Kate Angell Guest Blog and Giveaway

There’s a place where the ocean meets the shore, where kicking off your shoes and baring some skin is as natural as sneaking under the boardwalk for an ice cream cone and stollen kisses.

But life isn’t all beach for Shaye Cates, even if her idea of an office is a shady umbrella at the water’s edge, equipped with cell phone and lap top.

Trace Saunders is her upstanding, button-down albeit handsome nemesis. He thinks only of business.

A century-old feud has separated their families. Yet a volleyball tournament and kids’ baseball games draw them together. Beneath the twinkling lights of the ferris wheel, the magic of sea and sand soon sweep away their rivalry.

Suddenly it’s summertime…and the lovin’ is easy.

 

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I appreciate the opportunity to blog today. May 1^st was the release of Sweet Spot, the final book in the Richmond Rogues’ Baseball Series. May 29^th is the publication date for the first book in my new Barefoot William Series. It’s bittersweet. Out with the old and in with the new.

 

I think an author should end a series on a high note. Over the past five years the Rogues became ‘my team’. The guys had a great run. I loved the players and did my best to find each one a worthy heroine. Psycho McMillan was my favorite character. He was a wild man and very vivid in my mind. The team became as real to me as the Cubs, Yankees or Red Sox. I may do a novella down the road, but I’ve no immediate plans for a second generation of ballplayers.

 

Now I move on to No Tan Lines. First you had the Capulets and Montagues, then the Hatfields and McCoys, and now there’s the Cates and Saunders of Barefoot William, a fictitious beachside town in Florida. The Cates and Saunders live at the opposite ends of a boardwalk in cold disdain over a hundred year old feud.

 

Shaye Cates is a natural beauty, happiest in shorts and flip-flops. She runs her family’s faltering business from under an umbrella on the beach. Trace Saunders is rarely seen without a suit as he manages a dignified and profitable real estate empire in a traditional office.

 

A volleyball tournament that straddles both sides of the beach forces them to work together, and instant sizzle leads to eventual romance, despite the disapproval of both families.

 

I’d like to give away a $25.00 Amazon digital gift card in a random drawing. Fatin will notify me as to the winner.  Happy Summer Reading, Everyone!

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To find out more about Kate Angell and her books, visit www.kateangell.com. And just leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. Good luck! 😀

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New Releases: May 29, 2012

This week’s new releases! Clicking on the covers will take you to the book’s Amazon page. Happy shopping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Define Romance Novel, Please by Paula Paul

What, exactly, is a romance novel?

I remember that section in the English Lit text book in high school that was called “The Romantic Period.” Romantic novels, the text books said, were associated with wild nature, free thinking, resistance to rationalism.

I have to confess that even back then, that’s not what I thought a romance novel was. I can still remember how surprised I was that Edgar Allen Poe was considered a writer of romantic novels. A romance novel to me was a love story and it had the classic formula of boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy and girl reconcile and live happily ever after.

I know, I know, there’s more to it than that. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it, right?

My newest novel, Sins of the Empress, certainly doesn’t follow that formula, but it is, nevertheless, what I consider a very romantic novel. It’s the fictionalized story of Catherine the Great of Russia. It is set in the lavish courts and stark battlefields of eighteenth century Russia and Germany, full of political intrigue, love, and betrayal. Of course there’s sex, after all that’s the first thing many people associate with Catherine, but, like my original perception of romance novels, there was more to her than that. The story is based on exhaustive research not only of Catherine, but of Russia, the books she read, and the people with whom she associated.

In the novel, you’ll see her growth from a very naïve German girl to the most powerful woman in Europe. She had to learn to think for herself, break some rules, and learn to play a man’s game along the way.

Here’s the way Catherine perceives it in an excerpt from the book:

 

I was on my way to depose Peter on the eighteenth anniversary of the day I was officially betrothed to him.  Once again I remembered the young girl I had been, the one who was so eager to understand him and to please him, so eager to be Russian.  I had to acknowledge that girl was gone forever.  I didn’t mourn her passing.  Somehow I had always known that she was destined to become what I had become.  Now that the moment had arrived, however, I couldn’t help but be saddened by what the journey had entailed, what it had inevitably done to Peter.  No, I didn’t mourn her passing, but I did miss her innocence.

 

Peter III, the heir to the Russian throne and the man Catherine was chosen to marry made life difficult for her. He was both emotionally and physically immature. Modern researchers now say that was probably caused by the fact that he began heavy consumption of alcohol at approximately the age of nine. Here’s another excerpt and an example of their interaction. Peter is a grown young man, and Catherine is approximately sixteen and being pressured to produce an heir.

 

“Why do you not take me as your wife?” I asked.

       

“What a silly thing to say,” he said without looking up from playing with his toy soldiers which he’d brought with him to bed. “I took you as my wife months ago at that long ceremony in the cathedral.”

       

“I am speaking of the physical sense of things.”

       

He gave me a puzzled look.

       

“We should join our bodies and produce a child. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

       

His expression changed from puzzlement to terror.

       

I reached under the covers and took his small, withered penis into my hand. “I want you to put this inside me here,” I said pointing to my vagina. 

“When you do that and release your seed, that is what produces a baby.”

       

He hastily pulled himself away from me and got out of bed. “You are disgusting!” He left my bedchamber without noticing that he had knocked several of his toy soldiers to the floor.

 

Catherine took many lovers after that, not only because she was pressured to produce an heir but because she was seeking love and affection. She found it in more than one of her lovers. The people of Russia were less shocked by her romantic exploits, however, than they were by the fact that she started schools to educate women, that she had intellectual discourses with the likes of Voltaire, that she espoused doing away with serfdom, that she took it upon herself to rewrite all the laws of Russia to bring it into the modern era of eighteenth century Europe.

Sins of the Empress is the story of a woman of passion who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. That’s what I call a romance novel.

 

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To find out more about Paula Paul and her books, visit www.paulapaul.net. And for a chance to win Sins of The Empress, just leave a comment below. Giveaway open to U.S/Canada only.

 

*Giveaway sponsored by the author

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Winners!

Felicia M. Ciaudelli

wins Darkest Highlander by Donna Grant

*

Soph S.

wins Lucky In Love by Jill Shalvis

*

June M.

wins Lethal Rider by Larissa Ione

*

laurieg72

wins Endless Heart by Emma Lang

*

Congrats! To claim your prize, please email mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces). You have 48 hours to email before a new name is chosen.

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The Best Books You’re Not Reading – The Edge of Courage by Elaine Levine

The Best Books You’re Not Reading is a new feature at Novels Thoughts. Long ago, TV Guide had The Best Shows You’re Not Watching, where they would highlight great shows that weren’t high in the ratings. We wanted to do something similar. We’ll be spotlighting books that we love but haven’t seen a lot of buzz about in Romance Land.

Our first spotlight is on The Edge of Courage (Red Team, Book 1) by Elaine Levine.

I read this book this week and it absolutely blew me away. Rocco Silas has spent the last 7 years undercover in Afghanistan. An explosion sent him back home a shattered man with memory loss and PTSD. When the book starts, he is in a homeless shelter after being discharge from Walter Reed. His nightmares and hallucinations make it impossible for him to stay around that many people and he ends up living in his truck until his best friend and Red Team handler Kit calls him and asks Rocco to help his little sister Mandy at her therapeutic riding center. Strange things are happening there and she is currently without a handyman.

Rocco broke my heart. He is so incredibly broken and his flashbacks are so realistically written that it hurt to read them. He is determined to beat the PTSD so he can go back to Afghanistan to find his son, whom everyone else believes died in the explosion. Mandy is unaware of his plans but is determined to help him heal. As Rocco and Mandy grow closer, the trust he places in her is beautiful. He is terrified of touch, but allows hers. When he has a hallucination, if Mandy doesn’t see what he sees, then he can logically know it’s not real and fight to find his way out of it. And when danger shows up at her riding center, he makes it clear that they will have to go through him to get to the woman that has become his everything.

The suspense plot was good but that wasn’t what made this such an amazing read for me. The romance was front and center, with emotion practically dripping from the page. I haven’t enjoyed a romantic suspense this much in a long time and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

As a bonus, it is only 99 cents right now. Less than a buck for a book I would have happily paid hardcover price for. It really was that good 😀

Author’s website:

www.elainelevine.com

Order:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

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An Endless Romantic by Emma Lang

She’s learning to live. He’s forgotten how. Love will be their teacher.

Lettie Brown has lived in the shadow of violence. After escaping her brutal past, she’s finally at home in Forestville, Wyoming, where she would live a normal life—if she knew how. She’s content working at The Blue Plate and printing the town newspaper, if not happy. Then a stranger stumbles into her world and turns everything upside down.

Shane Murphy is a shell of a man, destroyed by the aftermath of the war, his personal tragedies and a penchant for cheap whiskey. When he lands, literally, on Lettie’s feet, his future takes a hard right turn.

As they fumble through a relationship that should not have been, a deep love takes root, one that cannot be denied. Together they discover a bond as unbreakable as steel and as undeniable as life itself—until the past rears its ugly head and threatens the happiness they’ve found in each other.

 

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One of my steadfast qualities is that I’m a romantic. Whether it’s a failing or a a strength depends on the day. LOL. I lovelovelove a happy ending. When I watch a movie or read a book without the HEA, I’m so disappointed I don’t want to ever see/read it again.

 

This is likely the reason I began to write romance novels. In fact I’m quite sure of it. When I was frustrated by books I didn’t enjoy reading, I thought to myself “I can write better than that.”

 

So I did. 🙂

 

ENDLESS HEART is my 32nd digital release, and my 22nd novel published. That excites me as much as it humbles me. I’m extremely grateful to my publishers, my editors, my agent and most importantly, my readers.

As I write a story, I throw myself into the story headfirst and ENDLESS HEART was no exception. Lettie Brown first appeared in RUTHLESS HEART.

 

She’s a hard-ass who rarely bends and never seems to break. In RESTLESS HEART, she stepped further into the spotlight and let me see who she truly was.

 

She’s a survivor, someone who has endured and emerged on the other side. Yet she is bitter, lonely and oh so unhappy. She is fiercely loyal to Angeline and the Gundersons, giving everything to protect them.

She needed her own story. I don’t think I ever wrote a heroine who was as damaged as Lettie. She fought me until I found Shane Murphy, a man who was farther down into the darkness than she was.

 

Shane, oh Shane, a man who was damaged by war, by his own decisions and his own guilt. He was the perfect man for for Lettie because he needed her.

ENDLESS HEART is the third of the Heart series book. An emotional, intense book that led me on a journey. When I read it now, I still cry.

 

What does that all mean? I think we all know people who feel inadequate, who fight with their self-esteem, and never quite reach the point where they can forgive themselves. Lettie and Shane were such people until they found each other.

 

The dedication to the book is as follows…

 

This book is dedicated to all of us who have made mistakes, who have felt the pain of our own shortcomings and the pinch of being unable to forgive ourselves. It ís not who we were or what we did, it ís who we are and what we do.

 

I hope y’all enjoy ENDLESS HEART, and go on a journey to forgiveness, redemption and a deep love that could only be formed in its purest form. And yes, there is a happy ever after that left me feeling as though I had triumphed over adversity myself. It’s like walking out into a spring rain and raising your face to the sky. Life and love always find a way.

 

Order links:

Samhain

Amazon

B&N

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To find out more about Emma Lang, visit her website at www.bethwilliamson.com. And for a chance to win a digital copy of Endless Heart, just leave a comment below. The winner will be drawn on Sunday.

 

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#^@% THAT! by Larissa Ione

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

Thanatos, the most deadly Horseman of the Apocalypse, has endured thousands of years of celibacy to prevent the end of days. But just one night with the wickedly sexy Aegis Guardian, Regan Cooper, shatters centuries of resolve. Yet their passion comes with a price. And Thanatos must face a truth more terrifying than an apocalypse-he’s about to become a father.

Demon-slayer Regan Matthews never imagined herself the maternal type, but with the fate of the world hanging in the balance she had no choice but to seduce Thanatos and bear his child. Now, as the final battle draws closer and his rage at being betrayed is overshadowed by an undeniable passion for the mother of his child, Thanatos has a life-shattering realization: To save the world, he must sacrifice the only thing he’s ever wanted-a family.

 

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#^@% THAT!

 

Ah…curse words. They add so much to a scene, don’t they? Or, wait…do they?

 

I often hear readers object to harsh language in the romance novels they read, and I’ve gotten my fair share of email from angry readers who take me to task for using a lot (admittedly, a LOT) of curse words in my books. They say that the words are unnecessary. I even had one person who emailed me to say that by using a certain word, I was disrespecting my readers.

 

I #^@%ing disagree. Heh.

 

See, I decided a long time ago that I would not water down my stories or my voice in any way. If I’ve got a tough, angry character, in a gritty, dark world, and he’s just found out that everyone he loves has been captured and tortured, he’s not going to say, “Oh…darn. Those jerks!” THAT would be disrespecting my readers.

 

I write gritty, dark stories that feature military men, demon-slayers, vampires, werewolves, and demons. These are people who don’t say “golly gee and darn.” I use real-world language, because anything else wouldn’t ring true. My readers deserve better than diluted language.

 

So for those of you who like hot, lethal men who don’t hold back with their language — or their desires — do I have a book for you!

 

Lethal Rider, the third book in the Lords of Deliverance series (and the 8th in the Demonica series) has just released. In this book, events that took root all the way back in Pleasure Unbound (Demonica book #1,) will come full circle. There are apocalyptic events, huge revelations, and twists that will make your jaw drop (I hope!) There’s also lots of curse words, cuz hello…it’s the end of the world!

 

Maybe.

 

You’ll have to read to find out. 🙂

 

Hope you enjoy Thanatos and Regan’s story!

 

www.larissaione.com

 

Order:

Amazon

B&N

 

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For a chance to win a print copy of Lethal Rider by Larissa Ione, just leave a comment below. The winner will be drawn on Sunday. Good luck! 😀

 

*Giveaway provided by Novel Thoughts

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Legends and Myths by Donna Grant

I grew up watching movies like Clash of the Titans, BeastMaster, and Highlander (one of my favorites!) so it was no wonder when I began writing that myths and legends worked their way into my stories.

Every culture has hundreds of legends and millions of myths, and Scotland has more than some.  The great thing about writing fiction is that I can add any of these myths and legends into a story.  And some I just make up.

In MIDNIGHT’S MASTER, the first book in my Dark Warriors series (continuation of the Dark Sword series), the series uses its own myth and legend.  When I had the first kernel of an idea for the series, I knew I would need something substantial for a legend.  Since the series takes place in Scotland, it opened up many possibilities.  After all, Britain itself is steeped in magic and lore.

I admit, there is something different about Scotland.  You can feel it upon the land, smell it in the air.  Is it magic or just the history of the land?  I like to think its magic. J

With primeval gods trapped inside my Highlanders who happen to fall in love with Druids, I realized I could take my mythology back hundreds of years.

Rome, as we know, invaded and conquered much of Britain.  But not Scotland.  Why is that?  Is it because of the Celts?  Do we believe anything written in that history since it was written by Rome?

So, that got me thinking.  What if Rome wasn’t able to conquer Scotland not just because of the Celts, but because of the Druids as well?  What if those Druids used their magic to help the Celts in ways no one could imagine?  And what if that’s the real reason Rome left Britain, never to return.

Those questions gave me the legend I needed that it was the magic of the Druids who helped the Celts push Rome out once and for all.  That mythology spawned the Dark Sword/Dark Warriors series.

But as I’ve mentioned above, my Dark Sword series is continuing on as Dark Warriors.  Why, you may ask?  Well, magic is the basis for the series, and it’s that magic that helps propel my Highlanders into modern day Scotland where the evil has gained and advantage, and my medieval heroes learn about the modern world – and the modern women.

A MYSTERY OUT OF TIME

Gwynn Austin has no idea why her father has disappeared on a mysterious trip to Scotland.  When she goes on a desperate mission to search for him she finds more than she bargains for in a ruggedly handsome, wickedly exciting Highlander who exudes danger and mystery.  And when she discovers her own link to Scotland she’ll have to trust her heart to help lead her…

A LEGEND IN THE FLESH

Propelled through time by powerful Druid magic, Logan Hamilton uses his immortality and powers of the god inside him to help prevent the awakening of an ancient evil in the modern world.  He never expects to find help in the form of a beautiful, alluring, and all too temping woman whose passion and strength matches his own.  Together, Logan and Gwynn must fight for their love – before a demon from the past destroys them both…

I’ll be giving away a signed copy of DARKEST HIGHLANDER to a commenter. So talk to me.   😀

To find out more about me, read more about the Dark Sword series, see pics of the Warriors, take the quiz, download wallpaper, or search characters please visit my website at www.donnagrant.com.

hugs,

D

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Winners!

reginamayross

wins Edge of Light by Cynthia Justlin

*

Charlie, bn100, and Mimmi

wins Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry

*

Maria S

wins Ten Beach Road by Wendy Wax

*

Karen

wins Z: A Novel by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

*

Congrats! To claim your prize, please email mad @ romancereaderatheart.com (without the spaces). You have 48 hours to email before a new name is chosen.

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Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh – Review

The blurb

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past—one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another.

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno…and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both.

 

The review

Tangle of Need had a very different feel than the previous books of this series. It’s not instant love with the hero and heroine fighting an external conflict. Riaz has found his mate but she is already in love with someone else. Adria has been in a relationship with a male that couldn’t accept her for who she was and has no interest in repeating her past mistakes. She knows if she is with Riaz, his heart will always belong to his mate. Adria is still dealing with the pain and guilt of her past relationship when she meets Riaz and Riaz is trying to cope with the anger and grief of a relationship that will never be. Not exactly the setup for hearts and flowers. In fact, many of the scenes were painful to read, especially the ones from Adria’s POV as she begins to fall in love with a man who will never be able to return her feelings.

I loved that the darker areas of this book were mixed in with looks into past characters lives. We get to catch up with Hawk and Sienna and how they are managing to lead the pack after the explosive end of Kiss of Snow. And one of my favorite couples are going to be parents! No, I’m not telling you who. Read the book 😉 We also see more about the Net Mind, the further collapse of the Net, and even glimpses of The Ghost.

The first 3/4 of this book took me a long time to read. I’m not sure why, it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it. It’s just not as faced-paced as some of the others. That all changed toward the last part when nothing short of a natural disaster could have made me stop reading until I got to the end.

As usual, Nalini Singh gave me a world I love to visit, characters I relate to, and a happily ever after I can believe in. Definitely a recommended read.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: May 29, 2012
Format: print and digital
Length: novel

Preorder:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

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