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Friday, October 1, 2010

Search by Series!

Our web community is going through some changes. You may or may not notice that AllRomanceWriters.com is now directing to our main website, Eye On Romance. We plan to move all the content and bonus materials to Eye On Romance so everything is centralized.

You will notice you can now "Search By Series" on Eye On Romance, through our entire catalog of books and series we have in our database. Have fun with this great tool.

We'll be adding back in the Search By Hero and Search By Heroine tools, once I rewrite the code to make it even more useful than ever! Watch for Search by Publishdate and Search by Locale coming soon too.

Enjoy!
Tara

Thursday, September 23, 2010

From Our Mailbag - Regency Romances

I receive so many emails each day asking all sorts of questions. I've decided to start sharing some, so you, the romance reader expert, can help out other readers!

From Suzanne:

I'm drawn to historical romances of the Regency period and have been on a reading jag of everything written by Lisa Kleypas and Julia Quinn. I read a review of Ruthless by Anne Stuart and plan to read that as well.


Can you recommend other historical regencies for Suzanne? Post your suggestions to our blog!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Our blog

We have moved our blog back to blogger.com and off The Romance Book Club.
We are always seeking guest bloggers, so please contact me if you are interested (authors OR readers!)

Hope you all had a great weekend! Post here and let me know what you did, what you are reading this week, and just give a shout out!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Guest blog from Amanda McIntrye (and contest at the end!!)

Meet Helen~

You’ve now had a glimpse of Thomas, now I’d like you to meet one of the women Thomas called his “muse.” Likely the most stereotypical in nature to the women of her time, Helen is an innocent, the eldest daughter of hard-working farmers. She has all but resigned that she may never marry, as no man seems to give her a second glance. She is not coy or adventuresome, she is not looking for love, but rather it is enough just to survive, making certain that she does not end up in a passionless marriage like her parents.
Perhaps working in the small hat shop spawns her period moments of romance, But not until she meets William Rodin, brother of the reckless young Pre-Raphaelite artist is Helen dragged into a world of more passion, sex, and rebellious frivolity than she has ever seen—nor has she ever been more alive.
Flattery seduces Helen and she agrees to model, thinking it will get her closer to William, who has shown glimpses of his feelings. So infatuated is she with her new interest that she is willing to lie, keeping her side job from her family. But juggling two lives is not something Helen has mastered and soon fate plays her card, forcing Helen to make some difficult choices and causing her to see the world is not going to be rose-colored, simply because you wish it. Love is messy, it hurts, you have to sacrifice and through all of these experiences Helen matures into a woman who knows what she wants and what she doesn’t want—something which she would never have been able to realize had she not met the roguish Thomas Rodin and the PRB (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.)
It is said, “Nothing is ever wasted if you learn from it,” and that is true of the delicate woman from rural England, who one day said yes to opportunity. People often ask me, “Do these stories have a ‘happy ending?’ and I smile, because I believe that they do, perhaps not as clearly defined using the formula of a one man/one woman scenario—but a happy ending nonetheless. After all, love is messy…

The Master & the Muses-Excerpt: Helen meets Thomas for the first time.

“This is the woman I spoke to you about. Helen Bridgeton, I would like you to meet my brother, the extraordinary and gifted artist, Thomas Rodin.”

I was perhaps mesmerized by how accurate was William’s assessment of his brother. It was, I determined, the reason why I could not find my tongue. He was not particularly tall, but his manner and his odd clothing made him seem larger than life. The air fairly crackled in his presence. I found myself curtsying as if about to dance.
His eyes came alive and as though I was the only one in the room, he walked toward me, silently assessing me from head to toe. He wore the trousers of a proper gentleman, and so, too, the shoes. That, however, is where all semblance of the current era stopped. His coat, dark blue velvet and showing wear on the shoulder, was festooned with ornate blue seed pearls and stiff piping, reminding me of the clothes of the aristocratic wealthy clothes I’d seen in the paintings at the gallery. He wore a shirt, too, adorned with lace cuffs and on his fingers beautiful rings of gold, one bearing a black stone the size of a small bird's egg. The eclectic array of clothing and color enhanced his exotic olive skin, making him look like a painting come to life. Were it not for the shadow of his beard, the swagger of his walk, and the obvious gleam of sensuality in his eye, I would have taken him for a dandy. Instead, I found myself curiously drawn to him.
Yes, I had gravely underestimated the impact of his brother’s effect on me. I felt like a ripe apple being eyed for its tart sweetness.

“Turn,” he stated bluntly.
I blinked, pressing my lips together in uncertainty that I would pass muster. My eyes met William’s unreadable gaze. He nodded and I turned slowly, my fingers locked together, holding onto my braid.
Thomas reached for my hands and I relinquished my grasp and inspected them roughly, turning them back and forth. I grew uncomfortable at how long he studied them, praying he would not take note of how unkempt my nails were, how dry my skin was. I checked to be sure that William had not left me alone with his brother.
At last, Thomas drew my hands to his lips and kissed them with lingering reverence. His lip curled provocatively, highlighting slight cleft in his chin, giving character to his handsome face. His hair, a dark, unruly mop, produced a shock of curls that dipped low, covering one brow. The other brow, I noticed, bore a thin white scar slicing across its outer edge.

“My brother is to blame for that,” he spoke, cocking his brow as though reading my mind. His eyes narrowed joining his easy, predatory grin.

“Her hair is glorious. That deep russet-those mahogany undertones are positively scandalous! Dante's delight, you are a lovely gift to be certain. By all that is decadent, woman, your eyes alone have utterly captured me.” He strode over to William, grabbing him in a fierce embrace. “Well done, William, you have found us a ‘stunner’.”
“Now we must celebrate. Our cups—as our dear mother would say most devotedly—do runneth over, and so shall ours, down at McGivney’s.”

In two steps, he had returned, grabbing me around the waist, holding me close as he spun me around. The delight on his face reminded me of a child on Christmas morning. I clung to his broad shoulders, looking down at a face so closely resembling William’s, but with eyes that sparked mischievously. I caught Williams guarded expression as Thomas placed my feet to the floor.

“Now what shall I call you…my muse?” He narrowed his eyes studying me. I admit I was so smitten immediately by his zest for life that I quite forgot the obstacles facing me with taking on this position.

“My apologies, Mr. Rodin, but I have not yet accepted this position.”

He drew back in surprise, but he laughed aloud. “I like her, Will. She has a feisty spirit. Perhaps, we should consider paying her more?”
“What I would prefer is that you stop talking about me like I cannot hear.” I said with a boldness that surprised me.
Thomas took my chin between his fingers and his grin positively wicked. “Yes, you and I will get on quite well. I like a woman who knows her mind, who knows what she wants, and has no fear in obtaining it.”

Giveaway Question: Do you prefer the traditional happy ending or are you okay with a “satisfying ending?”

May the wind be at your back~

Amanda McIntyre

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

MUST I LOVE (HECK, EVEN LIKE) MY HERO FROM PAGE ONE? by Amanda McIntrye (See question at the END to enter to win a special prize!!)

I was asked to write an article geared toward aspiring writers regarding characters-how do I find them, create them, make them three-dimensional? Good questions. I like to start out creating a profile of my characters-physical appearance, background, social status, baggage, family, goals, flaws…the idea being that as you write that you’ve created such an intimate connection between you and that character that you feel you can know what he /she might say or do in any given situation. But that is the beauty of creativity—it’s unpredictable, it can surprise you and on occasion entirely stump you.

In truth, I’ve discovered despite my careful creation process, that once you begin to write, those characters take on a life of their own. Suddenly, it’s as though you’re seeing someone different than the person you envisioned, which led me to a startling conclusion…writing a fictional hero is a lot like falling in love.
Thomas Rodin, my main character in The Master and the Muses, was never actively searching for love. He was searching for a muse that would spark his quirky, creative genius with the ultimate goal of bringing him the acceptance and fame he so desperately desired. If a relationship occurred during the process, then so be it. Thomas was all about what worked for Thomas. There is no mistake; he is not the type of guy one should set her eyes on in terms of commitment. In truth, as I was writing about Thomas, though I found him intriguing as an eccentric artist, a man determined to stand out among the rest, I wasn’t always happy with his behavior. I didn’t always love Thomas from page one, in fact there were times when I wanted one of my heroines to kick him in the arse for his behavior.
But, just as the journey of romance takes us over some rough terrain and hopefully teaches us something about ourselves in the process, Thomas’s journey to his self-awareness, learning his faults and strengths and loving himself despite all of them, came through his experiences with a source he’d never expected—that of his muses, his models.
Thomas is a creative rogue. A man used to running the show, a leader among his peers, revered by men, desired by women. He’s never had to work at relationships. Enter then, three women over a period of a few short years, each one alluring, offering him what he needs to achieve his goals.
Thomas, young, passionate and Casanova-like with women, cannot ignore the chaos, complications and challenge these women bring to his life. Each one, a different person with different needs, desires, and demands, challenges Thomas to take a look at various aspects of himself that up to now, he’s been able to ignore. He doesn’t mean to get involved in their real lives, but it happens. And with each experience, a little more of the veneer he’s created around himself is chipped away. Love has a way of doing that, laying your heart on the line, baring your insecurities, your faults and true, your strengths to another soul. No different than anyone else, Thomas loved, or thought he did, and lost at love, more than once on this journey.
But for a brief time, he saw himself through another person’s eyes, not his own and so too, did I as the author. At first, I wondered how was I going to redeem this fellow? Although he was undeniably adorable (what creative-type isn’t?) he was not from the beginning, the kind of man I would dub as a hero-material. But as I continued to write the stories of the three women who would meet and become his models, each establishing a different relationship with Thomas, I began to see Thomas through the eyes of my heroines. Their view was far different and coincidentally, because of their desires and goals in life, I realized that each of these women was going to have their own distinct impact on Thomas—in a sense, they would be the ones to create a true hero out of Thomas. I didn’t have to.
The format of what RT BOOKreviews calls, “irresistible, a unique story” is set up in first person POV of each woman’s story of her life before, during and after her modeling time with artist, Thomas Rodin. It is not only the story of their journey to happiness, but in a sense collectively, it is the story too of Thomas’s journey to ultimate redemption-his becoming a man that you fall in love with.

Heroes, in my humble opinion, are created, not ready-made. It is the man you would least consider hero material that I love to write about, because invariably, he is the one who will surprise and delight, often becoming even more of a hero than you could ever imagine.

I am intrigued by the wide variety of perceptions describing “the perfect hero.” Some see only the physical appearance, where others describe only the emotional makeup, minimizing physical appearance.

What is your definition of the perfect hero /heroine?

Today, I’m giving away a MASTERS AND THE MUSE coffee mug to one lucky person commenting on this question.
Until next time,
Amanda
http://www.amandamcintyre.net/

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

KNIGHT OF PASSION by Margaret Mallory


KNIGHT OF PASSION by Margaret Mallory

How Can This Passionate Knight…
Renowned beauty Lady Linnet is torn between two desires: revenge on those who destroyed her family or marriage to her childhood sweetheart Sir James Rayburn. One fateful night, she makes a misguided choice: she sacrifices Jamie’s love for a chance at vengeance.
Trust A Beauty with a Past?
Jamie Rayburn returns to England in search of a virtuous wife—only to find the lovely Linnet as bewitching as ever. Their reckless affair ignites anew, even hotter than before, although Jamie vows to never again trust her with his heart. Just as Linnet begins to make amends, she’s tempted by one last opportunity to settle old scores. But a final retribution could cost her Jamie’s love – this time forever.
★ ★ ★ ★½ TOP PICK! "Mallory raises the genre to new levels."
~RT Book Reviews

“KNIGHT OF PASSION is an amazing story...filled with sexual tension and hot romance, as well as adventure with a fascinating historical background....[A]dd KNIGHT OF PASSION to your summer reading list.”

~Romance Reviews Today
“Top Pick! Ending the series off on a strong note, Margaret Mallory’s tale of second chances and everlasting love makes this medieval a rare and not-to-be-missed treat.” ~The Seasons Blog 
All The King's Men Trilogy
Accolades for Margaret Mallory’s All the King’s Men trilogy…  
Knight of Pleasure 

2010 RITA® Finalist!

     “[A]n absolute delight for fans of historical romance." ~ Fresh Fiction 
Knight of Desire 
    2010 Readers' Crown™ & 2010 Golden Quill Finalist for Best 1st Book “Margaret Mallory is a star in the making.” ~ Mary Balogh, NYTimes bestselling author 
    “A wonderful new voice in the tradition of Gellis and Woodiwiss.”  ~ Bertrice Small, NYTimes bestselling author 
“Few writers share Margaret Mallory’s talent for bringing history to vivid, pulsing life.”

~ Virginia Henley, NYTimes bestselling author 

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Paranormal Book of the Month: The Treasure Keeper by Shana Abé 

A Letter from Shana Abé

Beloveds,

I began the journey of the drákon years past with The Smoke Thief. I loved the idea of a secret tribe of people who could Turn into smoke or dragon, but I had no notion that the story would spark such a firestorm. Readers fell in love with the dark, lush magic of the drákon as deeply as I did.
Here’s why:

I made them beautiful. Pale in their human shapes, slender and stunning. I made them magnificent in their dragon shapes, glittering with colors, living ribbons slicing across the heavens, hunting the moon, mastering the winds.
I made them cunning, but not without morality.
I set them primarily in eighteenth century England, because I wanted them to be forced to live bejeweled lives, bound with corsets and powdered wigs, hidden beasts confined in human garments of silk and satin and lace.
I made them civilized—barely—on the outside but feral within. And then I made them struggle every single day with their own true nature.
Imagine having the power to shapeshift into smoke or a fabulous, mythical creature so splendid that no ordinary human could ever fully take you in. To be able to soar through the clouds on razored wings, to hear the silent music of gemstones and stars. To know without doubt that you are the pinnacle of all beings.
Imagine the temptation you’d feel every moment to shed your human skin. Why should you hide your glory?
Yet that’s exactly what the drákon do. Mankind has always far outnumbered them, and over the centuries they’ve been hunted nearly to extinction. For the sake of their very survival, the drákon now live according to their own strict code of law, every single aspect of their lives planned out, from birth to death. Every single rule designed to protect their true identities. To keep them all safe.
Naturally, there have to be drákon willing to break those rules, and humans who have discovered them. Otherwise, where’s the fun?

The Treasure Keeper follows the hearts of two very different members of the drákon race. One is Lord Rhys Langford, the arrogant, reckless second son of the drákon’s Alpha leader. Born blessed with all good things, Rhys has a loving family, fine looks, exceptional wits, charm and wealth. Oh, and he happens to be one of the most powerful dragons of the entire tribe...there’s just one problem with him. Apparently, he’s dead.

Zoe Lane, on the other hand, is very much alive. Not only that, she’s using her considerable skills to hunt down the humans she believes killed her fiancé, Hayden James.
Unlike Rhys, Zoe was born into a much more common drákon family. She’s the daughter of a seamstress, someone who grew up with no special dragon Gifts beyond her cool intellect and astonishing beauty. But Zoe’s been keeping secrets. It turns out that she’s Gifted after all. So Gifted, in fact, that she realizes if she mentions it to anyone else in the tribe, she’ll be handed over to the Alpha, to better his bloodline.

Female drákon have been losing their Gifts for generations, and no one knows why. The situation has become so dire that now any Gifted female is considered tribal chattel, to be wed and bred into the family of the Alpha for the betterment of all.
Zoe sees ghosts in glass. She can read minds. She can Turn invisible. And she has no intention of being forced to wed anyone—especially not Rhys, the only unwed male of the Alpha line. They were once childhood sweethearts, but that was years past. Their relationship as adults has been anything but sweet.
She will do as she wants, and marry who she wants, and to hell with the rules. If it means having to hide her Gifts from everyone, even her chosen fiancé, she will.
If it means having to clandestinely escape the confines of the tribe to track the murderers of her fiancé when he goes missing, she will.
And she does.
Zoe arrives in the glimmering, seething heart of Paris right at the brink of its revolution. But to her great surprise, the ghost who haunts her days and nights there isn’t Hayden James, but another drákon entirely, one who has been missing for even longer than Hayden: Rhys Langford.
Dead, remember?
At least, Rhys thinks he’s dead. His world is gray and thin. He cannot touch anything; he cannot feel anything. He finds himself adrift on the streets of Paris but no one sees him. In fact, people tend to walk right through him. He doesn’t hunger or thirst or sleep. He’s a phantom of a figure, and the sole source of light and color in his existence now is the lovely Zoe. She alone knows he’s there; she alone is able to communicate with him, to respond to his wintry touch. She’s the final link to the life he used to know, and he’ll do anything to remain by her side. It’s too bad she rather hates him.
A living dragon and a dead one: together they must join forces to discover who has been hunting their kind, and strike a blow against them that won’t be forgotten.

And who can say what the power of a slow-blooming true love can conquer...perhaps even death itself.

Shana

Visit Shana's website at: http://www.shanaabe.com/

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Coming July, August, and September, the Bone Island Trilogy by Heather Graham!

Key West, Caya Hueso, to the original Spanish explorers, was riddled with the bones of long, gone native Americans, and thus it came with a mysterious history of the  dead . . . .Still fantastically haunted, time has only brought more bizarre history--and ghosts!--the island. Heather Graham brings you to this mecca of water sports, eccentricities,history, and fantasy in the Bone Island Trilogy, with stories based on the some of the richest--and most bizarre--events to have taken place down in the "Conch Republic!"



Click here to view the video featuring Heather Graham

Click the image to watch the video!

Visit YouTube to discover the strange story of Carl Tanzler, AKA Count Von Cosel, and the love that he carried to--and out of--the grave! America called it one of the country's greatest love stories, not being apprised of exactly what Tanzler was doing with the remains of his beloved for years . . . and years!


Ghost Shadow

 

GHOST SHADOW | In Stores June 29 | MIRA Books mass market | ISBN-13:978-0-7783-2791-2

There are those who walk among us who are no longer alive, but not yet crossed over. They seek retribution…vengeance…to warn. Among the living, few intuit their presence.
Katie MacDonald is one who can.

As she’s drawn deeper and deeper into a gruesome years-old murder, whispered warnings from a spectral friend become more and more insistent. But Katie must uncover the truth: could David Beckett really be guilty of his fiancée’s murder?

Worse – the body count’s rising on the Island of Bones, and the dead seem to be reenacting some macabre tableaux from history. The danger is increasing by the moment – especially as Katie finds herself irresistibly drawn to David, who may be responsible for more than just one killing….

GHOST NIGHT | In Stores July 27| MIRA Books mass market | ISBN-13:978-0-7783-2815-5
A slasher movie turns real when two young actors are brutally murdered on a remote island film set. Their severed heads and arms are posed in macabre homage to a nineteenth-century pirate massacre.
Two years later, Vanessa Loren is drawn back to South Bimini by a documentary being made about the storied region. Filmmaker Sean O’Hara aches to see how the unsolved crime haunts her…and Sean knows more than a little about ghosts.

Lured by visions of a spectral figurehead, Vanessa discovers authentic pirate treasures that only deepen the mystery. Are the murders the work of modern-day marauders, the Bermuda Triangle or a deadly paranormal echo of the island’s violent history? As Vanessa and Sean grow closer, the killer prepares to resume the slaughter…unless the dead can intervene.

GHOST MOON | In Stores August 31| MIRA Books mass market | ISBN-13:978-0-7783-2796-7

Reclusive collector Cutter Merlin is seldom seen in Key West—lately, not at all. Officer Liam Beckett visits Merlin’s curious house and discovers the gentleman in his study. In his death grip: a volume of occult lore and a reliquary. His eyes are wide with fright, his mouth a horrified rictus where spiders now dwell.
Kelsey Donovan returns to the old house to catalog her estranged grandfather’s collection of artifacts and antiquities, vowing to see his treasures divested properly. But she cannot ignore the sense that she’s being watched, the reports of malevolent black figures, the pervasive smell of death.

Is the Merlin house haunted, even cursed? Liam knows well that some ghost stories are true and he swears to protect Kelsey. But there are forces at work for whom one more life is a pittance to pay for their deepest desire.…

 

Friday, May 7, 2010

Announcement: Tina Donahue BLOG contest winner

CONTEST WINNER: Christine H - please email Tina Donahue at tina@tinadonahue.com to confirm your prize!!

Congrats and enjoy.

Tra

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Getting Rid of Those Pesky Clothes by Tina Donahue

**Intended for Mature Audiences***
Post a comment for your chance to win one of Tina's Books!

Choice of Prizes
1. Adored - ebook
2. Deep, Dark, Delicious - ebook
3. Close to Perfect - mass market paperback
4. Bad Boys with Red roses - trade paperback
5. Take My Breath Away - trade paperback
For US residents, pick any. For overseas, choose one of the ebooks.

Featured Blog Post - Getting Rid of Those Pesky Clothes

As an author of smoking hot romances, I’m always confronted with the first time the hero and heroine have to shed their clothes and melt into each other’s arms.

That can prove problematic. After all, up until that point I’ve created a fever-pitch of interest for the couple to do the deed. However, it’s a let down if clothes are flying everywhere and they simply do it.

So how do we authors make shedding the garments interesting?

Well, there’s always the striptease with the heroine trying to drive the hero nuts, but that can become clichéd and I’ve always found it a bit contrived. Every time I’ve tried to write it, I have trouble keeping a straight face. However, it’s very much in character to have an Alpha male ordering his lady to undress.


Here’s a blurb (for background) and an excerpt from my newest release Lush Velvet Nights to show you what I mean.


BLURB:

Lush Velvet Nights - When wanton desires & love demand all…

During the day, Adriana’s a lonely corporate heiress, helming a supermarket empire. At night, she hires escorts, scripting provocative fantasies of kidnapping, lust, submission and endless longing. It’s all she has to excite her until she meets Nathan Wynn. Tall, blond and muscular—like a modern-day Viking—Nathan’s a labor relations attorney representing Adriana’s union employees. His imposing presence intensifies her basest desires. When he protects her from an escort he believes is an attacker, she knows he’s wonderfully dominant and unrestrained. Fascinated by Adriana’s underlying sensuality, Nathan brings her to his secluded mountain estate, determined she submit fully to his hunger. At a gentleman’s club, he makes certain she denies him nothing. Engaging in a seductive sexual journey, Nathan’s caught off-guard by his stunning need for Adriana. An attraction he fears because of past events in his life. A growing emotional connection she will not let him deny.

EXCERPT: (In this scene, Nathan has just ordered Adriana to undress)

Her expression grew preoccupied. Eyes unfocused, she lost her fuck you expression and shrugged out of her suit jacket. It fell to the floor with a gentle rustle. Casually, she stepped well around the garment, which brought her to the safety of the closest shadow and one of the chairs.

Nathan allowed it. She’d soon learn there’d be nowhere to hide in this room.

Her hand gripped the top of the chair for support as she lifted her left foot to remove her high heel.

“The heels stay,” he directed, his firm voice cutting through the space separating them. “So do the garter and stockings.”

Slowly, her foot sank to the floor. A moment passed and another as she remained perfectly still. He saw her inner turmoil, hoping she wouldn’t cave to propriety and her need for control. He wanted her vulnerable, uncivilized, completely his. He swallowed hard. His palms began to sweat.

With a barely audible sigh, she moved, lowering her head to hide her face. She opened her skirt’s side zip and glanced up. Her eyes shifted to his, much as they would to a captor…to see her effect on him, to see what his next command might be.

Nathan’s shoulders were too tense, hurting from the uncertainty of the last few seconds and his forced restraint. He kept the pain from his voice. “Take it off.”

Once past her hips, the skirt glided over her knees and calves to the floor.

He stared at the tails of her silk blouse. The sapphire color looked deeper, richer against her naked thighs. Her garters evoked images of harlots in the 1920s, their plush bodies imprisoned and shaped by cruel corsets, their shapely legs covered by black stockings, their intimate areas bared, inviting a man’s touch, yielding to it.

His fingers curled into fists. Blood collected in his groin, glutting his shaft. Tormented at her slow, indecisive pace, he fought to take a full breath. Faster, his mind warned.

Headstrong, she drew this out as she had when opening his gift. The hem of her blouse shimmied as she unfastened the buttons. One, two, three—at last, the garment hung opened, revealing the flat crescent of her navel and the front clasp of her satiny black bra. She slipped the blouse off her right shoulder and her left. With her shoulders drawn together, her breasts plumped over the bra cups.

Nathan advanced a step.

Adriana’s movements stalled, not allowing the blouse to fall to the floor with her other clothing. Her eyes lifted. In them, he saw stark indecency and bestial greed to match his own.

“Go on,” he ordered. His voice sounded stiff, unnatural.

The blouse floated to the floor. She faced him wearing only her underwear, garter belt, stockings and heels.

“I want to see your cunt first,” he said.

Her hands remained on the bra’s clasp, sudden shyness dancing in her eyes. Bared breasts were one thing. A naked mound represented true nudity and availability to a man’s organ.

The tips of her fingers trailed down her torso. Her softly rounded belly—the perfect pillow for his head—shook prettily at her touch. Reaching her panties, she eased her thumbs beneath the elastic and leaned against the chair for support as she pulled them down. In doing so, she’d also turned to the side, exposing her naked ass.

A muscle in Nathan’s right pec jumped at the sight of her luscious buttocks, plump with youth. He tore his attention from them to stare at her skimpy thong. The narrow end covering her anus now hung between her thighs. The crotch soon followed, its panel dark and wet, catching the pale light she’d unknowing moved into. Scented with her musk, the silk glistened with her arousal.

Determined to smell it, Nathan stepped closer and inhaled deeply. Her flowery, earthy fragrance set his heart to hammering at a speed he knew no doctor could sanction. Damn near dizzy, he watched Adriana toss her thong on her other clothes and straighten.

The dark, delicate curls between her legs spoke to the male in him, plumping his balls, hardening his cock. Her defenseless pussy captivated. Moments passed before he realized she’d lifted her hands to her bra.

He looked in time to see the cups parting, falling away from her breasts, the pliant mounds large enough to fill his hands easily. Her coffee-colored nipples complemented her olive skin, the areolas wrinkled from stimulation and possibly the cold radiating off the windowpanes. He wanted to ask if she was chilled and thought better of it. In a few minutes, she’d have all the warmth she needed.

Her bra fell from her fingers onto the pile of clothes at her feet.

Nathan’s eyes lifted. “Your hair.” Helpless to alter the tension in his voice, he continued, “Take it down. It’s the only part of you I’m going to allow to be free.”


AND THEN SHE UNDRESSES HIM. . .

The deep music of his voice, his undeniable virility called to her so strongly it pushed away everything else. Again, she forgot the neighbors. Readily, she dismissed the fire and the outside world. Her hands didn’t know where to go first, how to start. She felt as she had as a child, delighted by Joe’s special Christmases. Always he’d have a mound of presents for her to open, each wrapped beautifully, the boxes containing gifts she really wanted, the ones her parents hadn’t thought to buy. With so many choices and so much to surprise her, she hadn’t known where to begin.

She touched Nathan’s belt buckle and decided it should wait. Initially, she would bare his chest, followed by his cock. Her fingers fumbled with his top shirt button only to fall away and go to his cuffs, thinking she should tend to them first.

Shit. She’d forgotten he wore cufflinks. Breathing too hard, she pressed the metal ends of the first one together only to have it snag on a loose thread as she pulled it through the opening. “Damn.” She twisted and tugged it.

“Just rip the fucking thing off.” He paused to swallow. “I don’t care.”

“Got it.” She tossed it toward her pile of clothes and missed. The onyx-and-gold piece tumbled across the floor on a sequence of tiny clinks. The second cufflink bounced on her skirt. Hurriedly, she shoved his buttons through their holes. A shiver of delight tore through her at the thought of his muscular torso. She pushed the shirt inside-out over his shoulders and down his arms, halting at his elbows. Adriana gaped. “Oh my god,” she whispered, staring at his tattoo.

It covered his entire torso on the left side, from below the waistband of his pants up to his shoulder and down his arm, stopping at his elbow. A solid black, the design consisted of a series of connected and flowing geometric patterns—leaping flames, what looked to be the sun’s rays, swirls, long lines and bold curves. Never in her life had Adriana seen anything as amazing.

“Not what you expected?” he asked.

Surprised at the hesitation in his voice, she met his eyes. “Wow.”

He offered a tentative grin. “You like?”

“Oh god, yes. This is freaking awesome.” Her nails traveled the striking composition, taking a detour to the sharp peak of his nipple, the contours of his defined abs, the depression of his navel, the silky brown hairs swirling around it and dipping beneath his waistband. Whimpering like a chocoholic coveting a bag of Ghirardelli squares, she decided touch wasn’t enough to satisfy her scaling appetite. Palms on his ass, she traced the design with the tip of her tongue, intentionally marking him, leaving her scent.

Rather than having the hero/heroine just tossing off their clothes and getting right to it, I like to ratchet up the action with a smoldering scene like the ones above. J



Lush Velvet Nights is available from Ellora’s Cave

Buy link:
http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-8298-50-lush-velvet-nights.aspx

Website/blog/YouTube video trailer for Lush Velvet Nights: http://www.tinadonahue.com/

Scavenger hunt: http://www.tinadonahue.com/?p=550

Monthly contest: http://www.tinadonahue.com/contest/

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Guest Blog: Kat Martin on writing trilogies

I never used to write trilogies. To begin with, you have to think up three stories all at once instead of creating them one at a time. Since I am a plot-driven writer, that posed a problem. It was hard enough to come up with one set of characters solving one or two (counting the subplot) sets of problems. I couldn’t imagine coming up with three to six sets of problems before I even started writing book number one.
Even in a trilogy, I do my best to write books that stand alone, meaning anyone can ready the books in any order. I think that is important, since readers often buy them out of sequence.

I like the idea that readers get to stay in touch with the people they have met in previous books, but as a writer, it requires a lot of extra work. I keep copious notes on who’s who and where they live and what their houses look like in each of the three different stories, then refer back to the lists when, for example, people from book number two visit people from books number one and so on.

And then, of course, the plots are often interwoven so notes must be made in that regard, as well. So you begin to see why my lazier side likes single title books and not linked books, though now I’m afraid my brain has started to think in threes so there are more trilogies on the way.
In September of 2009, ROYAL’S BRIDE was released, the first in my new Bride Trilogy. These have come out fairly close together, the tale of three brothers. REESES’S BRIDE came out in January 2010 and RULE’S BRIDE will be out at the end of April.

Kat Martin
http://katbooks.com/index.html
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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Rule's Bride teaser! by Kat Martin

Rule's Bride teaser!


Unrepentant rake Rule Dewar can't wait to take his stunning bride to bed.
Unfortunately the only thing Violet wants is to end their sham of a marriage.

Don't miss Rule's Bride
http://katbooks.com/index.html

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Learn more about RULE'S BRIDE by Kat Martin


About the book, RULE'S BRIDE by Kat Martin...

Unrepentant rake Rule Dewar is living the good life when a most surprising event occurs—he falls in love with his wife.
Rule's Bride is Rule & Violet's story. After their strategic “marriage of commerce” three years ago, Rule quite forgot about Violet Griffin, the teenage heiress to a Boston manufacturing fortune. He simply spoke his vows, took over her father’s business and returned to England to resume his usual pursuits: high-priced wine, high-stakes gambling and high-born women.

Yet when Violet, now a sophisticated woman, unexpectedly appears at Rule's London townhouse, husbandly duties no longer seem so odious—he can't wait to take his stunning bride to their marriage bed. Violet, however, is not so easily led: she has her own ideas and is seeking an annulment to marry another. But as Rule attempts to win her over, someone else is determined to frame him for murder and keep him out of the way for good…
http://katbooks.com/index.html