Eleanor Harkstead's Blog, page 7

Rainbow Book Reviews on How to Make the Perfect Man

This is a sweet, silly, funny short Halloween story with an awesome ending.

Read the full review at Rainbow Book Reviews. Buy your copy of How to Make the Perfect Man now from Amazon!

Kimmer’s reviews How to Make the Perfect Man

Werewolves and banshees and zombies, oh my! Catherine Curzon and Eleanor Harkstead add their unique style to this absolutely delightful paranormal love story. A campy and fun friends to lovers romance.

Read the full review. Buy your copy of How to Make a Perfect Man now from Amazon!

How did we make How to Make the Perfect Man?

Find out where the inspiration for How to Make the Perfect Man came from over at Love Bytes reviews!

Chicks, Rogues and Scandals reviews How to Make the Perfect Man

Perfect for making you laugh and escaping the chaotic real world for a short period of time, which is what Catherine and Eleanor are perfect at, no matter what is going on in the world you can always rely on the dynamic duo to put a smile on your face.

Read the full review on Frankie’s blog. Buy your copy of How to Make the Perfect Man on Amazon now!

Release day review of How to Make the Perfect Man!

4.5 stars. A perfect Halloween treat for sure and a novella I have no trouble recommending!

Read the full review at Bayou Book Junkie. Buy your copy of How to Make the Perfect Man now at Amazon!

Interview: Tanith Davenport

It’s release day for Tanith Davenport’s paranormal novella Spiritwalker, from the Some Like it Haunted collection. She’s here to talk all things Halloween!

Tell us about your Halloween story and the inspiration behind it.

My heroine Tamar Steele is a paranormal investigator and psychic whose life is turned upside down when she picks up the spirit of a murdered girl on one of her investigations. My main thought when writing it was what a genuine psychic would do in that situation – would you go to the police, or would you expect to be dismissed as a crank?

What’s your favourite Halloween or paranormal book or film? Do you like things to be creepy like an MR James ghost story, or are you a fan of horror?

I love horror films, especially paranormal ones. My favourite at the moment is Hell House LLC, which is a found footage horror with a great feeling of dread throughout.

Do you have any Halloween traditions?

My husband and I usually go out for dinner on Halloween so we don’t have to pretend to be out when trick-or-treaters knock on the door. Whether we do that this year remains to be seen.

What would you rather be: a ghost, a witch, a wizard, a vampire, a werewolf… or something else? What would you get up to?

I used to play a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade, so if I had those sorts of powers I could quite enjoy being a vampire. There was one breed of vampire who could kill people by singing to them – that would be right up my street.

Where do you write and when? Do you have any writing routines?

I have a day job, but I try to put in an hour every day after I finish work. I’m working from home at the moment, so it’s just another hour at the computer in the living room. My only requirement for writing is that I have to be dressed – despite the image of the writer working away in her dressing gown, I have to be wearing clothes or I can’t write.

Spiritwalker

Tamar Steele, a successful medium for a paranormal investigative team, should be happy with her life—but life seems to be against her. Her psychic field is being mysteriously blocked, causing her physical pain and, worse, making it more and more difficult for her to come, creating stress in her relationship with long-term boyfriend Jason.

But then, during the filming of a paranormal TV show, Tamar picks up on Leslie, the recently murdered sister of her co-worker Hana—who later tells her the murderer was in the room with them. Knowing the best way to enhance her psychic ability is through sex, Tamar must rekindle her troubled relationship with Jason and rebuild their passion as she fights to solve the murder. Can she find the killer in time?

Out now in ebook.

 

About the author

Tanith Davenport began writing erotica at the age of 27 by way of the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers’ Scheme. Her debut novel “The Hand He Dealt” was released by Totally Bound in June 2011 and was shortlisted for the Joan Hessayon Award for 2012.

Tanith has had short stories published by Naughty Nights Press and House of Erotica. She loves to travel and dreams of one day taking a driving tour of the United States, preferably in a classic 1950s pink Cadillac Eldorado.

Tanith’s idea of heaven is an Indian head massage with a Mojito at her side.

Follow Tanith on Facebook and Twitter  and find out more at her website.

How to Make the Perfect Man – preorder now!

On order now, out on 27 October just in time for Halloween! How to Make the Perfect Man is our novella in Pride’s Some Like It Haunted collection. Preorder your ebook on Amazon, Kobo, Nook etc!

Excerpt

The experiment was ready and the weather was just right.

Although Aubrey could have wired the tank up to the mains, powering it using the awesome force of a violent electrical storm appealed to his sense of tradition. A long line of Waldegraves had tried to harness nature’s power and dissect its secrets, and now Aubrey stood on the brink of breathing life itself into his creature.

The laboratory took up a wing of Aubrey’s house, a rambling place that had been added to over the years by successive generations of Waldegraves. There were corridors that headed nowhere, stairs that seemed to lead upwards but only went down, and grand doors that had once led into ornate rooms that now only opened onto cupboards. The house’s stone exterior was decorated with a lively collection of gargoyles who, when they were in the right mood, would wink and stretch out their wings as Aubrey passed them.

But it was the laboratory where Aubrey spent most of his time, the house’s other rooms mostly mouldering under dustsheets. In some respects, it was more like a museum of science than anything resembling a modern laboratory. But it suited Aubrey. He happily spent all his hours among his copper pipes and rubber tubes, his pulleys and steam generators, his wooden benches and elegantly-carved test-tube racks. Various biological samples collected or created by his ancestors were suspended in glowing fluids inside jars in a cabinet—a foot here, an eye there, two-headed wonders and five-legged marvels.

The roof was fashioned from glass, inspired by the vast greenhouses at Kew Gardens. An extensive library of leather-bound books covered one wall of the laboratory. The shelves were three-storeys high, with a cast-iron spiral staircase that wound up to the top. Each step bore a curlicued rendering of the initials of Aubrey’s great-great-grandfather, and his family’s crest appeared in stained glass at each leaded window. At least, in the windows that had survived Aubrey’s ill-advised, youthful experiments with compressed gasses.

But Aubrey was a callow youth no longer. He had plumbed nature’s secrets, and now his toil and research would bear fruit.

The figure lay inside a large glass tank in the middle of Aubrey’s laboratory. The water it contained was cloudy and white, luminous from the brightness of the lightning that filled the room at intervals. Aubrey leaned against the side of the tank and peered fondly at his creation.

At him.

Aubrey had put so much work into his creature, and soon—soon—he would have a man, fashioned by his own hands, as beautiful as Aubrey had power to imagine.

As the rain beat ever harder against the glass panes of his laboratory’s roof, Aubrey looked over at a fluttering dial that told him the lightning was at just the right intensity for his man to breathe at last.

He stepped back from the tank, then grabbed the handle of a huge brass switch. Still watching the dial fidget in its glass case, the needle advanced just enough, and Aubrey pulled down the handle.

A great sizzling tore the air, and Aubrey had to squint behind his green-lensed goggles. A bolt of lightning shot down from the inverted conductor that hung from the ceiling and arced into the machinery that stood next to the tank.

The tank’s glass sides cracked apart and the cloudy water burst across the floor. There, twitching on a wooden platform inside what was left of the tank, was Aubrey’s man.

Aubrey yanked off his goggles and stared in awe at the figure.

“It lives!” Aubrey cried. I’ve always wanted to say that. He took a step closer, clutching his hands, unable to tear his gaze away from the man before him. The man Aubrey had created. “He lives! Hurrah, I have a date for the party!”

He had never seen a creature like him. A bronzed god, his muscular frame shuddering as he drew in his first breath. The long-lashed eyelids opened and his creation parted his perfect, full lips. A moment passed before the Adonis said, “Woah… Dude. What a wild freakin’ ride!”

Aubrey tipped his head to one side. Had he really heard that properly? Had the thunder banging overhead dimmed his hearing?

But no. His Adonis had just addressed him as dude. Surely it was only a temporary glitch.

“G-good evening,” Aubrey stammered. “Are you comfortable? Can I get you anything? A cup of tea, perhaps?”

The creature sat up, surprisingly nimble for someone who had just been brought to life by a lightning strike. He looked down at his naked body, his eyes alighting on his own impressive manhood.

“Dude, I’m seriously hench. And hung!” He lifted his hand and waited, offering Aubrey a nod. “Hit me, bro! Yeah!”

Aubrey lifted his hand in response and waved, slowly. The man would have to learn how to greet people properly, but a raised hand was halfway to a wave. And physically, Aubrey had got it just right. The toned figure was perfect.

“Hello, my name’s Aubrey. And I’m calling you Adam.”

“Who’s Adam?” He slapped his palm against Aubrey’s. “I’m Kai, bro, good to know you. Woo! Yeah!”

“Kai? No, no…” Aubrey shuddered. What nonsense was this, interfering with his newfound Godlike powers of creation? “No! I’m your creator, and I’m calling you Adam!”

Kai—Adam—frowned then laughed, showing off his perfect white teeth. He slapped Aubrey’s shoulder as, outside, Aubrey heard the throaty purr of a familiar engine .

“Yeah, right. Adam!”

“But…but…” Aubrey pouted. Oh bloody blast it, it’s gone to pot again. And after I’d told Tris I almost definitely had a date for the party. “I’ve got you something to wear.”

He took a pile of clothes from a box and held them out to Adam. Commodious briefs, a comfortable Aran jumper, a checked shirt, corduroy slacks, Argyle socks and lace-up brogues. All from the same gentlemen’s outfitters Aubrey shopped at himself.

“Dude.” Adam shook his head. He hopped down to stand before Aubrey, his hands on his hips. “Like, it works for you, but you got nothing a bit more…y’know…me?”

Aubrey glanced from the clothes to Adam. How could he convince him to get dressed before his visitor made his presence known?

“And what is more you? I don’t own flip-flops.”

“So, I’ll kick it just like I am, yeah?” He shrugged his sculpted shoulders and tossed his beachy blond locks. “I’m cool with that. Hanging with the boys, letting it all loose. Let’s hit the waves.”

A L Lester and the lure of historical romance

Let’s welcome AL Lester to the blog, whose latest novel, Taking Stock, is released today!

Thank you so much Catherine and Eleanor, for having me here today to talk a bit about my latest novel, Taking Stock!

It’s 1972 and Laurie is a farmer with a problem. He’s had a stroke and he can’t work his farm alone any more. Phil is running away from London and the professional suspicion that surrounds him at his City job. They’re both alone and unsure what the future holds. Can they forge a new life together with their makeshift found family in Laurie’s little village?

Eleanor has given me a topic, to my absolutely relief! So I’m here to talk about why I enjoy writing historicals, and what was different between writing my earlier historicals and setting my new novel in the 1970s.

Firstly, the main different between this and my backlist is that there’s no paranormal shenanigans going on. Up til now I’ve written in the 1920s and the 1780s, with a twist of magic. My magical world lies underneath the real one and I try to be as accurate as possible with that. But by education I’m a mediaevalist focusing on Britain, so the historical details was all new to me when I began.

For the 1920s books, I took inspiration from family stories about living in the East End of London in the first part of the twentieth century and there was a lot of documentary stuff to read. I’m a Dorothy L. Sayers fan, too, so it was quite easy to get a 1920s murder investigation vibe going.

Initially The Flowers of Time was supposed to be in the 1920s, too—it would have worked much better with plucky lady plant collectors toddling off around the world on behalf of Kew Gardens at that point in time and I already had a universe they could have slotted in to. However as I began writing, the characters got really bolshy and insisted they were from an earlier time period. This is one of the disadvantages of discovery writing. Things can take a corkscrew turn quite quickly.

It left me with a lot of reading, as not only was the geographical area very new to me, but the history was as well. I started off reading about the East India Company from resources that were easily available to me—British historians—and then I moved on to contemporary accounts of people’s travels and finally felt I knew enough to read from Indian historians and get a proper understanding. (Shashi Tharoor was particularly good). The contemporary accounts for women travellers in the eighteenth century are very patchy and a lot of the story was based around Isabella Bird’s account of her journey in the late nineteenth century. I did things like exploring different light sources – candle and butter lamps – and it was all very research oriented.

Then, for some ill-thought-out reason, I decided to set Taking Stock in 1972. Firstly, this made me feel old, because I was born in 1970. Secondly, it appalled my mother, who is still cross that the second world war is being taught as history. Thirdly, it’s almost impossible to find cover art for people that gives a 1970s feel without also feeling that one is advertising a Sirdar knitting pattern.

Apart from that though, it’s fine.

A lot of the farming references in Taking Stock are from my own childhood memories—the sheep dipping scenes for example—and from talking to older friends and family. I pigeon-holed a friend who worked in the City of London in the mid-1980s and extracted stock-exchange information from him, and I found a fascinating contemporary documentary on YouTube about stockbroking in the early 1960s. It was much easier to find that sense of place that I think is needed in historical fiction, because the references were all to hand. I can happily google ‘what happened in 1972’ and have a whole list of things come up that my characters would have been aware of. And the same for the 1920s really – there are millions of words written about the years immediately after the Great War and the social changes that were happening.

Despite having a paranormal twist in most of my books, I really think of myself as writing historical romance and I take pride in getting the history right. It’s a balance though, it has to give colour and a setting without throwing the reader out of the story either with factual errors—someone one-starred my first book because I shifted the publication date of The Beautiful and the Damned back a year to fit my time-line and it clearly spoiled the whole thing for them—or with making them feel they’re reading a text-book.

If you pick up any of my books, I do hope this is the case! You can read a bit more about all my books and the world they’re set in on my website.

Thank you so much to Catherine and Eleanor for having me!

You can buy Taking Stock now from Amazon.

Find out more at A L Lester’s website.

Open Skye reviews The Captain and the Baker

The Captain and the Baker was another delightful read in the Captivating Captains series. I am obsessed with cooking shows and competitions, add in British humour and this book had everything I like.

Read the full review at Open Skye Book Reviews. You can buy The Captain and the Baker now, available in ebook, paperback and KU.

Wicked Reads reviews The Captain and the Baker

A lovely, funny, sweet, and very sexy story.

Read the full review at Wicked Reads. You can buy The Captain and the Baker now, available in ebook, paperback and KU.