August's Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Melissa Suitt, 

winner of the Ariella Moon August Giveaway! Melissa won a Second Chances book bag!

September's prize will be a $5.00 Amazon Gift Card. 

To enter, visit the Giveaways page at AriellaMoon.com.

"Aww" Endings and Big Giveaways!

Do you sigh at the end of a good romance book? I often do. As a writer, the challenge is to create satisfying endings. Sometimes, I like to surprise the reader with a fun twist, like I did at the end of THE BELTANE ESCAPE.


But for The Teen Wytche Saga, my series of sweet Young Adult romances, I definitely aim for a big AWW moment. Discover how I tested the ending for SPELL CHECK, Book #1, The Teen Wytche Saga in my blog "Creating Aww Moments at Love Romance Reads. While there, click on "For Readers" for a chance to win amazing prizes through June 13, including an autographed copy of SPELL CHECK.

Love Romance Reads

Grand Opening Bash Giveaways!

The Grand Giveaway of a Kindle Fire 8 with case or a $100 Amazon Gift Card (winner's choice) runs from June 7th until June 21st!
​
During the Grand Opening Bash, all author giveaways run for 24 hours, beginning at midnight, San Francisco time. Enter as many as you like and please share for more chances to win! 

Final Day to Enter the Giveaway!

Time is nearly up for entering my $20.00 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway! 

Author interviews, reviews, and more as you visit the blog tour stops

and enter the giveaway.

Thank you Laura Hernandez for your 5-Star Review of The Amber Elixir!

http://www.yabookdivas.com/

For more stops on the blog tour and opportunities to enter the giveaway,

please see my previous post, and/or click the link above for the YA/NA Book Divas.

The Amber Elixir Blog Tour!

Welcome to The Amber Elixir Blog Tour!

Please visit the blogs listed below to enter the 

$20 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway Drawing.

February 19th
–tfaulcbookreviews  Interview
–Smada’s Book Smack Top 10 List
–So Few Books  Interview

February 20th
–Silence Is Read >> Excerpt
–Jazzy Book Reviews >> Review
–Girls With Books >> Excerpt

February 21st
–A Night’s Dream of Books >> Excerpt
–The Cover Contessa >> Guest post
–Loves Great Reads >> Excerpt

February 22nd
–SERIESous Book Reviews >> Review
–Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile >> Top 10 List
–Magi Romance >> Review

February 23rd
–Mes Livres >> Review
–YA/NA Book Divas >> Review
–Character Madness and Musings >> Guest post

Enter the Drawing for the $20.00 Amazon Gift Card here:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d04251232294/

November Giveaway Winner

I was so wrapped up in SPELL FIRE's recent release, I forgot to post November's Giveaway winners!

So without further delay, the two winners of Amazon Gift Cards were...

Patricia Parsons

and

Beverley Justice

Congratulations, Ladies!

To enter December's Giveaway Contest, click HERE.  

 

One lucky winner will win an ebook copy of THE AMBER ELIXIR.

And one lucky winner will win this fun brooch.

May the Giveaway Gods smile upon you.

~Ariella

October's Giveaway Winner is...

Congratulations to Linda George!

Linda won a kindle version of THE BELTANE ESCAPE, Book One, The Two Realms Trilogy.

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Lady Fenella, Thaness of Thorburn, has no idea her fate is shackled to a powerful sorceress. She believes Merlin and the Lady of the Lake are myths, Gran’s warnings about Fairy are superstition, and Fairy was invented to make children behave. But a spell cast forward to sixteenth century Scotland finds Fenella and leads to her being branded, stolen, and betrothed. Traumatized and separated from her clan, the Highland heiress finds an unexpected ally in her kidnapper’s son. But their fragile romance is tested when the Lady of the Lake lures Fenella’s cousin into Fairy. Fenella has seconds to decide. Should she remain with Edward, or should she dive into Fairy to rescue her beloved cousin, endangering her clan, and abandoning Edward to his ruthless father?

To enter the November Giveaway, where two winners will receive a $5.00 Amazon Gift Certificate, click here.

Cindy Lynn Speer Interview and Amazon/Barnes and Noble Gift Card Giveaway!

Cindy Lynn Speer writes about four of my favorite things: Romance, Magic, Mystery, and Chocolate! She is here for a fun interview and will be to giving away a $50.00 Amazon/Barnes and Noble Gift Card to a randomly chosen winner. Meet Cindy Lynn Speer!

What is something you’ve lied about?

If something annoys me, and it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things, I’ll lie about it, because there is no sense making someone feel bad for nothing.  XD  And my weight.  And my age. 

Who is the last person you hugged?

A friend who came to visit me at work, between his own tasks.  He’s a sweet man whose kids come to my fencing practice.  So that was nice. 

What are you reading now?

I am about to settle down with a couple of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles.  I really love how he writes historical fiction.  I just finished The Spy Mistress by Jennifer Chiaverini, which was the story of Elizabeth Van Lew, who was a spy in her hometown of Richmond Virginia during the Civil War.  Really cool stuff!

How do you come up with the titles to your books?

Mostly they just come to me when I am writing…if I have time, I just slap a working title on and wait until the right title comes up to me and taps on my foot.  Those are the titles I like best, because they feel natural, like the book knew its name and named itself.   If I have to force a title I just keep fooling with things until I find something I like…usually a phrase from the story itself.

Share your dream cast for your book.

It changes all the time.  For awhile I thought about Michelle Dockery for Tasmin…one of my friends thought Benedict Cumberbatch would make a great William.  Gina Torres is sometimes Ailiani. 

The Chocolatier's Wife &

The Chocolatier's Ghost

by Cindy Lynn Speer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE: Fantasy Mystery

The Chocolatier's Wife: ROMANCE, MAGIC, MYSTERY.... AND CHOCOLATE

A truly original, spellbinding love story, featuring vivid characters in a highly realistic historical setting.

When Tasmin's bethrothed, William, is accused of murder, she gathers her wind sprites and rushes to his home town to investigate. She doesn't have a shred of doubt about his innocence. But as she settles in his chocolate shop, she finds more in store than she bargained for. Facing suspicious townsfolk, gossiping neighbors, and William's own family, who all resent her kind - the sorcerer folk from the North -- she must also learn to tell friend from foe, and fast. For the real killer is still on the loose - and he is intent on ruining William's family at all cost.

The Chocolatier's Ghost: Married to her soul mate, the chocolatier William, Tasmin should not have to worry about anything at all. But when her happily ever after is interrupted by the disappearance of the town’s wise woman, she rushes in to investigate. Faced with dangers, dead bodies, and more mysterious disappearances, Tasmin and William must act fast to save their town and themselves – especially when Tasmin starts to be haunted by a most unwelcome ghost from her past…literally.

The Chocolatier’s Ghost is an enchanting sequel to Cindy Lynn Speer’s bestselling romantic mystery, The Chocolatier’s Wife.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpt:

Chocolatier’s Wife 

Time was, in the kingdom of Berengeny, that no one picked their spouses. No one courted—not officially, at any rate—and no one married in a moment’s foolish passion. It was the charge of the town Wise Woman, who would fill her spell bowl with clear, pure water; a little salt; and the essence of roses, and rosemary, and sage. Next, she would prick the finger of the newborn child and let his or her blood drip into the potion. If a face showed in the waters, then it was known that the best possible mate (they never said true love, for that was the stuff of foolish fancy) had been born, and the Wise Woman could then tell where the future spouse lived, and arrangements were made.

For the parents of William of the House of Almsley, this process would turn out to be less than pleasant.

The first year that the baby William’s finger was pricked and nothing showed, the Wise Woman said, “Fear not, a wife is often younger than the husband.”

The second, third, and even fifth year she said much the same.

But you see, since the spell was meant to choose the best match—not the true love—of the heart the blood in the bowl belonged to, this did not mean, as years passed, that the boy was special. It meant that he would be impossible to live with.

On his seventh birthday, it seemed everyone had quite forgotten all about visiting the Wise Woman until William, who knew this of long habit to be a major part of his day--along with cake, a new toy, and a new set of clothes--tugged on his mother’s skirt and asked when they were going. She stared at him a long moment, tea cup in hand, before sighing and calling for the carriage. She didn’t even bother to change into formal clothes this time, and the Wise Woman seemed surprised to see them at all. “Well, we might as well try while you’re here,” she said, her voice obviously doubtful.

William obediently held out the ring finger on his left hand and watched as the blood dripped into the bowl. “She has dark brown eyes,” William observed, “and some hair already.” He shrugged, and looked at the two women. “I suppose she’ll do. I’m just glad ‘tis over, and that I can go on with my life.”

“For you, perhaps,” his mother said, thinking of what she would now have to accomplish.

“Do not fret, mother, I shall write a letter to the little girl. Not that she can read it, anyway.” He petted his mother’s arm. He was a sweet boy, but he was always charging forward, never worrying about feelings.

The Wise Woman rolled out an elegantly painted silk map of the kingdom and all its regions, his mother smoothed the fabric across the table, and then the Wise Woman dipped a brass weight into the bowl. Henriette, William’s mother, placed her hands on William’s shoulders as the Wise Woman held the weight, suspended, over the map.

Henriette held her breath, waiting to see where it would land. Andrew, her younger son, had his intended living just down the street, which was quite convenient. At least they knew what they were getting into immediately.

The plumb-bob made huge circles around the map, spinning and spinning as the Wise Woman recited the words over and over. It stopped, stiffly pointing toward the North.

“Tarnia? Not possible, nor even probable. You must try again!”

For once, William’s mother wasn’t being stubbornly demanding. Tarnia, a place of cruel and wild magic, was the last place from whence one would wish a bride. They did not have Wise Women there, for anyone could perform spells. The Hags of the North ate their dead and sent the harsh winter wind to ravage the crops of the people of the South. Five hundred years ago, the North and the South had fought a bitter war over a cause no one could quite remember, only that it had been a brutal thing, and that many had died, and it led to the South losing most of its magic. Though the war was long over and the two supposedly united again, memory lingered. “I have cast it twice.” The Wise Woman chewed her lower lip, but therewas naught else she could do.

“Not Tarnia, please?” Henriette, usually a rather fierce and cold woman, begged.

“I am afraid so.” The Wise Woman began cleaning up; her shoulders set a little lower. “I am sorry.”

William, staring out the window at the children playing outside, couldn’t care less. What did it matter where anyone was from? She was a baby, and babies didn’t cause that much trouble.

“Only you, William,” his mother said, shaking her head. “Why can you not do anything normal?”

This was to be the tenor of most of their conversations throughout their lives.

  

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Cindy Lynn Speer has been writing since she was 13.  She has Blue Moon and Unbalanced published by Zumaya.  Her other works, including The Chocolatier’s Wife (recently out in an illustrated hardcover to celebrate its 10th anniversary) and the Chocolatier’s Ghost, as well as the short story anthology Wishes and Sorrows.  When she is not writing she is either practicing historical swordsmanship, sewing, or pretending she can garden.  She also loves road trips and seeing nature.  Her secret side hobby is to write really boring bios about herself.  You can find out more about her at www.cindylynnspeer.com, or look for her on Facebook (Cindy Lynn Speer) and Twitter (cindylynnspeer).

https://www.amazon.com/Cindy-Lynn-Speer/e/B001JOVNP2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY!

One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.

Enter To Win!

August Contest Winner!

Congratulations, Suzanne Favreau!

You have won my August Giveaway, a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card!

Suzanne, I have emailed you regarding your prize.

Have you heard about my September 12 release?

"Covert Hearts" by Ariella Moon in...

Second Chances: A Romance Writers of America Collection

is now available for pre-order.

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