Guest post with Kate Belle - Something About Teacher & Giveaway!

SOMETHING ABOUT TEACHER

Hi Jo-Anne and readers!

Did you have a crush on a teacher in high school? Or a scandal when a student became romantically involved with a teacher?

I’m of the vintage when relationships between young teachers and older high school students (I’m talking 17 – 18 years old), while not respectable, weren’t uncommon. My high school saw at least one teacher and student moving in together after the student graduated. And all the girls in my year level had enormous crushes on our very handsome Business Studies teacher (although as far as I know he never succumbed to our flirtatious come-ons).

Attitudes towards student teacher relationships have shifted in the last 30 years. Today these relationships are not tolerated, they are viewed as paedophilic, pure manipulation and abuse of power on the part of the adult participant. In many cases this is true, particularly where the student in question is under the age of consent.

Yet what an arbitrary line the age of consent is.

Sixteen is as tender as fifteen and not a whole lot less mature than seventeen. At sixteen many teenagers are discovering the incredible power of their burgeoning sexuality, not only in regards to their peers, but also in relation to the effect it can have on adults.

I feel for modern teenage girls. From primary school age they’re subjected to an undercurrent of sexual conditioning via first world culture - music videos, TV soaps, magazines, advertising, modelling from the young women in their lives. It doesn’t take long for them to get the idea that sexual allure is a highly valued quality. I’ve tried to protect my 9 year old daughter from explicit music videos and mature commercial content, yet she occasionally (and disturbingly) mimics the sexy poses and behaviour she observes in the world around her. Sexiness is so embedded in our culture we hardly notice it.

The unguarded nature of today’s communication means young people are exposed to complex sexual ideas long before they have the maturity to understand them. Sex education is delivered and helps to avert silly, misinformed mistakes, but no sex education program is going to prepare them for the lived experience and consequences of entering a sexual relationship, particularly with a mature adult.

As a young girl’s body blossoms and hormones rocket through her blood, it’s not surprising she decides to ruffle her sexual feathers and test out her allure. For some girls the most accessible man available to her is a teacher. There are many teachers in my life and all of them have a story about a teenager who targets the youngest, handsomest member of staff with her substantial charms.

The ramifications of this can be dire. No matter how responsibly he behaves, these days he is the one who is going to be held to account. If she manipulates him into an uncompromising position she will be the victim and he will be explaining himself, even though he may have done nothing to encourage her affections.  One story I was told involved a fifteen year old girl who used tutoring as a ruse and showed up on her teacher’s doorstep dressed provocatively holding a bottle of wine.

Teenagers are susceptible to developing intense romantic attachments – real or imagined. First love is a teenage rite of passage and it’s only natural a percentage of teenagers choose a favoured teacher as their first love object. And if that teacher is vulnerable to the flattery of a young person’s attraction and attention, the situation can become psychological dynamite.

It was the romantic element of these relationships that interested me when writing The Yearning. We are not comfortable with the idea that there could be a real attraction between a teacher and student, so this aspect of the relationship is glossed over. It’s seen as an aberration, a delusion, but that’s not how a teenager experiences it.

Our first experience of love and sex stays with us, marks us out and shapes our expectations of future relationships. I believe we should be talking to teenagers, particularly teenage girls, about how to assert and experience their sexuality in a way that empowers them, not buys into the confusing double standards society lays out for them – be sexually alluring but don’t be a slut. They need to understand the consequences of entering a sexual relationship with a mature adult may affect the rest of their lives.

The Yearning speaks to this issue. It asks who seduces who and why? How do we realign our expectations in relationships, our trust, our love, after our first sexual experience? It asks what do we want from love versus what we can have?

The Yearning by Kate Belle

Synopsis:

It’s 1978 in a country town and a dreamy fifteen year old girl’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the substitute English teacher. Solomon Andrews is beautiful, inspiring and she wants him like nothing else she’s wanted in her short life.

Charismatic and unconventional, Solomon easily wins the hearts and minds of his third form English class. He notices the attention of one girl, his new neighbour, who has taken to watching him from her upstairs window. He assumes it a harmless teenage crush, until the erotic love notes begin to arrive.

Solomon knows he must resist, but her sensual words stir him. He has longings of his own, although they have nothing to do with love, or so he believes. One afternoon, as he stands reading her latest offering in his driveway, she turns up unannounced. And what happens next will torment them forever – in ways neither can imagine.

Read an extract here

Buy The Yearning:

Ebook: Amazon

 iTunes 

Kobo 

Reading group questions here 

Author Bio

Kate is a multi-published author who writes dark, sensual contemporary women’s fiction. She lives, writes and loves in Melbourne, juggling her strange, secret affairs with her male characters with her much loved partner and daughter and a menagerie of neurotic pets.

Kate holds a tertiary qualification in chemistry, half a diploma in naturopathy and a diploma in psychological astrology. Kate believes in living a passionate life and has ridden a camel through the Australian desert, fraternised with hippies in Nimbin, had a near birth experience and lived on nothing but porridge and a carrot for 3 days.

Blog/website: http://www.ecstasyfiles.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/katebelle.x

Twitter: @ecstasyfiles https://twitter.com/ecstasyfiles

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572571.Kate_Belle

The Reading Room: http://www.thereadingroom.com/kate-belle/ap/2394119

Every reader who comments on any Kate Belle blog post before December 23 2013 will go into the draw to win a digital copy of The Yearning (Open to Australia/New Zealand residents only. Selected winner must be contactable by email to claim their prize.)

I'll throw in an ebook of The Yearning to anyone who comments on this post. Just leave a comment telling me if you ever had a crush on a teacher, with your email address. Winner will be drawn December 23rd. 

Interview with Peter Kassan

Thank you for stopping by my blog, Peter!

Thanks for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

For those who haven’t heard about your book could you give us a quick rundown?

Well, since I wrote the blurb, I might as well just quote it:

What if you suddenly discovered you had a sense—and powers—that almost no one else in the world did?

When Amanda Lindner Nichols, a 24-year-old graphic artist living with her husband in Queens, New York, is revived from a near-death experience, she discovers she perceives everyone around her as points of light—but not with her eyes. She soon learns she can not only perceive the life energy of others, but she can give and take it. With the help of others like her, she brings her husband Chris to the brink of death and back to bestow on him the same remarkable faculty, and they're the happiest they've been.

But not for long. All over the world, people who've been revived from their own near-death experience at just the right moment discover themselves with these same unusual powers. They find ways to use them—some for good and some for evil. When Amanda and Chris encounter a ruthless group of gangsters with the same faculty, tragedy follows—and Amanda faces the greatest challenge of her life.

How would you describe your main character, Amanda?

Amanda is a young woman living in Queens, New York, who finds herself with an extraordinary sense and extraordinary powers. Before the events that transform her, she’s a normal person living a normal life.

Is Lightpoints going to be part of a series? If so, what do you foresee for the series?

I didn’t conceive of it as part of a series. I started a sequel that followed Amanda about a year after the end of Lightpoints, but I wasn’t happy with the way it was going, so it’s on hold. A few readers have expressed interest in finding out what happens next. If there’s enough demand, I suppose I’ll have to return to it. As far as a series is concerned, I don’t see one. If other people want to write stories based on the same premise, though, I’d be happy to talk with them about it.

Can you tell us about the paranormal world you have created? How does it differ from our own?

It differs quite a bit, I hope—although several readers wondered if what I described could be real, and at least one reader asserted it was real.

In my world, under very exceptional circumstances (if you have a near-death-out-of-body experience and are resuscitated just at the moment you touch the Light but before you merge with it), you come back with a new faculty, which includes the ability to perceive the life energy of those around you, and to transmit and absorb that energy. Your ability to transmit and absorb life energy is especially acute with people who also have the same faculty.

Are there any authors that have influenced your work in any way?

Every author I read influences me in some way, even if it’s only to be more conscious of something I want to avoid in my own writing. But in terms of someone I admire, I’d say Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire was probably the most influential.

How did the initial idea behind Lightpoints come about?

I had had the vision of someone who could perceive others as points of energy a long time ago. When I decided to write a paranormal novel, that image came back to me as a starting point.

Do you ever draw inspiration from real people or situations?

Some of the characters in Lightpoints are based on real people, but only as a starting point. And I’ve long been interested in the phenomenon of near-death-out-of-body experiences. I also drew on my familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism and several other subjects. Overall, however, the entire story was a work of imagination.

What was the last great book you read?

It depends on what you mean by great. If you mean important and enduring, it’s been so long since I’ve read one of those I’d have difficulty naming one. If you mean terrific, it’s not all that recent, but I loved Alice Seybold’s The Lovely Bones. I admired the originality of her conception of heaven and the way she described her protagonist’s extraordinary experiences naturalistically. I also thought she had a masterful control of tone. There were no false notes.

Is there anything you are currently working on that you could share with us?

I’ve just started working on the first installment of what I’m planning as a trilogy based on the same premise as Lightpoints. It’s set on the West Coast, with an entirely new cast of characters, including a new protagonist. It takes the premise in a different direction, though. To give you a hint, the working title is The Zombie Problem.

Combining my love of writing with my interest in computer programming, I became a technical writer for several software products companies, eventually becoming a minority shareholder and executive vice president of a small, privately held company. There, I wrote and managed the writing of everything from software design documents to marketing literature.Twenty-five years later, after it was sold to a large computer company with a three letter name, I became one of those celebrated risk-takers we’ve heard so much about. I started a company based on what I thought was a bright idea of mine. Within a couple of years, I’d crashed and burned, and discovered myself in financial ruin and without a job. Trying to find a job in my industry or to establish a consulting practice, I learned it was no industry for old men. Mostly to keep myself sane, I decided to write a novel based on the germ of an idea I’d had in my twenties. That became Lightpoints.

To find out more about Peter, visit his website.

Cover Reveal - Kissed by a Dark Prince by Felicity Heaton

Kissed by a Dark Prince (Eternal Mates Romance Series Book 1)

Felicity Heaton

Olivia thinks it’s her lucky night when a dangerously handsome unconscious fae ends up on her inspection table. He’s her chance to redeem herself with her employer, the demon-hunting organisation, Archangel. But when the tall, dark and deadly immortal warrior awakes, she gets much more than she bargained for…

Attacked by his enemy in the elf kingdom, the last thing Prince Loren expects when he comes around is a beautiful angel watching over him and medical technology of the mortal realm. Hazy from his injuries, all he can focus on is the pulse ticking in her throat and the sweet allure of her blood.

One single bite reveals she is his eternal mate, triggering a bond between them that will leave him weakened until it is completed… or broken, and pulling Olivia into the crossfire of his ancient feud.

To protect his people and his mate from the machinations of a madman, Loren must risk everything by working with Olivia at Archangel to find a way to break the bond blossoming between them.

But will Loren be strong enough to place duty before desire and give up the one thing he has waited millennia for and craves above all others—his eternal mate? And will Olivia be able to resist the incredible heat that burns between them and the temptation of her dark prince’s kiss?

Kissed by a Dark Prince is due for release in ebook and paperback on November 30th 2013 and will be available from all major online book retailers

Join Felicity’s mailing list to receive a notification when Kissed by a Dark Prince is released, plus a sneak preview of the first 6 chapters of the book and chances to win a signed copy: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/newsletter.php

Add the book to your Goodreads shelf at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18710035-kissed-by-a-dark-prince

About Felicity Heaton:

Felicity Heaton is a USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books as Felicity Heaton and F E Heaton. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!

If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series she writes as F E Heaton or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books she writes as Felicity Heaton. Or if you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try Felicity Heaton’s new Vampire Erotic Theatre series.

In 2011, five of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews, Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews, and many of her releases received five star reviews from numerous websites. In 2013, Heart of Darkness was a finalist in the paranormal romance category at the Epic Ebook Awards, and she became a USA Today best-selling author.

If you want to know more about Felicity, or want to get in touch, you can find her at the following places:

Website: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk

Blog: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/blog/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/felicityheaton

Twitter: http://twitter.com/felicityheaton

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/felicityheaton

GIVEAWAY- Tied up in Heartstrings by Felicia Lynn

WANT TO WIN ONE OF FOUR Ebook COPIES OF TIED UP IN HEARTSTRINGS BY FELICIA LYNN?

Just leave a blog post comment with your email address and I will pick a winner in 24hours!

Tragedy ripped the security from her life. Left a single mother, Alexis's fear of loss insulates her from the rest of the world. Her best friends from college and close family are the only people she keeps close.

A man from her past has always been in love with Alexis. He’s never met anyone that measures up to her. Garrett is a musician, who never really imagined he’d have the fame and fortune that he's found. But, even with that, what he's always wanted is out of reach... or is it?

When Garrett and Alexis meet up by chance a relationship begins. Neither expected what happens. She can’t be sure she’s ready for the complications a relationship brings. He will have to work overtime to win her heart without any assurances it will be successful.

Alexis is learning about life without Jed, and is feeling more secure with parenting on her own. Garrett appreciates his fans and is enjoying his life on the road but misses having a private life. The lives they have built separately leave little room for a budding relationship, but their hearts won’t take that into consideration.

Will the cards they’ve been dealt get in the way of a love that is meant to be? Is love enough to overcome loss and heartbreak? Can they accept all that the other is, without feeling like they are living in the shadow of their former lives?

IF YOU DON'T WIN YOU CAN GRAB A COPY FOR .99c FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

Amazon Link

Guest Post - Emma Shortt: Waking Up Dead & Giveaway!

Title: Waking Up Dead (End of Days Love #1)

Author: Emma Short

Release Date: 22nd October 2013

Publisher: Entangled

Welcome to the #entangledzombieinvasion release week competition, and a big thanks to Jo-Anne for hosting me!

Just in time for Halloween we’re celebrating the release of my debut novel, Waking up Dead, and it’s all about the zombies… Of course where the undead roam a zombie slaying kit is so needed, and do I have a fab one for you!

Axe: check

Flashlight: check

Super hunky guy to fight the zombies with: not quite…

You can, however, find that super hunky guy in-between the pages of Waking up Dead, and if you’d like the get-your-slay-on kit too, or a signed copy of Waking up Dead, or even a $25 Amazon gift card enter the competition below. You get extra points for tweeting and extra again for heading over to Facebook and liking my author page.

Here’s a sneak peek of Waking up Dead…

You know your life has hit rock bottom when you’re living off cooked rats and showering once every few months—if you’re lucky. But for Jackson Hart things are about to get a whole lot worse. When her best friend, Tye, disappears hunting for food, kick-ass Jackson’s ‘head south to safety’ plan looks like it’s dead before it’s even begun. But then she meets ex-mechanic Luke Granger, who takes her to his bunker, feeds her with non-rat based food, and offers her protection against the zombie hordes—not that she needs it. She knows how to use a machete and isn’t afraid to.
Jackson was tempted to stay in the city with her rescuer. Food, shampoo and the possibility of finally getting laid, what more could she ask for? But the flesh eaters are getting smarter and the bunker is compromised, so Jackson and Luke have no choice but to make the journey south.
Luke and Jackson team up to find other humans in a road-trip romance for the ages. They travel for thousands of miles with zombies shadowing their every move. They must utilize every resource at their disposal…and then some. On the way, they discover that even if flesh eating zombies are knocking down their door, there’s always time for sex and even love.

Excerpt:

Chicago

Without a doubt the house with the pretty green shutters had food inside of it. Pasta, canned vegetables, tinned meats, hell, it could have a five course, good-to-go, gourmet meal in there for all Jackson Hart knew. Crouched down behind an overturned SUV she could practically hear it all screaming from inside the pantry, and she narrowed her eyes as she assessed the best way to get at it.

Not through the front door. It was probably barred tight with planks of wood, or barricaded with piled-up furniture. Maybe through the back? But the skinny, shadowed alleyway that ran between the house and its fence screamed, horror movie showdown, and for all Jackson knew she’d be risking it only to find a blocked-up back door too. The shutters then. How thick were they? Was the glass behind them intact? Jackson hefted Mandy-the-machete and considered the possibilities.

“You’re looking thoughtful there. For the record it doesn’t suit you.”

Those words came from Tyrone, her friend, her only friend, if you wanted to get right down to it. He joined her behind the SUV, swinging his ax as he did so, and making absolutely no attempt to stay hidden.

“I was being stealthy,” Jackson said with a sigh. “You totally just ruined it.”

“Stealthy for who?” he asked. “The rats? There’s only them and us. We checked the street. It’s all quiet.”

Jackson frowned as she looked away from the house and down said street. A backpack, probably a child’s by the size of it, caught her attention, and she frowned as she noticed what looked like a rusty toy truck sticking out of the zipper. The things people had thought to take when they tried to run…it still baffled her.

“Quiet or not, they’re here somewhere,” she said softly. “It’s been almost a day since we saw any of them.”

“Let’s hope for another day and then maybe another.” He paused. “Better yet, let’s hope for a week.”

Jackson almost laughed. “Might as well wish for a working car.”

“I do, sweetheart. Daily. We’re surrounded by wheels and not one of them worth a damn.”

“Two years and then some pretty much kills everything.”

“Everything but us,” Tye said.

Jackson nodded slowly at the truth of those words, tore her gaze away from the truck, and pointed her machete at the shuttered house. “Enough with the reminiscing. Take a look at that.”

Tye’s gaze followed the line of the blade. A frown spread across his face as he assessed the building from top to bottom. “It looks…”

“Like it probably did two years ago?”

“Yeah.”

“Weird isn’t it?” Jackson said. “I don’t know about your end, but down there,” she tilted her head to the south of the street, “the rest of these million-dollar houses are rocking the post apocalyptic- makeover vibe. Broken glass, doors hanging off their frames, trash all over the place.”

 “And this one stands alone,” Tye said, his frown deepening. “Could be Obama’s. I heard he has a house around here.”

“Had, had a house,” Jackson said. “And I’m pretty sure the dead do not make dining distinctions based on fame, or,” she added when Tye opened his mouth to speak, “government office.”

“Unless he went rogue in the beginning. He could still be hanging around.” Tye paused and shook his head. “That’s a weird thought.”

“Weird but not outside the realms of possibility,” Jackson said. “Hence the stealth you just ruined. Something is off, and we can’t ignore it. If there’s food anywhere, it’s hidden in that house. The rest have been picked clean, and this one looks like it’s been protected.”

Tye shot her an incredulous look. “You’re seriously not suggesting there are actual people inside?”

She snorted. “Yep, I’m betting there’s a whole family just waiting to open their arms to us. They’ll have a meal all laid out, hot baths running—”

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, Jack.”

Jackson shook her head. “You goad me into it. Seriously though, I’m thinking there were people still living in there. Not for a while and not now,” she added, holding up her free hand to halt whatever words Tye had been about to say, “but maybe they lasted out longer than the rest of the street. It’d explain why things look different. Better yet, it might mean food.”

Tye stomach gave a grumble. It was far louder than it should have been and Jackson caught his eye. “Keep it down. That was loud enough for a pack to hear.”

“Can’t help it,” he said. “You keep talking about food. When was the last time we ate, for fuck’s sake? I still can’t believe the university campus was picked clean.”

“It’s crazy,” Jackson agreed, thinking of all those dorm rooms they’d crept through. Each had been viler than the last, full of blood and pus and a million other unidentifiable fluids. Worse, they’d stunk of teen sweat, though how that could be two and more years after those rooms had last been occupied, Jackson didn’t know. “Took a brave person indeed to wander those rooms and clean them out,” she added. “End of the day though, it doesn’t leave us much choice but to hit up Creepyville here. We need some calories

in our system as soon as possible, and I’d rather not chow down on rat again.”

“There’s nothing wrong with rat.”

“There’s so much wrong with it I can’t even begin.” She swung

Mandy in the direction of the biggest window, forcing Tye to lean back to avoid the super-sharp blade. “I’m thinking we go through the shutters there. We’ll chop through them and then the glass too if there’s any left.”

“That’ll make a bit of noise.”

 “Less noise than trying to go through the front door. You know it’ll probably be barricaded up, and besides, didn’t you just say we were okay?”

“I said we are okay for the moment. Let’s not push our luck any more than we have to.”

“So we’ll be quick.”

He hefted his ax, giving it a swing of what Jackson assumed was agreement. “I’m always quick, sweetheart.”

 “I bet.”

“You’re not funny.”

I'm thirty something years old, live in combats and black tees, survive on a desperately minimal amount of sleep, and have a tendency to shoot from the hip.

 I loathe shopping, unless it's for books, and spend most of my free time trying to get my teenage children, Vix and Bear, to hang out with me. Mostly they don't, as you know, they have stuff to do. What this stuff is I've yet to find out... so I write instead and before long free time is no more.

 I write in all sorts of genres, though the vast majority of my work has a romance bubbling within it (inspired by my real life hero, my husband, fondly referred to as 'The Greek'). Mostly I just write whatever takes my fancy and hope that someone, somewhere, will want to buy it when it's finished!

 You can find me all over the net. It is fair to say I am a bit of a cyber-whore. Facebook (www.facebook.com/AuthorEmmaShortt), Twitter (www.twitter.com/emmashortt), Amazon (www.amazon.com/author/emma-shortt) Goodreads...come, say hi. I want you to!

All my books are available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.ca, Barnes and Noble, All Romance ebooks, Bookstrand, Apple, Smashwords, Sony and Chapters/Indigo. You can download to your Kindle, Kobo, Nook or iPad. You can also find some of my books on Amazon.com in paperback format.

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Review: Blind Attraction by Eden Summers

Title: Blind Attraction (Reckless Beat #1)
Author: Eden Summers
Age Group:  Romance
Release Date: 25th May 2013
Publishers: Self-published
Available from: Amazon
Source: Own purchase
He can seduce with a single glance. 

Peering down at a sea of fans, rock star, Mitchell Davies can’t deny the innocent beauty of a woman in the front row. He’ll stop at nothing to get to know her. When a public altercation leaves her weak and defenseless, he takes the opportunity to be her savior.

She’s been sheltered from the world. 

Alana Shelton wants to spread her wings and experience life away from her restrictive upbringing. But she isn’t prepared for a gorgeous stranger to sweep her off her feet while at her most vulnerable. 

Attraction will bring them together, but their pasts will try to tear them apart. 

He wants to teach her how to trust, but she’ll show him how to love. In a glamorous world of rock-and-roll, only time will tell if they’re up for the challenge.

************

Do you like "Bad Boys" with hidden hearts of gold?

Do you like Rockers with bodies that look like Sin?

Do you like music that makes your body quiver?

Would you like to combine all three of the above and have it all wrapped around the outside AND inside of you?

The answer ~ Oh, yes, yes.... YES!

Then, WELCOME to the world of *drum roll please*

~ RECKLESS BEAT ~

The first book in this (soon to be cult) series is "Blind Attraction". Leading male is Mitchell Davies on lead guitar. He can seduce with a single glance. Leading female is Alana Shelton who's led a sheltered life. How they end up together, I'm not going to tell you! I'm going to let Eden take you on this sexy and wild ride through the character's daily work and personal lives where they have their ups and downs (no pun intended) along with their physical and emotional adventures.

This is a very well written story with characters that you'll grow to lust after and/or love like a best friend. This is an easy and smooth story to read that brings a "movie into your mind" with every sentence. There's no wasteful words, no "waffling on" before getting to the point and a few hints to let you know what will be coming up in future stories. Book 2 in the Reckless Beat series will be staring Blake Kennedy. *fans self* If the rest of the books in this series are written with the same care, skill, love and respect to the characters as we see in "Blind Attraction" then this will definitely become a delicious series to enjoy over and over again. (Pun intended)

One thing that Eden has done correctly, was to print the book with an easy to see and read sized font. Let’s be honest here, once you hit a "certain age" that pale tiny font is difficult to read and very annoying when it's an excellent story that you just can't put down. This book is one that you won't want to put down.

If you know a Producer whom can bring these stories to life as a TV series, run out and drag them over to Eden's home now, because when all these stories have been written, bringing them to life would be absolutely....... Geez, I just have to use the word delicious again. Now about auditioning the members to play the characters of "Reckless Beat". Hands up all those who want this job? Well, get in line!

Leone

Review: Countering His Claim by Rachel Bailey

Title: Countering His Claim
Author: Rachel Bailey
Age Group:  Romance
Release Date: 1st October 2013
Publishers: Harlequin
Available from: Amazon
Source: Author
Never be distracted by a woman is hotel magnate Luke Marlow's golden rule, especially when the woman just inherited half his late uncle's luxury cruise liner. But ship's doctor Della Walsh is the exception. Her dignified beauty ignites Luke's desire despite his suspicions. Even so, he will gain full control of the ship at all costs.

For Della, the ship has been a sanctuary. Now she has just three weeks to change Luke's mind and save the ship; until passion comes along and steers them off course.

_____________

We all know with a 187 page Romance novel that it'll end up "Happily Ever After", however, how the story ends up there is what makes this book a "Must Have" on your bookshelf.

Take one emotionally dead, suspicious, rich workaholic leading male who has so many "issues" that any female in her right mind would run very fast in the other direction from this landlubber. Take one highly educated leading female who's been traumatised, has physical scars, is shielding herself from the unknown and has created a safe haven for herself at sea. Toss in a few other things and you’ve got a massive mess to untangle!

The way that Rachel Bailey tells this story to untangle this knotted mess has taken care, thoughtfulness, talent and a lot of skill. Rachel's use of words makes every sentence powerful with concise descriptions without the need to "waffle on" just to make a specific point. The story flows smoothly, gently leading the reader to understand that both leading characters will slowly understand how to heal themselves and logically understand their place in the world and eventually with each other. None of the characters are weak, whiny, bitchy, need rescuing or are co-dependent. This makes a refreshing change.

Besides this being a beautiful story and would make a lovely movie of the week, where you'd be very happy to watch every time you saw it on the TV schedule. This would also make an excellent book for any Book Club to discuss the psychology of self-healing, letting go of the past and moving onto something wonderful that's full of hope and promise and of course to Love.

Leone

When Light Fades blog tour stop

When Light Fades

From the Authors: A.J. Stewart, Cindy Franks White, Zoey Sweete, Jennifer Oneal Gunn, Ronald Edward Griffin, S.L. Dearing, M.K. Hensley and Jewels Moss

Blurb:

Dive into a dark paranormal collection of short stories and poetry with a twist of horror. When Light Fades will play on your inner fears, and bring to life the things that go bump in the night. This collection of writing is filled with revenge, disaster at its best, and a hint of sick madness. Be prepared to enter the world of the wicked, where the darkest creatures tell their stories and the insane rule and sanity has been lost forever.

Where can you get it?

Connect with the authors:

 A.J. Stewart      Cindy Franks White      Zoey Sweete      

Jennifer Oneal Gunn      Ronald Edward Griffin      S.L. Dearing

 M.K. Hensley      Jewels Moss

 

Cover Reveal & Excerpt with Giveaway: Tainted by Christina Phillips

Title: Tainted

Author: Christina Phillips

Genre: Historical Erotic Romance

Release date: August 28th 2013

A dangerous love that Rome will never allow…

Driven by the knowledge he failed to protect his king and embittered at losing the woman he loves, Celtic warrior Gawain despises the lust he feels for the beautiful Roman patrician, Antonia. She is everything he’s never wanted in a woman, yet she ignites his passion like no other. Despite the danger of discovery he embarks on an illicit liaison with her, determined to uncover the reason for the infinite sorrow that haunts her eyes.

Newly arrived in Britannia from Rome, Antonia is inexplicably drawn to the cold, tough Celt whose touch stirs a desire she long thought died at the hands of her brutal former husband. With Gawain she learns the pleasure of sex and his unexpected tenderness thaws her frozen heart. But she hides a deadly secret that could be her undoing, and knows her growing feelings for him can lead nowhere. Yet when a shadow from her past threatens her future Antonia is torn between the Empire of her birth and betraying Gawain, the man she’s grown to love.

Inside Scoop: This medieval romance dabbles a wee bit in the paranormal.

Excerpt:

A door opened to her left and she turned to see Gawain stroll in from the bathhouse. Her heart thudded against her chest, making it hard to draw breath, and the pit of her stomach trembled with strange, liquid heat.

He looked utterly foreign, a savage warrior, and sunlight glinted on the barbaric jewelry around his throat and at his ear. He smiled, a slow, seductive smile that sent tremors through her blood and did nothing to ease the constriction in her breast.

Except for Elpis, she was alone with a strange man, a man she had virtually propositioned in the street. A native of a conquered land who made no secret of the fact he despised her people. And yet it wasn’t derision that glowed in his eyes. It was lust.

For her.

“Lady Antonia.” His smoky voice wrapped around her senses, as potent as though he had wrapped his arms around her naked body. “You kept your word.”

“Did you doubt I would?” She scarcely recognized her voice. She sounded like a sultry seductress. Perhaps, after all, Gawain would never guess what a novice she was when it came to playing such dangerous games.

He stopped in front of her, so close that the amber flecks in his dark eyes mesmerized her. “No.” The word sank into her blood, igniting sparks of pleasure that skittered across her exposed flesh. “You want this as much as I do.”

It was true. Why should she deny it? “Yes.”

__________________

Christina loves writing dark tales of tough, sexy warriors who are brought to their knees by their heroines. A mystical touch of fantasy or paranormal usually weaves its way through her stories, although strangely enough this wasn’t her intention when she first starting writing her Roman/Druid romances. But when ancient gods and goddesses get involved, it’s best just to go with the flow J

She is published by Ellora’s Cave and Berkley Heat and has dipped her toe in the indie pub waters. She is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, Romance Writers of America, the DarkSide Down Under Group Blog and Historical Hearts Group Blog.

Christina is an ex-pat Brit who now lives in sunny Western Australia with her family. She is also owned by three gorgeous cats who are convinced the universe revolves around their needs. They are not wrong.

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