Jodi Thomas and Texas Blue

Gambling man Lewton Paterson wants to marry into a respectable family, even if it costs him his friendship with Duncan McMurray.

After fleecing a train ticket from one of the three gentlemen picked to call on Duncan’s cousins, Lewt makes his way to Whispering Mountain.

But seducing a well-bred woman is harder than Lewt thought, and he realizes that to entice a McMurray sister, he’ll need to learn a thing or two about ranching and love.

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I hope all my fans will step into Texas history and enjoy the adventure. From the day I was walking in the Hill Country near Fredericksburg, Texas, the story of the McMurray family has been playing in my head. I am very excited about TEXAS BLUE, the first book in the new generation of the Whispering Mountain Series.

I opened in 1875, with two friends parting ways one stormy night in Austin. Duncan, a Texas Ranger, is off to fight at the border and Lewt, a gambler, plans to find a wife among one of Duncan’s three rich cousins while his friend is away.

Duncan, called Duck when he was a boy, is wild and fearless. He leaves his law practice to join a raid at the border. Lewt has never done anything brave and never plans to. He just wants a respectable wife.

Lewt joins a group of men Duncan hand selected to travel to Whispering Mountain and meet his three female cousins. Though Lewt knows his friend would never introduce a gambler to his rich relatives, he wants a chance for more than just a life in saloons.

TEXAS BLUE is a story that has been in my head since I wrote TEXAS RAIN four years ago. I knew the little boy that Travis McMurray finds tied to a rope at an outlaw camp would have to grow up and become a great Texas Ranger. I also fell in love with a shy little girl who loved horses in TALL DARK AND TEXAN and wanted to see her as a woman strong enough to run the ranch.

So, writing TEXAS BLUE was like coming home to characters I already loved.

Step into 1875 and the wild lands of Texas with my new story, TEXAS BLUE. I love writing the story of a family and their love for one another. This first story in the new generation of McMurrays from a ranch called Whispering Mountain will warm your heart.

Thanks for reading,

Jodi Thomas

www.jodithomas.com

www.facebook.com/JodiThomasAuthor

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Many thanks to Jodi for joining us today! To be entered to win a copy of Texas Blue, just leave a comment below. Good luck!

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Eternal Rider by Larissa Ione – Giveaway

They are here. They ride. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

His name is Ares, and the fate of mankind rests on his powerful shoulders. If he falls to the forces of evil, the world falls too. As one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, he is far stronger than any mortal, but even he cannot fight his destiny forever. Not when his own brother plots against him.

Yet there is one last hope. Gifted in a way other humans can’t-or won’t-understand, Cara Thornhart is the key to both this Horseman’s safety and his doom. But involving Cara will prove treacherous, even beyond the maddening, dangerous desire that seizes them the moment they meet. For staving off eternal darkness could have a staggering cost: Cara’s life.

 

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of Eternal Rider and it was an all-nighter for me. I’ve been a Larissa fan since the first Demonica book but this is definitely my favorite so far (but no one tell Wraith, okay? 😉 )

To share the Lords of Deliverance love, I have three copies of Eternal Rider to give away. To be entered, just tell me why you want to read it. Winners will be drawn Sunday. Good luck!

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Vampires and the Five Languages of Love By Kerrelyn Sparks

Nothing on earth can make this vampire fall in love…

After 499 years of existence, Connor Buchanan has arrived at an inescapable conclusion: he is a cold-hearted SOB.  He’s been watching his friends—those poor romantic fools—plummet off the cliff into love like a dazed herd of sheep.  But not Connor.  He knows that love leads to nothing by heartache.

Until Marielle…

She is an angel cast down from heaven for disobedience.  Trapped in mortal form, she finds a protector in Connor, a Scottish vampire haunted by a dark past.  Marielle hopes to heal his broken heart and earn her way back home, but suddenly she has these…feelings. This strange yet pleasant physical yearning—for a vampire!  Is this the work of a demon luring her into hell, or has this angel found heavenly bliss?

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The tenth book of the Love at Stake series, Vampire Mine, hits the bookstore shelves March 29th, and book # 11, Sexiest Vampire Alive, releases at the end of September. With those two books completed, it’s now time for me to start writing # 12. Time to get acquainted with a new hero and heroine. Time to step into her shoes, her head, and her heart and fall in love with a new hero. And I want that love to feel healthy, passionate, and real.

That got me thinking about a popular advice book for maintaining healthy relationships, The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman. In short, Mr. Chapman asserts that there are five ways to communicate love: physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and receiving gifts. How fluent would my fictional heroes be in these five love languages?

Physical touch? My vamps and shifters are fictional romantic heroes–in other words, they have no problem fulfilling a heroine’s fantasy of the perfect lover. They’re naturally well-endowed and well versed in the act of making love. They may be a bit prickly to begin with, since they may be carrying a few centuries of painful baggage, but once they realize they’ve found their true love, they’re eager to touch, stroke, and caress. If my heroine needs physical touch to feel loved, then she’ll be deliriously happy after my hero gets his hands on her. Thinking back over my past heroes and heroines, I believe vampire Vanda and werewolf Phil were good examples of lovers who craved physical touch in order to feel loved.

Quality time could be a challenge for my Vamps, who are literally dead during the day. They’ll have to work extra hard to make sure their ladies are satisfied with the time they spend together at night. Quality time worked well for were-panther Carlos when he took Caitlyn with him on his expedition to Thailand. By the end of that trip, they were both madly in love.

Words of affirmation: probably the best way to end any good romance. Declarations of love and proposals of marriage—every hero needs to be a master at this, especially if he screwed up over the course of the book and needs to beg forgiveness. Vamps like Roman, Jean-Luc, Jack, and Robby have to find the perfect words to convince mortal women they can find an eternity of joy married to a vampire.

Acts of service. My heroes are always eager to serve their heroines, and not just in the bedroom! Many times, it means risking their lives to protect their women from the bad guys. Roman took the Stay-Awake drug for a week to help Shanna take care of baby Constantine and ended up aging a year for each day he stayed awake. Now that was a sweet declaration of love!

Gifts. A true romantic hero likes to give gifts. Jean-Luc is a great example. He not only gave Heather some beautiful new clothes, he gave her daughter some wonderful toys. Jack gifted Lara with a romantic trip to Venice. And we’ll see in Vampire Mine that Connor finds the perfect gift for his angel, Marielle.

Since I write romantic fiction, my heroes need to match our fantasy of the perfect man. So it’s hardly surprising that they’re fluent in all five languages of love. What language of love would you like a vampire or shape shifter to speak to you? Leave your response as a comment for a chance to win a signed copy of Carlos and Caitlyn’s story, Eat Prey Love. And don’t forget to find a copy of Vampire Mine this week!

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A big thank-you to Kerrelyn for visiting with us today!

For more information about Kerrelyn and the Love At Stake series, please visit www.kerrelynsparks.com. And don’t forget to answer the question for a chance to win Eat Prey Love. Good luck! 😀

 

 

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Operation Auction is live!

The first batch of items are up at Operation Auction!

 

http://stores.ebay.com/OperationAuction2011

 

Signed books, ARCs, character naming, critiques, purses, book thongs, design serives, and so much more!

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Winners

 

ClaudiGC

wins ANGEL’S REST by Emily March

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Robin K

wins CAPTURED BY A ROUGE LORD by Katharine Ashe

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StacieDM

wins THE HOMETOWN HERO RETURNS by Beth Kery

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Congratulations to all the winners! Because I’m announcing winners early, I’m throwing in an extra day. You have 3 days to contact me at lillie80 at gmail dot com to claim your prize.

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Auction update

I posted this at Operation Auction yesterday but I want to put it here too in case anyone missed it.

 

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Operation Auction will be going live on Sunday, March 27th at 12:01 am PDT. We will have all items in the Operation Auction ebay store.

http://stores.ebay.com/operationauction2011

None of the items will show up until the auction is live and not all items are going up at the same time. We have divided the items as equally as possible into three batches.

Batch One will be up March 27th at 12:01 am PDT, ending March 30th at 12:01am

Batch Two will be up March 28th at 12:01 am PDT, ending March 31st at 12:01am

Batch Three will be up March 29th at 12:01 am PDT, ending April 1st at 12:01am

All listings will run for three days. The only exception is the breakfast at RT with Angela James, Jane Litte, and Sarah Wendell. Because that event is approaching very soon, it will be in batch one and be a one-day auction only.

We are going to try our best to get lists up of what items are in which batch, but with new donations still coming in I’m not sure everything will be included. There will be categories in the store to help you find the items you want.

Shipping details will be in the description of each item. Please read those carefully before you bid to see if it is US only or international.

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Vivian Arend’s Anniversary Celebration

Talk about getting your signals crossed…

Granite Lake Wolves Book 1

Robyn Maxwell doesn’t care that her brother has to cancel out on their backcountry ski trip. She can do it alone. The fact she’s deaf doesn’t make her survival skills any weaker. The chance to get away from it all and relax in the Yukon wilderness is just what she’s been craving.

Meeting wilderness guide Keil at the cabin starts cravings of another kind. Keil’s one hot hunk of ripped, tasty male. Now she has to deal with raging hormones as well as strange questions about wolves and mates and challenges to the death.

Keil was trying for a nice reflective retreat before challenging for the Alpha position of his Alaskan pack. He wasn’t planning on meeting the woman destined to be his mate, or finding out she’s not aware she has the genes of a wolf.

Between dealing with his accident-prone younger brother, a deaf mate with an attitude and an impending duel to the death, his week—and his bed—is suddenly full.

Far from the relaxing getaway any of them had in mind…

Warning: Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘talking with your hands.’ Includes dangerous use of sarcasm and hot nookie in a remote wilderness sauna.

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Two years ago today my first book was published, and I can honestly say I had no idea how much that little story was going to change my world.

Wolf Signs started on a whim, and ever since I thought up the idea for the book, life has pulled me along like an out of control storm. I’ve shared the story before that I began writing because a friend talked me into it. Wolf Signs wasn’t the first book I wrote, but the first that I submitted, and when it sold I smiled and laughed and dove into all the stages of publication with delight.

That delight is still dogging me, two years after the Granite Lake Wolves came along. I’ve written more paranormals, expanding from wolves to big cats to dolphins (really) birds of prey (really, really) and otters (very nice otters, right, Lillie?) With my background in outdoor adventures and small-town living, I branched out into writing contemporaries—cowboys, red-hots, family sagas.

Through it all, I’ve met people who have rocked my world—the good way. Writers who kick me into gear and help me brainstorm through plot issues. Readers who make me laugh and smile with their emails and tweets.

Friends.

I’ve grown a lot since writing Wolf Signs, and yes, if I were to write it today, some parts would be different. Different word choices, stronger sentences—but at the core? Everything in there is what I still try to include in my current stories. A heroine who knows what she wants, even if the goal takes a while to reach. A hero who can make knees quiver and hearts sigh with happiness. A setting that’s …well maybe not familiar when you start the book, but a place that you’d like to visit, and a group of people you’d like to be friends with.

Two years. I’m now writing full-time, and loving that there are still stories bubbling up, wanting to be shared.

Will you celebrate with me? If you haven’t read Wolf Signs, I’ve got a copy for you. Just let me know in the comments what format you’d like to try it in. It may not be for you, but here’s your chance to try.

And if you have read it, I hope you enjoyed it.

This year continues to be amazing, with paranormals out in April (otters!) and May (eagles!) and contemporaries in July and August…and more. Stop by my website for the full list of what’s coming and what’s available.

Vivian Arend:  website | blog | twitter | facebook

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A big thank you to Viv for joining us today!

Remember, if you want a digital copy of Wolf Signs you need to leave a comment with which format you’d prefer. The first 50 commenters will get a copy!

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When Star-Crossed Lovers Find Happily Ever After By Beth Kery

At eighteen, Marianna Itani thought she’d found the man of her dreams in Marc Kavanaugh, the quintessential boy-next-door. That perfect romance flew to pieces when an unspeakable tragedy tore them apart. Yet when Marc appeared in her life fifteen years later, the sparks that flew were as explosive as the day they first met.

Now their reignited passion was changing their lives in more ways than one: Mari was pregnant! She was set on putting the pain of the past behind her—not reopening scars that had never truly healed. And their baby might bring these star-crossed lovers back together—forever!

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At the core of a really good romance we often find a tragedy. In the case of Romeo and Juliet, the tragedy came at the end, leaving an ache of sadness and thwarted longing in legions of readers and watchers of the play for centuries.

In the case of my upcoming Harlequin Special Edition, The Hometown Hero Returns, the significant tragedy occurs years before the story on the page begins. Fortunately, unlike Romeo and Juliet, Marc and Mari find their happily-ever-after.

The Hometown Hero Returns is the first in the Home to Harbor Town series. These stories are set in a quaint lakeside vacation community, a place where Mari and Marc spent golden summers as children, the shadows of death and loss never a thought in their innocent, carefree youth. Later, Harbor Town was the idealistic backdrop where the young couple fell head over heels in love.

One hot summer night, Marc’s father, Derry Kavanaugh, gets behind the wheel of his car drunk. He causes a three-way car crash, killing himself and members from two other families, including both of Mari’s parents. The young lovers are ripped apart. Hurt, lawsuits, and bitter conflict alienate the families.

Fifteen years later, Marc seeks out Mari when he notices the symphony of which she’s a member is playing in Chicago. He follows her, and against his better judgment, calls out to her.

She glanced around.

Mari’s eyes—God, he’d forgotten their power. The sounds in the bustling, luxurious hotel lobby faded as the color washed out of her cheeks. He felt a stab of regret. It’d been the sight of her breathtaking face that’d compelled him to pull up short and call her name.

For a few seconds they remained motionless. The single word he’d uttered had been the first shared between them since they’d both lost loved ones in one cruel swipe of fate’s hand.

The Hometown Hero Returns isn’t a tragedy, by any means, it’s a romance through and through with the hallmark happy ending. But there’s something about the knowledge of shared tragedy that can make a love story more beautiful. The bitter tears and sadness of former loss and hurt salts the romance, adding a depth and poignancy to it. The overarching theme of the Home to Harbor Town series is the power of love to heal. Perhaps when two people have journeyed on such a hard path together, the fruits of happily-ever-after are that much sweeter.

Do you have a favorite tear-jerker romance? Leave a comment, and qualify to win a copy of my newest release, The Hometown Hero Returns.

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Many thanks to Beth for visiting with us today!

To find out more about Beth and her books, please visit www.bethkery.com. And don’t forget to answer the above question to be entered in the giveaway. Good luck! 😀

 

 

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Cover Goodness: Goddess With A Blade by Lauren Dane

Lauren Dane shared this on her blog today. Love it!

 

June 2011

Armed with a blessed blade and blood from a goddess, Rowan Summerwaite’s got a divine mission. Embodying a Vampire’s worst nightmare is a big job, but someone’s got to do it.

Freshly returned from a political firestorm that erupted after she’d executed the last Scion, Rowan hopes for a period of peace and quiet with the new replacement.

But before long, human women are being found in and around Las Vegas and it’s clear to her the killer is a Vampire. Clive Stewart rules his Vampires with an iron fist in the wake of a spectacular failure on the part of his predecessor. He doesn’t make the mistake of underestimating The Hunter. He knows she’s a predator just like him so he agrees to help her investigation. Within limits.

But nothing between Clive and Rowan stays within the lines and before long, things are tangled and dangerous both personally and professionall

http://www.laurendane.com/

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Honesty… Is Not a Lonely Word – by Katharine Ashe

She would marry no man…
Serena Carlyle dreams of a happily ever after. Firmly on the shelf at twenty-five, instead she’s determined to find the perfect match for her beautiful younger sister. What better prospect than their neighbor, the wealthy, rakishly handsome Earl of Savege? Now Serena can beg his help in halting a local band of smugglers. Then, one night, stealing away from yet another disappointing ball, Serena finds herself trapped alone with a stranger …

Until he captured her—body and soul
His kiss was irresistible, his caress unforgettable, and he hides a devastating secret. A Robin Hood upon the sea, Alex Savege is the brazen pirate Redstone, seizing the yachts of spoiled noblemen to settle an old debt. Serena needs a hero, but her heart is in the gravest danger—for it is soon to be captured by a man as skilled at seduction as he is at plunder.

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I’ll admit it: I don’t care for Billy Joel’s music.

Yikes. I realize this gets me in hot water with many people. But I do adore “Only the Good Die Young”! I would much rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, at least at this time in my life.

Actually, that brings me to my point. Back when Billy was first crooning and hollering to the delight of rock n’ rollers throughout America, I was quite young and a whole lot more naïve than I am now. The world to me was a big adventure full of experiences to be had and people to love (especially cute boys… oh, most especially cute boys!). Back then I did not know people could be horridly dishonest with one another. I did not know they could be dishonest at all. I was a miserable liar — everything, everything I felt and thought showed on my face. I never really saw the need to lie anyway, I guess. When Billy came along singing “Honesty is such a lonely word; everyone is so untrue,” I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.

Yup. Ridiculously naïve.

Then I grew up. And I started to read romance. I was already writing it, though I’d no idea that’s what it was. (Remember the “especially cute boys”? I was writing stories about them!) And I kept it a secret from everybody in my life except a few trusted souls. For far too many years.

That was about the time I started to realize that while the world can indeed be a place of lies and dishonesty, it is also a place of love. And love is about honesty. Love is about passion and fire and desire and ecstasy. It is also about goodness and truth and compassion and all those warm, real things that urge an initial spark of physical attraction into flame. Into something so much more powerful than lust. Into something sublime and divine.

Now wait just a minute! you may be thinking, especially if you are familiar with the heroes of my “Rogues of the Sea” trilogy. Each of them, after all, has a secret identity, not the least Alex Savege in my latest book, CAPTURED BY A ROGUE LORD. By land Alex is the indolently rakish Earl of Savege, breaking hearts in boudoirs across London. By sea he is the dangerously brazen pirate Redstone, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. He is a man of two identities, neither of which in fact he particularly cares to entertain any longer. And yet because of honor he cannot escape either of his false personae.

Love is about honesty, I say? Honesty???

Honestly.

Because sometimes it takes love to show a man what’s truly inside him. When the delightfully determined Miss Serena Carlyle steps into Alex’s life and turns it upside down, he hasn’t any idea that she is asking him for a great deal more than assistance against a band of unruly smugglers. As he falls — like the veriest callow lad, stumbling into love with the most honestly daring lady he has ever met — he does not realize until far too late that she is demanding that he become much more than a powerful lord. More than a seafaring Robin Hood.

She demands that he become a hero. A noble man in more than rank and title. A champion far beyond what he has ever imagined. A lover worthy of a lady’s whole heart.

Honesty is far from a lonely word. For in love, honesty walks hand in hand with passion, together joyfully and gloriously making heroes of great men.

It’s time to fess up. Are you an honest sort or an inveterate fibber? Do you have good reason to fib? Have you ever told a really dreadfully big lie? One commenter today will win a signed copy of CAPTURED BY A ROGUE LORD.

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Many thanks to Katharine for joining us today!

For more information about Katharine and her books, please visit www.katharineashe.com. And don’t forget to answer the question for a chance to win CAPTURED BY A ROGUE LORD. Good luck! 🙂

 

 

 

 

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