Book Review: Edge of Darkness (Dark Saga #27.5) by Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne,Lori Herter

Edge of Darkness (Dark Saga #27.5)
by Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne,Lori Herter
August 4, 2015
by Jove

Paperback, 400 pages

ISBN: 9780515156218

ASIN: B00QH832HW
Take an all-new excursion in the world of the Carpathians from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan—joined here by Maggie Shayne and Lori Herter, two other masters of vampire romance in an original anthology that takes dark fantasy to rapturous new heights.

Dark Crime by Christine Feehan
Blaze knows who killed her father and she has merciless plans for payback. Until a phone call from a seductive stranger pleads with her to wait. Retribution is in his blood, too. Now, he and Blaze will be united in the blood of the guilty. Tonight, vengeance is theirs.

Dead by Twilight by Maggie Shayne
Bloodsuckers may be an accepted minority but one of them is getting away with murder. Until a female vamp teams with a mortal detective to end the killing spree. Now the night belongs to them—and so does every pleasure and danger lurking in the shadows.

Cimarron Spirit by Lori Herter
While excavating an Anasazi ruin, archeologist Annie Carmichael uncovers the resting place of a centuries-old vampire who finds in Annie the liberating mate he has longed for. But how much is Annie expected—or willing—to surrender for the man she now desires?

An anthology with three novellas by paranormal romance authors, Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne and Lori Herter is about vampires. My favorite of the three is Maggie Shayne’s, with Christine Feehan’s a close second and Lori Herter’s last.

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Christine Feehan’s tale concerns another of her Carpathian heroes who finds his soul mate just by the sound of her voice over the phone. For though she is not like him, she is psychic. Blaze lost her father when some mobsters kill him and is about to give her life by paying them back. But their boss is more than some crime boss—he is not human. And he is being hunted by two Carpathians. Blaze will join him, in taking down the vampires in her town, but also in passion of the heart.

The second novella by Maggie Shayne begins when a young woman, Chloe returns from prom night where she was one of the princesses of the Prom court to find her parents murdered and drained of their blood. Attacked by the vampire who did them in, she is bitten and almost drained, but not all, so she is turned, because the vampire has watched her all her life and waited for her to grown up so he can have his mate. Instead, she kills him and bolts. The second chapter begins with her life as a cop years later and with a handle on being a vampire. Like only drinking blood from the blood bank, and working nights. Then murders begin in her town that smell of vampire and she joins a mortal detective in solving the crimes and stopping the fiend. She also feels an attraction for the man.

The last novella has archeologist Annie Carmichael allowed to excavate an Anasazi ruin on a rancher’s land and what she uncovers is a resting place for a vampire. She becomes attracted to him, but the problem is his immortality and her humanity. Plus the rancher, Brent Logan has asked her to marry him. Annie learns more about Rafael and she falls for him as he falls in love with her.

All three tales bring sensual passion and happily ever after to new thrilling heights.

I give Edge of Darkness 4 vampire sheep

Pamela K. Kinney

Interview: Maggie Shayne (Twilight Guardians Book Tour) + giveaway

Welcome to I Smell Sheep! Have a seat in the guest chair…ignore the wires they mean nothing…moving on! 

Sharon: I haven’t read your Wings in the Night series. Would you tell us a bit about it?
Maggie: Wings in the Night began in 1992 before “paranormal romance” was even a genre. Twilight Phantasies had been bubbling around in my sub-conscious for years. Probably ever since my childhood vampire flick addiction and my troubling feeling that the wrong guy always got the girl while the vampire always ended up dead. I was always on the vamp’s side. In adulthood, I got to set things straight. That first book was published by Silhouette Shadows. Later ones, by MIRA. There were 20 titles in that series, but with Wings in the Night: Reborn we are telling new readers “You may begin here.” 

Check out some of the original covers!

Donna: I read in one of your blog posts that you’ve started stepping back from traditional publishing to go indie. Was this a very hard choice? By the way, I loved your analogy of going from an ocean liner to a speedboat.
Maggie: I’ve left traditional publishing entirely. And it was a terrifying choice. I have two more books left in the pipeline coming out from Harlequin MIRA: INNOCENT PREY and DEADLY OBSESSION, in my thriller series, Brown and de Luca. They will be my 59th and 60th full length, traditionally published novels. After publishing several of my backlist titles when their rights reverted to me, I realized I could do this myself, and maybe do it better. But it was a terrifying choice. A true leap of faith. 

Sharon: What were some of your favorite childhood games?
Maggie: Barbie and GI Joe having dangerous, exciting “Romancing the Stone” adventures in the jungles of my backyard. (She always preferred GI Joe to Ken.) 

photo credit

Donna: You’re very open about your belief system and being a practicing Witch. What’s the craziest question you get asked about it?
Maggie: I’ve had everything from “Could you please curse my ex?” (We don’t do that) to “Why do you sacrifice small animals?” (We don’t do that either.) Wicca’s only commandment is that harm none. It’s a path of being attuned to nature and completely aware that we are creating our own reality. Even the people espousing the currently popular Law of Attraction don’t realize that it’s what Wicca has always been about. 

Sharon: How has becoming a writer changed your life?
Maggie: It empowered me, gave me confidence, supported me and my family, and it has fulfilled me spiritually by allowing me to live my life’s purpose completely and joyfully. 

Donna: You’ve built quite a career and written a lot of books. If you had to pick only one book to represent you, which would it be and why?
Maggie: Each story is a snapshot of who and what and where I was in my life at the time I wrote it. Each one represents a three or four or five month period of my life, in fact. Right now, TWILIGHT GUARDIANS would be the most accurate depiction. Although my heroine, Charlie, is only 20, this book is her stepping into her own power and claiming her own independence, and she does it in spades. In way, that’s exactly where I am and have been while writing it. Stepping out of the place where anyone gets any say in my stories and into the place where it’s all me.
Sharon: dang…great question Donna *high fives Donna*
Maggie: It really was a great question. I hadn’t seen that parallel myself until I answered it.

Sharon: If you had to pick a dinner to represent you what would be served? 
Maggie: Pizza. Cause to me pizza is sheer fun, and that’s what I’m about. Having as much fun as possible in the time allowed.

Donna: You used to write for soap operas? Was it a lot of fun being able to watch your words come to life everyday?
Maggie: You know, the executives asked me that after I’d been writing story arcs for a whole year. And I was shocked, because I had been watching, and had not realized they’d used anything I had written. When they insisted they had, I didn’t believe them. Then I attended a story meeting in person and understood. The writer’s story goes from one executive to another. Each one removes something or changes something or adds something, until, in the end, the story ends up looking just like the stories you’ve been seeing on the soaps for decades, and the original stuff from the writer has been snuffed out. It was an enlightening and lucrative experience. It was not fun. I was offered the job of co-head writer of Guiding Light and 7 figures. I turned it down. (I cried about it, but I turned it down.)

Sharon: If you could own any piece of art in the world which would you pick? 

Maggie: The Magic Circle, John Waterhouse. I have a canvas print, but I’d love the original.

Rapid Fire: 

Sharon: giggle or snort?
Maggie: Snort.

Donna: Witches or cowboys?
Maggie: Both. I wrote entire cowboy series, including one story with a Witch.

photo credit

Sharon: mountains or beaches?
Maggie: Mountains

Donna: Dawn or dusk? 
Maggie: Dawn

Sharon: lace or leather?
Maggie: Leather

Donna: Twenties or thirties?
Maggie: Age is just a number.

Sharon: action hero or romance hero?
Maggie: Romance heroes ARE action heroes.

Donna: Ereader or hard copy?
Maggie: Ereader for fiction. Hard for non-fiction.

Sharon: look at your watch or look at your phone?
Maggie: Phone

Donna: Chess or checkers?
Maggie: Checkers

Sharon: snow cones or cotton candy?
Maggie: Cotton Candy

Twilight Guardians

WINGS IN THE NIGHT: REBORN, Book 1

Print Length: 400 pages

Publisher: Thunderfoot Publishing

ASIN: B00LXJGKLU

COMING: SEPTEMBER 1, 2014

Add the book to your GoodReads Shelf

Discounted price Pre-Order ($2.00 off regular price!):

Amazon US / Amazon UK / Amazon Ca

"My inspiration has always been Maggie Shayne's Wings in the Night." #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Christine Feehan

They told 20-year-old Charlie O’Malley that they had a cure for the rare blood condition that would eventually kill her–an untested, experimental cure. All they wanted in return was for her to join their elite military team and train to kill the Undead.

She took the deal, not because she cared so much about extending her life, but because it would make her strong–stronger than ordinary humans. Strong enough to kill the vampire who’d pretended to love her, taken her blood, used her body, and murdered her mother.

Killion was the last of his kind, or so he thought. When he found Charlie, he felt the pull. She had the rare Belladonna Antigen all vampires had as humans. Vampires were compelled to protect those rare mortals they called The Chosen. But with Charlie, the bond was different, more powerful than anything he’s felt before, and impossible to resist, even though surrendering to it will probably get him killed.

Ancient vampire elders Rhiannon and Roland come out of exile, risking their lives to help their mortal friend Roxy reclaim her granddaughter. But before the tale ends, their lives will be forever changed.

Join Maggie Shayne as she returns to her most beloved series of all time with this new beginning….

Wings in the Night: Reborn

About The Author:
Website / Mailing List / Facebook 
Twitter / Amazon Author Page 
GoodReads

Maggie Shayne is best known as the New York Times bestselling author of more than 50 novels, nearly 30 novellas, a former soap writer, (The Guiding Light, As the World Turns,) a former advice columnist (Shayne on You,) and RITA Award winner. But what’s less known about her is that she’s been a practicing Witch for almost as long as she’s been a published author.

Known within the Craft of the Wise as LadyHawk the Mythmaker, Maggie studied in the Black Forest Circle Seminary for three years, earning her 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree elevations there. A licensed minister of Wicca, Maggie was later made a Craft Elder, and co-founded a new Wiccan tradition called RavenMyst Circle. Her coven, The Coven of the Redtail Hawk, turned out five new high priestesses, several of whom went on to form covens of their own, and making Maggie, according to the Old Ways, A Witch Queen.

Maggie has published westerns, category romances, romantic suspense, paranormal romances, urban fantasy, women's fiction, and just about everything in between. She's a winner of the RITA Award, the romance fiction industry's most prestigious prize, and has won countless others including several RT BOOK RREVIEWS "Reviewer's Choice" Awards, two RT Career Achievement Awards, the Daphne du Maurier Award, The Golden Leaf Award and numerous others.

Maggie's "Twilight" series of vampire novels, officially known as Wings in the Night, began in 1993 with TWILIGHT PHANTASIES from Silhouette Shadows. The series concluded with TWILIGHT FULFILLED in October 2011, but has come back to life now that she has gone indie.

Follow Wings in the Night online at:

Website / Facebook / Twitter

GIVEAWAY:

Maggie is offering up a $100 Amazon Giftcard to a lucky grand-prize winner at the end of the tour, a Runner-Up prize of a new Kindle, PLUS an eCopy of Twilight Guardians for a
random commenter at each Tour Stop.

Find the Rafflecopter for the Event here, follow the directions, take action, and mark as ‘Done’.

To see the complete list of tour stops so you can read some great Q&A’s, Interviews, Guest Posts and more check out the full Wings in the Night Reborn Celebration Tour Schedule HERE.

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