Flux of Skin by Kris Austen Radcliffe (Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ #2)

Author Spotlight

As a child, Kris took down a pack of hungry wolves with only a hardcover copy of The Dragonriders of Pern and a sharpened toothbrush. That fateful day set her on a path traversing many storytelling worlds—dabbles in film and comic books, time as a talent agent and a textbook photo coordinator, and a foray into nonfiction. After co-authoring Mind Shapes: Understanding the Differences in Thinking and Communication, Kris returned to academia. But she craved narrative and a richly-textured world of Fates, Shifters, Burners, and Dragons—and unexpected, true love.

Kris lives in Minnesota with her husband, two daughters, an Handsome Cat, and an entire menagerie of suburban wildlife bent on destroying her house. That battered-but-true copy of “Dragonriders”? She found it yesterday. It’s time to pay a visit to the woodpeckers.

Links

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Synopsis

 Flux of Skin, book two of the Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon series, picks up Ladon and Rysa’s story four hours after the events of book one,Games of Fate.

How many loves must Ladon watch die?

Ladon thought he controlled the rage.  He thought he left his past—and his violence—behind.  But the Shifters take Rysa and now no one is safe…

Ladon wanted a gentle life.  But century after century, the call to battle malicious Fates, Shifters, and Burners always won.  The world needed him.  So he fought.

War took its toll and now, sometimes, his scars show.  When it happens, Ladon ruptures—body, mind, and soul.  And the world pays.

But he’s found a new way:  a modern life with his beloved Rysa.  He won’t give her up.  Not because of family strife.  Not because of the issues twisting her life into a raging cyclone.  And definitely not because of war—until a new group of Shifters rain death onto everyone he loves.

Every Shifter understands fury.  Now they learn rupture.

FLUX OF SKIN, book 2 of the Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon series, a New Adult Urban Fantasy with Strong Romantic Elements by Kris Austen Radcliffe, continues the story of Rysa and Ladon.  Set in the open spaces of America, the series takes Rysa and Ladon—and Ladon’s companion beast, Dragon—through a landscape punctuated by unfamiliar creatures:  Fates with the ability to see past, present, and future.  Ghouls called Burners who devour with fire and acid.  Shifters who shape much more than their bodies.  And two dragons who speak with color and pattern.

Review

Flux of Skin is a primal and sensual claiming of your senses. The connection between Rysa and Ladon is so intense. This is the second installment in the series and picks up right where Games of Fate left off. Ladon has watched so many of his lovers die, but he is determined not to let that happen to Rysa. He will burn down the world to find her. She is his. His mate. His love.

Rysa is a fierce women who knows what she wants and she wants Ladon more than she has wanted anything in her life. When she is taken by the shifters she is afraid for herself, but more so for Ladon. He will come for her, he will claim her mark her, and possess her. Woe to the man, shifter, fates, or burner that stands in his way.

Right from the start you are thrown into the heart of the action. Ladon’s desperation, rage, and helplessness radiates from the page and swamps the reader with so many emotions. You feel like you are fighting beside Ladon and his Dragon to rescue Lysa.

I devoured this story in one and cannot wait to see what happens next! This is a riveting and captivating story that will capture you heart and soul.

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Other Books in the Series:

The Wysard by Deborah J. Lightfoot (Waterspell #2)

Author Spotlight

Castles in the cornfield provided the setting for Deborah J. Lightfoot’s earliest flights of fancy. On her father’s farm in Texas, she grew up reading tales of adventure and reenacting them behind ramparts of sun-drenched grain. She left the farm to earn a degree in journalism and write award-winning books of history and biography. High on her Bucket List was the desire to try her hand at the genre she most admired. The result is WATERSPELL, a multi-layered fantasy trilogy about a girl and the wizard who suspects her of being so dangerous to his world, he believes he’ll have to kill her … which troubles him, since he’s fallen in love with her. Waterspell Book 1: The Warlock; Book 2: The Wysard; and Book 3: The Wisewoman.

Links

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Synopsis

After blundering into the last stronghold of magic, Carin discovers that she is right to fear the wizard Verek. He is using her to seal the ruptures in the void, and she may be nothing more to him than an expendable weapon. What will he do with her—or to her—when his world is again secure? Or has he erred in believing that the last bridge has been broken? The quest may not, in fact, be over … and Lord Verek may find himself not quite as willing to dispose of his fiery water-sylph, Carin, as he once believed himself to be.

 

Excerpt Prologue The Path Between The heartbeat couldn’t be hers. She was dead. Maddeningly, however, the sound persisted—a strong, steady whump, whump in Carin’s left ear. Through the blackness within her mind, half-formed impressions drifted like moonmist. They teased her with sensations to which she struggled to attach meaning. Her body lay sprawled across a surface that was hard enough to bruise her corpse. But her head and one shoulder rested on matter more yielding. Had her drowned remains come to rest on a rocky ledge in a supernatural ocean? Was this a pillow of seaweed cushioning her skull? No, a thought whispered from a corner of her torpid brain. Seaweed and rock have no heart beating in them. The rhythmic pounding in Carin’s ear hammered at her until a crack opened to admit a sliver of comprehension: She lived. If the heart-sounds were hers, then she wasn’t dead. If the heart beat in another’s chest and she heard it, then she was not only alive, but also pressing very near some other undead being. Her eyes jerked open. They beheld what might have been a rumpled snowdrift bathed in the light of a blood-red sunset. She stared. Whump, whump in her ear deepened the crack, penetrated to the core of her cold-shocked mind— Lucidity flashed through the breach, and abruptly Carin knew: the rumpled whiteness that pressed against her face was Lord Verek’s linen shirt. The reddish tinge on it was no natural light from a setting sun, but the glow from the walls of Verek’s vault of sorcery. The wizard lay on the cavern’s floor of polished stone. Carin lay atop him, her head pillowed on his chest, her ear to his heart, and her slowly focusing eyes inventing wind-drifted snow from the wrinkles of his shirt. She gave a violent start, put both hands to the floor, and heaved herself off Verek’s unconscious body—so forcefully that she nearly toppled back into the ensorcelled pool behind her. She teetered on the pool’s rim, waging a brief, desperate struggle for life. To fall again into those glacial depths would kill her. The intense cold had cast her faculties into an abyss that must have no rival but death itself. Without the sorcerer to drag her up from that oblivion, Carin stood no chance of surviving a second dunking. And her rescuer was in no condition now to extract her from the unnatural waters of his wizards’ well. Verek lay like a corpse. Carin’s sudden movement hadn’t roused him to consciousness. He appeared as lost in the abyss as she had been. She kept her balance. Carin stumbled to safety, treading between Verek’s body and the enchanted pool that imperiled all living flesh, whether mortal or magian. She reached the nearest of the four stone benches that ringed the wizards’ well. Upon that seat carved with the symbol of a fish she collapsed, but she took care to avoid the shape that was cut into the stone. The symbol, precisely centered and deeply carved, might be nothing but decoration. Like its fellows on the other benches in the cave—the image of a key chiseled into the seat across the pool from this one, a radiant sun on the bench to Carin’s left, a crescent moon to her right—the fish might be only a token of magical art. Maybe the four symbols were a wizard’s badge of office, as a king’s crown and scepter were emblems of his royal authority. Or, Carin thought, maybe there’s magic in every line and curve. The events of her three weeks’ imprisonment in Lord Verek’s house had led her to suspect sorcery in all elements of his domain. She distrusted the blighted woodland outside his manor walls and the shape-shifting books in his library. But here in the cave below the library rose the undoubted wellspring of magic. Power flowed in the waters of the enchanted pool and in the lifeblood of the sorcerer who had submitted himself to it. Purchase Kindle Editions $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman NOOK Books $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman Other Formats & Devices $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman

Hold Tight by Cherie Colyer (Embrace #2) + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

Cherie Colyer is the author of YA paranormal thriller/romance, EMBRACE (available now), and HOLD TIGHT (August 2013), from Omnific Publishing. Check out her website and blog for news on her books and bonus material. Follow Cherie on Twitter and/or Facebook for updates on writing, book and special offers.

 

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Synopsis

What’s one little spell?

When you’re new to magic, one spell can be the difference between getting what you want…and ruining the lives of everyone you love.

Sixteen-year-old Madison has just embraced her magical powers. The trick now is learning how to control them. She and her boyfriend -and fellow witch- can’t even enjoy a simple kiss without getting shocked when their powers collide. Instead of mastering her new skills, though, Madison is stuck watching her kid brother and doing chores.

But being a witch does have its benefits. With a simple spell, Madison instantly conjures the help she needs around the house. Or so she thinks. Her idea of “help” invites trouble of its own as a pair of dangerous yet enticing beings enter her life. When a classmate disappears soon afterwards, Madison discovers she’s the next victim of a threat she’s powerless to resist…and there’s nothing it won’t kill to make her surrender.

Caught in the crossfire between two dashing but deadly creatures, Madison must figure out which one to trust and how to rid her world of the other—before one of them destroys her and everyone she cares about.

Giveaway

• (2) Print Copies of Embrace and Hold Tight– US/Canada

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f6237f315/

• (10) eBooks of Embrace (emailed in PDF, mobi and epub ePack) – International

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f6237f316/

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Catch up with Madison and her friends in Embrace, book one in the series.

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Fortune’s Scion by Ann Gimpel

Author Spotlight

Ann Gimpel is a mountaineer at heart. Recently retired from a long career as a psychologist, she remembers many hours at her desk where her body may have been stuck inside four walls, but her soul was planning yet one more trip to the backcountry. Around the turn of the last century (that would be 2000, not 1900!), she managed to finagle moving to the Eastern Sierra, a mecca for those in love with the mountains. It was during long backcountry treks that Ann’s writing evolved. Unlike some who see the backcountry as an excuse to drag friends and relatives along, Ann prefers her solitude. Stories always ran around in her head on those journeys, sometimes as a hedge against abject terror when challenging conditions made her fear for her life, sometimes for company. Eventually, she returned from a trip and sat down at the computer. Three months later, a five hundred page novel emerged. Oh, it wasn’t very good, but it was a beginning. And, she learned a lot between writing that novel and its sequel.

Around that time, a friend of hers suggested she try her hand at short stories. It didn’t take long before that first story found its way into print and they’ve been accepted pretty regularly since then. One of Ann’s passions has always been ecology, so her tales often have a green twist.

In addition to writing, Ann enjoys wilderness photography. She lugs pounds of camera equipment in her backpack to distant locales every year. A standing joke is that over ten percent of her pack weight is camera gear which means someone else has to carry the food! That someone is her husband. They’ve shared a life together for a very long time. Children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round out their family.

Links

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Synopsis

Against stiff odds, Ned learns different isn’t necessarily bad and true love has a way of shining through.

Raised by wizards who never missed an opportunity to remind him of his deficiencies, Ned grows up believing his mage skills are seriously lacking. Conscripted at an early age, he fears it’s a back-handed way to ensure he sustains an honorable death in battle.

Battling prejudice, insidious lies and lack of knowledge about his mage powers—which are really quite different from wizard magic—Ned finds ways to keep going. His first mission away from the wizards teaches him he’s stronger and more resourceful than he thought. Against stiff odds, he learns different isn’t necessarily bad and true love has a way of shining through.

Review

Fortune’s Scion is an edgy Urban Fantasy that takes place in a dystopian world. Ned, a human mage, has never fit in with the wizards. They actually make him feel like dirt most of the time. When he finally gets a chance to prove himself he learns so much about himself, the world, and the power of love.

This story is full of twists and turns that have the reader wondering what is going to happen next. When Ned meets Amanda, the connection is instantly there between them. The amount of difference that a little bit of kindness and love can make in a person is remarkable. The change in Ned, the strength that he gains, as well as the confidence, really makes such a difference.

Action, Adventure, Magic, and love come together in a dystopian world that will make you question everything you know!

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Ned crouched amidst the remains of what had been downtown Sacramento, using a convenient half-decimated building as cover. The rest of his unit hid scattered — or so he assumed — in close proximity. A low whistling noise made his heart beat like a mad thing. Enemy magic. Maintaining his crouch, he spun, eyes searching the late afternoon gloom for clues. Not quite sure what tipped him off, he leapt out of the way. A concrete block exploded, showering him with debris.

"Whew! Way too close," he mumbled, wondering for the thousandth time how he, a human mage, ever became mixed up with the wizards’ war. Sweat trickled down his forehead. His leather headband caught some of it, but a few drops fell into his eyes. They stung. He shook his head to disperse the salty liquid. The beginnings of a headache throbbed behind one temple. "Landarik," he whispered into his mouthpiece, "Where are you?"

"Right behind you." A voice dripped sarcasm into Ned’s ear.

He whipped around. Landarik stood so close, Ned’s braids slapped against the wizard’s helmet. "I wish you wouldn’t do that," Ned said through clenched teeth. "I hate it when you sneak up on me. ‘Specially when it could have been one of them. You’re lucky I didn’t blast you."

"You called me. What do you want?" Speaking through the slit in his bronzed helmet, Landarik looked like a robot. Only his blond braids, with debris tangled in them, ruined the automaton image. He must have noticed Ned’s stare because Landarik gathered his ratty braids and tossed them over his shoulders.

"I’m beat. Request permission to return to the caves."

"Mage or no," Landarik grunted, "you humans are more work than you’re worth. I release you. Be back no later than first light." Whistling sounded again. Without apparent thought or effort, Landarik raised a hand. A bolt of power flew from his fingertips and vaporized half a small building a hundred yards away.

"How can you know so… precisely?" Ned sputtered.

The wizard tipped the visor of his helmet up. Extraordinary blue eyes and the sharp-boned features characteristic of his race twisted in irritation. "I’ve told you and told you," he lectured in a patronizing voice that grated on Ned’s nerves, "hold your inner parts still, human. If you could manage yourself better, you would be able to hear where the enemy is hiding." He snorted. "Sometimes I find it difficult to fathom how you are still alive."

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Night Stocker The Misadventures of Meghan Foster by Anlyn Hansell (The Balance #1) + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

Anlyn Hansell is a 40-something wife and mother of one residing in a small town in South-Central PA. She has a BS in Distribution, a Masters in Business and an overactive imagination to boot. Writing credits previously included all manner of extremely boring ISO documentation, a published editorial on core sand in a foundry magazine and a recurring article in her company newsletter. Not much chance for creative writing there! She began her writing career two years ago, and in that time, has completed seven full length novels. The first four novels centered around romance, but she quickly began including a mystery element to keep the pages turning. She enjoys cooking and baking and of course, indulging in the products of those pursuits. She not only loves to write, she is compelled to do so. Every morning, starting at around 3:30 am, you can find her in her living room tapping away in the dark. It truly is the best time to write! She is currently working on yet another endeavor with the sole purpose of keeping her readers up well into the night.

Links

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• Email: AnlynHansell@yahoo.com

Synopsis

My name is Meghan Foster and I’m going to save you from yourself.

That is, if a certain someone doesn’t stop me…

Don’t let the pretty face fool you. I am a product of a seriously troubled past, but I’m a resilient little bugger. I’m a night shift stock replenishing machine and if by chance, you don’t think that sounds too exciting? You are sorely mistaken, my friend. This is my life. I can’t explain it. I won’t even attempt to try.

I do have certain powers of persuasion that I am more than willing to use, especially if aforementioned ‘certain someone’ doesn’t interfere.

His name is Lance and he is by far the most delicious creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. I have no idea who he is or what he wants with me, but I guess I’m about to find out the hard way…

Who says stocking shelves is boring?

Review

Night Stocker is a hilarious romp in the spirit of Clerks mixed with Charmed! Meghan is the Night Shift Manger at Sav-Som-Bux. Her and her rag tag group of workers really have  a lot of fun doing their job, or more accurately, playing late night games of beer pong. Not only is Meghan the Queen of the Night Shift, she has some quirky supernatural powers as well.

Meghan’s world changes when Lance starts working at the store. He is sexy as sin, with warm chocolate eyes, a yummy tat and a deep voice that makes her tingle in some interesting places. But there is something off about him as well…he seems to have powers like hers.

I could not put this book down. Meg’s sarcastic wit and snarky comments. Lance and his forceful and dominating ways. From the very beginning until the very end I was hooked! The connection between Meg and Lance is fierce, arousing, and scorching! If they are not trying to kill each other, they are having one of their erotic, “I-am-not-even-touching-you-and-you-want-me” moments! You will laugh so hard are the antics of all the characters in this story! Be warned: the moment you start reading this story you will not want to put it down! A must read that has the right amount of spice, romance, and comedy!

Excerpt

“Oh hey, Mr. Carson…”

I’m looking over Lance’s shoulder to my imaginary Mr. Carson. Just as soon as his head turns, I flick my wrist and a can of peaches screams off the shelf and hits him.

Square in the crotch. Direct hit.

His hands immediately cup his privates, and I see him wince, but only for a fraction of a second.

I’m standing in the middle of the aisle, wanting so badly to yell out “Ha Ha”…or “Gotcha”…or “How ya like me now?” Or something clever like that. My mouth has turned up into a smile, and I watch as he slowly looks up.

My smile dies a quick death.

He’s pissed. I mean…pissed. Like his eyes are glowing kind of pissed. I have no idea what he is, and suddenly I am full of fear. I do what every self-respecting intelligent adult female would do.

I turn around and run for my life.

Giveaway

Anlyn Hansell is giving away a $50 Wal-Mart Gift Card

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/408264185/

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Other Books in The Balance Series:

Welcome back to the crazy.

I’m back… and this time? I’m not slinging canned goods, I’m slinging drinks. The very best, in my humble opinion. I can lend you a sympathetic ear, a kind word of advice and the fun?Along with my fellow bartender and co-conspirator – we bring it.
I’m an unknown entity on an island in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the one person who’s very presence can make my little heart go pitter-pat. Unfortunately, my love life has hit a bit of a snag lately.

Forces much bigger than me are at work, ripping the very delicate line between good and evil. One woman stands at the apex, staring down the inevitable, the fate of all mankind hanging in the balance.
Did I mention that woman is me?
Man, I need a drink…

Excerpt

He’s staring at me. I’m staring back.

That all too familiar tickle in the back of my brain is back. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to have this discussion. He sighs loudly, running his fingers through his dark hair before regarding me again. “Never mind. Just cool it with the fun, Ok? If people want drinks, give them drinks. If they want to talk, talk to them…that’s fine. Just…no crazy stuff, Ok?”

“Define ‘crazy stuff’.” I command with a bemused smirk.

“Strip poker, forcing shots on people, dancing on the bar, wardrobe malfunctions, conga lines, naked limbo, lap dances, wet T shirt contests, thong shooting, beer bottle bingo, strip shuffleboard, and no midget tossing…”

“Ok…that was just once and he wanted to do it.” I point my finger at him to emphasize my words. He of course ignores me, and continues.

“No squirting bar patrons with whipped cream, chocolate sauce or any other type of condiment. No ‘hide the cherry’, no body finger painting, no beer pong, no ‘Tower of Power’, no Jell-O wrestling, or anything else that involves Jell-O, jelly, jam or marmalade, no spin the bottle and no human horsey rides. You think you can handle that?”

Well, that pretty much covered everything…Oh! Except suck and blow…Maybe we could still…

“And no suck and blow.”

Damn.