Title: Of Blood and
Bone
Genre and Age Group: (Ex. Fantasy/YA): Women’s Contemporary/Dark Romance
Author: Courtney Cole
Release date: September 16
Links:
Summary:
Love
is dangerous…
“I’m a monster, Eva. There is no saving a monster. But I love that you want to
try.”
My heart constricts at the expression on his face. He has no hope for himself,
so I have to hope for him.
“You’re not a monster,” I argue softly. “You’re a man, Luca. A man like any
other, you’re made of blood and bone.”
As a little boy, Luca Minaldi was told he was a monster.
As an adult, he knows it is true.
He lives in Malta, a fairytale-like place filled with sunshine and sea, beauty
and secrets. And Luca’s darkest of secrets is the best kept of them all.
Eva Talbot is spending the summer in Malta to finish up her doctoral dissertation.
When she meets Luca, a mysterious and handsome shipping tycoon, there is an
instant attraction, a disturbing and beautiful energy that she has never felt
before. But she senses the darkness that lives within him.
Eva is hired to care for his mother, who suffers from dementia, but it is Luca
who Eva will eventually risk everything to save. Her life becomes a swirling
chaos of darkness and romance, of secrets and mystery. And the question that
emerges will become the most important answer of all.
Can she save Luca from the darkness that plagues him without losing herself?
The answer is a matter of life or death.
Guest
Blog Post for Courtney Cole
* * *
Courtney Cole as You’ve Never
Seen Her
So, you may know
that my Twitter handle is @CourtwritesYA.
The YA, of course, stands for Young Adult. I’ve written ten books and all of them are YA
and NA. EXCEPT for my newest release, Of Blood and Bone.
What the
heck? Courtney Cole wrote adult
fiction?? This seems to be a common
question that I’m hearing this past week or two. And the answer is…. Heck yeah, I did. Of
Blood and Bone contains a LOT of adult content…racy sex, seduction,
violence. There’s even some blood. You know, the good stuff. And it is not PG-13 in any way, shape or
form.
Why did I do
this? Well. Simply put… I wanted to.
One day, a couple
of years ago, I was watching Dexter (the Showtime series about a serial killer)
and for some reason, a storyline popped into my head about a woman who fell in
love with a serial killer. The more I
thought about it, the more I tweaked it.
It would be a dark romance, not a thriller. The MC wouldn’t be a serial killer, but he
would be someone with dark issues. He
would be good on the inside, but he would be ‘damaged’ and he would hate
himself because of this ’affliction.’ I eventually decided that he would have
some sort of a Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde complex.
The story kept evolving.
And eventually Of Blood and Bone was born. But I didn’t write it right away. I put it off because it is so not something a
YA writer should write. To do it up the right way, it should contain everything
that YA shouldn’t.
But with the
release of so much darker stuff this year, I decided that now was the
time. And so I wrote it. And I love it. In my opinion, it’s the best thing I’ve done
so far. The two things that I hear the
most about it are: “Wow! I’ve never seen Courtney Cole like
that!” and “It was amazing-- I thought
about that book for days after I read it.”
Both things make me smile…because you truly haven’t seen Courtney Cole
quite like this.
Here’s
the blurb:
Love is
dangerous…
“I’m a monster, Eva. There is no saving a monster. But I love that you want to
try.”
My heart constricts at the expression on his face. He has no hope for himself,
so I have to hope for him.
“You’re not a monster,” I argue softly. “You’re a man, Luca. A man like any
other, you’re made of blood and bone.”
As a little boy, Luca Minaldi was told he was a monster.
As an adult, he knows it is true.
He lives in Malta, a fairytale-like place filled with sunshine and sea, beauty
and secrets. And Luca’s darkest of secrets is the best kept of them all.
Eva Talbot is spending the summer in Malta to finish up her doctoral
dissertation. When she meets Luca, a mysterious and handsome shipping tycoon,
there is an instant attraction, a disturbing and beautiful energy that she has
never felt before. But she senses the darkness that lives within him.
Eva is hired to care for his mother, who suffers from dementia, but it is Luca
who Eva will eventually risk everything to save. Her life becomes a swirling
chaos of darkness and romance, of secrets and mystery. And the question that
emerges will become the most important answer of all.
Can she save Luca from the darkness that plagues him without losing herself?
The answer is a matter of life or death.
And
a short excerpt (from Eva’s point of view):
“Evangeline,” he says
softly, his dark eyes glued to mine. “I’m so sorry about the other night.
I wish I could remember. I wish I could take it back.”
“I don’t,” I tell him
honestly. “I really don’t.”
He gazes out the
window for a scant moment more, seemingly deep in thought, before he crosses
the room to me. He kneels in front of me and looks into my eyes. In
this moment, he is as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him, as I’ve ever seen
anyone. He’s completely open to me, hiding nothing.
I want so desperately
to kiss him.
“I can’t,” I tell his
dark eyes, praying that I don’t fall into them. “I want to kiss you right
now. But I can’t. You’re my patient. There are ethics…”
Luca shakes his head,
his hands on my knees and his gaze upon mine. “You aren’t my doctor,
Evangeline. You’re my friend. I’m simply talking to a friend who
wants to help me tonight. You’re not licensed to practice medicine in
Malta, remember? So where does that leave your ethics?”
He smiles wolfishly
and waits without moving. He’s offering himself to me. I know
that. And it is against his better judgment. He has told me that, as
well. Yet here he is, on his knees in front of me.
I suck in a breath and
inhale the air that is so charged with everything that Luca is.
Whatever that is.
It is dangerous on
many levels. I know that.
I reach out unsure
fingers and trace the top of his shoulders, moving over the contours.
They are so broad, yet so slender at once. He’s perfectly built.
Strong, lithe and powerful. I drop my head. I know that I don’t
want to resist him anymore. For the first time in my life, I’m going to
do something that my heart wants to do, not what my head tells me to do.
I grip him tighter
with my fingers and pull him to me. He folds in between my knees,
pressing me to his chest. I can hear his heart thumping rhythmically
against mine as my fingers linger on his warm back.
He dips his head and
presses his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. His are a smoldering
and stormy black.
“I’m afraid to get
close to you,” he tells me. “I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not,” I
whisper. “I’m not afraid of you. Kiss me, Luca.”
Even I can hear the
thick desire in my voice and Luca hears it too.
He groans and covers
my mouth with his own, muffling the sound with my lips. He is pressed so
close that he seems to absorb me. Every plane of his body is against
every plane of mine. I don’t know where he stops and where I start, but
it doesn’t matter. All that matters is him and me and this.
*
* *
That scene
continues on to become quite steamy.
Seriously, I had a fan on my desk for writing moments like those. Haha.
I’m just kidding. Or am I?
Of
Blood and Bone
is the first book in new trilogy, The Minaldi Legacy. It is available here
on
Amazon and here
on Barnes and Noble.com
Check it out and
see why people are saying, “Holy moly!
I’ve never seen Courtney Cole like that!!”
I really hope
that when you do, you’ll like what you see.
J
Giveaway!
Swag Packs that includes a $10 Amazon gift card, a t-shirt, as well as misc. Courtney Cole swag. Open to US/Canada. Giveaway ends 10/6/2012.
a Rafflecopter giveaway