Thursday, January 12, 2017

Personal Update

Hello everyone,

Like I said a few weeks ago I won't be around very much. My aunt passed away 2 weeks ago, and tomorrow I'm getting married. Any posts that have gone up have been scheduled for weeks now. I hope you understand that I need time away from this for a bit. Thank you for your understanding.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Book Tour and Giveaway: Eve the First by Teresa Edmond-Sargeant


Eve the First:
A Fairy Tale Revision
by Teresa Edmond-Sargeant
Genre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retelling

A retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Wicked Prince," "Eve the First" introduces a princess unlike any other in popular fairy tales: ruthless, power-hungry and ambitious enough to conquer Heaven. After successfully monopolizing the known world, Eve lays her eyes on taking down God so she can reign supreme over Heaven and Earth.


She was called Eve the First.
And once upon a time, that name, and its infamy, petrified the hearts and minds of anyone familiar with her conquests, capabilities, and cunning tenacity fueled by her volatility.
Eve’s innocent beauty belied her passion to conquer the world. Her doe-like eyes concealed the twinkle that reflected her megalomaniacal thirst for power. With her youthfully plump, pink lips, Eve barked demands at her subjects and soldiers, threatening to execute them if they failed to carry out her commands. She wore her lustrous locks in braids and pinned up into exquisite loops with hair ornaments crafted from the bones of her enemies and decorated with precious jewels like pearls, diamonds, and sapphires.

In Eve’s kingdom of Regnum, the populace sought for worldly knowledge, wealth, and prestige. Above all, the people pursued the supreme form of existence: immortality. To these ends, they excelled in architecture, arts, music, literature, alchemy and science. With the practices of Pagan worship, drunken orgies, and human sacrificing, they prided themselves on being their absolute best in knowledge and wealth, while their crude and barbaric natures situated them at the bottom of human existence.

Eve ruled the land of Regnum with the utmost passion of all kinds: love, fear, cruelty, and intensity, but mostly the last three. Every day she studied maps of foreign kingdoms, plotted her next conquest, and trained her soldiers until their feet bled and their sanity broke. Wherever she went, her subjects genuflected and lowered their heads, averting eye contact. If Eve caught anyone sneaking furtive glances at her, she screamed the dreaded words, “Away with him and off with his head!”

The next time that person was seen, his headless body was at the bottom of a ravine near Eve’s castle.
As she brandished her sword and ambition, Eve led her army all over the world, from the nearest to the most remote lands. She left behind trails of bloodshed, death, and tears. With every swing of her sword—a stab here, a beheading there—Eve radiated joy as blood splattered all over her armor and corpses piled up. Villagers said their bountiful fields, once ripe with harvest, were cultivated with the blood of the dead. Whole carcasses and body parts littered the meadows, turning them into rolling graveyards, as though the dead had been dug up.
“I have unyielding determination that cannot be matched,” Eve once said. “If that makes me an evil woman, so be it.”

Once Eve conquered a village, she marched into its public square and staked her coat of arms into the soil. Her soldiers kept the crowd back while the crowd admired Eve’s glorious beauty sullied with dirt and blood. Clutching the flagpole, Eve placed her right hand over her heart.
“Today’s victory is in memory of my dear mother, the late Queen Catherine the Third,” Eve said to her new subjects. “She would have been proud to know that I will bestow upon all of you a new day, a new life, and a new era. I acknowledge that from this day forward, this is the age we start to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and heal the sick. I have ushered in a Golden Era of Peace where the sun will always rise in the east, trees shall forever bear fruit, and harvest season shall forever be abundant. This is the time when we unite as one to remake this land so it will transcend our utmost expectations and ideal selves.”
Eve then signaled her soldiers to present her newly conquered subjects with baskets of bread and meat and vessels of cider.
“Today, what I have done was quite a sacrifice, but it was all done for you my beloved people,” Eve continued. “I will give you whatever you yearn for—food, shelter, clothes—and promise to alleviate you of the agonies you long suffered at the hands of your demon of a king. That will happen if — and only if — you crown me your ruler and allow me to erect my statues everywhere in your village.”
Then her soldiers demanded that the peasants form lines in front of them. Cries of “Long live Eve” rang throughout the land as soldiers passed out equal rations of food and drink to the peasants.


Teresa Edmond-Sargeant is an Orlando, FL-based poet, author and journalist originally from northern New Jersey. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies featuring NJ poets. During her time as a reporter in Jersey, she won two NJ Press Association awards.
In 2006, she published her debut poetry book, "How Fate's Confusion Connects"; the book's second edition will be released later in 2014. She is the author of three (so far;-)) Amazon Kindle ebooks: "Eve the First," "An Estella Exclusive" and "Ethical Strains," all short stories.
Edmond-Sargeant is a member of the Florida State Poets Association. She is now a staff writer for The Apopka Chief, a newspaper that covers the Apopka, FL, area (http://www.theapopkachief.com).






Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Book Tour and Giveaway: The Rhynan Saga by Rachel Rossano


Duty
Novels of Rhynan Book 1
by Rachel Rossano
Genre: Historical Romance

Duty to King
Tomas Dyrease, the newly made Earl of Irvaine and the village of Wisenvale, owes his good fortune to his king and the recent civil war. When his benefactor demands Tomas marry the cousin of a noble, he obeys. However, no one warned him that she wasn’t a typical noblewoman.

Duty to Others
Brielle Solarius struggles to keep her village from starvation under the new Lord Wisten, her cousin. The men rode off to war and never returned. The remaining women and children face a dire winter if they do not find a solution soon. When she learns her cousin sold her into marriage to save his life, she isn’t surprised. However, she is taken aback by Lord Irvaine’s unpolished ways. Was this man a noble or a foot soldier?

Duty to Each Other
Bound by the words of their vows, they face a rough future. They must forge a marriage while battling betrayal, accusations of treason, and villains from the past. Survival depends on their precarious trust in each other. Failure could mean death.



Honor
Novels of Rhynan Book 2

The Earl of Dentin excels in his position as Securer of the Realm. But the king’s order to pluck an orphaned child from a loving home unsettles Dentin. When a dark-eyed woman challenges his honor regarding the mission, Dentin finds himself unable to justify his actions or get her out of his mind. Something about her lack of fear intrigues him.
Lady Elsa Reeve attempts to avoid the marriage of convenience her brother and mother demand of her. She understands the need to pay off her brother's massive debt. She only wants her family to consider her wishes in the process.
As Elsa becomes further entangled in a snare of her brother’s creating, only one man defends her. But can she trust Dentin, her unlikely champion, and his motives? With a murderer on the loose, Elsa’s fate in jeopardy, and a traitor plotting against the king, Dentin finds his priorities shifting in an unexpected direction.



The Making of a Man: A Short Story Anthology
(Novels of Rhynan)
This is a short story anthology.

The Earl of Dentin returns. Eight stories ranging from short story to novelette in length give us greater understanding into why Dentin is the complex and enigmatic man he is. It also includes new adventures that happen between Honor and the next Rhynan novel.

Passing the Mantle – An ill-fated hunting trip
Forging Friendships – Recruiting able-bodied men ineligible for knighthood
The Sword of Korma Monroe – A sword made for trouble
Turning Point – A duke and an earl plot treason
The Bittersweet Pear – A marital misunderstanding
Isbeth’s Redemption – Dentin doesn’t make a good first impression
A Squire’s Love – Reginald’s quest
Restoration – A trip to Braulyn produces unexpected company


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Duty
First Novel of Rhynan
By Rachel Rossano
"The red one is mine," he said.
I didn’t raise my head although instinct urged me to. Father had called me Red. He said I was born screaming, skin deep red like the beets in the garden and hair fiery like the setting sun. The man who spoke was not my father.
I glanced at him from beneath my cloak’s hood. Arrogant in his size and superior mass, his eyes picked me out of the writhing mass of captives. Early morning sunlight glinted off plain armor and an unadorned helm, yet the unwashed barbarians treated him with the respect due a commander.
The crowd of women around me parted for the soldier fulfilling his order. Mothers moved back with babes in their arms, toddlers clinging to their skirts. Their fingers clutched older children’s hands or shoulders. A living mass, their voices silenced by the army surrounding them. Their faces spoke eloquently of their fear.
The soldier, smelling of sweat and sour wine, grabbed my left arm and dragged me out from among them. I didn’t want to bring harm to the women around me. The soldier would injure many before subduing me. I allowed him to pull me toward the commander with only minimal resistance.
Once free of the captives, however, I yanked from the man’s grip in an attempt to run. Three pairs of rough hands caught hold of my arms before I managed more than a few steps. The stench of their unclean bodies turned my stomach. I gagged as I fought them. They dragged me through the dust and dumped me at his feet.
I struggled up only to be brought down again. Pressure behind my knees forced me to kneel.
I lifted my face to glare at the commander.
“Remove her hood.”
Someone pulled my cloak half off my shoulders in his enthusiasm. Red curls fell free in a wild mass about my shoulders.
Silently I cursed the color. If only I had been blessed with plain brown or even blond tresses, I could have hidden in plain sight.

“My Lady Brielle Solarius, I presume.”


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What inspired you to write the Novels of Rhynan?

Duty was inspired by a single sentence, the opening one. “’The red one is mine,’ he said.” Lord Irvaine is referring to Brielle, my red-headed heroine. From there, an adventure was born. Initially I planned on writing a short story, but the story ended up needing a larger canvas and became a novel.

Honor was inspired by a reviewer falling in love with one of my secondary characters, Dentin. He appears and plays an integral part in the last parts of Duty and he made such an impression that the reviewer begged for me to write his story.

The Making of a Man, the anthology short story collection, was born out of the writing of the first two Novels of Rhynan. So many secondary characters were catching my readers’ notice that I felt compelled to delve deeper into the world and give more of them their own story. The stories seemed to fall into place around Dentin, so the focus quickly became him, his past, present, and future. Also included are hints that will be picked up in the final three planned novels of the series.


Rachel Rossano specializes in clean romantic fiction set in historical-feeling fantasy worlds. She also dabbles in straightforward historical romance and not-so-strict speculative fiction.
A happily married mother of three small children, she divides her time between mothering, teaching, and writing. She endeavors to enchant, thrill, entertain, and amuse through her work. A constant student, she seeks to improve her skills and loves to hear from readers.














Book Tour: Passion of a Witch by K.D. Friedrich


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About the Book
D:\Documents\Enchanted Book Promotions\Book Tours\Upcoming Tours\The Passion Witch\The grove cover final proof 8.15.16_edited-1.jpgTitle: Passion of a Witch
Author: K.D. Friedrich
Genre: Paranormal Romance
In a few weeks, Summer Leery will be mated. For most witches, it's a time to celebrate, but Summer isn't smiling. Her upcoming union is one of convenience, not love, contracted between her family and one of the most powerful families in the coven. As always, Summer's loyalty remains with her kin and the traditions she's expected to follow. No matter how much she detests her future husband. With her parents off to secure her nuptials, Summer is eager to enjoy her last moments of freedom.

Kian Lancaster's relationship with his father is volatile. So finding himself at the bastard's mercy is the last place Kian wants to be. Unfortunately, he has no choice. His mother is suffering from an unknown illness and needs constant care. Care that costs money. Money Kian doesn't have. With little options, he lets his father pay his mother's mounting medical bills, knowing the offer comes with a heavy price. Kian must work for his father's ruthless company. Looking to forget his bleak future, he plans a nostalgic night of liquor and fun in the local woods. Unaware his destiny lurks in the shadows of towering pine.

Summer is shocked to find a human trespassing on her family's land. More surprising is that the Goddess to all witches demands Summer welcome the cursed intruder. Summer has no time to waste playing host to a foolish human. No matter how handsome. With her wedding weeks away, Kian's a temptation she can't afford to entertain. But when her deity makes a decree to bring the male into the supernatural world... what's a witch to do?

Kian's about to find out. For the first time in his life, a woman didn't fall to her knees to please him. Summer's apathy shackled his lust and refused to let go. Kian knows he should stay away from Summer, but when it comes to this woman, he can't get enough.

Their attraction is instant, their desire intense. Two hearts forced together by the will of a Goddess. Is Summer strong enough to resist Kian's charm? Or will she risk it all to taste the power of love?


AUTHOR BIO

K. D. Friedrich is a writer of Contemporary and Paranormal Romance. A lifelong New Yorker, an overprotective mother (her daughter's words), and an obsessed reader of everything romance. Most days, you can find her hard at work, creating intricate worlds and compelling characters, hot alpha heroes being her favorite. Her novel, Soul Tie Seduction, placed second in the 2013 Golden Palm contest for Paranormal Romance and was a finalist in the 2016 Golden Quill for Paranormal Romance.

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LINKS


Giveaway
Win a $10 Amazon gift card during the tour.


And today we ALSO have an amazing excerpt for you! Enjoy! 

Excerpt

Kian fisted his fingers in her shirt and clung to the incredible rightness of having Summer in his arms. Her spine stiffened the moment his biceps encased her. Through the thin cotton, the softness of her skin teased him.
She soon settled, and they held each other, neither one making an attempt to separate.
Unable to resist, he buried his face in her throat. He filled his lungs with her sweet scent, a scent as fragrant as the array of blooms decorating the woodland surrounding them.
Did she suffer this incredible desire too?
As he traced his mouth over her pulse, she trembled, making him smile.
A steady stream of tingling pulses created warmth wherever her body touched him. The scorching lust threatened to burn him alive. She may not know it, but she owned him.
If he didn't get away from her, he was going to pull her onto his lap and show her his appreciation in the most carnal way. He'd drag her dainty fingers to his rock-hard cock and show her how to ease a man's suffering.
No… not any man.
Her man.
He pulled back slowly in order to admire her beauty.
Jesus, she was stunning. Her skin held a pretty blush and her olive-green eyes sparkled from the light cast by the flickering lantern sitting in front of the window.
"Kian."
His name sounded like a plea. The fact he affected her with the same ardor pleased him. To show his pleasure, he responded with a satisfied groan.
Summer slid back, taking with her the heat he found so alluring.  
He raked his fingers through his hair, his body hard and tense. Her rejection shoved a wave of frustration through him.
How can she not feel this… connection?
When he dared peek at her face, he found her cheeks flush. Beneath his heated gaze, her body shuddered, providing more proof his little witch wasn't immune to his charms.
Unable to hold back his pleasure, he smirked.
Her blush deepened, and her tongue flicked across her lower lip, drawing his attention to her luscious mouth. Little did she know how much her simple action affected him.
He moved closer. "God, you're beautiful."





Monday, January 2, 2017

Cover Reveal: Tapped by Liz Crowe


Tapped

By Liz Crowe
Genre: NA Romance

When wealthy brewery owner Austin Fitzgerald meets sexy saleswoman Evelyn Benedict, angry sparks fly. They seem destined to clash, until a hot hookup in a cold beer cooler changes everything.
For Austin, it's a life-altering moment that sets him on a path away from his birthright, while Evelyn must face her fears about committing to a man considered the playboy of the micro-brewing world.
The power of preconceived notions nearly tears them apart—until they meet up with brew master Ross, who opens their eyes to a deeper, even more erotic connection. But three strong personalities don’t always make for the best emotional mix and when a simple misunderstanding causes chaos, it’s up to Ross to repair the tattered shreds of their relationship.

Amazon best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse. 
Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”). More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”
With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.
Don’t ever ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.












Thursday, December 29, 2016

Review: the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace


the princess saves herself in this one
by Amanda Lovelace
Publishers: Andrew McMeel Publishing
Genre: Poetry
Published: February 14, 2017
Pages: 208


the princess saves herself in this one is a collection of poetry about resilience. It is about writing your own ending.


From Amanda Lovelace, a poetry collection in four parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, and you. The first three sections piece together the life of the author while the final section serves as a note to the reader. This moving book explores love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, and inspiration.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Book Tour and Giveaway: The Theodoric Saga by Rachel Rossano


The Crown of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 1
by Rachel Rossano
Genre: Historical Romance

In a time when castles were the strongest…in a place where combat was face to face…Labren was on the run. He hid his true name and he admitted it freely.
In a time when slavery was legal...in a place where kings were all-powerful…Eve, a slave, appeared in the right place at the right time.
Eve saved his life. In return, he offered her the opportunity of freedom. She did not know what would happen to her if she chose to accept his proposal, but she did know the consequences of rejecting it.



The King of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 2

A reluctant king, a blind queen, and a marriage that sparked a rebellion...
Ireic Theodoric, King of Anavrea, constantly battles with his council over who will run the country. When the council insists on a treaty with Sardmara, he agrees. However, the treaty quickly becomes an arranged marriage. Ireic offers up himself for the sake of Anavrea. But after he signs, no princess appears.
Lirth Parnan, only daughter of the king of Sardmara, survives alone in a cold, damp tower room. Baron Tor kidnapped her in an attempt to control her father. No one came to claim her. She suspects her father considers her flawed beyond use in his political games. After five years of waiting, her hope of rescue wanes with her health.
After Ireic fights his way into Lirth’s tower, he realizes the depths of her father’s deception. Instead of being an answer to his problems, Lirth creates new ones. The council will not accept her as queen, but Ireic has sworn an oath that he will marry her. His choice could cost him his throne, perhaps his life.



The Reward of Anavrea
The Theodoric Saga Book 3

She couldn't hide forever.
A hard life taught Jayne to avoid men, powerful men most of all. When a new nobleman arrives to take over the vargar, she takes her family and hides. But the new baron seeks her out and makes her an offer she can't refuse: protection. However, once they were sheltered behind the dark stone walls of the vargar, who would protect her from the new master?
His reward isn't what it seems.
King Ireic of Anavrea charges Liam, a former bodyguard, with the task of retaking and taming a corner of the northern wilds. Upon arrival at Ashwyn Vargar, Liam finds challenges beyond his military experience. The keys to the vargar are missing and so are the field hands who should be harvesting the fields. Once he finds the keeper of the keys, she raises more questions than answers.



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The King of Anavrea
By Rachel Rossano
Ireic’s stomach ached.
The woman gazed straight before her with calm assurance. Her composure unnerved him considering she acted as though he was going to strike her a moment ago.
He dropped his hand and studied the top of her head. Shiny, dark brown hair caught the fading light as she turned toward the door. He registered the sounds of the creaking stairs and voices as he grappled with yet another betrayal.
“Ireic!”
His older brother stood in the doorway.
Behind Trahern, he could see the outline of his personal guard, Isack. Ireic returned his attention to his brother's strained features and tried to pull his anger back under control. This woman could not be blamed for her father’s dishonesty.
“Ireic?”
Trahern's blue eyes regarded him, questioning as he nodded toward Lirth. Ireic glanced back at his betrothed and encountered her upturned face.
“Your brother?” An amused smile pulled at her mouth and one eyebrow raised with her question.
“How did you guess?”
“You sound alike.” She turned to his brother. “A pleasure to meet you, Prince Trahern.” She dipped a low curtsey. Blind or not, she had been raised well at some point.
“The pleasure is mine, Princess, but I must ask you to call me Trahern and later perhaps brother.”
Ireic's heart sank as he watched first confusion and then surprise pass across her face as she realized the implications of the title. She dropped her chin.
Trahern caught Ireic's gaze over her bent head and silently asked the obvious.
Ireic shrugged his shoulders in reply.
He didn’t understand the situation any better than his brother.
After the treaty signing, Ireic had waited a day for Trahern to arrive before traveling to claim his bride. At the end of the four day journey, he found an empty house and a gardener keeping watch over the grounds. The truth was Princess Lirth hadn’t lived there for years, ever since her abduction by a northern baron named Tor.
Determined to finish his task and validate the treaty, Ireic, his brother, and half of the armed men with them continued north while the councilmen headed back west across Braulyn.
Now, frustrated and tired, Ireic was tempted to walk back down the tower stairs, out the main gate and disappear forever into the northern wastes. The council could run Anavrea just fine without him.
But what would happen to Lirth? He was not the only person being managed and manipulated.
He glanced at his bride. Her father valued her as a pawn in his political games, not even bothering to rescue her. More a victim than he in this political mess, she needed protection.
“Am I a clause in an alliance agreement?”
Lirth's bright, blue eyes drew Ireic's focus back to the present. For a woman just informed of her betrothal to a stranger, she appeared unusually calm. How could she act so serene?
“Is our marriage part of an alliance agreement?” Small lines appeared between her eyebrows.
Watching hesitancy and wariness play on her face, he replied. “Your father offered your hand to me as a show of goodwill between our nations.”




Rachel Rossano specializes in clean romantic fiction set in historical-feeling fantasy worlds. She also dabbles in straightforward historical romance and not-so-strict speculative fiction.
A happily married mother of three small children, she divides her time between mothering, teaching, and writing. She endeavors to enchant, thrill, entertain, and amuse through her work. A constant student, she seeks to improve her skills and loves to hear from readers.