Spotlight - The Summer Remains by Seth King

 

 The Summer Remains

Author: Seth King

Release Date: Feb 14, 2015

Find on Goodreads
 

Twenty-four-year-old Summer Johnson knows two things. The first is that due to a quickly worsening medical condition, she faces a risky surgery in three months’ time that may very well end in her death. The second is that she would like to fall in love before then.

As spring sinks into her namesake season on the Florida coastline, Summer plays the odds and downloads a new dating app - and after one intriguing message from a beautiful surfer named Cooper Nichols, it becomes clear that the story of what may be her last few months under the sun is about to be completely revised. All she has to do now is write something worth reading.

Tender, honest, devastating and triumphant, The Summer Remains explores a very human battle being waged in a very digital age: the search for a love that will outlast this temporary borrowing of bones. In an era when many feel compelled to share and re-share anything about everything, prepare to feel a love so special, you will want to hug it close and make it yours forever.

Amazon

Spotlight with Excerpt - The Summer Remains by Seth King

 

 The Summer Remains

Author: Seth King

Release Date: Feb 14, 2015

Find on Goodreads
 

Twenty-four-year-old Summer Johnson knows two things. The first is that due to a quickly worsening medical condition, she faces a risky surgery in three months’ time that may very well end in her death. The second is that she would like to fall in love before then.

As spring sinks into her namesake season on the Florida coastline, Summer plays the odds and downloads a new dating app - and after one intriguing message from a beautiful surfer named Cooper Nichols, it becomes clear that the story of what may be her last few months under the sun is about to be completely revised. All she has to do now is write something worth reading.

Tender, honest, devastating and triumphant, The Summer Remains explores a very human battle being waged in a very digital age: the search for a love that will outlast this temporary borrowing of bones. In an era when many feel compelled to share and re-share anything about everything, prepare to feel a love so special, you will want to hug it close and make it yours forever.

Amazon

Chapter 1
On a sunny Tuesday morning towards the end of March, a white-haired man walked into a cold room and told me I might die soon.
I fidgeted on the hospital bed as Dr. Steinberg entered, the late-spring sunlight mocking me as smiled onto the industrial tile floors. I’d known Steinberg since I was four. He’d handled almost all of my throat problems, and I trusted him. He was like a second father to me, and I knew he would always tell me the truth.
That’s why the look on his face scared the living shit out of me.
I listened for the next ten minutes as he gave me the gist of the story. It was all so surreal that my mind could only catch certain phrases before the sentence would run away from me again:
Your esophagus has ruptured again, for good this time…
Your stomach is leaking more and more…
Toxicity levels are through the roof…
Your body just isn’t getting the nutrients it needs from your feeding tube any longer…
And finally, terminal.
“Terminal?” I heard myself squeak, my throat filling up with that weird, shivery feeling you get when you know your life has just changed. Steinberg suddenly became very interested in a fraying string on the sleeve of his jacket.
“T-terminal,” he stuttered. “Summer, the thing is…I’m afraid this is a…well, nobody has ever…”
He finally cleared his throat and met my gaze, tears pooling in the corners of his cerulean eyes. “Sweetheart, I am so sorry to tell you this, but this mountain may be unclimbable for you.”
My mother let out a small, sharp sob in the corner and then clapped her hands over her mouth.
“Okay, unclimbable,” I swallowed, staring down at the floor as I tried to grasp just what that word now meant to me and my family and this weird little life I had created for myself.  “Okay. Unclimbable. Okay.”
But Steinberg wasn’t done yet.
“Hold on. I said it may be unclimbable, not that it definitely will be. I want to prepare you, and I don’t want to give you any false hope, but there may be something we can do, Summer. It’s a small chance, but still, it’s a chance. A Hail Mary, if you will.”
I reached up to rub my temples. “Okay, well, survival sounds good. Better than death, I suppose. What is this Hail Mary?”
Steinberg crossed his arms, studied me for a moment, and then took out a chart and launched into a spiel about something called the Porter-Collins Procedure, an extremely major surgery that would perhaps be saving my life in three months’ time.
“Nobody has ever survived this particular operation,” he concluded a few minutes later, skipping all the medical jargon to keep from boring you to death, pardon my pun. “Nobody. It’s been attempted three times, but none of those were ultimately successful. One person survived for three months in intensive care, but she was fifty-one, and in frail health in general. We think you’re a much more viable candidate, but then again, there is no way to be sure. We can do it in two, maybe three months, after I assemble the specialists and create a game plan – considering your health doesn’t take another nosedive before then, that is. If we’re going to try this, we need you in tip-top shape – or as close to that as we can get you, anyway.”
“Okay,” I said again, sitting a little taller. “And what are the chances that this Hail Mary will even work, and that I won’t just die a few days later, anyway?”
He peered down at me from over his glasses. “I’m afraid to say that it would be stretching things to even tell you eighty/twenty.”
I steeled myself and took a breath. “Okay, well, that’s better than a hundred to zero. Let’s go out with a bang, then, Steinberg. Let’s do this.”
He threw up a fist, triumphant, but I could see the fear in his eyes. “It’s settled, then. Hail Mary it is.”
My mom rushed over to sit beside me and kind of hang onto my shoulder as some counselor woman came in who helped families handle these types of situations – “transitions,” she called them, and just hearing that word threatened to pull me under. Dr. Steinberg watched, an apology on his face, as she said things like “preparations” and “options” and “arrangements.” I tried to be polite and pay attention, but truthfully I didn’t give a damn about what she was saying. It was go time, and things were looking grim. I already knew that. The wet, metallic panic erupting in my stomach was due to an entirely different subject.
“And finally,” the counselor, Angie, said in a hushed, clipped, polite voice that spoke of years of having impossible conversations with worried families huddled in chilly waiting rooms, “I work very closely with Last Great Hope, a wonderful organization that specializes in situations like this, and if there is anything you want before the surgery, Summer – a trip to Tahiti, a cabin in the mountains, whatever – we can do it. Or if-”
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I said, making her stop short.
“Wh – excuse me?”
“Save the Disney trips for the twelve-year-olds,” I told her. “Spend all that money on a cancer kid or something; I know the truth about those fairy tales now. Make someone else happy – I’ve got everything I need. Or almost everything.” I paused as everyone leaned in. “I do have one request, actually. First of all, all of you are forgetting something vital.”
“Oh no, did we forget your milk?” my mom asked as she reached for her purse. “I thought I put some-”
“No, Shelly, we did not forget the baby milk I pump into my stomach tube every day to keep myself alive because my throat doesn’t work, but that does have something to do with it.”
As she pouted in my general direction I realized what a complete bitch I was being, and then I realized just as quickly that I probably wouldn’t be able to stop myself anyway.
“What is it, then?” my mom asked, stung, and I took a breath and then pushed it back out.
“Frankly, I need all of you to chill the fuck out.”
My mom dropped her purse onto her lap. Dr. Steinberg looked at me like I’d just tried to jump out of the third story window. Angie held her pen in midair and stared at me, the sun turning her brownish eyes ocher.
“Excuse me, young lady?” my mother asked. “We need to what?”
“Chill the eff out,” I said, editing my language the second time around. “Sorry, but all this emotion and drama and doom and gloom crap is already making me freak out. You’re all forgetting I’ve had a broken throat and a tube in my abdomen since I was in diapers, and that I can handle this. I’ve dealt with health scares before, and I will do it again, no matter how much scarier this Scare is than all the other Scares. Like, I know you’re trying to help and stuff, and I love you, but having meltdowns in front of me is not going to help me deal with all this, so please, I beg you, everyone take a deep breath, close your eyes, and get your panties out of a bunch.”
“We’re sorry,” my mom said after an impossibly long and awkward moment. “It’s just that we need to prepare you for…for what will happen, and-”
“Prepare me to die?” I asked. “Guess what, Shelly, I’m going to die one day, be it in three months or sixty years, and wasting all my time crying over it isn’t going to help. Here’s what I want, my one last wish – or my maybe-not-last wish, or whatever the hell this is.” A tear appeared in my mom’s eye, and I softened my voice as I reached up to wipe her cheek. “Okay. Before the surgery, I want to have a normal summer by the beach,” I began as I cleared her eye and shook the water from my finger. “I want to go to the sea and go to work and read my books and go about my business like usual without everyone breathing down my neck and treating me like A Broken Person, because if I am treated like A Broken Person for one more month of my life I will break some faces, no offense. Shelly, if you so much as make one special meal – I mean, not that I can eat or anything, because I can’t – anyway, I’m burning down the house. There will literally be a pile of smoldering ashes where your kitchen used to be, I promise.” Shelly pouted again, but I trudged through. “I’m serious, no special treatment. No Christmases in July, no excessive hugging, not even a midnight run to Target for some trinkets from the dollar section. And most of all…”
I looked around and, seeing sympathy in everyone’s eyes and knowing this request would be completely futile, said – “No sympathy. Please. The sympathy is what breaks me and makes me feel broken. If this is gonna be my last chance to live and have fun and be normal, then I’m going to need to feel as normal as possible, and that means absolutely no pity, because that separates me from everyone else and makes me Different with a capital D. And if I don’t stay in a good headspace I’m gonna spend the next three months in a fetal position in my closet having an endless anxiety attack about the surgery, so please work with me here and keep the pity locked up.”
A sigh and a smile. Shelly put her hand on mine. “I would never pity you, Summer. You’re the strongest person I know, and you always have been. You know that. We all know that. That’s not what this is about.”
I tried to smile back. “Thanks, Shelly.”
“Anytime. And can you please call me Mom, like a normal twenty-four-year-old?”
“Not a chance, Shelly.”
“Okay, fine. So, then…a Jax Beach summer? Is that really all you want?”
I paused as her words hung in the overly sanitized air. It wasn’t all, and I knew it. As I sat there I thought of the one thing I didn’t have, the one thing I’d never had, the one thing that screamed at me from the silence and jumped out at me from the shadows – and now that this upcoming summer had perhaps just become Summer’s Last Stand, my desire was suddenly more urgent than ever. I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop the longing from rising to my face, and as I felt the blood burn my cheeks I caught Steinberg’s eyes again, which just embarrassed me even more.
“Well, I mean, since you’re asking, there is one thing…”
“Anything!” Shelly and Dr. Steinberg said at exactly the same time, and I stared out of the window as my eyes got all weird and watery.
“Okay, well, I know something so sentimental is going to sound crazy coming from someone so…well, you know how I am…”
“Honest?” Steinberg offered, trying to be polite.
“Opinionated?” Shelly said.
“Brash?” Angie asked, even though she’d just met me ten minutes ago and it was literally beyond embarrassing that she already held that opinion of me.
“Headstrong and stubborn and annoying,” I finally said, shoving it out of the way, and they all nodded. “Anyway, here goes. Since you’re asking, the thing is…well, I’d like to fall in love.”
I looked down at the ground again as everyone in the room broke my most important rule already: I could feel their pity descending on me, smothering me just like it had my entire life, snuffing out any chance I had at being treated like a normal, living, breathing human, who deserved to love and be loved just like anyone else, as they say in the Hallmark cards.
“Oh, honey…” Steinberg sighed.
“It just wouldn’t be fair to someone…” my mother chimed in, just as Angie the counselor lady threw in her two cents, too.
“Sweetie, you have to understand, your situation is very serious. People get irrational during times like these, and if you get involved with someone and the worst happened, well-”
I crossed my fingers behind my back and shook my head. I’d known they’d react like this – why had I even tried in the first place? Some things, I knew, were just better left unshared.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay, yeah, you guys are right. I’ll try to…put that off, I guess. For now. God knows I have tons of time to think about it – it’s not like I’m dying or anything.”
Everyone forced quick, fake laughs and then got back to business. Unbeknownst to them, however, my mind was quickly leaving the room, flying past the barren oak branches outside the window and soaring above the clouds to someplace only I knew. My desires could not be contained by the circumstances in this room, or by sickness, or even by reality in general, really. I wanted love more than anything – this was true, as much as it humiliated me to admit it. I’d wanted love ever since I was a cookie-cutter little girl being brainwashed by cookie-cutter Disney movies about cookie-cutter princes and princesses falling into cookie-cutter love and then prancing off to their cookie-cutter castles to live out their cookie-cutter lives. And strangely enough, this desire had only deepened after the fairy tale fantasies faded away and melted into a more grown up, real-world entity known as relationship FOMO, when my condition had rendered me an observer from the social media sidelines as everyone my age paired up and got engaged and married and pregnant and then shouted about it from the Facebook treetops as loud as their keyboards would let them while I sat there single as a nun with the flu. But I didn’t want that cookie cutter love from the Disney movies and my social media feeds. I didn’t want some run of the mill summer romance that would fizzle out as soon as the sunrays slanted in the fall and the Facebook Official status went to shit.
Because I, Summer Johnson, Purveyor of Pragmatism, Lover of Logic, Ultimate Believer in the Rational, and Person Who Was Maybe Going To Die Soon, wanted to drown in someone.

 

Seth King is a twenty-five-year-old author and artist.

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Blurb Blitz & Giveaway - Pretty Poison by Lynne Barron

Pretty Poison

by Lynne Barron 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

BLURB: 

What’s an American heiress to do when a pair of britches, a plunge into a pond in the dead of winter and a broken betrothal force her to set sail across the ocean to an arranged marriage with a fortune hunting Englishman? 

With her hopes and dreams sinking to the bottom of the sea like so much lost treasure, Emily Calvert falls into the pretty poison she finds in a little blue bottle. 

Can Nicholas Avery, a charming aristocrat with a faulty memory for names and a family in dire need of financial salvation, convince the wounded lady that the blessed oblivion she finds in his arms is sweeter than opium?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Review & DOUBLE Giveaway - Garrett (Cold Fury Hockey #2) by Sawyer Bennett

 

 Garrett
Cold Fury Hockey # 2

By: Sawyer Bennett

Releasing February 17^th, 2015

Loveswept  
 

 

Blurb: 

USA Today bestselling author Sawyer Bennett hits the ice with the story of a playboy athlete whose winning ways lead him to a beautiful woman with a lot to lose.
 
Carolina Cold Fury star Garrett Samuelson never wants to miss out on a single minute of fun. Whether he’s playing hockey, hanging out with friends, or walking the red carpet with a new date on his arm, he lives every day to the fullest. When he meets Olivia Case, he sees someone who’s exactly his type—confident, sexy, smart . . . his next fling. But the more he pursues her, the more Garrett shares a side of himself that other women don’t normally get to see.

Olivia has been keeping a secret. While Garrett lives for the next thrill, Olivia’s not sure she’ll live to see the next day. She’s undergoing treatment for some serious medical issues, and she doesn’t have time for a relationship with no guarantees—especially one with a hot-as-sin womanizer who won’t take no for an answer. But as she gets to know the real Garrett, Olivia can’t help falling for him . . . hard. To reveal the truth would mean risking everything—but you can’t score without taking the tough shots.

 

Link to Follow Tour:  http://www.tastybooktours.com/2014/11/garrett-cold-fury-2-by-sawyer-bennett.html

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23121837-garrett

Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/125350-cold-fury-hockey 

 

Buy Links:  Amazon | Barnes | iTunes | Kobo

My Review:

Sawyer Bennett has done it again, she has written a fantastic romance!  This book has emotional drama, humor and sexy romance.  Garrett is a ladies man who never sees a woman twice but finds himself totally captivated by Olivia.  Olivia is equally fascinated with Garrett but does not have the time or ability to handle this sexy yet womanizing hockey star.  Olivia has just received earth shattering medical news.....she is unsure if she will even have a future.  I loved both characters.  Garrett is slowly learning to care for one woman and is feeling a little lost as their relationship slowly builds.  Olivia is trying to struggle with having a man in her life while undergoing medical treatments.  This was such a heartfelt story of finding love at a time when the future is so questionable.  It was well written and had me eagerly turning pages as I devour this book in under one day.  Highly recommend it and the first book in this wonderful series, Alex! ~Booklover Sue

Author Info:

USA Today Best-Selling Author, Sawyer Bennett is a snarky southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. Her husband works for a Fortune 100 company which lets him fly all over the world while she stays at home with their daughter and three big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Sawyer would like to report she doesn’t have many weaknesses but can be bribed with a nominal amount of milk chocolate.

Sawyer is the author of several contemporary romances including the popular Off Series, the Legal Affairs Series and the Last Call Series. She will be releasing her second book in the Cold Fury Hockey Series with Random House Loveswept, February 2015. 

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads  | Pinterest

 

Double Rafflecopter Giveaway:

$25.00 eGift Card to Choice Book Seller and Loveswept Mug  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Cold Fury Hockey Jersey

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt, Review & Giveaway - Infected: Prey (Infected Series, Book 1) by Andrea Speed

Infected: Prey

Infected Series, Book One

by Andrea Speed

Genre: Gay mystery/urban fantasy

Publisher: DSP Publications

ISBN: 163216325X

ASIN: B00NJRJZGG

Number of pages: 376

Word Count: 152,000

Cover Artist: Anne Cain 

Book Description: 

In a world where a werecat virus has changed society, Roan McKichan, a born infected and ex-cop, works as a private detective trying to solve crimes involving other infecteds.

The murder of a former cop draws Roan into an odd case where an unidentifiable species of cat appears to be showing an unusual level of intelligence. He juggles that with trying to find a missing teenage boy, who, unbeknownst to his parents, was “cat” obsessed. And when someone is brutally murdering infecteds, Eli Winters, leader of the Church of the Divine Transformation, hires Roan to find the killer before he closes in on Eli.

Working the crimes will lead Roan through a maze of hate, personal grudges, and mortal danger. With help from his tiger-strain infected partner, Paris Lehane, he does his best to survive in a world that hates and fears their kind… and occasionally worships them. 

Available at:    DSP Publications     Amazon 

Double Cover Reveal - Consolation AND Conviction (The Consolation Duet, Books 1 & 2) by Corinne Michaels

Double Cover Reveal

 

Consolation

Book One in the Consolation Duet

Author: Corinne Michaels

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cover Design: Okay Creations

Photographer: Perrywinkle Photography

 

Release Date: March 18th 

✦ Pre Order on iBooks ➙ http://bit.ly/16nXT0k

✦ Add to your TBR here ➛ http://bit.ly/1wMUa4a

 

Blurb: 

Liam wasn’t supposed to be my happily ever after.

He wasn’t even on my radar.

He was my husband’s best friend—forbidden. 

But my husband is dead and I’m alone. I ache for him and I reach for Liam. 

One night with Liam changed everything. Now I have to decide if I truly love him or if he’s just the consolation prize.

Excerpt: 

Today is the last day I will allow myself to feel sorrow, the last day I will shed tears, because tears don’t change anything. I need to harvest whatever strength I have and hold it tight. I’m a mother who has an infant that needs me to be both mom and dad.

One day, they say. One day this will stop hurting.

Lies.

This will never be okay or stop hurting.

I’ll never be the same. The woman I was before died the minute the knock on the door came. I’m a shell of the woman I was. The woman who was loving, open, and full of hope is gone. Hope is a weak bitch who couldn’t give two fucks about what you want. So I rely on faith. Faith that I’ll make it through this and find my heart again.

 ********************

 

Conviction

Book Two in the Consolation Duet

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Cover Design: Okay Creations

Photographer: Perrywinkle Photography

 

Release Date:  May 27th 

✦ Pre Order on iBooks ➙  http://bit.ly/1AjLE0d

✦ Add to your TBR here ➛ http://bit.ly/1ISmhJ8

 

Blurb: 

I fell in love with Liam only to be left shattered into a million pieces. Again. The idea of being without him cripples me but the reality is, he’s gone. 

He doesn’t understand and I can’t make him.  

If only he’d see the conviction behind my words—then Liam would still be here.

 

About the Author: 

Corinne Michaels is an emotional, witty, sarcastic, and fun loving mom of two beautiful children. She’s happily married to the man of her dreams and is a former Navy wife. After spending months away from her husband while he was deployed, reading and writing was her escape from the loneliness. 

Both her maternal and paternal grandmothers were librarians, which only intensified her love of reading. After years of writing short stories, she couldn’t ignore the call to finish her debut novel, Beloved. Her alpha Navy SEALs are broken, beautiful, and will steal your heart. 

Contact Corinne:

Website: http://www.corinnemichaels.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CorinneMichaels

Instagram: http://instagram.com/authorcorinnemichaels

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorCMichaels

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7753662

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/corinnemichaels/

Interview & Giveaway - The Lady of the Garter by Marisa Dillon

The Lady of the Garter

by Marisa Dillon

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

BLURB:

 

When Henry VII takes the throne, not all are loyal to the new king. Garter knight, Sir James, is charged with bringing dissenters to justice. Determined to fulfill his vows, he’s unprepared for Lady Elena, a girl from his past he’s never forgotten.

Lady Elena defies her family and disguises herself as a squire to reunite with the man she’s always loved. She might be able to wield a sword, but she still possesses a woman’s heart.

Thrust into a world of danger and family rivalry, James and Elena face the ultimate test.

Can James avenge his father’s death and find passion, or will his Garter oaths hold him to a life of service without love?

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

EXCERPT:

 

Servants began to bustle about the hall. Men offered pitchers of rose-scented water and towels. Overflowing baskets of fresh bread and pitchers of wine were placed on the tables. Elena was ready for some mead after all she’d been through. Once the king’s taster sampled the fair, he nodded to the queen. The feast had officially begun. Nudging her brother, Elena confessed, “I was ordered out of the tent.”

 

“What did you expect? What kind of man do you take James for?” He laughed, raising his goblet in honor of the king.

 

“You tease me,” she said. “I don’t like it.”

 

“What did you find, Edward?”

 

“A foul-mouthed, dirty warrior,” she complained. “Not the sweet innocent lad I fell in love with.”

 

William’s eyes were filled with merriment. “Lads grow into men. Men become knights.” He studied her face. “And what of your other goal?”

 

“Whatever do you mean?”

 

“Becoming a knight,” he reminded her.

 

Elena gasped. The other squires stared as if they’d overheard her brother.

 

William chuckled, raising his cup again. “Long live the king.” The squires joined his salute.

 

Elena shot her brother a look of warning. How could he be so careless? Spirits. She rolled her eyes. “I admit it,” she said with defiance, keeping her voice low. “I want to become a knight. I’ve never kept that secret from you, but we both agreed I must serve as a squire first.”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by a woman who placed a trencher on the table in front of them.

 

“Peacock, venison, quail, and rabbit,” the wench announced, flashing a toothless grin.

 

William quickly helped himself to half the meat. Always selfish, he even chose the tenderest pieces of venison.

 

She glowered at him. “Will nothing change? I must accept the meager portions left after you claim the best?”

 

He licked his fingers, then leaned in so only she could hear his reply. “To these lads you’re just another squire. But I know what’s underneath those pants. So yes, you are still a female, and I get the best. Be satisfied there’s anything left for you to eat.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

An interview with author Marisa Dillon!

What is your writing environment?

Thank goodness for the portability of laptops. Because I don’t have to be teetered, I can write just about anywhere. I named my laptop, Myrddin, after my heroine’s gyrfalcon and I’ll take him shady side by the pool in the summer, by the fireplace in the winter or out to Starbucks, when I need a strong dose of caffeine. But I’ve always wanted a crystal chandelier over an antique mahogany desk and I bet, if I created that environment, I’d be happy to write there, too.

Who is your perfect hero and why?

 

 He’s an alpha male that thinks he has it all figured out, with no love in his life, and finds out he is terribly mistaken after her meets, realizes he can’t live without, and finally falls for the heroine.

What authors have caught your interest lately and why?

 

Kathryn Le Veque and Regan Walker are two authors who have recently captured my attention. They are both prolific historical romance writers who are wildly successful. I’ve just recently started reading their novels and I enjoy their unique voices.

What type of book have you always wanted to write?

 

Truly, I’m writing the books I’ve always wanted to write. Within industry circles, authors often get caught up in labeling their work in genre silos, but readers don’t care about labeling, they just want to read great books. I’ve been influenced by the author, Dan Brown. I love the thrilling ride he gives his readers. I wanted that feel in my historical romances, a book you can’t put down. Based on my Amazon and Goodreads reviews, I’ve accomplished that and reviewers say my story is mixed with intrigue and mystery, too. As long as I keep readers happy, that will be the kind of books I’ll write.

Top 3 things on your bucket list?

1. Tour inside the Pyramids of Egypt (my mother has done this and I was fascinated and jealous).

2. Visit all the churches of Italy Dan Brown writes about in his novel, The Di Vinci Code, plus see the rest of the country while I’m there. (I’ve visited Italy, but it was too long ago.)

3. Visit as many castles in the U.K. as I possibly can. (I’ve been to one of the most famous, Windsor Castle, but I have a very long list.)

How did you get the idea for this particular novel?  

 

I love the idea of chivalry and romance mingling together. In the late 15^th century, the notion of the knight in shining armor was not a fantasy, but a reality. (If history doesn’t lie)  And as a lover of history and romance, I couldn’t resist researching and then writing about a group of knights who have been revered and served the English monarchy for generations. The Most Noble Order of the Garter was founded in 1348, holds the highest order of chivalry and is the most prestigious group in service to England. Even Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, is a Garter Knight today. I used many historical details about the Garter in my story.

What is your favorite scene in your new release?

 

The scene I enjoyed writing the most was when the heroine thinks she’s fooling the hero into believing she’s someone else and takes him to bed. The hardest scene to write was the one where the heroine has disguised herself in armor and takes on another squire in a competitive joust. I didn’t just have to worry about getting the reader excited about what was happening in the foray, but also make them understand how difficult it was for the heroine to pull off the rouse.

What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available?

 

I’m working on the second in the Garter series that will include a Highlander spin, as well as a standalone story set in Georgian times about a belly dancer. No release dates available yet, but I hope to back to visit here again when they are available.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

 

I’m in a Middle Eastern dance troupe and we perform for cultural events and festivals.

What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?

 

 I was born in Norway and everyone on my father’s side of the family, going back centuries, is Norwegian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

With a degree in journalism, Marisa has spent many years writing for the television industry. As an award-winning producer/director/marketer, she has worked on commercial production, show creation, product branding and social media. 

Marisa’s passion for writing began when her first-grade teacher read her poem aloud and posted it on the classroom wall. She soon followed up by writing plays for her neighborhood friends and hosting the productions in her garage. 

Marisa has always enjoyed reading romance novels and now realizes a dream come true, writing romantic adventures. She lives in Kettering, Ohio, with her first love and knight in shining armor, James.

 

You can visit Marisa at: www.marisadillon.com. And you can connect with Marisa on Facebook.com/pages/Marisa-Dillon and Twitter.com/marisadillon and follow her on https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10792736.Marisa_Dillon

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Buy link:  Amazon

 

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Giveaway:

 

Marisa Dillon will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.  Follow the tour HERE

a Rafflecopter giveaway