Love is a Journey (#pnr #eroticromance @authorlolawhite)

By Lola White (Guest Blogger)

Love is just as much a journey as life is. As a romance author, I try to capture the ups and downs of the path, but that also means that I travel that path, take that journey, with every book I write. The Magic Matched series has taken me to places I never expected.

Let me start near the beginning of the trail…

My friend met her husband when she was fifteen years old, and the very first time she spoke to him, she knew she would marry him. No one thought her certainty would prove to be prophetic, but they’ve been together since then, defying the odds for two decades, and that made me wonder...

What if you knew who you would marry before you were even grown-up enough to understand what marriage was? How would knowing exactly who you were going to marry affect your life, especially if the two of you were very different—raised with different goals, ethics and expectations? And what happens when you grow from childhood innocence to adult challenges?

This fascinated me. I had chosen to travel throughout my twenties, when everyone else I knew was getting married and having children. I had things to do, places to see and refused even the hint of roots to tie me down. The thought of spending my whole life with one person made me shudder back then, and still makes me a bit nervous now.

But there are a lot of people who marry their high school sweethearts, and even more who enter into arranged marriages throughout the world. I thought of the journey they must make, from immaturity to partnership, and applied that to a world divided between matriarchal and patriarchal lines. I thought of how two people could grow together, and become a solid, loving team, if they were willing to work at it.

Magic Matched is a four-part series, which gave me enough time to make the journey. Silviu Lovasz is a patriarchal witch determined to rule over all the covens. He’s also a Reap witch, born with too much magic, which he tries to hide from others. Because of this, his father arranged a marriage to Georgeanne Davenold, a matriarchal witch born without magic, when they were both children. Their families expect the pair to achieve the ultimate leadership position in witching society because, together Silviu and Georgie can unlock each other’s full magical potential. They are Magic Matches.

They are also from different sides of the Schism, the divide between matriarchal and patriarchal houses. One values women, the other men, and that causes some conflict—not just between Silviu and Georgie, but also the way others see them and react to them. They are both dominant personalities with differing opinions, they’ve had different upbringings and experiences.

But the true source of conflict between them is Georgie’s distrust in Silviu. Part of that is due to Silviu’s patriarchy, part is due to a youthful indiscretion they shared. They were too young, just teenagers, and neither of their families were prepared for the bond they’d created between them. Not then, not when the loyalty they had for their own families was suddenly threatened by the way they felt toward each other.

Georgie was sent away. She and Silviu were kept separate for ten years, and the time apart gave Georgie reason to doubt Silviu’s motives toward her. She believes he’s manipulating her, using her and her body to get what he wants.

Magic Matched is Georgie’s journey. And mine. As she learns to trust again, as she learns to love, old wounds are reopened and she is tested in ways she never imagined. As was I.

This series has dragged me through emotions I would rather not have had to confront. Fears and regrets, but also appreciation for the decisions I’ve made. We each have different paths to travel, but eventually we all come across the same lessons. Love is one of them, and for my characters it’s the most important lesson of all—Magic Matches are highly influenced by their emotions, you see. And with two witches so potent they’re usually relegated to myth not only walking the earth, but Matched with an unstable, unequal power, love is the only thing that can save them…and the rest of the witching world.

Betrothed is the first book in the Magic Matched series and weaves together two stories, as does every installment. Silviu and Georgie finally reunite at a betrothal ceremony for his sister.

Ileana Lovasz is a pawn with a string of broken betrothals to prove it. She’s willing to use her body to escape her manipulative grandfather, and agrees to meet Eliasz Levy, a man wholly focused on building an alliance with Silviu. Eliasz figures marriage to Ileana is an ideal way to get the power he wants, but when the new couple meets, emotions they never expected change everything.

Ileana, Eliasz, Silviu and Georgie must build an alliance that will help them all get what they want but, with too many lies and too many enemies, the game they’re playing turns treacherous. When the two women come under attack, neither Silviu nor Eliasz knows which is the target. They only know they will protect the women their hearts have claimed as their own, even though that means defying the traditions of witching society, risking every goal they hold dear and confronting the dangerous members of their own families.

Betrothed is currently on sale for 99 cents, to celebrate the upcoming release of the third book in the series. This extremely low price is available for only another few days, until May 17^th, but will then be sold for a temporary price of $3.99 for the next few months. Married, the second book in the series is also being sold for that price. This is an excellent time to enter the witching world and meet Georgie and Silviu. Join them on their journey…

Thank you Lisabet!

Excerpt from Betrothed

“Do you ever think about the night I first put my hands on you?”

Georgie froze, stopped breathing. She shook her head as her eyes flew wide. Silviu smiled and stepped closer, ever closer, until there was only enough room for their bodies’ heat to pass between them. He set his hand at her waist and sent it sliding up, following the line of her torso to her ribcage.

“You do,” he whispered wickedly. “You remember how it felt, when I ran my hands over your bare body, when I ran my thumb over your perfect little nipple.”

“Stop it. This is inappropriate at a Levy Family function.”

Her voice was too breathless to heed. He curled his fingers over her breast, craving shooting through him when he felt her nipple pebble under his touch. Her breath faltered, turning ragged, her pulse hammering in her slender throat.

“Do you remember when I put my mouth on you and kissed my way down, finally tasting your first flood of passion. How sweet you were, all innocent and fresh, lifting for me with a need you didn’t even bother to hide.”

“Silviu.”

He squeezed her nipple lightly as he licked across her lips, nearly giving in when her mouth opened for him. Instead, he ruthlessly held onto his lust and drew back, leaving her aching, needing. He hoped as needy as him.

Slowly, he moved away from her, gathering his control around him. “I think you’ll taste like that again, Georgie.”

“I’m not a virgin, Silviu.” She lifted her chin, chest heaving, the moonlight showing him the flush that washed across her cheeks and collarbone. “You’d better not expect innocence.”

Pain moved through him, bitter regret. He pushed it aside and lifted a brow. “I took your innocence, Georgie, when we were just children. I’ll take your experience too, and teach you brand new things.”

“Bold words.”

“A promise, my love. Whoever touched you, they didn’t feel like me, did they? They didn’t feel as good, as right. You didn’t want them as much as you want me, and you damned sure didn’t find the pleasure you found with me.”

He lobbed his accusations blindly, but he’d hit his mark. The tightness in his chest eased as he saw the truth she couldn’t hide. He was right, and she knew it. Admitted it to herself, if not to him. That would make her surrender all the sweeter, when she finally came to him.

That would be soon. He’d make sure of it.

Motherhood - Book 3 of the Magic Matched series!

Early download available now!

 General release May 17th.

Betrothed on sale now at

Totally Bound https://www.totallybound.com/book/betrothed

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WMCBIKA

Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00WMCBIKA

About Lola White

Delve into the emotions, dive into the erotic.

An extensive traveler who loves to incorporate various legends from around the world into her tales, Lola White likes to twist reality at its edges in her stories. She likes delving into the emotions of her characters, finding their strengths and weaknesses, and seeing (and showing) how they get themselves out of whatever trouble has found them—if they can.

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Review Tuesday: Betrothed by Lola White (#review #pnr #eroticromance)

 

Betrothed by Lola White

Totally Bound, 2015

In the witching world, trust is a scarce commodity and love can be a liability. Family comes first. As the witch clans compete for influence, wealth and hereditary magic, marital alliances are determined by politics and strategy, not desire or emotional compatibility.

Ileana Lovasz isn’t looking for love. She’s desperate to marry in order to escape the clutches of her cruel and domineering grandfather, the dictatorial Father of the Lovasz clan. Eliasz Levy’s offer of betrothal can provide the freedom she seeks. She understands his motives have little to do with the heart. He seeks a connection with her magically gifted brother Silviu, who seems likely to be the next head of the inter-clan council.

Ileana’s and Eliasz’s mutual attraction make the match more appealing, but Ileanna isn’t going to let down her guard. She’ll use her amorous skills to seduce him, but the realities of witch politics make her cautious.

As the younger Lovasz son, Silviu will never be the family Father, but that’s not his goal. He has set his sights higher. His meticulously laid plans are progressing well. They depend on his marriage to Georgeanne Davenold, heir to one of the great matriarchal families. Silviu and Georgeanne together will make a formidable team, but they too need to learn mutual trust, especially since their partnership must bridge the gulf between male- and female-led witching society.

Lola White’s Betrothed is a breath of fresh air, full of original ideas. Structurally, it departs from the typical romance formula, with its two equally important couples. The point of view rotates among the two heroines and two heroes, letting the reader get to know each of them, with their varying ambitions, weaknesses and secrets. For the most part, the author manages this complicated narration smoothly.

I loved Ms. White’s portrayal of magic. Just as is the case with other personal attributes, each individual has a differing level of power, which expresses itself in different ways. Eliasz, for instance, has the ability to acquire secret knowledge from the wind, while Ileanna can sense the presence of other people’s magic.

Georgeanne’s magical status is perhaps the most fascinating. Born under a Reap moon, she appears to have no paranormal abilities at all. Her entire life has been an attempt to compensate for her magical deficit with achievements in other fields. However, she’s also immune to magical attacks by others, a characteristic that serves her well in the dangerous and desperate witch society.

The strong feminist themes in Betrothed also pleased me. Ms. White shows clearly the biases that result from being raised in a patriarchal versus a matriarchal family. Georgeanne and Silviu will need to work hard to overcome these almost unconscious preconceptions. Meanwhile, Ileanna has for years hidden the fact that she is as competent and as well-endowed with magic as any Lovasz male. She fights Eliasz’ expectation that he will control her as he would another woman brought up in a male-dominated family.

Most of Betrothed takes place in the Levy family mansion in Poland, where the Lovasz family has been invited to negotiate Ileanna’s betrothal. Davenold family members are also in attendance, including Georgeanne’s treacherous and powerful cousins Christina and Adam. The somewhat oppressive atmosphere, full of double-dealing and private bargains, reminded me a bit of an Agatha Christie novel. As Ileana and Georgeanne are both subjected to repeated magical attacks, the four protagonists try to determine who is responsible.

I will admit that I sometimes lost track of the logical threads during these deliberations. I found myself a bit confused by the many secondary characters and their varying motives. That might have been because I was reading under the influence of jet lag!

I had no trouble following the sex scenes, however. They are detailed, vivid, and as emotionally complex as the rest of the book. The sexual interactions between Silviu and Georgeanne are particularly erotic. These two characters have a magically-based sexual affinity—they are a Magic Match—but Georgeanne’s grandmother has forbidden her to indulge in sex until her marriage to Silviu is sealed. There’s nothing like frustration to ramp up the heat!

All in all, Betrothed is an enjoyable read with some creative twists that set it apart from the typical romance. I recommend it.

(I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.)

Magic Matched: Betrothed

By Lola White (Guest Blogger)

Witches, Wiccans and Pagans are not exactly the same thing, though many who don’t belong to either of these groups might use the terms interchangeably—but no! I’m not listing every modern ‘witch’ community here because this post is about MY witches, and they are fictional.

But even fiction needs to be based in fact, so—armed with a liberal-arts education in politics and religion, some real-world experience and the knowledge shared by several Wiccan friends—I did my research. Not on general neo-paganism, but on witchcraft, and what I could make of it.

We all know tons of witchcraft history. Witch hunts and witch trials, burning at the stake and drowning in the rivers, pacts with the devil or born with a natural talent, casting spells or raising the dead, flying on broomsticks or transporting their spirit through astral projection, hags and sorceresses… or simple village wise-women striving to combat disease with herbs. Religious texts of nearly every faith share some opinion on witchcraft, which proves that the concept is one of the oldest known to mankind—which isn’t that surprising, really. Even today, witchcraft is something mystical, magical, fearful…

Uppermost in my mind, when I set out to write about my witches, was the day I arrived in the African village I called home for years. The villagers beheaded a woman for ‘bewitching’ someone. As far as I know, that was the only death sentence passed down while I was there, but there were many other cases of witchery brewing (pun intended?) and some were fantastical—a man claimed to have been turned into a dog for years by a witch, children were exorcised and blessed to stop them from being witches… I could go on, but I won’t.

My research of witchcraft naturally led to researching witch hunts. With my first-hand experience urging me on, I found out that a lot of places are still actively pursuing witches—who are still predominantly thought to be women, though men are not completely excluded. For the purposes of my story, I narrowed my focus to Europe, North America, Africa, India… and then threw in some Japanese mythology.

I took pieces of many traditions and beliefs and mixed in real history and politics. I created a society that exists amidst modern-day reality—hidden, of course, to prevent more witch hunts—and constrained by ancient rules. With so much focus on female witches, my society originated as a matriarchy, but I twined fictional events with real history so that men (males) waged war to gain power, and now the witching world is divided into matriarchal and patriarchal covens. In my witching society, magic and politics are the only things that matter, and marriages are arranged for advantage rather than love.

Magic Matched is a four-part series that follows Silviu Lovasz, a patriarchal witch, and Georgeanne Davenold, a matriarchal witch, who must open their hearts to each other in order to unlock their full magical potential. They both have rare talents, which prompted their families to reach across the divide between the covens and betroth them as children, with the hopes that the pair could attain positions of power in their society.

Betrothed is the first book in the series and weaves together two stories. After a ten-year separation that left Georgeanne distrustful of Silviu, and Silviu hungering for Georgeanne’s return, they reunite in Poland, at Silviu’s sister’s betrothal celebration. Georgeanne is the key to Silviu’s rise to power, but she is fighting to gain her own power, in her own coven and he is a threat to her personal ambitions.

Ileana Lovasz is a pawn, with a string of broken betrothals to prove it, and she’s willing to use her body to escape her manipulative grandfather, and gain an edge for Silviu’s political goals. Eliasz Levy has every intention of forming an alliance with Silviu and marriage to Ileana is an ideal way to get what he wants. But when the new couple meets, emotions they never expected change everything.

Ileana, Eliasz, Silviu and Georgie must build an alliance that will help them all get what they want but, with too many lies and too many enemies, the game they’re playing turns deadly. When the two women come under attack, neither Silviu nor Eliasz knows which is the target. They only know they will protect the women their hearts have claimed as their own, even though that means defying the traditions of witching society, risking every goal they hold dear and confronting the dangerous members of their own families.

Betrothed is now available for early download through Totally Bound and will be found everywhere else on April 24^th. Enter the witching world and follow Silviu and Georgeanne as they gather allies for their cause, and learn the true strength behind their magic.

My name is Lola White, and I write any story that happens to haunt me at the time. You can find me at my website, www.lola-white.com and get Betrothed at https://www.totallybound.com/betrothed

Thank you Lisabet for letting me be your guest, and congratulations on your own release, The Eyes of Bast, also through Totally Bound.