BLOG TOUR ~ Stone by Hilary Storm & Kathy Coopmans

Title: Stone

Series: The Elite Forces #3

Authors: Hilary Storm & Kathy Coopmans

Genre: Contemporary Romance

What happens to a person when they're literally brought to their knees?

Captain Beau Harris' entire world came crumbling down. His own guilt consumed him to the point he was confined to the tortures of his own mind and faced with the reality of his own fate.

Until her. The one woman he should run from. The one woman who could bring light and warmth into his dark, cold world even though he's content with the reality he's destined to suffer.

She should be forbidden, yet she’s not.

Temptation has no boundaries. It teases you until you have nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, except straight into the arms of the one person who could claim your soul.

You think you know what’s about to hit you. You have no idea.

STONE - book three in The Elite Forces Series is going to bring you to your knees.

“You going to stand there all day or get this shit done and over with, bitch?”  He stands with his arms spread open as if he’s waiting for me to drive the first punch.  That’s exactly what I do.  I nail him with a right hook that lands on the side of his temple. He staggers, but before I have time to swing again, he plows into me with a kick to my stomach, followed by a punch that leads to a crunching noise from my nose.  Blood spurts down my face, and pain ricochets from one side of my head to the other.  His arms go up like he’s challenging me to come at him again.

“Come on, Harris, you need this. I can take it, you pussy.  Let’s go.”  And I explode with that phrase.  I grab him by the back of the neck, rolling us to the floor. Fists start flying fast and furious as if we’re fighting for our lives.  An explosive punch to his ribs sets him off exactly how I want him.  He attacks with the force I need.  Brutal punches to my face bring pain to the surface before a sweep of my leg has me dropping back down to the floor.  I welcome the pain.  I need the pain.  It eggs me on and revitalizes me in a way I crave.

My next move is both spontaneous and unpredictable even to myself.  I move swiftly and smoothly, snapping up off the floor.  A swift kick to his jaw before I tumble backwards leaves him stunned and holding his face.

This is a fight with no rules, no winner, where neither one of us is looking to be the undisclosed master.  It’s a language all of its own.  This is a lesson I need and one he’s been dying to give.  Only, I don’t plan to make it easy on him.

I know I’m hiding behind a mask of despair, and knowing this is when I let my guard down, when I decide to surrender and allow the man who has been doing his job as a friend to try and bring me back to the man I once was.  I allow him to get one last destructive punch in.  This is the one I need the most.  The one that clearly knocks me on my goddamn ass until I’m lying there breathing heavily.

My mind starts to tell me it’s time to move on.  My chest explodes inside, and I finally feel the shards of reality that are heating up the blood pumping through my veins.  It’s time to realize she isn’t coming back to me.  It’s time for me to take the lesson of life that has pulled me under this rough, intense current of self-destruction.  It’s his punch to the side of my head that fucking makes me feel I’m alive.  Here’s the best part though, I don’t care if I’m alive.  I care about nothing.  This isn’t living, and yet it’s all I’ve got.

REVIEW

When I first decided to read Stone I had not read Ice and Fire, yet. With the help of many Hilary Storm fans I was persuaded to read the them first. And thank god for that. By the time I read both books I was so excited to read Harris's story. I believe he has been my favorite from the very beginning!

Now, to say I was completely shocked and blind sided and the beginning of Stone would be an understatement. I mean, it was knock me on my ass I need a stiff drink shocking. Not very often does something so sad happen at the BEGINNING of a story. To say I was heartbroken is putting it midly.

“You bring me back my light, and you'll get your friend back. Until then, leave me in the fucking dark.” ~ Harris

This story did not disappoint. There is tons of action, some involving guns and bullets flying and some involving a bed and lots of touching.

I am so glad I started from the very beginning and cannot wait for the next one!

4 ½ stars

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Hilary Storm

Hilary Storm lives with her high school sweetheart and three children in Oklahoma. She drives her husband crazy talking about book characters everyday like they are real people. She graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University with an MBA in Accounting and has a full time job as an accountant. Her passions include being a mom, writing, reading, photography, music, mocha coffee, and spending time with friends and family. She is the author of the International Best Selling 'Rebel Walking' Series, Bryant Brothers Series, Inked Brothers Series, Six and co-author of The Elite Forces Series! Sign up for her newsletter here: http://goo.gl/forms/d0UON5HIUC

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Kathy Coopmans

USA Today Best Selling Author Kathy Coopmans is a Michigan native where she lives with her husband, Tony. They have two son's Aaron and Shane.

She is a sports nut. Her favorite sports include NASCAR, Baseball, and Football.

She has recently retired from her day job to become a full-time writer.

She has always been an avid reader and at the young age of 50 decided she wanted to write. She claims she can do several things at once and still stay on task. Her favorite quote is "I got this."

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Release Day Blitz ~ Black Sheep by Tabatha Vargo

BLACK SHEEP IS LIVE!!

Ever since the day I was dropped at her family’s door

HUNGRY, DIRTY, and TORN,

I’ve wanted her.

But to taint her perfect skin with my black touch would be a SIN.

So I made a pact with myself—

NEVER TOUCH NICOLE PALMER.

However, when she returns home from college, she’s different, and I’m not sure I can trust myself to keep my pact. I can’t submit to her TEMPTATION no matter how sweetly she begs because she’s the GOLDEN CHILD and I’m the BLACK SHEEP.

GET YOUR COPY OF BLACK SHEEP TODAY!

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0HNM8R

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M0HNM8R

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1155970602...
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/black-sheep-20
BN: Coming soon!

ADD BLACK SHEEP ON GOODREADS!

Tabatha is hosting a Facebook party with a group of some of your favorite authors.

Join the party HERE.

FOR MORE GIVEAWAY OPPORTUNITES/STALK TABATHA VARGO

TABATHA ON AMAZON

FOLLOW TABATHA

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JOIN TABATHA'S MAIL LIST

BE A WICKED BITCH!

HEAVEN AND HELL.

I’d crossed the holy pinnacle and entered a
place full of softness, light, and beauty, but while her hands on my skin felt
like a miracle, I also felt like my flesh was being ripped from my body.
Irrational fear struck me deep.

Nicole would never hurt me—at least not
physically. Mentally, she’d fucked me up over the last seven years, but she
didn’t know she was doing it.

Still, her mouth was heaven, and the devil
didn’t belong in Heaven—I didn’t belong in Paradise. I knew that, but my brain
ceased all functions the minute my lips touched hers.
I was beyond all rational thinking.

My lips brushed against hers.

Once.

Twice.

Before I moved in for more, losing myself
in her so completely, I forgot about her hands on me. I forgot she was touching my
scars inside and out—soothing them and breaking them open again all at the same
time. Her lips made me forget all the promises I’d made to myself over the
years—made me forget about the pact I’d made with myself.

Never touch Nicole Palmer.

Each strike of her hot breath against my
cheek was like an electric shock to my body,
and I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. Her frame felt even smaller than it
looked in my grasp when I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me. She
was soft against my hardness, limp in my arms as she let go with me.

I’d never felt anything like it. Usually, I pinned a girl’s arms above her head
to keep her from touching me. Typically,
I took control and remained in power, but when my tongue met hers, everything
inside me exploded.

Her soft, cautious touch changed, and she
clawed at me like a wildcat, tugging at my shirt and pulling me to her as if
she couldn’t get close enough.

She couldn’t.

She’d never be close enough.

And while her sudden movements and touches
were freaking me out, I wanted more.

I wanted to feel her all around me—beneath
me—inside me, lighting all the dark places where I hid my feelings for her—all
the dark places where the memories and monsters lived.

Her fingers no longer scared me … they
fueled me, forcing my black memories to the forefront and allowing her to
slowly destroy each one. She took away the pain and cleared my mind in the
strangest, most shocking way.

She tasted like sugar, like melted candy on my tongue as I
savored her. My craving for her, the one I’d tamed over the years, grew, as I pulled
her to me and thrust my hips. Seeking relief, I rubbed against her, her body
feeling better than anything I’d ever felt … even with our clothes between us.

I wanted her.

Hell, I’d always wanted her.

Over the years, in my mind,
every girl I’d climbed inside had been Nicole.

My Nicole.

The only girl to ever tame me, and she was clueless about it.

She was leaving me,
and I wasn’t taking it well. I hadn’t been okay with the situation since the
day she got her acceptance letter to Juilliard. She was a beautiful dancer, one
with grace and limbs that went for days, but knowing she was going to New York
alone left a sick feeling in my gut.

I couldn’t be there for her. I couldn’t protect her from the
sick and demented fucks in the world. I’d go wild thinking about the terrible
things that could happen to her while she was hundreds of miles away from me. And
while I knew how badly she wanted Juilliard, I also knew how badly I wanted
her. How badly the desire to keep her safe burned through me on a daily basis.

She reached between us, palming me through my jeans. Stopping
my thoughts completely, her touch caused me to release an agonizing growl into
her mouth. I’d had women … too many, actually, but none of them had ever
touched me this way. Their fingers had never graced my dick, no matter how
badly I wanted it. My mind would never allow it.

It was different with Nicole.

It had always been different with her.

My fingers covered hers, pressing her palm harder against me
as I thrust myself into her hand, seeking what I knew I could never have with
her. Every second I touched her, I darkened her with my shadowed sin.

Clarity broke through my lust and slammed into me. Tension
crawled down my back, tightening my spine and making my entire body stiffen.

It was wrong.

Everything we were doing was wrong.

Her mother and father had taken me in, made me a part of
their perfect family, and given me a life I would’ve never gotten without them.
If it weren’t for them, I would’ve grown up on the streets, begging for food
with only the clothes on my back, and this was how I was repaying them.

By touching their only daughter.

By tainting her with my blackness.

The broken sickness I was born with could be contagious, and
the last thing I ever wanted to do was pass it to her—contaminate her
perfection. If I ever climbed inside her, she’d never be the same. Her light …
I’d extinguish it, bringing her into my darkness. That was the last thing I
wanted since Nicole’s light had always been a beacon for me, leading me to do
the right thing when the right thing was the last thing I wanted to do.

Bad decisions were in my blood—passed down from a father who
ruined me—and touching Nicole was the worst decision I’d ever made. The
addiction was instant, and I knew one day I’d overdose on her. Just like my
father and his heroin except with more pleasure and more pain.

I pulled back, my body and heart feeling her loss the second
I pushed her away.

“Fuck!” I cursed, as I gasped and rubbed roughly at my lips,
trying to rid myself of her taste.

I’d never be able to walk away with her flavor on my lips.
My craving would never let it happen.

She moved toward me,
and I held my hand out to keep her away. I was too weak for her. I’d always
been too weak for her.

Her big blue eyes stared up at me, full of trust and lust.
Her white blond hair spilled from her bun, curtaining her beautiful face and
skimming her flawless skin. She was everything, and I was nothing. The two
could never mix.

Rage and disgust slammed into me.

How could I touch her?

How could I taint her
perfection with my sin?

“That shouldn’t have
happened,” I breathed, trying to catch the air she’d stolen away from me.

“Why not?” she asked, her cheeks flushed
and her lips reddened from my rough kisses.

I hated myself for marring her delicate flesh with my touch. She was too good, too
perfect for anyone, especially me.

“Because I don’t want you that way!” I
yelled, not thinking of who else could hear our conversation.

It
was the biggest fucking lie I’d ever told...

REVIEW 

We all have a small handful of our “go to authors.” Those authors that we will always one click. We know they will bring us on one hell of ride, leave us a wreck. An emotional wreck but a good wreck none the least. That author that, no matter how many books she writes, each one will be unique an perfect in their own way. Tabatha Vargo bring something different to everything and this was no exception. I loved this story.....for 2 reasons. Let me explain.

Okay, so in a lot of books I read there is a lot of fillers. Words that don't have much meaning, but are there to fill in the gaps. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fillers. But sometimes I feel like I'm reading....and reading....and reading just to get to my favorite “I'm on the edge of my seat” part.

When I read a story most of the time about 80% (70% if I'm lucky), I get to the climax, the 'Oh my god I can't believe this is happening I'm so scared will he make it will she make it will they get through this will they get that happily ever after???' THAT is one of my favorite parts! You can't put the book down, action packed part of the story. The part where you don't even realize you are holding your breath until you finish. Some stories don't give us this until around 95%. 5 pages of crazy and BAM insert their happily ever after. Not this story.

That crazy hold your breath stuff....starts on page one and continues through the ENTIRE THING FROM START TO FINISH. No freaking joke. This book came along at precisely the right moment. I wanted something to hold my attention from beginning to end. This book, without a doubt was the one.

The second reason this story was amazing was Tyson Payne.

We all have our favorite type of alpha. Well...mine is that damaged one. That one you want to reach in, grab him, pull him OUT of this hell and protect him forever. The one with the rough exterior but insides that make your heart break into a million pieces. The man you find yourself crying (real tears) for what this man has had to endure and how he feels about himself. If this is your type of man, meet your next book boyfriend. And, because there were no fillers, you get 100% of this damaged man.

So, with that being said, grab a chair or lay on the couch. Grab a pillow, blanket or both. Grab a drink and a small snack because when you start this journey I promise you will not move (and if you are like me..breath) until you reach the end.

Without a doubt, 10 stars for me. ~ REVIEW BY STACEY