Horny Hump Day 02/12/13: Betrothal ~ Alyse Urges Geoffrey Lower

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

WARNING: MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE UNDER THE AGE OF 18!

NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Participating authors in Horny Hump Day post three sentences from their published works or WIP, hot like a firecracker! LOL

Back to where it all started:

Betrothal!

Changing it up a little bit, I’ve posted three sentences from Betrothal, Book 1 in Time Enough to Love. In this scene, Alyse has just come to Geoffrey’s bed.

She clutched the back of his head, twining her fingers sinuously through his sleek hair–and urged him lower.

He returned to her nipples, and they hardened once more at the stroke of his tongue. He slid his hand smoothly down her body, sending flutterings everywhere until he rested it on the tangle of curls above her closed thighs, and heat streaked inward to her core.

Hope you enjoyed some of the beginning of the story. If you don’t have a copy, Betrothal is available at Amazon for just .99! And if you liked Betrothal, you will just love my new medieval, Betrayal. It’s available from Amazon and Smashwords!

Please continue to the Horny Hump Day blog site for additional sites on the hop and go check out the other hot authors.

Thanks so much for visiting the Journal once more for Horny Hump Day!

Posted in Betrothal, Blog Hops, On Horny Hump Day, On Time Enough to Love, Promotion | Tagged Betrothal, blog hops, historical romance, Horny Hump Day, Jenna Jaxon, medieval romance, sensual sex scene, Time Enough To Love | 5 Comments

Spotlight on Monica Corwin’s Count of Monte Cristo Series

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

Dear Readers,

I want to thank Jenna for allowing me to come and talk to you all today. I’ll keep it short and sweet. The final book in my Count of Monte Cristo adaptation has finally been released. There are five books total and now I’m having one heck of a giveaway to celebrate. There are numerous ways to enter and lots of love to share so please hang out at the blogs this month (tour from 1 Feb to 28 Feb) and if you can buy my books available at your local ebook sellers (and soon in print).

Thank you so much for all your support!

Monica Corwin

@Monica_Corwin

www.monicacorwin.com

www.facebook.com/monicacorwin

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted in Guest Bloggers, Guest Posts, Promotion | Tagged book giveaway, Count of Monte Cristo, Monica Corwin, Rafflecopter giveaway | Leave a comment

E is for Estampie

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I’m back with my Alphabet Post this week. I hope you forgive me last week, but it was Release Day and I was a tad distracted. LOL

When I was researching and writing Betrothal, I ended up doing a good amount of research on dances of the Middle Ages. There is a banquet and dance after the tournament and of course I had to know what the dances would have looked like. The estampie is actually both a musical form as well as a dance.

Although there are no extant dance manuals to document the movements of the estampie, illuminations and paintings of the period depicting the dance include some very vigorous stamping of the feet. The name, estampie from the French estamper, means “to stamp the feet.”

The estampie is mentioned in troubadour poetry of the 12^th thru 14^th century. From the descriptions, it was a dance for couples using a sliding motion of the feet to the accompaniment of the medieval viol. It is believed to be a slow, stamping, round dance from Provencal, popular in Europe until 1500. Some scholars argue as to whether or not the estampie was a dance form or merely a stylization. Most, however, agree that it was complex although it relied on repetition, as did all dances of the time.

Here is a modern interpretation of the estampie.

The estampie was the first line dance, superseding circles such as the carole, the branle, and Sellinger’s Round. It introduced a dance in which couples stood opposite one another, rather than in a circle.

Dances can be an important part of romance novels. They add colorful details to ballroom scenes, provide the perfect way for a hero and heroine to be thrown together in relative privacy for speaking, and a social event that can provide conflict for your book.

My medieval novella, Betrayal, is now available at Amazon and Smashwords.

There’s not any dancing in this book, but it plays an important role in both Betrothal, Book 1, and Beleaguered, Book 3 (due to release in Spring 2014).

Do you enjoy dance or ballroom sequences in romance novels? How detailed should descriptions of dances get?

Posted in Alphabet Post, Betrayal, Betrothal, Promotion | Tagged Alphabet Post, Estampie, historical romance, Jenna Jaxon, medieval dance, medieval romance | 9 Comments

Spotlight on Wishing For A Highlander by Jessi Gage

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

Thanks for hosting me, Jenna! And congrats on your recent release of Betrayal. I’m so excited to visit your blog today to reveal the cover of my recently re-released time-travel romance, Wishing for a Highlander!

In a nutshell, it’s about a single and pregnant museum worker who accidentally wishes herself back in time and is forced to marry a Highland warrior with intimacy issues.

Read on for the back-cover blurb. But also, don’t forget to click on the word giveaway to hop over to Rafflecopter’s secure site. To celebrate this re-release, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card and an ecopy of Wishing for a Highlander. If you’d like to leave a comment, let me know who you’d bet on in a battle between a sparkly vampire and a sparkly Highlander… I think you know my answer…

Be careful what you wish for. It might just come true.

Single-and-pregnant museum worker Melanie voices an idle wish while examining a Scottish artifact, that a Highland warrior would sweep her off her feet and help her forget her cheating ex. The last thing she expects is for her wish to be granted. Magically transported to the middle of a clan skirmish in the sixteenth-century Highlands, she comes face to face with her kilted fantasy man.

Tall, handsome, and heir to his uncle’s lairdship, Darcy Keith should be the most eligible bachelor in Ackergill. Instead, thanks to a prank played on him in his teenage years, he is known for being too large under his kilt to ever make a proper husband. “Big Darcy” runs his deceased father’s windmills and lives alone at his family manor, believing he will never marry.

But a strangely dressed woman he rescues from a clan skirmish makes him long for more. When the woman’s claims of coming to Ackergill by magic reach the laird’s ears, she is accused of witchcraft. Darcy determines to protect her any way he can, even if it means binding her to him forever.

Excerpt from Wishing for a Highlander:

Size might have its advantages when it came to fighting, but those few boons fell far short of making up for the problems it caused. Being the biggest and the strongest had gotten him into far more trouble than it had gotten him out of. Swallowing his regret for how careless he’d been with her, he sought to determine whom she belonged to, whom, saints forbid, he might owe.

“Whose wife are ye, then? Not a Gunn’s or I wouldna have had to rescue you from one.”

“I’m not married,” the lass said. “And thank you for the rescuing, by the way. I can’t believe I dropped the dirk. Stupid.” She shook her head.

His heart warmed at her thanks. He didn’t hear many kind words from the lasses and would take what he could get, even from a dishonored woman who had caught a bairn out wedlock. Oddly, he didn’t think poorly of her. Whether it was her worried brow, her guileless, soft mouth, or her vulnerable size, he had not the heart to condemn her.

He didn’t even mind so much that she found him distasteful for his size, although talking with her now, she didn’t seem overly upset to be in his arms. He endeavored to keep her talking, keep her distracted from her disgust.

“Ye never answered my first question,” he said. “Who are you? And where are ye from if ye’re no’ English?”

“Ugh. I don’t know. Is there an answer that won’t get me burned at the stake or locked up in a ward for the hopelessly insane?”

Like most things out of her mouth, that had been a peculiar answer. “Ye could try the truth,” he offered, slowing his pace since he heard Archie’s voice not far off.

“No,” she said flatly. “I couldn’t. At least not the whole truth. How about we just go with my name, Melanie, and with the honest fact that I’m a long way from home and I have no idea how to get back.” Her green eyes pierced his. “I’m afraid you might be stuck with me, Darcy Keith.”

Wishing for a Highlander

Buy Links

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
All Romance

Jessi Gage links

Website | Blog | Facebook Fan Page | Twitter | Goodreads

Posted in Book Spotlights, Giveaways, Guest Bloggers, Promotion | Tagged historical romance, Jessi Gage, Scottish historical romance, time travel romance, Wishing for a Highlander | 14 Comments

Horny Hump Day 02/05/13: Betrayal ~ Unimaginable

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

WARNING: MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR THOSE UNDER THE AGE OF 18!

NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

Participating authors in Horny Hump Day post three sentences from their published works or WIP, hot like a firecracker! LOL

It’s here!

Betrayal!

A continuation of last week’s scene. Alyse has tried to scoot away from Thomas as his mouth slid down her inner thigh.

With dismaying ease, he hauled her back to him and, without any warning, burrowed his head between her thighs.

The unimaginable feeling of his hot breath on her most private part froze the protest in her throat. Then he slowly traced the outline of her opening with his tongue, and her long-suppressed moan escaped, filling their cabin with sounds of a need she had hoped to hide.

I was good this week. Back to only three sentences. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed another little teaser from Betrayal. 🙂 If you did, it’s available from Amazon and Smashwords!

Please continue to the Horny Hump Day blog site for additional sites on the hop and go check out the other hot authors.

Thanks so much for visiting the Journal once more for Horny Hump Day!

Posted in Betrayal, Blog Hops, New Release, On Horny Hump Day, On Time Enough to Love, Promotion | Tagged Betrayal, blog hops, historical romance, Horny Hump Day, Jenna Jaxon, medieval romance, sensual sex scene, Time Enough To Love | 10 Comments

Cover Reveal: Mr. Right Now by Kristina Knight

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

An undercover reporter, an author trying to escape nasty headlines…one hot vacation!

When her celebrity boyfriend of three years dumps her and claims he’s now gay, unlucky-in-love author Casey Cash decides to get out of New York. A cruise seems like the perfect escape: everyone onboard will be locked away from television, newspapers and internet gossip pages, allowing her some much needed relaxation. There’s only one problem: her oh-so-helpful agent has hired a male escort for her…and a big NYC paper has sent a pesky reporter on-board, vowing to get the dirt. Mason Drury doesn’t want to write an expose on Casey, but he’s in a bind. After a source flipped on him, he’s persona non grata at his newspaper. Celebrity trash or not, this story will put him back on top. Too bad he finds himself breaking the first rule of reporting by getting attached to his subject and letting bias influence his story. Casey’s much more interested in sexy Mason than the annoying escort who’s bunking in her room. Mason might even have romantic potential if she can shake her well-meaning-but nosey-fans. Oh, and that reporter. She’s got to avoid him at all costs…

Excerpt for Mr. Right Now:

Casey needed things to slow down. And she desperately wanted whatever was happening to speed up. She didn’t know who Mason was. Didn’t know if he was the reporter or just some random guy. Her head said he was the reporter. Why else would he have hit on her so hard from the time she came on board? It had to be part of his plan.

But then, why would a reporter waste time talking to a random woman about her life? Setting her up with another harmless guy who would bolster her self-confidence and help her bounce back from rejection. That was something a nice guy would do. Casey wanted badly for Mason to be a nice guy. Just for a little bit.

Then she’d go back to the craziness of Tyler and figuring out who the reporter was. How to avoid him and save what was left of her reputation.

Surely her future could spare her a few more minutes with Mason Drury.

“What’s your plan?” he asked, his eyes intent on hers.

What was her plan? She knew she had one. It was a good one, too. What was it again?

He pressed his lips to hers, and she didn’t care about plans or who was following whom.

One little kiss.

What could it hurt?

Mr. Right Now is available at Amazon.

Author Bio:

Once upon a time, Kristina Knight spent her days running from car crash to fire to meetings with local police—no, she wasn’t a troublemaker, she was a journalist. When the opportunity to focus a bit of energy on the stories in her head, she jumped at it. And she’s never looked back. Now she writes magazine articles by day and romance novels with spice by night. She lives on Lake Erie with her husband and daughter. Happily ever after.

Kristina’s Links:

Website: http://www.kristinaknightauthor.com

FB: http://www.facebook.com/kristinaknightromanceauthor

TW: @AuthorKristina

GR: http://www.goodreads.com/authorkristina

PI: http://www.pinterest.com/authorkristina

Posted in Cover Reveal, Guest Bloggers, Promotion | Tagged contemporary romance, cover reveal, Kristina Knight, Mr. Right Now | 4 Comments

Sunday Social: Super Bowl Sunday

Posted on February 2, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I am not a sports fan.

But the one team sport that I will watch is football. Reluctantly. And nowadays, only the Superbowl.

Many years ago I used to watch Redskins football with my Dad on Sundays. It was a great bonding experience and it was when the Redskins were in their heyday. Went to at least 2 Superbowls. They were truly Superbowl Sundays for me.

These days I don’t watch football during the regular season. (I’m too busy writing.) But every Superbowl Sunday I’m in there watching. Except now I’m usually watching for the commercials. LOL Yeah, I’m one of those.

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

My husband isn’t a sports fan at all, but he watches the Superbowl. He loves the commercials and the food. So tonight we’ll have chicken wings and pigs in a blanket, chips and guacamole and queso dip and watch the Superbowl.

What I think is funny is that in our household, I’m the football expert. After a play my husband will look at me and say, “Okay, what just happened?” LOL And usually I can tell him, because I listened

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

all those years ago when my Dad explained things to me. You never know when something’s going to come in handy. 🙂

How about you? Are you watching the Superbowl? Are you rooting for a team or just there for the commercials?

Posted in Social Sunday | Tagged football, Jenna Jaxon, Superbowl, Superbowl party snacks | 14 Comments

RELEASE DAY FOR BETRAYAL!

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

BETRAYAL

RELEASE PARTY!

My second novella in the Time Enough to Love medieval romance, Betrayal, is now available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Time Enough to Love is a romance novel, told in three novellas, about the courtiers of King Edward III’s court in 1348. The book follows the heroine, Alyse de Courcy, a lady-in-waiting to Edward’s daughter, Princess Joanna, from her betrothal to a man she doesn’t know, through her courtship, treachery, marriage, and ultimately the fight to survive the Black Death that sweeps through Europe.

Book 1: Betrothal

They are betrothed by law but can he make it an affair of the heart?

Lady Alyse de Courcy has fallen in love with Lord Braeton, a nobleman in King Edward III’s court and a man to whom she has barely spoken. Fate, however, has decreed her betrothal to his best friend, Sir Geoffrey Longford—a handsome and imposing knight, yet hardly the man she wants to wed.

When Sir Geoffrey is bound in betrothal by his father, he could not have expected the beautiful stranger to win his heart the moment they meet. Nevertheless, the fascinating Lady Alyse has done exactly that, and his feelings for her only grow as he learns more of her gentle yet spirited nature. But Alyse’s infatuation with his friend casts doubt on whether she can ever return his regard and their wedding day is fast approaching…

Will he have time enough to win her love?

Book 2: Betrayal

The worst betrayals come from within.

After a night of passion with her betrothed, Sir Geoffrey Longford, Lady Alyse de Courcy is eagerly looking forward to her wedding. But when Geoffrey is forced to marry another, a heartbroken and possibly pregnant Alyse finds herself in her own private hell. She must either gamble with her reputation or marry someone she does not love.

A reputed connoisseur of women, Thomas, Lord Braeton, has dallied with many ladies of King Edward’s court, although he has favored none. However, as Geoffrey’s best friend, Thomas has sworn to serve and protect Alyse, an oath now sorely tested when he agrees to marry her—in name only—to guard her reputation. Yet, as they grow closer, and Thomas discovers Alyse’s sweet but spirited nature, he comes to desire a marriage in truth. Can he overcome her memory of Geoffrey or is Thomas doomed to burn with passion for a woman he can never possess?

Book 3: Beleaguered (Due to release Spring 2014)

Sailing into the cataclysmic disaster of the Black Death, Alyse, Geoffrey and Thomas must act to save themselves from the burgeoning pestilence. Can love find a way to survive?

Excerpt from Betrayal:

From the corner of her eye, she caught movement in the doorway, and several men and ladies moved to make way for the final actor in this terrible play. Thomas strode grandly into the chamber, smiling as though he walked in a decorous procession. Attired in a splendid robe of green wool, adorned with velvet down the center edges and fur at collar and cuffs, he swept her a low bow. He laughed as he arose, but the sound died on his lips when at last he registered her figure in the blue chemise. The stunned look in his eyes was swiftly replaced by a hot hunger that made her gasp. Any hope she had of him honoring his promise died with that look.

“Lady Braeton.” He held out his hand, and Alyse had no choice but to take it. He raised it to his lips, searing her flesh with their warm touch. “You are a vision I scarce would credit this side of heaven.” She peered into his darkened eyes, seeking mercy. At his almost imperceptible nod, she could breathe again.

He released her and stepped back. “The wedding is done.” Thomas nodded to his attendants, who stepped forward. “Let the bedding be done as well.” Stretching forth his arms, he waited as the men stripped the robe from him, revealing his perfectly nude body beneath.

A brisk hum echoed around the room as the whispered comments of the ladies merged with the bawdy japes of the gentlemen. Thomas stood unflinching, a slight smile still on his lips.

Alyse’s mouth dropped open, and her gaze raced over his form as she tried to look everywhere and nowhere at once. His shoulders, smooth and broad, showed strength from wielding his sword these many years. The arms that had held her were now bare and sculpted like a statue’s. Her gaze slipped lower, to his chest matted thickly with pale hair over well-defined muscles. She tried to stop there, to force her eyes back to his face. But she had seen his cock, jutting boldly from a golden bush. Heat rushed to her cheeks. She could no longer deny that their bedding tonight would completely consummate their marriage. Whether she agreed or not. How else would the witnesses be satisfied?

Today I’m on a 35 blog blitz for Betrayal’s release where I’m holding various contest or giveaways. The list of blogs is under the Blog Tour Tab above if you want to visit around and be entered for multiple prizes.

If you leave a substantive comment on this blog, you’ll be entered to win one of the following:

A copy of Betrothal and Betrayal (5 commenters)

A pair of medieval style earrings (1 commenter)

A $25.00 Gift Certificate to Amazon , B & N, or ARe (1 commenter)

Hope you have fun here and elsewhere helping me celebrate the release of

BETRAYAL

Posted in Betrayal, Blog Tours, Book Spotlights, Giveaways, New Release, On Time Enough to Love, Promotion, Release Day Tour | Tagged Beleaguered, Betrayal, Betrothal, courtiers, historical novella, historical romance, Jenna Jaxon, knights and ladies, love triangle, medieval romance, Rising Phoenix Publicaitons, sensual romance | 34 Comments

Medieval Times: The Question of Birth Control

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Jenna Jaxon

One’s mind does not leap to the idea of contraception during the Medieval period for a couple of reasons. First, the Catholic Church, the major influence on much of Western Europe during the period, considered birth control a sin and forbade couples from practicing it. The second reason is that much more emphasis was placed on having children, both in noble homes to get the much needed male heir and in the lower classes to have additional hands to work the land. A final reason is the oft held belief that methods were simply not available during this time.

After doing some very interesting research, I found that Medieval women actually often defied the Church and did indeed use a variety of methods to prevent conception and space out or reduce pregnancies. Below is a partial list of these methods—some of which will probably make you shudder.

1. Abstinence. The only method approved by the Church. Even though couples might go through periods of refraining from sex, they did not last for long. 100% effective, but very hard to maintain the regimen.

2. Lemons. A fruit probably only found in wealthy households. A sponge soaked in lemon juice and inserted into the vagina acted both as spermicide and pessary (a physical barrier between sperm and cervix). Casanova reportedly used lemon rind as a cervical cap or diaphragm.

3. Pessaries. A medicated vaginal suppository used either to support the uterus or to deliver medication (usually contraceptive). Pessaries for contraception could contain cedar oil, cabbage leaves, fresh mandrake, nettles, or other plants reputed to prevent conception.

4. Concoctions. One recommendation was for women to drink either sheep’s urine or rabbit’s blood to prevent pregnancy. Not sure how that would work, but just the thought might lead one to reconsider method #1.

Queen Anne’s Lace

5. Queen Anne’s Lace. Also called the wild carrot plant. This was the birth control of choice in Medieval Europe. Women either chewed the seeds to release the essence or ground them up and put them in water and drank it. The seeds had to be ground up or they were not effective. There is medical evidence that Queen Anne’s Lace was able to prevent pregnancy because the chemical in the seeds block progesterone synthesis, thus disrupting

Poison Hemlock

implantation. Other plants used in a similar way included pennyroyal, artemisia, willow, and rue. The big caveat to using Queen Anne’s Lace is that the plant looks very similar to the deadly poison hemlock.

Birth control has been practiced since ancient times and the medieval period was no exception. However, I’m sure women today are extremely happy that we need only take a pill instead of implementing these desperate measures.

The characters in my medieval trilogy, Time Enough to Love, are not concerned with birth control, although pregnancy does play a role in the second novella, Betrayal.

Betrayal releases tomorrow–so excited! Be sure to come back for the Release Party here and on multiple blogs across the internet!