Another E-Book Now Available

Livia's novel SPIRIT CATCHER is now available for both the Kindle and the Nook.  This is a contemporary paranormal romantic suspense novel that also has some strong Western elements (including cameo appearances by some characters who may be familiar to a few of you).  I think it's a fine yarn, of course, and you can find more background information about it on Livia's blog today.  Check it out.

Nooked Again!

This week we've gotten three more of our books posted on Barnes & Noble for their Nook.  I meant to have more than that done but have been too busy with other stuff.  More books should go up next week, but right now those of you with Nooks can get COSSACK THREE PONIES, ALURA'S WISH, and YESTERDAY'S FLAME.

Yesterday's Flame Now Available for Kindle

Livia's historical novel YESTERDAY'S FLAME is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. This is one of several paranormal romance novels she wrote about ten years ago, and it's probably my favorite of the bunch. It has a nice time travel paradox, a very appealing heroine, plenty of action, and since it's mostly set in San Francisco in 1906, a kick-ass earthquake. Great stuff. The Kindle version is also a special expanded edition, with some material that wasn't in the original edition. You know my opinion is totally unbiased, so check it out.

Alura's Wish Now Available on Kindle

Livia's paranormal/historical romance novel ALURA'S WISH is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. This one's set in medieval times, complete with beautiful ladies, noble knights, swordfights, outlaws, swordfights, a couple of bickering djinn, swordfights . . . well, you get the idea.  It's remotely possible that at some point in the writing, I may have said, "Why don't you put some more swordfights in it?"  (Ah, you should have seen the looks when she was working on the Hallam novels and my contribution was to keep saying, "Why don't you have Hallam get hit on the head?")

Anyway, she did several of these paranormal romances for Berkley a number of years ago and they're all great fun.  I'm sure all of them will be available for the Kindle in the reasonably near future.  It's good to see this one back out there, under her name this time.

Review of The Vampire Affair

The first review (that we've seen, anyway) of Livia's new book THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR has been posted on-line. You can check it out here.

More Free Books - The Vampire Affair

If you go over to Livia's blog, you can read the opening paragraphs of this book (which I think are really good -- again, not an unbiased reader!) and find out how to enter to win one of the free copies she's giving away.

Livia's Vampire Cover

Here's the cover for Livia's vampire romance that's coming out from Silhouette Nocturne in a couple of months. Pretty cool, I think. I love the title THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR because that's also the title of my favorite Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel (#6 in the series, by David McDaniel), and as I've mentioned before, I was a huge U.N.C.L.E. fan. I remember buying that paperback in a gas station in El Paso in late May or early June of 1966. My brother-in-law John (who loaned me my first Edgar Rice Burroughs book, A FIGHTING MAN OF MARS, as some of you may recall from a Forgotten Books post a few months ago) was in the army then and had been on leave after finishing basic training at Fort Polk in Louisiana. He had to report to Fort Bliss in El Paso, so my parents and I took him and my sister out there, stopping along the way to visit Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico (not as far out of the way as you might think). I bought THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR (the U.N.C.L.E. version) while my dad was filling up the tank for the trip back home. The first day we drove only as far as my uncle Sidney's house in Goldsmith, near Odessa (remember Uncle Sidney from last Saturday's post about his birthday party? Same guy), and spent the night there. I remember reading that U.N.C.L.E. novel in one sitting that evening and loving every minute of it.

So what does this have to do with Livia's book? Well, nothing, really, but if you've been reading this blog for very long you know I seldom miss a chance to wallow in nostalgia about books I've read. However, I've read THE VAMPIRE AFFAIR (Livia's version) several times now, and it's a heck of a yarn, with a lot of humor and action to go with the romance. In fact, there's one scene that wouldn't be at all out of place in an U.N.C.L.E. novel. She's writing about bad-ass vampires here, not soulful, tormented ones. I had a great time reading the book. Of course, I'm not the most unbiased reader in the world . . .

Forgotten Books: Yesterday's Flame - Elizabeth Hallam (Livia Washburn)

I hope you’ll all forgive me for getting a little close to home with this week’s Forgotten Book. Actually, I sleep with the author, so you can’t get much closer than that. But I think YESTERDAY’S FLAME qualifies for this series. It’s an excellent book that didn’t draw much notice when it first appeared several years ago.

Livia wrote several romance novels for Berkley, of which YESTERDAY’S FLAME is the last and in my opinion the best. (They’re all good, of course.) This one is a time travel yarn in which a female firefighter from modern-day San Francisco is mysteriously transported back to San Francisco in 1906, a few weeks before the famous earthquake. There’s plenty of romance, of course, as the heroine meets and falls in love with a 1906 fireman, but Livia throws in some other good stuff, too, such as tong wars, secret passages, mysterious assassins, and a very neat little time travel paradox that’s a beautiful example of an author planting something early on in a book that doesn’t pay off until much later. And then of course, there’s the earthquake itself, which gives the whole book a nice epic feel, and another little twist at the end . . .

I’ve read quite a few romance novels over the years, since Livia was working in that field and I try to help out with the editing and plotting. I especially enjoyed the ones I’ve read by Marsha Canham, Teresa Medieros, and Amanda Quick (who’s really Jayne Krentz), because they usually include plenty of action, adventure, and mystery to go along with the mushy stuff, as we used to call it. I think Livia’s romances meet that same standard. She wrote four for Berkley: MENDING FENCES, under the name Livia Reasoner, a Western about the Fence-Cutting War in Brown County, Texas, in the 1880s; and three paranormals under the name Elizabeth Hallam: SPIRIT CATCHER, a contemporary Western mystery featuring an extended cameo appearance by a series Western character we both worked on years ago; ALURA’S WISH, a medieval novel featuring djinn, noble knights, and plenty of swordplay; and YESTERDAY’S FLAME, the subject of this post. All well worth reading, in my opinion . . . but of course, I’m biased. I wouldn’t steer you wrong, though. Trust me on this.

Mind Games -- Merline Lovelace

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book from the Nocturne line, Silhouette’s series of paranormal romantic suspense novels. Merline Lovelace’s MIND GAMES is a very entertaining novel, although to be honest it’s not all that paranormal, reading more like an espionage/action/adventure yarn. Taylor Chase is an Air Force captain sent in undercover to rescue a scientist who’s being held captive on a tropical island belonging to a reclusive, sinister billionaire, and helping her out is an old boyfriend of hers, a professor who specializes in psychic research. I knew from previous books of hers I’ve read that Lovelace is a really good storyteller with the ability to create likable characters and keep a story moving along at a fast clip. She certainly does that here. I raced right through MIND GAMES and had a good time doing it. It’s romantic, it’s suspenseful, and Stuff Blows Up Real Good, always a plus.

Raintree: Inferno -- Linda Howard

Paranormal novels are hugely popular in the romance genre right now, as some of you probably know already. I suppose this boom was prompted by the success of TV shows like BUFFY, ANGEL, CHARMED, etc., plus the best-selling status of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, and others. Silhouette Books has started an entire line of paranormal romance novels, the Nocturne series.

RAINTREE: INFERNO is the first book in a trilogy within the Nocturne line, about a centuries-long war between two rival clans of wizards, the Raintree and the Ansara, who have varying powers, most of them somehow connected to the elements. Dante Raintree, the hero of this novel, is a Fire Master, able to start and control fires, heat, smoke, etc. The heroine is Lorna Clay, a “stray” wizard, not aligned with either side in the war and in fact unaware of it -- and her own powers -- until she stumbles into an attempt on Dante’s life by agents of the Ansara.

There’s enough sexual tension here for the book to qualify as a romance, but for the most part it’s actually more of an urban fantasy/suspense novel. The author, Linda Howard, is a veteran romance writer who has produced work in several different sub-genres, including some mainstream romantic suspense novels that I’ve read and enjoyed. She’s a very smooth storyteller and keeps the pace rolling along in this book until it reaches a cliffhanger ending that has me thinking I’ll probably read the other two books in the trilogy.

I’ve read quite a few romance novels over the years, mostly of the historical and romantic suspense varieties. Teresa Medeiros and Marsha Canham are probably my favorite romance authors. Medeiros’s BREATH OF MAGIC is one of the best-plotted time travel novels I’ve read, and Canham’s medieval adventures are full of well-written action. So it’s not surprising that I would read some of these Silhouette Nocturne books, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I admit that I have an ulterior motive. Livia’s going to be writing a book for the line, which means that sooner or later I’ll be reading and editing the manuscript. So I want to get a good feel for the style and pacing of the novels they publish. RAINTREE: INFERNO was the second Nocturne I’ve read. The other was BLOOD SON, a vampire novel by Erica Orloff, which I also enjoyed quite a bit. I’m sure I’ll be reading more.