Guest Author & Giveaway: Mia Marlowe featuring Sins of the Highlander

One of the first romance authors I remember reading and collecting is Connie Mason.  The book that I found her with was Pure Temptation with it's Muse worthy cover and shimmery lettering, yeah it was the cover that caught my eye (hey it was the 90's don't judge..even though I actually bought my own copy in 2007), but it was the story inside that had me seeking out her entire backlist. 

I've been a devoted fan ever since.  And when I found out one of my current new favorites, Mia Marlowe (who wrote one of my favorite historical romances last year, Touch of a Thief) would be teaming up with Connie Mason to write a historical romance...I couldn't wait to read it.  Let me just say that I was not disappointed.  In fact it exceeded my expectations, and I have pretty high expectations.  It was everything that I love about romances set in the Scottish Highlands!  

Co-Author Mia Marlowe is my guest today to share a bit about writing with another author and their first book together, Sins of the Highlander.  Read and enjoy!

Collaborating with Connie Mason was pure pleasure, but I can see why some author pairings might not work. Here are some of the reasons ours did:

1. We both love adventurous, sensual romance. While there is plenty of witty banter, there’s also plenty of action in our stories. A fight scene or a desperate escape can reveal character as deeply as a love scene (though we made certain to include plenty of those, too!)
2. We have similar writing styles. From my first book, reviewers compared my work favorably with Connie’s.  Readers will find Sins of the Highlander reads pretty seamlessly.
3. We respect each other. Well, of course, I’m in awe of Connie’s body of work. After a Kathleen Woodiwiss title, my mom—who’s still a diehard romance fan—put a Connie Mason book into my hands. I grew up reading her novels. But I’m thrilled to share that she loves my writing too.

We love so many scenes in Sins of the Highlander, but here’s a taste of one of our favorites. After abandoning Rob MacLaren to keep him from meeting her father and his men in battle, Elspeth Stewart has been found guilty of being a witch. In this scene, she’s being led to the stake.

       Elspeth never thought so many people could fit into Drummond’s stronghold. On the other side of the ropes, they stood ten deep, chest to back, all jostling for a better view of her in her thin chemise. Their angry shouts were a wall of sound. Her hands were bound before her, but even if they were free, she wouldn’t have been able to stop her ears against their roar.

     She tried not to look around, focusing instead on the long tassel dangling from the back of the priest’s surplice. It swung back and forth as he led the way before her bearing aloft a gilt cross.

     Cold lanced the bottoms of her bare feet and shot up her shins. It didn’t matter. She’d wish for cold soon enough.

     One foot in front of the other. That was all she had to do. The last task. She must walk across the bailey with her head held high.

     The first rotten bit of cabbage that struck her came as a surprise. These were the very people who would have owed her fealty if Rob hadn’t interrupted her wedding to Lachlan. Now all they offered her was scorn.

    

     Elspeth hoped to heaven her parents were being held someplace where they couldn’t see what was happening.
    

   Then suddenly the walk was ended. They reached the stake. Lachlan Drummond was there, waiting for her with a death’s head grin on his face. She looked away. Her hands were jerked over her head. A leather strap ran from her wrists through the iron loop at the top of the pole. Elspeth had the eerie sense of watching herself from outside her own body, a poor marionette whose strings were so tight her arms couldn’t be lowered.
    

     The crowd quieted to listen to the priest drone on about something. Elspeth heard only the pennants overhead snapping in the breeze and in a distant meadow, the mournful call of a rain crow. There’d be a fine soft rain this night, maybe a hint of snow and the world would wake with hoarfrost painting every tree and bush and blade. The winter-brown grass would crackle under her boots. She closed her eyes. She could hear it crunching beneath her imagined tread. Then those sounds faded and all she heard was the rush of her own blood, pounding in her ears.

     Torches were lit as the light faded. Several guards held them nearby, waiting for something. Someone lifted a little boy up and propped him on their shoulders. He was a beautiful child, with a mop of poorly cut hair and the brown eyes of a roe deer.

     Elspeth smiled at the boy. She and Rob might have had a dozen just like him.

     Oh, Rob. Oh, God! I want to live.

I hope you enjoyed that excerpt. If you’d like to see how the story begins, please pop over to my website to read the opener at www.miamarlowe.com . While you’re there, be sure to do a bit of exploring and take time to enter the contest on my website. The Grand Prize is a new Kindle!

I love connecting with readers, so if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, I invite you to find me there at http://facebook.com/MiaMarloweFanPage or http://twitter.com/Mia_Marlowe.

Abduction
Never had Elspeth Stewart imagined her wedding would be interrupted by a dark-haired stranger  charging in on a black stallion, scooping her into his arms, and carrying her off across the wild Scottish highlands. Pressed against his hard chest and nestled between his trong thighs, she ought to have feared for her life. But her captor silenced all protests with a soul-searing kiss, giving Elspeth a glimpse of the pain behind his passion—a pain only she could ease.

Obsession
“Mad Rob” MacLaren thought stealing his rival’s bride-to-be was the prefect revenge. But Rob never reckoned that this beautiful, innocent lass would awaken the part of him he thought dead and buried with his wife. Against all reason, he longed to introduce the luscious Elspeth to the pleasures of the flesh, to make her his, and only his, forever.

With two clans against them burning for battle, they must find a way to join together—body, breath and soul. Or both will be made to pay for the Sins of the Highlander.

Read an excerpt

Congratulations to both Mia and Connie!  And big thanks to Mia for being my guest today.  Like I said before, I really loved Sins of the Highlander.  In fact it's the best Highland Romance I've read in a long time.  It had everything that I love about romances set in the Scottish Highlands...a stolen bride, men of honor wearing kilts, a touch of highland lore, superstitions, a witch or two, as well as a pack of vicious wolves...not to mention the love story...you can't ask for more than that my friends.  I hope to post my full review of the book sometime this weekend, in the meantime I can say it's very much worth your time and money.

If you'd like to learn more about author Mia Marlowe you can find her at her website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter.  And you can find author Connie Mason at her website.


To celebrate the release of Sins of the Highlander by Mia Marlowe and Connie Mason their publisher, Sourcebooks Casablanca, would like to giveaway a print copy of the book to TWO very lucky Musings followers.  Here's how you can enter to win...


Ways to earn entries:

• Mandatory:  Tell me what your favorite line or moment is from either the excerpt in this post or on Mia's site.  And please leave Mia a comment or question regarding Sins of the Highlander (good for 1 entry)
• Mandatory: You MUST be a Google Friend Connect (GFC) follower in order to be eligible to win (unfortunately an email subscriber, or subscription in Google reader, and a follower are not the same thing so make sure you are signed up as a follower if you'd like to win this book)
• If you have a blog, or even if you don't, you can earn extra entries by telling your friends. If they successfully enter to win and mention that you sent them you can each earn extra entries. You can blog about it with a link to this post, post it on Facebook, Twitter, email...or even word of mouth (good for 5 entries for the referrer and the commenter for each friend) . Please note that to earn the points they must mention your GFC name so that I can match you.
• Purchase any item from the Seductive Musings Amazon store by using this link, or the Amazon widget contained within this post and email a copy of your purchase receipt to me no later than the deadline to enter (email available in sidebar). Sorry purchases made prior to this date do not apply, and link contained in this post must be used. No faxes or snail mail copies are allowed. No purchases are necessary to win. (good for 25 entries, or 50 entries if a purchase is made from the featured author's available titles)

How to enter:

• You can choose to enter as many different ways that you want, but please place all of your entries in ONE comment 

Rules and disclaimers:

• This contest is open to US & Canadian addresses only.  No PO Boxes.
• You must be at least 18 years or older, or of legal age in your country
• The contest will end on January 23rd at 11:59 pm EST and winner will be posted after they have been selected
• Winner(s) will be selected using Random.org
• The winner(s) will have THREE days from the date they are posted to provide a mailing address. If you do not contact me within three days a replacement winner will be selected. NO EXCEPTIONS
• The book(s) will be mailed directly from the publisher or author and no substitutions are allowed
• Winners will be subject to one copy per household, which means that if you win the same title in two or more contests, that you will only receive one copy of the title in the mail
• Seductive Musings is not responsible for prizes that are not honored, distributed in a timely manner, lost, stolen, or damaged during transit 
• All giveaways are subject to change/cancellation without prior written notice

Good Luck!

*Seductive Musings is an Amazon affiliate and receives a very small referral fee for purchases made via the links on the blog and through the Seductive Musings Amazon Store. Read the full disclosure here.