Pick Your Path to Love

Have you ever wanted to take control of a story you're reading? Give it another ending? Have the heroine end up with the charming beta nerd rather than his annoyingly alpha friend?

Silkwords has pioneered a new, interactive technology that allows you to control the direction of the stories you’re reading.

With gorgeous custom covers and a clean, sophisticated design, the SilkWords site offers a secure, upscale reading environment. In addition to content on their web site, they offer stories for purchase in the standard e-book formats.

SilkWords is owned and operated by a full-time mom with a background in genetics and an RWA RITA-nominated, multi-published sci-fi romance author.

Their technology guy and site designer was the founder of Microsoft Xbox Live.

Silk Words features two formats that allow readers to choose how the stories will proceed.

Pick Your Path

Will she or won't she? With which man (or woman) in which location? With Pick Your Path romance, you decide. Romance and branched fiction are made for each other, like picking your favorite flavor of ice cream...positions, partners, and paraphernalia, oh my!

Reader Vote

Readers vote at choice points and decide how the story will continue. These stories are a great way for readers and authors to connect. It’s exciting to be part of a developing story!

Veteran romance and erotica author Erzabet Bishop has a new book out with Silkwords – Holiday Cruise. Erin goes on a cruise with friends, her first holiday away from home as a college student. She meets a female decorator and a man who will help steer her into some sexy holiday memories.

This 16K “Pick Your Path” interactive romance lets you choose who Erin ends up with -- and what happens afterwards. To guide Erin through the maze of erotic possibilities open to her, go to the Silkwords website:

https://www.silkwords.com/

You can also buy the book in standard ebook formats at Amazon or All Romance Ebooks.

Here are a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite!

Nice Excerpt

Erin Chapman stared out at the crowd, and her insides tightened. "Why did I let you guys talk me into this?" The tiny black wrap dress rested high on her thighs, hugging every curve. Her fingers fluttered along the bottom of the skirt, unconsciously pulling at the hem. The new four-inch black heels wobbled. For a second, Erin remained afraid she was going to topple over. She shifted her weight anxiously, resting her hands on the table as she waited with Jace for Nolan and the girls to show up. She listened to the pulse of the music, a lively upbeat version of "Jingle Bells," and it made her smile.

Her friends meant well bringing her on this weekend cruise, but she wasn’t really in the festive mood. They’d been good to her in her first foray into college and the big city. Just a year ago, she’d been trying to get into schools and obsessing about how to break things off with Dylan, her fiancé.

So get over him already and move on with your life.

"Why don't you sit down?" Jace patted a stool next to his at the tall silver bar-style table. "They shouldn't be too much longer."

Erin laughed. "Are you kidding? Somebody I know made this skirt so short, I'd be advertising my wares before my backside even made it to the top of the stool."

"Spoilsport."

Erin rolled her eyes and tugged at the fastenings, making sure the dress stayed secured tightly, yelping when she saw the ties had almost slipped apart. Oh, god. That's all I need.

Jace slapped at her hand, a cross expression on his face.

"Girl, you’d better not wreck that dress. I have to turn that in for design class next week." He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "You’re divine. Go with it." His boyish features sported a shock of sandy brown hair and a muscular form that would have given the football players back home in Tyson's Grove a run for their money.

"I realize that, Jace." Erin smiled sheepishly. "I'm just not used to wearing something this um ... short." Erin brushed her long black hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. If she’d been thinking more clearly and hadn’t been so freaked out by tonight's last-minute invitation, she would have pinned it up or something. Now it was just going to be in her eyes all night. She gave a mental sigh and watched the crowd move to the music, envious of their fearlessness.

"You're doing me a favor. I want to see my new project come to life. Three years of fashion design, and I am going to get this one in the school show this semester." He brandished his cell phone, and a bright white light strobed outward.

"Jace!" Erin threw up her hands and slugged him in the arm. "Quit it!" Stars flickered behind her eyes as the flash momentarily blinded her.

"Nope." He grinned. "You're my star attraction tonight."

"I thought I was." Nolan stepped up behind him and wound his arms around his lover's waist.

"Hey, Nolan. Any sign of the girls?" Erin was thankful for the reprieve. Nolan remained the more studious of the pair. He was the one who’d answered the phone the day she’d applied for the room for rent. What might have been a horrific first time away from home was eased by the makeshift family the five of them had become over the last few months. She’d been terrified when she’d found out the dorms were already full. To find a room in the gorgeous Victorian house nearby had been total luck.

"Nope. Not yet. When I saw them last, they were working their way up the check-in line up on deck." Nolan pressed a quick kiss on Jace’s cheek and sent Erin an appraising glance. His firm mouth curled as if he was always on the edge of laughter, and the confident set of his shoulders never failed to communicate that he was an alpha male.

"Nice dress. It really is stunning on you, Erin."

Erin blushed, smoothing her hands down the front of the sleek black dress. "Thanks. Do you think it's too short?"

Nolan grinned, his arm around Jace. "With legs like that? No way. Come on. Live a little! Get out there and find someone to play with."

Naughty Excerpt

The flash of the camera was the only sound in the room.

"You moved."

"Sorry."

"No ... here, turn toward me and bend down seductively and raise the hem of the dress up your leg. I want to see some thigh. Try to look innocent. Maybe a little beguiling."

Erin snorted. "Okay." She schooled her face to smooth out and did as he asked, her dark hair sweeping down, the bodice revealing her cleavage and the skirt rising to scandalous levels to show her creamy white thigh.

Another flash, and Alex was moving.

"Now I want you to go to the bed and lie down. Raise your hands above your head and hold onto the headboard."

Erin rose from the chair and made her way to the massive bed. There was a stool placed next to the bed so she could climb up. She settled in her spot, straightened the skirt around her legs, lay down, and reached up to grasp the headboard.

About the Author

Erzabet Bishop has been crafting stories since she could pound keys on her parents’ old typewriter. She has only just learned that it is a whole lot more fun writing naughty books. She is a contributing author to the Silk Words website with her Fetish Fair, Gingerbread Dreams, Holiday Cruise and Temptation Resorts interactive erotic romances, Sci Spanks 2014 Anthology, Potnia, A Christmas To Remember, Taboo II, Forbidden Fruit, Club Rook: The Series, Sweat, Bossy, Cougars, Spank or Treat 2014, When the Clock Strikes Thirteen, Wicked Things, Unwrap these Presents, Unbound Box, Milk & Cookies & Handcuffs, Corset Magazine: Sex Around the World, Vaginas and Vulvas, Man vs. Machine: The Sex Toy Issue, Smut by the Sea Volume 2, Hell Whore Volume 2, Can’t Get Enough, Slave Girls, The Big Book of Submission, Hungry for More, Gratis II, Gratis III, Anything She Wants, Dirty Little Numbers, Kink-E magazine, Eternal Haunted Summer, Coming Together: Girl on Girl, Shifters, Coming Together: For the Holidays and Coming Together: Hungry for Love among others. She is the author of Lipstick (upcoming), Dinner Date, Tethered, Sweet Seductions: The Erzabet Bishop Collection , Red Moon Rising (upcoming), Red Boots (upcoming), Charity Benshaw's Enchanted Paddle Emporium (upcoming), Holidays in Hell (upcoming), Pomegranate (upcoming), Red Dress (upcoming), Sigil Fire, Written on Skin: A Sigil Fire Short, The Erotic Pagans Series: Beltane Fires, Samhain Shadows and Yuletide Temptation. Erzabet was a finalist for the GCLS 2014 awards in two separate categories. She lives in Texas with her husband, furry children and can often be found lurking in local bookstores. She loves to bake, make naughty crochet projects and watch monster movies. When she isn’t writing, she loves to review music and books.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erzabetbishopauthor

Author website: http://erzabetwrites.wix.com/erzabetbishop

Author blog: http://erzabetbishop.wordpress.com/

Amazon author page: http:// amazon.com/author/erzabetbishop/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6590718.Erzabet_Bishop

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erzabet.bishop

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/erzabetbishop/

Lesfic Blog: http://lesficandlipstick.wordpress.com/

Review Blog: http://erzabetsenchantments.blogspot.com/

Sneak Peek: Christmas in the Cotswolds by Jenny Kane

[Time for some seasonally appropriate romance from Jenny Kane. Christmas in the Cotswolds sounds like a fun story! ~Lisabet]

A seasonal easy read romance, Christmas in the Cotswolds is Jenny Kane’s festive sequel to Another Cup of Christmas. (It can also be read as a stand alone story.)

Blurb

Izzie Spencer-Harris, owner of the Cotswold Art and Crafts Centre, is due to host the prestigious Cotswold Choir’s annual Christmas carol concert in her beautiful converted church. Or at least she was, until a storm smashed a hole right through the chancel roof.

Days from Christmas, Izzie suddenly finds herself up to her neck in DIY, with her last dodgy workman having walked off the job. She does the only thing she can… calls in her best friend Megan to help.

Leaving Peggy and Scott to run Pickwicks Café in her absence, Megan heads to the Cotswolds for Christmas. Within minutes of her arrival, she finds herself hunting down anyone willing to take on extra work so close to Christmas. It seems the only person available to help is Joseph Parker – a carpenter who, while admittedly gorgeous, seems to have ulterior motives for everything he does…

With Izzie’s bossy mother, Lady Spencer-Harris, causing her problems at every turn, an accident at work causing yet more delays, and the date for the concert drawing ever nearer, it’s going to take a lot more than Mrs Vickers’ powerful mulled wine to make sure everything is all right on the night…

Excerpt

Izzie closed her eyes and counted to ten as the door of the Cotswold Arts Centre slammed shut.

There was no point in panicking. She simply didn’t have time for such luxuries if her converted church was going to be ready to host a Christmas carol concert by the renowned Cotswold Choir in nine days’ time.

Bored of being propositioned by men who weren’t remotely interested in her until they discovered she was a daughter of the gentry, Izzie had ejected the carpenter through her front door before he’d quite had time to work out just how insulting her rejection of his latest lurid suggestion was.

Now, her hasty tongue having deprived her of a desperately needed pair of tradesman’s hands, Izzie sat with a heavy thump onto the nearest pew. She knew she had to find fresh help, and fast. A task that wouldn’t be easy so close to Christmas.

‘Although,’ Izzie addressed the image of Noah, who smiled benevolently at her from his stained-glass window, as if grateful he hadn’t been smashed to pieces by the tree branch that had come through the top of the chancel and caused so much seasonal inconvenience, ‘I’m damn sure I’m not asking my mother to help out ever again!’

Reaching for the offending package of invitations that had arrived by courier first thing that morning, Izzie emptied it onto the table. The invitations were supposed to have been posted by now. As soon as she’d seen them, Izzie understood why her mother had left them to the last minute.

Unfussy, cost-effective, and with a medieval Christmas flavour in keeping with the spirit of the converted fourteenth-century church where the concert was to be held. That’s what she’d asked for.

What she’d got was decadent Victorian-style gold-edged invitations which weighed so much, Izzie was sure that posting them alone would break the bank. And if that wasn’t bad enough, her mother had done the one thing that she had expressively forbidden. She’d put Izzie’s full name on the invitations.

Lady Perdita Spencer-Harris had been unable to comprehend why her daughter didn’t want to use the family name to help sales. She simply didn’t understand that Izzie wanted people to come to hear the choir for its own sake, or because they wanted to see what she’d done in her art centre; not because she was a young and single female member of the landed gentry.

Miss Isadora Spencer-Harris

cordially invites you to a magical festive evening at

The Cotswold Arts Centre, Chipping Swinton

to hear the renowned Cotswold Choir’s

Christmas Carol Concert

Saturday 21st December

7 p.m. for 7.30 p.m. start

£25 per ticket

Refreshments provided

RSVP by 18th December to Harris Park

Wrapping her stripy woollen scarf more tightly around her neck, Izzie breathed warm air over her cold fingers. Deciding it wasn’t cost effective to heat the church this late at night just for her, she gathered up the invitations, and with one last check that the polythene sheeting would keep the rest of her chancel roof in place overnight, Izzie headed home.

Izzie scooped up three Christmas cards from her doormat. A smile replaced her frown as she opened the first envelope to see a cartoon robin wishing her a Merry Christmas. Inside, beneath the seasonal greeting, her friend Megan had written Must meet up SOON! I’d love to see your new art centre.

‘Should I?’ Izzie was sure her dearest friend from college would help. Megan always helped. Izzie addressed the picture of the robin, ‘But won’t she be hugely busy at Pickwicks café this close to Christmas?’

Switching on her laptop, Izzie started to hunt for a replacement tradesman to help repair her church roof. Half an hour of searching later, and her quest was looking increasingly hopeless by the minute.

It was no good, if she wasn’t going to be forced to ask her parents to bail her out – which was an ‘over her dead body’ situation as far as Izzie was concerned – she needed alternative assistance. Izzie picked up her mobile before guilt at disturbing her friend’s life at Christmas overtook her. 

 

‘Megan, thank goodness you’re there! How can I put this … help!’

Buy links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Bio

With a background in history and archaeology, Jenny Kane should really be sat in a dusty university library translating Medieval Latin criminal records, before writing research documents that hardly anyone would want to read. Instead, tucked away in the South West of England, Jenny Kane writes stories with one hand, while working for a Distance Learning Company with the other.

Jenny spends a large part of her time in the local coffee shops, where she creates her stories, including the novels Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary romance Another Cup of Coffee (Accent Press, 2013), and the novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press, 2013) and Christmas in the Cotswolds, (Accent Press, 2014)

Jenny’s next full length novel, Abi’s House, will be published by Accent Press in 2015.

Jenny Kane is also the author of quirky children’s picture books There’s a Cow in the Flat (Hushpuppy, 2014) and Joe’s Letter (Coming soon from Hushpuppy)

Keep your eye on Jenny’s blog at www.jennykane.co.uk for more details.

Twitter - @JennyKaneAuthor

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JennyKaneRomance

Jenny Kane also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee. (www.kayjaybee.me.uk)

RIP: P.D. James

I was sorry to read that celebrated mystery author P.D. James died a few days ago. Since she was 94, one can hardly call her death untimely, but it's still a loss to the literary community. I wasn't a rabid fan but over the years read a number of her novels and truly enjoyed them for their subtlety and craft. Her scifi/dystopian mystery The Children of Men is particularly good.

There's a fascinating article about her at the link below. Remarkably accomplished woman. One quote that really resonated with me:

She told The Paris Review in 1995 that she “thought writing a detective story would be a wonderful apprenticeship for a ‘serious’ novelist, because a detective story is very easy to write badly but difficult to write well.”

I think one could say the same thing about erotica.

I've written a couple of books that might qualify as mysteries (Exposure and Bangkok Noir). It's very tough. Every detail counts.

Anyway, here's the link. Worth reading, imho.

http://nyti.ms/1FwmH2v

How My Ideas Evolve

By Sierra Cartwright (Guest Blogger)

[Hi, Lisabet! Congrats on your 150th Sunday Snog. What great fun you've been providing readers! Thanks, also, for the way you're so willing to have authors on your Beyond Romance blog. (David Russell's post was certainly fun!) I appreciate your hosting me. Wishing you all the best for your continued success!]

I wish I woke up each morning with a gentle stretch and ideas for my books percolating along with my coffee.

Along those same lines, I wish for a genie to put the book together for me. It’s rare that a plot will arrive fully formed. Most times, I have a vague “what if?” question floating through my head. Sometimes a snippet of dialogue filters through my brain. (I tell myself all people have conversations with imaginary people.)

I have days, even weeks of sorting it all through. I have notebooks everywhere, random notes on scraps of paper, including junk mail and backs of receipts, and even restaurant napkins. I have a whiteboard in my office that vaguely resembles the operating instructions for the International Space Station.

One thing that’s been a challenge is exercising. I will get ideas on a treadmill, riding a bike, taking a walk. I was recently turned onto Evernote, and I immediately downloaded the program. The accompanying phone app allows me to scribble an idea on my phone using my fingertip. By the time I arrive home, the image is already on my computer. I’ll admit, sometimes it’s a real challenge to read my own writing.

Then I begin to outline the book. I’ll take about three pages and divide each into four sections to roughly correspond with the number of chapters. From there, I’ll filter in my ideas, my black moment, my resolution, sexy stuff that happens along the way. For some reason, the sexy stuff that happens along the way appears in a lot of sections. Just saying.

The actual book doesn’t always correspond with my original plan. Along the way, there are always events and emotions that surprise me.

Because of this, I have another set of pages that I fill in as I go. (I write these in a notebook, rather than keeping them on the computer. I’ve found it’s easier to keep the notebook open rather than flipping back and forth between files and hoping I remember to save them.)

Over the years and the course of writing dozens of books, the method has evolved. But two things have remained constant: the need for that cup of coffee and the desire to have a genie to magic it all together for me.

Blurb for Claim:

This is book two in the Bonds series, see the full series listing here

It had to be her. He won’t be satisfied until he claims her.

Kennedy Aldrich has perfected the art of dodging any romantic entanglement that will lead to marriage. That is until he sees Mackenzie Farrell at a BDSM gathering.

When they meet, he’s entranced by her intelligence and submission, not to mention her stunning good looks. For the first time, he has met a woman who captivates his interest on every level, someone he wants to share his life with.

Mackenzie is overwhelmed by Kennedy’s attentions. A failed marriage taught her to distrust men, and she’s vowed never to walk down the aisle again.

It takes all her resolve to resist the devilishly handsome Dominant. After all, the whole world knows of his legendary reputation with women. Every feminine instinct warns that this man will demand more than she can offer.

But she hasn’t counted on Kennedy’s determination to claim her and prove that love is worth any risk.

Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of anal play.

Like the sound of Claim? Buy it here.

About Sierra Cartwright:

INTERNATIONAL BEST SELLING AUTHOR

Sierra Cartwright was born in Manchester, England and raised in Colorado. Moving to the United States was nothing like her young imagination had concocted. She expected to see cowboys everywhere, and a covered wagon or two would have been really nice!

Now she writes novels as untamed as the Rockies, while spending a fair amount of time in Texas…where, it turns out, the Texas Rangers law officers don't ride horses to roundup the bad guys, or have six-shooters strapped to their sexy thighs as she expected. And she's yet to see a poster that says Wanted: Dead or Alive. (Can you tell she has a vivid imagination?)

Sierra wrote her first book at age nine, a fanfic episode of Star Trek when she was fifteen, and she completed her first romance novel at nineteen. She actually kissed William Shatner (Captain Kirk) on the cheek once, and she says that's her biggest claim to fame. Her adventure through the turmoil of trust has taught her that love is the greatest gift. Like her image of the Old West, her writing is untamed, and nothing is off-limits.

She invites you to take a walk on the wild side…but only if you dare.

You can find Sierra on Facebook, follow her on twitter and check out her page on Tumblr.

Enter Totally Bound’s competition for the chance to win a copy of Claim and two books from Sierra’s backlist:

Review: Now You See Me by Pamela L. Todd

Now You See Me by Pamela L. Todd

Totally Bound, 2014

ISBN 978-1-78430-290-0

Jo Carpenter barely exists. By her own design, she strives for invisibility. Every six months or so, she moves to a new town, rents a new hole-in-the-wall room, and finds a new job where she’ll be paid in cash. Her deliberately prickly personality helps her keep people at arm’s length. Friends are a luxury she can’t afford. Jo sleeps with a baseball bat under her bed and her shoes by the door, ready to flee if necessary, but all her precautions don’t dispel her nightmares.

Edinburgh was supposed to be like all the other cities where she has hidden in plain sight, a brief stop before moving on. When she answers a classified ad for a housemate, though, she finds a stunning luxury home that’s a far cry from her usual basic digs, and meets its even more gorgeous owner.

Nate Harding is licking his wounds after an ugly divorce. He hardly cares who rents his extra floor, as long as the tenant is quiet and responsible. Jo touches something within him, though, soothing his ragged feelings and moderating his cynicism about women. She’s sharp-witted, sincere, self-reliant and unpretentious, a huge contrast to his unfaithful, gold-digging ex Kate. And despite the impropriety of a sexual liaison given their respective roles, Nate finds Jo incredibly attractive.

Jo understands that it’s dangerous to get close to Nate, but she can’t help herself. Although she tries to pretend they’re nothing more than fuck buddies, both of them know their relationship goes well beyond the fabulous sex they share. As Jo grows more intimate with Nate and more integrated into his warm, quirky family, hiding her secret become more and more difficult. The openness that Nate craves, though, will threaten not only Jo’s life but those of the people she has come to love.

Now You See Me is phenomenally good, especially for a first novel. In a genre famous for straining belief, it may be the most realistic romance I’ve ever read. The first person narration puts the reader inside Jo’s head, where we’re party to her scheming, her uncertainty and her barely suppressed terror. The pressure is unrelenting, as she falls more deeply for Nate and fights harder to keep the skeletons from her past under control.

Nate begins as more of a fantasy figure, the tall, dark, dominant, arrogant lord-of-the-manor type that romance readers seem to crave. Cracks soon appear in this facade, though. Jo happens upon him late one night, when he’s drinking away the hurt after a run-in with his demon ex-wife Kate. When Jo tries to console him, he brags:

“You think I’m lonely? You think I have a shortage of women waiting, willing, begging to fill my empty bed?”

I closed my eyes. “Meaningless sex isn’t companionship.”

“Sex with me is never meaningless. Even if it’s only once, it’s not like the women don’t get anything out of it. And you know what? They’re grateful for it.”

Another author would have us taking this at face value – classic alpha male cockiness. Ms. Todd makes it clear that this sort of bravado is indeed a symptom of Nate’s craving for real love and affection – especially when he apologizes profusely the next day.

Jo and Nate have plenty of thrilling erotic encounters, in a wide range of locations including the kitchen island. They don’t fall into bed immediately, though, and even after they do, their relationship develops gradually, another realistic touch I appreciated. Jo is not the sort of person to let down her guard easily. Nate woos her with his tender care and true consideration, as well as his talented tongue and hard cock. In a pleasing turn-about, the male in the couple is eager for commitment long before the female can bring herself to even consider the possibility.

The pacing is brilliant. The author gradually ramps up both the erotic intensity and the suspense, until the point when Jo has to reveal her secret to Nate and to the reader. Her love for him will not allow her to stay silent any longer. Then she tries to leave, because she must, for her own safety and for Nate’s. Nate understands this, too. He goes off to work, giving her the space to make her own decision. She packs her few things into her battered suitcase but she can’t resist going upstairs to his room, one more time.

Releasing a shaky breath, I sat on the chaise longue and pulled my knees up to my chest. The city was laid out in front of me, all sprawling rooftops, eccentric, almost random twists and turns of the streets. Views of the Water of Leith and the Gardens broke up this ancient city that had worked itself under my skin...not unlike Nate.

He had given me the perfect opportunity. The moment I tole him the story of my past was the moment my fate was sealed, and the first chance I got I would leave his world behind. And now here I was, poised above departure but unable to move.

When had it happened? I couldn’t pinpoint the moment everything had changed. When it had become an impossibility for me to leave.

I watched the light change. The pale sun sank over the buildings, casting shadows into the room before twilight began and the room turned a dusky purple. It was fully dark when I heard him behind me. My heart didn’t thump. I didn’t panic. It was almost as though I was resigned.

He crouched in front of me. “You’re still here.”

“I’ve been trying not to be.”

This scene had me close to tears, something that almost never happens when I’m reading romance.

One might think that this is the happy ending, but this is only half way through the book. After this, things become truly dark – really scary – as Jo’s past catches up with her. At one point, I had to shut off my tablet for a while. Intuiting what was about to happen, I simply couldn’t bear to read further. There’s a reader’s advisory about violence and abuse associated with this novel. Take it seriously.

This dark section of the novel is equally believable, though, as Ms. Todd describes a real-life nightmare many women face. When the monster is finally defeated, terrible scars linger.

In the last quarter of the book, Jo tries to rebuild her life and her trust in herself. To be honest, I felt the book dragged a bit during these latter chapters. For one thing, it’s a bit too easy. Some therapy, a pet dog, a trip to the seashore with Nate, and years of psychological damage are undone. I’m fortunate never to have experienced anything like what Jo had to deal with, but I have close friends who have suffered in similar circumstances. It took a very long time for them to recover their sense of safety and self-respect.

In addition, there’s a sense of anti-climax. The major conflicts have been resolved and hence there’s nothing driving the narrative but the need to tie up loose ends.

On the other hand, I suspect many readers will find these chapters a huge relief after the almost unbearable tension in most of the book. Lots of sex and lots of love, including Christmas with Nate’s family. How happy can you get?

Overall, Now You See Me is a substantial and satisfying novel, as well as a brilliant instantiation of the “What’s Her Secret” theme. Jo’s secret drives the book from beginning to end. Revealed, it has as much power as it did when it was hidden. I applaud Pamela Todd’s skill in weaving this tale of terror, love and redemption.

Sneak Peek: Hardened Desire by Layna Pimentel

[Today's sneak peek comes from Layna Pimentel's paranormal erotic romance, Hardened Desire. Her hero is a gargoyle... now there's an interesting notion. Enjoy! ~ Lisabet]

 
Blurb

What could Luc Mercier, a gargoyle who's more than a century old, possibly have in common with modern introvert, Gillian Harris? Loneliness and isolation.

When meddlesome friends bring the two together, neither is prepared for the flurry of emotions nor revelations that overwhelm them. That is, until Gillian stumbles across the truth and struggles with how she let her guard down.

Learning to love again has never been harder.

Excerpt

Luc picked up a newspaper from the stand and tossed a two-dollar coin to the elderly man working the counter. He ascended the cavernous stairs of Bloor and Dufferin subway station, irritated by the lights flickering intensely. I should have just taken my car.

But if he did, Luc would have missed an opportunity to observe society other than from the café he frequented lately. A society he didn’t belong in, technically speaking, and had no business being a part of. Long gone were the muddy, off-beaten roads of provincial France. Long gone was the time when an over-flowing bodice was considered scandalous.

Now people thrived on exposing as much skin as possible. The modern day sentiment of what was attractive and acceptable embarrassed him to the core, from the mode of dress to the inappropriate use of language. Didn’t anyone know how to speak without using an expletive every other word? Where had humanity gone wrong? It was ghastly enough that children didn’t respect their elders, much less their parents.

Nevertheless, as much as this modern world perplexed him, nothing could deter him from at least enjoying his freedom, regardless of the limitations restricting his activities to the darkness of the night.

He did, however, miss the ambiance of candle light and the soft cries while seducing a woman, tormenting her with his wicked tongue. Exploring deviant, but heavenly, practices of binding and mixing pleasure with pain. Sweet promises falling from his lips while exploring every inch of her delicate and exquisite flesh.

These days, the few women he was able to enjoy weren’t interested in highly sensual liaisons. No. Today’s women thrived on being in control of seduction, whether they were proficient or not. There certainly wasn’t anything wrong with the scenario, but it wasn’t his taste. He preferred his women soft, like Genevieve…his sweet, sweet Genevieve.

No matter how many decades passed, the only woman he’d ever confided in, and planned to wed, crept into his mind many a time. Genevieve was an old soul, who found him and fell in love. Then, much like a Greek tragedy, their story ended woefully. The trust and courage it had taken to confess to Genevieve of the monstrosity he had become left him restless and, for once in his miserable existence, vulnerable. If not for her kindness, encouragement, and love, who knew what he would be doing and where.

This last week, though, he thought to explore the possibility of trying again. A particular woman, who frequented the café where he spent his early evenings drinking a brandy and reading The Daily Sun, had caught his particular interest. Her laughter aroused his curiosity in the few and far between moments when he contemplated actually living life. Her voice, whether chuckling or whispering to her friend, always made his body react in an animalistic way.

While they had never met, she seemed like someone he’d be interested in getting to know, at the very least, for a little while. Luc doubted very much he’d find another woman like the love of his life and often thought it would be better that way. How could he even begin to explain why he only ever spent time with her at night, and why he’d always be gone before the first sign of daybreak?

Get your copy of Hardened Desire!

Amazon (U.S)

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About Layna

Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Layna discovered her love of reading at an early age. When she isn’t devouring salacious romance novels or writing, she enjoys losing herself in researching ancient history and mythology, weaponry, and hiking. She lives in Northern Ontario, with her husband and two daughters.

Layna is a member of the Romance Writers of America, and is a monthly contributor at 69 Shades of Smut. For updates on her upcoming releases, or to leave her a comment, you can find at:

Website: http://www.laynapimentel.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/LaynaPimentel

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLaynaPimentel