The Scandalously Yours Tour! (#eroticromance #boxedset #blogtour #giveaway)

Scandalously yours…

Through the ages, where there has been society there have always been norms and, conversely, scandals when love gets in the way of propriety.

From the ancient Celts to medieval Cornwall, from Regency and Victorian England to the American west after the War Between the States, eight stories by multi-published, bestselling authors explore the triumphs of love between a man and a woman—even scandalous love—over what’s considered “proper” in their time.

Bringing the Goddess Aphrodite to Erotic Romance
By Anh Loed

I was working as a contemporary romance writer a few years back. I wasn’t writing sweet books and my editor at the time thought I might do well with erotic romance. I took on the challenge, and Aphrodite’s Necklace was the first erotic romance I ever wrote. What a learning curve that was, and it still reads as very spicy today, despite the mainstreaming of erotic romance. It is fitting that it is historical, set in early Victorian England, since the first romance story I ever sold was also a Victorian historical. Ironically, we’ve come full circle and I’m writing contemporary again, though I still write a lot of historicals, too. It’s been a pleasure to revisit and update this story, and also remember where the original idea came from—the Tarot.

I based Aphrodite’s Necklace on the Queen of Pentacles Tarot card. Mostly I focused on the themes of the card, as found in The Sexual Key to the Tarot by Theodor Laurence. 

 

You will see the goddess Aphrodite dressed as the Queen of Pentacles in some of the scenes though! I had fun looking at different versions of this card in the Tarot decks I own. As Aphrodite sees in the opening scene of the novella, the card signifies her love of sensual pleasures and sexual freedom. She embodies the card herself as a woman of magnificent beauty who loves sex for sex’s sake.

When Aphrodite offers her magic necklace to my unsuspecting characters, she gives them the gifts of sexual openness, excitement and generosity. There comes a time when she takes her gift away and then the reverse of the card creates problems for Emily and Will. They experience mistrust in each other. To find lasting love, my characters have to work their way back to those positive gifts in their own way.

Blurb

Aphrodite’s Necklace, by Anh Leod

Exiled by her husband to staid, Victorian England, the goddess Aphrodite is determined to spice up life for a mortal couple by giving them a magic necklace that opens their minds and hearts to passion. Can she teach innocents to delight in sensual love?

Emily Rogers is in the marriage mart, but once the necklace is in her hands, she enlists William Coxe, her family butler, to help find its owner. As Aphrodite intended when she dropped the priceless piece at a ball held in Emily’s home, desire overwhelms Emily—and also William, whom Emily’s parents would never countenance her marrying.

Good sense prevails when the two return the necklace to the goddess, but by this time love has caught the lovers in what seems an impossible situation. Can improper love survive the loss of Aphrodite's necklace? Only with the goddess’s help can they find a way toward lasting happiness.

Excerpt

Emily caught a glimpse of the mysterious woman in the doorway that opened onto the corridor. She walked forward as quickly as she could without losing all decorum, but the woman had vanished into the hall. Nearly skipping in her eagerness to reach her, Emily didn’t see the obstacle until she stumbled over it.

A candelabra cast its light to the floor and she saw what had impeded her progress, nearly causing her to fall. She gasped and reached down a hand. It was the woman in red’s necklace.

How could she have missed her jewels tumbling to the floor? Emily examined the piece. The clasp was undone, though it didn’t appear to be broken. Perhaps it was loose, or hadn’t been fastened properly. Emily saw the winking diamonds and sparkling emeralds were quite real. If it were hers she could sell it for not only a significant dowry, but also a year’s household expenses.

Holding such expensive gems made her feel funny, as if her heart and senses wanted to jump out of her skin. What felt almost like a cool breeze lifted her skirt and the air caressed her womanflesh. She shuddered and looked around. Thankfully, no one was paying any attention to her.

Holding the necklace and feeling quite steamy in her private area, she stepped into the hallway. She pressed her thighs together and when she separated them, they were sticky with some kind of hot fluid that had moistened her inside. She swallowed her shock as her nipples thrust against her corset. What was happening to her?

Once again, she saw Coxe coming toward her. She must have strayed too far from the party for a second time. This time, instead of embarrassment at shirking her duties, she felt a hot flush of excitement. She folded her arms around herself and leaned against the wall.

Her face felt feverish and she licked her lips, thirsty despite the lemonade she had so recently finished.

“Are you well, Miss Rogers?” Coxe asked. She saw genuine emotion in his eyes, an unusual concern for her as she held up the necklace to him.

“Where did it come from?” he asked, touching the pearl drop at the end of the necklace’s center stones.

She watched with wonder as his entire body shuddered and when he looked at her again, his eyes were alight with the same kind of fever she was experiencing.

“The lady in red,” she whispered, “I saw it on her before.”

About Anh Leod

Anh Leod, AKA Heather Hiestand, was born in Illinois, but her family migrated west before she started school. Since then she has claimed Washington State as home, except for a few years in California. She wrote her first story at age seven and went on to major in creative writing at the University of Washington. Her first published fiction was a mystery short story, but since then it has been all about the many flavors of romance. Heather’s first published romance short story was set in the Victorian period, and she continues to return, fascinated by the rapid changes of the nineteenth century. The author of many novels, novellas, and short stories, she has achieved best-seller status at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. With her husband and son, she makes her home in a small town and supposedly works out of her tiny office, though she mostly writes in her easy chair in the living room.

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.anhleod.com

Blog: http://heatherhiestand.com/blog/

Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heather-HiestandAnh-Leod/24271017921?ref=br_tf

Twitter http://twitter.com/heatherhiestand

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/heatherhiestand/

Buy links:

Amazon.com— http://amzn.to/1QG7y2d

Amazon UK-- http://amzn.to/1POPAdZ

All Romance Ebooks-- http://bit.ly/1Vk1rED

Kobo-- https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/scandalously-yours-2-166.html

Smashwords-- https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/612550?ref=cw1985

Books will also be available at barnesandnoble.com and iTunes (Apple), but buy links are not yet available for them.

GIVEAWAY!

Make sure to follow the whole tour—the more posts you visit throughout, the more chances you’ll get to enter the giveaway. Plus you'll get the chance to meet each of the authors and to read blurbs and excerpts from their contributions to the collection!

The tour dates are here: http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/scandalously-yours/

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