BLURB:
A Victorian
Steampunk/Paranormal adventure with strong elements of romance...
Lady Lily
d'Bulier is prim, proper, and prefers to think of herself as pragmatic rather
than timid. And avoiding life-threatening situations at all costs is just plain
practical. But everything changes when Lord Adair tracks her down in London;
searching for answers he seems to think she has.
Greyston Adair
is a blackguard and a smuggler, although British Customs will have to catch him
red-handed to prove the latter. Fortunately, the dirigibles they float around
in have never been able to get near his air dust.
Hell is rising,
One Demon at a Time...
With Lady
Ostrich hunting them, and the mystery of how their lives tie back to Cragloden
Castle and the powerful McAllister clan, Lily has no option but to throw
propriety to the wind and run off with Greyston to Scotland, away from the
immediate danger and toward possible answers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Evelyn
was even more intrigued when she entered the drawing room. Not only was Lily’s
mysterious gentleman the scrumptious Lord Adair from the previous night, but
the two of them looked as if they’d been caught in flagrante. Lord Adair’s neck
cloth looked as if it had been tied in unseemly haste—by a blind man. Lily’s
skirts were scuffed and wrinkled and her bodice wasn’t sitting quite straight.
Lily
left his side to meet Evelyn halfway across the room.
“If
I’d known you were being ravished by Lord Dashing down here,” Evelyn declared
in a whisper, “I would have stayed up there—” she raised her eyes to the
ceiling “—another twenty minutes.”
“Don’t
be absurd.” Lily’s hands flew to her hair.
“It’s
your skirts that need patting down.” She linked her arm in Lily’s and strolled
in the direction of Lord Adair, keeping her voice low. “What did he do? Drag
you into the woods and toss you over a log?”
Lily
went white in the face.
“By
God.” Evelyn surged forward. “I’ll deal with the bloody Scotsman.”
“Evie,
no, wait.” Lily dug her heels in. “Nothing happened. Must you always latch onto
the most preposterous conclusions?”
Evelyn’s
brows drew tight. Something felt wrong, but her friend made a valid point. She
was rash and brash, a fact she’d never denied. She kept her sharp tongue on a
leash and turned a smile on the man instead as they drew close. “How charming,
Lord Adair, I was hoping we’d see more of you.”
“Lady
Harchings.” He inclined his head in greeting.
Clearly
not trusting her to keep the peace, Lily inserted breathlessly, “I was just
telling Lady Harchings that we were riding in the park—”
“And
your horses tossed both of you?” Evelyn couldn’t resist.
Lily
rewarded her with a glare. “We were in Lord Adair’s carriage, but, um, yes, a
rabbit or fox must have run across the path because one of the horses took
fright—”
“You
really should train them better,” Evelyn told him.
“The
rabbits or the horses?” Lord Adair riposted dryly, his eyes never leaving Lily
and a grin tugging at his mouth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Claire Robyns lives in
Berkshire, England, with her husband and twin boys. For so long as she has
memories, she was either reading, dreaming about reading, or planning what
she'd be reading next. Then one day she started dreaming about writing and that
was the beginning of an amazing journey.
When Claire isn't thigh-deep
in laundry, shopping, cooking and general crowd control, you'll find her
head-and-heart-deep in the tangled lives of her characters.
Visit Claire at her website
www.clairerobyns.com or on twitter @clairerobyns or on facebook
www.facebook.com/clairerobyns
Buy Links
Amazon.com:
B&N:
Kobo:
GIVEAWAY:
Claire
will be awarding a $50 Amazon gift card to two randomly drawn commenters during
the tour.
The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The
tour dates can be found here:
Claire, the cover is stunning, did you help to design it?
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteI always think about how much of a challenge it must be to write steampunk. You've gotta be creative with the world building AND keep things historically accurate...tough, but from the excerpts it seems like you've got it down!
ReplyDeleteandralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
Thanks for sharing! Excited to hear more about the book! :)
ReplyDeletehense1kk (at) cmich (dot) edu
Thanks for sharing. I'm a relative newbie to Steampunk and your combination of Victorian steampunk/paranormal with romance mixed in sounds like an outstanding read.
ReplyDeletekareninnc at gmail dot com
Thanks for stopping by to comment, all :)
ReplyDeleteI love the excerpt, I can't wait to read the book.
ReplyDeleteKit3247(at)aol(dot)com
Love their witty banter, I can't wait to read the rest, it sounds like they are going to have some great interactions
ReplyDeletefencingromein at hotmail dot com
Really the droll sense of humor in this excerpt.
ReplyDeletestrive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com
Forgot a word - Really liked the droll sense of humor in this excerpt.
Deletestrive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com
Fun, fun sounding story. Historical romance and intrigue. My very favorite kind of book to read.
ReplyDeleteNice cover
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Sigh. This sounds lovely!
ReplyDeletejustforswag(AT)yahoo(DOT)com