Zoe Dawson's Blog, page 19

Two More Days!

Three More Days!

From the shapely mounds of her breasts, it was a hop and skip up the satiny skin of her throat to the profile of her face, from the elegant angle of her jaw to the deep purple lipstick on her lips.  Geezus, he didn’t trust himself to stare at that mouth. For survival reasons, he moved on to the rest of her striking details—smooth, pale cheeks, a pert nose, and thickly lashed and darkly outlined eyes, almond-shaped, sultry.

Hoo-yah. She was gorgeous.

He felt it like a physical ache in his heart.

She shivered delicately. Had she sensed him ogling her, or was she truly cold?

From a very interesting zombie bag she produced the tiniest black lace wrap he’d ever seen. It fit over her arms and draped in ruffled folds beside each breast. It fit like a glove, and after it was on, she did one of those simply ultimate female things for which the common male simply had no protection—she slid one manicured hand up around the back of her neck and with the utmost unconscious grace, fluffed her hair, the black nail polish catching the overhead lights. The next move was also filled with so much fluid, female style. The head toss to settle her midnight dark hair in place, artlessly performed with mesmerizing skill.

And she did him in.

He waited to see what else she had in her bag of tricks—and so help him God, when she moved, it blindsided him—turning towards the door, she saw him.  When she made eye contact, she smiled. It was a genuine smile, which made it all the more dazzling, especially for a woman who had just recently been attacked.

For a man of stealth, a Marine who’d had to live and breathe evasion and concealment, to be so caught off-guard was astonishing.

One long-legged, spike-heeled stride after another, she walked toward him, towing the two Jack Russells with her. She pushed the door open and tilted her head.

Unbelievably, he found himself steeling his heart against the sound of her voice. The sultry welcome of her stunning cobalt blue eyes was only eclipsed by that voice.

Four More Days!

Disclaimer:  The author takes no responsibility for what The Terrible Two do in the course of this story, but will take full responsibility for all the Laugh Out Louds, deep belly laughs, hoots, hollers, any and all sniggering, guffaws, and general hysterical outbursts. You've been warned.

Five More Days!

Hounded is the third book in my Going to the Dogs Series and features Poe Madigan and her Terrible Twos, her rambunctious Jack Russell terriers.  My hero, former Marine, Jared Taylor struggles with his conscience and his unexpected reaction to what was supposed to have been a simple favor.  It releases on June 17, 2013!  Five days away and counting!

Choose Callie's Cake and Win...Cake!

Callie is dragging her feet about choosing a wedding cake and she needs your help.  Yikes, her wedding is only weeks away.  So, she's offering prizes for your votes!  The winning cake will be featured in Collared, the last book in my Going to the Dogs Series.

The Prizes:
An e-book copy of Hounded and Six Cake PopsAn e-book copy of Hounded and a Cupcake MugAn e-book copy of Hounded
Here are the rules.  You must go to my Pinterest Board and comment on the cake you want to see win.  You can only vote on one cake.  Secondly, you must come to this blog and leave a comment that you voted.  That's it!  There are other things you can do for more points so you'll have more chances to win.  Also, if you're so inclined share, share everywhere so others can eat cake!  Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Reveal Squee!: Hounded!

I'm letting the dogs out again!  Poe and Jared are almost here in Book #3 of my Going to the Dogs Series, Hounded! I’ve been so excited to show you this cover. I think it’s soooo cute! I hope you love it as much as I do! Thank you so much to Julie at A Tale of Many Reviews Tours for arranging the cover reveal today. If you see it around, please comment, retweet and share so we can get the word out to everyone.  And, if you see those two rascals, Edgar and Allan, please help to keep them in check.  I understand they'll get you to do tricks for treats.  I mean they'll trick you out of treats.  Wait, no, they'll do tricks for treats.  Okay, maybe you should run in the other direction if you see them.
This cover was designed by the fabulous Robin Ludwig at Robin Ludwig Design.
Please take a moment to add Hounded to your Goodreads Shelf!

Genre:  Contemporary Romantic Comedy/Mystery
 Release Date:  June 17, 2013
 Description:
 I’ll get you and your little dogs, too!

Veterinarian Poe Madigan enters The Fur Ball with her Jack Russell terriers (aka The Terrible Two) to compete for a substantial cash prize that will keep her mother from losing her home.  But when her fabulous partner sprains his ankle, Poe must trade him and his talented Bichon for a sexy, muscle-bound hunk who can't dance and his Basset Hound, Lazy Daisy. If that's not enough to make her despair, it seems The Terrible Two have angered someone and they're receiving death threats!

Security specialist Jared Taylor promises one of Poe's friends that he will go undercover as her dog dancing partner to protect her from danger.  He didn't expect to find his staid, traditional life would be turned all topsy-turvy and he would find a soft spot for a neglected hound and fall for a Goth princess.  But when he reveals who he really is and why he is in Poe’s life will it destroy the foundation of trust they’ve built?  Could he lose the real prize - Poe?
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments. I was so happy to finish this book to share with you, but so sad to let Poe and Jared go.  Thankfully, I'll get to let you know what happens with them in the last book in the series, Collared!  I’m already in love with tough and sexy Detective Caleb Shaw. You’re going to love him, too!

Check back tomorrow for details on a fabulous contest where you can win cake!  Yum!  Don't miss out!
For other books in the series, check out Leashed for Callie and Owen's story and Groomed for Murder for Brooke and Drew's story.
It's almost time to release the hounds!
Woof!

New Adult Mystery & Romance by Darlene Gardner

This is a new series by my fabulous former critique partner Darlene Gardner.  Her stories were always a pleasure to critique, her prose smooth, her grammar and punctuation always clean.
I'm no longer in the same state as she is, but we keep in touch and I'm excited by the new direction she's going in.  We've both gotten the New Adult fever.  My A Perfect Secret Series starts in August, but you can pick up Darlene's New Adult Serial now.  The first book, Illusion is free today only!  Grab it up!
Here's the blurb:
Do you know who your friends are?
Jade remembers nothing but static for the forty-eight hours after she was hit on the head and went missing. Nobody in her beachside hometown believes it even happened.
Town gossip is that Jade hasn’t been quite right since her stepfather was convicted of armed robbery. Loud whispers proclaim Jade’s following in the footsteps of her schizophrenic mother.Jade’s only ally is Max Harper, a stranger she can neither trust nor resist.
But things about Max don’t add up. Like why does he turn up wherever  Jade is? Why is he so evasive? And why do people around him keep ending up dead?
Only two things are certain: People in town aren’t who they seem.
And things for Jade are about to get much, much worse.
Here's a little bit about her and you can check out her awesomeness at her website here: 
Darlene Gardner no longer spends her days waiting for an athlete to say something interesting. Nope. Now she makes up her own quotes and torments teenagers. Fictional teenagers. Promise.

Although leaving her life as a newspaper sportswriter behind for love and romance worked out pretty well, she’s veering off in a haunting new direction with the Dead Ringers eBook serial, landing at a beachside carnival where evil lurks and nothing is as it seems.

Darlene has more than thirty books in print, from single-title romantic comedies to emotionally charged family dramas. Updated editions of her romcoms, as well as a couple romantic mysteries, are available for the eBook market.


 

Book Lovers' Buffet: Bouquet of Books Sale!

May 1-3, 3 days only! 150 books, great authors for only .99 each!  Visit www.bookloversbuffet.net 

Here's a snippet of The Beckoning of Beautiful Things by Calinda B.
"Turn on the Lights.  Let your electricity flow."
"Are you sure?"
"Just try it. We can stop it if it gets to be too much.
She swallowed, closed her eyes. Pigment infused with electricity. Brilliant electric flashes. Northern lights. Lightning storms. Sensation surged through her limbs, and her eyes shot open. Electromagnetic impulses arched and sizzled along her skin with a color display like the Aurora Borealis. The color drops splashed to the ground with a hot sizzle. "Mega wow."
"How does it feel?"
"It's shooting up and down my neck.  It's like your mouth sliding up and down my neck, buzzing with current."
And here is a snippet of my WIP, Hounded, Book #3 in the Going to the Dogs Series. Available in June!  Leashed, Book #1 is part of the sale and is only .99!  See where it all started.
She rose, smoothing out the full skirt of the apple motif dress she wore.  The rows of different apples made her feel like a demented snow white.  She was sure Snow never wore razor blade earrings though.  One of the guys punched him in the shoulder and he smiled and headed her way.
“Hey,” he said as he approached, sweat running down over the tantalizing planes of his cheekbones, to his hard jaw.  Normally she wouldn’t find that intriguing, but it slipped down his thick neck and rode along his clavicle, soaking into his t-shirt.
“Did you know the clavicle is the only bone in the human body that lies horizontally?” “Huh?”
Oh God.  Had she said that out loud?  The…clavicle…um…collarbone.  She reached up and slid her fingertips along the ridge of bone, his skin moist, warm and soft.  Then she wanted to smack herself in the head.  She jerked her hand away.  What possessed her to touch him?  Compulsion.  Sheer stupidity.  Her awkward social skills?
“I like your clavicle, too,” he said softly and there went her lungs again, compressing from his g-force-like voice.  In that dress and those kick ass heels, you look like a bad ass Betty Boop.  Good enough to eat.”
Some of the featured authors are: Me, of course! Lisa Kessler Laura Kaye Gemma Halliday Amanda Brice and many more!
There will be prizes as well! Enter here!a Rafflecopter giveaway

Close Up Magic: My Dream Come True & Contest!

Please welcome Michelle Garren Flye to talk about her dream magic book!

First of all, thank you to Zoe Dawson for having me on her blog! It’s so great to be here, meeting new people and talking about my new book.

I’ve dreamed about writing a good story about magic for years and this summer, that dream comes true. Close Up Magic will be available for reader consumption on June 1.
 
I don’t know why it took me so long to write a good story about magic. I’ve been trying most of my life. I wrote about things like unicorns and fairies when I was a child. I expanded to ghosts and vampires later on. None of that stuff was what I really wanted it to be…although I think I did come close with a werewolf short story once.

What’s different this time? What makes Close Up Magic what I consider good when everything else fell short?

I think it’s because I let go of the fantastic and wrote about the magic I know. Love. I just made the hero, Andre, a magician.

Last October, I got the opportunity to see David Copperfield’s show in Las Vegas. Another of my dreams come true since I’ve admired him since I was a kid. I probably watched every one of his television specials, and I think I fell in love with him when I was about eight years old. Of course, the age difference was a problem, so it never really worked out.

The funny thing was, I didn’t know I was going to see David Copperfield when I went to Vegas, and I already had Close Up Magic pretty much outlined in preparation for National Novel Writing Month in November. So I can’t really say he was the inspiration for the novel, but I can say his show inspired me. It pretty much lit a much-needed fire under me so I was champing at the bit to WRITE when November 1 rolled around.

And my story was born.

Along the way, I learned a lot of really cool stuff about magic. Like the origin of the old pulling the rabbit out of the hat trick was in the 1700s when a woman in England claimed to have given birth to a litter of white rabbits. Of course, she achieved a lot of notoriety for this (much as our own reality stars become famous), but was eventually charged with fraud and admitted to it. A local magician, however, capitalized on her story, advertising that he would perform the “Birth of a Rabbit”. And he did just that, borrowing a top hat from an audience member and producing a live rabbit from it.

I’ve been posting a lot of the tidbits I’ve learned on a Facebook page for Close Up Magic ( https://www.facebook.com/CloseUpMagicFlye), and the great thing about it is, if you like that page, you’re automatically entered to win a Kindle Paperwhite I’ll be giving away on my blog (http://michellegflye.com).  Also, I’ll enter anyone who comments on this page in the contest, but please leave me a way to contact you! If you want even more ways to enter to win, check out the rules here: http://michellegflye.com/2013/04/13/having-fun-with-magic-wanna-join-me-contest/ .

So tell me, do you believe in magic or is it all tricks? And even if it is a trick, do you care? Isn’t it worth it if the magician can make you believe in something beyond reality for a while?

Book Spotlight: Broken Faith by Brandy Nacole

This was it.  The moment Heaven and Hell would clash.  But which unearthly being would win?  The Fallen Angel or the Hell Hounds?Overtaken by fear, I close my eyes.
Kayson is a Fallen Angel who has spent decades running from the Hell Hounds while searching for something that no one else believes can be so, not even God.  Kayson is determined to find a Blood Child.  But when a hound finds Kayson first, he is sure his end has come.
Falon, Alpha of the Hell Hounds, destroyer of the blood children, and devoted believer in his master’s plan, is bound and determined to drag Kayson back to Hell with him.
Sabrina is a Vampire, a half-breed created from one of Lucifer’s original blood children.  After years of hiding, Sabrina’s fate changes when she finds Kayson barely alive. Against her instincts, Sabrina saves him.  Now she and Kayson are both marked by the Hell Hounds.
Emma is an ordinary human, whose only problem is making ends meet, and getting over the hurt caused by her untrustworthy brother.  Her everyday problems become supernatural ones when she finds Kayson and Sabrina hiding in her parent’s backyard shed.
Kayson, Sabrina and Emma are unlikely allies, thrown together by chance to fight against the most powerful creatures of the underworld in order to follow their world-changing quest.  But will the broken faith of one break the faith of all?
Broken Faith will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBookstore on April 2nd. For a limited time, Broken Faith will be on sale for 0.99 
Here are some reviews that are already in
"Loved it! I loved the story back ground about the angels and the fallen. How the blood children came to be was AWESOME!!! The story flowed, gave you the perfect amount of back ground info. It just sucked me right in!"  -Carrie, ARC reader
"OMG! Brandy Nacole never seems to disappoint~! This was AMAZING!!! In this new Spiritual, Supernatural twist, has took me on a ride like NO other and BLOWN ME AWAY! Just like all the other books Brandy has written! This one Truly ROCKED!"-Alicia, ARC reader
"This story a epic battle of faith and good will, that will keep you on the edge of your seat.  Make this your book to read this year it's a must read!!!"  -Jacquelyn, ARC reader
Where you can find Brandy:
Facebook Blog Goodreads (There's a handy button for you to use!) 
Sounds good, Brandy.  I'm getting my copy!