Reviews
A Hint of Wicked by Jennifer Haymore
Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham
Forbidden- The Temptation by Samantha Sommersby
Gaunlet by Richard Aaron
Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory
Memoirs of a Fortune Teller by Gary Turcotte
My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel
Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
Outcast by Cheryl Brooks
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Synarchy: Book 1: The Awakening by DCS
Visions by Jean Koning

Blog Tours
Chemical Cowboys by Lisa Sweetingham
Gaunlet by Richard Aaron
Knight of Desire by Margaret Mallory
My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel
Outcast by Cheryl Brooks
Synarchy: Book 1: The Awakening by DCS
Visions by Jean Koning

Author Interviews
Carolyn Jewel (My Forbidden Desire)
Cheryl Brooks (Outcast)
DCS (Synarchy: Book 1: Awakening)
Jean Koning (Visions)
Jennifer Haymore (A Hint of Wicked)
Richard Aaron (Gauntlet)

Author Guest Posts
Ron Frederick (Living Like You Mean it

About Margaret Mallory

Margaret Mallory recently surprised her friends and family by abandoning her legal career-and her steady job-to write tales of romance and adventure. At long last, she can satisfy her passion for justice by punishing the bad and rewarding the worthy-in the pages of her novels, of course. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two college-age children. Knight of Desire is her first book so she would dearly love to hear from readers.
Official Homepage
5 Fun Facts about Margaret Mallory

About Knight of Desire

FEARLESS IN BATTLE… His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn. TENDER IN BED… Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she’s keeping secrets, and dare not give him her heart. As passion ignites and danger closes in, Catherine and William must learn to trust in each other to save their marriage, their land, and their very lives.

My Review of Knight of Desire

Genre: Historical Romance
Finished: July 3, 2009
Rating: 3 Stars

In Knight of Desire, Lady Catherine Rayburn is locked in an abusive marriagve, her only solace the memory of the one innocent night she spend with a kind man as a girl and her son. When her husband becomes a traitor to the English crown for his own benefit, she spies on him and sells him out to the English. When they put him to death, Catherine considers herself delivered and free. All she wants is a quite life in her castle with her child. Unfortunately, the King of England has other plans for her– it is either to the Tower for being the wife of a traitor or marry another man and let him resume control of her castle.

Emotionally and mentally wounded from her former husband, Catherine does not trust or submit easily to her new husband William FitzAlan, who she does not recognize as the man she spent her one good evening with before marriage. William, a soldier, has a hard time understanding women or trusting her because his own mother quite manipulative. It takes the two of them a while, but they soon enough fall into passionate love with a few tiffs in between since William is the jealous and quick to assume type. At the same time, conspiring against them is William’s friend Edmund, who pretends to be a loyal protector in order to give Catherine over to the enemy. Held hostage by the Prince of Wales and the Tudor family, the now pregnant Catherine can only accept her fate or hope that her husband comes to rescue her.

Knight of Desire is a historical romance, its context Medieval England and the Welsh rebellion of the 15th century. I have to admit, my knowledge of Medieval England is a bit lacking, but I do know a considerable bit about Medieval society and expectations in general. Aside from a few things that I couldn’t imagine a woman of the time doing (not saying some women didn‘t and couldn‘t defy expectations, of course), I was pretty much pleased with the historical accuracy of Knight of Desire—and trust me, I was looking at the small things such as what they used for dinner and how they ate. If a fork showed up, I would have promptly closed the book and refused to reopen it!

The book is very well written, as well, so it flows along from page one to the end without those little bumps along the way that come with reading a book that is a bit difficult or awkwardly written at times. All of the action and the descriptions work well on text. As it seems, this is Mallory’s first novel and shows just what a adept writer she is and how much she deserves to be published. Her talent with words give credibility to the entire novel in general. Mallory’s English countryside is breathtaking, the wilderness wild, the fights rough and bloody, and the passion hot. I certainly never got bored with reading this novel and had it in bed with me late into the night and early morning.

Most of the second half of the drama was fueled by Catherine supposedly being so beautiful that a man wanted her enough to hate her. Typical romance stuff there, which I have difficulty enjoying. I prefer my romance to defy convention in certain ways and to catch me by surprise. I was a bit bothered by the rampant use of the phrase “in sooth” because I don’t believe in dotting modern language novels with archaic terms unless the words used are nouns. That is just a personal pet peeve of mine, and my personal feeling on the matter doesn’t diminish the simple fact that Mallory wrote a very good historical romance novel, which paints a satisfactory picture of Medieval life in England. All in all, Knight of Romance is a good book and I would definitely recommend it to fans of the romance genre.

Giveaway!!

I have been given the amazing opportunity by Hachette Book Group to give out 5 copies of Knight of Romance by Margaret Mallory. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbid_romantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Go to any of my book reviews and rate it using the ‘Rate this post’ option in the post header information. Leave me a comment telling me you have.
9.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, Shelfari, Book Blogs, or BookBlips and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
10.) Answer this question: so which is it for you? The Tower of London or a new marriage?

If you do all of the above, you will get ten entries. That’s ten chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on July 18th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

Participating Sites:

http://bridget3420.blogspot.com – June 29 giveaway.
http://www.thisbookforfree.com – June 29 giveaway
http://mustreadfaster.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review and giveaway.
http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/ – June 29 to July 10 review and giveaway
http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com – June 30 review and giveaway.
http://BookSoulmates.blogspot.com – July 1 review and giveaway.
http://epicrat.blogspot.com – July 1
http://www.foreigncircuslibrary.blogspot.com/ – July 2
http://booklover125.blogspot.com/ – July 2 giveaway
http://www.loveimpossible.com – July 3
http://www.chickwithbooks.blogspot.com/ – July 4 review and giveaway
http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/ – July 5 review; July 19 giveaway.
http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com – July 5
http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com – July 6 review and giveaway.
http://seductivemusings.blogspot.com/ – July 7 review and giveaway.
http://alphaheroes.blogspot.com/ – July 8 review and giveaway.
http://www.bookwormygirl.blogspot.com/ – July 8 review and giveaway.
http://annavivian.blogspot.com/ – July 8 giveaway.
http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com – July 9 review and giveaway.
http://reviewfromhere.com/ – July 10 review.
http://www.startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/ – July 10 review and giveaway
http://reesspace.blogspot.com – review and giveaway.
http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset – review.

After the extreme heat of her Nantucket studio causes her to go into early labor with her youngest son, renowned glass artist Claire Danner Crispin now devotes her life to her four children. Part of her charm and part of her problem are her perpetual feelings of guilt. When asked to co-chair the Nantucket Children Summer Gala, she agrees, adding an impossible burden to an already busy life. She also agrees to create a museum quality piece of artwork when the head of the charity, Lock Dixon, asks her to because Lock’s wife suffered a serious accident after going out drinking with Claire and her friends. Truly, Claire hasn’t a free moment, what with caring for her children, working with the elitist cochair from Manhattan, asking her teenage rock-star boyfriend to play the event for free, and creating a masterpiece, all while conducting a clandestine affair with Lock. A gem of a summer read with a glamorous location, elite lifestyle, and Hilderbrand’s appealing take on the constant stress that fills the lives of women everywhere.

When Homicide Detective Kara Gillian finds traces of arcane power on a body, she quickly realizes that this is no ordinary murder. The serial killer known as the Symbol Man is a nightmare that Beaulac, Louisiana thought had ended three years ago, but now he’s back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he is well-versed in demonic lore.

However, Kara is a Summoner of Demons, and may be the only cop on the city’s small force who can stop the killer. Able to see and interact with a world most people can’t, Kara must draw on her skills as a police officer and master of the arcane to stop the Symbol Man from killing again and possibly summoning something even she can’t control.

But with a demonic lord of unearthly beauty and power haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head….

I just won a copy of Darkwood by M.E. Breen and Molly Breen.

Darkness falls so quickly in Howland that the people there have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black. But darkness comes in other forms, too, and for thirteen-year-old Annie, the misery she endures in her Uncle’s household makes the black of night seem almost soothing. When Annie escapes, her route takes her first to a dangerous mine where a precious stone is being stolen by an enemy of the king, and later to the king’s own halls, where a figure from Annie’s past makes a startling appearance. All the while, reported sightings of kinderstalk— mysterious, wolf-like creatures that prowl Howland’s dark forests—grow more frequent. Eloquent, suspenseful, and imbued with fairy-tale motifs found in The Brothers Grimm, this is a riveting coming-of-age story of a girl who must learn to trust her instincts if she’s to lead the people she is destined to rule.

He nodded ahead to where the path narrowed and grunted something she took to mean he wanted her to ride in front. she spurred her horse, grateful to put a little distance between them.

- Knight of Desire (Margaret Mallory), pg. 238

If you are hosting a book giveaway and would like me to list it here, leave me a comment with the contest URL or send me an email at morbidromantic@gmail.com.

Win Rachel Vincent’s Prey at SciFiGuy.ca
Contest ends July 3rd

Win Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth at The Book Resort
Contest ends July 6th

Win James Scott Bell’s Try Fear at Sweeps4Bloggers
Contest ends July 7th

Win Mike Carey’s The Naming of the Beasts at Suzanne McLeod
Contest ends July 8th

Win Julia Hoben’s Willow at Sweeps4Bloggers
Contest ends July 9th

Win Christi Phillips’ The Devlin Diary at Debbie’s World of Books
Contest ends July 10th

Win Laura Resnick’s The Purifying Fire at SciFiGuy.ca
Contest ends July 10th

Win James Patterson’s Swimsuit at Lori’s Reading Corner
Contest ends July 10th

Win Gena Showalter’s Seduce the Darkness at Debbie’s World of Books
Contest ends July 12th

Win Christi Phillips’ The Devlin Diary at Drey’s Library
Contest ends July 12th

Win Gena Showalter’s Seduce the Darkness at Drey’s Library
Contest ends July 13th

Win Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts at Passages to the Past
Contest ends July 13th

Win Mike Carey’s Dead Men’s Boots at Sweeps4Bloggers
Contest ends July 13th

Win Marjorie Liu’s The Iron Hunt at Bibliophiles ‘R’ Us
Contest ends July 14th

Win Sarah Dessen’s Along For The Ride at Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf
Contest ends July 15th

Win Suzanne Crowley’s The Stole One at Fantastic Book Review
Contest ends July 15th

Win Linda Gillard’s Star Gazing at Rhapsody in Books
Contest ends July 16th

Win Jules Watson’s The Swan Maiden at The Tome Traveller
Contest ends July 16th

Win Miriam Gershow’s The Local News at Redlady’s Reading Room
Contest ends July 16th

Win Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series at Fantastic Book Review
Contest ends July 17th

Win Donna Woolfolk Cross’s Pope Joan at Booking Mama
Contest ends July 17th

Win the Canada Day Giveaway at Today’s Adventure
Contest ends July 20th

Win Patrick Carman’s Atherton Trilogy at J. Kaye’s Book Blog
Contest ends July 25th

Win Nadine Dajani’s Cutting Loose at Jo-Jo loves to read
Contest ends July 25th

Win Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh, Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter, or At Grave’s End by Jeaniene Frost at Literary Escapism
Contest ends July 25th

Win Michelle Moran’s Cleopatra’s Daughter or Richelle Mead’s Blood Promise at Alaine- Queen of Happy Endings
Contest ends July 31st

Win Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost, or The Other Tudors by Philippa Jones at The Eclectic Reader
Contest ends July 31st

Win Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning, or The White Queen by Philippa Gregory at Royal Reviews
Contest ends July 31st

The winning numbers are:
11, 12, 24, 74, 115

Winners:
Angela
Lee
Carla
Jennifer
Lily Kwan

I am going to email all of you now and request your addresses. Remember, no PO Boxes and no one from any country but the US and Canada. If you do not get my email and you are a winner, leave me a comment here or send me an email at morbidromantic[@]gmail.com. Please send me your address in 3 days or else I will have to choose a new winner in your place. I would like to thank the Hachette Book Group for the opportunity to give out this amazing book.

In the Land of Cotton by Martha A. Taylor
Immerse yourself in this highly anticipated political docu-drama set in the Deep South amidst the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. Martha was a young white girl living in the Deep South, inundated with the racist sentiments of the times. But Martha’s natural curiosity and generous heart led her to question this racial divide. When she discovered a primitive Negro family living deep in the woods near her house, everyone’s life changed forever. Take the journey of a lifetime alongside Martha as she forges relationships that lead to self discovery and a clearer understanding of the world around her. In the Land of Cotton provides an outstanding snapshot of life in the South during those troubled times – a snapshot everyone should take a close look at, regardless of era or color. The year was 1956.

Welcome to Carolyn Jewel, who is here with us today at Morbid-Romantic.net while on her blog tour of My Forbidden Desire. I am fortunate enough to have her, and she even stopped in to answer a few questions! So, everyone say welcome and hello to Carolyn Jewel.

About Carolyn Jewel

CarolynJewel.com
Twitter
Carolyn Jewel @ Hachette Book Group

About My Forbidden Desire

Alexandrine Marit is a witch in mortal danger. An evil mage craves the powerful, mysterious talisman that supplies her magic, and the only person who can keep her safe is a dark and dangerous fiend called Xia. With his fierce animosity toward witches, he’s hardly the ideal bodyguard. Yet as days turn into nights, she can’t deny the white-hot passion between them.

Xia hates witches. They enslave and mercilessly kill his kind. But he’s been ordered to protect Alexandrine, who, to his surprise, has a spirit he admires and a body he longs to possess. With the mage and his henchmen closing in, Alexandrine and her protector must trust the passion that can unite them…or risk losing everything to the enemies who can destroy them both.

Watch the trailer:

Look inside:

My Review of My Forbidden Desire

Alexandrine Marit is a witch who can barely form a spell, abandoned as a child by her powerful mage father Rasmus for having too little power. However, as a grown woman, what she does have is a talisman imbued with a power her father supposedly wants. So to protect her from her father and his league of fiends, her no longer long-lost adopted brother Harsh puts a fiend named Xia in charge of her protection. Xia is a powerful creature, the tall and dark handsome kind, but hates witches because witches enslave and kill his kind. He would like nothing more than to kill Rasmus with his bare hands, and watching over a witch who is also the daughter of Rasmus is a terrible fate for him. Neither of them trust each other, but slowly Alexandrine sees he is more than just a witch hating fiend, and Xia comes to see that she is more than just a witch. Especially when the two discover that maybe Xia needs to be protected just as much as she does. The closer they get to one another, the less they can deny the chemistry and physical attraction pulling at them.

Nothing like a good book full of magic and sexual tension to curl up with at night. I have a weakness for magic in books, though not only of the ‘witch’ kind. I think the various concepts of magehelds and blood-twins and such are very unique and give more layers to the story than your typical witch-meets-demon-and-they-do-magic-together kind of story. There is more potential for conflict and storyline when relationships are varied and complex. And though you know Alexandrine and Xia are going to end up getting hot and petty, the anticipation is tense and their mutual dislike is amusing.

Xia is the absolute bad boy type and women can’t get enough of men like him. In that way, he is charming but frustrating, but bad boys tend to be stubborn. And Alexandrine, darling, after all the things Xia did and said to you, you still thought he was going to abandon you at the end? Where is your faith, girl!? But hey, the story needed that last surge of drama, I suppose, and it was a great ending to see the two of them together but not sugary. After all, Xia is still a bad boy fiend and Alexandrine is still a ‘take no crap’ kind of girl.

Interview With Carolyn Jewel

What do you do to prepare to write? What is the process that gets you ready to sit down and lay out a story?

I sit in my chair or boot up my laptop if I’m not at home.

As for my process, I have learned that laying out a story in advance is a huge waste of time and fatal to my success in ending up with a book that anybody would care to read. That’s how it is for me. YMMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

Not only am I a seat of the pants writer, but I am one of those character-driven authors. It does me no good to conconct elaborate plot charts or lists of goals and motivations before I start. (Believe me, I tried and failed at all of that planning stuff.)

My story develops in the course of writing about my characters. What they do on the page drives my plot. I do a lot of brainstorming in a notebook just to hash out ideas, possiblities and what-ifs so it’s not as if I start completely unprepared. And then, when I sit down to write, 98% of the time something completely different happens.

If I don’t pay attention to what’s happening in the story that’s actually developing on the pages and instead try to impose my will, I end up with dreck. So I don’t do that anymore.

How much of yourself do you put in your characters? Are they extensions of you, or are they independent creations that take on a life of their own after coming from your imagination?

To some extent my writing is an extension of myself — the thoughts and ideas, after all, come out of my head, and I have a certain set of experience, knowledge, politics etc.

If I were to write characters who were extensions of me, they would all be the same and that would be dull. I’m sorry to report that I do not live a life of thrill and excitement. My characters, however, frequently do. They constantly surprise me and I do my best to keep up.

What sort of research went into making this book?

Not a tremendous amount, since I was wise enough to set the book in places I used to live; San Fransicso and Berkeley, or places I was, for one reason or another, very familiar with.

The house in Tiburon is based on a multi-million dollar home that was once the subject of a lawsuit — at a time when I worked at a law firm. The house in Sausalito is loosely based on a house I knew of from a friend. The places where Alexander and Xia walk are all places I used to walk or run myself.

In my student days and beyond, I lived in crappy cheap apartments, so it was pretty easy to recall that experience when describing Alexandrine’s apartment. The only hard part was getting in contact with real mages and fiends to confirm my understanding of how their world works. Fortunately, I took pretty good notes.

What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you’ve picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?

The secret handshake, without a doubt. Kidding! I wish I’d known how important it is to stay in contact with other people who write, to be around people with the same obsessions.

What is one thing you’ve never done but would love to do?

I have never gone to Spain, and I would like to one day.

Finally, could you share with all of us a quote that you love?

How about one of my favorite poems instead?

Nothing is so fleeting as the cherry flower, you say.
Yet I remember well the moment when
Life’s bloom faded at a spoken word
And not a breath of wind had stirred.
- Tsuriyuki, 5th century.

Giveaway!!

I have been given the amazing opportunity by Hachette Book Group to give out 5 copies of My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbid_romantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, or Book Blogs and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
9.) Answer this question: What is your forbidden desire?

If you do all of the above, you will get nine entries. That’s nine chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on July 12th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

Participating Sites:

http://bridget3420.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://debbiesworld.wordpress.com – June 28
http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/ – June 28 giveaway
http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com – June 28
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review, giveaway, and Q&A
http://undercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/ – June 28 giveaway and Q&A
http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com – June 28
http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://www.mgpblog.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://www.startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://trinsnook.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://mustreadfaster.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review and giveaway
http://www.loveimpossible.com – June 29 review and Q&A
http://seductivemusings.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review and giveaway
http://reviewfromhere.com/ – June 29 review
http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review; giveaway
http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/ – review, giveaway, and Q&A
http://reesspace.blogspot.com – review and giveaway
http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/ – June 29 review, giveaway, and possible Q&A
http://horrorandfantasybookreview.blogspot.com – June 29 review and giveaway
http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset – review