Rebecca Norinne's Blog, page 6

Blog Tour for Her Confessional: Our Little Secret

Hey everyone! Wanted to let you know that all this week I'll be sharing reviews with you from the blog tour for Her Confessional: Our Little Secret.


Stay tuned later this afternoon for two pieces of really great feedback from fans of the first installment of the series. In the meantime, I wanted to give you a chance to enter the accompanying tour giveaway for your chance to win a prize pack featuring three of my favorite romance movies on DVD and a Starbucks gift card. With Cameron's big break in Hollywood finally taking off, I thought the movies would be a cute, fun way to honor that part of his story.

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Epilogue Sneak Peek for the Paranormal Romance Blog Hop

I've been feeling under the weather since coming back from our family trip to the lake so I haven't been at the computer at all for the last several days. As such, I totally missed my opportunity to post my contribution to the Paranormal Romance Blog Hop on the 14th like I had promised.



I'm still excited by this opportunity, so here's the prologue to Blood of My Blood, book two in the Macauley Vampire series.

Epilogue
“You are blood of my blood and bone of my bone. I give you my body that we two might be one. I give you my spirit, until our life shall be done.”

William would never forget the second he made the decision to claim Olivia as his eternal bride. It had been the most profound and exhilarating moment of his long, immortal life.

Their bodies locked together in ecstasy, he had kissed the thrumming pulse in her neck softly – reverently – worshipping the physical sign of her humanity as it beckoned to the vampire within him. Then, as his fangs had pierced her flushed, heated skin, Olivia’s fingers had clasped tightly within his, and he heard her whimper but she did not cry out. Their bodies joined at neck and hip, he had continued his slow, measured strokes as she arched beneath him, her body answering each of his thrusts as he took her life force into him.

William saw – felt – Olivia’s life in each mouthful he consumed of her rich, honeyed blood, and he knew her in a way he hadn’t before. His feeding from her had given him glimpses into her mind, shown him bits and pieces of who she was, but the taking of her life had been a riptide, pulling and pushing his mind in a swirling current as he took in everything that his beloved had been.

A little girl sitting alone at a large dinner table in a cold, sterile mansion, a maid hovering against the far wall awaiting her signal to clear the silent meal. An awkward, gangly teenager far too tall for boys her own age, her woman’s curves already filling out her body, standing with a small group of friends along the wall of a darkened room as others danced around them. A vivacious, sharp young woman now the life of the party, her head thrown back in raucous laughter as the eyes of all the men in the room were on her, wanting her. A happy, proud woman standing in front of a crowd, her face lined with a bright grin as everyone around her clapped, applauded her achievements, something she had done without the help of her vaunted family name. A broken down shell of a woman cut adrift in the world after the death of her parents, lost and without hope, seeking something that she couldn't understand.

He took in all that she had been in her short mortal life. He took in her mind, body, and soul.

Olivia stayed with him for as long as she could, as present as she could, repeating his name over and over again, first in the throes of passion and then as slow, groggy whispers as he drained her body. When her words had died out and her heartbeat had become only a feint murmur, her blood slowed and William knew it was time. He pulled his fangs from Olivia’s neck to pierce the skin of his right wrist. Once his own blood was flowing in crimson rivulets down his arm, he placed it against her mouth and commanded her to drink. At first she hadn’t responded but as the blood filled her mouth, she began to furiously suck at his wrist, drawing his life force into her body.

After no more than a minute Olivia had ceased her frenzied drinking and her body had gone still. She lay still as a statue on what he considered their marriage bed, his blood working its way through her cells transforming her into one of his kind. For several long moments William watched the transformation taking hold of her – her body had twitched and convulsed but she hadn’t made a sound, and then, after a time, her hair had become fuller, the depth of her fiery tresses turning a more brilliant shade of crimson than they had ever been before, a luminescence no hair salon could ever recreate. As her skin became a paler, truer alabaster, her scars and blemishes had faded before his eyes until her body was a perfect temple of beauty. After then, after what had felt like a lifetime to him, Olivia opened her eyes and looked at him with irises that were a green he’d never before seen in nature.

It had been done. Olivia Donnelly was made vampire.

She is mine. Blood of my blood.

(NOTE: this prologue is subject to change. Also, please disregard any typos or grammatical errors. This is still going through beta reading and editing.)


I strongly encourage you to visit the other participants of the blog hop as I'm sure you'll discover a new-to-you author whose work you can't wait to bite into!

A Time Apart Rising Up the Ranks

Every so often I check my rankings on Amazon to see where my books are falling and while things are usually very consistent across the board, I was pleasantly surprised today to find that A Time Apart has jumped pretty high across a handful of relevant categories without me pushing a free promotion. Now, I'm nowhere near the Top 100, never mind the top 25, but this is a really good day.

I've been feeling pretty ambivalent about Amazon since they changed the way they report Kindle Unlimited downloads (pages read versus copies checked out), but this makes me feel really good. Dare I say it, it put a huge smile on my face.

Amazon changes Kindle Unlimited payout

With the change to the way Amazon pays authors who participate in the Kindle Unlimited program, I'm thinking that when my exclusivity period ends, I'm not going to re-enroll. I'm not in this writing business for the money (thank god!), but I really don't like the way the new reporting structure works. I get a little thrill every time I see that someone downloads one of my books. It gives me a secret thrill to know that everyday for the past month someone - or a large set of someones - have read the descriptions on my books and decided, "yup, I want that." Kindle Unlimited was a large part of that. So, it looks like my books will soon be available via iBooks and Barnes & Noble, which should make several of my friends and family happy since they've been clamoring for me to expand what they lovingly (and jokingly) refer to as "my empire."

Paranormal Romance Blog Hop

With Blood of My Blood in the hands of my beta readers, I've been getting really excited for the release the second book in the Macauley Vampire Series later this year.

Where A Time Apart - the first book in the series - introduced you to William and Olivia and saw them coming together, this second book will delve a bit deeper into their pasts and show how Olivia is dealing with all that comes with this new paranormal world she's walked into.

A Time Apart: Book One of the Macauley Vampire Series
William Macauley is a centuries-old vampire who has spent his long, preternatural life atoning for his greatest sin. Olivia Donnelly is rich and successful, but a recent family tragedy has left her heartbroken and empty. Looking for a change of pace, she leaves San Francisco for Ireland to heal and work on her next novel. Almost immediately she's pulled into William's world. They couldn't be more different but when William realizes who Olivia is, he vows nothing will keep them apart. When a startling confession made during a dangerous encounter sets in motion a series of events that alters Olivia’s understanding of life and death, she's forced to examine the truth of the person she once was, the woman she was born to be, and how William might be the missing piece of her soul.

To help get fans of the book excited for the coming release, on July 14, I'll be taking part in the Paranormal Romance Blog Hop by sharing an excerpt from the coming release of Blood of My Blood. Get excited!

Do You Read Free Books? Do You Rate Them?

If you are a reader who downloads free books from Amazon and other sites, how often do you (1) actually READ those books, and (2) provide a review for them?



Myself, I'm making more of a concerted effort to get through the books I download for free - whether that's through a Kindle promotion or Kindle Unlimited. I'm pretty much only putting together full-fledged reviews of the books that I get on NetGalley these days unless it was something that I absolutely loved, but at the bare minimum I am taking the time to rate these free books on Goodreads. I know it's not a huge help to the author to just get a star rating, but I do want them to know that their promotions are working in some capacity.

As an author, when I see that 1200 people downloaded A Time Apart, for example, and then I get zero reviews for it, I have to wonder if it was ever even opened. One of the big "benefits" of something like the KDP Select program is those free promotion days, but is it all that beneficial if (1) you don't actually make anything from it, and (2) your book never actually gets read. This is something I'm struggling with as my exclusivity period will be up on a couple of my titles in a handful of weeks. Do I continue with KDP, or do I branch out to iBooks and Barnes & Noble? My downloads from KU are pretty steady, but are they enough to justify locking myself out of that potential market?

I'm not sure what the right answer is.

Profile on No More Black Magic by A.L. Kessler

I've been reading a lot of urban fantasy lately and have really been enjoying the alternate worlds many authors have created where the paranormal walks among us. Sometimes out in the open, sometimes not. One of the ones I've added to my list of books to read comes from an author who I know from a writing group that I participate in, and I wanted to share the details with my readers in case it's something you'd be interested in picking up.

SYNOPSIS
Explosions, body parts, and black magic are all part of Abby Collins’ typical day. As the top Paranormal Investigation Bureau agent, she only gets the best cases, but when the Cult of Ra comes to play she might in be over her head. Finding a murderer while up against a hex, an overprotective coven, and a stubborn werewolf reminds her that nothing in the paranormal world is easy. As the death toll rises and a decades old crime, linked to Abby, is uncovered, disturbing information is brought to light. Abby must unlock an ancient language steeped in black magic to uncover the truth before the murderer comes for her.
EXCERPTSimon pulled to a strange dirt parking lot on the side of the road. Cars of all kinds were haphazardly parked and I assumed it was other pack members. We got out and I looked around. A small trail led into the woods and suddenly there was a lump in my throat that I couldn’t breathe past. 
“There’s magic around here.” I whispered. “Weres can’t be witches or warlocks.”
“Yes, but it doesn’t mean we don’t ally with them. Come on, follow me.” He held his hand out to me.I looked at it for a moment before I decided to take it. I wanted the comfort he might be able to provide me. Our fingers interlocked and I calmed a little bit. I closed my eyes for a moment and focused. I could feel his wolf counterpart within him, another soul and another aura if I tried to see it. 
He tugged on my hand and I followed him down the path and through the tall trees. I could feel others, I could feel magic below my feet. A witch had blessed the ground. It was supposed to feel like home, but since I was a stranger, it felt wrong for me to be here. It was used to welcome people and keep unwanted visitors away. It made me sick to my stomach, but I pushed on. 
Simon and I came to a stop at a large cabin in a clearing. The fire department would have called the lack of trees mitigation, but I knew it was a circle, part of the spell a witch did for them. If I had to guess there was probably a mile on each side of the cabin. 
“It’s beautiful.” I said and examined the logs and the design of the cabin. “How many can it house?”
“Twenty to thirty, depending on if we double up in the rooms.  Each room has two beds, but we have extra cots if need be.” He let go of my hand as someone walked out. 
I’d never met the Alpha, but I knew this was him. His black hair was cut short and his brown gaze cut into me. He stood tall and demanded attention. Like Simon, he was dressed in older clothes, and I assumed it meant they wouldn’t care if they got ruined. The muscles of his arms were solid and his chest strained against the tight muscle shirt that he wore. Yeah, I wouldn’t stand a chance in a fight against this guy, even if he was human.
Simon bowed his head. “Alpha.”
“Simon, so this is her?” His eyes ran over my body and I raised a brow. I had dressed in my normal black clothes with boots. I had, as requested, left the gun in the car, but my blade was sheathed across my back, hidden by my jacket. 
Simon put a hand on my back and urged me to step forward. 
“I’m Abigail.” I offered my hand, but Greg grabbed my wrist and jerked me forward. I caught myself with a hand against his chest. 
“You are a threat to my people, you offer me the back of your neck in submission.” He growled. “Do you understand that?”
I gritted my teeth and pulled my braid away from the back of my neck and bowed low enough that I offered it to him. My verbal answer wouldn’t have been good enough. He was trying to show off his strength, his power, and I was willing to bet other members of the pack were watching from the windows of the cabin. Arguing with him wouldn’t have done me any good.
I felt his teeth bite the back of my neck. It wasn’t enough to hurt, but enough that I knew he was trying to dominate me. The gesture felt strange in human form, but I let it go. He backed away and let go of my wrist. 
I straightened up and met his gaze. I proved that I wasn’t there to threaten him, but I refused to act submissive to him in other terms. “I appreciate your invitation for tonight.”
“I figured I wouldn’t have a choice as soon as you realized that Matthew was here. You’re PIB, laws say I have to work with you. Instead, I invited you here.”
“So I’d have to follow your rules.” Smart. “If we’re playing paranormal politics, that means I must make you aware of my connections to Leviticus Felecos, ruling vampire of the Four Corners Territory.”
He bowed his head. “It is understood that you are to cause no harm while you are here.”
I had to choose my words carefully, they would bind me to the rules for the night. If I went against my word it meant that I could be killed. Levi had taught me well when it came to this. “I will not cause harm as long as my life is not threatened and I request that my witness remains alive so I can use him to close my case.”
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ABOUT THE AUTHORA.L. Kessler is a paranormal romance, urban fantasy and steampunk author residing in Colorado Springs. Since she was a teenager she's loved weaving stories and spinning tales. When she's not at the beck-and-call of the Lord and Lady of the House, two black cats by the names of Jynx and Sophie, training a playful puppy named Zelda, playing with her daughter, or killing creepers and mining all the things with her husband, she's either reading, participating in NaNoWriMo, or writing in her Blog Writing Rambles.

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My Thoughts On How to Marry a Royal Highlander

How to Marry a Royal Highlander
By Vanessa Kelly

SYNPOSIS:
At sixteen, Alasdair Gilbride, heir to a Scottish earldom, fled the Highlands and an arranged betrothal. Ten years later, Alasdair must travel home to face his responsibilities. It's a task that would be much easier without the distracting presence of the most enticing woman he's ever met…

After one escapade too many, Eden Whitney has been snubbed by the ton. The solution: rusticating in the Scottish wilderness, miles from all temptation. Except, of course, for brawny, charming Alasdair. The man is so exasperating she'd likely kill him before they reach the border—if someone else weren't trying to do just that. Now Eden and Alasdair are plunging into a scandalous affair with his life and her reputation at stake—and their hearts already irreparably lost…

MY REVIEW:
I really liked the story of Edie and Alec and thought they had a wonderful relationship, but I felt like the book relied too much on establishing their feelings for one another on the previous book in the series. As I hadn't read it, I was left to automatically jump into their romance without seeing any of the slow burn that I so love to follow as a couple come to realize how they feel about one another. I don't blame the author for this, but rather find that it's a genre flaw that is being trotted out more and more, making most books not a standalone read. Not a bad business practice, but sometimes frustrating as a reader.

This would have been a five star read for me if we were going on story alone, I liked the premise that much. There were a number of things however that dropped this book down a star for me.

1. I didn't feel like this was a Regency novel. The behavior and speech of all of the characters very much felt like late-Edwardian/pre-Jazz age with their quips and colloquialisms. I've read well over 200 Regencies and I've never heard anyone talk quite the way these characters do. Compare it however with the way the characters on Mr. Selfridge and it fit right in. This didn't make me like the story any less, mind you. It just took me out of the historical setting. I would have loved it just as much were it set in that period.

2. This one might have passed through every edit and ARC review the novel received because it's something I don't think everyone would know. Whisky in Scotland is not spelled with an e. This is something that is very easily learned by doing a Google search for "Scotch Whiskey" - the first hit, and all thereafter, drop the e.

3.  I felt like Donella was a fully flushed out character, and I knew straight away that she was going to decide to go into a nunnery. Knowing this did not ruin her declaration in the least; rather, it made me glad to know that the characterization and description of her rang true throughout. The person who DIDN'T ring true was her mother. I felt like the author wanted her to be crazy the whole time but she was written as supremely grasping and snobbish right up until the moment when she tried to kill Edie. I wasn't surprised by this twist, only its motivation. One minute we think she'll stop at nothing to have her daughter be the countess, and the next she's ranting and raving about how she doesn't even want her daughter to marry Alec. And then she's back to trying to force the marriage. Yes, she was not emotionally competent by this point, but her motivations just seemed unresolved. It would have worked better for me as a reader if the author had stuck with one and rode it out.

4. I realize the character is a twin, but calling them Edie and Evie was VERY confusing in all of the scenes they were together. Then there's Alec and another guy whose name starts with A and has four letters and for the first several pages of the book I was trying to figure out who was who and it was frustrating because I wanted to pay attention to the story, not trying to keep people straight in my head.

I know this seems like a lot of nits, but I only point them out because I think with some fine tuning this could have been a truly excellent story.

** I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review **

The Threat Down: Bear (Shifters)

Do y'all remember when vampires ruled the day? When every paranormal romance novel that came out was about vampires? Yeah, those were the good old days.

For those of us authors who love vampires and will never abandon those we love, the emergence of a new paranormal foe can sometimes be a bitter pill to swallow. Right now, shifters are all the rage. And not just any shifters. Bear Shifters.

I don't get the appeal. Wolves, yeah. I can see it. But bears? I mean, BEARS?


Even when you drill down into the Paranormal Romance categories on Amazon and you're looking specifically for vampires, there they are. The bears. 

I think Stephen Colbert had it right from the start. Do nut trust the bears. 

The Colbert Report
Colbert Report Episode Guide,  More Colbert Report Videos,  Comedy Central Full EpisodesI'm kidding of course. ;-)

My Problem With Game of Thrones

Please note: For the purpose of this post I am only referring to the televised version of Game of Thrones and *not* the book version (I haven't read them but my husband has).

** This post contains spoilers. Proceed at your own risk **
There's been a lot of talk lately about Game of Thrones and the problem it has with female characters. As someone who considers herself a feminist, as well as someone who makes my living (meager though it may be) as a storyteller, I've been torn on how I feel about the direction the show has gone for the past couple of seasons. 
First and foremost, anyone who has watched even one season of GoT knows that female nudity is pretty much par for the course. The problem here is that it is always in a sexualized fashion. For me it's not surprising to see naked ladies in Littlefinger's brothel because that's generally where you'll find a whole gaggle of naked people so I didn't put up too much of a fight on that one. Yeah, maybe we didn't need to see all of those vaginas and quite so many breasts, but it wasn't necessarily out of context if you know what I mean. That said, if you're going to show that much hooker flesh, you might want to even up the stakes a bit and show the dongs that would also be hanging out at an orgy. Of course the show runners did not go this route. I've heard it's because "no one wants to see penises." 
I remember reading after season two that Emilia Clarke, who plays the amazing Daenerys Targaryen, had it put in her contract that she wouldn't go naked anymore. We saw a lot of Emilia in season one so I can understand her maybe not wanting her character to be viewed as the Naked Queen instead of the Bad Ass Queen. (Because yes, Dany is bad ass and it has nothing to do with her boobs). Compare this to another queen on the show - Cersei - and up until last night we'd never seen her stripped quite so bare. Was it because Lena Headley is an "older" woman and like the penises mentioned above, "no one wants to see that?" I can't say, but on last night's season finale we saw all there was to see of Lena Headley and while it was an emotionally gripping few minutes, I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been just as effective if she'd taken her walk of shame in a very thin piece of fabric. She still would have been screamed at, her person would still have been pelted with all manner of disgust, and we would have seen her essentially stripped bare of her queenly artifice. Was it necessary to show it quite so literally? Would we have seen a male character have to go through something similar? I really don't think so.

My husband and I were talking about this last night after the finale aired and we were at completely opposite ends of the spectrum. As someone who has read the books, he thinks George R.R. Martin has created some very strong female characters. I agree that there indeed are/were very strong women on this show - Arya, Dany, Cersei, Brienne, Margaery, Melisandre, Ygritte, Olenna Tyrell, Caitlynn Stark, Sansa (sometimes), etc. etc. - but more often than not women are used as cannon fodder for a larger story. There is a disarming level of power inequality in this show despite how much power these women seem to wield. 

And this is where my true problem with Game of Thrones comes in. No matter how strong a woman on this show is, she is perpetually shown as the lesser. A perfect example of this is Sansa's rape on the night of her wedding. I've heard it argued that it wasn't rape because it was her husband and to that I'm just going to say, SIT DOWN. I don't know why the writers/directors/EPs decided to go the route they did with this scene but I feel like they took the coward's way out and they lessened the experience of the character. We never want to see a beloved women get raped, but if you're going to do it, at least give the character and the actress playing her the respect she deserves by showing it from her own perspective. No, instead, we have to see how terrible Sansa's rape was from Theon's point of view. We had to see how it affected Theon, not you know, the woman it was happening to. We had to see Theon cry. Oh, poor Theon how horrible it must have been for him to have to witness that. You know what? It wasn't a fraction as bad as it was for SANSA TO EXPERIENCE IT. That scene, those handful of minutes, encapsulated everything that is wrong with Game of Thrones for me from a female perspective. 
So yes, I do think Game of Thrones has a problem with women. The ugly thing is, they don't need to. I'm not going to pretend that everything should be sunshine and roses for its female characters, but the way they handle the degradation of the female form versus how they handle it for males is ridiculous. 
It's been said that it is somewhat realistic in the way it treats women because the world that Martin has created is based in large part on the middle ages when women were treated abominably. That's all well and good, but let's be honest with ourselves for a second. The world of Game of Thrones is fiction. If you can have flying dragons and witches who can conjure killer shadow babies, you can create a world in which your females aren't so terribly treated because you're not entirely based in reality. There is no reason for you to start being historically accurate in that regard when nothing else is at all.