Author: Alyssa Day

Sunday Spotlight: Bane’s Choice by Alyssa Day

Posted October 18, 2020 by Casee in Features, Giveaways | 4 Comments

Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

We have not one, but two giveaways for you today! Don’t forget to enter using the widgets below.

Sunday Spotlight: Bane’s Choice by Alyssa DayBane's Choice by Alyssa Day
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: October 27, 2020
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 400
Add It: Goodreads
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When a centuries-old vampire in search of redemption meets a doctor who’s on a mission of her own, a searing, world-destroying passion is the last thing on either of their minds.
Minds can be changed.
A doctor with secrets of her own is drawn to a dangerous predator in this pulse-pounding paranormal romance from New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day.
What better way to hide the existence of vampires from humans than in plain sight? Thus, the Vampire Motorcycle Club was born. Bane, the 300-year-old vampire who leads the club, has fought for years to protect his kind. But the truth about vampires is not only that they exist, it is that they are creatures of pure desire. Conscience and restraint has been burned out of them by the process of Turning. Any woman Bane meets is either prey—or food.
Dr. Ryan St. Cloud finds out that vampires exist when one steals her patient out of the hospital right beneath her nose, leading her to question her own sanity. But when the dangerous man whose touch inflames her senses and whose gaze enthralls her comes to her for help, she is unable to refuse. Bane is a dangerous predator, but somewhere beneath his arrogance and power, she can see his heart—and she knows it could belong to her if she is strong enough to claim it. She is bound to a vampire, but loving her would be … Bane’s Choice.

Excerpt

Ryan finally settled on the best, most awesome choice for a drunken movie fest and settled in to watch it, saluting the TV with the bottle, having quit bothering with the glass a while back. “Yippee ki-yay!”

But before John McClane could get off the plane with that enormous teddy bear, things started to get weird.

She laughed. No, that was a stupid thought after the night she’d had.

Correction: things got even weirder.

Because that’s when the magical kidnapper from the hospital appeared on her second-floor balcony.

The balcony that had no stairs, ladder, or fire escape.

“I’m more the Hans Gruber type,” he said. “Hello, Dr. St. Cloud.”

She blinked and then took another swig of wine, still staring at him. “Hey, call me Ryan. I’ve decided I should be on first-name basis with all my hallucinations. And damn, but you’re just beautiful, aren’t you? At least my brain dreamed up a hottie when it decided to go ballistic.”

“I don’t… You…” He shook his head and then raised a single eyebrow and pinned his glowing gaze to her, decidedly non-glowing, own. “I assure you, I am quite real.”

“Right. And so, Mr. Quite Real, what did you do with my patient? You know, the one who was dying? The one I had no chance in hell to save, even before you picked him up and disappeared with him?” she was on her feet and shouting at him by the end but didn’t remember standing. Also, unpleasantly, the rage smashing through her was, to borrow one of Annie’s expressions, harshing her mellow.

“How do you remember that?” His eyes narrowed. “Luke said he’d compelled you to forget.”

“I’d like to forget so much about tonight,” she muttered. “And who the hell is Luke?”

“I’d like to explain, Doctor… Ryan, if you’d invite me in,” her magical mystery guest said.

Ryan pointed her bottle at him. “No. Nuh-uh. No way. You keep your glowy-eyed magical ass away from me. And how did you climb up to my balcony? How did you even find me, more to the point?”

“Invite me in, and I’ll tell you,” he said, but his voice had a weird, buzzy resonance that tickled the inside of her mind somehow.

It made her laugh. “Nope.”

His eyes widened. “So it was true.”

“What was true? And why are you here?”

He folded his arms and said nothing, which infuriated her.

“Where is my patient?”

“Invite me in, and I’ll tell you,” he said again, shrugging.

She blew out a breath. “Fine. Whatever. Come on in, Mr. Drunken Hallucination. And then you damn well better tell me where my patient is.”

He smiled and took a step forward, into the room, and she started toward him but tripped over the coffee table and fell.

Into his arms. Damn, he smelled good. She rested her overheated cheek against his chest for a moment and inhaled.

Wait.

“You were clear across the room,” she muttered, struggling to back up while pushing him away at the same time. Trying to push him away, rather, because he had chest muscles like iron boulders. Was that a thing? Iron boulders? Rock-hard steel?

Some kind of metaphor for hard, for sure.

Yummy. Hard.

Also, damn. Maybe opening that second bottle of wine had been a mistake.

“You seem to have been having a party,” he said, and there was amusement mixed with something darker in his rich, deep voice.

God. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen—imagined? Dreamed?—and his voice sounded like silken sin. A tingle of heat and electricity raced through her, and she could actually feel her nipples harden. Now she was really losing it, because her hallucination was making her hot.

No different from fantasizing about a movie star in the bathtub, she tried to tell herself. Except bath-time fantasies never came to life and walked into her living room.

She’d never felt one hold her in his arms before, either.

Vampire Motorcycle Club

>

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

Sunday Spotlight: October 2020

Alyssa has kindly offered a paperback copy of Bane’s Choice. U.S. residents only.

Bane’s Choice by Alyssa Day

Are you as excited for this release as we are? Let us know how excited you are and what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

About Alyssa Day

Alyssa Day is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than a million books sold --all filled with kissing, laughter, mystery and magic. Alyssa’s paranormal series include the Vampire Motorcycle Club, Poseidon’s Warriors, and Cardinal Witches paranormal romances and the Tiger’s Eye Mysteries paranormal mysteries. In an Alyssa Day book, the good guys (and gals!) always win and happily ever after always prevails!

Alyssa's many awards include Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® award for outstanding romance fiction, and the RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance novel of 2012. Her books have been translated into a zillion languages but she’s still holding out for Klingon.

Before she became a full-time writer, Alyssa graduated summa cum laude from law school and practiced as a trial lawyer in three different states for more than a decade. She is a past president of Romance Writers of America.

Please visit her online at http://www.alyssaday.com to sign up for her newsletter for news of releases, free stuff, and pictures of her dogs and her baking. But not of her dogs baking, because that would just be wrong.


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Review: The Cursed by Alyssa Day

Posted October 23, 2019 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: The Cursed by Alyssa DayReviewer: Holly
The Cursed by Alyssa Day
Narrator: Xe Sands
Series: League of the Black Swan #1
Publisher: Berkley, Self-Published
Publication Date: May 7, 2013
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible Escape
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Fantasy
Pages: 282
Length: 8 hours and 1 minute
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Holly's 2019 GoodReads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
two-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

New York Times bestselling author of the Warriors of Poseidon series Alyssa Day returns with a thrilling new series of paranormal romance and a heated battle between good and evil fought to the death on the streets of New York…

Bordertown private investigator Luke Oliver’s beat is the dimensional fold in Manhattan between the human and supernatural realms. But now a secret from his past—the League of the Black Swan—has surfaced. Because Luke isn’t any ordinary P.I. He’s the Dark Wizard of Bordertown, and he never backs down from a fight.

But this time the fight threatens his life and his heart. Rio Jones, the only woman he loved, needs his help against a deadly menace. Luke pushed her away once before, so she’d never fall prey to the curse that threatens to destroy him. He swore he’d never let her go again.

Luke and Rio, with the help of the newly reformed League, must keep evil forces from taking over Bordertown—all the while battling a passion on the razor’s edge between danger and desire. And going to take everything they have just to stay alive.

I discovered The Cursed by Alyssa Day while browsing Audible Escape and decided to give it a go. Shortly after I checked the author’s website to see the series had been cancelled by the publisher and no follow up book has been released. The description says this does not end in a cliffhanger, so I continued on with it. While there isn’t technically a cliffhanger, the story is left open and I’d have liked answers to some of the questions left open.

When Rio Jones witnesses a young girl being kidnapped in Bordertown – a place full of magical beings between the Realm and San Francisco – she knows she needs help. She goes to Luke Oliver, the Dark Wizard of Bordertown. The PI is sexy as sin, but has made it clear he isn’t interested. She doesn’t want to go to him, but she knows he’s the only man who can help. Luke turned Rio down for her own good, but he knows he isn’t strong enough to walk away from her twice. When she requests his help, he knows he’ll do anything he can to keep her safe – and to keep her around.

The world was interesting and the early chapters really pulled me in. I enjoyed Rio and Luke, both, as well as the secondary characters. As the story wore on, I became more and more frustrated with the way Rio and Luke both put their heads in the sand and refused to deal with all the questions concerning Rio’s past. Everyone but her seemed to know who she was and what was coming, but rather than follow up they both just sort of ignored everything. Plus, the way things were glossed over about Luke’s “curse” and how quick both of them were to storm off in a huff was annoying.

I really liked certain aspects of the book, and I would have read another had it been available, but overall this was a pretty underwhelming listen.

Rating: 2.75 out of 5

League of the Black Swan

two-half-stars


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Throwback Thursday Guest Review: Vampire in Atlantis by Alyssa Day

Posted August 15, 2019 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Throwback Thursday Guest Review: Vampire in Atlantis by Alyssa DayReviewer: Tracy
Vampire in Atlantis by Alyssa Day
Series: Warriors of Poseidon #7
Also in this series: Atlantis Awakening (Warriors of Poseidon, #2)
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: June 7, 2011
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 311
Add It: Goodreads
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three-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

The most unexpected of all allies to Poseidon's warriors has proven to be the fiercest-Daniel, a vampire and Night Guild mage. But even the strongest alliance can be destroyed when a vampire's oath crosses paths with a maiden's quest, and an eleven-thousand-year-old desire is reborn.

Ready to face the dawn and die after 11,000 years as a vampire, Daniel walks into the Reflecting Pool on the Washington Mall and ends up in Atlantis, at the mercy of Serai, a long-dead warrior princess he could never forget.

Yet Serai is not dead. Centuries earlier she and several others had been magically put into suspended animation to ensure the continuation of the Atlanteans. But the magical jewel that keeps them safe has been stolen, and, now awake, Serai must find it to save the other sleeping women.

Together, Daniel and Serai search for the stone and renew their relationship, stalked by an evil that isn't about to let them succeed.

*** Every Thursday, we’ll be posting throwback reviews of our favorite and not-so-favorite books. Enjoy! ***

This review was originally posted on Nov 15, 2011.

Daniel was just a blacksmith’s apprentice in Atlantis when he met the beautiful Serai. It was love at first sight and they longed to be together. Unfortunately many things happened to keep them apart. Atlantis was attacked, Daniel turned into a vampire, Atlantis submerged into the ocean and Serai put into stasis to one day be awoken to marry High Prince Conlan.

Eleven thousand years have passed since that time. Daniel is ready to face the dawn and end it all when he finds himself not only alive but in Atlantis and facing the women he thought long dead. He is mesmerized once again and eager to help her with whatever she needs.

Serai broke out of the stasis but she doesn’t want to be put in and knows she must get out of Atlantis immediately. She was told that Daniel died all those years ago and when he appears before her she’s shocked. They fight together to find a gem from Poseidon’s trident, the Emporer, and try to save the other women in stasis.

This is book 7 in this series and my least favorite of the bunch. While it was an interesting story to a point and continued the overall story arc that will be concluded in future books, it just lacked that extra something that made it captivating. The story was good but I found myself kind of well, bored at points.

I really liked Daniel and of course Serai was a strong female character but they were a bit melodramatic for me. Yes, I know that they’d been apart and thought the other dead – I would probably be very vocal about my feelings too if that happened…but it just didn’t have a truly realistic feel to me.

While the story was good and had a bit of an extra romance with the vampire Nicholas and the witch Ivy it unfortunately just fell a bit short from the other books in the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

three-stars


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What Are You Reading? (+ autographed Alyssa Day Giveaway)

Posted July 6, 2018 by Casee in Features, Giveaways | 6 Comments

WAYR-New

Casee: I just started Vampire’s Faith by Rebecca Zanetti which is the final book in the Dark Protectors series. I didn’t realize that there was a four year gap between the seventh and eighth book. It does make me wonder if this series is going to continue. I so adore it and I will be crushed if it doesn’t. It always works out that way, though, doesn’t it?

After I’m done with this book I have to start the books in the Summer Reading Challenge. Unfortunately.

Holly: I finished listening to Diamond Bay by Linda Howard. I enjoyed the narrator and the story itself is always wonderful. It’s surprising how well it holds up considering it was first published in the early 90s. I also re-read Saving Grace by Julie Garwood. I’m currently rereading Cry No More by Linda Howard. I forced talked Tracy into reading it for the first time and said I’d read along with her. I love this book so much, but man does it hurt to read it.

For new reads this week, I finished Midnight Valentine by J.T. Geissinger finally. I started it weeks ago but kept getting distracted by other things. I really loved the first 3/4 of the book, but it took a dark turn there at the end I didn’t really expect. It was a good book overall, but that last 1/4 was…kind of a lot. I didn’t finish it feeling as warm and fuzzy as I thought I would. I also finished Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews. I kept putting off reading it because I was afraid of how Hugh’s story would turn out. He’s a villain. Kind of. Definitely an anti-hero. In the end I loved it, though. He’ll always be bad, but the story was really good.

For our Summer Reading Challenge, I read Raphael by D.B. Reynolds and The Trouble with Love by Lauren Layne. I did’t care for Raphael at all. Why Casee thought I’d enjoy that TSTL heroine is beyond me. I did enjoy the Layne, however. It was a cute contemporary romance. Now Rowena is trying to convince me I need to read all the other books in the series. Like my TBR pile isn’t big enough? I did start listening to Someone Like You, though.

I think I’m going to start Archangel’s Prophecy by Nalini Singh next. I got an ARC yesterday. I was hoping to save it until next week when I’m on vacation, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. I can’t wait that long.

Rowena: It’s been a busy week for me so my reading suffered a bit but I did get some books read. I finished The Accidentals by Sarina Bowen and enjoyed it. I knew that I’d enjoy it because Sarina Bowen is always fire. After that, I started my first book in our Summer Reading Challenge. I read Coming Undone by Lauren Dane from Holly’s list and I’m happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed that one and have put the rest of the series on my TBR list.

I’m getting ready to start The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely and I’m hopeful that it will be good. Oh, I’m also listening to The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas because I want to watch the movie (my Samoan boy KJ Apa is in this one). This book is intense. After this, I’ll be reading Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison and A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole. I’m excited.

Giveaway Alert

We are very fortunate here at Book Binge. We have loads and loads of books to read and we want to share the wealth so each week, we’ll be tacking on a Freebie Friday giveaway to our What Are You Reading posts. This week, we’re giving away…

What Are You Reading? (+ autographed Alyssa Day Giveaway)January in Atlantis (Poseidon's Warriors #1) by Alyssa Day
Series: Poseidon's Warriors #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: January 30, 2018
Genres: Paranormal Romance
Pages: 172
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

When Poseidon’s elite warriors gear up to train a new generation of fighters, they have no idea that Atlantean Queen Riley has secretly taken on a new role: Matchmaker. By the end of the year, she plans to find soul mates for all twelve of Atlantis’s fiercest warriors... whether they like it or not.

Twelve all-new adventures in the hotly anticipated world of Poseidon's Warriors, coming once a month from New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day. These books are sexy, romantic, and wickedly addictive —welcome to 2018! And welcome to: A Year in Atlantis!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What Are You Reading: January in Atlantis by Alyssa Day

What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!


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What Are You Reading? (+ Kieran Kramer Giveaway)

Posted June 22, 2018 by Holly in Features, Giveaways | 5 Comments

WAYR-New

Casee: I am obsessed with the Dark Protectors series by Rebecca Zanetti. Obsessed. I took a break to read Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, but went right back to the DP series. I’m currently on the fourth book which is Consumed. I can’t put it down. I’m an early to bed type of person (to which Holly and Rowena can attest), but I’m actually staying up late to read. I haven’t done that in years. Nothing has held my interest that much.

I’ll be sad when it’s over.

Holly: This week I finished up my re-read of the Kate Daniels series with Magic Binds. I’m all caught up and very eager to read Magic Triumphs in August.

I read Shadow’s Edge and Edge of Oblivion by J.T. Geissinger, an Urban Fantasy series. I enjoyed book 2 more than book 1. I almost started book 3, but I ended up starting Midnight Valentine instead. It’s a contemporary romance and I’m loving it.

I also reread Giving Chase and Taking Chase by Lauren Dane. I snagged the refreshed version of Giving Chase (along with the audio add-on) a few weeks ago when it was on sale for $0.99. It’s been awhile since I read the series and I ended up falling right into it. So good! I’ll probably read the next two books right away.

Rowena: My reading slowed down some this week but it’s all good. I finished up Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, which I enjoyed a lot more than I was expecting considering all of my friends didn’t love it the way we normally do but it was good to me. After that, I started Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean and I’m almost done. It’s Felicity from The Day of the Duchess and I so love Felicity. I still completely adore her and am enjoying this read so I should be done tonight.

Next up is One Small Thing by Erin Watt. I really enjoyed the last standalone of theirs that I read so I’m really excited about this one.

Giveaway Alert

We are very fortunate here at Book Binge. We have loads and loads of books to read and we want to share the wealth so each week, we’ll be tacking on a Freebie Friday giveaway to our What Are You Reading posts. This week, we’re giving away…

What Are You Reading? (+ Kieran Kramer Giveaway)A Wedding At Two Love Lane by Kieran Kramer
Series: Two Love Lane #2
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 346
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books

Never say never when it comes to love.

Greer Jones has made a real name for herself at the elegant matchmaking agency Two Love Lane. For a lot of reasons--including a past engagement she broke off--practical tech expert Greer is more interested in the business of love than the experience of it, but she can't help but covet a gorgeous wedding gown that's the prize in an upcoming cocktail-party contest. In a moment of brazen inspiration, Greer asks a handsome Brit she's only just met to accompany her to the party. He agrees--and Greer believes her date is a starving artist. Little does she know the truth. . .

Ford Smith, as he calls himself, is actually Stanford Elliott Wentworth Smythe, the Eighth Baron of Wickshire. Fresh off a breakup with a money-grubbing siren who deceived him all the way to the altar, Ford has no desire to fall in love--especially with Greer who, like the desired wedding gown, is beautiful but only skin-deep. But soon Ford realizes that there's more to Greer than meets the eye. Her professionalism is matched only by her passion for life and love. . .and, best of all, she has no idea that he's to the manor born. Could it be that true love is priceless after all?

What Are You Reading: A Wedding at Two Love Lane

What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!


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