Giveaway (US/Int): Highlanders, Superheroes, and Navy SEALs – Oh, My!
Please help me welcome The Valkyrie’s Guardian author Moriah Densley!
My paranormal hero is an immortal Scottish berserker who works for the Navy SEALs. Jack MacGunn is secretly in love with a flunked-out heart surgeon who doesn’t know she’s a valkyrie. Mixing mythology with modern themes isn’t quite so crazy when you consider that everyone needs a day job, even superheroes.
The problem? Behaving like a human when you’re superhuman. Cassiopeia Noyon’s supernatural healing ability caused one too many scandals with the Medical Board of Examiners. She failed her last year of residency and was sent home packing. Jack used to be pointman on SEAL Team Three, but thanks to being called away on paranormal business he can’t explain, now he’s a measly contract agent who almost never gets hired.
Jack is assigned bodyguard duty, with strict orders to keep his hands off the boss’ granddaughter. Not only has Cassie had a major crush on the dazzling Scottish warrior since age six, but he’s flirting back – finally! Too bad they spend more time fighting…
You might recall the old Celtic berserker legends. When provoked to a rage, a berserker is possessed with unbridled aggression and strength, capable of single-handedly decimating an army. Anger, excess energy, and even libido threaten Jack’s self-control. So how does he handle being stuck with the one woman who drives him crazy?
“Just do it,” Cassie taunted, her lips brushing his as she said do.
“Shouldn’t.” Jack nipped back, paused, then kissed her lightly as though asking a question. His eyes flashed bright green, warning he risked succumbing to a rage.
Too gratifying to provoke him, to make him war with himself. She gripped his jaw on both sides and stole control of the kiss. She tilted her head to delve in, catching him off guard. She answered his half-hearted plea to stop with a slow lick using the tip of her tongue from the bottom of his throat to his earlobe.
Next thing she knew, air whistled in her ears and her entire body jostled as it bombed through cold water. She floated to the surface. A wave crashed over her head. Jack paced, fuming as she stalked out of the water toward him on the beach.
She tossed her wet hair over one shoulder and shot him a flirty smile. “Look who can’t take a joke.”His gaze raked her up and down, his nostrils flared, he flexed his hands. If he had a tail, it would be lashing back and forth. Jack was itching for a fight and wouldn’t be satisfied until he got it.
Cassie looked sideways to check for observers, then threw her weight into a low tackle to his waist, meant to throw him off balance. It worked—they crashed to the ground and skidded in the dirt. He whipped his shoulders to the side to get out of her chokehold and scrambled to his knees. She rolled out of his way, but too quickly he snatched her thigh and dumped her onto her back.
He cried foul when she yanked him by the hair and wrapped her arm around his throat, but then she heard his very male satisfaction as she hooked her leg behind his knee and flipped him onto his back. It tangled them in an erotic pretzel, and that was the turning point for his anger into sport.
She grabbed the dog tags hanging from the beaded chain around his neck and pulled him down for a rough kiss. They’d come full circle, and before long they were fighting again, which she didn’t know was possible while still locked in a kiss.
Odd that violence inspired some deep thinking, but every moment in his arms her heart sang. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, delirious with a dark, hungry feeling. You’re in love, stupid, her helpful subconscious whispered. Cassie made a choice then, one she would wait to tell him.Forty minutes later Jack finally conceded and dropped to the sand, panting gusts into the dirt-powdered air. Cassie had felt every minute pass slowly, muscles screaming, her lungs overtaxed. Other than that, she felt good. Fantastic. Her lips still tingled from their wrestling-slash-making-out. Dirty sparring. She liked it.
Jack the berserker is a handful, but Cassie discovers she can handle him. Theirs is a very physical relationship, because Jack’s athletic prowess is his identity – yet Cassie takes utmost pride in her intellect. At least she thought she did. After hanging around Jack for a while, she puts down her classic Greek novel and goes waterskiing instead. Jack learns to enjoy an evening not in the boxing ring, but playing music instead. It’s a tough-jock-gets-geek-girl story, but before long, it’s hard to tell who’s the jock and who’s the geek.
How does being in love change people? Has it happened to you? Do opposites attract in real life? Tell us what you think!
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“Augmented strength, lightning weapon, chronic PMS – you’re a valkyrie, Cass.”
You might call them superheroes. “Extra-sentients” are one in 4.5 million with the extraordinary ability to unlock the full potential of the mind. Cassiopeia Noyon is descended from the most powerful known extra-sentient, but she’s a dud – no impressive talents except a healing ability which lands her in trouble. She’s all wrong for Jack MacGunn, her dazzling immortal berserker bodyguard. Cassiopeia Noyon has a medical degree at age twenty-one, which makes her a total loser … for an extra-sentient with merely superhuman strength and healing powers but not much else. Cassie may not even be immortal, which is a downer since the man she’s adored since age six, is. |
| Jack MacGunn is King of the Bad Pick-Up Line. A true blue kilt-wearing, pipe-playing Scot descended from a long line of berserker warriors; if he’s awake, he’s either hungry or itching for a fight. Lately Jack feels lost. His career as a Navy SEAL detachment agent is on a slow train to nowhere. He suspects it has something to do with his out-of-control superhuman rages.
The one task Jack has never failed at is guarding Cassie from their enemies, but now he fears he can’t protect her from himself. Even if they could go a single day without fighting, Jack knows he’ll never be good enough for her. The boss’ granddaughter is off-limits anyway. A chance encounter with a villain long assumed dead sends Jack and Cassie on a race to save the children secreted away at Network One, the academy for genius extra-sentients. Jack discovers a new side of Cassie when in the heat of combat she invokes unheard-of powers. Has Jack finally met his match? |
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About the author2012 RWA Golden Heart finalist Moriah Densley sees nothing odd at all about keeping both a violin case and a range bag stuffed with pistols in the back seat of her car. They hold up the stack of books in the middle, of course. She enjoys writing about Victorians, assassins, and geeks. Her muses are summoned by the smell of chocolate, usually at odd hours of the night. By day her alter ego is your friendly neighborhood music teacher. Moriah lives in Las Vegas with her husband and four children. |
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Giveaway (US/Int)
Moriah is giving away a very special prize to one commenter on today’s post. One winner will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card and one winner will win a critique of your current Work-In-Progress manuscript! I know we have some authors and aspiring authors out there, so this is a great opportunity to get some new perspective and feedback on your work from a fellow published author!
To make it simpler and to allow you to enter whichever giveaway interests you most (or both!), there are two Rafflecopters below. To enter to win, leave a comment answering Moriah’s questions from the post above, then fill out the Rafflecopter widget(s). You only need to comment once to enter both. 😉
Note: If you are viewing this from our main Feed page, click the title of the post, then scroll to the bottom to view the Comments area. You must leave your comment there, not in the Rafflecopter widget, in order to qualify for the giveaway. Good luck!
Being in Love is an experience that lasts as it grows. Putting my ego and personal wants aside, for a greater purpose of giving to another and seeing them flourish and respond from the Love I have for them, there is No Greater Power for Good in the world once this Love is in Place. Love gets one through hard, thin times and expansive, bright flowing times. What would one do without it? Love has changed me and keeps changing me. Boy Howdy opposites attract in real life, what a beautiful balance.
Wow, Daphne. That was beautiful. I wish everyone could be in love the way you obviously are – soul deep! Thank you for sharing, it’s nice to meet you, and good luck in the giveaway!
Being in love just makes life sweeter I guess. You appreciate things more. It hasn’t happened to me yet but I hope it will someday. I can surely say opposites attract! My parents are living proof of that 🙂
Hello, Janhvi. You make a great point – we know opposites attract because we see it happen. You made me think of my friend who has a graduate degree in educational psychology, and she’s with a man who operates heavy equipment for a construction company (plenty of dirty jokes in there). They’re very much in love despite being a seemingly odd match. I certainly wish you the experience of being happily in love! And thanks for commenting. Nice to meet you.
I know opposites attract and can be very happy together. My parents were an example of that. Mom was a very outgoing, never met a stranger type person while my dad was more reserved and took a bit of time to warm up to someone. They weren’t without their problems but they new how to work trough them. Thanks for the giveaway!
suz2(at)cox(dot)net
Good morning, Susan. It would be interesting to find out if your mom and dad’s personalities ever rubbed off on each other, or if their “opposites attract” element was more for balancing each other out. Such an interesting topic.
Thanks for commenting, and good luck in the giveaway.
I think love can change people a bit. It’s like you “belong” to someone. Love makes everyone happier and I think when you’re in love you see the world a little different. I also belive that opposits attract each other and they can be happy.
Hello, Veronika. Thanks for your comment. I like how you said being in love makes you feel like you “belong” to someone. It’s a lovely, old-fashioned idea, and I’m sure people who feel that way agree it never goes out of style.
thanks for the awesome post and giveaway! I think love changes each person for the better… at least it should. And I think opposites definitely attract… nothing’s more boring than in fiction or real life when the couple are carbon copies of each other.
Hi, Erin. Amen to that – it’s boring if it’s too easy. Personally, I adore a couple who fights a good long while before they get together. In fiction, that is. Thanks for stopping by, and good luck in the giveaway.
My husband and I are completely different in a lot of ways- like a tricycle and a motorcycle- I always say- but we love each other very, very, much. So yeah, love changes you and makes you fall for some of the most unlikely people in the world. sdylion(at)gmail(dot)com
Dear Sandy, Thank you for making me smile! Tricycle and motorcycle *giggles* You made my day. Lovely to meet you, and good luck in the giveaway.
Falling in love, does change people and as the love mature; hopefully the individuals in the relation will.
Hi, Suzanne. I agree with you. And it it’s real love, it does make you a better person. (Maybe thats how you know, right?) Thanks for stopping by.
Valkyries! I love when they are used in books.
Love gives you confidence and security. You feel like you can accomplish anything because you have the support of someone/people who love you. Not only romantic love. But romantic love changes a person, turns you inside out as you grow with that special someone. Then in the end you fit together like a lock and key. There is something to people in love living longer.
Yay! Me too, Lexi. From Norse mythology to Kresley Cole’s Nix, gotta love a spunky valkyire. And you’re right that its not just romantic love, any kind makes us better.
I believe love can bring out the best and worst in people.
Hi, Stephannie. Nice to meet you. If you weren’t right about both aspects of love, the pop music industry would have no platform 🙂
I think real love makes you the best, happiest version of yourself and hope one day it will happen to me. And I think it can happen to anyone if it’s meant to be. If you happen to be opposites thats just something that will keep things interesting.
Well said, Melanie. And I wish you your perfect opposite. Thanks for visiting today.
I think that opposites can attract, but it takes a lot of work to get it to last.
I can’t say that love changes you. I think that people change for love.
Ah, so you’re going to make me think? 😉 It could be true that people change for love. Am I starting an argument in saying I think women are more likely to concede than men (despite the heroically sensitive male characters in romance novels)? I wonder if being in love puts people in a position to make decisions they wouldn’t normally make. Some give up a job or hobby or lifestyle to be with a loved one, for instance. Am I making any sense? haha Thanks for commenting, glad you stopped by, Lisa.
Opposities DO attract…my hubby and I compliment each other so well. I am uptight and high strung and he is mellow. Because of him, I am somewhat less stressed about life. He does make me laugh and that helps a lot.
Hiya Booksie. Thanks for commenting. I love hearing opposites attract stories. Glad you’ve found a good balance – happy anniversary in advance.
I think when you are in love you try to be a better person. I am sure opposites attract its just can they work out the differences. Carin
Hi, Carin. Thanks for visiting. Yes, you’re right. I even think people who might seem otherwise irredeemable show a good side with their loved ones. It must be true that love makes you a better person.
My husband and I are the opposite of Booksie and her hubby. I am the mellow, calming mediator and he is the high strung, OCD, type A personality. It works very well for us. He has taught me to be more assertive in many ways and I have helped him learn to think things through before he dives off into them. Coincidentally, I’m a Libra and he’s a Leo lol. We balance each others strengths and weaknesses very well and keep each other on an evel keel.
Ah, more opposites – Im loving these stories. Thanks for sharing, Lisa. How insightful of you to understand your own weaknesses and appreciate how your husband balances your personality. Sounds like a formula for a happy relationship.
Being in love, makes the person nicer. The person won’t verbally put you down. They are more patience.
Hi there, Kai. Thanks for your comment. I’ve definitely seen this too, but I also think staying kinder and more patient after the initial infatuation wears off is a matter of character and hard work – the practical side of being in love.
How does being in love change people? Being in love makes people happier, friendlier, giddy. Love brings romance, security, a knowing that someone loves you. A person in love looks at the world in a whole different light.
Has it happened to you? Yes this has happened to me. I wish it would happen again.
Do opposites attract in real life? Opposites attract. Opposites keep life interesting.
Thanks so much for your excellent comment, Ruth Ann. I also think being loved makes one more confident. That lasts even after the giddiness (apt description btw :)) of infatuation wears off.
Being in love enhances the persons being, being in love isn’t finding happiness it is being happier.
Yes it has happened
Oposite do attact and I think at time it is because they balance each other
Tracie, you make a great point no one has mentioned yet – falling in love isn’t automatic happiness, but being a partner in a mutual loving relationship? As you said, that’s how one finds happiness.
I think being in love makes you want to be the best that you can be. Not that you have to prove yourself, but hopefully the things that the other person loves about you will be amplified. I’ve felt that way a few times, but … love hasn’t lasted for me 🙁
Shannon – You are wise about relationships, you have a pretty name and like to read – what’s not to love? Wishing you the perfect opposite. Tomorrow. <3
Thanks for visiting, lovely to meet you.
I think people do change– my husband was a man whore, then moved to the city I live in, got a job where I worked and we became friends first– he was sick of that lifestyle, and we got together before too long. I also heard he was crabby a lot before he met me:) LOL And opposites do attract! He’s very political, mathematical and has a low tolerance for stuff that annoys him. I’m the writer, the emotional one, I hate numbers and I tend to laugh off annoying people and things. It works for us:)
Oh, Brenda. Where to start? First off, your story is SEXY. Like it came from a romance novel. I really hope you’re an author, because I would run, not walk to buy this story once it hits the bookshelves. And you reformed a rake. For real. Hats off, girl. I’m over here eating my heart out. Wish I could pick your brain over lunch, because this is one juicy story I’d love to hear. Seriously, think about writing it if you haven’t already 🙂
Opposites definately attract my husband likes metal music ,motorcyles,mash potatoes and is kind of quiet and reserved.Me I m a four legged horse lover , love all music mostly country and pop though,rice and I love to laugh make people laugh and be the center of attention ,almost all our tatses are opposite but Im like a moth to a flame when it comes to that man he draws me and even though we arent alike he does understand me and me him:)
My, oh my. Wanda has a fascination with the bad boys. Well, at least one of them 🙂 I totally get it.
Being in love brings out the best in you and the other person. It means showing more patience, more respect, and more kindness, just because.
mel
bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
Hi Mel Bourn, Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I agree with you. And I think you described all the symptoms of true love. That’s how you know, right?
Being in love can also mean losing yourself. This is especially so if the relationship is a bit one-sided.
Oh, the damage that is done with the relationship imbalance you described. You’re totally right, Mary. Although, with an unreciprocating partner, it’s unrequited love, really, and not true love, which by definition goes both ways, right? I think sometimes people hold on to half a relationship, convinced it’s better than nothing. (Sad.)
Yes, love change people…And yes, it has happened to me!
And I believe that opposites attract to each other in real life!
Love has to change people – even a happy, contented person will be more happy and now they have someone to share things with in a very special way.
Being in love changes people in that it makes them want to be the best version of themselves for the other.
Yes I believe opposites attract, as for being in love it does change you. For the better I believe.
Though when you fall so hard that when its over , its so hard to move on , speaking from experience on that one.
What a great turn-out! A huge thanks to Moriah Densley for being such a fabulous guest and offering fantastic prizes for this event!! <3 Here are the winners…
$10 Gift Card – Veronika (verus*)
WIP chapter critique – Lexi (eyesof*)
Thank you so much to everyone who participated! If you’d like to read our review of The Valkyrie’s Guardian, go here…
http://gravetells.com/2012/11/12/review-the-valkyries-guardian-by-moriah-densley/