Blood Always (The Five Families #3)
Author: Jill Ramsower
Genre: Adult Romance
Publication Date: April 15, 2020
Description:
It was supposed to be business.
Two families, one wedding, zero emotion.
My father’s mafia outfit had saved my life.
I owed them everything.
An arranged marriage was hardly a sacrifice when I would have already been long dead had it not been for them.
I would give up my independence for the Lucciano Family.
I would bind myself to the man whose family tore my life to pieces.
Matteo De Luca was vicious claws sheathed in refinement and class.
He saw my untamed independence as a challenge.
I saw his alluring authority as a threat.
There was a ruthless storm that raged in his oceanic gaze. A majestic tidal wave of temper and domination looking to break on my rocky shores.
He would annihilate me.
Rip open my layers until all my pretty secrets were scattered at his feet.
The worst part? I wanted to experience whatever it was Matteo had to offer, and I hated myself for it.
I wanted to launch myself at him.
To kiss him. To kill him.
To end the debilitating torture of the unknown.
The moment our paths collided, our lives were altered irrevocably.
Taking us from enemies allied by a strategic marriage to something dark and consuming.
Something that tasted like obsession.
“If it’s so upsetting to you, why did you agree to it in the first place?” The question wasn’t antagonistic. I truly was curious why she had agreed to the marriage.
At last, her spite-filled eyes found mine. “Because I’m loyal. Because I would do anything for my family.” Finding herself again, her voice regained some of its iron toughness.
“Do you believe the marriage challenges your loyalties?”
“No. I am a Genovese and a Lucciano.”
“Until we marry. Then you’ll be a De Luca and a Gallo.”
She made no reply, but her steadfast gaze answered for her. She would sooner die than be either of those things.
I shouldn’t have cared how she felt. It was irrelevant to my plans and the future of my family, but that didn’t seem to matter. The stirrings of a serpentine anger slithered deep in my gut. I tightened my fists, refraining from grabbing her and shaking sense into her stubborn brain.
What exactly was it I wanted her to understand? That she wanted me? That there were worse things in life than calling herself mine? It hit me like a freight train that I wanted, no … needed, to get under her skin and crumble her brick wall of resolve. I needed to see her come undone and offer herself to me like a sacrificial lamb. I needed to make her so thoroughly mine that she saw me when she looked in the mirror.
I closed the distance between us, caging her against the back of the couch.
Her eyes widened with alarm, but she didn’t fight against me despite what had to be a feral gleam in my eyes. I eased onto one knee beside her and lowered my face to glide my lips along the shell of her ear. Her breathing shuddered.
“You think I’m the worst thing that could happen to you? I promise you could have done a lot worse.” When I pulled back and met her eyes, her customary fire had returned.
She slammed her hands against my chest, shoving me away, then stood toe-to-toe with me. “I’m well aware of just how vile you men can be.”
“You men? So, it’s not just me, it’s the entire gender?”
“What does it matter to you? I thought this was business?” she spat, eyes blazing.
“The arrangement is business, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to fuck you. I know you want to fuck me too, regardless of how much you fight against it.”
“You seem to know everything, don’t you?” she spat condescendingly.
“I know you.”
Her posture relaxed, and a vicious smile lit her face. “That’s the one thing you’ll never know. Whether we have sex or not, you’ll never truly know me.”
Her certainty took me aback. I scoured her features and could discern nothing but absolute confidence. She had no intention of letting me in. Ever. Why did that bother me so much? Like she’d said, this was supposed to be business.
I hadn’t gotten where I was in life without a relentless ambition to win. If she was going to pit us against one another, my competitive nature had no choice but to prove her wrong. Maybe if she hadn’t been so goddamn sexy, I could have walked away from the challenge. But as it stood, I was ready to go down with the ship if necessary. I would fight until the end—rip open her layers until all her pretty secrets were scattered at my feet.
Gripping her arms, I spun Maria around and pulled her back to my chest. Her muscles tensed, but she didn’t pull away. I lowered my mouth and nipped at her neck, coaxing a shaky breath from her.
“Challenge accepted.”
Within a year of self-publishing her first book, Jill Ramsower quit her job as an attorney and dedicated her days to churning out romantic adventures. She likes to think of her books as contemporary romance with a touch of fantasy--at its core, her writing is about the connection between two people. Sometimes that connection involves a little magic...
With Jill's books, you can count on confident heroines, plenty of steamy tension, and deliciously assertive leading men. There are no guarantees in life, but with her books, you know everything will work out in the end. However, a perfect ending would not be nearly as satisfying without a seemingly insurmountable challenge. Jill loves to add plenty of adversity in her stories, creating unforgettably dynamic characters and sneaky plot twists you will never see coming.
Jill is a Texan, born and raised. She manages the hectic social calendars for her three active children and occasionally spends an evening with her dashing husband. Aside from being an author and a mom, she's a travel junkie and loves to read when she is not lost in her own stories.
Midnight’s End (The Fae Games #5)
Author: Jill Ramsower
Genre: Adult Fantasy/Romance
Publication Date: July 2, 2019
Description:
Sorceress, enchantress, deceiver, murderer—I’ve been called all those and more, some that might make you blush. Lucky for me, I couldn’t care less what people think about me. I’ve had my sights set on one thing for the last thousand years, and that’s all that matters. I’ll do whatever it takes to find the cauldron, even if it means taking on a partner. They call him a knight in shining armor. For me, he’s my golden ticket. He fell into my lap, quite literally, and now he’s going to help me get what I want.
I don’t play particularly well with others, but he’s the best shot I’ve got, so I’ll hop on that train and hope it gets me where I need to go. He thinks he’s going to crack my shell and see what’s on the inside, like maybe there’s a warm gooey center to make up for the hard exterior. He’s in for a world of disappointment. Everything soft and delicate about me became rough and hardened a long time ago. I’m Morgan Le Fay, and I’m the villain in this story.
He didn’t know what he was saying, but I wanted the words to be true—wanted so desperately that I couldn’t contradict them. It was selfish and brash, but at that moment, that was who I was. I needed that one window of time to be solely about want and pleasure—no thought to consequences or reasons, no worries about plans or implications.
Just me and Knight.
His hard body rested over mine, his eyes searching my face for a response to his profession. I sucked in a fortifying breath, then turned my head to the side, presenting the delicate length of my neck.
A rattling growl rumbled from his chest as he flipped me onto my stomach and lay fully over my body. Knight gently pulled my hair away from my face before his breath ghosted past the sensitive skin on my neck. His nose traced a slow line up toward my hair before his lips retraced his path back down, sending a cascade of goosebumps down my arms and legs.
“Tell me you want this,” he whispered next to my ear.
“Yes.” My voice cracked as I said the word, and I hoped he would see it as a product of need and anticipation. The truth was, my niggling conscience was rising to the surface.
Knight leaned around to meet my eyes. “If I do this, there’s no going back. Tell me you understand.”
I admired his sentiment, but I knew better.
Nothing was forever.
“I understand your meaning, but life is dynamic. There may be no going back, but there is always change. You want me to be the hero—the misunderstood girl who’s been painted the villain. That’s not the case. When you understand fully, things will change. They always do. I’m willing to give myself to you with the understanding nothing is permanent. If you hear my meaning and want me regardless, I’m yours.”
There. I had done what I could to ease my conscience. Let no one say I had tricked him into my bed. I may not have told him everything, but I had given him enough to know there was more to my story.
His eyes blazed, but instead of the wariness I had expected, there was only triumph in his golden gaze.
Jill is a Texan, born and raised. She manages the hectic social calendars for her three active children and occasionally spends an evening with her dashing husband. Aside from being an author and a mom, she’s an attorney, travel junkie, and voracious reader.
Shades of Betrayal (The Fae Games #3)
Author: Jill Ramsower
Genre: Adult Fantasy Romance
Publication Date: November 7, 2018
Description:
Ashley
All my wildest fantasies have come true, but reality is never quite as simple as we imagine. I dreamed of living in a wondrous world of the supernatural and having magical powers of my own. Now, I have all of that, but it comes with a caveat—a six foot Fae brute who is supposed to train me on all things Fae. He’s a dauntless warrior of the Wild Hunt. A beautiful bigot. He’s my lover and my burden, my savior and my curse.
There’s a monster lose in the city leaving a trail of bodies in its wake. I want more than anything to help others with my new abilities—what better use of my power than to stop a killer? Too bad Michael doesn’t feel the same.
Michael
She’s a born fighter. Courageous and brash like the heroes she reads about. Two weeks ago I carried her lifeless body out of a dirty alley. Ever since, my carefully constructed world has been leveled, despite my endless efforts at damage control.
Ashley Moore is a force of nature. Her best friend is the Erlking’s woman, and together, Ashley and Rebecca have infiltrated our brotherhood. Everything about our lives is dangerous, so I’ve done what I can to protect her—even if she ends up hating me for it.
**This is the third book in The Fae Games Series but can be read as a stand alone novel.
Warning: This is NOT a Young Adult novel! It contains scenes with graphic violence and mature sexual content.
Ashley had me off balance from the first time I met her at the club months before. She was outgoing and vibrant, but not in an obnoxious way like so many other women. Her comments were thought-provoking, and her smart mouth had me envisioning what else she could do with her full red lips. Those images were far too dangerous for my taste, and I had known immediately that I needed to keep my distance.
When Ashley was turned Fae, I was ordered to introduce her to our way of life. I had anticipated her to be distraught and withdrawn—she had been anything but. Ashley was level-headed, confident, and everything I didn’t want her to be.
Contrary to the wishes of every fiber of my being, she intrigued me. She wasn’t afraid of the darkness surrounding her like most would be. I had known another woman who was also tenacious to a fault and courageous beyond reason, and she was dead. Losing Raisa left me uninterested in maintaining any meaningful female relationships in my life. I’d made it a habit to single out the vapid ones—happy to please and easy to walk away from. That had been my life for a long time, and I had no desire to change.
I appreciated Ashley’s natural beauty and strength of conviction, but that didn’t mean I was interested in being with her. I enjoyed fine works of art, but I didn’t need to own them. Not that what I thought or felt mattered anyway—if she ever saw beneath my surface, knew the things I’d done, she wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
It was a fact, and just one of the many reasons I should have kept my distance. Too bad Lochlan hadn’t gotten that memo. No matter how much I argued, he seemed hell-bent on ignoring my advice. He was my leader, so despite my objections, if he ordered me to do something, I would do it. I was nothing if not disciplined.
My moral compass may have had its own unique settings, but I lived by that code and the rules of the Hunt unerringly. Only once had my own personal code conflicted with my loyalties to my brothers, and that incident had been buried centuries ago.
Jill is a Texan, born and raised. She manages the hectic social calendars for her three active children and occasionally spends an evening with her dashing husband. Aside from being an author and a mom, she’s an attorney, travel junkie, and voracious reader.
