Allyson Lindt's Blog, page 5

Cover Reveal: Cloaked in Fur

One of the things I love more every day about being a writer is the amazing, talented, kind people out there. Getting to know them, seeing them publish fantastic stories, and watching them succeed. Today I get to help out one of those brilliant authors: T.F. Walsh.

I'm helping her show off her cover for her upcoming release Cloaked in Fur. After you're done checking out the gorgeous cover and reading the blurb, make sure you head over to Goodreads and add Cloaked in Fur to your shelf, because you're going to want to read it.

And I'll have a review of it in the next few weeks. This book is incredible.

Cloaked in Fur

Available August 5, 2013

As a moonwulf, Daciana never expected to fall in love with a human. Hell, she never imagined that she’d abandon her pack, endanger everyone around her, and break the worst rule possible. But she did.

A rogue werewolf is killing Daciana’s friends, and she sets on capturing the creature. She’ll do whatever it takes to stop the beast. The police and her boyfriend, Inspector Connell Lonescu, are starting to question her involvement in the murders, which is endangering the pack’s secret existence. But when the pack alpha kidnaps Connell, revealing the awful truth about the creature and its connection to the pack, Daciana must choose between saving the man she loves and saving her pack family from certain death.

Genre:Paranormal Suspense With Strong Romance

Publisher: Crimson Romance


T.F. Walsh emigrated from Romania to Australia at the age of eight and now lives in a regional city south of Sydney with her husband. Growing up hearing dark fairytales, she's always had a passion for reading and writing horror, paranormal romance, urban fantasy and young adult stories. She balances all the dark with light fluffy stuff like baking and traveling.

Find T.F. Walsh
Website http://tfwalsh.wordpress.com
Twitter @TFWalsh
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/TF-Walsh-Author/399540826795103?ref=hl
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/tfwalsh/
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7150942.T_F_Walsh

Hot Reads + Cool Giveaways = July Fever Is Coming!

I don't know what it's like in everyone else's parts of the world, but here we're sweltering through record-breaking heat. It was 104 F on Saturday. Fortunately we've figured out how to take the heat and use it to our advantage. I'll give you a hint: it involves sexy books, amazing giveaways, and smokin' hot blog posts.


1 blog + 31 authors = 31 Days of Hotness

Sofia Grey is hosting July Fever, with giveaways every day during July, AND weekly prize bundles too.

Look who’s featured for the first 6 days:

1-Jul ALLYSON LINDT $20 Amazon GC, Holding Her Close & Toeing The Line (ARC)
2-Jul JENNAH SCOTT Ebook – Scrap Metal & swag
3-Jul ZOE YORK 4 copies of What Once Was Perfect (ebook)
4-Jul LAURA KAYE Copy of South of Surrender
5-Jul MINA KHAN a signed paperback copy of A Tale of Two Djinns, a book tote, & some swag
6-Jul LISSA MATTHEWS an ebook from my backlist

Everyone who comments goes into a draw for the giveaway that day, AND also a draw for the 6-day gift bundle:

Remember, the more you visit, the more you might win J Check out this video for all the participating authors.

Dirty Birdies Flock Hop Winner & More!

Thank you to everyone who visited and commented on my post and everyone else's during the Dirty Birdies Flock Hop. I found myself nodding and agreeing with everyone's choices for eye-candy, so I'm glad I didn't have to personally choose ;-) Y'all have got some sexy good taste.

I've picked a winner, and our fabulous hosts will be picking a grand-prize winner soon as well. Random.org tells me commenter #6 wins the gift certificate and books, so Congratulations to Jamie M! I'll be emailing you very shortly with your prizes.

And while I have your attention, my newest novel, Holding Her Close will officially be released on Monday, and to celebrate, I'm posting some new excerpts around the interwebz. Today and tomorrow, Sofia Grey is hosting me, my thoughts on second chances, and more changes to win free books. So drop by, leave a comment for another chance to win a copy of Holding Her Close , and check out Sofia's work while you're there.

Congratulations again to Jamie, and everyone have a fantastic weekend!

Dirty Birdies Flock Hop

The brilliantly sexy geniuses over at Dirty Birdies have put together a fantastic blog hop for the next few days, and when I read about it, I had to sign up. They describe it best:

This is a hop for authors, publishers, bloggers… basically anyone who loves dirty books, has a website or blog, and wants to join in!

The hop runs from 25th – 27th June, and the theme is eye candy. So, whatever you want to do around that theme, be it a blog post, a character interview, an excerpt, the choice is yours. Just make sure it’s dirty

I'm sharing an excerpt from my upcoming novel, Holding Her Close (a story about first loves, second chances, and how the past will always haunt us if we let it). And there's a giveaway at the end of the post too ;-)

As a little bit of lead in: Zach is haunted by ex-girlfriends. The day his fiancée dumped him she also sold her shares of his multi-billion dollar corporation. On top of that, Rae, the girl who broke his heart in high school and the only woman he’s never been able to forget, is back in his life. She’s filling his business partner’s head with delusions of recovering from the hostile takeover, and haunting his most vivid fantasies. But he’s got a plan to solve half the problem: one night together and they can put the past behind them.

Warning for my more conservative readers, this is a racy excerpt, as per the theme of the blog hop ;-)

Damn it, he was being logical, and part of Rae was intensely grateful for it. “One night, just to prove a point, and we move on?” What was she doing?

If Zach was smug about the fact she was still there it didn’t show on his face. “Night, day. Not picky about the time.”

“It does make a certain amount of sense.” It wasn’t like she was going to get attached, and she could think of worse ways to remind herself why she and he didn’t talk anymore. Besides, the thoughts of running her hands over his sturdy chest, trailing her fingers down his arms, feeling his mouth…well…everywhere, made a compelling argument for giving it a try.

And once that tension was out of the way, maybe they could actually talk again. Rediscover the friendship that existed before they dated.

“Is that a yes?” He hadn’t moved, but every muscle in his body was tense.

No. No. No. What was she doing? Exactly what she wanted. “Yes. If it clears the air and makes it possible for us to be in the same room, then yes.”

“No other reason at all.” He closed the distance between them, stopping close enough to feel his heat, but not touching her. “It’s all about closure.” His gaze raked over her, lingering on her hips and again on her chest. “Well, maybe not completely. I’ll enjoy the view, too.”

Her breath hitched at the dark look. “When do we want to do this?”

He raised a hand until it hovered less than an inch from the side of her face, but never made contact. “What are you doing this afternoon?”

“Now?” She cringed at the squeak in her question. Swallowing to clear her throat, she tried again. “Don’t you have work?”

“It can wait. Besides, if I let you leave, I might miss my chance.” His voice was low but firm.

At least he had that right. Her desire focused intently on the man in front of her. “I don’t have any plans for a few hours. Did you have something specific in mind?”

He locked the office door, closed the remaining distance between them, and dipped his head. His eyes searched hers, lips hovering millimeters away, and then he kissed her.

The sensation was so light she wasn’t sure she felt it. She leaned in, mouth opening and whimper escaping when he traced his tongue over her bottom lip. Every nerve ending was on fire, screaming for more. His hand rested at the base of her neck, holding her in place, and he deepened the kiss, going from gentle to hungry in an instant.

His tongue twisted around hers in a desperate dance, and desire blossomed in her gut. God this was incredible. Had it been like this before? No, neither of them had been so experienced. She rested her hands on his chest, heat searing her palms.

She fumbled to find her breath when they finally broke apart. His finger brushed her swollen lips, dancing over the sensitive flesh.

“You’re sure this is a good idea?” She didn’t want to question it, but she needed reassurance. Another voice to tell her the lust screaming through her veins wasn’t misplaced.

The corner of his mouth pulled up and he nudged her back, hands on her hips, guiding her until she bumped into the desk. His soft growl echoed in her ear as he kissed along her lobe. “Possibly the best fucking idea I’ve had all week.”

Zach never swore when he had a leash on his words. He was as lost to the moment as she was. The realization made the warmth between her legs slick with anticipation.

Hands still on her hips, he lifted her to sit on the edge of the desk. She draped her arms over his shoulders, fingers interlocking at the base of his neck, and pulled him in for another kiss. His slacks scraped along her thighs when he nudged them apart with his knee. Her denim skirt crept higher when he slid between her legs.

He traced a line down her jaw and to the base of her throat, kissing the hollow immediately below her choker. His voice rumbled through her chest. “A collar. Fantastic.”

“Don’t read too much into it.” Her laugh was cut off by a sigh when he slid a hand under her shirt and up her spine.

She scooted closer, wrapping her legs around his waist. His cock strained through fabric, pressing against her mound and making her pulse scream in anticipation.

A sharp knock echoed through the room and Rae’s already hammering heart almost tore from her chest.

****

Giveaway Details

And to extend the fun a little farther, I'm also giving away a $15 Amazon gift card and a e-copy of Holding Her Close (which means you can win it before its official release date). To enter, just leave a comment below along with your email address (you must leave your email address), and on June 28, I'll pick one lucky winner. Because both prizes are digital, the contest is open internationally.

Entering here also enters you to win the grand prize, and don't forget to check out the list on Dirty Birdies for more hot, sexy eye candy, and more chances at the grand prize!

Second Chances... At Dreams

First things first, especially for those of you who read your blogs in a newsreader (I know I do). After a lot of deliberation and consideration, I've turned on the Adult Content filter for my blog. I write explicit and erotic romance, and occasionally I'll post a snippet of mine or someone else's work that crosses the adult content line.

That's all. On to today's post ^_^
When I was six, I decided I wanted to write stories when I grew up. When I was ten or eleven, I wanted to be an astronaut. I had always been told I could be whatever I wanted, because I was bright and ambitious. So I was going to go to space camp. And then the next year I was going to be a defense attorney. I would put all the bad guys behind bars.

Or maybe, as I decided a few years later, I would be a celebrity photographer, and everyone would know my name because I would be the person who took that photo of /*Insert Celebrity Name Here*/ on the cover of Rolling Stone. If you've never looked into what it takes to be that kind of photographer... It's on par with being a querying author hoping to make that 7 figure advance with your debut.

In Holding Her Close, Zach and Scott were living their dream. Running the software company they'd built from the ground up. Until Zach's ex-girlfriend sold them out and cost them the entire deal in a hostile takeover. Everyone reacts differently to having their dreams snatched away, and these two best friends aren't seeing eye-to-eye on the best way to cope.

***

Even if Zach hadn’t heard everything Scott had said, he’d be able to guess. The conversation hadn’t changed much since they’d lost Cord in the hostile takeover nine months ago.

Scott nodded at something behind Zach “Was she as good in bed as she was attractive?”

Was she? Fantasy sideswiped Zach’s thoughts and slid in to take their place. Rae’s teasing laughter growing heavy as he backed her against a wall, peeling off her thin top, making her gasp. He pushed the images away again. Where the hell had that come from? And that wasn’t what Scott was talking about. “Who?”

Scott raised an eyebrow. “Whoever you liked enough to let spend the night.” He nodded at the sink again. “Extra mug?”

Right, that. Zach shook his head, as much to force the tantalizing images out as to answer Scott. “No one spent the night.”

“Fine, don’t tell me. Whatever has you distracted must have been the best fucking wet dream in history. You liked her enough to make her coffee this morning.” Scott turned back to the letter in front of him. “This changes everything, you know.”

The rapid change of subject didn’t faze Zach. They were talking about the letter again. He exhaled slowly. “The only thing that’s changed is it’s in writing now.” It was a formal copy of the offer Digital Media — the company who had “acquired” Cord — was making to buy Zach and Scott out of their old company shares. “That doesn’t make getting out of it any easier. In fact, it makes it that much more real.”

Scott pushed off the barstool, and paced the length of the kitchen. “So what do we do?”

The specifics had varied over the past few months, but the meaning of the conversation never changed. Scott refused to accept that they didn’t have any options, and got pissed when Zach had the nerve to point it out.

Zach was sick of it. He hated the entire thing as much as anyone — they had built Cord together — but he had also accepted reality months ago. “I was thinking of bumming around Europe for a couple of years. Sell the house, put the Porsche in storage, and buy a stack of traveler’s checks and a one-way-ticket.

“This isn’t a joke.” Scott’s snarl echoed off stone and stainless steel.

Zach knew what was coming next. Or at least, he had a list to pick from and he’d narrowed it down to the most likely option. This would probably be the negotiation argument. Couldn’t they just stay on long enough to launch their current game? DM would have to let them stay if they did a great job. They just had to prove they could play nice with their new owner. Like trained dogs on a leash.

Scott stopped and turned to face him, dark eyes narrowed.

Or maybe it would be the “Can we just pretend we never saw this?” argument. That one was always amusing.

“Is this what you wanted?” Scott asked.

Zach choked on a canned response. That was new. “Excuse me?”

Scott shoved his hands in his pockets. “This isn’t just our lifeblood, it’s our dream. It’s being ripped away, and you’ve barely batted an eye. Do you have any idea how sick I am of hearing ‘there’s nothing we can do’ over and over again?”

***

There have been times when I've thought about giving up my dream of writing, but I always get sucked back in. Never give up, never surrender, right?

What dreams have you had/do you have that grab you by the lapels and refuse to let go? Tell me in the comments below, and be entered in a drawing to win a copy of Holding Her Close.

Double-Lemon Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies

It's time for the Summer Chillin' Blog Hop. The premise is simple and delicious. For the next week, myself and some brilliant writers/bloggers/foodies will be posting some of our favorite recipes on our blogs. Click the image above to see the full list, or check out the link at the end of this post.

I'm a big citrus fan, and summer says lemonade to me. Or in this case, lemon cookies. This is a variation on a recipe that's a favorite of mine, and I like the light flavor and taste of these thumbprint cookies.

Double-Lemon Cream Cheese Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened1 3oz package cream cheese, softened1 cup sugar1 tablespoon milk1 teaspoon lemon extract1 1/4 cups flour1 tsp lemon zest1 small can lemon pie filling
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 F (176 c), grease 2 baking sheetsBeat together cream cheese and butter at medium speedBeat in sugar, milk, lemon, and lemon zestBeat in flour, 1/4 cup at a time until blended.
Drop rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets, 2 inches apart.Using a rounded tablespoon or your thump, create an indentation in the middle of each cookieDrop 1 tsp lemon pie filling into the center of each cookieBake cookies about 10 minutes, until set and golden.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Serve cool with your favorite blended drink, and if you're having a hard time deciding what that is, check out the other participants blogs, because I know some of them have some amazing drinks they're sharing.

Freak Show (Guest Post by Sofia Grey)

In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm a huge fan of Sofia Grey's. So I'm thrilled to host her on my site again today as part of her Obsession blog tour. And that's enough from me, I'll turn the rest of the day over to Sofia.

The Victorians loved freak shows. Offer them a bearded lady, a family of dwarves and a troupe of acrobatic fleas and they would queue for hours. However, one person’s freak is another’s normal, or nearly normal. In this era, we’re more politically correct, but the term ‘freak’ is still unpleasant. Rude. Abnormal.

We’re all different though, and I’ll bet each of us has some unusual ability even if we don’t like to admit to it. My husband can sniff out my hidden chocolate stash, even though I hide it behind packets of pasta or breakfast cereal. He goes on raiding parties in the larder after I’ve gone to bed, and will seize gleefully on my Cadbury’s Crème Egg or Galaxy Minstrels, and claim them as his own if I don’t stop him. I have weird precognitive dreams sometimes, and I tell you that can be freaky. I dreamed once that my car spun off the road at a junction, and it shook me so much that I asked hubby to look at all my tyres. He found a nail embedded in one sidewall, giving rise to a slow puncture. The scientists amongst you may be muttering now about my subconscious recognizing that the handling felt ‘off’, but I disagree.

Anyway. In Obsession , my hero has an unusual ability: Josh can feel women’s emotions and sometimes pick up on their thoughts. He uses it to his advantage in his role of honey trap:

*
She licked her lips, pupils dilating as she devoured me with her eyes. Her emotions were clear. I want him and I want him now. Is he just playing with me?

Raising my right hand, I curled a stray lock of her hair into my palm, releasing it and watching as it sprang back into place. “You’re gorgeous. Is it just me, or is it too crowded in here?”

“Your room or mine?” She breathed the words, her heart racing; I could see the vein banging furiously in her throat. I fisted my hand gently in her hair, tugged her head back, and licked the wild pulse. I felt her tremble, heard the groan.

“Oh, mine I think.” I lifted my head briefly, nipped her lower lip, and drew another groan. By now, the room had emptied behind us, and I closed the distance, pressing my lips against hers. Oh God, he’s so hot, oh my God…

As soon as I kissed her, I knew what she craved from me, what in all probability her fiancé was not providing. Danger—made clear by her desire to have sex with a stranger. Fast and dirty. And, despite her outward show of confidence, a longing to be submissive, for her lover to be almost aggressive. It was a part I could play with ease.
*

So what unusual ability do you have? Tell me, and I’ll put your name into a draw for a free copy of Obsession.

*

Obsession is available 12 June 2013, from Time & Tide Publishing.

Josh Delaney is the ideal honey trap.

His charm and model good looks would be enough for most women, but coupled with his psychic ability to read their thoughts, he’s impossible to resist. Suspicious husbands employ him to test their wives, to see if they can be tempted to stray.

High profile couple Suki and Gabe Bridgewater have the perfect marriage, or at least, that’s the image they portray to the world. Behind closed doors, Gabe’s dominance in the marriage is unravelling and he decides to test Suki, using Josh as bait.

For Josh it should be just another easy job, but two things go horribly wrong.

One, Josh falls in love with Suki.

And two, Gabe refuses to let her go.

Amazon Kindle




Blog tours are fun to take part in, these are my stops:
12 June - Layne Macadam (http://laynemacadam.blogspot.co.nz/)13 June – Laura Kaye (http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.co.nz... June – Lissa Matthews (http://lissamatthews.com/blog/)15 June - Cover Reveals website (http://coverreveals.blogspot.co.nz/)16 June –Ella Frank (http://ellafrank30.wordpress.com/)17 June - Allyson Lindt (http://blog.apathyshero.com/)18 June – Parker Kincade (http://parkerkincade.blogspot.co.nz/)20 June –Trish McCallan (http://trishmccallan.blogspot.co.nz/)21 June – Tina Carreiro (http://tinacarreiro.blogspot.com) 23 June - Silken Sheets &Seduction (http://silkensheetsandseduction.wordp... June – Sotia Lazu (http://justsotia.blogspot.co.nz/)29 June - Love Lust & Laptops (http://lovelustandlaptops.wordpress.com/)
About AuthorRomance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings. Find her at: www.sofiagrey.com and on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sofiagrey1, or on Twitter @SofiaGreyAuthor
* images courtesy of 123rf.com

TLIF - Back To (Online) Basics

...AKA: being social from behind the safety of my keyboard.

Oh, but first, really quick tangent. This is the last day to enter to win a copy of Sofia Grey's Obsession by commenting on this blog post here. And it's an incredible dark contemporary romance, so it's worth tossing your name in the hat (or the comments section in this case).

Okay, back to basics, my actual blog post. I've been doing a lot of pondering over the last few weeks. A serious lot of pondering. About how many people are saying something (most of us) and how many people are listening (not nearly as many of us) and how many people are being heard (even fewer of us).

All this pondering is related to things that people refer to as 'marketing' and 'platform' and I'm sure about fifty other buzzwords that I never bothered to learn because I was too busy not being worried about it. When my social media feeds and blog were what I wanted to say because I was in the mood to say it. Not that I've ever been a big, vocal, controversial person, but...

I think this is jumping around too much. *focuses thoughts* Okay. Way back in the day, when I started blogging, before I had things like a book contract and a 'coming soon in the Bits & Bytes series', I used to hop on here ever day or so and just blab about whatever was in my Skittle-filled writer brain.

I'd look at those "other" authors whose Twitter feeds were full of nothing but links to their books (I'm not talking the occasional link, I'm talking nothing but links to their books), and I'd think haughtily, "I'll never be one of those. I'll get by on wit alone. Because I'm witty. Damn it. I said so, and that makes it so."

Hey, it does in books, right? Author says so, and in that world it makes it so? ;-)

Except now, two and a half months after my first book launch, my brain screams all the time "Why aren't more people paying attention to us? SHOUT LOUDER." Except I'm not a shouter, but I try. And then the other day I looked at my Twitter feed, and it was all links to my book, and my blog, and talking about coffee.

Which is the opposite of awesomeness frosted. In fact, it's pretty freakin' lame. Except the coffee bit. I'm an addict, so that probably won't ever go away from anything I say online.

To make it worse, about four or five months ago I lost all of my blog links in my newsfeed reader. All of you whose blogs I would scan every morning and love, one day the links weren't there. And the issue is, even though I know who you all are, I never memorized your blog URL's (sorry :-P) so I've been able to recover about 1/4 of the missing links and the rest are just *poof* until I can find you again.

And I miss reading your blogs and chatting with you online and I really miss the silence that was in my brain before there was the roar of "MUST SELL MORE BOOKS SHOUT LOUDER".

Skittles are a noisy bunch when they think they're being ignored.

I'm going back to basics. The blog hops I love (which is why my sidebar is filling up with images), the people I want to hear from, the posts I want to write, the authors I want to feature, and the tweets I want to send. And if you're here, you can see my pretty cover graphics without me pointing them out to you, and you can read more if you choose to.

And okay, I may still send up the occasional book link, but only if the Skittles make me do it.

I miss talking to people. So talk to me. If you leave links below, I can start to build my blog list again and I can have *good* things to read in the morning, instead of staring at gaming forums (gaming forums, worse brain drain ever. Trust me on this one.) What are you up to, and where can I find you?

Happy (un)Birthday, Everyone! Free Book, Anyone?

Today is a huge day, not because it's my birthday (Okay, that's part of it ;-), but because it's Sophia Grey's book birthday for the dark romance (with a hint of paranormal), Obession. It's also Sofia's birthday, at least in my part of the world.

Here's the thing about my birthday. I've always been more of a giver than a receiver, I love to see people wind up with that something they've just been hoping for. So in celebration today, and for the rest of the week, I'm giving away a book (or more, that's up to all of you ;-).

Here's how it works, and it's really easy.
Leave a comment below between now - June 12 - and June 15 at midnight ESTMake sure you leave your email address so I can send you the books if you winThis weekend, I'll pick one person from all the comments to win an e-book copy of Obession (on my dime, you pick the format, I'll buy you the book ;-). I'm also adding in a copy of my book, Conflict of Interest If more than 10 people comment, I'll start adding more book prizes, so your odds of winning increase if you spread the word ;-)
Obession Blurb (in case you haven't heard me say it yet, this book is amazing)
Josh Delaney is the ideal honey trap.His charm and model good looks would be enough for most women, but coupled with his psychic ability to read their thoughts, he’s impossible to resist. Suspicious husbands employ him to test their wives, to see if they can be tempted to stray.

High profile couple Suki and Gabe Bridgewater have the perfect marriage, or at least, that’s the image they portray to the world. Behind closed doors, Gabe’s dominance in the marriage is unravelling and he decides to test Suki, using Josh as bait.

For Josh it should be just another easy job, but two things go horribly wrong.

One, Josh falls in love with Suki.

And two, Gabe refuses to let her go.

And if you want to dive in and read it right away, you can find Obession here:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Print
B&N
All Romance

A Touch of the Crazies, Sneak Preview: Sofia Grey's Obsession

In case you hadn't heard, I'm a *huge* fan of the talented and brilliant Sofia Grey, and since her newest novel, Obsession (dark contemporary romance with a hint of paranormal, anyone?) is coming out tomorrow, I'm letting her hijack my blog for the day.

A Touch Of the Crazies

Tomorrow sees the launch of my latest novel, Obsession, the first in the Talisman series. It’s fair to say that for the past few months, I have been obsessed with Obsession. Writing took place a long time ago, more recently it’s been about editing, cover art, more editing, marketing, even more editing and scheduling the launch. But it’s finally here. It feels a bit like Christmas Eve. The anticipation. The promise of excitement tomorrow. Hoping everything is set up and in place.

I have a day job too and I juggle writing around that, grabbing whatever time I can get. Yesterday, as I dashed outside to buy some lunch, my mind was elsewhere, busy planning which excerpts from Obsession to use in my blog posts. Miles away, I rode down the escalator into the nearby food court and noticed the man riding up to the street level. I had to do a double take. Then another. He was the image of Josh Delaney, one of the lead characters in Obsession, and the guy I’d just been writing a blog post about. I should explain at this point that I not only have a mental image of how he looks, I have a picture on my Pinterest board. I capture all my leading characters there, and some secondaries, and this was an image I had looked at many times.


I was speechless. Stunned. I stared. He saw me. I blushed and stared some more. He smirked. You can imagine how it went. A total stranger eyeing him up on a busy escalator. To make it even more bizarre, when you read Obsession you’ll see just how weird this is. Suki, the female lead, has a scene where she believes she hallucinated him and for a crazy moment I wondered if I had too.

So there we go, my crazy moment from yesterday :-)

To give you a taste, here’s the scene I’m talking about. Suki, upset from a row with Gabe, is dozing in her friend’s sunny garden and dreaming about a handsome man she met a few days ago.

*

I had to be dreaming. The guy from the café had materialized in front of me—a hundred miles from home—holding his arms out to me.

“Come here.” His voice was soft and tender, as though we were lovers. Hiccupping through my tears, I lurched into his embrace, resting my head against his chest. Instantly, my headache vanished. I sighed in relief. I wanted this dream more often.

“You okay now?” One of his hands draped against my hip, the other caressed my hair, the fingers soothing against the back of my neck.

“Yes. Now that you’re here.” I sighed again as I nestled against him, my eyelids drooping, heavy and tired. I had to speak to him before I lost the dream again. “Please don’t go.”

***

When I finally opened my eyes, I could hear voices in the distance. Crap, how long had I been asleep? I rubbed my eyes, yawning, remembering the dream and realising my headache had gone. In the dream, he took it away. It had been so real. I’d felt the softness of his shirt beneath my fingertips, smelled his aftershave. I would swear it’d happened, but how could it?

And even if, by the miracle of coincidence, he’d really been here, there’s no way I’d ever snuggle up to a complete stranger. And he hadn’t seemed surprised either. The whole episode had the heavy, unreal quality of a dream.

I ran a hand though my hair as I gathered my thoughts, and tried to squash down the fear. I’d wondered if last night with Gabe was just a bad dream. Now this. My reality was merging with my dream world. How long did I have left before they blurred into one? The descent into full-blown psychosis had just taken another step forward.

*

Obsession is available 12 June 2013, from Time & Tide Publishing.

Josh Delaney is the ideal honey trap.

His charm and model good looks would be enough for most women, but coupled with his psychic ability to read their thoughts, he’s impossible to resist. Suspicious husbands employ him to test their wives, to see if they can be tempted to stray.

High profile couple Suki and Gabe Bridgewater have the perfect marriage, or at least, that’s the image they portray to the world. Behind closed doors, Gabe’s dominance in the marriage is unravelling and he decides to test Suki, using Josh as bait.

For Josh it should be just another easy job, but two things go horribly wrong.

One, Josh falls in love with Suki.

And two, Gabe refuses to let her go.

And since you're hooked now (because how couldn't you be?) You can find Obession here:
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Print
B&N
All Romance

And just to seal the deal, check out the trailer for Obession, as well





Blog tours are fun to take part in, these are my stops:
12 June - Layne Macadam (http://laynemacadam.blogspot.co.nz/)13 June – Laura Kaye (http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.co.nz... June – Lissa Matthews (http://lissamatthews.com/blog/)15 June - Cover Reveals website (http://coverreveals.blogspot.co.nz/)16 June –Ella Frank (http://ellafrank30.wordpress.com/)17 June - Allyson Lindt (http://blog.apathyshero.com/)18 June – Parker Kincade (http://parkerkincade.blogspot.co.nz/)20 June –Trish McCallan (http://trishmccallan.blogspot.co.nz/)21 June – Tina Carreiro (http://tinacarreiro.blogspot.com) 23 June - Silken Sheets &Seduction (http://silkensheetsandseduction.wordp... June – Sotia Lazu (http://justsotia.blogspot.co.nz/)29 June - Love Lust & Laptops (http://lovelustandlaptops.wordpress.com/)
About AuthorRomance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and alwaysmakes them work hard for their happy endings. Find her at: www.sofiagrey.com and on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sofiagrey1, or on Twitter @SofiaGreyAuthor
* images courtesy of 123rf.com