Book Tour: In Like A Lion by Karin Shah Interview & Giveaway

 
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing

ASIN: B00AQJ756C 

Word Count: 86,673

Cover Artist: Rae Monet

Amazon

Book Description:

Dangerous and forbidden...

Research scientist, Dr. Anjali Mehta, lost her beloved family in an earthquake. Only her work cuts through the paralyzingly grief, but when she finds her new research subject, reputed mass murderer, Jake Finn, maddeningly uncooperative and inexplicably sexy she's tempted to run away. How can she burn to touch a killer--a man behind bars?

What she doesn't know is that Jake is a chimera, a shapeshifter who can change into a lion or a dragon with all the strengths of both even in human form, who believes his ability to shape shift is nothing but a terrifying hallucination, and his overpowering attraction to his new doctor proof positive he’s finally gone over the edge.

And the employer she trusts has an agenda all his own. If she can't believe the impossible, neither she nor Jake may make it out alive.

Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/iLsLAtOMmhM

Interview:

1)     Where did you get the idea for the novel?

I was very much into the show Prison Break and I was looking for more books to read with prison themes. I always write what I want to read. I didn't want to have him in an actual prison, and then I was reminded of the Pretender, an old favorite show and I thought, "Ok, what if this shapeshifter didn't know what he was. Maybe he thinks he's going crazy and his captors were never able to use him as a weapon, so they use him as a lab rat instead."

2)     Your title. Who came up with it? Did you ever change your title?

IN LIKE A LION the original title of the series was the Chimera Courtships, but that sounded too historical. So I changed the title of the series to the Chimera Chronicles. Jake's default shift is lion and it's the first of the series, so IN LIKE A LION.:-)

3)     Which came first, the title or the novel? 

They pretty much came into being at the same time.

4)     Since becoming a writer, what’s the most exciting thing to ever happen to you?

Well, I love the RWA literacy book signing. It's such a big event. There are so many people there. As an unknown for the most part, I have to really hand sell my books. Which isn't easy for a former librarian, Still I love it.

5)     What book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?

I just be re-read, Dark Needs at Night's Edge by Kresley Cole. The Immortals After Dark books are the kind of novels I aspire to write, emotionally satisfying and great fun.

6)     What was your first book that you ever wrote (very first one you wrote, not published)?

The first book I wrote was a Sci-fi Romance. It was the story of a princess of an enslaved people who maneuvers herself into position to assassinate the crown prince of her enemies (but of course, they fall in love and everything is set to rights) I still think it's a good story, but the constant pov shifting makes revision almost impossible. The first book I had published was the sequel to that book.

7)     What is your writing process?

Lately, I've been procrastinating horribly (hey, instead of writing, I should do a blog entry!). When I'm not procrastinating, I often take a bath or lay down on my bed to get ideas. Then I write straight through, trying not to go back and edit. I'm a pantser, so I have an extensive revision process, but I enjoy it because it's fun to think of better words than what you've got. And far easier than staring at a blank page.

8)     Who are your favorite authors of all time?

Wow, I have so many favorites. Linnea Sinclair, Kresley Cole, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jayne Ann Krentz, I could go on and on!

9)     At a book signing, do you just sign your name or do you write a note? How do you come up with stuff to say? 

I always write a note and it usually has something to do with the book. For my vampire novel BLOOD AND KISSES I usually try to mention blood or magic.

10)   What is something people would be surprised to know about you?

I adore low-budget mixed-martial arts movies and am a big fan of British actor/stuntman/martial artist Scott Adkins

11)   How do you react to a bad review?

Bad reviews can really depress me, but I try not to read them or let them get me down. You can't please all the people all the time. In my chimera series, I write fated mates. Some people like that, some people don't. Some people like suspense mixed in, some don't.

12)   How did you celebrate the sale of your first book?

After my first sale, my husband and I celebrated with a fifty dollar bottle of champagne. I can't actually drink wine. It gives me a headache, but that champagne was worth it!:-) We kept the bottle and wrote the occasion on the label.

Short Excerpt:

            As Anjali stepped out into the corridor, a shout made her freeze.

The exclamation’s guttural force spurred her heartbeat into double time. What the hell?

She tracked the alarming sound to a door with a glass window and peered inside.

In the center of a large room, a shirtless man moved with fluid grace on exercise mats. Karate? Or Tae Kwon Do? That explained the shout. She shrugged.

Before she could slip away, the man turned and came closer. She ducked to the side so he couldn’t catch her watching.

Her breath caught as she saw his lean face.

She swallowed, pulse leaping. God, he was gorgeous. Staring much, Anjali? she admonished herself, scraping together the remnants of logic blown away by the sight of him.

This was just a man, his face, just a pleasing arrangement of features.

Papers on the appeal of symmetry to the human mind had been mandatory reading in some of her classes.

His movements took him deeper into the room and she inched closer again, her long exhale fogging the window in front of her. She didn’t need calipers to know when God had handed out facial symmetry, this man had pushed to the front of the line.

Odd shadows lent the suggestion of a tiger’s stripes to the man’s elegant cheekbones and clean jaw. She glanced at the ceiling and noticed metal baskets caging the fluorescent light fixtures, throwing voids into the harsh glare.

Her attention zeroed back to the man.

His hair—raven black with the sheen of a crow’s feather—hung past his chin and fell forward, masking his eyes. She caught herself wishing he would raise his head so she could see them. Her gaze drifted downward, following the delicious curve of his shoulder.

His large body was a work of art, each muscle defined and chiseled, as if Michelangelo had carved him from a piece of granite. The impish light played more tricks, lending his golden skin the sheen of satin as he defended against the attacks of invisible adversaries.

Her mouth dry, she watched him flow through the movement, muscles rippling beneath that flawless skin. Who was he? A guard?

Given his size and superior musculature, if he was a doctor, he was nothing like the doctors and researchers she’d worked with in the past.

Goose flesh pimpled the back of her arms. There was just something about a man that big that called to her most basic instincts.

A disparaging laugh huffed from her chest. She’d been living like a nun for years and now she was drooling over a man so out of her league he might as well have been a movie star.

What sounded like a voice—short and harsh, but indistinct—reverberated through the thick, metal-reinforced glass. The man halted mid-move and glared over his powerful shoulder.

For the first time, Anjali noticed there were other people in the room; uniformed men with sleek, ugly rifles, not only drawn, but leveled at the man as if prepared to shoot him at the slightest misstep.

She gasped as an awful realization washed over her. This man—the first man to draw her interest since her loss—was not a guard or a doctor.

He was Jake Finn, her subject, and a stone-cold killer.

About the Author:

I live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio and worship Jeni's Ice Cream, JK Rowling, Jayne Ann Krentz, the tv show Supernatural, and the movies, Hunt For Red October and The Princess Bride(though not necessarily  in that order.)

I am a fanatical reader of Romance, particularly Sci-Fi Romance, Fantasy Romance and Paranormal Romance. I always write the book I want to read, so I tend to jump sub-genre a bit. My husband and I are the parents of two kids (a girl and a boy)  and slaves to two dogs ( a basenji and a vizsla)

I was born in Rochester, NY, attended SUNY Oswego and got my Master's in Information and Library Science at the University of Buffalo. I was a School Librarian in Webster, NY for five years before starting my writing career. (I still miss my students.)

http://KarinShah.wordpress.com

@KarinShah

www.Facebook.com/KarinShahAuthor 

www.Facebook.com/KarinShah

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2878278.Karin_Shah   

Giveaway:

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