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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Book information for Cupid Rocks



Book information for Cupid Rocks
Sponsored by Bewitching Book Tours

Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books.  I am pleased to share my review of this book with you.  Thank you for visiting and please come again.

Cupid Rocks
Francesca Hawley

ISBN: 9781419945281
Book Length: Novel
Availability: Feb 22, 2013

Blurb : 

When her parents’ rock band The Pack performs at Zach’s bar, Mandy discovers her True Mate, Joe Blackwolf, the band’s lead singer and guitarist. All she has to do now is convince Joe that she told a little white lie to make her mom happy, her father that rock musicians aren’t all alike, and her new mate’s family that rockers aren’t all that different from classical musicians.

Joe Blackwolf is celebrating his fortieth birthday. And what he wishes for when he blows out the candles is to find his True Mate. He succeeds when he meets Mandy Goldwolf. Problem is…she belongs to someone else. Finding out the truth leaves him free to explore every inch of her smokin’ hot curves, but now Joe and Mandy are neck deep in overbearing relatives and everyone is in for a rockin’ Valentine’s Day.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave.

About the Author:

Hi. I’m Francesca Hawley and I’m a fat chick. A woman with dangerous curves just like my heroines.

Many people don’t like the word, “fat” but I do because it’s the truth and I’ve learned to own it.  I am a fat chick and I always will be. Even if my fairy godmother popped in right at this moment and waved her wand to make me a size 2, I know that mentally and emotionally I’d still be a fat chick. So why is this relevant? Well, my size has had a major influence on how I see the world and how I write.

I first began to read romance when I was in my teens. I loved the genre, but the heroines were all thin. Their thighs didn’t rub together…had never rubbed together…and frankly I had trouble relating to these ladies. The stories were great—full of emotion and well told, but the heroines weren’t like me and that was a major disappointment.  I kept wondering where were the fat heroines? I found some occasionally, but to have their Happily Ever After they usually had to lose weight and go from ugly duckling to swan.

Well, I wanted a fat heroine who loved herself—or at least learned to love herself—and a hot alpha hero who liked her jiggly bits just the way they were. Since I didn’t find many big girls to read about, I decided  to write about them myself. After all, I loved to write anyway and had been writing almost as long as I’d been reading, so Francesca Hawley – author of Romance with Dangerous Curves was born.

In a Francesca Hawley romance, my readers will find authentic, sensual, fat heroines who love and are loved by their intense, passionate, and seductive Alpha heroes. I hope you enjoy their dangerous curves just as much as their hunky heroes do.

Contacts:





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Excerpt:

“Am I dead, Angel? Cause you look like you’re straight from heaven!”

“That has to be the worst line I’ve ever heard,” Mandy laughed, looking up into warm brown eyes. She shivered as he settled into the chair beside her.

“Maybe, but it made you laugh.” He took her hand. “Can I buy you a drink?”

Joe waved over a waiter and ordered for them without once releasing her hand. She could feel the rough calluses guitar playing had created on his fingers, but they turned her on. He turned her on.

This was Joe? “Good ole Joe” as Eddie called him. He was neither good nor old. No. He was gorgeous…and talented. Zach wasn’t kidding when he’d said this Blackwolf was a great guitarist and singer. For the first time since Carly bugged her, she wished with all her might she hadn’t lied about Zach being her mate. Zach might be handsome, but Joe made her throb in places that hadn’t throbbed in all of her thirty-five years.

“So what’s with the camera, Angel? Fan or reporter?”

Mandy looked down at her fingers clenched around her camera strap. If she told him who she was, he’d back off so fast she’d see skid marks on the floor. Just this once, she wanted to pretend she was someone else. Just tonight. She leaned forward pressing her lips against his ear.

“I’m more than a fan. I’m a groupie. Can’t you tell?” He shuddered, turning his head he met her gaze. The fire glowing in his eyes set her boiling. Yes. She had to have him. Now.

“A groupie? For just any rock musician?”

“No, Joe. I want you.”

“Fuck, yeah,” he growled, standing so abruptly his chair toppled over. No one nearby noticed as he dragged her to her feet. “Where?”

Mandy looked over toward the hallway leading to Zach’s office and smiled. They had a clear path. She pulled him after her and they ducked into the shadowy space. He pressed her to the wall and took her mouth in a deep kiss. Their mouths meshed together. Joe pulled back to nip at her lips, then ran his tongue along the inside edge of her lower lip. She caught his long dark hair in her fingers, holding his mouth to hers.

Fire. Heat. She’d never felt anything like this in her entire life. She moaned as his mouth slid to nuzzle her neck. Mandy wrapped her free arm around him, clutching his leather jacket. She lifted her right leg along his hip. He stepped into the opening she’d created, thrusting his hips against hers.
She shivered as his rough fingers slid along her leg and under her skirt. He slipped his fingers under her panties and cupped her ass. Grasping her, he pulled her more firmly against his hard cock. He reached up to her peasant top, untying the drawstring to bare her bra covered breast. His hot breath teased her neck and then his warm tongue grazed her skin as he licked his way over her curves

“Hey. Anyone seen Joe?” Mandy and Joe froze as she heard Eddie’s voice. He was close. Too close. She looked out of the entrance of the hall. She didn’t see him, but he was right there. She knew it. Mandy closed her eyes, fighting to keep her panting excitement from giving them away.

“I think I saw him with a hot chick earlier. I didn’t get a good look at her though. Just noticed she was his type.” Tom responded with a laugh.

Joe groaned in her ear, and kissed her cheek. She turned to look up at him. He was still on fire, she could see it but there was a definite question in his dark eyes? Stop or go?

She lowered her leg and he sighed, then she smiled and grabbed his hand. “This way,” she whispered.

Mandy knew there was an empty unlocked office back here and she wanted this wolf and she wanted him now. He chuckled as they moved into the darkness. She found the door on the right and turned the knob. Hearing the click, she pushed, wincing at the creak when the door stuck. He pushed her through and they shut the door behind them. Mandy flipped the light switch, blinking a bit to adjust to the table lamps that came on. She’d been expecting an overhead. They looked at each other and grinned.

Joe pulled her over to the empty desk and she climbed up onto it. He stroked her cheek. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. I don’t want to stop. Not now.”


This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

GIveaway and Book Review of Big Bad Beast



Book Review of Big Bad Beast
Sponsored by Bewitching Book Tours

 Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books.  I am pleased to share my review of this book with you.  Thank you for visiting and please come again.

BIG BAD BEAST
Werescape Book Six
Skhye Moncrief

Genre: Paranormal Romance
ASIN: B0088DE3EA
Word Count: 38,000 words
Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill (EDH Graphics)

Blurb : 

Each wants the other, but neither can stand to be in the same room. 

One day in the Big Woods, Normal Josie wakes up and helplessly watches a Shifter virus kill her immediate family in their remote wilderness homestead. Josie has no choice but to carry on. She's forced to brave the forested Wild alone, leading a string of pack horses with all the supplies she can manage to her uncle's Shifter outpost--back to where she became known as a little Normal female who could kick butt with the best Shifters, back to where she fell in love with the only Shifter she could ever mate. Thank goodness he isn't there. But when living among a pack of Shifters, a girl has to obey the alpha. And her alpha has secret plans for her, plans that involve the only Shifter she loves--the Shifter who now irritates the hell out of her.

Stationed at an isolated agricultural outpost with nothing but teenage hormones for company, Shifter Hostillian doesn't mind monotonous day-to-day schedules where he rules the roost. And then his inner Wolf's favorite wild cat screeches at his door. He has no desire to mate the only person who challenges everything he utters. But his Wolf makes demands the minute it catches Josie's scent.

Stand back and watch the fireworks light up the Minnesota sky because the BIG BAD BEAST can't help but to huff and puff and blow Josie's house in...

About the Author:

Aside from muscled men in fur, leather, denim, or kilts, I love cultural ecology, cultural evolution, cultural relativism, and natural processes. Big ideas. Simple concepts that manifest in world building to crazy people like me who studied anthropology and geology before turning to writing romantic fiction. My rule of thumb is to love the good, the bad, and the ugly of every culture in my tales so every aspect of my stories resonates as real as possible.

Contacts:

Kindle    Nook


                                           




If you love trading cards they can be requested from Skhye at http://skhyemoncrief.com/Romance_Trading_Cards.html

Other:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt

Wolf writhed in agony inside me because she was even more beautiful when she hissed words through grated teeth. But I'm unlike the Shifter Tacitus who seeks challenges. No. I prefer my females docile and safe at home. Josie will never be either.
Yummy man!
Mine, Wolf growled.
"Gods-damn-it, Hostillian. Don't growl at me. Just let me pass." Her pale blue eyes glinted like they had a Shifter glow of their own.
Play, Wolf hummed.
Sit. Quiet. Let me think.
Her heart thrashed like she faced a grizzly.
And she'd said Augustus had that damned wink when he gave her this assignment. He sent her on purpose. Hell, I can't let her go out with the curfew a few hours away. Not that tight little ass and those pouty lips. What kind of Guardian would I be if anything happened to a female? "There's nowhere you can go this time of day. You have to stay here." Hopefully, I sounded calm. But she has a way of working from every angle to pry my flesh from my bones. A way of forcing every one of my blood cells into my swelling cock.
"You're kidding. Right?" she snarled. "You and me in the same space until morning?"
She's right. But I'd be damned if she got the best of me in any discussion. "If you behave, everything will be fine," I managed calmly.
"Me?" she crowed, pointing at the floorboards with obvious rage reddening her cheeks. "You're the one who accused me of coming here on purpose. I offered to leave too."
Unfortunately, I couldn't allow her to win. "You will behave. I have seven teens here learning to grow wheat. But they're highly impressionable--"
"How dare you suggest I'd seduce them!" She thrust up a finger and stabbed the pointed tip into my chest. "I don't know when the last time was I even looked at a youth the age of the one that just left. He's scrawny."
The solid fingertip jabbed harder with each of her words.
Not hard enough to soften Wolf's cock. "You're not leaving this cabin until sunrise." I turned my back to her, leaned an elbow against the biting doorframe, and stared at unfolding grassy prairie beyond the gaping gateway.
Movement even farther out noted my loping students in their Wolfskins were returning to prepare for the evening meal. "You'd better find something to do, Josie. The boys are back. In were-form. And they'll be shifting shortly. If you don't want to mislead them by staring at their nude bodies, you'd better back away from the door and find something to do."

****

What an asshole. First implying I can't behave appropriately around these children. Then daring me to go stare at their nude bodies. I pivoted and planted my tail on the end of the bench farthest from the doorway and Hostillian's glowing Wolf stare.
Banked coals never warmed a space as much as they did now. Or I'm about to explode from pent-up frustration.
"Just a minute," Hostillian said with his authoritative timbre.
Not to me. To the teens. Or he would have been as asshole.
The floorboards creaked behind me.
Under the weight of his six-foot-five steely mass of perfectly-chiseled muscles. Why, oh, why, can't I be normal? Just be a woman who makes men fall at their feet? Not gush into puddles. Men don't gush. But just have them writhe at my boots. Just Hostillian. Why? Is it too much to want something so desperately? I'd wasted half of my life on that stupid desire. Trying to prove I wouldn't be in his way. That I'd be safe walking across the compound if he wasn't around. That he wouldn't have to worry about me. But he still doesn't want me.
My heart sank.
Foolishly betraying my warrior façade if Hostillian had his Wolf in his ears.
My cousin planned this. Yes. Stuck his snout in my business again. But I'd leave in the morning. Beat Augustus at his game. Survive this night.
The floorboards creaked again.
More softly though. Farther away.
The door snapped shut.
Hostillian probably took pants to his boys.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
My pulse in my skull. Pounding out a death march. Beat by agonizing beat. Ticking off the moments before they'd all come inside. Stare at me like I'm the main course. Or worse. He probably told them who I was by now. Oh well. I'd just pull myself together. Make due till morning. Prove all those years I studied how to survive hadn't been wasted. Maybe on a foolish fantasy about Hostillian. But not with learning to defend myself.
No. I hadn't wasted a moment on self-defense. And nobody would make me think I had. Not Hostillian. Not a pack of wet-behind-the-ears youths. My sire might have wanted me to be more of a daughter than a woman who could stand up to Hostillian. But he never once told me I was a failure or an embarrassment to the clan. So, to hell with Hostillian's lack of interest. I'd show this lodge of mangy wolves that I deserved respect.
The door creaked.
A floorboard answered.
One by one, they trickled through the doorway, silently, except for the bitching planks. Hostillian must have told them to be respectfully quiet. Or threatened them with their lives for any misbehavior. I remember the days in school when all the young males feared Augustus. Knew there would be hell to pay if anything went wrong. Hence, their accepting me and my little need to prove myself to whoever doubted I could take care of myself. So, my cousin taught the males of his clan how to demand the same respect from youths.
A final creak of flooring and one snap of the door noted the noisy parade's end.
Surely he stood behind me.

Review

            I love shifter stories.  And I loved the whole strong female with a need to prove she can take care of herself standing up to the man who just wants to take care of her.  Oh, yes that will definitely make sparks fly.  Love that. 

            The writing made it easy for me to picture myself in the scenes and watch them play out before my eyes.

            I give this book 4.5 out of 5 clouds.

This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

Book Review of Lens and the Looker



Book Review of Lens and the Looker
Sponsored by Pump Up Your Books

Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books.  I am pleased to share my review of this book with you.  Thank you for visiting and please come again.


Blurb : 

 

It's the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences, (A.I.s) have finally created the perfect society. To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full-sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiences the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan. Like in all groups of youth, there are those who rebel, “hard cases” who just don’t get it. In this first installment of a trilogy, three spoiled teens from the year 2347 are kidnapped back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy. There they are abandoned and left with only two choices: adapt to the harsh medieval ways, or die. Hansum, almost 17, is good looking, athletic and, as his A.I. teacher says, he can charm the fuzz off a peach. Shamira is 15. She has green eyes, auburn hair, and a Caucasian complexion. That's something people don't see that much of in the 24th century. She's sassy, independent and has an artistic genius for drawing. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck. But you don't have to scratch too far beneath the surface to find his insecurities.  There are two types of artificial intelligences (A.I.s) in the 24th-century. The first are authorized by society and very conservative. Then there are ‘genies’. Made by black-market hackers, or blackers, these rascals are the bi-polar opposite of their unadventurous cousins. A genie’s aim in life is to help rebellious youth make mischief. Pan, is a very mischievous genie. A curious mix of past and future, he’s an eccentric, all-knowing, holographic artificial intelligence in the cartoon shape of the vaunted Greek god. Pan's antics and insights get the kids both into and out of trouble.  Our three teen protagonists meet at a History Camp where everything and everybody must act like it is 14th-century Verona, Italy. Society’s plan is to put trouble-making kids into situations where they are “scared straight”. But Hansum knows better. He’s aware that behind the scenes there are armies of humans and A.I.’s making sure they are safe. Using Pan, the teens devise a plan to drive the History Camp enactors crazy, and they succeed. But what they’re not prepared for is that a History Camp elder from the 31st century, (where time-travel is possible) kidnaps them back to the real medieval Verona. Here they are indentured to an alcoholic lens maker. Now, unquestionably, the dangers are real.  All of this is hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but, for Hansum, that’s exactly what happens. Guilietta is the beautiful daughter of the master the teens are working for. She becomes the star-crossed and time-crossed lover of our story’s Romeo - Hansum. In fact, the novel is peppered with lots of fun allusions to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In an attempt to survive the teenage trio, with Pan’s help, risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history.

About the Author:
 
“I write Post-Dystopian fiction. After society’s collapse, which is imagined in so many great dystopian stories, humans will either fade into history, with the dinosaurs, or, if it learns the right lessons, society will go on to construct a civilization to last tens of thousands of years. History Camp stories are the exciting adventures of young people doing the latter.” -Lory Kaufman

On the artistic side of Lory’s career, he’s written, acted and directed children’s theatre and musical theatre. He enjoys art, especially sculpture. He loves science fiction and historical fiction and he has been deeply involved in the green movement all across North America. All this shows through when you read his work. Lory has three grown children and works and lives in Kingston, Canada.

Contacts:

To find out more about Lory visit www.lorykaufman.com

Review

So not my typical fare, but a good read.  Stay tuned for more reviews on the other books in this series.
I give this book 4 out of 5 clouds.

This product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.