New Releases: Jan. 30 – Feb. 5, 2012

Third Grave Dead Ahead by Darynda Jones

Charley Davidson—grim reaper extraordinaire, private investigator . . . meh—is practicing her profession under the influence, caffeine and copious amounts of it, due to an extreme desire to induce insomnia. Every time she closes her eyes, Reyes Farrow, the part-human, part-supermodel son of Satan, is there. Only thing is, he’s a tad peeved. She did bind for all eternity, so it’s hard blame him. But 13 days without a wink is bound to bring out the crazy in a girl. So, when a man hires her to find his wife, Charley accepts the job with one goal in mind: Put the man behind bars, and not the wet kind. She can sense the guilt waft off him and vows to find the woman’s body and prove he’s a murderer.

Mask of the …

Guest Post: Character Profile by Laura Kaye + Giveaway

Today at BLI, we’ve got the immense pleasure of welcoming back the ever-fabulous Laura Kaye, author of numerous romance novels that span across subgenres. She stops by to talk about a very special person: Shayla McKinnon, the main character in her latest release, In the Service of the King. Shayla is an intelligent, complex, beautiful badass with a hell of a story to tell. Read on to find out more about her and her world! Please give Laura—and Shayla!—a warm welcome.

Character Profile: Meet Shayla McKinnon

Author Laura Kaye

If you like heroines who go after what they want, you’re really going to enjoy meeting Shayla McKinnon, the heroine of my dark erotic vampire romance, In the Service of the King, which releases February 1 from Harlequin Nocturne.

Where is Shayla from?
Shayla’s family is Irish, but she currently attends university at Oxford and studies Celtic history and culture.

How old is Shayla?
Shayla …

Review: Don’t Bite the Messenger by Regan Summers

Format read: ebook provided by publisher
Series: Book #1 (as-yet untitled series)
Genre: urban fantasy
Release Date: 16 January 2012
Publisher: Carina Press
Length: novella (32,000 words)
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Publisher’s Website, Barnes & Noble

Book Blurb:

The vampire population may have created an economic boom in Alaska, but their altered energy field fries most technology. They rely on hard-living—and short-lived—couriers to get business done…couriers like Sydney Kildare.

Sydney has survived to the ripe old age of twenty-six by being careful. She’s careful when navigating her tempestuous clients, outrunning hijackers and avoiding anyone who might distract her from her plan of retiring young to a tropical, vampire-free island.

Her attitude—and immunity to vampires’ allure—have made her the target of a faction of vampires trying to reclaim their territory. Her only ally is Malcolm Kelly, a secretive charmer with the uncanny habit of showing up whenever she’s in trouble. Caught in the middle of a vampire …

Interview: Regan Summers + Giveaway

Today, BLI’s very pleased to welcome author Regan Summers for a chat about her new book, Don’t Bite the Messenger. Regan talks for a bit about the adventures of her feisty protagonist, Sydney Kildare, and describes the dangerous environment found in her version of Anchorage, Alaska. Please give her a very warm welcome, and stay tuned at the end of this post for a special treat from Regan. ^_^

Alisha: Greetings Regan! Thank you so much for taking time out to visit BLI!

Regan: Thank you so much for having me! I’m so happy to be here.

Alisha: Can you please tell us a bit about Don’t Bite the Messenger–twitterstyle (140 characters or fewer)?

Regan: Messenger is the simple story of a hard-working girl and the handsome distraction and feuding vampires that stand between her and her dream.

Alisha: Rock on. Here’s a full description of the book for those whose interest has been …

New Releases: January 23-29, 2012

Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian

In the dark of night, a blood war escalates within the hidden world of the Breed. After existing in secret for many long centuries, maintaining a fragile peace with the humans who walk beside them unaware, a single act of retaliation has put the entire vampire nation at risk of discovery. It falls to the Order—a cadre of Breed warriors pledged to protect their own and humankind alike—to stop Dragos, the power-mad vampire at the center of the conflict, before his push for domination can explode into catastrophe.

At the center of the Order’s quest is Sterling Chase, once a morally rigid enforcer of Breed law, now a warrior fallen from grace, whose biggest battle is the one he wages against his own savage nature. With addiction beckoning him toward eternal darkness, Chase’s path to redemption has never seemed more out …

Review: The Djinn’s Dilemma by Mina Khan

Format read: ebook
Series: n/a
Release Date: 1 Nov 2011
Length: novella
Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne Cravings
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon, Publisher Website

Book Blurb:

Rukh O’Shay, half-djinn and assassin, is used to taking out the bad guys. But his latest assignment, Sarah White, is nothing like he expected. A glimpse of her bright aura reveals her gentle spirit, while her luscious beauty clouds his mind and makes him long for only one thing—to taste her.

Sarah shares the feeling of raw desire at Rukh’s touch. He can turn her on with a glance, and satisfies desires she didn’t even know she had. But Rukh had been hired to kill her—and the only way to save her is to find out who wants her dead before someone else finishes the job…

My Thoughts:

What do you do when the one person who steals your heart is the person you’re meant to kill? That very intriguing premise …

New Releases: January 16-22, 2012

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine–despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she’s reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a …

Guest Post by Laura Kaye, Leia Rice, Stephanie Draven + Giveaway

Heating Up Your New Year
Three HQN Authors Talk About How Erotic Novels Can Fit Into Your New Plan

While Harlequin is known primarily for romance, they also offer hotter fare. Today, the three fabulous authors Stephanie Draven, Laura Kaye and Leia Rice–all hailing from the great state of Maryland–are here to tell us why women should plan to read a little erotica in the coming year. 

———

Ladies, what can readers get out of erotic romance that they can’t find in other novels?

Laura: Easy! Erotic novels are hot, and it’s dang cold outside! *winks* But, seriously, erotic romance has a special intensity to it. The stakes are high. The emotions are strong. And the tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. Erotic stories are a feast for your senses and can take you on a journey that will leave you breathless in the best possible way. …

Review: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Format read: hardcover copy from library
Series: n/a
Release Date: 14 April 2011
Number of pages: 323 pages
Publisher: Dutton Adult
Formats available: hardcover, ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Book Depository, Author’s Website, Book Mini-site, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Blurb:

Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their office e-mail. But the women still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers at the newspaper and baring their personal lives like an open book. Jennifer tells Beth everything she can’t seem to tell her husband about her anxieties over starting a family. And Beth tells Jennifer everything, period.

When Lincoln applied to be an Internet security officer, he hardly imagined he’d be sifting through other people’s inboxes like some sort of electronic Peeping Tom. Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company e-mail, but he can’t quite bring himself to crack down on Beth and Jennifer. He can’t help but be entertained–and captivated–by their stories.

But …