Teaser Tuesday – Wolf Line by Vivian Arend

The Book

 

The Tease

He was trapped. She wasn’t letting go. His wolf rubbed beneath his skin so hard Jared thought he might spontaneously shift, and still his intriguing stranger wouldn’t release his fingers.

He tugged a little harder. She gasped then jerked herself upright and whipped her amazing green eyes off him. Her hands disappeared behind her like a naughty child caught with her fingers in the cookie jar.

Damn, why’d she have to have a boyfriend? She was adorable, and sexy, and his wolf thought she was fascinating. So much to offer, yet so many barriers between them.

The elevator doors slid open and he gestured her out. She fled—the only word for it. He didn’t mind. That meant he got to stare at her ass as she sped down the lush red carpet. Fine. Maybe he couldn’t have her, but he could still be nice. Even women with bedmates liked being treated nice, and being a gentleman could be as much fun as having funky monkey sex.

Almost.

Kinda.

Not really, but oh well.

She stopped before oversized double doors, and he decided it was time to turn on the charm. The “just friends even though you deserve more” charm that left women feeling like a million bucks.

“So, one of the fancy suites. Nice. Bet it’s got more room than my two-by-four space.”

Keri knocked before answering. “Probably more room than yours, mine and twenty staff quarters shoved together.”

She talked to the floor. He examined the area by her feet. Nothing there.

Okay…

There was no response to her second knock either, so she pulled a pass card from her pocket and let them in. Jared glanced around in appreciation. Not only luxurious, the place was bright with sunlight. “Sweet. I love the windows. Hate the tiny things downstairs. I’d rather rig a hammock on the deck and sleep under the stairs than stay trapped in that lower berth.”

Keri nodded. “I hear you. My room is better than yours, but nothing like this.”

He waited. When he’d checked in as required at eleven, Chad had informed him he was on the maintenance crew, then grudgingly found a work belt for him when he admitted to having “forgotten” his at home. Putting Chad’s sigh of disgust aside, since it had been deserved this time, the job placement came as a huge relief. He had to continue with the charade until he found a way off the ship, but if it had turned out his pack mate had been hired to cook, or worse, entertain? Jared would have been shit-outta-luck.

Fixing squeaky doors he could do.

But Keri wasn’t telling him what specifically needed to be done. She was alternating between staring at the floor and sneaking glances at him.

His wolf rumbled again as he caught a peek into her big wide eyes. Yes, damn beast, I get the message. You like her. Down, boy. He and his wolf struggled for dominance in a way he’d never experienced before. Then the wild part inside him retreated—almost pouting—into the corner.

Being a wolf had never been so weird.

 

The Blurb

nto the best-laid plans a little chaos must fall…

Jared’s not sure how his quiet morning coffee near the harbour ended with him on a cruise ship impersonating one of his pack mates. Well, it might have something to do with a woman, but who can blame him? The female of the species was made to love, and he’s more than willing to share his considerable skills in that area. Especially since he figures the chances of meeting his own one-and-only are slim.

Keri Smith is positive the last-minute recruit sneaking aboard the Arctic Wolf Cruise Lines tour is her mate. Ix-nay on confirming that, though, at least for the next ten days. She’s promised her best friend to be overall troubleshooter for the shifter-only cruise. Getting tangled up in mating lust would reduce her skills to nil. Avoidance of the sexy wolf for the duration of the cruise, followed by jumping his bones, seems the logical solution.

But when libidos are on the line, “logic” and “wolves” don’t go together. Throw in suspicions of wrongdoing, and these two virtual strangers will need a lot more than luck to find their way through to forever.

Warning: Really? You need to be warned about the hot nookie and sarcasm? Yeah, it’s in here. Also colourful cat shifters, lupine royalty, and wild adventures in cabins like you’ve never seen before.

 

Available June 12, 2012

www.vivianarend.com

 

Preorder:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Samhain

Read Full Post »

Winners, winners, and more winners!

One Summer by David Baldacci winners

 

Kathleen O

booksaver

Jennie Reese

Maria D.

Eileen

*

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas winners

 

Kaetrin

Dina

Stacy S

blodeuedd

ladymilano

*

Reader Rally Winners

 

Renee B wins Bride By Mistake by Anne Gracie

Sammy James wins Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey

Ridgetb wins Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian

Charli Denae wins If You See Her by Shiloh Walker

*

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.

Read Full Post »

Cover Goodness: Never Seduce A Scot by Maya Banks

September 25, 2012

www.mayabanks.com

Read Full Post »

Q&A with Lorraine Heath

Three young heirs, imprisoned by an unscrupulous uncle, escaped—to the sea, to the streets, to faraway battle—awaiting the day when they would return to reclaim their birthright.

Sebastian Easton always vowed he would avenge his stolen youth and title. Now back in London, the rightful Duke of Keswick—returning from battle a wounded, hardened, changed man—cannot forget the brave girl who once rescued him and his brothers from certain death.

Lady Mary Wynne-Jones paid dearly for helping the imprisoned young Lords of Pembrook, and she remembers well the promise she made to Sebastian all those years ago: to meet him once more in the abbey ruins where they shared a bold, forbidden kiss. While Mary is betrothed now to another, a friendship forged with dark secrets cannot be ignored. Unexpected passion soon burns dangerously between them, tempting Sebastian to abandon his quest for retribution to fight for a love that could once again set him free.

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

An Interview with Lorraine Heath

Questions Provided by Sebastian Easton, the Duke of Keswick

Keswick: Hmm. We’ll let’s see here. Where to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. So where did this premise for the Lost Lords of Pembrook come from? Why lock my brothers and me in a cold, dark tower?

LH: I have always been fascinated by the story of the two young princes locked in the Tower of London by their uncle Richard III and never seen again. Were they killed? Did they escape? Did they get sent away? No one knows, even though bones were found years later in a box beneath some stairs. I thought it would be fun to give you and your brothers a similar story. It would give you the opportunity to experience life very differently than you would have had you been given no challenges to overcome. You would be harsher than the typical lord. You would be bolder, mentally stronger. Confident. You defied death after all—twice.

Keswick: But I returned from war hideously scarred. Why would any woman want me?

LH: I was brought up to believe that it’s what’s inside a person that is more important. The outer shell is just that—a shell.

Keswick: But I had such a handsome shell before you had your way with it. And you know as well as I that the outer scars are nothing compared with the inner ones. They’ll only heal once Pembrook is back in my possession. You didn’t make that such an easy task.

LH: But where is the fun in the easy path? You want the readers to care about your journey, to keep turning the pages don’t you?

Keswick: I’m not as concerned about me as I am about Mary. You weren’t very nice to her, you know? Not certain I can forgive you for sending her to a nunnery.

LH: I didn’t. Her father did. And if he hadn’t, don’t you think some lord would have snatched her up by the time she was nineteen? Before you returned to England?

Keswick: Sigh. Yes. She’s so lovely. I could hardly take my eye off her the first night when I disrupted my uncle’s ball. I wanted to take her in my arms, even then, but reclaiming Pembrook had priority.

LH: Should it have?

Keswick: It’s my heritage. It belongs to me.

LH: I have to admit that I’ve always been fascinated by the nobility’s devotion to the past and to duty. I’m so enjoying watching Downton Abbey.

Keswick: What’s Downtown Abbey?

LH: Sorry. After your time. Let’s get back to you. What’s your favorite memory of Mary?

Keswick: Every memory of her is my favorite.

LH: Pick one.

Keswick: If I must, it would be when she first kissed me at the abbey ruins when we were children. So boldly. (Grins, gets a faraway look in his eyes.)

LH: Keswick?

Keswick: Hmm?

LH: The interview?

Keswick: Oh, right. I truly appreciate the opportunity to have a word. I know there are many people—writers, readers, booksellers, librarians—who believe you to be a lovely person. I, however, have a bit of a problem with that perception of you. I’m not certain you’re nice at all. You gave me an uncle who wishes me dead. You separated me from my brothers for twelve years. You sent me to war where I was maimed on the battlefield. You—

LH: Gave you a happy ending. You needed to deserve it.

Keswick: Ah, well, when you put it that way, I suppose I have no right to complain.

LH: None at all.

Keswick will be happy to answer any questions that you might have. We will give away an amazon or B&N $20 gift card to one lucky poster.

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

To find out more about The Lost Lords of Pembrook, visit www.lorraineheath.com. And remember to leave a question for a chance to win. Good luck!

 

*Giveaway sponsored by the author

Read Full Post »

Teaser Tuesday: Dire Warning by Stephanie Tyler

The Book

The Tease

He turned right before he got to the front door of the bar and surveyed his wolves, warning, “Try not to draw attention to yourselves.”

“Why do you look at me when you say that?” Vice asked as he reached for the door.

“Gee, can’t guess,” Jinx muttered. “Just listen to your king.”

If Vice didn’t, Rifter knew it wasn’t his fault. The man was built for vice. All of them were wrapped inside his body, ruling him. Each Dire had a different ability that could easily lead their wolves to destruction. Vice tried to keep a leash on his, and when he couldn’t, his fellow Dires did it for him.

“Just be careful—this bar’s a dive,” Vice told them. “There are some crazy-assed motherfuckers who hang out here.”

With that, he pushed open the door to the dark interior and voices rang across the bar at once, shouting, “Vice!”

“And that’s why I’m always looking at you,” Rifter said to the wolf with the spiked blond hair and silver eyes ringed with black.

The Blurb

Immortal and invincible, Rifter is the head of the last surviving pack of Dire Wolves—a band of Alpha brothers charged with protecting the Weres. But now that witches have joined forces with nefarious weretrappers, it’s a perfect storm for double trouble. When the murder of a human points to a wolf, along with the threat of the packs being outted to the world, the Dires fear that something even more dangerous is out there hiding in the dark, something waiting for the right time to show itself.

Available February 7, 2012

www.stephanietyler.com

Read Full Post »

Cindy Gerard – From first sale to Last Man Standing

A deadly mission.
A thirst for revenge.
One headstrong alpha hero
and one daring woman will
settle the score.

Special operative Joe Green has gone vigilante.  His mission, avenge his Black Ops.,Inc. brother’s death during a bloody ambush years ago in Sierra Leone.  He refuses to drag the BOI team or his lover, Stephanie Tompkins, into the hunt for the man responsible, so when he finds himself beaten, starving, and alone after being falsely imprisoned for the murder of a Freetown priest, he knows he’s as good as dead.

Joe meant to protect Stephanie when he walked out on their relationship, but he can’t stop her now from executing his escape.  Breaking him out of prison is the easy part.  After Joe’s explosive theory pans out and his cunning enemy emerges as the front runner for a high level presidential appointment, he and Stephanie must race to derail the traitor’s conspiracy if they are to save their loved ones, the nation and each other.

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

I’m always being asked about my first sale so I thought I’d share the story with you at Novel thoughts today.

My first sale story probably mirrors a lot of authors.  The truth is, it falls into the ‘if I knew then what I know now’ category, I probably wouldn’t be published.  I was so naïve.  Such a baby – rhetorically speaking – and so ignorant of the business.  Long story short, I was in love with LaVryle Spencer’s work – who among us doesn’t love and miss LaVyrle??  Anyway, I’d exhausted her complete library – or so I thought until I discovered there were some older titles that I’d missed.  When I couldn’t get a hold of them, I wrote to her.  That was before the days of e-mail AND e-books (yes, Virginia, there is a pre-web era many of us survived, but just barely).  But I digress. She wrote back.  Told me she wrote to me personally because my letter was so articulate.  In my mind that equated to:  “LaVryle Spencer thinks I’m articulate.  I bet I could write a book.”

You laugh but that’s just how it all started.  I sat down with a portable manual typewriter with a sticky E and set out to write the great American novel.  From that moment on I was a gonner.  Bitten bad by the writing bug.  That manuscript was rejected by the best editors in the business (many of whom I enjoy seeing at RWA nationals these days) but the rejection letters were very encouraging so I kept at it.  I wrote two more books.  Farmed them all over NYC and finally got the call one pretty fall afternoon from an editor with Bantam Doubleday Dell’s now defunct Loveswept line.  My hubby was helping a farmer friend of his in the field so I was home alone.  I was screaming and buzzed with excitement so I hopped in the car, drove out to the farm, bounced across a fall plowed field or two until I found Tom behind the wheel of a HUGE combine picking corn.  He saw me coming, jumped out of the cab and ran to the car.  “Who died?”  he asked frantically.   In his mind, nothing else warranted the beating my poor car was taking.

We still laugh about that day but MAVERICK was my very first title and came out in July of 1991.  Now, wow, 20 years and 46 books later, I still get a little tickle of excitement when I think about that first sale.

And speaking of sales 🙂  LAST MAN STANDING, my January 31, 2012 release will be on the shelves tomorrow!  LMS is the 7^th and final book of my Black Ops Inc series and while I’m sad to see the series end, I’m so excited that I got to tell this story that features Joe Green, a strong, enigmatic alpha male, but even better, it features the most transformative heroine I’ve ever written.   Stephanie Tompkins has always wanted to be something she wasn’t.  Had never had the courage to pursue her dreams but then a set of circumstances force her to become the woman she had always hoped she could be.  Here’s a little snippet of Stephanie’s journey to her true self.

…Talk about defining moments.  Talk about revelations.  Now that she had a moment to take a deep breath, sit back and assess, she was seeing herself in a whole new light – both literally and figuratively when she caught a glimpse of her reflection in a wavy, dust-streaked window pane.

Her hand flew to her throat and she leaned in, looked deeper.  It was her alright.  But a high octane version.  A messy one.  Her clothes were rumpled and damp.  Her usually tidy hair was a wild tumble of damp waves around her shoulders.  And her face … her facial appearance even seemed to have altered.  What she’d always seen as soft, unremarkable features had transformed somehow.  She looked … edgy, she finally decided.  Decisive.  Experienced and lean.

Kick ass, she thought with a ridiculous little smile and embraced the idea.

And she looked, she told herself, like a woman who did not need a man like Joe Green to complete her life, but like a woman who could damn well complete his.

They were getting out of this mess.  She was going to make it happen.  And when they did, Joe Green was going to find out that Stephanie Tompkins was a force to be reckoned with….

There you have it.  A little taste of the new improved Stephanie 🙂 .  I think you’re really going to like Stephanie’s journey.  And I KNOW you’re going to love her and Joe together.

Have questions? I’d love to hear from you.  I’m an open book so ask away to be eligible for a drawing to win an autographed book from my backlist.  BTW: Today is my birthday and I’m delighted to be sharing it with you!

Bio: Cindy Gerard

In addition to numerous industry awards, among them RT’s Reviewer’s Choice award for best Romantic Intrigue and 2 Reader’s Crowns for best Romantic Suspense, New York Times best-selling author Cindy Gerard is also a 5 time Daphne finalist, a 6 time Romance Writers of America Rita finalist and a 2 time RITA winner.

 

She’s currently writing book 1 of her new One-Eyed Jacks series, a spin-off of her NYT best-selling Black Ops, Inc. series for Pocket Books.

 

You can catch up on her news at www.cindygerard.com or on facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cindy-Gerard-New-York-Times-Best-selling-author/167877057439

 

Also available:

All Bodyguard and Black Ops Inc titles

SEAL of My Dreams – a collection of 18 Navy SEAL stories written by some of the hottest romantic suspense authors in the business.  All proceeds from the sale of SEAL of MY Dreams are pledged to Veteran’s Research Corp, a non profit organization supporting medical research for our returning military heroes. Cindy’s story – SEALed With A Kiss – features two Black Ops characters, Luke Coulter and his wife Valentina.

Cindy also contributed a BOI short story (Dying to Score) to the upcoming ITW Thriller 3 collection, Love Is Murder, edited by Sandra Brown and featuring contributions by Lee Child, Allison Brennan and many more.

*Giveaway sponsored by the author

Read Full Post »

Giveaways ending soon

We have four giveaways that are ending this week and I wanted to post a reminder in case anyone missed them. Because, whoa and damn, we’ve had a busy month here.

Ending January 31st

* Moira Rogers’s Post-Apocalyptic Trucker vs Outcast Showdown – Team Outcast

Weigh in on if you are Team Trucker or Team Outcast for a chance to win an ereader. All rules are included in the post.

*Reader Rally – 1/17 – 1/31/2012 Free Books from all participating sites!!

Dozens of blogs are participating. Novel Thoughts is giving away books by Anne Gracie, Shannon Stacey, Lara Adrian, and Shiloh Walker.

*Giveaway: CHRISTMAS EVE AT FRIDAY HARBOR by Lisa Kleypas

5 copies!

*Giveaway: ONE SUMMER by David Baldacci

5 copies!

Read Full Post »

Cover Goodness: The Saint Who Stole My Heart by Stefanie Sloane

 

Available April 24, 2012

Dashiell Matthews, Viscount Carrington, remembers little of Miss Elena Barnes beyond her slight build, mousy character, and bookish ways. Her unavoidable presence at Carrington House would be inconvenient, true, but a woman could hardly prove enough of a distraction to interfere with what was the most important case of Dash’s life—ferreting out the monster who’d murdered a dear friend’s mother many year before.

Dash would, of course, live to regret such an assumption.

As for Elena, a trip to London to retrieve a priceless book is troublesome, though not nearly as much as the feelings the viscount inspires in her. His touch elicits feelings from Elena that she’d only ever read about. Her skin tingles. Lord Hardwicke is as handsome as she remembered—actually, more so as he’d grown into his frame in a rather attractive manner—and as dim as a ha’penny tallow. Or is he? The more time Elena spends with the man, the greater her suspicions grow regarding his intellect and just what he might be up to as they’re thrown together in the search for an individual known only as the Rook.

Can true love save the day? Find out in the exciting and enthralling fourth installment of the Regency Rogues.

Read Full Post »

Cover Goodness: Playing to Win by Jaci Burton

I’m not sure how the Berkley art department does it but they have managed once again to leave me speechless with the cover for Jaci Burton‘s next Play-by-Play novel. Just…damn.

 

Playing to Win

by Jaci Burton

 

Available September 4, 2012

Read Full Post »

Cover Goodness: Archer’s Lady by Moira Rogers

Moira Rogers revealed their newest cover today on twitter and I’m more than a little in love with it. 😀

 

Archer’s Lady

by Moira Rogers

Book #3 in the Bloodhounds series

Release date: July 2012

Read Full Post »