Enter the Holiday Spirit with Share the Love and Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft (book tour and charity contest)

ShareTheLove_TourBanner

Its Share the Love…the third time’s the charm with Sydney Croft and her story, Three the Hard Way!  The holidays are a time of joy and giving. Riptide Publishing and authors Jane Davitt, Kelly Jamieson, and Sydney Croft have combined their efforts in the Share The Love 2014 Collection for Charity.

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Check out Sydney Croft’s story, Three the Hard Way and then read the details how YOU can help choose the LGBTQ Charity to receive the 2015 collection proceeds! This year’s Share the Love collection Charity is It Gets Better organization. Pick up a copy of Share the Love 2014 and get a head start on the holiday giving,, and then help out your favorite local LGBTQ charity as well!

Three the Hard Way Blurb:

This title is part of the ACRO universe.

Three the Hard Way coverLovers Taggart Brody and Justice McKinney possess special abilities that make them valuable to agencies who employ—or enslave—people with extraordinary talents. When tragedy tears them apart, Justice finds purpose working for the good guys: ACRO, the super-secret Agency for Covert Rare Operatives. But he never forgets Taggart or the past they once shared.

Heartbroken, Taggart runs from who he is . . . right into the arms of Ian Bridges. But Ian, battling his own demons, betrays Tag to the terrorist organization Itor. After months of torture, Tag manages to escape, but kills an ACRO agent in the process.

With nowhere left to turn, Tag disappears into the Alaskan wilderness, but it’s only a matter of time before his enemies track him down. He reaches out to Justice, and somehow Ian finds him too, hoping to right his wrongs. With ACRO and Itor both bearing down, the three men must figure out how to forgive, how to work together, and how to love each other—or the coming battle will destroy them all.

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Each year, Riptide Publishing releases a holiday collection in support of an LGBTQ charity. Twenty percent of all proceeds from the Share the Love collection will be donated to the It Gets Better Project.Share the Love Bundle

This collection would not be possible without the talent and generosity of its authors, who have brought us the following holiday stories:

• Three of Hearts by Kelly Jamieson (releasing November 17)
• Lucky Strike by Jane Davitt (releasing November 24)
• Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft (releasing December 1)

About Sydney Croft:

Sydney Croft is the alter-ego of two published authors who came together to blend their very different writing interests into adventurous tales of erotic paranormal fiction. Together, they developed a world where people with extraordinary abilities, like the power to control storms, could live and work with others like them. The series has been described as “Erotica meets the X-Men,” and is unique in its own “erotic super hero romance” niche.

The authors behind Sydney Croft live in different states and communicate almost entirely through email, though they often get together for conferences and book signings.
Stephanie Tyler
Larissa Ione

ShareTheLove_TourBanner

Contest and Giveaway:
Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a $25 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 7. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

Every year, Riptide Publishing releases a Holiday charity bundle with themed stories by bestselling authors. Twenty percent of the net proceeds of each bundle goes to a charity that serves the LGBTQ population.

Royalties from Riptide’s 2013 Home for the Holidays charity collection have raised over $14,000 in nine months for the Ali Forney Center, and continue to yield several hundred dollars per month in royalties donations. Our 2014 Share the Love charity collection will be raising money for the It Gets Better Project, and we hope to report even better results than in 2013.

For 2015, the theme will be Holiday Surprises, and we’ll have stories by HelenKay Dimon, Christine d’Abo, and Marie Sexton. But we don’t have a charity yet.

We need YOUR help to choose the 2015 charity.

Nominate your favorite LGBTQ charity below and Riptide might choose it as the 2015 Holiday bundle charity!

The chosen charity for 2015 will immediately receive a $5,000 advance against royalties (paid in 2015 on announcement of the award recipient). The charity will continue to receive 20% of all lifetime net sales income from the 2015 holiday charity collection, in the form of a monthly royalty check.

Three honorable mention charities will each receive a $250 donation.

Click here to nominate a charity. Both supporters and representatives of a charity can submit a nomination.

And now for December and the Week Ahead At Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

It’s December!

Snowflakes, Snow Angels, and Icicles…Oh My!

The end of the year is coming and December is full of holidays, family, love, and ok…tons of stuff to do!  Riptide’s Share the Love Charity Contest continues.  Look for the link on the Share the Love cover and click to vote for your LGBTQ charity of choice!

There is so much going on that I had to slide our November Summary of Reviews and Best of Lists into the middle of the week!  Its been that crazy!

Here is a sneak peak at some of those covers sure to be on our November and, well probably, Best of 2014 lists.  In no particular order:

Then the Stars Fall coverThe Eskimo Slugger coverSand and Gold and RuinSemper Fi cover

 

 

 

 

 

TheCircusoftheDamned_500x750Cutting Out coverSpaghetti Western coverWholehearted cover

What were some of your favorite covers last month?

Winner Announcements:

Winner of Haley Walsh’s contest is Peaches

Winner of Keira Andrews “Semper Fi” contest is Jeffrey Owens

 

Congratulations!  Happy Reading

 

Now for the Week Ahead:

Monday, December 1:

  • Excerpt Tour: A Spartan Love by Kayla Jameth (contest)
  • Tina Klemke’s Shifting Weight Book tour and Contest
  • Groom of Convenience by Vicktor Alexander Book Tour and Contest
  • Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft – Share the Love Tour and Contest

Tuesday, December 2:

  • Book Blast: Murder in Torbaydos by Ian James Krender‏ (tour and contest)
  • Kayla Jameth ‘A Spartan Love‘ Book Tour and Contest
  • A MelanieM Review: Work in Progress by John Inman
  • A MelanieM Review: Craberry Pi by Lee Brazil

Wednesday, December 3:

  • The Chase and The Catch Blog Tour‏ by AF Henley
  • A Sammy Review: Nothing Ventured by Jay Northcote
  • A MelanieM Review: Fever Pitch (Love Lessons #2) by Heidi Cullinan
  • November Summary of Reviews and Best of Lists

Thursday, December 4:

  • Derrick Knight – Miracle on Mistletoe Lane Virtual Book Tour and contest
  • Out of CTRL by SA Welsh – Exclusive excerpt tour and contest
  • A Mika Review:  Teaching Professor Grayson by Kade Boehme & Allison Cassatta
  • A PaulB Review: Desert Foxe by Haley Walsh

Friday, December 5:

  • Finding Matt by JD Ruskin Book Blast and contest
  • Love Lane Book Tours: Jack Frost by  Meredith Russell(contest)
  • ZA Maxfield’s Hell On Wheels Book Tour and contest
  • A MelanieM Review:  Darach’s Cariad by RJ Scott

Saturday, December 6:

A MelanieM Review: The Merman and the Barbarian Pirate by Kay Berresford

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A PaulB Review:Unjustified Claims (Hidden Wolves #3) by Kaje Harper

Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars

Unjustified Claims coverHaving run away from his home pack in Michigan, Brandt Davis spends his time in his wolf form. Winding up following a wolf pack in Minnesota, he stumbles upon an injured man, Ethan Sjulstad. Ethan, having tumbled off a cliff, thinks he must be suffering from delusions when a large wolf and a handsome, naked man come to help. Together, they must try to heal each others’ wounds, both physical and emotional.

This is the third book (with two intervening novellas) of the Hidden Wolves series by Kaje Harper. While it could be read as a stand-alone, it is recommended you read the other books in order to pick up on some of the finer details of the plot lines.

Brandt, a werewolf from Michigan, travels west after fleeing from his home pack after his stash of gay porn is found by his alpha. Spending his time in his wolf form to try to forget his troubles, he follows a pack of wolves in the Boundary Water area of Minnesota. Hearing a scream, he goes to investigates. He finds man with a tree branch through his leg. The man tries to scare the wolf away to no avail. The wolf then brings the man his backpack, which had fallen out of reach. Seeing the man struggle, Brandt decides to shift and help the man in his human form.

Ethan, hiking to get his mind away from having his motel vandalized by homophobes, believes he must be out of his mind with delusion when first a large wolf, then a naked man come to his rescue. As Brandt helps get Ethan to safety, the two talk as to how each of them wound up in their situations. After successfully getting help for Ethan, Brandt decides to help Ethan out getting his hotel into shape while he is recovering from his injuries. The two begin to grow closer during the process.

I loved the interplay between the two main characters. Having meet not in the best of circumstances, they help each other deal with their problems. Brandt struggles with a particular fetish that he favors. Ethan shows his that it is not only alright but encourages Brandt. Ethan’s spying is understood considering that Brandt is trying to escape from a “cult” that dislikes gay members. Ethan only wants to protect the man he is growing to love.

I also enjoyed visits from Simon and Paul along with Aaron and Zach, the main characters in the previous two books as well as Paul and Megan who are spunky human mates in this little werewolf pack.  I would  recommend this story and the series, but make sure you read them in the order they were written.

The cover art by Winterheart Design has one of the cabins of Ethan’s motel with the images of Ethan and Brandt above it. The models are perfect depictions of what I would think the couple would look like. It also fits in with the motif of the previous book’s covers.

Sales Links:   MLR Press            All Romance eBooks          amazon              Unjustified Claim

Book Details:
Ebook, 398 pages
Published September 19, 2014 by MLR Press
Edition: English

Series: Hidden Wolves:
Unacceptable Risk (Hidden Wolves #1)
Unsettled Interlude (Hidden Wolves #1.15)
Unexpected Demands (Hidden Wolves #2)
Unwanted Appeal (Hidden Wolves #2.5)
Unjustified Claims (Hidden Wolves #3)

Share in the Love Collection Tour with Jane Davitt’s Lucky Strike (charity tour and contest)

ShareTheLove_TourBanner

It’s Share the Love Collection Tour – Part Deux!  The holidays are a time of joy and giving.  Riptide Publishing and authors Jane Davitt, Kelly Jamieson, and Sydney Croft have combined their efforts in the Share The Love 2014 Collection for Charity.

Check out Jane Davitt’s story, Lucky Strike and then read the details how YOU can help choose the LGBTQ Charity to receive the 2015 collection proceeds! This year’s Share the Love collection Charity is It Gets Better organization.  Pick up a copy of Share the Love 2014 and get a head start on the holiday giving,, and then help out your favorite local LGBTQ charity as well!

Lucky Strike by Jane DavittLuckyStrike_200x300

Death’s a heartbeat away, but love is even closer.

Flying a traveler to Leap celebrations on the luxury planet Crestal is no problem for intrepid partners Jake and Rill, even if they have to navigate a deadly meteor shower to get there. But their fresh-faced, privileged passenger is carrying more than Leap gifts: Lian has a message to deliver, treachery and murder to avenge, and a killer close on his heels.

Lian thought he was ready for independence from his overbearing extended family, but his first solo trip off-planet has landed him in a nightmare of deadly intrigue. Though he’s devastated by betrayal, and no longer able to tell friend from foe, he’s fascinated by the gruff pilot and scorchingly handsome first mate who’ve become his reluctant rescuers.

With a dazzling fortune at stake and the fate of the United Protectorate of Planets in their hands, there’s no time for the three men to fall in love. But with their future measured in hours, crew and passenger may have just enough time to discover that three can become one, and that together they are strong enough to beat any odds.

Each year, Riptide Publishing releases a holiday collection in support of an LGBTQ charity. Twenty percent of all proceeds from the  Share the Love collection  will be donated to the  It Gets Better Project.

This collection would not be possible without the talent and generosity of its authors, who have brought us the following holiday stories:

• Three of Hearts  by Kelly Jamieson (releasing November 17)
• Lucky Strike  by Jane Davitt (releasing November 24)
• Three the Hard Way  by Sydney Croft (releasing December 1)

About Jane Davitt:

Jane Davitt is English, and has been living in Canada with her husband, two children, and two cats, since 1997. Writing and reading are her main occupations but if she ever had any spare time she might spend it gardening, walking, or doing cross stitch. She’s recently taken up yoga and loves discovering her ability to bend.

Jane has been writing since 2002 and wishes she’d started earlier. She is a huge fan of SF, fantasy, erotica, and mystery novels and has a tendency to get addicted to TV shows that get cancelled all too soon.

She owns over 4,000 books, rarely gives any away, but is happy to loan them, and is of the firm opinion that there is no such thing as ‘too many books’.

Share the Love Bundle

Contest and Giveaway:

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for a $25 Riptide Publishing store credit. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 7. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.

(If you can’t or would rather not include this whole text, here is the link to our website. Feel free to include as much or as little as you would like: http://riptidepublishing.com/help-us-choose-charity)

Help us choose a charity!

Every year, Riptide Publishing releases a Holiday charity bundle with themed stories by bestselling authors. Twenty percent of the net proceeds of each bundle goes to a charity that serves the LGBTQ population.

Royalties from Riptide’s 2013 Home for the Holidays charity collection have raised over $14,000 in nine months for the Ali Forney Center, and continue to yield several hundred dollars per month in royalties donations. Our 2014 Share the Love charity collection will be raising money for the It Gets Better Project, and we hope to report even better results than in 2013.

 

For 2015, the theme will be Holiday Surprises, and we’ll have stories by HelenKay Dimon, Christine d’Abo, and Marie Sexton. But we don’t have a charity yet.

We need YOUR help to choose the 2015 charity.

Nominate your favorite LGBTQ charity below and Riptide might choose it as the 2015 Holiday bundle charity!

The chosen charity for 2015 will immediately receive a $5,000 advance against royalties (paid in 2015 on announcement of the award recipient). The charity will continue to receive 20% of all lifetime net sales income from the 2015 holiday charity collection, in the form of a monthly royalty check.

Three honorable mention charities will each receive a $250 donation.

Click here to nominate a charity. Both supporters and representatives of a charity can submit a nomination.

ShareTheLove_TourBanner

Barb, A Zany Old Lady Review –Third Eye by Rick R. Reed

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Third Eye coverA riveting, nail-biting, thought-provoking, frightening thriller, this story is much more than an M/M romance—it’s a brilliant tale worthy of recognition on the NY Times Bestsellers List.

Cayce D’Amico is just a regular guy raising his seven-year-old son on his own, holding down a job as a waiter at the local diner in the economically-repressed town of Fawcettville, Pennsylvania. He’s young, gay, divorced, and totally focused on his son, Luke. One evening, when he realizes Luke is no longer in his back yard, he sets out to find him just as a thunderstorm hits the area. At the edge of the woods, he’s struck by a broken limb as lightning strikes the tree next to him. Luke is okay, but Cayce isn’t.

Waking in the hospital, he finds it odd that he knows something personal about the aide who touches his arm, and next, he’s struck with images that he soon learns are from a missing girl—one who Cayce can see is dead. It happens again the next day—this time with visions of another kidnap victim. Frightened, but knowing that if it was his son who was missing he’d want help, he goes to the home of the latest victim to offer assistance in finding her but is promptly turned away. Later that night he receives a call from the mother of the first victim, who claims the other mother called her in warning, but that she’s willing to listen to him. The two set out to find the girl, following Cayce’s visions.

Dave Newton is a reporter, if you can call it that in this small town of very little news. A native of England, he followed his lover here years ago—a lover who left him here with only the company of a bottle and a handful of drugs to get by. He’s kicked the drugs but still toys with the booze occasionally—anything to get through the boredom of his life. He’s intrigued by the story of the man who was hit with the limb and when he went to the hospital to say hello, he became even more intrigued by the man himself. Cayce is a nice guy, one who could possibly thaw his heart if he allowed it. It’s Dave who Cayce turns to when he and the mother of the missing girl find her grave. And it’s Dave who offers a shoulder for Cayce to lean on as the story develops, and Cayce is hounded by the press and shunned by the police.

It’s also Dave who supports and assists Cayce as he tries to solve the most important mystery of his life when someone close to him is taken. And when the two rush headlong into an exciting, nail-biting search they get results, just not the results they were looking for.

In this story, the author leads us on an emotional journey fraught with danger and more ups and downs and hairpin turns than an out-of-control eighteen-wheeler. It’s completely different from any of his other works and absolutely brilliant in its execution. Seriously, this ranks right up there with any of the world-renowned mystery writers of our time. The complexity of the storytelling, the attention to detail and the hold-your-breath plotline make this story outstanding. The author keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with flashbacks via Cayce’s visions alternating with scenes of what’s happening in real time to Cayce, and then scenes of the kidnappers and their victims, telling us just enough in each chapter to make the move to the next chapter vital to the reader’s need to breathe. Seriously, this book is very difficult to put down!

The romance in this story is secondary to the major plot with no explicit sex scenes. The attraction between Dave and Cayce develops as more of a true support of one partner for another with some kissing and handholding rather than the hot and heavy sex “on page” that could have been portrayed but would have detracted from the core story.

I can’t recommend this story highly enough. To be honest, I’m not a person who normally reads thrillers, and I never watch horror movies unless I’m forced to do so, and even then I peek through my fingers. I desperately wished I could peek through my fingers at some points in this story, but I was compelled to keep going and I’m so glad I did. The ending was all I had hoped it would be, and the possibility for a happy future for Dave, Cayce, and Luke was set in place. All is well in my world. Don’t miss the chance to read this book.

Caution: This book contains graphic violence and hetero rape with some scenes through flashback and some in real time.

Cover art by Aaron Anderson. Cover depicts a bright light superimposed over the figures of a man and a clock. The light may have been meant to illustrate the visions the man had, and the clock would symbolize time running out. Although I can understand that, I did not find the cover particularly attractive or attention-getting.

Sales Links:               amazon     buy it here

Book Details:

ebook, 2nd Edition, 266 pages
Published November 11th 2014 by DSP Publications (first published January 2008)
ISBN139781632163400

A MelanieM Review: Sand and Ruin and Gold by Alexis Hall

Rating: 5 stars out of 5 (for story and cover)

Once upon a time . . . that’s how the old stories always begin.

And so this one begins, in a land both foreign and familiar, it’s a tale of princes, and merfolk and love…of a sort.

Once upon a time there was a king of a fallen kingdom. He was just and he was beloved. Or so the numbers said. One day, he gathered together the greatest, wisest minds in all the land—not sorcerers, but scientists—and he bade them fashion him a son. A prince. A perfect prince to embody his father’s legacy. 

Sand and Gold and RuinBut as fate would have it, nothing ever turns out as planned and the golden perfect prince had other ideas for his future. After gazing upon the dances of the mer in a performance, our prince runs off to join the circus, the Cirque de la Mer.  Once there the prince trained the merfolk,  he performed with them, and  thought he was happy…for a year.

Time brought strange thoughts and emotions to the prince the closer he got to the merfolk. Then Nerites arrives, a mesmerizing merman who refused to be trained or tamed.  Nerites was something far more than the prince ever expected.  Nerites was savage and unknown.

How does the tale end?  Ah, there’s the rub.  For every prince, there exists a beast, and for every love, there exists a forever heartbreak.  Sand and Ruin and Gold has them all.

Sand and Ruin and Gold hearkens back to the olden stories.  Not the comforting ” Disneyfied” fairytales but those of Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.  Here the darkness and unknown reign supreme, not happy endings or light.  Less a tale of romance, this beautifully written short story builds an atmosphere of  creeping foreboding, a sense that not everything is as it seems.  The poetic nature of the narrative combined with an imagery that will enchant, then leave you haunted by the possibilities, make Sand and Ruin and Gold by Alexis Hall a short story that refuses to be limited by category or trope.

The feeling of something just off kilter is already present at the beginning.  Hall’s prince isn’t born, he’s a genetically perfected young man, created to be the ideal heir to a “good” king who resides over a fallen land.  The clues and telling phrases are slipped in sparingly at first, then in ever increasing numbers. As new descriptions of the circus and the shows appear, a far different picture emerges from our original assumptions of the merfolk and the circumstances at the Circus.  And along with it comes the feeling one gets when the hairs rise off your arm when frightened or the queasiness that originates in your stomach when it dawns on you that something you thought was happily normal or ordinary turns out to be fearfully, horrifically wrong.

Alexis Hall understands how to build a powerfully evocative story, one that runs more along the lines of those classics passed from bard to bard, told around fires in great halls and forests alike.  Whether those bards be from the past or perhaps even our future, that is but one more chilling aspect of this story, a tale that exists in the mists and ocean eddies of the dark seas of this unknown world. But its Hall’s stylistically vivid and powerful narrative with its lush descriptions that makes this story so stunning, so poignant.  This is how it starts out:

“I must have been very young when I saw the mermaids at the Cirque de la Mer because it was the nurse who took me and her place in my life was soon surrendered to tutors. I don’t think my father ever found out.  He would not have approved.

The day is little more than a sensory haze, of pastel children, the laughter of strangers, and the burn of salt and chemicals at the back of my throat.

The mermaids, though.  They are as vivid as stained glass, even now.”

Told from the prince’s pov, we feel his assumptions of his life and the circus fall slowly away as comprehension and understanding arrive building block by building block as events unfold around him.  It is a tale of deep love faced amidst horrifying truths.  One reading will not be enough to capture all the incredible and terrifying moments as sudden realization, and insight sets in.

And then there is that ending, the one that will refuse to let you go.  Its in the words and feelings that emerge, and the tears that will run down your face as you try to decide the implications of words strung like pearls, luminescent and beyond value.  An ending that will send you back to the beginning of the story and start this tale once more.

I highly recommend this story to all readers.  This is a story that should be on everyones shelf, whether it be made of wood or eReader.  This is one of Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Best of 2014 as is its cover.

Cover Artist:  Simone.  The artwork for Sand and Ruin and Gold is every bit as lush and haunting as the story itself. One of the best covers of the year.

Sales Links:    Riptide Publishing           All Romance (ARe)        amazon          Sand and Ruin and Gold

Book Details:

ebook, 39 pages
Published September 22nd 2014 by Riptide Publishing
ISBN139781626492318
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://riptidepublishing.com/title

Love’s in the Air with Renee George and Kiss My Ash! (book tour and contest)

KMABanner300x250

Book Name: Kiss My Ash
Goodreads Link
Author Name: Renee George

Author Bio:

Multi-published, best-selling author Renee George has been a factory worker, an army medic, a nurse, a website designer, a small press editor, an artist, and a teacher, but writing stories about sexy alpha men is the BEST job she’s ever had. When she turned thirty, she went back to college and earned her BA in creative writing. She has been married to the love of her life, a wonderful man who supports in every way, for over half her life (and that is a VERY long time!). She happily lives in a small, Midwest town with her husband, two needy dogs and a very independent cat. Anything else you want to know, just ask. She’ll give you all the nitty gritty dirt.

Author Contact:

Publisher: Ellora’s CaveKiss my Ash_FINAL_HiRes

Sales Links: http://www.ellorascave.com/kiss-my-ash.html

Kiss My Ash Blurb:

A werewolf who’s hairless in full shift.

A water sprite who can’t hold his shape at the slightest touch of water.

An ash-tree nymph with a black thumb who kills every bit of flora in her vicinity.

That’s Fortunate, Missouri, in a nutshell—the town for abnormal paranormals. Nymph Romy, however, can one-up them all—her particular flaw is killing her. But thanks to a possible love spell, the wolf and the water sprite could be Romy’s key to cheating death. And the three misfits may find that even imperfect creatures can still create a sexy, loving, perfect union.

Inside Scoop: Sol, Romy and Lucien love each other—emotionally, spiritually and physically. Which means both ménage and male/male action. You lucky reader, you.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Categories: Bisexual, Erotica, Fantasy, Fiction, Menage/Poly, Paranormal, Romance

Ellora’s Cave Publishing note:  “Kiss My Ass” Excerpt is only for those who are 18 years of age and older: By reading further, you state that you are 18 years of age or above:

An Excerpt From: KISS MY ASH
Copyright © RENEE GEORGE, 2014
All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

Mathias was a korrigan, a fairy dwarf, and to his detriment, he’d been born male. An abomination amongst the korrigans, who were always female. Even his own mother had wanted him dead, but you can’t kill an immortal.

When he finally strolled out from behind the counter, his height no more than four feet, he held a red clay pot filled to the brim with a dark, loamy soil. Carefully, he handed it to Romy. “Here.”

She stepped away. “And what the hell am I supposed to do with dirt?” Maybe Mathias was tired of her bringing back dead plant after dead plant. It didn’t matter how much she watered the damn things, fed them, or even talked to them—none survived. She’d stopped giving them names after a while, awash with guilt and shame over each death.

His red eyes sparkled with excitement. “In this soil, there is a very special seed, my girl. Very rare and unique. I’m entrusting you with its care.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. There is no way in hell I’m taking on a ‘rare and unique’ plant. No. No. No. Give me a hardy shrub or weed. Better yet, maybe a cabbage. I won’t feel so bad about a cabbage when it croaks.”

Romy was a dryad; specifically, an ash tree nymph. Which meant, in theory, plants should flourish around her, but she couldn’t even keep her own tree alive. Her mother had postulated it had something to do with the sperm donor, aka Romy’s biological father, but the elder dryad had refused to say more on the subject. Tree nymphs were traditionally a love-’em-and-leave-’em race of females. They didn’t get involved with beings they considered no more than means to an end. Males born to tree nymphs always developed into the same race as the male halves of the couplings, while the females were always dryads.

Unfortunately, something had gone very wrong in the making of Romy. It hadn’t taken long after the dryad equivalent of puberty set in before her people had decided she was toxic.

She pushed the pot back to Mathias. “Uh-uh. You’ve seen my track record.”

When her “birth defect” had eventually started to affect the trees of her forest six months ago, Romy had been summarily kicked out by the other dryads. Of course, her people had called it a “long, extended respite” and sent her to the town of Fortunate, Missouri.

The moniker, over the years, had become a joke. The town had been named after the Fortunate Isles, also called the Isles of the Blessed, and had been used for more than two hundred years as a dumping ground for the “paranormally challenged”. Those who didn’t fit in with their own kind were sent to Fortunate to finish out their days. For immortals like Mathias, the end of days was a long-ass time.

For Romy, well…without a tree to tend, she wouldn’t live another year, the chlorophyll drying in her veins. The plants were test subjects for her, to see if she could sustain life. So far, they’d served only to help ease the ache of dying. But as far as tending plants and making them flourish, she failed constantly.

For Mathias to trust her with a “special” plant…no way was she taking on that kind of responsibility.

It was one thing to kill a common houseplant, but a whole ’nother thing to be responsible for something “rare and unique”. Was Mathias crazy? Romy shook her head again. “I can’t. Don’t you have an air plant or something? Hell, those suckers don’t even require watering.”

He patted her hands, his fingers soothing and gentle. “Ah, but my dear, I hope this may be the answer to—”

Mathias’ explanation was cut off by a barking baritone. “Ah, shit!”

Romy put the pot on the counter as she scooted around Mathias to see who the unfamiliar voice belonged to.

In the greenhouse area beyond the main shop, two long, well-muscled legs and a firm ass, all packaged in perfectly tight jeans, stood nestled between two rows of plants.

“Hello,” Romy said.

The owner of the legs and ass straightened, making him a foot taller than Romy. And oh goddess, did he have an upper body and face to go with the lower half—thickly muscled chest and broad shoulders crowned by a face with bow lips, a Roman nose and the brightest green eyes. All framed by messy, shiny black hair that fell about his shoulders. It was as if the gods had decided to create perfection.

Ridiculous though—they would never do that. But hot damn, they’d come pretty close.

“Uh, hello yourself,” he said back, dusting his palms against his jeans.

His really low voice, which would have better suited a grizzly bear, sent a humming through Romy that made her body sing.
“What have you done now, Lucien?” Mathias asked when he walked into the back. His presence was enough to break the harmony, and Romy snapped out of her new-guy-induced daze.

“What a great name.” She smiled. It made her feel foolish, but she couldn’t punch down the giddiness.

“It’s a name.” He shrugged then leaned over again, which gave Romy another clear shot of his fabulous ass. When he stood once more, he held a small plant, cradling the roots carefully. He looked at Mathias. “I broke the pot, but the fern is fine.”

Lucien had a slight accent, but Romy couldn’t put her finger on the origin. If possible, it made the young man even more exotic and mysterious.

Mathias shook his head, making his red beard sweep his chest. “Where’s Sol?”

“I’m here!” Sol Winter, who’d been working for Mathias long before Romy had moved to Fortunate, stepped out from behind the last row of plants. He wore a baby-blue polo shirt that matched his light-blue eyes. It also complemented his tan, a deep golden bronze. Natural, according to him. Strange for an elf, but who was Romy to judge? His long blond hair was pulled into a ponytail. He often wore it down and spilling over his shoulders, but generally had it tied back for work.

Sol was taller than Lucien by several inches and a little broader. His smile brightened when he saw Romy. “Hey, you.” His mouth turned down in sympathy. “Kill another one?”

They’d had a strange relationship ever since Romy had arrived in Fortunate, which generally involved spirited banter and sarcasm. Even when the conversation turned a little mean, Romy was still thankful for Sol. He was the closest thing she had to a friend.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Nice.” He raised a brow. “Bitchy much?”

Even though she was certain Sol was gay, it didn’t stop her from having some wicked fantasies about him. After all, the man was hot-hot and knew how to dress. “Takes one to know one.”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the oak this morning.” Sol scooped a handful of topsoil and pitched it at her.

“Oh no you didn’t.” In retaliation, Romy grabbed a nearby hose and squeezed the nozzle trigger, dowsing Sol where he stood.

“Stop!” Lucien yelled.

Too late. At Lucien’s shout, Romy turned, the spray of water slapping across the man’s face—and Lucien instantly melted into a clear puddle on the greenhouse floor.

Mortified, she dropped the hose. “Oh no!” She shook her head and stumbled forward. “What have I done?” Not only was she a plant killer, apparently she was a man killer as well.

Two lips formed in the clear pool. “I’m fine. Really.”

KMABadgeWords: 27,000
Tour Dates: November 26

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Join in the Mystery Hunt with Charlie Cochrane’s The Best Corpse for the Job (tour and contest)

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Do you love mysteries?  Are  British “Cozies” mysteries must reads?  Then Charlie Cochrane has just written a mystery for you! Today Charlie Cochrane has stopped by to talk about writing, story locations, and of course, The Best Corpse for the Job!  Check it all out below and don’t forget to leave a comment with an email address to be entered in the contest.

Saving my bacon – tales of the eleventh hour by Charlie Cochrane

All of us make mistakes in our writing. Sometimes it’s just about making assumptions, like the provenance of the word blizzard. It sounds nice and old and sort of Shakespearean, so it never occurred to me to check whether my nice gay Regency vicar could use “blizzard” in my short story “The Shade on a Fine Day”. Turns out he couldn’t, as it’s late Victorian, of US origin. Rats. I’m not alone, though – PD James has allegedly featured a motorbike reversing down a road, when they don’t have reverse gear.

I’ve been saved from making a major blooper on several occasions. The little voice in your head which tells you to double check something should never be ignored. For example, I set Lessons in Seduction in and around Pegwell Bay, Kent. As a child, I used to go on day trips there from Ramsgate when we were on holiday and in my memory, the access to the beach was flat. My memory lied to me, as I discovered when I looked at pictures of the place – there were cliffs. Luckily I had time to go back and change some of the relevant bits of the story before sending it off, but it was a close shave.

I had just such an experience relating to “The Best Corpse for the Job”. In the original draft, the people who turn up to process the crime scene were called SOCOs (Scenes of Crimes Officers), but recently those title changed to CSIs (Crime Scene Investigators). In another bout of good fortune, I was out at a barbecue with someone whose daughter was a SOCO turned CSI, so I could pick her brain about what things should be called now. Thank goodness for word processing, “find and replace”, and all the other blessings of modern writing!

The other peculiar thing which happened when writing the story is related to the name of the school where the first murder takes place. To put it in context, the governors of a school in a typically leafy, middle England type of village are recruiting a new headteacher and one of the candidates gets done in. I called the school…well, I won’t tell you what I called it originally, because it was awfully like the name of a real village school. I do some freelance training and blow me down with a feather if I didn’t get asked, just at the time I was drafting Best Corpse, to go and do some training at (you’ve guessed it!) that place I will refer to simply as “a real village school”. It gets funnier. The training I was asked to take was “Selecting and Interviewing Headteachers”.

Find and replace, find and replace, find and replace…

About The Best Corpse for the JobBest Corpse for the Job cover

Tea and sympathy have never been so deadly.

Schoolteacher Adam Matthews just wants to help select a new headteacher and go home. The governors at Lindenshaw St Crispin’s have already failed miserably at finding the right candidate, so it’s make or break this second time round. But when one of the applicants is found strangled in the school, what should have been a straightforward decision turns tempestuous as a flash flood in their small English village.

Inspector Robin Bright isn’t thrilled to be back at St. Crispin’s. Memories of his days there are foul enough without tossing in a complicated murder case. And that handsome young teacher has him reminding himself not to fraternize with a witness. But it’s not long before Robin is relying on Adam for more than just his testimony.

As secrets amongst the governors emerge and a second person turns up dead, Robin needs to focus less on Adam and more on his investigation. But there are too many suspects, too many lies, and too many loose ends. Before they know it, Robin and Adam are fighting for their lives  and  their hearts.

About Charlie Cochrane

As Charlie Cochrane couldn’t be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—she writes, with titles published by Carina, Samhain, Bold Strokes, MLR and Cheyenne.
Charlie’s Cambridge Fellows Series of Edwardian romantic mysteries was instrumental in her being named Author of the Year 2009 by the review site Speak Its Name. She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Mystery People, International Thriller Writers Inc and is on the organising team for UK Meet for readers/writers of GLBT fiction. She regularly appears with The Deadly Dames.

Connect with Charlie:

Giveaway Contest:

Every comment on this blog tour enters you in a drawing for an e-book from Charlie Cochrane’s backlist (excepting The Best Corpse for the Job). Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 29. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries.   However, you must be 18 years of age or older to enter.  Don’t forget to leave an email address where you can be contacted if selected in the body of your comment.

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You can follow Charlie Cochrane on her The Best Corpse for the Job tour here!

A MelanieM Review: Who Knows the Storm (The Vigilante #1) by Tere Michaels

Rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

Who Knows the Storm coverSometime in the future, a mysterious climate event caused torrential rains to fall, raising the water levels in New York City so high that huge areas were soon lost underwater and what civilians that could were evacuated, never to return.  Now a vastly different New York City is rising up from the flooded land, one where decadence reigns—gambling, the flesh trade, a playground for the wealthy. And underneath? Crime, fueled by “Dead Bolt,” a destructive designer drug.

Left behind in the initial evacuation as a young teen, now a grown Nox Boyet leads a double life. At night, he is the Vigilante, struggling to keep the streets safe for citizens abandoned by the corrupt government and police. During the day, he works in construction and does his best to raise his adopted teenaged son, Sam.

High priced whore, “model” Cade Creel, a high-end prostitute working at the Iron Butterfly Casino is asked by one of his influential “regular” clients to hand deliver an envelope to a person named Sam Boyer.  Never did Cade expect his delivery to take him into the worst parts of town where mugging and killings are frequent, and the best options where even worse outcomes have been known to occur.  A “rescue” by the Vigilante and the delivery made to Sam trigger an intense attraction between Nox and Cade, one that  ignites as dark figures from Nox’s past and the mysterious peddlers of Dead Bolt begin to descend—and put all their lives in danger. When things spin out of control, Cade is the only person Nox can trust to help him save Sam.

My hopes for Who Knows the Storm ran high.  The author?  One of my favorite and an automatic buy for her stories.  The synopsis?  Intriguing and current, especially the element of a climatic weather event drowning New York City, a possibility that many experts expect to happen in the not so distant future.  Plus it was the first in a new series called The Vigilante, another bonus.  Unfortunately, while Who Knows the Storm has many fine attributes, taken together they never add up to a logically constructed, gripping whole story. Sigh.

Set in some vague dystopian future, the settings and locations made sense while the backstory did not.  Everyone expects the sea levels to rise, especially given recent storms like Hurricane Sandy which left a wide path of destruction in its wake, including submerged subways and highly populated boroughs underwater. But here there was no effort made to reclaim the city, leaving it to crumble,falling into such disrepair and unhealthy state that no one returns to live there?  That’s the first premise the reader has to buy into and its a huge one that never feels believable.  New Yorkers giving up on their city?  The rich and influential fleeing, leaving their riches behind?  Uh no.  Especially when there are already cities (think Amsterdam or Venice or…) with the working technology to erect sea barriers.  There exist pumps to flush out the subways (which they did in Sandy), and so much more that is general knowledge that this “world building” is off to a shaky start on a foundation built on plot that never comes together.  I never bought into this dystopian world  and that lack of believability and connection damaged the rest of the story.

Then there were the characters.  Nox Boyet’s past is seen through the eyes of an abandoned 15 year old, one living through an ecological disaster of immense proportions.  This element of the story is both moving and affective.  We don’t need a reason for the rains to become affected by a young person in danger in uncertain times.  The descriptions and scenes are desperation incarnate and the frailty of Nox’s situation pulls the reader in…for a while.

Then we transition from the past, forward to a year and then to the nebulous present and Nox as not only an wary adult but a father of teenaged son.  The vast gap between the child left behind and the aged Nox just highlights the missed opportunities to flesh out the world building and answer the many questions floating around in the reader’s minds.

The pov switches from character to character, transitioning in a manner that’s not always as smooth as one could hope.  Michaels is also trying to establish all the main series plot threads, events and characters while balancing the need of the immediate storyline and character growth.  Sometimes it works and other times not so much.  Events from the past are reintroduced throughout the story but often lead to more questions not answers.  There are character with multiple identities and everywhere a facades are erected to hide the actual events and people responsible for them.  I rather liked the “smoke and mirrors” aspect to Michael’s plot.  There are some nasty little surprises in store for the main characters and shocks for the readers as well.  It’s a convoluted trip Tere Michaels takes us on.  There are white-knuckle moments galore, and gut clenchers (yes I know that’s not a word but it should be) to satisfy most picky of  action/suspense readers around.  But…..it never all comes together and feels like a harmonious whole.  It’s feels jumbled and a bit dense in places, and the “aha” moments  come and go a little too quickly.

The last thing?  The ending, which leaves major components and figures unresolved and unidentified.  That’s actually ok with me as this is the first in a series, and I can see the author using this mysterious scheme and head villain as an “umbrella layer” for all the books to come.  I was left strangely unsatisfied at the end of the story.  I just don’t think this part of the story was part of that unsettled feeling.  I’m still thinking about that one.

If you are a Tere Michael’s fan or a lover of dystopian stories, you might love Who Knows the Storm (The Vigilante #1).  This is a story that could go either way with readers, some will love it and others won’t make it to the finish.  You will have to be the judge.

 Cover Artist: Angsty G.  The coloration is nice.  I wish the idea of a New York Red District rising out of filth laden waters would have translated to the cover.

Sales Links:   Dreamspinner Press                    All Romance  (ARe)                   Who Knows the Storm             buy it here

Book Details:

ebook, 240 pages
Published October 17th 2014 by Dreamspinner Press
ISBN139781632162175
edition languageEnglish
seriesThe Vigilante #1

A Aurora YA Review: Under the Stars by Geoff Laughton

Rating: I give this book 5 out of 5 stars

Under the Stars coverDSP : “Ethan Tanner is an out and proud, fastidious, and fashionable sixteen-year-old vegetarian who likes theater and musicals. This year, it’s his sister’s turn to pick the vacation destination, so he ends up on a dude ranch he knows he is going to hate. What with the dirt, animals, and germs, he can’t possibly be happy.

Jason McCoy is the closeted sixteen-year-old son of the ranch owners and is trying to find his place in a world that doesn’t seem to fit him. He takes an interest in Ethan, shows him around, and gets him to ride a horse. When he invites Ethan camping, Ethan thinks Jason must be joking. But Ethan takes a risk, and the two boys bond under the stars.

After that, Ethan and Jason are inseparable. Their friendship grows into something deeper as they begin to figure out what they want from life. But Ethan’s home is in Chicago, and the distance might be more than the two teenagers—and their blossoming relationship—can withstand.”

 

Under the Stars follows a sixteen year old boy, Ethan, as he goes on a vacation with his parents and little sister to a ranch. At first, Ethan is reluctant to go and doesn’t think he’ll enjoy the trip much at all, but because it was his sister’s turn to choose where they wanted to go, he didn’t have much choice. When he actually arrives at the ranch, Ethan quickly connects with the owner’s son, Jason, and the two of them develop a close relationship.

As someone who isn’t usually much of a fan of contemporary, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Within the first few pages I was completely drawn in, and I related to Ethan immediately. One thing I absolutely loved about this book was the representation of Ethan’s parents and the close relationship they had, even though they didn’t all necessarily agree throughout the entire book. It didn’t go the route of representing parents as being completely unsupportive, which I think could be a great thing for young adults who are reading this book and might be considering coming out to their parents to see that positive dynamic represented.

Jason and Ethan were both great characters who I loved seeing interact with each other, and all of their discussions and the things they did seemed very real. Ethan’s growth, especially, throughout the book, was something I really enjoyed, because he did change, but he held onto who he was and he didn’t make a one-eighty turn around. All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I would definitely read it again any time.

Cover Artist: L.C. Chase

The cover art is simple, but pretty and well suited to the book. I think the dark color scheme definitely makes it appealing, while the bright color of the fire draws the readers eyes to the bottom of the page where the artist wants them to look.

Sales Links:  Dreamspinner ebook & Paperback      All Romance eBook     amazon      Under the Stars

Book Details:

ebook, 180 pages, YA young adult title
Published October 9th 2014 by Harmony Ink Press
ISBN139781632163080