Blog Tour: Bryce Evans

 

Just when Star Johnson thinks her life is starting to move forward and she can finally put the hell of her past behind her, in walk a bear shifter and a wizard who turn her world upside-down. She fights her attraction to both men with all her might, but some things are just impossible to ignore. To make things even more complicated, she discovers that she, along with her sister and brother, are part of a magical trio known as the Powerful Three.

Jansen Vega and Banks Cohen are members of the Unit. They’re smart, strong, and very opinionated. They aren’t used to resistance, so when their destined mate, Star, refuses their attentions, they’re determined to change her mind and have things their way. As the three wind their way on an emotional, passion-filled journey, they find themselves fighting for their lives. An evil vampire is after the Powerful Three, and he is determined to find them at any cost. Jansen, Banks, and Star must find a way to come together despite their differences, if they hope to protect those that they love.

Bryce is giving away a Kindle Fire HD 6 and $100 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky winner that takes the quiz at the back of the book. So one click Destiny of Three today and take the quiz by March 31st for a chance to win.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1EVpLb0
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Bfb4br
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1BEMSTB
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1AxcttY
Amazon AU: http://bit.ly/1b8x6aS
iTunes: http://apple.co/1MBl9pN
Kobo Books: http://bit.ly/18oBPDH

Enjoy an excerpt:

“She sure is hitting that bag hard.” Ashland Wilder glanced over at River with a questioning look on her face. They sat in one of the workout rooms at the lodge, watching as Star worked out her frustrations on the bag. “She looks mad.”

“Yep,” River agreed with her best friend. “I wish Star would just have sex with Banks and Jansen; maybe that would help her with the anger she’s built up. It sure helps me when I need to release some stress.” She snickered, then looked back at her sister pounding the bag. She was proud of Star. Her sister had come a long way since the day they met. She worked out all the time, and she’d started putting on some muscle. It wasn’t enough to make you stop and stare, unless you were a man. Her curves were curvier, and her attitude had changed as well. She liked the way she looked and it showed with her work-out clothes. When she first met her sister, she wouldn’t have dared to wear skimpy shorts and sports bras, but she did now and she looked great in them.

“For some reason that just makes me laugh. It’s true, but it’s funny,” Ash giggled.

“Hey, what are you two laughing at?” Star Johnson stopped punching the bag and looked over at her sister and their friend.

River just waved her sister’s question away and pushed Ash over until they both lay on the floor, laughing until they cried. Once they started laughing they just couldn’t seem to stop, and the more Star pounded on that bag the louder they got.

Star walked over and just stared at the women. “What’s so damn funny?”

“Nothing.” River tried getting up, but fell back down on the floor, still giggling.

Star shook her head, walked back over to the bag and started punching it harder.

“Okay, okay. Please stop.” Ash took a deep breath and lay flat on her back, trying to calm down.

“Uh Oh.” Ash snorted. Both the girls rose up quickly when they heard Banks walk in the room and head straight for Star. “You need to look at what you’re hitting or you’re going to hurt your hand.”

They both watched as Star stopped hitting the bag and tilted her head sideways at him. “What did you just say?”

River watched as Star’s voice became very calm, which should have scared Banks, but he just continued to stare at her. Then he really messed up and moved in closer, invading Star’s space. Banks Cohen was really a good man, but he was like most Alpha males, very bossy. When the call went out to all paranormal groups asking for their best to join a specialized unit, Banks was chosen and sent to Freedom, Colorado to be part of it. He was a six feet, seven inches tall and built like a mountain. It was like watching a movie play out, where the much smaller female decided to stand her ground and face off with the big bad grizzly bear like she wasn’t scared at all. Unfortunately, this movie was playing out right in front of them. To make matters worse, Banks repeated in a patronizing voice, “If you don’t look at what you’re hitting, you’re going to hurt your hand.”

River shook her head and started to get up to intervene. She cringed when Star narrowed her eyes at him, her fists balled up at her sides. Before River could warn him, her sister jumped up and punched Banks in the face. He fell backwards against the table, blood pouring from his nose. He shook his head in confusion.

“You mean like that?” Star bellowed, then quickly walked out of the room.

Ash and River jumped up and hurried over to Banks, who was cussing. He held his nose as the blood poured between his fingers, splattering over his nice blue shirt and the floor. River put her hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“What the hell is Star’s problem? I only told her she needed to look at what she was hitting or she’d hurt herself, and then she punched me in the damn nose.”

“Yeah, we saw that. I guess you could say she was looking at what she was hitting when her fist connected with your nose.” River nudged Ash, who snickered.

“Sorry, Banks,” River added, but she had to purse her lips so she didn’t smile, or she was going to laugh in his face. The bear shifter looked mad enough already.

When he looked at most people, his intense blue eyes sparkled. When he looked at Star, everyone could see the sparks that flared up between them. But Star fought Banks and Jansen at every opportunity.

Other Books in The Love of a Shifter Series

Healing Their Mate ~ Book 2

River Channing is on the run from Vampire Paddock Reed. Finding out that Vampires exist makes River doubt everything she knows in life. In order to stay one step ahead of the vampires, River must travel from one job to another to survive. Driving from state to state, River finds her way to Freedom, Colorado and gets a job at the Meadowland Lodge where she befriends the owners mate Ash Wilder. Being the Detective she is, Ash digs into River’s past and finds out that she is on the run from someone. Finding a newspaper clipping in River’s pocketbook, Ash learns that women have been murdered and drained of all their blood. Ash calls in some help from her Uncle, Vampire Reece Ramsey, and Alpha of the new shifter Unit Jonas Glenn.

One sniff of her scent and the Alpha’s know that River is their mate. When River finds out that the Lodge is owned and operated by the Wilder Pack, she wants to run again. Together they learn that River isn’t just human, but a Healer with magic that can cure the sick and heal the injured. But can her Mates and new friends keep River safe from the vampires who want her blood or will she have to run to save them all.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1BizYZt
B&N: http://bit.ly/1AcBdvf
iBooks: http://apple.co/1AvYTIa

Once Forgotten Twice Loved ~ Book 1


Ashland Peters is a Detective with the New York Police Department. She is sent to a training class at the Meadowland Lodge in Colorado where her childhood friend Werewolf Nash Porters lives and works along with his pack. They’ve been friends since they were six years old and sent to the same orphanage. When they were old enough to leave on their own, Nash received what he had wanted his whole life and Ashland went to follow a dream. Separated for years by distance they finally get the chance to see each other when she is sent to Colorado for training.

Once Ash arrives, she meets sexy werewolf Alpha Larken Wilder who owns the Meadowland Lodge. From the moment Larken sees Ash, he knows she is his mate. However, problems seem to follow Ash and it turns out no different in Colorado, when the Sheriff has a problem with his brother’s mate. It’s the Alpha’s only chance for happiness, but Ash doesn’t know if she is right for the man, she doesn’t want to come between him and his brother.

When young girls are kidnapped from the neighboring packs, Ash’s help is needed. Ash finds herself working with not one Alpha but with a team of them, if they are to save the young girls from a Rogue wolf and his pack. As they solve the mystery, Ash finds answers to questions she’s had her whole life.

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rSAnm3

B&N: http://bit.ly/1rSAnCK

iTunes: http://bit.ly/1w0TBr6

About the Author:Bryce is a mother, a writer, and a wife who loves to escape to the world she built-in the Ashland Pack. She burst onto the publishing scene with a hit in The Trinity. I'm always writing and talking to people who have the same tastes as I do.

I'm a wife to a great hubby and mother to three beautiful children. I love to read books and write about places that come together in my head. I try to write about what I know and usually you will find some law enforcement in my books.

I make strong characters that I want to see succeed in life. I always write a happy ending. I have to guys. I put a lot of tragedy in my books and then give them the much-needed break they need to be successful.

I would love to hear from you. Contact me at: www.bryceevans.webs.com or on Twitter: Bryce__Evans or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BryceEvansAuthor

Fire Above by C.H. Maclean - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. C. H. MacLean will be awarding a $30 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

I love her so much, I'd risk anything.

She and I don't have names. We're just slaves, after all. But our hearts don't care, and we're lucky, we have a chance at a scrap of happiness in our terrible lives. My father is the Queen's pet.

But when my love discovers the lords' newest atrocity, she lashes out, does the unthinkable, and attacks one of them. Her courage is heroic, but now they have stuffed her in prison, getting ready to slaughter her.

With nothing to lose, I dare to dream of a life far from the lords. I fight for our freedom, and escape to the woods with my love. We can do no less than free all of our people in the effort.

Our flight through the woods is only the start of our journey. The lords’ flaming attacks, their deception, the loss of so many of my people—I don't know if I will survive, or if I even want to. But for my love, I will do almost anything, even battle the fire above.

Enjoy an excerpt:

As I entered the village, my heart dropped and my feet turned from trusted friends to tripping enemies. The lord was waiting by my brother's hut. Carry a package. When they’d said from our village, I’d had a feeling. From my brother’s hut, what else could it mean?

I plodded forward, dreading the next moments. It was an honor to be Chosen, right? Father had been Chosen, and look where he was now. Pet slave to the Queen herself.

I watched the lord push open the door and obediently followed her inside. She looked around, wrinkling her nose. It looked like a regular hut to me, with its dirt floor, cooking pit in the center, sleeping mats to one side. Neater than most, in fact. My brother's mate spun as we came in, my nephew on one hip. I saw my niece peep out from the sleeping mats out of the corner of my eye. Behind the lord’s back, I winked at her and tipped my head to get her to go back to hiding. She did.

My brother's mate's brown eyes shone black in the dim light. She flicked her eyes at the lord, and then at me, wide-eyed.

The lord peered at her and said, “That child is Called.”

My brother's mate's face flashed with fear and went slack. I dove toward her, managing to catch my nephew before his head hit the floor. Luckily, I bumped his stiff mother back into the wall instead of forward, so she shouldn’t be too injured. My nephew started screaming, and I couldn't tell if he had an injury or was just scared.

About the Author:

To young C. H. MacLean, books were everything: mind-food, friends, and fun. They gave the shy middle child’s life color and energy. Amazingly, not everyone saw them that way. Seeing a laundry hamper full of books approach her, the librarian scolded C. H. for trying to check them all out. “You'll never read that many before they expire!” C. H. was surprised, having shown great restraint only by keeping a list of books to check out next time. Thoroughly abashed, C. H. waited three whole days after finishing that lot before going back for more.

With an internal world more vivid than the real one, C. H. was chastised for reading in the library instead of going to class. “Neurotic, needs medical help,” the teacher diagnosed. C. H.'s father, a psychologist, just laughed when he heard. “She's just upset because those books are more challenging than her class.” C. H. realized making up stories was just as fun as reading, and harder to get caught doing. So for a while, C. H. crafted stories and characters out of wisps and trinkets, with every toy growing an elaborate personality.

But toys were not mature, and stories weren't respectable for a family of doctors. So C. H. grew up and learned to read serious books and study hard, shelving foolish fantasies for serious work.

Years passed in a black and white blur. Then, unpredictably falling in love all the way to a magical marriage rattled C. H.'s orderly world. A crazy idea slipped in a resulting crack and wouldn't leave. “Write the book you want to read,” it said. “Write? As in, a fantasy novel? But I'm not creative,” C. H. protested. The idea, and C. H.'s spouse, rolled their eyes.

So one day, C. H. started writing. Just to try it, not that it would go anywhere. Big mistake. Decades of pent-up passion started pouring out, making a mess of an orderly life. It only got worse. Soon, stories popped up everywhere- in dreams, while exercising, or out of spite, in the middle of a work meeting. “But it's not important work,” C. H. pleaded weakly. “They are not food, or friends, or...” But it was too late. C. H. had re-discovered that, like books, life should be fun too. Now, writing is a compulsion, and a calling.

C. H. lives in a Pacific Northwest forest with five pets, two kids, one spouse, and absolutely no dragons or elves, faeries, or demons… that are willing to be named, at least.

Website: http://chmaclean.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCHMaclean
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/CH_Maclean
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CHMacLean
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/chmacleanauthor

Buy the book at Amazon.

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Reconciled for Easter by Noelle Adams - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Abigail has been separated from her husband for almost two years. After a marriage that brought her only insecurity, she seeks a life now of peace and independence with their six-year-old daughter. Thomas wants to put their marriage back together, because he liked the wife he used to have, but she never wants to be that person again.

She might need his help with their daughter and start to enjoy his company again, but she just can't trust him with her heart. Even when she discovers that her heart still wants him for a husband.

Enjoy an excerpt:

She looked perfectly respectable for dinner and the symphony for a work function—and nothing like the plain, shy girl she used to be—so she grabbed her purse and headed to the living room.

“Ooh!” Mia squealed at her arrival. “Mommy looks beautiful!”

“Thank you, sweetie.” Abigail ran her hands down her skirt absently, feeling suddenly self-conscious at Thomas’s steady gaze. His face showed no expression, but she knew he missed no detail of her appearance.

“Just in time,” Thomas said, glancing at his watch. “Seven o’clock. I didn’t know you took such long showers.”

Abigail felt her cheeks burning, but she managed not to react in any other way. There was absolutely no way Thomas could know what she’d been thinking about in the shower. “Thanks for coming over early to sit with Mia while I got ready,” she said, pleased when her voice sounded natural.

“Of course.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll be back, but it will be late since we’re going to Dalton.” She glanced outside and saw headlights turning into the driveway of her little bungalow. “That’s Jim. He’s picking me up, and then we’ll pick up the Seymours.”

“I see.” Thomas’s voice was strange, but she didn’t know why.

“All right,” Abigail said in a rush, feeling anxious and self-conscious and at loose ends. “You be good, Mia. Obey your Daddy and go to bed when he says. Eight o’clock.” She said the words with a certain significance to remind Thomas of the girl’s bedtime. “And you can read until nine.”

“I know, Mommy.”

“There are snacks in the kitchen,” Abigail went on. “And I’ll have my phone on vibrate the whole time, so just call me any time if you need me.”

“I know, Abigail,” Thomas said, his mouth twitching up a little.

“Okay.” She glanced down at herself to make sure she had everything she needed. Then she told Mia, “I’ll give you your goodnight kiss now, since you’ll be asleep when I get back.”

She leaned down to kiss Mia, and she was about to leave when Mia said, “You didn’t give Baxter his kiss!”

Abigail hurried back over, flustered by the way Thomas’s eyes never left her face. She kissed Baxter. “All right. You be good and have fun.”

Then she kissed Mia again. “Mommy loves you.”

“I love you, Mommy.”

Rushed and thoughtless, Abigail moved to give Thomas a quick kiss on the lips in sequence. “I’ll be back after midnight probably.”

With a last wave, she left the living room. As she was reaching for the handle of the front door, she heard Mia’s giggle rippling out from the other room.

She paused, wondering what had prompted her daughter to laugh like that.

Then Abigail realized.

She’d just kissed Thomas. On the lips. Without even thinking about it.

With a gasp, Abigail whirled around and took a few steps back, with some sort of half-formed notion to try to explain.

But she caught sight of Thomas and Mia on the couch.

Mia was shaking with merriment, her hands covering her mouth. And Thomas had one finger to his lips as he smiled at his daughter, in the universal signal to keep quiet.

Overwhelmed with confusion, Abigail fled.

It was no big deal. She’d just been in a rush and hadn’t been thinking. Mia probably thought it was funny. She couldn’t let it bother her now.

It had been a really long time since kissing Thomas had been natural.



About the Author: Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.

Website: http://noelle-adams.com/Home_Page.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoelleAdamsAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoelleAdams3
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572847.Noelle_Adams
Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, or Kobo

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Exposed by Rage by Sherrel Lee - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter will be awarded a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour. The author has entered this book into the Kindle Scout program. Please help her out by nominating her here: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/1VT4C9BS6157E. The voters of the winning book will receive a free copy of the book.

He has a dead body. She has the seedy connections. To solve the crime they are forced to work together.

To keep her mother’s reputation from destroying her, Ashley Dix Gibson had to learn at an early age to persevere and tune out the lies, gossip, and the bullies. Detective Michael DeMarco has no desire to team up with a woman with ties to the underbelly of the porn industry but if he wants to solve his case, he has no other options. When Ashley and DeMarco combine their resources to find a brutal killer, sparks of distrust turn into the fires of passion.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Braden broke the silence first. “So the door to the bedroom was open just enough to allow you to take a peek? Nothing looked out of order?”

The silence got to him again.

“So you just walked in last night, went straight to bed,” he sneered. “Didn’t notice anything was wrong.”

“I didn’t pass her door. I didn’t have to. I told your partner the exact same thing thirty minutes ago.”

Braden gave a desperate, evil laugh. I wanted to punch the smirk off his face.

“I was tired. I had the key Jillie sent me. I know where my room is.” Cops are not my favorite people and this one was beginning to get on my nerves. I know the routine. I know they have to ask questions. I would be just as snide and disbelieving if I was the one doing the questioning.

“Braden,” DeMarco, his partner called from the hallway upstairs. “Leave her be. I need you to come up here and make sure Mathews doesn’t miss anything.” I glanced at Braden’s partner, approving his wide shoulders, narrow hips and the ripple of muscles that couldn’t be contained by the suit jacket. Too bad he was with the police, we could have danced dirty and had a few laughs.

Mathews must be the crime tech I’d seen coming in through the kitchen.

About the Author:

Wrangler of a fearsome Yorkiepoo named Rogue (Half Yorkie half Poodle weighing in at a hefty eight pounds). Obsession controlled writer with a passion for making up names and twisting myths.

Sherrel, as the daughter of an Emmy winning cameraman, learned early in life the dark secrets of creating all those incredible fantasy characters for the large and small screen.

Refusing to be crushed at the discovery the monsters, aliens, and Robby the Robot weren't real, Sherrel's imagination soared. She became a SELF-proclaimed voyeur of special-effects and expert at fictional character creation.

Website: http://sherrellee.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sherrellee.valens
Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1E4qlDv
Twitter: @SherrelLeeBooks (Romantic Suspense) @gryphoenix (Urban Fantasy)

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Silk by Chris Karlsen - Review and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Chris will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

What would you do to stay young: Lie, Manipulate..kill?

London-Fall, 1888

The city is in a panic as Jack the Ripper continues his murderous spree. While the Whitechapel police struggle to find him, Detective Inspector Rudyard Bloodstone and his partner are working feverishly to find their own serial killer. The British Museum's beautiful gardens have become a killing ground for young women strangled as they stroll through.

Their investigation has them brushing up against Viscount Everhard, a powerful member of the House of Lords, and a friend to Queen Victoria. When the circumstantial evidence points to him as a suspect, Rudyard must deal with the political blowback, and knows if they are going to go after the viscount, they'd better be right and have proof.

As the body count grows and the public clamor for the detectives to do more, inter-department rivalries complicate the already difficult case.

Silk on the skin—luxurious, luscious..lethal.

Read my review:

I absolutely love Victorian mysteries, so was very excited to have the chance to review SILK by Chris Karlsen. It's the first book in her Bloodstone series.

Detective Inspector Rudyard (Ruddy) Bloodstone are embroiled in another serial killer case as the Whitechapel police are worried about Jack the Ripper. The book is highly unusual, because it begins in the killer's POV with his first, albeit somewhat accidental, killing. From time to time during the book, the author gives us another glimpse into the killer's mind and life, adding another dimension to the story.

You also have the political aspects to the case which add yet another layer as well as getting to see a bit of Ruddy's personal life.

This is a departure from Chris's other books we've reviewed, but no less well-written. Her characters are three-dimensional, fully-fleshed out people with both good and bad points (including the killer). The setting draws you back to Victorian England and, while you are reading the book, you are there. Actually, even after I stopped reading it took me a few minute to re-acclimate myself to the 21st century!

This is definitely a series I'll be putting on my auto-buy list! 5 flowers.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Events of the day and the potential satisfaction of giving Napier a bloody nose dwindled. Questions about the murder crept back into Ruddy's thoughts. Morris joined him at his table in the rear of the pub with a Guinness, the popular beer of choice in hand. “You’ve got the look of a man whose thoughts are a long distance from London.”

“No, sadly my thoughts are fixed here in the city. I’m trying to figure out a clue. Ellis’s roommate said she’d sometimes meet with a well-dressed man, a man of means the victim indicated. They’d meet up at the fountain by the British Museum.”

“Don’t know the spot but then the museum isn’t my cup of tea.”

“Not the point. I’m saying it’s odd. What member of the upper class chooses to stroll through a public garden other than Hyde or Regents, where they can see and be seen by one of their own?”

“I agree the wealthy prefer the parks filled with others of their kind but it doesn’t mean a man can’t enjoy someplace different.”

“We interviewed the guard again. The one that discovered the body walks that half of the building. He told us the majority of their male patrons are natty dressers, but he never saw a man like that loitering by the fountain.”

“My guess is: the man is married and can’t afford to run the risk of being seen by a friend of his wife’s. Or, he might live or work in the area and the spot is convenient.”

“Or, he’s a murderer who’s noticed the victim walking through the park on a regular basis, saw it as an opportunity and cozied up to her.”

Ruddy took another swallow of his ale, mentally debating the merit of each theory. “I don’t think he lives in the area. If so, he’d have cut through the park more and been seen by the guards. Not sure about the married man having a tryst idea."

To Ruddy's way of thinking, if the man was married and looking for a tumble, he’d have met her someplace other than the gardens and at a better hour.

Instinct drew him back to his original sense of the culprit and crime. “I feel like this was a crime of opportunity. I’ve thought it all along and can’t shake the sense.”

“If he was just seeking a victim, then why haven’t you had more murders like this?” Morris asked.

Ruddy downed the rest of his beer and put his tankard on the edge of the table where June would refill it. “Everyone has to start somewhere. She might be number one.”

Enjoy the book video:



About the Author:

I was born and raised in Chicago. My father was a history professor and my mother was, and is, a voracious reader. I grew up with a love of history and books.

My parents also love traveling, a passion they passed onto me. I wanted to see the places I read about, see the land and monuments from the time periods that fascinated me. I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.

I am a retired police detective. I spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two different agencies. My desire to write came in my early teens. After I retired, I decided to pursue that dream. I write two different series. My paranormal romance series is called Knights in Time. My romantic thriller series is Dangerous Waters.

I currently live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband, four rescue dogs and a rescue horse.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4822048.Chris_Karlsen
Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorckarlsen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chriskarlsenwriter
Website: http://chriskarlsen.com/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Karlsen/e/B005HYTQQI
BN Author Page: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/chris-karlsen

Buy the book at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

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The Brothers' Keepers by Matthew Peters - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Matthew Peters will be awarding a $10 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Matthew Peters, here, author of The Brothers’ Keepers and Conversations Among Ruins. I’ve been challenged to share five things you’d probably never guess about me. These can be fun, interesting, edifying or even embarrassing. Hhmm… Let me see.

The first thing that you would probably never guess about me is that I’m a high school dropout. I dropped out of high school at the beginning of my junior year, failing everything, even gym. This was a very difficult time in my life. However, and this is the good news, I went on to enroll in a community college, where I got my A.A. Subsequently, I obtained my B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. So, basically, I’m a high school dropout with a doctorate.

The second thing you would probably never guess about me is that I’m dual diagnosed, meaning I have a mood disorder and chemical dependency. This condition affects 6 out of 100 people. In my case, I have Major Depressive Disorder and alcoholism. These conditions manifested early on and were part of the reason I dropped out of high school. Famous individuals who were dual diagnosed include Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway, Sigmund Freud, and Robin Williams.

The third thing you might not guess about me is that my secret weapons against depression and feeling poorly in general are musicals and Disney movies. This may come as a surprise since the things I write about are pretty heavy. But I’m convinced that it’s impossible to be sad while watching The Sound of Music. And try being down when Cars is on, or Monsters, Inc., or Brave. In fact, my ultimate weapon against depression is Disney World. My girlfriend and I have been twice and we’re going again in the fall of this year. If that place doesn’t put a smile on your face, then I don’t think anything can :-)

The fourth thing you’d probably never guess about me is that I’m addicted to Smarties, the Canadian roll candy. I must have Smarties every day, preferably right after dinner for dessert—three rolls, please. I’ve essentially made this candy a basic food group. I may not get my veggies, but I’ll be darned if I don’t get my Smarties. So Canada, please keep them coming!

Finally, and this is sort of a combination of things, but you might not guess that I love classical music, especially Bach and Beethoven. Yet, despite having a large classical collection (mostly on vinyl), I own just about every recording Iron Maiden and AC/DC ever made. Yes, my musical tastes are quite eclectic. Related to music, I started playing the violin at the age of four, but gave it up when I was thirteen, because I didn’t think it was very cool. This is one of the greatest regrets of my life. But I deal with it by listening to classical music whenever I read and write.

Those are a few things about me that you’d probably never guess. Now it’s your turn. What is one thing about YOU that I would probably never guess? I look forward to hearing from you!

Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, and Jesus’ purported spouse, Mary Magdalene. But what about Jesus’ siblings? What role did they play in early Christianity?

Contemporary Jesuit and renowned religious historian Nicholas Branson is about to find out…and the answer will shake the foundations of the Judeo-Christian world.

It all starts with the murder of a United States Senator in a confessional, and the discovery of a strange religious document among his possessions. At the urging of his FBI friend, Branson joins the investigation. His effort to uncover the truth behind the murder draws him into the search for an eight-hundred-year-old treasure and into a web of ecclesiastical and political intrigue.

Accompanied by a beautiful, sharp-tongued research librarian, Jessica Jones, Branson follows a trail of clues, from the peaks of the awe inspiring French Pyrenees to the caves of war-torn Afghanistan. Along the way, shadowy powerful forces trail the pair, determined to keep safe a secret buried for centuries.

Enjoy an excerpt:

The bus moved up Viadotto and turned right onto Rene. Smells of fried food and burning incense wafted through the open windows of the bus. A left turn brought them to Emilia, past white stone buildings, statues, and street vendors, past the fountains toward the heart of Pisa. The further north they went, the closer they came to the Arno, where a vast migration of darkly-clad figures moved in the opposite direction, southeast toward Rome. It was a black exodus of grief, one of almost unreal proportions; swarms of people with lowered heads and bent postures, heading desperately, slowly, inexorably toward a common ill-fated destination. The dark edges of the black clothes stood out in stark contrast to the gray day that blurred the corners of buildings and churches. Rain fell, blended with human tears, and smudged the scene like a charcoal sketch. Open, dark umbrellas resembled the conical piles of volcanic ash upon which the country was built. On that gray morning Pisa wore a death-mask.

About the Author:

Dual diagnosed* from an early age, Matthew Peters dropped out of high school at sixteen. He went on to obtain an A.A., a B.A. from Vassar College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He has taught various courses in a variety of disciplines throughout North Carolina. He is committed to increasing the awareness and understanding of the dual diagnosed. In addition to The Brothers’ Keepers, he is the author of Conversations Among Ruins, which features a dual diagnosed protagonist. Currently, he is working on a sequel to The Brothers’ Keepers.

*The term dual diagnosed refers to someone suffering from a mood disorder (e.g., depression) and chemical dependency.

Website: http://www.matthewpetersbooks.com/
Blog: http://www.matthewpetersbooks.com/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewPeters65
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.peters.79656

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Desert Blood by Brian Young - Review and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Brian will be awarding a $25 Rogue Phoenix Press Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

The Dolus invasion rolled over the unassuming Kingdom of Larista leaving ghost towns in its wake. It brought death and destruction in abundance and left the people of Larista without their king or his heirs. It left the kingdom reeling with the realization that they weren’t alone on their isolated side of the Maker’s Mountain but instead part of a world that desperately wanted and needed the life giving water they took for granted.

One of the king’s sons, the Prisoner Prince Alexander, is still alive but held captive on the unexplored eastern side of the Maker’s Mountain known as the Wasteland. The man that holds him is the Emperor of the Free Cities, Jameson. His quest for vengeance and conquest has stirred up the other nations of the Wasteland and made them aware of the riches of Larista. Alexander’s lifelong friends, Percival and Maximus must set out on individual journeys to find their friend, their king and themselves. But they will face a litany of foes along their paths. A horde of Beleick soldiers led by the Dictact threaten to sweep over the land sending everything into chaos while the Sisters of Gnaritas and the Death Stalker assassins weave their own intricate schemes for control of the Wasteland and the water that might flow from Larista.

Amongst so many people blood thirsty for power can Alexander find his way to the Maker’s Path or will he succumb to his own demons and find the Wraith’s Den in Oblivion…

Read my review:

This book is the second in the series and, while it would probably be good to read the first one, it wasn't too difficult to get into and follow the storyline. There are a lot of people to keep up with, and it was a little confusing to me to sort out who everyone was in the beginning. However, it didn't take long to get everyone sorted in my head. If I had been familiar with them from the first book, I would probably have had no problem at all.

I will be getting the first book and am waiting the release of the third because I really like Mr. Young's world building. He did a wonderful job of putting me in the world of the Maker. It was full of action and adventure and I can easily see this on the big screen. While I was reading, I could see the action in my head.

You aren't going to get any deep philosophical thinking or angst with this book, but if you are in the mood for an action filled SFF... you could go far worse. 4 flowers.

  Enjoy an excerpt:

He looked around as best he could while keeping his head still. The dark cell he was in didn't have much to offer. He racked his brain, trying to figure out where he was and how he had gotten there. He vaguely remembered an attack and some kind of battle, but the details were blurry. Definitely a concussion.

"I wasn't sure you were going to wake up," a small female voice rose from the shadows.

"I almost wish I hadn't," Mason answered.

"From the way the emperor and his tool, Valiance, treat their prisoners, you would have been better off not waking up," the girl offered.

"That doesn't make any sense." Mason shook his head and immediately regretted it.

"What doesn't make any sense," she asked.

"I'm the...a new lord. I was just rewarded my land as a gift from Jameson."

"You don't have to lie to me, assassin. I hear much of what Jameson hides from others. I know exactly who you are."

Mason strained his neck, trying to look in the direction of the voice. "Why would Jameson let one of his prisoners hear things that shouldn't be shared?"

"Because he is arrogant and because he has no intention of letting either of us speak to anyone again."

"Then he is a fool. I guarantee I will not die rotting in this cell." He got no response from that comment, but he didn't want to let the conversation die. The words were helping him clear his thoughts. "So you know who I am and yet you speak to me? Are you not afraid of an assassin from the Death Stalkers?"

The girl stepped forward just into view of the light coming from the cell door. She was very young and pretty. He didn't expect to see anyone so clean in a prison cell. "I'm the emperor's whore against my will. I have no choice but to let him abuse my body at his pleasure. Death, at your hands, would be welcome."

About the Author: Brian was born in Salem, Oregon, and currently resides in Eugene, Oregon, with his wife, daughter and son. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in English. He squeezes in time for writing in the early hours of the morning and during lunch breaks at work. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Brian-Young/209003422499368 Buy the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

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Heart-Shaped Stone by Arby Corry - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Arby Corry will be awarding $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Probably Don't Know About Arby Corry

Well, my full time occupation is as a radio announcer, disc jockey, if you will. People mistakenly believe that someone like me is the life of the party, vivacious, fun loving, loud and always funny. I’m pretty good at that that always funny part but once I abandon the “air chair” I’m back to my meek little self. I think that’s one of the reasons I was drawn to the radio business. For five hours a day you can be everything you’re not in real life. And, for some reason, I do it well. I’ve worked as an announcer for over twenty years on various formats and the thing I hear most is that I sound happy on air. Not that I’m not happy off air, but cut me off in a parking lot or mess with my kids, and my voice is not a ratings winner, let’s just say.

I’m a “young” grandma. I have a three year old grandson and he’s my little precious. I say motherhood, especially single motherhood as I did for a while, is not for the faint of heart, but grandparenting is all heart. I most highly recommend it.

Although I live in the Pacific Northwest, and have for many years, I’m originally from Southern California. I grew up in a little beach town where if you weren’t on the beach looking at the boys, you were in the water surfing with them. I chose to surf. Looking back on my teenage years I can hardly believe I used to surf giant winter waves in nothing more than my swim team Speedo. If I even stick one big toe in the surf in January now I run for the nearest bonfire. Crazy youth!

I’ve wanted a Border Collie my whole life. A year ago we got our Border Collie puppy and now have no (noticeable) lawn, bits of my house’s exterior disappearing a chunk at a time, much less sleep and a dog with boundless energy. But I got a Border Collie.

My best writing ideas come to me when I’m in my car. In the radio business I’ve had the opportunity to write, and create, hundreds of radio commercials. I’ll be listening to my radio and hear an ad and just tear it apart in my mind. It’s made me a bit of a writing snob and I’ve come to not tolerate bad writing. But my inspiration for writing stories comes when I turn off the noise, sit in traffic, usually, and act out the parts of my characters. What would they say if they were sitting in this traffic? How would that dialogue go? One of the things I pride myself in, and I’ve been told this, is that my characters speak as real people do. Although I’ve written a love story here, I don’t go for the drippy, sweet talk or perfunctory exchanges, I think characters should talk and behave like real people – even if you don’t always like what they’re saying.

Caila, like most dreamers, just wants to be wanted. Unlike most dreamers, she's wanted by the CIA.

When the last decade of thirty-two year old Caila Domenici’s life disappears, destroyed in a car accident, she is forced to begin again. Defying doctor’s orders to slow-go-it, she sets out to navigate the world on her own. It's not going well. Coddled from birth, everything from a bus schedule to how to boil water confounds her. Worse yet, she's about to accept her meddling mother's offer to pay for food and rent. With just a hunch her talents extend beyond that of daughter of privilege, Caila searches for her past. Before she can find it, it finds her. And the handsome azure-eyed stranger who’s saying he knows her is somehow part of it.

Caila always believed there had to be more, but now, on the verge of discovering the truth, she must decide which is worse – never knowing who she really is, or knowing too much.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Reese was being too nice. Something was up - their deep conversation the night before, the bubble bath, the tea, turning down her bed and now breakfast? Caila wasn’t suspicious by nature, and in most cases trusted more than she should, but where Reese was concerned she dropped all pretenses and questioned his every move. He was much too calculating to not see opportunity in everything he did. Caila recognized that in him right away. Her mind was now churning with theories. Why, if he was up to something, would he be so blatant with this sudden kindness? Did he think she would not notice?

Then she imagined the most unexpected thing.

Maybe he wasn’t up to anything at all. Maybe this was another side to the man she detested right from the start. The invader, the man who came to make her life a living hell and push aside her father may not, after all, be the man she believed him to be. But even that theory was short lived. No, she thought, he has a motive.

About the Author:Arby Corry has spent the last twenty-five years in the radio business. Performing every job from radio announcer, to program director, to commercial producer to copy writer, Arby gives voice to characters found just on the other end of the request line. Her debut novel, Heart-Shaped Stone, has received critical acclaim as well as delighting readers with its fresh approach. Arby believes in real characters, with real voices. And while a happy ending is always satisfying, she believes life has other plans. When not on the air or writing her follow-up to Heart-Shaped Stone, Arby enjoys spending time with her husband, children and the great outdoors of the Pacific Northwest.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArbyCorry
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Arby-Corry/e/B00MS6BC4W
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8458501.Arby_Corry

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City of Illusions by Judith Works - Guest Blog and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Judith will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Five Things You Would Probably Not Guess About Judith Works

I have been asked to share five things people would probably not guess about me.

All of us have other lives, whether overtly or just in their dreams. In my dream life I would have had a career as a painter. Sadly I have no talent for such an endeavor, so I had to fall back on art galleries, churches and villas. I am particularly fond of frescoes, those marvelous works decorating interiors in Italy. Whenever I visit the Sistine Chapel I think of Michelangelo lying on rickety scaffolding working away while being egged on by the pope. The very thought of it ensures that I could never have done that, but maybe if my life had been different I could have been one of the Impressionists. Born 200 years too late!

In my actual life in the here and now few of my many acquaintances would guess my crazy experiences. Among them falling in between the subway car and the platform in Rome. The British always say “mind the gap.” I was in a hurry and wasn’t watching what I was doing. The train arrive and I stepped forward but missed with my foot dropping into the space. As I struggled to get out the other foot went in. Thank God other passengers pulled me out and the only result was blood and embarrassment.

Another experience that scared me out of my wits was a short flight from Dar-es-Salaam to Zanzibar. We trekked out to the airport early on a rainy morning to find the tiny four-passenger plane parked on the tarmac. Eventually the pilot showed up looking rather the worse for wear: dyed-red hair uncombed and shirt buttoned carelessly. He motioned us to climb in. One friend sat in the front seat, the other in the back; my husband and I directly behind the pilot. He shut the passenger door, climbed in to the pilot seat, began to fiddle with the controls and off we went. The skies cleared and we flew low over the Zanzibar channel. Great flight I thought. That is until I realized the pilot had latched the door with my long silk skirt halfway out. I looked out the window to see it trailing in the wind. And that wasn’t all. When we landed my husband said, “I hope you didn’t notice the fuel leaking from the tank.” We took a commercial flight back to Dar.

And then there was the time in Kenya I rejected the goat stew, or the goat rejected me. I had the tough meat the previous day while on the Sudanese border. I was in the office in Nairobi the following morning when suddenly the goat rebelled. I turned green, made a mess and began to hallucinate. I was hauled out to a co-worker’s car to get to a doctor and promptly erupted again. Hours later I woke up in a guest room where I could hear people having a party. I watched the mosquito coil glow before returning to sleep it off. Missed the party but managed to stagger to the office where everyone said it was nothing, just part of the African experience.

When you have to go, you have to go. I was with a group on a rural road in Cambodia not far from Angkor Wat. The Pol Pot regime had recently fallen but it was still dangerous. The driver stopped the Land Rover and I climbed out to head into the jungle for a bit of privacy. But when he cautioned “watch for snakes and land mines” I decided modesty wasn’t necessary – speed was. Later that day we went back to Siem Reap and walked from our hostel to the temple. There were almost no tourists; men who had lost legs or arms due to land mines lined the causeway over an enormous square pool of water to beg. We crossed to the main structure. And there we wandered through the deserted precincts to admire the carvings and the architecture. As dusk fell we sat on a tower to watch the sun set and a full moon rise. A tangle of unforgettable memories.

A yearning for change puts Laura on the road to Rome but her marital problems, muted in cool Seattle, become magnified in the glare of the Roman sun. Will she find happiness in the Eternal City or are her dreams only an illusion?

Enjoy an excerpt

When Laura received the e-mail she knew it was time to confess.
,br> Two months earlier when she was bored with editing a technical manual sent to her by one of her clients, she took a break to check out blogs by women who appeared to have more interesting lives than hers. She came across a site recounting the adventures of an American family who lived in Rome. The latest post told about their invitation by the owners of a small country inn near Siena for a dinner to celebrate the grape harvest. After rhapsodizing about the setting, the food, and the wine, the writer ended her story with: “We’re so in love with this part of Tuscany we actually bought an old farmhouse to fix up to use on weekends.”

Laura looked at her souvenir coffee mug with the London Tube map, a relic of the high school graduation present from her aunt. The long-ago trip had planted a seed of restlessness. Now, as her marriage became ever-more routine, the germ had begun to grow, to push, sprout and slowly turn into visions of a more interesting life somewhere away from Seattle. To find a life with possibilities. And to distract from the unpleasant incident a few months ago. Better to get as far away from the memory as possible.

About the Author:

Life was routine until the author decided to get a law degree. Then a chance meeting led her to run away to the Circus (Maximus) – actually to the United Nations office next door – where she worked as an attorney in the HR department and entered the world of expat life in Rome. The ten years of happy and sometimes fraught experiences are the subject of her memoir, Coins in the Fountain. She continues to travel, having visited over 100 countries in between many journeys to Italy where she always tosses a coin in the Trevi Fountain to ensure a return to Rome. Judith and her husband now live near Seattle where she is working on her second novel.

www.facebook.com/judithworksauthor
www.aLittleLightExercise.blogspot.com
www.judithworks.net
@judithworks

BOOK TRAILER: http://youtu.be/8EsGi2sdVII

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Pretty Poison by Lynne Barron - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Lynne will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

What’s an American heiress to do when a pair of britches, a plunge into a pond in the dead of winter and a broken betrothal force her to set sail across the ocean to an arranged marriage with a fortune hunting Englishman?

With her hopes and dreams sinking to the bottom of the sea like so much lost treasure, Emily Calvert falls into the pretty poison she finds in a little blue bottle.

Can Nicholas Avery, a charming aristocrat with a faulty memory for names and a family in dire need of financial salvation, convince the wounded lady that the blessed oblivion she finds in his arms is sweeter than opium?

Enjoy an excerpt:

Emily plopped down onto a chair in the corner of the hall and tugged off her muddy boots while the guests began to retreat into the front parlor. She watched as Lady Bernice looped her gloved hand through Nicholas’s arm and laughed up into his smiling face before they disappeared behind the others.

Well, that was surprisingly easy. Nicholas hadn’t even looked at her, not once since he’d seen the lady standing in the hall surrounded by the welcoming throng.

Suddenly weary right down to her bones, Emily rose and made her way slowly up the long curving stair case and down the quiet hall. She found Tilly in her room bent over a hot iron.

“You’re back,” Tilly exclaimed. “Hurry, you must dress. We’ve another guest and she’s a pretty thing, for all that she’s a giant.”

“Yes,” Emily agreed.

“You’ve seen her then?”

“She’s quite impossible to miss.” Emily fell back onto her bed with a groan.

“What are you doing?” Tilly demanded. “Luncheon is in an hour and you need to bathe and I’ve to do something special with your hair. I thought this fine lavender dress would do nicely, makes your bosom look bigger.”

“Oh Tilly, are you thinking to dress me up to compete with that amazing creature?”

“What? That bovine is no competition for you! Get into the bath,” she nodded to the open door across the chamber and the steamy bathing room beyond.

“I’m tired. Just have a tray brought up.”

“And let that one steal your man right out from under you?”

“He is not my man and she’s welcome to him.”

“You listen to me, Emily Ann Calvert,” Tilly ground out between her teeth as she marched over to the bed. “You get your skinny butt into that bath.”

“All right, all right.” Emily held her hands up in surrender as she climbed off the bed. “Good Lord, child, when did you become a harridan?”

“When you lost sight of your wits.”

“I assure you I lost sight of my wits months and months ago.”

“Don’t I know it,” the girl muttered as she whipped off her mistress’s guernsey and went to work on the buttons of her shirt. “And enough is enough, miss. You’ve been wallowing in self-pity all these long months.”

“I have not.”

“Oh boo hoo, my worthless fiancé dropped me flat as a flapjack.” Tilly pushed Emily’s breaches down her legs, drawers and all.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Oh woe is me, Da dragged me across the ocean to marry a stranger.” Tilly herded her into the bathing room and into the tub.

Emily laughed at the ferocious frown on the girl’s caramel-skinned face.

“Poor opium addled me, I’ve gone and stabbed myself right through the heart.” Tilly dunked her head under the water.

Emily came up sputtering and coughing water.

“Oh, it’s just so unfair, I’ve got a big strapping handsome man wants to marry me.” Tilly rubbed lilac-scented soap into her hair, digging her little fingers into her scalp.

“It’s my fortune he wants to marry,” Emily ground out.

“So what?” Tilly demanded before she dunked her head once more.

“Stop that,” Emily sputtered, water dripping into her eyes. “Are you trying to drown me?”

“Who cares if you use your fortune to catch him? The real trouble is you don’t think you can keep him once you’ve landed him.”

Emily had no argument. It was true. She did not believe for one moment she could ever hope to keep Nicholas Avery. And she would not share him.

“When did you begin to doubt yourself?” Tilly gently rubbed a soapy linen square over her mistress’s back, down her long arms. “You were always so sure of yourself, Em. As long as I’ve known you, my whole life, you never thought there was one thing on God’s green earth you couldn’t do. No matter who told you otherwise, no matter that maybe you shouldn’t ought to be doing them things. You always knew you could.”

About the Author: Write About What You Know.

Every Creative Writing Teacher and College Professor said these words to Lynne Barron in one form or another. But what did she know?

She knew she enjoyed the guilty pleasure of reading romance novels whenever she could find time between studying, working and raising her son as a single mother.

She knew quite a bit about women's lives in the Regency and Victorian era from years spent bouncing back and forth between European History and English Literature as a major in college.

She knew precious little about romance except to know that it was more than the cliché card and a dozen red roses on Valentine's Day.

Then she met her wonderfully romantic husband and finally she knew.

Passion, Love and Romance.

And she began to write.

If you would like to learn more about Lynne Barron and the Idyllwild Series, please visit her website at LynneBarron.com or follow her at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LynneBarronRomanceAuthor

Author Website: http://www.lynnebarron.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lynne.barron.31
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynnebarron06

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Hers to Bear by Tamara Hoffa - Interview and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Tamara Hoffa will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Tamara, welcome to It's Raining Books. Why do you write in your genre? What draws you to it?

Well, I don’t write in just one genre. I have written in several. My first book was a Military romance. I wrote that one because both of my best friend’s sons had just enlisted in the Armed Forces, I was drawn to the idea of a widowed mother afraid of losing her son to the military. My next four novels were Western Contemporary. I live in Tennessee and growing up I showed Quarter horses. So cowboy romance seemed a perfect fit. I do love cowboys, But what I always wanted to write was paranormal romance. I’m an avid reader, and probably 70% of what I read is paranormal romance. I have always loved the genre, shifters in particular. One of the elements of shifter romance that fascinated me was the “mate bond” that instant attraction that neither party could deny or at least not the shifter.

Paranormal romance also leaves so many opportunities open for plot lines, fights between shifter clans, shifters and humans, someone in clan trying to take over… the possibilities are endless!

However, my stubborn muse never whispered a shifter story into my ear until recently, and then she decided we had a whole series to tell!

What research (or world-building – for fantasy/paranormal/Sci-fi) is required?

The only real research I had to do for Hers to Bear was on a map. I needed to look up how far it was from Vest Virginia to the Smokey Mountains and how long it would take them to get there. Oh, I did also look up the size of Grizzly bears, but since this is contemporary, no other world building was required. However, for the second book in the series, I am constantly on the net! The heroine in book 2 Bear Hearts has a PHD in Bio chemistry and I have been looking up everything from how long it takes to get a PHD, courses required, etc. to the many things I need to know about her experiments in finding a cure for cancer using shifter blood.

So, in answer to your question, it really depends on the book and what you’re writing about. How much you personally know about the field and how much you need to research. I always want to be as accurate as I can and I do my research. I had a reviewer say she was impressed with my military romance and how accurate the research was, and she was former military. That was one of my favorite reviews!

Name one thing you learned from your hero/heroine.

I think I learn something new from every character I write. My characters are all in some way an extension of me, so I am exploring my own personality with each excursion into a novel. From Jenna I think I learned you have to stop being afraid to go after your dreams. Sometimes the fear of failure gets in the way of our own happiness; we are so concerned that things won’t turn out the way we are hoping, that we just don’t try at all. If we can’t have that Currier and Ives Christmas, why celebrate? That’s like admitting failure without even trying.

Do you have any odd or interesting writing quirks, habits or superstitions?

I’m not a superstitious person, and I don’t think I have any real quirks, unless you consider an addiction to coffee a quirk. When I write, I must have my trusty coffee at my side. I try to write for a minimum of two hours at a time, or at least a thousand words. I know many authors who can sit down can whip out four or five thousand words at a time. That’s not me. I write slowly. The most I’ve ever written in one session was four thousand words and that took me six hours. Usually, after about a thousand to fifteen hundred words I reach a stopping point in my mind and I quit for the day. I never force my words.

Are you a plotter or pantser? As you can probably see from the answer above, I am a panster. I do have general plot; I know the main plot line, but not the small subtleties, those happen as I write. I know it sounds crazy, but my characters talk to me; they play out the story in my head and tell me what’s going to happen when. That’s why I can’t force the words. A lot of times if I’m in a quiet place the words start coming to me; my DH says I need waterproof paper, because when I’m in the bathtub I am always writing scenes in my head. Lol. And I swear they never come out as good when I get to the computer to write them down!

Look to your right – what’s sitting there?

To my right is my entertainment center, on the shelf directly next to me are my angel music boxes. I collect both music boxes and angels, so I have many that overlap. There are seven on that shelf. My favorite is a little boy angel that reminds me of my son; he is sitting with his knee drawn up and his arms crossed over his knee and his head resting on his arms, wings spread behind him.

Anything new coming up from you? What?

I have two irons in the fire: a short military romance, that I’m hoping will be in a military anthology in May. My story is called Changing Tides and is about a military widow and Navy doctor. The second is book 2 in the Animal in Me series, Bear Hearts. It is a novella and is due out in May.

Do you have a question for our readers?

What is your favorite genre in romance? Why?

Twenty-five and never been kissed, Jenna Raynes is a beautiful woman with a rubenesque figure often overlooked by men. In the mood for a little honey, the sassy new schoolteacher is stopped in her tracks by one growled word from an alpha bear…“Mine.”

Bern Helms’ inner bear catches the scent of his destined mate. His animal’s desire is drawn to her curves, but Jenna is human, and not lured to him by instinct. Convincing her begins as a sizzling, sweet affair that is soon spoiled by danger. In their small backwater town, nerves are strung taut. Someone is abducting shifter children.

When confronted, Jenna is as protective of her students as a mamma bear. For Bern, all bets are off when the kidnappers take Jenna too. Nothing will keep a bear from his mate. The hunters will become the hunted…

Enjoy an excerpt:

“I’ve never had a boyfriend before.”

“I think perhaps then all the men you have met before have been blind and stupid, but I am glad they were because it saves me from having to hunt them down and kill them.” Bern growled.

Jenna stopped dead in her tracks and gazed up at him in stunned silence. He was serious. Bern shrugged his shoulders and planted a kiss on the end of her nose. “I cannot help it. I am a jealous man.”

They continued walking in companionable silence and reached Jenna’s house in a few minutes. She unlocked the front door and Bern held her back from entering. “Let me check the house first please.”

He left her standing on the front porch while he took the bags into the house. She saw the lights flip on methodically throughout the rooms and then Bern returned to the porch. “All clear,” he said and pulled her into the house. He attempted to pin her against the wall and kiss her senseless, but Jenna put her hands on his chest and pushed. It was like pushing against a brick wall!

“Oh no you don’t, Mr. Bear. This honeycomb is closed until I get some answers. Get your furry butt to the kitchen and you can talk while I make dinner. I want to know what the hell is going on around here.”

Bern had the good grace to look sheepish. “Yes, ma’am,” he said and strode toward the kitchen, leaving Jenna to follow that delectable and at the moment, not in the least bit furry backside. Oh yum.

Jenna pointed to a kitchen chair. “Sit. Talk.”

About the Author:

Tamara Hoffa lives in central Tennessee, with her husband of 30 years, her parents, 2 dogs and 2 cats. She started reading at four years old and has rarely been seen without a book since. At home you will usually find her in “nana’s chair” with her kindle, her laptop or one of her precious, precocious grandsons in her lap. Tamara is an author, an editor, and reviews/promotions coordinator for Secret Cravings Publishing. Tamara is proof positive that it’s never too late to reach for your dreams.

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTamaraHoffa
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Passing the Torch by L.L. Sanders - Spotlight and Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly drawn commenter will win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card, while three winners will receive a digital copy of Passing the Torch. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Deep in the Arizona desert live a girl and her dad, burying secrets--and bodies.

Mesa Kingston's first memory of burying a corpse was at eight years old. Back then it had been the carcass of a large lizard her dad found that they buried in the backyard of their isolated cottage. At age fourteen, the body of a young lady accompanied the reptile's remains, and ever since, an accumulation of female bodies began to grow. Now, the only way Mesa can stop the haunting screams of the dead is by drowning them out with flames. Or is there more to the blaze than even she can perceive?

Enjoy an excerpt:

The wailing sirens grow louder as they approach, making the singed hairs on my arms stand up as anticipation prickles beneath my skin. Strands of my hair blow against my face, tickling my nose and briefly reminding me of the life I was willingly leaving behind. No more fussing over which shampoos and leave-in conditioners were best suited for my hair, no more being embarrassed when the manicurist added the dull-pink nail polish to my nails that unintentionally blends with my natural skin tone, no more ordinary life for an ordinary girl.

But have I ever been an ordinary girl with an ordinary life, or was my urge to be normal greater than my reality? That question was too obvious to answer, and I would've chuckled at the ridiculousness of it at any other time.

Now as I walk farther from the cottage along the narrow trail—worn and barren from the years of traffic—I'm hit with a devastating realization … I can still hear the agonizing screams.

No matter how much or how long I try to shut out the noise, I fail. Nothing helps, not a thought, a memory, not even the smell of burnt wood in the air can distract me from the noise. Each tactic eventually leads me right back to the screams.

I grab the wire of the makeshift fence with one hand, the fence my dad had built to separate our property from the rest of the desert. It didn't matter much. Our cottage was the only structure for many miles, built by Grandpa decades ago near a remote lake. Even so, erecting a fence and creating a yard may have been Dad's attempt at being normal too.

About the Author:

The L.L. stands for Leslie Lee. I write erotic romance and post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction under Leslie Lee Sanders.

But horror and thriller fiction is what I grew up on, what inspires me, and what began my pursuit to authorship. I’ve written many short scary stories since the 6th grade. Now they’re much more mature in general, thanks to the wide range of emotion and experience I’ve encountered over the years.

I’m a huge fan of horror and psychological thrillers in every fashion, including movies, books, art, campfire tales, etc. Some of my favorite stories are those that twist at the end or are ambiguous with deep societal or morality themes. This includes dystopias like Hugh Howey’s Wool, psychological thrillers like Shutter Island, and popular and classic horror/romances like V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic, my favorite.

All my ideas start with a twist, which is exactly how most of my stories end.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/lls4sanders
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/LeslieLSanders
WEBSITE: http://llsanders.com/
AMAZON BUY LINK: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TNTLTZY

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