Thursday, September 12, 2013

Spotlight: Leon's Lair by The Phoenix


Today is the much awaited release day for Leon's Lair by The Phoenix!

Here's a little bit about what the book is about:
What would you do if you thought you had escaped only to find you are caught in LEON'S LAIR?
This international thriller/contemporary fantasy is a nail-biting ride that is grisly but somewhat tongue-in-cheek, a brutal tale of horror and the occult that doesn't take itself too seriously. It includes romance, continental adventure, action, suspense, and dozens of vivid characters from around the world.
The adventure starts with The Jakarta, an elegant cruise ship sailing the exotic seas in Indonesia with a passenger list of ninety unsuspecting people. Jane and her best friend, Remy, are just getting to know the rest of the small group of young twenty-somethings when the ship is attacked by pirates. However, Leon and his band are not your usual pirates – they want something else.
Jane and two male companions escape the horror, fleeing in a lifeboat. In their flight to escape Leon and his men, they become lost at sea for weeks, are out of water, and have nearly lost hope of ever finding rescue when they finally catch sight of land, a dangerous rainforested island that seems deserted. However, their fight for survival has only just begun.
They are not alone.
Fate is cruel because this island is Leon's Lair.

Character Interviews
Jane O'Doherty
Tell us about yourself, Jane.
"Me, well. I'm twenty-two. I just graduated from Boston University. This cruise in Indonesia is a present from my parents. I thought it would be great to see some exotic ports of call, you know? Before deciding exactly how to apply my education. I studied in the field of biological research and forensics, with a specialty in toxicology. I was going to go into medicine. Be a doctor. But I got hooked on biology and became interested in forensic chemistry. I guess crime-solving runs in my family. My dad and my grandfather are both retired cops. My dad is Irish and my mother is Russian. I'm a workaholic. Terribly serious. And don't sleep much. I live behind my parents' house in a little cottage. I'm always rescuing animals, much to my mother's distress. I have two dogs, four cats, a parrot, and a three-legged squirrel. And of course, to make this trip, I had to hire someone to take care of my menagerie. I'm a vegetarian, but I hate broccoli. Boom! There. Now you know everything about me.


Peter Sorenson
Tell us about yourself, Peter. "I’ve spent a lot of time backpacking, hunting, rock climbing, and that sort of thing. I am mostly a loner. I just graduated from college, and want to work for National Geographic as a writer/photographer, but they turned me down. I'm on this cruise to get some photos of Indonesia. With the photos and an article, maybe they will be impressed and give me a chance. Probably won't work though. I'm pretty much a loser. I also wanted to publish novels. I've written three, but agents keep rejecting my queries. I'm completely attracted to Jane, but I can't approach her. Why would a girl like that want a guy like me? I have the personality of an old gym sock."
Obviously, Peter has lost all confidence in himself. He is shy, kind of geeky, and isn't good at social interaction. However, extreme danger sometimes brings out a person's real character. Peter is the hero in our story.


Wolfgang (Wolf) Ulrich
So Wolf, I hear you are a talented and very powerful wizard. And you're in love with Remy. How is that working out?
"I said good-bye to Remy with a promise to call her, but then I thought, What am I thinking? I can’t be part of her world; it's forbidden!
"To my own surprise, my mouth had opened, and the words just tumbled out. I saw her thoughts, and she was smitten with me. And I was completely drawn to her."
Oh, hell!
"My strong attraction to Remy was immediate, and it now landed me with a terrible problem.
"It had been hard enough for me to admit to myself that I didn't like my fiancée. I had never even bedded the woman. She just turned me off. Finally, a year ago I had come to terms with it. Colette was a snotty, self-centered, French brat. I didn't like her. However, I had decided that not liking her was my problem to deal with and mine alone, because it was a matter of family honor to follow through. A marriage with Colette had been planned from the time we both were born. My father would be in a rage if I said I was interested in another woman.
"I was being heavily pressured by both families to set a wedding date. I kept stalling. The plan between the two powerful families had been to cement the German and French lines to ensure our European existence as influential mages. I couldn't just think about my own desires. I am dedicated to the power of the magic world."
I just have to break this off with Remy …
"Besides my family commitments, I am not allowed to be involved with a nonparanormal. Breaking that rule had severe penalties, not only with the Association but also with the International Council of the Mage. And rule number one: never let normals see you perform magic. How could I hide that from her?
No, I just won't call her back. That's what I'll do.
"I would just stay hidden while I was on an assignment to watch Peter, Jane, and Remy. I felt like we were using them as bait, because we had a feeling Leon would come after them. It could be our chance to catch him, but I also had to make sure I protected them from harm."

Remy Madison
Tell us what happened, Remy.
"Well, we were in a pizza parlor when Jane and I were descended on by the paparazzi, and who showed up out of nowhere? Wolfgang! I mean, we met him on the plane coming home from Indonesia. What a gorgeous man! He asked me for my phone number, but never called. And now here he was grabbing our hands and helping us escape from the press. Instead of going out the back door, he had us duck into the bathroom. He locked the door.
I gazed around the small room. “We're trapped in here. There’s not even a window to crawl out of." I stabbed Wolfgang in the chest with my index finger. "And what are you doing here?"
There was a great deal of jostling and yelling outside the restroom door for about thirty seconds, and then the sound of the back door slamming.
"Can we talk about that later?" he said. "Look at Jane."
I turned to her in the confined space. Jane looked like she was in the middle of a horrible nightmare and couldn't wake up. Her eyes were closed, and she was tossing her head back and forth, violently shaking.
"Jane, what’s wrong? You’ve seen those press jerks before." I shook her.
Jane suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream, backed up, slammed against the bathroom wall, and slid down with her hands covering her face.
"He was so beautiful and so pathetic, and I killed him. I had to kill him. I had to kill him. Now he's here. He's here! I saw him!"
Wolfgang said, "Jane! Who's here? Jane, who?"
"Leon!"
Then there was a tap on the door.
"Jane, I know you’re in there. I can feel you."
There was a pause.
"I know it was Peter who made you do that to me. I forgive you. Come out, and I’ll take you away from all these cretins, and we can share my empire."
"We’re screwed," I whispered.
Wolfgang grabbed me and Jane around the waist and slammed us into his chest. Suddenly all was black whirling space, and just as suddenly we were standing in the garage at the farm.
"Don’t ask right now; the story is too long to tell," Wolf said, holding both hands in front of himself before either of the us could close our slack jaws to talk.
"And for god’s sake, don’t say anything to anyone else. Do not say how you got here. Do you understand?"
We stared at him and slowly nodded our heads in unison.
"Go back to the house, and tell everyone that Leon is alive and that the press has found you. Don’t come out of the house. I am going to make different arrangements to make you safe, but it will take some time. Do you understand that?"
We again nodded in unison.
He gave us a little push toward the garage side door, and we started walking. I turned to ask a question, but he was gone.
"Well," I said in a flat, faraway voice, "that was interesting." I turned back to Jane. "Don’t you think so?"
Jane looked at me. "Did I just forget about a car ride back from town, or did we just break every law of physics?"

 Author Bio:

Hello. We are Lee and Gary Jordan, and we are THE PHOENIX.
We are passionate readers, reading many different genres. As a writer team, we don't intend to go with custom and stick to one genre. We have several novels in the works.
We enjoy getting to know readers and other authors via the Internet, love movies, and sitting outside to soak up the Southern California sun. We live in Hollywood with our crabby tomcat, Snickers.
Lee wrote A Whisper from Eden. She loves researching and is never content with the way things are explained, and likes looking into the nooks and crannies and wondering, what if?
Gary is a third generation Californian, born and raised in Anaheim. He has always had an insatiable curiosity about everything. He was involved with telecommunications for many years and now has his own business. He has always been a happy, laidback person. But now he has something to be very intense about.
Lee invited him to help her with a paranormal thriller she had in mind, and once he sat down at the computer and started, his life transformed. He found his real passion – writing fiction. He has never been so excited to do something in his entire life.
Both of us feel it is never too late to change the direction of your life.

From Gary to Lee: Well, we are a great team. I love all those brainstorming sessions. Amazing! I want to thank you for being my lover, my confidante, my best friend, and for your dedication to the craft of writing. You are so much fun and so sweet – most of the time.
It's just, I wish you weren't such a crab sometimes. Let's be honest – you nag.

From Lee to Gary: I want to thank you for being your loving, honest, ethical, and wonderful self. And I want to thank you for being my one true soul mate and for sharing with me your wonderful talent. It is truly a joyful experience co-writing with you.
I'll tell you what makes me crabby. You have been so caught up in writing our current novel, you keep forgetting to eat or sleep. Well, okay, I know. Writing this novel is so exciting, and I've been doing the same thing. I know, I know. Right now it's 5:00 a.m. Okay, I know I haven't eaten since yesterday at lunch. Oh well, to hell with it.

Links
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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Trailer Reveal: Dead Girls Don't Lie byJennifer Shaw Wolf


ABOUT THE BOOK:
Rachel died at two a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time. Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text. 
Jaycee and Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead. The police blame a growing gang problem in their small town, but Jaycee is sure it has to do with that night at the old house. Rachel’s text is the first clue—starting Jaycee on a search that leads to a shocking secret. Rachel’s death was no random crime, and Jaycee must figure out who to trust before she can expose the truth. 
In the follow-up to her powerful debut, Jennifer Shaw Wolf keeps readers on their toes in another dark, romantic story of murder and secrets.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jennifer Shaw Wolf grew up on a farm in the tiny town of St. Anthony, Idaho. She spent cold Idaho mornings milking cows in the dark and attended a school where Hunter’s Education was part of the sixth grade curriculum. She’s always been a writer, whether it was sewing together books to read to her little brothers or starting an underground newspaper in sixth grade. She met the love of her life at Ricks College, (now BYU Idaho), after he dropped her on her head. She graduated from Ricks and then Brigham Young University, Provo with a degree in Broadcast Communications. Now she lives in beautiful, green, (rainy) Lacey, Washington with her husband and four kids. She loves to produce videos, ski, ride horses, and read, but really all she has time for is chasing kids and writing.




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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Movie Poster for The Book Thief by Mark Zusak


Looks awesome, right? I really want to read this book, but I just have no time these days with it being my senior year and taking hard classes and college stuff. It's getting hard to keep up with the blog, and I'm sorry that everything that has been posted this month has been promo for books that I have no intention of reading.  I'm currently reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, so I'll try to post a review on that later.  

And if you haven't checked out the trailer for The Book Thief, here you go:



Spotlight: Out of Line by Jen McLaughlin

Out of Line by Jen McLaughlin
September 2013


BOOK SUMMARY:

Desperate to break free…

I've spent my entire life under my father’s thumb, but now I'm finally free to make my own choices. When my roommate dragged me to my first college party, I met Finn Coram and my life turned inside out. He knows how to break the rules and is everything I never knew I wanted. A Marine by day and surfer by night, he pushes me away even as our attraction brings us closer. Now I am finally free to do whatever I want. I know what I want. I choose Finn. 

Trying to play by the rules...

I always follow orders. My job, my life, depends on it. I thought this job would be easy, all the rules were made crystal clear, but when I met Carrie Wallington, everything got muddy. She's a rule I know I shouldn't break, but damn if I don’t inch closer to the breaking point each time I see her. I’m ready to step out of line. And even worse? I’m living a lie. They say the truth will set you free, but in my case…

The truth will cost me everything.



Buy Links


If you purchase the ebook this week, it comes signed!



Author Information

Jen McLaughlin writes steamy New Adult books for the young and young at heart. Her first release, Out of Line, is due out September 2013. She also writes Contemporary Romance under the pen name Diane Alberts. She is a multi-published, bestselling author and is represented by Louise Fury from the L. Perkins Agency. Since receiving her first contract offer under the pen name Diane Alberts, she has yet to stop writing.

Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, a cat, and a Senegal parrot. In the rare moments when she’s not writing, she can usually be found hunched over one knitting project or another. Her goal is too write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.

Spotlight: Revealing Us by Lisa Renee Jones

Revealing Us
Inside Out Series  
Book Three
Lisa Renee Jones

Genre:  Adult Romance

Publisher: Gallery Books
Date of Publication:   September 10, 2013

ISBN:  1476727228
ASIN:  B00A280VUO

Number of pages:  320 pages

Amazon    BN  

Book Description:

You've discovered Rebecca's secrets. You've discovered Sara's secrets. Now Sara will discover "his" deepest, darkest secrets...but will those secrets bind them together--or tear them apart?


About the Author:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT TRILOGY which has sold to more than ten countries for translation with negotiations in process for more, and has now been optioned by STARZ Network for a cable television show, to be produced by Suzanne Todd (Alice in Wonderland).

Since beginning her publishing career in 2007, Lisa has published more than 30 books with publishers such as Simon and Schuster, Avon, Kensington, Harlequin, NAL, Berkley and Elloras Cave, as well as crafting a successful indie career. Booklist says that Jones suspense truly sizzles with an energy similar to FBI tales with a paranormal twist by Julie Garwood or Suzanne Brockmann.

Prior to publishing, Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by Dallas Women Magazine. In 1998 LRJ was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.

Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her through her website and she is active on twitter and Facebook daily.






Book Blast: The Siblylline Trilogy by Delia J. Colvin


The Last Oracle: Book Three of The Sibylline Trilogy
Can love defy death itself?
 From Bestselling author, Delia Colvin, The Last Oracle, is the passionate finale to The Sibylline Trilogy that weaves Greek Mythology with a modern tale of eternal love!
 Alex has waited 3000 years to finally marry his soul mate…his symbolon. But as the wedding comes to fruition, their secret plans are discovered and now no one is safe!
 In order to triumph over these forces, the oracles must return to the entrance to the Underworld and revive the first oracle, Myrddin, whose jumbled mind holds the key to their survival. But that solution forces Alex and Valeria to face certain death, for the chance to change their fate!
 THE SIBYLLINE TRILOGY – a love more enduring than life…than death…than destiny
=========
The Symbolon: Book Two of The Sibylline Trilogy
 From Bestselling author, Delia Colvin, The Symbolon, is the passionate second novel of The Sibylline Trilogy that weaves Greek mythology with a modern tale of eternal love!
 For 3000 years, Alex has dreamt of a life with his symbolon, his mortal soul mate. But when they approach the ancient council of immortals for approval of their marriage, they discover that sinister forces object to their union. Soon, they are faced with terrifying threats, including a devastating separation that neither may survive.
THE SIBYLLINE TRILOGY – a love more enduring than life…than death…than destiny.
——-
The Sibylline Oracle: Book One of the Sibylline Trilogy
Can love defy death itself? When she’s rescued by handsome Alex Morgan, Valeria thinks she’s found her happy ending —but Alex knows the terrifying truth…time is running out! And unless they can discover the source  of an ancient curse, fate will take her life…again. Greek Mythology and modern romance intertwine in this addictive trilogy.
 THE SIBYLLINE ORACLE – a love more enduring than life…than death…than destiny.


About the Author


“We have a new star to add to the firmament of romance/fantasy writers. Ms. Colvin takes her place in the first tier and it’s well deserved.”Al Hatman Author
Delia J. Colvin is the bestselling author of The Sibylline Trilogy.
While working at enhancing her writing skills, she worked in a wide range of occupations from marketing to entrepreneur, Air Traffic Controller and Russian Interpreter.  But her passion is in writing and helping people.  Delia has donated both time and money to literacy programs around the country.
She currently resides in Northern Arizona, with her husband, Randy, and her two Cavalier King Charles pups.

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Exclusive Excerpt: Darke London by Coleen Kwan

Darke London (Excerpt)
by
Coleen Kwan



Through the long hours of the night London pitched and groaned, a restless creature in uneasy slumber. A thousand fires flickered across its twitching back. Over rivers and hills it sprawled, swallowing up quiet fields and meadows, an insatiable protean organism powered by a life of its own. To the north, the edge of the city lapped up against ancient hamlets, preparing to overtake them one by one. And just a few miles past, surrounded by winter fields lying fallow, sat a crumbling manor house, its lichened facade bravely and futilely facing the city’s inevitable onslaught. Tonight its peace was broken by a rider galloping up the drive, his horse all afroth, a limp figure clasped in front of him. They slithered to a halt outside the stout oaken door. Still carrying his load, the rider dismounted awkwardly and ran towards the house.

Julian Darke battered his shoulder against the oak door. His arms were fully occupied with the comatose woman, and he dared not set her down. In his agitation he had some strange notion she would disintegrate if he loosened his hold.

“Figgs! Open up,” he bellowed, his lungs burning with the effort. Despite the frigidness of the night, sweat poured down his back, soaking into his shirt and britches. He kicked at the front door with his scuffed boots and cursed like a tar.

On the other side of the oak, heavy feet shuffled, then a key rattled in the lock, and the door finally groaned open. Julian barged in, shoving aside the lumbering manservant.

“Call my father,” Julian ordered. “Rouse him if you must. Quick, man. Don’t just gawp there. Can’t you see this is a dire emergency?”

Not pausing in his stride, he moved down the dimly lit hallway. His shoulder muscles twinged under the weight of the woman in his arms. She couldn’t have weighed much, but he’d held her debilitated form steady on his mount for what had felt like hours, and his limbs shrilled for respite. Not yet, not yet. The peril had not yet passed.

He kicked open the door to his father’s examination room. Despite the darkness he trod surefooted to the table in the centre of the room, where he gingerly lowered his burden onto the surface. Not the faintest sound issued from the bundle of cloak that was the woman he’d carried home. His throat tightened. Surely she hadn’t perished just when he’d brought her to safety?

“Julian? What’s going on?”

He turned to see his father entering the room. Despite the lateness of the hour, Elijah Darke was still fully dressed in suit and waistcoat, reading spectacles perched on the end of his nose, an unlit pipe in his hand.

“This woman needs our help.” Julian gestured towards the figure lying on the table. “She’s gravely injured. She needs both our expertise.”

Pocketing his pipe, Elijah approached the table and turned on the twin lamps suspended above the examining table. Julian let out a small sigh of relief. In a crisis, his father was always clear-headed. He would act first and ask questions later.

“What have we here?” Elijah lifted the stained cloak covering the woman. He froze. “God in heaven! Her face—”

Julian nodded grimly. He had seen her face earlier on and, after a cursory examination, had instinctively hidden it with her cloak.

“Good grief, son, you’re injured too!” His father’s face whitened as he stared at Julian. “You’re covered with blood.” He moved towards Julian and hauled open the lapels of his rumpled coat.

“A few scratches only. Most of the blood is hers.” Impatient, Julian tore off his bloodied coat and dropped it to the floor. “It’s nothing, Father, nothing compared to her wounds.”

His father made a testy growl. “Your injuries need proper seeing to.”

“Later.”

“You cannot assist me in that state. At the very least wash your hands.” Elijah divested himself of his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and scrubbed his hands at a washstand.

Julian hurriedly followed suit, flung on one of his father’s clean aprons and within moments was back at the table. His father had peeled the cloak back from the woman’s body and was bending over her.

“Well?” Julian asked.

His father grunted. “See for yourself.”

For some reason, instead of staring rudely at her exposed face, he found himself reaching for the hood of the cloak and smoothing it back from the woman’s head. A handful of brown curls tumbled out, incongruously bright and clean and fresh against the oozing mess staining everything else. The tang of spilt blood hit the back of his throat, like the taste of pennies. He swallowed hard, aware of his roiling innards. Why was the smell of blood unmanning him like this? Since he was old enough to walk, he’d assisted his father. He had lanced boils, drained suppurating wounds, stitched up gaping cuts, all with nary a wince. And he was a qualified doctor too. He’d dissected corpses, amputated arms and legs, trepanned a number of patients. In all these years he’d never suffered a queasy turn, and yet now his stomach threatened to unman him. Why now? Why did this woman affect him so?

She was a stranger to him; he’d never laid eyes on her before this evening. It must simply be his body protesting, sapped of energy after the tribulations he’d faced tonight. He willed his nerves to steady as he took a proper look at the woman.

Under the harsh, hissing light, the white of her face was crisscrossed with deep gashes, like a peach haphazardly sliced open. Mercifully both eyes appeared intact and unharmed. Congealing blood spattered the front of her dress, the pattern of the faded cotton submerged beneath the sticky mess. A swelling contusion on her right temple indicated the heavy blow which had rendered her insensate.

Elijah lifted up one of the woman’s hands. “What happened here?” His voice was rough with disbelief.

Julian could only shake his head at the bloodied stumps, all that was left of the middle and ring fingers. He had bound his handkerchief as best he could around the hand, but there had been considerable loss of blood, and the fingers had been crudely removed, leaving behind a messy lump of flesh.

“Can we save her hand?” he asked.

“We shall do our best.”

Using a sharp pair of scissors, Elijah began to cut off the woman’s dress in order to complete his examination. As the shears tore through the thin material, the woman moaned. It was no more than a murmur, but it seemed the most blood-curdling sound Julian had ever heard. She squirmed, her flailing arms almost knocking the scissors from Elijah’s hand.

“Hold her down, son,” Elijah barked.

Julian obeyed, but the instant he pressed down on the woman’s shoulders, her eyelids flew open. Two green eyes stared up at him, frozen in a moment of sheer terror. With the glaring lights overhead, he must appear like a dark silhouette looming over her, Julian surmised. And then every thought fled from him as she started to shriek and thrash her limbs, struggling with all her might to free herself.



Copyright © 2013 Coleen Kwan