Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Do you have a new ereader? If you’re looking for something to read several of my friends have new releases this month. The genres are varied, so there is bound to be one to suit your tastes.

A Medieval Yule by Kaye Manro

A fortnight ago she left him.

Marcus of Windom stood alone in an empty castle without Lady Liana

by his side. The frigid winds of the Yule Season pressed upon him. He

pulled the parchment from whence he carried it and read her chilling

parting words once again. I can no longer live as your lady-wife… If ever

she returned would her sensual warmth be enough to melt the ice she

had caused to form around his broken heart?

Purchase A Medieval Yule

The Curse of Gremdon by Ciara Knight

In a world where marriage is forbidden, sex is only granted to male warriors, and the outer realm is full of murderous creatures, Arianna fights to protect the life of her only living relative, her brother.

Tardon, an elite warrior, is granted anything he desires by the Elders, but finds little joy in the voluptuous women presented to him. Born for the bloodlust found only in battle, complicated emotions emerge when he discovers his equal in the alluring warrior, Arianna.

Charged by the Elders with saving the castle from attack, Tardon and Arianna risk the curse when they traverse the vast outer realm to retrieve serum from the Tree of Life. If successful, the Elders have promised Tardon the right to marry, and Arianna the cure for her brother’s death fever. Will their love carry them through or will the discovery of a great deception be their ultimate demise?

Purchase The Curse of the Gremdon

Dragons at Midnight by Selena Illyria

One dragon is hot enough, but three can make this tiger shifter burn in the

most delightful ways.Tiger shifter Louisa thought she’d ring in the New

Year all alone. Little did she know that three younger dragon shifters plan

on making sure she celebrates things right. Add a little steam, a few

dragon shifters with dirty minds, and some creative use of furniture and

New Year’s Eve becomes the perfect scorching-hot party for four.
.

Purchase Dragons at Midnight

Marked for Surrender by Jennifer Leeland

When Zevon and Christophe are accused of being traitors to Nylar, they both believe the truth will come out and justice will prevail. But the Blueshift Brotherhood has targeted them and the two men end up with the Nyral Mistresses to be broken. Hope seems gone for the two lovers and they come face to face with their inner secrets when they face the most infamous Mistress of all: the Ball Breaker.

Mistress Andia Cyrus has broken thousands of criminals, turning dominant men into slaves. The two men she’s handed this time, however, are not the usual type she’s used to. They seem to be innocent, for one thing. For another, they’re in love. And for another, she’s starting to fall for them. She begins to dig deeper and soon finds a Blueshift Brotherhood assassin on her tail.

Fate seems to drag them together and Andia, Christophe and Zevon discover they can only survive if they are marked for surrender.

Purchase Marked for Surrender

Make Me Shiver by Aline Hunter

When Lacey loses control of her vehicle and finds herself trapped by ice and snow, she knows there’s only one person to call for help. Unfortunately, Michael may cause more turmoil than relief. She’s lusted for the gorgeous Dom ever since she first laid eyes on him. Trouble is, he doesn’t do vanilla and she’s not a submissive…or is she?

Michael’s hungered for Lacey for months, so when he notices her fleeting glimpses and blush-stained cheeks as he rescues her from an altercation with a guardrail, he decides it’s time to push the sultry beauty’s boundaries…only to discover Lacey’s not as reserved as she thinks.

Physical attraction blossoms into something neither anticipates, taking Michael and Lacey beyond kink, dominance and submission. Their newfound connection is strong. until a flame from Michael’s past returns, shatters the fragile trust he and Lacey have only just developed and threatens to destroy something neither wants to surrender.

Purchase Make Me Shiver

Melt by Natalie Anderson

When two frozen hearts collide…

Emma Reed closed her heart to love years ago after a lifetime spent getting kicked around foster homes and bad relationships. Now she’s on a mission to prove she deserves her recent award to paint a mural for a research base in Antarctica. Nothing and no one is going to get in her way.

After months working in recovery zones around the world, Hunter Wilson planned to escape everything this holiday season by rebuilding a lab at the Kiwi Research Base. Alone. No to family, no to fun. It’s isolation not intimacy he’s aching for. But when he sees the determined artist, that ache becomes an urge – after all, shouldn’t someone show her what two people can do with twenty-four hours of brilliant sunlight?

In the coldest place on earth, even the most frozen hearts can melt.

Purchase Melt

Don’t they sound great? I can’t wait to read the above books. All I have to do is find some reading time.

Do you intend to do some reading during the coming holidays? Do you think there will be ereaders, books or gift cards in your Christmas stocking?

Author, Selena Illyria is having a menage a trois week. I was really excited when she asked me to participate. Here’s the link for my post here.

I also have an interview over at D. Renee Bagby’s The Multiverse’s Archival Chambers

Pop back tomorrow to see if you’re the winner in my blog participation contest. Nothing like a little suspense!

And finally, check out Maria Zannini’s book coming to a store near you in May…

THE APOCALYPSE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK
Buy TOUCH OF FIRE by Maria Zannini
www.mariazannini.com

My special guest today is Selena Illyria. She has an unusual shifter in her new release. I’ll let her tell you about her hero, Renato.

First I’d like to thank Shelley for allowing me to invade her blog yet again.

I know it’s not a usual shifter type. Most shifter are either cats, dragons, wolves, etc., but a komodo dragon? After I had finished Discovering Passion, the second book in the Vampiropolis series, I knew I wanted give Renato a story. At first I had thought Magda should be a phoenix, but scrapped that idea. I wanted something different, some unusual, something that I don’t think someone has done yet. I knew I wanted to do a dragon shifter but what kind? Which one?
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I have a special guest today. Selena Illyria is here to talk about her Tartan Werewolf series. Her post prodded my curiosity and I decided to find out a little about tartan.

Here’s some tartan trivia:

1. Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours.

2. Tartan is associated with Scotland, although the earliest tartan dates back to the third or fourth century AD.

3. Until the late 19th century tartan was associated with a district or area rather than a clan.

4. Tartan became so identified with the Highland that after the battle of Cullodeon, the English forbade anyone to wear tartan. it was an attempt to quell the Scottish people.

And because Selena’s book is also about werewolves, I’m going to point you to two awesome posts written by Samhain author Jorrie Spencer about the wolves in Yellowstone National Park. The first post is here and the second is here.

Now over to Selena!

Howl With Me

Hi everyone! Thank You, so much Shelley for letting me takeover your blog again. *Grin*. In this guest blog we’re going to take a look at my upcoming release, Tartan Interlude. Iain and Katherine are back and this time love is in the air. Come with me for another trip in the world of the Tartan Werewolves.

Iain has come to realize that he has fallen love with his mate and must convince her that despite being with her for only a few months that his feelings are real. Katherine doesn’t think Iain could possible love her after only a few months. Can she resist him when he is determined to convince her?

Not only in this story do we revisit Katherine and Iain we also hear about other members of the pack. I love this story and am very excited to bring you yet another tale from that world. The Tartan Werewolves world is fun, sexy and wonderful to delve into. I can’t wait to introduce you to Robin, the Montgomery Twins: Lochlan and Rorick, Brody, Roarke, William and Kameron. *Grin* I hope you enjoy Tartan Interlude. Here’s a sneak peek. Hugs.

Selena Illyria

Tartan Interlude comes out Oct 10th at Changeling Press.

Are you ready to revisit the world of the Tartan Werewolves?

Unedited Excerpt:

He bent his head down and kissed her softly on the lips. It wasn’t enough. His tongue ran over the seam of her lips. Her mouth parted on a soft sigh and her tongue slipped out. At first it was a gentle exploration, the tips of both muscles poking each other before slipping and sliding over and against each other. Their heads rolled from side to side as his hand move south. The tips of fingers caressing her neck, over her shoulder and down her arm. Their fingers entwined for a brief second before he let go and took hold of her hip. Pulling her toward him, he slipped his arm around her. When he felt her body against his he couldn’t stop himself from grinding against her.

Her body moved against his, as his hips rocked forward and back imitating what he wanted to do at that very moment. His skin was too tight. He was slowly slipping into madness at the feel of his stomach clenching, his balls tightening against his body. The slow throb of his cock, straining against his pants and the bite of the zipper increased his arousal.

She gently scrapped her teeth against his bottom lip, sucking the plump flesh between her teeth. He groaned and tightened his hold. His hips pumped faster against her and she matched his rhythm grinding her body against his. Everything fell away for him. All he felt, all he knew was her.

-End of Excerpt-

Welcome back to Vampiropolis!

Selena Illyria here. Yup, we’re going back to Vamp City. J. This time I’m telling Lida’s story. Lida, you met in A Fling in Vampiropolis, out now at Changeling Press. I adore her character. It’s always fun going back to Vampiropolis and finding a new aspect of the city to explore. In Discovering Passion we get to visit the Vampiropolis Museum and the Sensual District, also we learn a little bit more about the founding of the city.
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My guest today is Selena Illyria who writes for Changeling Press. Selena says she was born with need to write and has an over active imagination. She loves to write stories featuring futuristic cities that can only be imagined, visit island kingdoms of vampire/dragons, giggle with mischievous pixies, peek in on faeries looking for their mates, check in on the naughty staff of an exclusive academy, and sigh over how in love a powerful business exec is with his wife.

Today, she’s telling us about her release, Tartan Surprise, which hit the cyber shelves this week.

Hi everyone! Thank you so much to Shelley for asking me back to Guest Blog.

I’m back with a new book, Tartan Surprise. This time we head over to Scotland where we meet Iain and Katherine. The full moon is near and Iain is a werewolf looking to take the edge off of some of his hungers. When he spies Katherine at the pub he thinks he’s found the perfect person to satisfy his hunger for sex. But he gets more than what he bargained for.

Here’s a little background on the story for you. Originally this story was subbed for the Heat Wave line of stories but the word count was too long, lol. My publisher loved the story so much she asked me to lengthen it. I was shocked and so excited that I said sure. Soon after I got my release date, the day after my birthday.

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Vampires are hot in the paranormal world at the moment. Readers can’t get enough of them. Debut author, Selena Illyria has set her book, A Fling in Vampiropolis in the vampire world, so of course, I had to ask…

1. How would you define a vampire?

Selena: Hmmm, well let’s see, first thing that comes to mind creature of the night. Who needs to drink blood to live but can also eat and go out into the sun. They are hard to kill and considered immortal but can be killed by either a beheading or having their heart destroyed. Also, they can be a detached, jaded and at times mistrustful of mortals.

2. Why do you think vampires are so popular amongst readers?

Selena: I think it’s the immortality aspect that appeals the most. The idea of never growing old, living forever, etc.. But also there the question of what have they seen? What do they know? Aspect of it all, but that ties into the immortality thing doesn’t it? LOL.

3. Tell us a little about A Fling in Vampiropolis—an elevator pitch, if you like.

Selena: The story is about a woman, Nevada Justice, who has a stressful job and she just wants to get away from it all. Go someplace exotic and foreign. Despite Vampiropolis being in the U.S. it is very exotic to her and foreign, as it was founded by vampires and it is one of the few all Vampire cities in the U.S.. There are other things there but we won’t get into that. *smile*
She meets a local vampire, Lucian Sandros and decides to have a fling with him. She starts to develop a bond with him, only for them to get into an argument on the last night she is to stay in town. Hurt, she goes back to Normalville (a term that is used to describe places where the paranormal and other populous are outnumbered by the mortal population) and back to her life and her stressful job. She doesn’t think she’ll see him again. So, what will she do when he does go after her? LOL. I’ll leave it at that.

4. What powers do your vampires have?

Selena: All the senses are increased and they have great strength. Also, they can appear and disappear at will. And they are excellent lovers. LOL

5. Where did the idea for your book come from?

Selena: I had been racking my brain for an idea for a short paranormal story. I wanted something that was in my mind different. The idea for the city came first and after that the idea for the characters and story came next. Then it was a matter of writing it. LOL.

6. Do you have any rituals you perform before you start writing?

Selena: I must have music. Sometimes a song is playing in my head when I get up in the morning. If I can identify it, that’s the music or song I listen to first. I mentally put together a sound track while getting breakfast together and letting the computer boot up. Once I’ve gone through email and I’ve made a mental outline of what I’m going to work on, I sit down and write. Sometimes I take breaks and watch TV or surf the web or exercise if I feel myself getting distracted or too energetic. I write until I’m either too tired or the muse as left me.

Selena’s book, A Fling in Vampiropolis is out on 28 March 2008 at Changeling Press. You can visit her website here.

What do you think about vampires? Like them or hate them? If you’re a fan, what powers do you like them to have? How would you define a vampire?