Review: The Chosen by Jenika Snow

Aleksei is feared by all who cross paths with him. He is the great ruler of a race of immortal vampires known as the Blood Breed. Setting eyes on Lana for the first time sets off unquenchable desires that Aleksei has never experienced in his existence.

One night out leads to a destiny that will forever change Lana's life. It was an immediate attraction to Aleksei, feelings so strong they left her body on fire, so intense she didn’t know if it was real.

When an age old prophecy brings Lana and Aleksei together, nothing can stop the unbreakable bond that weaves itself into their lives, and when an unseen predator threatens to take away Lana, Aleksei will stop at nothing to destroy all who stand in his way from making Lana his.



Reviewed by Suzannah Safi: An excellent read! Author Jenika Snow weaved a tale of sexy and intriguing tale of a paranormal romance. A vampire to die for and with, you wouldn't mind.
Aleksei and Lana beautifully tailored for each other, the characters well developed and loved. As well, I must say that, the secondary characters in the story were not forgotten and the author developed them well and with the same intrigue. A story of a sexy as hell vampire and a heroine deserves finding love with a blood sucking vampire. The sex and passion will set your body on fire and make you wish your name was Lana, I know I did :). The writing is smooth, and the well written plot will make you read till the end. I gave this story an Excellent Book Golden Heart. Well deserved Jenika!

Author's website: http://www.jenikasnow.com/

GetToKnowTheBook: 'His To Possess' by author Su Halfwerk

After watching the trailer for His to Possess, several people asked me where I got the book’s idea from.
The simple and honest to God answer is: I have no clue.
I have to say, though, writing H2P felt right and left me exuberated in a good way.
Stories are sometimes written to express a thought, or a believe, to entertain and, let’s face it, to sell. But with H2P, it was a matter of rightness for me. I only figured it will be short, but beside that, knew nothing else about it. The idea just washed all over me and left me with the desire to do nothing but to breathe life into the characters, their emotions, and surrounding.
As a rule, I don't say NO to a story. When I get an idea I write it in my folder for “Ideas” and file it aside. His to Possess refused to remain in that folder, it actually never reached it. I started by sitting to write the idea and in no time the story was finished.
His to Possess is a sweet paranormal romance story with a ghostly touch. Initially, Stacy’s love interest wasn’t Jeremy. I won’t take you through who or how it all started, but I must tell you this: Jeremy wouldn’t let me rest before he had his say.
I ignored him, left him out in the cold without acknowledging his existence—easy to do since he’s a ghost. I tried to shut my ears to him, after all I am the author. But eventually he won, he made me see how right it was for Stacy to be with him, to feel him. Upon revisiting Stacy’s character, I couldn’t ignore the eagerness with which she welcomed the suggestion of Jeremy’s character. The rest is history.
The story has a sense of strength to it, a feel of overcoming obstacles no matter what. An underlayer of commitment that surpasses the norm.
Their story gives hope.

Devine Destines adopted my baby by choosing to contract it (a very wise decision, if I say so myself.) For that I’m forever grateful.

Martine Jardin developed a marvelous cover that fit the story’s mood to the T. Let me tell you, that cover made the development of the trailer easier.

Here's a short introduction to the story.

Stacy doesn’t know that a dashing ghost is in love with her, but when she conjures him one stormy night, he charms her to her core.
After weeks of watching Stacy turn the act of book appraising into a tantalizing experience, Jeremy—once untouchable and invisible—discovers that Stacy is more than just an infatuation. She’s all he wants, and she’s staring right at him, not through him.
A passionate kiss seals the deal and kindles their hearts with burning passion for each other. But if given the choice, will Jeremy selfishly have her join him in the realm of the dead, or allow fate to keep Stacy alive—and thus apart from him?
When Stacy searches deeper into their connection to discover the ultimate truth about their relationship, does she find out that this is another fateful blow to her heart or a new chance at love? As former lovers and thieves in the night attempt to tear them apart, their love is put to the ultimate test.

To give you a taste of the story, here's an excerpt:

The coolness of his skin surprised her. It felt good, after the heat that kept climbing her face and neck. His touch was like a salve to ease that burn. “You’re cold,” she said. As soon as she spoke the words, she bit her lip. How rude of me!
“I’m dead. Remember?” His expression hadn’t changed, but he opened his eyes in slow motion, like waking up from a nice dream. “To me, you feel warm and soft to the touch. You’ve surpassed how I imagined you’d feel.” The awe in his voice touched her heart and made her feel exceptional, appreciated.
And awkward. She glanced around her. “Now what?”
“Why did you trust me so?” he asked. Having physical contact with her had pumped up his self-confidence. He now regarded her with seductively hooded eyes.
Standing next to Jeremy made Stacy want to fluff her hair like a teenager. Hell, she wanted to run her hands through his hair. “I…” She licked her lips. “I really don’t know. There is something about you…it’s as if I’ve known you all my life.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Strange, but that’s exactly how I feel as well. Like I’ve been waiting for you since my death.”

Will Stacy and Jeremy be able to accomplish the impossible and stay together? You might think you know the answer, but I’m sure I will be able to surprise you somewhere down the line in the story.

His to Possess was released on April 15th, 2010, and is available here:
http://www.devinedestinies.com/shopdevine/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=ebook_flypage&product_id=909&category_id=25&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=69
You can watch the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiiL_ettk6A

Cheers,

Su Halfwerk
www.su-halfwerk.com
http://www.suhalfwerk.blogspot.com

GetToKnowTheBook: 'Worlds Apart' by author Anne Ashby

Worlds Apart is my first novel. It was a joy to write because as New Zealanders temporarily living in Maryland we were actually experiencing the quirky plot lines I wove into the story. All the strange things American TV and movies don’t prepare a visitor for. All those back to front, upside down, peculiar things we had no idea existed until we lived amongst them. Eg. We finally understood the problem/jokes about the toilet seat. I could never figure out why it mattered if it was left up –obviously, NZ design of toilets is different. There’s another example – we received quite scathing looks in fast food outlets/restaurants when we were overheard telling our sons to go to the toilet. It took an ex-pat kiwi to teach us that “toilet” is not an acceptable word in polite society America. And there’s yet another example, for us a “kiwi” is our national bird, a person from New Zealand or our national rugby league team. It’s not a little brown furry fruit. We discovered such a wealth of differences in our language and it was interesting to use this to add confusion to my protagonists. By making my heroine a New Zealander and the hero from Maryland I was able to extenuate their emotional upheavals with smatterings of cultural/language differences. I did this in a light-hearted manner which I hope will bring a smile to my readers.

We were well into our time in MD before I hit upon the idea of using in this story our own experiences. I hope the affection I feel for Ellicott City and the wonderful people we were privileged to meet there comes through in my story. I had so much fun tracking down and highlighting all our differences. Every time my best friend looked perplexed, out my notebook came – I’d found another word she didn’t understand, another idea I could use. Kathleen became quite apt at interpreting for me when we were with other friends.

My heroine Raven is a New Zealand widow who thinks the American her mother’s about to marry is wonderful. She accepts his offer to travel from NZ to MD and recoup from serious illness a few weeks prior to the forthcoming wedding. Her arrival does not go smoothly. Greg and his sister Abby believe the woman arriving to stay is their father’s fiancé. Initially not realising this, Raven is angered and concerned by Greg’s cold, abrasive reception. Determined to ensure her mother will be welcomed with more respect she sets out on a path she soon discovers is very foolhardy.

My editor with The Wild Rose Press came up with the intriguing idea of accentuating the difference between Raven and Greg further for the readers by applying American or New Zealand spelling to the story depending on POV. Raven’s words contain New Zealand spelling while Greg’s words and thoughts are American. It took a bit of organising and I hope will make reading more interesting by continually reminding the reader that these two are from different countries with different cultures and languages. Their lives were originally Worlds Apart.

Excerpt

Now that her temper had cooled, she began to doubt the wisdom of her actions. Perhaps she’d been too hasty.

She could appreciate what a surprise her appearance must have been to Greg when he’d been expecting his father’s fiancée. Maybe she should own up before things got out of hand…The kitchen batwings suddenly flew open, announcing the arrival of the subject of her thoughts. “Do you have anything a little more…?” A pointed pause, as cold eyes travelled from the top of her head to the red tips of her enamelled toes before disdainfully settling on her face. “…suitable to wear? We’ve been invited to my sister’s for dinner. She’s looking forward to meeting you.” I’ll bet, thought Raven, sliding off the barstool.

Suddenly, any thoughts of stopping this farce disappeared with the condescending tone of Greg’s voice.

“Of course, Greggie, I have this simply divine black gown that Brad absolutely adores. I’ll wear that, shall I?” She tilted her head so she was gazing

up into his face. Presumptuous oaf, she smiled,gritting her teeth at the same time.

“There’s no need to dress for dinner.”

Greg spoke as if to a child, or more likely an imbecile, Raven thought.

“Perhaps something a little tidier than…than what you have on now.” He seemed to stumble trying to find the proper words. “And shoes. It would be appropriate to wear shoes.”

Raven couldn’t help it. She laughed. This was fun. And it really served him right, after all.

Slipping quickly into her part again, she replied, “of course, I’ll wear shoes, Greggie, if you think that’s really necessary.”

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/worlds-apart-paperback-p-4026.html

GetToKnowTheBook: 'Texas Blue' by Celia Yeary

The Story behind Texas Blue

Celia Yeary

Texas Blue is the first novel I wrote. In fact, I'd never written fiction of any kind before this novel. All my experiences came from writing dry, boring science research papers in college on a manual typewriter.

Most writers say they began to write at an early age. I did not. Like all children, though, I had a vivid imagination, and that entire creativeness went into playing dolls, both paper and real, cowboys and Indians, and cars.

In essence, I became The Accidental Author. In 2004, I sat down with a Toshiba laptop my husband bought for one dollar at a garage sale. At that time, I could not even write and send an e-mail. If one of my friends or sisters sent a message, they sent it to my husband's mailbox and he called me into his office to read it. He always encouraged me to learn the computer, but I feared it so much. Finally, one day he brought it out and pushed me to "play" with it. Since it only cost one dollar, my fear went away—even if I broke it by hitting a wrong key, well, it was only a dollar.

I turned to Word 2002 on the computer—about the only thing that worked—and began to create a document. To learn all the facets of the program by trial and error, I began to write. A couple of months later after constant writing, I titled the finished story Texas Blue. To this day, I don't know where the story came from nor why.

The first scene takes place in the Piney Woods of East Texas—a vast tall pine forest slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. I placed a young woman there, barefoot, walking through the soft red soil with her little daughter. At that point, I stopped. Even though I'm a native Texan, East Texas is the least familiar part of the state to me. Thus, my innate urge to research kicked in, and I studied books in the library until I knew the kinds of trees and flowers, the birds, the animals, the location, the towns, and the history in 1880. Then, I began to write again.

Western historical romance is my first love. After Texas Blue, I wrote the little daughter's story when she was grown, titled Texas Promise. Next, I wrote Texas True, the younger daughter's story; then All My Hopes and Dreams, a spin-off story from Texas Blue. I'm so pleased that all four have been or will be published.

Texas Blue is a simple story with a complicated plot. Yes, I know it sounds incongruous, but at the heart of the story is a young woman who, by no fault of her own, is trapped deep in the forest with her four-year-old daughter. They live with very little, but Marilee dreams of walking out of the woods one day with little Josie, finding a town, and learning how to take care of herself and her child. She has a courageous spirit, the heart of a lion, but fear is also her constant companion.

Blurb:

She wasn’t a fit mother…So said the county judge who hired Buck Cameron to retrieve his little daughter. But when Buck finally locates the pretty mother and child, he finds the claim very hard to believe. Now, he faces a dilemma. Should he obey the order? Or should he defy the judge and rescue Marilee and her child from isolation?
She’d been banished…

Rejected and abandoned by her father, Marilee Weston used the pain of betrayal to survive. Now, she needs a way out of the forest, where she and her daughter had lived for five years. But the towering pines and fear of the unknown imprisoned her. How could she begin a new life for herself and five-year-old daughter? Will the alluring stranger free her, or prove to be even more dangerous?

http://www.celiayeary.com
http://celiayeary.blogspot.com

Texas Blue and All My Hopes and Dreams-Western Historical novels-available in both print and eBook.

Texas Blue-available on Kindle at Amazon.
Showdown in Southfork-short series Contemporary novel.
Find all novels at: http://www.thewildrosepress.com
(Find Celia Yeary under Authors)

Thank you,
Celia Yeary

GetToKnowTheBook: 'Clandestine Eyes' by Mary Corrales

Ever have an erotic dream that became reality? I have sensual dreams from time to time…lucky me. One particular dream became my inspiration for my contemporary erotica, Clandestine Eyes..

The heated caresses and passion was so stunning in its intensity that I knew I had to write everything I could down before I lost the details. Besides, let’s face it that when you wake up hot and bothered you have to do something about it. In the morning, the characters themselves spoke so clear to me when I asked the basic questions of who are you and why are you together that I completed their story within two days.

Now not every dream is worth getting up for and scribbling down on a piece of paper in the middle of the night with barely one eye opened. But then, a covert agent like Rob Larsen doesn’t always enter your dreams for an intense interlude in his truck. Do I have you curious? Well then allow me to share a scene with you that gives you a taste of the connection between Rob and his protégé, Coreen Evans.

She sagged in his arms as the last of the tremors worked their way through her. He rolled the window down a few inches as droplets of condensation dripped from the windows. She doubted that anyone who drove by might think the phenomena to be natural.

They stayed cuddled together for several minutes, at ease, waiting for their heartbeats to settle. A niggling of embarrassment tinged her enjoyment, as she relived her aggressive behavior. She still couldn’t explain the hunger that had consumed her.

“Are you okay?” Rob asked.

Coreen gazed up at him, realizing that he hadn’t expected their interlude to have been so intense. She smiled, glad that her actions hadn’t shocked him. She wasn’t accustomed to such behavior from herself with a man she hardly knew. They might have worked closely together on several assignments for the last ten months as she trained, but that didn’t mean they knew each other personally.

“I’m fine.” Thank goodness they’d agreed on rules to this part of their relationship before they’d done anything. Yeah, rules kept operatives safe, especially when neither of them could afford to lose their hearts much less their status.

The prequel to Clandestine Eyes is also now available through Breathless Press and is titled Dangerous Moves. Both stories can be found at the Breathless Press or on my website.

Thank you for letting me share a bit of my night experiences with you. I love reader questions and comments.

Contact me anytime through my website: http://www.authormaryc.com

Mary Corrales

GetToKnowTheBook: 'Hitting The High Notes' by Nan D. Arnold

Mini-Interview with character: Maggie, the protagonist.

Maggie, tell us a little about you and what you did to surprise Nan.

Answer: Me? I’m hanging on to the tail end of my fourth decade, resisting the big five-oh, dealing with weight gain everywhere but where it’s wanted, and hot flashes, as happens during “the change of life”, while looking for love in the wrong places. I’m the gal who made wrong choices along the way.

As to the surprise angle, Nan wanted to write something quirky. Given her sense of humor, that was easy, but I decided to add dark undercurrents, like my having a history of homicide. Justifiable homicide. The guilt bugs me; so, I hook up with wrong guys to punish myself, like Lorenzo--aka Stavros. He’s the opera star nursing a bruised ego who gets us both in dutch with a wacky environmental group and a special color-blind cop. There’s allusion to other secrets as well, fully fleshed out in PESTO PACKIN’ MAMA.

Maggie, how much of Nan is incorporated into your personality?

Answer: Um, I’d say we’re split fifty/fifty. The fast on the feet quips are all mine, of course. Ditto the flirty part. And the part that gets me out of trouble and between peach and white 450 thread count sheets with…. Read the book. Other things like cooking is all Nan. She loves to cook so she hangs that trait on me. That right there tells you Nan’s leaving quirkyville, heading straight to crazyville. Who cooks when there’s take out, right? But characters can only push an author so much. Pity.

EXCERPT

Maggie Duncan’s fourth decade on earth sped along at warp speed as she clung to its coattails, widowed, childless, and unattached.

Currently seated in the eat-in kitchen of an attractive townhouse, she considered the wine glass her host, a man called Stavros, set before her. The balloon-shaped bowl on a long fragile stem looked half as wide and nearly as deep as that big zero in Florida’s abdomen known as Lake Okeechobee.

“So, your name is Stavros.” Maggie’s blunt tipped finger rimmed the glass.

She’d met him by chance at a convenience store only an hour before. “Just Stavros?”

He nodded.

“Mysterious.” She took a tentative sip. The wine coated her tongue and slid down her throat. The merlot’s warmth wrapped second thoughts about her reckless acceptance of his invitation into a snug blanket and Maggie surrendered to the moment’s spell.

For more excerpts check out http://www.champagnebooks.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19_12&products_id=360

HITTING THE HIGH NOTES Reviewd by Romance Alley.
Reviewer Betty Ann Harris: Hitting The High Notes is a witty and clever book that was a total delight to read. The author, Nan Arnold, has a wonderful sense of humor that breezes through each page and carries through the entire story...read the full review at www.romancealley.suzannahsafi.com/reviews2.html

GetToKnowTheBook: 'Single Status' by Author Linda Swift

Single Status is a book that had a difficult "birth." It remained in my head for almost ten years. I had discussed the idea with my agent and he discouraged it as not believable. But with an inside knowledge of how big companies worked, I felt the story could have happened so I never gave it up. I worked on other manuscripts in the years that followed but wasn't able to place them. So while living in Northern England one winter, I began to write this book. My study overlooked the muddy, turbulent River Humber, the days were short and the weather was bleak. What better time to write of a tropical island with balmy days, a calm blue-green sea, and warm sunshine?

The story flowed quickly except for the technical details of power plant operation but my husband was home every evening to talk me through that. He also gave me pointers on a golf match since I'm not a golfer myself. When we came back to the States, I submitted the book a few places but it was rejected and I began to think my agent who had vetoed it was probably right. Then I began to research ebook markets and this book was one of the first that I submitted. Almost immediately, I received a letter of acceptance from an editor who said she was snowbound in her office. I think the setting of this book surely held great appeal for her.

This publisher requested that we select our own cover artists. When I contacted one whose work I liked, she was able to create a perfect cover almost overnight. And in the process, we discovered that we had met in the Dallas airport years earlier when we both were en route from an RWA conference and were stranded by engine trouble. Before the book could be released, another publisher bought the one I'd contracted with and this required a new book cover. Then through a mix-up, the original cover was used with the first books released. So to explain the confusion for readers who try to order the book, I have used both covers on my web site Books Page.

Single Status was my first ebook to be accepted but two others with another publisher were released before it became available in December. And I'm expecting release of the print book at any time. Meanwhile, I have a video of the book which you can see at the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu1T2jQt31U

I hope you'll enjoy reading B.J's and Dana's story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here is a brief glimpse of what their story is about.

B.J. is a woman with a mission--to show that she can handle a start-up engineer's job as well as any man. Then maybe she can prove to her ex that she is not the helpless wife he left for another woman. Dana is a man grieving the deaths of his wife and young son in a terrorist plane crash. Through a mix-up at stateside headquarters, they are forced to share a villa in the single status job in St. Croix. B.J. is the scapegoat when things go wrong at work and Dana becomes her reluctant defender when he is not defending himself against her unjust conclusions about him. Despite their attempts to prove otherwise, the powerful attraction between them grows. B.J. is blamed for a bad accident at

the plant and her job is on the line. When Dana is almost killed trying to find the real culprit, will B.J. finally admit that the love they have found together is the most important thing of all?

www.lindaswift.net
Author, Women's Fiction & Romance