Book Spotlight: The 13th Descent by Ky Lehman

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Title: The 13th Descent
Author: Ky Lehman
Genre: Paranormal Romance / Adventure

ONE CHOICE CAN MAKE AN IMMORTAL HUMAN.

BUT WHAT CHOICES NEED TO BE MADE TO GO BACK AGAIN?

The revolutionary year following Serenay "Ren" Avalon's eighteenth birthday could rival Clark Kent's entire adolescence.

After her mother and her grandmother were killed in a car bomb explosion at the heart of their sleepy hillside town where nothing extraordinary usually happens, she discovers that her mother is actually alive and in hiding, her long lost father is a Father, and her best friend, who turns out was once an Archangel, has taken a gargantuan step back in his evolution to live on Earth with her for the past thirteen lifetimes. And besides being the only one in her immediate circle with a serious case of past life dementia, she learns that during her first lifetime, she was married to one of the greatest teachers history has ever known who is now the gorgeous lead singer of a hot new rock band taking the world by storm, and who is keen to meet up with her again in the twenty first century.

As Ren realizes that the powerful family name she bears also brings with it the promise of an unnatural death, she is reminded that it has always brought hope to people on both sides of the veil, human and Tor. As the world draws closer to being completely shrouded by the dark cloaks of her age-old enemies, the Bloodstones, she now, more than ever before, has to draw strength from her origins to protect her family and their ancient truth from this global force responsible for torturing and killing centuries of her ancestors.

As she struggles to unearth who she was, who she is, and who she chooses to be, as well as the expectations of her first mortal love and the heavenly love she has always guiltily denied, she has until midnight on the Solstice find a way to bring light to a compromised heart and to a world on the brink of perpetual darkness.

This first book in The Rosefire Trilogy by debut YA author, Ky Lehman, is a reminder of how the choices we make in the throes of love, loss, hope, and adversity are what makes the divine human, and the human divine.

Book Two of The Rosefire Trilogy, THE 13TH RISING, is coming in 2015.

***

Excerpt:

As Mike and I quietly sit on the couch nursing our hot beverages, I decide, for both our sakes, to try and find a restful place somewhere between the peace I know and this peace with no name, at least for a quiet cuppa’s worth.

I’m trying. I really am. But it seems that no matter if I’m sitting, resting, or running around like a headless chook, there will be no respite until I ask the one seemingly small, possibly huge, question that continues to taunt me. I gulp down the rest of my still too hot chocolate, losing the deal I made with myself in record time with a scolded tongue as punishment.

“Which lifetime has been your favourite?” I blurt out.

Mike baulks, coughs, and nearly spits his coffee all over me. I pat him on the back, but he gestures for me to stop. When his coughing fit finally stops, he peeks over at me, grins shyly and shakes his head. “Give it a rest, Ren.”

Screw. That.

I pipe up. “You said that if I have any questions-”

“OK! OK! Keep your crown on!” he says with his hands raised like I’ve got a gun pointed at him. “It was during the nineteenth century. You were a nurse and I was a soldier,” he says, looking everywhere but at me. “You lived to be an old woman and I lived to be an old man.

We got a lot done in that lifetime. People still call you the Lady with the Lamp.” He quickly jumps to a stand and turns to leave the room.

“Where are you going off to in such a hurry?”

“To the bathroom, if that’s OK with you, your Highness,” he answers over his shoulder.

As I watch him walk away, I think of me living as an old woman and it hits me. I was once a nurse and a very dedicated one. I remember my privileged upbringing. My parents’ expectations. My expectations. What the poor souls around me were reduced to. Our enemies, foreign and domestic. The constant battles. The wars. The suffering. The pain of life. The peace of death. My distrust of men, bar one. Finding solace amongst amber shards floating in rich brown pools. For a time, he was alone with those eyes wide open in a world that refused to see. His love. Our ongoing affair. Volatile and primal, but good. My body responds in agreement. Apparently, very good. Oh, God...

Thankfully, he takes his time coming back, but when he does, he is holding Georgie Pa’s box still wrapped up in paper.

Feeling his eyes on me, I look up at him standing before me, and the vision of us half naked, frantically kissing and rolling across the floor flashes before my eyes and also in other places. “Oh, God,” I gasp and wince. “Um...I mean, I completely forgot about that,” I mumble, propelling myself upright to snatch Georgie Pa’s box from him.

“So, you do remember,” he says, smirking.

***

About the Author:

KY LEHMAN is a novelist, a children's author, a teacher of swimming and water safety, wife to her high school sweetheart and the proud mother of their three very tall sons. She lives in the Yarra Ranges, Victoria, Australia with her husband and their children where she is currently writing the second book in The Rosefire Trilogy, The 13th Rising.

Links

https://www.facebook.com/kylehman

https://www.amazon.com/author/kylehman

https://www.goodreads.com/kylehman

@KyLehman13

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Burn for Me by Ilona Andrews

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Burn For Me
A Hidden Legacy Novel
By Ilona Andrews
On-Sale 10/28/2014 
ISBN: 9780062289230 

Book Description:

Nevada Baylor is faced with the most challenging case of her detective career-a suicide mission to bring in a suspect in a volatile case. Nevada isn’t sure she has the chops. Her quarry is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, who can set anyone and anything on fire.

Then she’s kidnapped by Connor “Mad” Rogan-a darkly tempting billionaire with equally devastating powers. Torn between wanting to run or surrender to their overwhelming attraction, Nevada must join forces with Rogan to stay alive.

Rogan’s after the same target, so he needs Nevada. But she’s getting under his skin, making him care about someone other than himself for a change. And, as Rogan has learned, love can be as perilous as death, especially in the magic world.

***

Excerpt:

In 1863, in a world much like our own, European scientists discovered Osiris serum, a concoction which brought out one’s magic talents. These talents were many and varied. Some people gained ability to command animals, some learned to sense water from miles away, and others suddenly realized they could kill their enemies by generating a burst of lightning between their hands.

The serum spread through the world. It was given to soldiers in hopes of making the military forces more deadly. It was obtained by members of fading aristocracy, desperate to hold on to power. It was bought by the rich, who desired to get richer. Eventually the world realized the consequences of awakening godlike powers in ordinary people. The serum was locked away, but it was too late. The magic talents passed on from parents to their children and changed the course of human history forever. The future of entire nations changed in the span of a few short decades. Those who previously married for status, money, and power now married for magic, because strong magic would give them everything.

Now, a century and a half later, families with strong hereditary magic have evolved into dynasties. These families—Houses, as they call themselves—own corporations, have their own territories within the cities, and influence politics. They employ private armies, they feud with each other, and their disputes are deadly. It is a world where the more magic you have, the more powerful, the wealthier, and the more prominent you are. Some magic talents are destructive. Some are subtle. But no magic user should be taken lightly.

Prologue

“Ican’t let you do this. I won’t. Kelly, the man is insane.” Kelly Waller reached over and touched her husband’s hand, looking for reassurance. He took his hand off the wheel and squeezed her fingers. Strange how intimate a touch can be, she thought. That touch, fueled by twenty years of love, had served as her rock in the nightmarish storm of the past forty-eight hours. Without it, she would have been screaming.

“He won’t hurt me. We’re family.”

“You told me yourself he hates his family.”

“I have to try,” she said. “They’ll kill our boy.”

Tom stared straight ahead, glassy eyed, guiding the car up the curve of the driveway. Old Texas oaks spread their wide canopies over the grassy lawn, sprayed with drops of yellow dandelions and pink buttercups. Connor wasn’t taking care of the grounds. His father would’ve had the weeds poisoned . . .

Her stomach churned. A part of her wanted to go back and somehow undo the events of the last two days.
A part of her wanted to turn the car around. It’s too late, she told herself. It’s too late for regrets and what ifs. She had to deal with the reality, no matter how terrifying it was. She had to act like a mother.

The driveway brought them to a tall stucco wall. She raked her memory. Sixteen years was a long time, but she was sure the wall hadn’t been there before.

A wrought-iron gate blocked the arched entrance. This was it. No turning back. If Connor decided he wanted her dead, her magic, what little of it there was, wouldn’t be enough to stop him.

Connor was the culmination of three generations of careful marriages aimed at bolstering the family’s magic and connections. He was supposed to have been a worthy successor to the fortune of House Rogan. Much like her, he hadn’t turned out the way his parents had planned.

Tom parked the car. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do.” The dread that hung over her mugged Kelly, setting off a wave of overwhelming anxiety. Her hands shook. She swallowed, trying to clear her throat. “This is the only way.”

“At least let me come with you.”

“No. He knows me. He might see you as a threat.” She swallowed again, but the clump in her throat refused to disappear. She never knew if Connor could read people’s thoughts, but he was always aware of emotions. She had no doubt they were being watched and probably listened to. “Tom, I don’t think anything bad will happen. If some- thing does, if I don’t come out, I want you to drive away. I want you to go home to the kids. There is a blue folder in the cabinet over the small desk, the one in the kitchen. On the second shelf. Our life insurance policies are in there, and the will . . .”

Tom started the engine. “That’s it. We’re going home. We’ll deal with it ourselves.”

She jerked the car door open, jumped out, and hurried to the gate, her heels clicking on the pavement.

“Kelly!” he called. “Don’t!”

She forced herself to touch the iron gates. “This is Kelly. Connor, please let me in.”

The iron gate slid open. Kelly raised her head and stepped inside. The gate glided shut behind her. She walked through the arch and up the stone path that wove its way through the picturesque copse of oaks, redbuds, and laurels. The path turned, and she stopped, frozen.

***

About the Author:

“Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army.

Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him.

They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.) They have co-authored two New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, the urban fantasy of Kate Daniels and the romantic urban fantasy of The Edge and are working on the next volumes for both.

They live in Texas with their two children and many dogs and cats.

http://www.ilona-andrews.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ilona.andrews

https://twitter.com/ilona_andrews

http://www.ilona-andrews.com/newsletter/


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Tour Giveaway

1 print copy of BURN FOR ME along with some BURN FOR ME swag

Open to US Shipping

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Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Distorted Fantasy Anthology

Fantasy Anthology

Date Published: November 7, 2014

  

Tantalizingly bloody tales featuring human pitted against beast and gods, with the true majesty and horrors of the afterlife, with love and death and desire...

Eight writers modernize ancient mythologies in DISTORTED, proving that not every story has been told.

EXCERPTS

From “To Sing Which Tune” by Heidi C Vlach

Thinking that way made the truth weigh heavier: Helen might have picked up soda bottles on the beach last week, and worked on biochemical equations last night until her head screamed for mercy. She had stroked her own ego for attending her university's Sound The Sirens fundraiser gala, one where she wore an actual dress and some mascara. But she wasn't doing enough.

She couldn't think of Odyssia's face without a grey burden of guilt. The face that had beamed all throughout her childhood, crinkled with merriment around her eyes and poured joyous, warbling songs from her lips. Taught Helen songs she hummed offhandedly, even now. But these past few months, Odyssia barely smiled. She stared longer at Helen; like two stars with a void between them.

Sirens attack yacht, 2 dead.

Putting down the newspaper, Helen rose from the kitchen table to go get dressed and do something recklessly expensive. This was a bigger issue than one homicide case. Bigger than the one siren Helen owed a debt of love to. Bigger than her personal credit rating could make a dent in, but she had to try.

From “Bullman” by Anthony S. Buoni

"I'm still not sure it’s a good idea," Cassandra said, adjusting the top of her black corset.  Dressed like a cyber goth club kid, multicolored glow sticks dangled from the zippers and belt on her baggy black pants matched her glowing bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.  She scratched her short, spiky black hair with hot pink tips from her eyes before crossing her arms.

Theo wasn’t sure why Icky wanted Europe so bad—Cassandra's green gaze and hourglass figure made her the prettier of the two.  Other than a hint of social awkwardness and her taste for illegal intoxicants, Cassandra was a catch.

"Chicken," Icky said, clucking.

"Well, what is it?" Ariadne asked.  "Going to sit around with your fingers in a bowl of peeled grapes and tell each other stories about vanishing hitchhikers and perverts with hooks for hands attacking Lovers' Lane?"

"No," Icky said.  "Something way better.  We're driving to Hamilton Heights and looking for the Bullman."

Ariadne puffed.

"The Bullman?" Theo asked conscious of his date's aggravation.  The tale stemmed from a dark page in her family's history, so he tried downplaying it.  "There's no such thing."

Everyone knew the town's most famous urban legend.

Before Ariadne was born, her parents' first child came into the world stillborn.  Refusing any public response or funeral, the prominent family ignored the tragedy, and, as will often happen when scandal rubs elbows with the rich, their terse reaction prompted immediate gossip.

Stories claiming that the child survived began circulating the community.  The myth grew, taking on an insidious nature.

The most common account had Ariadne's mom falling in love and fornicating with their prize winning snow-white bull, resulting in the birth of a ferocious monster.  Fearing disgrace, Judge Hamilton ordered the creature destroyed.  Their doctor, taken by the genetic anomaly and unable to terminate the atrocity, gave the creature to hobos living in scattered shacks dotting the dense woods outside of town so he could study it in secret.

According to rumors, the creature matured and now lurked the forest near Cretan Road and Hamilton Heights, a sprawling park on the lake bordering the state's thick wilderness.  Campers and hikers would return from the forest with stories of a hairy, malformed creature stealing food and gear from their campsites before scurrying off into the brush.  Once in a while, someone would vanish in the woods, and parents told their kids that the Bullman roamed the neighborhood streets after sunset, stealing and devouring misbehaving children.

No one ever managed to photograph the thing.

No footprints emerged in the rich, dark soil or red clay hills surrounding Hamilton Heights.

Despite a lack of hard evidence, the stories lingered on the public tongue, whispers spoken around crackling campfires and in tight alleyways.

The Hamilton family did not appreciate the yarn and ignored the accounts, debunking them whenever the newspaper reported sightings or ran spotlights for their Halloween editions.

Of all the embarrassing things that could go wrong on a first date with Ariadne Hamilton, Theo couldn’t think of anything worse than Icky seeking out her fabled brother.

About the Authors

Alisha Costanzo is from a Syracuse suburb. She earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she currently teaches English. She’s the author of BLOOD PHOENIX: REBIRTH and BLOOD PHOENIX: CLAIMED, and co-editor of DISTORTED. LOVING RED, a Broken World novel, is undergoing serious edits for its 2015 release. In the meantime, she will continue to corrupt young minds, rant about the government, and daydream about her all around nasty creatures.

Having relocated from Northwest Florida's lonesome roads and haunted swamps, Anthony S. Buoni now prowls the gas lamp lit streets of New Orleans, playing moonlight hide and seek in the Crescent City's above ground cemeteries. Anthony is the author of Conversation Party, Bad Apple Bolero, as well as the editor to the Between There anthologies.  His stories and articles have been featured in North Florida Noir and Waterfront Living. When not prowling, Anthony keeps it scary, writing dark fiction, editing, and watching horror movies.  In his spare time, he DJs, plays music, and conjures other worldly creatures with tarot cards and dreams.

Author Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter: @TransmundnePres   @AlishaCostanzo

Goodreads

Things to Know About the Authors

Heidi Vlach:

-Heidi was born and raised in northern Ontario, Canada — but despite lifelong experience with snow, she hates cold weather.

-Heidi's parents are furniture salespeople: Heidi grew up with lots of big cardboard boxes to play in and transform with her imagination.

-She graduated chef training at age 18. There was tense discussion among the chefs before Heidi was allowed to attend the wine-tasting class, since legal drinking age in Ontario, Canada is 19.

-Heidi waited tables at a sushi restaurant for 3 years. Her favourite part of the job was encouraging nervous first-timers to try the raw fish.

-Heidi typically writes at her kitchen table, while drinking coffee, listening to electronic trance music, and snuggling one of her cats.

Catherine Edmunds:

-I'm a professional viola player. My string quartet was once kicked out of a shopping mall where we were performing by security because someone had complained our music was ‘too noisy’.

-My great-uncle worked with Albert Einstein.

-I took up ballet on my doctor’s suggestion at the age of three to cure my flat feet, and kept dancing until I was fourteen. Absolutely loved it. Still have flat feet.

-I appeared on national TV in 2013, painting in the Glasgow heats of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year. My model was actress Sophie Turner—Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones.

-I was once bitten by a tadpole.

Alisha Costanzo:

-I like to teach, even when no body asked for a lesson. Sometimes, this can make me feel like a snob, but when people make mistakes and no one corrects them, they are doomed to be repeat offenders.

-One of my favorite jobs so far was working at a funeral home. Most often, I had the building to myself, the nights were quiet, and I got to read or write. Other times, I felt emotional, but ensuring a funeral goes smoothly is rewarding.

-When I role-play write, I often prefer to be the male. I don’t tend to hear objections.

-I love teaching barefoot in my classroom, even when it’s freezing out.

-I’m an environmentalist and anti-consumerist...until I walk into a bookstore.

Patricia J. Esposito:

-Some of my hardest laughing comes when roughhousing with my constant companion, an eighty-five-pound Golden Retriever who thinks nothing of pouncing full-body on me.

-The crystal bowls I received as wedding gifts contain polished stones from the shores of Lake Superior.

-At home I prefer to drink only water, at the coffee shop, only chai tea, and at parties, only Courvoisier.

-I often have to work at home till late at night due to lost time making snow forts or playing ninjas with the neighbor kids (and my dog, of course). Fun is a distraction I encourage.

-Despite the convenience of iPhone music, at all times, my purse is weighted with the music CDs I can’t live without; after all, if I were to get stranded on a desert island, at least I could hold the CDs against me and imagine their sound.

Rebecca Lynch:

-I loathe cooked tomatoes.

-I can boast a library of 1000 books.

-I never graduated high school.

-My original major was nursing.

-I met my husband at an outdoor barracks party during a tornado.

Autumn Lishky:

-I made more as a pizza delivery driver than I have as a professional.

-I hate Twinkies because of the marshmallow filling. However, I like marshmallows. Go figure.

-I’m that snob that judges your grammar on Facebook and Twitter.

-My husband and I have watched hundreds upon hundreds of horror movies, and only one has made me stop eating—Cradle of Fear by Cradle of Filth.

-When I feel completely lost, I consult my Magic 8-Ball.

Christian Bone:

-I currently reside on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom, a small place cut off from the rest of the country. It is somewhat like the Village from The Prisoner but without the sinister brainwashing (I hope).

-I possess an unhealthy obsession for all things Sherlock Holmes. So much so that I own three copies of the same book, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. We all do silly things when we're in love.

-I have a fond memory of once meeting Neil Gaiman, a very nice man who greeted me as a 'fellow writer.' I'm still thinking of a way to put that event on a T-shirt.

-I've always had a great interest in writing, but for a brief time when I was younger, much to grown-up me's disbelief, I wanted to go into football/soccer. It is a period of my life that I cannot explain.

-The first story I remember writing was about some kid detectives who stopped a pair of ghosts from stealing buried treasure. Clearly, I've never been one for genre boundaries.

Anthony S. Buoni:

-I'm a DJ, specializing in goth, punk, trance, new wave, and house.  I also play guitar, sing, and write my own music and electronic loops.

-I believe in all the spooky things I write about.

-I bought my laptop based on how easy it was for me to type on it.

-I'm pagan. I love growing plants and studying the moon, planets, and stars.

-I've sat through entire college classes without getting credit because I was interested, not because I was grade or degree driven.

Giveaway

One $10.00 Amazon gift card

One ARC of Distorted

One 8x10 poster signed by both editors

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Outcasts of the World by Lucas Aubrey Paynter

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Title: Outcasts of the Worlds
Author: Lucas Aubrey Paynter 
Genre: SciFi Fantasy

Book Description:

Beyond the remnants of Earth lie many worlds, connected by pathways forgotten and invisible. They were left by the gods and have been found by Flynn.

A confidence man. A liar. A monster. Flynn has seen himself for what he really is and has resolved to pay for everything. Even if it means spending the rest of his days locked in Civilis, a tower prison for society's unwanted - "half-humans" gifted by the fallout of nuclear holocaust centuries past.

Jean, a prisoner in the neighboring cell, has different ideas and despite himself, Flynn finds himself joining her daring escape. After rescuing her friend Mack, the three flee Civilis as Flynn pieces together the hours before his capture and finds himself drawn to an abandoned facility where a rift to another world opens at his nearing.

Together they will venture farther beyond the stars than humanity ever imagined, find others like them that will never belong, and tangle with forces both ancient and immortal. They stand alone, hated and scorned - and the last hope of making things right in a cosmos gone terribly wrong.

***

Excerpt:
From Chapter 6 - Necessary Sins

Flynn looked up at her, his inhuman eyes sending a shiver through her that cut straight down her spine. There was an otherness to him that made her afraid, more terrifying than the savage beastmen that Raddius Tehmbao had described; she began to believe that the damage he could do was more than her frail body could take, if she wasn’t careful.

It’s a rifle. A weapon.” She kept the surprise from raising her eyes. He looked down at the pieces on the table. “I put it in a girl’s hands and she’s dead now.”

A chance might have come sooner than she realized. She shook her head incredulously. “You cannot really have me think that dull thing—”

Flynn gave a sorry smile, tossing the rag aside. He began snapping pieces together, leaving a large canister with tiny lights aside. Standing up, he held it in what she guessed was the proper way.

Whatever this tool, it was more than any beastman could forge, more than even the most expert metalworkers in Cordom could make. Pieces, perhaps, but the whole of it? Reaching out, Chari took it and held it the way he had.

Her hands seemed to fall in place, supporting the length of the rifle with one hand as a finger of the other landed on a trigger like that of a crossbow. As she grasped its function, she let it drift lazily toward Flynn, inching near where she hoped his heart beat, if indeed he even had one.

“You can do a lot of damage with that,” he told her, either not noticing or not caring.

Her trigger finger itched. She wanted to pull it, to understand how a tool like this might end him. Saryu doctrines had specific claims against the killing of innocents, but crusaders and inquisitors alike found ready exceptions to these tenants, and Chariska Jerhas was daughter to both. Off her finger slid, before it could do the promised harm. If this tool for killing wasn’t so far beyond her, he wouldn’t so carelessly place it in her hands.

***

About the Author:

Lucas Aubrey Paynter holds a Creative Writing degree from California State University Northridge—which looks really good when one talks about how they want to write for a living. A fan of engaging storytelling in any medium,  he spent years developing the worlds, characters and conflicts that Flynn and his company encounter, before settling at his desk and writing Outcasts of the Worlds, the first part of a much larger tale to come.

Currently residing with his wife in Burbank, California, Lucas enjoys reading in a variety of formats, potentially overanalyzing character motivations and arcs, and the occasional good, stiff drink.

Links

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/outcastsoftheworlds
Twitter - @OutcastWorlds
Website - www.outcastsoftheworlds.com
Book Trailer - http://youtu.be/7lL9bHigFyc
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


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Guest Post, Book Spotlight & Giveaway Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey

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Historical Fantasy and Why I Could Eat it Like Cake
Alyxandra Harvey


Stepping back into 1814 for A Breath of Frost was just like eating the most delicious, decadent dessert.

I adore the language, the complicated social etiquette I would never be able to follow, the candlelight and corsets.  And having loved both Pride & Prejudice, and the fantasy genre for as long as I can remember, combining them gives me the best of both worlds. I can have my cake and eat it too. Because frankly, that saying is just cruel. If I have cake, I am eating it.

With historical fantasy, I can take a landmark like London Bridge and fill it with goblin-men and witch-girls. I can add magic and strange creatures and secret powers. It’s especially satisfying to give my girls an edge in an historical setting that strove to blunt them down.

Not to mention that there is instant romance to bowing gentlemen and curtsying ladies and kisses stolen in ballrooms. Just as there is instant danger to magic gone awry, restless spirits, and the threat of deadly curses. One without the other is like that cake without frosting.

And at the end of the day, people are people, whether they’re in 1814 or 2014, whether they’re wearing bonnets, cravats, or ripped jeans.

And cravats are just way more fun.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*
www.alyxandraharvey.com

Whisper the Dead
The Lovegrove Legacy
Book Two
Alyxandra Harvey
Genre: YA, YA historical paranormal, witches
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Date of Publication: Oct 7,2014
Word Count: 100 000

Book Description: 

Gretchen is struggling with her newfound gift as a Whisperer; the constant buzzing in her ears from detecting spells is more frustrating than fun, especially when she is spending time with one of the Order of Iron Nail’s Keepers, the icy but strikingly handsome Tobias Lawless.

But while Gretchen tries to hide the truth and resolve her feelings for him, London fades from beautiful and bustling to deathly silent …Something evil is once again menacing Mayfair, and Gretchen and her cousins must use their powers to prevent a horrible sacrifice

Available at Amazon

***

Excerpt: 

The contrast between fighting off the Rovers and pasting a polite smile on her face for the single sons of earls was too stark. Residual magic burned through her. She was surprised the air around her didn’t crackle. Her mother shouldn’t begrudge her a stolen moment in the library, not if the alternative involved magic shooting off the ends of her hair. Hardly subtle.

Not to mention hardly marriageable material.

On second thought….

Better not. She’d already pushed her luck by going off with Godric.

Egyptian onion farming it was then. She walked along the book shelves, reading titles and glancing into the glass-fronted cabinets that held Lord Worthing’s collection of painted globes. It was dull and dusty and soothing. Her witch knot stopped aching.

Until someone grabbed her arm, yanking it behind her back and spinning her around. Her check pressed to the cold glass of a curio cabinet. Pain shot up to her elbow when she tried to move. “Who are you?” a man’s asked, his voice quiet and cold in her ear.

“Who am I?” she barked back. “Who the hell are you?” He evaded the kick she aimed at his most sensitive parts. Her skirts wrapped around her knees, hobbling and infuriating her. He turned her roughly around.

Tobias Lawless.

She wasn’t sure which of the two of them was more surprised.

Someone so chilly and perfect and wearing such a flawless cravat shouldn’t be mauling ladies in dark libraries. He also shouldn’t have several short iron daggers tucked inside his cutaway coat. It probably said something unsavory about her character that the sight of those daggers made her like him a bit more. But only a little bit.

“Let me go,” she yanked savagely down, breaking his hold. He didn’t move back, and his body continued to block her against the cabinets. The glass rattled.

“What are you doing?” he stepped closer still. She had to tilt her chin up.

“I am currently being accosted,” she snapped, driving the heel of her shoe into the top of his foot. He fell back a step, growling in his throat. Growling. He really didn’t seem the type.

She made a proper fist, not like the ones girls made when they hadn’t practiced before. She’d already punched a Rover tonight. She was very comfortable punching Tobias, Lord Killingsworth. Eager, in fact.

“What is wrong with you?” she asked finally. “Are you drunk?”

“Certainly not.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m the one being mauled and yet you take offense?”

“I can smell it on you,” he answered which was no answer at all. “There’s no use prevaricating.”

“I don’t usually bother lying about perfume,” she replied, now more bewildered than concerned.

“Not perfume,” he ground out, as if she was the frustrating one. “Dark magic.”

Her eyes narrowed to angry slits. “I beg your pardon.”

“As you should.”

She aimed for his head. It was big and fat and so perfectly groomed, how could she miss? He caught her wrist and squeezed. Hard. He shouldn’t have been fast enough.

An iron-nail pendant in the shape of a wheel slipped out from under his collar. Gretchen stared at it, then transferred her glare to his haughty, unkindly beautiful face.  “I knew it.” She gave him a smile better suited to one of the animals in the zoological gardens. “You’re a bloody Keeper.”

***

About the Author:

Alyxandra Harvey lives in a stone Victorian house in Ontario, Canada with a few resident ghosts who are allowed to stay as long as they keep company manners. She loves medieval dresses, used to be able to recite all of The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson, and has been accused, more than once, of being born in the wrong century. She believes this to be mostly true except for the fact that she really likes running water, women’s rights, and ice cream.

www.alyxandraharvey.com

www.twitter.com/AlyxandraH

https://www.facebook.com/AlyxandraHarvey

***

Tour giveaway 

3 print copies of Whisper the Dead

Open to US and Canadian Shipping

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Spotlight: Sex, Love and Aliens Vol 1 Anthology

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Sex, Love, and Aliens 
Volume 1
This anthology includes stories by 
Imogene Nix, Ashlynn Monroe, 
Jaye Shields, and  Beth D. Carter
Genre: Science Fiction/Futuristic Romance
Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Date of Publication: October 20, 2014
Number of pages: 197
Word Count: 70,000
Cover Artist: Fantasia Frog Designs

Book Description: 

TANGLED WEBS by Imogene Nix

In the course of a single day Gia Montgomery loses her job and discovers that her boyfriend—now ex-boyfriend—is a two-timing sleaze. After downing a bottle of wine, she catches sight of Cedun in her backyard. He’s the Ba’Tua heir who has been living on Earth for several years. Gia struggles to ignore the strong attraction between them, because she’s sure he’s seeing someone else. Someone very close to her, in fact.

When the situation with her ex turns nasty, Cedun finally has a chance to set things straight between himself and Gia, but nothing is as simple as it seems. Cedun must protect Gia and sort out an impossible love-life tangle before it’s too late.

Content Warning: this title contains sexy aliens and feisty heroines, together with enough action—of every kind—to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

THE SPACESHIP CAPTAIN’S Wife by Ashlynn Monroe

Some treasures are the hardest to see.

On a dying planet, treasure waits for an honorable man to claim it. Captain Ric Julius believes the cargo of gems is what he’s come for, but there is one jewel he never expected. Her name is Kateri, and she changes everything.

Saving the woman’s life, and making a fortune in the process, requires only one thing of Ric—his freedom. In order to obtain the gems he has to agree to take Kateri to safety…and to make her his wife. Every man has a price, but is Ric willing to pay in full on a debt he owes to a dead man on a decomposing world?

Content Warning: contains sensual sex scenes

HIS HUMAN by Jaye Shields

Can a human clone trained to kill also learn to love?

Elara Roberts is the captain of a space shuttle sent to retrieve a group of cloned soldiers from the planet US-2. As soon as she lands, the shuttle is overtaken and all of her men killed.

Svarog aka Rogue, is the leader of a rebel group of clones who desire freedom. He’s been trained his entire life for one thing—to kill. But when he lays eyes on Elara, the only woman he’s ever seen, his first instinct is to love. Taking her for himself, his new mission becomes exploring the body of the creature, and punishing any other clone male who dares come close.

Elara witnessed how easily Rogue killed her men and fears she is next. But instead, the beast seems curious and more lustful than anything else. Her best survival strategy is to play along. But when she gets a chance to escape she realizes she may not be ready to leave Rogue behind.

Content Warning: this story includes a deadly, devastatingly sexy clone who isn’t above foul language and dirty sex.

GRAVITATION by Beth D. Carter

Can Bree and Niah’s love overcome their species being at war with one another?

Bree has spent her whole life hiding from the aliens who destroyed what was once Earth. When she stumbles across a wounded alien, common sense tells her to kill him before he can kill her, but her compassionate side refuses to obey. Instead, she helps him.

The two forge a temporary truce when they’re forced to band together for protection. But as the days slip by, the alien Niah won’t leave her, and as friendship gives way to something more, she can’t help but wonder when, or if, them being on opposite sides will break the fragile bonds of love forming between them.

Content Warning: contains sexual content, strong language, and some violence

Get it now for just .99
Available at Beachwalk Press and other ebook retailers.

TANGLED WEBS EXCERPT:

Turning away from her position, Gia caught sight of movement from the corner of her eye. This time she looked out the window and in her garden was a Ba’Tua male.

“Holy hell, what’s he doing here?”

Gia headed for the door just as Cedun was removing his Montgomery Industries t-shirt by the side of the pool. Her mind was sluggish and her coordination impaired, and she slammed into the edge of the door as she scurried through it.

“Shit!” The curse escaped her mouth as she kept moving, her hand rubbing the injured section of her side. “Cedun, what the hell are you doing in my backyard?” In her haste, she didn’t see the hose on the deck and tripped.

She did notice the bright violet of his eyes—wide and startled—and the bronzed rippling muscles as she cartwheeled, flailing for something to grab onto, then she was falling backward. It’s all so slow! A thunk sound married with the explosion of pain in her head.

The water closed around her and invaded her mouth and lungs. Her chest burned as the water weighed her down. Just as it all seemed too much, strong, vise-like arms slid around her middle, hauling her up to the surface.

“Do not struggle, Gia. Let me help you.” He did, hauling her out of the pool and laying her flat on the concrete.

Then he rolled her over as she hacked and coughed. Water gushed from her mouth and nose, and she moaned once the indignity was over.

“Now, De’ Gia, tell me why you ran out of the house and threw yourself into the pool. De’ Valerie told me that you had been removed from your post. It cannot be that which is distressing?”

“Job,” she corrected, quietly hoping to stop his liquid voice. Her head and chest ached viciously, and all she wanted was bed. “I want to go to bed.”

***

THE SPACESHIP CAPTAIN’S WIFE EXCERPT:

Why am I doing this to myself? Damn, if I didn’t need the money… But he did.

As the girl came to kneel beside her father, Ric realized he’d rather face a laser pistol-wielding hijacker than this woman. The traditional charado robe that consisted of many layers of light, sheer fabric did nothing to hide the outline of her body. His mouth went dry and sweat stung his eyes.

The older woman offered him a light meal of native Darooian nuts and fruit. Ric shook his head. He didn’t want to risk polluting himself with radiated food. But this transaction was too important for him to offend them.

“Forgive me, I am far too full of…of joy to eat,” Ric said.

Marit’s woman gazed at him for a moment. Her shrewd eyes narrowed with doubt, but she nodded and pulled the offered tray away.

The kneeling girl was so still he couldn’t even tell if she was breathing. His host was watching the silent female with an unfathomable sorrow. Then he turned to study Ric without speaking for a drawn out length of anxiety-filled time. Ric fidgeted nervously.

Oh damn, I hope I haven’t blown this. I’ll lose the ship without this deal. Ric tried to hide his worry from the other man by keeping his face expressionless.

“We only eat food that arrives in bio locked containers. Our offering is safe. Kateri has not left this house since she was a girl of ten. She has spent half her life hiding from death, it’s long past time she was allowed to live,” said Marit in the gentle tone. There was no anger or censor on his face, just sadness.

The quiet girl flinched. The movement was subtle, but Ric was used to watching for the slightest tells during negotiations. The girl’s posture stiffened.

So she was twenty. He relaxed a bit. She was a decade younger than he was, but at least she wasn’t some underage child.

Embarrassed, Ric looked away. “Forgive me,” he said, unsure if he was apologizing for the planet’s destruction or his behavior.

“You have nothing to apologize for. Caution is an admirable trait. Integrity is another thing I respect. She will make a good wife…”

***

HIS HUMAN EXCERPT:

“Why do you want to go to Earth so bad?” Elara asked.

Rogue didn’t answer readily, instead, he appraised her, his gaze lingering on her sweat-soaked blouse. “You haven’t been here long, woman, but surely long enough to see this planet rivals the hell that the humans make us read about. It’s dry here, hot enough to melt the skin right off your body during certain seasons. Those tunnels you saw dotting the landscape, those were burrowed by one of US-2’s many creatures. Leave my side, and they’ll snatch you up and swallow you whole. It’d probably be an easier death than you deserve.”

“Excuse me?” Elara glared at him. “Did you keep me alive to insult me to death?”

“Why would you sign up to take men as slaves, take them to a war they can’t even understand?”

“I’m not the bad guy here!” Her voice echoed through the cave, the sound suddenly making her feel more brave.

“Neither am I. Unless I’m crossed.” He stood, still nude, his well-muscled body towering over her. “Now that you’re my captive, perhaps you can appreciate what we are fighting for. Freedom.” With that, the clone walked away from her. She glanced away, trying to avoid looking at the well-carved butt cheeks as the massive soldier walked away. He had a perfect body. The kind of body that was built to kill.

***

GRAVITATION EXCERPT:

Niah’s leg must be healing nicely if he was able to move around to her side of the cold fire pit. She should be feeling fear because now he could easily overpower her. Kill her. Only he did neither. He just laid there with his hand on her hip and his eyes staring deeply into her own.

This was wrong. So horribly wrong.

And yet…it didn’t feel wrong.

And that scared her more than anything.

“Shh,” he whispered, and his hand ran soothing circles across her hip bone.

Bree closed her eyes because she couldn’t stand looking at him anymore, couldn’t face the attraction she was developing. And somehow she must have fallen asleep because the next time she opened her eyes it was daylight.

She sat up quickly, looking around. Niah was gone. His leg splints were in a nice pile, the only testament that he’d been there. She ignored the stab of pain that pierced through her and told herself it was better this way. He had gone back to his people, to where he came from. It was time she went to where she belonged.

As she gathered her things and slipped her backpack over her shoulders, she thought about when she asked him to save one life as a thank you. Well, it seemed like he’d done just that.

He’d spared hers.

***

About the Authors

IMOGENE NIX

Imogene is a mother of two, compulsive reader, and bookstore owner. She lives in regional Queensland, Australia with her husband, two daughters, dog, cats, guinea pigs, and chooks. She has a particular fondness for vampires, star ship captains, and things that go bump in the night (especially vampire types).

Imogene has tried many varied roles in her working life including kindergarten assistant, teacher, principal, and kindergarten and child care director, but rates owning a bookstore and writing her own novels as the absolute highlight.

In her mother and wife alter ego, she has traveled widely and lived in some very unique places including Far Western Queensland, Cape York, and even Tasmania. She loves to travel and rates China and Hong Kong among her favorite destinations.

www.imogenenix.com

www.facebook.com/ImogeneNix

www.twitter.com/ImogeneNix

***

ASHLYNN MONROE

Ashlynn Monroe is a busy working mom. She loves her kids and family. Her greatest joy is creating stories to entertain others, and she hopes they bring a little more romance into the world. She’s been writing since her teens, for her own enjoyment, but decided in her thirties to share her imagination with readers. Ashlynn enjoys biking, camping, reading, video games, and filling her home and life with love. If she’s not working or chasing her children, you can find her daydreaming up her next tale of romance.

www.ashlynnmonroe.com

www.facebook.com/AshlynnMonroeAuthor

www.twitter.com/ashlynn_monroe

***

JAYE SHIELDS

Jaye Shields is a flight attendant by day and romance author by night. Her addictions include reading, travel, and other activities not even a romance writer will confess to. She’s in a committed love affair with her readers, so don’t be shy!

www.jayeshields.com

www.facebook.com/JayeShieldsAuthor

www.twitter.com/JayeShields

***

BETH D. CARTER

Beth likes writing about the very ordinary girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances, so her heroines will probably never be lawyers, doctors, or corporate highrollers. She tries to write characters who aren’t cookie-cutter and pushes herself to write complicated situations that she has no idea how to resolve, forcing herself to think outside the box. She loves writing characters who are real, complex, and full of flaws, heroes and heroines who find redemption through love.

Beth has been pretty fortunate in life to experience some amazing things. She’s lived in France and traveled throughout Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. She’s a mom to an amazing little boy, and she’s surrounded by friends and family. She hates washing dishes but loves cooking, hates washing clothes but loves wearing them. Her favorite color is red, but she looks best in black (it’s slimming). She hates people who don’t pick up their dog’s crap in public places, people who don’t use turn signals, and people who are rude and condescending. She especially hates discrimination in all and every form. And although she loves holding a book in her hand, she absolutely adores her ereader, whom she’s named Ruby.


www.bethdcarter.com

www.facebook.com/bethdcarterauthor

www.twitter.com/BethDCarter

Book Spotlight: First Wave by J.T. Sawyer

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First Wave
Travis Combs Thrillers 
Volume 1
JT Sawyer
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, zombies
Publisher: JT Sawyer
ASIN:  B00IHQAYYQ
Number of pages: 192
Word Count: 57666
Cover Artist: Melody Simmons

Book Description:  

Special Forces veteran Travis Combs just wanted to forget his weary years of leading combat missions while taking an extended rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.

As he and his group complete a 22-day trip on the Colorado River, they find the world has unraveled from a deadly pandemic.

Now, he has to show his small band how to live off the land and cross the rugged Arizona desert, while evading blood-drinking zombies, gangs of cartel bikers, and a rogue government agency.

Available at Amazon

***

Excerpt:

Prologue
August 26, Ten Days before the Pandemic

Doctor Robert James Pearson lowered the silver-rimmed glasses on his nose as he gazed at the clear vial before him. His technicians in the research lab next to his office had gone home for the day. The only noise came from the hallway outside, where he could hear the comforting footfalls of security personnel doing their evening sweeps in the high-security facility on the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He stroked his thin gray goatee while marveling at the precious substance in the vial.

After thirty-eight months of toil in his lab, his research for the Department of Biodefense was complete. The viral load he and the other scientists had perfected in the modified avian flu strain had passed the initial series of animal testing and the antidote was ready to use, if necessary. They had painstakingly taken the original 1918 virus and magnified its replication capabilities. This super virus dramatically increases the onset of necrotizing bronchiolitis while instigating diffuse alveolar damage. The subject will typically perish from internal hemorrhaging within twenty-four hours of exposure, he had proudly stated in a recent briefing to his funders.

The Biodefense officials had assured him that his research in neurophysiology and virology was critical to arriving at an antidote before terrorists could complete their own strain of the new virus. Now, over three years later, he could wrap up this voluminous project and resume his work at Stanford. Pearson was part of a six-man group of researchers who conferred through daily videoconferences, comparing research data. They were the brilliant minds behind the resulting antidote that could potentially save millions of lives.

As he pondered the accolades he would receive from his contemporaries in the scientific community, the landline phone on his desk rang, jolting him back to the present. Very few calls ever came in on this phone, and he picked up the receiver, squinting his eyes and tensing his lower lip.

The trembling voice on the other end was his colleague, Doctor Emory from Chicago. “Are you alone?”

“Yes. It’s a little too quiet in here, to be honest,” Pearson said. “Only the security guards and maintenance staff are around at this hour.”

“There isn’t much time. You need to leave now,” the other man said hurriedly. “Take your notes, laptop, and the vaccine with you. Somehow, the virus has been unleashed in Europe. Soon it will be on our doorstep.”

Pearson interrupted his friend’s hurried exclamations. “What are you talking about? How do you know?” said Pearson, clutching the phone and thrusting his shoulders forward over the edge of the wooden desk.

“That new agency we met with last week…and that woman…they came to my office looking for me a few hours ago. They killed my assistants and took everything.” He paused, his breath racing over the phone. “I escaped, but the others…they’re coming for us all. Get out of there now. You have to disappear. Go to your fallback location.”

“Wait, what…what do you mean….why would they….” Pearson paused, and his eyebrows scrunched together as he heard the sound of muffled gunfire coming from the hallway. His eyes darted to the brown door leading into his small office. He tried to dismiss the noise as a janitor’s cart tipping over, or another sound—anything other than what he had heard. Then the rhythmic pattern of gunfire shuttered through the hallway again as he heard people shriek and collapse to the floor.

Pearson’s face looked frostbitten as his world constricted. He placed the phone down and grabbed the vials of vaccine from the desk, along with his laptop, and thrust them into a compact metallic briefcase. He could hear the password keypad being activated for the exterior lab wall across from his office, and the sound of a woman’s voice issuing commands. The familiar swishing sound of the first set of air-locked lab doors opening followed next. With a white-knuckled grip on the briefcase, he pried open his office door to see three armed men and a woman with a black vest enter the lab. The first series of doors closed behind them.

Pearson swung open the office door and bolted in the opposite direction, heading for the stairs. His tan blazer fluttered like a cape as he ran down the stairs to the emergency exit. He entered the security code, and the pressure-sealed door opened to a dimly lit parking lot. After the door slammed, he stopped and turned around, then activated the biohazard alarm for the building. He didn’t wait to see if his actions were successful in sealing the intruders inside as he sprinted for his black Volvo. As Pearson sped towards the security gate, he could see the door ajar on the checkpoint booth. The security guard, a portly man he had greeted each morning for years, was lying face down atop a blood-sprayed console.

As he raced away, he kept waiting for the roar of police sirens heading to the facility, but there was only the expanse of the lonesome desert road enveloping his car. On the seat beside him was the silver briefcase containing the vials of vaccine.

His constant furtive glances in the rearview mirror matched his racing thoughts. If the virus could be contained in Europe then there might still be hope of preventing it from turning into a catastrophic pandemic. But how long had it been? If quarantine was unsuccessful, then widespread fatalities would commence within two weeks. He reflected on the recent meeting that Emory had mentioned. That icy-eyed woman with the neck scar said her employer would be overseeing vaccine distribution in the event of a bio attack. How was she involved? What was she doing at the lab?

Twelve miles later, the remote two-lane highway ended at a T-section as the last glimmer of sunlight streaked across Pearson’s pale cheeks. The faint lights of vehicles driving on the interstate could be seen in the distance. A hundred yards down the road, a green sign indicated Albuquerque to the east and Flagstaff to the west. Reluctantly, he edged towards the west entrance ramp. This would be the safest direction for now, and perhaps offer a chance to salvage humanity’s future.

***

About the Author:

JT Sawyer is the pen name for the author who makes his living teaching survival courses for the military special operations community, Department of Homeland Security, US Marshals, FAA, and other federal agencies throughout the US.

He has over 25 years of experience testing long-term survival skills in the desert, mountains, and forest.

http://www.jtsawyer.com  

https://www.facebook.com/JTSawyerbooks

https://twitter.com/authorjtsawyer

Book Spotlight & Giveaway: Wicked Flower by Carlene Love Flores

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Wicked Flower
A Sin Pointe Novel
Book 5
Carlene Love Flores
Genre: Erotic Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-77130-987-5 
ASIN: B00N44IJEI
Word Count: 80,160
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Book Description: 

Sin Pointe front man Stefan Calderon is playing a very dangerous game and his mom’s live-in caretaker, Dani Foster, just landed right smack in the middle of it.

Practically strangers when Stefan rolls into his small hometown looking to patch things up with Mom, his and Dani’s worlds collide with a hot and intense hook up. He knows right away this woman will make the perfect partner for his two weeks in town. But when she realizes whose son he is, and what he’s there to do, sexy times come to an abrupt halt.

That is until they come up with a solution. Rules. Every game needs them. The question isn’t if they’ll break them, but when and how hard.

It’s a wickedly delicious game, one neither of them intends to lose.

Sin Pointe Book Trailer Series http://youtu.be/1rfMHnkmZ14

Available at Evernight | Amazon | All Romance eBooks | BookStrand

***

Excerpt:

Wow. Had Will pegged this perfectly or what? Stefan was determined not to hear her. What hurt Dani most was how his confidence had been shattered by a ten minute conversation in a silly rose garden.

She didn’t even remember that she’d just been crying and the wetness on her cheeks surprised her when she wiped a piece of hair from her face. “But you come back. And when you do, you bring the best laughs and joy with you. You bring yourself.”

“No, don’t do that. Don’t make me out to be some good guy, Dani. It’ll only hurt you in the end.” He paused and then stabbed her with a look sharper than steel. “You sucked my cock good last night, but that doesn’t mean you own me. I don’t owe you anything.”

Her face flamed with sheer anger. She nearly spit the word asshole right back in his face but remembered Will’s warning. She could be just as stubborn. “Try again. I did suck your cock good and no, you don’t owe me anything. But you will hear me out. You know who else leaves their loved ones behind? How about soldiers?”

“That’s different and you know it.”

“How so? They stay gone for months. Thom gets one two-week break half-way through his year-long tour. He comes home one time, Stefan. In an entire year. How is that different than what you do?”

Stefan looked like she’d shot him. He held his hands over his midsection and hunched over before he righted himself again.

“I don’t know. It just is. I’m not laying my life on the line for anyone.”

“But you’re putting it on hold so you can make all those people who love your music happy.” She wouldn’t stop now. “I bet if you were with someone, you’d find a way to see that person, no matter how far away you were. And I bet that person would be thankful, and…” Her eyes welled up with tears again. “So very happy for each moment, no matter how short or how much time passed between visits. Or how big of a mean jerk you could be sometimes.”

The amount of time he stayed with his head bowed down killed Dani. Losing him in a couple days hadn’t hurt before because she realized she’d held out hope that things would work out between them. That her Superman would figure it out and fix it all. He’d invite his mom to Nashville and Dani too. All she needed was an invitation and his ability to wait two measly months for her to arrive.

“Stefan, look at me.”

She waited patiently.

“I’ll just hurt you, Dani. Don’t you get it? I fucking love you and I’d hurt you.”

Her breath tunneled around her lungs and her knees threatened to give out but she wouldn’t stop until she’d convinced him he would not do that. Not if he … not if he loved her. The way she loved him back.

“Why do you keep saying that? Leaving, when it’s your job, doesn’t hurt the one you love.”

Her mind was nearly useless after his use of the L word. Maybe he was trying to tell her he wouldn’t be faithful.

“You don’t understand me, Dani.”

“Then help me out here. Are you saying you’d sleep around on the road? Is that some inevitable part of you being Stefan Calderon, bass player?”

Crap. He wasn’t answering her.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve never been tested like that.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

Again he went silent. And this time he got up out of his stool and walked to the sink. As if they hadn’t just been in an industrial sized conversation, he reached up and pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water. He guzzled the entire thing down then filled it up and walked back over to her. He set the glass down in front of her, nudging her hand which she realized was in a tight fist.

“Fighting can’t be good for the baby. Dinner’s getting cold. Let’s eat. Then maybe we’ll talk more.”

Maybe we’ll talk more? Who did he think he was? Ending their discussion like that. But her chest had tightened and she knew he was right when she took in a deep breath and felt the built up tension leave and her body relax back to normal.

She hated that he was right. But if he thought she wouldn’t fight for him, he was dead wrong. She took the glass of water, emptying it then handed it back to him.

“What did you get?”

She could play nice while they ate. He loved her.

Stefan brought their plates over. He sat down across from her and stabbed a peapod and a chunk of pink salmon, shaking his head as he bit the food from the fork and chewed. He stabbed another and another bite.

Whoever had made this man, had gotten so many things so very right. No matter that all those things combined made her absolutely crazy.

He loved her. He’d said so.

She chewed, and tried not to cry smile.

***

About the Author:

Carlene Love Flores is a fan of the stars (especially Orion), music (especially Depeche Mode), and her traveling family (no favorites-she loves them all). These inspire her intimate romance stories.

If she could touch someone’s heart with writing the way others have for her, she’d say there never lived a luckier girl.  

Website  http://carlenelove.com/

Twitter  https://twitter.com/cloveflores

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/carlene.l.flores

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6887320.Carlene_Love_Flores

***

Tour giveaway:

5 copies of Wicked Flower in ebook format

1 signed print copy of Sidewalk Flower (Book 1 of the Sin Pointe series) (Only available to US shipping addresses)

1 custom designed Sin Pointe t-shirt (Only available to US Shipping addresses)

a Rafflecopter giveaway