Margo Bond Collins's Blog, page 71
February 10, 2015
Vampire Elegance in Legally Undead ~ Book Hooks Blog Hop ~ #MFRWauthor
Welcome to this week’s Book Hooks, a blog hop that introduces you to great new reads!
Check out the excerpt from my book below, then HOP to the rest of the entries! But before you go, tell me: who are some of your favorite vampires?
Legally Undead Excerpt
It would be easy to be charmed by this setting, by all the elegance that surrounded me.
Of course, all the vampires that surrounded me weren’t quite so charming. They were terrifying.
And in a room full of people, I discovered that it was easy to tell which ones were vampires and which ones weren’t. Some of the humans were easy to spot–the ones who were eating food were easy to pick out as humans, of course, and many of them had bandages or fresh wounds on various parts of their bodies. The parts where the veins ran close to the surface: the neck, the crook of the elbow, the wrist.
There were other humans there, too, though, humans who weren’t eating and who didn’t have any visible blood-donation marks. But they were clearly human, just as some of the other people moving around the room were clearly vampires.
Legally Undead (Vampirarchy Book 1)
February 9, 2015
Spotlight On: How to Unbreakup, by Rebekah Purdy
How to Unbreakupby Rebekah L. Purdy
Release Date: 02/10/15
Swoon Romance
Summary from Goodreads:
First rule of breakups: There’s no going back.
For three years, seventeen-year-old Grace Evers has regretted breaking up with Sage Castle.
That day, she lost her boyfriend and best friend. And let’s be honest, it’s impossible to just be friends with the one person who gets you, faults and all, and loved you anyway. It’s impossible not to think about how it felt to be held by him, or the way he looked right before he was about to kiss you with the most perfectly yummy kiss goodnight.
And now that things are over between them, they’ve become strangers to one another. Sage won’t even look at Grace, let alone talk to her!
Breakup life sucks and Grace is utterly miserable, doing whatever she can to ease the pain of losing Sage. She’s spent the better part of high school pretending to be something she’s not and hanging out with people who probably wouldn’t notice if she wasn’t there. Crappy dates, backstabbing friends, and Sage’s cold shoulder have taken their toll.
So when her parents propose going away to their house on Lake Michigan for the summer, Grace is thrilled. No more massively bad dates with horrible kissers or lunch with frienemies. Just three months of swimming,
hiking, and relaxing before senior year starts.
But when Grace learns Sage and his family will be joining them, she readies herself for a totally awkward family vacation of disastrous proportions. How can it be anything but awful if Sage won’t even acknowledge she exists?
This is it, Grace’s last chance to get Sage back and unbreakup.
Excerpt
“Here you go. Signed. Sealed. Delivered.” Lyncee handed me back my yearbook. “You have to wait until you get home to read it.”
“Oh great, what’d you put in here? I hope you didn’t mention anything about me dropping my cell in the toilet.”
She laughed. “No. Something better.”
I groaned. Her idea of something better meant it could be anything from embarrassing to, well, more embarrassing. I smoothed down my jean skirt and spun my locker combination for the last time of junior year. Next year, we’d be seniors. We’d have our last homecoming and prom. We’d rule the school and all that crap. To be honest, I was ready to be done with school. Leave the idiots behind. I’d spent the last three years pretending to be someone I wasn’t just to fit in. Lyncee was my only real friend to survive my breakup with Sage. Sage. We hadn’t talked since the end of eighth grade. The day I broke up with him. He’d stopped picking up my calls and when his parents came over to play cards with mine, he’d stay home. He avoided me at school, online, at soccer tournaments. It was like he’d completely erased me from his life. I never meant to hurt him like that. The truth was, I missed him. A lot. It sucked not having anyone to talk to about the Star Wars marathon they played on Memorial Day, or the new Hobbit trailer, or about the awesome pair of soccer cleats I wanted to get. Not that Lyncee wasn’t there for me, she was, just not in the same way.
Needless to say, I’d spent the last three years regretting mine and Sage’s breakup. I’d trade anything, even my popularity, to have him back. The thing was, I was running out of time to make things right. I’d tried getting over him, but there were some people you just couldn’t leave behind.
Buy
Links:
Amazon
About the Author
Rebekah Purdy grew up in Michigan, where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. When not hiding at her computer and getting lost in her stories, she enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games and hanging out with her kids. She loves the unexplainable like Bigfoot, the Dogman, and the Loch Ness Monster (lots of good story material)! She admits to still having all the books she bought throughout her childhood and teen years, and she may or may not have an obsession with anything chocolate…
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY:
Book Blitz Organized by:
February 8, 2015
Casting Bound by Blood, by Margo Bond Collins
I think every author spends some amount of time dreaming of a movie made from his or her books—I suspect that an inordinate amount of time goes in to casting these imaginary films—at least, it does around here!
For this post, I’m casting only the adults in the novella. There are also two children, a five-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl, but when I started trying to cast them, I realized that the child actors I had imagined in the roles had all grown up! I finally decided that I would leave child-actor casting to the professionals, instead.
So here are my choices for those actors I did cast. Take a look at them, and then tell me, who would you cast in these roles?
Dr. Lili Banta, a doctor from a Filipino-American family
played by Vanessa Hudgens
Until I started writing this novella, I was unaware of just how many Filipina actresses I already knew and loved. Although Hudgens looks a little young for the role of Lili, I think she could definitely pull it off!
Dr. Will Manning, a doctor in Houston, Texas, and Lili’s ex
played by Patrick Dempsey
. . . because who better to play a handsome doctor?
Harry Iverson, a detective from Dallas, Texas
played by Jensen Ackles
. . . because he’s Texan, and he’s one of my favorite actors. I would cast him in everything, if it were up to me.
Nurse Susan Yee
played by Zhang Ziyi
. . . because she is my favorite Chinese actress!
Lili’s grandmother, nicknamed Inang
played by Beverly Salviejo
. . . because she looks exactly like I imagined Lili’s Inang.
I would love some help casting the children! Who would you cast to play Kenny (a five-year-old boy) and Felicity (a twelve-year-old girl)?
____________________________
Sometimes the monsters in the dark are real…
As a child, Lili Banta ignored her grandmother’s cryptic warnings to avoid children outside their Filipino community in Houston. When many of those other children fell ill, Lili ignored the whispers in her community that a vampiric aswang walked among them.
Years later, Lili returns to Houston to work for the Quarantine Station of the Center for Disease Control—but she is plagued by dark, bloody dreams that consume her nights and haunt her days. When a strange illness attacks the city’s children, Lili is called in to find its source, and maybe even a cure.
But in order to save the city, she must first acknowledge the sinister truth: A monster stalks the night—closer than she ever expected….
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Excerpt
Sitting straight up in bed, I gasped and threw myself back against the headboard, the thud dying away along with the remaining shreds of my dream.
But the word still ricocheted through my mind.
Aswang.
Until yesterday, I hadn’t thought of the term in years—not since I’d left Houston for med school in Maine, determined to get as far away from home as I could.
But this resurgence of the same, odd illness that had swept my city years before was apparently also dredging up the old stories from deep in my subconscious: the aswang, a vampiric woman who lived a quiet life by day and fed on children in the night, flying back home on bat-wings just before dawn.
My unconscious mind had clearly also expanded on the idea, casting me in the role of aswang and adding schizoid conversations with a chorus of internal voices.
Great. I’m insane in my dreams.
And I’m a monster.
Shuddering, I wiped my hand across my gritty, raw eyelids.
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Buy Links
Only $.99 via Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Blood-Night-Shift-Novella-ebook/dp/B00PB3AIGC/
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Blood-Night-Shift-Novel/dp/0990743365/
Audiobook, Narrated by Hollie Jackson: http://www.amazon.com/Bound-Blood-Night-Shift-Book/dp/B00QUB5T9U/
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About the Author
Margo Bond Collins is the author of urban fantasy, contemporary romance, and paranormal mysteries. She has published a number of novels, including Sanguinary, Taming the Country Star, Legally Undead, Waking Up Dead, and Fairy, Texas. She lives in Texas with her husband, their daughter, and several spoiled pets. Although writing fiction is her first love, she also teaches college-level English courses online. She enjoys reading romance and paranormal fiction of any genre and spends most of her free time daydreaming about heroes, monsters, cowboys, and villains, and the strong women who love them—and sometimes fight them.
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Connect with Margo
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/margobondcollins
Email: MargoBondCollins@gmail.com
Website: http://www.MargoBondCollins.net
Blog: http://www.MargoBondCollins.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MargoBondCollin @MargoBondCollin
Google+: https://plus.google.com/116484555448104519902
Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/vampirarchy
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/MargoBondCollins
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/mbondcollins/
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5 Things You Don’t Know about Greta from Greta and the Glass Kingdom, by Chloe Jacobs
Greta and the Glass Kingdom (Mylena Chronicles #2)by Chloe Jacobs
Release Date: 02/09/15
Entangled Teen
Summary from Goodreads:
Once upon a dark time… Greta the human bounty hunter never quite fit into the shadowed, icy world of Mylena. Yet she’s managed to defeat the demon Agramon and win the love of the darkly intense Goblin King, Isaac. Now Isaac wants her to rule by his side—a human queen. And the very announcement is enough to incite rebellion…
To make matters worse, defeating Agramon left Greta tainted with a dark magick. Its unclean power threatens to destroy her and everything she loves. With the Goblin King’s life and the very peace of Mylena at stake, Greta must find a cure and fast.
Her only hope lies with the strange, elusive faeries in the Glass Kingdom…if she can get there before the evil within her destroys everything.
5 Things You Don’t Know about Greta from Greta and the Glass Kingdom
1) So, the thing you probably can’t miss about Greta is that she really hates winter. But after all this time having to listen to her complain about it, I think I’ve got to cut her some slack.
You see, she finally admitted that she used to LOVE winter. Especially when the bright sun bounced off the fluffy white snow. She’d loved the snowball fights, and building snowmen on Saturday afternoons with her brother. She always wanted to go snowboarding, but never got the chance before ending up in Mylena. And somehow you’d think that a world of winter would be all about the skiing, snowboarding, and assorted cold-weather fun, but…not so much. The combination of constant, punishing weather, and being stuck in a world where everyone hated her eventually sucked the joy out of it for her.
2) Greta is a strong, kickass bounty hunter who can totally take care of herself, and yet she wasn’t always so sure of her own abilities (even now, there are moments…) Greta would kill me if she knew I was telling anyone this, but as a child she was painfully shy and insecure. She never got stellar grades in school, and always felt a little stupid. But in Mylena she started to think that maybe she had something better than smarts. Maybe she was destined for something other than math homework and biology labs.
3) Greta has a birthmark on the back of her leg just under her butt cheek that looks a little like a strawberry. Nobody has ever seen it, not even her. In fact, she has no idea it’s there and if someone should ever find it…she’s going to be SO embarrassed.
4) Greta’s favorite color used to be pink. She had a pink backpack and pink shoes, and even wore pink clips in her little girl blonde hair. After Mylena, Greta’s favorite color became orange. Orange is the color of the juice her mother used to pour for her in the mornings, and the color of sunshine.
5) Greta’s favourite treat in the whole wide (human) world is…licorice. Yes, the big bad bounty hunter would trade her soul for a Twizzler. And when it comes to Mylena, she used to say there was absolutely nothing redeeming, nothing she liked about the icy, harsh place at all. But recently she’s found several things to like about this place that had once been so forbidding. At first, it was just the tea—made from a hardy linberry fruit. Sour and bold, it takes a little getting used to…a lot like someone she knows. And now there’s one more thing she likes about Mylena, too.
Buy links:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Indigo/Chapters
Book Trailer: https://sway.com/s/GX72TxU415oUlBKH/embed
Book One:
Greta and the Goblin King (Mylena Chronicles #1)
by Chloe Jacobs
Release Date: 12/11/12
Entangled Teen
Summary from Goodreads:
While trying to save her brother from a witch’s fire four years ago, Greta was thrown in herself, falling through a portal to Mylena, a dangerous world where humans are the enemy and every ogre, ghoul, and goblin has a dark side that comes out with the eclipse.
To survive, Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young goblin king, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her will to escape.
But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. An ancient evil knows she’s the key to opening the portal, and with the next eclipse mere days away, every bloodthirsty creature in the realm is after her—including Isaac. If Greta fails, she and the lost boys of Mylena will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back…
Buy Links:Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Kobo Books
(Only $0.99 for a limited time at select online retailers!)
About the Author
Chloe Jacobs is a native of nowhere and everywhere, having jumped around to practically every Province of Canada before finally settling in Ontario where she has now been living for a respectable number of years. Her husband and son are the two best people in the entire world, but they also make her wish she’d at least gotten a female cat. No such luck. And although the day job keeps her busy, she carves out as much time as possible to write. Bringing new characters to life and finding out what makes them tick and how badly she can make them suffer is one of her greatest pleasures, almost better than chocolate and fuzzy pink bunny slippers.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY:
Book Blitz Organized by:
February 7, 2015
Spotlight On: Lost Energy by Lynn Vroman
Lost Energy (Energy Series #2)by Lynn Vroman
Release Date: 02/03/15
260 pages
Summary from Goodreads:
Last spring, Lena discovered who she was. Now all she wants to do is move on—and find a way to be with Tarek, the new Warden of Arcus and the love of her life. Even though worlds separate them now, she holds onto the hope they’ll be together again. Until then, Lena focuses on being truly happy for the first time in her life…this life. She has new friends, an apartment free from her abusive father, and the chance to live a normal life.
But for Lena, the past never stays gone.
A woman from another lifetime reveals Cassondra, Exemplian’s new authority commander, is seeking revenge against Tarek for killing her brother. There is only one way to end this new threat…
This time, it will take more than Wilma to keep the monsters away. It’ll take an entire army–an army who remembers Lena from her past life, and who might just want her dead, too.
Lena’s past will shape her future more than she could ever imagine.
Buy Links:
Amazon
Book One:
Tainted Energy
by Lynn Vroman
Release Date: 2014
Summary from Goodreads:
For seventeen-year-old Lena, living in the trailer park with the rest of town’s throwaways isn’t exactly paradise. Dealing with a drunken father who can’t keep his fists to himself doesn’t help matters either. The only good thing in her life, other than track, is the mysterious man who visits her dreams, promising to find her.
When a chair burns her arms, Lena chalks it up to stress-induced crazy. Yet as bizarre incidents escalate, even being crazy can’t explain it all away… until one day dream guy does find her.
Tarek lost Lena seventeen years ago after she was accused of treason and marked Tainted. He finally discovers her reborn on Earth into a life of suffering as punishment for her crime.
However, someone else has already found her… and wants her dead. Willing to sacrifice everything, he fights to keep her safe so she can live the only life she’s ever known—even if that life doesn’t include him.
Buy Links:
Excerpt
Fear cured most things. Hunger, thirst…hope. It filled me up until it ate my insides, burrowing deep into my psyche to remind me I was a piece of shit.
A failure.
I left them there, killed a mother and her child because I wasn’t strong enough.
My eyelids, heavy and thick, refused to lift, forcing me to see their faces–Cara and her precious baby girl screaming for us, needing us. And we just left them. My mind replayed the same image of those lights swallowing them up, disintegrating them to ash.
Wake up!
My eyes shot open and pain lanced my brain. The static was gone, but the memories of it a dull, throbbing reminder. I tried to breathe, but panic forming in my throat made it difficult to do properly. Hyperventilating created clouds of dizziness. I tried to get up, but slammed back onto a floating surface as soft as velvet. When my movement made the swaying worse, I rolled to the edge of a bed and released all the dried apricots and fish from my stomach.
A bucket scooted under the vomit stream, the heaves so violent I almost fell to the floor. Warm hands held me up and pulled back my hair as I emptied the last of my stomach’s contents, leaving a hole so big I wanted to disappear in it, escape everything.
Sobs filled the room, distant at first, but then blaring right inside my head, almost as loud as the Guides’ attack. Moisture coated my face, coming from my eyes, my nose…my mouth. I couldn’t do it anymore
I couldn’t.
“Shhh…I’m here, you’re safe.”
Familiar safety of soft arms held tighter, the smell of vanilla pushing past the pain.
Wilma.
I clung to her, not opening my eyes again, not wanting to face reality. Ever. She didn’t force me and held on until the very last sob escaped. Until nothing was left.
I wanted to go home, forget everything.
I killed them.
My head stayed nestled in the crook of her arm. She rocked me, stroked my hair. Said words I didn’t bother to try to comprehend. I cleaved to her voice. Too much. All of it had become too much. I couldn’t deal anymore.
Take me home!
Oblivion rescued me again. This time, blackness gave me peace.
About the Author
Born in Pennsylvania, Lynn spent most of her childhood, especially during math class, daydreaming. Today, she spends an obscene amount of time in her head, only now she writes down all the cool stuff.
With a degree in English Literature, Lynn used college as an excuse to read for four years straight. She lives in the Pocono Mountains with her husband, raising the four most incredible human beings on the planet. She writes young adult novels, both fantasy and contemporary.
Author Links:
GIVEAWAY:Book Blitz Organized by:
February 5, 2015
Hot for Fridays: Hot and Swoon-Worthy with Book Boyfriends Cafe! Sanguinary
It’s Hot for Friday with Book Boyfriends Café!
On Fridays the admins over at Book Boyfriends Café post a fun little task for everyone to complete or question to answer. Writers can sign up with the link up tool to provide a link to their answers. I’m loving this weekly hop, and I’m finding some great new writers!
Last week our characters woke up to a variety of different situations on the morning after. This Friday our Book Boyfriends take center stage as we share a Hot and Swoon-Worthy line from a Book Boyfriend to his heroine.
So check out this scene from Sanguinary , then HOP on over to check out rest of the Hot and Swoon-Worthy lines–our guys’ lines are breath taking, heart stopping, panty dropping.. and more!
Excerpt
I sat silent for a long moment, contemplating a world where vampires bled their victims dry on a regular basis, or tore them to shreds in their own homes. A world where humans went on a city-wide hunt for the monsters who were killing them.
Is that the kind of world the perpetrator of the vamp murders wants to create?
The laws, spoken and unspoken, made just a little more sense.
I shivered again, but this time there was no desire in the tremble.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said, pulling the collar of my shirt aside and baring my neck to Reese. I didn’t trust him—not really, not yet—but no one else was around, and I had no choice but to do this.
“First,” he whispered, “let me help you.” He licked his thumb and ran it across the wound the other vampire had left. A tingling, burning sensation followed his touch, and when I reached up to check the bite, I felt the hard edges of a scab—the kind that shouldn’t be there for days, at least, or maybe longer.
I opened my mouth to ask about it, but Reese shook his head and placed his fingertip across my lips.
My heart stuttered as he bent down and slid his tongue gently across the recent wounds he had created, drawing a line of fire between the two puncture marks. Then he traced another line with his tongue up a little higher on my neck, following the vein. With a sigh, I closed my eyes, and he sank his fangs into me.
This shouldn’t feel so much like coming home.
Sanguinary: A Night Shift Novel
The North Texas Romance Writers of America Chapter 2015 Great Expectations Finalists
(Check it out: TWO of my manuscripts are in the finals! ~ Margo)
The North Texas Romance Writers of America Chapter is proud to announce the
2015 Great Expectations Finalists
Congratulations to all who entered and put your work in the hands of strangers.
Best of Luck to the finalists as they submit their work to our final round editors.
*denotes double finalist
(Listed in alphabetical order by title)
CONTEMPORARY SERIES
Final Round Editor: KAREN REID, Associate Editor, Harlequin SuperRomance
Cordelia and Her Cowboy by Deborah Vlahakes
The Right Sister by Sharla Francis
The Trouble With Freddie by Diana Waldhuber
Wrong Side of Love by Susan JP Owens*
HISTORICAL
Final Round Editor: GABRIELLE KECK, Editorial Assistant, Avon / William Morrow
A Lady In Shadow by Robin Delany*
Love’s Triumph by Jeanine Englert *
Love’s Wager by Jeanine Englert*
Rescuing Mr. Gracey by Eileen Barnes
The Secret Affairs of a Duke’s Daughter by Janna MacGregor
INSPIRATIONAL
Final Round Editor: RAELA SCHOENHERR, Fiction Acquisitions, Bethany House
Healing Grace by Anna Taylor
Lead Me Home by Natalie Monk
Reclaimed by Jennifer Rodewald
The Sacrifice by Megan Besing
MAINSTREAM with ROMANTIC ELEMENTS
Final Round Editor: ALEX LOGAN, Editor, Grand Central Publishing
Between Nowhere and Lost by Alexandra Christle
Cave Girl by Liz McClure
Waking The Dead by D.B. Sieders
What You Wish For by Gina Wynn
NEW ADULT
Final Round Editor: JULIE MIANECKI, Assistant Editor, Berkley Publishing Group
A Cruel Kind of Beautiful by Michelle Hazen*
A Not So Sleeping Beauty by Sheryl Kaleo
Branded by Robin Delany*
Feel Again by Carilyn Ballentine
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Final Round Editor: LAURA FAZIO, Assistant Editor, NAL/Penguin Group
Broken River: Redemption by Lindsay Cross
Forsworn by Michelle Hazen*
Stalker by Sidney Bristol
Wrong Side of Love by Susan JP Owens*
SINGLE TITLE
Final Round Editor: MADELEINE COLAVITA, Editorial Assistant, Grand Central Publishing
The First Word by Isley Robson
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Nicole Evelina
How Not To Be A Tabloid Cover Story by CA Speakman
If I Should Remember by Kirk Van Brunt
SPECIALIZED (Alternate Earth, Dystopian, Fantasy, Futuristic, Paranormal, Time Travel)
Final Round Editor: KRISTINE SWARTZ, Assistant Editor, Berkley Publishing Group
Awake and Dreaming by Andrea Contos
The New London Marriage Stipulation by Margo Bond Collins*
Not His Dragon by Annie Nicholas
Skin Deep by Margo Bond Collins*
YOUNG ADULT
Final Round Editor: ALICE JERMAN, Assistant Editor, HarperCollins
Beest by Debbie Van Brunt
Colliding Skies by Debbie Koristz
The Nascent Bloom by Janet Halpin
Song of The Sirens by Carolyn Rogers
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL GREAT EXPECTATIONS FINALISTS!
Spotlight On: Tell Me a Secret, by Ann Everett
New Adult Romance
Date Published: August 2014
Jace Sloan has it all. He’s smoking hot, a college football star with a storybook family, and he’s never met a woman he couldn’t charm. He’s also never met one who makes him want to be a better man…until he meets Maggie. Now, this self-proclaimed geek with wild red hair and the greenest eyes he’s ever seen has him thinking all kinds of crazy thoughts. Like settling down and being a one-woman man.
Maggie Fielding is anything but Jace’s type. For starters, her IQ is bigger than her chest size. But Jace is panty melting hot, and she’s having a hard time remembering that he’s bad news. If only she could stop telling him her secrets, because her answers to his questions just might have both of them falling in love for the first time.
Excerpt
“Why do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Go from girl to girl. My mother was promiscuous because she tried to make up for everything wrong in her life—no relationship with her family, a kid she didn’t want. But you have the most wonderful family in the world. And you have friends—and talent. I don’t understand what you’re trying to compensate for.”
He didn’t say anything, so she said, “You don’t have to answer. I shouldn’t have asked. I just finished telling you to stay out of my business and now I’m butting into yours.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want to answer. It’s—I don’t know the answer. Maybe it’s evolutionary psychology. You know, spill your seeds and all that crap.”
“You’re kidding, right? That theory has to do with finding the best candidate for breeding to produce the best offspring. It isn’t an excuse to screw every female in Texas. Unless you’re saying you want to impregnate women to create a bunch of little football All-American’s?”
“Hell, no. My policy is no glove, no love. I’m saying, could be, men aren’t supposed to be monogamous.”
“You’re speaking for your entire gender?”
“Yeah.”
“So—your dad could have women on the side and that would be okay.”
“No! All right, you’ve made your point. Some men can be happy with one woman.”
“But not you.”
He rolled up on his elbow and rested his face in his hand. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a complete jerk. I guess I do it because I can. From the time I was in junior high, girls have thrown themselves at me and all I’ve done is take advantage of it. I’ve never lied to get a girl to sleep with me. I’ve never told one I loved her or promised forever. I don’t even spend the night. They know what to expect from me.” He flopped back down. “Maybe I’ve slept with more than my share, but I don’t consider myself a bad guy. Do you?”
“Does it matter what I think?”
“Yeah.”
“Well then, I think you’re just as emotionally unavailable as I am. I avoid men because I’m afraid I’ll lose my heart, and you go from girl to girl to keep from giving yours away.”
About the Author
Ann Everett embraces her small town upbringing and thinks Texans are some of the funniest people on earth. When speaking to writing groups, businesses, book clubs, and non-profit organizations, she incorporates her special brand of wit, making her programs on marketing, self-publishing, and the benefits of laughter, informative and fun.
An award winning author, she’s also a member of Northeast Texas Writers’ Organization and a top ten reviewer on thenextbigwriter.com
When Ann’s not writing, she spends her days listening in on people’s conversations at the local Wal-Mart, beauty shop, Goodwill, and numerous other gathering spots. She draws from that research to pen her romantic suspense novels full of southern sass and Texas twang. For her new adult romance stories, she blends her dramatic writing style with a kick of humor.
Author Links
Website
Blog
Buy Links
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Giveaway
$10 Amazon Gift Card
a Rafflecopter giveaway
February 4, 2015
Spotlight On: Burdened, by Peiri Ann
Title: Burdened
Author: Peiri Ann
Series: Burdened #1
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal Romance
(Warning: Burdened contains mature content and strong language some may not find appropriate for readers under the age of 17.)
Eighteen-year-old Tracey Warren is a ‘run-of-the-mill’ high school student on the verge of graduation. She has her friends and her fun; she has life all figured out. Or she thought she did.
Her pedestrian reality crashes around her after an innocuous touch from a diabolically handsome stranger. Just one touch from Nathan Newcomb and her head and her world spins out of control. Soon she discovers that the only cure for the uneasy feelings and pain is Nathan himself. A man whose very existence balances between violent chaos and rigidly controlled dangers.
Nathan knows that the life of a woman mated to a burdened Sephlem is destined for peril beyond a human’s reckoning. But Tracey calls to his desire to experience love in spite of the hazards. And Nathan’s impossibly potent magnetism draws Tracey into a bonding that will put her in mortal danger again and again.
Once the pair becomes one, the threat escalates and nowhere is safe. There are enemies that lurk behind every corner. But the greatest danger may be in the bloodlines that course through Nathan’s veins.
Can a love for all time survive or will their burdened souls surrender and fade away?
Purchase
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
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Excerpt
“Which house is yours?”
“Just five more houses. It’s a brown and white one with a garage facing us.” He nods in
understanding. “You have been very nice to me and I appreciate it. I mean it,
you know…what you’ve done for me.” I pause to gather my thoughts. “So what’s
your name? Sir hits a lot?”
He looks at me deviously, then turns back to the road. We are coming up on my house.
“Well, here we are,” he says, completely ignoring my insinuated question. He turns to look at
me. “Hello Tracey, I’m Nathan. I apologize again, for hitting you. I give you
my word, it will never happen again.” He gives me a boring look. “Sorry you
were wrong.”
“Wrong about what?” I ask as he pulls up in front of my house.
“My name.”
“Drat!” I snap my finger for extra exaggeration.
I sit, knowing I should leave, but I can’t. I need to, but I don’t want to.
He turns off the engine but does not turn off the truck. Getting out, he walks over to my side
and opens the door for me. “Does your head feel any better? You really don’t
know how sorry I am.” He says it in a way that seems like he is apologizing for
more than just hitting me.
I shrug. “I’ll be fine after I eat and wake back up. If it gets worse, I’ll go to the doctor.” I
smile. He unexpectedly returns it and I melt.
I reach out to grab the handle, in preparation to jump out of the truck. He grabs my outreached
hand softly, taking me by surprise.
I am at ease, no pain. Comfort and happiness fills me, yet there is a fire. It is so…alive. It
burns through my hand, starting in my palm, making its way up my arm, and
starts to creep through my chest.
It’s short-lived as the fire fizzles away with the release of his hand. Although it was burning, I
welcomed it. There was a minor discomfort, but it was bearable and I want more.
Not more of the burn, but more of his touch.
I don’t even realize I am out of the truck and standing in front of him, when he clears his
throat, drawing my attention. He is looking at me and we make eye contact.
Unable to resist it, I stare into his eyes that are looking back into mine as
they start to swirl again, turning into a deep ocean-blue with grey edges.
Strikingly beautiful.
My eyes widen, and as if he realizes what I see, he quickly looks away, toward the setting sun.
“I’ll watch you make it in the house safely. I’ll see you around sometime, Tracey. Sorry again.”
Through suspicious eyes, I drag out a “Yeah,” slowly stepping back. “Okay, Nathan.” He shivers. It is getting a little chilly suddenly. “And
you don’t have to keep apologizing. It’s okay.” I turn, walking toward my front
door.
“Don’t go to sleep just yet. Your car should be back within thirty minutes.”
I wave over my head saying, “Thank you.”
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About Peiri
Peiri Ann is author of the new released A Burdened Novel. She has been writing since childhood with her short stories and poetry published in school publications. She fell in love with the creation of new worlds and the people she imagined would live within them. Peiri has her Bachelor’s in Creative Writing and English and in Psychology. You can find her in the heart of the Windy City reading, writing, enjoying the loves of life.
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
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Giveaway
Spotlight On: Final Stand, by Rose Garcia
Final Stand by Rose Garcia
The Transhuman Chronicles #2
Dominique is still alive after killing Tavion, the Tainted who’s hunted her for lifetimes. Yet her protectors still fear for her life. They force her to flee Houston and abandon the friends she loves. But they can’t protect her from herself. When Dominique starts hearing Tavion’s voice in her head, she realizes that her personal connection to the Tainted still exists. And when her car is ambushed, she discovers another frightening truth—someone close to her is a traitor.
Desperate for answers, Dominique seeks the aid of first lifers Trent and Infiniti. With their help, she hopes to find her new enemy. But things get complicated with Trent because of her emotional pull toward Farrell, and even more complicated when the whispers in her head threaten her loved ones. Determined to live, Dominique decides to make a final stand against the forces that want to end her. For good.
Available on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
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ABOUT ROSE
Rose Garcia is a lawyer turned writer who’s always been fascinated by science fiction and fantasy. From a very young age, she often had her nose buried in books about other-worlds, fantastical creatures, and life and death situations. More recently she’s been intrigued by a blend of science fiction and reality, and the idea that some supernatural events are, indeed, very real. Fueled by her imagination, she created The Transhuman Chronicles–a series of books about people who have overcome human limitations.
Rose lives in Houston with her husband and two kids. You can visit Rose at www.rosegarciabooks.com
