About “Just This Once: Escape to New Zealand (Book 1)” by Rosalind James:

Everyone needs to be rescued sometimes.

Everyone but Hannah Montgomery, that is. She just needs a vacation. Three weeks in New Zealand to sort out her life, figure out what she wants, seems just right. Oh, and to relax. She should definitely put that on the agenda. She certainly isn’t looking for a sexy fling with a professional rugby player, no matter how attractive he is. Hannah doesn’t do casual. But maybe just this once …

As much as he’s shared with Hannah, Drew Callahan has kept one very big secret. And learning the truth, now that she’s back home again, has made Hannah warier than ever. Drew knows that she’s right for him. But how can he convince her to let down her guard enough to explore what they could have together?

Note: This romance, like New Zealand, contains some steam. If that isn’t your cuppa, you may want to visit another country … er, book.

(All of the “Escape to New Zealand” series are stand-alone books.)

Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Author Bio:
Rosalind James, a publishing industry veteran and former marketing executive, is the author of eleven Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense novels, six of which have reached the Top 100 on Amazon. She and her husband live in Berkeley, California with a Labrador Retriever named Charlie (yes, she named a character after her dog, but she swears she didn’t realize it until later) and three extremely spoiled, non-egg-laying bantam chickens. Rosalind attributes her surprising success to the fact that “lots of people would like to escape to New Zealand! I know I did!”

Yes, all the books work as stand-alones!

Visit www.rosalindjames.com to listen to the songs from the books, follow the characters on their travels, watch funny and fascinating New Zealand videos, and learn about what’s new!

“Just This Once: Escape to New Zealand (Book 1)” by Rosalind James is a post from Awesome Gang

About Your Australia Itinerary:

A comprehensive travel book to help you set up a cost-effective itinerary and see Australia in the time you have! First the planning basics lay out everything a first time traveler needs to know, it goes above and beyond telling readers “what to do”, but also provides them with the knowledge of how to do it. The book includes four detailed itineraries, interactive maps, checklists, resources which help you create your own itinerary and discover the real Australia in 3-5 weeks. From iconic attractions to off-the-beaten-path destinations, from road trips to rail journeys, the book is packed with valuable first-hand tips from the author’s experiences to help you travel Australia independently. The book comes with a free 15-minute consultation to firm up your itinerary.

Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Buy the Book.
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Author Bio:
Michela is a passionate solo traveller, outdoor addict and healthy-lifestyle geek in Love with the great Southern Land. She has been travelling around and across Australia for over a decade covering 80thousand km by land and air. She writes about her Australian Solo Adventures on the Rocky Travel Blog, an award-winning travel blog for women travelling alone in Australia.

Your Australia Itinerary is a post from Awesome Gang

About Known to Social Services by Freya Barrington:

Written from life experience and ringing with authenticity, Known to Social Services follows Diane Foster, a dedicated social worker, into the grim, grey world of the Deacon Hill estate in Millbrook and the tormented lives of its inhabitants. Domestic violence, child abuse, serial paedophiles and ex-convicts proliferate in the daily lives of most of the children, but Diane enters deeply into this world of misery to help the victims and keep together the fragile structure of society. Hampered by an administration inhabited by paper-shuffling and uninvolved, uncaring bureaucrats, Diane fights unremittingly to protect the children of Deacon Hill from neglect, domestic violence, drug misuse, female genital mutilation and murder, within the context of a horrifying barrenness and desolate existential reality.

Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
Visit the Author’s Website.
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Author Bio:
Freya Barrington is the pen name used for my debut novel, Known to Social Services, published by Faraxa Books. The book has been the number 1 social work book on Amazon UK.

I grew up in Lancashire, England with an overriding passion for animals, specifically horses. After attending a girl’s grammar school, where English was my strongest subject, the only desire I held was to work with my beloved horses. To the dismay of my parents, I went to work in a racing yard.

Realising that this was not a passing phase, my parents eventually encouraged me in my chosen career and I went on to work with event horses, show jumpers and hunters, gaining several British Horse Society qualifications along the way – namely, the BHSAI, BHSII and BHSI (SM). All this enabled me to work as a riding instructress and trainer, which I did on a freelance basis. I continued working in the equestrian field for many years, eventually running my own yard.

A chance conversation with a friend, however, brought about a change of career and I moved away from my life with horses, into the unknown world of residential childcare. To my surprise, I found that I enjoyed this line of work and progressed to being a full-time foster carer for the local authority. It was during this time that I first put pen to paper in a creative way, writing poems about the children with whom I came into contact. A short book of poetry was published and the proceeds were used to raise money for a local youth group.

It was also during my time as a foster carer that I came into contact with social workers. Their dedication and expertise inspired me to train as a social worker, gaining the Diploma in Social Work in 2001 from the University of Derby with an award for excellence in practice. I also gained the Post-Qualifying Award in 2007. I am a registered member in good standing with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

My main area of expertise was as a senior child protection social worker. I have been the principal social worker and mentor on a number of teams. I have also worked as a foster carer’s support social worker, a court advisor and hospital social worker. Since 2006, I have worked exclusively as an agency social worker, with specific focus on working for local authorities that require experienced social workers to offer support where there were staff shortages.

In 2010, I moved with my husband, Steve, to the island of Gozo in the Maltese Islands. I continued working in England as an agency social worker, flying back and forth on a fortnightly basis. This attracted comments from colleagues who said that they would never again complain about their commute to work!

The idea for the book came about when I returned home from a particularly trying day at work as a child protection social worker and declared to my husband, “Do you know, I could write a book,” … not for one moment did I imagine that I ever would. However, the notion of writing a novel about the grim reality of the complicated, but very tangible, life of a front-line social worker, and the nature of the work itself, lodged itself firmly into my mind. Social work is one of the most negatively portrayed professions, and I wanted to raise awareness of the very complex and difficult job, which social workers do.

The idea tugged at my senses like a persistently dripping tap. The more I contemplated the notion, the more it developed, until vague ideas crystallised into concrete characters with well-defined personalities and behaviours. I realized the great usefulness of this kind of writing for the fields of social work, counselling, mental health, and child psychology, particularly for students, given my professional experience.

With the full support of my husband, I took a year’s sabbatical to concentrate on writing the book.

The title for the book was obvious: Known to Social Services. Who among us has not seen a complex case of child abuse hitting the headlines? Or, worse still, the unnecessary death of such a child. How often have we woken up in the morning to tabloids screaming at us: The Family Were Known to Social Services – as if that were all the explanation the public required. All too often, the lowly social worker becomes the target of nothing less than a witch-hunt. The media become lofty experts in a field they know precious little about and the general public need a scapegoat to blame. They tut and sigh as they discuss the issue among themselves.
“Shocking,” they say as they shake their heads, “and social services were involved.”
Being a social worker for years, with a wealth of frontline expertise, I wanted to write a novel based on my own professional experiences – one that would focus on the harsh truth of day-to-day work and substantiate the almost incomprehensible difficulties faced by the much-maligned social worker. Thus Diane Foster, the social worker central to the book, was born.

I continue to live in Gozo with my husband, but have plans to travel around Europe, looking for a peaceful spot to continue writing the sequel to Known to Social Services. I am now working on the sequel to Known to Social Services. The book is mainly set outside the UK, but I’m not going to give too much away at this stage!

When I am not writing or reading, I enjoy walking, horse riding, bird watching and listening to music, especially Country Music and Elvis! I also love to cook, sing and socialise, though not all at the same time

Known to Social Services by Freya Barrington is a post from Awesome Gang

About Professor Kompressor goes environ-mental:

Free for the Kindle 4-6 April 2015!

Professor Kompressor is an inventor. He is excellent at inventing, but the inventions don’t always work out as intended. In fact, they very rarely do.

Neatly packaged in 10 perfectly formed chapters, the second book in the Professor Kompressor series has more of everything – inventions, mind-blowing ideas and mishaps.

When the Professor tries to improve the environment the results are, as usual, unpredictable. How could he possibly have known that it would be a bad idea to use a black hole as a rubbish bin, or that string theory does not help you sort out global warming?

What could possibly go wrong with a love machine, intended to make people kinder and more generous?

Professor Kompressor is a fictional character but his adventures are inspired by ideas from science and the modern world. They show that you can have a lot of fun with science and technology, especially if you allow for a little bit of creative mis-interpretation.

A book that entertains children of all ages from Professor Nils Andersson, award-winning author and an authority on matters of gravity and the extremes of our weird and wonderful Universe.

Reader’s comments:

“The best professor ever!”

“Why are clever people so stupid sometimes?”

“The Professor is back with even more strange idea, most of them pretty spectacular and very, very funny.”

“A remarkable thing… combining well written yet easy to read language with vastly complicated scientific ideas.”

“A good fictional story that will have you smiling at times, and listening to learn at others.”

“Teaches children (and adults) about science and life in a fun way.”

“A great collection of yarns at a price that is hardly likely to break the bank.”

Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
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Author Bio:
Nils Andersson is a real life Professor of Mathematics and a leading authority on Einstein’s theory of relativity and extreme astrophysics. At work he worries about black holes, dead stars, white dwarfs and waves of gravity. In his spare time he likes to read. He always did, ever since he was little. As a grown-up he continues to be excited by books for younger readers, great stories that inspire developing minds and make the next generation fall in love with books. A house full of books made him wonder what it would be like to write one of his own. So, with a bit of help from his 7-year old daughter, he did. And then there was another one – and this is it!

Professor Kompressor goes environ-mental is a post from Awesome Gang

About Meant for Her:

Photographer Sierra Stratton views the world through a lens all her own. She has an uncanny sense about people, something that often causes her trouble. When she meets the sexy and brooding Evan Dorsey, her intuition tells her he’s suffering, and she wants to be the one to help him.

Evan isn’t open to help from anyone, however. His focus is on his Major League career and making himself as marketable as possible for his upcoming free agency. He plans to ride out the season in Atlanta and then sign with another team, away from the painful memories that haunt him.

Someone’s eager to send him on his way, too. Between anonymous threats and equipment sabotage, it’s clear he’s earned himself an enemy along the way. To him, it’s one more sign that he’s right to move on.

But Sierra threatens his conviction. Her contagious smile proves hard to resist, as does her kiss. She tempts him in ways he never anticipated, making him question his plans for the first time. If he’s not careful, she might just convince him that he’s meant for her.

Learn more about the author, buy the book, or follow them on social media:
Visit the Author’s Website.
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Author Bio:
Raine Thomas is the award-winning author of bestselling Young Adult and New Adult fiction. Known for character-driven stories that inspire the imagination, Raine recently signed with multiple award-winning producer Chase Chenowith of Back Fence Productions to bring her popular Daughters of Saraqael trilogy to the big screen. She’s a proud indie author who is living the dream. When she isn’t writing or glued to e-mail or social networking sites, Raine can usually be found vacationing with her husband and daughter on one of Florida’s beautiful beaches or crossing the border to visit with her Canadian friends and relatives.

Meant for Her is a post from Awesome Gang