Luckily, authors Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe–experts when it comes to hot vampires, shifters, and more–have a new book full of romance tips for your, ahem, unusual relationship: Dating the Undead. And they have some recommendations for the perfect gift to give the immortal guy in your life this Valentine’s!

Vampires: Flowers. Yes, we said flowers. While he can buy these for himself, he probably won’t, and when we took a recent Vampire survey, an overwhelming number said they missed the smell of a sunny day. Flowers are a great way to let him know you understand!

Werewolves:Nothing gives a great shine to a Were’s coat like a genuine boar-bristle
brush. And if you’ve never helped your guy with a little hands-on grooming before,
you’ll soon see why this gift is fun for both of you.

Dragons: The Howlex Draikon. This watch sports five-and-a-half carats of the kind of sparkle that’s a guaranteed Dragon-magnet. We know how much Dragons like bling, so why not reward that great guy with a watch he can stare at to his fiery heart’s content? Be sure to engrave the back with a special message just for him! (“Light my fire” has been done to death—you can come up with something better than that!)

Zombies: There’s a whole new line of fun t-shirts out there just for Zombies. Our favorite is the one with the saying, “If you can read this, thank me for not eating your brains.” Silly, sure, but that’s the kind of humor Zombies appreciate. And it makes perfect lounging-around-the-house wear.

Angels: Name A Star. Sure, naming a star after him through the International Star Registry might sound a little corny, but just because he comes from heaven doesn’t mean he owns a piece of it. He’ll appreciate the thought behind this sweet gift, too.

Demons: Hellsbane Bubble Bath. Nothing gets rid of that sulphury Demon smell like Hellsbane. And while the gift alone might not be the sexiest thing, sharing a hot bath sure is!

For more immortal gift suggestions and other tips about how to handle your immortal hottie, pick up Dating the Undead by Gena Showalter and Jill Monroe, on sale now!

What other gifts would be perfect for an immortal lover for Valentine’s Day?

Love vampire romances? Don’t miss New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rachel Lee’s Claimed by a Vampire, on sale this month from Harlequin Nocturne!

It is the second book in Rachel’s trilogy The Claiming. The first book, Claim the Night, went on sale last month (look for it online and in ebook format). The final novel, Forever Claimed, is available everywhere March 1 but you can order it now in print and ebook format from Harlequin.com.

To whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt from Claimed by a Vampire:

Creed Preston sat in the outer office of Messenger Investigations, amusing himself by watching the swirl and flow around him. Jude Messenger had been his friend for years, but only recently had he become comfortable enough to spend a lot of time in Jude’s office, surrounded by mortals like Terri, Chloe and Garner.

It was a vampire thing. He and Jude had cemented a friendship that crossed the final barriers of territoriality that most of their kind felt, often to an extreme degree, when Jude had risked his life to eliminate the evil that had nearly killed Creed’s great-granddaughter.

But spending much time in the company of mortals could still be painful, because they smelled so damned tempting. As the years passed, however, his self-control became easier, and over the past months since Jude had mated with a mortal, Terri, he’d learned he could enjoy their company and control his hunger well enough.

Terri was absent this evening. As an assistant medical examiner, she often had to go out at night to crime scenes. Chloe sat at her desk, wearing her signature punk-cum-stripper getup, her hair dyed black and worn in spikes. She topped the whole image off with enough black eye makeup to keep a cosmetics company in business, and bright red lipstick.

Across from her sat Garner, a gifted demon hunter of about twenty-five, blond and blue-eyed, and casually elegant in a scruffy sort of way. The two of them often argued like siblings.

Creed enjoyed listening to their spats. Once, long ago, he’d had children, and he’d been forced to watch from a distance as they grew old and died. When Chloe and Garner got going, he inevitably grinned and watched the show.

Jude, however, had no such background with kids, and had a great deal less patience.

“Will you two cut it out?” he called from his inner office. “I’m trying to think.”

Both Chloe and Garner fell silent, but continued to shoot fiery looks at one another.

Sitting here, Creed felt more “normal” than he had since his change. Which was probably why he was spending more and more time in this office, as his own job allowed.

He put a hand over his mouth to hide a smile and continued to watch the dagger-staring contest. As usual, Garner wanted to plunge headlong into something dangerous without even grasping how dangerous it was, and Chloe displayed enough common sense to be twice her twenty-five years. And keeping quiet was obviously stressing their self-control.

Jude, his fellow vampire, appeared in the door of his office. As always, he was dressed in a perfectly tailored black silk shirt and slacks. Most vampires preferred black because it helped them blend with the shadows. Creed himself wore black slacks and a black turtleneck sweater. He didn’t share Jude’s taste for finer clothes.

Jude was slightly above average height, three inches shorter than Creed, and right now his eyes, golden from recent feeding, were not quite golden enough. He was irritated or disturbed.

Jude looked at Chloe and Garner. “Have you two concocted a plan for how we’re going to deal with this?”

Neither answered him.

“I thought not,” Jude said, sarcasm edging his tone. “All that arguing and no plan. Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“Because you know us,” Chloe said with a toss of her head. “Look, boss, you ought to just let Garner go do what he wants. Then we won’t have to deal with him anymore.”

“Hey!” said Garner. “How do you know I’m not right?”

“Because you suggested it?” Chloe arched one brow. Garner glared.

“Enough,” Jude said quietly. That one word quelled them both.

Jude looked at Creed. “I need to go keep an eye on Terri. You want to come?”

“Because of this thing?”

Jude nodded. “She was a doorway last time. She might still be. I don’t know.”

Creed understood. Jude had offered to die permanently to save them all from the thing that had nearly killed Creed’s great-granddaughter, that had attacked Terri, as well. He also understood that no matter how many cops surrounded Terri, none of them would be able to protect her from that kind of threat.

He rose. “Sure.”

He didn’t have to ask Jude how they would find her. Jude and Terri’s relationship was more than a simple mating; it was a claiming. No matter where Terri went now, Jude would be able to find her. And if anything happened to Terri, Jude would probably tear the planet apart before he killed himself.

It was the way of vampires. And the reason most of them tried to avoid a claiming at all costs: inevitably, if something went wrong, death and destruction would result.

But apparently, to judge by the way Jude had claimed Terri despite all the warnings he’d given Creed about it over the years, claiming wasn’t always a choice.

They left the car because they had no need for it. Jude carried the tools of his trade in the pockets of a long leather coat: crucifix, the ritual for exorcism and plenty of holy water. Creed felt a bit uncomfortable with that, but some of his perspectives were undergoing radical changes because of his association with Jude.

They slipped from shadow to shadow too fast for human eyes to see. The most any mortal could have noticed would have been the breeze of their passage.

The city was quieting down though, falling into its late slumber at last, so they didn’t encounter many people.

Each one, though, had a particular, tempting aroma. It was, Creed sometimes thought wryly, like slipping through an aromatic deli but never tasting a single, delicious morsel. With time it got easier, though never easy.

He had vowed a long time ago never to become again that ravenous monster he’d been during the weeks and months after his change. If he ever felt weak, his conscience summoned up a whole banquet of ugly images to remind him of what he had done.

Though sometimes he wondered why he bothered. Humans were so good at doing themselves in, it often felt pointless for him to suppress his own urges, his own hunger.

Jude took them directly to the crime scene. His instincts had guided him to Terri as surely as a homing beacon. Together they mounted a nearby building and watched from the roof. Periodically, Jude lifted his head and sniffed the air to make sure there was nothing unusual about.

From above, both preternatural sight and preternatural hearing allowed Creed to know everything that was going on. Most of it was dull, detail work, and he hardly paid attention. He didn’t really care about the ordinary details of an ordinary murder. Finally, bored, he tuned it out and looked up at the stars.

Despite the city lights, he could see thousands of them, if not millions, thanks to his vision. Sparkling in all the colors of the rainbow and more, they seemed to set the sky ablaze. He loved moonless nights because he could see so many more stars.

For him the night was not leached of color, but instead flooded with it. Things he had never been able to see as a human now filled his eyes with pleasure. Sounds and scents brought him stories of the night that he would never have noticed before.

No, it was not all bad.

“Creed?”

He dragged his gaze from the heavens to look at

Jude. “What?”

“Do you smell it?”

Creed drew the night into his lungs, smelling it and tasting it. He paused, then exhaled slowly. “There’s something faint. Something off”.

“It was here. Gone now, but it was here.”

At once Creed’s interest in the goings-on below him returned. He focused on the little hive of human activity, listening and watching.

“Do you think it caused this?” he asked Jude.

“I don’t know. I’ll find out more from Terri. For now though, it’s enough to know it was here.”

“And good reason to stick around Terri until she’s home.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Creed.”

“I don’t know how much good I’ll be if needed.” Then Creed paused. “So, okay, maybe you need to teach me how to deal with this stuff.”

“It would be helpful.”

Creed had never wanted to enter the world where Jude existed, fighting demons and other unseen threats. It had always seemed to him to be a dangerous path full of hidden pitfalls, and he was at heart still the Harvard professor he’d been before his own change. But after what had happened to his great-granddaughter, his opinion had rapidly shifted. Now he’d just offered to jump in with both feet.

Surprising himself, he grinned into the night. Apparently he’d made the decision without realizing it.

He drew another lungful of the night. The abnormal scent was already cataloged in a part of his brain that would never forget it. He would know it again the instant he encountered it anywhere. So he sniffed, checking for it, making sure it didn’t strengthen. For now that was all he could do.

“It doesn’t seem to be coming back,” Jude remarked presently, as the team below them began to pack up, as the body was loaded into a morgue van. “Why don’t you run back to the office, or home if you prefer. I’ll just follow Terri to the morgue to make sure it’s not in the vicinity. Then I’ll get back to the office.”

“What if you find it? I should come, too.”

Jude smiled without humor. “I don’t want to challenge it tonight unless I have no choice. I’m just keeping an eye out.”

“Call me if you need me.” Then Creed straightened and blended away into the night like a shadow.

Being a vampire did have its advantages.

I am a romantic at heart, a really, truly die hard romantic. So no matter what I read I’m looking for the romance, the heart-stopping drop to falling in love and the breathtaking soar of staying there. With that in mind I don’t think there’s any surprise that I’d write romance novels. However, when I decided to write young adult paranormal I was a bit afraid of the romantic element. Yet, I remember clearly how Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield in Francine Pascal’s famous Sweet Valley High series fell in and out of love on an almost daily basis. First loves are never forgotten, whether it’s because you can’t believe how foolish you were to fall in love with him or because you haven’t quite managed to capture that new and lovely feeling since then—you’re first love will always be in  your heart.

In one of my favorite movies, Gone With The Wind, Scarlett’s first love was Ashley and it was only after years of pinning for him and marrying other men did she finally allow herself to fall in love with someone else. Although it was a tad too late for Rhett and Scarlett. Still, there was something simplistic and wholesome about Scarlett’s feelings for Ashley that made you feel sorry for her not being able to have him. Fast forward to Stephanie Meyers’ famous Twilight couple, Edward and Bella, who share a truly epic love story. The triangle that consists of Edward, Bella and Jacob can be described as intense and almost certainly rivals the triangle of Heathcliff, Catherine and Hareton in Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights.

So yeah, I figured it was definitely okay to write romance in my young adult books. Now, Krystal and Jake have taken their time getting to the love word and now that they’ve finally arrived it’s no wonder that Franklin (Krystal’s first boyfriend) isn’t happy. As for Sasha, she’s found the perfect boy in Antoine, despite what her parents might thing. Lindsey’s just getting the opportunity to meet her love match and is excited to enter the world of couples. Each of these relationships has different conflicts and emotional levels. What I really wanted to touch upon is that falling in love, for the first or the millionth time, is a journey of learning to give a piece of yourself to someone else. It’s not always easy, and not always wise, but it’s really a fantastic escapade to read about.

Who are some of your favorite literary couples?

Coming to the end of the AFTERTIME series was a remarkably emotional event for me. I’m not supposed to say stuff like this, but this series kicked my butt harder than anything I’ve written so far – and I love it the most. I’m proud of all the work I’ve published, and grateful to every editor who’s helped me shape my books, but this series forced me to dig deeper and work harder to get the emotion on the page than I ever have before.

At the same time, I’ve known from the start that this series isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. When I received my author copies, I gave one to my friend Lynn with the caution that she wasn’t to actually read it: I knew it was too dark, too creepy, too sad for her. I knew that my target readers would share my love of dark themes and deep character building and non-traditional relationships.

Some authors have time to consider reader feedback when writing subsequent books. If a series has stretched over many books or years – even decades, in some cases – readers’ reactions to the characters and storylines, their interpretations and suggestions, often determine the direction of a series.

In the AFTERTIME series, there simply wasn’t time. I wrote the first draft of AFTERTIME in fall and winter of 2010, and my agent inked the deal with Harlequin the following April. Adam Wilson, my editor, sketched out his thoughts about creating a trilogy, and we came up with the skeleton of a series arc. The deadlines were challenging, because the first book in the series was to come out barely a year later, and the second and third three and six months after that.

With only three months between releases, I had to have most of the series finished before the first readers ever turned page one. This meant I could only guess at how people would feel about my very damaged heroine and the choices she made.

Earlier today, as I cleaned my office (one of my release-day traditions, along with lunch at Nation’s Giant Burger and a manicure), I came across my notes from my early conversations with Adam. At the end of the notes was a series of questions and concerns I came up with before diving into edits. As I read through them again today, I was surprised at how some of them ended up being resolved. I thought you might enjoy a peek behind the scenes.

Cass – how dark?

How dark, indeed? This was the thought that never strayed far from my mind from the first time I heard Pink’s song, “Sober.” That song was the inspiration for the entire series, and I envisioned a young woman devastated and crushed by addiction – but not without hope. I knew I had to keep the ember of her determination lit throughout the series if I was to keep her sympathetic. The trick – the challenge – was to let it dim so far that everyone, myself included, really believed it might go out.

I really put Cass through her paces, a fact that few reviewers missed and some did not care for. Others, however, appreciated that her struggles – while dire – occur in real life. Childhood trauma, loss of a parent, sexual molestation, addiction, self-harm – every time Cass made a step forward, I was there to pile on complications and temptations and devastations. (Then, of course, I had to write my way back, but that’s a whole different problem.)

Ruthie – character?

To provide Cass with a reason to keep going, I gave her a daughter. I knew Ruthie was a toddler, somewhere between two and four years old. A child that age may not have a fully developed on-page character, but she had to be unique and compelling in her own right. I started with a physical description – I imagined a little girl like you might see on a Victorian postcard, pink-cheeked and cherubic – and then considered how she might have reacted to the horrific events of the apocalypse. Ruthie is by turns silent, fearful, clingy, tentative – but also occasionally mirthful, mischievous, loving. She is, after all, Cass’s daughter and I thought it was important to show that she inherited her resilience.

What does Smoke want?

Smoke appeared early in AFTERTIME, and from the start he was heroic, and the sexual tension between him and Cass sizzling. But that wasn’t enough. I had to figure out the motivation for both his willingness to help Cass on a near-impossible mission – and for the decisions he make that separate them in REBIRTH. This took quite some time, as it turns out, and I wasn’t 100% certain of the details until I was well into HORIZON. I had clarity about Smoke’s emotional palette, just not the details of the events that created it. Luckily, this resolved itself in one of those midnight-oil epiphanies with which we writers are occasionally visited.

Sex – zombies?

Not zombies having sex – they don’t, silly, everyone knows that! No, the dilemma is how to make it believable that people would still be in the mood to get it on, when outside the gate, flesh eaters are trying to force their way in. This is a tricky challenge, one that many urban fantasy authors struggle with. To be successful, the author must create such overwhelming attraction between characters that the reader is willing to go along. And as every good romance author knows, that sort of attraction is built from strong, credible motivation. So the question really was, what backstory elements have prepared my characters to be receptive to romantic love?

Tactile pleasures

The five senses are never more important than one is writing about the end of the world. It was easy enough to come up with horrifying details – the smell of decaying flesh, the sound of snapping jaws, the sight of wrecked cars spilling the dead onto the pavement, the taste of canned soup after you’ve subsisted on weeds for weeks – but it was more challenging to come up with details that conveyed pleasure. Without these, AFTERTIME might have been unbearably dark, so I worked hard to get them right, and they are among my favorite details in the book. Things like the feel of a smooth stone in one’s hand, the smell of rain-refreshed dirt, the sound of a child’s laugh, the sight of a seedling pushing green shoots through cracked pavement.

The last of my release-day pleasures is choosing a book from my TBR pile, climbing into bed, and digging in. Reviewing my AFTERTIME journey has me in the mood to explore someone else’s fictional world, and I’d love to hear your ideas. Would anyone like to share their favorite dark dystopian or fantasy book or series?

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I don’t harbor many deep dark secrets, but like every person ever born, there are a few. Little failures of character that accumulate alongside the triumphs. Things that embarrass me. Things that might complicate, compromise, or destroy my relationships with others.

When I met the man I could share those secrets with, I knew he was the one for me. That he could listen with a forgiving heart, or laugh at my foibles, or offer insights meant that I didn’t have to live in fear. I was loved for myself–my whole self. And that’s true love.

Consequently, it always saddens me when I meet other women who say that they keep secrets from their spouses. Sometimes I think I’m writing the stories I write just for them, because the turning point in my love stories almost always revolve around the precise moment of maximum vulnerability…when the deep dark secrets come pouring out…and true intimacy is achieved.

In The Fever & The Fury my heroine’s secret is so deep and dark, she dares not even share it with herself. She’s an ancient fury, a minion of the Greek Goddess of Battle, Athena, and she’s been unleashed to mete out vengeance. Once, she valued her role as a force of justice in the world, but over the centuries, Phaedra’s life as a fury has become more and more monstrous…to the point that she no longer feels like a force for good in the world. She’s come to hate her job, she’s come to hate her life, and she’s come to hate herself. When she admits that to herself, and to her victim, he offers her compassion. It’s something so foreign to Phaedra that it makes her unravel and it allows her to feel love for the first time in her life, even if that’s an emotion that threatens her entire existence.

I loved writing that scene–the one in which a man who is being tormented is actually capable of offering comfort to his tormentor. It made me fall in love with Lieutenant Luke Lazaros just as Phaedra does…because if you can forgive someone who has done you wrong isn’t that the strongest test of your humanity?

Of course, just because Luke has a soft heart under the hard-bodied exterior doesn’t mean that he’s an easy man to love. Luke has secrets of his own and when Phaedra uncovers them, it leaves them both vulnerable and raw. Just the way a hero and heroine should be when slip into the pleasures of a torrid love affair!

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Stephanie Draven is a multi-published award-nominated author of myth-inspired paranormal romance. Writing for HQN Nocturne, Stephanie’s Mythica series asks the question: What if the monsters of ancient mythology still walked the earth…and what if you found out that you were one of them? Currently a denizen of Baltimore, that city of ravens and purple night skies, Stephanie lives there with her favorite nocturnal creatures–three scheming cats and a deliciously wicked husband. And when she is not busy with dark domestic rituals, she writes her books.

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Immortals are a mainstay of paranormal lore, from the time of the oldest fables to the latest offerings on the market today. But whenever I read the word immortal, questions always nagged at me.

While living forever young and healthy (and mostly with some fantastic power or another) sounds like the ultimate fantasy to us mortals, what would true immortality be like? What would keep an immortal, who is basically human in emotions and nature, going through an endless existence?

I decided to ask that question of my immortal Viking hero in Immortal, Insatiable, Indomitable. As an Original member of the Legion Of Loki, Vidar had pledged allegiance to the cause of the Norse god thousands of years ago.

But just my luck, as I opened the book intent on having him explain what makes his immortality sustainable, he surprised me by saying: nothing!

He’d just chosen this point in his existence to end it all!

Turns out even immortals need purpose and achievement to validate their existence.  And he no longer has a sense of either. He has strong ties to his Legionnaire brothers, but friendship, no matter how enduring, is no longer enough to keep him in an existence he’s long seen as pointless.

Just as I was wracking my brain for arguments to make him reconsider, a wild card materializes to turn everything upside down.

Kara, a wholly beautiful to him mortal, walks out after him in the cold, dark alley where he intends to die and braves deadly danger to defend him. Suddenly death is the last thing on his mind as she ignites his long jaded senses and his extinguished passion for life.

But cruel irony isn’t far behind. Now he wants to live to love her, he knows she would soon die. What follows is an incendiary rollercoaster of passion and desperation…and that’s before the unforeseen happens and threatens to tear them apart in life…and death.

I loved writing Vidar and Kara’s story (even though my laptop died suddenly while writing it, taking with it three unsaved chapters…shudderrrrr…)! Hope you’ll enjoy their story and their universe as much as I did creating them.

PS. Here’s how I envisioned Vidar and Kara. Was this how you did, too? If not, who did you see in your mind’s eye as you read their story?

Over the years, I’ve published many different kinds of romances.  From Historical Romance to Contemporary, from Romantic Suspense to Paranormal Romance.  Currently I write for both Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Nocturne.  The Nocturnes are, as you know, paranormal romances.  I have a lot of fun writing them.

Originally I started out with a single idea — a female werewolf.  She was a kick-ass, sexy lady and when my agent pitched the book to Leslie Wainger at what was then Silhouette Intimate Moments, she bought it.  Writing that story was a blast!  That book, One Eye Open, became the basis for what is now my popular Pack series with Harlequin Nocturne.

I love writing these books because I can create new species.  So far I’ve written books with Vampires and of course the ever-present Shape-shifters, but I’ve also added a couple of new twists — children born to vampires and shape-shifters (The Lone Wolf) and now The Tearlachs, a special brand of Pack.  My January Nocturne Wolf Whisperer features two Shape-shifters, one of whom is a Tearlach, and a special twist on their path to love.  In the end, that’s all that matters after all.  Love.

I don’t know about you, but I write and read Paranormal books to escape from the real world.  What is more fun that imagining what it must be like to be able to become a wolf, to change into another species and run wild throughout the woods?

Why do you like to read Paranormal Romance?  And what species do you most identify with?  Would you rather be courted by a 700 year old vampire or a wild and sexy werewolf?

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by Amy Wilkins, Harlequin Digital

Can you believe 2012 is almost here! Now, assuming the world doesn’t end this weekend (but that’s not supposed to happen until December, right? ), check out these new paranormal romances and fantasy novels being released by Harlequin in January:

Claim the Night by Rachel Lee (book 1 of The Claiming series, Harlequin Nocturne)

From New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Lee comes a sensual new series about mesmerizing vampire detectives and the love they discover, deep in the night…

Jude Messenger felt the hunger deep inside him. From the moment he’d rescued Theresa Black from a late-night attack, he’d ached for things he knew he could never have. The touch of her skin. The taste of her blood. But if the vampire claimed her, one of them might not survive.

So Jude did everything he could to make Terri stay away.

But a demon stalked the sexy spitfire, and Jude had no choice but to protect a woman who created a longing inside him that could never be sated….

Wolf Whisperer by Karen Whiddon (part of The Pack series, Harlequin Nocturne)

In a world where betrayal and deceit are everywhere, can love conquer all? Don’t miss this latest romance in Karen Whiddon’s popular Pack series.

Since his mate’s death, the only thing that’s kept pack protector Mac Lamonda going is the search for his missing children. His hatred for the rival clan who took them is legendary. But when a beautiful shifter saves him from an ambush, Mac enters into a bond that is both seductive…and dangerous.

Rehabilitating abused canines is Kelly McKenzie’s life calling. And because of who she is, she distrusts everything Pack. So when the handsome protector’s arrival at her sanctuary coincides with news of her sister’s disappearance, Kelly is torn between suspicion…and desire.

Now, Kelly and Mac must join and fight together. For, if they fail, their loved ones will become the victims of an unimaginable evil.

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder (book 1 of The Healers series, Mira Books)

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan absorbs their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Fifteen Realms, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life….

Lara by Bertrice Small (book 1 of The World of Hetar series, HQN Books)

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author and master of romance Bertrice Small welcomes you to the magical, sensual World of Hetar.

For Lara, a half faerie, half human, her beauty is a blessing and a curse. Sold into a Pleasure House by her father, she commits herself to a lifetime of servitude. But even in a place where pleasure is not censured but encouraged, her otherworldly beauty proves too much for her suitors.

When Lara escapes, she is introduced to a new way of life, and an incredible man who opens her eyes to the growing unrest among their people…and the extraordinary destiny that awaits her. Lara will journey the depths of desire and despair to find a love that will last an eternity—a love that will change Hetar forever.

The Fever and the Fury by Stephanie Draven (Harlequin Nocturne Cravings)

She’s already killed him twice this week.

Phaedra, a fury, is bound to make Lieutenant Luke Lazaros atone for his supposed crime, but her usual method of inflicting pain doesn’t work very well on a phoenix with the power to be reborn every time he dies. However, each rebirth leaves him with an overwhelming need for sex. Phaedra’s new plan: to drive Luke mad with desire….

But Phaedra has never touched anyone—even herself—except to cause pain. She’s an innocent when it comes to pleasure…but Luke isn’t. His touch is a revelation, arousing a passion in Phaedra that is as delicious as it is terrifying. For no matter how much she wants Luke, giving herself to a man risks awakening her goddess’s wrath….

Immortal, Insatiable, Indominable by Olivia Gates (Harlequin Nocturne Cravings)

Vidar, an immortal in the service of the Norse god Loki, is ready to die—until he lays eyes on the most beautiful mortal he’s encountered in centuries. Not only is Kara sexy and eager to be ravished by him, but she also defends him from minions of his enemy…making her the only human to ever put their life on the line for him.

Vidar and Kara soon enjoy the unbridled ecstasy they seemed destined to share. Yet they know they can’t be together for long. Vidar can sense that Kara will die soon—unless he can find a way to make her immortal, too….

Enchanted Again by Robin D. Owens (part of the Mystic Circle series, Luna Books)

Magic has a price—and for Amber Sarga it’s days and years off her life. Each curse she breaks ages her—and the bigger the curse the bigger the cost, and not only to her. That’s why she hides away and has vowed not to get involved again… That’s why she hates looking in a mirror…

And then an ill-fated stranger arrives. Rafe Davail doesn’t believe in curses—not even knowing that in his family every first son dies young. Amber offers guidance but she won’t break the curse. Still, as she grows closer to Rafe and discovers the secrets of their pasts, she wonders if for this time, this man, she should risk it all….

On a Dark Wing by Jordan Dane (Harlequin Teen)

The choices I had made led to the moment when fate took over. I would learn a lesson I wasn’t prepared for. And Death would be my willing teacher.

Five years ago, Abbey Chandler cheated Death. She survived a horrific car accident, but her “lucky” break came at the expense of her mother’s life and changed everything. After she crossed paths with Death—by taking the hand of an ethereal boy made of clouds and sky—she would never be normal again.

Now she’s the target of Death’s ravens and an innocent boy’s life is on the line. When Nate Holden—Abbey’s secret crush—starts to climb Alaska’s Denali, the Angel of Death stalks him because of her.

And Abbey finds out the hard way that Death never forgets.

Never to Sleep by Rachel Vincent (part of the Soul Screamers series, Harlequin Teen)

Don’t Close Your Eyes.

Sophie Cavanaugh is not going to let her freak of a cousin’s strange psychiatric condition ruin high school for them both. Not after all the work she’s put into cultivating the right look, and friends, and reputation. But then, Sophie sees something so frightening she lets out a blood-curdling scream—and finds herself stuck in a bizarre parallel world where nothing is safe and deadly creatures lurk just out of sight, waiting for her to close her eyes and sleep…forever.

Could this world be real? Or does insanity run in the family…?

Once upon a time, there was a greedy muse.

(You know this is me, right?)

And while romance books have to have an ending—by golly, a happily ever after ending!–as far as my muse is concerned, they’re more like The NeverEnding Story.

As far as we’re both concerned, it’s all real. The worlds from which my books are drawn is three-dimensional, populated with real people, real places, real events, and a real timeline.

That timeline starts before I ever put pen to paper, and it goes on long after I stop scribing any given story.   Relationships continue to grow and develop, new conflicts and challenges arise, and more fun stuff happens for everyone.  This goes for the main characters, the secondary characters, and even the bad guys.

And that means, given the opportunity, my greedy muse leaps at the chance to explore the what happens then or the what happened when.  Especially when it comes to those characters who are just begging for exploration, and who deserve their own stories.

Marlee Cerrosa: Me!  Pick me!

Voice over: When we last saw Marlee, she had just helped save the day in WOLF HUNT—after creating the situation in the first place, because she drank the Bad Guy’s Kool-Aide.

Marlee: I didn’t know!  The Sentinels need someone to keep them in line.  I thought that’s all I was doing!

Well, she wasn’t. But it’s true she didn’t understand the ultimate consequences of her actions (note to Marlee: Bad Guys lie), and it’s also true that the Sentinels are indeed an organization of extraordinarily gifted individuals who, if they weren’t using that might for right, would pose a real threat to…well, to just about everyone.

But as it happens, the Sentinels are protectors, and they don’t need Marlee or anyone else to make them toe the line.  Although at the moment, they’re in chaos after the conflict that Marlee unwittingly helped to orchestrate.  They’re hurt and they’re struggling to reorganize, so their last concern is Marlee Cerossa, no matter her role in the whole mess.

Marlee: Right.  Thanks.  So I’m just hanging out in house arrest at regional headquarters, waiting for someone to notice.  Typical disregard of the full-blooded Sentinels for those of us who can’t shift shape or don’t have various unnatural talents.

Well, a lot of things changed on that night. Could be that Marlee just doesn’t know it yet.

And that’s why, given the chance to write a Bite novella, my muse snapped up the chance to play with the Happily Ever After Plus.  Not that the story doesn’t stand totally on its own—it wouldn’t be a story if it didn’t create its own little world.  But Marlee—jaded, turmoiled, and in dire need of redemption—has been alone, unable to find her own way.  And Scott O’Brien, a tiger shapeshifter injured in the very melee Marlee helped to orchestrate, is on his own hunt for  what he lost in that fight.

A lot of things changed that night. Could be Marlee is about to find out…

*fist pump* Bonus!

I want to thank you all for taking the time to drop by today as I share the inspiration behind AMAZON AWAKENING, my new (and first ever) erotic paranormal romance for Nocturne Cravings.

You see I love to travel, although I hate to fly.  What a problem!  I also hate heights which makes for some interesting trips up to some very unique places (you can check out my climb up a Mexican pyramid by visiting here:  http://carinapress.com/blog/2011/01/temples-and-demons-and-heights-oh-my/).

I’m bound and determined to visit a lot of the world’s more fascinating places and to not let my fears get in the way.  I also want to be able to share those experiences with you by setting some of the books in those locations so that if you can’t get there, you can still enjoy them with me.

One place I’d love to go is the Amazon, but sadly I haven’t been there in person.  However, I decided to visit there vicariously by setting AMAZON AWAKENING in that locale.  I also gave the very unique and sometimes dangerous rainforest a twist by making it the home of a group of people known as the Guardians whose role it is to protect a sacred space located deep in the jungle.  This special place might even be the Garden of Eden and it’s up to the Guardians to make sure it isn’t harmed by the encroachment of man.

Rey Peralta, the sexy hero in the story, is sent to bring back the heir to the Guardian people, Paola Lopes.  Paola is a NYC attorney who has reached a fork in the road of life and Rey is just too sexy to refuse.  Plus, Paola wants to meet her grandmother for the first time before she passes.  What Paola doesn’t expect is that she will be pulled into the world of Guardians and into a very sensual and fulfilling affair with Rey. (Did I say VERY SENSUAL? It is an erotic romance after all!)

But back to the Amazon.  Did you know that the Amazon rainforest touches 9 countries in South America and is made up of almost 2.5 million square miles (1.2 billion acres) of land?

It’s also home to about one in five of all bird species and has over 50% of the world’s species of plants, animals and insects.  Insects.  Yack.  Big, ugly and dangerous insects!  Luckily the Sacred Space to which Rey and Paola journey is a kindler gentler rainforest.

If it seems far-fetched to you that a mysterious group of Guardians and a Sacred Space could exist without anyone knowing about them, consider this:  There are possibly dozens of tribes of natives in the Amazon that have never met anyone from the outside world.

Maybe one day when I get to visit, I will be able to see some of those people as well as all that amazing flora and fauna or go for a ride along the 4000 miles of the Amazon river from where it starts in the Peruvian Andes to where it empties into the Atlantic.

One day.  For now I hope you’ll enjoy taking that trip with me within the pages of AMAZON AWAKENING!

What place(s) is on your “bucket list”?  Leave a comment for a chance to win a LOST T-shirt and copy of AZTEC GOLD.