Friday, March 22, 2013

Giveaway and Review: Eternal Lovers by Virginia Nelson

Title: Eternal Lovers
Author: V.S. Nelson
Series: Sekhmet’s Series Book 1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Self Published
Release Date: January 5, 2013
Formats: Paperback/Large Print Paperback/E~Books

Synopsis:
Sekhmet’s Guardians – Book One - Eternal Lovers
A multi-plotted, cross-genre’ paranormal Romance
Within our modern society a parallel vampire world exists. Two factions of vampires have fought against one another since ancient times. Each faction started with seven men that were brought forth from the land of Tuat and taken to ancient Egypt, then transformed into what they remain, vampires. These fourteen are known as the Ancients. They are the makers and the fathers of the both sides of the vampire world we know today. The behavior of each side of the faction differs, but their purpose has remained the same; to eliminate the other from the Earth’s surface. 

Contrasts are essential and play a strong roll through the multiple points of view and plots that develop as the story is unveiled. Love vs hate, honor vs betrayal, strength vs weakness, virtue vs evil, and death vs birth are just a few of the contrasts that unfold in the first book in the Guardians Incorporated Saga.

Set’s Army, evil by nature, have no regard for the human race. They see mortals as nothing more than food that provides them with the blood they need to survive. They survive in order to fight the Guardians, who protect those of the Vampire Nation who live in harmony with the humans. Bagsu, the first of ancient vampire created by Set has led his legions for centuries.

Guardians Incorporated is a legitimate multi-billion dollar world wide protection agency that operates openly in the human world. They protect dignitaries, world leaders, rock legends, the rich and famous, and members of the Vampire Nation. The corporation was formed over a hundred years ago and is still run by the seven Ancient Guardians.  The leader of Guardians Incorporated is Gabriel. Since the loss of his first love Akhakh in ancient Egypt; Gabriel, a man of few words has become hard, cold, and distant from his emotions. 

Jennifer, a Native American married woman of twenty four, sets off on a short vacation to visit her best friend who is currently staying at a lake estate near Chicago.


Soon after arriving she realizes that she is becoming sexually drawn to two of the oversized gorgeous men that are guarding the estate. Unknown to her at the time, both men have fallen in love with her. Not wanting to break her wedding vows, she sets off on a surprise overnight trip to visit her husband, a studio musician, who is staying in a hotel in Hollywood. Unlocking the hotel door, Jennifer is surprised to find her husband is otherwise engaged. She finds him locked in the arms of another man. 

Her best friend and the two, who have fallen in love with her, have followed her to Hollywood with the intent of stopping her before she discovers her husband’s secret. 


They arrive moments too late. Jennifer is attacked by her husband’s lover, a half breed vampire. A fight breaks out between the Ancient Guardians and her husband’s lover.


 Jennifer falls into a catatonic state believed to be shock.  She is flown back to the estate just outside of Chicago. The guardian’s believe that when their physician removes the memories of what she has witnessed, she will regain consciousness. 

The guardian’s physician, Michael soon discovers that although Jennifer has the blood of a mortal, she has the brain function of an immortal. He is unable to remove her memories. After hours of research, they suspect that Jennifer is something other than a mere mortal. Compiling all the evidence, they have come to the conclusion that she is part Selkie.

 A small group of her friends travel to Jennifer’s home hoping to find an old photograph of her biological father that has his name on the back. Instead of finding the old picture that her friend saw years prior, they find Jennifer’s father, Ronan, in person. 


Ronan has been watching her from a distance since her birth. Ronan, after being informed of what has happened to his daughter, tells the group that he believes that Jennifer is not in shock. Like all Selkies, Jennifer has always possessed the ability to place her life essence in nearby animals. Rather than deal with what she witnessed, Ronan believes Jennifer jumped ship.  

The first attempt to locate an animal possessing Jennifer’s essence was futile.  It is discovered that the wolf she has raised since her early childhood possesses Jennifer’s essence. The group returns to the Chicago lake estate with Ronan and the wolf. They hope that by bringing the two together Jennifer will return to her own body.

Meanwhile, the rock band, The Immortals, arrive at Yankee Stadium for their New York performance.  When the helicopter descends in front of the stage it is hit by a firework’s mortar and all hell breaks loose. Several more mortars are fired onto the stage and into the massive crowds of spectators. In all the confusion, Kathleen, a lifemate of one of the band members is kidnapped by the soldiers of Set’s army. 

A national search for her is conducted by Guardians Incorporated; bulletins are posted on the World Wide Web and throughout the Vampire Nation. A phone call is received on the Guardian’s hot line from an unidentified caller. A male voice recites an address and hangs up. A well organized assault team from the Guardians New York office descends upon a rural farm house and discovers two, not one, lifemates being held prisoner. Kathleen is returned to her husband. The Immortals, after receiving injuries travel under the protection of G.I., to the lake estate just outside Chicago. 

At the lake estate Jennifer awakes in her own body to discover she is now living in a whole new world; her soon to be ex-husband is gay, she meets her father for the first time and her best friend lives in the world of vampires. Suddenly, Jennifer is forced to mature and accept who and what she is. Her Selkie half leads her to discover that she is in love with Gabriel, the leader of G.I., and a vampire. 

Gabriel is forced to confront his own repressed emotions.  He has fallen in love with the tiny half Selkie, Jennifer.  The passion and intimacy continue to rise between the two when it is discovered that Set’s forces are planning a full scale attack on the G.I. headquarters. Before Set’s army is able to implement their plan, assault teams led by the G.I. Ancients storm four of Set’s strongholds.

Gabriel is confronted by his old enemy Bagsu, one of Set’s Ancients, who he had previously killed.  Two hundred years ago Bagsu was turned to dust when Gabriel severed his head from his body. Mysteriously, the ancient along with three others have returned from oblivion.  Gabriel is critically injured in the confrontation with Bagsu. 

During the conflict several breed warriors are killed and more are injured. One man is missing and believed to have been taken prisoner by Set’s forces. 

Armstrong, now a prisoner of Bagsu and three other ancients, is being held captive in a house in Saint Paul. Enduring days of torture, he has revealed nothing to his enemy. He awakes no longer in the cell he has been in, but in a comfortable bed being hand fed blood by what he believes to be; a fellow soldier in arms. Bagsu felt that torturing Armstrong for the information he desired was a waste of time and tried a new approach. He has assigned Alan Roberts to befriend him in an attempt to extract the information.

 To regain the army’s strength, Bagsu divulges his plans.  He orders his soldiers to stand down and leave the Guardians alone for the time being. Recruiting additional soldiers has become the top priority. New recruits are to be targeted from U.S. military instillations. An order is implemented to abduct female civilian lifemates because their blood carries a strength giving substance.

Gabriel recovers and during an intimate setting discovers that Jennifer is the reincarnation of his beloved Akhakh. While things are quiet on the warfront he asks Jennifer to not only be his lifemate but to marry him in a traditional human ceremony. 

The guests and staff at the lake estate lend a hand to plan and execute a grand elaborate wedding ceremony. Two days later, Ronan walks his daughter down the isle in front of a crowd of over two hundred guests. They adjourn to their underground chamber after the wedding, where Jennifer at last becomes as his lifemate.
 

Author Bio:

V.S. Nelson has always enjoyed reading stories with strong relationships and happy endings so it’s not surprising she found herself writing across the romance genre. Even her commercial fiction, Sins of a Man, the memoirs of a Mafia Hit man, is layered with romantic elements.

Landing in Arizona, after an exciting teaching career, which took her to the Middle East for several years, she lives in Arizona where she spend most of my time making love to her computer while writing, editing or researching, seven to ten hours a day. The days she’s not writing, you will find her with my critique partners at Starbucks, attending or presenting a workshop or at a RWA meeting. 

Being a Native American woman and a Scorpio, she’s always had a fondness for history, mythology, the occult, and the unexplained events which have occurred on this world we call home. It was no wonder she found herself writing a paranormal series. 

She enjoys hearing from readers, fans and people with similar interests. They are more than welcome to contact her through her website http://www.authorvsnelson.com
Author Links
http://www.authorvsnelson.com
http://authorvsnelson.com/blog
http://www.facebook.com/pages/VSNelson/152633848161794
http://www.facebook.com/authorvsnelson
http://www.facebook.com/SekhmetsGuardians
http://arizonadreamin.wordpress.com/
Purchase Links
Eternal Lovers – Paperback -   http://tinyurl.com/b8ll29b
Eternal Lovers – Large Print - http://tinyurl.com/ae3u6lv
Eternal Lovers – Kindle -   http://tinyurl.com/amvlphl
 
EXCERPT:
Somewhere high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
“DROP THAT NET NOW!”
Jennifer froze with her hands clutching the handle of the trout sized fish net still in the water. Woops. She knew she was in trouble, again.
She was warned repeatedly not to use her special abilities in public. Since she wasn’t around anyone else she didn’t think she would get caught. Guess, taking that short cut with her go fishing task wasn’t such a great idea after all. As soon as she got to the creek, she laid her fishing pole against the base of a pine tree, picked up the net, and willed the nearby trout to enter. She was about to lift the now heavy net out of the water when her grandfather approached her from behind. 
She paused before turning around to face him, trying to think of a way she could explain her way out of this one. If she had just placed the pole in the water maybe it wouldn’t have looked so bad... but no, she was in a rush to finish her chores. Dumb move, Jennifer! 
“Gramps, I....”
 “Not a word,” her grandfather said, shutting her up. Glaring at her with narrowing eyes, he pointed towards the camp.
She tried to swallow the lump in her throat when it tightened with no luck, nodded then marched off in front of him towards the small camp. Her grandmother, the elderly medicine woman, was sitting by the campfire trying to keep warm when the two approached. 
“Chenoa, you’re going to have to do something with her. One of these days she is going to use her abilities in the wrong place, at the wrong time--then where will she be?” barked her grandfather. It was obvious to her he was disgusted with her actions and with her. He picked up his fishing pole and headed back to the stream to catch the small family’s dinner.
Her grandmother looked up, shaking her head. Jennifer stood, hands folded together in front of her, her head slightly bowed staring at the ground. “What did you do now, little one?”  

You can follow along the tour here:

Read Between The Lines  Mar 18
Confessions of The Paranormal Mar 18
A Writer's World   Mar 18
Intoxicated By Books Mar 19
My Reading Obsession Mar 19
Immortal Crimson Reviews Mar 20
Coffee Fueled Erotica Mar 20
The Many Muses of MaryLynn  Mar 21
Tamara's One Stop Indie Shop Mar 21
Nomi's Paranormal Palace Mar 21
4covert2overt in 33 Days Mar 22
Close Encounters With The Night Kind  Mar 22
Written In Blood Mar 23
Read 2 Review Mar 24
Vault Girl Mar 24

This book was fabulous!  The author has created a wonderfully new spin on the vampire genre and I must admit it sucked me in like there was no tomorrow.  I love fresh ideas and unusual plot spins and this book is chalked full.  It literally has a little something for all types of book lovers and will keep you entertained from start to finish.  This was my first taste of this authors world but I am already hungry for more!!  A sheer delight for all paranormal romance lovers and a must read!
And guess what?  You have a chance to win your own copy!  Just fill out the rafflecopter below!  Good Luck!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Nikki, thank you for the pleasure of being on your blog today. I love your site!!!! I'll be sure to check in a little later to see if any of your readers have any questions for me. V

Beautiful Disaster said...

Awesome review :) Interesting and new author and the book sounds great. I will be adding book to TBR stacks. I have been fascinated by Native Americans and their culture. My maternal grandfather is 1/2 Cherokee. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Thank you Beautiful Disaster - looking forward to hearing how you liked it. Happy reading and good luck in the drawing.

Unknown said...

Wow this was a great review and I'm hoping I win so I can read this book because I need a new paranormal to read and this is right up my reading line!!!

Thank you for the chance to win and Congrat on your book tour and book!!!

angelalove@uwmail.com

Unknown said...

Good luck in the drawing AngelaL

Angela Brown said...

So much appears to be happening with this novel that it must be an excellent read!!

nayjf said...

Egypt is such a fascinating and history-rich setting for a book!Ms. Nelson, what is your least favorite part of the writing/publishing process? Thanks for the giveaway!

Antane

Unknown said...

Thanks for the awesome giveaway. Please enter me.

lavendersbluegreen said...

Thanks for the giveaway!

Unknown said...

Nayjf, least favorite hum, that would be edits and that is why I employ two editors - one for copy edits and one for line edits. Of course that doesn't get me out of the edit business - but it helps. The second thing that use to drive me crazy was the amount of time it took to get a finished and clean manuscript to print.., but now we are going back to the days of an IBM typewriter and mailing the manuscript back and forth to the editor - publisher. I'm very thankful for technology.

Unknown said...

Lavender - Victoria, good luck in the drawing!

Theresa Haywood Donbroski Johnson said...

Thanks for the awesome giveaway! Have a great day!

wanda f said...

Eternal Lovers sounds great thank you for sharing with us and for this chance to win.Have a fantastic weekend

SdyLion said...

I would love to participate in the giveaway. The author and the book sounds really interesting and I would love a chance to investigate her works. sdylion(at)gmail(dot)com

books4me said...

Wow great review and now I want to read the book as CENK are always spot on with book recommendations! I admit that it is the longest book blurb I've read...LOL! The excerpt was great!

Barrie

Unknown said...

Thank you one and all. It has been a blast being here on CEWTNK - hopefully Nikki will invite me back soon. Good luck to one and all in the drawing and HAPPY READING! <hugs) V

-mer- said...

Eternal Lovers looks great

VampedChik said...

Definitely going to have to read this one! Thanks!
-Amber

Heather said...

Great cover and would love to read this. Thanks for the giveaway!!!!

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