And Then There Were Four by Elna Holst Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!

And Then They Were Four

Series: Tinsel and Spruce Needles, Book Four

Author: Elna Holst

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: November 30, 2020

Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex

Pairing: Female/Female, Female/Female Menage, F/NB

Length: 16700

Genre: Contemporary, NineStar Press, LGBTQIA+, FF romance, lesbian romance, pregnancy and childbirth, reunited, second chances, menage, holiday, international romance, seasonal, advent

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Synopsis

Malmö/Lund, Sweden, 2000

A radical feminist turned cop and a former Lucia candidate are expecting—twins. A gender studies professor burns her candle at both ends. A lovelorn bus driver is feeling fragile, until an unexpected visit brings her some queer holiday cheer; and an obstetric nurse single mother delivers the expected, while her past catches her unprepared.

In the final A Tinsel and Spruce Needles Romance, the crew from Candlelight Kisses, Little x and Wild Bells make their way through Advent 2000, celebrating the first X(X)mas of a new millennium.

Excerpt

And Then They Were Four, Elna Holst © 2020, All Rights Reserved

Malmö, Sweden, 3 December 2000

Rick’s hand slid over the striated orb of her stomach. She looked like a giant walnut. Yes, a walnut, that was how Padma Lindgren felt about herself as she entered the ninth month of her pregnancy: she was moving slow as a walrus and going nutty into the bargain. Her enormous middle was striped with indelible stretch marks, distended like a carapace, overwhelmingly ever-present, forcing her to sleep in positions she had never slept in before.

The wan white of Rickie’s freckled hand stood out against her belly, her touch making Padma’s skin break out in goosebumps. She hissed out air between her teeth. She knew her registered partner—or wife, as she called her for short—was just saying good morning to the babies. It didn’t matter. Her sex ached in readiness. Her huge, dark mother-to-be nipples puckered. Her pulse pounded in her ears.

“Morning, love,” Rick mumbled into her hair, and Padma whimpered. Erika’s hand stilled. “You okay?”

She turned in her arms, meeting Erika Stolt’s soft, grey-green gaze. Her thin, pink lips were pointing down in an expression of worry. Padma groaned. “Rick, please. Don’t stop. I’m—I’m incandescent.”

Erika smiled goofily. “You really are.”

Padma snorted, but Rickie’s eyes held a promise: one promptly delivered on as she moved her tantalising palms up the sides of Padma’s bump to cup her swollen breasts.

A sharp quiver cut through Padma, from chest to groin. These last few months her tits had been ridiculously hypersensitive. Erika had always been a fan of them, it was true—ever since their school days, Padma suspected—but now she was close to enlisting in the Holy Order of the Sacred Boobs. She grazed the undersides with her thumbs and Padma moaned.

Rick flushed with gratification. She flushed so easily it was just silly. And utterly fucking adorable.

Padma gripped her head, the semi-outgrown buzz cut tickling her fingers. She pulled her face up close. “Yeah, I’m going to need you to suck them. Hard.”

Rick didn’t need telling twice. She crushed their mouths together, swallowing Padma’s rough gasps as she continued to stroke her, but the kiss, for all its scintillating intensity, was nothing but a few seconds of foreplay before she progressed to Padma’s pebbled, painfully erect peaks.

She started with the left one, circling the areola with her tongue as she palmed the right. Padma sighed her encouragement. Her fingers brushed along Erika’s scalp, itching to pull, but endeavouring not to. She had to pace herself, or the moment would be over before it had properly begun; she knew this, although it was only the hard-earned self-discipline of the certified fitness instructor that managed to hold her in check.

Rick licked directly across her nipple and Padma’s hips bucked, her belly jutting into the warm, lean abdomen of her lover.

“Fuck, babe.” Rick’s whisper had a gulpy, watery quality. Her right hand skimmed along Padma’s obliterated waistline, sweeping the underside of her bump before finding the jungle-like swelter of her bush.

Sparks of hot, treacle-sweet arousal ran the length and width of her. Padma’s fingers clamped around Rickie’s skull. She was whimpering again. She couldn’t bloody help herself.

Rick chuckled, but after six years together, Padma knew exactly what that chuckle meant: Erika was skating the edge herself, the joy of sexual fulfilment gathering in her loins.

“Do it. I fucking swear to you, Rick, I— Oh! God!”

Rickie gorged on her breast. There was no other way to describe it. She had been rolling the nipple between her lips, teasingly, but now she was pulling, hard and relentless, and the rush of sensation made Padma cry out, her pussy starting to pound to the rhythm of Rick’s tongue swiping and lapping. Even before Rick pushed inside her, Padma started to flow.

Rickie didn’t let go. Padma’s juices were pooling in her cupped palm, colostrum, no doubt, seeping into her working mouth, but Rick didn’t let go, wouldn’t, as Padma’s hands came down to her shoulders, her nails digging half-moons into her flesh.

She had three fingers inside her now, filling her, pumping and pummelling, and as Rick found her clit and pressed down heavy; as her mouth moved to repeat the exercise with her right tit; as her left hand rested on her belly, protectively, lovingly; Padma’s consciousness of the world around her broke into a million trembling little pieces, her back arching, the howl of her climax loud enough to make the icicles hanging outside their bedroom window dance and glitter in the bright, white December morning.

Well, not really. But it sure felt like it, as far as Padma Lindgren was concerned.

Purchase

NineStar Press | Books2Read

Meet the Author

Often quirky, always queer, Elna Holst is an unapologetic genre-bender who writes anything from stories of sapphic lust and love to the odd existentialist horror piece, reads Tolstoy, and plays contract bridge. Find her on Instagram or Goodreads.

Website | Goodreads | Instagram

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Wild Bells by Elna Holst Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!

Elna Holst - Wild Bells RB Banner

Hi guys! We have Elna Holst stopping by today with her new release Wild Bells, we have a great excerpt and a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤️ ~Pixie~

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Wild Bells

(Tinsel and Spruce Needles 03)
by

Elna Holst

Lund, Sweden, 1998

Mia Andersson is not a nice person. She is a sharp, sensational-looking, aloof lawyer-to-be, and the busiest sapphic player in town. Mia Andersson takes no prisoners, tells no tales, and if you gave her your number, chances are she won’t call. But this holiday season, at age twenty-seven, wheels that are out of her control have been set in motion, and it looks like she might just get caught in the spin.

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Continue reading “Wild Bells by Elna Holst Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!”

A Town Called Noelle by M.K. Hardy Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!

M.K. Hardy - A Town Called Noelle RB Banner

Hi guys! We have M.K. Hardy popping in today with their new release A Town Called Noelle, we have a great excerpt and a fantastic $10 NineStar GC giveaway so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤️ ~Pixie~

M.K. Hardy - A Town Called Noelle Cover asbc7h

A Town Called Noelle

by

M.K. Hardy

Just a few days before Christmas, high-flying city exec Brooke Hawkins is forced to return to her small home town due to the death of her mother, who she hasn’t spoken to since she left for college over a decade before. The town, Noelle, is as full of the Christmas spirit as its name suggests. Brooke is more of the “Bah, Humbug” persuasion. She has a funeral to attend, property to sell, and she wants to do it and leave—preferably before December 25th. Unfortunately, the weather and the pace of small-town life both conspire to keep her right where she is.

Small-town baker Holly Jackson gets a nasty shock when she receives the news, just days before Christmas, that her little shop is about to be sold from under her by her late landlady’s estranged daughter. In the years since her husband died in a tragic accident, she and her daughter Maya have been getting by, healing and rebuilding. Holly was beginning to really enjoy life again. She doesn’t plan to let some woman she hasn’t seen since high school come in and ruin everything.

When Holly and Brooke cross paths, sparks fly—and not in a good way. Brooke is determined to sell up and get out of town—and outrun her bad memories in the process. Holly is determined to make her business work. When an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, can the spirit of Noelle change minds… and melt hearts?

Warning: references to deceased family members, a funeral, and homophobia from a family member

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

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Family in a Snowstorm by Ava Kelly & Little X by Elna Holst Release Blast, Excerpts & Giveaway!

Hi guys! We have two more authors from NineStar Press popping in today to celebrate their new holiday stories, first we have Ava Kelly with Family In A Snowstorm, we then have Elna Holst with Little x, we have great excerpts from both books and there’s also a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~

Family In A Snowstorm

(A Snow Globes Romance)
by

Ava Kelly

Last Christmas, Daniel Wu found a place to call home with Jeff and his adopted daughter Abby. A year later, they confirm his place in their family with a surprising and warm gift. However, when Abby’s biological father returns making demands, Daniel’s happiness is threatened.

With the worsening weather, a much more urgent problem arises when Abby goes missing. Will Daniel and Jeff be able to find her before the storm sets in, and will they manage to keep their small family intact?

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Little x

(A Tinsel and Spruce Needles Romance)
by

Elna Holst

Malmö, Sweden, 1996

Sofie Andersson is a dyslectic born under the star sign Aries, who drives the local buses for a living. Her hobbies include knitting terrible hats and intermittent lesbianism. This December she is on the point of moving into her first flat of her own, figuring out her place in the world, when an instant attraction to a handsome stranger leads her to question everything she’s taken for granted.

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Continue reading “Family in a Snowstorm by Ava Kelly & Little X by Elna Holst Release Blast, Excerpts & Giveaway!”

Paradise Lodge by Riina Y.T. & Foxy Boxing Day by L.J. Hamlin Release Blast, Excerpts & Giveaway!

Hi guys! We have two authors popping in today to celebrate their new holiday stories, first we have Rinna Y.T. with Paradise Lodge we then her fellow NineStar Press author L.J. Hamlin with Foxy Boxing Day, we have great excerpts from both books and there’s also a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~

Paradise Lodge

by

Riina Y.T.

Azariah Bell is a nervous wreck. He isn’t prepared to spend the final week of the year with his best friend, Ky O’Sullivan, lead vocalist for their pop rock band, Moving Insignia—especially after the fight he caused before they parted ways two weeks ago.

Afraid of not being taken seriously by Ky, Azariah was concerned about what confessing his feelings would do to their friendship, or the band. He tried to keep his emotions in check, but instead, he exploded in anger over some petty issue, and now he’s potentially lost Ky forever.

Ky is looking forward to the band’s annual writing retreat for a week of songwriting and recording at a secluded mountain resort. Spending Christmas with his family gave Ky time to reflect on how he’d handled Azariah’s epic meltdown. It wasn’t good, and Ky is determined to uncover the true nature of Azariah’s unusual behavior. They didn’t keep secrets from each other, or so he believed.

Expecting to see the rest of the band when they arrive by helicopter, Ky and Azariah are shocked to learn they are alone at a deserted lodge. When they discover they’ve been set up by their bandmates so they can “sort it out,” their choices are few. But it’s critical for them to resolve their problems if they have any hope of enjoying the new year together, let alone make that new album happen.

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Foxy Boxing Day

by

L.J. Hamlin

After a sickness keeps a young werewolf ill through Christmas, she is excited to go to her Pack’s Boxing Day party.

With the party in full swing, she meets a punky fox shifter who pushes all of her buttons in just the right way, and the holidays become a lot more exciting.

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

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Yule Love Her by Jodi Hutchins, Mine for Christmas by A.D. Lawless, & Just in Time by Jacqueline Rohrbach Release Blast, Excerpts & Giveaway!

Hi guys! We have three authors popping in today to celebrate their new holiday stories, first we have Jodi Hutchins with Yule Love her, then her fellow NineStar Press author Jacqueline Rohrbach with Just in Time, and finally there’s also A.D. Lawless with her new release Mine for Christmas,  we have great excerpts from all three books and there’s also a brilliant $10 NineStar GC giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~

Yule Love Her

by

Jodi Hutchins

Being late for work turns out to be a stroke of luck for personal assistant Bec Strom when she catches the later metro bus and meets the alluring artist Joy Stevens. She’s just what Bec needs to distract herself from her overbearing boss and the holiday buzz.

For over a year, Joy has been in a relationship hiatus due to the infidelity of her past lover, opting for impersonal trysts in lieu of an actual connection. She’s grown comfortable with this way of life until Bec steps into her world. Two days before Christmas, the women make a shocking discovery, a metaphorical wrench being thrown into their blossoming relationship. Will they overcome this obstacle and find a happily ever after or will they let a misunderstanding thwart their romance?

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Just In Time

by

Jacqueline Rohrbach

The legendary ghosts of Christmas—Past, Present, and Future—failed to cure Evan Eazer of his misanthropy. He hates people, loves conflict, and has a swearing habit to boot. Phil, the Ghost of Imaginary Time couldn’t be more thrilled. Finally, it’s his turn to get off the bench and into the game. He’s sure he can cure Evan and earn back his place in the giving-people-Christmas-epiphanies rotation.

Evan won’t reform easy. He’s immune to Phil’s many charms and seems content to live out the rest of his life bitter and alone. Worse, Phil’s time on the bench has left him ignorant to the ways of humanity. He struggles to navigate the new world and find his place within it let alone help someone else find his way back on the right path.

But one thing Phil does understand about the strange world in which he finds himself is Evan and his pain. He knows what it’s like to be misunderstood by pretty much everyone. But can he get Evan to understand him, too?

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Mine For Christmas

by

A.D. Lawless

Matt Westin was shocked when he ran into Cody, his grade-school best friend—pleased, but shocked. Devastatingly handsome was an understatement when it came to Cody, with his hazel eyes, wide smiles, and broad shoulders.

It was less shocking, months later, when Matt found out just how far he’d go for Cody. A desperate request for Matt to play his boyfriend over Christmas and save him from his mom’s meddling blind-date plans completely hammered that fact home.

Matt couldn’t resist saying yes, not when it meant getting closer to Cody. The only question was how would he ever be able to let him go when it was over?

.•.•.**❣️ NineStar | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo ❣️**.•.•.

Continue reading “Yule Love Her by Jodi Hutchins, Mine for Christmas by A.D. Lawless, & Just in Time by Jacqueline Rohrbach Release Blast, Excerpts & Giveaway!”

4 Holiday Stories from NineStar Press Week 5 Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!

NineStar Press Holiday Stories week 05 Banner

Hi guys! We have NineStar Press visiting today with week 5 of their new Holiday stories; we have J.V. Speyer’s Carriage House, Gillain St. Kevern’s The Charity Shop Reject – Live In Concert, Colton Aalto’s Christopher’s Kind and M.D. Neu’s A Dragon for Christmas. We have a great excerpt from The Charity Shop Rejects – Live in Concert and we also have a brilliant giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Holiday Stories week 05

Carriage House by J.V. Speyer

J.V. Speyer - Carriage House Cover

Ash isn’t exactly filled with the Christmas spirit. He left Texas after being outed by an ex, and isn’t in the mood for family holidays. When one of his neighbors shows up out of the blue insisting that Christmas decorations are mandatory per their lease, he rolls and goes along with it as long as he doesn’t personally have to do anything.

The fact that the guy filled with “cheer” is the most attractive man he’s seen in his new hometown has nothing to do with it. He does agree to dinner, though.

Will the determined ghost get her way and make this an unforgettable Christmas for Ash and Tristan?

Carriage House

Gillain St. Kevern - The Charity Shop Reject Live In Concert Cover

The Charity Shop Rejects – Live In Concert by Gillian St. Kevern 

Mikaal Sarhadi has been in trouble since the moment he met guitarist Declan Hyde. Declan treats music like religion, setting high standards for himself and his bandmates. Mikaal struggles to even step on stage. He will do anything to justify Declan’s belief in him—even if that means ignoring the powerful attraction between them.

After a chance meeting with Brandon, Declan’s estranged brother, reveals just how much Declan will sacrifice for his music, Mikaal wonders if he can even call himself a musician. Worse, drummer Hiro’s visa application has been denied. With time running out for The Charity Shop Rejects, Mikaal must conquer his stage fright or lose music—and Declan—entirely.

The Charity Shop Rejects – Live in Concert

Christopher’s Kind by Colton Aalto

Colton Aalto - Christopher's Kind Cover

Spending an unexpected holiday break alone following his parents’ sudden death, thirty-something lawyer Zane Anders attends to unfinished business: getting his parents’ dilapidated Cape Cod cottage ready to sell and retrieving a mysterious Christmas present Zane’s mother left behind. But an acquaintance from the past interrupts his solitude at the beach. Christopher DeVries has morphed awfully fast from the awkward, infatuated teenager Zane remembers to a handsome college senior living next door. He’s still too young for Zane. Although he’s remarkably mature…and beguiling.

Deterred by their age difference, Zane hesitates to make the first move. But when a fierce Nor’easter closes highways and paralyzes the Cape, both Zane’s and Christopher’s Christmas plans are rewritten.

So what if winter isn’t beach weather?

Christopher’s Kind

A Dragon For Christmas by M.D. Neu

M.D. Neu - A Dragon for Christmas Cover

Carmen is eleven years old and wants to get her dragon. Since she was seven years old, she understood two things. One, she was going to be the strongest Dragon Keeper there ever was. The second was that she was going to marry her best friend, Mattie.

As Christmas approaches the magical charms Carmen has to use to fight off her curse are taking a toll on her health. But that can’t stop her from taking her final test to become a Dragon Keeper. If she passes her test she gets her dragon, if not, she has to start all over, relying on different magical charms to fight the curse for her. That is something Carmen doesn’t want to have to go through. The testing is difficult and charms make her sick. Carmen has decided that if she doesn’t get her dragon this Christmas she’s not going to go for a third attempt, even if that means she can’t marry Mattie when she grows up.

A Dragon for Christmas

Continue reading “4 Holiday Stories from NineStar Press Week 5 Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!”

5 Holiday Stories from NineStar Press Week 3 Release Blast, Excerpt & Giveaway!

NineStar Press Holiday Stories Banner

Hi guys! We have NineStar Press visiting today with week 3 of their new Holiday stories; we have Layla Dorine’s A Season Of New Beginnings, Ava Kelly’s Home in a Snowstorm, Ellen Jenkins’s Dala Horse Inn, Elna Holst’s Candlelight Kisses and C.L. Mustafic’s Christmas Cookies. We have a great excerpt from Christmas Cookies and we also have a brilliant giveaway, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Holiday Stories week 03

A Season Of New Beginnings by Layla Dorine

Layla Dorine - A Season of New Beginnings Cover

Joshua just wants to be alone. Happy holidays be damned; the last place he wants to be is at a Christmas Eve party surrounded by overly jolly friends. After a breakup with his boyfriend, Clay, he’s having a hard time watching other people be merry when all he wants is to drown himself in booze.

If it wasn’t for a promise to two dear friends, he’d have been home on his couch watching the least festive thing possible. Instead, he’s got to deal with flamboyant Desi flirting up a storm with him. Only Desi has a past too, and his own pain, as well as a bit of unsolicited advice for Joshua that could turn his bleak night into a bright future.

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A Season Of New Beginnings

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Ava Kelly - Home in a Snowstorm Cover

Home in a Snowstorm by Ava Kelly 

Daniel Wu is an elementary school teacher with a big heart and a collection of snow globes to match his travels. The small town he has settled in, however, feels like it could be home. All that’s missing is someone special and a family to call his own.

Resigned to spending the holidays alone, Daniel finishes work on the last day of school, only to stumble upon one his students, Abby Weber, who needs a ride home. Jeffrey Weber, single father and recent owner of a cast on his broken leg, needs quite a bit of help around the house when Daniel drops Abby off. Christmas Eve is around the corner, so Daniel can’t let the two fend for themselves. What he doesn’t expect, however, is the snowstorm that strands him in their remote home in the forest. But is this misfortune, or could it be a wish come true?

Home In a Snowstorm

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Dala Horse Inn by Ellen Jenkins

Ellen Jenkins - Dala Horse Inn Cover

Six months after she inherits the Dala Horse Inn, Tilde’s family has arrived to celebrate Christmas and critique Tilde’s every move. When her grandma walks in on Tilde while with Emma, her friend with benefits, Tilde suddenly has a fake girlfriend for the holidays. Fueled by stress, glögg, and Emma’s help, Tilde is determined to make Christmas a success. As the big day approaches, she isn’t sure if being interrupted by Grandma was another hurdle to surpass or the best thing that’s ever happened to her.

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Dala Horse Inn

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Candlelight Kisses by Elna Holst

Elna Holst - Candlelight Kisses Cover

Malmö, Sweden, 1994

Erika Stolt is a feminist activist, and not one of the slick, lipstick lesbian variety. She’s the kind who trashes beauty contests, who graffitis her own subversive messages over commercial billboards, and who fucks people mainly as a political statement. But then a community service sentence lands her a spot as the unlikely new assistant of one of the candidates for the Malmö Lucia contest, and the world as she knows it is promptly turned on its head.

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Candlelight Kisses

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Christmas Cookies by C.L. Mustafic

C.L. Mustafic - Christmas Cookies Cover

After losing his husband, David, to a tragic accident the previous year, Russ doesn’t feel much like celebrating the upcoming holidays. When his daughter unexpectedly asks for one of David’s cookie recipes, Russ makes a decision that lands him in a baking class. After a few mishaps with an inept partner, Russ is ready to give up, but then the teacher, Amos, offers private lessons to help him recreate David’s smorgasbord of holiday treats. Somewhere along the way, Russ develops an attraction to the younger man, but is he ready to move on and let Amos in?

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Christmas Cookies

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