I'm happy to participate in my friend, Nancy Gideon's, blog tour for her latest release. I've known Nancy for at least twenty-five years. She's an inspiration, writing through adversity, and a mentor. She also introduced me to vampires and werewolves. Sure, they'd been around for years before I read her stories. They weren't what I expected. Sensual, thrilling, tug-at-your-heartstrings romances. Now, she has a new release, PRINCE OF DREAMS. It's a fantastic story. See my review at the end of this post.
Here's Nancy to tell us about her favorite heroes, vampires and werewolves.
Team V vs Team WW
I’ve always loved a dark, tormented hero, the kind that roams freely on Halloween!
And I’ve been torn since my first introduction to late night horror films – Vampire or werewolf (later shapeshifter). Though both were technically villains, the undead or unnatural that needed to be destroyed for preying upon humanity, I always found their tragic story . . . romantic. Denied the light of day or fearing the loss of control wrought by the cycle of the moon, instead of getting the woman of their dreams, these antiheroes got the short of the stick—usually sharp and through the heart. Not fair, but how the story always goes. Then Hollywood, and finally fiction, began a subtle change when 50s heartthrob Michael Landon wolfed out in “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” and squealing bobbysoxers vied to put him on their leash. I didn’t notice until Frank Langella took up Dracula’s cape, becoming one HOT dead guy! He was charming, educated, and had it hands down over the second-string Jonathan Harker. But love never triumphed at the end of their stories.
No happily ever after for them.
Maybe it was Dark Shadows, the campy ‘60s vampire soap opera that finally broke tradition. Barnabas and Quentin Collins had fans swooning for a chance to save them from their cursed lives. As vampire and werewolf, they were portrayed as victims worthy of redemption. When “The Kindred” came out as a nighttime saga about strong warring supernatural families (and later, “The Originals”), I was sold on heroes both fang and fur. Those were the larger-than-life heroes I wanted helming my books, beginning with Louis Radman, mourning his lost humanity in my “Touched by Midnight” vampire series, then Max Savoie, top dog in my “By Moonlight” shapeshifter books and the yummy Terriot princes in the “House of Terriot” spin-off (PRINCE OF DREAMS is just releasing!). Smart, loyal and deadly, (and it doesn’t hurt-gorgeous!), it’s their very difference that draws their strong heroines . . . and readers. Something about tall, dark and dangerous with a bite . . . especially when the moon is full and the season is All Hallows!
Prince of Dreams
House of Terriot
Book Four
Nancy Gideon
Genre: Paranormal
Date of Publication: October 2, 2018
Word Count: 98,500
ASIN B07H4XMSC9
Cover Artist: Patricia Lazarus
Cover Artist: Patricia Lazarus
Tagline: Written in the cards . . . Who was this guy, her rescuer, her hero, her knight in shining 2-carats?
Book Description:
Kip . . . Prince in the shapeshifter House of Terriot
He'd said he wasn't a mobster. . . She should have asked if he was a monster.
Who was this too good to be true, always ready in a crisis guy working a menial job for her father? Ophelia knew things. Something was not quite normal about the Kip Terriot hiding behind another name in lace-up dress shoes and a preppy wardrobe – something wild and exciting as all hell. A dangerous something calling to that restless difference in her own soul.
Ophelia . . . daughter of his enemy, girl of his dreams
So sassy, so sweet so perfect . . . and what he had to do would destroy her.
Kip was in New Orleans to save his clan and his kind, not to play white knight for Ophelia Brady with her quirky habits, curvy body and tormented past. His deception would rip the heart from her world, not help heal it. Was his family’s nemesis using his own daughter to make Kip the played instead of the player, pulling him between love and duty to make an impossible choice?
“Emotionally captivating! A brilliant conclusion to a unique series!” – Book Bling
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/g9qdy5RmkJg
Excerpt
from Prince of Dreams . . .
An unnatural being from a family
of shapeshifters.
Even
now Ophelia didn’t know whether to laugh or weep at the absurdity of it. Things
like that didn’t exist. Except she knew they did, just outside the peripheral,
where worlds of fact and fiction met and mingled and blurred. She’d felt their
presence in the shadows of reality all her life. She met them in her dreams and
visions.
Kip
Terriot gave them gorgeous face and form, but underneath, he was that creature
with red eyes and sharp teeth. Her big, bad wolf, who’d protected her from a
robber and defended her from abuse, who’d rescued her sister from the attack
she still refused to acknowledge. Who loved his family and would do anything
for them?
Who
she loved too much to let go but couldn’t give what he needed because she
wasn’t his kind.
Which
was the greater fear, what he was or that she’d fail him?
“What are we going to do, Phe? I
don’t want to lose this.” He brought her knuckles to his lips for a kiss.
“I
don’t want to lose you. But I already have, haven’t I? You’re a million miles
away right now and almost out of reach.”
“I’m
right here.” His argument brought her to him, her knees stepping over his lap
to straddle him, arms circling his shoulders, face nestling against the curve
of his throat where she rode his hard swallow. He held tight, trying to believe
they could make this moment last, this glorious, fiery, tender moment that
offered so much and promised so little.
“You
are my prince,” she whispered, breath moist and soft against his neck. “My
Prince of Cups. You rode into my life bringing romance, shaking my world to its
foundation that first night I met you. It was in the cards.”
“Fate,”
he murmured, smile in his voice. “No escaping it.” His fingers threaded through
her hair, pulling back gently to tip up her face, offering sweetly parted lips
and glistening eyes.
He’d
planned a sweet kiss but the taste of urgency and need in the sweep of her
tongue ruined that noble ambition. They feasted upon one another for long,
desperate minutes until she rocked back, thumb swiping the dampness from his
mouth.
“Go,
be who you need to be for them. Then come back and be who I need you to be.
Nancy Gideon is the award-winning bestseller of over 65 romances ranging from historical, regency and series contemporary suspense to dark paranormal and horror, with a couple of produced screenplays and non-fiction writing books tossed into the mix.
A legal assistant for a brilliant criminal attorney in Central Michigan (when not at the keyboard working on her latest book in progress), she feeds a Netflix addiction along with all things fur, fin and fowl and dotes on her grandguy.
Nancy’s also written under the pseudonyms Dana Ransom, Rosalyn West and Lauren Giddings. Look for reissues coming soon under those pen names!
Website: http://www.nancygideon.com/
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/NancyGideonAuthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NancyGideon
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Nancy-Gideon/e/B001H9PV8E/
Nancy Gideon by Moonlight Goodreads Group:
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/109994-nancy-gideon-by-moonlight
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/109994-nancy-gideon-by-moonlight
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nancygideon/
Diane's Review:
She did it again! Nancy Gideon hooked me from the first page until the end. Not a book I could put down. Kip Terriot has to be my favorite prince. He's real and down-to-earth, just what Ophelia needs and loves. Although this is the last of the House of Terriot stories, there's more to come from Nancy. I never thought I'd enjoy shifter stories until I read hers. The romance between Kip and Ophelia is so tender and at the same time hot. Kudos to Nancy Gideon for another entertaining story.
Although I was offered an Advanced Reading Copy, Nancy's books are always a 1-click for me.
