Tag: Katey Hawthorne

Want Some Spooktacular Stories? Check Out Haunted Hotties In Time for All Hallows Eve! (Excerpt and giveway)

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Author Names: Kiernan Kelly, Laney Cairo, Alex Cohen, Katey Hawthorne,
Jamie Jennings, Aaron Michaels, Jacey Mills, L.J. Hamlin, Shira Glassman,
Sheri Velarde, Kassandra Lea, Mychael Black

Book Name: Haunted Hotties Volume 1
 Release Date: October 14, 2015

Goodreads Link:
Publisher: Torquere Press
Cover Artist: BSClay

Buy the book:  Torquere Books

 

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Blurb(s)

This Halloween collection has a little something for everybody. With demons, ghosts, psychics, reapers, shifters, and witches… a rainbow of paranormal/supernatural is included.

In Nine-Tenths of the Law by Kiernan Kelly, Oliver discovers he has a haunted sex toy. In Bear Hugs by Laney Cairo, Martin’s boyfriend might be bear shifter and apparently that’s news to him. In Houdini’s Masquerade by Alex Cohen, when Lila meets a succubus, everything changes. In Præsidium by Katey Hawthorne, Thackeray needs helps from a witch who won’t help him until he explains his demon. In Black Cat by Jamie Jennings, when a cat shifter can see ghosts, Micah’s simple life suddenly isn’t. In Haunted Honeymoon by Aaron Michaels, Dylan and Jake seem to be sharing their non-honeymoon with a couple of ghosts.

In And the Tarot Cards Said by Jacey Mills, an insistent ghost shouldn’t be too much to handle for psychic Vassily and his Tarot-reading assistant Ben. In Spirit Wolf by L.J. Hamlin, when Dawson rescues an injured wolf shifter, it’s not just his book that gets worked on while getting back to nature. In Wet Nails by Shira Glassman, it’s not every day a glamorous ’50s actress comes out of a TV but lonely grad student Adina isn’t complaining. In Possessed by Love by Sheri Velarde, a storm trapping them together gives Andrew and Damian the chance they’ve been waiting for. In The Last Night by Kassandra Lea, Eric gets one night a year and he always picks one particular Halloween. In Molly by Mychael Black, Detectives Cameron and Chase discover the murderer plaguing their city is more sinister than they could have known and not entirely human.

 

Pages or Words: 71,000 words
 Categories: Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Horror, Lesbian Romance, M/M Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Anthology

Excerpt: From Nine-Tenths of the Law by Kiernan Kelly

Let me set the scene for you. There I was, on my bed, naked, my asshole greased, and the butt plug inserted in it as far as possible, angled to hit my prostate, the vibrating option turned on. I was fisting my cock, rock hard and slick with lube, edging so close to orgasm my balls felt ready to pop.

“Fuck, it’s dark in here.”

I believe I may have completely levitated off the mattress. I know my hard-on wilted like an ice sculpture in a microwave. Scanning the bedroom, I looked for an intruder, but could see no one.

“Tight, too. I always did love a tight, hot ass.”

The speaker was British; the voice, deep and sexy, and coming from right behind me. I spun around in a circle a few times, trying to catch the person I assumed could only be a machete-wielding-chainsaw-brandishing-serial killer that happened to have a silky, dark chocolate voice, but I couldn’t see anyone. As far as I could discover, I was alone, which of course meant I’d imagined the voice.

“What are you doing, Olivier? Stop it at once. You’re making me dizzy.”

Olivier? No one had called me that in years, not since… Hearing the old nickname was shocking enough to leach the fear out of me for a minute. It took me another full sixty seconds to realize the deliciously decadent voice was not only real, but also somewhat familiar, and more importantly, coming from my ass.

That’s when I finally fainted.

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Where to find Torquere Press:

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Tour Dates & Stops:

Parker Williams, Happily Ever Chapter, Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews, MM Good Book Reviews, Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents, Cheekypee Reads and Reviews, BFD Book Blog, 3 Chicks After Dark, V’s Reads, Decadent Delights, The Hat Party, Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, Havan Fellows, Divine Magazine, KathyMac Reviews, Andrew Q. Gordon, Jessie G. Books, Sinfully Addicted to All Male Romance, Foxylutely Book Reviews, Chris McHart, Redz World, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Sassygirl Books, Three Books Over The Rainbow, Bayou Book Junkie, The Jena Wade, The Day Before You Came, the Twins: Talon ps & Princess so, Open Skye Book Reviews, Inked Rainbow Reads, Velvet Panic, Iyana Jenna, Vampires, Werewolves, and Fairies, Oh My, Emotion in Motion

Giveaway

Enter to win a Rafflecopter Prize: E-copy of the anthology.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Link and prizes provided by the publisher and Pride Promotions.

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Review: Designated Bottoms by B.A. Tortuga , Katey Hawthorne , Julia Talbot , Sean Michael, Shannon West, Kiernan Kelly , K.C. Wells

Rating: 4 stars out of 5
designatedbottoms700Some men are bottoms by birth, others by choice. Whatever the reason, a designated bottom is someone who’s happy to surrender, to submit, or just catch instead of pitch!  Inside the covers, you will find seven stories by seven terrific authors, each with a different bent on the subject of love, romance, and bottoming.  They are:

➤Czech Me Out, by BA Tortuga, Korde discovers what it’s like to fall for someone when food truck owner Josh takes on the cowboy virgin.

➤The Mistell by Katey Hawthorne who’s gamer grad student Paul doesn’t date. He keeps things strictly physical. So why is Sammy so important to him ?

➤Faster Bobcat by Julia Talbot. A Lynx shifter and stripper Aleks doesn’t mix business with pleasure, but he thinks Rafe, a jaguar shifter, might just be the master for him.

➤Little Square of Cloth by Sean Michael.  Peter isn’t sure about the club his friend takes him to, especially when Doms start hitting on him. Experienced Dom Rupert is happy to help, explaining about that little piece of cloth stuck in Peter’s pocket .

➤Sgt. Hardass by Shannon West. A recent ex-Army man Jake meets up with a man he has history with, and Chad isn’t sure he can explain himself and defuse Jake’s anger.  Explosive?  Absolutely and also very hot.

➤ Prince of Paupers by Kiernan Kelly.  Prince Liam and longtime friend Deacon have to go back to Deacon’s Appalachian home, much to the prince’s dismay. What happens when royalty and the plain folk of the Applachians clash?  Can love be far behind?

➤ Switching It Up by K.C.  Wells. Jay knows he looks like a twink, but only hunky Dean understands that looks can be seriously deceptive.  When twink meets hulk, who comes out on top? Or bottom?

What a fun anthology!  Each story presents a totally different take on romance and challenges to love.  There is something and some story for everyone to enjoy!

It starts off light and swift with BA Tortuga’s Czech Me Out.  Korde and Josh had me wanting to reach for a Kolache or two.  I felt it was missing a little substance in the boys back histories but still found it loads of fun.

Katey Hawthorne’s gamer lads of The Mistell are wonderful.  It’s funny, current, and you will love these nerds on the path to happiness and love.  I learned what a mistell is and the ones Katey Hawthorne created had me snorting. I loved Paul, Samir, and the rest of the WW gaming group.  At the end I also wished that a certain sweet, if dim ex would also find his HEA.  Maybe the next story.  This was one of my favorites.

Faster Bobcat by Julia Talbot had me purring like a kitty.  Loved both Aleks who needs structure and the hot jaguar shifter who supplies it along with love.  Put this one at the top.

Sean Michael’s Little Square of Cloth is Sean Michael doing what he does best.  Making BDSM seem hot, and exactly right for the people involved.  In this case, Peter gets more than he ever expected when a friend plays a prank on him.  Sean Michael lovers, this is for you!

Sgt. Hardass by Shannon West is a that bit of angst missing in the other stories.  West delivers a painful breakup, and even more painful reunion and hot makeup sex!.  This is one of the stories I wish had been a little longer.  The characters were well done but I needed more about Chad and Jake to make their reunion and  rapid reconciliation feel real.

I adored Kiernan Kelly’s Prince of Paupers and wanted much, much more of this story because of the small touches and comedic elements she included.  More of Alfred the butler and the grubby little boy. That scene was priceless!  Or Liam down in the “holler” learning why there is no “George” pig to go along with Ringo, Paul, and John. Still giggling over that one.  I need a full on, enlarged version of this story and so will you.  This is my favorite of the anthology.  And it ended way before I was ready for it to be resolved.

The last story, Switching It Up by KC Wells had me a little perplexed for a while.  I thought the author was heading in one direction with the romantic interest and she was headed in another opposite direction.  Was it a case of red herring or was it just me?  Not sure but it threw me off just enough that I didn’t enjoy it as I might have.  Still, its a fun story and make a good addition to this anthology.  Don’t think I would have ended the collection with it however.

My ratings  fluctuate between a 3.75 and a 4.5 for the stories individually (you can guess which is which).  That averages out to a 4 rating overall.  I do recommend picking this anthology up!  It’s stories are fun to read, highly sexy, and some will definitely leave you giggling and wanting more.

Cover art by Anne Squires.  I love that cover.  Great design and yes, what a great bottom!

Buy Links:     Torquere Press           All Romance eBooks (ARe)             Amazon                  Designated Bottoms

 

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 253 pages
Published July 29th 2014 by Torquere Press
ASINB00M8Y421Y
edition languageEnglish

Bottoms Up? On Tour with the Designated Bottoms Anthology – Authors Katey Hawthorne, Kiernan Kelly, Sean Michael, Julia Talbot, BA Tortuga, KC Wells, and Shannon West! (contest)

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Top? Bottom?  Let’s find out more with the wonderful group of authors whose stories can be found in the new m/m anthology, Bottoms Up!  

To celebrate the release of Bottoms Up, Pride Promotions and the authors have brought along a $25 Amazon Gift Card to give to one lucky person.  To enter to win, visit HERE for the entry form and all the contest details.  Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.   Contest information repeated at the end of the post.  Contest ends 8/6.

Book Name: Designated Bottoms
Author Name: Katey Hawthorne, Kiernan Kelly, Sean Michael, Julia Talbot, BA Tortuga, KC Wells, Shannon West

Author Bios:

Contributors:

BA Tortuga: Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy’s Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds, getting tattooed, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she’s not doing that, she’s writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing porn sites in the name of research. BA’s personal saviors include her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.

Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but has responded to the call of the high desert mountains. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon- holed by anyone but the voices in her head. Find her at http://www.batortuga.com

♦Katey Hawthorne is an avid reader and writer of superpowered romance, even though the only degree she holds is in the history of art. (Or, possibly, because the only degree she holds is in the history of art.) Originally from the Appalachian foothills of West Virginia, she currently lives in Ohio. In her spare time she enjoys comic books, B-movies, loud music, Epiphones, and Bushmills. Find Katey at http://www.kateyhawthorne.com/

♦Julia Talbot lives in the great Southwest, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and everything from meat and potatoes to the best Tex-Mex.

A full time author, Julia has been published by Torquere Press, Ellora’s Cave, and Changeling Press. She believes that everyone deserves a happy ending, so she writes about love without limits, where boys love boys, girls love girls, and boys and girls get together to get wild, especially when her crazy paranormal characters are involved. Find Julia at @juliatalbot on Twitter, or at her website  

♦Sean Michael: Often referred to as “Space Cowboy” and “Gangsta of Love” while still striving for the moniker of “Maurice,” Sean Michael spends his days surfing, smutting, organizing his immense gourd collection and fantasizing about one day retiring on a small secluded island peopled entirely by horseshoe crabs. While collecting vast amounts of vintage gay pulp novels and mood rings, Sean whiles away the hours between dropping the f-bomb and persuing the kama sutra by channeling the long lost spirit of John Wayne and singing along with the soundtrack to “Chicago.”

A long-time writer of complicated haiku, currently Sean is attempting to learn the advanced arts of plate spinning and soap carving sex toys.
Barring any of that? He’ll stick with writing his stories, thanks, and rubbing pretty bodies together to see if they spark.

Sean’s available for interviews, by the way. He can always be talked into, well talking about himself. Find Sean at http://www.seanmichaelwrites.com

♦Shannon West: Shannon West currently lives in the South with her husband and family. A lover and avid reader of M/M romances, she began writing them a few years ago and now has over forty short stories, novellas,and novels to her credit. Her series about wolf shifters, the Dark Hollows Series and the sci fi series, Love Slaves of the Alphas, produced sixteen bestsellers with four of them going to number one on the third party sites. She was a finalist in the Rainbow awards for 2013, a nominee for best sci fi series in the Love Romances Café and very honored to be named an All Romance ebooks top ten author for 2013. She writes BDSM and some ménage as well. She loves men and everything about them, and believes that love is love, no matter the gender. She mostly spends her days at the keyboard, trying to elude housework, which stalks her relentlessly.

Links:   Website     
Twitter: @shannonwest8
   Amazon Author Page  Facebook

♦Kiernan Kelly: Kiernan Kelly lives in the wilds of the alligator-infested U.S. Southeast, slathered in SPF 45, drinking colorful tropical, hi-octane concoctions served by thong-clad cabana boys.

All right, the truth is that she spends her time locked in the dark recesses of her office, writing gay erotic romance while chained to a temperamental laptop, drinking coffee, and dreaming of thong-clad cabana boys.

Sigh.

To date, Kiernan has over a dozen novels in print and ebook, and a plethora of short stories in both formats.

Links:   Website      Facebook  email: KiernanKelly@KiernanKelly.com

♦KC Wells: Born and raised in the north-west of England, K.C.Wells always loved writing. Words were important. Full stop. However, when childhood gave way to adulthood, the writing ceased, as life got in the way.

K.C. discovered erotic fiction in 2009, where the purchase of a ménage storyline led to the startling discovery that reading about men in love was damn hot. In 2012, arriving at a really low point in life led to the desperate need to do something creative. An even bigger discovery waited in the wings – writing about men in love was even hotter…

K.C. now writes full-time and is loving every minute of her new career.

The laptop still has no idea of what hit it… it only knows that it wants a rest, please. And it now has to get used to the idea that where K.C goes, it goes.

K.C. can be reached via email (k.c.wells@btinternet.com), on Facebook or through comments at the K.C. Wells website  K.C. loves to hear from readers.

designatedbottoms700How Bottoms Up Came To Be:

So, what happens when you get a bunch of m/m writers together on a panel at a steamy little convention called Authors After Dark in Savannah?

In this case, we all sat around with the readers who came to our panel and chattered and laughed like idiots, and we talked about what we liked to read and write. There was a lot of smutty puns, and it was all fun and games until someone uttered the fateful phrase, “Right, and every story has to have a designated bottom.”

The writer and editor in me both went, “ooooh”. And I said, “Hey, does anyone want in on an anthology for next year with this theme?”

Enough of the writers at that panel, and a few who weren’t, said yes, and Designated Bottoms was born. When I sent out the call, this is what I said.

You’ve heard about Designated Drivers? Well, what about a Designated Bottom? The theme is open to all m/m stories where one man is a designated bottom boy, Whether self-imposed or by the Dom/lover/alpha of the pack or simply (either true or not) by society. Feel free to play with burly bottoms who surprise the deceptively sweet top, or with the too-smart kid who’s the pushy bottom to end all bottoms. BDSM is fine, but not mandatory. A bottom may simply like to catch instead of pitch.

The stories I received delighted me. From a first-time cowboy and his new lover to a hardass Sergeant falling for a determined young soldier, from a hot gamer geek who doesn’t date to a sweet young thing on his first visit to a BDSM club, there’s something for everyone. There are princes and paupers, werekitties and strippers, and skinny twink-looking tops and big, gentle bottoms. They all left me fanning my hot cheeks and smiling at how the end result was two men in love, no matter how they got there.

The authors in Designated Bottoms have all reminded me why I fell in love with m/m as a genre damned near fifteen years ago, and of why I’m still writing, and publishing those stories today.

We’d like to dedicate this book to all the readers at Authors After Dark who thought this collection was a great idea, and to all the readers who keep us going every day by reading our books and letting us know they like them! I hope y’all love these stories as much as I do!

XXOO

Twitter: @torquere
Cover Artist: Anne Squires
Publisher: Torquere Press Inc
Buy Links:      Torquere Press        

Blurb:

Some men are bottoms by birth, others by choice. Whatever the reason, a designated bottom is someone who’s happy to surrender, to submit, or just catch instead of pitch!

In Czech Me Out, by BA Tortuga, Korde discovers what it’s like to fall for someone when food truck owner Josh takes on the cowboy virgin. Katey Hawthorne’s gamer grad student Paul doesn’t date. He keeps things strictly physical. So why is Sammy so important to him in The Mistell? Kitty shifter and stripper Aleks doesn’t mix business with pleasure, but he thinks Rafe might just be the master for him in Julia Talbot’s Faster Bobcat.

Sean Michael’s Peter isn’t sure about the club his friend takes him to, especially when Doms start hitting on him. Experienced Dom Rupert is happy to help, explaining about that Little Square of Cloth. In Sgt. Hardass, by Shannon West, recent ex-Army man Jake meets up with a man he has history with, and Chad isn’t sure he can explain himself and defuse Jake’s anger. In the Prince of Paupers by Kiernan Kelly, Prince Liam and longtime friend Deacon have to go back to Deacon’s Appalachian home, much to the prince’s dismay. And in Switching It Up by KC Wells, Jay knows he looks like a twink, but only hunky Dean understands that looks can be seriously deceptive.

Excerpt:

From Czech Me Out by BA Tortuga:

Josh had texted the fine cowboy as early as he felt comfortable doing it. He’d waited until nine. He figured it was gratifying that he got an immediate response.

“Noon?” he’d sent, and when he got an affirmative, he’d send his address. Then he set about making lunch.

He could tear that sweet body up, turn the Marlboro Man inside out and make Korde like it. He would soften the guy up with a few barbecue-filled potato skins… Barbecue, the redneck aphrodisiac.

Josh grinned. He’d swayed more than one hot little cowboy with his special sauce and some crispy potatoes. Of course, he’d never asked one to come to his house before, and certainly hadn’t gotten so interested so damned fast.

He’d never changed his sheets and made sure he was stocked with lube and rubbers, either. Not on a not-even-a-first-date. Lord. He was hopeful today, for sure.

Hopeful, horny and… oh, man, he needed an ‘h’ word…

The doorbell rang, saving him from having to be too creative. He told his cock to stay down for a bit and went to answer.

Frack and Frick were yapping their damn fool heads off, wagging and bouncing. Silly mutts. “Y’all get down.”

Josh opened the door a few inches. “You’re not afraid of dogs are you?”

“Not even a bit.” Korde leaned down and gave scritches, easy as pie.

Those two beagle-shepherd monstrosities went nuts, yodeling and wagging and begging.

 

 

DesignatedBottoms600x600BannerBlueTour Dates: 7/30/14

Tour Stops: Parker Williams, Cate Ashwood, MM Good Book Reviews, Decadent Delights, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Prism Book Alliance, Regular Guys, Hot Romance, Full Moon Dreaming, The Hat Party, Fallen Angel Reviews, Amanda C. Stone, Rainbow Gold Reviews, Love Bytes, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Havan Fellows, Jade Crystal, Wicked Wolves and Dreaming Dragons, Iyana Jenna

 

Contest:  $25 Amazon Gift Card.  Enter to win below:

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Into The Author Spotlight with Katey Hawthorne and her Fairy Compact Series

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Into the Author Spotlight with Katey Hawthorne

 

I have asked author Katey Hawthorne to stop by today to talk about her Fairy stories and the end of the series, Fairy Bound. Katey has brought an entire set of the stories to giveaway as part of this blog. To enter to win, leave a comment and an email address where you can be contacted in the body of the comment. Contest ends 5/28.

Welcome, Katey, to ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords. I love this universe you have invented for this series. Nothing quite like winged fairy sex….and the complications that ensue with human/fairy relationships….

 

 

Of Fairies and Men and the End of a Series

by Katey Hawthorne

 

There are some tropes in romance that I’m just not that into. I don’t mean that in the “these are so wrong/uninteresting no one should like them!” way, but in the “it’s just not my thing” way. Some of these, I’m really vocal about—other ones not so much. One of them happens to be forced bonding and/or magically destined lovers. It’s just not my bag.

 

But when I saw Miya Kressin’s prompt at the goodreads mmromance group’s Love is Always Write event a few years ago, I knew it had to be mine. It was about two men who had a lifelong bond and didn’t know why, one a fairy, one a human priest… and then it was wide open. Which, to me—and to Miya, as I suspected from her wording—was calling for a twist.

 

That first novella, The Dangers of Fairy Compacts, is still available as a free read at the group and from me. Life as a Fairy Thrall continued the journey for Aeron and Tam, taking them out of the mortal world and into Faerie. And with its release today, Fairy Bound brings their journey to forge their own bond to its conclusion.

 

Which makes me kind of sad, to be honest. I’m gonna miss them. The snarky fae boy. The sweet human cleric. Their house. The wingsex.

 

Yeah, you read that right. I said wingsex. It’s a thing.

 

But all good things must come to an end, right? Or at least a new beginning. Hopefully, Aeron and Tammas will be happy with theirs.

 

Life as a Fairy Thrall and Fairy Bound both contain beautiful artwork by the amazing Ruxandra Lache, and you can see thumbnails of those here at my site, along with soundtrack music.

Author Bio at Goodreads:

Hi! I’m Katey. I write superpowered and fantasy romance of an LGBTQ bent. I live at Superpowered Love — kateyhawthorne.com.

I know, I know, it looks like I don’t read anything here at GoodReads. But I do, I swear. My reviews and stuff are all over at my other GoodReads thingie, KV Taylor. Relevant shelves to Katey Hawthorne stuff:

Romance, LGBTQ, and
Comics, Graphic Novels, and Trade Paperbacks

Contact/Follow Katey Hawthorne at:

 Books in the series are in the order they were written and should be read:

Fairy Compacts #1: The Dangers of Fairy Compacts
Fairy Compacts #2: Life as a Fairy Thrall
Fairy Compacts #3: Fairy Bound

FairyCompacts_largeLife as a Fairy ThrallFairy Bound cover

 

 

Review: In Distress (Superpowered Love #6) by Katey Hawthorne

Rating: 4.25 stars out of 5

KH_indistress_coverlg_1Hopeless romantic and total geek Eddie Kim continues to dream that his knight in shining armor will show up one day to carry him away for a beautiful future together.  But until that happens, Eddie hangs out with his best friends Kavita and Stacy playing D & D, moons over GoT’s Jon Snow and dreams of new scribblings for Morning Gloria’s sandwich board, the beanery where he is a barista.  Life is pretty good for an adorable 23 year old, just not perfect.  Then Eddie’s apartment catches fire and everything changes.

When Eddie’s kitchen catches fire, the smoke and fumes threaten to overwhelm Eddie.  But Eddie is saved when strong cold arms lift him up and out of danger and a freezing cold puts the fire out.  His rescuer?  A gorgeous unknown red head who asks that Eddie not reveal his rescuer’s presence.  One kiss later, then Eddie’s knight in shining frost disappears, leaving a stunned and coughing Eddie behind.

What’s a smitten boy to do when his longed for knight saves him only to disappear?  Why look for him of course.  Eddie’s friends look to craiglist to relocate his hero but the publicity is just the thing his hero was trying to avoid.

Callum, a mysterious red-head with freezing superpowers, couldn’t help saving Eddie but now he has put not only Eddie but himself in danger.  Callum Race has come to Columbus to try and clear his family name, and now the dangerous superpowered organization he needs to thwart know he’s come home again. But the attraction he feels towards Eddie is anything but cold.  And the more they see of each other, the stronger the connection gets.

Soon its a race against time for Callum and Eddie.  Callum determined to clear his brother’s name and Eddie equally determined to help Callum fight.  As the danger increases who is the knight and who is the “damsel in distress” is anyone’s guess.

I am going to admit right up front that I am a big time fan of Katey Hawthorne’s Superpowered Love series.  So hearing about the release of In Distress brought a sense of anticipation and joy that soon I would be plunged back into a world of elemental beings and their search for  some Superpowered Love.  Hawthorne’s In Distress, part of Loose Id’s Missed Connections collection does not disappoint on any level, starting with her wonderful and totally adorable characters.

Now Eddie Kim would totally own that “adorable” appellation, particularly if it didn’t come with a gender attached to it.  Eddie sees gender somewhat differently than others do, less rigidly defined and certainly more open to interpretation.  At the moment, he identifies as male but that might change at any moment. Eddie wants others to respect that about him, knowing that his gender fluid appearance is one that can confuse those that aren’t familiar with him.  I liked this aspect of Eddie’s character, it gave Eddie a deeper dimension, that combined with the other elements of his persona, made Eddie a wonderful unique individual.  He’s highly intelligent and super romantic.  At 23, Eddie still dreams of “The One”, a Knight that will save him, albeit not from dragons but from a loveless existence.  And then Eddie gets what he has been dreaming for and ,of course, it’s far more than he ever expected.

Eddie, his friends Kavita and Stacy, as well as Callum, are all such terrific characters.  Just when you might be feeling a little, oh I don’t know, perhaps, dubious at Eddie’s exuberance and “tilting at windmills” sort of behavior, then you have Kavita and Stacy there as your standin’s, saying exactly what you would say to Eddie, to bring him back down to reality.  Only to realize a few paragraphs later that Eddie’s new reality is kind of out of this world, or too much of this world.  Katey Hawthorne moves us back and forth in an emotional whirlwind with Eddie as the story is told from his very exuberant and delightful point of view.

And then there’s Callum Race, currently on the outs from all the Superpowered groups, unable to come home because of his brother’s actions and death.  I have always found the Superpowered subculture that Katey Hawthorne has created for this series fascinating, especially it’s divisive cultural quandary of whether or not to stay hidden from the human populace.  Which side of the question you come down on essentially makes you either a upstanding member of the Superpowered community or an outcast and potential rebel.  This theme flows through all the stories and is an important one of In Distress as well.

There are plenty of action packed scenes as well as ones of intimacy and introspection to balance out each other.  I did wish that Callum and Eddie had more time together before things got totally out of control.  And for those of you who are new to the Superpowered Love series, some of the backhistory might feel a bit lacking.  But how can you resist passages or characters like this?

“You’re okay. Just come with me,” said the voice attached to the hands.

My feet slipped on inexplicable ice. The strong, gloved hands steadied me, and the voice said, “Shit, sorry.” Then my feet were wet, but it wasn’t so slippery, and I could walk.

And some guy in a black hoodie and leather gloves led me out of my smoke-filled apartment in the middle of the night. As we turned in to the hallway, flame flared up at the end. He held out a gloved hand. By the firelight, I saw frost spread in a flash over the wall and floor, snuffing out the flames.

I shivered again and decided I was still dreaming. And if I took this guy’s hood off, it was clearly going to be Jon Snow. Maybe I should jump on his back?

He tugged me out onto the rattly wrought-iron porch and started down the equally rattly stairs. He was tall, taller than me— which isn’t saying much, but still— with broad shoulders and slim hips. It was a perfect swimmer’s build, but he moved like he didn’t realize it, with an almost adolescent awkwardness. “Don’t you have a fire alarm?”

“It needs a battery,” I said, dazed. There was a small streetlight in the parking lot below, and the moon was out, and all I could smell was melting plastic. Now my brain was finally waking up. Oh God, this is real. My apartment was on fire— is on fire— was on fire, and this guy put it out with… What the hell did he just do? Who the hell is he? Oh my God, this is not Jon Snow!

“Well, consider getting one.” The voice was mild and somehow equally awkward but far from adolescent. “I’ll call you an ambulance. I have to get out of—”

But I wasn’t having that crap, by then. Adrenaline had belatedly kicked in, and I grabbed for his arm and spun him.

He was pale, possibly with a sprinkling of freckles, but I couldn’t see his hair under the hood. I could see his lips, palest pink and plump, especially the bottom one, which looked like someone had bitten it hard and the swelling had never gone down. Nice bone structure too— nothing supermodel or delicate, but hard, straight lines and angles. For some reason it made me think: Football hooligan? He was pretty, but the kind of pretty that’d still be scary in a fight.

And he’d probably just saved my life. I had a million questions (chiefly: Why the hell were you in my apartment— when it was on fire?), but my heart was racing with the sudden acknowledgement of my own ridiculous mortality. I had somehow forgotten the words thank you. So I grabbed the front of his hoodie, went up on my toes, and kissed him.

Because that’s what the damsel in distress does when he gets rescued from the tower, right?

 

And right there I was in love.  In love with the lonely and brave Callum and his quest for justice and in love with that delectably over the top voice and personality that could only belong to Eddie Kim.  Knight found his mate.  But who really rescued who is something you will have to find out for yourself.

Of course, Katey Hawthorne throws in mentions of Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, Game of Thrones, Spider Man and so many other present day references that help clue us into who Eddie and his friends are, a cultural shortcut that let’s us secure these characters as real people almost instantly in our minds.  If you need more information about these characters, visit Katey Hawthorne’s In Distress page at her website.  It has character stats and back history on the Superpowered Love series.

A special bonus resides at the end of the story.  An In Distress playlist for your enjoyment that will also add to a better understanding of these characters and background.  Just one more reason to get this story.  Not that you need one.  In Distress and all the Superpowered Love stories are must reads for me.  The Superpowered Love stories are fun, sexy romps. A fascinating as watching lighting in a storm or as mesmerizing as lightning bugs in a bottle. And all are full of memorable characters so sexy and full of life that you won’t want to see them leave, including Eddie and Callum from In Distress.

Don’t pass this up.

And watch out for the sandwich board sayings….they are quite wonderful too.  See?  Win, win and win.

Cover art by P.L. Nunn who has created the wonderful covers for all the stories in this series.  It works,  and its adorable.

Book Details:

Part of Loose Id’s Missed Connections Collection.
ebook
Published March 25th 2014 by Loose Id LLC
ISBN139781623006112
edition languageEnglish
url for all Things Katey Hawthorne http://www.kateyhawthorne.com
series Superpowered Love
settingColumbus, Ohio (United State

Books in the Superpowered Love series in the order they were written and should be read:

Equilibrium (Superpowered Love, #1)
Jealousy: A Love Story (Superpowered Love, #1.1)
Best Gift Ever (Superpowered Love, #1.2)
Riot Boy (Superpowered Love, #2)
Willoughby Spit (Superpowered Love, #2.1)
Nobody’s Hero (Superpowered Love, #3)
Losing Better (Superpowered Love, #4)
Re-Entry Burn (Superpowered Love, #5)
In Distress (Superpowered Love, #6)

Spring has Sprung…finally, Winner Announcements and the Week Ahead in Reviews, Contests, and Author Guest Blogs

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Well, I am almost afraid to say it….maybe Spring has finally arrived here in the DC Metro area. Shhhhhh! Not too loud.  I hate to be superstitious but  lately it seems like the sleet, or snow is just hovering at the edges threatening to make a reappearance and coat everything in white instead of cherry blossoms.  So I am going to tiptoe around the fact that I got out in the yard for the first time to start my garden cleanup and to check out if any brave little sprouts had made it above ground.  The irises have poked out, so have the autumn sedum…plucky souls that they are.  The maple trees are in flower and the squirrels are taking full advantage by littering the yard with all the flowers and twigs they have snipped off to get at the maple sap.  Oh that maple sap….the first run is so sweet, like a cold drink of water with a hint of sugar……that if boiled down becomes that golden wonder maple syrup.maple trees tapped

At this time of year (ok earlier in March but not this year), I used to give maple sugaring demonstrations to the public.  I would be boiling gallons of sap that I started to collect in January and stored until March from trees along the stream banks where the old mature red and sugar maples stood.  I would let the kids watch me tap a tree and, if lucky, watch the maple syrup evaporatorsap start to run out the hole immediately to their awe and wonder.  Then over to the evaporator and the wood fire that constantly burned cooking away the water and reducing the sap to syrup.  It’s quite a laborous process which is one of the reasons that the price for maple syrup runs so high.  I would tap red and silver maples native to Maryland, sugar maples that had been planted for their color and even boxelders that make a strong hearty syrup, each species of tree giving the syrup its own unique taste.  I would even order some Alaska Birch syrup to give everyone a taste of that regionally strong and robust syrup, my that’s an  acquired taste.

In New England they don’t start this process until April because of their winters and this year Maryland is right along with them due to our unusually harsh and lingering  winter.  How I loved introducing people who have grown up on Log Cabin or Mrs. Butterworth’s to the real thing!  That never gets old.  I love the natural history and the cultural history to making maple syrup.  It keeps me in touch with the past, it makes me appreciate the changing of the seasons and the bounty of nature.  And what it can do to a stack of blueberry pancakes is out of thismaply syrup world….

So yeah….Spring is here.  The maple trees in flower and the squirrels gnawing the heck out of them for the sweet sap tells me so.  And now I feel the need to go make some flapjacks.  With butter.  And real maple syrup of course!

Winner Announcements! The winner of Katey Hawthorne’s Book Contest is Alishead1.  Congratulations to Alishead1.
Leah Karge is the winner of the When All the World Sleeps blog tour. Congratulations to Leah too! Thanks to everyone who left comments.  Your participation is always appreciated. The winners have been notified.

Oh, and happy 5th Anniversay to Less Than Three Press, congratulations to you too.

While I am making breakfast, here is the schedule for the week ahead:

  •  Monday, April 7:    The Calm Before by Neena Jayden
  • Tuesday, April 8:     The Forester II: Lost and Found by Blaine D. Arden
  • Wed, April 9:             Author Spotlight: Blaine D. Arden (and Book Giveaway)
  • Thurday, April 10:    In Distress by Katey Hawthorne
  • Friday, April 11:        Controlled Burn by Laura Harner
  •  ***************        Cold Comfort by Lee Brazil
  • Saturday, April 12:    Every Time I Think of You by Jim Provenzano

Author and Book Spotlight: Katey Hawthorne on Superpowers and In Distress, a story from the Missed Connections collection (Giveaway Alert!)

spotlight on books

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Author Spotlight: Katey Hawthorne

KH_indistress_coverlg_1

Katey Hawthorne is here today at ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords and she has brought a copy of her book In Distress to giveaway to celebrate the release of her latest Superpowered Love story.

Contest: To enter to win a  ebook copy of In Distress, leave a comment along with an email address where you can be reached. Contest ends 4/1.

Welcome, Katey!

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Katey Hawthorne:

So one day, I was scrolling through my tumblr dash and saw a post full of funny sandwich board signs. You know the kind, like outside bars and coffee shops with witty little drawings and sayings on them. And I thought, “Oh man, I love those; I should totally use them in a book sometime.” As you do.

Around the same time, I heard about the Missed Connections collection–based on the Craigslist section of the same name–that Loose Id was planning. The official copy reads like this:

You know that great-looking guy you saw on the outbound train as yours was inbound? The one you can’t stop fantasizing about but haven’t seen since?

Place an ad. Sometimes fate gives you another chance.

As usual, my brain went to superpowers. What kind of ad would someone place in that section for someone with superpowers? Maybe they’re looking for the hot (or in this case, cold) guy who came to their rescue and then disappeared.

Which translated into the first scene of In Distress, as it turns out, my little offering to the Missed Connections collection.

What does it have to do with funny sandwich boards? Eddie, the hero, works in a coffee shop just below his apartment–and it’s a point of pride with him to make sure there’s something clever on the sign each and every morning. Okay, sometimes it’s less clever, more silly. Or more ‘looking for a hot red-headed superhero but trying to be subtle about it’. But he tries, the poor dear.

Funny when different forces align to bring a story to light. Even funnier that in an entire series about people with superpowers, Eddie’s my first would-be damsel in distress. But then, nothing’s what it seems there, either…

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KH_indistress_coverlg_1BLURB: Hopeless romantic Eddie Kim acts out his favorite ‘rescued by the white knight’ fantasies through weekly D&D campaigns, but had almost given up hope of ever getting a real one. Then Callum, a mysterious red-head with freezing superpowers and a memorable kiss, saves him from a house but disappears without a trace. Taking pity on him, Eddie’s friends look to craiglist to relocate his hero.

Unfortunately, the publicity brings down the kind of attention Callum Race been trying to avoid; he’s in town to try and clear his family name, and now the dangerous superpowered organization he needs to thwart know he’s come home again. Still, he can’t help following up with Eddie.

The heat between Callum and Eddie flares instantly, and Eddie insists on helping to undo the damage his romantic notions have done. The problem: that will mean becoming embroiled in a nefarious plot, not to mention a superpowered world Eddie didn’t even know existed a week ago. The ‘bad guys’ will try to trick and use him, and in the meantime he has to convince Cal to trust him enough to be the white knight for once–and for real–instead of the perpetual damsel in distress.

Buy Link:  Loose id LLC

 

Book Details:
Author:Katey Hawthorne
Length:Novel, Loose id, LLC
ISBN:978-1-62300-611-2
Series:Superpowered Love
Cover Artist:P. L. Nunn
Prev Book:Superpowered Love 5: Re-Entry Burn

You can follow Katey at:–

Katey Hawthorne~Superpowered Love
Website
Twitter
Goodreads Author Page
Email kate@kateyhawthorne.com