WHY I LOVE REVIEWS

I learned to read before I went to kindergarten and have always loved books. When I began to write, I knew how to create a memorable story because I had read so many. Every book provides a lesson of its own.

Book clubs are great places to make friends and read books you might not have chosen on your own. I belong to three book clubs and each has it own personality and focus. One group loves mysteries and sci/fi. Another reads women’s fiction, and the third has potluck dinners and selects a lot of nonfiction. If you have never belonged to a book club, you might want to join one or form one with your friends. You’ll be surprised at the different reactions to books. Some people will love a book and call it a favorite while others find it too tedious to finish.

This month, one book club read THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green. It’s been on the bestseller list for more than a year. It’s told by 16-year-old Hazel Grace who meets 17-year-old Augustus at a cancer support group. It’s a poignant story about life, love and death, important issues at every age. There are sure to be tears when you read it, but it’s also one of the best books I’ve read this year, or ever.

Most of the book club also loved the book, but one woman who is a hospital lab technician said some of the hospital details weren’t accurate, and that spoiled the book for her. We accept everyone’s opinion without asking them to justify it, but she made me wonder what the reviews were for the book on Amazon.

As of today, there are 5,795 reviews posted with the majority being 5 stars. Those who didn’t love the book often thought the teens were not realistic, and yet there were 5 star reviews written by teens. Obviously, not everyone loves the same thing. I once dated a man who ate only vanilla ice cream. Vanilla! When there are so many delicious flavors to try, why would anyone stick with vanilla? We didn’t argue over it, however, because there is no point in arguing over tastes, but I digress.

Many authors are so sensitive they cannot bear to read a poor review of their work. Should I receive one, I study it to learn why the reader didn’t enjoy the story. Many people leave lengthy, detailed reviews to categorize every aspect they found objectionable. Some comments are simply due to taste. Others are helpful if they point out something I should have caught, or could improve in later books. Perhaps I didn’t make motivations clear enough, or show why the heroine’s attitude toward the hero changed over time. Whatever the problem was, I give it a lot of thought and hope each of my books is better than the last. Thank you to all of you who take the time to write thoughtful reviews.

Do you buy books based on the reviews? Or will you buy a favorite author’s new book even if the reviews aren’t entirely positive? What if a friend recommends a book, but it has very few positive reviews? Do you write reviews?

My latest book, FIERCE PASSION is a November 5, 2013 release from Samhain Publishing. It’s the story of Ana Santilan, an haute couture model who has lost the great love of her life, a famed matador. She finds a new love, who comes with serious complications, and a stalker who wants her all to himself. With both passion and danger, it follows the Aragon family introduced in FIERCE LOVE, and FIERCE PRIDE.

I will be happy to give an ebook copy to someone who comments, and I hope you’ll want to write a review of FIERCE PASSION.

November 11th is creeping up fast! The release of Uniform Desires is less than a week away! The boxed set will go on sale for only $.99 initially, so you might want to go ahead and pre-order it at that price. Just sayin’. This is an exciting collection, filled with military and ex-military heroes. Scroll down if you’d like a sample of the sexiness heading your way. 🙂

I’d love to hear your thoughts and whether you’ve already ordered it. I’d also like to know whether men in uniform are one of your favorite fantasies! As well, we’ve started a Facebook page. Hit the link and go like the page to make sure you don’t miss the exciting things we have in store for you!

UNIFORM Desires
Six Military Romances 

Infatuation by USA Today bestselling author Melissa Schroeder
To prove her love and save her man, she has to go above and beyond the call of duty

SEAL’s Honor by award-winning author Elle James
Two Navy SEALs jeopardize their lives and hearts in a battle-torn land when they vie for the love of one sexy Night Stalker helicopter pilot

SEAL the Deal by national bestselling author Sharon Hamilton
A SEAL’s nightmare of a promise given at his sister’s deathbed gives him the woman of his dreams

Dangerous Liaison by national bestselling author Delilah Devlin
A pampered travel agent escapes through the jungle with an undercover DEA agent when a drug lord mistakes her for a rival’s daughter

Her Forever Hero by bestselling author JM Madden
When the boss’s pregnant, unwed daughter needs rescuing, disabled Marine Grafton Parks proves he’s still a hero

Cinderella Liberty by NY Times & USA Today bestselling author Cat Johnson
A weekend liberty leads to unexpected passion between a Marine and his best friend’s sister, but he must survive seven months in Afghanistan to get back to her

The drone of the generator led her toward the dining hall, and she stood in the shadows outside, peering through the dusty windows for a glimpse of Angel.

She didn’t find him at any of the long tables and turned, determined to track down her quarry. Perhaps he’d opted for that beer. She backtracked to the barracks where the trainers slept and caught a glimpse of a familiar set of broad shoulders heading toward the isolated shower hut.

A smile stretched her lips at the naughty thoughts running through her mind. Keeping to the deepening shadows next to the cabins, she followed stealthily behind him.

Wearing only slacks with a towel hooked around his neck, a T-shirt wadded in his hand, his back was bare for her to ogle. The deep indention down the center was bordered by thick muscles. God, what might a man do with all that strength and power when focused on a woman’s pleasure?

She couldn’t wait to find out. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks, Delilah, for letting me visit today and talk about my new book, Cougar’s Courage (Duals and Donovans: the Different, Book 3).

I love world-building. Long before I fell in love with romance novels, I was a fantasy reader, and I loved escaping my little central New York hometown by immersing myself in the lush, vivid exotic worlds of Middle Earth, Pern, Narnia, and more. And of course, since then I’ve become engrossed in many other imaginary worlds. In creating the paranormal Duals and Donovans: the Different series, I looked for inspiration not to the complex mythological realms of  Tolkien and other epic fantasy but to  the nearly real worlds of urban fantasy authors such as Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs, worlds that might pass for ours…for a few pages, before the weirdness hits again.

I didn’t steal their worlds. But I did shamelessly adopt the notion that little touches of reality highlight the oddity of a dangerous world where magic is part of life and beings out of mythology might just end up either eating dinner with you or eating  you for dinner.

Thus Cara, my heroine in Cougar’s Courage, starts out in the very real city of Toronto. She has a smart phone and isn’t thrilled when it doesn’t work in Couguar-Caché, the mysterious village where she ends up. (Turns out her cell phone coverage stops when she left this dimension. Important safety tip: check your contracts for this detail if you’re planning to plane-hop!) Jack is a shape-shifting cougar Dual who’s also a shaman—not exactly the guy next-door— but he attended Queens University, a very real place where my college roommate did her graduate work. The characters miss Tim Horton’s coffee because they can’t get it easily where they are. Cara’s grandfather is a magical powerhouse…who loves old school Saturday morning cartoons and flannel shirts.

But the real-life details, in the long run, don’t matter as much as real-life emotions. Cara and Jack may have powers most of us lack, and may spend a lot of time in an alternate dimension. But they’re people, if not exactly humans. The most important challenge was to keep their path from uneasy allies to a couple looking forward to Happily (and Crazily) Ever After believable.

I think I succeeded. I hope I also succeeded in making even the most bizarre residents of Couguar-Caché emotionally accessible. Even an ancient nature spirit can mourn a lost lover and regret a disastrous relationship with an evil ex. In this case the evil is on a scale beyond “ran up your credit cards and slept with your best friend” or even “beat you up.” More like “wants to destroy everything you hold dear including the land and has the power to do it.” But the pain of loss is universal, as is anger at being duped and regret for bad decisions that come back to haunt you years (or in this case centuries) later.

Let me know if I succeeded in making the bizarre believable!

Series blurb: Welcome to an America where the non-human Different and magically gifted humans live among ordinary people. Witches are both feared and honored, but shape-shifting Duals are treated as second-class citizens. The Agency, a government agency that’s supposed to monitor illegal uses of magic and Different abilities, has developed its own dangerous agenda. But when Duals and witches join forces, the Agency and other bad guys aren’t going to know what hit them.

And neither are the witches and Duals. Witch magic grows from the positive energy of love and sex–and the only thing better than one Dual is two of them! And then there are shamans, who work their chaotic magic to comfort the afflicted and shake up the comfortable. Once shamans get involved, everything gets weirder…and sexier.

Blurb: Toronto cop Cara Many-Winters Mackenzie is still reeling from her fiancé’s murder when her orderly life takes a turn toward the weird, complete with voices in her head and phantom bleeding wounds.

This violent awakening is the rise of her Different gift—a chaotic, Bugs-Bunny-on-crack magic that she must learn to control before it destroys her. There’s only one place to get help: her mother’s ancestral village, and a mentor who seems to have stepped straight out of the smoke of her erotic dreams.

Cougar Dual Jack Long-Claw reluctantly agrees to take Cara under his wing, though he’d much rather take the beautiful city girl into his bed. As he guides her through a crash course in shamanic magic, sparks fly—some sexy, some snarky. But when an ancient enemy attacks the village, they must work together to hone a magical weapon against certain destruction.

Common sense tells them it’s a terrible time to fall in love. Their spirit guides have other ideas. And shamans who don’t listen to their spirit guides are dead shamans…

Warning: Hot shape-shifting feline hero. Strong but shell-shocked heroine. Snarky, meddling spirit guides. And lots and lots of sex: angry sex, crazy sex, magical sex, and just plain sexy sex.

Amazon US/Amazon UK/Kobo /Barnes & Noble Nook/Samhain

Like the sound of this? I’m running a contest on my own website for a chance to win this book and the first book in the series, Lions’ Pride. Commenting here or at my site enters you. Comment here and there, get two entries.

69 stories means 69 treasures in The Big Book of Orgasms

Why are there 69 stories in The Big Book of Orgasms? Well, the first reason is the most obvious, an allusion to the sex position 69. But for me as editor, it’s much deeper than that. The thing I hate most about editing anthologies, which makes me consider quitting every time, is sending rejection letters. I despise it, because I know what it’s like to get them. It’s no fun not to be able to include stories that are wonderfully written but I don’t have room for, or that are too similar to another story.

With The Big Book of Orgasms (and its predecessor, Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex), I had more room to include a wider variety of stories than I normally do. I could include masturbation stories like Tess Danesi’s excellent “Steamy” (read an excerpt HERE and Logan Zachary’s technology and gender-bending tale “Remote Control.” I had space for very short stories, such as “The Park” by Elise Hepner, which is only 249 words, and “Her Lover is a Flame” by Cecilia Tan, which has only 308. It’s pretty amazing to realize how few words an author needs to tell a story that’s erotic and evocative and memorable. All of the stories are only 1,200 words or less, which means you always have time to read one before bed.

It also means there’s room for diversity in terms of gender and sexual orientation. There are more male authors than I usually get in my submissions, many of whom, such as David Salcido of Blue Food fame, I’m publishing for the first time in one of my books (side note: I’d love to see more submissions for future anthologies from male authors and authors of any or no gender!). Check out “Baxter’s Boy” by Xan West (who is reading November 6th in San Francisco, see last paragraph) for a wonderful take on gender and desire.

I’m not saying The Big Book of Orgasms has every single type of orgasm a person could possibly have or way of achieving one, because that would be impossible for one book (I think?), but it does have a wide variety, and if it does well, I’d love to do another book like it. I love the creativity and playfulness and passion the authors brought to the stories. Some, like Lady Cheeky, who wrote “The Massage,” have even publicly admitted their stories are true (mine, “I’m on Fire,” is not, though hot wax play does intrigue me). There was room for stories ranging from romantic and sensual to down and dirty (and stories that combine those elements!).

There’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual characters. There’s sex toys aplenty, book lovers, forced orgasms, cross-dressing, bondage, spanking, students and teachers, sex as a headache cure, BDSM, flogging, exhibitionism, voyeurism, ice play, movie theater orgasms, a very tight pair of jeans and so much more. There are easily orgasmic characters and ones for whom orgasm is more of a challenge. And even though orgasm is the organizing principle, these stories are truly about the passion shared by these characters, for their lovers and themselves.

The book is also, if I may brag not humbly at all, a beautiful one. I’m always in awe of the gorgeous covers Cleis Press finds, but I think this one is especially lovely—not too over the top, but gets the point across that this woman is either about to have an orgasm, in the middle of having one or has just finished having one. If you happen to be in San Francisco, please join me and 9 of the contributors for a free reading this Wednesday, November 6tha t 6:30 at Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street at California; details are on Facebook but no RSVP is necessary. If you’re not nearby, please tell someone who is. There will also be a New York City reading January 3rd at reading series Between the Covers at The Museum of Sex. You can keep up with the book on Tumblr, where you’ll find excerpts from all 69 stories and the table of contents and intro and @BigBookofOrgasm on Twitter, and me @raquelita on Twitter. And if you do read the book, I’d love to hear what your favorites are!

The winner, chosen by random number generator, is…SR Roddy!

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Sometimes, we writers write what we think others want. Sometimes, we write what we want. DD is the latter. I love fairy tales—the premises of the stories, anyway. I’m usually disappointed in the execution. I want to know how the curse works, what will break it, what it feels like to walk through life with the affliction. And then of course, I can’t help taking my “what if’s” to their sexy conclusions. That’s what Dragon’s Desire is. A big ole game of “What if…?” Hope you enjoy the excerpt!

I’ll post the winner of today’s contest Monday morning!

Post a comment and you’ll be entered to win a free download of this book!

His need becomes a knight’s quest and a virgin’s gift.

An ancient, cursed creature, Drago, Lord of Drakkenberg, dreads the anniversary that marks the moment he must devour a virgin or visit a plague of destruction on the world around him. Once every century, he becomes a dragon…

Only now that his castle has moved to the U.S. in a vain attempt to break the curse, suitably mature virgins are hard to come by. In the midst of his transformation, he sends his loyal knight, Guy D’Alba, in search of a woman during the Renaissance Faire they are hosting.

Guy understands his duty well, but chafes against the curse that binds him in servitude to the dragon.  Until he meets a sweet young reporter who meets his overlord’s requirements—young, blonde and beautiful—and lo and behold, a virgin. But the moment he discovers her fitness, he knows he must relinquish her to Drago or their small mountain community will suffer the dragon’s wrath.

Angela Bowman is smart, young…and a lonely virgin ready to find an adventure. The moment she sees Guy, she falls beneath the spell of his smoldering sensuality. When he asks her to meet Drago, and then produces a blindfold, she finds herself so intrigued she consents.

She’s ready to surrender her innocence—but to which man? The sexy and attentive Guy—or Drago, the mysterious and dominant man she hasn’t yet seen but whose dark aura calls to the woman inside her, yearning to break free?

Ragged wisps of clouds crawled across the face of the full moon, lightening then darkening the barren precipice. Local villagers called it The Dragon’s Atoll. The bürgermeister had given him directions, told him when to begin the climb, warning him the atoll only existed during the full moon before it disappeared for another hundred years.

An hour earlier, the knight had climbed the rocky precipice and now hid behind a stone pillar, sword drawn. He listened to the soft sobs of the girl the villagers had chained to the pillar according to rules handed down for a millennium, or so the elders had said. She was their sacrifice, their gift to the winged demon to pacify its hunger and spare them its wrath.

The knight had silently scoffed at their fear. He didn’t believe in dragons or demons. At least, not mythical beasts. He’d seen enough in his travels to Palestine and back to know evil existed. True evil resided in the hearts of greedy, bloodthirsty men.

Still, the purse filled with gold the villagers offered him to slay the dragon and rid them of their curse convinced him to remain where he was.

“I shall die,” the girl whispered, “savaged by the beast.”

“You will not die,” he whispered, casting her a sideways glance. “’Tis only a tale.”

“You weren’t raised on tales of the horror. Do you think they are only stories told to frighten children?” she said, her voice rising toward the end.

She was a comely thing with golden hair and gentle curves. He’d fought shock and disgust when the old men had cut her clothing from her body to leave her nude. The night was chilly and the sound of her teeth clacking as her body shivered had him reaching for his cloak. If they were bound to wait together, she needn’t freeze.

Come morning, he’d lead her from the mountain and deliver her to her father, the bürgermeister who’d hired him, safe and sound. He stepped around the pillar and bent over to slip the cloak around her.

Instead, she shook her head. “You mustn’t.”

“You are cold.”

“I’ll not be the reason my village suffers.” Read the rest of this entry »

I’d like to thank Delilah for offering me a guest spot on her blog so I can talk about my new contemporary romance Leave The Lights On.

One of my favorite things about writing romance is that it gives me the opportunity to explore what happens when people get a second chance with someone they crushed on in the past. In this story Parker and Sophie were childhood friends who, for several reasons, never got together when they were younger. Now that they’re adults they find themselves neighbors once again. Their friendship is instantly rekindled, as are the old feelings of longing. Sophie is a wedding planner and she invites Parker to accompany her to a food show. He’s more than happy to have any excuse to spend more time with Sophie, so he accepts, wondering if it’s a date or if they’re just hanging out. After a day of sampling all sorts of decadent creations offered from the vendors at the expo they stop at one final dessert display where Sophie tempts Parker with a chocolate treat. Here’s an exclusive peek at what happens next…

When love throws you a curve, swing for the fences.

Parker Wood’s dreams of becoming a professional baseball player are shattered when he’s injured in a devastating car crash. After two years in hospitals and physical rehab facilities, he’s ready to move back to his childhood home and take over the family landscaping company. The house and business are his, now that his father has passed.

Sophie Vaughn has suffered through a hellishly public divorce from a husband who couldn’t manage to stay faithful for two months of marriage. Determined not to let her personal drama impact her successful wedding and party planning business, she buys her parents’ old house, hoping the comfort of familiar surroundings will help her heal.

When Parker and Sophie discover they’re neighbors once again, it’s as if time has stood still. Their friendship is quickly rekindled, along with the decade-long crush neither of them ever admitted having. Then the heat between them exposes a long-held secret that threatens to tear them apart…unless they can detach from their painful pasts and move forward—together.

Warning: Contains sultry summer nights, steamy pool-side encounters, and you’ll never look at a jar of peanut butter the same way again.

Excerpt from Leave The Lights On:

Caramel and sea salt flooded his mouth as soon as he bit into the dark chocolate shell. “Jesus. I’ve got to get myself invited to some weddings. This stuff’s amazing.”

Sophie laughed, the shimmery sound sending tingles through Parker’s limbs. “Or you can be extra nice to me, and maybe I’ll bring you home goodie bags from all the ones I go to.”

She grabbed two sample boxes off the table and tucked them into one of the tote bags.

Parker chuckled. “Now there’s officially more food in these bags than in my entire kitchen.”

“That’s just because I haven’t taken you grocery shopping yet. We’ll get your kitchen stocked soon enough.”

“Sounds good.” Anything that involved more time with Sophie sounded good. His gaze was drawn to the saunter of her hips as she made her way through the crowd. Jesus.

“I think we’ve hit every booth. You ready to go?”

“Sure.”

Parker held the door as they left the convention center. As they headed down the street, the sky darkened with deep blue clouds. Thunder rumbled long and deep. “Think we’ll make it to the car before the storm starts?”

No sooner did the words leave his mouth than the sky opened up.

Sophie shrieked, “No. Run.”

They tore down the sidewalk, fat raindrops pelting them faster by the second. One of Sophie’s sandals slipped off, and she started giggling. “Wait, my shoe.”

Parker stopped, slicking his hair back off his face. “Got it?”

“No.” She laughed harder, grabbing Parker’s arm to steady herself as she wiggled her foot back into the shoe. “There.”

Her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him, her breath coming fast from laughter, her rain-soaked shirt clinging to her every curve. Parker smoothed her wet hair off her cheek. The feel of her skin, warm and inviting, was too much. He couldn’t wait another second.

His lips touched hers mid-giggle, for just a second. He held his breath, his fingers still woven into her hair, waiting to see if she’d pull away. She hesitated, the sweet scent of her making him dizzy, then her mouth was back on his.

Sophie went up on her toes, leaning in toward him, her lips parting beneath his. She tasted like the chocolate they’d had and red wine they hadn’t, a decadent blend of the richest flavors he’d ever savored. He no longer noticed the rain or heard the thunder—his whole world had condensed into the kiss. The only word his brain could form was Sophie.

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Author Info for Karen Stivali:

Karen Stivali is a prolific writer, compulsive baker and chocoholic with a penchant for books, movies and fictional British men. She is a multiple award winning author of contemporary and erotic romances for Ellora’s Cave, Turquoise Morning Press and Samhain Publishing.

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Happy Halloween! I hope you all have your candy ready for the Trick-or-Treeting kids. I live in a rural area—behind a gate. If anyone shows up at our door, we’ll think we’re about to be robbed. So, needless to say, we have to take our own kidlets to Halloween “events” in order for them to have some fun. Hopefully, the strong storms we’re expecting today will be gone by tonight… So, tell me your Halloween plans…

October’s Winner

It’s the 31st, which also means it’s the end of my October contest! I promised one lucky winner a bracelet, one I’d make according to her color preferences. The winner can take a look around my Etsy store to see what I do and then we’ll talk. I’ll make a stretchy bracelet, something she’ll love wearing. But who is our lucky winner?

I chose the blog date and the name of the winner using a random number generator. October’s winner is…Danielle Estes (Oct. 12)! Congratulations, Danielle! I’ll be sending you an email!

New Contest for November

Let’s make this super easy. Since Christmas is just around the corner, I’ll help one reader with her gift budget!

What can you win? An Amazon gift card worth $20!

What do you have to do to win? Simple. Comment on my blog—on any posting, from now thru November 30th! I’ll choose a winner at random from among all the comments. Good luck!