Time for Some Hot Turks!

...and some SWEET prizes....

I will be "on tour" as we say for the next 2 weeks promoting my TURKISH DELIGHTS series....so, you Sweet 'N Sassy types get the first glimpse of the fun!

The Turkish Delights series began as 3 "1Night Stand" short stories for Decadent Publishing, about 3 siblings in one blended Turkish/American family.  Emre and Tarkan (twin young men) and their sister Lale (pronounced "Lah-ley") have been through a fair bit of trauma once you meet them. I felt their backstory compelling enough, and luckily so did Decadent so I wrote a prequel: The Diplomat's Daughter. Then, because there was a tempting, dangling plot string, I tied that up with the final novella: Flower Passage.

That was last year.

This year, Decadent has provided me with a couple of new fun opportunities to market this series "all in one."  The ebook bundle is available on Amazon, and is currently FREE to Kindle Prime members. Check back tomorrow though, as we have a surprise for non-KDP members for the week!  This amazing bundle of stories will be FREE TO EVERYONE beginning 2/25/13!  Truly a great way to get into a unique set of stories.

Also, if you are are a fan of the printed word, the entire series is available under one beautifully designed cover and frankly, this way, reads like a long, juicy novel.

I lived in Istanbul for a couple of years with my family. It is an incredible place. In the coming days you will find me visiting many cool blogs and reviews sites chatting about my years there, the adventures both good and bad, and various other tidbits about the Deniz family. IF you are paying attention, at the last stop on March 10 (www.decadentpublishing.blogspot.com) you can win:
1.  signed print copy of Turkish Delights
2. $50 from Amazon (which will allow you to obtain the rest my backslist...ya know you want it)
IF you answer 5 questions correctly, answers of which can be found back in the posts from the tour stops.

There is a bonus question which could net you your very own BEER WENCH TEE SHIRT from my brewery! 


If there is more than person who gets all the answers correct, I will choose a winner randomly from those.

This is gonna be fun guys! I'll have exclusive entire chapter excerpts scattered around in the posts as well!  
Here is the schedule:

2/25   www.backwardsmomentum.blogspot.com 

2/26    www.harliesbooks.com

2/26    www.twinsietalk.blogspot.com

2/27  www.stickgirlbookreviews.blogspot.com

2/27  http://happilyeveraftercgtetreault.blogspot.com

2/28   www.msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com

2/28  www.literatiliteraturelovers.com

3/1  www.sevensexyscribes.blogspot.com

3/1 www.cindyspencerpape.com

3/2  www.shhmomsreading.com

3/2 www.melissakeir.com

3/3 www.desireeholt.com

3/4 www.kimcharmichaelnovels.com

3/5  www.markofthestars.com

3/6 (stop eliminated)

3/7  www.nicolezoltack.com

3/8 www.carrieannryan.com

3/9  www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk

3/10 www.decadentpublishing.blogspot.com (THE CONTEST POST!)

series blurb:

A young American woman comes face to face with her destiny in Istanbul in the 1960's and an epic dynasty is born.  

When Vivian Kinkaid turns around in her college classroom and makes eye contact with a man who was once her forbidden childhood friend, her life is changed forever.

A sweeping saga of family, love, loss and recovery—The Turkish Delight series begins with a special sort of magic. Then  Madame Eve works her miracles for the Deniz family, but even she can’t overcome the harsh realities that force this Turkish/American family all to deal with tragedy when one of their own is ripped from their close-knit circle.

 “The Turks” opens with best-selling classic romance for the ages.  Then ends with a thrilling novella that brings all the players back together.  Set in Istanbul, Las Vegas, and Southern California, The Turkish Delights series has it all—heat, heart, intrigue and a deep, family connection that transcends all barriers.

The Diplomat's Daughter

Turkish Delights

Blue Cruise

Tulip Princess

Flower Passage

cheers y'all
Liz

#feeltheheat Do you believe fairy tales can come true?

Books Books and More Books had this to say about Soul Dreams

"These 1 Night Stand shorts are very addictive…and Desiree Holt knows just how to tease the reader. The authors’ talent to manufacture moments between characters is amazing. In those moments, when an outsider (a reader…like me) is pulled into the story and made to forget everything else – 5 STARS."

I just loved writing this sbook. I hope you'll love reading it. And even though it takes place around the Christmas holidays, I think it's a story that could happen any time during the year. It's about two souls who are tormented by the hand life has dealt them. What if the prince isn’t so handsome and the princess sees herself as less than regal? What if the magic in their life only comes from their dreams? Of each other?

Get it here: http://amzn.to/WJU1Ly

Blurb:

 Books and More owner, Nina Foster doesn’t believe in love anymore. Twice, men have crushed her heart. Now, she’s resigned herself to making hot chocolate and baking cookies for the customers who enter her store. She won’t risk her heart again.

Blake Massie hides away from the world, nursing his scars. He sees himself as a monster that no one could ever love. A self-imposed recluse, he won’t allow himself to open up, afraid of being burned like his fire-ravaged skin.

Unable to reach out in person, the pair communicates via the Internet and hot, erotic fantasies. Night after night, they explore their growing passion with only a blindfold to protect their secrets. As Christmas approaches, Blake must share his pain if he is to ease hers, but doing so could drive her away forever. Can they take a chance and follow their deepest soul dreams, or will their fragile hearts continue to hide from the world and one another?


Genre: Western romance, contemporary, erotic romance, holiday

.

~Excerpt~


Before she realized it, he tilted her to face him, one arm around her, the other hand cupping her chin. He pressed his lips against hers, a butterfly touch, so feather light it was barely there. She didn’t pull away, and the pressure increased. And when her arms came up to wrap around him, he traced the seam of her lips with his tongue.


He kissed one corner of her mouth then the other before murmuring, “Let me in. Please.”


It was the dream all over again, except this time she could actually taste him, and he was delicious. She opened her mouth to let his tongue sweep inside, and she offered him her own. It wasn’t the most passionate kiss she’d ever had or the most aggressive, but it certainly was the most possessive. As if he was somehow claiming ownership. And she had no desire to push him away.


She threaded her fingers through his hair, as smooth to the touch as his beard, and held his head to hers while he gently plundered her mouth. His tongue lit fires every place he touched, the heat flowing down through her body and making her muscles clench with desire. This was at once the most erotic and the most emotional kiss she’d ever shared, and she never wanted it to stop. It was only lack of oxygen that made them break the contact at last. She didn’t try to move away, hoping he’d take it as a sign not to let go. They sat there for a long moment, arms wrapped around each other, her head against his shoulder.


“I dreamed about kissing you like this.”


The words were whispered so faintly at first Nina wasn’t sure she heard correctly. “You did?”


“Uh huh. A lot.” He gently nipped her ear lobe. “About tasting you, inhaling your scent. Touching you everywhere. Do you dream that way?”


She squeezed her thighs together against the sudden hunger beating through her, her voice unsteady when she answered him. “Yes. Yes, I do.” She stroked his beard again. “Blake? Won’t you please take off the blindfold so I can see you?”


His muscles tightened for a moment then relaxed. “No. I can’t. Not yet. Please don’t ask me.” His laugh was forced. “Let’s keep this a fantasy for the time being, okay?”


“All right.” His words sounded so desperate, how could she say no?


The Sheriff-the most noble of men

Note: leave me a comment and you could win a book from my backlist.

In how many books and how many movies has the sheriff been the ultimate hero, men life Buford Pusser, Patt Garrett, Bat Masterson and today in real life Joe Arpaio. He vanquishes evil, gets the heroine and they have really hot sex. So where did the sheriff come from?

More than twelve hundred years ago, the country we now call England was inhabited by small groups of Anglo-Saxons who lived in rural communities called tuns (a group of ten families). 

The Anglo-Saxon word for chief was gerefa, which was later shortened to reeve (group of 100 families).  During the next two centuries, a number of changes occurred in there system which led to a new unit of government, the shire (groups of hundreds banded together), which is now known in America as a county.  So to distinguish the leader of a shire from the leader of a mere hundred, the more powerful official name became known as a shire-reeve.

The word shire-reeve eventually became the modern word for sheriff (the keeper, or chief, of the county). In the year 871, under King Alfred the Great, the Sheriff was responsible for maintaining law and order within his own county.

Over the years as the country became more centralized the King distributed huge tracts of land to various nobleman who governed those lands under the King’s authority.  The nobleman appointed the Sheriff for the counties he controlled and for those areas not given to noblemen, the King appointed his own Sheriff. Over the next few centuries, the Sheriff remained the leading law enforcement officer for the county.

When English settlers came to the new world, the office of Sheriff traveled with them. The first American counties were established in Virginia in 1634 and one of these counties elected a Sheriff in 1651.

Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American Sheriff’s were assigned a broad range of responsibilities by colonial and state legislatures, such responsibilities as tax collection and law enforcement were carried over from England.  Some new responsibilities were added such as over seeing the jails and workhouses.

As America began to move Westward, they took the concept of county jails and the Office of Sheriff with them.  The sheriff was desperately needed to establish order in lawless territories where power belonged to those with the fastest draw and the most accurate shot.  Here it is said that sheriff fell into two categories, the quick and the dead.

In my latest release, Dark Secrets, from Decadent Publishing (part of the Western Escapes series), Sheriff Hawk Blackwater is the top law enforcement office for he county where Freewill, Wyoming is located. Hawk carries a lot of dark secrets—a lifetime fighting ugly crime in Phoenix, dealing with his mixed raced heritage (his mother is Caucasian, his father Yavapai Indian), and a marriage that self-destructed. He has come to Freewill, Wyoming to begin a new life in the wide open spaces of the state. Little does he know he will run into more dark secrets than he wants to handle—the unsolved murder of the former sheriff, the mysterious lights that come and go in the nearby Laramie Mountain, and a woman who is obviously running for her life.

You’d think he’d decide this wasn’t the place for him after all. But being the alpha hero he is, he delves into the mysteries, especially the one involving Riley Scott. When chemistry unexpectedly explodes between them and an attraction develops so strong neither can turn away from it, he adds ferreting out her dark secret to his to-do list. And as their relationships deepens, it becomes his number one priority.

Excerpt:

“Interesting, “ Hawk commented, watching the woman leave the restaurant. “Wonder what her secret is?”

Brady lifted an eyebrow. “Secret? How do you even know she’s got one?”

“Instinct. Half lawman, half Yavapai. All the signs are there. If I didn’t know better I’d think she might have something to do with John Foster’s death. Or even the lights in  the Laramies that come and go.”

“How do you know she’s not?” Brady asked.

“If she’d killed Foster or been a party to it, she’d be long gone, not hanging around here. Besides, she showed up months after the murder. But I wonder if she has something to do with these strange lights that are driving me crazy.”

Brady frowned. “What makes you think that?”

Hawk shrugged. “The lights didn’t show up until a couple of weeks after she got here. And she sure acts like she’s got something to hide. ”

“Maybe she’s running away from something,” Brady suggested. “Or someone. Don’t you think that’s more likely? She lands here in a place that’s not exactly a destination spot for people. Unless they’re going to the Misbegotten Gaines Ranch.  She doesn’t exactly reach out to people. Just keeps to herself. As far as I know the only places she goes besides work are the bookstore, Wyoming Eats and the grocery.”

“She’s not on any Wanted list. Could be she just likes her own company.”

“If you’re so curious you could always drop in at Books and More and the two of you could have a reading hour together.” Brady grinned. “You do read, don’t you, Hawk?”

Hawk made a face. “Very funny. But I might just drop by Darnell’s place. I’m out of feed for the horses and few other things.”

“You could always call in your order.” Brady laugh. “Save yourself a trip.”

Hawk just shook his head shoved his hands in his ranch jacket and walked towards the feed store.

Leave it alone. You have other things more important to focus on.

But he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. He didn’t know why she was bugging him. She certainly wasn’t any of his business, but his curiosity was on full alert. As was another part of his body.  Deliberately he tamped down the feelings surging through him. He had no business letting himself get involved with anyone. Especially someone who was obviously carrying a pound of trouble.

Go back to your office. Haven’t you got enough going on without piling on more?

But his feet kept moving in the direction of Freewill Feed and Supplies, trying to remind himself he had more important things than scoping out a woman doing her best to blend into the background. One of these days his curiosity was going to get him into real trouble.

Find it at www.decadentpublishing.com

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www.desireeholttellsall.com

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