The Countdown Begins

2 Weeks to Road Rage!

My second Lyrical Press release, Road Rage, will be officially released June 3rd! Don’t want to wait to get your Derek & Cami fix? Click on the banner, like Lyrical’s Facebook page and get exclusive Lyrical-fan-only access to the first three chapters.

Subscribe to my blog (look on the right sidebar for a place to enter your email address) to stay up to date on my latest writerly news. There’s lots of amazing news to come, I promise, including a particularly juicy tidbit about Wishing for a Highlander, my time-travel tale set in the Scottish Highlands.

Thank you, Lyrical, for the beautiful banner and for loving Derek and Cami as much as I do!

Free Publicity Fridays

Risk Factors by Calisa Rhose

Today, I’m super excited to share a sweet romance by a fellow Lyrical Press author, Calisa Rhose. It was my privilege to interview Calisa a few weeks ago. Now I get to give my quick and dirty review of Risk Factors. Enjoy!

Viv’s a veterinarian and Connor’s an EMT. They both have interesting jobs that show up on the page in a realistic way showing Calisa did her homework. The high-stakes medical jobs also lend dimension to Viv and Connor’s romance.

Both Viv and Connor are dealing with family issues that keep driving them apart despite a passionate attraction that keeps yanking them back together. Viv is sweet and compassionate, a little clumsy, and a lot damaged by parents who pretty much ignored her while they focused on their careers as high-profile wild-animal rescue workers. Connor is hot, emotionally damaged from his ex-wife leaving him and abandoning their baby for “greener pastures,” and utterly devoted to his 7 yo daughter, Janna (Jelly Bean). Janna is so much more than an addition to the story. She’s super cute and plays a vital role in Viv and Connor’s romance.

Risk Factors is a sweet read with lots of excellent emotion and real-world pet and human medical emergencies. There was high drama and some steamy-but-still-sweet physical romance. I highly recommend Risk Factors for fans of sweet romance, romance with a kid in the story, and romance centering on characters working in the medical field. It’s the perfect read for those who like small-town contemporary romances, too. There’s just so much for everyone in this sweet read.

Here is normally where I would post a few of my favorite lines, but I’ve had some technical difficulties this week and, well, let’s just say I’m thrilled to have been able to get my usual Friday post up. I promise you, though, if you pick up your copy of Risk Factors, you’ll find some gems of writing in there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday’s Word

Pheresis
noun
a procedure in which blood is drawn and separated into its components by dialysis; some are retained and the rest are returned to the donor by transfusion

“… I signed up for a blood drive at my office once, maybe two years ago, and then I went back on my own and they somehow smooth-talked me into pheresis.”

Maguire, Meg. Thank You for Riding. Strangers on a Train. Samhain. Kindle Location 316.

Definition from OneLook Online Dictionary

Free Publicity Fridays

Assassin’s Gambit by Amy Raby

Assassin heroine + Amputee hero = Unique, action-packed fantasy romance

I’m just tickled to death to post my review of Amy Raby’s debut release, Assassin’s Gambit today. Not only is this the bestest example of fantasy romance I have ever read, but I think it’s so awesome that it will spark new interest in an emerging genre, Epic Fantasy Romance. I’m not just saying that because she’s one of my amazing critique partners, either. This lady is truly an extraordinary writer, and I’m honored to be able to watch her dab frosting from the corner of her mouth each week.

But enough about Amy and her cupcake eating. Let’s dish about the book! Assassin’s Gambit delivers a perfect, high-stakes story of clashing empires along with a love story so tender and realistic it left me breathless.

First, the world-building. Amy Raby is a debut author, but her exceptional economy of words is on par with the pros of fantasy writing. It amazes me how efficiently yet vividly she breathes life into a unique magic system and a lush and varied backdrop of warring fantasy nations. There’s even a fascinating chess-like game called Caturanga that adds dimension and fun to the story. It takes talent to describe so much without slowing pacing one iota. For her world-building alone, Amy wins my undying reader loyalty, but that’s just the beginning.

While sending her characters, amputee emperor Lucien Florian Nigellus and rebel assassin Vitala Salonius on a journey that will dictate the fate of nations, Amy develops a love story that bravely faces the emotional and mental damages left in the wake of horrendous battle injury and sexual trauma. The touchiness of the subject matter could easily turn the story dark, but Raby infuses this powerful tale with light and hope. The happy ending was hard won, well deserved by the characters, and is one I won’t soon forget.

Fans of epic fantasy, historical romance, and fantasy romance will all find much to love in Assassin’s Gambit. The best news of all, Amy’s got 2 more books lined up for this series. I’ve already got Spy’s Honor on preoder.

Zip on over to Amy’s blog to read more about her works and the fascinating research she puts in to make everything she does feel so authentic. If you haven’t already bought Assassin’s Gambit, pop on over to your favorite eretailer and get your copy now (cover image above brings you to Amazon). Or run to Barnes & Noble and pick it up in paperback. I’ll wait.

Now that you’re back, here are a few quotes to whet your appetite:

Then she lifted her eyes to a table at the far end of the room, where a man sat before a Caturanga board. Emperor Lucien. She’d spent so many years studying this man and plotting to kill him that she felt a perverse and unwelcome intimacy with him. Having only a rough description of what he looked like, she’d constructed a mental image, which she saw was accurate in the broad strokes but wrong in all the details.–Kindle Locations 319-322.

Lucien hovered over the board like a spring, tightly coiled and ready to explode into action. His eyes darted over every space, concerned and calculating, and when she made a good move, his cheeks flushed.–Kindle Locations 365-366.

Lucien was a strategic sacrifice, like the Tribune she’d offered up as bait during the first Caturanga game. If killing him meant more nightmares for her, more visions, so be it. He wasn’t the only strategic sacrifice in this game.–Kindle Locations 697-698.

   “Aren’t you cold?” he asked.
   “Extremely.” She rubbed her arms. “Aren’t you going to offer me a warm place to sleep?”
   Wordlessly, he opened his bedroll.
   She slipped into the snug space. Lucien wrapped his arms about her, entangled her legs in his, and closed the bedroll except for one small corner, leaving them in total darkness. “Better?”
   “Still cold.”
   “Let’s see what I can do about that.”–Kindle Locations 2143-2148.

Tuesday’s Word

Plethoric
adjective
Having an excess of bodily fluid, particularly blood.

He was red-faced, burly and plethoric, with a pair of very small twinkling eyes which looked keenly out from between swollen and puffy pouches.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan; Doma Publishing House (2013-03-12). Sherlock Holmes Collection: 4 Novels, 58 Stories, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Valley of Fear, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Return of Sherlock Holmes MORE (Kindle Locations 3138-3139). Doma Publishing House. Kindle Edition.

This is another one care of my husband. Thanks, Shane!

Free Publicity Friday Strangers On a Train Edition

Thank You for Riding by Meg Maguire

The month-long Strangers on a Train extravaganza continutes! Welcomt to week five of five. For my reviews of Ticket Home (Serena Bell), Tight Quarters (Samantha Hunter), Big Boy (Ruthie Knox) and Back on Track (Donna Cummings), click on the links. This week, I’m reviewing Thank you for Riding by Meg Maguire. Don’t forget to leave a comment below to enter Meg’s giveaway!

I struggled over the star rating for this one. I was torn between 4 or 5. I think I finally decided on 4.5 stars.

What I loved: Caitlin’s inner dialog was hilarious. I so got her and loved her. She would totally amp her self up for things in her own head, and then Meg Maguire would totally shut her down with something unexpected (like a dumping by her boyfriend near a half-dead ficus and a laser printer when she expected to get him so hot with her slinky, sparkly outfit that he’d hump her in the broom closet at the company non demoninational holiday party).

I also loved Mark. He is the perfect romance hero. Like perfect.

What I wanted to be a little different: I wanted Mark to have a flaw that Caitlin could help him overcome. I wanted the story to be longer and have some romantic tension other than Caitlin’s guilt over flirting with Mark at the blood bank while she’s still with office-boyfriend guy.

That said, the story was so cute and fun, and I seriously couldn’t put it down. Yes it was light on tension, but it also thoroughly entertained me. So, it gets a high rating even though there wasn’t a ton of ups and downs and twists and turns plot-wise. Once Caitlin is dumped, things with Mark (the the blood bank guy) go swimmingly. And it’s hot and fun to read.

And because Meg Maguire set up Caitlin having unrealistic, over-the-top-cute expectations romance-wise, when she started her patented, adorably-optimistic inner dialog over Mark, I thought, oh no, something’s going to go horribly wrong. But then it doesn’t, not relationshipwise, anyway. It’s smooth sailing, if you don’t count the annoyance factor of getting locked in the subway in the middle of a freezing night, which I don’t because that actually led to some pretty sweet coat-sharing and kissing action. But that in itself was a surprise. I thought for sure Meg was setting me up for some twist or something going horribly wrong for Caitlin, and when it didn’t, I was like, nicely done, Meg, I am surprised and entertained, and I love you for making me smile with your peppy, adorable writing.

I get the sense that Caitlin’s head was her own worst enemy in this piece, and Caitlin conquered…herself by ignoring the inner voice of caution and following her heart with Mark. Overall, I loved Thank You for Riding and highly recommend it.

***Giveaway***

One lucky commenter will receive an ecopy of Thank You for Riding. Just leave a comment below. You could answer the following question if you want: in Thank You for Riding, Meg Maguire makes the cold floor of a dark subway tunnel an oasis of love for her characters. What utterly non sexy place would you like to see turned into an oasis of love for the right hero/heroine? 

OR just say hi in the comment box! I love to hear from my readers, and I know Meg would love your support.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes. I decided to limit them to Caitlin’s inner dialog since those lines were so funny they tended to steal the show:

    Ask me out, she beamed to Mark.
   Yeah right, dum-dum. You told him you just got dumped. If he’s smardt, he’ll run screaming, and if he’s a creep, he’ll think you’re all vulnerable and easy.
   Who cares? He’s hot. Maybe I am easy.–Kindle Location 406.

   Here, let me help you with that… How do you like your eggs? Call in sick to work and have sex with you all day? Oh, Mark, I really mustn’t. But I will. Paint my front hall in nothing but your mangy work jeans, you say? Excuse me while I orgasm.–Kindle Location 421.

   A strange man you basically just met is kissing you in one of the shadier corners of the MBTA. You really ought not to get turned on right about now. He could be some kind of homeless vampire smack-fiend pervert.
   F*** you, intuition. You should have warned me about Kevin dumping me when I was ordering that stupid martini shaker or mentally booking a room in the Berkshires.–Kindle Location 709.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday’s Word

Cantle
noun
the back of a saddle seat

   Bouncing awkwardly on the saddle’s cantle, she looked back. The guards were jogging after them, but in a desultory way; they could not outrun a horse. Her poor bay was still staggering about.
   She wrapped her arms tightly around Lucien, not wanting to think about the image that kept pushing its way into her head: Bayard lying flat out on the ground while Ista tended him. She closed her eyes. Some decisions could never be unmade, some actions never undone. 

Raby, Amy (2013-04-02). Assassin’s Gambit: The Hearts and Thrones Series (Kindle Locations 2602-2605). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

Definition from OneLook Online Dictionary

This wasn’t a new word for me (I used to ride and was one of those spoiled kids who had a horse in high school), but I like it. It’s one of those words to me that just soudns cool, and you don’t get to use it very often.