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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Alpha Male Diner: Wizard Prince Recipe by Mary Hughes + review + giveaway

Welcome to the Alpha Male Diner. Gabriel’s panther familiar, lean, black-haired, golden-eyed Pan, will park your Lambo for you. Right this way! Your salad is chilled, your wine is sparkling, and your food sizzling hot—enough to melt your insides. My name is Mary, and I’ll be your server tonight.

Gabriel Light (Wizard Prince)
Recipe created by Mary Hughes 
Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon, book 2)

Ingredients:
-Six feet five inches of royal wizard
-Plain glass spectacles, behind which are spectacular, star-shot green-blue eyes, like the moon sparkling off a Grecian sea
-Power over earth, wind, water, and fire
-A resourceful, brilliant mind

Seasoning:
- The honed, deadly reflexes of a battle mage
-A dry sense of humor
-A deep reservoir of self-control
-Magically charged kisses...and more than kisses ;)

Mix all ingredients and add:
-Confidence
-A steadfast heart
-World-shattering, taboo attraction
-High-stakes action

Taste Test

Excerpt: 
Owner of the Choice Buy store in Michigan, wizard prince Gabriel Light sees his employee, wolf shifter Emma Singer, fall off a tall ladder. He’s just managed to catch her and set her on her feet when her angry pack alpha shows up. 

Bzz-bzzt. A buzz like an angry hornet stung wizard prince Gabriel Light’s ears the moment the predator slunk into the store. 

Cap’n Crunch me. Gabriel had magically alarmed the door for just such an event, but why now, when he’d finally gotten a semi-innocent excuse to wrap his arms around this warm bundle of soft, sweet-smelling heaven? 

Emma. It felt like he’d been dying to hold her forever. Now, with her in his arms, was the first time in months he could breathe. 

But that buzzing alarm told him the approaching beast was male, a wolf shifter, and, from that level of sting, Emma’s alpha. The beast was not going to appreciate seeing her in another man’s arms. 

She started trembling, no doubt in response to the alpha’s rampant fight-club stench, a musk even Gabriel could smell. He tried to ease her tension with a joke. 

“Hey, Emma. How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?” 

She skewered him with a disbelieving stare, icing his flesh. He’d blundered, she didn’t understand he was trying to comfort her, nobody gets my skewed sense of humor… Then she gulped and said, “Eight? Like, um, eight legs?” 

Immediately his world brightened. “Nope. Ten tickles. Get it? Tentacles?” 

She managed a tiny laugh, tinkling bells to his ears, and her body relaxed slightly under his arms. “That was such a dad joke.” 

He loved that she, of all the people he knew, actually laughed at his jokes. He smiled into her eyes like a besotted fool. 

Of course, that was when the he-wolf prowled into view. 

Gabriel wondered how far he could get with the wolf by protesting his intentions were honorable. Probably not far. The creature was only barely in human form. 

The wolfman was medium height but had a face like a dented shovel and a body like a trash compactor, his muscles-on-muscles popping in a stringy T-shirt that barely qualified past no-shirt-no-shoes-no-service.
 

Worse, with the hair sprouting everywhere, nose elongating like a snout, and lengthening canines, this alpha was dangerously pissed. 

Hard to reason with a pissed-off wolf. They tended to bite first then ask questions…never. 

Yet instead of releasing Emma, Gabriel’s hand dropped from her clenched jaw to open protectively on her back. 

“The fuck?” the wolfman snarled. 

Something inside Gabriel snarled right back. 


Mind Mates (Pull of the Moon Book 2)
by Mary Hughes
August 23, 2016
329 pages
Pretty little shifter, wizard prince—their taboo love could burn the barriers between worlds.

Shifter Emma Singer has more problems than she can shake her pretty little wolf tail at. Her heirloom journal is missing, her pack alpha wants her for his harem, and her family plans to sell her to him. Even her wicked little crush on her hot boss is doomed—why would six-and-a-half feet of handsome royal wizard want a boring, good-girl iota shifter like her? Not to mention her only power is going berserker—that's a real relation-shipwreck!

Gabriel Light is a wizard prince who turned his back on his exceptional powers after he was accused of causing his parents' death. Now he pours his intellect into his tech business, and hides his naughty, forbidden lust for his pretty shifter clerk. But when his sister is imprisoned, and Emma is kidnapped, it's time for this alpha geek-wizard to decloak with all laser cannons blazing. Only one problem—how can he be sure Emma won’t get caught in the crossfire?

Then Gabriel and Emma stumble on hidden magic, a key to power beyond imagining—if they can stay alive long enough to use it. But if Emma unleashes her berserker wolf on their enemies, can Gabriel draw her back from the brink before she destroys everyone in her path?

Warning: Contains a hot wizard prince panting to bring out a good-girl shifter's naughty side. Accidental voyeurism, deliberate orgasms, a jealous rival wizard, and fun with prophecy.



Review
Iota wolf shifter Emma Singer is accustomed to second string. She’s learned to take the lead from others as her station in pack life dictates. And so, from afar she pines after her boss “alpha geek” Dr. Gabriel Singer. Unbeknownst to Emma, Singer is a wizard prince in addition to the owner of Choice Buy. Singer, an extremely powerful witch, knows exactly what Emma is and he also knows exactly what the penalty for a shifter-witch match would be. Death.

This is a quirky, whimsical little love story. It’s imaginative, well written, well crafted. I enjoyed the latter portion of the book with its intense action and character development. I especially enjoy Hughes’ food description; it’s vivid and sensual. Unfortunately, the characters just weren’t my thing. Emma’s character is built on her weakness, and while this is an excellent format to build and strengthen a character through the course of the story, her stuttering, neediness, and lack of confidence was a bit of a chore for me to read. Gabriel wears sweater vests … constantly. While this may appeal to some, I just can’t get behind the passionate ripping off of a sweater vest. Gabriel is kind and considerate, which is lovely and tender, but again not a quality I like in my alphas. Call me dysfunctional, I know, but a guy who uses expletives such as “crunchberry crap” and “bacon-fried damn” doesn’t earn this reviewer’s ardour.

If you like your romance sweet and sensual, Mind Mates is your book.


3 ½ sheep





Bianca Greenwood

About the Author:
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As a girl, Mary Hughes spun romantic, happily-ever-after stories to get to sleep. A husband, family, two degrees and a blackbelt later, she's delighted to spin them for readers.

She's lived with love and loss, in bright times and dark, and learned we can all use a break from reality every now and then.

So join her for action, sparkling wit and red-hot love. Strong men. Stronger women.

GIVEAWAY
5 grand prize winners will receive a $10 Amazon Gift Card. 
5 runner-ups will receive an eBook of choice from Mary’s 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

3 comments:

  1. Thanks to Bianca and I Smell Sheep for hosting my tour today, and the lovely review!! I had so much serving everybody my wizard prince recipe! Bianca, you should meet my vampires! I think you'd like Spartan Nikos :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Mary! I will definitely check out your vampires. Adding to my TBR list now ;)

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