love affair with books began when she was young. By the time she was in
seventh grade, Lainee was making up her own stories and poems, exploring
various styles of writing. Reading voraciously and exploring different types of
writing led her to romances. She loves the challenge of writing romance,
developing characters and figuring out what makes them tick. They often take on
a life of their own, surprising and annoying her. But they also give her hope
and inspire her to follow her dreams. Lainee strives to write stories that will
make readers laugh and cry, give them hope, and encourage them to believe in
the power of love.
Lynn Crandall: After cutting her writing teeth as a feature writer for
commercial and trade magazines, a reporter for newspapers and radio, and an
executive editor for a communications company, award-winning author Lynn
Crandall tuned her voracious appetite for stories to writing contemporary and
paranormal romance, women’s fiction, and romantic suspense. In her books, she
enjoys taking readers on emotional journeys with relatable characters who
refuse to back down, and face challenges and tribulations with heart and soul.
She believes every love has a story, and hers is with one handsome husband and
a large, beautiful circle of family, including her cat Winter.
Rena
Koontz: I'm a lifelong journalist and an award-winning
author. My writing career has taken me into the sports arena, politics, feature
writing, editorial writing, and, my favorite, cops and courts. I've chased fire
trucks and police cars, covered all sorts of crimes, including murders, and
reported criminal, civil, high profile and ordinary trials.
And that's what I write about.
In my books, cops are the good guys and the good guys always win.
I'm a Pittsburgh native and an avid sports fan. I work Pittsburgh
connections into all of my stories and my characters often wear black and gold
or reference the city's outstanding sports teams -- the Pittsburgh Penguins,
the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
My books are based on real incidents. Plus, I'm married to a retired
FBI agent whose stellar career fuels my ideas and whose technical advice is
invaluable. He also takes credit for the steamy scenes!
Social Media Links:
Lainee Cole: https://www.facebook.com/LaineeColeAuthor/
https://laineecole.allauthor.com/
Lynn Crandall: https://www.lynn-crandall.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LynnCrandallAuthor/
@lynnkelynwriter (TikTok)
Rena Koontz: www.renakoontz.com
https://www.facebook.com/RenaKoontz
@author_renakoontz (TikTok)
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