December 7:  The Romance Studio

Hi, everyone!  I want to thank THE ROMANCE STUDIO for having me today as part of my WARM UP YOUR WINTER BLOG TOUR.  I created the tour with the hope that you might get to know my Guardians of Ascension, who are my most beloved winged vampire warriors.  I know the covers have wings on them, but the books aren’t about angels AT ALL…just vampires…with wings.  I also have goodies for you to win, details to follow!

My current release, GATES OF RAPTURE (12/24), is the sixth installment of Guardians of Ascension and features Warrior Leto, a famous, ancient Warrior of the Blood, six-six, long straight black hair, piercing blue eyes, and built to battle death vampires for centuries and drive the ladies crazy!  Major yummy!  Romantic Times Magazine gave GATES OF RAPTURE a 4 ½ Star, TOP PICK review!  I couldn’t be happier!

If you’ve been following the tour, you’ve read an excerpt about Leto becoming a beast-man, something he despises and another excerpt about Grace finding Leto in this extraordinary, altered state and that warm thing that starts to happen between them!  *Goosebumps*  So, today, I thought I’d give you a look at an excerpt from Chapter Three of GATES OF RAPTURE, which introduces all sorts of things; Leto’s growing love for Grace, the debt he owes her, his rage at Casimir who stole her away for five long months…

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER THREE…

Leto saw Grace as in a glow.  She was so beautiful, yet speaking of Casimir put hot coals in his blood.  He felt ready to fight him to the death over having taken Grace away.  Yet here was Grace demanding that he set his rage aside.

Time swam before him like a perpetual motion instrument, back and forth, back and forth, tormenting him, past-present, past-present.

He had been a powerful warrior, then a traitor-spy, once more a warrior, now a beast.  He was jealous of Casimir.

Before him was all that he desired, yet he saw Grace through the haze of his pain and the depth of his rage.  Mostly, he just felt unworthy of this woman.

She caught his arms.  “Leto, please don’t look at me like that.  Please understand that I’m not a saint.”

“But you are.”  His words were barely formed, just a whisper in the air.

She smiled suddenly.  “How much of a saint does it make me when I want you so ferociously?  Do you know that I wrote erotic poetry while I was in the Convent, and it was always about you?  No, a saint I’m not.”

“Are you saying that the whole time you were in the Convent, you were writing poetry about me?”

She smiled softly.  “Very sexy poetry while thinking of you.  And that was before I brought you out of Moscow Two.”

When she shivered, he extended his arm straight out to his side and folded a fleece blanket into his hand.  He wrapped her up then drew her close.  His battle gear wouldn’t exactly give her comfort, but she leaned into him anyway.

He searched her eyes.  “I owe you my life, Grace.  I was near death when you brought me into your Convent cell and fed me your beautiful blood.  You stayed with me over the next few days, and fed me a second time.  I would have died but for you and it wasn’t just your blood.  Your kindness fed me just as much, and your acceptance of me even though my service as a spy, as Greaves’s right hand man all those decades, helped to strengthen his hold on Second Earth.  Your compassion saved my life.”

“Leto, I know your soul and that you suffer with a profound sense of guilt over building Greaves’s army.  But I also know that you wouldn’t have done it unless you felt it was necessary to complete your mission.  So you have no reason to feel guilty.  You were under orders, and like any good soldier, you did your duty.”

He held her close.  She was well-named.  A woman could not have had more grace, than the woman in his arms.  Her words were a balm to his tortured soul.  “I wish that I had known you better all those centuries.”

He felt her sigh.  “I wasn’t exactly present in my life then.  All I was really doing was avoiding the war.”

“Now you’re here.”

She drew back.  “Now I’m here.  And all I’m asking is that you forgive Casimir.”

He sighed heavily because the mere mention of that hedonist’s name brought shards of rage piercing his skull.  “You’ll have to give me time, Grace.  I won’t easily be able to forgive the man who took you away from me.”

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt!  I’ve had an extraordinary time creating and writing this series!  Let Guardians of Ascension be a new journey for you.  GATES OF RAPTURE releases on December 24^th.

To Learn More about Gates of Rapture and to read the opening chapter:  CLICK HERE!!!

To Pre-Order GATES OF RAPTURE   Amazon   Barnes & Noble   iTunes

Here are the giveaway details (all international with appropriate compensatory prizes as needed):  On each stop of the tour, I’ll be giving away the same awesome collection of prizes as listed on the Rafflecopter form (CLICK HERE FOR RAFFLECOPTER FORM), so be sure to stop by each blog on the tour for a chance to win at each blog.  Be careful to follow the directions on the Rafflecopter form at each site.  And be very careful of the dates!  The contest at each site will last 3 days only, and those dates will be listed on the Rafflecopter form as well!!! 

For links to all the other blogs on the tour:  CLICK HERE!!!

The Grand Prize Drawing – VERY IMPORTANT:  to be eligible for the Grand Prize drawing of the Nook with Glowlight, you must leave a comment at the bottom of this blog (as well as at all the sites on the tour if you want to go to every site and enter that many times—totally up to you!  But comments must be left!)  The grand prize drawing will be selected by random.org in the following manner.  On January 18^th, three days after the tour ends, I will enter the number of blogsites into the random number generator, which will deliver up the winning site.  I will then go to the winning site, count up the comments one by one, and enter that number into random.org.  Random.org will then provide the Grand Prize winning number matched to the comments on the winning blogsite.  This means, that if you travel to all the blogs on this tour, you can enter the GRAND PRIZE contest on every single blog you visit by leaving a comment at each blogsite!  Good luck to all!

The Goodies as listed on the Rafflecopter form are :  a $10 gift card to Barnes & Noble (or similar for International),  a replica, antique typewriter key bracelet that spells ‘dream’,  a signed copy of ASCENSION (the first novel in the Guardians of Ascension series), Romance Trading Cards and bookmarks.  

The Grand Prize drawing for a Nook with Glowlight, will take place on January 18^th, three days after the tour officially ends!  Good luck!

For links to all the other blogs on the tour:  CLICK HERE!!!

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TO FIND CARIS ROANE ON THE WEB…

Website Home Page:  www.carisroane.com

Twitter handle:  @carisroane

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/caris.roane

Email:  carisroane@gmail.com

Again,  to be eligible for the Nook with Glowlight, leave a comment below like this:  carisroane at gmail dot com!  Good luck to all!

Caris Roane has published nine Paranormal novels and novellas and writing as Valerie King, fifty Regency works.  In 2005, Romantic Times gave her a Career Achievement award in Regency Romance.  As Caris Roane, she currently writes paranormal romance for St. Martin’s Press and also dabbles in a few self-pubbed projects.  www.carisroane.com