Crippled by shyness, shunned for
being not-right-in-the-head, gifted artist and Roman noblewoman, Marcia Mica,
has only two people in the world who truly love her – her teacher, Daedalus,
and her childhood friend, Asterion, both slaves in her father’s household. But
when forbidden love blooms between the unlikely friends, only disaster can come
of it. That disaster leaves Marcia horribly scarred and Asterion sold into the
arena as a gladiator.
Years later, Daedalus brings a
broken Marcia to Britannia, and Sabrina, the healer who saved his life when he
was a boy, works miracles on the scarred girl. However, not all scars are
physical and those Sabrina has no ability to heal.
When Sabrina and Marcia are
kidnapped by a Celtic leader bent on revenge, Asterion must depend on the
dreams of a Celtic Seer to find the love of his life and help foil a revolt
that threatens the fragile peace in Roman Britannia. But even if he and his
friends succeed, can scars that are more than just physical ever really be
healed and can those whose lives are owned by others ever truly be free to
follow their hearts?
Excerpt:
Dath edged across the room
towards Marcie. He hadn’t noticed the wall behind her until the bastard pointed
it out. Now he saw that it was a monochrome painting: a reddish-brown scene
that would have suited the Christians and their belief in Hell and Damnation.
It was, he realised instantly, a picture of the night of the fire. There was
Asterion, tied to the large cartwheel, his back scourged with cruel welts.
There was the Master, his face a mask of such ugliness he could have made
Medusa a perfect mate. And around them both were flames; a fire raging out of
control, eating everything in its path.
With a shudder, it suddenly dawned
on him what she’d used as paint. The brownish-red colouring could only be one
thing: Blood.
Had this animal not allowed her
paints? Had she been forced to work using her own blood as the medium? Or had
she intentionally chosen to work in blood because it captured her agony as
nothing else could?
‘Blood?’ He hadn’t realised he’d
spoken the word out loud until the merchant replied.
‘She did it in burned pieces of
wood in my suite. So when I moved her in here I made sure she didn’t have
access to anything she could disfigure my walls with. But she outsmarted me.
Made brushes out of her own hair and cut her arm to get blood.’
November 3:
1: Susana's Parlour
2: Books to Light Your Fire
3: Romance Novel Giveaways
4: Coffee Books and Art
5: Nickie's Views and Interviews
6: Kinky Vanilla Romance
7: DRB1stChp Blog
8: From Me to You ... Video, Photography, & Book Review
9: Indie Authors
November 4:
1: All I Want and More
2: MAD Hoydenish
3: Unabridged Andra's
4: Room With Books
5: booknerd - review
6: Sharing Links and Wisdom
7: Yeah Books! Blog
8: Barbara Bettis' Book Corner
9: Two Ends of the Pen
November 5:
1: A Cup Of Tea and A Big Book - review
2: Our Wolves Den
3: Deal Sharing Aunt
4: Punya Reviews...
5: The Crafty Cauldron - review
6: SBM Book Obsession
7: Erotic Author Nancy Adams
November 6:
1: Welcome to My World of Dreams
2: It's Raining Books
3: Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews
4: BookSkater
5: Archaeolibrarian - I dig good books!
6: A Book Addict's Delight
7: Sexy siren book blog
8: Hope. Dreams. Life... Love
9: Wickedly Wanton Tales
November 7:
1: Bunny's Review
2: Straight from the Library
3: Long and Short Reviews
4: Dalene's Book Reviews
5: Jen's Reading Obsession
6: 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, and Sissy, Too!
7: Tamaria Soana
8: Author Amanda KimberleyLB
9: Sexy Adventures Passionate Tales
Author
Bio and Links:
At home in the beautiful
Yorkshire Dales of England, Nhys these days spends most of her time
"living the dream" by looking out over the moors as she writes the
kind of novels she loves to read: The ones that are a little bit steamy, a
little bit different and wholly romantic.
Thanks for being part of this tour!
ReplyDeleteNo problem, glad to have you!
DeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteExcerpt was unexpected with the blood and cutting.
ReplyDeleteThat scene was designed to illustrate the depths the heroine had sunk to. I chose excerpts that were pivotal dramatic moments in the book. It probably didn't give the best reflection of the book as a whole. Yeah, there are some unpleasant scenes like the fire and this one but mostly its a romantic adventure story with a HEA. I believe even the worst challenges can be overcome for an eventual HEA. You just have to work for them, harder at sometimes than at others.
ReplyDeleteI chose to use this excerpt because I loved the dramatic statement it made.
DeleteThanks. That was my intention too. Out of context it does sound more like a horror story than what it is though. I'll be more careful what I choose to offer up in excerpts next time. I don't believe in gratuitous violence but its hard to avoid mention of some violence in this era. I prefer to then view it from an outsider's perspective rather than first hand. eg Dath's POV of this period in my heroine's life rather than hers.
Delete