Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week comes from Working Stiff by Rachel Caine. This is the first book in a new series and features a funeral director heroine.

Not only were they selling some hard-core drug; they were bilking people. How could Fairview possibly be telling people he was bringing back the dead?

page 38, Working Stiff

Blurb:

It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it – dead or alive.

Bryn Davis knows working at Fairview Mortuary isn’t the most glamorous career choice, but at least it offers stable employment – until she discovers her bosses using a drug that resurrects the clientele . . . as part of an extortion racket. Now Bryn faces being terminated (literally) with extreme prejudice.

With the assistance of corporate double agent Patrick McCallister, Bryn has a chance to take down the bigger problem – pharmaceutical company Pharmadene, which treats death as the ultimate corporate loyalty program. She’d better do it fast before she becomes a zombie slave – a real working stiff.

She’d be better off dead . . .

Purchase Working Stiff

What are you reading this week? Leave a teaser or a link to your teaser in the comments section. I love adding to my to-read list

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m currently reading Second Grave on the Left by Darynda Jones. I loved the first Charley Davidson book, First Grave on the Right and have been looking forward to reading the followup. So far, so good!

Here’s my teaser:

“Oh. So, did you buy this car used?” I asked, thinking back to the dead guy in her trunk and wondering how he got there. I still needed to figure out if Cookie had been a black widow before she met me.

page 20, Second Grave on the Left

Charley Davidson, Grim Reaper Extraordinaire, is back in this sexy, suspenseful novel of supernatural shenanigans

When Charley is rudely awakened in the middle of the night by her best friend who tells her to get dressed quickly and tosses clothes out of the closet at her, she can’t help but wonder what Cookie’s up to. Leather scrunch boots with a floral miniskirt? Together? Seriously? Cookie explains that a friend of hers named Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she just got a text from her setting up a meet at a coffee shop downtown. They show up at the coffee shop, but no Mimi. But Charley finds a message on the bathroom wall. Mimi left a clue, a woman’s name. Mimi’s husband explains that his wife had been acting strange since she found out an old friend of hers from high school had been found murdered a couple weeks prior. The same woman Mimi had named in her message.

Meanwhile, Reyes Alexander Farrow (otherwise known as the Son of Satan. Yes. Literally) has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. He’s left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure Charley closer. But Reyes can’t let that happen. Because if the demons get to Charley, they’ll have a portal to heaven. And if they have a portal to heaven…well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Can Charley handle hot nights with Reyes and even hotter days tracking down a missing woman? Will Cookie ever get a true fashion sense? And is there enough coffee and chocolate in the world to fuel them as they do?

Purchase Second Grave on the Left

What are you reading at present? Leave me a link to your Tuesday Teaser or a two-sentence teaser in the comments section. I love to add to my to-read pile!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I’m in the middle of reading a mystery this week. The Missing Ink is by Karen E. Olson and is A Tattoo Shop mystery.

He lay slumped over the edge of the Jacuzzi bathtub, his head lolled on its side, an eye staring at the ceiling. There was no water in the tub, and I was pretty sure he was dead.

page 85, The Missing Ink

Brett Kavanaugh is a tattoo artist and owner of The Painted Lady, catering to high-profile clients in Las Vegas. But in her free time, she does a little investigating too – because murder really gets under her skin. . . .

When a girl makes an appointment to get devotion ink with the name of her fiancé embedded in a heart, Brett takes the job, but the girl never shows. The next thing Brett knows, the police are looking for her mysterious client and the name she wanted on the tattoo isn’t the name of her fiancé.

An alliance with an unlikely partner leads Brett to a dead body, a suave Englishman, and an Elvis karaoke bar. And who is the tattooed stranger stalking her? Brett draws lines between the clues, unwittingly putting herself in danger. But she intends to see justice done, since death, like a tattoo, is permanent. . . .

Purchase The Missing Ink

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

~ Grab your current read
~ Open to a random page
~ Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
~BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
~ Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser today is from First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones. It’s a paranormal romance featuring Charley Davidson, a grim reaper. I’m about halfway through and enjoying both the main character and the touches of humor throughout. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on book two in the series.

Just a bit of background to this teaser – Charley has a sign on her bathroom door, which reads, “No dead people beyond this door.”

Even with the sign, I tended to wash my hair as if the apartment were on fire. Dead people standing in the shower with me after the rinse cycle was a bit much.

page 12, First Grave on the Right

Private investigator Charlotte Davidson was born with three things: a smoking hot ass; a healthy respect for the male anatomy; and the rather odd job title of grim reaper. Since the age of five, she has been helping the departed solve the mysteries of their deaths so they can cross. Thus, when three lawyers from the same law firm are murdered, they come to her to find their killer. In the meantime, she’s dealing with a being more powerful, and definitely sexier, than any specter she’s ever come across. With the help of a pain-in-the-ass skip tracer, a dead pubescent gangbanger named Angel, and a lifetime supply of sarcasm, Charley sets out to solve the highest profile case of the year and discovers that dodging bullets isn’t nearly as dangerous as falling in love.

Purchase First Grave on the Right

In a few hours, the final story in my Middlemarch Mates series: Twin Trouble comes out at Ellora’s Cave.

Middlemarch Mates started out as a little 15,000 word Quickie called Scarlet Woman. Positive I’d written the best-ever story I emailed it off to my editor. When she emailed me back, it wasn’t a contract offer. She’d sent me a revise and resubmit instead. She liked the characters, the idea and the plot elements but thought I had too much plot for a short story.

Back to the drawing board.

I rewrote the story, doubling it in length, and the Middlemarch Mates series was born—the story of a leopard shifter community who lives secretly amongst humans in a small country town called Middlemarch.

My series bears an element of truth because the real town of Middlemarch has a shortage of women of marriageable age. To combat this shortage they held a singles’ ball to attract women to the area.

At the same time news articles started appearing in our New Zealand newspapers about sightings of an alien black cat in Canterbury. (That’s near Christchurch where the earthquake recently struck). I decided to combine these ideas and came up with Scarlet Woman.

Saber Mitchell is at his wits end. His four younger brothers Felix, Leo, Sly and Joe are out of control. He’s determined to marry them off at the inaugural Middlemarch Singles’ ball, except it’s Saber who ends up caught like a fish on a hook. Once he meets Emily he’s determined to keep her.

The next Mitchell brother to meet his match is Felix. He runs into Tomasine, a reporter the locals have dubbed Peeping Tom.

There’s an assassin running loose in Middlemarch and she has Leo squarely in her sights.

Logically, the next characters to get their own story should have been Sly and Joe, the Mitchell twins, but they didn’t seem old enough to find their happy-ever-after. Luckily the Mitchell brothers have lots of friends. Saul, their neighbor, stepped into the fray followed by Duncan and Jonno. All three men found their mates. Then it was Leticia’s turn – (I still get tears in my eyes when I read this one).

Still not quite ready for the twins, I introduced some new characters—tiger shifters who moved into the area. Brother Rohan and sister Ambar took over the village store and created more than a little turmoil with their arrival. In fact something that occurred after their arrival left Saber and Emily (from Scarlet Woman) reeling and this led on naturally to the tenth book in my series, Blue Lady.

Finally, it was time for the twins. I thought about them long and hard. Originally I’d planned a different story but the twins are both so cheeky I decided to be really mean and made them suffer. I hope you’ll enjoy Twin Trouble and their journey to happiness.

Here’s the blurb:

Man wanted: confident and charismatic, a virtuoso in bed and capable of supporting a woman in her quest for freedom.

Shifter Kiera Pascoe is desperate to foil her brothers’ plan to ship her back to England. She needs help, and hunky Joe Mitchell is the perfect applicant. Joe misses his twin Sly, and Kiera presents a diversion from his isolated state. From the start, hunger explodes between them and sparks fly with each intoxicating touch. The sex is fun and challenging—mutual ecstasy with a little spanking and kink.

Sly arrives home unexpectedly, creating chaos with their erotic hijinks. Emotions tangle and create a dilemma for all three. Joe has feelings for Kiera and wants to keep her. Kiera worries about exchanging one set of pushy males for another while Sly lusts after his twin’s lover. Two sexy shifter twins and one gorgeous feline woman—they’ve got trouble in Middlemarch and it’s gonna take time to unravel the steamy muddle.

Purchase at Ellora’s Cave

A final note: I wanted to have an even number of stories—an even dozen. To thank all my readers, I’ve written a free story called Lightning Strikes Twice. It is due for release on 25 April and is set at the same time as Scarlet Woman. Don’t forget to watch for Lightning Strikes Twice and download your free copy at Ellora’s Cave on 25 April.

Happy reading,
Shelley

The theme this week is spooky, which is a suitable topic with Halloween tomorrow. But, the thing is we don’t really celebrate Halloween in New Zealand and, as it happens, I couldn’t think of a single spooky scene in any of my books. Note to self – write a spooky scene or two!

Instead I’ve picked a scene from Tiger By The Tail, book nine in my Middlemarch Mates series just because I like it. You have my promise to try to do better next year when spooky comes around again.

Tiger By The Tail by Shelley Munro

“Rohan. Rohan!” Ambar stomped into the house she shared with her brother and his mate Kiran. The scent of freshly brewed coffee made her turn in the direction of the kitchen. She burst through the doorway and glared at them both before focusing on Rohan.

“I asked you to do one thing. One thing! And did you do it? Oh no.” She threw up her hands in disgust, her scowl intensifying.

Kiran took one look at her face and stood. “Maybe I should go.”

“Sit,” Ambar ordered. “Rohan, you didn’t cancel the marriage broker.”

“I did so.” Rohan met her gaze without a hint of deceit. “I cancelled the contract with the marriage broker and told him his services were no longer required.”

“Then why did a man turn up in the store this morning and tell me he’d come to marry me?”

“What man? Where is he?”

Ambar glowered at both men. “I pushed him out of the store, slammed the door in his face and hightailed it straight here.” She twisted the golden band on her right hand, the ring she’d inherited from her mother and wore to remind herself of her desire to live an independent life. While men were lots of fun, she didn’t need one to survive. She did not need a mate to complete her life.

“Why didn’t you bring him here? Or ask him to wait at the store and call me so we could sort it out?”

“I’m not marrying him, and you can’t make me.” She wrenched on the gold band again, trying not to think about him. Hari.

“Rohan doesn’t intend to force you to marry anyone,” Kiran said, handing her a mug of coffee. His unruffled manner went a long way to restoring her calm.

“I can’t believe you closed the store,” Rohan muttered. “How are we going to grow our business with you shutting shop at the slightest provocation?”

“Provocation? You call this provocation?” Ambar snapped, the fragile hold on her temper fraying again. “I supported you and Kiran. I expect you to tell this…this man to leave Middlemarch and never come back. I told him, but I expect he’ll only listen to a male.”

Rohan pushed back his chair and stood, circling the table to stand at her side. For a moment Ambar wanted to deck him then she saw the concern on his face. All the fight drained out of her. Deep down, she didn’t think he’d arrange a marriage for her. He knew she valued her independence, but he didn’t know of her desire to travel. She hadn’t confided her list of dream destinations to anyone.

“Finish your coffee and we’ll go back to the store together.”

“But what if he’s gone?”

Kiran chuckled. “Isn’t that what you want?”

“He was actually quite nice,” Ambar said, recalling his tentative manner. “He had an awful scar on his face. I’d hate for him to think I acted like a boor because I couldn’t bear to look at him. I think he was nervous.”

“Where was he from? Did he say?” Rohan asked.

“I didn’t give him a chance.” Ambar frowned, trying to recall his face in detail. Apart from the scar, she didn’t remember much. “He wasn’t from India. He sounded English to me.”

Rohan took a sip of coffee. “I wonder if Dad used a broker over in England as well as the one in India. There’s a large Indian community in Manchester and a smaller one in London. I didn’t find anything in the paperwork in the office. Did he ask to speak with me?”

“Of course he did. I was consigned to the little woman box straightaway,” Ambar said, her top lip curling in disdain.

“Why didn’t you just tell him to piss off?” Kiran sipped his coffee, studying her carefully like one of his animal patients. “Why did you flick your tail and run away? You know a male tiger’s typical response is to chase.”

She winged him a glare. “I did not flick my tail. I’m not interested in another man. You know I’m going out with Jake.”

Rohan’s brows rose and his lips quivered as if he was trying not to laugh. “But you did run away.”

All the hot air whooshed out of her at the challenge. Heck, they were right. Why hadn’t she told him to take a hike?

Purchase from Ellora’s Cave or Amazon Kindle

Check out the recent review of Tiger By The Tail at The Book Binge

To read more Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the trail below:

Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
McKenna Jeffries
Ashley Ladd
Mari Carr
TJ Michaels
Shelli Stevens
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle

My special guest today is fellow author, Taige Crenshaw. Today Taige is talking about series and serials. I love reading books in a series. I like entering a world I’m familiar with – it’s like meeting old friends. Over to Taige…

I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.

First here are my definitions of them both:

Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.

Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.

No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.

I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.

I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.

For instance I remember many years ago I picked up an author that I hadn’t tried before. The novel was great and imagine my glee that I struck reader gold and it was a series. I went back and bought all of their novels except one which was sold out. I searched and searched for years for this one book and couldn’t find a copy. Not even a used one. I even contacted the author to find out if the story was going to be re-printed. To my dismay it wasn’t at that time. Amazon even had over 200 people waiting for a copy of this book when I checked. I stopped checking the numbers after I saw the amount of people. No one was selling. A few years after looking I finally struck reader gold in 2005 when the book was reprinted and I was able to finish my collection. I know me and over 199 other people very happy.

Can you imagine so many readers looking for an author. Searching for that Reader’s Gold. That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.

This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.

I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.

CONTEST: Share your Reader Gold with me and Shelley will pick a winner who can choose one pdf download of any book from my e-book backlist.

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroine’s, and sexy hero’s. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own. Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: http://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Wilde Seduction – What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?

Buy here at Total-E-Bound.

This week’s theme for Snippet Saturday is parties. I’ve picked an excerpt from Cat and Mouse, book five in my Middlemarch Mates series. This book is a standalone erotic romance, although you will probably enjoy it even more if you’ve read the other stories. Oh, and there are a few adult words in this excerpt. I thought about chopping them out, but in the end I thought I’d leave the excerpt as is. Enjoy!

CAT AND MOUSE by Shelley Munro

Country and Western music poured from the huge marquee along with laughter, some of it with a tinge of alcohol-induced hilarity, filled the air by the time Duncan and a couple of the other cowboys wandered over from the campsite. Determination rode him because he knew he’d have a fight on his hands to get close to Lana. Even though tonight wasn’t the main event, there were still a lot of people gathered at the party to raise funds for the local fire service who also carried out search and rescue in the area. The local men, the visiting cowboys and the woman herself would all get in the way of his goal. Too bad. He’d waited a long time and wasn’t about to back off without a fight.

The local committee had gone all out with decorations including wanted posters and a display of Western memorabilia just inside the entrance. He paid his admission and sauntered into the marquee looking for Lana or either of the Mitchells. Difficult to scent anyone in this crowd. Men and women packed the dance floor attempting to do a line dance.

Damn. He couldn’t see Lana. Cursing softly, he pushed his way through the crowd, pausing here and there to say hello to friends and acquaintances. Along with his unease came a contrasting sense of contentment. It was damned fine being home, spending time with his fellow shifters.

“Are you looking for me?” The throaty voice dragged his attention from the dance floor.

Jesus, she looked beautiful. She wore a dark green dress with tiny straps to hold it up. It clung to her curves before falling to swish in loose folds around her knees. The color highlighted her eyes, deepening jade green to a darker, more mysterious hue. The shadow of her cleavage drew his attention He took half a step toward her before stopping abruptly. Not the time or place. The closest he would get to touching during the next few hours would be a slow dance, or if he could persuade her to take a walk with him outside where the air was cool and privacy easier to find.

“Yeah. I thought you might be dancing.” But glad he didn’t have to see another man touch her.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the lips, a brief brush on the mouth that had his feline purring. “I have been dancing. I saw you come in and wanted to say hello.”

The line dance ended and the band rolled into a slow dance. Perfect.

“Wanna dance with me?”

“Sure.”

They walked over to the makeshift dance floor and she slipped into his arms where she belonged. Her arms stretched up to grip his shoulders and their bodies brushed.

“You look beautiful.” Nothing less than the truth. The full skirt of her dress flirted with the tops of her knees, stirring with each gliding step. He would have preferred that she wear a sack, just so none of the other men could ogle her sexy form. Unfortunately, he could hardly complain since the other women were dressed in a similar manner. He wondered how long it would take to talk her out of that dress, pondered again the advisability of taking a walk.

“Thanks. You look pretty good yourself.”

They danced in silence for a while, Duncan content to hold her in his arms. One dance flowed into another.

“This is nice. I never have a chance to dance.”

He grunted an affirmative reply. That would make him a bastard if he asked her to take a walk. Fuck. Maybe he could steer her into the far corner where some enterprising cowboys had dimmed the lights. Yeah. Sounded like a plan. He danced her slowly across the floor, navigating dancers, cuddling her close and reveling in the soft feel of her body brushing his, her enticing scent of vanilla and the crisp outdoors.

The song ended and regretfully he stepped away from her. “Would you like a drink?”

“Sure. Emily and Saber are over in the corner. Do you want to sit with them?”

“Do you want wine?” Damn, the woman ate him up with her eyes. She shouldn’t do that—not if she knew what was good for her.

Lana winked, her dark lashes sweeping over her cheeks in a sexy fan. “That would be great.” His gaze drifted to her soft, glistening lips. Appealing and sensual. He fought the urge to dip his head and claim a taste.

“Go and sit with Emily and I’ll bring the drinks over.” He started for the bar before stopping and turning back. “Lana, don’t dance with anyone else.”

“But that wouldn’t be polite.”

“Fuck polite. You offered me the weekend.” Duncan strode off to the bar, urgency simmering through his veins. The bloody woman made him crazy. He knew what it felt like to bury his cock deep in her hot pussy and now he wanted a repeat. Once with Lana wasn’t enough.

Purchase at Ellora’s Cave or for Kindle

To read other Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the links below:

Vivian Arend
Moira Rogers
Ashley Ladd
Kelly Maher
Leah Braemel
McKenna Jeffries
Sasha White
Taige Crenshaw
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro
Eliza Gayle
Jody Wallace
Elizabeth Naughton
TJ Michaels

I’m doing two guest blogs today.

The first is at RomCon where I’m talking about big cats and feline shifters. I’m also giving away a download from my backlist to one commenter. Here’s the link to my RomCon post.

I’m also blogging at Access Romance where I’m talking about baking for Christmas. Here’s the link to my Access Romance post.

In writing news, I’ve learned my next Ellora’s Cave book Soldier of Fortune is due for release on 18 November. That’s next week!! I don’t have a cover to show you yet, but I do have a blurb and excerpt available to tempt you. Soldier of Fortune features Louie Lithgow who first appeared in one of my earlier books, Summer in the City of Sails.

2. 1st in a Series.

I always enjoy reading series so this challenge fits well. Hosted by J. Kaye’s Book Blog (Jan 1st – Dec 31st). The idea is to read the 1st novel in 12 different series. I hope to start new series in this challenge and to catch up on series I’ve missed. I’m not organized enough to list all the books I hope to read but the first one I’d like to start on is:

1. Devils on Horseback: Nate by Beth Williamson.