Friday, December 21, 2012

Guest Post and Giveaway ~ All The Kings Men Series by Donya Lynne

“Rise of the Fallen”, Book 1

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In the streets of Chicago exists an uneasy, centuries-old truce between vampires and their distant cousins, a race of shifters called drecks. Vampire enforcement agency, All the King’s Men (AKM), is charged with maintaining the truce, but when volatile enforcer Micah Black loses his mate and falls into the biological agony that results from the broken bond, he tests the boundaries of the truce by seeking out Apostle, a leader in the dreck community. Micah wants Apostle to kill him, a request Apostle is more than happy to fulfill. 


When ex-Army medic Samantha Garrett inadvertently disrupts the plot and saves Micah’s life, a chain reaction sets Micah’s heart on a collision course with Sam’s, but he will have to protect her from Apostle and her obsessive ex-husband, Steve, if they will have a chance at forever. Can Micah hold his emotions together to keep Sam alive?
"Heart of the Warrior", Book 2

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Severin was born to be a warrior. Conceived as a mixed-blood when his vampire father raped his dreck mother over two centuries ago, Severin retained the power of iron skin inherent to newborn drecks. However, Sev keeps this secret closely guarded. If it's discovered that inferior dreck blood flows in his vampire veins, it could destroy his life. And to make matters worse, his father suddenly wants to make amends for his transgressions. Sev wants nothing of his father's apology, especially now, as he contends with both an assassin who has marked Sev for blood vengeance and his obsessive attraction to his teammate, Arion.

Arion is the son of King Bain's liaison, Gregos Savakis, who had Ari's course plotted before he was even born. But what Ari's overbearing parents wanted for him wasn't what Arion wanted for himself, and a lifetime spent fighting through one relationship after another with females from all walks of life has left him weary in his search for a mate. After a startling and erotic encounter with Sev, Ari has begun to realize why. He's gay. And now he can't stop thinking about Sev. Arion suddenly realizes he's been forcing himself to be with females because that's what his parents expected. But what he wants is a male, and not just any male. Arion wants Severin. 

Can the two overcome the secrets, prejudice, plotting, and the threat on Severin's life to find happily ever after with each other?
“Michah’s Calling”
Novella Supplement to ALL THE KINGS MEN

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  Author’s Note: This is a novella supplement to the All the King’s Men series. It is highly advised that you read Rise of the Fallen before reading this novella. Reading book two of the series, Heart of the Warrior, would also be beneficial, but not absolutely necessary before reading Micah’s Calling.


With the threat of Apostle behind him and Samantha’s life finally out of danger, Micah’s mating phase, known as the calling, unfurls to full strength. Unable to resist the demands of his body and the hormonal heat that drive him to propagate the vampire race, Micah loses himself in the pleasure Sam gives him, yearning for her body to receive his seed to create new life. But after what Sam has been through – barely surviving Apostle’s venomous bite, and then Micah’s own venom to counter Apostle’s and make her immortal – Micah knows Sam’s body has suffered too much to accept a child so soon.

But the desire to nest and start a family isn’t the only thing Samantha has awakened in Micah. She has also stirred Micah’s long-dormant love of domination. With Sam, Micah finds himself longing to re-open his dungeon, and Sam wants to know more about this kinky world she has heard so much about but never tried. When Micah takes Sam to a scene party to introduce her to the BDSM lifestyle, their lives are turned upside-down when Micah is asked to assist in dominating a fellow dom's submissive, only to discover the submissive is his friend, Traceon.

Throughout her journey in this new world Micah has introduced her to, Sam begins to realize several hard truths about herself and what she wants. Will Micah allow her to explore her new interests? And will the new direction in his friendship with Traceon prove to be too much and break the bonds that have begun to tie them to one another? 

Micah’s Calling is a story of devotion beyond the level of friendship that will light your imagination on fire.

"Rebel Obsession", Book 4

COMING JANUARY 2013
 
Former cobalt addict and AKM drug counselor, Io is a male vampire known as much for his abrasive personality as for his playboy lifestyle. Life on the edge suits him, and he lives full throttle, making his own rules, damn the consequences. What he wants, he takes, and what he wants now is Miriam. If only he can find a way to see her again without getting himself killed, but her father stands in the way.

Miriam is the daughter of the king. Strong-willed and defiant, she feels like a prisoner in her own home and struggles to break free from under her father’s oppressive hold. The king’s law surrounding Miriam is explicitly clear: No one touches her. Period.It's a sentence that's left Miriam to suffer from loneliness and resentment.

In a fit of rebellion, Miriam has turned to cobalt to find relief and freedom, but now she’s a prisoner to addiction as much as to her father’s strict control. What's more, she can’t get sexy Io, who gently tended to her at the AKM facility as she recovered from her first overdose, off her mind. Will she ever see him again?

When Miriam overdoses a second time, she and Io are thrust back together, and all bets are off. Seeing each other was the one thing both wanted, and not even the king’s laws and threats of punishment will be enough to defuse their rebellious obsession with one another now that they’ve found each other again, even if the consequences are death.


********* GUEST POST **********

Rebel Obsession, Io's story, was a labor to write. Io and Miriam were so riddled with shame over what they had become, that neither wanted to talk, so I had to pull the story from them bit-by-bit, a little at a time. But the end product was worth the struggle. I've come to thoroughly enjoy the writing of this book, as hard fought as it was in the beginning, because when the characters finally opened up, they opened up big.

Why were they ashamed, you might be asking? Well, if you've read the previous books in the series, particularly Heart of the Warrior, you'll see that Io was a bit of a bastard. He is notorious for being a womanizer and a bashing homophobe, and when his best friend, Arion, ended up coming out about his homosexuality in Heart of the Warrior, Io was floored. That storyline continues in Rebel Obsession, and we get to see how Io deals with the loss of his friend and watch him face the hard truth about himself: He's a dick. I do love when characters go through hard self-realization like this. It's fun to write.

As far as Miriam is concerned, she is ashamed that she fell victim so easily to the drecks' drug, cobalt. She regrets taking that first hit, but now she doesn't know how to stop. Priding herself on being smarter and stronger than that, she obviously beat herself up pretty badly throughout the entire writing of this story. There were days I felt like I was merely pulling her along in my mind. The epiphany came when it hit me: SHE'S ASHAMED! And she was confused,too, because she didn’t know who she was. After I realized that, it was easier to work with her, because I finally knew how to approach her to get her to spill her story…and I simply rode the idea that she was in the midst of an identity crisis, which helped immensely.

But Rebel Obsession isn't all about Io and Miriam. It became clear early on that this story was a transition piece for the series, and it has a giant cast of characters, connecting the earlier books of the series to the ones still to come. In other words, if you miss this book, you will miss key components that link the early books with the ones coming after it. My editor says this is her favorite book of the series so far, and it's definitely the biggest, coming in at 112,000 words, my upper limit for book size.

A few favorite characters see their storylines continue to develop in Rebel Obsession. Trace is obviously one of those characters. Everyone wants to know more about Trace. Well, you'll definitely learn more about him in Rebel Obsession, and I think you'll like what you learn. We also see Malek, who until now has been whitewashed, calm, and logical, take a turn for the worse. There's a complicated reason for that, which we started to see in Heart of the Warrior, but you'll have to wait until the next book, Return of the Assassin, due out in late 2013, to get his full story.

In fact, I'm drafting Malek's piece now, and I'm in love with him. Whereas Rebel Obsession comes off as a more romantic, transitory piece, Malek's story is taking shape to be deep, dark, and full of action and devious plotting, rife with conflict and adversity. So, stay tuned for more on his story.

We also see the introduction of several new characters in Rebel Obsession, both bad and good. Some will be pivotal to other developing storylines, while others will simply simmer along through the series.

If you haven't read the other books in the series, yet, and want to get caught up before tackling Rebel Obsession on January 2, you can find them on Amazon with the below links. The books are also available at Barnes & Noble, All Romance ebooks, andSmashwords.

Rise of the Fallen - Book 1

Heart of the Warrior - Book 2

Micah's Calling - Novella Supplement

If you want to keep up to date with what's going on at AKM or with any of my other work, and also see occasional snippets of my current works in progress, you can follow me on Facebook: AuthorDonya Lynne or on my blog: www.donyalynne.blogspot.com

Thank you for having me on the blog today! Enjoy my boys…and their girls (or their boys, as the case may be).

Happy Reading and Writing,

Donya

 ********* GIVEAWAY *********

Donya is generously offering up winners choice of an eBook from the AKM series. All you have to do is fill out the rafflecopter below to be entered 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

6 comments:

Gale Nelson said...

wow what a hot cover!!! Love it!! Thanks for the giveaway and I can't wait to read it.

erin said...

sounds fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

elizabeth said...

Sounds like another series to add to the tbr.

Thanks for the giveaway,

Elizabeth Gray
elizabethgr@sbcglobal.net

Unknown said...

I'm so glad to read about this post today. You are a new to me author and I just gotta have this series. The covers are awesome. When you wrote the first book, did you know it would be part of a series? What keeps you motivated?

luvfuzzzeeefaces at yahoo dot com

Mary Preston said...

This series looks incredible. Great reading ahead.

SdyLion said...

Excellent series that I highly recommend, cannot wait for new release to come out. sdylion(at)gmail(dot)com