Tag: #series

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Rosemary Wolfe, M.D. (Monster Doctor) (Loving Monsters, #1) by Rexanna Ipock-Brown

Title: Rosemary Wolfe, M.D. (Monster Doctor) (Loving Monsters Series Book 1)

Author: Rexanna Ipock-Brown

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Release Date: April 15, 2018

Cover Designer: Angela Fristoe at Covered Creatively http://www.coveredcreatively.com/

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Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IIUocH

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Book Description:

Never date vampires.

Dr. Rosemary Wolfe loves her career as a physician and veterinarian to the Genetically Diverse Beings in her community. She’ll do almost anything to help them. Dating them is another matter. Been there, done that, almost married a psycho. A witch and werewolf, she’s convinced her differences make her unlovable, therefore she reluctantly embraces her friends-with-benefits lifestyle.

Bryce Gold meets Rosemary at a party and asks her on a date. After losing his last wife to a vengeful vampire, Bryce has sworn off serious relationships for good. Not a heartless vampire, he’s simply endured all the grief he can. But his thoughts are filled with the sexy Dr. Wolfe, and he’s reconsidering his principles. The more time they spend together, the more he realizes she could be the one to heal his heart.

Soon, Rosemary and Bryce find love might not be enough to save them from their pasts. They will have to awaken their neglected powers to save their lives and relationship.

CONTENT WARNING: This book includes an adventurous witch/wolf trying to find love. It contains smoking hot shifters and vampires, swoon-worthy love scenes, naughty language, and a dash of violence to spice things up. Intended for mature audiences

Goodreads book link:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39864667-rosemary-wolfe-m-d-monster-doctor

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My Book Review:

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

ROSEMARY WOLFE, M.D.: Monster Doctor (Loving Monsters, #1) by Rexanna Ipock-Brown is the start of a new paranormal romance series. This new world has your favorite vamps, weres, witches, shamans and daemons with a few new twists, suspense, hot sex scenes and light-hearted relief.

The great part of this new to me author’s writing are her characters. Rosemary Wolfe is a witch/werewolf hybrid who is brilliant as a doctor for the GDB (Genetically Diverse Beings), but is insecure in her personal life and her paranormal talents. She has a fear of unfamiliar vampires after being attacked by her ex-fiance vampire in a jealous rage, but is intrigued by the new head of the local blood bank, Bryce Gold. Bryce is a sexy alpha, 400 year old vampire who believes in love.

The author also introduces the reader to many other diverse characters during the world-building. Rosemary is friends with a long-term vampire couple, Johnathon and Edward. The story fills Rosemary’s new practice with interesting help and patients. Her family is quite diverse, also. The introduction of all of these characters is also my one problem with this novel. The world-building gets too intricate and bogs down the story in places. It is a delicate balance between setting up a new world and not writing everything into the first book. This story could have been a little leaner to make it more focused on Rosemary and Bryce’s romance and the suspense sub-plot and saved some of the character introductions for further into the series.

I am looking forward to reading more in this series. There are so many stories that can come from Rosemary and Bryce’s continuing romance, Rosemary continuing to explore her paranormal side and the characters introduced by her medical practice. This is a new paranormal with great characters, a growing romance and hot sex scenes.

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About Rexanna:

Rosemary Wolfe, M.D. (Monster Doctor) is Rexanna’s debut novel. Rexanna is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Columbia chapter of the Missouri Writer’s Guild.

Rexanna’s characters are drawn from her work as a psychic consultant. She has assisted police departments with cold cases, was a popular guest on radio call-in shows, and has been featured on local and national television.

Rexanna married her college sweetheart, who also loves reading and is an easy blusher. Their long-shared Saturday afternoon activity is to go out for lunch and then to a library or bookstore. They’ve done this for most of their 35-year marriage.

Rexanna’s favorite hobbies include walking her dachshund/king cavalier spaniel rescue dog, collecting crystals, and reading romance novels.

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Social Media:

Website:http://rexannaswritings.com

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/rexannaswritings/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rexanna13

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17920790.Rexanna_Ipock_Brown

Feature Post: A Merciful Silence by Kendra Elliot

   

I am very pleased to share this feature post for A MERCIFUL SILENCE (Mercy Kilpatrick, #4) by Kendra Elliot. This post includes a message from Ms. Elliot, an excerpt, and a summary of this book. An author biography and web links are followed by a Rafflecopter giveaway. I hope you enjoy this post and good luck on the giveaway!

(My review is to follow.)

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Message from Kendra Elliot: Mercy’s road to the FBI

Mercy Kilpatrick, the heroine from my newest release A Merciful Silence, was raised by anti-government preppers in Central Oregon. She grew up learning to live off the land, avoid law enforcement, and never trust the government. When she was eighteen, she and her father had a falling out that forced Mercy from the home.

She entered the regular world but could never leave her prepping roots behind. She eventually joined the FBI—thereby becoming the two things that her father hated most. Estranged from her family, Mercy keeps one foot in the regular world and another in her hidden past. She can’t help but prepare for the end of the world. No one at the FBI knows she escapes to her mountain hideaway every weekend where she stocks firewood, food, fuel, and medical supplies.

An FBI domestic terrorism case pulls her to back to her hometown where she must face her family for the first time in fifteen years. The case takes place in a survivalist world with which she is all too familiar, and suspects some of her family may be involved.

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Excerpt: A Merciful Silence

Her GPS took her on a wet, winding trip thirty miles out of Bend. Mercy revered privacy, and it appeared Britta Vale did the same. The terrain was flat, with clumps of huge trees and fields of scattered volcanic rock. She took the final turn off the two-lane road and was pleasantly surprised to find a well-maintained gravel driveway. A wood fence lined one side of the drive, and Mercy idly wondered if Britta kept cows or sheep in the field. A wide creek rapidly flowed through the pasture, full of the recent rains. A few minutes later she stopped in front of an old white farmhouse. Fields flanked the house on two sides, and a small ancient grove of fruit trees was to the east.

The paint flaked from the two-story building, and large pieces of railing were missing from the wraparound deck. Lace curtains appeared at most of the windows, and a newer Ford pickup was parked next to the home. As Mercy stepped out of her Tahoe, faint barking greeted her, and she spotted a black lab inside, watching through a tall window next to the front door, alerting the residents that company had arrived. Its wagging tail defied the belligerent barks.

Overall, Mercy liked the home. It felt shy but friendly. Sequestered but welcoming.

The door opened and a woman appeared. In one hand she gripped the lab’s collar. With the other she balanced a rifle against her shoulder.

Not threatening, but making her stance clear.

Mercy approved. And stopped moving forward. Mercy stood with her right shoulder and hip slightly farther back and casually held her hands out in front of her stomach, the palms up. A nonaggressive pose, but she was ready to move to the gun in her shoulder holster if needed. “Britta Vale?”

“Who wants to know?” The woman’s tone was polite but direct. Her long hair was black. The flat-black, obviously dyed tone. Blunt-cut bangs just above Britta’s eyebrows gave her a no-nonsense look.

“I’m Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick from the Bend FBI office. You’re welcome to call them to verify me.”

“Take three steps closer.”

Mercy took three measured steps, her hands still exposed. She felt the weight of her weapon at her side and watched Britta for any warning movements. The woman stood perfectly still, the dog’s wagging tail a contrast. At this distance Mercy could meet Britta’s gaze. The woman had light-blue eyes and skin that looked as if it’d never seen the sun. She also had a huge tattoo that wrapped around the front of her neck. Mercy couldn’t read it but wondered how painful the process had been. She swallowed, imagining tiny sharp needles jabbing at the tender skin on her throat.

The woman released the dog, who instantly sat, its dark eyes still locked on Mercy.

“Are you here about Grady Baldwin?”

“Yes,” Mercy answered.

“Is he out? I’m supposed to be notified if he gets out. No one has said anything to me.” Britta’s voice shot up an octave as the words spilled out of her mouth, terror and anger flashing in her eyes. Her fingers tightened on the butt of the rifle, and Mercy tensed.

“He’s not out and he’s not getting out.”

The woman lowered her chin a notch, and her shoulders moved as she exhaled. “I have nightmares about police vehicles abruptly showing up at my home, trying to get me to safety. They’re always too late.” She nodded at Mercy’s Tahoe. “You’re clearly armed, and you have government plates, so you understand my reaction.”

“I do. You are Britta, right?” The woman acted like a survivor, but Mercy wanted to be certain.

“I am. Why are you here?”

“Yesterday we uncovered five bodies. Possibly a family—we aren’t certain about that. But each one of them had been struck in the mouth. Their teeth and jaws shattered.”

The pale woman went a shade whiter as she slapped a hand across her mouth, and the dog whined, leaning hard against her thigh.

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About the Book

Title: A MERCIFUL SILENCE

Author: Kendra Elliot

Release Date: June 19, 2018

Publisher: Montlake Romance

 

Summary

 

For FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick, returning to rural Oregon has meant coming to terms with her roots. Raised as a prepper, Mercy is now relying on her survivalist instincts to defend her town from the people the law can’t reach. But this time, an investigation calling up a dark past for her and police chief Truman Daly may be hitting too close to home.

A rainstorm has uncovered the remains of five people—a reprise of the distinctive slaughter of two families twenty years ago. Except the convicted killer is in prison. Is this the case of a sick copycat, or is the wrong man behind bars? One person might have the answer. The lone survivor of the decades-old crimes has returned to town still claiming that she can’t remember a thing about the night she was left for dead. As the search for the truth becomes more dangerous, Mercy fears that the traumatized woman may not have buried her memories at all. She might be keeping them a secret. And there’s a price to be paid for revealing them.

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Author Biography

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick novels: A Merciful Death, A Merciful Truth, and A Merciful Secret. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her husband and three daughters, but she looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.

Social Media Links

Website – http://www.kendraelliot.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKendraElliot

Twitter – https://twitter.com/KendraElliot

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6150778.Kendra_Elliot

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Book Review: Angelina’s Secret by Diane Merrill Wigginton

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

I love when I am asked to read a beloved genre book by a new to me author and can recommend it highly to others!

ANGELINA’S SECRET (Jeweled Dagger Series) by Diane Merrill Wigginton has everything I am looking for in a great historical romance read. A heroine who is true to her times, but independent and courageous set against a strong hero who is protective, but also values the heroine’s unique character and a plot and subplot that have adventure and intrigue twisting throughout the romance that keep you turning the pages.

Lady Angelina Stewart was born into a wealthy English aristocratic family that allowed her independence and to be as well educated as her beloved older brother, Jonathan in a time when most young ladies only cared about beauty and titles. Besides her education, two other things set Angelina apart. She has a bit of the sight, or a feeling when things are about to change in her life and she never wants to be wed. She is determined to never be owned by a man.

Captain Jude Deveraux is sailing the open seas as a French privateer for his king after receiving an award and title for bravery during battle. The Captain is also the Duke of Bayonne. He and his best friend Honore’ steal and plunder from unsuspecting ships and live for the adventure. A trap is set for the unsuspecting ship belonging to Angelina’s father. The trip is a birthday gift for Angelina from her father with her uncle to trade for their company. When the feisty Angelina stands up to the Captain pirate sparks begins to fly. A wager is made for the return of Angelina’s family ship and crew with safe passage if the cards favor Angelina.

Win or lose, Jude does not plan on letting the entrancing Angelina out of his life.

These two are meant to be together! Ms. Wigginton has written a hero and heroine that will be remembered long after the book is done. The secondary characters are also well developed and interesting. Set in the 18th century, my only slight problem with historical references was the white wedding gown. (Although possible, the white wedding gown didn’t become popular until the 19th century when Victoria wore one.)

This is a well written and entertaining historical romance, full of action, adventure and great characters. This is definitely a book and author to read and follow!

Feature Post: The Girl in the Moss by Loreth Anne White

   

I am very happy to share this author interview with Loreth Anne White discussing her new book THE GIRL IN THE MOSS and her writing. After the interview, you will find a summary of the story, the author’s biography, links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

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Loreth Anne White Interview

Congratulations on your new release! Tell us a bit about it.

THE GIRL IN THE MOSS is a cold case mystery/thriller that kicks off when a shallow grave in a mossy forest exposes the bones of a decades-old secret that begins to threaten a small community with lethal consequence. Early reviews have described the story as dark, atmospheric, and twisty with a “shocking conclusion”. While it can be read alone, THE GIRL IN THE MOSS is book 3 in the Angie Pallorino series, and the series has a romantic relationship thread playing out over the arc of the 3 books.

A larger philosophical question around cold case detecting also plays throughout this book. As one Goodreads reviewer wrote: “If history allows those in grief to move forward with their lives, trying to breath new life into a cold case threatens to upend everything for survivors. On the other hand, those who have gotten away with murder are eluding justice. Angie clearly represents Justice in this book, even at times when nearly everyone is against her and when some of the opposition’s arguments makes some sense.”

So yes, Angie is dogged, but hopefully for good reason—she knows how vital it was to her own sense of well-being to get to the bottom of her own cold case. She’d like to help others find similar closure.  And justice is something she can believe in.

You just love to put your heroine in mortal danger! Even on vacation Angie is somehow drawn into a missing persons cold case that has her fighting for her life. What is it about romantic suspense that fuels your creative juices?

I’ve always loved to read suspense with intrepid heroines who risk their lives, or who must face impossible odds to survive. It came naturally to try and write what I like to read.

One of the best things about your novels is the careful attention you give to both your couple and the crime that is being investigated. How do achieve this balance?

Thank you! I try to find a way to make the relationship an integral part of the case and vice versa, so that you can’t really pull one part of the story out without collapsing the whole thing.

 Your writing includes some in depth information about police procedures — in the case of this novel how to secure a crime scene. What type of research have you done in order to realistically write these scenes?

I’ve done many workshops with various branches of law enforcement, plus I do lots of reading of homicide investigation manuals which have been written to teach cops.

Even as an ex-cop, Angie often finds herself in dangerous situations. What draws her to the dark crimes she investigates? Is there anything else she wants to do with her life?

 Angie has a passion particularly for helping young women hurt by heinous crimes. This in part is because of her own past, even if she didn’t really know it at first. She’s dead set on running her own PI agency now, where she can pick her cases and still march to her own drum. And because of her reputation, some of those darker cases are going to pick her.

Maddocks has a fine line he must walk — as a homicide detective he has the duty to his squad, but he also feels a pull to include Angie in his work. How does he reconcile these two competing forces?

At the end of this book, they find a happy medium. Angie will work her own PI cases, many of them cold cases. And while there will be times the lines of her investigations cross with Maddocks’s police work, it will be more collaborative.

What can readers expect next from you?

THE DARK BONES is the working title of my next project. It’s an atmospheric mystery/suspense/romance set in ranching country in the B.C. interior, and while it is a standalone, it links to A DARK LURE, which was an Amazon #1 bestseller. I’ve had many, many readers write to ask for a linked book, and I hope THE DARK BONES hits all those same notes that A DARK LURE did. If all goes to plan—and things do yet all have to slot into place—the book will see the shelves early next summer.

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About the Book

Title: The Girl in the Moss

Author: Loreth Anne White

Release Date: June 12, 2018

Publisher: Montlake Romance

Summary

Disgraced ex-cop Angie Pallorino is determined to make a new start for herself as a private investigator. But first, she and her lover, newly promoted homicide detective James Maddocks, attempt a quiet getaway to rekindle a romance struggling in the shadows of their careers. The peace doesn’t last long when human skeletal remains are found in a nearby mossy grove.

This decades-old mystery is just what Angie needs to establish her new career—even as it thrusts her and Maddocks back into the media spotlight, once again endangering their tenuous relationship.

Then, when Angie’s inquiry into the old crime intersects with a cold case from her own policing past—one that a detective on Maddocks’s new team is working—the investigation takes a startling twist. It puts more than Angie’s last shot at redemption and a future with Maddocks at risk. The mystery of the girl in the moss could kill her.

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Author Biography

Loreth Anne White is an award-winning, bestselling author of romantic suspense, thrillers, and mysteries, including The Drowned Girls and The Lullaby Girl, the first two books in the Angie Pallorino series. Winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mainstream Mystery/Suspense, Loreth is also a three-time RITA finalist, plus a recipient of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Romantic Crown for Best Romantic Suspense and Best Book Overall, and a Booksellers’ Best finalist. A former journalist who has worked in both South Africa and Canada, she now resides in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest with her family. When not writing, she skis, bikes, and hikes the trails with her dog, doing her best to avoid the bears (albeit unsuccessfully). Learn more at www.lorethannewhite.com.

 

Author Social Media Links

Website: http://www.lorethannewhite.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Loreth.Anne.White

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Loreth

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/150272.Loreth_Anne_White

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Book Review: Dying Truth by Angela Marsons

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

DYING TRUTH (D.I. Kim Stone, #8) by Angela Marsons is a tour de force!

With every book in the Kim Stone series, I have come to love all of the characters more.  I have been intrigued and tricked by the mystery/crime plotlines. In book #8, Ms. Marsons covers the short time period of six days which left me with a severe book hangover and the knowledge that I will remember this Kim Stone book far into the future.

Heathcrest is a prestigious private school for children of the elite in British society. Perfect appearance is everything, but a crime from the past has come back to haunt the children of today. D.I. Kim Stone takes a call of a potential jumper. When she arrives on the scene, the broken body of Sadie Winter is on the ground, but Kim cannot justify what she sees with the testimony of witnesses. Soon after, another child is dead and Kim and her team know they must hurry to find who in Heathcrest is killing the children.

Ms. Marsons covers many emotional hot topic issues in this book. Heathcrest displays the divide between private education for the rich and public education. Scholarship students are accepted, but always know they are different. Peer pressure, bullying and the expectations of parents are laid bare in a forthright manner. The pros and cons of secret societies that last for a lifetime plays a major role in a murder from the past tied to the murders in the present. The topic of “if a child can kill” is also covered candidly.

Beside the riveting and emotional intertwined plots from past and present in this book, I always read this series to catch up on some of my favorite characters. Kim and her team not only have to solve this case, but Kim also has to turn in her personnel evaluations. Kim, Bryant, Kevin and Stacey are each very different and yet when put together make the perfect unit. After eight books, I have watched each character grow and become more vivid, but there is a gut-wrenching shake up at the end of this book. Was it needed? That is for each reader to decide, but in my opinion it was entirely believable when you consider that character’s growth and personality.

I am looking forward to the next book in this series. While I may never get over some of the emotional wreckage from this one, I want more!

Thanks very much to Bookouture and Net Galley for allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: All the Pretty Girls by Riley Edwards

 

ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS

A Next Generation Novel

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MEADOW:

The road was long, it was painful, and it was raw.

It has taken me four years to come to terms with my new reality. A life in which I live with the daily reminders of a vicious attack that has left me scarred both emotionally and physically. Years of recovery and acceptance were torn apart and obliterated the day Special Agent Nick Clark barges into my life. He says the person who attacked me and left me for dead is back. He says I was the first victim – the one who got away. He promises to protect me. But he can’t, no one can.

Nick is relentless in his pursuit and promises me the things I can’t afford to have – like hope for a future with the sexy FBI agent. But hope and love and promises can’t protect me, not when I’m next on the killer’s list.

NICK:

Meadow Holiday is the missing piece, the woman I’ve been searching for. And it has nothing to do with her being a witness in an unsolved serial killer case I’ve had sitting on my desk for the last four years. I had no business falling in love in the middle of a murder investigation but she’s the one. I feel it deep in my bones. I knew the first time I laid eyes on the shy, beautiful woman that she was mine. Now I’m left with the daunting task of convincing her I’m enough.

Can Nick save Meadow in time and prove his love can heal all wounds, or is he already too late to fix what a sadist serial killer has broken?

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MY REVIEW:

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS by Riley Edwards is an exceptional start to her Next Generation series of Romantic suspense books to follow her 707 Freedom series. This book is easily read as a standalone even though the characters from the previous series do pop up. It is not difficult to follow their relationship to Nick and it does not confuse the reader, but makes you want to go back and read that series, also.

Meadow Holiday cannot hide the scar on her face after a vicious attack that has turned her into a solitary person who hides from life. She believes she is no longer desirable. Since her attack, she has kept only one friend at work and one friend on-line in a survivors chat room. Her boss daily ridicules and belittles her for her appearance, so Veronica Venus, in the chat room, has become her outlet to let off steam and go-to for solace.

Special Agent Nick Clark works in the Behavior Analysis Unit of the FBI. He has a knack for seeing things outside of the box even though he is the youngest member of the team. After a break of four years, a serial killer profiled by Nick’s unit is back and killing again. The victims are all beautiful young women found in alleys with their faces mutilated.

Meadow is terrified when she learns the killer is active again. Nick is surprised the beautiful redhead he has been intrigued by at his coffee shop is the original victim who survived her attack all those years ago. Nick knows he will have a battle ahead convincing Meadow she is still beautiful inside and out and that he is not interested in her only to catch the killer. The killer has other plans for Meadow.

Nick and Meadow are such great characters. Nick is all around swoon worthy and he trains service dogs for vets. Love him! Meadow starts out with such low self-esteem, but the author brings her around with Nick’s belief in her and his love. The romance is believable and the sex scenes are hot. This is a page turner, even though I easily figured out the suspense plot. The characters are so vivid, you cannot help but cheer them on to their HEA. I cannot wait for more books in this series!

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LINKS:

Buy Link http://geni.us/w7pUH

Amazon: http://geni.us/amazonre

Goodreads:http://geni.us/goodreadsre

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/riley-edwards

Facebook reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/882567735208878/?ref=br_tf

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rileyedwardsrom

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rileyedwardsromance/

Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/RRsignup