Madeline Sheehan

Enter the rafflecopter at the bottom of the post to win your choice of any one of Madelines books.
You must be 18+ to enter this contest, this contest is open internationally. 
  Madeline Sheehan, a Social Distortion enthusiast and devoted fan of body art, has been writing books since she was seven years old. She is the author of The Holy Trinity ebook trilogy and Best Selling Novel, Undeniable. Homegrown in Buffalo, New York, Madeline resides there with her husband and son. "I'm half out of my mind in love with life, the good, the bad, it's all worth it just to see another day."
Links: Madeline Sheehan Goodreads Twitter









Interview with Madeline:

1. Undeniable is in my top 10 books of last year, it was truly a fantastic read. When you were writing it, were you expecting it to be as big a hit as it was? Has the response of your readers shocked you?

No way!  I never thought such a controversial book would blow up the way it did.  The response was overwhelming (and awesome).

2. Deuce and Eva's story is probably going to stay with me forever, I felt truly attached to them by the end  (thank you, thank you!) When you started writing their book were the characters all fully formed? I ask this because they seem so very real, where did you get your inspiration for them?

Deuce was Deuce from the get go.  I played around with other characters, developing them as I wrote the story.  My characters are usually a hodge-podge of people I know/known, always a little bit of myself and my wild and crazy imagination. 

3.  The Holy Trinity trilogy is a post apocalyptic and paranormal series, what is it about these two genres that drew you enough to write a story in them?

The Romani people (Gypsies) and Motorcycles Clubs are two very intriguing and secretive subcultures that I find immensely interesting.  The fact that one cannot know truly what goes on inside them unless they are a part of them is fascinating to me. It allows for some fun research and the ability to let my imagination run wild.

4. Your bio says that you are a fan of body art, what type of body art?

I love tattoo's and piercings.  LOVE.

5. Do you have any, would you care to share any stories behind them if you do?

Sure.  One of the few piercings I still wear is in my left nostril which awesomely enough was my first piercing and I did it myself when I was thirteen, in my bathroom with a sewing needle.

6. What book have read this year so far that is your favorite?

Sadly, the only book I've read this year was "Rapture" (A Fallen Angels Novel) by J.R. Ward.  But I adore anything she write so more than likely nothing else I read this year will compare except for her next BDB Novel, "Lover at Last" coming out in March.

7. I loved your book Undeniable, it took me several revisions and multiple hours to write a review for it that actually made sense, the book was emotionally exhausting in the best of ways, are there any books that you have read that have made you feel the same way?

Anna Karenina by Tolstoy most definitely took me on a roller coaster of emotions and so does every book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series.

8.  Favorite thing to wear while you are writing a book?

Sweats, hoodie, and big furry boot slippers.  :-)


Books:
Undeniable Series

Warning: This is not a typical love story. This is an all-consuming, soul-crushing, tear-your-heart-into-pieces story. It’s intense, gritty and raw, dark and disturbing, and it doesn’t happen overnight. This is an epic love story that knows no boundaries and has no time limits. It grows and develops—with hurt, sacrifice, and heartache—over the span of a lifetime. Eva Fox is the princess of the Silver Demons Motorcycle Club. Growing up with bikers in the club lifestyle is all that she knows. When she’s a young girl, Eva meets the reason for her existence. Deuce West is the sexy, biker bad-ass of the Hell’s Horsemen Motorcycle Club. Like Eva, he was born and raised in the club—but that’s where the similarities end. Their first meeting is innocent, but as Eva matures into a woman, their chance reunions evolve into a fit of lust and love. Fate continues to bring them together time and time again, but their twisted journey is filled with pain, betrayal, and bloodshed that could tear them apart. Eva sees in Deuce what he cannot see in himself—a man worthy of love—and Eva spends her lifetime proving to him that her undeniable love is the one thing he can’t live without. This is Eva and Deuce’s story. It wasn’t easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. And love is worth everything.  

*Warning: This book contains several aspects of the uglier side of life; it is not for everyone.* The story of Ripper and Danny. The first time I fell in love it was with a pair of blue eyes and a wide dimpled grin. “Your old man loves ya, Danny girl,” He whispered. “You never ever forget that, yeah?” I never did. And I never thought I could ever love any man as much as I loved my father. But as we grow, we change, we begin to make our own decisions and thus become independent and self sufficient and start turning away from our parents and turning to others. We form friendships, strong bonds and ties and begin experiencing life outside of the bubble we grew up inside of. And we fall in love…a second time. The second time I fell in love it was with a badly scarred face, the stuff of nightmares; the sort of disfigurement that mothers steer their children away from. Ugly, jagged slashes marred the skin from the top of his skull, down over his right eye, an eye that had been dug out of his face with a serrated blade. The scars continued across his cheek, over his lips and down his neck, ending at the top of his shoulder. His chest was a hundred times worse; scar tissue as far as the eye could see. “Baby,” He said gruffly, “Man like me got no business with a girl like you. You’re nothin’ but fuckin’ beauty and I’m a whole lot of fuckin’ ugly who’s already halfway to hell.” But he was wrong. Everything has beauty. Even the ugly. Especially the ugly. Because without ugly there would be no beauty. Because without beauty we would not survive our pain, our sorrow, and our suffering. And in the world I lived in, the world he lived in, a secret world within the world, a world of of constant crime and cruel, cold, death, there was almost nothing but suffering. “You may not be beautiful the way you were before,” I whispered, cupping his ruined cheek. “But you’re still beautiful. To me.”

 

The Holy Trinity:

 

Trinity had an ordinary life. That is, until she barely escaped a worldwide apocalyptic plague that took her loved ones from her and transformed most of humanity into flesh-eating monsters. Gerik, her savior, a six-foot-four-inch Scandinavian Gypsy, takes her back to his magically protected Gypsy camp where she discovers a whole new way of life that she never knew existed – as well as a whole new set of problems. Gerik has power over her that she cannot begin to understand, and she is convinced he is using his magic on her. Through her journey of trying to understand her feelings and this new magic-filled life she’s been brought into, she begins an unlikely friendship that grows into having potential to be something more. While the remaining humans are fighting for their survival, Trinity is fighting a battle of her very own – the right to choose her own destiny. Is Gerik’s hold on her too strong? Or can new love set her free?

The second book in the Holy Trinity Trilogy: When Trinity escaped a worldwide apocalyptic plague in the arms of Gerik, a Scandinavian Gypsy, she never imagined they would be soul mates . . . or what that even meant. Xan showed Trinity that love could save her from the seemingly unbreakable ties she had to Gerik . . . or so she thought. After a brutal attack on camp and being abandoned outside of the wards, Trinity, now possessing her own - and very unstable - magical powers, is left to her own devices surrounded by Skin Eaters and all other dangers of the unknown. Now, Trinity is alone. Having no idea where her husband, her soul mate, or the Popa Clan are, Trinity is forced to discover her powers on her own. On a journey full of self-discovery, chance encounters, unwelcome news, and enlightenment, Trinity is fighting for survival in a world where the only thing certain is death.











The third and final book in the Holy Trinity Trilogy. After a long separation, Xan has finally found Trinity, only Trinity...has changed. Between Dark Magic, her time alone spent fighting for her life and the brutal loss of her soulmate Gerik, Xan's once sweet and innocent wife is no more. As the estranged couple try to fight their way through numerous betrayals and heartache back to one another, a storm is brewing off in the distance. One that will re-connect them both with the friends and family they lost... And quite possibly kill them all...

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Post by: 

Forged In Grace

Enter the rafflecopter at the bottom of the post to win an e-book copy of Forged in Grace. Contest open internationally

Links: Goodreads Amazon

Forged in Grace by Jordan E. Rosenfeld
Publication date: February, 2013
Genre: Psychological Suspense (Adult w/ YA and NA crossover appeal)
Grace Jensen survived a horrific fire at age 15. The flames changed her: badly scarred in body and mind, Grace developed an ability to feel other people’s pain. Unable to bear human touch, she has made a small life for herself in Northern California, living with her hoarder mother, tending wounded animals, and falling a little in love with her former doctor. Her safe world explodes when the magnetic Marly Kennet reappears in town; Grace falls right back into the dynamic of their complicated friendship. Marly is the holder of many secrets, including one that has haunted Grace for over a decade: what really happened the night of the fire? When Marly exhorts Grace to join her in Las Vegas, to make up for the years they have been lost to each other, Grace takes a leap of faith and goes. Although Marly is not entirely honest about her intentions, neither woman anticipates that enlarging Grace’s world will magnify her ability to sense the suffering of others—or that she will begin to heal wounds by swallowing her own pain and laying her hands on the afflicted. This gift soon turns darker when the truth of Marly’s life—and the real reason she ended her friendship with Grace—pushes the boundaries of loyalty and exposes both women to danger.

 

Excerpt:

From Chapter 7
Marly’s shriek of alarm wakes me. I am alone in her bed, still in my clothes. On her night table sits the bowl I cleaned her face with, the bloody water now a murky brown. Marly shrieks again, the sound coming from the bathroom. My leap is so fast that the skin of my right leg stretches painfully in indignation. In the bathroom she is turned sideways inspecting herself in the mirror.
“Don’t look. It makes it hurt worse when you look.” I know exactly what it’s like to wake up totally changed from your former self. I can remember Adam as a young resident in training, holding a mirror tilted upward at a careful angle so that all I could see in it were the tiny pinhole dots of ceiling tiles—a galaxy of symmetry. Thirteen years before I raised that mirror with terror, bits coming into view as foreign as if I had stepped off the plane onto Mars. There was no me in this view, only raised, raw, red mounds of flesh. Chewed, ruined, scourged, masticated, swollen, raw.
“What did you do to me?” she says now in a tight, low voice.
Why didn’t I call 911 and make them take her to the emergency room? What kind of a friend am I? “I’m so sorry Marly. I just didn’t want to fight you…”
Slowly she pivots toward me.
“That’s…not…possible,” I say when I see her.
No bruises. No swelling. No traces of blood. Her few chicken pox scars are gone and her skin is truly glowing. I am grateful to have so few hair follicles, for those remaining are all standing painfully on end. Marly walks toward me and I have the urge to back away, like she has been made undead.
“You healed me, Grace.” Marly’s eyes are wide and bright. They unnerve me.
“That’s ridiculous.” My voice is a barely audible whisper. “That’s impossible.”
“Grace, I’ve read about this type of thing. Marly runs her hands across her face. “I looked like Mike Tyson’s handiwork last night. There is a bowl of bloody water by my bedside, so you can’t tell me it wasn’t real.” She runs a finger down her smooth cheek. “You have a gift, Grace.” She sounds euphoric, like she is about to fall at my feet and kiss the hem of my skirt.
I’m not saying it’s possible but…How? Why now?”
The top of her head seems to grow taller with the widening of her eyes. “What do you mean ‘why now!’ Grace, you always…always saved my ass.” She bows her head, and I have a bright and unwelcome flash of memory: Marly in a yellow dress, smeared with blood. “You’ve never tried until now, have you?”
I stare at her, forming a protest. Of course not! Touch is painful to me. I close my eyes, rest my palms against my cheeks, and take a deep breath, wondering if I’ll feel that serpent-like energy again.
Marly circles her right wrist with the fingers of her left hand with a suddenly wistful expression. “Oh,” she says softly. “It’s gone.”
“What?”
She looks up at me with ocean-dark eyes. “Oh…it’s stupid.”
“Well now I want to know for sure.”
“I had a scar from the fire.” She sounds afraid of what I’ll say.
“I always wondered if you had any, if you were burned.” A laugh, slightly hysterical, wants to escape but I bite it back.
She keeps rubbing the skin, as though burnishing a piece of silver. “It was a part of me I was used to. But it’s gone now.”
There’s something more under the surface that I can’t read, but I’m so shaken by what’s happened I can’t begin to sort out her unspoken feelings, too.
I stand there for several minutes, breathing in and breathing out, trying to clear my mind. If I could, if I did remove Marly’s scars, what could I do for my own body? I hold an image of my cheeks as they were before…smooth and freckled, my eyelashes long and reddish-blonde. I’d thought myself plain, especially in comparison to Marly. Now, I’d consider myself a supermodel to look that way again. Foolish as I feel, I place my hands on my face. After what must be ten minutes I feel something—the strain of holding my hands up to my face. My shoulders ache and I drop them with a sigh.
Marly looks at me, hopeful.
“Nothing.”
“It was real,” she says, “what happened. You can do it again.”
Her certainty makes me uncomfortable. I want to put our feet back in the real world. “Whatever happened, you do realize we have no proof now that Loser attacked you. There’s nothing to take to the police.”

Jordan E. Rosenfeld learned early on that people prefer a storyteller to a know-it-all. She channeled any Hermione-esque tendencies into a career as a writing coach, editor and freelance journalist and saves the Tall Tales for her novels. She earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the author of the books, Make A Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time (Writer’s Digest Books) and Write Free! Attracting the Creative Life with Rebecca Lawton (BeijaFlor Books). Jordan’s essays and articles have appeared in such publications asAlterNet.org, Publisher’s Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The St. Petersburg Times, The Writer and Writer’s Digest magazine. Her book commentaries have appeared on The California Report, a news-magazine produced by NPR-affiliate KQED radio. She lives in Northern California with her Batman-obsessed son and Psychologist husband. www.jordanrosenfeld.net 
Links: Website  Goodreads  Twitter

   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Post by:

Beyond Control 18+

The following review is for 18+ readers.

She refuses to be owned.
Alexa Parrino escaped a life of servitude and survived danger on the streets to become one of the most trusted, influential people in Sector Four, where the O’Kanes rule with a hedonistic but iron fist. Lex has been at the top for years, and there’s almost nothing she wouldn’t do for the gang…and for its leader. Lie, steal, kill—but she bows to no one, not even Dallas O’Kane.
He’ll settle for nothing less.
Dallas fought long and hard to carve a slice of order out of the chaos of the sectors. Dangers both large and small threaten his people, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. His liquor business is flourishing, and new opportunities fuel his ambition. Lex could help him expand his empire, something he wants almost as much as he wants her. And no one says no to the king of Sector Four.
Falling into bed is easy, but their sexual games are anything but casual. Attraction quickly turns to obsession, and their careful dance of heady dominance and sweet submission uncovers a need so deep, so strong, it could crush them both

Review

****NetGalley provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****

"I can't do this without you. I can't be Dallas without Lex."

Another exciting instalment in Beyond series by Kit Rocha.
In this world gone wrong, the Sectors are not a nice place to grow up. Declan "Dallas" O'Kane is the King of Sector Four. He has a fierce need to protect what is his, there is not a thing he can't control and look after...well maybe one thing.
Alexa Parrino.
A desperately, passionate affair ensues throughout this book between a man used to controlling everything in his domain and a woman who refuses to be a possession to anyone.
I have been absolutely dying to get my hands on Lex and Dallas's story since I finished the last page of Beyond Shame on September 21st 2012. I have just finished this one and I am already itching to get my hands on the next one!
Kit Rocha has done a fabulous job of building a dark, raunchy futuristic world and making it work as an erotic book.
Sexy as hell, this book will not disappoint you in the steam department. In the Sectors where sexual freedom is something that is celebrated, the O'Kanes sure know how to "party"! Bloody, violent, dirty, sweaty and sexy!
This is not just a one dimensional love story, or erotic book.
The Futuristic dystopian world sucks you in with its sectors battling for power. The author paints a bleak picture of society and what happens when we are stripped down to our baser instincts of survival.
In saying all that though this is still a love story, passionate and full of angst. When feelings finally get out in the open they are touching, tender and sincere. I was blown away by Dallas and Lex, I am however a sucker for when the big, tough men fall.

"I'll be any man you want. A king or a beggar or a farmer or a killer. But I'll never be the man who can let you walk away."

All in all I am completely satisfied with this book. I got more of O'Kanes and not just the main characters, the POV's are shared between many of the gang members, each with their different personalities and stories, I felt a deeper connection to them all because of this. They all touched my heart and I will be waiting for their books longingly. I got more of the dark, gritty world that I came to love in the first one with their, tattoos, cage fighting and raunchy parties. I got more of Kit Rocha's fabulous writing.
I am now at a loss as what I am going to do until the next one comes out ....Six and Bren... their story is going to be awesome.
5 sexy, steamy, dirty, fun loving stars!

Post by: