Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Amanda Katt

Book: Dead Links
Author: Nigel Mitchell
Heroine: Amanda Katt

Amanda Katt is an African American freelance journalist who pursues a deadly conspiracy on the Internet. She's strong because as an African American woman, she's overcome racism to become one of the best investigative journalists in the business. She also has survived attacks and threats in the course of her work, and remained on top. She's also strong in surviving the murder of her father, which causes her to pursue justice in all forms. Katt is sexy because she's beautiful, but also kind and warm with a tenderness beneath her tough exterior.

Blurb:
Investigative journalist Amanda Katt's engagement takes a strange turn when her fiancee becomes obsessed with Araknee, one of the most popular websites ever made. As she investigates, Katt discovers others have fallen under the spell of the website, and the owners of rival websites are dying under mysterious circumstances. When Amanda tries to uncover the secret of Araknee, she finds herself drawn into a conspiracy that could threaten the world.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Élan Duchamps

Book: Soul Cutter
Author: Lexa Cain
Heroine: Élan Duchamps

In the beginning of the novel, Soul Cutter, Élan Duchamps has everything in her life under control, and that’s just the way she likes it. With a group of high school friends, she secretly records fake mediums and psychics who trick their customers and steal their money. There’s nothing Élan hates more than people who take advantage of the weak and gullible. 

Tough beyond her years, Élan’s upbringing featured an absent father, a mother who abandoned her for Hollywood dreams, and a doting but addled grandma, all shaded by a tragic secret Élan hides from everyone:

Once, she trusted someone, and he almost killed her.

Now, no one can pass the walls she’s built around herself.

Life rarely goes as planned, and Élan finds herself in Egypt, facing something she never believed existed—a real supernatural killer. Although she’s terrified, she’s determined to save people from this deadly threat no matter what. But in order to do it, she’ll have to join forces with a guy who’s as used to being in control as she is.  Worse, she’ll have to learn to trust him, which for her is even harder than fighting a seven-foot, saber-wielding killer.

Élan is strong, sexy heroine because she never backs down from a challenge and because under her prickly exterior, she’s kind, protective, and brave. To discover how she outwits not just one killer but hundreds of them, and to see if she can pry her scarred heart open to let in a man who’d give his life for her, read Soul Cutter.

Blurb: 

The Soul Cutter is hunting again.

Seventeen-year-old Élan spends her free time videoing psychic scams and outing them online. Skepticism makes life safe—all the ghosts Élan encounters are fakes. When her estranged mother disappears from a film shoot in Egypt, Élan puts her medium-busting activities on hold and joins the search.

In Egypt, the superstitious film crew sucks at finding her mom. When a hotel guest is killed, whispers start—the locals think their legendary Soul Cutter has come back from the dead. Élan's only ally is Ramsey, a film-crew intern, but he’s arrogant, stubborn—and hiding dangerous secrets.

When Élan discovers the Soul Cutter is no scam, she finds herself locked in a deadly battle against a supernatural killer with more than her mother’s life at stake.

Élan's fighting for her very soul.

  

BUY LINKS:

BARNES & NOBLE: http://ibty.in/e060b50

KOBO: http://ibty.in/f193d27

SMASHWORDS: http://ibty.in/f7f1cba

MUSEITUP PUBLISHING: http://ibty.in/7f5945f

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Bluebell Kildare

Book: The Light Who Shines
Author: Lilo Abernathy
Heroine: Bluebell Kildare (a.k.a. Blue)

Bluebell Kildare lives in a society where prejudice and hate runs rampant between three different breeds of humans (Norms, Gifted, and Vampires). Orphaned by the death of her parents at the hands of Dark Vampires, rejected by her grandparents because of her magical heritage, Blue is accustomed to going it alone. After all, she survived bullying, hate, fear, and ostracism in the orphanage, yet still managed to maintain her moral compass.

As an Inspector in the Homicide Unit of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, Blue fights for interbreed peace every day. She believes in this job with all her lonely soul. She both chases down those who perpetrate hate crimes against the supernatural breeds and stops those who use their powers to hurt innocents. Blue fights for what is right regardless of who is in the wrong!

Sometimes a deceptively soft nature can cover a spine of steel, and make no mistake, Blue has such a spine. She faces down a hate mob to apprehend a perpetrator who left an innocent bleeding and fighting for his life. She enters the fray with full knowledge of the danger to herself, and even when the hostile mob turns against her, she refuses to allow the deed to go unpunished. Later, she willingly sacrifices everything, even at the price of unbearable pain and on the point of death, to keep a dangerous power out of the clutches of a madman, for fear of the destruction it would cause in his hands. Blue has courage in spades!

This heroine also has a secret. She harbors a love for frilly lingerie, and she has plenty of it. Nevertheless, she covers it up with her standard work uniform and keeps it hidden by her discerning tastes. While she dearly wants to be loved, she is only willing to share this part of herself with the right person. Does the right person come along? Perhaps he has been here all the while. Regardless of what the different factions of humans believe about her, Blue knows her own self-worth and this makes her strong and sexy!

Excerpt

Jack’s eyes flick to Varg and then back to my face. He says in a grim tone, “You may not have been hurt, but another minute or two and you could have been dead.”

I lift up my chin and respond steadily, “All in the line of duty, Jack. I did what was right, and if you know me at all you should never expect less.”

I holster my gun and walk, head held high, back to my car with Varg trailing behind me and Jack watching my back.

 When Paranormal Investigation Bureau agent Bluebell Kildare (a.k.a. Blue) arrives at the scene of the crime it's obvious the grotesquely damaged body of the deceased teenage boy was caused by far more than a simple hit and run. Using her innate sixth sense, she uncovers a powerful magical artifact nearby. She soon discovers it acts as a key to an ancient Grimiore that was instrumental in the creation of the Vampire breed and still holds the power to unravel the boundaries between Earth and the Plan of Fire.

Blue and her clever wolf Varg follow a trail that starts at the Cock and Bull Tap and leads all through the town of Crimson Hollow. Between being sidelined by a stalker who sticks to the shadows, and chasing a suspect who vanishes in thin air, the case is getting complicated. If that isn't enough, Dark Vampire activity hits a record high and hate crimes are increasing. However, it's her growing feelings for Jack Tanner, her magnetic Daylight Vampire boss, that just might undo her.

While Blue searches for clues to nail the perpetrator, it seems someone else is conducting a search of their own. Who will find whom first?

Danger lurks in every corner and Blue needs all her focus in this increasingly dangerous game or she risks ending up the next victim.

Buy it on Barnes & Noble or Smashwords or Amazon.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Elsa Schluss

Book: Blue Damask
Author: Annmarie Banks
Heroine: Elsa Schluss

The best heroines are the strong ones.  Scarlet O’Hara uses everything she has to overcome the disruption of her pampered life and bring order and comfort back to her beloved plantation.  Jane Eyre is a lively prepubescent girl who pushes back against her bullying cousin, John, and years later pushes back against a bullying employer to win his love.  Sexy?  Rhett Butler and Edward Rochester think so.

A weak heroine is a boring heroine, so while my characters have flaws to overcome, none of them could be considered weak.  We readers want to see some action and adventure, and there is no action from a wilting wallflower, no adventure from a sniveling waif.  Bring on the feisty fist-fighters and willful manipulators!

In my latest novel, Blue Damask, I tell the story of an Austrian woman who finds the strength and power to overcome uncontrollable events by using her wits, and sometimes her wiles, but always she outsmarts her adversaries by using their own weaknesses against them.

Elsa Schluss is beautiful, but her beauty is a curse, for she cannot break through the barrier of sexism in her chosen profession.  Her colleagues smile and nod at her, then turn away as though she were a silly child. 

Yet Elsa spent the war years, 1914-1918, in a field hospital as a surgical nurse, sewing together the mangled bodies of soldiers.  She sat at their bedsides with a pencil and paper in hand to write their last words to their mothers and then held their hands and watched them die.   She worked thirty-six hour shifts, covered in mud and blood, and yet doctors considered her a menial worker, not a professional woman with valuable skills.

After the war, Elsa enters the University of Vienna to study psychology.  She intends to become a therapist in this new field despite the obstacles set before her by the old men who rule the halls of academia.  She is determined to continue to help the wounded, for she has learned that many wounded soldiers fell apart when the stitches were removed.  Their minds needed to be tended even after their wounds had healed.

An opportunity presents itself in her advisor’s office as an Englishman in a straightjacket is dumped to the floor of the clinic. There is not much time, and the British government is so eager to have this man lucid and functioning that they have sent Field Agent Marshall to get it done any way he can.  Elsa must bring the patient back from the brink of insanity while traveling by train and ship and car and horse from Vienna to Damascus.

Marshall hires Elsa to take on this challenge, and what at first seems like an excellent case study for her thesis, turns into a wild adventure in the wastelands of Syria during the violent Arab Revolt of 1921.  More is at stake than a student’s paper, a man’s sanity, and a field agent’s career.  Elsa finds that working in a field hospital in the Great War is a walk in the park compared to what she must face now in the wastelands of Mesopotamia.

I like how one of my reviewers described her: “the reader is treated to watching Elsa's transformation from a prim, exquisite psychologist to a ready-for-anything heroine covered with dirt and blood and packing a semi-automatic pistol and willing to use it.”

Blurb:
A madman and his therapist traverse the wilds of Syria during the Arab Revolt of 1921.

Three years after the end of a bloody world war, an Englishman in a straightjacket is dumped on the clinic floor of an Austrian psychologist, whose protégé, Elsa Schluss, is reluctantly engaged to treat the traumatized war veteran en route to Damascus where he is to perform one last service for his country. Elsa plans to use him as a case study, but the mysterious mission becomes deadly when they are attacked on the Orient Express. Elsa finds her Jungian training is needed not only to treat her patient, but to outwit the powerful men who threaten their lives and endanger the mind of the man for whom she is responsible. She discovers there is more at stake with this mission than one man’s sanity and a young woman’s doctoral thesis.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Allie Taylor

Book: Rook: Allie's War, Book One
Author: J.C. Andrijeski
Heroine: Allie Taylor

Allie Taylor is strong in a way I don't see a lot of female heroines in media these days. Meaning, she doesn't carry a sword, or defeat fifteen opponents with preternatural kung-fu moves, or curse people out, or make a lot of sarcastic comments or belittle the men she's secretly attracted to, or kick and scream when she should probably be listening to the people who actually know what's going on in whatever dangerous situation she happens to find herself in...instead, Allie's smart, which means she knows when to argue and also when she should probably be silent and figure out what's going on, first, or even just run like hell if she's outmatched.

She also knows when she doesn't know something...which happens to her a lot in the first book of the Allie's War series, Rook: Allie's War, Book One, where she first meets Dehgoies Revik, and finds out she may not be human after all.

Allie lives in a version of modern-day Earth where a second race of seers was discovered during the early 1900s in Asia, and since then have been mostly enslaved by human beings. That second race, called Sarhaciennes, "Sarks," or seers, can read minds, push people to think or do things they wouldn't otherwise do, and spy on people from great distances. They operate in a nonphysical plane they call "The Barrier," and are kept under control by humans with sight-restraint collars, a very small population relative to humans, and a lot of laws limiting their movement and associations.

Allie gets thrust into this world, and the shadow world of seers that exists just behind the human world, with little or nothing to help her find her way. Yet she manages to not only adjust, but to take charge of her new role in this world, and to match her so-called teacher and guardian, Revik, almost from day one. He finds her sexy for that very reason, as well as the fact that she sees through who he pretends to be from the beginning...which simultaneously turns him on, intrigues him and scares the crap out of him as soon as they enter one another's lives.

Blurb:

Like most humans, Allie’s spent her life distancing herself from Seers, a race of human-like beings discovered on Earth in the early 1900s. After catching her boyfriend in the arms of a hot band groupie, however, that changes, and Allie goes from San Francisco artist slacker to the girl wearing the GPS anklet overnight. But that’s nothing compared to the shock of discovering who—and what—she really is.

Yanked out of her life by the mysterious Revik, Allie finds out that her blood may not be as indisputably human as she always thought. Through Revik she learns the truth: that Seers are nothing like she thought, that the world is nothing like it appears to be... and that she has far more in common with Seers than she ever wanted to believe.

Now on the run from a group of anti-human, terrorist Seers called Rooks, and her own human government, Allie must learn to navigate a secret shadow world behind her own, a world filled with superhuman Seers with their own battles, and their own agendas around the fate of humanity. When Allie’s family and friends get dragged into that war, things suddenly get a lot more personal, and Allie finds she may be the only one who can stop it.

Excerpt:

Revik sprinted down the sidewalk, holding me against his chest. Unerringly rhythmic, his feet impacted the sidewalk as if he counted steps alongside well-regulated breaths. He held me close, and that felt calculated too, as if he’d practiced with potato sacks approximating my weight. When he reached the gravel-strewn hillside, he barely paused before vaulting up the steep bank, sliding in its shale folds at each step.

I felt sick, dazed, unsure on which side I lived. It becomes clearer as images around me flash in negative...then the Pyramid is everywhere; its silver threads shine like bright wires in rose-lit clouds. Tarnished silver entangles people on the sleepy Washington street. Red eyes surround me, bodies made of wire...

Laughter brings my eyes higher.

A face hovers below the Pyramid, and I recognize it as a ghostly version of the man from Golden Gate Park. His face morphs in Barrier wind; there is symmetry to the flickers of light, like film stuttering in a projector.

The Pyramid’s shifting cells split and reconfigure, moving on gliding rails like a carnival fun house.

I see you! Pretty bird! Do you know who carries you on such swift wings?

I feel my chest clench.

My mother calls me her bird.

I feel Revik again, his arms around me, the steady beating in his chest. No one has ever felt so much like me.

Terian’s laugh rises. I could tell you such stories about your new friend! Do you know what he used to like to do for fun?

Images start to coalesce, movies that start once I focus directly on them. They draw me in, until I want to see. I feel Revik there...a part of my fascination comes from him. He and Terian stand before a young girl with blond hair and a beautiful face and Revik’s eyes are hard, calculating. The predator is there, but he lives in silver light—

A jarring contact met my head and back. I gasped.

Pain brought the physical world into focus. Staring down at me is Revik’s sweaty face. His eyes are still glass shards, but the silver light is gone. Fear lives in them, faint but visible. He’d laid me roughly on the hood of the GTX. My back hit the protruding air vent on top, hard enough that I wondered if he’d done it on purpose.

Either way, the impact snapped me away from Terian’s mind.

I struggled to sit up as he walked to the rear of the car, opening the trunk with the keys and pulling out a black gym bag filled with something heavy. He reached inside the driver’s side window to unlock the door.

“Allie!” he said, jerking it open. “Now!”

I rolled over the hood to the passenger side while he leaned over and opened my door from the inside. By the time I got in, he was already ripping open the black nylon bag, and it struck me that the line of cars behind us had resumed honking. I watched Revik jam the key into the ignition, holding a gun against the steering wheel.

“Put on your seat belt!” he said.

I fumbled with the strap as the GTX’s engine rumbled to life. He put the car in gear. Then a voice emerged above the sound of the car’s motor. It took me a second to realize it was real...that it wasn’t his.

“What in the name of Mary’s tits...”

I crouched down, looking past Revik through the driver’s side window. Two cops stood there. Behind them, a black and white slanted down the bank beside the fisherman’s truck. The one who’d spoken stared at the gun in Revik’s hand.

“You got balls, buddy,” the second cop said, unholstering his sidearm. He raised the gun, aiming at Revik’s face. “Now toss it out the window. Real slow...”

“Sleep,” Revik said. “Now.”

Both cops collapsed on the onramp without emitting a sound.

I sucked in a breath, shocked at the clean indifference of the act. The one holding the gun wasn’t much older than me. In the rearview mirror, I saw movement in the space by the fisherman’s truck. I turned my head as another policeman emerged.

My voice burst out of me.

“Revik!” I yelled.

The third cop pulled his sidearm. I saw the brown eyes flash silver as he raised the gun.

“Seer!” I yelled.

“I know,” Revik growled.

His hand clamped the back of my neck, forcing me down past the bottom of the seat. He took his foot off the brake and the car lurched forward as the cop squeezed off his first round.

The sound of the shot seemed to come late, after the soft plink as the bullet went through the rear driver’s side window. I turned my head, staring at the hole in the upholstery until Revik shoved me down further on the seat.

I crouched on the mat when I heard the GTX’s engine roar back to life. I slid out from under the seat belt as he threw the car into reverse, slamming into the truck behind us. By then he had aimed the handgun and fired at Cop #3. He hit him in the chest on the second shot, knocking him backwards into the police car so that the man’s arm and shoulder broke the passenger side window.

The cop’s partner emerged, firing wildly.

Screams erupted on the street. I watched people run and duck in fear, eyes wide, and for a moment, I see them through Revik’s eyes, a flock of birds scattering...then Revik swiveled the gun towards the fourth cop, narrowly missing the man’s head.

He stepped on the gas...

But his foot slipped. The engine’s rev faded. I looked up, saw Revik slumped in the seat as the car continued to roll. I froze, seeing his eyes glaze as the car veered towards the edge of the road. I threw myself up and into his lap, hauling the wheel to the left with my cuffed hands, trying to get my foot down to his, to keep the car from stalling...

...when just as suddenly, he was back. I felt it just before he raised his head, jerking into life. The gun rested on his lap, pointed at his feet from where he’d slumped in the cloth seat. He stared at my handcuffs as if he didn’t know what they were. His eyes narrowed on mine.

“Revik!” I screamed. “Snap out of it!”

His eyes clicked abruptly into focus.

Amazon - Smashwords - iBooks - Omnilit - Drive-Thru Fiction - Barnes and Noble

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Jet Tetsuo

Book: The Culling (Slave Girl Chronicles #1)
Author: JC Andrijeski
Heroine: Jet Tetsuo

Jet Tetsuo, the 19-year-old heroine of The Slave Girl Chronicles novels, grew up in a post-apocalyptic version of earth that's now being run by an alien species known as the Nirreth. Jet grew up protecting her mother and brother with her Japanese-style sword, Black, which she learned how to use after being trained by her ex-rebel uncle and his ex-rebel wife. She's spent the vast majority of her life hiding out underground from the Nirreth, in the skag pits outside of Vancouver, BC, which exist in the dead zone well away from the furthest edges of Nirreth society. From there, she and her friends and family hunt for food, grow what they can in the changed atmosphere, and fight off animals and human bandits, as well as the Nirreth themselves.

Jet's tough and sexy because she's totally her own person, self-reliant and unafraid to make her own way in the world, despite all of the obstacles in front of her. While she's a survivor and will cut corners when she has to, to protect the ones she loves, she never loses her sense of who she is...even after she gets picked up by one of the infamous "culling" ships of their Nirreth overlords. The Nirreth bring Jet to one of the Nirreth Green Zones to fight in the Rings, their version of the Colosseum, only populated mainly by human slaves, and while they try to wear her down and make her "obedient," they never truly succeed, even when she has to compromise with them to stay alive.

Blurb:
Jet is a 19-year-old skag, one of the humans still living free on Earth following an invasion of creatures called the Nirreth. Squatting in the ruins of Vancouver, Canada, Jet and her family eke out an existence underground, hiding from the culler ships. No one knows where the ships take the people they grab, but they never return. When a culler finds Jet, she may discover the truth the hard way.

Excerpt:

Jet landed hard on a metal deck. It felt as if she’d been thrown there bodily by two large men, each holding one half of her arms and her legs.

For a long-seeming second, she sat on the ridged metal floor, panting, gripping the wall with one hand. She gripped the hilt of her sword in the other.

The instant she could focus her eyes, blinking back the tears from the wind and her screaming as she rose in the air, Jet lurched drunkenly to her feet, holding the sword in front of her. Both of her hands gripped the hilt as soon as Jet pushed off from the wall.

She could barely see the creature in front of her, but she heard a hiss as it backed off. She stepped towards the lit hatch door, moving sideways so that her eyes never left the tall, midnight blue-skinned shape in front of her. When she finally chanced a glance down, her heart sank. The hovercraft stood at around the fifth story of the nearest building.

If she jumped, she’d die. And she didn’t see a ladder, or even the vine-like rope they’d used to haul her up.

“Let me down!” she shouted, taking a step towards the creature with the sword.

He slid gracefully back, moving with an incredible lightness for such a tall creature.

“Let me down!” she insisted, louder. “I’ve broken no laws!

Which wasn’t true of course. Just living underground, squatting in caves and growing their own food was technically against the law. Much less the poaching they did, or the bartering with others, including black marketeers. Really, the only way to live outside the Nirreth cities and not break the law was to work for the Nirreth directly and live in their assigned settlements, what humans called the ‘Hamster Cage.’ Even those people starved unless they cut corners.

Jet knew that because her settlement traded with them for some of the staples they had no other way to get locally. Like rice. Flour. Even sugar on occasion.

But the laws were just an excuse. The Nirreth must know just like we did that everyone broke them, pretty much every day. They picked up skags because they could.

“Let me down!” Jet yelled again. “You have no right to keep me!”

She tensed when the creature met her gaze with its large, black eyes. It gestured towards her, in one of the few Nirreth signs she knew.

It was a peace gesture, an offering to parlay.

“No,” she said. “No parley! Let me down...right now!”

Purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Omnilit, Drivethru

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Kammy Marlowe

Book: The Other Marlowe Girl
Author: Beth Fred
Heroine: Kammy Marlowe

Kammy Marlowe stands almost six feet tall and she works as a model or a ballerina when the mood takes. But what she’s really working at is moving on from her sordid past and growing up. As for what makes her strong? Well I thought it was best to show you in this excerpt:

                “Sweetheart, I hate to break it to you but your husband is a loser. Squeezing him ain’t gonna get me my money. Squeezing you might. And you wrote the check. After that diamond stunt, I should kill you. I want cash now.”

            He reached into his pocket. Gun. That’s the only thing guys like Daniel pull out of their pocket. I had to do something and quick. I curled my foot around his leg and bit my bottom lip. “Maybe, we could work out some other arrangement?” I said as I moved the denim of his pant leg gently up and down with the tip of my sandal.

            His laugh sounded more like a grunt. “After those chunks of plastic? Not if you were the last woman on Earth.”

            Being cute was not going to get me out of this, and there was not much else to me. God, I wish I was smart like Tiffany. Then it hit me. I had one other asset. My eyes flashed down to where our legs were for a millisecond. I pushed my lower body forward a bit, so I’d be in a better position, sure the dumbass would just think I was still flirting with him. “Are you sure?” I asked.

            I had no idea if he would consider it or not, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was distracting him for that fraction of a second gave me time to bring my knee up and pound it into the crotch of his jeans. Daniel folded at the waist, grabbing his crotch with both hands. I slid one foot and then the other slightly to the left to give myself more room. Time to practice my high kick for the first time in years. My stiletto heel caught Daniel’s jaw with enough force to knock him off balance. Daniel slapped the parking lot as a bike pulled up less than a foot from me.

Blurb:
When twenty-four-year-old dance school drop out Kammy Marlowe is evicted by her mother, she goes to her favorite bar. She finds an unlikely friend in the blunt eye candy, Enrique. But Kammy knows there is no way she and Enrique have a shot because he's her brother-in-law’s brother and has been privy to her wild past.

Enrique swears he’s only interested in the person she is today, but their relationship is tested when her ex-husband's drug dealer attacks her, looking for money. With no options and a money hungry drug dealer on her back, Kammy accepts a position as a dancer at a strip club. But when Enrique shows up at the club, their relationship is over. With no reason to stay in Texas anymore, Kammy auditions for the Bolshevik Ballet and gets the opportunity to go to Russia. Only Enrique is determined to stop her.

Will she give up the chance of a lifetime to stay with the man she still loves?

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Natalia

Book: Natalia
Author: Kenneth Rosenberg
Heroine: Natalia

Human beings have an amazing ability for survival. I’m reminded of this every time I see one of those shows on TV with real-life stories of people being stranded in the desert for days without water, or buried by avalanches, yet somehow pulling through against all odds. Often, we don’t know our own strength until it is put to the test. This is certainly the case with Natalia, the heroine of my suspense novel by the same name. As the novel begins, Natalia lives a sheltered life on a farm in the middle of Eastern Europe. She is beautiful yet shy, with a quiet reserve. It is only when faced with extraordinary hardship that her true strength will emerge.

I wrote this novel after spending time in Eastern Europe myself and hearing stories of women being kidnapped and sold into prostitution in the West. This is an epidemic that mostly goes unnoticed in the world today. People tend to think that prostitutes take up that line of work by choice. Sometimes this is true, but often it is not.

With this novel, I wanted to highlight the brutal realities that many of these women face, while at the same time creating a character that could take on these criminal gangs and make them pay for their sins. Natalia is that character. In the beginning of the novel she is timid and unsure of her place in the world, yet as the story progresses, Natalia finds that in order to survive she must channel a strength she never knew she had.


And I suppose that is the crux of it. Not all of us have this strength. Put a group of ten people in a life-or-death situation and some will make it out while others will not. Some have the will to survive while others will roll over and give up. Natalia is the story of a girl with the will and determination to do whatever it takes not only to survive but to protect her family and her loved ones, and to make sure that whoever would hurt them pays the ultimate price.

Blurb: Born into poverty in the heart of Eastern Europe, Natalia Nicolaeva dreams of a better life. When she is offered a job abroad, however, the promise of the outside world is as terrifying as it is thrilling. After gathering the courage to leave her tiny village, it doesn’t take long before Natalia’s worst fears are confirmed. Suddenly she is fighting, first for her honor and then for her life. This is a novel about the pain in the hearts of those made to suffer, the power of family to heal, and ultimately the grit of one girl determined to survive.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Rose the Iron Flower

Book: Legend of the Iron Flower Series
Author: Billy Wong
Heroine: Rose the Iron Flower

Rose the Iron Flower, star of the Legend of the Iron Flower heroic fantasy series, is strong in a more obvious and literal sense than most fantasy heroines. As an adult she's a 6 foot, 240-plus pound monstrous powerhouse of a woman, who doesn't need magic to be a physical match for the strongest men, and thanks to her freakish natural fortitude can survive injuries that would kill anyone else. She's an epic warrior in the spirit of Achilles or Beowulf - a wrecker of armies and terrible monsters, who bears countless scars from the deeds that make her a legend.

For all her fearsome appearance and might in battle, Rose is a gentle soul at heart, who feels guilt for the thousands who have fallen beneath her giant sword. She's caring and considerate, often puts others before herself, and later on in life becomes a loving wife and mother to her children. And if that's not enough to make her sexy, well, she also has ample (huge) curves in all the right places - there's a reason some have given her the title of "Beauty Brute."

The first book featuring Rose, Iron Bloom which chronicles Rose becoming a warrior in her teens, is available for FREE at all ebook retailers including Amazon and Smashwords.

Blurb:
Action-packed fantasy adventure with a powerhouse female epic warrior in the spirit of Achilles or Beowulf.

The tale of a mighty warrior torn between the power of the sword and her longing for a peaceful life.

A young woman with a kind heart and amazing resilience, Rose becomes a warrior thinking she can better the world. Despite the wealth and fame she wins as one of the greatest champions of her time, the bloody reality of her new life is nothing like her ideal dream. She yearns for a chance to escape the violence.

She finds that chance in Ethan, the leader of an altruistic pacifist group. But when a barbarian horde invades their kingdom, Rose knows that she could make a big difference by taking up her sword again. Will her need to protect her homeland cost her the man she loves?

A full length novel intended for both adults and older teens. First in the Iron Flower series.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Kate, Sarah, Patrice

Book: Women's Work
Author: Kari Aguila
Heroine: Kate, Sarah, Patrice

About 50 years in the future, there is a revival of 'traditional' gender roles. Men in power decide things would be better if women revert to subservient roles -- women are removed from political positions, new laws are passed that limit the health care women can get, clothes women can wear, jobs women can do, etc. At first glance, this feels far fetched, but one need only look at the millions of girls and women in other parts of our real world to see that it is not.

Then a global war breaks out which devastates the planet, destroys the infrastructure, and kills hundreds of millions of people. Because women were not allowed in the military, most of the dead are men. Four years into the Last War, women decide it is up to them to stop it, and take control by both force and persuasion. They design new laws and new governments with women in charge. Under the banner of peace and equality,women keep the men in their neighborhoods close to home and under tight supervision, and are terrified of the small groups of men that roam the country, viciously indicating that the pendulum may have swung too far.

Women's Work is full of strong women, with a range of characters that will remind readers of mothers, sisters and friends they have respected and loved. The main character, Kate, is a widowed mother of three struggling to survive in a post-war landscape. She has learned to hunt for, grow, and preserve the food upon which her family and her neighborhood depend. Through clever engineering and persistence, she has designed and built simple machines to make her work easier. She is devoted to her children, and loves them courageously. And most importantly, she is beginning to see that the rules of their new society might not be as perfect as they had hoped. When a strange man shows up on her porch one night, gaunt and filthy, Kate is forced to begin a journey that will change her life forever.

Kate's neighbors and friends include Sarah, the teacher, who shows her strength through thoughtful insights into what it means to love a man and be loved in return; Iris, the leader, whose intelligence, kindness and courage saved the whole neighborhood during the darkest times; and even Patrice, who has struggled with her demons for years and, though we cannot agree with her decisions at times, we can understand the fear and anger behind them.

Blurb:
“So, when most of the men were dead, women saw their chance to take over?” 

Kate searches her son’s eyes as he asks this. “Not take over,” she says. “Fix things.”

It wasn’t hard to justify what the women had done since the end of the Last War. They rebuilt their bombed-out neighborhoods as best they could and worked to established peace and gender equality. But small groups of men roam the country, viciously indicating that the pendulum may have swung too far. When a bedraggled man shows up on Kate’s doorstep one night, will she risk everything to help him? Does he deserve her help? 

Women’s Work is set in a dystopic world in the Pacific Northwest, where women struggle to survive through sustenance farming, clever engineering, and a deeply rooted sisterhood. In this suspenseful thriller, Kate and her family are asked to let go of their anger and fear on a journey to forgiveness and understanding. It is a compelling story that challenges all of us to question traditional gender roles and to confront the fragility of love.

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Ana

Book: Calculated, Avenged
Author: R.S. Novelle
Heroine: Ana

Though Ana is described in the book as being very beautiful - a Victoria Secret model lookalike - it's her constant desire to go against the stereotype that makes her so unique. This is shown in her professional choices, as well as her love interests. As a pansexual, Ana displays strength by remaining true to herself, despite the little jabs occasionally thrown her way for her unconventional choices.

She also portrays strength through her feisty persona. While it's hinted that she survived an abusive adolescence, she chose to not to let it define her as a victim and grew into a woman who doesn't back down to anyone. Smart and witty, she can win any verbal altercation, and she demands respect from everyone - even those who aren't eager to serve it to her. Her inner drive for justice, a repercussion of her childhood experiences, has lead her to a career as an investigative journalist, where she often finds herself uncovering uncomfortable truths about conventionally respected people. And to do this, she has to go up against many powerful men in key positions. But for Ana, the story is more important than the social suicide this could cause her, and she's resourceful in her instrumentation.

In Calculated especially, we see her strength and compassion as she regularly puts her own physical safety on the line - despite the warnings of those close to her - in order to seek the truth about a master criminal plan, expose those who are participating, and bring justice to the victims who are being harmed. As events speed up, she realizes things are hitting very close to home for her, and bringing back memories and feelings about her past that she'd successfully suppressed over the years. She battles with her own emotions, but ultimately puts them to the side so that she can pursue this story and put a stop to the underground sex club that has lead to the murder of dozens of individuals.

By the end of the book, we see Ana as a mentally and emotionally strong woman who is filled with compassion for others and makes decisions for the greater good instead of just her own interests. 

Blurb:
An investigative journalist gets an unlikely tip from a mysterious informant. Dismissing it as impossible, she disregards the information and drops the story. Until the informant turns up dead, as predicted.

Plunged into the murky waters of a seedy underground prostitution ring, this psychological thriller provides twist upon dark twist in a story that would ultimately pin the church and several government officials in the largest murder cover-up the city has ever witnessed.

But is it true, or has the journalist merely been used as a pawn in a greater scheme? And how many people is she willing to sacrifice trying to figure it out?

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Francesca Taymon

Book: Mangled Hearts
Author: Felicia Tatum
Heroine: Francesca Taymon

Francesca Taymon of Mangled Hearts is a twenty five year old independent lawyer who has had her heart broken in many ways, but continues to live, hope, dream, and fulfill her wishes. Losing someone very important to her at a very young age made her rethink her life, her decisions, and question the only boy she ever loved.

She trusts her heart enough to learn the truth and finally let go of the past that haunts her. Being strong isn't burying it deep inside, it's facing your demons head on and fighting them. Her intelligence and ambition make Francesca incredibly sexy, though her large brown eyes and curvaceous body help. Francesca faces her problems head on, finding the answers she seeks and accomplishes more than she thought possible. 

Blurb:

Can two loves find their way back to each other despite an addiction and a hardened heart? Will their love overcome it all?

Francesca Taymon is young, successful, and broken. A tragic accident years ago haunts her to this day, and she blames only one person--the one that holds her heart. When she finally gets her first case, will she be able to handle seeing him again? Can she do her job and keep her heart intact?

Cade Kelling doesn’t take life seriously. He’s reckless and irresponsible, drinking all his problems away. When his parents bail him out for the last time, will he be able to handle seeing Francesca after all of these years? Will he be able to tell her what really happened that night five years ago or will he lose her forever?

And the most important question….
Can these mangled hearts be mended?

Amazon UK B&N Smashwords Goodreads

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Fallon O'Shea

Book: In Too Deep
Author: Brandy L. Rivers
Heroine: Fallon O'Shea

Fallon O'Shea is an independent woman who won't take shit from anyone. She's a druid who never fit in with her kind and a tattoo artist. She has more tattoos than most. Submission isn't in her vocabulary. Fallon is loyal, she puts others first, and she kicks some serious ass.

When In Too Deep starts, she's on her Harley driving as far away from her cheating ex as she can get. She's done, and killing Isaac didn't seem like a smart move so she simply moved on. She crashes into a werewolf who was already torn up. Unable to leave him broken and bleeding, Fallon stops to heal him, and then quickly kills the vampires. She finds herself stuck in Edenton, and in the middle of a big mess, but she's more than happy to help clean it up.

Yes, she's beautiful, but she doesn't care about that. I love that she doesn't hold her tongue for anyone, she tells it like it is. She has no problem putting anyone in their place if they need it, but she's smart about it. She's fearless and willing to step up to the plate to keep everyone safe, often putting herself in danger, but she can more than handle herself.

Blurb:
Brody is a talented motorcycle mechanic and werewolf stuck in his painful past. On yet another depressing night, he is viciously attacked by vampires.

Fallon is a brilliant tattoo artist with inherent magic. Tired of men and their games, she climbs onto her Harley and leaves her old life behind.

Running for his life, Brody crashes into Fallon and sparks fly. She ends up stranded in the Northwest with her ride out of commission.

With no ride and nowhere to go, Fallon allows her best friend to convince her to stay in Brody’s apartment. He’s determined to claim her heart and keep her safe from the shadows in her past. Fallon prides herself on her independence and would rather keep him safe, even from herself.

With the impending danger from the group of vampires and dark mages, they will have to work together. The closer they get, the harder it is for her to fight her attraction.

Be prepared for monsters, magic and lots of ink.

B&N Nook http://bit.ly/ZxpzeM
Kobo http://bit.ly/10MgXw7
Diesel Ebooks http://bit.ly/17C0kLy
Sony Ebooks http://bit.ly/14cWL7n
Smashwords http://bit.ly/11FtdmW
iTunes http://bit.ly/151897S
Available in paperback at Amazon http://amzn.to/18BdF6y

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Cricket Hooper

Book: Heels of Love, Wounded Love, Winter in Love
Author: Phoenix Rayne
Heroine: Cricket Hooper

Cricket Hooper would be perfect for Heroine of the week. She's strong because she raised herself on the mean cold streets of the US. She's a strong woman who never let's her heart get hurt. She has this with letting people get too close. She leaves everyone at arms length and she's good with that. She's sexy because she's a plus size, voluptuous, fashionista, with a pure soul.

We walked back towards the house. I was just about to become frantic, and then I breathed through it. “I can’t believe a house like this doesn’t have a wine cellar or a basement.”

Trey looked over at me and shook his head. “I forgot you were a serious wine drinker back in the day. It was your thing. I remember that.”

“Yes, it is, and I would damn near kill for a decent wine right now.” I pulled Trey closer to me and shivered.

“You cold?”

“It’s a little chilly.” He pulled me closer, and we walked back to the house.

We went in through a side door, and then Trey pulled me to the corner.

“We do have wine cellar, but no one’s allowed down there right now,” Trey whispered.
“Why?” I whispered back.

“Because Mr. Paul has some guys down there he’s teaching a lesson to.”

“Oooh, what did they do?” I leaned into him.

“This big shot Indian over in Seattle has been buying his way in, and Mr. Paul don’t play that shit. He doesn’t care how much fucking money you got. He runs the casinos in Cali and Washington State .”

“Damn, Mr. Paul don’t play,” I giggled.

“Are there any dead bodies?” I asked with fake wide eyes.

“Nawh, Mr. Paul just had us beat the shit out of them for a few hours; he’s letting them go tomorrow.”

“Can I see? I won’t say anything, and I swear I won’t touch anything”

“Shhhh.” Trey said, and then we walked over to the cellar door and started stepping down. We entered an almost empty room with a wall-to-wall refrigerated wine chiller. Trey tugged at my arm, and we walked towards the other side of the room.

We walked up to a steel door, and I looked through the small glass window. There were four Natives sitting in chairs that were all tied up to each other. None of them was facing each other; they were all blindfolded. There was food all around them, and then I realized they were in the refrigerator.

I looked around for something to hit Trey in the head with, but found nothing. I saw a small table to the side, and it had their cell phones and wallets on it. My mind was racing, and I was running out of ideas.

“You know they haven’t said a word in English since they been here. They’ve been communicating in some old Indian language, and Mr. Paul is Indian himself and he doesn’t even know the language,” Trey told me.

“We need wine glasses.” I told him.

“Shit, I forgot. I’ll be right back.” Trey headed for the stairs, and I pulled my phone out. As soon as I heard the door shut, I dialed Chelle.

“Let all the seats down in the back and don’t come any closer to the house until I call or text you. Don’t let him know I am here. Make him think I am on the reservation and cannot come to the phone. Call Mrs. JJ, and fill her in. From what I can see their all okay. I gotta go.”

I hung up the phone and ran to the other side of cellar, looking for another door or a window, but there was nothing there. I still looked for something to hit Trey in the head with, but there was only the small table and that wouldn’t do anything.

I heard the door open, and then Trey was heading back down. But the person on the steps was not Trey; it was Troy .

“What are you doing down here, Cricket?” he asked.

“Trey brought me down to get some wine.”

“What are you up to?” he demanded.

“I want to make a deal with you.”

“I’m listening.”

“Me for them.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I give you myself completely for them.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because the only man who’s ever loved me for me is in that room. And I’d die for him if I have to.”

“My brother loved you, Cricket, and I think he still does. You’ve had many men who loved you,” Troy said.

I stood there, and then Troy laughed. “Oh, but you love this one back. I get it. So if we were to let them go, what can you promise me?”

“You’ll never hear from them or this stupid casino again, and I’ll do anything you want.”
“Love my brother even when he’s been drinking, and I want to feel the tongue trick my brother has been raving about for eight years straight.”

“I can do that.”

“Which one is he?” Troy asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Which one?” We both looked in, and I said, “The one in the white shirt.” Loon was wearing a white shirt; Jyme was wearing a black sweater.

Troy looked at me and shook his head. “Liar, that one in the white shirt is not your type. I can see you with…I see you with the one in the black sweater.” I stiffened, and Troy opened the refrigerator door.

He untied them from the chairs but still left them tied up as if they were in a chain gang. He pulled Jyme out last just to fuck with me. I pulled Kanoke’s hat off his head, and he shifted, messing up the coordination for the rest of them. I ran right dead smack into Jyme. As soon as our bodies touched, he started sniffing and sniffing like a dog looking for food. I knew he knew something, but I was not sure what. I pulled all of their phones and wallets off the table and put them in Kanoke’s ball cap.

My heels were loud, and Jyme was listening. He kept stopping, and then he would start back up, walking backwards again. I pulled my phone out and texted for Chelle to pull the car up and wait for me to come out. I told her to have the back already opened because they were all tied up and blindfolded.

She texted me back, “I’m here.”

We finally made it to the top of the stairs, and Troy opened the door. We all walked into the hallway. I wondered where Trey was. He told me he would be right back, but that felt like hours ago. My heels across the floor were so loud, and Jyme’s face twisted and turned from side to side. He absolutely knew something, but hadn’t put the puzzle together yet.
Chelle and Ayashe were waiting by the main gate. My heart was racing, and I knew I was about to lose it. The tears started first, and then I breathed and breathed slowly. The gasping of air caught everyone’s attention, and I could tell Sheen and Loon were scared. Jyme and Kanoke acted as though everything was okay.

I wanted to touch him, feel him, kiss him, and tell him I loved him so much, but I couldn’t . He would find the letter when he got home, and that is all that mattered. I knew all along he was too good for me, but I wanted to live in the bubble so badly that I pretended he was not. I knew we would never have a happily ever after, and I cursed myself for the months we had been apart. I would give anything to go back and fix it. He looked so strong and so confident. I loved him so much and I wished. I just wished.

Troy and I got them loaded up in the back, and I never once touched Jyme. Once they were all in, we shut and locked the hatch. I opened the door and got my three bags out, and Chelle handed me my purse. I handed her the hat with their belongings. I reached into my purse and handed her the stack of money for the plane tickets, my rental car keys, and my Blackberry. She got out and hugged me tight. Ayashe did the same. We were all crying and sniffling and looked a mess now. I mouthed, “I love you: to Ayashe, and she did the same. Chelle stood there, and then she smiled at me.

“I know I won’t ever see you again, and I will miss you. You’re my best friend and I love you,” she cried into my shoulder.

“Take care of him, and tell him I have this,” I pointed down at the ring, and she nodded.
“Don’t take those blindfolds off until you get to the airport; you have to convince him I’m not here,” I told her as I pulled away from her. They both blew me kisses and waved as they pulled off.

I turned around and set all the bags onto the concrete. I pulled my phone out and slammed it to the ground twice. Then, I dug into it with my Stiletto heel. I left the crumbled up pieces of my phone on the ground and walked away from my current life, stepping back into my old one.

Blurb:

When Cricket Hooper moves to Seattle she only has a couple of goals find a job and an apartment near her friend Chelle, and basically to live a quiet, normal life. However, it isn't long before life becomes far from normal. When a mysterious man helps get her car out of the mud after she makes a wrong turn, she finds herself in his thrall. He wines and dines her, quite literally, and before Cricket can stop it, things are steamy and serious very serious.

Cricket is thrown aback when Jyme turns out to be more than a simple fisherman, but then she isn't telling all of her story either.