Tag: Annie Nicholas

#DFRAT Excerpt and Giveaway: Scent of Salvation by Annie Nicholas

Posted July 14, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 5 Comments

Chronicles of Eorthe, Book 1

Stranded in another dimension, on a primitive version of Earth, Dr. Susan Barlow needs to find a way to survive. There’s no electricity, no cities, and to her shock, no humans. Instead, she faces a population of werewolves, vampires and incubi. The people are vicious but she must find her place among them. And live.

An illness is killing Sorin’s pack. As alpha it’s his responsibility to save them, but it’s a battle this warrior doesn’t know how to fight. Then a blue light in the sky brings a creature he’s never seen. She calls herself human, but to him she smells like hope.

Sorin offers Susan a safe haven in return for a cure, but she’s not that kind of a doctor. She’s a doctor of physics, not a physician. Yet as they search for a cure to save a dying people, they find something special—each other.

But even with Sorin’s protection, Susan can’t help but wonder how long she can survive in a world without humans…
 
Warning: Feral shifters, power-hungry vampires, and a sole human female suffering culture shock

Excerpt:

Before Susan could explain anything about dimensions and gateways, the door to Kele’s chamber crashed open, and Susan jumped to the balls of her feet, prepared—to what, fight? Was she nuts?

A female blocked the entrance, her muscular physique hinting at enough strength to twist Susan into a pretzel without breaking a sweat. The newcomer flung her black hair over her shoulder.

Rising with grace, Kele straightened her dress before addressing the intruder. “Mother.”

“Daughter, I heard you’ve brought home a stray along with the Apisi alpha.” The female’s stare drilled into Susan, her sneer far from welcoming.

Susan’s breath caught in her throat. Black, soulless eyes ate her gaze. Her fingers clutched the lapels of her jacket as she pulled it closed. She wiped her sweaty palms on her pants and offered her hand. “I’m Dr. Susan Barlow.”

The female shifter narrowed her eyes, nostrils flaring.

Susan withdrew her untouched hand, then hid it behind her back and glanced at Kele. Maybe she should have sniffed her mother instead? She wished someone would give her the Dummies Guide to Shifter Society and a little time to study it.
 
Kele’s mother crossed the room in two great strides and swung her arm.

Susan did her best impression of a statue. She didn’t budge as the impact of the slap swerved her head to the side and dragged her gaze from mother to daughter. Both of them were flushed with emotion yet at opposite poles of the color spectrum—one dark as an oncoming storm and the other pale as the moonlight.

The back of Susan’s heel caught the edge of the cushion and she landed hard on her back.

The bitter flavor of blood swept over her taste buds. “What the hell?” She rubbed her jaw and glared daggers at the crazy woman looming over her. Just as quickly, she schooled her expression to something less threatening before she insulted the bigger shifter further. With the tip of her tongue, Susan explored her mouth. She didn’t encounter any big gaps, so no lost tooth. A small blessing.

Kele’s crazy mother hovered over Susan’s face and bared her teeth. In beast form, her expression would have appeared fierce, but in human form it seemed terrifying. With an easy grace, she flipped Susan onto her stomach. A bony knee pressed between her shoulder blades, making her kiss the floor. Pain shot across Susan’s upper back and neck.

“How dare you come into my den and not submit to me.”

“She’s not a shifter!” Kele shouted. “You can’t expect her to know how to be polite.”

Something ran over Susan’s hair, and the sound of sniffing followed. She tried to take a deep breath but the weight on her back made it difficult.

The nutjob exhaled in disgust. “What is she?”

“A human.” Kele peered at Susan’s throbbing face as she stroked her hair. “Please, I wanted to teach her how to behave before meeting you and father.”

“Your father.” The bitch snorted. “It’s bad enough he’s entertaining a vampire and dealing with trespassing alphas. We don’t need any more vermin within the den.”

Susan was jerked from the ground by her hair and dragged across the floor. Pain shot into her scalp while she scrambled to support her weight with her legs.

“Let go. Let go.” The shifter world was more brutal than anything she’d ever experienced. Susan slapped at the crazy woman’s hands tangled in her hair.

“My daughter took too many liberties in offering you shelter. You’ll need to find another den to take you in.”

At a loss, Susan yanked and squirmed but only made the pain worse. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kele leap.

The petite blonde used her wiry strength to jump across the room and land on her mother’s back. The collision knocked them both to the ground in a knot of arms and legs.

Untangling her limbs from the struggling shifters, Susan could finally elbow the bitch in the face. The impact made a satisfying crunch. She pulled back her arm for a second shot, but Kele grabbed her and half carried, half dragged her out of the chamber.

“Hurry, we need to reach my father before she beats you into cinders.”

Not needing any further incentive, Susan ran after her new friend. “Your people are crazy.” 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Guest Author: Annie Nicholas – Greener Grass and Other Things (+ a Giveaway!)

Posted September 27, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 9 Comments

Who has never experienced the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome?

I doubt there is many. It seems natural for any creature to strive for more or to desire better. Why would supernatural beings be any different?

My succubus, Pia Blyton, was sent to human school so she’d learn to fit in at an early age. Her parents didn’t foresee that it would seed desire in their young daughter’s future. Being surrounded by people who could share love showed Pia that there could be more to a relationship besides sex.

But is the grass greener? Her people view love as a weakness, something to be exploited. If she opens herself up to those possibilities will she prove them right?

Blurb:

After almost dying of starvation to remain faithful to a mortal lover, succubus Pia Blyton now shields her heart by feeding solely on men she won’t fall for. The only trick is, to create energy to survive, she must achieve orgasm. At least that rules out bad sex with her three lovers. Too bad she’s a sucker for falling in love.

When her demon lover doesn’t arrive for their arranged rendezvous, Pia is forced to ask her vampire lover to step in before her energy becomes dangerously low. In return he demands a favor and Pia finds herself in the hotel suite of the mysterious Valerio Hunan, who seduces her with a devastating kiss. Too late Pia learns he’s an incubus who wants to lure her into marriage—a marriage without love.

As an incubus used to bedding a variety of succubi, Val doesn’t understand Pia’s yearning for love. He needs a succubus wife to provide him with a steady source of energy. But he wants Pia for the passion and renewed interest in life she makes him feel. Can Pia convince Val that sex isn’t just for survival and love is for more than the weak?

Excerpt:

I gazed at the cars speeding by on the highway.
He squeezed my hand. “What ghosts am I battling, Pia? It’s not fair to expect me to fight for you and not tell me who I’m against. What drives you to these extremes? What has your father so tied in knots when it comes to you?”
“A human male.” I sensed Val grow stiff next to me. “Oh, I don’t love him anymore, but there was a time when I thought the universe revolved around him. Looking back, I see how young and stupid I was. I just don’t want to repeat my mistakes.” The quiet grew heavier as Val waited. I could escape by running out of the car into traffic but even that would be temporary. Eventually, I’d have to talk about it.
He gave me a small reassuring smile. “We were all young once.”
“I never liked feeding from strangers. Impersonal sex left me feeling cheap and empty. To support the need I dated mortals. I was just reaching my maturity and didn’t understand how out of control the need could get. I met Pierre in college. He was a medical student and I was on my way to dropping out.” I had to smile. “He was smart and kind and all the right things a girl could want. I fell hard. We moved in together. My family never knew. They assumed I was still living in the dorms at the college.” It was only after everything fell apart and I was tied to the contract with Sin that my father confessed he’d known. He once loved a mortal too in his youth, before he’d met my mothers, and had learned the value of caring for someone else. But he’d grown up in harder times and developed a stronger soul than mine to deal with the heartbreak.
I was feeble. My mistake had harmed so many, including my father. He blamed himself for my near death experience. That’s how Sin was able to make him sign that contract, proving to my father that love really was a weakness. Guilt now drove Dad to hover and shelter me.
Five years later, those emotions had faded but I should have known better. “I tried really hard to be a good girlfriend. I only fed from him.”
Val gasped. “Pia.”
“I know, I know. Stupid. It almost killed me. But he didn’t know what I was and our laws said I couldn’t tell him. He would have seen it as cheating, so I tried for our sake.”
Shaking his head, Val stayed quiet but his disapproval was evident.
“I lasted almost a year. I’d lost weight and was weak. He thought I was sick and kept trying to take me to doctors. Obviously, I couldn’t control it anymore. He caught me with the mailman.”
“Pia.”
“Oh no, don’t stop me now. You wanted to know. It gets worse. The mailman was married, but what mortal can resist a starving twenty-something succubus? He never had a chance.”
Val hung his head.
Oddly, incubi and succubi took marriage very, very seriously. It was an unwritten rule not to feed from married people of any race. “I broke three people’s hearts that day. I never heard from Pierre again and I never went looking. Shame sent me away. I left the city and hid from my family, refusing to feed.”
I smoothed my unwrinkled dress with trembling hands. “We done? Can I drive now?” Heat sizzled through my ears as my disgrace was laid out before him. “Am I taking you home?”
With a finger under my chin, he guided my face toward his. He gave me a chaste kiss. “I think I understand now. You’re walking a fine line.”

Purchase:  Kindle | Nook | Carina Press

Annie Nicholas
www.annienicholas.com

Giveaway: Annie is giving away one digital copy of Starved for Love to one lucky winner.  Leave a comment on this post, along with your email address, no later than7:00pm on Tuesday, October 7th to enter to win.


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Guest Author + a Giveaway: Annie Nicholas – Different Kinds of Nerds

Posted August 10, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 6 Comments

Please welcome Annie Nicholas to the blog.  Annie is the author of the Vanguards series and is here today talking about different kinds of nerds.

Nerd
Noun:
1. A foolish or contemptible person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious: “one of those nerds who never asked a girl to dance”.
2. An intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.

Just like I’ve said to my children, there is nothing wrong with being a nerd. It just means you’re not like everyone else.

Annie’s Fun Classification of Nerds and Geeks and Dweebs
(please remember these are my definitions lol)

Hopeless Romantic: Someone in love with love. The hero in The Alpha is modeled after this idea. He secretly hoards romance novels under his bed and has kept his virginity for his one true love. Gotta love him.

Computer Geek: Someone more into electronics and can communicate better in html than with words. The Beta’s hero is totally in this category. He’s not crazy about socializing, which is odd for a wolf shifter, yet uses his computer skills to aid the pack.

Quiet and Shy: Socially inept, usually the person in the corner at parties. The heroine of The Omegas falls in this class. Sugar, who appears in all the books, is a librarian who is taken by storm by a Nosferatu warrior vampire.

Incurable Child: Goofy, always trying to make everyone laugh even at their own expense. Sees the world as their playground. Omegas in Love has a hero whose greatest passion is to create Rube Goldberg machines. (An apparatus that is deliberately over-engineered to perform a very simple task.) He’s fast with a joke, even if they’re horrid, and a godsend for an abused shifter female.

Emotionally Stunted: (I think we’ve all met one of these in our lives) Immature emotionally, searching for a quick, shallow connection with someone on a short term basis because they can’t deal with more. Yep, I class this in the NERD file because dealing with your emotions is a social skill. LOL Sigma is all about this type.

I like my nerds, geeks, and dweebs. I am one and place myself in the quiet/shy category. What other types do you think there are?

Oh, and remember, nerds rule the world…

Annie is very kindly giving away 1 copy of her new release Sigma (The Vanguards book 5) to one lucky winner.  Leave a comment on this post no later than August 15th at 7:00pm to enter.

Sigma

To defend and protect, at any cost.

Sam is Sigma of his pack, defender of the innocent and frail. Too bad the one time it mattered most, though the urge to guard the weak runs strong in his shifter blood, he failed to protect his best friend from an attack. Just when his self-confidence can’t go any lower, he becomes entangled in a vampire skirmish and is left with an injured female in his arms.

Vampire accountant for Pal Robi, Inc., Clementine can’t believe her master would ask her to commit corporate espionage. She’s shot when discovered, but a shifter comes to her rescue. It’s as if he’s made of her fantasies, and in the few hours with him she lives more than the decades she’s spent among her clan.

Hiding with him on the streets of Chicago, in the midst of fighting together to stay alive, can a petite vampire break through her hero’s jaded heart?

WARNING: Hot dominating sex, an action packed evening, and a first date gone all to hell.

Buy Link

Excerpt:

His inner beast grumbled, sulking in the corners of his mind. Ever since Sugar had been attacked on his watch, when Katrina’s old werewolf pack from China had broken into their home, his animal nature didn’t seem interested in the outside world. Even when he shifted to his beast form, it remained distant, not sharing in the hunt, or even sex.

His love for the human female had faded over the years and transformed into something more brotherly, but the rejection still ached. Every woman he’d been involved with took off. Some base instinct kept him from caring about anyone new and he was tired of it.

Shit, even his beast couldn’t stand hanging around him anymore.

All his roommates had shacked up, but he still slept in an empty bed, the one-night-stand wonder. Fuckable, but not worth loving. Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. He tried to believe…

The rehabilitation center night security guard let him park his car in front of the entrance, since Sugar was being discharged. Six weeks in physical rehabilitation, yet she still couldn’t move her left side. The scans showed she’d suffered a stroke after the attack, something that could happen to trauma patients, even young ones.

Daedalus, her vampire lover, was supposed to be picking Sugar up. That’s why they’d arranged a late night discharge, but the vampire had vanished, leaving a note for Sam to take care of Sugar. The asshole didn’t need to write an or else on his message. It was implied. Sam rubbed his temples, his pulse pounding, the sure sign a migraine would be paying him a visit soon.

He and Daedalus had never been on the best of terms. The vampire had discarded Sam when he first started training the pack to fight, and focused only on Eric as alpha. The vampire had known Sam’s feelings for Sugar, yet had still stolen her away. Now, the bloodsucker could barely look at him. Daedalus blamed him for Sugar’s injuries.

The vampire was right, though. It was Sam’s fault. He was Sugar’s Sigma. Spice, his pack’s female alpha and Sugar’s twin, had charged him with shadowing her sister. Not every pack owned a Sigma, not every pack needed one. They protected the innocent or the weak, like orphaned pups or the elderly, who had no children to care for them. In his case, he took care of their token human.

He strolled through the corridor of the rehab center, his footsteps echoing in the quiet, and he waved at the nurses. One offered him an inviting smile. Something he would have pursued a few weeks ago. However, his interest in humans had waned. Too fragile for a shifter.

Annie Nicholas
www.annienicholas.com
www.annienicholas.blogspot.com


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Review: Sigma by Annie Nicholas

Posted August 9, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

This review contains spoilers from books 3, 4 & 5

To defend and protect, at any cost.

Sam’s self confidence never recovered when he failed to protect his best friend Sugar from an attack months ago. The urge to guard the weak ran strong in his shifter blood. So much his pack gave him the position of Sigma, defender of the innocent and frail. Too bad he sucked at it. On his way home he becomes entangled in a vampire skirmish and is left with an injured female in his arms.

As a vampire accountant for Pal Robi inc., Clementine never imagined her master would ask her to commit corporate espionage. She’s discovered and shot but a shifter, made of her fantasies, comes to her rescue. In the few hours spent with him she’s lived more than the decades spent among her clan.

Hiding on the streets of Chicago, together they fight to stay alive but can a petite vampire female break through her hero’s jaded heart?

Sam’s having a bit of a pity party. He’s feeling unloved and unwanted and that’s not good. He has been assigned to pick up his friend Sugar from her rehab. While on their way home they are almost run off the road by a woman who they quickly realize is being chased and shot at. Not one to leave well enough alone he follows, ok, on Sugar’s insistence, and saves the woman.

The woman, Clementine, actually works for Daedalus and has worked for Pal Robi, Inc. for years as an accountant. She is thankful to Sam, especially when he pulls a bullet from back. When gratitude quickly turns to horniness their both more than happy to accommodate the other. They soon realize that neither one of them wants to be separated from the other but there are many issues and a hell of a lot of vampires that might keep them apart, including Daedalus.

Along with Clementine and Sam and their relationship, Daedalus and Sugar are trying to deal with the fallout from book 4 when Sugar was hurt to the point that she really doesn’t want to stay alive.

Originally I was asked to read and review this book and started reading it without having read books 1-4. I could tell almost immediately that this was not a good standalone novella at all. I went back and read books 1-2 and then a couple of weeks later 3-5 in one day. While the first two novellas were good the last three really have a great continuing storyline.

There’s the story that started in book 3 of someone trying to hire an assassin to kill Daedalus. Robert, who eventually gets with Esther takes her phone to try and track who the original email came from. We don’t get to know who that email came from in book 3 but in book 4 more info comes to light. In book 4 the Vasi pack is attacked and Sugar, Daedalus’s woman is hurt and almost dies. She’s the only human in the house and isn’t willing to become a vampire as she feels it will change who she really is. In book 5 she’s come home after her surviving of the attack but now she’s got a defeatist attitude and that’s not sitting well with Daedalus.

The romance’s in the previous books as well as book 5 is really abbreviated. The novellas have the couples quickly coming together and for some reason it really works because the rest of the stories are always interesting enough to carry them. I was lucky that I read the books close together and didn’t have to wait any amount of time for the next book to come out cuz that might have made me a bit crazy. Lol

While the stories aren’t too terribly deep – although book 5 is definitely more so – they’re fun and worth the read.


Rating: 4 out of 5

Annie Nicholas


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What I Read Last Week

Posted August 6, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 13 Comments

Good Morning!
Well it was a hell of a week here in Tracyland. First, last Monday afternoon/evening, my kids were walking our neighbors dogs and my oldest fainted from the heat – luckily they were on our street. My youngest was smart and ran to a house that had their garage door open and the woman helped and called 911. I met them at the hospital and thankfully everything was fine she was just seriously dehydrated. What a scary thing, especially after having my nephew’s girlfriend died from heat exhaustion just recently. I’m always trying to push fluids into my kids, especially during summer when they’re out playing and it gets damned hot here – they just don’t take me too seriously. My oldest is of the mind that nothing bad will ever happen to her and getting her to realize that it can happen to any of us is a difficult one. She’s absolutely OK now. They pushed several bags of fluids into her and her labs came back good. Phew – scary.
Then the next day my youngest who got a bad cold the Saturday I was at RWA woke up with pink eye. Ug. A trip to the doctor and in a strange move the doc didn’t even check out her ears and throat, which I found incredibly strange. As luck would have it the very next night she woke up with ear pain, of course, and it was back to the doctor for her to get amoxicillin. Now if the doc would have looked into her ears on Tuesday we probably wouldn’t have had to go back Thursday! Oh well.
My youngest, being the complete cuddler she is, and more so when she’s sick, gave Mama her cold. My cold, of course, turned into a sinus thing and I thought I would have to break out my teeth just to make myself feel better since the pressure was horrific. Luckily after having thought I was going to die on Friday I survived the weekend (of course my hubby left for Sturgis on Tuesday evening so he missed most of this, lucky bastard) and the girls were really great helping me. I’m still feeling crappy but no longer fear that I will perish at any moment.
Because of all of this – and of course the Olympics I read A LOT of novellas this week and only 1 novel. And the one novel took me almost 5 days to finish – yikes! That’s just crazy.
Speaking of the Olympics – my kids are absolutely LOVING them. For some reason they hardly remember watching the summer games from years gone by and they can’t get enough of it. My youngest is now throwing her arms in the air with her pike dismounts off of the coffee table. lol  Maybe after she gets her black belt in Taekwondo I need to stick her in gymnastics. 🙂
Alright on to what I read last week:
I started the week with Bossy and the Brat by Daisy Harris. This is the story of dorm mates – Calvin who’s in the closet and Tyler who’s absolutely not. You can read my full review of here. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was The Strength of a Man by Sara Winters that I read for Book Binge. This m/m story tells of college students Kurt and James. James is older but head over heels for Kurt. Kurt really wants James as well but he has a hard time trusting his decisions when it comes to men after being hurt before – both emotionally and sexually. You can read my full review here. 3.75 out of 5
Next up I ran through three stories in the same series – rarely something I do unless its yaoi manga. The first was The Beta by Annie Nicholas – which is book 3 in The Vanguards series. This was the story of the beta of the Vasi werewolf pack who is in charge while his alphas are on their honeymoon. He’s stressed out and gets even more so when he meets an assassin who is out to kill his vampire friend Daedalus. The story involved the romance of Robert and Esther but also a continuing story having to do with someone out to get Daedalus. It was a good novella and a nice addition to the series. 3.75 out of 5

The fourth book in the same series is Omegas in Love by Annie Nicholas. Two people from the original Omega pack (who are now the Vasi pack) were always attracted to each other and finally have made the move to a more permanent relationship. But Katrina hasn’t been completely honest with Tyler. Back in China she had been forcibly mated with someone and now he’s back to get her and get the heir he wants. Katrina’s taken and their home attacked. Sugar from book 1 is hurt and Tyler’s beside himself trying to get his woman back. Again, a continuing thread throughout the story that is just getting better with each novella. Tyler and Katrina were adorable together and while their already in love this incident strengthens their bond. 4 out of 5
Book 5 in The Vanguards is Sigma by Annie Nicholas. I’ll review this later this week and Annie will be a guest on Friday – along with a Sigma giveaway.
I finally finished Wild Texas Rose by Jodi Thomas on Saturday (after taking 5 days to read it with all those distractions). This was a really good western historical romance. She made it kind of community oriented as she does her Harmony contemporary series. The story is about Rose from Whispering Mountain who heads to Fort Worth to help a friend who is getting married. Victoria’s a mess and eventually disappears. Duncan, a Texas Ranger and Rose’s cousin by marriage and adoption, is keeping an eye out on Rose while riding back and forth to Dallas. The men Duncan is guarding have threatened Duncan repeatedly and Duncan worries that Rose will be hurt. The story has many different threads throughout and that includes a friends to much more romance between Duncan and Rose. I really liked this book and I’m so glad I read it. I read this one for Book Binge so I’ll let you know when it posts. 4 out of 5
Last for the week was Men of Smithfield: Max & Finn by LB Gregg. This is the re-edited story that was previously called Cover Me. It’s just as good as it was before. I wanted to hurt Max for being such an ass at the start of the book but about halfway through we see who he really is. 4.25 out of 5 (releases Sept.)
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Happy Reading!


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