Outcast Book Blitz and Giveaway - Kiru Taye

Book Release Blitz

Outcast

Sacred Amulet, part one

Kiru Taye

Tags: Paranormal / Fantasy / Romance

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Read the full chapter one

Book Link

Out November 1, 2013

Available from Amazon

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GEFQSAG

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00GEFQSAG

FREE Kindle Download from November 3 to 7

Available for $0.99 / £0.77 afterwards until 30 November 2013.

Blurb

Ugo’ji is an outcast, an untouchable. She lives on the fringe of society as the lowest of the low, a living sacrifice to the gods. The only person she interacts with is her aged grandmother Nne who nurtures her powerful gift of healing. Until the day she meets Ebube a strange warrior to their lands. He  ignites a yearning within her she's unable to ignore.

Ebube is drawn to the young maiden with the emerald green eyes who possesses the body of a goddess and the healing touch of an angel. But he is forbidden from mating with a human and the consequence is the wrath of the gods.

Moreover he is on a mission. If he fails, the gates of hell will be opened and the earth plunged into darkness. He cannot stay and she cannot go with him.

Excerpt

Help me...Do whatever it takes...Keep the gates of Alammuo sealed.

Darkness tugged at him and threatened to pull him into its murky depths. With a jerk, Ebube sat up on his pallet. The creaking wood and thumping of his heart echoed in his acutely responsive ears.

Danger seeped from the nightmare he couldn’t remember into the air, leaden and oppressive. His breath heaved as he choked, his throat clogged with the fetid stench of death.

On reflex, he extended his right arm, grabbing the scabbard he always kept within reach, the pitch shadow no hindrance for his sharp eyesight. As a leopard-shifter, his vision was excellent, night and day. He didn't need to look at his hands to see the extended claws. Sharp tips dug into his palm. He ignored the sting and his awkward grip on the carved wooden hilt of the single edge sword.

His beast came to the fore, clawing to take over, an instinctive response to potential threats. Muscles tensed, Ebube fought the shift. Sweat streaked down his body in rivulets. He swiped his face with his left palm, stopping the liquid from dripping into his eyes.

Sweeping his gaze across the large, airy chamber of his sparsely-decorated home, he sought the source of danger setting off his internal alarm.

Apart from the raised bamboo sleeping platform covered in padded deer hide and the wooden trunk that stored his personal belongings, the only other items were his tools of warfare – his spears, shields, machetes and scabbards. They hung on the single-rung mantel against the burnt-umber rock wall, gleaming with polish and sharpness, ready for use.  Undisturbed.

A tingle ran up his spinal column, the way it always did when he sensed something out of place. Something terribly wrong. He swung his legs around. Cool unglazed stone flooring met his bare feet. The muscles on his back tensed, primed for action. Slowly, he stood to his full height and walked through the room.

His home consisted of two chambers, one for sleeping and the other for entertaining guests. Though as a guardian, a special warrior of the gods, he could live as luxuriously as the gods did, they had agreed communally to live as simply as humans of the era so as not to draw attention to themselves as supernatural beings.

Nothing was out of place in his rooms, no stray, malevolent being in the vicinity. Yet the tingling in his bones didn't dissipate. When he found nothing inside, he grabbed the wooden knob, opened the door and walked onto the corridor linking his residence to the rest of his family's. Their homes were hewn out of Amauwa rocks, a hill range in the middle of the rain forest.

He stopped in front of the last house, the tension on his shoulders increasing. Nothing lurked inside it, living or inanimate. Yet the memory of the previous occupant flooded his mind, hitting him low in the abdomen, spreading pain through his body. Gritting his teeth, he shook his head and turned his back to the building and its unwelcome memories.

About Kiru

A lover of books, as a teenager Kiru Taye used to read novels under the blanket during lights-outs in boarding school. These days, with a young family to take care of, she's still sacrificing sleep for the pleasures of a good book.

During the day though, she transforms her wildly vivid imagination into sensual, atmospheric romance stories with passionate characters.

When she’s not writing or reading, she'd hanging out with family and friends or travelling. Born in Nigeria, she currently lives in the UK with husband and children.

You reach her via her blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest

Follow her blog for latest news and giveaways: http://kirutayewrites.blogspot.com

Read book excerpts and free short stories on her website: http://www.kirutaye.com

Contest

Kiru is giving away 2x $5 Amazon gift cards or paypal cash and 5x ebooks of the follow-up story Sacrifice. Complete the rafflecopter to enter the prize draw.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#SexySnippets

In the name of relentless plugging, it has to be done. This week's Sexy Snippets comes from book two in my series, The Wild Irish Wolves. 

.

 “I don’t know what they put in the drink around here, but I think I like it.” Rory positioned himself between her legs and bent down to kiss her.

With moves worthy of an American wrestler, she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer. Caught off balance, he fell forward and landed flat out on top of Naomi.

Her dress rode up her thighs to give him a peek of lacy black stocking tops. His cock responded appropriately. “Are you trying to seduce me, Ms Duffy?”

“Is it working?”

Find out by buying your copy of The Wolf on the Run. Available on Amazon and All Romance

Don't forget to check out the rest of the #SexySnippets over at The Nuthouse Scribblers!

Big Cocks and Broomsticks Giveaway

Halloween is traditionally a time for most families to dress up and act a bit silly. Ours is no exception. We've seen it all from cute pumpkin costumes when our two boys were babies, right up to the terrifying demon clown outfits they preferred when they got older. I have to admit I'm no great shakes at sewing so the costumes are usually shop bought. But we've always loved getting together with the whole family for the traditional fun and games.

When I was little I remember the smells that came from the kitchen when my Granny made her own toffee apples and honeycomb. And we've been ducking for apples and waving sparklers around for as long as I can remember.

Another annual tradition was watching the fireworks in the garden and hoping my husband wouldn't blow himself up. (He was banned last year after hitting a car with an errant rocket)

Unfortunately, the boys are now at that age when they're way too cool to dress up. If I'm lucky I can get them to take part in the games by chucking some money into the basin with the apples. But I'll cling on to the ghoulish fun with my blood red nails until I can hopefully pass on the tradition to the next generation.

In the meantime I'll explore my love of the paranormal through my writing. So far I've created a fire elemental, a Dom vampire, and a whole pack of wolf shifters. To celebrate the holiday I'm giving away a copy of The Wolf on the Hill, book one in my series, the Wild Irish Wolves. 

Blurb:
Lone wolf Caleb Jackson is only back in town long enough to sell his late father's house, and the bad memories with it. He never expected to find his mate.

Good girl Mia Blake never behaves badly. Except for the time she shifts into her wolf, chases a stranger through Olcan Hills, and has the hottest sex of her life on the forest floor.

He has no desire to settle down. She is afraid to upset her family. But, with someone determined to destroy Caleb's inheritance, and his secret fling with Mia getting hot and heavy, moving on isn't as easy as he'd hoped.

Can either of them let down their guards long enough to take a chance on love?

Simply leave a comment and tell me what you love about Halloween, or the best costume you've ever worn, to be in with a chance of winning.

Don't forget to enter your details into the rafflecopter too to enter the Grandprize Giveaway:

$100 amazon or b and N choice!!  

second place:  $50 amazon or b and n card

3rd place:  $25 amazon or b and n card

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And join the rest of the hop to win more swag!!


Happy Halloween! :)

Going on a Blood Hunt with Naomi Clark

Blood Hunt

Ayla Hammond is taking on Paris. Hoping for a romantic getaway in the City of Lights with her girlfriend, Shannon, she finds a city under the dark thrall of Le Monstre. Getting caught up in mystery and murder was the last thing Ayla and Shannon wanted or expected, but as the body count grows and tension rises between Parisian werewolves and humans, they find themselves stalked by an unknown terror. 

What is Le Monstre and why does it make Ayla's wolf want to turn tail and run? Can it be stopped before they become its next victims?

Excerpt:

“How do you stand it?” I asked Sun back in the living room. “I mean, when was the last time you shapeshifted? Isn’t it driving you mad?”

“It did at first,” she replied, handing me a cup of watery tea. “For like, the first three months I was just crazy, even with all the herbal supplements they give you. All I wanted to do was hunt, you know? But then my doctor told me if I shifted in the first trimester, I’d have to stay as a wolf for the whole pregnancy.” She sniffed. “Well, that’s fine for ferals, but I need manicures, you know?”

Clémence and I both laughed. Although checking out Sun’s lime-green nails, I had no doubt she was deadly serious.

 “One of the local alphas, he says it is good for us to be as wolves when we have cubs,” Clémence said. “He says there would be more cubs if we lived more like wolves.”

It wasn’t a new idea. Plenty of wolves and humans alike believed our declining birth rates were down to us becoming ‘too human’. I’d done Lupine Psychology for a term at school—until I realized Drama was less work and switched—and I’d read all the essays on how we’d mentally separated from our wolf side over the past hundred years or so, to fit in better with humans. How that ‘coming out’ on our part was the start of our falling numbers. I wasn’t sure how much I believed that particular theory. We’d been living side-by-side with humans forever, after all. Just because one day they realized it, didn’t mean we stopped having cubs.

Clémence and Sun happily chattered away about pregnancy and cubs, while I sipped my tea and thought about the secrecy wolves had lived in throughout history. We’d hidden away, living by night, holding our Lupercali ceremonies in secret, our hunts in the dead of winter in the thickest forests where no humans would see us. We walked as men under the sun, as beasts under the moon. We’d endured witch hunts, Inquisitions and Satanic panics before our secret existence was revealed to the humans we’d been lying to for so long. It added up to about two million years or so of living undetected.

It made me realize that it wasn’t that much of a stretch to imagine that something else could be out there, hiding right under our noses.

Available from Evernight Publishing

Naomi Clark

Naomi Clark lives in Cambridge and is a mild-mannered office worker by day, but a slightly crazed writer by night. She has a perfectly healthy obsession with giant sea creatures and a preference for vodka-based cocktails. When she's not writing, Naomi is probably either reading or watching 80s cartoon shows, and sometimes she manages to do all three at once.

http://naomijay.blogspot.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/naomijclark

https://twitter.com/naomi_jay

#SexySnippets

This week's #SexySnippet is taken from my new release, The Wolf on the Run. This is the second book in my series, The Wild Irish Wolves. Don't forget you can still enter the competition in my last post to win Book one, along with a howling wolf figurine.

Rory stood with only a pair of black boxer briefs to preserve his modesty. Would he actually take them off and do the full monty ? Naomi knew Caleb and Liam wouldn’t have any qualms about getting their bits out, but she didn’t want Rory to regret anything tomorrow. If the evening panned out to her liking, she’d make sure she got a private performance later anyway.

As the music came to a crescendo, the trio did a one-eighty turn and wiggled their arses. Naomi watched from behind her fingertips. The crowd was in a frenzy as all three hooked their thumbs into the waistbands of their underwear.

Caleb started the countdown. “Three. Two. One…”

Available now from Total-E-Bound

You can check out the rest of the #SexySnippets over at The Nuthouse Blog

Release Day #Giveaway

He's finally here! At last, my Alpha police officer, Rory Blake has his own book. Since he first walked into the wreckage of Caleb's cottage in The Wolf on the Hill, I knew he was something special.

With every act of kindness he showed in that first book, I fell more in love with him. (I'm not alone in this author craziness, right?) He had Caleb's back when no-one else would give him the time of day, he was there for his sister if she wanted him or not, and he's a baby whisperer!

In The Wolf on the Run, we still see the softer side of him, but this time he has something to fight for too - Naomi. Okay, and maybe it's an excuse to get his kit off :D

To celebrate the release, I'm giving away a copy of The Wolf on the Hill, Book One of The Wild Irish Wolves. 

AND 

a howling wolf figurine.

 Simply leave a comment with your email address and I'll pick a winner later in the week. In the meantime I'll leave you in Rory's very capable hands...

The Wolf on the Run

As a police officer and Alpha of the Olcan Hills' pack, being a protector is in Rory Blake's DNA.

When Naomi Duffy turned up heavily pregnant and alone, Rory's natural instinct was to look after her. However, her fierce need for independence over the years has ensured they've never been anything more than friends.

Naomi has spent too long trying to keep her daughter safe to jeopardise everything for a fling. But, when her past threatens to catch up with her, Rory is the only person she trusts with her life.

Thrown together, the couple finally succumb to their passion and it's all too easy to forget the danger lurking in the hills.

Do Rory and Naomi have a future together, or will secrets from the past tear them apart?

Excerpt:

Naomi came after Rory, pitting her stealthy grace against his sheer power. In his peripheral vision, he could see the wisps of her breath spiralling into the cold air as she forged ahead, determined to catch him. Rory snorted, sending his own white breath curling up into the atmosphere.

He led her over the hills, their claws making short work of carving up the cold, hard terrain. Naomi never lost ground. Even when he made a turn towards the woods on the boundary, she kept pace.

The chase awakened something deep inside him—that animal freedom with no responsibilities except the survival of himself and his pack. The spiky silhouettes of barren trees lined his path, like broad strokes of a black marker pen scratched against the silver sky.

He dodged in and out, never slowing, with Naomi always in pursuit. Occasionally, a pair of woodland eyes blinked at him from the darkness—a rabbit, a fox, observing their bizarre courtship.

Rory had no doubt the exhilaration of their illicit run would end in wild sex between him and Naomi. It was like a very enthusiastic bout of foreplay without actual touching.

They crunched through the leaf-littered forest floor until he tired of being the hunted. He looped back the way they came and stopped in a clearing. In all aspects of life he preferred to be the one doing the chasing, but at this moment in time he wanted nothing more than to be caught.

He shifted back into his naked, horny self. Naomi came to a skidding halt seconds later, scooting a bundle of leaves over his bare feet. “You can run, wolf lady, I'll give you that. Now can we go back to bed?”

She shifted back to stand beautifully naked before him. “Not until you say it.”

“Say what?” He was hard as hell and ready for round two.

“That I’m as good as you.” She gave him a flirty smile. One which said she was looking forward to the future rather than staring back at the past. The run had obviously done wonders for her too.

“That was probably a fluke. I don’t think you could keep up with me on a normal day. You know, one where you haven’t seduced me on top of a car boot and made me carry you home first.” The play fighting wasn’t limited to their animal personas. Not when it proved such a turn on. Human or wolf, the scent of Naomi’s arousal would always draw him to her.

“I didn’t hear you complaining at the time. But, if you’re tired, just say and we’ll call it a night.” She shrugged her shoulders, making her boobs jiggle enough to bring his erection to full strength once more.

He stepped forward and brushed her wild hair from her face. “I’ll never be too tired for you, Naomi. I’ll race you back. This time the winner stays on top.”

She grinned, eyes twinkling as bright as the stars. “You’re on.”

This was one race he intended to lose.

Available from Total-E-Bound 4^th October

On general release from 1^st November

Pursuing My Happyness

Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who spends far too long worrying about what others think of them. Due to my ill health and the special needs of my children I've spent most of my married life at home. Some might say it was admirable, or I was lucky I could be there for them growing up. I, on the other hand, took more notice of those sniping at me to 'get a wee job'. Last year, I bit the bullet and went back to work. Like everything, it had its pros and cons.

I was earning my own money, socialising with other people and generally integrating back into the outside world. Becoming a 'normal person', as I told my husband. The downside was I was spending less and less time with my family. You see, last year my writing was also starting to take off.

Like so many writers I was trying to juggle work, family and writing. At night I was locking myself away to work on edits or write blog posts, and family life was the one area suffering. My health also took a turn for the worse and added another problem to the ever growing list of conditions attached to Lupus.

One thing going back to work did for me was give me confidence. I told the girls I worked with all about my writing and they made me feel proud, rather than embarrassed about my writing.

A few weeks ago I felt strong enough to make the decision that I wanted to write full time. I have so many projects on the go that I really wanted to give it my all. As one of my fabulous colleagues told me, 'writing is your passion'. And from tomorrow, I will be pursuing my passion. I've quit my job.

Of course, I couldn't do this without the support of my husband, but he believes I'll be happier and therefore the whole family will benefit. 

I watched the Will Smith film, The Pursuit of Happyness, recently. (Hence the purposeful mis-spelling of happiness!) His character made so many sacrifices to reach his ultimate goal. Now, I don't expect we'll be sleeping in a toilet cubicle anytime soon, nor making millions, but I'm giving my dream a shot. If it doesn't work out at least I know I tried.

Right now as I make my plans, I'm flitting between excitement and outright panic. I've already signed one new contract, so fingers crossed this is a sign of things to come...