Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Blog Tour: My Fallen by Ashlyn Mathews (Author Giveaway too)

This blog tour is presented by Goddess Fish Promotions.
Click HERE for more tour information.
Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature: Ashlyn Mathews and My Fallen.


Ashlyn Mathews is a paranormal and contemporary romance author. She is fascinated with strong men and women who walk a fine line between good and evil, happiness and loneliness, and duty to family and love. 

A big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Japanese Anime, she incorporates various weapons into her paranormal romances and gives her characters out-of-this-world names just because she can. She lives in the inspiring gloom of the Pacific Northwest with her husband, four young boys and a Golden Retriever that likes to boss her around. When she’s not writing, you can find her at her day job, shuttling her boys to and from soccer practices and games, listening to music, reading, or connecting with others on Facebook and Twitter.


Twitter:  @ashlynmathews



When a normally quiet and polite Vampire Slayer is tasked to help an arrogant and selfish demon, only trouble can ensue.

Guilt-ridden by a mistake that cost her fellow Slayers their lives and the subsequent tarnished reputation of her brother’s business, Slayer-born Elise Castle agrees to work with the sexy, but arrogant and selfish, Xavier Doom, by bringing in his demon-turned-vampire friend. If she succeeds, her brother can hire more Slayers while Xavier’s status guarantees them more clients.

Xavier is a Fallen, a special kind of demon with an insatiable appetite for women, money and power. When his best friend is kidnapped and turned into a vampire, he hires the best Slayer money can buy. If the Slayer fails, Xavier stands to lose not only his childhood friend, but the opportunity to skyrocket his wealth with the top secret information hidden in his friend’s mind.

Xavier’s arrogance grates on her nerves while his concern and charm reels Elise in. But can she give her heart to a creature like her father, a Fallen, who had abandoned his family for the appeal of money and power? Or will she see Xavier for the good and loyal man he truly is?

Defiant and strong-willed, Elise is a challenge. Yet her strength and courage appeals to Xavier while her no sex policy has him hot for her. As his feelings for her grow, he must make a decision. Give his heart and soul to a woman who can only offer him her love, or walk away from her and seize the chance for more money and power?

Lives and friendships are at stake while love and loyalty is put to the test. Will Elise and Xavier come out unscathed and together? Or will a secret from Elise’s past tear them apart?


Excerpt:

“Why is a human pacing outside your door?” Elise said.

Over her shoulder, she glanced at the man, the glass pane of the door giving her a full view of him. When he noticed she stared, he stopped his pacing and stared back. Hard. Elise swallowed then hissed when she realized he reacted to her perusal of him, one of his brows lifting while his lips curved into a salacious grin. Ignoring the out of control beats of her heart, she redirected her attention back to her brother, Sam.

On the way home from her nightly run, Elise had noticed a light on in her brother’s office window. Rather than head straight to her apartment, she had rushed to Sam’s office in the same building. In their dangerous job of hunting and recovering monsters, the close proximity of his business to their personal residences could easily make her and Sam targets for trouble.

Yeah, Sam might be a grown man, capable of taking care of himself, but Elise still worried for his safety. The past decade of her life had been full of one tragedy after another, and no way would she risk losing her baby brother.

“He’s here for you, Elise. He wants you to hunt a friend of his who was turned by a vamp a couple of hours ago.”

“What?” Can’t be. Human men didn’t stray near her, and the one that had had died.


Author Giveaway:
Ashlyn will be awarding a backlist eBook in the winner's choice of format at every stop. The grand prize will be a jewelry holder (similar to the one in the picture) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, and coffee beans from Seattle's Cafe Vitta and Seattle Theo organic chocolate bar to a randomly drawn host. (US ONLY)


My Thoughts:
I am loving this story.  The characters are wonderful, perfectly flawed and flawless all in one.  The story is different than anything I have read, with a twist on the "infected" or newly turned so it rings with originality. The relationship, so to speak, between Xavier and Elise is fun to watch unfold.  I can't wait to get to the end.  

Book Blast: Wind's Aria by Tessa Stockton (author giveaway)

This book blast is presented by Goddess Fish Promotions.
Click HERE for more tour information.
Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the book blast!
It is my pleasure to feature:
Tessa Stockton and Wind's Aria.

A veteran of the performing arts and worldwide missions, Tessa Stockton also contributed as a writer/editor for ministry publications, ghostwriter for political content, and she headed a column on the topic of forgiveness. Today she writes romance and intrigue novels in a variety of genres. In addition to her fantasy romance, WIND’S ARIA, she’s the author of suspense/thriller, THE UNSPEAKABLE, political intrigue/romance, THE UNFORGIVABLE, and a literary short story, LOVE AND LULL, with more in the works.

www.TessaStockton.com ~ https://twitter.com/TessaStockton ~ https://www.facebook.com/tessastockton


Wind's Aria by Tessa Stockton
Blurb:

Elected as the Songstress, Aria takes her place on the sacred platform to sing before every dawn. As long as she does so, peace and abundant life belong to her people. One morning, amidst a strange wind that brings with it a curse in its eerie howl, Aria loses her ability to make music. But the encroaching death that transpires isn’t her biggest tragedy. It’s that she adores the cause of her blunder, for he’s a magnificent winged creature who’s stolen more than her voice.

Excerpt:

Fog continued to dance around them covering most of his body, to her dismay. Just curious, she convinced herself. She closed her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose to concentrate . . . something that seemed hard to do at that moment.

“Feeling better?” The smooth notes of his words swam through her ears.

“Mmm.” She nodded. “I guess.”

He continued to stare.

Aria cleared her throat. “Um . . . can I ask you a question?”

“You may ask . . .”

“But will you answer?”

“That depends.”

“Oh. Well. How did you get to be so huge when all the Meleyans are rather small? And why haven’t I seen you before?”

“That’s two questions.”

“S-sorry.”

He exhaled a steady stream of air, adding to the mist, as if deliberating.

Aria felt the strength of his breath, blowing strands of her hair across her face.

Slow, yet with precision, he lifted a lock from the curve of her mouth and rubbed the strands between his fingers. He murmured, “Soft and orange, like the petals of prairie-tails.” Then he bent and smelled her hair, closing his eyes. “And sweet like the honey of bees.” Again he held her gaze. The corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Do you have a sting?”

“I asked you a question first—”

“Two,” he corrected. Then he smiled.



Tessa will be awarding a $50 Amazon Gift Card
 to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her reviews tour.