31 Days of Halloween Giveaway: Desire the Night by Amanda Ashley

On the 17th day of Halloween, Kensington has a giveaway just for you! Today you have a chance at winning a copy of Desire the Night by Amanda Ashley. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Open to US/CA only.

Blurb and Prologue via Kensington

Held captive in a basement prison, wrapped in silver chains, the vampire Gideon is too weak to fight the monster who enslaves him. For years, she’s tapped his precious blood like a fountain of youth—sustaining him with human females she captures for his pleasure. But with the latest victim she brings him, he senses something intriguingly different. Something dangerous, yet oh so tempting.

Kay Alissano is no ordinary woman. Every full moon, she must answer the call of the wild—unleashing the wolf within. As daughter of the Shadow Pack’s Alpha, Kay is extremely powerful—and when she’s offered up to Gideon, she doesn’t surrender easily. In wolf form, she might be able to unchain Gideon’s heart and set them both free—if only he can resist the urge to consume her, body and soul, before the next full moon…

Prologue

Gideon Marquet stared into the darkness, his limbs aching from the weight of the heavy silver chains that shackled his ankles to the thick cement wall behind him. His body felt like it was burning from the inside out, causing his veins to shrink, while his skin grew painfully tight with the need for sustenance.

So long since he had fed.

So long since his thirst had been satisfied.

His eyes narrowed as a tall woman appeared in the base­ment. Clad in a shimmering white robe trimmed in white fur, she looked like an angel when, in truth, she was anything but.

The hem of her velvet robe made a soft, swishing noise as she drew closer, then knelt outside the cell. Verah.

Gideon groaned inwardly as she picked up the slender, silver­bladed dagger that rested beside a golden jewel­encrusted goblet on a low wooden table. His body tensed as she began to chant, her voice soft, almost hypnotic. He winced as she reached between the bars and dragged the blade across his right thigh. Lifting the goblet, she held it under the wound to collect the dark red blood that leaked from the long, shal­low gash. When the goblet was half­full, she made a similar cut in his left thigh, chanting all the while. When the cup was full, she left the cellar.

She returned a short time later.

Gideon sat up a little straighter, his fangs extending as the cell door opened and a woman clad in a wrinkled brown dress was pushed inside. She fell to the floor, crying out as she scraped her knees on the cold cement. His hands clenched as the warm, sweet coppery scent of her blood filled his nostrils.

Blind with panic, the woman scrambled to her feet and ran to the iron­barred door.

“Please!” she cried, her hands fisting around the bars. “Let me out! Please, oh, please, let me out of here!”

But her frantic plea fell on deaf ears.

His prey sobbed hysterically as Verah turned and left the basement. With her only hope gone, the woman darted to a far corner of the cell, her back pressed against the bars, her arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Tears flooded her cheeks as she murmured, “Please, don’t.” But all he heard was the frantic beating of her heart, the whisper­soft sound of the blood flowing through her veins.

“Please.” She fell to her knees, hands raised in supplication.

But that wouldn’t save her.

Nothing could save her now. It was feeding time.

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31 Days of Halloween Review: Into the Woods by Kim Harrison

Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond

By: Kim Harrison

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Release Date: October 9, 2012

Format: e-ARC

Source: publisher via Edelweiss for an honest review

Kim Harrison has brought to her fans a collection of short stories from her Hollows series along with a few that are from outside the Hollow. Many of the stories have been published before in anthologies but now Kim has brought them all together just for us fans. I love that Kim gives us a background before each story. My favorite short was Million Dollar Baby which takes us on Trent and Jenks and their Elf Quest to save Trent’s daughter. It provided some good insight into Trent and his insecurities. Many of the other stories I have read before but it was fun to revisit the Hollows. Her stories from outside the Hollows, though not my favorite, I still enjoyed the creative aspect of them. Kim takes us into the world of dryads and other paranormal creatures and also provides the reader to a little insight of the direction she might take in the future.

I loved that Kim has brought all these stories together for the super fan. I am not a huge fan of short stories but I did enjoy Into the Woods for the fact that it provides the back story to her popular Hollow characters. This is definitely worth adding to the collection.

PURCHASE INTO THE WOODS

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31 Days of Halloween Giveaway: Death Warmed Over by Kevin J. Anderson

On the 15th day of Halloween, Kensington has a giveaway just for you! Today you have a chance at winning a copy of Death Warmed Over by Kevin J. Anderson. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Open to US/CA only.

Blurb and Chapter One via Kensington

Ever since the Big Uneasy unleashed vampires, werewolves, and other undead denizens on the world, it’s been hell being a detective—especially for zombie P.I. Dan Chambeaux. Taking on the creepiest of cases in the Unnatural Quarter with a human lawyer for a partner and a ghost for a girlfriend, Chambeaux redefines “dead on arrival.” But just because he was murdered doesn’t mean he’d leave his clients in the lurch. Besides, zombies are so good at lurching.

Now he’s back from the dead and back in business—with a caseload that’s downright unnatural. A resurrected mummy is suing the museum that put him on display. Two witches, victims of a curse gone terribly wrong, seek restitution from a publisher for not using "spell check" on its magical tomes. And he’s got to figure out a very personal question—Who killed him?

For Dan Chambeaux, it’s all in a day’s work. (Still, does everybody have to call him “Shamble”?) Funny, fresh, and irresistible, this cadaverous caper puts the P.I. in R.I.P….with a vengeance.

CHAPTER ONE

I’m dead, for starters—it happens. But I’m still ambulatory, and I can still think, still be a contributing member of society (such as it is, these days). And still solve crimes.

As the detective half of Chambeaux & Deyer Investigations, I’m responsible for our caseload, despite being shot in the head a month ago. My unexpected murder caused a lot of inconvenience to me and to others, but I’m not the sort of guy to leave his partner in the lurch. The cases don’t solve themselves.

My partner, Robin Deyer, and I had built a decent business for ourselves, sharing office space, with several file cabinets full of pending cases, both legal matters and private investigations. Although catching my own killer is always on my mind, paying clients have to take priority.

Which is why I found myself sneaking into a cemetery at night while trying to elude a werewolf hit man who’d been following me since sunset—in order to retrieve a lost painting for a ghost.

Just another day at work for me.

The wrought-iron cemetery gate stood ajar with a Welcome mat on either side. These days, visiting hours are round-theclock, and the gate needs to stay open so that newly risen undead can wander out. When the gates were locked, neighbors complained about moaning and banging sounds throughout the night, which made it difficult for them to sleep.

When I pulled, the gate glided open on well-oiled hinges. A small sign on the bars read, MAINTAINED BY FRIENDS OF THE GREENLAWN CEMETERY. There were more than a hundred ostentatious crypts to choose from, interspersed with less prominent tombstones. I wished I had purchased a guide pamphlet ahead of time, but the gift shop was open only on weekends. I had to find the Ricketts crypt on my own—before the werewolf hit man caught up with me.

The world’s a crazy place since the Big Uneasy, the event that changed all the rules and allowed a flood of baffled unnaturals to return—zombies, vampires, werewolves, ghouls, succubi, and the usual associated creatures. In the subsequent ten years, the Unnatural Quarter had settled into a community of sorts—one that offered more work than I could handle.

Now the quarter moon rode high in the sky, giving me enough light to see the rest of the cemetery. The unnatural thug, hired by the heirs of Alvin Ricketts, wasn’t one of the monthly full-moon-only lycanthropes: He was a full-time hairy, surly beast, regardless of the time of month. Those are usually the meanest ones.

I moved from one crypt to the next, scrutinizing the blocky stone letters. The place was quiet, spooky . . . part of the ambience. You might think a zombie—even a well-preserved one like myself—would feel perfectly at ease in a graveyard. After all, what do I have to be afraid of? Well, I can still get mangled, for one thing. My body doesn’t heal the way it used to, and we’ve all seen those smelly decomposing shamblers who refuse to take care of themselves, giving zombies everywhere a bad name. And werewolves are experts at mangling.

I wanted to avoid that, if possible.

Even undead, I remain as handsome as ever, with the exception of the holes left by the bullet—the largish exit wound on my forehead and the neat round one at the back of my head, where some bastard came up from behind, pressed the barrel of a .32 caliber pistol against my skull, and popped me before I got a good look at him. Fortunately, a low-slouched fedora covers the big hole. For the most part . . .

In the broader sense, the world hasn’t changed much since the Big Uneasy. Most people go about their daily lives, having families, working jobs. But though a decade has passed, the law—not to mention law enforcement—still hasn’t caught up with the new reality. According to the latest statistics by the DUS, the Department of Unnatural Services, about one out of every seventy-five corpses wakes up as a zombie, with the odds weighted heavily in favor of suicides or murder victims.

Lucky me to be on the interesting side of statistics.

After returning to life, I had shambled back into the office, picked up my caseload, and got to work again. Same as before . . . sort of. Fortunately, my zombie status isn’t a handicap to being a private detective in the Unnatural Quarter. As I said, the cases don’t solve themselves.

Days of investigation had led me to the graveyard. I dug through files, interviewed witnesses and suspects, met with the ghost artist Alvin Ricketts and separately with his indignant still-living family. (Despite Robin’s best mediation efforts in the offices, the ghost and the living family refused to speak to each other.)

Alvin Ricketts was a successful pop-culture painter before his untimely demise, attributable to a month’s worth of sleeping pills washed down with a full bottle of twenty-one-yearold single malt. (No sense letting it go to waste.) The ghost told me he would have taken more pills, but his insurance only authorized a thirty-day supply, and even in the deep gloom of his creative depression, Alvin had (on principle) refused to pay the additional pharmacy charge.

Now, whereas one in seventy-five dead people returns as a zombie, like myself, one in thirty comes back as a ghost (statistics again heavily weighted toward murder victims and suicides). Alvin Ricketts, a pop-art genius, had suffered a long and debilitating creative block, “artistic constipation” he called it. Feeling that he had nothing left to live for, he took his own life.

And then came back.

His ghost, however, found the death experience so inspirational that he found a reawakened and vibrant artistic fervor. Alvin set about painting again, announcing he would soon release his first new work with great fanfare.

His grieving (sic) family was less than enthusiastic about his return to painting, as well as his return from the dead. The artist’s tragic suicide, and the fact that there would never be more Alvin Ricketts paintings, had caused his existing work to skyrocket in value—until the ghost’s announcement of renewed productivity made the bottom fall out of the market. Collectors waited to see what new material Alvin would release, already speculating about how his artistic technique might have changed in his “post-death period.”

The Ricketts family sued him, claiming that since Alvin was dead and they were his heirs, they now owned everything in his estate, including any new or undiscovered works and the profits from subsequent sales.

Alvin contested the claim. He hired Robin Deyer to fight for his rights, and she promptly filed challenges while the ghost happily worked on his new painting. No one had yet seen it, but he claimed the work was his masterpiece.

The Ricketts heirs took the dispute to the next level. “Someone” broke into Alvin’s studio and stole the painting. With the supposed masterpiece gone, the pop artist’s much-anticipated return to the spotlight was put on hold. The family vehemently denied any involvement, of course.

That’s when the ghost hired me, at Robin’s suggestion, to track down and retrieve the painting—by any means necessary. The Ricketts heirs had hired a thug to keep me from succeeding in my investigation.

I heard a faint clang, which I recognized as the wrought-iron cemetery gate banging shut against the frame. The werewolf hit man wasn’t far behind me. On the bright side, the fact that he was breathing down my neck probably meant I was getting close.

The cemetery had plenty of shadows to choose from, and I stayed hidden as I approached another crypt. BENSON. Not the right one. I had to find RICKETTS.

Werewolves are usually good trackers, but the cemetery abounds with odors of dead things, and he must have kept losing my scent. Since I change clothes frequently and maintain high standards of personal hygiene for a zombie, I don’t have much of a smell about me. Unlike most unnaturals, I don’t choose to wear colognes, fancy specialized unnatural deodorants, or perfumes.

I turned the corner in front of another low stone building fronted by stubby Corinthian columns. Much to my delight, I saw the inhabitant’s name: RICKETTS. The flat stone door had been pried open, the caulking seal split apart.

New rules required quick-release latches on the insides of tombs now, so the undead can conveniently get back out. Some people were even buried with their cell phones, though I doubted they’d get good service from inside. Can you hear me now?

Now, if Alvin Ricketts were a zombie, he would have broken the seal when he came back out of the crypt. But since ghosts can pass through solid walls, Alvin would not have needed to break any door seals for his reemergence. So why was the crypt door ajar?

I spotted the silhouette of a large hairy form loping among the graves, sniffing the ground, coming closer. He still hadn’t seen me. I pulled open the stone door just enough to slip through the narrow gap into the crypt, hoping my detective work was right.

During the investigation into the missing masterpiece, the police had obtained search warrants and combed through the homes, properties, and businesses of the Ricketts heirs. Nothing. With my own digging, I discovered a small storage unit that had been rented in the name of Gomez Ricketts, the black sheep of the family—and I was sure they had hidden the painting there.

But when the detectives served their warrant and opened the unit, they found only cases and cases of contraband vampire porn packaged as sick kiddie porn. Because the starlets were actually old-school vampires who had been turned while they were children, they claimed to be well over the legal age—in real years if not in physical maturity. Gomez Ricketts had been arrested for pedophilia/necrophilia, but he was out on bail. Even Robin, in her best legal opinion, couldn’t say which way the verdict might go.

More to the point, we didn’t find the stolen painting in the storage unit.

So I kept working on the case. Not only did I consult with Alvin’s ghost, I also went over the interviews he’d given after his suicide. The ghost had gone into a manic phase, deliriously happy to put death behind him. He talked about awakening to find himself sealed in a crypt, his astral form rising from the cold physical body, his epiphany of throwing those morbid chains behind him. He had vowed never to go back there.

That’s when I figured it out: The last place Alvin would ever think to look for his painting was inside his own crypt, which was property owned by the Ricketts family (though a recent court ruling deemed that a person owned his own grave in perpetuity— a landmark decision that benefitted several vampires who were caught in property-rights disputes).

Tonight, I planned to retrieve the painting from its hiding place.

I slipped into the dank crypt, hoping I could grab Alvin’s masterpiece and slip away before the werewolf figured out what I was doing.

It should have been as quiet as a tomb inside, but it wasn’t. I heard a rustling sound, saw two lamplike yellow eyes blinking at me. A shrill nasal voice called out, “It’s taken—this one’s occupied! Go find your own.” “Sorry, didn’t mean to disturb you,” I said.
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31 Days of Halloween Giveaway: Haunted by Heather Graham

On the 12th day of Halloween, I have a giveaway just for you! Today you have a chance at winning a my personal copy of Haunted by Heather Graham. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Open US/CA only.

Blurb via GoodReads
Matt Stone doesn't believe in ghosts. But there are those who are convinced his home, a historic Virginia estate that dates back to the Revolutionary War, is haunted. Pressured to get at the truth about some strange happenings at Melody House, he agrees to let Harrison Investigations explore the house. But he isn't ready for beautiful, intriguing Darcy Tremayne.

As a paranormal investigator, Darcy has learned to believe in the unbelievable. And she's given Matt fair warning: sometimes people don't like the skeletons she finds. She never dreamed that the warning would apply to herself. For she's about to discover that Melody House holds much more than a simple mystery form the distant past. What it holds is a very real and lethal danger, one that will cast her into a struggle against the worlds of both the living and the dead
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31 Days of Halloween Giveaway: Born to Bite by Hannah Howell

On the 11th day of Halloween, Kensington has a giveaway just for you! Today you have a chance at winning a copy of Born to Bite by Hannah Howell; Erica Ridley; Diana Cosby. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Open to US/CA only.

Blurbs and Prologue via Kensington

Darkly handsome and dangerously sexy, these voracious vampires are out for blood—and bound for eternal love…

Dark Secret by Hannah Howell Alone in the world, Murdina Dunbar sets out in search of the only family she has left—and finds an ally in the mysterious Sir Gillanders Baldwin. Something about her sexy protector stirs her blood. Soon, not even the whispers that he’s a dangerous demon can keep her from his bed….

Never Been Bitten by Erica Ridley
Rumored to be a vampire, the rakish Mr. Macane is ravishing all the ladies of the ton! Yet, Miss Elspeth Ramsay cannot bring herself to tremble in his presence. But once Ellie feels the touch of his teeth at her throat, she finds herself biting him back! Surely this sudden bloodlust can only mean danger for her family—and her heart….

Highland Vampire by Diana Cosby
As King of the Highland Coven, vampire Aedan MacGregor knows that falling for the fey Rowan Campbell could destroy her. But one taste of her healing blood and he craves her like no other. Dare claim her as his own, knowing he might lose her forever?

PROLOGUE

Spring 1514

Scotland

The two crosses were simple, the letters carved into the wood neat but obviously done by an untrained hand. It would not be long before the words were stolen away by the wind and rain. A shiver went through Murdina Dunbar, and she knew it had nothing to do with the bite of chill in the wind. Her aunt and uncle had been buried in unconsecrated ground.

Murdina sighed and fought the urge to weep. It was not so much grief that caused the sting of tears in her eyes as it was a crushing disappointment. She had traveled so far to find her aunt and uncle, hoped for a cousin or two as well. Every step of the way she had prayed that she would soon be part of a family again. Instead, she found herself still alone. Utterly alone.

“If ye be looking for their demon spawn, ye are too late. She and that bairn she hid are gone.”

Demon spawn? Murdina turned to look at the man who had spoken to her, annoyed with herself for being so lost in self-pity she had not heard his approach. He was short, filthy, and had a belly that revealed he ate too well far too often. The intuition that had cursed her for her whole life immediately marked him as ignorant and brutal.

“What do ye mean by demon spawn, sir?” she asked, and knew her anger over his words had seeped into her tone, for his muddy brown eyes narrowed with wary malice.

“The mother was a witch, aye? What else could she have been with all her potions and love of the night, eh?” He scratched his belly. “We took care of the lassie’s witch of a mother, but no one wanted to hurt the lass, too. She was a healer like her mother, and we didnae want to be left with no healer at all, did we? Then wee Adeline, their demon spawn, took in that cursed bairn. Wheesht, there was nay denying that the bairn was Satan’s own. Anne herself said so when she tried to be rid of the bairn that demon had begotten on her, but the lass saved it. We tried to get rid of the lad ourselves after that, but she ran off with him. Young Adeline guarded that lad as if he were her own.”

Good for her, Murdina thought, proud of her cousin. “Where did she run to?”

“Why do ye care? Ye are weel shed of the likes of her.” He looked her over. “Though, now that I get a good look at you, I see ye have the look of her and her fool da. All that cursed red hair, too. Blood will tell, aye?”

“Will it? Then ye will be verra pleased to learn that I dinnae intend to linger here. As soon as ye tell me where Adeline went, I will leave.”

“Dinnae ken where she went, do I? Some of our men chased her, but they didnae return. Another lot of fools went out ahunting for her, and they did stop here for a wee while. One of their men was hurt. They said the lass had taken up with one of those demons one hears tales of. MacNachtons the mon called them. One of them demons was helping the lass protect the bairn, and they were all headed toward the far hills,” he said and nodded, pointing toward the north.

Murdina sighed, picked up the reins of her sturdy pony, and started to walk in the direction he had waved his short, dirty finger in.

“ ’Tis said no one returns from those hills,” he called after her.

“I certainly willnae be returning, whether I go to those hills or nay.”

Her heart was choked with grief and sympathy for her cousin. Poor Adeline, Murdina thought, although she was pleased to discover she had a cousin and the cousin’s name. Adeline was as alone as she was, however. All her cousin had was a bairn that fools like that filthy man behind her wanted to kill. Her cousin would need help to protect the child, she decided. The man marked as a demon by superstitious fools might not have stayed with Adeline. All Murdina had to do now was find her cousin. As she looked toward the distant hills, she hesitated and shivered, but quickly stiffened her spine. The hills were shrouded in a heavy mist despite the fact that it was a bright, sunny day. It made her uneasy, but she shook off the tickle of fear that tried to take root in her heart. If she had to track her cousin into those ominous mists, she would do so. Now that she knew she had family left, she would allow nothing to stop her from finding Adeline. Not even wild, frightening talk of demons.

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31 Day of Halloween Giveaway: Dracula's Secret by Linda Mercury

On the 10th day of Halloween, Kensington has a giveaway just for you! Today you have a chance at winning a gifted ebook copy of Dracula's Secret by Linda Mercury. To enter just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Open internationally but limited to sites that permit ebook gifting.

Blurb via Amazon
In a new world where paranormals and humans share an uneasy coexistence, the most dangerous and sensual legend of the night lives once more--and one of the greatest secrets of all time is about to come out. . ..

She Hungers For His Light
She calls herself Valerie Tate. One of the few vampires left on earth, as beautiful as she is powerful, Valerie has resisted her craving for human blood for years, just as she once hid her true gender. But the night she lays eyes on the most enticing man she’s ever seen, her appetite can no longer be denied. He radiates goodness and light--and searing sexual energy. Valerie must have him. Taste him. Consume him. For he is temptation--and he is her destiny. . .
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ARC Review: A Dangerous Inheritance by Alison Weir

A Dangerous Inheritance: A Novel ofRivals and the Secret of the Tower

By: Alison Weir

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Release Date: October 2, 2012

Format: e-ARC

Source: publisher via Edelweiss for an honest review

Weir has taken the two lives of eerily similar usurpers and entwined them in this engrossing novel of passion, rivalry, betrayal, love and loss. Weir takes the reader from past to present by telling the story of Katherine Gray, sister to Lady Jane Grey (the nine-day queen), and Kate Planteganet, the illegitimate daughter of Richard III. Throwing in the secret of the Princes in the Tower, Weir flawlessly weaves the complicated lives of England’s royalty.

After Queen Mary Tudor overthrows Jane Grey, Katherine’s life is thrown upside down and now she must walk the tightrope between Mary and Elizabeth’s rivalry. Katherine has been told that she will be next in line to inherit the throne but as court politics go, she is passed up and Elizabeth ascends to the throne. Having already known what Mary was up to, Elizabeth sees Katherine as a rival for the throne and will do everything to stop her council from naming Katherine as the next in line. After stumbling upon the mystery of the Princes in the Tower, Katherine finds that her life is similar to Kate Plantagenet, whose father was believed to have done away with the Princes. This mystery whiles away the hours that Katherine must spend in the Tower because of Elizabeth’s wanting to keep her enemy close.

Kate has always thought that her father could walk on water but soon she finds that there are many rumors and her own life is in danger being who she is. After being forced into a marriage she didn’t want, Kate finds her quest to discover what happened to the Princes and clear her deceased father’s name, the only thing that keeps her mind off her unhappiness

Though switching from one time period to another was confusing at times, I thought Weir did an amazing job. I highly recommend this for all Tudor obsessed fans just for the fact that it is a unique and refreshing take on the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. 

 

PURCHASE A DANGEROUS INHERITANCE

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