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Showing posts with label Blog Tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Tour. Show all posts

01 October 2018

Blog Tour ~ The Evolution of Man, Trust Fund Duet, by Skye Warren

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Ambitious. Intense. Irresistible.

The Evolution of Man, the stunning conclusion to the Trust Fund Duet by New York Times bestselling author Skye Warren, is live!

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I never wanted to fall for man.
And definitely not two men.

They tear me apart until I don’t know how I’ll ever be whole again.
Until I’m not sure I want to be. How can I choose between two halves of myself?

The Evolution of Man is the second novel in the USA Today bestselling duet, which begins with Survival of the Richest.

EOM_AVAILABLE NOW

Download your copy today!

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Start the series with Survival of the Richest

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Excerpt

“Good evening,” he says, as casually as if he saw me last week instead of six months ago.

“Christopher,” I say, in case he hasn’t noticed. A table like this is reserved for VIPs or very special guests. Or ones with deep pockets. “This is the chef’s table. We’re sitting at the chef’s table in Koi.”

“Is that good? I thought they just ran out of regular tables.”

“Did you just make a joke. Oh my God. You did.”

The chef chooses that moment to introduce himself, a rather effusive man with a comforting smile and a thick Japanese accent. He says he’ll forgive that we drink champagne as long as we try the sake pairing he sends with every course. And he personally serves the amuse bouche, a tuna sashimi lollie on a fennel cilantro salad with ponzu dressing that makes me moan despite myself.

“Dear God,” I say when we’re alone again, my eyes still closed with the wonder of that single bite. There’s salt and citrus, and basically this is what heaven tastes like. “Did you spend all two billion dollars to get this table? Because it’s worth it.”

When I open my eyes Christopher is watching me, a strange expression on his face. He hasn’t touched the plate in front of him. He seems more interested in the way that I dip my finger in the ponzu dressing and lime foam to savor the last drops. I’m not sure that love is on the table, but if the glitter in his eyes is anything to go by, sex is definitely an option.

“One billion,” he says, almost absently.

I blink. “What?”

“Only one billion is mine. The other half belongs to Sutton.”

It’s like a bucket of cold water dumped over my head. “Why did you bring me here?”

One dark eyebrow rises. “You’re the one who insisted we meet in person.”

“And you’re the one who brought me here.”

The long pause that follows isn’t filled with hearts and roses. He does not secretly love me, and I feel like a fool for even considering the possibility. Because he took me out to dinner? It’s really a good thing I don’t date much, because I’m terrible at it.

“I invested in the restaurant,” he says finally. “It helps to have your take.”

“Because I have such a refined palate?”

“Because you were born rich,” he says, his voice flat. “You know what rich people like.”

It takes my breath away, and I’m left staring at him with the most incredible taste on my tongue. That’s all I am to him? A rich girl with nothing better to do with my time than give him advice on his new restaurant? Meanwhile I was gullible enough to think he actually wanted to spend time with me. It isn’t right. It isn’t fair, but then Christopher Bardot has never played fair.


About Skye

SKyeWarrenSkye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance such as the Endgame trilogy. 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, sweet dogs, and evil cat.


19 September 2018

Blog Tour ~ Come To Me, Hawkeye #1, by Sierra Cartwright



When Nate Davidson learns there’s a bounty on Wolf Stone’s head, he shoves aside the hurt and bitterness of the past and volunteers to serve on his protective detail. Trouble is, their well-respected commander doesn’t want any help.

Their first angry kiss reignites a passion that time has not diminished, and the stunning addition of the beautifully submissive Kayla Fagan to their relationship changes their dynamic in sexy ways they never could have imagined.

But as a hitman closes in, Kayla and Nate want more from Wolf. They want him to share his deepest secrets…and his love. Wolf’s wounds run deep, and love is the one thing he’s incapable of offering.



Kayla Fagan unfolded her legs. For a second, her actions reminded Stone of a butterfly unfurling its wings.

He took a seat in the oversize leather chair. She and Nate Davidson had left the wingback chair vacant for him. “You needed to talk?”

“Yeah. About that…” She stood in a lithe movement that captivated him, made him aware of her femininity.

Men and women were built different, and he was a connoisseur of both. He pressed his palms together and waited.

“I want to play.”

“Go on.”

She paced. Then, with her back to a wall, she admitted, “I’m intrigued.”

Her soft-spoken admission aroused him.

“I just…don’t want anything extreme.”

“You want to stay in control while you’re out of control?”

She nodded.

“You’ll have a safe word. And a slow word. We can go at your pace.”

“Your safe word will stop any activity,” Davidson said. “You can always say no. Your Dom, Stone, will honor that. You get to set boundaries and negotiate terms. Your pleasure is our ultimate goal.

Watching the two of them was entertaining as hell to Stone.

“My pleasure is the only thing that matters?” Clearly, she was confused, and a little intrigued, if the glint in her green eyes was anything to judge by.

“Make no mistake,” Davidson continued, “if you have any desire to submit or learn about submission, Stone is the Dom you want.”

“Davidson’s right.” Stone leaned forward. “We’ll go slow. I’ll check in with you a lot. By watching you, I’ll know when you’re at your limit, even if you don’t realize it. You’ll never be taken anywhere you don’t want to go, or any place I deem unsafe.”

“I…”

He couldn’t help himself.

Desire for this woman with her intense green eyes and untamed auburn hair drove him to distraction.

Standing, he crossed to Fagan and closed his hands around her shoulders. He helped her up until she stood facing him, her head tipped back to meet his gaze.

Then he captured her head and kissed her long, hard, deep. Nothing punishing, nothing dominant, just gentle reassurance.

She tasted of wine, spicy and rich. And then, moments later…of surrender.

His cock pressed against his zipper, insistently, demandingly. Did she recognize her power?

Fagan swayed toward him, taking the role of the aggressor. Her tongue plunged deep into his mouth. And he was suddenly commiserating with how desperate Davidson had been to orgasm.

Eventually, she pulled away. “Oh. Hmm. Well. Wow.”

“Just for the record,” he said, holding her close, one hand just above her rear, the other between her shoulder blades, “I want to have sex with you. Whether or not that happens is completely your call.”


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USA Today Best-Selling Author, Winner of the 2015 Best BDSM Book of the year (Bind), 2015 Reader’s Choice Best Erotic Romance (Bind), 2015 Golden Flogger (Crave), 2014 LASR Book of the Year award (In The Den), 2013 Best BDSM Book of the Year award (Over The Line), Golden Flogger Award 2015 nominee for her books Command, Bind, and Brand.

Sierra was born in Manchester, England where she spent her early years traipsing through castles. After living in Denver for a number of years, the internationally acclaimed author now resides in Galveston, Texas. She loves the way history blends with Southern manners (being called “sugar” is an experience unto itself).

She invites you to join her on a sensual journey where the limits are explored and expanded.





17 September 2018

NBtM Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway ~ The Fortress by Madeline Romeyer Dherbey


The Fortress
by Madeleine Romeyer Dherbey
Genre: WWII Historical


The war has not made much of difference in Alix’s life. Her father has seen to it that she grows up unaware, unworried, but safe in her tiny village under the cliffs of the Vercors. All around her he has built a fortress whose walls are impregnable—until the 27th of April, 1944. That day he makes a stupid mistake up on the cliff, and the walls of the Fortress start crashing down. Reality breaks into Alix’s life with unrelenting violence, unforeseen possibilities. From now on, every decision she makes will mean life or death.



Exccerpt

“Honey, if anybody’s looking for it up here, it means you’re already dead. So it won’t matter to you. Listen now. People will call you on the other phone, the one downstairs, and give you coded messages. As a rule it will be about movements in our direction, Germans, Militia, or even new recruits for our camps. Remember, the security of Mortval depends on you. Here is a list of codes. You must memorize all of them and get rid of the list.”

She started to read. “The strawberries are in their juice. Your walnuts were wormy. You can’t put rabbit in the cassoulet.” She looked up. “Are they all about food?”

“No. Read the next one.”

“Yvette préfère les grosses carrottes. Well?”

“Well, it’s not about food.”

“Yvette préfère… Oh. I understand now. Did you come up with that one?”

“I thought it would be memorable.”

“It’s lovely. I bet the British are impressed.”


Author Interview

I am pleased to welcome Madeline Romeyer Dherbey to my little corner of cyberspace!

Madeline, where did you find the idea for your book?

First of all, the Vercors Mountains. Breathtakingly beautiful, dangerous, a natural playground for all extreme sport lovers. Rock climbing, canyoning, spelunking, skiing, it’s all there. But for me, it’s home. It’s where my ancestors have lived and are buried, under those same cliffs.

Then, the history. The Vercors is a dream of freedom, a heroic battle, a military disaster, but also redemptive last stand. Many military and history books have been written on the subject, but no fiction accounts, and in fact, I was frustrated by the dryness of the accounts which I felt did not reflect the human dimension of that battle.

Finally, my own family history. It starts with the story of my own Grandfather falling off that cliff, and then, there my three uncles, who were condemned to death for collaborating with the Vichy government and betraying C2, a Resistance camp, to the Nazis. Their sentences were later commuted to forced labor, but the national disgrace verdict stood, and they had to leave the area to avoid being murdered. Despite the death threats, my father— who had fought with honor during the war—decided to stay. The legacy was hard to overcome in a community mauled by four years of occupation and violence, and seventy years later, my last name remains associated with the destruction of the Maquis of Malleval.

There are also small things, like a Sten machine gun I found in the mud of a summer creek, with this inscription, Pour ma Suzon Cherie, June 12, 1944; or the story of a fifteen-year old boy, a resistant fighter whose name is forgotten, who was tortured and murdered by the Nazis in the summer of 1944.
And finally, Russel Crowe, naturally.

Do you hide any secrets in your book?

I’m not sure what you mean… Are there notions in it too personal to own? If yes, there are many, but they’re not secret. Nothing I have ever committed in my prior lives could possibly shame me now. I would own up to it, and dare anyone to throw the first stone.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever to research on line for your book?

Things like Nazi decorations or weapons, uniforms, the Lebensborn, and basically anything having to do with a violent, murderous ideology. The fact that I often did it on my planning time at my school, or on the school-issued computer was made me nervous, too. I was always afraid someone from security was going to ask me upstairs to question me about these searches. It was extremely uncomfortable having to rationalize ideas from a Nazi point of view, which I had to do in order to make Rieder’s thought process, or the Militia Chief’s racist outlook credible.

Do you set a plot or prefer going wherever an idea takes you?

Both, really. I think they call that plotting or pantsing? I plot first by walking around and making little comic-like boxes which I fill with ideas. I make lists, flow-charts—I’m a teacher after all. But sometimes I get inspired out of nowhere, like my character objects and does his own thing. The first time it happened, I was amazed. It felt like magic. The legendary muse, as my agent once said. I thought he was out of his mind. Sure, the muse visits once in a while, but it’s mostly hard work. Shock Top helps a lot, too, one and a half, no more, and Finnish metal music. My favorite bands are Ghost Brigade, Insomnium, Wolfheart, and Swallow The sun. It’s as vast and brilliant as a Beethoven Symphony, thunderous but melodic, the perfect emotional outlet. And then, frozen expanses, Nordic lakes, white forests, it’s land’s end, after all.

What are your top three favorite books of all time?

1. Under the Northern star, a trilogy by Finnish author Väinö Linna, the saga of a poor Finnish family across three generations. He created my all-time favorite hero, Akseli Koskela, who personifies all the virtues I respect in a man, courage, persistence, humility, loyalty, honesty, generosity, even though he’s just a man, subject to emotional fragility we can all identify with.

2. The Little Prince, by Antoine De Saint Expupery. Too beautiful for words.

3. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Victor Hugo—scary, dark, and tragic. Not anything you can imagine if you only know the Disney version.

What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

Discard any idea that worms itself into the narrative because it might help sell the book. No gratuitous sex, no gratuitous violence, no easy, voyeuristic scene that is devoid of purpose. If you sacrifice pleasure and dignity for commercial gain, you will get neither.

Thank you Madeline! It was a pleasure getting to know you and a little more about your book!


About The Author

Madeleine Romeyer Dherbey was born in the French Alps, moved to the United States twenty-five years later, and currently lives in the mountains of Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and Mikko.

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29 August 2018

Book Blast & Giveaway ~ Single and Looking: Daisy, Secret Lives of Sisters #1, by Belinda Austin


Single and Looking: Daisy
Secret Lives of Sisters
by Belinda Austin
Genre: Chick Lit


At First, Daisy Ignores Her Cat's Dating Advice.

Daisy will turn 40 in eleven months and has never married. Her family figures Daisy is a loser because she is still in college trying to avoid paying off her student loans which have amassed over 22 years of a miseducation. And all Daisy has is a cat to keep her company. To make the crises worse, her cat begins talking to Daisy, when she is sober! The mess of Daisy's life is even kookier because the cat is cursing and smoking now and drinking more alcoholic beverages. Mm, there must be a connection to all this flowing alcohol, which may explain the bubbly in Daisy's brain. Her sisters and mother insist on setting Daisy up on six blind dates and all the men are named after liquor.

A heartwarming, LOL book that will make you smile.




Excerpt

Why would she listen to dating tips from a fixed kitty? In other words, Shakespeare was a virgin. The status of his privates was probably the reason the cat was an overweight, alcoholic, chain-smoker. “I don’t want to seem thirsty,” she said.

He raised a kitty eyebrow.

“In dating lingo thirsty means that I am desperate for a boyfriend or you know, thirsty for…”

“For a one-night lay.”

“Well that but more like for a meaningful relationship. And then there’s an online profile with a picture which needs to be posted on dating websites, and you know that I am not photogenic.”

“Your butt photographs very well,” the cat said. “Display that ass on the internet and your email account will explode with offers from all kinds of blokes.”

“Nor do I care to brag about myself,” she said.

“Well, if you don’t brag then who will?”

“Nor do I want to attract men who are only interested in one thing.”

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The cat plopped in front of the refrigerator, his big rump sticking up, blocking the door and waiting for lunch. He was stoned and drunk, having licked a bit of wine and sniffed catnip.

Daisy felt silly holding a newspaper over his head to smack the demon out of him. Shakespeare was sucking his paw, as usual when relaxing. He was the same old smelly cat, except for his mastering the English language and spouting forth lines from his namesake, William Shakespeare.


About The Author

Belinda Austin writes Women's Fiction, Romanic Comedy, Humor, Psychological Thrillers and Suspense. She has a degree in Applied Mathematics and once worked as a Software Engineer. She was born in the Los Angeles Area and is an award-winning author. She is a Zumbaholic.

Belinda, also, writes Science Fiction and Fantasy under the name of B. Austin. She writes Historical Fiction under the name of Belinda Vasquez Garcia, along with Middle Grade Fiction.

She has occasionally dreamt or her cat, Shakespeare, talking to her in English. She once had a cat named Whiskey who used to sit like a human in a chair for half an hour or more with an empty beer can on his head, which proves that life often emulates fiction.



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05 August 2018

Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ The Protector, Games People Play #5, by HelenKay Dimon


Today we have the blog tour for The Protector by HelenKay Dimon! Check it out and get your copy today!


The Protector
Author: HelenKay Dimon
Genre Romantic Suspense


About The Protector

Salvation, Pennsylvania. The commune located in the small town was advertised as a modern Utopia: a place to live, share, and learn with other like-minded young people. Cate Pendleton’s sister was one of them. Now she’s dead—and Cate won’t rest until she finds out who killed her. Stonewalled at every turn, she approaches a DC Fixer for help and ends up with Damon Knox, a mysterious man with a secretive past. But Cate soon discovers that she not only needs Damon, she wants him, which isn’t good—for the attraction brewing between them will only lead to complications that can turn into danger . . .

Damon has tried to erase the hellish memories and the evil that happened in Salvation ever since he left a long time ago. Still, he can’t turn his back on Cate. As Damon works with Cate to uncover her sister’s killer, he finds himself drawn to her more and more. But how will she feel about him when she learns about his connection to the place?

Joining forces to uncover the truth, they must stay one step ahead of a cunning killer who’s bent on not being exposed.


Get Your Copy Now



Excerpt

She cleared her throat. “Shauna.”

They could circle back to food because she had his attention now. He refused to joke about this topic. “Your sister.”

“She’s three years older.”

He noticed she didn’t use the past tense. Shauna died ten years ago and Cate still saw her as an “is.” For Damon, that meant treading carefully. “And you are…?”

“Twenty-nine.”

He knew that answer before she said but thought keeping her to facts might help her emotionally wade through the next part. He’d helped Wren with other cases and this piece – dealing with the grief – never got easier. Damon had a load of grief and guilt of his own piled on top of hers, so he got it.

He nodded to her. “Go ahead.”

“The questions you ask don’t seem that pertinent.”

“I’m going to be honest with you.” He started to lean forward when the waiter came by and dropped off their food. The smell of grilled hamburger filled his senses as he reached for his folded napkin and threw it across his lap.

She didn’t move. “That would be a good way to start.”

“Wren already gave me a file he had on you. The man is an expert at collecting information and then making Garrett put it together in a nice big, easy-to-understand breakdown of what happened and when.”

For a few seconds she sat there, quiet, as her gaze moved over his face, studying him. “Then why are we here doing the get-to-know-you thing?”

“First, I’m hungry. That happens a lot. The need to eat thing. So, you’ll need to get used to it.” He popped a french fry in his mouth.

“You aren’t…I mean, you look…”

Interesting. “I’m pretty excited to hear how you finish that sentence.”

She waved a hand in front of her. “You’re fit.”

“Oh, really?”

“Don’t get excited. That was an objectively factual statement.”

“Objectively factual?” He didn’t even know what that meant. If she found him sexy she should absolutely say so because damn was that a mutual feeling.

“You know what I mean.”

Rather than risk saying the wrong thing and wearing her salad, he switched back to the food. That seemed like a safe topic. “I have low blood sugar and get cranky when I don’t eat.”

“So, you eat burgers all the time.”

“I like pleasure.”

She bit her top lip as if she were fighting off a smile. “You sound like you’re five.”

“And protein.” All this talk about food and seeing the burger right there, all he wanted to do was pick it up and take a bite, but he waited. “My point is that this – here, right now, us eating together – is about getting to know each other.”

That buried smile disappeared. “Why do we need to?”

Why?” Good lord, she was serious. He could tell from the confused expression. Nothing about her tone or demeanor telegraphed amusement or suggested she was joking.

“It’s a job. You go in and do it.” She shrugged. “I’d rather spend our time this afternoon with you telling me your big plan so that we can figure out what we do next.”

They appeared to have very different views on who was going to be in charge of this operation. He was very clear, but she seemed to be confused. “Let me understand this. You think we need to agree on strategy?”

“Of course.”

“That’s not how this works.” Not in his world. Not ever. When he took on a job he ran it alone, not by committee.

She shoved her plate to the side and leaned on her elbows, inching closer to him across the top of the two-seat table. “Do you understand what’s at stake here?”

“Likely a silent promise you made to your sister that you would make sure her killer didn’t go free.” It was a guess but an educated one. He’d dealt with grieving family members before. He’d seen both sides of the battle lines. So, when her eyes widened he knew he’d scored. “And your peace of mind.”

She glanced down at her salad then at the two men at the table next to them who were locked in an argument about football season tickets. When she finally looked back at him again some of the stress around her eyes had disappeared. “You get it.”

“I know guilt when I see it.”


Catch Up On the Series!

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About HelenKay Dimon

HelenKay Dimon spent the years before becoming a romance author as a...divorce attorney. Not the usual transition, she knows. Good news is she now writes full time and is much happier. She has sold over forty novels and novellas to numerous publishers, including HarperCollins, Kensington, Harlequin, Penguin Random House, Riptide and Carina Press. Her nationally bestselling and award-winning books have been showcased in numerous venues and her books have twice been named "Red-Hot Reads" and excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine. She is on the Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America and teaches fiction writing at UC San Diego and MiraCosta College. You can learn more at her website.



Enter HelenKay’s Giveaway


Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ What's Past Is Prologue by Anna Galvia


What's Past Is Prologue
Author: Ann Galvia
Tour Dates: August 1 – August 13, 2018


Elizabeth Darcy has her eye on the future.

Before her marriage, she saw herself making the best possible choice. Her husband saved her family from ruin. All he asked in return was her hand. Secure in his good opinion, Elizabeth married him. Only with hindsight and his cryptic warnings that passion is not immutable does Elizabeth question her decision. Her solution? Give him a son as soon as possible. Once his lust for her has been slaked, this service she has rendered him will ensure her value.

The newlyweds are summoned to Rosings Park almost the moment they are married. Though the estate can boast of beautiful grounds, Elizabeth and Darcy arrive to find devastation. A flood has swept away Lady Catherine’s last hopes of hiding debt and years of mismanagement. She expects Darcy to shoulder the recovery efforts.

The effort to save Rosings strains the already tense relationship between Elizabeth and her husband. To make matters worse, her presence is met with disdain and disinterest from the family. As the days in the besieged estate drag on, Elizabeth slowly untangles the histories and secrets of her new relations.

Like Elizabeth’s marriage, the crisis at Rosings is the culmination of past events. Disaster need not be the result of only bad choices; good principles have led them astray as well. As for Elizabeth, she barely knows her husband, and loving him might be impossible. Yet, she is determined to save all that she can—her marriage and the estate—and somehow, create the future she longs for.


Author Interview

Hi and welcome Ann to my little corner of the web and taking part in this little interview with me.

Inquiring minds are dying to know, which book inspired you to begin writing?

Today? “Pride and Prejudice.”

In general? Chronologically, my memories of writing come before my memories of favorite books. It’s just a thing I’ve always done.

How did you discover Jane Austen?

When I was in college, I met a girl who read “Pride and Prejudice” her senior year of high school. She embarked on a campaign to relentlessly badger me into reading it. At the time, I was studying cultural anthropology and dismissed her on the basis of ~I’m not interested in romance novels. I only like social commentary.~ (Obviously, I did not know the first thing about Jane Austen, and she who did was, shall we say, undeterred. And also, the devaluation of female-oriented genres is a whole other issue to unpack that we won’t get to today.) This went on for….a while. Had you asked me at the time, I would have told you she had been bugging me since she was 12, despite the fact that we did not know each other then and she hadn’t read it until high school. I would not have even been kidding. It honestly felt like it had been going on forever.

And then came the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. If you are not familiar with LBD, it is a YouTube show that ran in 2012-13. Consisting of 100 regular episodes of roughly 5 minutes a piece, 10 Q&A episodes and 3 epilogue episodes that came out a year later, it’s a modern adaptation of P&P that casts Lizzie Bennet as a graduate student studying mass communications. As part of her thesis project, she creates a video diary that she mostly uses to rag on her family, wax poetic about Jane and Bing Lee and rant about this Darcy dude that she hates. My friend now had a new way to bombard me with “Pride and Prejudice” and started linking me to episodes. After the third or fourth time she sent me episode 60--the first proposal, known as Darcy Day to LBD fans since it’s the first time Darcy appears on screen--I finally relented and watched the whole series.

Needless to say, I was a fan. I immediately ran out to get the original book and have never looked back.


And my friend was just like, Yes, I knew you would like it. That is why I kept telling you to read it!

What led you to creating the storyline for “What's Past is Prologue”?

Not long after my first read through of P&P,  I was teaching a nonfiction reading unit to my fifth graders. (As an anthropologist, I wanted to teach people about the world. Figured the best way to do that was be a teacher.) It was during the primary documents portion of the unit that I first learned of the Year Without a Summer. My mind immediately jumped to Year Without a Summer P&P fanfic. Specifically, a married Darcy and Elizabeth journey to Rosings Park to help Lady Catherine sort out the impact the weather is having on her estate. As the years passed, the storyline got incrementally tweaked over and over again. Eventually, the Year Without a Summer wasn’t even part of it anymore!

This story’s setting is Rosings Park, home of Catherine de Bourgh. What led you to make this decision and what challenges did you face writing this story in this setting?

The center of the concept was always the relationship between Elizabeth Darcy and Lady Catherine. There was never a moment where it didn’t take place at Rosings Park. Two major challenges shaped the direction of the story:
It began as a Year Without a Summer story. That meant Darcy and Elizabeth had been married for a few years. For Lady Catherine and the Darcys to still be in conflict was silly. Jane Austen didn’t let us know how long Lady Catherine and Darcy stayed mad at each other, but we do know Elizabeth cajoled him into letting go of his resentment and the family came back together. I felt like the degree of conflict between Lady Catherine and the Darcys did not suit the amount of time that had passed. So, the timeline got moved earlier. No longer was it a Year Without a Summer story. The Darcys were newlyweds.
The second challenge was just how hard it was to work Darcy himself into the plot. In my earliest drafts, Darcy and Elizabeth were happily married and they had nothing to talk about. Their relationship did not drive the story. In fact, it was essentially absent. I spent a lot of mental energy trying to find ways to shoehorn Darcy in to Elizabeth’s day to day life without much success.

And then I put them in conflict with each other. And that’s when the story blossomed. Suddenly, they had a dynamic. There were stakes. In addition to the strife, they have all these moments of playfulness, of honestly, of passion, of serious conversations about the situation at Rosings Park that easily could have been in the original HEA scenario but simply weren’t.

With this change, Darcy became the engine for Elizabeth’s journey. She begins the story without a clear view of what a successful  marriage ought to be. She’s the product of an unhappy union. Her lack of dowry and the price of rescuing Lydia have made her a financial burden on her husband. How long is that burden going to seem worthwhile to him? Once the story stopped being about Lady Catherine and started being about Elizabeth dealing with the baggage she didn’t know she had, and growing up and growing towards Darcy as her partner, the story opened up.
What's the strangest thing you've ever had to research online for your book?

I feel like most of the things I research are pretty mundane, though sometimes the results are unexpected. For “What’s Past is Prologue,” I read agricultural surveys of Hertfordshire, Kent and Derbyshire. I wanted to know what was grown in these counties, when it was planted, when it was harvested and what was done with the harvest.

The people of Hertfordshire were very opinionated about the best way to grow wheat. The man carrying out the survey seemed initially caught off guard by how passionate the people were about the Right Way to Grow Wheat, but he played into it and began asking every farm he interviewed about their Wheat Opinions. It’s sort of a funny undercurrent throughout the entire thing. Derbyshire, on the other hand, had a reputation for being terrible for growing wheat. Some people believed wheat couldn’t grow in Derbyshire at all! It could, it just wasn’t their big money maker. But when you look at their methods, they were also doing the exact opposite of what the Opinionated Hertfordshire Wheat Farmers would tell you to do, so...

What do your plans for future projects include?

Celestial cats.

What writing advice do you have for other aspiring authors?

I think the best thing you can do is to just do it and keep on doing it. Writing is a skill that you have to build through practice.

Speed Round:

Tea or coffee?
Coffee for everyday, tea when I have the time to sit down and enjoy it.

Morning Person or Night Owl?
Night owl by nature, morning person when required.

Cats or Dogs?
Cats. Entirely too many cats.

Movies or TV?
I have not seen a single film in 2018 thus far, so I guess TV is winning by default.

What ​came first, ​the chicken or​ the​ ​egg?
The chicken, alphabetically, ordinally, and sexually.

Thank you Ann for being here today. I loved getting to know more about you and What's Past Is Prologue and I look forward to seeing what you'll bring us next.

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About The Author

Ann started writing sometime before she knew how letters functioned. Her first books were drawings of circus poodles heavily annotated with scribbles meant to tell a story. Upon learning how letters were combined to represent words, she started doing that instead. This has proven to be much more successful.

Sometime after that, she decided she wanted to study Anthropology and sometime after that, she decided she liked cats more than dogs. And sometime after that, she decided to become an educator and teach a new generation of kids how to combine letters to represent words, and use those words express ideas.

And sometime after that, she realized all she really wanted to do was write, which probably should have been evident from the beginning.


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Giveaway

Readers may enter the drawing by tweeting once a day and daily commenting on a blog post or a review that has a giveaway attached for the tour. Entrants must provide the name of the blog where they commented. If an entrant does not do so, that entry will be disqualified.

One winner will be selected per contest. Each winner will be randomly selected by Rafflecopter and the giveaway is international.


Blog Tour Schedule

August 1 / Savvy Verse & Wit / Guest Post & Giveaway
August 2 / Of Pens & Pages / Book Review & Giveaway
August 3 / Babblings of a Bookworm / Book Review & Giveaway
August 4 / Just Jane 1813 / Book Excerpt & Giveaway
August 5 / Liz’s Reading Life / Author Interview & Giveaway
August 6 / From Pemberley to Milton / Book Review & Giveaway
August 7 / More Agreeably Engaged / Guest Post & Giveaway
August 8 / Austenesque Reviews / Book Excerpt & Giveaway
August 9 / Diary of an Eccentric / Book Review & Giveaway
August 10 / My Vices and Weaknesses / Book Review & Giveaway
August 11 / Margie’s Must Reads / Book Review & Giveaway
August 12 / My Love for Jane Austen / Book Excerpt & Giveaway
August 13 / So Little Time… / Guest Post & Giveaway

04 August 2018

Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Break by Cassia Leo


Break by New York Times Bestselling Author Cassia Leo is out now and #Free in Kindle Unlimted! Read it now!


Synopsis

A humorous and heartbreaking second-chance stand-alone romance from the New York Times bestselling author of the Shattered Hearts Series.

For six years, she was the only one. My best friend. My kitten. My world. Then, I broke us by getting caught in a web of lies.

Hard to believe, after everything we’d been through, I could do what I did to her… in front of 600,000 people. I doubt she’ll ever believe I did it because I love her.

Three years later, my music career is booming. I have a movie deal in the next comic book reboot. And now the only parent I have left has been given a death sentence. I have to go home, but going home means facing what I did to her.

Read now on Kindle Unlimited




About Cassia Leo

New York Times bestselling author Cassia Leo loves her coffee, chocolate, and margaritas with salt. When she's not writing, she spends way too much time re-watching Game of Thrones and Sex and the City. When she's not binge-watching, she's usually enjoying the Oregon rain with a hot cup of coffee and a book.