Saturday, December 31, 2011

Saturday, December 24, 2011

A BEAUTIFUL YEAR

Wishing the very happiest of holidays to all our contributors and readers here at The Blue Rose.  May your season be filled with peace and joyous memories, and the forthcoming year be bright and beautiful.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Kindle Release: Consoling Angel by Denise Alicea


Consoling Angel, a YA Short Story, Time Travel/Romance


Buy link Amazon , FictionWise , All Romance


 
Mira did not know what she had in store the day she fell asleep while wanting to escape her current situation. Overcoming the death of someone close and burying herself in school and an internship has kept her somewhat awake and alive. An admiration for the actor James Dean was all that kept the memory of her father alive. If she couldn’t be with her father, she could at least remember what they shared. She always wanted to meet James Dean. Be careful what you wish for. It may just come true.




Consoling Angel Excerpt:
My life couldn’t be more complete. As we reached the apartments, I slowly got off the bike, surprised at myself that I had done this. Ordinarily, I’d never get on a motorcycle. James leaned over and caressed my cheek. Before I could open my mouth to tell him what was to happen to him, he gave me a quick peck on the lips. I couldn’t let James walk away, not now.
         Something in me grasped his wrist; my breath caught in my throat. I no longer cared about the rain. I must have looked like a drowned rat to him. “I have to tell you something,” I blurted as I waited for his reaction.
         James smiled, then chuckled as he caressed my face.  The rain was preventing me from seeing clearly. “Sweetheart, it’s raining and you’re soaked. I hope this is important.”  Pulling him toward me, I faced him. I could change history. I could have him live out his life as he was meant to. If I couldn’t save my father, I could save him.
         “In the future, when you become famous, please be careful. Remember this: there will be a day that you are off to a race. You will not see a car until it’s too late. James, please promise me. It could mean your life.” I must have sounded like a complete and total idiot to him. Geez! I think I watched Back To The Future too many times. I sounded like Marty talking to the professor about his impending death.
         Chuckling, he shook his head, expelling the rain off his head and onto me. Laughter erupted between us as I covered my face. He then cupped my face, kissed my forehead. “Are you sure you’re not an angel? I cannot promise anything, but baby, I can promise I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ll pick you up here and you can ditch your responsibilities. Ride with me.”
         Sighing, now I knew how all those girls felt when they looked at him. What an offer that would be. Ditch school to ride with the man who was loved by so many. I was determined he’d listen to me.  Gripping his hands from my face, I gazed into his eyes. “I’m serious!”
         Before I could utter another word, his lips descended on mine. My body went toward him and melted. I couldn’t help but respond as I brought him closer.  I was lost in his warm lips as they caressed mine. Lingering near my lips, he breathed, “I know you are.” Then, winking as he kissed me again, smiling that beautiful smile of his, “How else can my angel guard me if she isn’t with me?”




Tuesday, December 20, 2011

KINDLE RELEASE - HEART OF THE EARTH BY MIRIAM NEWMAN


BLURB:
Robbed of her husband by the arrows of assassins, Tia must flee to the Northern Prince who has always wanted her.  But the price of Hilgi’s protection is too high.  Separated from her land and her Goddess, can Tia find a way to return to them…and to a love that may redeem her?
EXCERPT:
Light flooded through the opening.  Hilgi’s tread was heavy upon the stone floor; he was a big man.  He looked just as I had seen him some months earlier.  He still wore the circlet of a Northern prince, the gold armbands of a Chieftain’s son, and his Havacian battle axe strapped to his chest.  His furious expression was the same, as well.  So he had looked the day he clove our mutual enemy King Edred of Tumagia in twain with that axe or its twin.
            “What have they done to you?” he asked in Omani.  It was the only language we had in common.  But I did not care to speak on that day and I was the Queen and could do as I liked, so I kept silence.
            “What have they not done to you?” he demanded again, wrenching open the drapes.  I flinched as he sank into a knee-bend beside my chair, taking my chin firmly inhis big hand and looking into my face.  “When did you last eat, Tia?  You look like death!”
            I made no reply and he backhanded me.  I blinked.
            “That’s the first one,” he said.  “Every time you ignore me, you’ll get another.”   I was more shocked than hurt and the hot seep of rage began to fill me like water soaking through a sponge. “Bad enough I was beaten by King Edred and a slave dealer in Omana…but you?”
            “That’s better.”  Tipping me forward to wrap the quilt from my bed around me, he lifted me, effortlessly.  The world spun when he changed my position and I clutched him in panic as he bore me from that chamber, pausing only to kick my chair across the room so hard I could hear the solid oak splinter like kindling.
            “That was a perfectly good chair,” I objected.
            “I’ll make you another.”
            In the hallway, Alcinic guards were deep in conversation with some of Hilgi’s Ancient Order fighters--men feared throughout the world for their habit of cutting out their enemies’ hearts still beating.
            “No crying, little Tia,” Hilgi said softly.  “If you want your men to live, be silent.”
            I was weak from starvation, grief and near-madness and it took me a few moments to realize that Hilgi and his men had not come from the last fighting in Tumagia to pay honor to my dead husband.  They had come for me.
            That is why the Prince of Havacia carried me like a doll into pounding surf to one of the oiled leather skiffs Havacians used for passengers.  Other craft would not attempt to come past the offshore island called Lady’s Weeping for its habit of causing wrecks, but the red and white striped sails of King Maruk’s fleet bobbed there on a fierce undertow and men took me speedily to Hilgi’s ship, the Boar’s Head.  Ships of the Ancient Order--their macabre prows carved in the shape of gods and demons--surrounded it, but only skeleton crews were aboard.  The other men who had sailed with Hilgi held my soldiers at swords’ point while their Prince absconded with me.
BUY LINKS: .www.thedarkcastlelords.com/heart-of-the-earth.htm (PDF)                           http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O1OHMG (Kindle)