Monday, May 13, 2013

Book Tour: A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones by Claire Robyns Excerpt & Giveaway


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.
  
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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:

13 comments:

  1. Claire, the cover is stunning, did you help to design it?

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  2. I 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!
    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

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  3. Thanks for sharing! Excited to hear more about the book! :)

    hense1kk (at) cmich (dot) edu

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  4. 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.

    kareninnc at gmail dot com

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  5. Thanks for stopping by to comment, all :)

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  6. I love the excerpt, I can't wait to read the book.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

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  7. Love their witty banter, I can't wait to read the rest, it sounds like they are going to have some great interactions

    fencingromein at hotmail dot com

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  8. Really the droll sense of humor in this excerpt.
    strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com

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    Replies
    1. Forgot a word - Really liked the droll sense of humor in this excerpt.
      strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com

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  9. Fun, fun sounding story. Historical romance and intrigue. My very favorite kind of book to read.

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  10. Nice cover

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  11. Sigh. This sounds lovely!

    justforswag(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

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