HUNTER – My YA/NA Fantasy Romance Has Just Released. Come Check it Out.

Hunter

HUNTER

To love and protect…across worlds.

Nineteen-year-old Lieska Alura, a Dralion warrior from the planet Magio, calls an Australian Outback station her home away from home. Hounded by her skilled hunter senses, she is on a mission to track down one man, her soul-bound mate.

Peacian protector and hunter, Cole Cyrano, is driven by his soul’s demand to find his mated one, a woman he knows is his enemy. Dralion and Peacio are at war, and he ignores his soul’s call. Except Lieska shows up during a fierce training session inside his protectors’ arena, and his soul demands he protect her.

Completely, yet impossibly matched, they decide to renounce their bond, only not all goes as planned when Lieska receives word bushfires rage across her Outback station. She leaves, and now nothing can keep Cole from the hunt. He joins Lieska in driving the station’s cattle toward the mighty river, and the chase is on…against both nature and each other. Can the mated pair find their place together in a world at war?

A Young Adult, New Adult Fantasy Romance

REVIEWERS: “Another great read from Joanne. I can’t wait for the next FULL instalment in this series ‘ENCHANTER.'” -Nicola Horner ~ Endless Reading

“I loved the humorous and sweet relationship between Cole and Lieska. This series has quickly become a favorite.” – Holly Underhill ~ YA/NA Reviewer

“Hunter is exciting, unforgettable and charming. Hunter is a must read for those who love this series as much as I do.” – Angela McPherson ~ Nocturne Romance Reviewer  

~~ BUY THE BOOK: Amazon Kindle ~~

–ooO00–

HUNTER has just released, a story which will take you deep into the Australian Outback and across those great plains. This is a stand-alone novella within my fast-paced YA/NA fantasy romance line, where across worlds, soul-bound mates battle against both love and land.

Before I bring you an excerpt, I just want to take a moment to thank all those fans who’ve embraced this series. Thank you so much for taking this journey with me, to where imagination and magic soar. It means the world to me.

And if you haven’t tried any of the books in this series, then don’t miss this one. HUNTER is the perfect short story to get you started, and likely hooked. PROTECTOR and WARRIOR (the first two books) have released, and ENCHANTER (book three,) is coming summer 2014. I simply adore reading books within a series, and in this line, each book is stand-alone, featuring a separate heroine and hero, so start anywhere you like.

~~ BUY THE BOOK: Amazon Kindle ~~

Here’s an excerpt to tempt you:

Chains cranked, and the solid paneled iron gates at the entrance rolled open. This was what I’d been waiting for. Finally I’d be able to see inside the three-story high open-aired arena. It was a beauty with its ancient circular architecture.

“Wow. Do you see that?” Hope whispered to me from where we hid in a bush.

I shoved the brush farther aside, and we both poked our noses in. The protectors’ arena was close in size to our fighting force’s in Dralion. Their blocked seats were layered back and up and able to hold thousands of spectators. Groups of protectors trained on the central sandy floor with swords and spears and axes, with likely more beyond. Some of the men wore red tunics with leather-flapped skirts, and they lunged and parried, as accurate with their brutally sharp weapons as any warrior would be. The women trained in their battle leathers. So close. This was the chance I’d been waiting for. It had definitely been right to bring Hope. Hopefully she’d be able to help me keep a level head.

“Let’s go.” I gripped Hope’s hand and ’ported us. Everything darkened as I made the short jump through space.

Hope wobbled as we arrived near the wall. “Lieska, what the heck are you doing?”

“You saw the gate open. It’s an invitation I can’t turn down.” I plucked the sides of my hip-hugging black leather pants. “Look at us. I’m dressed no differently to any of the protector women, and you’re completely unassuming in jeans and a t-shirt. Except for this. The Stetson has to go. It screams Earth.” I nabbed it and tossed it behind a flax bush growing beside the wall. “Now no one’s going to suspect we’re from Dralion unless we announce it. We’ll be normal people, not catching a second glance.”

“Geez, I hate how my own words come back to bite me.” She shook her head. “Just make sure you don’t announce our arrival your way. No throwing any daggers at the protectors, because that would be announcing it, in case you weren’t aware.”

“I’m aware, and I’ll try and keep them sheathed, maybe.” I couldn’t stop from rubbing my hands together. Finally I’d have a chance to sort this problem. The hunt was on. I strode in and the breeze lifted my long brown locks and swept strands across my face. Two men battled close by and one of the men’s blade’s struck flesh and bone. Blood spurted in a wide arc. My blood thrummed to join the fight. Oh yeah. I wish I’d been the one to inflict that wound. The injured man grasped his arm, holding the edges closed. His blood ceased running and his skin began to knit together. A fast-healer. Damn. What a shame.

“Ew.” Hope puffed as she caught up. “Are your senses still on fire?”

“Burning bright. So stay close in case I need to ’port us out of here quick.” I followed the safety rail around the perimeter. My senses flared. There. A man in black jeans stretched as if readying himself for training. The denim molded his butt. Mm-mmm.

He selected a two-handed sword from the rack and twirled it in a precise figure eight. Slowly he built up speed, and moved through a series of fluid training moves. He held the battle skills, and only those who had such an affinity for their weapon did.

“Is that him? The one you’re after?” Hope hauled me to a stop.

“Yes, and it appears he needs a battling partner. Wait here.”

“I’ll wait provided you agree not to kill anyone.”

“We’ll see, just don’t draw any attention to yourself.”

“Huh, I can’t believe you’re telling me not to draw attention to myself. Hello. Give yourself your own pep talk.” With a harrumph, she snuck under the railing. She plopped onto the wooden bench and grasped the edge under her knees, squishing her knuckles.

“I would take my own advice, except I don’t think I’m up for listening. That’s why I have you.” She was one of my best friends, even though she’d accepted a protector as her mate. I could deal.

Stroking the hilt of my ever-present side sword, I walked toward the one my senses had flared on.

–ooOoo–

I hope you all enjoyed that.

Thank you all for helping me celebrate the release of HUNTER by joining me today. Thank you. Thank you. 🙂

~~ Joanne Wadsworth’s Books ~~

Buy HUNTER (Magio-Earth Novella) at: Amazon Kindle

Buy WITNESS PURSUIT (Bodyguards #1) at: Amazon Kindle / Amazon Paperback / B&N Nook & Paperback / iTunes / Kobo

Buy WARRIOR (Magio-Earth #2) at: Amazon Kindle / B&N Nook / iTunes / Kobo

Buy PROTECTOR (Magio-Earth #1) at: Amazon Kindle / B&N Nook / iTunes / Kobo

Buy FIRST FROST, A Lyrical Press Anthology (including Highlander’s Captive by Joanne Wadsworth): Amazon KindleAll Romance Ebooks

TAKE CARE. :)

Guest Author Liza O'Connor, with Two Sexy English Brothers and One Irresistible Ghost

www w liza GhostLoverGHOST LOVER

By Liza O’Connor

Contemporary Romance with a touch of paranormal

Two sexy English brothers. One irresistible ghost. Who would you choose as your lover?

Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him, and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart.

As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran, is going to let him marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him–beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother…

The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon, and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done.

CONTENT WARNING: Allergy warning: Ghost cat in book.

A huge welcome to Liza O’Connor and her wonderful characters from Ghost Lover. I love this cover. I’m so glad you’ve dropped by, Liza, and brought your characters along with you for an interview. And thanks so much for offering a giveaway. Check it out at the end, everyone. Liza’s going to take it away here, while I head over to her blog. My characters from Witness Pursuit are going to answer the hard questions at her place.

Today, Joanne and I are swapping locations. I’m interviewing my unruly herd at her site in beautiful and warm New Zealand, and she’s interviewing her characters on my site in a cold castle set in England.

www w liza meet the characters

Liza: I’m glad to see everyone is here, because I want you all to contribute to this interview.

Gar: I’m not discussing the ghosts.

Liza: Not a problem. Today’s topic is about when one door closes, another one opens. I believe all you have experienced this.

Brendon: I thought the saying was: When a door is locked, break a window.

Senna: No, it’s: Don’t cry ‘why me?’ when a door closes, because the door was actually a portal to hell.

Liza: *grips head* Why did I think this would be easy? Okay, who would like to begin?

Brendon: I’ll go. About a year ago, I lost the only person who had ever loved me. The cook attempted to console me, but then declared I’d gotten her pregnant. Attempting to fix matters, I convinced the trustee of my fund to give me a million pounds, which I purposely lost on a single roll of the roulette table. I thought if the cook believed I’d lost all my money, she’d remember someone else who might be the father of her child.

Gar: The cook held firm and demanded I give her a million to go away. In a fit of anger over both the blackmailing cook and the roulette fiasco I sent Brendon to the states, instead of realizing what he needed was a brother who loved him. I will forever regret that.

Brendon: I forgive you, since in the states I discovered a fabulous woman who liked me.

Cat: What? Who?

Brendon: *grips Cat’s hand* I found Senna, broke a window and crawled into her one-room flat —

Senna: Several nights in a row. I couldn’t afford to replace anymore windows, so I gave him a key. Then after I fed and sheltered him for six months, he steals $400 from my bank account so my rent check bounces and the landlord evicts me.

Liza: Yeah, Brendon, I had to drop the first two chapters of my book because of you. My readers seriously hated you for stealing her money.

Brendon: I had to save her. No matter how hard Senna tried, she couldn’t get ahead. I was certain if she came to England where she’d never have to worry about money again, she’d be so much better off.

Liza: Then why didn’t you just ask her?

Brendon: Because she would’ve never accepted my offer of marriage until I made her really desperate. As in rock bottom. Otherwise, she would’ve kept living on the edge, miserable and one step from starvation every day, with no friends to help her in times of trouble.

Senna: He’s right. No one likes a convicted felon. I was destined for a hard and miserable life before Brendon stole my money, then offered me a way out of the disaster he’d created.

Liza: So this is an excellent example of when one door closes, another opens.  Senna was a day from being homeless and look at her fabulous life now. Now Gar, I know you hate participating in my interviews but–

Gar: I’m not discussing ghosts.

Liza: Could you give us an example how something you perceived as a terrible event turned out to bring you great happiness?

Gar: Brendon calls and says I have to pay for him and his fiancée to return to England or he’ll sell the family teacups he’d stolen when he left. The idea of having my life disrupted with Brendon’s antics again gave me an ulcer, but I had to save the teacups, so I bought the tickets.

*grips Senna’s hand*

And once I stopped being a jerk, I discovered Senna to be the finest woman of my acquaintance. My life became so much brighter with her in it.

Liza: And you, Cat. I believe you had a major ‘one door shuts, another one opens’ moment?

Cat: I did. I had just met a really nice English dude who had bought three of my paintings, only two hadn’t been for sale and I wanted them back. When he told me he’d already shipped them to England, I kind of got violent.

Gar: Kind of? She knocked me to floor and was seconds away from stomping me to death. I got up and assured her I’d send all three pieces back to her and stormed off. I intended to return to England alone the next day.

Cat: Only the monster who claimed to be my father sent a bunch a goons to my apartment and took everything I possessed…even the toilet paper. I had three new paintings I’d done…that still upsets me. But his message was clear. Come home and be an obedient daughter or die on the streets.

Gar: Fortunately, she knew where I was staying and came there. When I washed her face clean of her Goth makeup, she looked incredibly like Senna, leaving me no choice but to bring her home.

Cat: *hugs Brendon.* And there I met my soul mate.

Lassier the ghost: *materializes* And finally I had the proper cast to set matters straight. But still, you would not believe how difficult they made it. Keeping this family line going is nearly impossible. How I long for the old days when women had no say in the matter of marriage and children.

Cat: If I kick Lassier in the balls while he’s materialized, will it hurt him?

Lassier: I’m out of here. *disappears*

Cat: *grins* I take that as a yes.

Brendon: I don’t think you should test your theory. Ghosts have long memories and excel at pranks.

Liza: Once again I have lost control of the interview. I know inviting only one or two would be easier, but then the rest would have been at the castle where Joanne Wadsworth is interviewing her characters on my site. Anyone want to lay odds her characters are better behaved?

*Everyone stares at their shoes, plucks lint, or stares out windows*

Liza stands: I’m calling this interview done. It’s a gorgeous day in New Zealand. I’m going rafting down a 21 foot waterfall. Who’s with me?

www w liza canoe

And now a short excerpt for those who didn’t fit in the raft:

Senna woke to her breast beeping. Trying to make sense of the oddity, she pushed herself up to rest on her elbows and discovered the noise came from Brendon’s wristwatch. Somehow, his hand had found its way beneath her bra during the night, and now chirped like a baby chick.

She contemplated tearing his hand off at the wrist, but he looked so angelic with his curly dark hair framing his handsome face. With a heavy sigh, she unlatched her bra and eased his hand out, then gently shook him until his face scrunched into a pained grimace.

He groaned and frowned at his noisy watch. “This is a god-awful hour to be woken up,” he said in his sexy British accent. “Never bothers me when I’m coming home at this hour.”

Senna rolled her eyes. “Speak for yourself.”

Pushing himself up, he shook his head. “Remember the second night I came around? You kept yelling at me, ‘Did I realize it was four in the morning?’ At the time, I couldn’t understand your fuss.” He groaned and scratched his scalp. “Well, I certainly understand it now. It’s bloody hell to be woken at this ungodly hour.”

BUY LINKS

Amazon ebook   Amazon print

B&N

About Liza O’Connor:

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog, Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Liza’s Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

 Click Here for More Information

About Ghost Lover

 –ooOoo–

FREEBIE!!!!

To One Lucky Commenter, I’ll give away one copy of Worst Week Ever

www w liza Worst Week Ever_200x300

What do you get when you put a hardworking, can-do middle-class young woman together with an egoistical, outrageous, billionaire boss, then throw in the worst week of disasters imaginable?

A humorous disaster romance of epic proportions.

Just leave an email address in your comment and tell me you want Worst Week Ever.

–ooOoo–

Hey everyone, I’m back. My characters from Witness Pursuit are answering the hard questions over at Liza’s blog. If anyone wants to drop by, here’s the link-> http://www.lizaoconnor.com/2013/12/joanne-wadsworth-brings-her-witness.html

Don’t forget to leave a comment for Liza’s giveaway right here, along with your email address. Have a wonderful week. 🙂

Avatar is Coming to New Zealand

It’s breaking news!

I just heard. The next three movies in the Avatar movie franchise are being filmed in my backyard. It’s well known New Zealand is the home of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise of films, but I can’t wait to see filming of Avatar begin Down Under. I’m not an actress by any means, but I did swing by Hobbiton last year and had a wee conversation with Gollum. Some of the LOTR and Hobbit film sets are just a mere five minute drive from the beautiful town of Matamata, where I was born and spent my entire childhood. It’s a fabulous place. Pre-cious as Gollum would say. 🙂

027

So, since it’s been reported that 93% of the cast for Avatar will be Kiwis, I thought I’d whip up a portfolio picture. What do you all think? Am I blue enough?

1.1 avatar blue

I know. This is a serious movie, so I’m going to have to drop the smile, grow several more feet, and somehow figure out how to don a tail, but I’m totally up for it. I’ll look into some archery, dragon-riding and tree-swinging training right after Christmas. I do have to say though, that Mr. Bean does a great Avatar impersonation. He’s clearly trying to get in on my game.

www avatar2

Now, I know I can manage that funny face, but I’m not sure about those glowing eyes. Wouldn’t it be cool though to be Avatarized? That’d scare my kiddies when I came home looking like this. 🙂

Okay,  all laughter aside, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. I even found some delightful wish lists for writers. Do any of these ring true for you?

www writer1

www. funny santa wish

www writer2

LOL. Cute, right? So, how will you all be celebrating Christmas? With family and friends? With roast turkey and mulled wine? Trying to find your way out of the snow?

dashing

Or perhaps if it’s the heart of summer-time where you are (as it is for me,) then it’s all about the surf and sand. I know I love building a sandman at Christmas time since there isn’t a chance of snow. Wherever you are, sand or snow, I wish you safe and happy holidays.

sandman

From your Kiwi author. I’ll catch you all after Christmas. I’ve four wonderful books already set to release in 2014, so next year’s going to be a blast.

~ Joanne Wadsworth’s Books ~

Buy WITNESS PURSUIT (Bodyguards #1) at: Amazon Kindle / Amazon Paperback / B&N Nook & Paperback / iTunes / Kobo

Buy WARRIOR (Magio-Earth #2) at: Amazon Kindle / B&N Nook / iTunes / Kobo

Buy PROTECTOR (Magio-Earth #1) at: Amazon Kindle / B&N Nook / iTunes / Kobo

Buy FIRST FROST, A Lyrical Press Anthology (including Highlander’s Captive by Joanne Wadsworth): Amazon KindleAll Romance Ebooks

TAKE CARE. :)

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