⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐The Man Next Door by Sheila Roberts #RomanticComedy

Trouble ensues when a mother and daughter spy on their hunky and mysterious new neighbor in this re-imagined telling of the classic movie Rear Window.

 

Title: THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Author: Sheila Roberts

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 368

Genre: Fiction/Romance

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook

Love in the Time of Serial Killers meets The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window in this delightful romp about a recently broke divorcee who moves in with her house-bound mother only to spend their days spying on her grumpy, mysterious, and sexy new neighbor.

Zona never thought her life was headed this way, but here she is, newly divorced and moving back in with her mom, Louise. After her gambling addicted ex-husband lost all of their savings, including their daughter’s college fund, she doesn’t really have a choice. She’s cutting every coupon she can and she’s going to help put her daughter through nursing school, even if it kills her. 

This wasn’t Louise’s plan, either, laid up at home with a broken leg after one unfortunate tumble on the senior singles cruise she’d been looking forward to for months. But if she’s going to spend all her time at home, at least she’s got her daughter there with her. And there’s some hot new eye candy next door to distract them both from their troubles. He appears to be single and just around Zona’s age. Could his arrival be the universe making amends for everything it’s put her through? 

Maybe the universe isn’t feeling as generous as Louise hoped. There’s something lurking under that mans surface charm, something…dangerous? And who’s the woman they can hear him in all-out shouting matches with on the other side of the fence? When the woman seems to disappear without a trace, imaginations run wild. Or at least, Zona hopes it’s just her mother’s imagination… 

The Man Next Door is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

  

The House

The house on Glenwood Avenue had taken on an air of darkness. Not simply because the previous owners had painted its adobe outside dark gray and trimmed it with black, although that hadn't helped. It was what had happened inside the house even before they moved in. 

Elder abuse. Louise Hartman, who lived next door, had been the first to spot it. The single man rarely let his grandmother out, and he never let anyone in, no matter how many cookies they came with. He was the only unsociable person on the whole street. Louise had known early on that he was hiding secrets.

But there are things you can’t hide from people who pay attention. And Louise paid attention. The curtains were always drawn, and the son rarely left the house. Neither did the old woman who had arrived with him, not even to care for the roses which were starting to wither from lack of attention. Lawn service had been stopped and weeds were popping up everywhere. Neglect! cried the house. Often old cars with nefarious looking drivers showed up after dark. Drugs, for sure. The place sent off keep away vibes and the neighbors all did. Including Louise. A woman living alone had to be careful.

One day the old woman in the house next door got out. Louise had been checking her mail and saw the poor soul. She was skinny as a wraith, wearing dirty women’s pajama bottoms and an equally dirty men’s t-shirt. Her hair hung in greasy, gray strands, and when Louise hurried over to say hello she saw the woman had bruises on her arms. Yes, older people had thin skin, and they tended to bruise easily, but this woman had too many to have just bumped against a counter. When Louise asked about them the woman had looked mildly puzzled for a moment, then replied that little Sammy was strong. 

Louise had seen little Sammy. He was a mammoth. And obviously brutal. Louise had called the authorities, and it wasn’t long before Sammy was no longer around, and neither was the old woman. According to the rumor mill, a relative had stepped in and moved her across the country and put the house up for sale. 

Then had come the middle-aged couple with the dog. Happily married, both working, but with time for a chat by the mailbox. One daughter, married, about to give birth to the first grandchild. Perfect. They would bring back the happiness that had lived in the house when Louise’s daughter Zona was growing up and laughing children had run back and forth between the two homes. 

But tragedy struck only a few months later. The wife died suddenly. No one knew quite how. The funeral was small and private, the wife cremated, and the man gone almost instantly. The house went on the market again. And sat, waiting, like the neighbors, to see what would happen next. People came and looked at it, but it remained empty. 

Louise didn’t blame them. A miasma enshrouded the place and she could almost feel … a presence hovering over there, peering over the property line, whenever she went up her own front walk. Her daughter insisted Louise was imagining things. A house was just a house. It didn’t have a life of its own. And no, Zona hadn’t felt any creepy vibes since she’d moved in with Louise. Of course, Zona was dealing with so much in her own life she probably wouldn’t recognize a creepy vibe even if it came up to her and rattled her bones. 

Could a house absorb the emotions of the people who lived in them? Did bad vibes linger long after those people had moved out? Once infected, did that house become a magnet for more of the same?

Louise hoped not. She watched as the realtor put a sold sign on the front lawn. Maybe the new owners would dispel the gloom. Maybe she wouldn’t shiver every time she walked past the place.

Or maybe this unsettled feeling she was getting was a premonition.

– Excerpted from The Man Next Door by Sheila Roberts, MIRA, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Sheila Roberts is a USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller – and a fan favorite. She has seen her novels turned into movies for the Lifetime, Hallmark, and Great American Family channels. Before settling into her writing career, Sheila owned a singing telegram company and played in a band. She is happily married, and when she’s not traveling, she splits her time between the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. You can visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044180452595 and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sheilarobertswriter/. 

Her latest book is the romantic comedy, The Man Next Door.

Sponsored By:

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐The Essence of Bliss by Emily Astillberry #paranormalromance #speculativefiction

A heartwarming, magical novel, which follows Isabel Bliss, a primary school teacher with an invisible power over emotional energy, as she discovers, explores and comes to terms with her ability and her potential.

 

Title: THE ESSENCE OF BLISS

Author: Emily Astillberry

Publisher: Blossom Spring Publishing

Pages: 615

Genre: Speculative Fiction/Romance

Format: Paperback, Kindle

Isabel Bliss is a reception class teacher. She experiences other people’s emotions and can influence how they feel but she doesn’t truly understand her gift and has been encouraged, by her mum, to hide it from others. She often feels lost and alone. 

When a child in her class experiences chronic distress that only she can perceive, Isabel uses her ability to relieve his suffering, but his situation continues to worsen. Eventually she is forced to take matters into her own hands, escorting him home where she finds horrific signs of abuse. She saves his mum’s life and his father is arrested for the brutal torture he has inflicted upon his family. 

A wealthy family moves to town and Isabel meets the two sons. She recoils from Daniel, who is hateful, rude and emotionally deficient but is inexorably drawn to Scott, who awakens something magical, deep inside her. They are like her. They are fluencers and have the ability to sense, read and willfully manipulate emotional energies. Isabel confronts her mum and uncovers hurtful lies and deceit within her own family. 

She falls deeply in love and ultimately discovers the untold potential of her gift and the passion and power that dwells within.

Read a sample here.

The Essence of Bliss is available at Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Book Excerpt

The next few moments occurred in painful slow motion. As I tugged my arm sharply out of Donna’s grasp, I was jostled by a stranger on the other side. I felt myself falling off balance and reached out to grab onto something, anything, to keep me upright. The something that I grabbed onto was a jacket slung over an arm and the owner of the jacket pulled back on it hard, tipping me further off balance and sending me sprawling to the floor on my knees. I let out a pained cry as my still bruised knee struck the hard floor.

I ended up on my knees in front of a strong, long set of masculine legs in blue denim. I didn’t know for certain to whom the legs belonged, but I could make an educated guess from the pitch of the gasp and giggle from Donna and the murmuring of the onlookers. I really didn’t want to look up, but I knew that it was inevitable. I couldn’t stay on the floor forever. My knee was painful, and I wasn’t even certain that I could get up by myself. Slowly, grudgingly, I raised my eyes to find Daniel Callahan looking down at me with distasteful recognition and an unpleasant, disdainful smile. I looked him in the eye with as much dignity as I could muster. He continued to stare rudely. He didn’t utter a word.

“Sorry,” I muttered, and my hand flew to my mouth in instant regret. Had I seriously just apologised to him, again, for falling over, again? I was a total idiot, and I was more embarrassed than ever. What was it about this man that made me fall at his feet and behave like a stuttering moron with an apology tic?

“It seems like you’re making a habit of falling on your knees in front of my brother. Here, let me help you.” 

In an instant, everything changed. My whole life turned upside down. Something inside me roared to life and I suddenly felt different, stronger, more alive. It came from the source of the humming, that place deep inside of me. Those simple words, that simple offer of a hand to my feet, the smooth, velvety voice. It was the sort of voice that could make a person weak at the knees with its deep resonance and gentle tone, but it was so much more than that. I didn’t just like the sound of his voice. Something about the owner of that voice had just changed something fundamental about me, and somehow I knew, in that fraction of a second, that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

I wasn’t sure if I could move or if I wanted to look into the face that belonged to those words, that voice. I was frightened about what I might find and what it might do to me, what I might become. However, I was still on the floor on my knees, so I put my hand out, took his and let him pull me to my feet. 

Our eyes met, and without warning, a multitude of sensations overwhelmed me. I saw him, I felt him, I sensed him. I experienced things that I couldn’t understand or explain, but it was like a fire had been lit in my soul, like fireworks exploding in the deepest recess of my mind. I couldn’t just feel his emotions in the way that I normally do. This experience went further, deeper. It felt like in that single second, he was actually inside my mind, or I was inside his. I wasn’t sure whether it was one or the other or if it were both. I couldn’t process what was happening to me. It was happening too fast and exercising too many of my senses. 

He looked at me with bewitching eyes that reached into my very core. Eyes a deep, rich brown, like swirling chocolate, shimmering with a layer of warmth. They glistened with a flame that matched the fire that had ignited inside me, as if his eyes understood and reflected the very essence of me. We saw each other in a way that I had never known before, a way that I had never even dreamed of, and as we looked into each other’s eyes, the flames in his eyes grew larger, hotter. I took everything in, every minute detail. The dark hair swept back from his face, the healthy tan to his skin, the perfect line of his nose leading to full, rich lips surrounded by laughter lines, indicating a happy man: a joyful, confident, beautiful, magical creature.

The intensity of the moment wasn’t limited to the visual. The way that he looked wasn’t what captivated and thrilled my senses. When I sensed a person through their emotions, I usually felt that they were happy or sad, angry or hurt, but this was something new. This was a cacophony of feelings so loud that I felt as if my head might burst with the joy of it. Emotions that lifted me into the sky, swirling around me and through me — through my mind, through my heart, through my body — until I felt dizzy with the power of it. All that I could see were those eyes, those lips. All that I could hear was that voice, and yet I could feel and see and hear everything all at once, like I was awake for the first time in my life, like I had found the answer to a question that I hadn’t known I’d been asking.

– Excerpted from The Essence of Bliss by Emily Astillberry, Blossom Spring Publishing, 2024. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

 

Emily Astillberry is an author and RSPCA Inspector from Norfolk, England. She has a degree in English Literature and Linguistics from York University and has been investigating animal cruelty and neglect and rescuing sick and injured animals for 20 years. In her day job, Emily deals with very difficult and often emotional situations and meets all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds. Her career provides some of the inspiration for themes and characters that can be found in her fictional work.

At home, in a very old cottage in the country, Emily has a husband, 5 children, a dog, a cat, an axolotl, 2 giant African land snails and a varying number of rescue hens, so finding time to write can be a challenge. She is happiest outdoors, growing fruit and vegetables in the garden, walking the dog and family holidays usually involve walking up mountains in summer, skiing down them in winter and sleeping in a tent whenever possible.

Emily loves spending time with her large, noisy, chaotic family, cooking meals for friends and playing board games. She always has at least one book on the go and has always dreamed of writing her own novel. She now dreams of writing more. 

Visit her website at https://emilyastillberry.com. 

You can also find her on Facebook and Instagram.

The Essence of Bliss is her latest book.

 

Sponsored By:

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches by Kayleigh Kavanagh #historical #paranormal #fantasy

  

Powerful bloodlines tied by Fate, who can’t be free even in death...

 

Title: One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches

Author: Kayleigh Kavanagh

Publisher: Independent

Pages: 400

Genre: Historical/Paranormal/Fantasy

Format: Kindle

Demdike and Chattox, famed witches of Pendle Forest, might be dead, but they’re not gone. Bound to their bloodline, they’ve spent the past two and a half centuries watching over their descendants, waiting for when they’ll be needed. 

When 14 year old Yana comes into her psychic abilities and inherits the ‘eyes of the Chattox family’, she can see the long-dead witches, as well as an encroaching evil. But even with this foreknowledge, she’s trapped by marriage interviews and being unable to see her own future, and more importantly, whoever her future husband will be. 

Demdike’s healing gifts are alive and working in Claire, a mid-30s midwife well renowned for her skills and holding her tongue. The Secrets of Pendle are safe with her and her midwives. However, when surgeons looking to make standardisation the norm encroach on her territory, she soon realises how, even a respected woman is vulnerable in a patriarchal system. 

The two descendants must come together to protect the ones they love from an ancient evil, all whilst balancing their lives and the cruelties of being a woman in a man’s world. Set in late 1800s NW England, this book has all the elements of the area: strong, hardy people, atmospheric horror and days as unpredictable as the weather.  

One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches is available at Amazon.

Book Excerpt

She hadn’t known what to expect from death. No one did. Still, none of her previous thoughts could have come close. This, and she was definitely having an atypical experience. For most souls, death was a release from the mortal coil. Complete separation from the life they’d once lived. She hadn't been so lucky. 

Some parts of the system had been the same. Her soul had been scooped up. Taken somewhere. She vaguely recalled going over her life and having events explained. Gaining an understanding of the why; to the point she was no longer angry about things which had once made her furious. However, the entire encounter was now a blur. 

The powers that be had done this on purpose, but the awareness lingered instinctively. Either way, she knew she'd died, gone to the other place, and then thrown back. Before they could send her along to wherever she should have gone next. There'd been an issue. A snag. One which stopped her from moving along to the happy, bliss-filled world of the nether realm. Said snag bore one name: Chattox. Even in death, her frenemy was still causing her bloody issues.

“Hey, Demdike, how’s non-life treating you?”

Demdike didn’t answer, suddenly filled with the desire to bludgeon the other woman. However, she knew from experience it would be pointless. They weren’t physical beings any longer—even if they were still tied to the physical world. Unless she was willing to destroy the other's soul, the spirit could reform. A tempting idea some days; this non-life was enough to make even the most patient saint a little homicidal. However, even in her worse moments, she wasn't willing to land the final blow.

“The same way it’s been treating me for the past two and a half hundred years,” she eventually returned. Still not looking at the other, less she finally indulged her violent impulses.

“They’re having a bake sale soon, at the local church. Gods, I miss cake.”

Demdike sighed. The sad part was she couldn’t even get rid of the other. Without Chattox, she would be entirely alone in this exhausting existence.

“Their cake isn’t anything like the one we used to have. They have more access to sugar, for starters.”

Demdike wasn’t even going to comment on the reasons why. King James I's and his ilk had done more than destroy her life. Stretching his greedy grip across the world. From the supposed lands of gold to the continent of darkness, James I's influence had impacted many. She couldn't help but feel for the poor souls stolen from these other countries. Their plights differed from the witch trials, but suffering was a universal language.

She would've liked to aid them, but she couldn't even help herself. There was no one to hear her, anyway. Well, other than Chattox, but as she was in the exact same situation. It was no different than voicing her words to the void. Except the void didn’t reply. 

“Aye, I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t miss the little pleasures. Few and far between, though they were.”

Demdike hummed. This was a conversation they’d had many times. When their new existence was mostly just the two of them, they often spoke of their past. Their past life, to be specific. A lot of it seemed funny now. Maybe it was their time in the decompression zone post life—or maybe it was simply the effect of being so removed from what they’d once been—but matters of life and death were suddenly much less dramatic and far funnier when you were already dead. Fighting over coin, linens, and food were memories they could now look back on and find humour in. 

Though she also missed cake, death was a lot simpler. Mostly. There was no fighting for survival when you simply just were. No hunger to push you forward or pain to keep you still. As much as she’d once lived with one foot in the ether, having both on death's side was much simpler. If you ignored the limited company. Or how she feared her own mind and sense of self were slowly eroding over time. As though, without a physical body, she was slowly dispersing into nothingness; it was just taking a little longer.

– Excerpted from One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches by Kayleigh Kavanagh, Kayleigh Kavanagh, 2025. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

 

Kayleigh Kavanagh is a disabled writer from the North-West of England. Growing up in the area, she learnt a lot about the Pendle Witches and launched her debut novel around their life story. Her main writing genres are fantasy and romance, but she loves stories in all formats and genres. Kayleigh hopes to one day be able to share the many ideas dancing around in her head with the world.

Her latest book is the historical fantasy, One Foot in the Ether: Whispers of the Pendle Witches. 

You can visit her on Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads and Tiktok. 

 

Sponsored By:

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Crashers by Lindy S. Hudis #CrimeThriller

 

A trio of reckless and impulsive young people devise risky car accidents to collect insurance blood money, get caught up in the seamy underworld of crime and auto insurance fraud and suffer the nightmarish descent as events spiral out of control…

 

Title: CRASHERS

Author: Lindy S. Hudis

Publisher: Project X Publishing

Pages: 269

Genre: Crime Thriller

Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited

How far would you go to get rich?

What if you were desperate? What if you were completely out of options? Would you cut in front of a sparkling, new Mercedes on the busy L.A. freeway and slam on the brakes? What if it were that easy?

Enter the world of Crashers…

The con is simple: Get in a car accident. Collect the insurance blood money. What could go wrong? That’s what Shari believed when she found herself in dire need of cash. When she meets the sexy and mysterious Bryce, the teaches her all about how to be a “capper.”

Soon, Shari realizes that by staging more of these accidents, she’ll have more money than she knows what to do with.

But as she becomes more and more obsessed with her strange new world, she discovers there’s no such thing as easy money. And what started out as a simple payout soon turns into a deadly game.

Read sample here.

Crashers is available at Amazon and is currently in film development with Face 2 Face productions.

 

Book Excerpt

For KXXX TV and KXXX AM Radio News, this is Katie Carlson with your mid-morning eye-in-the-sky traffic report, and it’s an easy one: It’s messed up EVERYWHERE! So far, the 405 South is backed up all the way to the 101. So, if you are going into Hollywood this morning, you are going to be late for that audition. Also, there is an injury crash on the Eastbound 10. So, if you are heading into downtown LA, you might want to bring a magazine or get some knitting done. If you are going to LAX, forget it, call mom back east and tell her you will be driving out instead. Just Kidding! Any way, this is Katie Carlson with the Los Angeles mid-morning traffic report. Enjoy your commute everybody, NOT!

* * *

As the blare of the clock radio on the night table jolted her awake, Shari  Barnes rubbed her eyes, blew her long brown hair out of her face, and snuggled into Nathan Townsend’s chest. She curled her body around his middle and took a deep whiff of his salty, masculine neck.

But she couldn’t ignore the voice on the radio.

“Monday morning traffic,” she sighed.

Nathan matched the sigh and put his arms around her. “At least you don’t have to drive over the hill.”

“Yeah, I would just die if I had to drive into Beverly Hills every day to work in a beautiful office.” Shari giggled and disappeared under their thick blue comforter for a few more moments of sleepy-headed bliss. She felt Nathan stretch up, and a moment later the radio shut off. Then he slid down next to her in the single bed they shared in their Studio City apartment, a few blocks north of Ventura Boulevard. The constant drone and rumble of another L.A. morning came clearly through the open window: cars honking, rock music blaring, the frantic scurrying sounds of the film shoot a few blocks away. Shari ran her bare feet up the inside of Nathan’s thigh.

He jumped. “Shit, your feet are cold.” He pushed her legs off of him.

“What time is it?” she murmured between kisses.

“Um, seven.” He nuzzled her neck and she felt him becoming erect against her.

“No time for that!” She threw off the covers. “Gotta be at work on time for once; gotta get my asp out of bed.”

“There’s a snake in the bed?” Nathan grabbed her with both hands and gave her belly gentle nips.

“Yeah, of the one-eyed variety.” Shari leaped to the floor and padded naked into the bathroom. She turned the hot water in the shower to high and stepped in, filling the small bathroom with steam.

She had just poured a green drop of shampoo into her palm and was running her hands together when the flimsy yellow and white shower curtain flew back and Nathan grinned in at her. She smiled back, surprised by neither his arrival nor the partial hard-on that preceded him.

“Mind if we join you?” he asked.

“There’s enough shampoo for everybody,” Shari said as she rubbed her hands across her scalp.

He stepped into the stall, pulled the curtain closed and began to lather her hair for her. She put her hands on his back, feeling the taut muscles and the water streaming there, but did not reach down between them. It took him about five seconds to realize it and hold her away.

“You okay?”

“Fine….”

“Don’t lie; I can always tell when you have something on your mind.”

“You know me better than I know me,” she said.

“You know it.” He pushed her wet hair over her shoulders. “Come on, give.”

“I was thinking maybe I should get a second job.”

“You’re worrying about money again?”

“Well, I have to shoot my student thesis film this year or I won’t graduate. But where am I going to get the money I need?”

“How much do you need?”

“At least five figures.”

– Excerpted from Crashers by Lindy S. Hudis, Project X Publishing, 2024. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Lindy S. Hudis is an award winning filmmaker, author and actress. Lindy is a graduate of New York University, where she studied drama at Tisch School of the Arts. She also performed in a number of Off-Off Broadway theater productions while living in New York City.

She is the author of several titles, including her romance suspense novel, Weekends, her “Hollywood” story City of Toys, and her crime novel, Crashers. Her latest release, “Hollywood Underworld – A Hollywood Series” is the first installment of a crime, mystery series.

In addition, she has written several erotic short stories, including “The S&M Club”, “The Backstage Pass”, “Guitar God”, “The Guitarist”, and “The Mile High Club”.

Her short film “The Lesson”, which she wrote, produced and directed, has won numerous awards, including ‘Best Short Film’ at the Paris International Film Festival, The Beverly Hills Arthouse Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival.

She is also an actress, having appeared in the indie film Expressionism, the television daytime drama “Sunset Beach”, also “Married with Children” , “Beverly Hills 90210” and the feature film “Indecent Proposal” . She and her husband, Hollywood stuntman Stephen Hudis, have formed their own production company called Impact Motion Pictures, and have several projects and screenplays in development. She lives in California with her husband and two children.

Author Links  

Website | Facebook | X | Instagram | Goodreads | IMDb | YouTube 

 

Sponsored By:

⭐Pump Up Your Book Virtual Book Tour Kick Off⭐Shape of the Sun by Paula Onohi Omokhomion #LiteraryFiction #ContemporaryRomance

 

This isn’t a love story. It is just what happens when logic fails.

 

Title: SHAPE OF THE SUN

Author: Paula Onohi Omokhomion

Publisher: Independent 

Pages: 776

Genre: Literary Fiction/Family Drama/Contemporary Romance 

Format: Kindle

In a world where novels defy conventions and heroes defy expectations, Shape of the Sun dares to ask: What if the one at the center isn't kind? What if no one is misunderstood? What does it mean to be the hero or the villain?

Beware: this is not a love story. The author just likes meta-fiction a bit too much.
Rajkumar 'Raj' Reddy is top-tier Male Lead material. And a freaking DRAMA KING. 

He is a gorgeous, disgustingly rich, and ultra-confident Child Abuse Pediatrician. He's also emotionally finished, a narcissist, and a scammer all but in name.

But what did it matter if he was soulless or morally bankrupt? Why should anyone care that he married someone only because of their money?

He was the Male Lead, right? Since when were Male Leads ever held accountable? 

And then he falls in love. Utterly useless. Very, very unnecessary. Annoyingly delicious for someone as self-aware as he is.

Raj knows he's in love. He knows it every second he smiles when she talks to him or says good morning Rajkumar, in that sweet voice he dreams about more often lately.

So now, our Male Lead is on a mission to GET OUT OF LOVE. 

This relationship holds too many green flags!

Painful. Also doesn't allow him to be hypocritical for more than three seconds. Horrid, really.

And in the background is the Reddy family. It's not an easy home. It's never been easy with all that power and wealth involved. There's too much scheming and engineering in one place.

There's an overlooked half-brother that literally descended from hell, a sweet twin sister that has more than her fair share of buried grudges to Raj (and vice versa), and a patriarch that might be loving father and enabler all rolled into one. 

There are traumas that our Male Lead wants to never remember. 

You see that's the thing about Romance with Accountability. It can be sweet. It can be deadly. 

Will our Male Lead manage to protect his secrets and secure the inheritance, or will his deepening emotions force him to confront his inner demons? Can greed truly give way to love? Or is that just something we only see in the movies? 

Will he finally go to therapy? 

A gripping tale of love, family, the high stakes of inheritance, and the journey to self - Shape of the Sun explores what happens with leads in a world where the rest are left to silence. 

Read a sample here.

Shape of the Sun is available at Amazon, Kobo and Apple Books.

Book Excerpt

Adrift

An hour ago

Rajkumar woke up in the dead of the night. He could hear his own breathing, loud enough to deafen his ears. Or maybe it was the thumping of his heart that he could feel pulsating from his throat.

He had been awake for ten minutes and paralyzed on the bed, the darkness affixing him to the bed. It pressed upon him and made his vision flash black and white, reminiscent of what it did that terrible night.

He was afraid. He didn't know what to do.

Thump. Thump.

Those were Eloise's footsteps. No, it was his heart galloping like a deer caught in headlights. It wasn't. It was. It wasn't.

Rajkumar scrambled for the bedside lamp and pressed down so hard, the sound went thud against the walls of his heart. But he didn't care. He didn't have the capacity to, tender mind on autopilot, racing away from the demons that found their way in and built their nest.

The light gently flooding the room put them to rest. But it was only for a while. He could hide from those demons, ghosts of the days past, but not from himself.

The standing mirror on his far left was telling.

Rajkumar couldn't recognize the boy that he saw there. So similar, yet not. He had lost so much weight in just a few days. The boy in the mirror was disheveled, eyes reddish from crying, a litany of tears and mucus running his face that he hadn't even realized was there before, hollow like there was no life in there, and bones jutting out every part of his body, their sharp angles pronounced.

Perhaps they'd cut him from within. They would cut him like he wasn't already cut. Or perhaps, he wasn't cut. Not just yet. He was only crushed, shattered, trampled upon, that type of thing.

Rajkumar tried to smile. He pressed fingers to the corner of his lips and forced them to a curve all the way up. He tried to smile, a proxy for happiness.

But as it turned out, he couldn't even do just that. His smile came out uglier than crying, a proxy for the bottomless sadness inside of him. His eyes followed suit and released their torrent, so that he choked on his sobs, all the while careful not to be too loud. He silently cried in that corner of his bed, hands pressed to mouth.

The darkness scared him. But the light scared him even more.

He was lost, hopelessly lost at sea, drifting without an anchor, waves tossing in a battle for his soul. Rajkumar thought he was losing.

– Excerpted from Shape of the Sun by Paula Onohi Omokhomion, Independent, 2020. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author

Paula Omokhomion is a Master of Public Policy student at the UC Riverside School of Public Policy, though she's fairly certain that won't be forever. She holds a B.S. in Public Health Nutrition from UNC Chapel Hill, where she also minored in Creative Writing (Fiction) and graduated with highest honors for her 120-page thesis novella, New Age Taffeta.

Paula developed her skills and love for writing fiction in a very, very interesting Nigerian boarding school, where the lack of television meant she had to invent entertainment for everyone else. She loves reading manhwa, watching Indian TV dramas, listening to music, and writing short stories.When not doing any of those or in the classroom handling R code, she's refining her LinkedIn or taking Instagram selfies.
She lives in California with her family, including her two fellow triplets, and is currently dreaming of a future PhD in public health—and maybe another novel.

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