Spotlight: The Morrigan by Kennan Reid

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance

Release date: March 16, 2015

 Synopsis:

Morrie Brandon is the best horse trainer in Oklahoma, able to tame the wildest of beasts. She's also the Celtic goddess of War and Sex, The Morrigan, abandoning her supernatural life for a simpler, more human one. When Morrie is hired by a secretive Scottish family to capture a killer horse ravaging their Highlands manor, the past she has spent thousands of years running from calls her back. Will Morrie learn from her past mistakes and embrace the bold goddess she truly is, or is it too late?

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Author Bio:

Kennan Reid traveled from the vast, open spaces of Texas to the vast, open ocean of California where she enjoys sitting outside in the sun, tossing a frisbee to her dog, Barnabas, and on occasion, writing a few words hoping one day they behave and become a book. When she's not pretending to be a romance author, she is writing young adult novels about elves, witches and reincarnation. The Morrigan is her first adult romance novel and after falling in love with the fiesty goddess and her crazy sisters, will not be her last.

Author Links:

Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads

Excerpt:

“Did no one tell ye it’s rude tae give a man the best night of his life and then run away?” a voice rumbled low and soft and managed to be as seductive as it was menacing.

“Kade,” Morrie sighed, hoping he couldn’t hear the desire and relief laced in the sound.  

She shouldn’t be this excited over knowing he had raced home after her, but inside she nearly bounced like a giddy school girl.  

And what did he say?  The best night of his life…Morrie would have to admit, she felt the same.

She spun around on the stool to face him, leaning back when she found him standing too near.  

He closed the small space, towering over her as he dipped his head to be eye level with her, forcing her back against the bar. 

“Ye will no’ leave like that again,” he growled.  

Morrie frowned at his order and opened her mouth to respond, but the words caught in the back of her throat.  

Emotion flickered in his eyes, eyes that had grown black with what could have been either desire or fury, she wasn’t sure.  But also something else… 

Morrie tilted her head to the side. “Did I scare you?”

Kade huffed with quick offense and straightened up, leaning back from her.  But his expression changed to one of wonder. 

“Like ye would no’ believe,” he admitted on an exhaled breath as though surprised by his own revelation.

“I told you I was here for business.”  And that business was quickly becoming an obsession of hers.  

A challenge that would determine just how far down the mortal hole she had fallen and whether she could find her true nature as a goddess once again.  

This job tested her mettle because it should have been done by now.  She knew she could find the horse if she used her powers, but she needed to know she could find him on her own.  

Though why she needed that, she couldn’t say.

Kade turned his angry eyes on her. “Do ye really expect tae succeed in this daft quest?”

Morrie blinked, surprised by the…well, vehemence of his question and the turn of his questioning.  

Of everyone in the home, he had seemed the least concerned about her reasons for being there.

“If I didn’t think I could catch him, I wouldn’t stay.”  And she had thought he wanted her to stay, but his question had elicited an unwanted response—one of insecurity. “If you think I’m wasting my time, then I should just leave.”  

For emphasis, she moved to slip off the stool, to really get away from him before he could see just how his doubts had touched her, but he stopped her by placing his hand on her hip.

“Wait, that’s no’ what I want.”  Morrie paused but crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her lips together and waiting for him to continue.  Kade sighed. “O’ course I think ye can catch him.  If anyone can, it’s you.  I doona doubt ye.” He blinked, like a discovery had been made. “Maybe ye’re supposed tae. In fact, I’ll help ye do so.”

Morrie gave Kade a sidelong glance.  He was up to something, she just wasn’t sure what.

“You’ll come with me to the loch?”  

There it was again! 

A passing cloud of fear across his face, but this time it was different.  It seemed spurned on by a different place.  

But it came and went so quickly, Morrie soon questioned seeing it at all.

“I’ll follow ye anywhere,” he answered her and there was a deep truth behind his statement. “Just doona leave again like ye did this morn.”

Morrie studied him like a suspicious package wrapped in a thin veil of desperate relief.  He seemed changed from the night before—this emotion even different than the cloud that settled over him after the encounter with his mother.  

Kade either wore many masks or his true nature was too complex to determine.  

Like the horse, Kade was a challenge.

And Morrie was a sucker for challenges.

And his dark eyes turned her into a puddle and it seemed there was nothing she could do about it.  Her shoulders slumped before she muttered, “Stop making me melt.”

Kade frowned. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Morrie stood up, placing her body much too close to Kade’s, but she couldn’t appear weak.  She pulled out some money and slapped it down on the bar to well cover her tab.

“Alright, you can help.  But what happened last night cannot happen again.  I am your brother’s employee, I am your employee.  And for us to entangle ourselves…” Kade’s responding grin caused Morrie to roll her eyes and regret her word choice, but she continued on, hands on her hips, “would only result in an unnecessary distraction.”  

She hoped to glower that smirk right off his beautiful lips.

At the fire in her eyes, Kade threw up is hands in surrender. 

“Aye, lass, as ye wish.  If ye insist on lying tae yerself and pretending, then I will no’ impose my will on ye.”  

Morrie’s face burned with outrage, but that only resulted in Kade laughing at her, gazing down with desire in his smoldering eyes and adoration in his smile. 

“Stop that!” she complained, pushing past him.   

“Stop what?” he asked with feigned innocence.

She whirled around and nearly smacked her face into his chest.  

Sighing, she stepped back and looked up at him. 

“Stop trying to provoke me.  Nothing will happen between us.”

“If ye say so.  As I said, I will no’ impose myself on ye, but if ye canna keep yer hands tae yerself, lass, I will no’ stop where they may roam.  And we both know they’re curious, lil’ things.”  

Volumes were spoken in his heated gaze.  Morrie flushed anew.

Her body grew rigid, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

“My hands do not—there will be no—gah!” Morrie sputtered and turned her back to him, stomping out of the restaurant and towards what was going to surely be a violent battle of wills.  

For the first time in her existence, Morrie didn’t know if she would be the victor.

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Guest Post + Giveaway: The Tramp by Sarah Wathen

When John was seven, he found Candy dancing in the neighboring yard wearing a yellow polka-dot bikini and red rain galoshes, splashing and dancing and singing at the top of her lungs. She saved his throat from getting ripped out by her grandma’s guard dog. Good thing she did, too. It was John who raised the alarm that day, when the man who smiled with his mouth but not his eyes drove off with Candy in a cloud of dust. The police stopped whatever might have happened next in a seedy motel—a place Candy doesn’t dare remember. John rescued her, creating a bond between two friends strong enough to awaken…something. 

That something has haunted the southern mountain town of Shirley since a time before stories were written, in a cycle that has spun for centuries. 

Years later, John and Candy begin to suspect something more sinister lurking amidst the days of football glory and the nights of clandestine rendezvous. John discovers disturbing symbols from the ancient tribes indigenous to the area in his history textbook, in a local cave system, and in his very dreams. Candy uncovers a family history that is more colorful than she knew. If shades of black are colorful. 

If only the two friends could foresee the danger looming before them. For another something, one much more dangerous than the first, is waking up to continue the cycle. 

And this something is bent on revenge…again. 

Murder forces everyone out of sunny valley torpor, and Candy realizes that more than acquaintance connects her with the killer. When a corpse is found, gutted as if for ritual, she knows that whatever evil has overtaken her hometown is moving forward. She will have to exorcise the haunting herself—though she has no idea how—and she will need John’s predestined help to do it. Candy will have to face the memories of that seedy motel room first. At least she finally understands the power she never knew she had—a link to her departed mother and a line of healers shrouded in pre-history.

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IN MY HABITAT

- Guest Post by Sarah Wathen

Unlike many authors, I don’t have a writing nook. I’m so jealous of dedicated writing spaces that I prefer to imagine them as purely fictional. Because of my day job (devoted caretaker of a certain six-year-old boy named Liam), I write on the fly most of the time—like a boxcar vagabond, who hunkers down in a corner with a few newspapers to serve as blankets, but sleeps like a baby. I have to grab every chance I can get and any semi-flat surface will do for a writing desk. Whether I’m balancing my laptop on my knees while watching Liam swim laps at the YMCA, or stealing an hour at Starbucks during a My Gym class, I get it done.

One of the ways I create my author bubble—wherever I am—is to always have my noise-canceling headphones on hand. This was a splurge, but one of the best gifts my hubby ever gave me: Bose Quiet Comfort 15, Acoustic Noise Canceling around ear headphones. What plays on those things is specific to my mood and the writing phase.

And, I do have my favorite spaces—little comfy environments that I dream of while scribbling notes on the playground sidelines.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Wathen is an artist, author, and founder of the independent publishing house, LayerCake Productions. She was trained in Classical Painting at the University of Central Florida, and then received her Master's in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design in New York City. If Florida was where she discovered her passion, New York was the place she found her voice. "Writing a book was my obvious next step, once I realized I'd been trying to tell stories with pictures for years," Sarah says about transitioning from visual artist to novelist. "Painting with words is even more fun than painting with oil." She describes world-building with language--developing characters, constructing settings and plots, and inventing history--as a power trip that everyone should try at least once.
If only she had as much control over her Bichon Frisées as she does over her narratives. A devoted animal lover, she populates every story with at least one of her pets--especially the dearly departed ones, as therapy for an aching heart.

Sarah lives in Florida with her husband, son, and at least a dozen imaginary friends from her two novels, The Tramp and Catchpenny.

Goodreads | Amazon | Facebook | Twitter | Website

GIVEAWAY

The author is giving away the following gifts to one winner of the Rafflecopter.

•        Signed print copy of the book + Kindle download
•        MP3 download of The Tramp theme song, "Bound Hearts"
•        Cover art T-shirt

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Cover Reveal: The Tale of Willaby Creek by Victoria Lindstrom

I'm excited to share the cover reveal of The Tale of Willaby Creek by Victoria Lindstrom! This is a middle grade adventure fantasy that releases in June 2015. 

About the Book:

A magical tale of amazing sacrifice...

When a violent windstorm strikes an enchanted rain forest many of the woodland creatures of Willaby Creek are stranded, injured, or lost forever to the frenzied force of the tempest. Basil, a black bear full of doubt and fear, becomes the unlikely leader to head the woodland creatures' rescue. He is joined by Daphne, a spunky blue dryad; Oliver, a wise horned owl; Elbert, a noble elk; and a host of other creatures that inhabit the enchanted rain forest.

Dangerous twists and turns in this animal adventure fantasy cause Basil to discover a courage, and a conviction, he never knew he had. The answers to the ancient mysteries in this magical tale emerge in an extraordinary finale under the tall timbers of the hidden hinterland.

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About the Author:

VICTORIA LINDSTROM is a full-time writer, a voracious reader, and the author of the children's picture book, The Scandinavian Santa. She loves to wander through the woods, capture the beauty of Nature in photographs, and visit museums and fine art galleries. She and her husband, Michael, live near the shore of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. You may visit Victoria at: www.victorialindstrom.com

Facebook | Twitter@AuthorLindstrom | Goodreads | Pinterest 

Giveaway:
One hardcover copy of The Tale of Willaby Creek (US) and an ebook of The Tale of Willaby Creek (INT)
(Books will be delivered upon release, or shortly before.)
Ends May 19, 2015

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This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.

Cover Reveal: You Can't Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet by Juliette Harper

We're excited to share the cover for You Can't Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet by Juliette Harper! This is the first book in A Study Club Mystery series. It's set to release in June 2015. Check out the excerpt and then the fabulous giveaway at the end!

About the Book:
Wanda Jean Milton discovers her husband, local exterminator Hilton Milton, dead on her new shag carpet with an Old Hickory carving knife sticking out of his chest. Beside herself over how she’ll remove the stain, and grief-stricken over Hilton’s demise, Wanda Jean finds herself the prime suspect in the case. But she is also a member of “the” local Study Club, a bastion of independent Texas feminism 1960s style. Club President Clara Wyler has no intention of allowing a member to be a murder suspect during her administration. Aided by her younger sister and County Clerk, Mae Ella Gormley; Sugar Watson, the proprietress of Sugar’s Style and Spray; and Wilma Schneider, Army MASH veteran and local RN, the Club women set out to clear Wanda Jean’s name — never guessing the local dirt they’ll uncover in the process.

Excerpt:

Sugar Watson took a long drag on her Camel and critically appraised the height of Clara Wyler’s black bouffant. “You want me to go a little higher, honey?” she asked, punctuating the question with a well-developed smoker’s cough. “If I rat it up real good, I can get you another 2 or 3 inches on top.”

Clara squinted at herself in the mirror. “I think I’m good, Sugar,” she said. “What with Wanda Jean finding Hilton dead in the living room, I don’t want to look insincere at Study Club.”

Sugar leaned in conspiratorially. “I know we don’t ever throw anybody out of the Study Club, but my Lord, what in the world are we gonna do if she really did kill him?”

Clara glanced around to confirm that all the other women in Sugar’s Style and Spray were safely tucked under the dryers. “Well, she called me herself to assure me that she didn’t do it,” Clara said. “She owned up to wanting to, but she didn’t do it.”

“Well, hell,” Sugar said, “we’ve all thought about killing our husbands. That’s just part of being married. But nobody’s ever walked in my house and found Slim laying there with an Old Hickory carving knife sticking out of his chest. What did Wanda Jean say about finding him?”

“She told me the first thing she thought about was how hard it was gonna be to get the blood out of that new shag carpet they put in last month,” Clara said. “You know they went with the deep pile.”

“I know,” Sugar said. “I looked at it too when T.J. put the ad in the paper, but my vacuum cleaner just won’t suck up dirt good enough for that. Is it a light carpet?”

“I didn’t think to ask her,” Clara said, unclipping the plastic cape around her neck and handing it to Sugar. “Anyway, she said she just stood there thinking about how you can’t get blood out of shag carpet. Then it dawned on her maybe she ought to check him for a pulse.”

“I hope it wasn’t a light carpet,” Sugar said, rearranging cans of Aqua Net on the counter. “Those boys from the ambulance service never think to wipe their feet before they go in to get a body. You should have seen the mess they made when Blake Trinkle died. They just ruined Maybelline’s carpet. She spent as much getting it cleaned as she did on the funeral.”

“That’s so inconsiderate,” Clara agreed. “People just don’t think. Now you’re not gonna be late this afternoon, are you?”

“Of course not,” Sugar said. “Flowers knows not to book me on the third Thursday at three. Study Club day is sacred.”

“Good, I have to go by the bakery and . . . ”

The look on Sugar’s face stopped Clara mid-sentence. “Good Lord, Sugar,” she said. “You look like you swallowed one of your Camels.”

“I think we’re gonna be one short for Club,” Sugar croaked. “Look.”

Clara glanced out the front window in time to see Sheriff Lester Harper helping a handcuffed Wanda Jean Milton out of the backseat of his car. “What is that man thinking!” she exclaimed. “Parading her in front of God and everybody on the courthouse square!”

                                                  --------------------------------------------

About the author:

Juliette Harper is the pen name used by the writing team of Patricia Pauletti and Rana K. Williamson.

Like the characters of their debut series, The Lockwood Legacy, Juliette is a merging of their creative energies.
Pauletti, an Easterner of Italian descent, is an accomplished musician with an eye for art and design. Williamson, a Texan from a long line of hardheaded Scots, knows the world of the Lockwoods like the back of her hand.“We decided to write under a pen name because neither one of us by ourselves could have created Kate, Jenny, Mandy, and their world,” says Pauletti. “Juliette is a little bit of us both. We want to be her when we grow up.”

“Patti teases me that I just don’t want to own up to writing a book with romance in it,” Williamson adds, “but that’s not true. I like the Lockwood women and the way they tackle everything life throws at them. And before we’re done, they’ll be ducking a lot. I imagine coming into the office every day and saying, ‘Okay Juliette, what’s going to happen now?’ She tells us, and we get it down on paper.”

Website | Twitter (@jharperbooks)

Giveaway:

Ends May 12th, 2015

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This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.

Happy Release Day - Tripp by Kristen Kehoe!

Welcome to the release event for Tripp by Kristen Kehoe, a companion novel to Life Interrupted. We have some teasers as well as a giveaway of a necklace from Stella & Dot.  Tripp is a Mature Young Adult Contemporary Novel and is now available for sale!

About the Book:

Because there are two sides to every story…

I’ve never been the guy who shied away from taking the ball. I’m an athlete; I thrive on the court, and I thrive in life because I don’t shy away from taking chances.

Except that one time.

Except with Rachel.

I fell in love with my best friend when we were ten, and she almost put her fist in my face when I tried to defend her against a fifth grade bully. I didn’t tell her that day that I loved her, or any of the ones following, because she had proved she didn’t need me, and even at a young age, I knew the opposite was true for me.

I needed Rachel with every breath I took, and it scared the ever-loving crap out of me.

Being the mature young man I am (cough), I tried to ignore it. I dated someone else; I stayed Rachel’s friend and watched her from afar because when you love someone who has the potential to break you into a million unrecoverable pieces, that’s what you do.  You watch from afar and you never reveal your true feelings because it’s safer to hide them than to admit them.

Until it’s not. Until the day you take a step forward and alter both of your worlds completely, only to discover that you’ll never, ever be over her.

This is my story – my story of Rachel and everything I did and didn’t do, everything I said and forgot to say, and everything I felt before and after we made our biggest mistake and walked away from each other.

She told her side – now it’s my turn. I’m including our past, holding nothing back from her ever again, so she better be ready for me.

Mature Young Adult

 ***This is the companion novel to LIFE INTERRUPTED (The Life series Book 1) released January 2014. It can be read as a standalone, as it is different from Rachel’s story.

Goodreads | Amazon

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Excerpt:

“Tripp,” Stacy says. I snap to the present. “Are you ready?”

I wipe my palms on my jeans and nod. “What do you need?”

Following Stacy’s instructions, I walk down the hall into Rachel’s room. The light is on; I can see the small form under the blankets before I peel them away and scoop my arms under her even though she protests. I want her to fight, even prepare myself for it, but right away I see what Stacy’s talking about. There’s nothing inside of Rachel—even as she attempts to thrash in my arms, I barely have to tighten my hold on her while I carry her to the bathroom. The girl who has so often put me on my ass from one punch has no muscle, and worse, she has no spirit.

Nothing about the girl in my arms right now is the Rachel I’ve always known. The lack of fight worries me more than the lack of weight.

Stacy’s already pushed the shower curtain back. I put Rachel inside, ignoring her half-hearted protests as I turn the water on cold and high. When she screams—the real-deal scream full of terror and anger—the vise on my chest loosens a little and I’m so grateful I could break down and weep. My hands are full because she’s putting much more effort into fighting me than she was a second ago. I forget about how cold the water is on my skin, or the fact that she looks like a ghost with dark circles under her eyes and a pasty pallor to her normally warm skin, and I talk to her while I hold her there.

“That’s right, Rachel, fight me. You fight me and you come back. Do you hear me? We need you, Rachel. We need you to fight.” She screams more, shoving at me with her hands, but I don’t budge. I encourage her as I see the color start to slowly seep into her cheeks. “Come on, baby, come back to us. Come back to me.”

I whisper the last part. I don’t know if it was the words or the fact that she’s finally opened up enough to feel the weight of it all, but she breaks—the dam cracking and flooding. Instead of being angry, she’s devastated.

My heart cracks and my lungs seize; she falls into a sobbing heap. I turn the water off and start to lift her into my lap. Whatever I promised her sister, I can’t do it; I can’t watch her break like this.

About the Author:

I am a writer of YA/NA contemporary novels. I write about those crazy ages of 18-23 because there is nothing scarier than being told to grow up and decide what to do with your life and who to be so suddenly. I write about love because it’s my belief that love, in one form or another, saves us all at some point in our lives. I am married to a man who understands and believes in me, and mother to a beautiful baby girl and a neurotic Great Dane Puppy.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway:

Necklace from Stella & Dot

Open to US addresses only
Ends May 6

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This event was organized by CBB Book Promotions.

Giveaway: Crazed Reckoning by Valerie J. Clarizio

Book Title: Crazed Reckoning, a Nick Spinelli Mystery
Author: Valerie J. Clarizio

Publisher: Melange Books, LLC

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Length: 120 pages

Release Date: March 5, 2015

Blurb:

After experiencing a murderous Christmas and Valentine's Day with love interest Shannon O'Hara, Detective Nick Spinelli assumed Saint Patrick's Day couldn't be any worse.

He was wrong.

While out on a geocaching adventure in Door County, Shannon and her friend Anna find more than a clue in the cache box. When Shannon disappears, Spinelli is sent racing to find her. Amidst the chaos of an unruly Irish celebration, and a decades-old Irish family feud, he must rescue her from the hands of a madman.

Authors Bio:

Valerie is a writer of romantic suspense, contemporary romance, and women’s fiction novels.  She lives in beautiful Door County Wisconsin with her husband and two very spoiled cats.  She loves to read, write, and spend time at her cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  She’s lived her life surrounded by men, three brothers, a husband, and a male Siamese cat who required his own instruction manual.  Keeping up with all the men in her life has turned her into a successful hunter and fisherwoman.

She is a member of Romance Writers of America and the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America. Additionally, she was a finalist in the 2011 Celtic Hearts Romance Writers, Novellas Need Love, Too! Contest.

Website:  https://valclarizio.wordpress.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Valerie.Clarizio

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/VClarizio

<!--[if gte mso 9]>

EXCERPT AND TEASER

Excerpt:

Shannon slid the lever over and released the latch of the small cash drawer-like box before she lifted the lid. Both women gasped and jumped back, Shannon not as far as Anna as her back pressed firmly to the pine frame of the triangle. The box slipped off the log. The contents flipped through the air. Their horrifying screams echoed as Shannon’s spine ground into the unyielding log behind her. Her gaze stayed glued to the gruesome object. Oh God, please don’t let it touch me!

The container and its contents crashed to the ground and came to a rest at Shannon’s feet. She wasted no time hoisting herself out of the confined area.

Shannon glanced over the downed trees to find her friend’s equally petrified gaze on her. Speechless, Shannon waited for words from Anna.

Her friend swallowed audibly. “Is that what I think it is?”

Anna’s shuddering body matched Shannon’s own vibrations. The cold had nothing to do with it. Shannon’s thudding heart nearly broke free of her chest.

“I think so.”

Anna nodded at her and they both edged forward to get a better glimpse. A partially decomposed finger lay in the snow next to the cache box, along with the small broken jar in which it had been housed. A slight waft of alcohol drifted into Shannon’s nostrils before a ray of sun shot through the overcast sky. A flash of light sparked off the finger. Shannon’s heart raced. A gold Claddagh ring, just like the grand-prize she hoped to win, was wrapped snugly around the large yellowish-brown finger.

Teaser:

Bernie kept his gaze on Riordan. “Well, it appears your little world is about to come crumbling down. I guess old Maeve thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold. And here you thought you’d rid yourself of her years ago,” Bernie commented as another satisfying chuckle escaped his lips. 

Spinelli watched as the white of Riordan’s left eyeball turned red as a fire truck. The bulging must have caused a vessel to break. Spinelli had never seen anyone’s eyes protrude as far out of their sockets. Spit saturated Riordan’s gag and ran down his chin as he fiercely growled. Bernie had obviously struck a nerve.

 

GIVEAWAY

The author is offering one ecopy of Crazed Reckoning to one winner from this blog.  Follow my blog in any way (GFC, Facebook, Twitter, Email subscription) and comment in this post about how you followed and your id to verify.  Please don't forget to leave your email id.

Guest Post & Giveaway: Romantic Road by Blair McDowell

Author: Blair McDowell

Title: Romantic Road

Release Date: January 28th, 2015

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | AllRomance

When Lacy Telchev buries her husband she finds herself in treacherous waters. Igor, much older than Lacy, had secrets. Suddenly Lacy is being chased across Europe by men who believe she can lead them to those secrets. Evading her pursuers with the aid of a chance acquaintance, the handsome and mysterious Max Petersen, Lacy travels across Germany, Austria and Hungary, to a shattering discovery in Budapest.

Along the way, she meets three women from Igor’s past. As Igor’s story unfolds through them, Lacy is less and less certain who her husband really was. Who can Lacy trust? Will she survive to find out?

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

EXCERPT

“Where is it? Just tell us where it is and you won’t get hurt.” The taller man loomed over her, his face expressionless, a mask.

“Where is what? What are you talking about? Who are you?” Lacy began to be annoyed. That was better than being scared. “Can I see your badges again?”

The second man stared hard at her though dead-looking flat grey eyes. “Mrs. Telchev,” he said, his voice low and menacing, “we mean you no harm. But you must tell us where he hid his manuscript.”

They knew her name? Icy tentacles of fear slipping down Lacy’s back. She shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

At that moment the red and white lights of a state police vehicle rounded the curve coming toward them. Seeing the blocked road it stopped. Two uniformed officers got out and approached the two parked cars.

“You’re blocking the road. What’s the trouble here?”

The taller man spoke.  “No trouble, Officer. Sorry about the way we’re parked. I’ll move the car immediately. The lady was pulled over here and we just stopped to see if she needed help.”

He flipped open his wallet and showed the officers the same ID he’d shown Lacy.

It seemed to mean something to the policemen.

Lacy opened her mouth to say something and then thought better of it. What could she tell the police? These men wanted a manuscript from her but she didn’t know where it was? Or what it was about? Or even if it existed. That it involved her dead husband? No. She wouldn’t say anything. Not until she knew more.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

MY WRITING SPACE

- GUEST POST BY BLAIR McDOWELL

My writing space is wherever I find myself at the moment, and my writing tools are a little notebook I’m never without and my Panasonic Toughbook computer.  The computer of choice for police work, a Toughbook is essential for me since I’m on and off planes, trains and automobiles frequently. It’s a strong, hearty beast that withstands manhandling. It has a few dents, but it soldiers on.

My little black notebook is almost as important as my computer. I jot down bits of conversation I overhear, unusual accents, a description of the Italian gentleman at the table next to mine gesticulating wildly with one hand while talking volubly into his cell phone held in the other. I make notes about historic sites, art that captivates me, a flower market in Paris, children playing in a square in Venice, a couple kissing in a doorway, anything that captures my attention.  It’s all fodder for my books.

 I lead a wanderer’s life; winter in the Caribbean, spring and summer on the west coast of Canada, fall in Europe.  

My husband had the good sense to build a little house on a tiny Caribbean island back when land was cheap, before the Caribbean became a “destination”.  My office is the veranda. I sit at a table with a view of the sea before me, the chatter of sugar birds in my ears. Writing on a remote, untouristic island in the Caribbean may sound romantic, but it has its frustrations. Internet access is scanty at best, and the lure of the sea is undeniable.  I’d rather be swimming.

As spring approaches, I head back north to British Columbia’s west coast, to a spectacular setting between mountains and sea. There, with a friend, I run a Bed & Breakfast. Chatting with guests from far and wide, as we dish up Eggs Benny and pancakes, is a rich source for stirring the imagination.

In Canada, my office is in my bedroom. For the sake of my back, I sit in a recliner and use a lapboard. When I lift my eyes from my work, I see deer grazing their way across our yard or a cruise ship on its way to Alaska. I’ve never been able to write facing a blank wall. I need a distant vista when I look up from my keyboard.  It helps me to think, to stop floundering as the next scene takes shape in my cluttered head.

Come October, my friend and I head off to spend the money we made on our B&B. Greece and Italy are our favorite haunts. We stay in small family run hotels and B&B’s.  My third writing space is wherever I can find a spot in our often miniscule room to put my computer. If there isn’t any, I retreat to the closest taverna or bistro or trattoria. I keep detailed notes of our day to day adventures, usually as blogs on my website, wwwblairmcdowell.com. The information in these almost always finds its way into my books, at some point. Such was the case with Romantic Road.  My notes on the inns where we stayed, the people we met, the meals we ate and the countryside we drove through on the Romantische Strasse all helped bring Romantic Road to life. 

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AUTHOR BIO

Blair McDowell wrote her first short story when she was eleven and has never ceased writing since, although only recently has she been able to return to her first love, writing fiction.  During her early years, she taught in universities in the United States, Canada and Australia, and wrote several highly successful books in her field.

Her research has taken her to many interesting places.  She has lived in Europe, Australia, the United States and the Caribbean and Canada, and spent considerable time in still other places, Iceland, the Far East, and the Torres Strait Islands off the coast of New Guinea. Now she travels for pleasure. Portugal, Greece and Italy are favorite haunts.

Her books are set in places she knows and loves and are peopled with characters drawn from her experiences of those places.   The Memory of Roses takes readers to the Greek Island of Corfu, where a young woman finds her future while searching for her father's past.  In Delighting in Your Company, the reader is transported to a small island in the Caribbean, with a heroine who finds herself in the unenviable position of falling in love with a ghost.  The setting for Sonata is the city of Vancouver, with its vibrant multicultural population and its rich musical life, and the heroine is a musician who finds herself in unexpected danger.

In her most recent release, Romantic Road, Lacy Telchev, is pursued along Germany’s famous Romantische Strausse as she follows clues left by her late husband in order to solve a mystery that she doesn’t understand, while being chased by dangerous and cunning adversaries.

She hopes her readers will enjoy reading these books as much as she enjoyed writing them.

Blair is a member of the Romance Writers of America, Romance Writers of America (Greater Vancouver Chapter),  the Romance Writers of America (Women's Fiction), and The Writers’ Union of Canada.

AUTHOR LINKS: Website | Blog | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Google+

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GIVEAWAY

Blair is offering e-copies of Romantic Road to 2 winners of the Rafflecopter.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: The Enchanters Series by Allie Burke @allieburkebooks #PNR

Published on 26 June 2014

Genre – Paranormal Romance

Rating – 18+ (as provided by author)

No. of pages – 437

American novelist Allie Burke brings her readers the genre-defining Enchanters Collection which paints the beautiful complexity of true love through auras, darkness, and magic.

Violet Midnight Book 1:

Look into the world of the Enchanters, where water has a sense of humor, trees scare people, and love… is destiny.

Beautiful Jane is hovering at the edge of content in her life of solitude in the quiet town of Jasmyn Lake, but when her energy sends her on a journey to meet the man she has been dreaming about for months, she cannot resist.

Meet sexy artist Elias, who moved to Hazel Grove, California to get away from the rain, his parents, and everything that was taken from him in Hayward, Washington. But he thinks he may be losing his mind when he starts seeing purple glitter in the air, the scent of rosemary is everywhere, and he is hearing a beautiful voice.

But all is not flowers and ease for the newly joined couple. With a woman who prefers night to day and a man with heartache from his past, they must learn how to create their own world with grace and the occasional water feature. Written with humor and intensity, book one of the three part trilogy will leave you yearning for more and daydreaming shades of purple.

Emerald Destiny Book 2:

What happens when the girl you’ve loved since you were six-years old runs away from you, effectively breaking your heart again? Evan is about to find out.

Nineteen-year old Evan spends his time in the woods of Dare Forest where the trees have personality, as close to Abby as he can be. But love has a cruel master and everyone around him has forbidden he contact her.

Abby’s nights are stressed with her Enchanter life, her dreaded nightmares, and her enduring will to save her brother from his own inner darkness. But when Evan speaks to her for the first time in fourteen years, she finds his voice too painful to bear.
Countless times before them, the union between their opposing families has failed and caused unfathomable destruction. The love in their hearts strives to be together forever, but will their destinies break them apart?

Allie Burke’s second novel in The Enchanters Series breaks through the Paranormal Romance genre to not just entertain her readers but empower and inspire them to embrace the momentous question: What would you do when faced with an impossible love?

Amber Passion Book 3:

With a modern touch, Allie Burke’s third and final novel in the Enchanters series plays off the age old question: How far is too far to protect those you love? True love can be demonstrated in a multitude of actions or a multitude of sins. You choose.

Daniel is lost without his other half, his twin sister Abby, who is pregnant, depressed, and oh so far away, struggling with her own demons. Seeking a ray of sunlight in his dark world, Daniel visits Hazel Grove and for the second time experiences the sun shining in the middle of the night. But this is a sun with a different name. A sun with blonde hair and an orange aura and with a bright light that scares the darkness right out of him. The blackness that had been his heart for the duration of his life, is…fading. Can the enchanting Claire bring passion and comfort to a man who yearns for her without even realizing it?

As the next generation of Enchanters make their choices, the outcome will change the course of their people forever. Only time, and love, will tell if they made the right choice. With a culmination and a turn of events you never saw coming, Amber Passion answers the questions you wondered about and leaves the reader forever changed and daydreaming in every shade imaginable, starting with darkness, and ending, at the end of the tunnel, with light.

IN MY HABITAT

- Guest Post by Allie Burke

Number 25 of An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth: “Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.” –Bruce Mau

This subject has manifested itself in one capacity or another over the years, and I always feel a bit blacklisted from writing society when I’m unable to give any kind of straight answer. I mean, I have a desk, but I don’t write at it. Do I need coffee to write? Alcohol? A cat on my lap? No? I don’t…think so?

It is ironic that just four years ago I was afraid to call myself a writer—not a debut author (which I was at the time) but a writer, someone who writes things—because I didn’t think I was good enough or deserving enough and because the writer hashtags on Twitter intimidated me. Now, I couldn’t imagine being or doing anything else. At the core of my soul, my entire life revolves around writing. It is the basis for my universe.

In light of all of that, I can’t not write. I couldn’t imagine having to be in a specific place with a specific song playing over a specific drink to write something. I’m so busy with my various writing that I would never get anything done if that was the case. I write while I’m eating dinner and I frantically yell ideas into my phone while I’m driving and my friends and I plot via text message and the CEO at my company and I collaborate on articles and blogs several times a week, at least.

Banally, I do write at coffee shops but that’s just because I hang out at coffee shops, as a general rule. Los Angeles is just that way.

What is my habitat? The world is my habitat.

I live, bleed, and breathe the written word.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An American novelist, book critic, and magazine editor from Burbank, California, Allie Burke writes books she can’t find in the bookstore. Having been recognized as writing a “kickass book that defies the genre it’s in”, Allie writes with a prose that has been labeled poetic and ethereal.

Her life is a beautiful disaster, flowered with the harrowing existence of inherited eccentricity, a murderous family history, a faithful literature addiction, and the intricate darkness of true love. These are the enchanting experiences that inspire Allie’s fairytales.

From some coffee shop in Los Angeles, she is working on her next novel.

Book Spotlight: Locked In by S. Briones Lim

Title: Locked In (Book #2 Caught Inside series)
Author: S. Briones Lim
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Synopsis:

Don’t let her small size fool you; at five feet, two inches tall, Kacy Greene is a little spitfire who will be the first to put you in your place.

After making the mistake of dating, sleeping with and slapping her supervisor, she finds refuge spending her days surfing, where she meets food truck owner and soon-to-be new boss, Miles Parker. A southern boy, Miles moves to Mistcoast, CA with one thing in mind—to make his new business boom.

What he doesn't count on is meeting a wrecking ball named Kacy who sends his life into a whirl. Blinded by his immediate attraction for her, he hires her on the spot and is soon disappointed to find that their relationship isn't going to go where he hoped it would.

Being nothing more than a shoulder to cry on, he hatches a plan to win her heart. Unfortunately, like the ocean waves, love can be very unpredictable.

You’ve read Riley’s and Blake’s love story, now learn about Kacy and Miles…

Book Links:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24950847-locked-in

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U01IHKY/

Author Info:

Thanks to her Mom’s unwavering devotion to read a childhood bedtime story to her every single night, S. BRIONES LIM’s love for books began before she could even speak.

Raised in Southern California, Lim initially dreamt of becoming an artist. After a Psychology Degree (Summa cum Laude), a stint in Art School, and a career in Advertising/Media she is finally diving back into her first love – books. As a self-renowned bookworm, Lim’s love for reading has inspired her to pen her own novels and hopes her readers will fall in love with her stories as much as she enjoys writing them.

Her obsessions include time with family, Cherry Coke, popcorn with jalapeños, watching movies and her dogs, Tobi and Roscoe. She currently lives in Virginia with her husband.

Author Links:

facebook.com/sbrioneslim

facebook.com/authorsbrioneslim

Twitter: @sbrioneslim

Instagram:  @sbrioneslim

Pinterest: @sbrioneslim