Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway for No Gentleman is He by Carley Bauer & Lynette Willows



Welcome to my stop on Carley Bauer and Lynette Willows Virtual Book Tour for No Gentleman is He.  Please leave a comment or question for Carley or Lynette below to let them know you stopped by.  Carley and Lynette will be awarding 2 prizes during their tour; Winner 1 will receive a lovely pair of Colonial Era earrings (U.S. only due to shipping constraints) and Winner 2 will receive a $100 Amazon GC.  You can follow their tour here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.  My review of No Gentleman is He will post separately later today.


"Top Ten Reasons for Setting Our Book in the Revolutionary War and the Sons of Liberty" by Carley Bauer and Lynette Willows

1. The setting of the American Revolution in historical romance has enjoyed a recent resurgence.

2. It’s a very exciting time, full of heroic characters and intriguing villains.

3. Even now, there are still many little known or undiscovered facts to explore.

4. Peer pressure; Carley Bauer, who loves this era, “strongly suggested” the idea to her Canadian counterpart who, while reluctant at first, quickly became obsessed.

5. The ideas came so fast and furious, we soon had enough material for more than two books. That’s when we decided it was best to present it as a series when we decided to pursue publication.

6. It was an opportunity to present strong characters with divided loyalties and uncertainty in their futures.

7. Even though we all know the ending of this exciting time in history, it still lent itself to a lot of suspense. It was one of the few times in history when inferior forces actually won out against superior, better trained forces. We wanted to explore how they did it.

8. It was an experiment; we wanted to see if we could attract men into a traditionally female genre through the research and the greater plot-driven story. So far, we seem to be successful, with our male readers enjoying the battle scenes and the horse ranching theme, although they admit to largely skipping the “mushy bits”. We blended in those sentimental, “mushy” moments filled with sensual, passionate scenes that attract the women, and made it a very emotional romance.

9. All the stories in this series were actually written a couple of years ago during our frequent “interactive” writing sessions with each other, something we have been doing for the last ten years. After six months of obsessive, frantic writing that is our usual modus operandi when we get into a new story, we realized we had enough material for at least three or four books with fascinating characters and decided to edit and see if they were worthy of publication. By the response, I’d say we were spot on, with a publisher picking us up for the entire series based on our outlines. It was a battle, with debate back and forth, to make it either historical literature or historical romance, and it was ultimately decided to make it a romance. However, due to the research and the rather daring breaking of rules within the romance formula, it seems to have garnered interest based on the research and scenes within the story.

10. And, the most important reason? We wanted to. It’s as simple as that. We hope people enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it.




NO GENTLEMAN IS HE
By Carley Bauer & Lynette Willows
Sons of Liberty, Book 1 

Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing
Release Date: March 5, 2013

Description: 

Young, adventurous and widowed in a new land, Cassandra Courtney Brooks finds her dream of raising a superior breed of saddle horse slipping away with the death of her husband. Left with four horses, living in a tavern attic, and her scant savings depleting, she resolves to see her vision through to fruition by accepting the scandalous position of steward at Varina Farms.

Born in the image of his native ancestry, Colton Rolfe’s savage blood runs through his veins. Scorned by his father, Colt grew into a man of ill temperament whose only interest is the wild equine beasts on his plantation. His desire to breed his horses with the superior Thoroughbreds of the newly widowed Cassandra Brooks leads him to abandon societal rules. Colt’s growing resentment toward the Crown and his assistance to Sons of Liberty missions is complicated by the discovery that Cassandra’s father is a titled English nobleman.

Cassandra is soon forced to question the wisdom of her decision when she finds herself enamored with her employer. As fiery passion grows between them, Cassandra realizes her own spirit of independence, love of the land, and the savage man who is so much a part of it.

As the threat of war comes ever closer, wills are tested through gunfire, treachery, danger, and kidnapping. Does Colt dare trust Cassandra with Sons of Liberty secrets? More importantly, can he trust her with his heart? And will Colt ever trust Cassandra enough to love her as she longs to be loved?



EXCERPT

“Let me go!” she screamed. “You…you gargoyle!”

Colton’s arm wrapped about her shoulder, pulling her head in close as he moved his mouth over hers with a deep, insistent kiss. Despite her protests and beating against his chest, she found herself weakening. Damn him, damn him all to hell for the power he has over me.

He kept hold of her when their kiss ended, his eyes looking into hers. “See how much more pleasant this ride can be?”

“You are a madman, Colton Rolfe. You have completely taken leave of your senses.” She seethed, as angry at herself for giving in as she was at him for such madness.

“No.” He smiled at her. “I have come to my senses.”

 “Are you going to share with me where you are taking me?”

“You will know soon enough. Now kiss me again, woman.” He leaned in to enjoy her taste.

She leaned in too and bit his bottom lip.

“Crazy woman, what the hell!” He yanked his head back, his tongue gingerly checking for blood.

“Serves you right!”

“You are incorrigible.” He wrapped his arm around her, lifted and put her over the saddle like a sack of potatoes. “If I had known you would be so troublesome, I would have thought twice,” he grumbled.

Buy Links:



About Carley Bauer

Carley Bauer enjoys life on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. with her husband and their blue eyed feline, Noelle. After 30 years as a state contractor in a self employed capacity, she decided to try her hand at her first love, writing.

She loves being an empty nester, free to travel with her husband. Still involved with her children and grandchildren, Carley loves big family events. Some of her other hobbies are home decor, fashion, graphic arts, and the occasional bite of the Big Apple where the excitement feeds her natural love of city life. 

LINKS:

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6981224.Carley_Bauer



About Lynette Willows

I’m Lynette Willows. I live in rural Alberta, Canada. My debut novel, “No Gentleman Is He”, the first in the Sons of Liberty series, is co-written along with my partner in romance, Carley Bauer. 

Some have mentioned I have a very interesting past. Not only was it unusual, but some would even say reckless. I’ve lived on an Indian reserve in a teepee with my young son for three months in the winter, I’ve chased storms, and worked as a social services aide on one of the most troubled and dangerous reserves in Canada, where I met great friends as well as made a few enemies.

I enjoy camping, movies, especially historical bio dramas, strange dogs, stranger cats, exclamation points, coffee mugs with stupid sayings, friends, the crazier the better, family, as long as they are crazier than I am, and I have a huge collection of shiny, outrageous earrings. Yes, I’m a magpie. I’ll only play chess with my husband because he’ll let me win.

If you’re curious about my favorite reading material, it’s very eclectic and varied. I’m extremely picky about what I read, so check out my “to read” list on Goodreads. You can also follow me and Carley, my talented, patient, and illustrious co-author at our fan page on Facebook at “Lynette Willows & Carley Bauer”. I’m also on Twitter under @LynetteWillows, as well as Pinterest, though I’m still figuring that out. You are welcome to also visit me and chat at “Lynette Willows, Author” at http://lynettewillows.blogspot.ca/.

“I have enormous respect for the reader. They are able to take symbols from a page that an author has invented, and turn them into images in their minds that create an enduring story. If that’s not artistry, I don’t know what is.”-Lynette Willows


Don't forget to leave a comment or question for Carley or Lynette below to let them know you stopped by.  Carley and Lynette will be awarding 2 prizes during their tour; Winner 1 will receive a lovely pair of Colonial Era earrings (U.S. only due to shipping constraints) and Winner 2 will receive a $100 Amazon GC.  You can follow their tour here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.

16 comments:

  1. Great reasons indeed!! It is an exciting period in history. I think that turning your material into a series makes a lot of sense.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  2. I love the first sentence of the excerpt, made me laugh. I'm very interested in the time period the story is set in.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

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  3. There'll be trouble for sure, but it looks like fun!

    vitajex(at)aol(dot)com

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  4. Thanks for the fun post and congrats to Carley and Lynn on the new release! It sounds awesome :)

    efender1(at)gmail(dot)com

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  5. Lynette...I'm following on Twitter now. Your bios are so interesting. I also adore strange cats (although isn't that almost redundant?). As a Canadian, did you know much about the American Revolution before Carley talked you into this endeavor?
    catherinelee100 at gmail dot com

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  6. I love reading stories from this era. I really enjoyed the excerpt.

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  7. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped in. I apologize for me and Lynette. We didn't have Queen of the Night on our tour schedule for today. Guess I better give Lyn a heads up!

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  8. I like that in writing this novel, the both of you drifted some from the usual historical romance formula and in putting in all that research created something that would appeal to both sexes!

    falses1gns(at)gmail(dot)com

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  9. Nice list of reasons

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  10. HELLO. I ENJOY STOPPING BY AND READING YOUR BLOG. SEXY BOOK COVER PICS!!!

    TIFFANY M
    ttm1172@yahoo.com

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  11. Mary, there was just too much possibility in this period to cover in one book, and we have too many stories to tell not to turn it into a series. And our characters are all screaming at us for their own place in the spotlight.
    Ingeborg, thanks for stopping in. I love this era too.
    Anon, these characters gave us a lot of trouble, but they were incredible fun to write.
    Erin, thanks so much.
    Catherine, thanks for the follow. Much appreciated. And as a Canuck, no, I didn't know anything about this time period. What surprised me, too, was the important role Canada played in the conflict as well, and how close we came to being invaded. I admit, that's also what got me fascinated.
    Thanks for visiting, MomJane.
    AriT, thank you. Yes, that has been my goal all along, is to write well researched historical romance that also has an active plot, enough to interest the male of the species as well.
    bn100, thanks, and nice to see you again.
    Thanks, Anonymous. Nice artwork indeed, thanks to our publisher.
    I also want to thank our host. Thanks for having us.

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  12. I agree completely with reason 3. Of all the wars, the Revolutionary is one of the ones that has only a few major battles/events that are well documented. It's hard to find lots of details about this time, so I love seeing it crop up in books! Thanks for sharing!

    andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com

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  13. Thank you for sharing! I have been enjoying all of the blurbs and excerpts along this tour!

    hense1kk (at) cmich (dot) edu

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  14. Sorry for the late post. I’m playing catch-up here so I’m just popping in to say HI and sorry I missed visiting with you on party day! Hope you all had a good time!
    kareninnc at gmail dot com

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  15. Wow… Totally can't wait to read this! Adding it to my TBR list... Beautiful cover, too! ; ) I love this genre and I always wonder what made the author choose to write in this kind of genre? Thanks for sharing with us and Thanks for the giveaway!
    mestith at gmail dot com

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