Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Christmas in July - Fantasy 99cent Sale

A bunch of fantasy authors, including me, have gotten together and put a book on sale until Friday for only 99 cents. Here are all the books and where you can find them. I hope you find a few you'll snatch up! Two are actually free books, the rest just 99 cents!

HeartofMagic-MicheleBardsley.jpgHeart of Magic - Michele Bardsley

A Fantasy Romance Collection

WIZARD'S MATE
Handsome and desperate wizard True Karn becomes human during the "wizard's moon"--the only two nights of the month he can look for his mate. The rest of the time, he must live in his monstrous, cursed form. When he rescues a pretty lady from the lascivious attention of two guardsmen, he realizes that she's the woman who will break his curse.

Plain and reliable Alissa Rogers works in a house of ill repute--as an accountant. When she gains the attention of Mreben's most infamous wizard, she's both flattered and unnerved. But while the wizard seeks her favor, a female rival seeks Alissa's destruction.

To save a wizard and his mate, it will take the greatest magic possible--the spark of true love.

WIZARD'S HEART
Young and handsome wizard Honor Karn gave his heart to the wrong woman—and paid a terrible price. Now, he is a forgotten statue in the dark lands of the Barrens, only allowed to take human form once a month during the wizard's moon. In the hundredth year of his curse, Honor must find a courageous woman who will fight for him and for love or he will die. But it turns out his true mate is worlds away...

Plain and dutiful Melanie Trident is grateful to have a job, food, shelter, and a caring sister, the only family she has left. She doesn't trust easily, and dating ... well, she'd rather skip the heartache. Besides, she'd madly in love with her book boyfriend, the gorgeous doomed wizard of Mreben.

Then she finds herself falling into a magical dream, no, make that crazed delusion. Because she finds herself in the arms of Honor Karn. He tells her she's the real heroine of his story, the one who can save him. Now, Melanie has to decide if she wants to risk everything--including her sanity--to bring love to a wizard's heart.

FROST AND FLAKE
Bonus Short Story!

If you like snowy nights, hot guys, and sexy times...

When Lilly Tremont wrecks her car in an Oklahoma snowstorm, two gorgeous "rescuers" show her unexpected ways to stay warm. She thinks she's dreaming, but is she?

Amazon     Barnes and Noble    iBooks     Kobo


Reconstructed-TashaBlack.jpgReconstructed - Tasha Black

Some heroes aren't born...they're built.

Westley Worthington has it all. Piles of money, good looks, a head for business, and a seemingly limitless supply of women who want to please him. And that's just the way he likes it. Until a brush with death causes him to rethink his priorities, and consider someone besides himself for the first time in his privileged life.

Cordelia Cross has never had it easy. Her duty to her family has her working as an assistant to a man she hates just to pay her sister's medical bills. When her arrogant boss alienates his last true friend, she finds herself promoted from schedule-managing coffee grabber, to the newest member of West’s inner circle.

Tempers, and passions, ignite as the two start spending time together, until a shocking accident puts their newfound attraction on ice. When West is faced with the toughest trial of his life, Cordelia helps him realize that he has all the tools he needs to be a force for justice.

Together, they must turn West into the hero no one ever thought he could be.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     iBooks     Kobo      Google Play


AssassinsSoul-BethCaudill.jpgAssassin’s Soul - Beth Caudill

A novella of 33,000 words or 120 pages

Caitlyn Sinclair hides her magical need for souls behind her job as an assassin in the Miscreants Guild—the home of spies, thieves and assassins. She is a SoulEater, a mage who uses the aural energy of other people to fuel her spells. She has no choice but to take those lives, because without the infusion of life-force she will die. She's made a home for herself in the city of Ellemarlene, until the day she executes her Guild Master and is cast out. Her only chance at survival is to join the Mage Guild and embrace her magical nature. To become a terrible weapon, someone with the power to wipeout entire towns.




TheMcDougalPackAlpha-CrystalDawn-400x500.jpgThe McDougal Pack Alpha - Crystal Dawn

Mandi finds herself waking from a drug induced sleep, in the arms of the handsome McDougal Pack's alpha. But Mandi is a human, with no desire to be anything else. Just because the legendary white wolf blood might run through her veins, doesn’t give the werewolf council any say over her life. She may not be able to pick her relatives, but she can certainly choose the man she marries. Can’t she?

Mac doesn’t think the mate the council chose for him is going to work out for him at all. But when he meets her, he begins to wonder if she might not be the one he’s been looking for all along. She wants to fight him and the attraction that flares between them. He has a surprise for her. He’s a fighter and he’s enlisted an unexpected ally from her family. The white wolf herself is on his side and he doesn’t intend to stop until he wins.


Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Smashwords     Kobo


SnowtheVampireSlayer-RebekahRGaniere-400x600.jpgSnow the Vampire Slayer - Rebekah R. Ganiere

Lady Snow Gwyn is tired of playing “mother” to her seven Vampire Slaying brothers. For the past two years, she’s yearned to be out there fighting at their side as they hunt for bloodsuckers in the black of night. Snow is as good a fighter as any man, but she wasn’t called to be a Slayer. A mere formality in her book.

Prince Sageren, Son of Lothar has spent the last fifty years in exile, awaiting the day when he can finally avenge his family and take back his throne. Barely existing, he’s forced to face his inner demons and the monster he once was, compelling him to vow to never drink from humans again. A simple enough task–until he crosses paths with a human who makes his fangs ache to drain her.

When Snow runs into Prince Sage on a late night trip to the woods, she’s torn between the urge to kill him and the desire to succumb to the feeling he stirs within her. And when Snow’s life is threatened by the same evil that murdered his family, Prince Sage must enlist the aid of Snow’s brothers to not only help him save her life, but to also regain his rightful place as King of the Vampires.

If Sage can keep the Slayers from killing him first.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     iBooks


Insight-JamieMagee.jpgInsight - Jamie Magee

Two souls made of one, divided by time, and reunited within their dreams. Worlds stand between them now, but fate is their guiding light, one glance bound them, one touch empowered them. Now, they have no choice but to finish the war they started lifetimes before...or they will lose it all.

*****

Willow Haywood has always been trapped between the worlds of the Light and the Dark. Her waking hours are plagued by her ability to feel the emotions of those around her. No matter how inward she draws, she cannot shut out the feelings of others. Sometimes she will see images - echoes of other people and places - that she can enter to influence the emotions of people she has never met.

By night, Willow experiences her only escape from this terrible insight - entering into the world of dreams. Most of these dreams are shared in blissful silence with a stunning blue-eyed boy. But every new moon she lives through something much darker: a horrific nightmare shared by another mysterious boy who is always shrouded by shadows.

One night, this shadowy figure invades her dreams outside of his appointed time. In this new nightmare, Willow is marked; a mark which follows her into the waking world and sets her on a momentous path through light and darkness, through fragmented myth and half-truths, through past lives and disturbing family secrets, all in the face of the ever-dominant Zodiac. What she finds will endanger the lives of those closest to her and will force her to make a decision that will change her world forever.

Free

Amazon    iBooks


AssassinsHeart-IsabellaNorse.jpgAssassin’s Heart - Isabella Norse

Lillie is an assassin. It’s not exactly the life she would have chosen, but she has made the best of it. Until now. Disguised as a servant at the palace, she waits for an opportunity to kill the heir to the throne. Her conscience tells her that killing an innocent man is wrong, but failure to do so will mean her death.

Nef, a handsome stable hand, is intrigued by the young red-haired maid that has charmed the animals in his care. He longs to know her better, but harbors secrets of his own - secrets that could rock the very foundations of the kingdom.

With their lives forfeit, Lillie and Nef must work together to find a way to save themselves, their love, and two thrones from destruction at the hands of an evil overlord.




InheritedThorns-SammieSidelinger.jpgInherited Thorns - Sammie Sidelinger

In the first installment of The Empathetic Enchantments Series, you will find out what kind of shape shifter lies dormant within the Randall families heritage—one never before written about in this light.

When trouble arises and laws must be implemented amongst the most powerful warlocks, an enforcer is sent in. Bad boy Acer Randall fears nothing—that is, except two things. The centuries-old family curse that transforms him into a bizarre freak of nature and the foreign emotions that stirs within himself by a seductive enchantress, Haven. Her pull, like that of a siren, cannot be ignored; yet for self-preservation he must stay away. Haven promised, on her coven's behalf, to end Acer's life, but can she bring herself to do what must be done when her feelings for him are so unbridled?

How is it that Acer, one of the most in-tune empaths on earth, is unable to read Haven's emotions? Has she clued into Acer's truth and cast a spell from which he cannot break free?




ValkyriesVengeance-MelissaSnark-400x650.jpgValkyrie's Vengeance - Melissa Snark

A thirty-year alliance that aligned wolves and hunters has shattered.

Victoria Storm leads a few surviving members of her pack in a desperate flight. As the only surviving child of their leaders, the she-wolf inherited the role of Alpha. The violent deaths of her parents and the man she loved left her devastated, and the lives of her followers depend on her decisions. Simple survival often conflicts with the demands of preserving her Norse heritage, so she must struggle to balance her duties as Freya’s priestess and Odin’s Valkyrie. When innocent children are abducted, she must set aside her differences and work with her worst enemy to rescue them.


Free

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     iBooks     Kobo     ARe     Google Play


HungerMoon-MelissaSnark.jpgHunger Moon - Melissa Snark

Victoria Storm faces seemingly insurmountable odds to keep her dwindling pack of werewolves alive and together. She fights hunters- including the brother and father of her deceased lover-and the pack takes another devastating loss. When they seek sanctuary in a small town near Lake Tahoe, high in the secluded Sierra Nevada Mountains, Victoria discovers they are infringing on the territory of a vastly more powerful Alpha wolf. To save her pack, she uses her feminine wiles to seduce the Alpha. Nothing comes easily for Victoria. Her plans are complicated by the Alpha’s erratic son, a ghostly wife, and a vengeful witch. Not even her status as a Valkyrie or the favor of the Goddess Freya can change the course of destiny for Victoria or her packmates.


Amazon     Barnes and Noble      iBooks     Kobo     ARe     Google Play



Bloodlust-NicoleZoltack.jpgBloodlust - Nicole Zoltack

In a world torn by prejudice and hatred, six races struggled for supremacy.

Barbarian-Princess Ivy is unwilling to allow her father to provoke the other races into war and forms an unlikely alliance with Lukor the goliath to save her people from utter destruction. Unbeknownst to her, Lukor blames the barbarians for murdering his sister and plans on sabotaging her goal.

Almost despite each other, they grow to respect each other on their journey to decode secret messages from the trolls. But nothing Ivy can do will prevent the war as her father is blinded by Bloodlust and incites it himself. Not even killing him and becoming Barbaroness can stop the tide. And when Bloodlust claims Ivy, forcing her to kill everyone in her path, she must make a choice to destroy even Lukor, who she may have started to fall for and him in return.


Amazon     Barnes and Noble     iBooks     Kobo


Sunday, July 5, 2015

Top 10 Reasons Jude Knight, Author of A Baron for Becky, Reads (and Writes) Historical Romance


Top 10 reasons I read (and write) historical romance

I read to learn

1.     “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana)
Through the lens of history, we can more clearly see our own times. The Regency and Georgian eras fascinate me. There was a growing disparity between rich and poor, privatisation of public good properties, wars and rumours of wars, rapid technological changes with unpredictable outcomes. Sound familiar?

Although I write to entertain, I also write to inform, and in doing so to hold up a mirror to our own times.

2.     “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” (L.P. Hartley)
The similarities are challenging; the differences are fascinating.

I continually trip over things in my reading and my research for writing that astound, horrify, or delight me. Did you know that between a quarter and a half of all women in the early 19th century had ‘Mary’ as one of their first names? That an estimated one in five women in London made income from the sex trade? That the man who invented one of the world’s earliest self-propelled wheelchairs did so after demonstrating another invention: the world’s first roller skates?

I love to read about history, and now I’m not wasting time, I’m doing research.

3.     “I like reading novels because it provides insight into human behaviour.” (Claire Danes)
We learn about people by meeting them; by watching them. In historical novels, the people we meet face different challenges to our own, have been moulded by a different culture, must react to a different context.

But they are still people. I want to read about people who are real to me while I’m in the book, and stay with me when I close it.
I know I’ve captured a character when my readers discuss their motives and their beliefs. It’s enormously thrilling when someone explains to me why one of my characters thought, felt, or did something, and I have an ‘Aha’ moment because the thought is new to me but they’re right.

I read to be entertained

4.     “These boys in books are better.” (Carrie Hope Fletcher)
Knights, Dukes, Earls, handsome rogues and pirates; what’s not to like? Let’s face it; gorgeous men in cravats and knit pantaloons are hot. And hot men who are considerate and respectful are even hotter.

Fletcher’s song points out that real life men can’t live up to the standard set in Twilight, Deadly Instruments, and the like. And any girl who stays single till she finds someone as good as her book boyfriend is in for a long wait.


5.     “I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.” (Margaret Atwood)
Reading taught me that the kind are rewarded, that perseverance will win in the end, that love is worth striving for. That you can start a fire with spectacles and that sharks can’t swim backwards. That lying on a frozen over pond spreads your weight so you are less likely to break through.

Ideas; concepts; principles; facts. I’ve learned all of those from reading. I read for pleasure. And I write books that I hope others will read for pleasure; books with strong determined heroines, loving heroes, compelling story lines, and convincing challenges.

I read to escape, to take a micro-holiday

6.     “I have never known any distress that an hour’s reading did not relieve.” (Charles de Montesquieu)
I lived more than 50 years with an undiagnosed condition that gave me chronic tiredness and constant pain. In that time, I raised four children, two with serious health conditions, and fostered two others. We entered adolescent hell with one of them and didn’t emerge for ten years. Reading allowed me the break I needed.

When people say that historical romance (or science fiction, or fantasy, or mystery novels) are escapism, I agree. Any book that captures your imagination allows you to escape whatever distress you may be in. The best books strengthen and inform you, sending you back into reality better able to deal with your challenges. But even the most flagrant chewing gum for the mind gives you time to recharge. 

7.     “You can travel the world and never leave your chair when you read a book.” (Sherry K. Plummer)
And not just the world! I want to go somewhen else for my book holiday. Travel, so we are told, broadens the mind. In historical romances, I am able to travel to another time. In the hands of a good writer, I experience the sights, the sounds, the smells, and the stories, and all without the risk of plague, pressganging, or death by tooth infection. 

8.     “Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.” (Elizabeth Hardwick)
I dream of a life of leisure, with nothing to do but flirt with rakes and dance at balls. I’d undoubtedly hate it in practice. I like being busy and useful. But I can have that in a book, and then walk away, back to my real life.

9.     “There’s no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” (Frank Herbert)
I like happy endings. Some other writers like tragic endings, or even no ending at all. In my view, happy endings are better. Every writer has to choose where to start and where to stop the story, so why not choose the bit that feels good?

The romance novel’s ‘happily ever after’ is not about perfect resolution of all problems; it’s about convincing the reader that the protagonists will support each other through whatever problems arise. 


I read to learn to write better

10.   “I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.” (Charles Kuralt)
Reading good books gives us the sound of good language. It teaches us how plots work, how to show character rather than telling it, how to make choices that show the theme of the book, how to use words to create atmosphere, how to write dialogue that sizzles.

I believe I need to do two things to be a good writer. Read a lot. Write a lot. That’s all.

Genre
Regency romance, historical romance
Heat rating
R for implied sexual content, 2 out of 5 flames
Giveaway
Free copy of A Baron for Becky to random commenter
Tagline
She was a fallen woman when she met them. How can they help her fall on her feet?

Book Blurb
Becky is the envy of the courtesans of the demi-monde - the indulged mistress of the wealthy and charismatic Marquis of Aldridge. But she dreams of a normal life; one in which her daughter can have a future that does not depend on beauty, sex, and the whims of a man.

Finding herself with child, she hesitates to tell Aldridge. Will he cast her off, send her away, or keep her and condemn another child to this uncertain shadow world?

The devil-may-care face Hugh shows to the world hides a desperate sorrow; a sorrow he tries to drown with drink and riotous living. His years at war haunt him, but even more, he doesn't want to think about the illness that robbed him of the ability to father a son. When he dies, his barony will die with him. His title will fall into abeyance, and his estate will be scooped up by the Crown.

When Aldridge surprises them both with a daring proposition, they do not expect love to be part of the bargain.

Author bio
Jude Knight writes strong determined heroines, heroes who can appreciate a clever capable woman, villains you’ll love to loathe, and all with a leavening of humor.

Jude Knight is the pen name of Judy Knighton. After a career in commercial writing, editing, and publishing, Jude is returning to her first love, fiction. Her novella, Candle’s Christmas Chair, was released in December 2014, and is in the top ten on several Amazon bestseller lists in the US and UK. Her first novel Farewell to Kindness, was released on 1 April, and is first in a series: The Golden Redepennings.

Links
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Buy links
Kobo 

Jude’s social media

Jude’s Other Books (on Amazon)
Candle’s Christmas Chair (free novella)        
Farewell to Kindness (Book One, the Golden Redepennings)