Unforgiven by Sarah Ballance

I want to welcome Sarah Ballance to Harlie's Book Blog today.  I'm not sure if any of yall have read Sarah, if you have not, you are truly missing out.  Her blog alone, is worth the visit.  Without further ado, I give you the blurb and an excerpt from Unforgiven.

BLURB:
Riley Beckett's past just came back to haunt her . . . and this time, he's got a gun.
When Gage Lawton finds his brother shot dead on his back porch, every shred of evidence points to one person: Gage's former lover, Riley. He and she didn't part ways on good terms, and he's not planning to rekindle anything now--not when he's got a revolver pointed at her head and a finger on the trigger.

A year after Riley swore she and Gage were over, he returns in a hail of gunfire. One look into those achingly familiar blue eyes and she knows how wrong she was to let him go, but now far more than their heated past stands in the way. A twist of fate puts them in the crosshairs of a killer, leaving Riley with two slim options:  trust her greatest betrayer or face a murderer on her own.

EXCERPT:

Something was wrong. Was the dark playing tricks on her? Riley Beckett froze, arm outstretched, hand poised to toss her keys on the table just inside her front door. But she didn't let go. Instead of dropping them in their usual spot, instinct whispered for her to feather pieces of the makeshift weapon between her knuckles. Heart pounding, she pressed the keys in a silent, white-knuckle grip and prayed her concerns were her imagination, that the paranoia of coming home alone to a dark house was getting the better of her.

One, two steps in. Wood planks echoed underfoot. She fought to breathe in air that grew thinner with every tense second.

Three steps.

Then it hit her. The scent. His scent. And with it a flush of memories. The burn of hot grass on her bare skin. Rough hands, a tender touch. Love so sweet she ached for it, her dreams raging, and her body drenched with need.

Their first time.

Her last.

"Gage?" Her voice broke on the single syllable. Riley's grip on the keys tightened, her blood raging hot and cold all at once.

A creak sounded from the corner chair. Her eyes refused to adjust in the darkness, but not even the faint light kept the blond streaks in his russet hair from giving him away. Like rays of sunshine, she used to tease, and her words never failed to draw a scowl across his rugged face.

"Riley."

God help her, her name on his lips sounded as it always had. Coarse. Dangerous. Forbidden. Even before . . . The memory surged, hot and vivid, leaving a metallic taste in her mouth. White heat assaulted her from every corner of the room.

The keys fell to the floor with a clink.

"An eye for an eye, is it?" His voice sounded unpracticed, as if he hadn't spoken in a long while.

She couldn't see his face, but she knew his expression. Flat and humorless. Broken. She remembered the day he stopped smiling. Every part of her wanted to flee, but she stood frozen to the spot.

"What do you mean?" Riley wondered if the words, whispered and weak, had the strength to make it across the room. Hadn't she always known she'd shatter the next time she saw him? Hadn't she dreamed of it anyway?

"You have to ask?" Gage laughed, cold and hollow. "Billy's dead. Hell of a thing to come home to, Riley. My brother blown to bits on my back porch."

"Oh, God." Riley swayed, bile rising in her throat. The room filled with a distant buzzing. She took one unsteady step to the side and stumbled.

When she found his gaze, it was over the business end of a revolver.

He leveled the gun in her direction. Everything else in her world trembled, but his aim held rock steady. Unyielding.

His eyes burned blue and bright. "What I want to know, sweetheart, is why you did it."

He worked his finger over the trigger, and a veil of blackness threatened her last discerning thought.

BUY LINKS:
Noble Romance- https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/325/Unforgiven
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Unforgiven-ebook/dp/B005NGKBN2/  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sarah and her husband of over fourteen years live on the mid-Atlantic coast with their six young children, all of whom are perfectly adorable when they're asleep.  She often jokes that she writes to be around people who will listen to her, but her characters aren't much better than her kids.  Fortunately, her husband is quite supportive, having generously offered to help her research "the good parts."  She's never had to ask twice.

Website - http://www.sarahballance.com/
Blog - http://sarahballance.wordpress.com/
Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003WKYEJI
Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/SarahBallance
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/sarah.ballance.author.news 

Paradise 21 Blog Tour

I want to thank Aubrie for stopping by today.  I have an excerpt following the interview and the video trailer.  Top ten things you don't know about me:

1.  Cotton or Silk?

Cotton because it’s easy to wash! Silk only when I have a flute recital. J

2.  Champagne/beer/wine?

I love fruity wines. We live next to a winery in New Hampshire (Zorvino Vineyards:  http://zorvino.com/), and my favorite is their strawberry flavored wine.

3.  Plotter/pantser

A little of both. I plot the general arc of the book, the beginning and the end, and I “pants it” in the middle. That’s the scariest part for me!

4.  Describe your workspace

Very cluttered! There’s a statue of a fairy godmother, a replica of Jack Sparrow’s head beads hanging on my bulletin board (still in the box because they are too precious to take out), lots of post it notes with scribbles, four or five notebooks, and fish food for my guppies.

5.  Sports fan or just tolerate it?

What is sports? Does figure skating count? I think that’s the only sport I’ve ever watched.

6.   As a professional flutist, do you also teach on the side?  How long have you been playing? 

I’ve been playing ever since I was nine years old. I teach about 35-40 students per week, and I play at weddings and orchestra concerts. I have two concerts coming up with a community chorus for the holidays!

7.  Favorite food –

I love pasta! To be healthy I’ve changed to wheat pasta, but if it didn’t matter, I’d eat heaps of regular pasta every day slathered in marinara sauce!

8.  When did you start writing? 

I started writing about 6 years ago. I use visual imagery to teach my flute students to play with emotion. The stories just kept getting longer, and my flute students told me to write them down, so here I am today! (Thank you flute students who shall remain nameless).

9.  If money were no object, where would you like to live?

Near the beach in a warm climate like Hawaii. I went to the big island on my honeymoon and loved it. The lava was scary, but everything was so exotic.

I’d have a second home in New Hampshire. My whole family lives in New Hampshire, so I’d miss them if I lived anywhere else.

10.  What's next for you? 

I just finished edits on Tundra 37, the sequel to Paradise 21. It has alien woolly mammoths, laser fights, romance- both happy and tragic, and cyber women in it. I’m currently working on the third book, Haven 6, due in January. Haven 6 is about Striker and Aries’s descendants on Refuge.

 I also just contracted a novella tie in to the New Dawn series called a Hero Rising. This story is centered around Striker’s great great great grandfather, James Wilfred, and how he saved the space pirates from the collapse of Old Earth. It even has zombies!

Thank you, Marika, for this wonderful interview!

Book Blurb:

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

 Excerpt:

“Might as well stay here and make camp for the night.”

His casual tone stung her composure. How could he talk of such mundane things when they’d almost been captured, when she’d touched him so tenderly?

“We’ll let them get farther away,” Striker explained, reasonable as always. “We’re going in their direction tomorrow.”

The sting of rejection grew, burning a hole in her heart. “Why?”

“Why what?”

Her lips trembled. “Why not kiss me like you did before?”

“I can’t.” He shook his head, and the air cooled between them; so much so, Aries wondered if the desert had turned into deep space.

He’d teased her with such affection before, it was cruel to take it away. “I don’t understand,” she said, wishing she didn’t care, wishing she could stop all the emotions he’d started in her heart.

Aries caught a glimpse of pain etched in the wrinkles around his eyes. Striker turned away and started pulling supplies out of his backpack. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

Striker shook his head and Aries prompted, “Can’t kiss me, can’t trust me? What?”

“I can’t allow myself to get tangled up with someone. Not again.”

The thoughts of Striker with another woman confused her. On the New Dawn, everyone had one lifemate and that was it. “You mean you loved someone before?”

Striker’s hand tightened on the backpack. “I trusted someone a long time ago, allowed myself to love, if you will. She hurt me so much I lost my entire life and ended up here. I can’t experience that kind of pain again.”

Aries clasped her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry.”

He waved her apology off as if it meant nothing. “It’s a tough world, Aries. And it’s dangerous to love. If I were you, I’d keep my heart well-guarded, because you never know when it will affect your decisions, when it will make you weak.”

Aries couldn’t take his advice. Watching him talk about his past made her realize she’d already given up her heart.

He had it.

Title: Paradise 21
Author: Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: Novel
Release Date: August 2011
ePub ISBN: 978-1-937044-02-2
Mobi ISBN: Coming soon!
Print ISBN: 978-1-937044-03-9

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/paradise-21/

  

About the Author:

Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. Her stories have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, A Fly in Amber, and several print anthologies including Skulls and Crossbones by Minddancer Press, Rise of the Necromancers, by Pill Hill Press, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night by Nightbird Publishing, Dragontales and Mertales by Wyvern Publications, A Yuletide Wish by Nightwolf Publications, and Aurora Rising by Aurora Wolf Publications.  Her epic fantasy is published with Wyvern Publications, and several of her ebooks are published with Lyrical Press and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she’s not writing, she plays in orchestras and teaches flute at Plymouth State University and a community music school.

http://www.authoraubrie.com
http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

http://youtu.be/P8vCni_TZUA

Hide'N Go Seek Blog Tour

BLURB:
A twisted game of Hide’n Go Seek forces an unlikely alliance between a no-nonsense FBI agent and a search-and-rescue worker.
Celebrated search-and-rescue worker Kali Jordon has hidden her psychic abilities by crediting her canine partner Shiloh with the recoveries. But Kali knows the grim truth—The Sight that she inherited from her grandmother allows her to trace violent energy unerringly to victims of murder. No one knows her secret until a twisted killer challenges her to a deadly game of Hide'n Go Seek that threatens those closest to her.
Now she must rely on FBI Special Agent Grant Summers, a man who has sworn to protect her, even as he suspects there's more to Kali and Shiloh than meets the eye. As the killer draws a tighter and tighter circle around Kali, she and Grant find there's no place to hide.
Are her visions the key to finding the latest victim alive or will this cruel game of Hide’n Go Seek cost her…everything.

EXCERPT:

Twenty minutes later, Kali made her way to the kitchen. She fed Shiloh on the deck in the morning sunlight. Running her fingers through her shoulder-length hair, she remembered last night's painting. She headed to her studio to take a look. She'd almost reached it when apprehension washed over her.

The door was closed.

She never closed the door after painting. It wasn't good for the wet canvases, besides, the room only had a small window so the paint fumes built up fast. A frown wrinkled her forehead. Had she simply forgotten? She had been deadly tired last night.

Bolstering her courage, she pushed the door wide and flinched as the fumes rushed out almost stinging her nose. "Oh gross."

Holding her breath, Kali crossed to the window, shoving it as far open as it would go. Fresh air surged into the small space. She'd love a huge studio, except painting wasn't exactly a full time career for her – no matter how much she'd like it to be. It was a release for when depression and madness overcame her soul. Maybe later, when she no longer did rescue work, she could indulge her art as a creative hobby instead of as an outlet of pain and turmoil.

Walking around the easel, Kali stopped midstride.

The painting stood where she'd left it. With surreal and strangely enticing clarity, blacks and purples and browns popped off the canvas. Heavy paint splotched at places, then thinned and stretched across the top.

She stepped back and frowned. Up close, besides the heavy amount of paint, the picture resembled a distorted nightmare. Not surprising. Still, she caught a glimmer of an intentional design. She tilted her head and looked at it from a different angle. Nothing changed.

Sniffing the air, Shiloh ambled into the doorway.

Kali smiled down at the dog. "Not very sweet smelling, is it?"

She glanced back at the jumble of colors and stilled. There. She studied the abstract mess, letting the colors move and form to reveal the image hidden within.

Shivers slid over her spine.

Oh my God.

No way.

Kali blinked. It was.

There was no mistaking the image of a person buried under small bushes, civilization of some kind crouched on the horizon with a series of rough rock formations soaring behind the bushes.

"What the hell?" she whispered.

Kali was not a great artist, by any means. Blind escapism kept bringing her back to the process because it worked. She painted with wild abandon. The paint slapped on canvas with no thought discharged her emotions. For some reason it always worked.

And it always looked like shit.

This, on the other hand, was ingenious. Sure the subject matter was gruesome; however, given her volunteer work, not unexpected. Especially after finding the letter.

The artistic abandon was still there. The paint was so thick in spots the picture was almost three-dimensional. The terrain had depth and movement. The light was dark and terse, yet still shone with gruesome clarity—and way beyond her artistic abilities.

"It's fucking brilliant."

It was also scary as hell.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dale Mayer is a prolific multi-published writer. She's best known for Tuesday's Child, her romantic suspense novel that was one of the final four in the Kensington Brava/Romantic Times contest this last year. Besides her romantic suspense/thrillers, Dale also writes paranormal romance and crossover young adult books in several different genres.  To go with her fiction, she also writes nonfiction in many different fields with books available on resume writing, companion gardening and the US mortgage system. She has recently published her Career Essentials Series in ebook format.
To find out more about Dale and her books, visit her at http://www.dalemayer.com. Or connect with her online with Twitter at www.twitter.com/dalemayer and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dalemayer.author


Books by Dale Mayer:

Psychic Vision Series
Tuesday's Child
Hide'n Go Seek
Maddy's Floor- out soon

Young Adult Books
Dangerous Designs – Book I
Vampire in Denial – Book I of Blood Ties
Gem Stone Mystery Series- out soon
In Cassie's Corner- soon

Non-Fiction Books
Career Essentials: The Resume
Career Essentials: The Cover Letter
Career Essentials: The Interview
Career Essentials: 3 in 1

My Blood Runs Blue-Review/Interview Tour Stop

I am very excited to have Stacy Eaton on my blog today.  First, she a policewoman or more correctly, a patrol officer.  She's married to another cop and she's a mother.  I sent her a list of questions and she graciously answered them.  I also had the opportunity to read the first book in her series, "My Blood Runs Blue" and my review follows her interview questions.  Her contact information is at the bottom and the next blog tour stop is at http://ragesexandteddybears.blogspot.com/.  Thank you so much for stopping by and without further ado, here are her answers.

Top ten things you don't know about me:

1.  Cotton or Silk? Depends on what I’m doing… lol… Sleeping – give me comfy cotton – out on a date with my hubby – bring on the silk!
2.  Champagne/beer/wine?  Beer – always take a nice cold long neck bottle over a delicate crystal glass.

3.  Plotter/pantser – Definitely a Panster.  I write very organically, an idea comes to me and while I might know where I want it to go, it don’t plan things out, I just sit and write and let it get there on its own.

4.  Describe your workspace – My desk area is an L shaped desk, two printers (a black laser and a color inkjet), mail scale, adding machine, lots of stand-up files and a huge assortment of other “standard” office supplies.  The most unique thing about my workspace is the bulletin board I have up in front of me. 4’ x 3’ I put up pictures that help me focus on the characters I am writing about.   (I have attached a photo you can use if you would like)

5.  Sports fan or just tolerate it? Lol….  I work with mostly men, I tolerate it.  There is always some sports show on the T.V. at my station, and I just use it as background noise to do my reports.  At home the only sport I watch is the Tour de France and maybe some other cycling races when my husband is watching them.

6.   You are a policewoman by profession; can you share a funny story with us?

It was probably around 1 or 2 in the morning.  The roads were quiet and I was driving around just doing patrol.  I came to a four way intersection where a car was sitting there not moving.  The vehicle was running and the lights were on but the car just sat there. I waited to see if it would go, but it stayed there.  I lowered my window and I could hear the music blaring out of the car, I drove up next to the car, the windows were down and a man was sitting in the car. I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or dead.  I pulled away from him and called for another car to come assist me.  

When the other officer, who happened to be my best friend, showed up , we rolled up behind the vehicle.  I called out the stop and we got out of our cars.  As we approached the vehicle, there was no movement inside and the vehicle was running with the music at full blast.

We looked inside the vehicle and found a man passed out, reeking of alcohol, enough to make my eyes water. I looked up at Kristin who was on the other side of the car, she was shining her light into the car and I knew that I needed to turn the car off before we woke the guy up.  I didn’t want him panicking and trying to drive off on up.  

So I reach in over the steering column and turned the key to the off position.  Now what makes this really funny I this car is at a stop sign pointing up a hill. The hill is at about a 45 degree angle.  As I turned the key off, I heard Kris yell just as the music cut off, “The cars in DRIVE!”

So as soon as I turned the car off, the transmission turned off too and the vehicle immediately started to roll backwards down the hill – and down towards my patrol car.

The looks on our faces as the car started to roll!  Man I wish I had had this on camera.  We both grabbed a hold of the windows as they were both open, so we were leaning into the car, trying to stop it.  Like 2 women who both weigh a total of 240 lbs were going to be able to stop a vehicle that gravity had taken hold of!

The vehicle rolled back about 10 feet and hit my patrol car.  Both of us were still hanging on the car and as it hit the car, the driver finally woke up.  It wasn’t us screaming that did it, it was the gently impact of the bumpers.

Needless to say, the driver was taken into custody and his car was towed.  When the tow truck came to take his car, he pulled it off my vehicle. My patrol car didn’t have a mark. The other guys car had a small dent in the plastic bumper so I grabbed my camera to take a picture of it. Just as I raised the lens, the dent popped out. There were no marks on this car at all now.

Kristin and I realized a few days later that we had been trying to stop the vehicle so hard that we both ended up with bruises on the backs of our arms from where we were trying to hold it. This story has come up a whole bunch of times and we are always wiping the tears away when we talk about it.

7.  Favorite food –Actually I’m not a big food fan. I eat what is put in front of me when I am hungry.  I have a lot of food allergies so I don’t enjoy food as much as I used to.  But I would have to say that Chocolate and Coffee are my joys.

8.  When did you start writing?   I didn’t start writing until October of 2010.  I sat down and wrote my first novel, My Blood Runs Blue in about 9 weeks.  The sequel was written in about 11 weeks shortly after that one.

9.  If money were no object, where would you like to live? Somewhere near the ocean on the east coast.  I love to watch the sunrise over the ocean, feel the breeze and the temperature warm as the day starts.

10.  What's next for you?  
Currently I have 4 other projects in the works.  The third book in the series is one of them!   I am also working on a novel that deals with Domestic Violence called “Whether I’ll Live or Die”.  You will see this one written from the point of view of a victim and the point of view of a police officer.

The third project I am working on is a contemporary romance called “Liveon”.  In this one, a detective is put undercover to protect a movie star during a filming.

The fourth one is the biggest project.  It is a series I am writing with author, John Walker.  The series deal with addiction, all kinds of addiction.  This series is a very deep, dark and gritty series that will dig into drugs, alcohol, sex and money, along with many other addictions people have.  Currently we are about half way through the first book, Blue Haze!  I am loving project; because it is much different than my other books.  While I still write from the point of a police officer, I am writing a much darker person then I normally do!

Thank you so much for allowing me to visit!!! I really enjoyed it!

Review:


This is the start of a series from Stacy Eaton.  Ms. Eaton is a policewoman herself and her terminology and imagery relating to Kristin's job are vivid and realistic.  Plus, the setting for the series is not far from where she lives, too.  I was taken back by all the terminology and police procedures that Kristin has to go through on a daily basis.  Kristin is a lonely woman.  Sure her life is full with friends and her job but she has no one to share it with.  With one phone call regarding a homicide, her life will change forever.


As most of you know, I review for several websites, so I will not go into plot points, summaries, spoilers and such.  I will tell you that I was blow away by the writing style of the book.  Its brilliant, I say.  The book is written in three different points of view.  Each chapter is a POV and its brilliant.  The scenes intertwine between them so you are not lost on the emotions, actions and reactions that the other characters have to one another.  With this is mind, the book flowed better and the pacing was quick and less jarring to me.  I would not have wanted to be Kristin and picked from either Julian or Alex.  I was a little disappointed towards the end of the book when I thought she had chosen who she wanted and why.  After reading one of the man's chapter's after the disappointment, it all made sense to me as to who she picked and why.  I was happy with her choice and her reasons why.


I would highly recommend My Blood Runs Blue for anyone that would like to read a completely different take on the vampire genre.  Its bold, fresh and for this reader, much more believable.  Ms. Eaton has written a story and characters with a fresh twist and I can't wait to read the further adventures of Kristin, Julian and Alex.

BUY LINKS:

Website: http://stacyseatoncom.fatcow.com/purchase-books.html
Amazon (Kindle/Paperback/Hardcover): http://www.amazon.com/My-Blood-Runs-Blue-ebook/dp/B004VGUIBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302138781&sr=1-1-catcorr
Barnes and Noble (Paperback/Hardcover): http://search.barnesandnoble.com/My-Blood-Runs-Blue/Stacy-Eaton/e/9781432769284/?itm=1&USRI=my+blood+runs+blue
Outskirts Press, Inc. (eBook/Paperback/Hardcover: http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=9781432769284

CONTACT LINKS

Website: http://stacyseatoncom.fatcow.com/

Visit my Blog: http://stacyeatonauthor.blogspot.com/