Tag Archives: Australia

February 26, 2020 · 12:11 pm

Author Interview with Cassie Laelyn ~ Unforgotten, The Fallen Guardians Book 2 ~ + a Giveaway

Please help me welcome author Cassie Laelyn…

Hello, Cassie. Please tell us a little about yourself, where are you from? Where do you live now? Family? Pets?

Hi! I’m Cassie Laelyn and I’m addicted to paranormal romance. I mean, I write paranormal romance! I live with my husband, two BMX-mad boys and a crazy, very spoiled dog. I grew up in a military family, so I moved around a lot as a kid, but the family and I finally settled in a small beachside town in sunny Queensland, Australia. Right now, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere more beautiful.

Was there anything unusual, any anecdote about this book, the characters, title, process, etc, you’d like to share?

The whole Fallen Guardians series is based on the notion of soulmates. I’ve always believed that soulmates are two halves of the one soul. No matter what choices they make, regardless of the obstacles they face, those two halves will always find their way back together. After all, it’s destiny! But with Unforgotten, I wanted to take that one step further and show that even during great tragedy, there’s always a reason to choose hope.

In Unforgotten, Aric and Willow are two immortal soulmates living blissfully happy until one devastating choice tears them apart. Now, centuries later, those two halves are desperate to reunite. Consumed with never-ending love, commitment and a dangerous amount of hope, even Hell won’t stand in their way.

What book have you read that you wish you had written?

Anything written by JR Ward or Kresley Cole! Those ladies have an amazing ability to create complex worlds and characters in a long-standing series. I would love to have written the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole. It’s a series based off the Major Arcana tarot Cards, and the whole world she created has blown me away. I can’t wait for the final installment.

Do you collect anything?

Books, books and books!! But I guess all authors collect books, right? Something else I love collecting are Willow Tree figurines. They’re tiny sculptures that come with a message, usually one of love, hope, comfort or inspiration. I like to buy a new one each time I experience a significant milestone in my life, such as releasing a book!

What do you want readers to come away with after they read Unforgotten?

Even when all seems lost, never lose hope. “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” – Christopher Reeves

What is your favorite quote?

I have two favorite quotes I turn to when things seem impossible:

“It is often in the darkest night that we see the brightest stars.” – Richard Evans.

“Follow your soul, it knows the way.” – Unknown.

What celebrity would you most like to be stranded on an island with?

You said “celebrities” right?? Ha ha! I’d like an island with me, Ryan Reynolds, Ian Somerhalder, Scott Eastwood and right now, I’m adding John Krasinski to that list!

If you could be a character in any of your books, who would you be?

If I had to choose only one, I think I’d like to be Fate. She’s mysterious, powerful and not afraid to do what’s right. Even though many immortals think she’s the enemy, I believe her heart is in the right place.

Have you written any other books that are not published?

I’ve written Book 3 in The Fallen Guardians series, which is about to enter the editing stage. I also have a bear shifter novella plus a short story as part of a charity anthology to raise money for the Australian bushfire appeal. Both are due to release in mid-2020.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

My favorite romance authors are: JR Ward, Kresley Cole, Jennifer L Armentrout, and fellow Aussie Kylie Scott… and many more! I love how they all write over-the-top flawed heroes who will stop at nothing for the one they love. They’re intense, fiercely protective and loyal, powerful and hot! I also love how the heroines are strong and not willing to sit on the sidelines while all the action happens!

Tell us your favorite…

Movie – Sweet Home Alabama and Ten Things I Hate About You.

Music – Anything by Lifehouse!

Place you’d like to visit – New Zealand and the USA!

TV show from adulthood – The Vampire Diaries / The Originals

Food – Woodfired pizza

Sports team – My boys are mad into BMX, so that’s my favorite sport right now!

Which do you prefer: Board games/card games or television? – It depends on my company – I love doing all three!

GIVEAWAY!!! To celebrate Unforgotten’s release, I’d love to give one lucky reader an ebook copy! To win, tell me why love reading paranormal romance!

Unforgotten, The Fallen Guardians Book 2

Goodreads – http://bit.ly/Unforgotten_GR

Blurb:

Fate offers no mercy. Especially not to those who betray her.

Lethal Guardian Aric’s loyalty never falters. Not even when Fate exiled him and his brothers from the Heavens, separating Aric from his soulmate. He’ll do anything to reunite with her. But when Willow suddenly appears in the mortal realm, Aric’s greatest fear comes true—she’s no longer the angel he left behind.

Since Aric abandoned her, the Heavens have become Willow’s personal Hell. Centuries of bitterness and hurt is a toxic combination. It even affects her angelic powers. When a Fallen offers Willow a chance to escape, she accepts. But shunning her connection to the Heavens comes at a cost.

In a twisted battle of loyalty, trust and hope, what price will two soulmates pay for a second chance at love?

Excerpt:

Pivoting around, he peered over the cliff. Flames consumed the mountainside like bright orange burning fingers reaching for him.

Fuck. The fire surrounded him. No way out.

“Help!” Willow shrieked, her voice screaming through the roaring flames.

He had to find her before it was too late. Shielding his face with his arm, he crept closer to the flames.

“Willow, where are you?” A blast of heat scorched his face, forcing him back. “Fuck!”

Any gulp of air he managed burned in his chest. The smoke swirled around his body making his head swim and legs wobble. His stomach rolled.

The moment his throat squeezed shut, his legs gave out, falling to his knees in the ash, gasping for breath. Fire licked his arm as he reached for Willow.

He couldn’t find her. He couldn’t save her.

Purchase Links:

Amazon US – https://amzn.to/2GMnzbg

Amazon UK – https://amzn.to/3b5t8jb

Amazon CA – https://amzn.to/2OpzYGC

Amazon Aus – https://amzn.to/2GQbvWO

iBooks – https://apple.co/37TQ7vo

B&N – http://bit.ly/Unforgotten_Nook

Google – Coming Soon!

Kobo – Coming Soon!

Bio:

Growing up in a military family, Cassie had a childhood filled with countless crazy adventures. Eventually, sunny Queensland stole her heart, and she now calls it home with her husband and their two BMX-crazy boys.

Borderline obsessed with the paranormal world, Cassie has a passion for crafting stories involving strong, otherworldly characters in need of redemption. She’s a self-confessed book-a-holic and a sucker for a gut wrenching happily ever after.

When she isn’t narrating imaginary characters, Cassie loves binging on TV shows, spending time at the beach, and curling up listening to the rain.

Join Cassie’s newsletter (www.cassielaelyn.com) to stay up to date with release information, including the next instalment in her action packed, steamy paranormal romance series, The Fallen Guardians.

Stalk Links:

Facebook Reader’s Group (Cassie’s Log Cabin) – https://www.facebook.com/groups/CassieLaelynsLogCabin/?source_id=151798248858993

Facebook – http://bit.ly/Cassie_Facebook

Instagram – http://bit.ly/Cassie_Instagram

Twitter – https://mobile.twitter.com/CassieLaelyn

Website – https://www.cassielaelyn.com

Bookbub – http://bit.ly/Cassie_BookBub

Goodreads – http://bit.ly/CassieLaelyn_GR

Amazon Profile – https://amzn.to/2ZlZcwP

18 Comments

Filed under Author Blog Post, giveaway

Tagged as #ParanormalRomance, Australia, book giveaway, The Vampire Diaries, the wild rose press

May 5, 2017 · 6:45 am

“10 Moments That Changed My Life” by Iris Blobel ~ New Release: New Beginnings

I LOVE the 10 Moments That Changed My Life posts, and we haven’t had one in a while, so I’m pleased to share one from author Iris Blobel…

New Beginnings

by Iris Blobel

Thank you, Alicia, for having me on your blog and a big hello from Australia to you and your readers.

Here my 10 moments that have changed my life … in no particular order:

The first “moment” that comes to mind is my move from Germany to Australia. It was scary and such a big step for me. Life here is great, and I don’t regret the decision, but I do miss my family back home.
My wedding, of course, another memorable moment and one that has changed my life. We celebrated our 20^th wedding anniversary only recently – such an achievement J
Having children has changed my life, no doubt about it. Suddenly life’s priorities have altered and the love of the two human beings I created is the most important part of my daily life.
My grandma died when I was twenty and for the first time in my life, I had to deal (and cope!) with “death”. It was a hard lesson which took me a long time to come to terms with it.
This one is a recent change of my life – Last November I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I’m still in treatment, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m feeling better every day and I’m looking forward to going back to something close to a routine soon again.
After my traineeship at the TV station, I went for a year to the UK. Life changing in a big way … returning not only more mature, but also more confident, and with the idea that there’s more to life than finishing school and start work. I knew then that I wanted to travel the world.
Publishing my first book was a massive event for me. I always considered myself, and probably still do, more a “numbers” person. Writing a book in a second language and have a decent (local!) success changed my life in a sense that I do something I have come to love, something my teacher told me I was useless at. Writing is my escape from routine.
I’ve been presenting the German program at our community radio for a few years now. It’s great and so much fun.
Travelling through Canada and Alaska for three months was one of the highlights as well. I meet my (Australian) husband while on a tour.
And … last but not least, a moment that didn’t necessarily change my life, but one that was hard and might be life changing one day: the day I had to say goodbye to my mother last year not knowing whether I’ll ever see her again.

Oh my, Iris. You have had some experiences. I am sorry about the breast cancer. Thank God you’re improving. Sending good thoughts and prayers your way. Thank you so much for sharing with us today!

BLURB NEW BEGINNINGS

The chance to start life all over with the help of a stranger.

Twenty-two-year-old Sophie Levesque has been guardian to her eight-year-old sister Mia since their mother’s death a few years ago, and it hasn’t been easy. Luck comes their way when they inherit a small house in Hobart. Problem is, though, they don’t know and have never heard of Clara Bellinger, the testator. Settling into their new life, Sophie is still afraid it’s all a mistake.

Mark O’Connor, attorney in Hobart and the bearer of the good news for Sophie and Mia, curses himself for the lack of information about the testator. However, researching the questions gives him an opportunity to see Sophie again, and the more time he spends with the two, the more he realises that his life is missing something. And it’s not his casual lover Linda.

But then there’s Zach, Sophie’s sexy neighbour from across the road… and a very good friend of Clara’s.

Will unravelling the mystery unravel Sophie and Mark’s promise of a future?

EXCERPT

Sophie Levesque stared at the attorney in front of her, waiting for some answers. She and her little sister, Mia, had been quietly sitting in Mr. O’Connor’s office for more than half an hour, learning about the details of their inheritance.

Once he was finished, silence hung in the air before she asked with raised eyebrows. “Who?”

“Clara Catherine Bellinger.”

Mia leaned closer to her elder sister and gave a soft tug on Sophie’s shirt. “Who is she?”

Sophie shrugged. “I wouldn’t have a clue.” Then turned her attention back on Mr. O’Connor and asked the same thing. “Who is she?”

The handsome attorney on the other side of the massive desk leaned forward and rested his elbows on it before he started to repeat his earlier speech. Although hearing his words, Sophie still found it all very hard to comprehend. Here she was in this old office, furnished with heavy antique oak furniture, the curtains in a pretty shade of aubergine, and the carpet beneath her shoes thick and warm in a matching shade, hearing about an inheritance from someone she’d never even heard of.

Startled by the subtle sound of the clock chiming across the road, Sophie’s gaze turned to the window, where she saw the post office building across the road. It looked impressive and old. It’d been only a few hours since they’d arrived in Hobart, the most southern capital in Australia, but she already liked it. A lot more than Sydney, the place she’d lived all her life.

Hauled back from her thoughts, she heard Mr. O’Connor say, “I believe she was a distant relative of yours. I’m afraid I don’t have any further details.”

Sophie arched an eyebrow in disbelief, doubting the accuracy of it all. Not only did she try not to question his competence as a lawyer, but she also hoped it wasn’t a dreadful misunderstanding.

With a slight shrug of her shoulder, she asked, “Why not?”

He met her gaze steadily. “Pardon me?”

Sitting up straight, she repeated, “Why not? Why aren’t there any further details?”

He rubbed his chin with his fingers, his unease now obvious, and although she almost felt sorry for him, she tried not to care. She needed to know more. And not just the what, but why and who as well.

PURCHASE LINKS:

AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/2a1BSJ7

AMAZON UK: http://amzn.to/29FTb4B

AMAZON AU: http://amzn.to/2a9yKgW

BIO:

Iris Blobel was born and raised in Germany and only immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s. Having had the travel bug most of her life, Iris spent quite some time living in Scotland, London, as well as Canada where she met her husband. Her love for putting her stories onto paper has only emerged recently, but now her laptop is a constant companion.

Iris resides west of Melbourne with her husband and her two beautiful daughters.

Next to her job at a private school, she also presents a German Program at the local Community Radio.

Social Media Links:

Click here to subscribe to Iris’ Newsletter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IrisBlobel

Twitter: https://twitter.com/_iris_b

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4067254.Iris_Blobel

Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/iris_blobel/

24 Comments

Filed under 10 Moments that Changed My Life, Author Blog Post, New Release

Tagged as #enjoylife, Australia, Contemporary Romance, Hobart, interview, Iris Blobel, New Beginnings

March 23, 2016 · 8:16 am

“10 Moments that Changed My Life” by Rebecca Brooks + New Release: How to Fall

Please help me welcome today’s guest, Rebecca Brooks…

When I was eighteen, I took a gap year between high school and college. I traveled to India with a backpack, four pairs of underwear, the pants I was wearing—and no return ticket. Learning to forge my own path has been essential to me as a writer. Plus, it showed me what it feels like to write every day, or as much as I can.
I feel like it sounds cheesy to say that the choice of where I went to college changed my life, but it did. I went to Wellesley College, an all-women’s college in Massachusetts. I wound up applying there on my gap year (long story!), so it really does feel like my life changed tracks to get me there. Wellesley was the first time in my life I felt truly at home in my skin. It’s a place that will always be a part of me.
My life definitely changed when I met the love of my life! My husband and I were friends from work before we were making tea in my kitchen and I realized he had every quality I could hope for in another human being. It was seriously like a lightning bolt struck me and I just KNEW. That was seven years ago, and I can’t imagine my life without his friendship, laughter, support, or his amazing editing skills.
I got a PhD in English, but what really changed my life was my decision not to stay in academia after I finished. I realized that if I became a full-time professor, I’d never get my own writing done, and I’d always feel like I was missing out on my dream. I’m glad I took the plunge into something unknown instead of staying on the path I’d been on. (I’m also glad I kept up freelance writing and editing work so I had another job to fall back on!)
I actually wrote a novel during graduate school, a YA science fiction novel that is never, ever coming out of a drawer. I was swamped with teaching and scholarship, but I committed to writing it an hour a day, every day, no more than an hour and no less. I didn’t go back and reread what I wrote—I just started at the beginning, and 400 pages later I arrived at something in the same approximate time zone as “The End.” The book is total crap, but writing it showed me how small, everyday decisions add up, and that you write each book one page at a time.
My first year of high school, I randomly enrolled in a drawing class, where I discovered that raw talent is less important than working at something and learning the skills. I kept at it, and actually became pretty good. It was my art teachers who showed me how to create, how to persist through setbacks, and how to see the world as only I can. I use these lessons in my writing all the time.
The moment I casually told my husband an idea I had for a novel, and he said, “You should write it.” I said, “But it’s a romance novel. Do I want to write a romance novel?” And he said, “See where it goes.” We were always bouncing around ideas for books, but this was the first fully viable idea I’d had, the outline already in my mind. There are lots of things that led up to the idea that became my debut, ABOVE ALL. But the moment when my husband said, “Write it” is really the moment that launched my career.
While publishing ABOVE ALL got me started as a romance author, I feel like writing and publishing my second novel, HOW TO FALL, was just as significant. I think some part of me had been afraid my first novel was a one-time thing, like I got lucky once and it wouldn’t happen again. Selling novel number two made me see that luck is only part of it. It’s really about persistence, sweat, and getting my butt in the chair.
I’d traveled so much in my late teens and early twenties that for a long time I assumed I’d live abroad for at least some amount of time after college. But I moved to New York ten years ago this summer, and I don’t see myself moving anytime soon. I do sometimes imagine all the “what if’s” and romanticize taking off and traveling the world like (some of) my heroines do… But I know that I’m happy where I am, and grateful to have such a home.
On Sunday, April 12, 2015, my mom called me while I was out for a walk. I didn’t pick up, and ten minutes later, she called again. Somehow I already knew what she was going to say before she said it. I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of my brother’s death, and while I don’t know yet exactly how my life has changed since that April afternoon, I know that it has, and that I’ve changed, too. I wish those changes hadn’t had to happen, but I’m trying to accept them, embrace them, and understand that I will be okay—even if I don’t feel the same. This is a downer to end on, but it makes me think of how open I am to the future and the changes that will continue to shape the person I am, and the one I’m still becoming.

Fascinating adventures you’ve had, Rebecca. Thank you so much for sharing them with us today. And now, about her newest release…check out her fabulous cover!

One week of adventure might just lead to love…

Julia Evans has always put others ahead of herself—her high school math students, her troubled best friend, and her ex. But with New Year’s approaching, she buys a round trip ticket to Brazil. For one week, she can put her needs first. She can meet a stranger in the hotel pool at midnight and dance all night on the beach.
Screenwriter Blake Williams has to keep moving before Oz’s latest scandal catches up to him. But the dark-haired beauty with a backpack and an adventurous streak is messing with his plans. He can’t seem to walk away from her. But secrets have a way of coming out, and when the week is up, Julia and Blake will have to decide if they’re jumping into the biggest adventure of all or playing it safe.

Excerpt:

She couldn’t stop kissing him. Literally could not. There could be an earthquake, a fire, an explosion—who would notice? The whole world could come crashing down and it wouldn’t be enough for her to pull away. She’d always wondered what other people were talking about when they got that misty look in their eyes, going on about passion and fireworks and how just kissing someone could make them entirely melt. Now she knew. There seemed to be a direct line from her lips to her thighs, because the deeper Blake kissed her the more she felt it all the way down.

Rebecca Brooks lives in New York City in an apartment filled with books. She received a PhD in English but decided it was more fun to write books than write about them. She has backpacked alone through India and Brazil, traveled by cargo boat down the Amazon River, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, explored ice caves in Peru, trekked to the source of the Ganges, and sunbathed in Burma, but she always likes coming home to a cold beer and her hot husband in the Bronx. Her books are about independent women who leave their old lives behind in order to try something new—and find the passion, excitement, and purpose they didn’t even know they’d been missing.

Links:

Website: rebeccabrooksromance.com

Newsletter: rebeccabrooksromance.com/newsletter

Facebook: facebook.com/rebeccabrooksromance

Twitter: twitter.com/beccabooks

Instagram: instagram.com/rebeccabrooksromance

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RebeccaBrooksRomance/posts

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Rebecca-Brooks/e/B00ML3LWWY

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/539219.Rebecca_Brooks

Read an additional excerpt of HOW TO FALL: http://www.entangledpublishing.com/how-to-fall/

7 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized