Tag Archives: paranormal romance

Changeling’s Crown by Juli D. Revezzo #4FunFacts

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Today we welcome Juli D. Revezzo, author of Changeling’s Crown with an excerpt and 4 Fun Facts about her hero.

Changeling's CrownBlurb:

When Ianthe began her career as a faery godmother, she stumbled so badly that Snow White will probably never speak to her again. After a long suspension, she’s finally been given a chance to redeem herself…but everything on this latest assignment is going wrong.

But why?

Worse, she definitely doesn’t need an attractive mortal man distracting her from her duties. Of course, needs and wants are two different things.

Briak has had his eye on Ianthe for a very, very long time, but he’s been waiting for just the right moment to make his move. Despite the fact all hell’s about to break loose on his watch, he can’t resist the opportunity to insert himself into her earthly assignment. Can he convince Ianthe of her true calling and thereby win her heart? Or will his subterfuge ultimately cost him her love?

Genre: New Adult Paranormal Romance

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble,
Createspace (paperback) and Smashwords.

The setting shifts back and forth from our current world (a Central Florida horse ranch) to Ianthe’s faery tale world. The following scene takes place in Florida.

Excerpt:

“Are you sure this isn’t a bad time?” Ianthe asked. The innocent question wouldn’t give her away so soon. She hoped.

“No. Not at all,” Briak said. “Tell you what. Why don’t I show you around, then we can go from there?” He pointed to the front door. “Follow me.”

She shaded her eyes from the muted sun as they reached the paddock. There, several sturdy mares waited. One mare pawed at the ground impatiently. The handlers grabbed onto its lead and assured her the horse was tame as could be. Ianthe hoped so. She didn’t want to take the students back to their parents with hospital bills attached.

Briak pointed to the docile white horse. “Would you like to try one yourself?” he asked.

Ianthe’s eyes went wide. Me? Ride a horse? No. No, a thousand times! “No. I had a bad experience with a horse once. My butt still hurts from it.”

Briak laughed. “When did this happen?”

“About a millennia or so ago.” That she was—and wasn’t—being sarcastic was lost on her listener, she was sure. “I think I’ll pass.” She trusted no other horse, save Dittander. He’d never throw her. No mortal horse could compare to him.

“Some children tend to be a little skittish around horses,” Briak said, nodding to a young mother and her daughter standing to the far side of the paddock. “The adults usually have to assure them the animals won’t buck.”

“And this should concern me?” she asked.

He nodded. “Might be best to try one first and see how you handle her before you have a group of squealing eight year olds spooking her.”

She supposed he knew what he was talking about. “Oh, very well. Since you make such a persuasive argument, I suppose I have no choice.” She turned to one of the ranch hands, and plopped her purse in the poor man’s hands. He fumbled the pricey leather bag as if it were a hot potato.

Pretending to sweep away a stray hair, she hid a smile behind her hand. She wondered how she could get out of this ride. She couldn’t explain why she was so reluctant to mount a horse. Mr. McGee would never believe her. Taking a deep breath, she approached a white mare with a black mane and tail. “This mare won’t bite you, ma’am,” said the horse’s handler.

“I’m sure it won’t,” Ianthe drawled. Though she wasn’t at all.

“Don’t worry,” Briak said. “I wouldn’t let anything hurt you.”

She blinked, wondered at the cool finality of his statement. He said the words as if he solemnly swore he meant them. She shook off the feeling and set her foot into the stirrup, pushed up from the ground, and toppled back. She tried a second time with the same result.

Couldn’t she just float up? She blew out a frustrated breath. No. Too many humans watching.

She jammed her foot into the stirrup. “Be good now,” she ordered.

The mare stood stock-still. Ianthe thought maybe she could handle this.

Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed. The skittish mare danced sideways.

Ianthe toppled butt-first to the ground. The watching child hooted her glee. Ianthe cursed herself.

She got to her feet, and approached the horse again. Come here, you stupid animal. Let’s you and me make nice and I won’t send you to the glue factory.

Foot firmly in stirrup, she grasped the saddle horn and managed to set herself in the saddle. The horse sidestepped and she slid right off, landing hands first in a puddle. The wet muck sloshed into her face. Oh, for the love of—

She turned to a sitting position and wiped her face with the hem of her skirt. “Give me a break, would you?”

“No.”

She glared at the horse. “What did you say?”

Ianthe knew her own horse spoke, but this wasn’t a faery mount. Surely, she’d been mistaken. Mortal horses didn’t speak.

4 Fun Facts4 fun facts about my hero Briak McGee and the book CHANGELING’S CROWN:

1. Though he’s got more, other important, worldwide duties. my hero, Briak, really enjoys working on the Florida horse ranch he’s employed by.

2. He fell hard for Ianthe when everyone else was laughing and pointing at her. She wasn’t supposed to ruin Princess Rebecca’s life, after all.

3. There’s a scene in the book where his gardener approaches (yes, he has a gardener) and if he weren’t in such a bad mood, he really would place the roses on his mother’s grave.

4. The book came about years after my first encounter with a horse. It was a good one, and a bad one…I fell off the horse’s back after it stopped moving. 🙂

Juli D. Revezzo

Author Bio:

Juli D. Revezzo is a Florida girl, with a love of fantasy, science fiction, and Arthurian legend, so much so she gained a B.A. in English and American Literature. She loves writing stories with fantastical elements whether it be a full-on fantasy, or a story set in this world-slightly askew. She has been published in short form in Eternal Haunted Summer, Dark Things II: Cat Crimes (a charity anthology for cat related charities), Luna Station Quarterly, Potnia, By Blood, Bone, and Blade (forthcoming charity anthologies by Biblioteca Alexandrina); Crossing the River, An Anthology in Honor of Sacred Journeys; The Scribing Ibis: An Anthology of Pagan Fiction in Honor of Thoth, and Twisted Dreams Magazine. She’s the author of The Antique Magic series and the Paranormal Romance Harshad Wars series.

She is a member of the Independent Author Network and the Magic Appreciation Tour. Come learn more about her at http://julidrevezzo.com.

You can find Juli online at:
Website: http://julidrevezzo.com
Blog: http://julidrevezzo.com/blog/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julidrevezzo
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/111476709039805267272/posts
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jewelsraven/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/julidrevezzo

What a fun excerpt, Juli. In my one and only horse ride, when I was about thirteen, I had a bad experience with a cantankerous horse. It went off the track and under an awning in an attempt to knock me off. I was able to duck, so I didn’t fall, but had a scraped arm from protecting my head.

Do you ride? Or are you a chicken like me? Leave a comment to be entered for a chance to win my monthly drawing for a $15 Starbucks gift card.

Linda

Meet Jami Gray, Author of Hunted by the Past

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Today’s guest is Jami Gray, author of Hunted by the Past (PSY-IV Teams 1). I asked Jami for Four Fun Facts about herself and this is what she had to say:

Jami GrayWhat you didn’t know about Jami Gray:

1. I don’t share well. Let’s be honest, after growing up in a large family, I refuse to share my things. I spent years either hiding my stuff so my siblings wouldn’t “borrow” my stuff, or just not getting it until I left for college so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. When I first went off to college, my first roommate only lasted about a month, then never came back. (Not because of me, but whatever was happening in her life). That was my first taste of not having to share my room with another living being. After that, if I couldn’t afford my own place, I had to at least have my own room. I really worried about taking on my Knight in Slightly Muddy Armor, but the whole marriage thing made it different. Kind of.

2. I love music, but I can’t sing. Not to say I don’t—in the shower by myself, in a room by myself, in the car by myself—see the pattern here? I sang in choirs and in musicals through high school, but after trying out for a college a cappella group and watching the poor choirmaster try not to wince, I gave up. Instead, I shoved my musical love into instruments until right before I was married. Then I decided to focus all my creativity into my writing.

3. I make up words. Unfortunately, I’ve passed this fun little quirk along to my Prankster Duo. It took me forever to get them to say diagonally correctly instead of sounding like “Di-a-gon-All-ey”. Here’s the deal—when I first started school and we had those lovely phonics classes (yes, I’m dating myself), I could hear the words correctly in my head, but trying to get them out of my mouth with the right sound never worked. So I had to teach myself to stop, think about what I wanted to say, then carefully say it. The other half of this problem is when your brain works much faster than your mouth and the words just tumble out in a chaotic mess. It’s also the main reason I drifted to theater. Enunciation is king on the stage.

4. I can’t watch horror films. Oh, I can hear your gasps of disbelief from here, but seriously—I can’t watch horror flicks. Especially the gory ones. I know it’s not real, but it still icks me out. Now I can read some dark stuff, even write it, no problem. Heck, my favorite TV channel is Discovery ID and their true crime stuff. Yet, somehow my BFF and I stumbled into Paranormal Activity (the first one) and unwittingly sat down. I spent two and half weeks sleeping with the damn lights on. Drove my Knight nuts.

Jamie’s books is an exciting paranormal romantic suspense. Check it out below:

Blurb for Hunted by the Past (PSY-IV Teams 1):cover of Hunted by the PastSometimes death is the only way to out run the past…

A reluctant psychic who can relive the past, a man well versed in keeping secrets, and a psychopathic killer enter a deadly game where the past determines the future.

Changing the past is an impossibility ex-Marine, Cynthia “Cyn” Arden, understands all too well. Struggling in the aftermath of a botched mission, which cost her two teammates, her military career, and a fledgling relationship, she’s brought home by a panicked phone call. The psychic killer behind her nightmares has escaped military custody to hunt down the remaining teammates, one by one. Next on his murderous list–Cyn. Her only chance at survival is to master the psychic ability she’s spent years denying.

The killer’s game brings her face to face with the one person guaranteed to throw her off kilter—the unsettling and distracting man she left behind, Kayden Shaw. Once she believed he’d stand by her side, until he chose his job and his secrets over her. A choice that’s left the scars of the past etched deep on her mind and heart.

To survive this twisted game, Cyn must risk trusting her heart and accepting who and what she is, or lose not only her life, but the man she loves.

Excerpt:

Behind me, the sound of the door being shoved flat against the wall jerked my attention back to the entryway. Cold sweat erupted down my spine.

The man strong-arming my door stood at least six two and he wasn’t selling cookies. A black T-shirt outlined broad shoulders and a heavy chest, explaining why my brilliant plan of knocking him back through the doorway had been destined for failure.

My mind took in details, trying to put the pieces together. Brown hair, thick and shaggy, framed dark eyes in a startling savage face. Still reeling from using my stupid ability, I couldn’t make the picture stick, but a niggling sense of familiarity pecked at my mind. Besides, now wasn’t the time for polite introductions.

An impressive snarl emerged from inside the neatly trimmed goatee, “Hello, Cyn.” His deep voice raised every hair on my body and sent my pulse into overdrive.

Hunted by the Past: Bk 1 of PSY-IV Teams is available at: MuseItUp Publishing, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, iBooks  and AllRomanceeBooks.

Author Bio:

Jami Gray is the award winning, multi-published author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, and the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams. Her latest release, SHADOW’S MOON (5/14) was a Golden Claddaugh Finalist, and the first in her newest series, HUNTED BY THE PAST, hits shelves in July 2014. She is surrounded by Star Wars obsessed males and a male lab, who masquerades as a floor rug as she plays with the voices in her head.

You can find her at:
Website:     www.JamiGray.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamigray.author

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JamiGrayUFWriter

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JamiGrayAuthor

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/JamiGray

Google+: https://google.com/+JamiGray

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.com/e/B006HU3HJI

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/LvoZn

Thanks for being my guest, Jamie, and for what it’s worth, horror films creep me out, too. My favorite horror flicks are comedies like Young Frankenstein. 😉 And I, too, sing in the shower, in the car or when I’m alone in a room, but not in public!

What about you? Horror or not? Singing in public or not? Weigh in on anything in the comments to be entered for my monthly drawing for a $15 Starbucks e-gift card.

Linda