A Ruin of Roses by K.F. Breene

 Danger is all around.

The curse put on a kingdom and surrounding villages cannot be broken.  Well, there is a way.

Finley has her own way to help her village sustain life.  She sneaks into the Forbidden Forest to find the elusive herb that holds back the deadly curse.  Her crusade must be done at night and in the shadows of the Beast.

The Beast, dragon-shifter unable to use all powers, guards his kingdom of leftover shifters cursed into the life of continual sexual desires as their only pastime.  Nyfain has little to keep the curse of his kingdom at bay, yet capturing the strong-willed intruder gives him hope of some sort.

Always wary of her surroundings, Finley doesn't back down to Nyfain, but rather tells him exactly what she thinks of him and his disgusting lifestyle.  

A few lenient breaks in her imprisonment, shows a different man and Beast of Nyfain.  She could almost care about him.  But not so fast, he has to prove himself.

Nyfain is spellbound by this daring minx and her steadfastness for her village's wellbeing.  Maybe they can work together on this curse cast to all.

A little loving may be what the last potion needs for the curse and the romance!

Happy reading,

Dawn

Steal Her Heart by T.S Joyce

I always look forward to reading a story by T.S. Joyce!  Her wicked words and strong women and men, or should I add Shifters rule the story?!
Maris is a powerful woman even when pulled down by an ex-husband and the loss of her ability to run a complete ranch by herself.  When she names her cattle things like Marshmallow Face and Marmalade, you can't help love the soft side of her.  When she fights the wolves attacking her herd, she has another strong side that makes a reader proud.
Bryson has his own turmoil in loving his former wife. Guilt is a hard trick to overcome.  When Bryson sees the problems on Maris's ranch next to the one he works on, he chances himself to be of help in his own stubborn manner.
Maris doesn't find it helpful at all that Bryson buys her herd at auction, but what he does with it, and his special traits to help fight the wolves may change her mind.
Matter of fact, Maris is intuitive and notices the grizzly in Bryson, and tests her theory more than the average human would attempt. It's a delicious, evocative, and slightly dangerous test.
Bryson's surprise at her acceptance of his other half, the grizzly, doesn't immediately convince him she can handle his demeanor.  Not until he reveals his secret.
I rooted for their romance all the way.  Maris and Bryson are strong and honest in their acknowledgement of each other.  When they weren't sure they could make it together, I wanted to burst into the novel and straighten them out.  Fortunately, they have a way of figuring it out for themselves!

Happy reading,
Dawn

For The Hope Of A Crow by T.S. Joyce (Red Dead Mayhem #1)

T.S. Joyce creates characters with spunk and personality along with a story that I can’t help but cheer for the hero and heroine to figure out their problems! 

So, then I wondered how a male crow shapeshifter and a female moose shifter would fit together and what’s sexy about those animals?  Joyce didn’t let me down.

Ramsey’s human form is a badass leader of a biker group and hot as hell with rippling muscles, tats, and hidden sensitivity which needs to be exposed.  Crows mate for life and his crow’s initial pick dumped him like a hot rock.  He needs to be fixed before he goes crazy and takes his clan down with him.

In walks Vina, opposite of her moose personality, she’s calm and a bit naïve.  She’s been divorced and has a plan to mate a crow because they mate for life.  She likes pink and using cuss words doesn’t appeal to her. It’s quite the road to determine if the two opposites find a common need.

The story’s entertaining and full of colorful terms and descriptions to get Vina and Ramsey to a point where love reveals their matching good sides! Man saves woman and moose (yes, the female) saves the crow.

Happy reading,

Dawn 

Red Havoc Bad Cat (Red Havoc Panthers Book 3) by T.S. Joyce

T.S. Joyce has shown us another shifter in the form of a black panther, rude, daring, and sexy as hell named Barret Turgard.  He belongs to the Red Havoc Crew and takes killing seriously.  He doesn’t think he has the capacity to love and take care of a partner.

Little did he know that the broken panther, Lynn, that he vowed to help, has another helper on the way.

In the form of a beautiful female hiding her shifter background, Eden Brown appears at Lynn’s door closely following Barret’s departure.  Eden grew up with Lynn and vows to cure Lynn of her broken heart.

Lynn is no help in the love category.  She repeatedly tells Barret and Lynn to never fall in love.  Love will only destroy.

Barret has this fixed in his mind when he runs into Eden.  Eden is in this part of the forest to help her friend and swears she won’t get distracted by the muscle-rippling Barret who confronts her.

Barret loves every part of Eden, but tells her to stay away and go home.

Even if Barret and Eden find a sexual connection, and it’s steamy, Eden doesn’t think Barret cold ever accept her if he finds out what kind of shifter she represents.  She may be right.

It’s a heart tugging and fierce battle between “love and leave” as secrets are exposed, but don’t give up on the heart and flip the pages late into the evening!

Happy reading,

Dawn

Witches and Gargoyles Fly Again!

Hey, ya'all. How's everyone doing?  Great, I hope!!!  Well, here we are again...it's Thursday night and my blog is due tomorrow, and I got nuthin. LOL  I was supposed to be going under the knife tomorrow morning for a bone fragment in one elbow, but I got a last minute reprieve, which is a VERY good thing, given that this has been one of those weeks where everything you do seems to fall apart and ends up a pile of junk on the living room floor.  :)  So surgery postponed and now I don't have to worry about the doc getting hit by lightning while he's got a metal probe stuck in my elbow. Yeah!

So, what I'm gonna do instead is give you a sneak peek at the new cover for my story that's coming out later this week.  It's the first book in the SpellMaker Series...a new series about witches in cowgirl boots, hiding in plain sight, and gargoyles who wear cowboy hats.  It came out in September as part of the Butterscotch Martini Girls box set, Bodyguard.  But now I'll be publishing it stand-alone under its own cover.  Woo Hoo!  So, here's the cover, and I hope you love it because I designed it myself. There's an excerpt posted below...Enjoy!  And if you love it, keep an eye open for it to come out on Monday!

That's my story, new and nutty, and I'm stickin' to it.  Hang on tight now, 'cuz we're gonna go real, real fast!

Love ya,

Kayce

Excerpt from...Witch's Pass

Grant addressed the men.  “Gentlemen, as I said on the phone, my daughter Quayk is missing.  No one has seen her since this morning.  What do you need to know about her?  Do you need a picture?”

McCall shook his head.  “No, we have all that.  Pulled it up before we left.  I have two members of my team I would like to leave with your family.  They will provide protection while they question them to see if there is anything else we can learn.”  He turned his head and motioned toward a group of people standing next to his truck.  “Garcia.”

A tall, slender woman with caramel skin, dark brown eyes, and long, black hair pulled back in a ponytail stepped forward.  She wore black leggings, a black short-sleeve T-shirt, black boots, and had a gun belt strapped around her hips.

“This is Alice Garcia.  She’ll be in charge of things here at the house.”

The woman smiled and nodded as she met Grant’s gaze fearlessly.  “Hello.  I’ll take good care of your family.”

Grant had no doubt she would.  He could sense a comfort spell emanating from her also.  He could tell from the flavor of the spell that she was an Empath, and he was grateful she would be able to sense his family’s needs and put them at ease.

McCall turned back toward his truck.  “Slicer.”

A man dressed in dark pink from head to toe stepped forward, and it was clear from the way he moved, he was probably gay.  The man was of mixed blood and could have been a Prince clone.   But his most prominent features were his eyes—a light golden brown, with slightly horizontal, oval-shaped irises.  Not at all what he’d expected.  Grant turned toward McCall and raised one brow.  “Slicer?”

One side of McCall’s mouth pulled up in a grin.  “Yeah.  This is Eric Rittenhouse.  We call him Slicer because of his special talents.”

Grant stared at the man.  “And what would those be?”

McCall chuckled.  “He’s a cat shifter.”

Grant met McCall’s gaze.  “Seriously?”

That explains the eyes.

McCall nodded.  “And people like him.  So they tell him shit.”

Holy hell, what a crew!

Grant smiled at Rittenhouse.  “Okay, welcome aboard, Slicer.  Take good care of my family.”

“Oh, you know I will, sir.”  Slicer gave him a salute that was something straight out of a sitcom routine, and Grant had to resist the urge to laugh.

McCall turned back toward the group next to the truck.  “Okay, the rest of you come on up.”

The group stepped forward and formed a line in front of Grant.

McCall introduced each of them individually.  “This is Tracker—our field survival expert, and a lion shifter.  He can track anything that walks, hops, runs, or slithers, and sometimes even things that fly with a little assistance.”

Alex pointed to a man carrying an automatic weapon.  “Shooter here is our ordnance expert and a military-trained sniper. He a can hit a bird in flight at a mile every time with the naked eye.  He’s a falcon shifter.”

The next man to step forward was dressed in black and fairly non-descript—someone you might see and never remember later.  “This is Boxcar, and he’s a raccoon shifter.  He can get in and out of anything, and don’t shoot dice with him if you want to keep your shirt.”

Alex motioned for a man in a well-worn white straw hat to step forward.  “Cowboy here is my ranch foreman, and has a team of search and rescue experts that work with him.”  Cowboy nodded and stepped back in line.

Grant asked, “Is he a shifter too?”

Alec shook his head.  “No.  He’s a psychic with strong telepathic abilities.  That makes him good with animals, and he can communicate with his search and rescue team over long distances, even without these headsets.”

“And this is Meow.”  Alex grinned as he introduced the last man.  “He’s our main strategist, an expert in stealth recovery, and trained in human psychology and behavior.  He can read you like a book, and has an astounding ability to imitate the sound of any animal.  You hear a kitten outside the door, don’t go check.”

Grant met Alex’s gaze.  “Shifter?”

Alex laughed.  “No, Human.  Just weird and twisted.”

Witches, Gargoyles, Shifters...Oh, My!

Woo Hoo!!!  I am celebrating my butt off at this end because I have a new story coming out in Volume 2 of the Butterscotch Martini Shots series.  This box set is titled, BodyGuard, and contains four stories from four of the BMGs.  Can you say “Yeah?!”

The anchor story in this box set is a previously published, and wildly popular, story from the amazing Jennifer Ashley—titled BodyGuard.  I know…awesome how that worked out, right?  LOL

So here’s the new cover…

 …created by yours truly.  Uh-huh!  Hope you love it as much as I do.

The four authors in this set are Jennifer Ashley, Calista Fox, Tia Dani, and me, and I am ecstatic to be running in such incredible company—what talent!

The story officially releases on September 20^th, but it is...

Click here NOW to pre-order!  

The pre-order link is finally live, so go order your copy now—and it will ship on September 20^th.  And while you are there, you will want to order a copy of Volume 1 – Roses and Rodeo, if you haven’t already got a copy.


Oh, and I almost forgot...You are invited to our Book Release Party on Saturday.  You can search Facebook for Butterscotch Martini Girls LET'S PARTY Spectacular!  Or you can try this link...who knows, it might work.  LOL  And if all else fails, send me a note and I'll send you an invitation.  Have I mentioned it's been a very strange day full of strange glitches?  

Below are some quick story blurbs on the four stories included in this set, followed by an excerpt from my story, Witch’s Pass.  For those of you who have read my Delta Jane Series, you will find this series to be very similar, in that it is light and humorous.  But this time we have fun witches instead of a fun fairy godmother.  Witch’s Pass is a novella-length story that introduces some of the quirky characters you will learn more about in the full-length novels scheduled to begin coming out in 2017.

Enjoy…and don’t forget to order your copy today.  That’s my story, fun and funky, and I’m stickin’ to it.  Hang on tight now, ‘cuz we’re gonna go real, real fast!

 

Love ya,

Kayce

Jennifer Ashley

BodyGuard (Shifters Unbound Series)

Elizabeth Chapman is saved from an armed robber by a giant Kodiak bear who shifts

into a large, well-muscled, and fully naked human male. Ronan, the Bear Shifter, takes

her to Shiftertown for safety, where Elizabeth learns that the mateless Ronan, alone in

the world, takes care of Shifters who have also been left on their own. Now, Ronan will

only let Elizabeth leave the confines of Shiftertown if he becomes her 24/7 bodyguard.

Calista Fox

Rise of the Damned (Forever Mine Series)

For centuries, Kage Deville has sworn to protect the mortal soul of Taelyn Abrams—even

though it means watching her die. He’s a demon fighting to keep two worlds from clashing

and she’s a human slayer summoned to life when the threat to the mortals becomes too

great. But something has gone wrong with the resurrection and unless Taelyn's memory

of her true mission returns, a world will be doomed and she will be forever lost to Kage…

Kayce Lassiter

Witch‘s Pass (SpellMaker Series)

Witch princess, Quayk SpellMaker, is in a battle of wills with her father over an

“arranged” marriage to a man she hates. Does she settle for a loveless marriage? Or

risk being without a mate and alone forever?  Gargoyle shifter, Alex McCall, is assigned

to guard Quayk and make sure she marries. But the more time he spends ensuring

Quayk marries another, the more he is drawn to the beautiful, quirky witch.

Tia Dani

Next To Die

Amanda Jackson relocates to Arizona with her new husband. Despite warnings

from a girlfriend, she can’t believe an obsessed psychopath is after her. Until she

sees her name and the words…next to die. To appease his sister, bodyguard Rick

DeLuca reluctantly agrees to keep an eye on Amanda. The dangerous mess he

uncovers reveals an ugly truth. Her perfect husband isn’t who he pretends to be.

Excerpt…Witch’s Pass By Kayce Lassiter

As a princess from a very powerful family, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that a coven of witches had kidnapped her and had stirred up an electrical storm to impede the search and cover their trail.

While Alex didn’t think that was the case, it would be impossible for a single witch to bring down an electrical storm, so the timing of a magical storm forced him to consider the possibility this wasn’t what it appeared.

He was determined to follow the trail as long as he could, and keep an eye out for a place to wait out the storm, just in case.

In less than five minutes, the storm raged so badly he could no longer ignore it.  Trees were whipped around by the high winds, and the thunder was so loud he could sense the rumble under his feet.

Alex began to look around in earnest for a place to ride it out.  He considered shifting back, but decided with all the debris being tossed around, it was safer in his “rubber skin”, as the team called it.

While Alex’s skin never hardened to the marble finish other gargoyles experienced, his pliable skin was still tough and couldn’t be cut, punctured, shot, or penetrated by any weapon he’d ever encountered.  So he was still better protected as a gargoyle than as a human.  And the advantage he had over other gargoyles is that in a pliable form, he could still move, while they were rooted to one spot.

As he searched for a cave, or a rock outcropping where he could lay low and avoid lightning strikes, he caught movement from the corner of his eye and whipped his head back to see what it was.

At first, he thought there was nothing there.  But after a few seconds, he noticed a slight movement in his peripheral vision.  When he turned his head to look at the area straight on, it was almost like the air had a translucent finish as it shimmered in the wind.  As he stared, trying to figure out what to do about it, there was a blinding flash of light that forced him to look away momentarily.

When he looked back, the spot was gone.  Instead, there was a woman on the ground who sputtered as she cursed like a sailor, arms and legs flailing as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Alex was still in his shifted form, and blended into the background, so she hadn’t noticed him.

“Son-of-a-bitch!  You stupid stink weed.”  The woman flailed her arms and legs like a turtle stuck on its back as she fought to stand with a massively heavy pack on her back.

He shifted back to his human form so he had all of his senses, and smiled as he recognized the stunning young woman.

Quayk SpellMaker.

She still hadn’t noticed him, as she continued to issue threats and curse at whatever had pissed her off.

“I will get even with you, so help me, I swear I will.  I’ll set you on fire and I’ll take the hedge trimmers to you, and I’ll…I’ll set you on fire again.”

She finally managed to get her pack off her shoulders and bolted to her feet.  Her cowgirl hat flew off her head and she caught it neatly with one hand as she pulled twigs and leaves from her tangled black hair with the other, still cursing and stomping her feet.

When she finally looked up and saw Alex, she froze.

He smiled.  “Miss SpellMaker, I presume.”

“Who the hell are you?”  She reached for her pack, clearly reluctant to leave it behind.

Alex took a slow step closer, approaching her like he would a scared colt.

Her gaze was wild and she was poised to run, but she wasn’t scared.  She was determined not to be caught.  He could read it in her eyes.

She was the most magnificent woman he’d ever seen.  Her huge ice-blue eyes flashed fire and her thick black hair was wild around her face as she stood in shorts and pink cowgirl boots, with long tanned legs, and her hat in hand.

It was like a punch to the gut, and he swallowed hard to ease the lump in his throat.

This woman is my target.  Her father is my client, not to mention she’s a princess and he’s the freaking King of SpellMaker.

Quayk shifted slightly to get a better hold on her pack.

“Now, Miss SpellMaker, I am not here to hurt you.  But I won’t let you run.  Your family hired me to find you, and I intend to take you home.  So please—don’t try to run.  You’ll jus—.”

She bolted, abandoning the pack in favor of freedom.

“Shit!”  Alex took off after her, shocked at how fast the woman could move.  As she slipped through the forest easily, he was forced to crash through like a bull in a china shop.

As they ran, the storm picked up strength.  The trees were bent almost to the ground and limbs crashed down around them as Quayk continued to put more and more distance between them.

Alex tried to call to her, to warn her this was a magical storm, and extremely dangerous.  He doubted she could hear him.

Suddenly and ear-splitting crack sounded and he watched as a tree began to fall toward Quayk as she bolted through the forest, unaware.

He screamed, “Quayk, look out!”

She must have heard him because she looked back over her shoulder.  Her eyes grew round and she tried to outrun the tree, but he watched as the canopy of the huge pine engulfed her slender body.

Alex hurried toward where he’d last seen her.  He half crawled and half ran, as he scrambled over and through branches to reach her.

Finally, he saw a flash of pink beneath the tree, and he made his way over to the woman as she lay face-down beneath a branch.

When he finally managed to reach Quayk, the first thing he did was check for a pulse.  Strong.  He looked around and didn’t see any blood.

Maybe she just got knocked out.

He pulled a knife from his belt and began to cut branches to free the girl, as lightning flashed close enough to make the hair on his body stand out.

“Shit.”  He talked as he worked to free her.  “Quayk, come on, you have to wake up.  We have to get you out of here.  This storm is dangerous.  Come on, girl, talk to me.  Wake up.”

She groaned.

With the last branch pulled away, he was still afraid to move her, unsure what he would find when he turned her over.

He leaned close.  “Quayk, can you hear me?  Are you hurt?  Can you move?”

“No,” she mumbled with her face still pushed into the ground.

“No what?”  He asked.  “No, you’re not hurt, or no, you can’t move?”

He heard her drag in a ragged breath.  “No, I don’t want to move.  Go away.”

“All right, that’s enough.”  Anger and relief warred inside him—anger at how close she’d come to being killed, and relief that she hadn’t.  He took her snarky response as an indication she was okay.

Standing, he reached down and grabbed her by the waist and hoisted her up until she could get her feet under her.

She grunted, but didn’t scream out in pain.  So as soon as she was able to stand, he bent over and swooped her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

She screamed, but he sensed no pain in the scream, so he started off in search of a place to hide from the storm as she began to kick and buck on his shoulder.

“Put me down, you Neanderthal.  I am not going home.  I’m fine.”

He reached up with his free hand and paddled her on the butt.  “Hold still or I’ll tie you up with a vine and leave you out here to drown in this storm.”

She stopped fighting.  “You’re crazy.  It’s not even raining.”

“It will be.  This storm isn’t natural.  It’s magical, and seems set on killing both of us.”

With that, another bolt of lightning struck the ground at the far side of the clearing.  Quayk screamed loud enough to blow out an eardrum, and Alex crashed through the bushes in the opposite direction as he tried to hold onto the bucking woman on his shoulder.

“Hold still!”  She was getting heavier, and harder to hold onto.

“Cave,” she shrieked.

He froze.  “What?”

She pointed off to the right and screamed again, “Cave.”

He looked in the direction she pointed as a branch crashed down behind him.  “There’s a cave over there?”

“Yes, you idiot.  Get moving or put me down before you kill both of us.”  She bucked again, but he held tight.