Random musings of a romance reader
| Sunday, March 25, 2007 |
| INTO THE DARKNESS by Delilah Devlin |
 This is a release I've been sitting on pins and needles for. All the previews I've seen of this book have me convinced this is Ms. Devlin's best work yet and the start of an addictive vampire series. If you don't believe me, read the excerpts here. And don't forget to enter the easy peasy contest she is running when you stop by.
Into The Darkness is Ms. Devlin's first New York single title. The established author of highly popular Ellora's Cave books like the My Immortal Knight (MIK) series, she has a talent for weaving intricate plots with explicit, hotter-than-furnace romantic tension. If you've never read a Delilah Devlin book and don't mind having your pants catch fire while you're reading, why not start with this one?
*****
Natalie Lambert's life has changed in the space of weeks--and she has no idea why. Her parents were murdered, she has her first taste of sexual desire--and she feels out of control, afraid, desperate to understand her changing world. She flees to New Orleans , hoping to lure the murderer out of the dark and bring to an end the trail of dead loved ones. Instead, she's attacked by crazed birds, swarmed by locusts, and saved by a Cajun cop who awakens all her latent desires.
When Rene Broussard rescues a virgin vampire, he ends up in her bed and becomes hers for life in one lusty bite. Rene awakens the vampire within Natalie, and she awakes the passion within him. Together, they fight the evil threatening to destroy The Born vampires amidst the horror of Hurricane Katrina while they discover a treasure of love they can share for all eternity.
INTO THE DARKNESS
by Delilah Devlin
Avon Red (March 27, 2007)
320 pages
ISBN-10: 0061161233
ISBN-13: 978-0061161230 |
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| THE PERFECT STRANGER Contest Update |
| Because of my flu, I'm extending the contest to 23:59 hours PST, April 2, 2007. Please check back on April 3 for the winner. |
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| Sunday, March 18, 2007 |
| Happy St. Patty's Day! |
 Sorry this is late but luck o' the Irish to you!
Now, if Roarke could just give me a kiss, my day would be complete... |
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| Thursday, March 15, 2007 |
| Win THE PERFECT STRANGER by Alison Kent |
 The gracious and generous Alison Kent is offering a copy of her newest book The Perfect Stranger (due out on March 27, 2007) to one of the readers of this blog!
“I’ve already recommended you to my customers, but I’ve just thought of some others who I’ve turned on to Cherry Adair, Suzanne Brockman, Amy Fetzer, Cindy Gerard…the women writers who construct great adventure novels with fierce romances attached…that I’ll have to turn them on to you, too.”
— Lee Ann Daugherty, Romance “Mistress”, Waldenbooks #1393, Elizabethtown, KY
Your mission, if you choose to accept, is two-fold:
1) First, leave a comment on this blog entry.
2) Second, read the excerpt and answer the question below using the contact form on the right-hand side. DO NOT reveal the answer in the comments section or your entry will be disqualified. In the contact form, you must include:
~Your full name (and nickname used to comment on the blog, if different),
~A valid email address, and
~Your mailing address (So that Ms. Kent can mail out the prize straightaway once the winner is drawn. It will not be used for any other purpose.)
Incomplete entries without any of the above will be discarded.
Please limit yourself to one entry per household.
What's the name of Jack's boss?
This contest will run until 23:59 hours PST, March 25, 2007. The winner will be drawn from the pool of qualified entries using a random generator and announced here on March 26, 2007. Good luck!
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Some like it hot. The men and women of Alison Kent’s sizzling SG-5 series like it hotter. In this all-new novel of steamy suspense, the jungle is the only place wild enough for a hotshot helicopter pilot and a renegade rich girl with one hell of an agenda…
Bachelor parties are fun, as long as you’re not the poor sap getting hitched…or slipped a Mickey and waking to discover you just became the poor sap. Not to mention that your “wife” is pregnant, and if you don’t go along to her village to meet the in-laws, the nice police comandante will be muy unhappy. Just another day in the life of helicopter pilot J. Jackson Briggs? Not so much. His Smithson Group gig wasn’t supposed to be dangerous, but the the woman who drugs him, then knocks him out, then drugs him again certainly is. She also may or may not be a nun. She’s definitely a lying, scheming, lethally gorgeous…American. Jack’s light years from believing the story Jillian Endicott gives him about her noble cause in the sweltering wilds of San Torisco, but he knows one thing: he’ll get the truth—and plenty more—from her, one way or another…
Being an Endicott of the Boston Endicotts taught Jillian plenty about the haves vs. the have-nots—and made it easy to choose sides. But there’s nothing easy about her mission in San Torisco, and things only get harder when Jack Briggs is thrown into the mix. Six-foot-three of big Texas mouth and big…other things…Jack’s pegged her as a bored little rich girl. Hey, he can think what he wants, as long as he does what she wants. Do unto others what needs to be done—that’s Jillian’s motto. Problem is, Jack knows how to push her buttons from minute one—and the closer he gets to pushing her over the edge, the more she wants him to…
Now under dark velvet cover of jungle nights, two rebels with a cause are going deep—and falling hard—for the perfect stranger…
Excerpt
Jack perked up. A quick trip up the road might not be a bad idea. Especially if he came back a free man.
He pretended to ponder El Comandante’s proposition when, in truth, he wondered why the San Toriscan military was meddling in personal matters.
How much backup did this guy have? Or was he an elite member of the Sabastiano private Policía, answering to no one but the big man himself?
Jack swore succinctly, but silently. Everything about this deal stank of hidden agendas. “I don’t have any say in the matter?”
“You have a say in nothing.”
His palms pressed to his thighs, Jack stood, wincing at the dizzying rush of blood that swept through his skull to the center of his face. “Then, let’s go.”
One corner of Mosquera’s mustache lifted. “Señor Briggs. What is your hurry?”
“I’m under deadline. Hank Smithson doesn’t have time to waste looking for me.”
“Do not worry. We will inform your . . . how is it you say . . . your foreman at the Smithson compound where you will be for the next month.”
Jack needed a shovel to pick up his jaw. “The next month?”
“Of course, Señor Briggs.” A sneer greased the Latino’s lips. “You cannot return until the baby is born.”
The baby? The baby?
Jack’s heartbeat signaled a situational slip from bad to worse. He whooshed in a serious breath and slanted a glance to the side . . . and his wife.
“What baby?”
She stood then, his burlap sack, and turned his way. Jack never saw her face. He never got past her figure. Past her belly that had to be at least eight months gone.
He remembered well the changes that developed between seven and nine months. He’d measured Mandy’s waistline every week until Justin had been born.
But that was forever ago. In a limbo sort of time and space he’d tried to forget.
All he knew right now was that playing handball didn’t make a baby, and that was as close to getting any as he’d come the last year.
Stunned, Jack sat. His butt cracked hard against the wooden chair. The legs cracked out from beneath him. His head cracked against a piece of standing concrete block.
And the last image that lingered as he fell to the ground was Comandante Mosquera’s smug crack of a smile.
THE PERFECT STRANGER
Alison Kent
Kensington Brava
ISBN 0758211155
March 27, 2007 |
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| Wednesday, March 14, 2007 |
| Michele Albert: Out-of-Print Books Now Available As Ebooks |
 When I first clapped my eyes on this stunning book cover, the world shuddered to a stop for just a second. Okay, I may be exaggerating a tad but it did feel that way. The rich blue sea and the azure sky are just the perfect foil for the hunk in uniform and I have a great piece of news to go along with this cover.
- Are you having a hard time finding Michele Albert's out-of-print books, previously published by Avon?
- Are your beloved books worn from rereads and you are looking for a replacement copy that will never wear out no matter how many times you read it?
- Are you tired of overflowing bookshelves and looking to replace your print book collection with ebooks?
- Do you balk at the high price that some ebooks sell for these days?
If you answer yes to one or more of the questions, this news is bound to delight you.
A Great Catch, Absolute Trouble (this book is free of charge) and All Night Long are now available in Ms. Albert's store in 4 popular electronic formats. Her Bodyguard, Getting Her Man and Off Limits are expected to follow suit soon. At a fraction of the original cover price, you can download a full length novel and enjoy it immediately.
Great savings, great value and instant gratification, what are you still waiting for?
I can easily name a number of out-of-print, hard-to-find gems that I would buy right off the bat if they were back in print as ebooks. It would be wonderful if more authors would follow Ms. Albert's example.
Related Links
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| Sunday, March 11, 2007 |
| EPPIE 2007 Winners Announced |
 I especially wish to congratulate:
- Karen Wiesner for No Ordinary Love (Romantic Suspense)
- Sylvia Day for Wish List (Erotic Romance Contemporary/
Suspense/Mystery)
- Delilah Devlin, Betty Hanawa, Layla Chase and Myla Jackson for Shadow Warrior (Erotic Romance Science Fiction/Futuristic)
- Lorie O'Clare for Nuworld: The Saga Begins (Science Fiction/Futuristic Romance)
- Lee Rowan for Ransom (GLBT)
- Linda Bleser for East of Easy (Contemporary Romance)
A complete list of winners and finalists can be viewed here. |
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| Friday, March 09, 2007 |
| THE FORTUNE QUILT by Lani Diane Rich |
 Carly McKay's life is going just fine until she produces a television piece on psychic quilt maker Brandywine Seaver and receives a quilt with an enigmatic reading telling her that everything is about to change. And it does. She loses her job and her best friend (who proclaims his unrequited love for her). And her mother, who deserted the family seventeen years ago, returns, sending Carly into a serious tilt.
Convinced it's the quilt's fault, Carly races down to the small artists' community of Bilby, Arizona, to confront its maker, and ends up renting a cabin from her. Carly even starts to enjoy her reimagined life, until her old life comes calling. Now Carly has to decide what parts of each world she wants to patchwork in...and how much she's willing to leave to fate.
Read the FABulous review at http://deeanddeedish.blogspot.com
THE FORTUNE QUILT
Lani Diane Rich
Paperback: 272 pages
NAL Trade (March 6, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0451220277
ISBN-13: 978-0451220271 |
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| Thursday, March 08, 2007 |
| ATLANTIS RISING by Alyssa Day and Contests |
 Eleven thousand years ago, before the seas swallowed the Atlantaens, Poseidon assigned a few chosen warriors to act as sentinels for humans in the new world. There was only one rule-desiring them was forbidden. But rules were made to be broken…
When she calls…
Riley Dawson is more than a dedicated Virginia Beach social worker. She's blessed with a mind link that only Atlantaens have been able to access for thousands of years. Being an "empath" may explain her wistful connection to the roiling waves of the ocean, the sanctuary it provides, and the sexual urges that seem to emanate from fathoms below…
He will come.
Conlan, the High Prince of Atlantis, has surfaced on a mission to retrieve Poseidon's stolen Trident. Yet something else has possessed Conlan: the intimate emotions-and desires-of a human. Irresistibly drawn to the uncanny beauty, Conlan soon shares more than his mind. But in the midst of a battle to reclaim Poseidon's power, how long can a forbidden love last between two different souls from two different worlds?
ATLANTIS RISING
Alyssa Day
March, 2007
Berkley Sensation
ISBN 978-0-425-21449-7
Related Links
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| Tuesday, March 06, 2007 |
| March 4 - 10, 2007 is Read an E-Book Week |
 Common laments from book lovers are the lack of shelf space for their beloved books and an ever-expanding TBR pile capable of triggering a mini-landslide.
Ebooks are great space savers. You can own as many ebooks as you want without having them invade your living space. Ebooks are also easily portable for those constantly on the go. If you need to move house one day, you don't have to whittle your book collection because they are too heavy or costly to bring with you. They are also environmentally friendly.
There is no better time to discover the joy of reading an ebook than now. Several publishers and authors are holding special promotions or events in conjunction with Read an E-Book Week. Check them out!
- Read an E-Book Week-Supporters
- Zumaya Publications - Get a free ebook when you purchase an ebook by... Click here for details.
- Aspen Mountain Press is offering any e-Book on their site for 50% off for the week of March 4-11th. Just enter discount code EBO25946 in the appropriate box on the checkout page to receive your discount.
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| Sunday, March 04, 2007 |
| Bookclub contest! |
 To celebrate the release of Forbidden: The Awakening, Samantha Sommersby is running a super duper contest for bookclubs. Last day of entry is 31 March, 2007.
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The past two months have been the longest of Byron Renfield's three hundred and seventy-nine years. After almost four centuries of dedicated service to his clan, four centuries spent in the pursuit of redemption, the powerful vampire did the inexplainable and unforgivable. In an impulsive act of passion he claimed the beautiful Violet Deeds, a human, as his mate.
When Violet found herself stranded on a remote island occupied by the charismatic Byron she never imagined that she would be saving him, but the fiery red-headed psychiatrist did just that-bringing the immortal to life and introducing him to love.
Now, afraid of retribution from his clan and concerned for Violet's safety, Byron takes steps to protect them both. But will it be enough? Irrevocably bound together, as the tie between Byron and Violet strengthens they step into one another's worlds, awakening long buried desires and threatening the balance of society and nature.
A kidnapping, an underground world of rebel vampires, an elaborate network of elite clansman led by an ageless prophet, and a rescue mission that will keep you on the edge of your seat all come together perfectly in this thrilling sequel to Samantha Sommersby's Forbidden: The Claim. An erotic romance you won't be able to put down, Forbidden: The Awakening will have you begging for more!
FORBIDDEN: THE AWAKENING
Samantha Sommersby
Linden Bay Romance
176 pages
ISBN-10: 1602020272
ISBN-13: 978-1602020276
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