Mira Books Presents: Holly Bourne's Pretending





Pretending : A Novel 

Holly Bourne

On Sale Date: November 17, 2020

9780778331506, 0778331504

Trade Paperback

$17.99 USD

416 pages


ABOUT THE BOOK:

In this hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel perfect for fans of Fleabag, a woman struggling to move on after a traumatic relationship pretends to be “the perfect girl” in an act of vengeance that goes awry when she finds herself emotionally compromised.


He said he was looking for a 'partner in crime' which everyone knows is shorthand for 'a woman who isn't real'.


April is kind, pretty, and relatively normal - yet she can't seem to get past date five. Every time she thinks she's found someone to trust, they reveal themselves to be awful, leaving her heartbroken. And angry. Until she realizes that what men are really looking for is Gretel.


Gretel is perfect - beautiful but low maintenance, sweet but never clingy, sexy but not a slut. She's a Regular Everyday Manic Pixie Dream Girl Next Door With No Problems.


When April starts pretending to be Gretel, dating becomes much more fun - especially once she reels in the unsuspecting Joshua. Finally, April is the one in control, but can she control her own feelings? And as she and Joshua grow closer, how long will she be able to keep pretending?



Please enjoy this exclusive excerpt from
Pretending
by 
Holly Bourne

I hate men.

There, I’ve said it. I know you’re not supposed to say it. We all pretend we don’t hate them; we all tell ourselves we don’t hate them. But I’m calling it. I’m standing here on this soapbox, and I’m saying it.

I. Hate. Men.

I mean, think about it. They’re just awful. I hate how selfish they are. How they take up so much space, assuming it’s always theirs to take. How they spread out their legs on public transport, like their balls need regular airing to stop them developing damp. I hate how they basically scent mark anywhere they enter to make it work for them. Putting on the music they want to listen to the moment they arrive at any house party, and always taking the nicest chair. How they touch your stuff instead of just looking; even tweak the furniture arrangement to make it most comfortable for them. All without asking first—never asking first.

I hate how they think their interests are more important than yours—even though twice a week all most of them do is watch a bunch of strangers kick a circle around a piece of lawn and sulk if the circle doesn’t go in the right place. And how bored they look if you ever try to introduce them to a film, a band, or even a freaking YouTube clip, before you’ve even pressed Play.

I hate their endless arrogance. I hate how they interrupt you and then apologize for it but carry on talking anyway. How they ask you a question but then check your answer afterward. I hate how they can never do one piece of housework without telling you about it. I hate how they literally cannot handle being driven in a car by a woman, even if they’re terrible drivers themselves. I hate how they all think they’re fucking incredible at grilling meat on barbecues. The sun comes out and man must light fire and not let woman anywhere near the meat. Dumping blackened bits of chicken onto our plates along with the whiff of a burp from their beer breath, acting all caveman, like we’re supposed to find it cute that we may now get salmonella and that we’re going to have to do all the washing up.

I hate how I’m quite scared of them. I hate the collective noise of them when they’re in a big group. The tribal wahey-ing, like they all swap their IQs for extra testosterone when they swarm together. How, if you’re sitting alone on an empty train, they always come and deliberately sit next to you en masse, and talk extra loudly about macho nonsense, apparently to impress you. I hate the way they look at you when you walk past—automatically judging your screwability the moment they see you. Telling you to smile if you dare look anything other than delighted about living with stuff like this constantly fucking happening to you. 

I hate how hard they are to love. How many of them actually, truly, think the way to your heart is sending you a selfie of them tugging themselves, hairy ball sack very much still in shot. I hate how they have sex. How they shove their fingers into you, thinking it’s going to achieve anything. Jabbing their unwashed hands into your dry vagina, prodding about like they’re checking for prostate cancer, then wondering why you now have BV and you still haven’t come. Have none of them read a sex manual? Seriously? None of them? And I hate how they hate you a little just after they’ve finished. How even the nice ones lie there with cold eyes, pretending to cuddle, but clearly desperate to get as far away from you as possible.

I hate how it’s never equal. How they expect you to do all the emotional labor and then get upset when you’re the more stressed-out one. I hate how they never understand you, no matter how hard they try, although, let’s be honest here, they never actually try that hard. And I hate how you’re always exhausting yourself trying to explain even the most basic of your rational emotional responses to their bored face.

I hate how every single last one of them has issues with their father.

And do you know what I hate most of all?

That despite this, despite all this disdain, I still fancy men. And I still want them to fancy me, to want me, to love me. I hate myself for how much I want them. Why do I still fancy men so much? What’s wrong with me? Why are they all so broken? Am I broken for still wanting to be with one, even after everything? I should be alone. That’s the only healthy way to be. BUT I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE. I hate men, that’s the problem. GOD I HATE THEM SO MUCH—they’re so entitled and broken and lazy and wrong and…and…

Hang on…

My phone.

HE MESSAGED BACK!!!

WITH A KISS ON THE END!

Never mind.

Forget I said anything. It’s all good.


Excerpted from Pretending by Holly Bourne, Copyright © 2020 by Holly Bourne. Published by MIRA Books. 


My Thoughts
Holly Bourne's Pretending is a book that hit quite a few nerves for this reviewer.
The reason...
The protagonist, thirty-something nonprofit employee and rape survivor, April.  Still reeling from her rape at the hands of former boyfriend, Ryan.  Has once again entered the dating scene.  Only to find that herself woefully unprepared for the rigors of flirting and sex.
And more than anything ready for revenge.
But not just revenge on the man who hurt her however.
This self proclaimed "man hater" is out for proverbial blood from all of mankind as a whole.
And is willing to go so far as to "catfish" her unsuspecting "right swipe" Joshua.  By way of an alter ego whom she has named Gretel to get it.


While it is very natural for someone who has gone through the trauma of rape to be angry, among a myriad of other feelings.
Deception should never be a means through which one heals or avenges a wrong.
Particularly when the target of said deception is not the offending party.
It is for this reason, and this reason alone that I find myself to be both strongly put off by this book.
And asking myself...

    "How is it that a woman claiming to want honesty and trust in a relationship, can go to such extreme        lengths to deprive another of those very things?"

And sadly, the answer is quite simple,
     "Hurt people...hurt people"

Though it is quite clear that this book attempts to put somewhat of a romcom spin on the issue.
It must be said that the issues addressed here are much to heavy to effectively carry off such a treatment.
And instead, produce in readers a profound and lingering confusion of loyalties.  Which quickly gives way to anger.
Emotional manipulation and trauma masking are not issues which lend themselves to a rollicking good time.  Even in the mildest of cases.  
Therefore, reading this proved about as enjoyable as a well orchestrated forty car pile up on the CHP during rush hour.

Reviewer's Note
Thank you to Mira and Netgalley for providing the review copy on which my critique is based.
If you or someone you love has been a victim of rape.  Please don't be afraid to reach out for help.
National Sexual Assault Hotline:
1-800-656-4673






ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Holly Bourne is a bestselling UK-based YA and Adult Fiction author and is an Ambassador for Women’s Aid. In 2019, she was an Author of the Day at the London Book Fair, and was named by Elle Magazine’s weekly podcast as one of “Six Female Authors Changing the Conversation in 2019”. Pretending is her US debut.








BUY LINKS:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Apple Books

Kobo

Google Books

Bookshop.org


SOCIAL LINKS:

Author website: https://hollybourne.co.uk/

Twitter: @holly_bourneYA


Carina Press Presents: Just Like This








Title: Just Like This

Author: Cole McCade

Series: Albin Academy, #2

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Imprint: Carina Press (Carina Adores)

On Sale: November 24, 2020

Format: Trade Paperback 

Price: $14.99 U.S.

ISBN: 9781335200907

Book Description: Rian Falwell has a problem.


And his name is Damon Louis.


Rian's life as the art teacher to a gaggle of displaced boys at Albin Academy should be smooth sailing—until the stubborn, grouchy football coach comes into his world like a lightning strike and ignites a heated conflict that would leave them sworn enemies if not for a common goal.


A student in peril. A troubling secret. And two men who are polar opposites but must work together to protect their charges.


They shouldn't want each other. They shouldn't even like each other.


Yet as they fight to save a young man from the edge, they discover more than they thought possible about each other—and about themselves.


In the space between hatred, they find love.


And the lives they have always wanted…


Just like this.


“The romantic longing, themes of bravery and confidence, and moments of cozy domesticity shine.” —Publishers Weekly on Just Like That



Please enjoy this exclusive excerpt from
Just Like This

Rian Falwell had a problem.

And that problem was currently staring at him through a messy tangle of black hair, from beneath a brow dotted with gleaming beads of sweat that—beneath the glassy afternoon light streaming through the windows—turned to glistening motes of amber against dusky brown skin.

Honestly, if Damon Louis was going to come barging into Rian’s studio like this…

He could at least have the decency to wear a shirt.

The P.E. teacher took up far too much space inside the tiny cubicle of a studio, his shoulders so broad they had almost touched both sides of the door frame as he’d stalked inside. He looked as if he’d just stepped out of the gym, with his wide, sculpted, scar-rippled chest glazed in a sheen of sweat and a pair of loose black track pants hanging off his 

hips, the elastic waistband barely clinging to the narrow line cut below his iliac crest. His shoulder-length tumbles of dark hair clumped together, completely drenched, droplets dangling from the tips.

But as overheated as Damon looked?

His dark brown eyes were completely cold—glossed to reflective ice as he folded thick, brawny arms over his chest and took a slow look around the cluttered space of Rian’s studio.

Rian could track the line of his gaze—starting with the gloppy pile of clay on his pottery wheel; a pile that would eventually become a vase, but right now was just misshapen lumps of gray.

Then to the thin sheets of handmade papyrus parchment drying on a clothesline strung across the room, pulped and pressed from the fallen early autumn leaves of the trees around Albin Academy, an experiment Rian had been quite pleased with when it resulted in fine paper with a green-gold translucent fragility, flecked with bits of brown from the leaves’ veins and stems.

Next, the many half-finished canvases propped about on their easels, slashed with angry, bold strokes of paint in abstract designs.

The anatomical diagrams pinned to the walls.

And the extra large sketchbook left open on his worktable, displaying loose, light sketches of male bodies in motion, focused on capturing the flow of sinew in the turn of the waist, the tightening of an arm as it drew back, the extension of the body and curve of the spine during a long, lazy reach.

Damon’s eyes lingered longest on that one, his dark, expressive brows rising fractionally, almost mockingly—and Rian’s face burned.

All of these were his personal projects, all unfinished, but still things he put everything he had into. 

So why was this stone-faced, unsmiling jerk standing here looking over them like he was about to assign Rian a failing score?

What was he even doing here at all?

Those dark brown eyes snapped back to him as if Damon had somehow heard the question snarling in the back of Rian’s mind.

“So,” Damon drawled, and Rian realized this was the first time he’d actually heard Damon speak in his three years at Albin Academy, rather than noncommittal affirmative mutters during staff meetings. His voice was deep, raw, gritty, with a subtle pull to it that didn’t quite seem to echo typical New England accents around Massachusetts. “I thought this was some kinda broom closet. Chambers and Walden know you’re using it for…” He tilted his head. A damp ripple of hair fell across the refined sharpness of his cheekbone, the tip practically licking at the corner of his wide, full, stern-set mouth. “…this?

Rian tensed.

More at the implied scorn dripping from this than at the fact he’d been…uh…

Caught using school grounds for unauthorized purposes.

He doubted Principal Chambers and Assistant Principal Walden would particularly care. Especially when Rian had been using the storeroom as a studio since he’d been hired, and no one had really noticed—though considering Lachlan Walden had only been hired last semester, the assistant principal had more things to worry about than one rogue art teacher moving a few brooms.

So Rian drew himself up, lifting his chin as he reached for the wet rag hanging from the edge of his wheel and began wiping the thick patina of clay from his hands, peeling off the cold, clinging layer. 

My broom closet,” he said firmly. “Attached to my classroom. I’m allowed to use it as I deem necessary as long as it’s for educational purposes.”

This…counted…technically.

He was the art teacher.


Copyright © 2020 by Cole McCade

Put your stuff here

My Thoughts
Just Like This could best be described as a tentative love/hate romance.  Because while there is a definite adversarial bent to the tensions between Damon and Rian.  Their interactions can best be described as charged but wary.  Almost like they were waiting each other out during a chess game.


Even more compelling than the seeming "stalemate of wills" between the two, that seems to be going on throughout the first half of the story.  Is the way that each of their backstories  work in concert with both each other, and that of the present story of their shared charge.
Giving each man a truly "lost boy found" persona.  And setting the stage for their emotionally charged romance.

Speaking of personas.  A big bravo to author Cole McCade.  For his crafting of a more classically styled effeminate lead in the form of Rian.  It is not often that softer male roles are highlighted in such positive and face forward fashion.
That still manages to honor his masculinity in the process.

In short.  This book is a very well written up close and personal view of two men brought together in the pursuit of a goal greater than themselves.  Only to find within each other, a love greater than any  they have ever known.

Reviewer's Note
*Thank you to Carina Press and Net Galley for the provision of the review copy of this work on which my honest critique is based.
Just Like This is the second book of the Albin Academy series.  But may be read as a standalone. 


About Cole McCade

Cole McCade is a New Orleans-born Southern boy without the Southern accent, currently residing somewhere in Seattle. He spends his days as a suit-and-tie corporate consultant and business writer, and his nights writing contemporary romance and erotica that flirts with the edge of taboo—when he’s not being tackled by two hyperactive cats. 


He also writes genre-bending science fiction and fantasy tinged with a touch of horror and flavored by the influences of his multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual background as Xen. He wavers between calling himself bisexual, calling himself queer, and trying to figure out where “demi” fits into the whole mess—but no matter what word he uses he’s a staunch advocate of LGBTQIA and POC representation and visibility in genre fiction. And while he spends more time than is healthy hiding in his writing cave instead of hanging around social media, you can generally find him in these usual haunts: 



Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/ColeMcCadeBooks





Ink Slinger PR Presents: Jillian Liota's LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Jillian Liota is excited about LIKE YOU MEAN IT out now in audiobook! Check it out today!


Title: Like You Mean It

Author: Jillian Liota

Genre: Contemporary Romance Audiobook

About Like You Mean It:


“I want to make you smile like you mean it.”   The day Cole Lannington says those words to me, I already know I’m falling. Hard. For a man I can never have. Because there’s no way in hell I’ll ever deserve a man like him.   Annie All I need to do is keep my head above water. Push a little harder. Keep that smile plastered on my face for my son as we try to wade through the new life that’s threatening to drown us both.   But on the first day I can’t seem to hold it all together, I meet him. And for some reason, he comes to my aid. Before I know it, Cole steps in and becomes an important part of my life. Our lives. Fills a void left vacant by a man who never wanted to fill it in the first place.   Too bad he can never be more than a friend.   Cole All I need to do is be a nice guy to my new neighbor. Make her smile a little bit. Find space in my tidy, structured life to ease the burden she carries so she and her son can enjoy life without the bastard who treated them like they were insignificant.   I don’t expect to talk and laugh and feel a warmth in my chest I didn’t know was missing until she showed up at my door. Somehow I end up caring about her more deeply than I should. But my friendship with Annie opens my eyes to what it could be like to have something deeper. To feel something stronger.   To fall in love like I mean it.   Like You Mean It is the first book in the Like You Series and is a standalone novel.



Get Your Copy Today!

Audible | Audiobooks.com | Google Play | Kobo | iTunes

 

Exclusive Excerpt:

  [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="http://www.inkslingerpr.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FINAL-LYMI-AUDIO-CLIP.mp4"][/video]

About Jillian Liota

Jillian Liota is a new author writing contemporary romance and new adult fiction. She lives in Kailua, Hawaii with her amazing husband, 2 cats, and 3-legged pup.  She is the author of the new adult romance novel The Keeper, which focuses on a female college soccer goalie, as well as the follow up novella, Keep Away. Her newest release, Like You Mean It, is in the contemporary romance genre and has a more mature voice, as it follows a pregnant mother finding love in a new town. The next novel in the Like You Series, Like You Want It, will be published in Spring 2019 She has a master’s in Higher Education and Student Affairs, and she is passionate about all things improvement, development and organization. She’s also a big fan of taking walks with her husband and dog Maia, reading romance (obviously), watching a handful of horrible reality TV shows, and exploring the island she calls home. Check out her Contact page for more information on how to connect.  

Connect with Jillian:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Email

 

HFVBT Presents: Elizabeth Rache's Flirtation And Folly And A Giveaway!


Flirtation and Folly by Elizabeth Rasche

Publication Date: November 10, 2020
Quills and Quartos Publishing

Series: A Season in London, Book One
Genre: Historical Romance


Marianne Mowbrey is a responsible country rector’s daughter who longs for the novelty and excitement she reads about in novels. When her crusty Aunt Harriet agrees to give her a Season in London, Marianne vows to dazzle the world, win a husband, and never go home again. But the Londoners who determine social success are inclined to pass over plain Marianne in favor of her beautiful, reckless younger sister.

In a world of ambition, fashion, flattery, and deceit, how can Marianne stay true to her real self—when she is not even sure what that real self is?

Available on Amazon

My Thoughts

Flirtation And Folly is a wonderful "first season" story.
A sort of nod to the "not so ugly duckling becoming her very own sort of swan".
Though the eldest girl of the bunch living at home.  It seems that Marianne has never been first choice for much of anything.  Save helping her mother to care for her siblings.
For when it comes to beauty, and all the acclaim of natural social graces.  Those laurels will ever be worn by her younger and fairer sister Belinda.
So it is no surprise to our dearest duckling that when her very affluent but highly critical aunt Harriette is in need of a companion to fill in while hers is convalescing.
Sends word to her mother that the much sought after Belinda is to join her in that capacity.
But when Belinda choses the invitation of a prominent family much dearer to her family's more rural  social standing.  It is the much plainer Marianne who is sent in her place.


Watching Marianne fumble and bumble her way, mostly unaided by those who would claim to be her betters.  And in fact ,be left to the often torturous barbs and inside jokes of one Miss Emily Stokes.  Resident preening peahen and "mean girl" in charge.  Who to be fair, takes a general delight in deriding anyone to whom she might have even the slightest chance of being in any way superior. 
 To whom Marianne spends most of the book being very good natured about her hot and cold whims and paper cut like slights .  But learning how to handle her nonetheless. 

The situations with the menfolk of this read are no less dramatic by far.  Ranging from a with every type cast.  From the flirting popular dandy that everyone wants, but no one can seem to pin down.  In the form of one Captain Pelteney.
The friend of a friend, who really isn't supposed to be there.  But the friend insisted.  In the form of one Mr. Glass.  Her aunt Cartwright's apothecary.
And of course there is the dark, and brooding hero on a mission.  In the form of Robert Hearn.

There are so many characters with so many subplots.  That this book sometimes reads more like an After School Special than a Regency Romance.
And that is all before Marianne's  sister breezes her way into the picture in all of her vapidly entitled glory.

Please don't mistake my rather dismissive slant on some of the aforementioned characters for a distain of this book.
Nothing is further from the truth.
It is in fact.  One's ability to form such strong emotional ties with this books characters that makes one want to keep reading.
In much the same way that one watches a favorite teen soap opera.
You know that the just deserts are coming. You just hope that your chosen hero and heroine are on the right side of justice when they do.
This is in essence survival of the fittest meets "coming of age" ala Regency.
And "oh boy what a ride."

Thank you to HFVT and Ms. Rasche for the opportunity to read and review this book.  All opinions given are my own and have not been influenced in any way by any interested party.

   



About the Author

After acquiring a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Arkansas, Elizabeth Rasche taught philosophy in the U.S. and co-taught English in Japan. Now she and her husband live in northwest Arkansas, the ‘garden of America.’ (At least, she has only ever heard Arkansas called so.) She dreams of visiting Surrey (if only to look for Mrs. Elton’s Maple Grove), Bath, and of course, London. When she has a Jane Austen novel in one hand, a cup of tea in the other, and a cat on her lap, her day is pretty much perfect.

Elizabeth Rasche is the author of The Birthday Parties of Dragons and her poetry has appeared in Scifaikuest. Flirtation & Folly is her first historical fiction novel.

Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, November 10
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Review at Historical Fiction with Spirit

Wednesday, November 11
Review at Gwendalyn's Books

Thursday, November 12
Review at Bitch Bookshelf
Review at Books In Their Natural Habitat

Friday, November 13
Excerpt at Coffee and Ink
Feature at CelticLady's Reviews

Monday, November 16
Feature at I'm Into Books
Review at Probably at the Library

Tuesday, November 17
Review at Bookworlder

Wednesday, November 18
Feature at Reading is My Remedy

Thursday, November 19
Guest Post at Novels Alive

Friday, November 20
Review at Library of Clean Reads
Review at View from the Birdhouse

Saturday, November 21
Excerpt at Passages to the Past

Sunday, November 22
Review at Robin Loves Reading

Monday, November 23
Review at Jessica Belmont

Tuesday, November 24
Review at Novels Alive
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour, we are giving away a copy of Flirtation and Folly by Elizabeth Rasche! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

The giveaway is open to US residents only and ends on November 24th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Flirtation and Folly