Welcome to Skye Warren w/ #Contemporary #Romance ‘The Castle’ @skye_warren @GoddessFish

On April 4, 2017April 3, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books2 Comments

Today we have author Skye Warren visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance such as the Chicago Underground series. Her books have been featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle Magazine. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, two sweet dogs, and one evil cat.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* Safe in the ivory tower…
* Gabriel Miller swears he’ll keep me safe. Enemies lurk outside, waiting to strike. An army held back by these walls.
* Except some animal instinct warns me the danger is much closer. It’s already here. Is Gabriel my protector or my enemy? Is this house a castle or a cage?
* There’s nowhere for me to go, no one left for me to trust.
* No escape from a past determined to capture its prize.

~ Excerpt ~

* “Still giving orders, little virgin? Is that something you’re born with in the St. James family, or did they teach you that along with your ABCs?”
* Rage tightens a knot in my stomach. “I’m not a virgin.”
* “No?” he asks, lifting a hand to my face.
* I stand very still as he captures my chin between his thumb and forefinger, torn between wanting to wrench away and wanting him to kiss me. How can he make me feel alive when I’ve been sleepwalking for months, years? What sick twist of fate let the hands of this man bring me pleasure?
* “You made sure of that.” I mean the words to come out cold, unhurt. Instead I sound breathless and somehow inviting. The white carpet may as well be streaked with red. We’re both back in his bedroom, both flushed and sated and ripped to shreds from what he’s just done.
* He lifts my face, almost tender. “I put my cock into your warm little hole. Pushed right through that thin hymen to do it. It felt like fucking heaven to break you open.”
* I’m a tuning fork in his hands, and the sound I make is pure arousal. “I despise you.”
* “You were so wet,” he says, almost thoughtful. “But some of it was blood, wasn’t it?”
* “I’m going to find a way to get my house back.”
* He bends his head slightly, enough that our lips are an inch away, the words a tickle of breath against my lips. “I got off on the slide of your blood on my cock. I came that way, spilling salt into the fresh open wound.”
* There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to him, no line I wouldn’t cross in this moment. My anger takes an unholy shape, rearing back with all the fury and fear of a wild horse ready to trample his enemy. “And God help me, I’m going to ruin you. The way you did my father. I’m going to break you.”
* He nudges my chin higher, exposing the vulnerable line of my throat. His mouth drops to the tender skin, a whisper of a kiss. “Do you want to make me bleed, little virgin?”
* The violence takes me by surprise. My swing is wild, aimed straight for his face with all my strength. He catches my wrist midmotion, the abrupt stop shooting pain down my arm. We’re frozen that way, him holding me, breathing each other’s air.
* “Don’t call me that,” I say between clenched teeth.
* “Little virgin.”
* “I’m not. You saw the proof of it. You paid a million dollars for it.”
* “Actually,” he says, voice deceptively mild. “I paid a million dollars to use you for a month. And as that month isn’t over yet, I think I’d like to collect.”
* Shock courses through me, singeing every angry intention. “No.”
* “And as for your virginity, there are a hundred ways you haven’t been taken. A thousand ways you haven’t been fucked. A million dollars left to earn.”
* “That money’s mine. You sent me away.”
* “And yet,” he says, echoing his earlier words, “here you fucking are. This is what you wanted. This is what you came for. Did you really think you’d see me and walk away without my come inside you?”
* My gasp sounds virginal even to myself. “Of course I did.”
* He uses the hold on my wrist to drag me closer, off balance, almost falling into him. His warmth surrounds me, along with a musk my body remembers. Alarm bells ring more than they did this morning. A strange man could hurt me, but Gabriel—he’s worse. My own kryptonite.
* “Here’s the thing about fucking a virgin,” he whispers, breath a caress on my temple. “You gave me your pretty little hymen, the small spill of blood. The first feel of those walls squeezing my cock. And there’s no way to get it back, not ever. No matter who else you fuck. Even if you settle down with some prep-school fucker and let him climb on top of you every single night, I’ll always be your first. You will always be my little virgin.”
* The show of possession does something strange to me. It should be offensive. It’s meant to be offensive, but the humiliation turns liquid and hot inside my body. And the worst part is, I can’t even deny the truth. He left an imprint inside me. I can still remember the stretch of him, the burn. The very shape of that heavy thickness I can feel against my stomach now. And anyone who comes after him, they’ll never quite fill the space he carved inside of me.
* “That’s right,” he murmurs, soothing now that I’ve acquiesced. “I’ve got you.”
* “No, we can’t—”
* He releases my wrist only to run a finger along my cheek. “So young. You look so young like this.”
* “It’s the makeup,” I say with difficulty. And the hair. And the clothes. In a thousand ways I was different before, the society princess. What am I now? Almost homeless. Definitely scared.
* His eyes gentle, more brown than they’ve been before. “You didn’t think you were getting fucked today. You got dressed and took the bus and came up the elevator having no idea.”
* “Don’t feel sorry for me.”
* A slight smile. “Not enough to stop. Take off those clothes. Let’s see what you look like when you’re just a sweet, innocent college girl and not the toy I bought at auction.”

Buy The Castle here…
Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Find Skye Warren here…
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

Thank you for joining us here today, Skye Warren! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Skye Warren will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

Welcome to Jamie Marchant w/ #HighFantasy #book ‘The Ghost in Exile’ @JamieMarchantSF @GoddessFish

On April 3, 2017March 11, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Goddess Fish Promotions10 Comments

Today we have author Jamie Marchant visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Jamie Marchant is the author of the epic fantasy series, The Kronicles of Korthlundia. Her novels include The Goddess’s Choice, The Soul Stone, and The Ghost in Exile. Her short fiction has been published in the anthologies–Urban Fantasy and Of Dragons & Magic: Tales of the Lost Worlds—and in Bards & Sages, The World of Myth, A Writer’s Haven, and Short-story.me. She lives in Auburn, Alabama, with her husband and four cats, which (or so she’s been told) officially makes her a cat lady. She teaches writing and literature at Auburn University. She is the mother of a grown son.

Today Jamie Marchant will be talking about the first book she read that had a big impact on her.
* I learned to read at four years old and have been a traveler through books ever since, so when Casey asked about the first book I read that had a big impact on me, the question took me on a journey “through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year” to a strange land where I once ruled as a girl king (yes, king; being a queen didn’t appeal to me at the time) with a boy named Max. Although Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are is a children’s book, it taught me lessons that have influenced me far into my adult life.
* Although I couldn’t have articulated it at such a young age, the book taught me to indulge my imagination. Max is sent to his room, but rather than pouting or being bored, he has a forest grow around him until it completely overtakes the space. He gets on a boat and voyages to land of beasts with scaly legs, horns on their noses, and rooster beaks. With these creatures, he instigates a “wild rumpus” that begins with stomping and chanting under the moonlight and continues with swinging from trees in the light of day. To me, Max and the Wild Things’ wild rumpus seemed the pinnacle of excitement. Sendak’s book showed me that the imagination is a wonderful place where the strangest and most delightful things can happen at any moment and in any place.
* The book also nurtured the belief that this flight into the unknown is nothing for a girl to fear because she can return to normality whenever she pleases. When Max tires of the wild rumpus, he gets on his boat and sail back to his own room where his supper, a symbol of his mother’s love, is waiting for him. I learned that we can travel to the farthest reaches of the world and back again before our supper gets cold.
* Beginning with Where the Wild Things Are, stories, both reading and writing them, became both my playground and my school room. I followed Max’s example and began creating my own fantasies. For my older sister, I wrote tales of the Man from Mars journeying to earth and indulging in all sorts of adventures, and with the exception of a few years where I lost my way I’ve been creating new escapes ever since. When a girl travels to some far off realm, she never knows what new adventure she will have or what new lesson she’ll learn.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* The Ghost is going to hell. Not even the goddess can forgive his sins: assassin, oath-breaker, traitor (an affair with the queen earned him that title). No one can ever learn the princess is his daughter. To keep this secret, he flees to the land that turned him from a simple stable groom into an infamous killer.
* His mission now? To find evildoers and take them to hell with him. But when an impulsive act of heroism saddles him with a damsel who refuses to be distressed, her resilience forces him to questions why he really ran from his daughter.

~ Excerpt ~

* The Ghost went for a walk after his supper at the Green Sandpiper, an inn that catered to mercenaries and other unsavory types. The falling of night deepened the cold, but he didn’t cut short his walk. He wandered the filthy streets of the poorer section of the city, thinking about past kills—those in the distant past, not those connected with his daughter. He couldn’t think of her ever again. The few short years he’d spent with her had been the best in his life, but he hadn’t deserved them. The only thing he deserved was to rot in the seven hells. He wondered how many had died at his hands. Two hundred? Three? More? He’d never kept count.
* Few of the street lights were lit in this part of town, but that was no hindrance to The Ghost. When he’d been the Saloynan king’s personal assassin, he’d had an enchantment performed on his eyes, giving him the ability to see in the dark, even the complete darkness of a cave.
* Passing an alley, he heard a commotion. He turned to see a young woman pleading with two men. “Don’t make me go with him,” she begged. “He hurts me.”
* The first man slapped her across the face, and The Ghost saw the iron slave collar around the woman’s neck. She wore a low-cut, red bodice trimmed with black lace and an extremely short red skirt. She had to be freezing in this weather. “You’ll do as you’re told and like it, or . . .” He drew a knife and ran it across her right breast, drawing a thin line of blood.
* He imagined his daughter being similarly assaulted. He stepped into the alley. “Let her go.”

Buy The Ghost in Exile here…
Amazon

Thank you for joining us here today, Jamie Marchant! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Jamie Marchant will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

Welcome to David Burnett w/ #Paranormal #Romance ‘Between Heaven and Hell’ @DavdBurnett @GoddessFish

On April 2, 2017March 20, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books2 Comments

Today we have author David Burnett visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* We recently moved to our new home near Charleston, South Carolina. Three of my four books are set in Charleston, and I’ve always enjoyed the Carolina beaches. I now have the opportunity to walk on the beach almost every day and to photography the ocean, the sea birds, and the marshes that I love.
* I love photography, and I have photographed subjects as varied as prehistoric ruins on the islands of Scotland, star trails, sea gulls, and a Native American powwow. My wife and I have traveled widely in the United States and the United Kingdom. During trips to Scotland, we visited Crathes Castle, the ancestral home of the Burnett family near Aberdeen, and Kismul Castle on Barra, the home of my McNeil ancestors.
* I went to school for much longer than I want to admit, and I have degrees in psychology and education. In an “earlier life” I was director of research for our state’s education department.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* When Adryel follows Lucifer in his rebellion, she loses Ramael, the one she loves, and everything else she holds dear. How can he still love her when, as the Mistress of Hell, she has done more to thwart Adonai’s plan for humanity than all the other fallen angels combined?

~ Excerpt ~

* “The council is in session,” Uriel repeated as Adryel took her seat. “Each of you will find a book on the table in front of you. As its title indicates, it contains a plan for creation of…well, we’ll see what is to be created. In any case, Adonai wishes to implement the plan, and he solicits your advice and counsel before he proceeds.”
* “The plan is not long, as you can see,” Uriel said. “We have plenty of time. We’ll read it now.”
* Thirty minutes passed, and the archangels began to close their books. Lucifer had been the first to finish reading. He sat straight in his chair, his body rigid, a frown spread across his face. He seemed to be glaring, first at Uriel, then at Michael. He absently played with a small wooden disk that he had taken from a pocket, turning it over and over in the palm of his hand. Adryel had observed that he frequently occupied himself in this manner when he felt angry but was trying to hide his feelings from others.
* Uriel cleared his throat. “Very interesting.”
* “Interesting?” Lucifer raised his left eyebrow. “Balls of fire and chunks of rock hurtling through empty space. What were they called?”
* Chamuel opened his book and scanned the first page. “Stars and planets.”
* “Stars and planets. Yes.” Lucifer nodded. “And one of these planets will be special, populated by countless creatures, and these creatures will come in assorted shapes and sizes and abilities and colors and…”
* He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed one more time, and then continued. “So…these creatures…some of them, of course, are like creatures that live here, the horses, for example. Others…well, I was rather taken by those called elephants, creatures with enormous ears and long, tube-like noses…but on the whole I actually found it all to be rather boring—boring and uninteresting and harmless—and I wondered why I was dragged away from more productive activities.” He paused as he looked around the table, making eye contact with each member of the council. “Except for one…small…item.”
* He flipped toward the back of the book. “On the twenty-fourth page we find an extended discussion of one of these creatures, the one called human.” A look of distaste blanketed his features and his eyes narrowed. “I find the plan for this creature to be most disturbing.”

Buy Between Heaven and Hell here…
Amazon The book is on sale for $0.99 during the tour.

Find David Burnett here…
Amazon Author Page | Blog | Facebook Page | Twitter | Website

Thank you for joining us here today, David Burnett! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! David Burnett will be awarding a $15 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!