The next Guild Hunter book by Nalini Singh!
Posted in Cover Goodness, February 2012, S - T Authors on February 29, 2012| 5 Comments »
Posted in February 2012, Guest Blogger, Romantic Suspense, W - Z Authors on February 28, 2012| 7 Comments »
Nia Hollister doesn’t scare easily. Come hell or high water, she intends to find her cousin’s killer. She returns to Ash, Kentucky, for answers. What she doesn’t expect is to ache with desire every time she sees Law Reilly. If any man can help her escape the nightmares for a while, it’s him. But can she allow herself to take comfort in those strong arms when a murderer still roams free?
Unknown to Nia, as she quietly slips into Law Reilly’s home, is that she’s being watched—by someone who is waiting for an opportunity to strike.
Timing is everything, though he can’t wait forever. If she’s not frightened, she soon will be. Nia has made a vow to find her cousin’s killer. She should be careful what she wishes for.
Why I Hope the FBI Never Needs to Question Me
There are weirder things that I could tell you that I researched while working on my Ash trilogy, but that would be giving away spoilers. There is a really gruesome detail I discovered for my stand alone RS title, STOLEN, coming out in the fall, but that’s really spoilerish.
Here’s to hoping that if the FBI ever does need to question me, I can show them the books I’ve written and claim, It was all for research! I swear!
There was one really, really weird but cool but morbid thing I discovered while researching for the Ash trilogy and I won’t tell anybody what it is until they’ve read the book and emailed me who the killer is and then made a guess what the detail might be.
But it’s cool, and it’s weird…if you wanna know what it was, read the book! 😀
A quickie excerpt…
Sleep evaded her, but Nia didn’t want to sleep anyway.
Nia was happy to stay in that chair, floating along in that little twilight place between sleep and wakefulness. Zoning out. That’s what she was doing. Zoning out.
But when a fist started pounding on the door, it damn near scared her to death and she shrieked, struggling free of the blanket, ending up in a tangle on the floor.
Something crashed against the door.
She heard somebody call her name.
Confused, her butt hurting, she looked up and stared at the door, shuddering in its casement. Law— ?
Another crash against the door. Damn it, he was going to tear the damn door off the hinges! Swearing, she shoved to her feet and rushed to the door, throwing it open just as he was about to throw himself against it a fourth time.
“Damn it, are you insane?” she snapped.
He caught her around the waist, jerking her against him.
Stunned, her head spinning, she stood there, her face pressed against his neck, the scent of him flooding her head. Right when she’d almost caught her breath, he pushed her away and stared down at her. “Are you okay? Why in the hell did you scream?”
Then he was craning her head this way, that way.
The concern in his eyes was doing weird little things to her heart—as was the fact that he’d all but busted the door down because he’d been worried, but still. Scowling, she pulled away from him and smoothed her shirt down, noticing that she was still wearing the wrinkled T-shirt she’d pulled on when she’d called the sheriff’s department.
“I’d been sleeping,” she said. “I…well, I fell out of the chair when you knocked. Guess that’s what you heard.”
“I…oh.” He frowned, shoved a hand through his hair. It was standing up in spikes and tufts, like he’d been doing that a lot lately. He had the grace to look a little abashed, but that faded about three seconds later, replaced by an annoyed look. “I heard you had some company last night.”
She cocked a brow. “Well. That small town gossip really does get around, huh?”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I called the sheriff’s department,” she pointed out.
“Yeah. I’m glad you did. But you could have called me, too.”
Something flashed in his hazel eyes…something that looked like hurt. It made her uncomfortable, she realized. And it made her wish even more that she had called him.
“I wanted to,” she said quietly, unaware she’d been planning to say it until the words were already there, hanging between them. “But I…hell.”
Tired, she pulled away and dropped down on the side of the bed, clasped her hands between her knees. “We still don’t even know what we’re doing together, do we, Law? Other than sex and me waving a gun at you and you trouncing my ass, we have no history.”
“Do we need a history for me to worry about you?”
She looked up, watched as he crossed the floor. He crouched down in front of her, reached up. He cupped her cheek and rubbed his thumb over her lips. “Do we, Nia?”
“No…I don’t guess we do.” He was melting her. Working his way so deep inside her already. How did she handle it? How?
Posted in February 2012, Guest Blogger, M - N Authors on February 27, 2012| 38 Comments »
He knows what goes on in the dark.
She’s got the face of an angel and the body of…well, isn’t that what he’d expect from an exotic dancer? But there’s something about this girl that Johnnie Riggs can’t shake. The former army ranger is hot on the trail of an elusive drug lord—and suddenly very hot under the collar, as well.
Amy’s got her own agenda to pursue: her sister is missing and Amy seems to be the only one who cares. She’ll enlist Johnnie’s help and do her best to ignore her growing attraction to finally get some answers. But when the two trails begin to converge and reveal something even more sinister than they imagined, their mutual desire is the least of their problems. They’ll bring the truth to light…or die trying.
I’ve always loved to travel. I was fortunate to marry a man who enjoyed seeing the world as much as I did…or maybe being adventurous was an unspoken quality I was looking for in a man.
I especially love Europe. I’ve been to England, of course, since back then I was writing historicals set in the Regency and Victorian periods. I’ve also been to France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Chech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Scotland, the Caribbean, and miscellaneous places I can barely recall.
On a cruise we took to Mexico a few years back with twenty-five other authors and six hundred and fifty readers (Wow! Was that fun!), one of the stops we made was in Belize.
I mention this particularly because I used my experiences in Belize when I was writing AGAINST THE NIGHT, my newest AGAINST novel, released the end of February.
Our ship anchored offshore and we took a launch boat to the mainland. We spent the hundred degree, ninety percent humidity day with a couple of our favorite friends, Kathleen and Michael Gear, the anthropologist/archeologists who write the PEOPLE books set 10,000 years ago.
The heat was unbelievable! And unbearable! I had never experienced anything like it and hope I never do again. But the tropical landscape and the people who live there left a lasting imprint on my mind that I was able to use when I was writing AGAINST THE NIGHT.
I did, however, leave out the part about our trip to a non-tourist, locals restaurant where we ordered native food (the Gears insisted, though there was no air conditioning and it must have been a hundred and twenty degrees inside! I’ll pay them back for that someday.)
At any rate, we wanted to eat local cooking so we ordered capybara, a meat and rice dish that tasted pretty good but was spicy and hot, like everything else. The bad news was, it turns out a capybara is the largest rodent in the world! A rat about two feet long!
Oh, yeah. We ate it and never forgot the experience.
So you can see where the adventures you have in life make great fodder for stories.
Lots of authors use a journal. I think it’s a great idea. Or just keep a few photos, anything that reminds you of the experiences you had when you were there. And it doesn’t really matter where you go. Anyplace can bring you excitement, adventure, or just simple insight into a place different from where you live.
Along with the memories I had of Belize, I did research on the country, even used Google Earth to give me a fresh look at the tropical landscape I describe in AGAINST THE NIGHT.
It’s Johnnie Riggs’ story, an ex-Army Ranger turn P.I whose specialty is the underbelly of the city. In a place called the Kitty Cat Club where he’s working on an assignment, Johnnie first spots Angel Fontaine, a petite blond exotic dancer.
From the moment he sees her, Johnnie wants her in his bed. The problem is that Angel Fontaine is really Amy Brewer, a kindergarten teacher from Michigan, a young woman risking her life to find her missing sister, whose job she has taken in the club.
I hope you’ll watch for AGAINST THE NIGHT and that you enjoy it. After that, AGAINST THE SUN, with Jake Cantrell and Sage Dumont, will be out the end of May.
Till then, all best and happy reading. Warmest, Kat
For a chance to win Against the Night (paperback, Kindle, or Nook format) just leave a comment below. Good luck! 😀
*Giveaway is sponsored by the author
Posted in Book Winners, February 2012 on February 26, 2012| 4 Comments »
wins the Taking A Shot by Jaci Burton ARC + postcard signed by Jason Vendryes
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wins a digital copy of Danger Zone by Dee J. Adams
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wins Celebrity in Death by J.D. Robb
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wins a pdf copy of Quinn’s Quest by N.J. Walters
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Congrats! To claim your prize, please email Fatin at mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces). You have 48 hours to email before a new name is chosen.
Posted in February 2012, Guest Blogger, Samhain Publishing, W - Z Authors on February 23, 2012| 26 Comments »
Why do we love a series?
Personally, I think it’s the familiarity of going back to visit places and people who are as recognizable to us as our next-door neighbors and friends. Being able to immerse ourselves in a world where we know bad things can and do happen, but there will be retribution and a happily ever after at the end. Sometimes when the world’s gone crazy, it’s a nice escape to visit one of these make-believe worlds.
Like most readers, I have my favorite writers and I am thrilled when they start a new series. (Nora Roberts, Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Laurann Dohner immediately come to mind.) I know I’m going to be treated to some wonderful reads for as long as the series last. Some series are finite—a trilogy or quartet—while others go on indefinitely. It depends on the author and the world they are creating. I’ve done both. I have the Project Alpha series and the Spells, Secrets & Seductions series, and I knew both would be a trilogy going in. But other series, like my Jamesville, Dalakis Passion, Tapestries and the Legacy series have had more books and most are still ongoing.
The same reasons I love series are also the same reasons I love to write them. In fact, I can’t seem to not write them. Every time I start to write a book, before I’m done I’m already thinking about one or more of the other characters and I know they have to have their story told. That’s what happened when I wrote Alexandra’s Legacy. I knew long before I’d finished that it would be a series. What surprised me was the books I wrote weren’t about the characters I thought I would.
After the first book, I thought the series would focus mostly on the Wolf Creek Pack, but it quickly became apparent to me that the Haven Pack in Chicago was demanding their story be told. I couldn’t resist. And while Legacy Found takes the reader back to Wolf Creek, the rest of the books in the series take place in Chicago.
Quinn’s Quest is the fourth book, and while it can be read as a stand-alone book, readers will recognize characters from past books, and an ongoing mystery that’s threaded through several of them. Watch for Finding Chrissten and Damek’s Redemption, books 5 & 6 in the series later in 2012.
Blurb:
Legacy, Book 4
Kidnapped and held in a crazy doctor’s underground laboratory, Bethany Morris only manages to escape because Chrissten, one of her fellow abductees, creates an opportunity—by shifting into a werewolf.
Bethany’s desperate for help, but who’ll believe her story? The police? That’ll just buy her a one-way ticket to a padded room—because here’s the kicker: she’s discovered she’s a half-breed werewolf. Her only hope is to find Chrissten’s brother.
Quinn Lawton’s long, grinding search for his missing twin has turned up nothing…until Bethany rekindles his hope. Something else catches flame too—her heat cycle and a searing attraction branded with the word mate. Yet with so much blood on his hands, any future he might offer is already tainted beyond redemption.
Desperate for Quinn’s touch alone, Bethany has no choice but to take Quinn up on his offer to quell her terrifying need, no strings attached. And hope that as the search for Chrissten intensifies, the battle with their personal demons doesn’t destroy their razor-thin chance at forever.
http://store.samhainpublishing.com/quinns-quest-p-6656.html
And on another series note, I also have another Tapestries book releasing in 2012 from Ellora’s Cave. Watch for Fabric of Fate coming soon.
What are some of your favorite series?
N.J. has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.
Visit me at:
Website: http://www.njwalters.com
Blog: http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awakeningdesires/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Nj-Walters/714113604
For a chance to win a PDF copy of Quinn’s Quest, leave a comment below answering N.J.’s question. Good luck!
Posted in Berkley, Book Reviews, February 2012, Paranormal Romance on February 22, 2012| 11 Comments »
As a second daughter, Grace Andreas never had to worry about the intrigues of the Elder Races. But when her sister, Petra, and Petra’s husband are both killed, Grace inherits the Power and responsibilities of the Oracle of Louisville, as well as her sister’s two young children – neither of which she is prepared for.
Yet, she is not alone. Khalil, Demonkind and Djinn prince of House Marid – driven by his genuine caring for the children – has decided to make himself a part of the household both as their guardian and as an exasperating counterpoint to Grace’s impudence toward the Elder Races.
But when an attempt is made on Grace’s life, she realizes that Khalil is the only one who can protect her – and offer her more than a mortal man…
The review:
How do I write this review without it sounding like a gushy, slightly stalkerish, fangirl squee? After trying to rewrite it half a dozen times, I’ve realized that I can’t. It is what it is; I’m embracing my inner fangirl.
Dear Ms. Harrison,
Last year, I fell in love with Dragon Bound. I bought and read the next installments in the Elder Race series on release day and while I enjoyed them, none of them came close to my love for Dragos and Pia. And then, oh happy day, an ARC of Oracle’s Moon arrived in my mailbox. Khalil intrigued me when I read about him in previous books and by the end of chapter 3, he owned me. His adorable confusion with why Grace acts the way she does and his total devotion to keeping the children safe totally melted me.
As the book progressed, I saw a side of Khalil I wasn’t expecting. He wasn’t a centuries old Djinn bored with life, he was desperate to experience the new feelings Grace and the children gave him. The unconditional love of the children while he still felt like he failed his own child, his curiosity and delight in feeling sensations as a human would. Watching a Djinn go on his first date was both touching and hilarious. And the sex scenes…ohmygod. Khalil was my first Djinn hero but if they all have that kind of mad skill, I’ve obviously been missing out.
I can’t leave Grace out of my letter of love. So strong, so flawed, and so realistically human. Grace and Khalil together were just perfect. Struggling to understand each other, willing to sacrifice anything to keep the other safe and happy, and Khalil’s reaction when Grace is in danger? I can’t say much since it is a huge spoiler but that was the moment when I declared Khalil to be my favorite hero. Ever.
In conclusion, thank you for giving me my new book boyfriend. He’s my #1 and I promise to keep him safe and revisit him frequently.
Sincerely,
The Unexpected Fangirl
My favorite quote from Khalil:
Not everything that happened was a disaster. You had fun up to a certain point. You laughed and were happy. I was watching you. I understand the stories your face tells so much better than I did before. I know what your happiness looks like now.
Posted in February 2012, Giveaway, Q- R Authors on February 21, 2012| 58 Comments »
Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she’s managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash celebrating The Icove Agenda, a film based on one of her famous cases. It’s a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody—drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director’s luxury building.
Talented but rude, and widely disliked, K. T. Harris had made an embarrassing scene during dinner. Now she’s at the center of a crime scene—and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster, to step into the role she was born to play: cop.
For a chance to win a hardcover copy of Celebrity in Death, just leave a comment below. The winner will be drawn on Sunday. Good luck!
*Giveaway sponsored by Novel Thoughts
Posted in A - B Authors, Carina Press, February 2012, Guest Blogger on February 20, 2012| 58 Comments »
In her ten-year career as a stuntwoman, Ellie Morgan has experienced her share of thrills. None compares to the rush of being behind the wheel of a race car for her latest movie shoot. Certain she was born to race, Ellie’s ready to shift gears—but a secret from her past holds her back.
Quinn Reynolds is tired of being in the driver’s seat of his family’s company, Formula Racing Design. He’s ready to sell—if he can get his co-owner and brother, Mac, to agree. Quinn’s not sure what he wants to do with his future, but almost as soon as he meets Ellie, he knows he wants her to be part of it.
Though Ellie tries to resist her attraction to the charming businessman, she’s quickly in danger of losing her heart. But after narrowly escaping “accidents” both on and off the set, it becomes clear that getting involved with Quinn could be downright deadly…
*Giveaway sponsored by the author
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