Book Trailer: VEIL OF SHADOWS by Shiloh Walker

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New winners!

So sorry for the delay in announcing winners of last week. Have been super busy with things here and kept putting it off. As the craziness doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, I’m also going to announce the winners from Monday and Tuesday’s post today, too. Thanks for visiting and congrats to all the new winners!!

Caffey & ChelseaB.

Both win a copy of To Conquer a Highlander by Mary Wine.

AniluM.

Wins a download of both Trinity and Revelation by Lauren Dane.

LSUReader

wins a copy of Swept Away by a Kiss by Katharine Ashe.

KarenH.

Wins a copy of any book in Jennifer Ashley’s backlist.

Joder

Wins a copy of Captured by Moonlight by Nancy Gideon.

Ali

Wins a $15 gift card to Amazon courtesy of Beth Williamson.

Because of the lateness in posting the winners, I’ll allow winners to email me their addresses (will need format preference from Anilu and just an email addy from Ali) until Sunday, August 1st. After that new winners will be chosen if I haven’t heard from you. Email me at mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces)

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Beth Williamson switches gears

Hell hath no fury like Alex Finley…

For as long as Alex could remember, life had taken everything from her. Her father had abandoned her and her dying mother, only to return upon her death to reclaim the family’s Wyoming ranch—with a new wife. Alex’s rage drove her away to Los Angeles to live with a man who could never satisfy her.

Only after ten years does she come home—and she hits the town with a vengeance, unleashing her pent-up lust on willing cowpoke Connor Matthews. But she’s in for several shocks. It turns out that the ranch is now a resort, that her late father split the estate between Alex and her young step-brother, and that Connor—the bucking bronco she wants in her bed—is running the place.

Now, Alex is torn between accepting a new family, and a lover who can give her everything she needs—or selling out to a smooth-talking neighbor and leaving the past behind her. But only when her life is on the line does she realize what she desires most of all…

*     *     *     *     *

July marked the release of my very first full length contemporary romance – it’s a hot one too. I’ve written contemporary erotic romance before, novellas and short stories only though. Unbridled was a test for me, making me switch gears. I’ve received mixed reviews, but it’s all good because it means people are reading my book.

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Nancy Gideon: Sustaining the writer’s dream

Tomorrow on bookstores shelves near you:

A mysterious death begins a dangerous chain of events, forcing choices that mean no turning back as Max’s past catches up to him.  But as the unexpected discovery of a family thought lost to him threatens the existence of Max’s paranormal world, his awakening senses strain the bond he shares with Detective Charlotte Caissie.

Driven by instincts he can’t control, Max fights the need to claim his human mate. How can he protect her when she’s not safe with him? She’s strong enough to keep his secrets, but can she survive the test of his love?

Separating business from pleasure just got more difficult. To have Max, Cee Cee must face her greatest fears by accepting who and what he is . . . someone deadly, unnatural and outside the law she serves. Loving Max Savoie isn’t easy, but holding onto him could prove fatal.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

When I was little, I didn’t want to be a princess or a ballerina, I wanted to be a Storyteller. I remember countless nights, lying in the dark in the bedroom I shared with one of my sisters, making up tales about friends and family and heroes from TV (in black and white with three channels back then so it took some imagination!).  When I saw my name in print under a fractured fairytale published in my elementary school newspaper, that dream had a new focus.  I wanted to be a Writer.

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Jennifer Ashley: Hero driven romance

Six years ago, eighteen-year-old Lady Isabella Scranton scandalized all of London by eloping the night of her come-out ball with the notorious rake, Lord Mac Mackenzie. After three turbulent years of marriage, she scandalized London once again–this time by leaving him.

Now the reformed Mac has returned, and he wants one thing: Isabella back in his life, his house, his bed. He’ll do anything he has to, play any game, as long as he gets her back. Isabella resists, but when she agrees to pose for erotic paintings he’s been working on, she realizes her body has never stopped craving her husband’s very skilled touch. Mac is determined to show Isabella that he’s a changed man, but three years without her has only increased his hunger for her.

When an ingenious forger with designs on Mac’s paintings, and Isabella herself, comes dangerously near, Mac sets himself up as Isabella’s protector and vows to never leave her side, whether his independent and proud lady likes it or not.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Thank you so much for inviting back to Novel Thoughts! I always like guest blogging here.

A couple weeks ago saw the release of Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage, Book 2 of the series featuring the Mackenzies (go here for blurbs, excerpts, character bios, etc.). I’ve gotten terrific feedback on it, and especially on Mac, the hero. Thanks to everyone who’s written to tell me you enjoyed it!

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Katherine Ashe: “All the world’s a stage…”

Out next week on shelves near you:

A Secret Identity

When pirates storm Lord Steven Ashford’s ship upon the high seas, it brings him closer than ever to the nefarious criminal he seeks to ruin. Only one seductive detail threatens his victory: the scandalous beauty imprisoned with him, Lady Valerie Monroe. Temptation has never been so intoxicating or so forbidden, for Steven is disguised as a French priest. If they make it off the ship alive, to protect her from his enemies, he must never see her again…

An Undeniable Love

Back in England, and under the ton’s scrutiny for a reckless past she hasn’t escaped, Valerie dreams of the breathtaking “man of the cloth” with whom she shared her greatest adventure. Then he reappears in society under his true identity, Viscount Ashford, but despite the danger their consuming passion cannot be denied. Now standing in the way of their desire are Valerie’s wounded heart, Steven’s lone destiny, and a villain that will stop at nothing to crush them both.

*    *    *    *    *

All the World’s a Stage

Have you ever worn a costume? I don’t mean for Halloween. I mean a serious business suit, team uniform, or ball gown and sparkly jewels. Something that takes you out of your comfort norm and makes you… different.

Or something even more concealing. A disguise?

In William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, to flee a plot against her family a duke’s daughter disguises herself as a young man. But Rosalind’s masquerade has an up side. As a man she is able to befriend Orlando, the object of her hidden love.

As You Like It is a comedy. So in true Shakepearian fashion hijinks ensue until secret passions are revealed and all the characters end up happily paired. But not before Rosalind’s disguise allows her to discover the truth in everybody’s hearts. Including her own.

Characters in disguise have always intrigued me. Take the 1934 film The Scarlet Pimpernel. In London high society, the hero is the foppish Sir Percy Blakeney. But upon the dark shores of the English Channel he is the daring Pimpernel, risking his life to save French aristocrats from the guillotine. Sir Percy’s reason for this dangerous pretense? He does it all for his wife, a Frenchwoman who despairs of the foolish husband she once loved and instead dreams of the dashing Pimpernel. When I first saw this film, I couldn’t imagine anything better than the moment she realizes he is one in the same.

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Lauren Dane loves series

He has the one thing she never thought she deserved. A place to belong…

At long last, Kendra Kellogg has found her sister—but she’s no closer to filling the gaps in her past. The magick that brought them together makes them targets for dark mages intent on finishing what started with their mother’s murder.

As if her life wasn’t chaotic enough, in barrels the one thing she doesn’t expect, Max de La Vega. He’s six-and-a-half-feet of cocoa-brown alpha male. He’s strong, intelligent, sexy and intense. Everything she’d wanted in a man. And he scares the hell out of her. Still healing from a disastrous past relationship, she wonders if she’ll ever have that kind of forever.

The next in line to run his jaguar jamboree, Max is unused to hearing “no”. Once he knows what he wants, he assumes he’ll get it. And he wants Kendra. She deserves happiness and it’s his mission to give it to her.

When dark mages attempt to steal her magickal energy, Max’s cat agrees with the man—Kendra is his to protect and he will stop at nothing to keep her safe. She can push him away as hard as she likes, he’s not going anywhere.

****~~~~****~~~~****

My name is Lauren Dane and I admit it, I love series. Reading and writing them.

Lucky for me, my readers love them too so I get to write more of them.   I love to write a series of books with the characters’ connection to one another as the uniting theme.  My Chase Brothers for instance, or the spin off series from my Cascadia Wolves, de La Vega Cats.

Cascadia Wolves was my first series featuring shifters as main characters. I love the Warden family and their mates and I had a great deal of fun writing the books in the Pellini story arc.

I haven’t stopped writing about that world though, because I do love it and because it’s big enough for me to spin off to other packs and other paranormal characters.

Which is what I did with Trinity.

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Mary Wine ponders: What is it about men in kilts?

A fierce Highland laird ready to kill for king and country…

When Torin McLeren discovers his neighbor’s plot against his king, he takes their daughter as his prisoner, thereby stopping her father’s plot from going forward. But that leaves him with a woman under his roof whom he can’t ignore, and not just because she’s his enemy’s daughter…

A woman who’s as much trouble as she is temptation…

Shannon McBoyd decides to use her captor to experience passion for the first time, and then to destroy him. But her plan goes awry because once she has lured Torin into her bed, she no longer wants to hurt the one man who seems to value and understand her…

Even if her father will kill him—and her—when he discovers what they’ve done…

*~~~*~~~*~~~*

Well, I think it isn’t so much what they wear as who they are. Those Celts are tough people, Scotland itself isn’t the easiest place to survive. The soil is thin in many places and it rains…a lot! But these northern lands have been home to people that flourish where I fear I might raise my white flag of surrender.

The kilt itself is a garment that comes from practicality. First of all, it’s wool. For centuries, this was one of the only textile fibers being produced in the area. It is the easiest one to cultivate because sheep can graze freely. Wool maintains ninety percent of its insulting factor when wet when cotton keeps only ten. Something very important if you are talking about surviving in a time when there is no central heating. The kilt was a length of wool, which might be sheered off a sheep, carded by hand and spun into yarn which could be woven by even the most rural family.

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Ooooppppsssss! (check out the winners)

 

A new week, a new set of winners from our fabulous guests!

Teresa W

and

Barbara Elness

you ladies win a copy each of Loucinda McGary’s The Wild Irish Sea

Angela H

you win a signed copy of Lauren Dane’s Relentless

Fedora

Jeanette Juan

Brandy W

Estella

and

Linda Henderson

all of you win a copy each of Susan Sey’s Money, Honey

Congratulations to each and all of you!

You have 48 hours to email Fatin at mad at romancereaderatheart dot com to claim your prizes.

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Book review: My Way to Hell, by Dakota Cassidy

My Way to Hell, by Dakota Cassidy

The second title in Ms Cassidy’s hilarious Demonic romances, My Way to Hell follows former demon-turned quasi ghost Marcella Acosta as she butts heads with Kellen Markham, bane of her previous existence and brother of her best friend ever.

Readers should be aware that there’s quite a bit of cussing in the novel, and that the Lord’s name is used in vain—rather frequently and in pretty creative ways—throughout. There is also a bit of graphic sex (well into the novel, I may add—like, two thirds or more of the way in), so anyone with objections to either of these, should avoid reading this book.

Also, while there is a tiny bit of info dumping in the first couple of chapters, quite likely to bring new readers up to speed on the events of Kiss and Hell (review here), and to introduce both the cast of characters and the dynamics of Ms Cassidy’s unique take on the supernatural, I definitely recommend reading the series in order. Honestly, these are characters that no amount of info-dumping would prepare you for: you need to get to know them little by little.

Here is the back cover blurb:

She never thought he’d be the one.

After defying Lucifer to save her best friend Delaney, ex-demon Marcella Acosta has been banished to exist in the plane between heaven and hell—and there isn’t a shopping mall in sight. After numerous failed attempts to contact Delaney through a bunch of hack mediums, Marcella’s at her wits end. But there’s one medium she’s hasn’t tried yet, and he just happens to be Delaney’s scorching hot brother—the one guy who never gave Marcella the time of day…

But her heart has other ideas.

Thanks to his recently inherited psychic abilities, Kellen Markham has had spirits haunting him day and night—and not only are they just plain annoying, somehow they’re able to touch him. To try and escape, Kellen moves into his sister’s old apartment. But when he finds a box full of stuff that belonged to Marcella—the demon he spent years fighting his fierce attraction to-his not-so-pure thoughts drag her back to Earth. Now that Marcella’s free from Plane Drab, there’s no way in hell she’s going back. Especially since there’s a certain sexy medium she just can’t seem to keep her hands off of…

As My Way to Hell starts we find a very dejected Marcella hanging out with other ghosts in a plane that definitely lacks a certain something—and not just fashion. Luckily for her, there is a ghost around who is not willing to let her spend the rest of her undead and unalive eternity moping.

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