Wickedly Unraveled Book Release Day

If you’ve been waiting for the next book in the Baba Yaga series, the wait is over! Yes, today is release day for WICKEDLY UNRAVELED. I hope you’re as excited as I am.

 This book is based on an idea I submitted a couple of years ago, when the Baba Yaga series was still being published by Berkley. But when they decided not to continue with the series, I figured it would never get written. Then I self-published the final Broken Riders book, DANGEROUSLY FIERCE, followed by a novella (Dangerously Driven) and it turned out that my readers wanted more. Yay for my readers! My readers rock.

I loved writing this book because I got to return not just to the world of the Baba Yagas, but specifically to Barbara Yager, who I confess was my favorite of them all (shhhh, don’t tell the others). When I told my agent that I wanted to write about Barbara again, she said, “You can’t do another book about a character who has already gotten her happily ever after…a married one to boot. That just won’t work in romance.” Then she saw what I had figured out, and basically called me an evil genius. Snicker.

Here’s the back cover copy:

The Baba Yagas have incredible power, but even that may not be enough to save their world when magic goes horribly wrong and all their happily ever afters are gone in an instant.

Barbara Yager is used to traveling alone as she tends to her duties as a Baba Yaga. She sometimes brings Babs, the adopted daughter she is training, but her sheriff husband stays behind. This trip, though, she has made an exception. After all, the task seems so simple, and shouldn’t take long to accomplish. When it is done, the three of them can indulge in a long-overdue family vacation. What could it hurt?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. What Barbara thought was a minor problem ends in a violent magical confrontation she never expected. The resulting backlash sends them all into a warped timeline where Barbara and Liam never got together, and only Barbara and nine-year-old Babs remember the truth. Liam is still trapped in his grief and all the good they’ve done together in the past few years has come undone.

Even worse, her Baba Yaga sisters, Beka and Bella, don’t believe her, and the wicked Brenna is still out there, planning who knows what kind of mischief. The children stolen by the rusalka Maya are trapped in the Otherworld and she is loose in this one and up to no good. It is up to Barbara, Babs, and their faithful dragon-dog companion Chudo-Yudo to knit together the unraveled timeline and make things right again, before it is too late and Barbara loses her one true love forever.

Will Barbara get her happily ever after back again? You’ll have to read the book to find out! It’s available in both print (Amazon only) and eBook from all the usual online retailers, and you can also request that your library or local Indy bookstore get a copy.

BUY LINKS:

 Amazon print 

Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Of course, because I’m me, I’m doing a huge giveaway to celebrate!

There are THREE prizes: a cool notebook with the cover from the last Broken Rider's novella plus an adorable dragon, a pen, magnets, and bookmarks OR a $10 Amazon gift card OR the grand prize, a Fire 7 tablet! Just fill out the Rafflecopter form to be entered. Open internationally, no purchase necessary to win. (Although of course, I'd love it if you'd buy the book.)

As always, if you buy the book and love it, I’d really appreciate it if you could take a minute to put up a quick review on Amazon, Goodreads, or B&N. Not to mention spreading the word to all your friends. If this book does well enough, I have an idea for the next one…

Welcome back to the world of the Baba Yagas—I hope you have as much fun reading WICKEDLY UNRAVELED as I had writing it.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

A BIG Announcement

 So, I have some bad news and I have some good news. 

The bad news is that Berkley, who published all of my fiction series, has decided not to contract for the third Broken Rider book. Publishing is a numbers game, and the numbers from the previous books just weren’t good enough to justify putting out the third one. This isn’t something I take personally—you’d be amazed how many of my author friends, many of them better writers and more popular than I am, have lost their contracts in the last year. The third book in the Veiled Magic series, Veiled Enchantments, will be out in March, and that’s the last of the books from Berkley, at least for now.

I’ve actually known about this for some time, although I haven’t talked about it online. And the good news is that I decided that there was no way I was going to leave my readers hanging—so I wrote Alexei’s story anyway. Surprise! 

I’ve been quietly working on it (this is the unnamed project I’ve mentioned a few times) over the last four months, and I will be self-publishing it sometime soon; probably in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be sure to let you know when it is live. It will be available as an ebook pretty much everyplace, and as a print book from Amazon. I even found a great cover artist who was able to come up with a cover that matched the first two in looks, although it was impossible to get quite the right “Alexei.” (Sadly, Jason Momoa wasn’t available to pose…)

Here’s the cover—what do you think?

Cover by Earthly Charms

I’m a little sad to be putting out the last of the books in this world, which I’ve really enjoyed writing in, but at least those of you who have been following the series from the beginning will be able to get the ending to the story.

Of course, I do have a few more ideas, so if this one is successful enough, you never know, I might decide to self-publish another one…so perhaps this isn't the end at all.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

The Riders: Three legendary brothers who kept the Baba Yagas safe. The Riders’ immortality was stripped away, along with their mission. But they are still much more than Human, and their story is far from over…

His brothers may have found new paths to follow, but Alexei Knight isn’t even looking. If he can’t have the life he was meant to lead, there is no second choice. So he is bent on drinking and brawling his way across the country until he winds up on Cape Cod in a bar called The Hook and Anchor, where he finds challenges he was never expecting, a feisty red-haired bartender, and maybe a lot more than that…

Bethany McKenna left behind an almost-completed law degree to return home and care for her cranky disabled father and run his bar for him. If that wasn’t enough, she also agreed to foster a very pregnant Great Dane. She has enough to deal with without adding in a giant bearded brawler, no matter how appealing he is. Yet somehow he ends up living in the guesthouse, taking care of her father, and sneaking his way into her heart…

Alexei and Bethany both think the lives they wanted have come to an end, but after dealing with a mysterious sea monster, pirates, dragons, and some adorable puppies, they might just discover that love is the greatest adventure of all…

I’ve had so much fun writing this book, which I think of as a gift for all those who have been taking this journey with me. I hope you enjoy Alexei’s story.

Who is looking forward to the book, now that you know it is coming out?

 

Sekrit Project Revealed

As those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter or read my blog might know, I have been working on a Sekrit Project for a while. I’m finally ready to share it with the world! (If you get my newsletter, you found out this morning.)

So, unbeknownst to most of my readers, I have been preparing to shift gears away from doing just Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy (although I will probably still be doing some of that) to writing some contemporary romance as well. I’ve wanted to write romantic comedy for years—who couldn’t use a laugh these days?—and it is finally coming back into the market. In addition, I like contemporary romance set in small towns, women’s fiction (especially if it has some humor in it), and of course, the occasional foodie romance.

What is a foodie romance, you ask? Pretty much what it says: a romance that is centered around food and cooking in some way. I wrote one a few years ago that I love, but we were never able to find the right home for it. So I finally decided to put it out myself. Introducing—drumroll please—

REINVENTING RUBY!

Here’s what it’s about:

Ruby Tate is a cautious and controlled woman; her only passions are cooking and her restaurant, Jewels. Unless you count the uncharacteristic one-night stand she had with a charming stranger the night of her sister’s bachelorette party. And she doesn’t. After all, she got out of his bed the next morning and returned to her real life—dealing with a failing restaurant, a not-so-silent silent partner, and a difficult family. And now there’s this new problem, like a ticking time bomb hiding beneath her white chef’s jacket.

Jonathan Gautier is a rising star in the culinary world. With three successful restaurants, a best-selling cookbook, and a new television show, he should be happy, but after six months on the road filming Seven Worth Saving and working in everyone’s kitchens but his own, Jonathan is burned-out and uninspired. The closest thing he’s had to a social life was one amazing night with a woman whose name he isn’t even sure of. All he wants is to wrap up this last episode and get back to his own kitchen. Maybe there he’ll be able to recapture his love of cooking, because if he can’t, he doesn’t know what on earth he’ll do with his life.

When Jonathan walks into Jewels, Ruby is horrified. She can’t believe that the famous chef who is her only hope for saving her restaurant is the man who gave her the best night of her life, and a little something extra. All she wants now is for him to help her save her dreams—and then go away. But Jonathan has other ideas. Lots of other ideas; most of which involve Ruby, food, and nakedness. And Jonathan didn’t get to be the success that he is by taking “no” for an answer. Together, they must find a way to save Jewels, even if that means completely Reinventing Ruby.

I really love this book and I hope you will too. I have to warn you, it is a little (coff) spicier than my Baba Yaga books. Let’s just say that all the heat isn’t in the kitchen! There are no witches or dragons, but there are some fun recipes as a bonus at the end. If you like my other books, I hope you’ll follow me along on this new adventure too.

Here are some buy links for the ebooks. The book releases on Monday, July 17^th, but the preorders are live now.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073WQC793/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1499921047&sr=1-1

B&N https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reinventing-ruby-deborah-blake/1126745668?ean=2940154454084

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/735950

iBooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/reinventing-ruby/id1259222095?mt=11

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/reinventing-ruby

I know that some of you really prefer print books, so I’ll be making a print version available through Amazon’s POD (print on demand). It will have to be more expensive than the digital version because of the additional costs of the printing, but I wanted to at least be able to offer you the option. It may take us a couple of days to get the print version up there, but it is coming.

I'll be doing a giveaway sometime next week (I'm waiting for some special-order goodies), so be sure to check back. You know how I love my giveaways. I’d REALLY love it if you would spread the word far and wide. If this is a success, there may be a few more surprises for you down the road.

Thanks as always for taking this journey with me!

(And special thanks to pals Karen Buys, Sierra Newburn, and Kari Blackmoore, for editing, formatting, and the wonderful cover!)