Thursday 31 December 2015

Guest Blog - Erzabet Bishop and Holidays in Hell

For my last post of 2015, I'm turning my blog over to Erzabet Bishop, a new-to-me author whose books I discovered this year, and highly recommend! I know Christmas is done, but what the hell. Let's take a look at her holiday offering...





Title: Holidays in Hell (Demons in Darkness Series #1)
Publisher: Etopia Press
Pages: 64
Tags: bdsm, bondage, demons, dom, domination, erotic fantasy, erotic romance, erzabet bishop, holidays, incubus, kink, paranormal erotic romance, paranormal romance, redemption, sub, submission, succubus, wax play

Blurb:
This year Christmas just got a little hotter.
Deck the halls with all things kinky. Jonas is an incubus with an incurable lust for women, gingerbread, and holiday lights. He needs one more soul to meet his quota. Amid the baubles and frivolity of the Winter Carnival, he meets Holly Pendleton—a woman with emerald green eyes and a body built for sin—and marks her as the final soul to end his contract. But now Jonas faces a heart-wrenching decision: take what he needs to feed his hunger, or sacrifice himself for the woman who has lit his own demonic soul on fire. Tied up with red ribbons, Holly just might be Jonas's deepest Christmas wish and the one woman who could set him free.
Holly Pendleton is still recovering from the death of her husband and Dom. The holidays are especially lonely until a dark stranger walks in the door to Harlowe's Bookery and Christmas Shoppe. The man's enigmatic gaze holds her and ignites her body and her mind. When Holly accepts a job to decorate the sexy client's apartment, she unknowingly steps into an age-old battle between the forces of darkness. Jonas Corsair is a man who makes her blood run hot and her dreams even hotter. But will she survive his hold on her soul?

Buy Links:
Etopia Press: http://goo.gl/QxC433
All Romance: https://goo.gl/LmnoQL



Read on for an excerpt!


Saturday 26 December 2015

The Force Awakens, as understood by someone who hasn't seen it

Unlike everyone else on the planet right now, I haven't seen the new Star Wars film. I'm not especially opposed to it, and I'm not trying to be all "I hate this popular thing! Counter-culture!" It's just not something that really grabs me. I've also never seen the second two prequels, and haven't watched the original trilogy for...many, many years.

However, it is inescapable, unless I want to stay off the internet and avoid all human interaction for the foreseeable future, which...I really don't want to do. So I feel like I have a pretty solid grip on the film despite not having seen it. I figured, to break up the landslide of promo blogs I seem to have going on right now, I'd share my acquired knowledge with the rest of you. That way, if you also don't want to see The Force Awakens, you can still chat about it with your friends and seem hip.

So!

This is Finn:




He seems to spend a lot of the film being surprised, I guess? I would have thought his experiences defending inner city London from alien invasions in Attack the Block (which I have seen, yay!) would leave him better equipped for sci-fi. Haha, I'm confusing the actor's character in this film with a totally different character he played in another film! Hilarious.

 He appears to be a Storm Trooper, at least at first, but then he meets Poe:







Poe is a pilot, or at least someone who poses as one for recruitment posters for the Rebellion (which I remember being a big deal in the original trilogy, and I assume is still a thing, because if I remember correctly, at the end of the third film, the Empire was blown up and I'd imagine that left a hell of a power vacuum that was probably filled with endless in-fighting amongst the remaining bad guys, or at the very least, an ineffectual interim government).

Poe and Finn fall in love, I assume?


Or maybe they don't. The above picture could be interpreted in many ways, but they definitely look like they become close.

Anyway, after they hook up, they meet the new Star Wars robot. I don't know what it's called. I literally googled "New Star Wars robot" to find a picture. This is it:





I don't know how it moves. Does it roll or hover? If it rolls, what does the head do while the body is rolling? Is the head attached to the body? Did it kill and consume RD-D2? So many questions!

Anyway, they meet the robot and it (based on the sand) lives near this person:



This is Rey, who based on this picture, I'm assuming has just seen something awfully meaningful but upsetting off-screen. I'm also assuming she's a Skywalker, just because nobody else seems to be so far.


Now, I'm making a leap in logic here, but it looks like the robot blows something up, forcing Finn and Rey to runaway from...is that a cattle pen behind them? IDK, whatever. There's an explosion, everyone runs away. I guess it's also possible the bad guy did it, because he has to show up at some point. This is the bad guy (I think):


He actually looks pretty badass, like someone took all the coolest elements from Darth Vader and Darth Toad From X-Men Who's Actual Name Escapes Me Right Now, and combined them in a design guaranteed to make people think this would be a badass character. I don't know anything about him apart from his name (Kylo Ren), so I'm just going to assume he's also a Skywalker, because they seem to end up as Sith Lords a lot.

Well, just the once, I guess, but at least one third of all the Skywalkers I am aware of have become Sith Lords at any rate.

Now, the characters I do remember from the first three films...by which I mean the first chronologically released films, not the first chronologically occurring films...are Han Solo, Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca, so I'll assume they show up once the three youngsters have got together and met the bad guy at least once:


This is Han and Chewie, and it looks like Finn might actually steal Han's jacket at some point.

This is Leia, who to be frank looks 100% done with Star Wars:






I guess she should have thought twice before helping to bring down a dictatorial space regime, doubtless leaving dozens of planets rudderless and in anarchy without an over-reaching government to tell them what to do, amirite?

And this is Luke:


He's fallen on hard times, from what I can tell. But, again, taking out an entire government tends to lend to civil unrest, confusion, war, and dissension, you know? I'm not saying I'm pro-Empire, or anything, but hopefully the Rebellion had a strong, swift plan in place for replacing the Emperor after Darth Vader pushed him down a space hole and died, because I've read a lot about what happens when citizens destroy their leaders and there tends to be a lot of assassinations and bloody revolutions for the potential new leaders, and a lot of starvation and cannibalism down the line for everyone else.

Anyway, these seem to be the key players in The Force Awakens. From here my knowledge is fairly sketchy, but from what I've gathered from Tumblr, the main story seems to be Poe and Finn running from explosions while Rey watches from a distance and face-palms? It seems like Kylo Ren shows up at some point and I guess they light-sabre fight for Rey's hand, even though neither Poe or Finn are romantically interested in Rey, because they have each other. But there's almost definitely a light-sabre fight, right? Maybe Kylo Ren falls in love with Rey. Maybe they're both Skywalkers (which probably doesn't preclude him being in love with her), and they have to fight to the death to purify the bloodline or something. Maybe Rey doesn't have a love arc at all and just hangs around in the desert looking troubled but competent.

I haven't worked out how Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewie play into things, but maybe Han, Leia, and Chewie stage an intervention to get Luke off the streets and into people clothes.

I guess this is the first of a new trilogy, so probably nothing is resolved in this film. Maybe we end with Finn and Poe tentatively kissing. Maybe the neighbouring star systems realise this galaxy is a fucking mess of civil war, rebellion, and planet-sized explosions and they get embarrassed they didn't step in earlier and decide to come in and sort it all out (in way that doubtless makes everything worse, because enforced democracy is not democracy at all).

In any case, I assume the film ends on a cliffhanger, probably with everything looking great for our heroes, but with the audience knowing something bad is lurking in the near future, like maybe Kylo Ren found a spare death star? I assume they had more than one, right?

I hope this has been a helpful cheat sheet for non-Star Wars watchers. I'm sure somewhere down the line, I'll get round to seeing the film, and I'll be interested to see if my guesses are anything close to the truth, or if Tumblr and Twitter have lead me totally astray.








Wednesday 23 December 2015

Guest Blog - Lucy Felthouse and Cupid!

Who doesn't love a Christmas romance? And one with a reindeer shapeshifter, no less! Let's let Lucy Felthouse fill us in...


Out Now! Cupid by Lucy Felthouse (@cw1985 @evernightpub) #holiday #christmas #erotica #romance #shifter #paranormal #pnr

As a postman by day, and one of Santa’s reindeer on a single very special night, Cassius Cupid eats, sleeps, and breathes deliveries. He doesn’t mind, but sometimes wishes that someone would send him something more exciting than bills and junk mail. 

One cold January morning, Cassius gets his wish. A young woman arrives with a parcel. Turns out it’s for his housemate – but Cassius doesn’t care. All he’s interested in is Carina – the beautiful female courier.

Has Cupid finally met his match?


Read on for an excerpt!


Saturday 19 December 2015

Christmas Treats Blog Hop!



What are our favorite Christmas Treats? Books, of course! Stop by each blog for a chance to win fabulous books & gifties for the Holidays!

I've been reading a mixed bag lately - my favourite recent read was Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport, which is an account of the final days of the last Tsar of Russia. It's an amazing, but heavy-going book, and I'd love to get some more of Rappaport's books under the tree this year! At the other end of the scale, I've just started Libby Bishop's Ghosts of Kingston Cottage, which is a paranormal romance full of psychic investigators, ghosts, and skeptics, which is right up my street! I'm about halfway through and really enjoying it. I know there are two more books coming up in the series, so that would make another great Christmas present for me.

Giveaway!

Since it's the season of presents (and good will, obviously), I'm giving away two of my favourite things - a book and some perfume! First, an e-copy of my Christmassy werewolf story, COLD NIGHT MOON.


After a difficult year, Ayla Hammond wants to give her girlfriend Shannon a dream Christmas. A cosy, romantic cabin in the woods seems like the perfect way to put their troubles behind them and start the New Year right. And at first, everything is going according to Ayla's plan...Until night falls.
There's something in the woods. And it's after Shannon.
 
*An Editor's Pick*

And to go with that, a 10ml bottle of Wolf Moon from my Etsy shop, Common Brimstone.




Top notes of musk, blue tansy and dogwood make for a dusky floral opening that fades down into an earthy base of violet leaf, pine and cedar. A trickle of patchouli gives this scent a wild edge.

To be in with a chance of winning, just leave me a comment letting me know what your ideal Christmas gift would be!

And remember to visit the other blogs on the tour:

Thursday 10 December 2015

Guest Blog - Ella Grey and one sexy phoenix!

Full disclosure: I got to beta-read an early version of BURN and I loved it! I have a soft spot for phoenix tales, and I loved Ella's funny, feisty heroine, Jace. So obviously I'm extra happy to have Ella today to share a teaser from her latest release.




Thanks for having me on your blog today. It's been a long journey for Burn and I'm happy it found a home with Evernight. I hope you enjoy Demon and Jace as much as I enjoyed writing them. 

She wants him... 

Jace knows there are things other than human living on the mortal realm—vampires, shifters, the fey, and her own brand of witchery. She thought she’d seen it all. Until she meets Demon. He's a Phoenix, a creature so rare that some don’t believe they exist at all. 

He burns hot... 

With the tendency to burn the partners he takes to bed, it’s been a long time since he’s had a woman. The empathic witch in the bar knows how to handle his type of fire and he’s intrigued. He just needs one night to connect with someone, a chance to feel anything but the constant loneliness. He doesn't expect that one night to change everything, including his heart. 

But something is chasing Demon and it’s willing to go through Jace to get him.

Read on for an excerpt and buy links!

Sunday 6 December 2015

THE SEA WIFE wins!



Thank you to everyone who voted for THE SEA WIFE in the Evernight Readers' Choice Awards. I really didn't think my little selkie story stood a chance, but of course I'm thrilled to be proved wrong. Clearly Fergus's influence did it, so here's a picture of him looking for a place to put what will doubtless be a gigantic winner's trophy:


Oh, and whilst I'm here sharing nice things, there's a lovely review for COLD NIGHT MOON over at Love Bytes, should you be interested in reading it!

Thursday 3 December 2015

Guest Post - Vikings! Werewolves! Time Travel! Welcome back Doris O'Connor...

It's always nice to have Doris here...She brings the best pictures...And who can say no to a viking werewolf?

Thanks so much for having me on your blog today with my new release Claimed by her Viking Wolf. You know that phrase.

It started with a kiss.

Well, in my case, and that is true for a vast majority of my stories.

It started with a picture.

This one to be precise:


The lovely Kim posted that hunk in my reader group The RavDor Chicks, and my muse drooled. After some brainstorming in the group, we decided that he was a Viking and a wolf shifter. It all went from there, and Kim’s very own Viking story was born J




Read on for the juicy details and a very adult excerpt!

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Blood Canticles News, Everyone!


It's official! I just signed the contract for the sequel to BLOOD WITCH, DARK DAYS. Huzzahs! The projected release date is February 2016, and this is the (unedited) blurb:

Vampires on the loose. Monsters on the streets. And a demon in her bed...
Lola Guntram's life is not getting easier. She's no longer wanted for murder, but there's still danger everywhere she turns. Isaiah's sinister influence still lingers in Fort Rosser, and her friends are breaking under the pressure.
To make matters worse, a new threat stalks Tristesse, and the demon duchess might not win this war. As more blood is spilled and evil draws ever closer, Lola has to ask herself what she's prepared to do – and what she's prepared to sacrifice – to keep her loved ones safe.
It probably goes without saying that I'm REALLY EXCITED! I loved writing Lola's second book and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that, come next year, you're all going to love reading it.