Grease Lightning and Summer Loving

Summer of Love: Paranormal Love That Is

My first crush had to be John Travolta as Danny Zuko. If you are a fan of Grease, then like me,  you pictured yourself as Sandy with Danny. What was it about that movie that made all us girlies go ga ga? Was it the catchy songs that got stuck in our heads or made us all singing sensations in our bedrooms or for me, the coffee table, with our mother's brushes as microphones? Was it just that the fifties seemed cool? Did we all just fall into that need to have a Pink Lady jacket or find a T-Bird of our  own? I don't know if it was any one thing for me but even today, I love that movie. Wait, what does this have to do with Paranormal Romance? Well not too much of anything but here are some great books that give you that Sandy and Danny-esque kind of love minus the musical score. 

Vlad may not be souping up 1950's dragsters but he's the ultimate bad boy-he's Vlad Tepes; you don't get anymore rebel than that. Leila isn't your typical "Sandy" either but she's not about to let that get in the way or Mr. Big Bad Vampire King himself.

Blurb:

Vlad Tepesh inspired the greatest vampire legend of all—but whatever you do, don't call him Dracula. Vlad's ability to control fire makes him one of the most feared vampires in existence, but his enemies have found a new weapon against him—a beautiful mortal with powers to match his own. When Vlad and Leila meet, however, passion ignites between them, threatening to consume them both. It will take everything that they are to stop an enemy intent on bringing them down in flames.

AMAZON

What do Erin McCarthy and Kathy Love have in common? Their book, The Fangover, Rock N' Roll, and sexy vampires that's what. Johnny Malone, like Danny Zuko, has his own T-Birds in the form of a band called The Impalers, and not only is this book a funny read but it's got romance as well as enough sexual intrigue to have one feeling as though they've been scorched.

Blurb:

When rock-god vampire Johnny Malone commits suicide, the rest of The Impalers gather for an Irish wake and jam session to send their bandmate off in style. But alcohol-laced blood and grief make for one hell of a combination...

When her brother, Johnny, dies, Stella Malone’s grief lands her in the buff arms of The Impalers’ bass player. While her tryst with Wyatt had some serious bite, Stella isn’t looking for a relationship, especially after a tipsy argument leads to her getting stuck in bat form at the wake. The rest of the hungover Impalers are in no shape to help her, meaning that Stella’s one night stand is the only one who can help her figure out what really happened last night. Only Wyatt doesn’t have a clue what happened last night, either, nor does he know that Stella is the bat currently dive-bombing his head. But he does have her purse and that has to be a start, right? Or not.

On the other hand, there is a priest passed out in the bathtub and an alcoholic parrot squawking about a chapel of love...

Which might explain the ring on Berto Cortez’s finger. How did a night of rock ’n’ roll debauchery result in him turning sexy washboard player Katie Lambert into a vampire and then marrying her? He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. But he can’t quite remember, exactly. Which means these four friends turned amnesiac couples have only one choice: hit the famed Bourbon Street for some answers.

AMAZON

"I got chills, they're multiplying, they're electrifying and I'm loooosing control...." No summer reading list would be complete without Denyse Bridger's Descent into Darkness. Just like with Danny and Sandy, Alexander DeLenoir is obsessed with the beautiful Amberlaine Calvert. However this is no easy love story, it comes with its own journey and it's one dear reader you will want to take! 

Blurb:



Spanning almost two centuries Descent Into Darkness is the erotic love story of an ancient vampire and the mortal woman who is his obsession.

Alexander DeLenoir is an ancient creature of the night, born in a betrayal that has left him without conscience or morality. He’s witnessed history that is now myth. Throughout his long life, Alexander has seldom sought companionship, and never has he looked for love. He has kept two of his immortal children with him, through whatever means necessary, and is not intending to expand his family.

Arriving at a small Massachusetts town after killing the sailors on their ship, the vampire trio meets the mysterious and lonely wife of the innkeeper, and Alexander is entranced by her beauty and her indomitable spirit. In Amberlaine Calvert, he senses a nature as dark and depraved as his own seeking freedom. Despite the protests of his companions, Alexander takes her and in adoration of him finds an obsessive kind of happiness.

When the town slowly awakens to the evil among them, a bloody slaughter ensues, and Amberlaine is forced to see the madness that will define her life with Alexander. Yet, in spite of her fear, she is obsessively devoted to the powerful vampire, and the darker things she feels lurking within her are about to be unleashed by a hunger even greater than her passion—the thirst for revenge against those who dare to threaten their existence.

AMAZON

Now this blog wouldn't be complete without one of the ultimate bad boys in an Alpha Wolf kind of way, now would it? Just like Danny Zuko is the leader of the T-Birds, Salvatore is the King of Werewolves. However, he has this problem-he needs a mate to bear him sons but the even bigger problem is that Harley is not some brood mare or bitch in heat. What's a guy to do when flowers and chocolates won't work?

Blurb:

He Would Do Anything to Claim Her

Salvatore Giuliani is not a happy werewolf. It's his duty as leader to track down the pure-blood females who can keep his people from extinction. But the moment he catches scent of Harley, a pure-blood held by a pack of mangy curs, his savage need for her obliterates all other instincts. And the only thing worse than being captured is finding that beautiful, independent Harley defiantly refuses to become his mate.

And Everything to Keep Her

Harley has been taught to distrust all Weres, especially their arrogant king. She won't be used for breeding or bonded against her will, not even to a man who makes every nerve tingle with awareness. Yet Salvatore is her key to saving the family she never knew she had—if she dares to succumb to his dark, predatory desire, and face a vicious enemy sworn to destroy them both.

BARNES & NOBLE

So when you're in the mood for some Summer Lovin' and Grease is the word, try these must-reads!



The Summer of Reading: What YOU Should Be Reading!

We can finally say "Good Bye" to winter and "Hello" to summer and for all of us out there that love a great book, there are some great books as well as authors that you should be grabbing up.

 

Denyse Bridger has pulled out all the stops with her action adventure novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Blurb:

Andrew Dahle is a career spook, with no messy emotional ties to complicate his life. He’s worked with the best, and despite himself, he’s about to discover that he’s got friends he really didn’t know he wanted.

A straight-forward operation to grab a defector before he can leave the country with a top secret project goes wildly awry, and forces Andrew to choose between saving the life of a colleague’s son or nailing his target. To his great surprise, he saves the young man’s life, and wakes up in a hospital.

Grateful, Richard MacAvoy, a retired agent with his own elite contacts and players, steps in when Dahle is injured saving his son. Desperate to complete his mission, Andrew reluctantly accepts the help MacAvoy offers, and in the process just might learn that alone isn’t always the best way to work, and friends might be worth the vulnerability he’s always shunned.

Kayden McLeod brings her Lust from her LOST Trilogy that is more than just a steamy and erotic read. Kayden McLeod takes her readers into a paranormal world with vampires with lusty appetites and mixes it with a strong and smart female lead. Lust will have you lusting for the next book.

Blurb:

Sara finds herself in a new world, an all-vampire community that at first seems like a picturesque scene of self-indulgent paradise, but soon learns that there’s an underbelly to this place of sun and sex. Having been a captive of a vampire’s insanity, she finds herself drawn towards two very compelling slaves, who reside on the island, raising many buried memories for her, and igniting a mental agony she can’t ignore for long. Ancient magic is afoot, presenting to her a whole new set of problems she’d never signed up for. Sara doesn’t know it quite yet, but fate has interceded and changed her destiny from being just another Hunter, into so much more. 



Jewel Quinlan is a new author for me and I simply adored her E-Book Stealing Cupid's Bow. If you're like me and love Greek Mythology then you will love her spin on the God of Love Eros aka Cupid. Jewel has a great affinity for writing paranormal romance and fantasy and after reading this book, you'll be as hooked as I am on Jewel Quinlan.

Blurb:

Recently heartbroken, Raine Daniels arrives home in Las Vegas, Nevada, to help with her parents’ fortieth anniversary party only to discover they are planning to separate as soon as the last guest walks out the door. Everything she thought she knew—her very foundation is rocked to the core.

When she learns that Alexander, the sexy stranger she’d sat next to on the plane, is really the god of love, Cupid—she asks for his help, but he declines. The god of love, now long divorced from Psyche and living on earth among mortals, no longer believes in love.

Raine decides to take matters into her own hands, even if a god tells her she’s wrong.  With her life falling apart around her and the solution seemingly within her reach she dares to try and make everything better. Unfortunately, she’s unprepared for the consequences of stealing Cupid’s bow.



Enter the world of the Breeds with Lora Leigh's Rule Breaker. "They were not born, they were created..." Lora Leigh has created a series that is truly a MUST READ with her Breed series. Her characters are genetically altered humans who have had their DNA spliced with animal breeds such as predatory large cats, wolves, coyotes, and then some. At first I scoffed at reading something that I thought would just be a drag to read but I'm so very glad that I did read the first Breed book because now I'm hooked and you will be too.

Blurb:

Lion Breed and enforcer Rule Breaker has just a few rules he doesn’t break. Not for anything. Not for anyone—like never have sex with a woman outside his own breed, especially a human woman. Especially someone too helpless, too fun loving and too full of life to ever be able to protect herself, let alone help him to protect her.

If the damned animal inside him insists on a mate, then why pick her? A woman who is an easy target and who can be used as a weapon against him at any time.

But what he suspects is mating heat may not be that at all. Just his animal instincts rioting, pacing, irritated whenever he's away from her.

Okay, he can handle that.

What ensues is a fiery affair that breaks all the rules of mating heat and will eventually endanger his mate with the very rules designed to protect the Breeds—for she’s possibly been working against them.

Now dear readers, who wouldn't want to get some of that animal magnetism going? Definitely a book that will have you taking a cold shower afterwards.

Cursed Awakening is a shifter romance novel, the first in a series by none other than myself, Nikki Noffsinger. Cursed Awakening has been re-released through Evolutionary Publishing and is an award winning P&E Critters Poll romance novel.

Blurb:

Ivy Morgan has re-invented herself and is looking forward to the future for the first time, in a very long time. Since fleeing for her life from an overzealous religious cult, she is able to be a modern woman that is gaining her independence; so taking up with a sexy stranger named Nyx is the last thing she needs. Or, is it?

Nyx Wahpeton can’t stop thinking about the young woman he’s met. It couldn’t have come at the worse possible time with the clans meeting and his family wrapped up in a centuries old war that’s nothing short of what horror movies are made from. He’s been a protector of his people and those that reside at the Reservation. There’s betrayal and evil at his front door; but, in his heart he knows Ivy is the one for him. She’s surrounded by secrets that he’s vowed to unlock, as well as her heart. However, can he keep her safe from his own secrets?

Paranormal Romance isn't quite your thing? Looking for something with a dead sexy cowboy in the wild west with a heroine that is sultry and looking for love amidst the tempest under the western sun? Denyse Bridger's Texas Heat delivers on a great story as well as an unconventional romance.



Blurb:

Chase Jordan is a man with half his life missing since his return from the war in Iraq. He arrives back in Texas, a drifter looking for home. When he arrives at the Double D ranch, the owners know him, even if he can’t remember them. Cheyenne’s been infatuated with Chase since her high school days, but Deke MacKenzie’s already made it clear to Chase that his kid sister is off limits.

Is your curiosity piqued? Wondering where you can get these great selections? I thought so. Click on any of the links below to get a hold of these excellent reads.

DEFECTOR  *  LUST  *  STEALING CUPID'S BOW

RULE BREAKER  *  CURSED AWAKENING  *  TEXAS HEAT

HAPPY READING!!! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THESE SELECTIONS BELOW IN THE COMMENTS. 



Sex, Fangs, and Murder and Seduction Inbetween

If he were anyone else, like say Johnny Depp or Brad Pitt then I could write it off as normal infatuation, but one didn't just write-off what that man did to a woman. It angered me and turned me on at how desired and lusted after he was. That man has had to have been with hundreds of women. He wore his arrogance and sexual prowess like a second skin. Every time he smiled and looked through those hooded thick jet black eyelashes, angels wept with wanting and he damn well knew he was Lucifer incarnate. Every girl in this class not to mention the university probably screamed his name with their B.O.Bs.

                I sit here in the same seat night after night following along even though I have read Madame Bovary more than a dozen times listening to his eloquent words and lectures on the book. Sometimes I look up at him to see him staring at me. I feel like he’s touching me; stroking his fingers against my hot skin. He scares me yet makes me as wanton for him as all the other love sick cows in here are, but he doesn't look at them the way he does me. Maybe I’m just nuts and I've put my hormones on ice so long that I’m becoming delusional, but there’s danger, freedom, and something wild in those eyes of his that promise more than seductive carnal nights. I've seen his type before; God knows my mother drove herself over the brink falling for men that looked as this man does. I won’t be taken in and possessed. Dante Notte will not cause me to fall as my mother did. I won’t let it happen.

          I just wish I could convince my body of it.

              Those eyes, the flex of his jaw, and the way he moves as if he’s some sleek jungle cat on the prowl make my body hum and burn. He draws near as one of the other students reads aloud. For a moment the rest of the world falls away and it’s just the two of us and in my mind I hear him say, “Come to me.”  And if I were any other woman, I probably would; on my knees kissing his feet. However, I’m not that type and as I try to calm my already racing heart, one of the others in class has dropped a book. The loud and disruptive CRASH to the floor has his attention and its off of me. I feel as if I can once again breathe. Class concludes and I gather my things up and head for the door but I have to pass him to get away. As I squirm and dart outside of the crowd that is suddenly around him, again that rich dark voice comes into my head once again and says, “You cannot run from me, I’ll come for you.”

           Part of me hopes he doesn't and the other part of me knows that if he does, I won’t have the strength to escape him.

               Dante Notte’s English Lit class that all the women and even some of the guys are dying to get into because Professor Notte is not only drop dead gorgeous, but he’s sin on a stick. Dante is a centuries old vampire that has first-hand knowledge of the subject he teaches.   He’s every woman’s deepest and darkest fantasy but he’s not interested in the countless women that pass through his classroom door, until one night a certain plain Jane who is as insulting as the day is long stirs something in him that is more than just mere curiosity or conquest.  

                Ariel Mathias has a complicated life. She is still reeling from the loss of her mother, a full class load, and she believes her step-father is a murderer. If all those things weren't enough, she has landed under the seductive eye of the school’s most notorious teacher, Dante Notte. Ariel doesn't have time for her hormones and sex drive to go into hyper drive nor can she have a relationship with him. However, the more she dismisses him and pushes Dante away, the stronger he come right back. There is also the problem of her step-father who isn't about to let his little cash cow get away from him, even if he has to get rid of her like her poor mother.

      Dante’s got some lessons in store for his little book worm, and reluctant as she may be, Ariel will not be able to resist him for much longer. 

Sensuous Promos Presents Give Me Shelter

Welcome to Sensuous Promo’s Give Me Shelter Book Tour.

 * WATCH FOR CONTEST BELOW *

Give Me Shelter By Alexis D. Craig

Inspector Eli Miller's unspoken feelings for his partner, Bex, color his whole life. When his past comes calling, will it be the push he needs to seek a future with her?

Inspector Rebecca 'Bex' Mulcahy has lived long enough to know that love is a street con at best, and a dangerous distraction at worst. Any feelings she has for her partner Eli definitely fall into the latter category. Will her dedication to her job keep her from finding a possible future with Eli?Their latest case is protecting Violet Burrell, a young woman with scars on her soul stretching back to birth, who inadvertently witnesses a shockingly brutal murder at the hands of a sadist. Violet is determined to testify in court. Her strength and courage impress Eli and Bex, who will protect her at all costs.

But it is Violet’s beauty and spirit that entrances Junior Inspector Atticus Randall. Atticus is also assigned to protect Violet, and while he knows he should ignore his growing feelings for her, he just can’t stop himself from falling for the brave beauty.

Life in the Las Vegas branch of Witness Protection has never been more tangled. When the emotional landmines start a chain reaction, everyone in the blast radius is going to need a little shelter.

Excerpt:

She was close to the edge and he knew it, wanting to take his time before he brought her all theway off. Her taste was intoxicating and the way she moved, he was almost as close as she was. Her fingers tightened in his hair as she undulated beneath him. “Your tongue . . . God, Eli, don’t stop! Right there . . . I’m almost . . .”

He opened his eyes because he wanted to watch the release wash over her, and saw not Zoe, but red hair and bright green eyes full of fire. Bex’s mouth detailing how good it was, moaning and crying out his name. She reached for him, pulling him up to stretch out over her while she kissed him, tasting herself on his lips.

He pulled back to brush her bangs out of her face, with a gentle smile. “I’ve wanted this for so long . . .” He leaned in to kiss her again, only to hear a banging on the door.

Eli awoke to the sound of someone trying to beat his door down like he was a fugitive axe murderer.

At the moment, the axe-murder thing was an entirely plausible scenario, given his highly stimulated state. “Jesus, I’m coming.” He allowed himself a little chuckle at his own double entendre.

“Keep your pants on.”

He opened the door to Bex, looking wild-eyed and distinctly vexed, and suddenly wanted to amend his last statement. “Is the house on fire?”

She stormed past him into the house in a tight gray t-shirt and an ancient pair of jeans, smelling of oranges and something darker, something that made his already hyper libido perk up. “You didn’t tell me! You knew she was reading this,” she held the book aloft, “and you didn’t say anything!”

Eli closed the door, pausing to rest his head against the cool wood, trying to think of some way to distract her, so that she wouldn’t notice the tent in the front of his jeans. “I saw it the first day she came into the office.” He walked over to the fridge, wondering if it would be rude to dump a tray of ice cubes down his pants in front of a guest. “Can I get you a beer?”

Bex nodded as she paced from the living room to the couch and back again. “I mean, Jesus Christ on a cracker, Eli.” She took the beer he offered her and downed half of it, then tossed the book onto the sofa. “‘he broke the band of her underclothes”? Really?”

He froze at the words of his dream coming out of her mouth. Suddenly, a single ice cube tray seemed wholly insufficient. “Um, yes, there is that.” The lack of blood to his brain had rendered his more complicated conversational skills damn near impotent, a condition not suffered by the rest of him. “Did you read the rest of it?” He leaned back against the back of his couch, sipping his own beer and watching her sinewy movements. The jeans were an intense distraction, low on her hips and showing a tempting strip of belly when she walked.

“No! I got some take out on the way home from the range, opened a bottle of wine, kicked back on the couch. You’d have been proud of me. I was trying to relax until I opened up the book and read the porn you gave me masquerading as literature.”

“It’s not porn,” he responded automatically. Eli was paying less attention to her rant and more attention to her scent as she stalked past him on her pacing route. Oranges and sex filled his mind.

“It’s an amazing book full of gorgeous imagery, but the subject matter—”

She stopped in front of him, eyes glinting like emeralds. “The subject matter is sold on newsstands under brown paper wrappers.”

“Technically, the brown wrappers were used for the subscriptions through the mail in accordance with federal postal law. It’s done with opaque plastic now, and sold on the stands the same way. But this book,” Eli straightened slowly away from the couch, bringing him close enough that her scent made his nostrils flare as he mentally held himself in check. “This book is beautiful, one of the finest the language has to offer. I wouldn’t have thought you to be a prude.”

* * *

It was the voice of the phone call this afternoon, playful and sensual. Eli was close, damn close to her, looking down with eyes that were uncharacteristically dark. He looked . . . feral, on edge. His eyes dropped to her lips and she found herself holding her breath. “I’m not a prude,” she said finally, looking away and taking a step back to give herself some space to think, to breathe a scent that wasn’t him.

Surprisingly, he followed her movement, keeping close to her. “It’s a magnificent piece of literature, and yeah, it’s arousing . . .” his lips curled into a slow smile that made her stomach flip flop.

“It’s porn! I mean, you can dress it up with all the awards and pretty words, but it’s porn, and Violet gave it to AR to read.” She really wanted to stop having this argument, this conversation, because all she could think of was reenacting the scene she’d read with him instead of her imagination’s rendition of him.

He chuckled quietly, his eyes never leaving hers. “Vi’s seventeen, she’s pushing the envelope, experimenting. AR was, too. A little later than most, but still, he was definitely testing the limits.”

Eli’s eyes got a faraway look to them that she was coming to know very well. “Hell, by the time I was his age, I’d read it at least three times and owned my own copy.”

Bex crossed her arms over her chest, needing some distance between her and the crazy feelings roiling through her. “And when was the last time your arousal led you to fuck a schoolgirl?”

“When it was age appropriate,” he answered immediately. His gaze fell to her lips again, and she had the craziest urge to lick them, just to see what he’d do.

Everything about him tonight was intense, like he was charged with static electricity and looking for a place to go to ground. His flippant answer bugged her, because he was only flip when he was trying to deflect attention. Only one topic of late fit all those  criteria. “What was it like?”

“What?” His eyes traveled down her frame and back up, stopping at her lips again.

This time she did lick them, enjoying the way his eyes widened and he responded in kind. “What was it like? To just get lost in the moment like that?” The idea of first love was actually pretty foreign to her. A pretty fiction of storybooks and her mother’s romance novels, not something that happened to real people.

Her partner, she was noticing with increasing frequency, was as real as they came. From his vintage Animal t-shirt, to his well-worn jeans, and down to his surprisingly endearing bare feet. He had nice feet. She’d never seen them before. He shoved his hands in his pockets and sighed, seemingly having a staring contest with the floor just in front of his toes. Finally, he looked back at her and she could see something was different. “You really wanna know?” His voice had dropped to barely above a whisper.

She nodded, knowing her own voice would betray her immediately.

The corner of his mouth curled up into a half smile all the way to the dimple in his cheek. “It was amazing. Here was this girl who I had no business looking at, much less wanting, and yet, there we were.” He began to pace, the fitful energy radiating off him again. “She was gorgeous, different than anything I’d ever known, ever thought of . . . and she was mine. The taste of her lips kept me up at night after the first kiss. Wondering if she meant to do that, if she’d let me do it again. Was it as world altering for her?”

He was close enough to touch now, and she found herself fighting the urge to do so. Run her hand down his arm, touch his shoulder, something, she just craved the tactile contact. “Obviously it was. I mean, she let you do it again . . .” She licked her lips again, suddenly pissed that they were talking about another woman again. Kissing him, touching him, it pushed a whole panel of buttons in her, the ones she kept behind the bulletproof glass.

Eli reached out and swept her bangs behind her ear, his long fingers stealing a sigh from her as they traced a lingering path down her neck. “Maybe,” he whispered, stepping close enough for her to see that his eyes were almost black and full of intent.

He was going to kiss her and she was going to let him. She tilted her chin up, bringing her lips close to his, thinking that just maybe there might be some truth in that whole ‘living forward’ thing Vi spoke of. He, in turn, wound his fingers in her hair and settled his mouth over hers. 

Bex couldn’t tell who moaned first, but it was immaterial, since they both jumped apart at the police siren that kicked up outside. She was unnerved by what they had done, were about to do, would have gotten to sooner rather than later, and wow, he was a good kisser, for as brief as she’d had it. It’d been long enough that her mind had apparently misplaced that important tidbit of info. “I . . . I gotta go.”

Buy Links

Amazon  |  LachesisPublishing  |  Bookstrand  |  Smashwords

Connect with Alexis D. Craig online:

Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook 

* CONTEST *

Leave a comment below (with email address) and your name will be thrown into the hat to win:

1st Prize - $15 gift card to Bookstrand (where you can buy Alexis' book!)

2nd Prize - eBook copy of Give Me Shelter

Every stop on this tour is eligible for the same contest.

You may enter by leaving a comment and email address on every stop.

That's up to 12 entries!!!

Winner to be drawn on April 2nd

  

Fantasy Pages: Perceptions and Responsibilities - a personal view...

Fantasy Pages: Perceptions and Responsibilities - a personal view...: Today, I came across something that reminded me of an old friend, an author I haven’t noticed publishing lately. Curious, I did a searc...

Fifty Reasons To Be Your Own Creative Engine

Since the dawn of a certain book series that has had housewives frequenting the "fetish" section of their local adult stores, Adam & Eve, and hardware stores across the nation, it seems that the sensation has caught on. We're seeing book after book with the same template as that infamous book series written by a certain Englishwoman. No harm no foul folks, I have nothing against the whole BDSM book genre or even rough sex in a book, but folks....let's not get caught in the rut! Just what am I talking about? Well it's simple.

First you have the dashing, sophisticated, and drop dead sexy mid 20s to early 30s mogul that has a penchant for being a Dom always in search of his next submissive and in walks the young, curious, smart, and natural beauty with a shy smile. Our mogul has a penchant for control while our seemingly shy wallflower is willing to do anything to get to the "heart" of  his soul of endless torments that have stemmed from some childhood trauma. 

While there is nothing wrong with that template, it gets old after awhile. I don't mind reading about a tortured soul but it gets a little boring as a reader to keep reading the same thing right over and over. So far Sylvia Day's Crossfire Series, Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty books, and a few others have managed to make this genre work; instead of a template mind you that in my opinion was morphed from a young adult book series that have become icons in the line of YA vampire romances. I'm really not trying to bash a certain book series (which I'm not naming but I'm sure you all know which one I'm talking about) but I'm just pointing out that the market is being flooded with really bad knock offs from potentially talented authors who are hitching on the bandwagon of this trend because that's what's hot. What I want my fellow Indie and self published authors to take from this is to be your own creative engine. Don't follow a template in your writing when it comes to wanting to write an erotic romance that entails BDSM and fetishism as the backbone of the story. Not all characters need to have been abused as children. Those who practice BDSM and other fetishes are not all from messed up childhoods. They haven't been abused and there's a stereotype developing that if one engages in such that they must have been beaten, molested, raped, or some other sort of tragic event in their lives. If one would do some research, one would find that most BDSM couples come from normal and everyday lives that most of us come from. They don't have horrific tragedies that have led them to BDSM or other fetishes. It's simply their choice of lifestyle when it comes to coitus. (I sound so Sheldon Cooper don't I?)

Fifty reasons to be your own creative engine all begin with being your own creative genius. There are plenty of ways to make a story take off, hit the climax, and have a great finisher or cliff hanger without following the above mentioned template. By following a fad or trend, you're not expressing your own creativity-you're going to end up type cast. Some authors who have done this will probably never write another book because they are going to be forever type cast as a "trend" author. What is a trend author? Someone who follows the template and adds a few quirks here and there but basically copies the same story right over and over. When Anne Rice wrote her Beauty series she wrote something seductive, erotic, and stimulating. Sylvia Day's Crossfire series has similar traits as to the template novels but she put enough of her own ideas and creativity for her series to stand on its own and hers wasn't written based on a certain YA series.

A great Erotic novel, in my opinion, isn't just about rough sex or even kinky sex-it's about seducing the reader. Any romance novel whether it be erotica, historical, contemporary, or even paranormal is based on a great story and character chemistry, along with some really steamy love scenes. There are literally thousands of porn titles that all have some cheesy lines and then just sex acts. They're not meant to have great story lines and many books are following suite. They appear to be one thing but end up being a cheesy porn movie without the cheesy music but all just fail in the lines of story, strong characters with chemistry, and bad sex scenes. Remember: Sex sells but bad sex doesn't. No one who spends their money and time on a book wants to read endless pages of bad dialogue and bad sex. Readers want to be seduced into a story and possessed by the book. You, as a writer, wants to have your readers remember your story so much that they're re-reading your book until they can get their hands on your next one. That is my goal anyhow, and it should be yours as well.

The last thing you want is to bore  your reader and just like Sex In The City, people are going to get eventually tired and bored with Carrie always getting involved with a Mr. Big that has money and likes hard sex and vice versa. People who are truly book readers and not just those who pick up something because it's the latest fad, are not going to be repeat customers if that is all you're writing and publishing. People want to pick up a book and be right there in the moment in the story. They want to be able to feel the characters and want a memorable experience from reading. It's what drives them to go back to the book stores and online to purchase books and will make them want to crave your books. Award winning Canadian author, Denyse Bridger, said it best, "Publishing and the market has changed drastically in the past 10 years", and it has. It's easy to jump on the fad band wagon, and publishers who aren't worth their salt are putting out these fad books because people are buying them up but are any of these going to be memorable? Years from now will anyone look back a really remember these books other than, "Oh yeah, there was something about those, but I can't really say what was so big about them." Authors like Rice, Kenyon, Lara Adrian, and the other big names in romance fiction have proven that their books stand alone and will stand the test of time. Isn't that what we as writers want for ourselves? It's what I want. I want people to remember my name and my books as being something they really enjoyed reading and were captivated at my story lines.

Again, I'm not bashing but we've got to take the market by the horns and steer it back on track. It all starts with you dear writer. Be your own creative engine and don't fall into the rut of following a fad. Don't get stuck with shoulder pads and side shaved heads just because it's what was cool, easy, and sent a few bucks your way. Sure, one author wrote a book series using a template and now has a movie deal but will that person have any staying power or lasting success? Be your own creative engine and drive your stories down a different track!

Fantasy Pages: 10 Years and Counting @DenyseBridger #RomFantasy

Fantasy Pages: 10 Years and Counting @DenyseBridger #RomFantasy: In May of this year, I will be celebrating ten years as a professionally published author. Back in March of 2004, I entered a contest a...

L'Amour, Adventure, Seduction, and SIZZLE! Valentine Must Reads From Evolutionary Publishing

               

St. Valentine's Day is upon us once again and we'll all be out getting our sweetheart's boxes of chocolates, planning romantic dinners, flowers, and even some naughty lingerie. If you're like me, all those are great but as a book lover, a great romance novel is better than a box of chocolates!

So in the spirit of L'Amour and the celebration of romance, I give you the 2014 Valentine Book selections that are a must have for yourself or the bookworm in your life.

Two very different stories of love and passion. In Brigit Aine’s enchanting tale, Her Secret Admirer, love is being discovered, with all its magic and mystery and hope… and in the second movement of the Duet, The Conversation Cards, two people already involved in their passionate love affair learn new things about each other, and reaffirm their bond.

Brigit Aine and Denyse Bridger have delivered on romance, sensuality, and heartwarming sentiments with Pas De Deux. Right now if you visit: http://trsparties.com/2014/02/10/valentine-special-and-a-contest/

You not only get a taste of this brilliant romance novel duet but you can enter to win a special Valentine treat.

A Whisper of Humanity takes you on a paranormal ride that will leave you wanting more.

Blurb:

Devon Cartier has seen many centuries and has turned many children, but his control has always been firmly in hand. From the moment he meets Faith Prentice, something begins to wrest his control from his grasp. He is frightened and drawn to explore this phenomena. His child, Adrian Blackthorne, feels compelled to keep his master from Faith. Adrian must use his police skills as well as his vampire abilities when Faith is almost killed in a street attack.

http://www.amazon.com/Whisper-Of-Humanity-Denyse-Bridger-ebook/dp/B00HXGWK48?SubscriptionId=AKIAJHW3OEMAAIX6JUDA&tag=bittenbybooks-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B00HXGWK48

 

Seduction, Desire, Hunger, and Four hundred year old Vampire that puts any Christian Grey to shame is what you will find in Kayden McLeod's sultry erotica novel LOST.

Blurb:

 Have you ever been curious about the Fetish scene? About having the attention of the hottest, deadliest vampires out there, all out for your pleasure? Well, Sara lives that life daily. Normally, it’s good to her, but one night the delicate stability in which the entire scene balances blows up in her face, and turns her world upside down, until she doesn't know which way is up. Her boyfriend Gene senses her disquiet, and turns his attention to where her veiled interests now lay. Loren is a rich cultured four-century-old vampire, who has his sights set on Sara, and has made it his prerogative have her at any cost.

http://www.kaydenmcleod.com/home.php

 What woman doesn't want a place where she can have her hair and nails done, spa treatments, a few drinks, and sexual encounters with only the most sinfully delectable studs? Mia Cornish has opened the Palace of All Pleasures and has her eyes set on only one man, her manager, Emil and he's not about to make it easy for Mia but she's not giving up that easy. Mia is going to have to go the distance with getting through Emil's massive wall.

Palace of All Pleasures  delivers on being an erotic novel and is sure to make Valentine's sizzle!

https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/405963/1/palace-of-all-pleasures

An ancient evil has returned and betrayal is everywhere. In the midst of all hell breaking loose, two hearts-one wild and the other one still wounded will stand before hell itself to fight for what's right and for a love forged from a Cursed Awakening.

Ivy Morgan has re-invented herself and is looking forward to the future for the first time, in a very long time. Since fleeing for her life from an overzealous religious cult, she is able to be a modern woman that is gaining her independence; so taking up with a sexy stranger named Nyx is the last thing she needs. Or, is it?

Nyx Wahpeton can’t stop thinking about the young woman he’s met. It couldn’t have come at the worse possible time with the clans meeting and his family wrapped up in a centuries old war that’s nothing short of what horror movies are made from. He’s been a protector of his people and those that reside at the Reservation. There’s betrayal and evil at his front door; but, in his heart he knows Ivy is the one for him. She’s surrounded by secrets that he’s vowed to unlock, as well as her heart. However, can he keep her safe from his own secrets?

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-cursedawakening-1405474-142.html

http://www.amazon.com/Cursed-Awakening-Nikki-Noffsinger-ebook/dp/B00HXGWNV8/

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/398097

Stealing Cupid's Bow
Jewel Quinlan

Nothing says "Valentine's Day" like a romance novel with the infamous Cupid/Eros in the starring role.

Blurb:

Raine Daniel’s world is falling apart. When she discovers Cupid is real, divorced, and living in Las Vegas, she asks for his help. He refuses, so she decides to take matters into her own hands. But she quickly finds out that stealing Cupid’s bow creates more problems than it solves.

Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, Erotica, or Contemporary romance not your thing? Perhaps your tastes are more towards the historical side of romance. Here are some of my favorite historical romance authors.

Lynsay Sands, who is well known for her Argeneau series also is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to her many historical romance titles. An English Bride in Scotland will conjure images of when men were rugged and the fierce hot love they had for their women. 

Blurb: 

She never expected to marry

Annabel was about to take the veil to become a nun when her mother suddenly arrives at the Abbey to take her home…so that she can marry the Scottish laird who is betrothed to her runaway sister! She knows nothing about being a wife, nothing about how to run a household, and definitely nothing about the marriage bed.

He never expected to fall in love . . .

From the moment Ross MacKay sets eyes on Annabel, he is taken with his shy sweet bride…and the fact that she's blessed with lush curves only makes him utter his own prayers of thanks. But when an enemy endangers her life, he'll move the Highlands themselves to save her. For though Annabel's not the bride he planned for, she's the only woman he desires.
http://www.amazon.com/English-Bride-Scotland-Lynsay-Sands/dp/0061963119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361974962&sr=8-1&keywords=en+english+bride+in+english

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-english-bride-in-scotland-lynsay-sands/1113200717?ean=9780061963117

http://www.lynsaysands.net

Nothing speaks to the heart more than a lost love and the heart that gets a second chance. Denyse Bridger's Return to Love is a beautifully and sensuous tale of a heart that gets a second chance in this historical western novel that is also available in Audio from Amazon.

Blurb:

Clay Butler is a man who rules the quiet town of Cedar Springs with an iron will, and a code of honor that defines all he is. But the past haunts him, and the loss of a woman who was his second chance at happiness weighs heavily on his over-burdened mind. 

http://www.amazon.com/Return-to-Love/dp/B00BJP4SQW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392159974&sr=8-1&keywords=Return+to+Love+by+Denyse+Bridger

http://www.denysebridger.com/home.php

The Pirate Prince 

by Connie Mason 

Blurb:

Virgin Treasure
She was a jewel among women, brighter than the moon and starts. Her hair shone like newly minted gold, and her skin was as smooth and iridescent as an exquisite pearl. Her lips were lush and pink, made for kissing. She was a pirate’s prize, yet he could not so much as touch her.

Virgin Trouble
Destined for the harem of a Turkish potentate, Willow wondered whether she should rejoice or despair when her ship was beset by a sinfully handsome pirate. Now is seemed she was a helpless pawn in a power play between two brothers. Fortunately for Willow, neither Ibrahim nor Dariq realized that a clever woman is never without resources. No matter how much he tempted her, she would teach her captor a thing or two before she gave her heart to … The Pirate Prince.

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Prince-Connie-Mason-ebook/dp/B00CEHGWYA/ref=sr_1_11?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1392160135&sr=1-11&keywords=historical+romance

Let me know what your favorite Valentine's Day reads are below in my comments and tell me what your tastes are; do you go for the fantasy/paranormal, Erotica, Contemporary, or are you more along the lines of the historical when it comes to one of the most romantic holidays on the calendar.