Erica Monroe's Blog, page 7

Cover reveal!

I’m so happy to get to reveal to you the cover for my next project, a short story prequel to A Dangerous Invitation. My intention is to offer up this story–estimated to end at 10,000 words approximately–for free at all online retailers that will allow it.

This prequel came about when readers asked for more of Kate and Daniel. They wanted to know about their lives before A Dangerous Invitation begins, and so A Wayward Man was born. AWM takes place in 1829, three years prior to Daniel’s return to London to reclaim Kate’s heart. It is a sampling of scenes, from his proposal to Kate to his flight from London to avoid arrest.

Without further ado…the cover!

Photo by Studio Smexy, Cover design by Erica Monroe

 

The blurb…

Daniel O’Reilly has everything: the job of a lifetime and the love of the only woman he’s ever wanted. But the siren’s lure of gin calls to him, and Daniel can’t shake it. With each passing day, his life spins more out of control, until one night he’s wrongfully arrested for a murder he didn’t commit.

Shipping magnate’s daughter Kate Morgan knows her betrothed has flaws, but she’s determined to stick by him. Resourceful and smart, Kate believes that she can conquer their problems with force of will alone. But even she can’t stop Daniel from leaving, when the only other option is execution at Newgate Prison…

 

Bookworm2Bookworm 2013 Favorite Debut Authors

One of my dreams as an author was to be on some sort of list. Flattery will get you everywhere with me, of course.

Today, I woke up to the lovely news that my first novel, A Dangerous Invitation, had made it onto Bookworm2Bookworm’s 2013 Favorite Debut Authors list. I’m in some GREAT company there, including Ella Quinn and Sandra Owens. But really, seeing my book on the same list as my idol Maire Claremont’s The Dark Lady is quite the thrill!

Thank you so much to Bookworm2Bookworm for this honor. December releases are hard because people don’t have a lot of time to read them before the year is up. So proud to be remembered!

Without further ado, here’s the URL to the list and the review Bookworm2Bookworm did on A Dangerous Invitation: http://bookworm2bookworm.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/closing-out-2013-with/

Sale!

Sale!

 

Haven’t gotten your e-copy of A Dangerous Invitation yet? Now you can get it for $2 off the usual list price! From December 24-January 6th, A Dangerous Invitation is available at Smashwords for $2.99.

Use coupon code LW98B at check-out to receive the discounted price.

Click here to get your copy

 

What Up, Reviews

So many authors say not to read your reviews. You know, I’m sure I’ll start to feel this way when a really horrible review comes in. (I’m already picturing the words. BURN HER. BURN EVERYTHING. BURN EVERYONE SHE KNOWS.) But right now I’m in this lovely place where I’ve only been published for a week so the people reviewing are the ones who actively sought out my book.

That won’t last forever, of course.

But I wanted to share some snippets from blog reviews that I particularly liked. Because let’s face it, I’m ego-centric and I LIKE SHINY THINGS.

This isn’t your typical historical romance novel where you have the upper crust of the ton with all those Lords and Ladies with your occasional Mister and Miss. Oh no, we go into the depths of rookery where the lower class lives. You won’t a proper Lord or Lady hanging around there…So, if you are looking for more a gritty, darker story, you might want to give A Dangerous Invitation a try.

-Melody May, What I’m Reading

Kate Morgan, the woman who is left behind to deal with the aftermath of a betrayal of significant proportion, was one of the strongest characters I’ve had a pleasure to read about. By the time our hero and heroine reconnect, rediscover, restore and rebuild the relationship both thought over and done with, we are as touched and emotionally vested as they are.

To say I enjoyed the read is a gross understatement. I ‘lived’ this read. It touched me on a very personal level, and if you’ve had to deal with someone’s addiction in your life, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Our Kate had so much to overcome to accept Daniel, warts and all.

Bottom line on this début: You’ll want to read it if you like your stories with meat on it!

This is a story of hope to overcome even the direst of circumstances; a story that when life throws you lemons, you make that lemonade and fight for a right to make it the best and sweetest lemonade in the world; story of redemption and second chances. Be ready to enter the world Ms. Monroe painstakingly paints with an impressive prose, dialogue and reality soaked brush you’ve read lately.

-Melanie, Bookworm2Bookworm

Here is where author Monroe really shines. Her research into the seedy underbelly of London comes to the fore as we meet every type of crook and cad that Regency London has to offer. This is a new side of a city in a time period that most of us know for its dukes and pretty ball gowns. Monroe takes an unflinching look at the problems people who didn’t have wealth and power encountered.

-Kim, Chick Lit Reviews

You can click on each link to get the full review. FTC Disclosure and all that, these are reviews on the eARC which I provided to those blogs in exchange for their honest review. None of these reviews were paid for.

 

 

History Hoydens today, RRR and Indie Historicals tomorrow!

So today, I’m hanging out with one of my absolute favorite people in the world, Isobel Carr, at History Hoydens. Isobel sent me some lovely interview questions and I answered them. Hope you enjoy my responses!  History Hoyden focuses on research, so I covered a few things like what I chose to “flub” in the finished version of ADI, why I chose 1832 as the setting, and a little bit about my hero, Daniel O’Reilly. Stop by here for a chance to win an e-copy of A Dangerous Invitation.

Particularly Hoydenish today

Now, on Thursday, I’m going to be at Rakes, Rogues, and Romance. This is Nancy Goodman’s lovely blog and I think we’ll have a fun time. There will be another chance to win ADI!

Then, Thursday night…

I’m so excited to be the first author to participate in Evangeline Holland‘s new Twitter chat, hashtag #IndieHistoricals. Join me tomorrow night on Twitter (I’m ericajmonroe) as Evangeline (evangelineh) asks me about my debut novel and what it’s like being an independent author. The convo starts at 10 PM EST and lasts until…whenever. Bring me your questions!

 

Isn’t this an adorable graphic? Made by Evangeline

Paperback available, Bookworm2Bookworm, and Buried Under Romance

I have been a busy, busy girl this week. In addition to pulling longer hours at my part-time receptionist job, the blog tour for the release of A Dangerous Invitation is in full storm. Today I was in not one, but TWO places.

First off, Buried Under Romance hosted me. Mary Chen is one of my favorite bloggers, and I really enjoyed getting to visit. As you can tell, I got a little over-eager with my verbose responses to her questions. There’s a giveaway for an e-copy of ADI that you totally want to win. Come check out the interview here.

 

Then, I headed on over to Bookworm2Bookworm. You might remember I guested in November there too with a spotlight. Today’s guest post at B2B was about how I believe in the journey to happy ever after, and that drives me toward writing romance. You can read my post here and there’s also another giveaway of an e-copy of ADI for you to win.

I visited with Melanie (picture below) but I’ve also gotten to know Connie at B2B too. They’re lovely, sweet people to work with.

Then, when I came home, there was a really fun box waiting for me on my porch…the final proof of A Dangerous Invitation. I’m so happy to announce I’m finally able to put the paperback on sale! Right now, it’s only available at CreateSpace, but in a week it’ll go up at Amazon too. You can purchase it here for $13.99 and shipping costs. I’ve really enjoyed working with CreateSpace, and they reward their authors by supporting them with higher royalties if you order directly from the CS store. So that’s pretty neat, right?

 

 

ADI is on the USA TODAY blog!

So every now and then, you do something as an author that outright terrifies you. It’s probably just a simple e-mail (as it was in this case), but all you can think is SOMEONE IS GOING TO THINK I’M A GIGANTIC FRAUD. I’ve heard this anxiety plagues every author, no matter how successful they are (and if it doesn’t plague you, I don’t want to know, k?). On Friday night, I e-mailed Joyce at Happy Ever After to tell her about my new historical release, A Dangerous Invitation. I figured it was a long shot because it’s the USA Today blog and come on.

Imagine my surprise when I received a tweet from fellow historical author Nicky Penttila telling me that my book was featured on today’s blog. For those of you nonromancey people, USA Today has an awesome blog called Happy Ever After. Sometimes the entries are about new releases and other times, they talk to different authors. While being mentioned on the blog doesn’t necessarily mean USA Today recommends your book (because the lists are compiled by a bunch of different authors, etc), it’s still an awesome thing to see yourself on the USA Today site!

And of course, I am a screencap fiend.

Combined screencap so you can see the whole layout of the article

Screencap with close-up of the ADI mention (and hey look, there’s Nicky below me!)

 

 

A Lot Like Love

Today I’m blogging at Teatime Romance about a conversation I had with my mother over Thanksgiving. There’s a lot of different types of love as we go throughout life–I’m examining the way my relationship has changed with my husband. Won’t you come join me here?

Here’s a snippet from that post:

It’s a deeper love. One where we know everything about each other and that just makes the attraction stronger. I don’t love him the way I did when I was sixteen and starting to date him, which was a selfish, “look what I have!” love. I thought pretty much only of myself and what having a boyfriend meant because let’s face it, I’m perpetually self-absorbed. And in college when we were in a long distance relationship, I was scared and full of doubts. Could I really marry the only boyfriend I’d ever had? What if the grass really was greener on the other side? (It wasn’t. It still isn’t.) When we were first married, I was still trying to figure out who I was, so I don’t love him that way either anymore.

Spotlight at Long Ago Love

For the second stop in my release blog tour, Long Ago Love is spotlighting A Dangerous Invitation. You can check it out here.

Thanks to Long Ago Love for having me!

Release News!

Guess what?! I’m so happy to be able to announce that my first novel is finally available for purchase. This has been a long process and I’m so happy to have wonderful friends, family, and of course hopefully some lovely readers to share this with. A Dangerous Invitation is the first book in my series The Rookery Rogues, which follows denizens of London’s crime-ridden slum areas in the 1830′s. This first book has a heavy suspense plot, as the hero and heroine investigate a three-year-old murder committed by resurrection men (grave robbers).

Currently, you can buy A Dangerous Invitation at the following retailers: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Smashwords |

I-Books is still loading it, and CreateSpace paperbacks will be released later this month.

Here’s a screen-cap I took of Amazon processing it…