Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Spotlight on #UrbanFantasy: A Queen's Pride by N. D. Jones

Hello My Dear Decadent Divas Readers,
As Shelter-In-Place continues here in San Francisco, I continue to dream about beach and mountain vacations while keeping busy writing my new series, editing, and reading. Reading is a safe and healthy escape from the pandemic, so for your summer reading pleasure (and mine!), here's a look at an urban fantasy series by author N. D. Jones. Read an excerpt and be sure to enter the author's fab giveaway. Happy Reading!
xoxo, Celia

A Queen's Pride Book Tour, June 26 through July, 2020

 
 Title: A Queen’s Pride
Series: Feline Nation
Number: Book One
Author: N. D. Jones
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Kuumba Publishing
Release date: June 26, 2020
ASIN: B07Y7N8VDH
# or Pages: 200
Word count: 71K
Cover Artist: Ravenborn Covers

Lies. Murder. Vengeance.

For centuries, humans descended on shifters' lands, killing and claiming. They devoured all in their path--gold, God, and glory their battle cries. From the flames of destruction on the Zafeo continent, two nations emerged--the human territory of Vumaris and the feline nation of Shona.

No more wars.

No more bloodshed.

Eight decades of peace.

For eighteen-year-old Asha, traveling to Vumaris with her parents, lion alphas of the Kingdom of Shona, should've been a simple matter. Recommitting to an eighty-year-old peace treaty between their countries should've been easier still. Yet, greed and corruption know no boundaries of time and place. So when a group of mercenaries converges on Sanctum Hotel, hellbent on kidnapping Asha and assassinating her parents, her family trip turns into the bloodiest night of her life.

Will Asha lose those closest to her heart--her parents and Ekon, a young bodyguard she loves. If so, will she forgive her enemies or seek divine retribution?

Only time will tell, and it's running out for Princess Asha of the Kingdom of Shona.

Amazon | Book Trailer

Excerpt

Asha flipped from one television station to the next, her mind more on the way Ekon had made her body feel than on finding a show for them to watch before Mafdet took over the post and sent Ekon to his suite. While Zarina had raised Asha to speak her mind, she had also taught her to do so with forethought and care. Zarina may have a tendency to shock people, but it wasn’t because she hadn’t calculated the impact of her words before uttering them. But her mother had yet to teach her how to curb her thoughts when her body wanted to do the talking for her.

Foregoing the television, she clicked it off and dropped the remote control onto the couch cushion beside her. She ached in places she wanted Ekon to touch. If she were alone in the suite and in her bed, she’d close her eyes, slip her hand inside her panties and—

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Opening eyes that had closed of their own volition and dropping the hem of her dress she hadn’t consciously lifted, Asha sat up—embarrassed and breathless.

The knock came again.

Asha stood. Waited. A Shieldmane would announce himself, even Mafdet who had a key to the suite. Her parents would call, if they required something of her, expecting Asha to come to them, not the other way around.

By the time the third round of knocking sounded, Asha had moved closer to the door, scenting more than the human on the other side.

“Miss. Miss. Are you inside? We have an emergency. We need to evacuate this floor.” The man knocked again--hard and urgent.

Peering through the peephole, she saw a tall man dressed in the same uniform she’d seen the front desk workers wear. He appeared both anxious and impatient. If there was a fire or gas leak, the man’s emotions were justified. Asha and Ekon needed to get out of there.

She unlocked and opened the door. Mistake. Asha stepped backward, and the human stepped forward, shutting the door behind him.

A gun she hadn’t seen through the peephole pointed at her.

“Don’t scream. Don’t fight. If you follow my directions, you won’t get hurt.”

If he didn’t have a gun leveled at her stomach, Asha could’ve misinterpreted his smile as a sign of kindness.

“You’re making a mistake.”

“No, I’m making the world better for humans.” Gun hand steady, the man who clearly wasn’t a hotel employee, scanned the outer room of the suite. “Is someone in here with you? A guard?” Green eyes tracked up and down her body. “Yeah, as pretty as you are, there has to be a guard nearby. Where? Bedroom? Bathroom?”

Asha wouldn’t tell a lie, only to be caught in one, but she also wouldn’t reward the human’s threat of violence with the truth.

“Fine. I’ll take your silence as a yes.” He drew closer, blond hair pulled back in a shoulder-length ponytail Asha would rip from his scalp if given an opportunity to strike. “We’ll just wait right here for whoever is in that other room to come out.”

They waited. It didn’t take long since Ekon had already been in the ensuite for five minutes. Asha knew why he’d made a quick escape. She hadn’t been toying with him when she’d asked to see him naked. She’d very much wanted to feast upon his body … and with more than her eyes.

The door to the ensuite creaked open.

The human shoved the barrel of the gun against her ribs, his breath smelling of cigarettes when he whispered in her ear. “I knew someone was in here with you. You’re too important to be left alone. But didn’t your parents ever warn you about opening doors to strangers?” His other hand found one of Asha’s curls and twisted it around his finger. “I told them I could get you to open the door for me. It was the uniform, wasn’t it? No need to answer, little girl. Now, let’s see who came to play.”

Ekon appeared in the living room, having reached them on soundless feet. If not for the creaking door, the human would’ve never known he approached. As it was, though, it was Ekon who was taken by surprise.

Asha saw the moment her gentle boyfriend morphed into her deadly Shieldmane. His eyes darkened, eye teeth lengthened, sharpened, and his fingernails transformed into long, curved claws.

Ekon stalked toward Asha, his focus on the gunman.

In a swift upward movement, the human pointed his handgun at Asha’s head. “Calm down, kitty, or I’ll splatter her brains all over this white carpet.”

Ekon halted.

“That’s good. Real good. Put those fangs and claws away, friend.”

“I’m not your friend. If you want to make it out of this room alive, you need to get that gun away from her and leave.”

“Yeah, no, that’s not going to happen. She’s why we’re here. Where we go, she goes. You’re the one I don’t need.”

A lion roared, and Asha had never heard a more beautiful sound.

“That would be my father.”

The roar was followed by gunfire, then what sounded like all-out war in the hall.

“Fuck! Fuck! What in the hell are those guys doing?”

“They’re fighting my parents, which means they’re dying. If you give Ekon your gun, you won’t have to die with them.”

 

About N. D. Jones

N.D.Jones author photo N. D. Jones, Ed.D. is a USA Today bestselling author who lives in Maryland with her husband and two children. In her desire to see more novels with positive, sexy, and three-dimensional African American characters as soul mates, friends, and lovers, she took on that challenge herself. Along with the fantasy romance series Forever Yours, and a contemporary romance trilogy, The Styles of Love, she has authored three paranormal romance series: Winged Warriors, Death and Destiny, and Dragon Shifter Romance.

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N. D. Jones Tour Giveaway

1 autographed paperback (US Resident Only)
$15 Amazon Kindle Gift Card

Enter N. D. Jones Tour Rafflecopter Giveaway -->  

Have a great July, Dear Readers, and I'll see you back here on July 30th with an excerpt from my novella, A Warrior's Kiss. :-)

xo,
Celia


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Sunday, June 21, 2020

June Update

This has been a strange year so far. The entire world is in upheaval. Like all of you, I’ve been adjusting to the new reality.

Many people have used the time spent self-isolating at home to get into shape, learn a new language, take up a hobby. If you can manage to do that, my hat goes off to you. It’s impressive.

Of course, many people have worked through the pandemic, which adds stress to their home and personal lives. They put their lives on the line so we can be safe and have the supplies we need to survive. Your courage and bravery are deeply appreciated.

Me? I’m just trying to get by the best I can.

I work from home, so I’ve been trying to work. Not always easy. Some writers have lost themselves in their stories and are producing at a fast rate. It’s been the opposite for me. I’ve pushed to write anything. The events of the outside world are pushing down hard. I’m hopeful the longer days of summer and warmer weather will help.

I talk to family daily, which has helped keep me sane. And I’ve recently spent time with them in person (while taking precautions) for the first time in months. I’m healthy, but all my family falls into high-risk categories, so we’ve been being super careful.

I’ve watched movies and television, mostly in the evenings, but my go-to is always reading. I’ve been re-reading a lot lately. I call them comfort reads, or comfort books. I know the story, so I know what I’m getting.

I have read plenty of new books by authors I love and am grateful for them.



If you’re looking for something to read, check out my Forgotten Brotherhood series.


Arctic Bite
Forgotten Brotherhood, Book Two 

Being immortal doesn’t mean you can’t die. It just means you’re damn hard to kill. 

When Alexei Medvedev joined the Forgotten Brotherhood—paranormals hired to assassinate other paranormals—he knew it wouldn’t be a cake walk. But his next target is one of Death’s own Reapers gone rogue. For the first time since he started this gig, “damn hard to kill” feels more like “damn near impossible.”

Tracking Cassie Dobbs brings him to a remote bar in small-town Alaska, where this hot-as-hell Reaper is casually serving drinks, as if she doesn’t have a bounty on her head from Death himself. Alexei is dangerously intrigued. Everyone in the Brotherhood knows the first rule: don’t fall for your target.

But Alexei soon has bigger problems to face than an unexpected attraction. They only send assassins after those who deserve to die…or so he’s been made to believe. Now that he’s met Cassie, though, he’s not so sure.

What if everything he’s been told is a lie, and the person he’s been sent to kill is the only one who knows the truth?

Find ARCTIC BITE at:




N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

        

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