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2/08/2013

Entangled In Love Hop! CONTEST!

Looking for Em Petrova's post or the Love Is In The Air hop? Scroll down!


Click the above graphic to check out what the other authors are giving away during the Entangled In Love blog hop!

YAY, another fun Entangled Publishing blog hop! It's almost Valentine's Day, and for a romance author like me, it's a great time of year!

To up the romance quotient, I'm going to share one of my favorite snippets from my recent Entangled Publishing Brazen release, NO FLOWERS REQUIRED, book 2 in the Love Required series. NO ROMANCE REQUIRED, book 3 in the series, will release later this year!


The next evening, Alexa came home to a gray and dreary apartment. The drizzly weather definitely hadn’t helped her mood. She’d had a blah day with not one, but two snarly customers, and only one of them had purchased an arrangement.

She sighed and set aside her purse on the table inside the door. Only one bright spot cheered up her gloom—maybe Dillon had left her another present. Or better yet, perhaps she would find him stretched out naked on her air bed, ready to do her bidding. A girl could hope.

But alas, there was no Dillon in her apartment. And no flowers. Tonight a plastic snake peeked out of the jar on her windowsill. Laughter spilled out of her as she grabbed the note he’d left behind.

When you said snake, I got confused. If this isn’t what you had in mind, call me. I’m all done working on your apartment. Let me know if you need anything else. D.
 

What's up for grabs at my blog stop?

One US winner will win a grab bag of swag and fun book-related goodies! You could get a bookmark, a signed book, a gift card, a mug or other fun items...never know what will be in the package!

One International winner will win an ebook from my backlist of their choice!

How do you enter?

1) Answer this question (please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!): This Valentine's Day, which fictional hero will be on your ereader or your nightstand? Share with me and everyone else so we can add to our TBR lists!

2) LIKE me on my Facebook reader page: www.facebook.com/cariquinnauthor

3) SIGN UP for my new quarterly newsletter here or on my website www.cariquinn.com (There will be lots of news and giveaways!)

Enjoy the hop and Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to erotic romance author, Em Petrova! CONTEST!

Looking for the Love In The Air hop? Scroll down!

Welcome to Em Petrova, author of HARD RIDIN', book 1 in the Country Fever series from Samhain Publishing. Em and I share an awesome editor, and I can't wait to read this story! Look at that gorgeous cover! And read on for how to enter an incredible GIVEAWAY celebrating the book's release!


The Wand Chooses the Wizard
By Em Petrova
 
Those of you Harry Potter fans will recognize the title of my post today. When Harry goes to Diagon Alley to get his first wand, the wand-maker Ollivander says this to him. You might wonder what this has to do with romance, especially the smutty cowboy type like my latest release HARD RIDIN’, now available from Samhain Publishing.
 
Well, let me tell you a little story. Recently my mother came to visit. We haven’t seen each other in two years. About six months ago, I clued her in about my writing career. As she is a Jehovah’s Witness and pretty strict in her ideas, you can see why I put off telling her. *grin*
 
When she looked at my wall of covers in my office (35 of them), she was brought face-to-face with the content of my books. Each cover features hot bodies with lots of skin in various poses of passion. Of course, her question was why I write erotic romance.
 
Years ago, when I was learning the craft and trying to find my voice, style, and make my way into the publishing industry, I was writing paranormal romance. As most authors have experienced, I was rejected right and left. One day, I came across a submissions page for an erotic romance publisher and I swear I heard trumpets blare and that halo of light that silhouettes Harry when he picks up the wand destined to be his attached itself to me.
 
I’d always struggled to keep the heat out of my book. Sometimes I’d write smoldering scenes and have to go back and delete later to make it more “reader-friendly”. Imagine my excitement when I found a lot of readers were looking for that heat I struggled to staunch.
 
So I wrote three chapters and submitted to this publisher. A day later, I received a request for a full manuscript, WHICH WASN’T WRITTEN. So I locked myself in my office for four days and wrote the rest of that book. Two days later I received a contract.
 
What I told my mother was that the wand chooses the wizard. I was meant to let dirty words and heat stream onto the screen. HARD RIDIN’ is one of my favorite books I’ve written to date. I hope you’ll follow the link for an excerpt. And a big thanks to Cari Quinn for allowing me to hijack her blog today!

I’d love to hear from you! One lucky commenter will win
$10 Starbucks Gift Card. Give me a shout for a chance to
win!
 
BLURB:

One man by day, the other by night. With cowboys this hot, who needs sleep?

Country Fever, Book 1

Eight months after her lover, Holden, went off to join the Alaskan fishing fleet, Laurel gave up on him and soothed her broken heart by focusing on her dream of owning a small organic farm. Now her crop is growing—and so are her feelings for Jens, the hunky rancher who owns the land she’s tending.

Behind her affection for Jens, though she hides a secret: she still aches for Holden. If Jens knew she once loved his best friend, she fears he’ll walk out on her, too.

When Holden returns to find his girl in Jens’s arms, he’s nearly crippled with jealous rage. And with fear that she’ll run away from them both unless they figure out a solution—fast. It’s Jens who comes up with the crazy-hot idea to share her.

As their three-way dance of seduction heats up, the sexual and emotional barriers fall like dominos. But now it’s Jens who’s holding onto a secret. One that could not only destroy their tenuous bond, but leave them all without a home.
 


Thanks for reading!

Em Petrova
~where words mean so much more~

2/06/2013

Love Is In The Air Blog Hop! CONTEST!


Huge thanks to Under The Covers Book Blog for having this great hop!

Happy Valentine's Day! Like my sparkly new blog digs? Lots of hearts here!

As usual, I'm behind on sending out prizes, but I'm slowly but surely getting caught up. For this hop, I'm offering a GRAB BAG of swag and other fun book related stuff to one US winner, and an ebook from my backlist to an international winner.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm going to share a couple of romantic lines from one of the romantic scenes in my books. Bonus points if anyone can guess which book! :) (HINT: It's the book at the top of the left column!)

The familiarity almost broke her. His touch, his smell, the way his nose bumped hers in his urgency to seize her mouth. He took possession of her with confidence, the kind she’d found so sexy once upon a time. If she’d only tasted his skill in the kiss, she would’ve shoved him back and told him to go to hell. But she could sense the desperation in each conquering stroke of his tongue and every strangled groan trapped in his throat.

His teeth scraped her lower lip as he drew back, his eyes steady on hers.Wildly blue and hot with need, those eyes made her want to believe. “I love you, Alexa. You were the only thing worth risking you for. If taking back what I did means I couldn’t be there to watch you succeed, I wouldn’t do it.”

Her head pounded, making his words rattle around like pinballs. She simply couldn’t process what he’d said, not after he’d already shaken her down to her toes with that scorcher of a kiss. Her lips were still tingling. Everything was still tingling.

The sound of clapping made her glance around the banquet hall. Everyone seemed to be grinning at her and Dillon. She, the woman who was so aware of how she was behaving at all times, hadn’t even noticed that they’d created a spectacle.

“Don’t look at them. Look at me.”

What do you have to do to be entered?

1) Leave a comment (WITH EMAIL addy please!) answering this question:

How will YOU be celebrating THIS Valentine's Day?

2) Optional: Either become a follower of the blog, sign up for my newsletter (first issue out this spring!) or Like my FB fan page at www.facebook.com/cariquinnauthor.

Keep hopping!