Esmerelda's Lovers Merits 4 Stars from RT!

I love small towns. I grew up in one and I live in one now. Not the same one, by the way. I enjoy writing about them. Esmerelda's Lovers is an erotic romance anthology with all of the stories centering around the residents of the fictional small town of Esmerelda, Massachusetts.

Janean Sparks, a reviewer for RT BOOKcub Reviews gives Esmerelda's Lovers four stars and has this to say about this erotic anthology:

Dane gives us four wonderful tales of love and romance. The characters are real and captivating, and there are plenty of spicy scenes that will have your mouth watering. You will get so wrapped up in each of these stories that everything else will just fade away.

Find the review in the May 2008 issue of Romantic Times BOOKreviews or by visiting the Romantic Times website.

A little about Esmerelda's Lovers.

Esmerelda, a small, sleepy town with passion as its foundation. It is a community built on tradition, holding deep, secrets and painful memories for some. Lives intertwine as usually happens in a small town. But as the past explodes into the present, the futures of these lovers will alter forever.

Esmerelda's Secret. A 2004 Amber Heat Wave Contest Winner John William (J.W.) Dalton and Willow MacKenzie had once been passionate lovers, two halves of one soul, torn apart by greed and misunderstanding. Now, ten years later, J.W. is sheriff and Willow has returned to Esmerelda to finally lay to rest the tormenting ghosts that continue to haunt her.

5 Stars! ...Ms. Dane has written a hot, hot short story...Her words make every touch and breath blazing... -- Julie, Just Erotic Romance Reviews

Smooth Finish. Back in high school Cody Marx and Jared Creed had been attracted to each other. But when Jared's father died and his half-brother, Kenny, got into trouble, they drifted apart. Years later, a remodeling project draws them together once again. This is one revitalization Cody can't wait to begin.

4 Angels!! Smooth Finish is a great book that has everything you need for a great bedtime story. There is plenty of sexual tension, adventure, and mystery. ... Author Adrianna Dane always creates such appealing books that it makes me eager to immerse myself in her worlds again and again... --Tammy, Fallen Angel Reviews

Ruthless Acts. Elizabeth Anthony, a hot-house flower, the pampered daughter of a powerful man. Isandro Santario, a secretive ex-con with a powerful desire for revenge. One from hell, the other from heaven. Can they discover paradise together? Or will they both end up burning in the smoky depths of purgatory?

5 Lips!! Adrianna Dane has penned an erotic and emotionally intense story that draws you in immediately and doesn't let go until the very last page. ... Ruthless Acts is a definite must-read that'll engage your senses and leave you breathless for more... --Kerin, TwoLips Reviews

Closing Time. Risking her reputation, Evelyn travels to Boston for a little taboo excitement. From the hot encounter behind the stage with the sexy guitar player, to a steamy confrontation in the back room of the Esmerelda library, Evie must face her fears and risk everything for a chance at love.

4 Hearts!! ...Closing Time is a story about taking risks. ... Ms. Dane really touched this reviewer with this plot ... Closing Time is also about sex! Ms. Dane creates some steamy scenes that will leave you breathless and craving more. ... --Tina, Love Romances and More


Read excerpts from each of these stories at my website

Listen to first chapter excerpts in podcast format at Podomatic.com.

Purchase Esmerelda's Lovers online at amazon.com.


Adrianna

Body Parts by Adrianna Dane

Now Available from Loose Id
Cover Art by April Martinez
Genres: Gothic/Horror Paranormal
Length: Novel
Caution: Explicit adult content


Blurb:

Male virility unbound. Eternal lust designed by and for the pleasure of his makers and their thirst to discover the secret to eternal life.

Immortal Youth. All male. An incomparable Frankenstein creation without flaw. Parts melded by alchemy and science, infused and fed by sexual energies of lust and desire, wholly designed for pleasure. Who survives through the acts of pleasure in all its many seductive forms.

Yet a tortured soul who walks eternally alone, forever hungry, driven to hunt for his one, true, perfect mate. That one person who can accept who and what he is. Someone who doesn't see him as a monster, but a man who only wants to love and to no longer be alone. Someone he can trust.

Athan...they all wanted him...

Dr. Sheba Ransom...

My heart hammered loudly as I greedily studied the sheathed, inanimate body. As I slowly revealed the shrouded form, a shiver of anticipation raced along my spine because deep down I knew my desire to see this gorgeous creature animate once more was not fully clinical... From the journal of Dr. Sheba Ransom (March 1939)

Dr. Paul Cathcart...

Paul had been here for a month and during that time he'd grown accustomed to this big, mysterious man. He'd become addicted to the sex. Maybe he needed some distance to regain his perspective. Becoming emotionally attached to any of the men or women he fucked was not in his best interests. He'd learned that lesson a long time ago. His mother had been a great teacher.

People were meant to be used to get ahead and make life more comfortable. Use ‘em and lose ‘em was the motto he lived by, what his mother had taught him very well. But Athan was almost a creature of another world and his fucking was stupendous. Paul had never really thought of himself as gay, but with this man... Mmm, it was hard to think of being with anyone else, let alone a woman. He already felt the desire jolting through him, and they'd just fucked that morning. - Present Day, Dr. Paul Cathcart of the Morgan Institute

Dr. Korrie Odell...

Suddenly it was as if someone else took over her body -- yet again. Arching, she smoothed hands down over her aching breasts, cupped the dampness of her mound as she watched the molten look in his eyes deepen. Reaching up, she worked the button free on the front of his worn denims, peeled the zip open, and shoved his pants down over his hips. He dropped forward, reached under her skirt, and with one quick yank ripped off her panties. Shoving her skirt and slip up, he pressed her slick thighs open, opening and baring her to him. His hot hand cupped her, and she gasped when she felt a finger slide through her juices. Pure primal heat engulfed her as she arched her hips up to meet him, like a plant rising from beneath the earth to reach for the life-giving sun... -Present Day, Dr. Korrie Odell

Yet no one would ever understand what he truly desired...

Athan...

No one knew what living hell was unless they walked in his shoes. And he was certain no one would want that pleasure.

God-play, and he was the result. Combine science, sex, and alchemy, and the good doctors had created him. He lived by pleasure, for pleasure, and because of pleasure. He was fed by sex, the anticipation of the hunt, the sex act, the energy of consummation, and the afterglow.

He was one of a kind, an experiment never to be repeated. One that could be turned monster or man. The Ransoms had wanted the man, but if anyone else found out the truth about him...the monster could be released if the wrong person learned his secrets. He couldn't take the chance, ...

No one was to be trusted, that was the one edict that had been ingrained into Athan by the Ransoms.

Trust no one....

Or did someone understand?

They all want something...

One wanted to give him life, to protect him, and teach him about passion...

One wanted to use him, to own him....or destroy him...

One wanted to love him ...

and one wanted simply to no longer remain alone...

In the Beginning...

In the 1940's the Doctors Ransom hid more from the outside world than anyone could ever have imagined, both in scientific research and in the intimacy of passion. Basing their taboo, scientific research on the controversial works of Dr. Frankenstein, and combining their own knowledge, Sheba and Cornelius Ransom created the perfect male specimen from body parts and mystic alchemy. He is one-of-a-kind and no one will ever discover the true depths of the experiment because in his creation, the doctors also designed the perfect guardian to secure the records containing the secrets of their miracle defined by pure lust. He is a man imprisoned by his roots.

More than sixty years later, Dr. Korrie Odell, a research scientist at the Morgan Institute, a woman betrayed and marked by her past, is in search of the answer to the riddle of immortality, one supposedly unlocked by Drs. Sheba and Cornelius Ransom. Dr. Paul Cathcart, Korrie's ex-lover, and the man who betrayed her, also thirsts for that knowledge and fights for plumb assignment using any method necessary to gain what he wants. A quirk of fate eventually lands Korrie the opportunity she's been waiting for and has her arriving at the Ransom estate to more thoroughly delve into the Ransoms' research. It is there that Korrie stumbles upon the Heathcliff-sexy and mysteriously elusive caretaker, known only by the name "Athan"...

Frankenstein may have created a monster, but the Ransoms sculpted a lover without boundaries, without limits, tied irrevocably to a tortured past. In his mind he is an unspeakable horror.

There are murderous forces and dark, sinister secrets churning on the horizon, ones that contain the power to destroy Korrie and Athan and quench the fiery passion that has only begun to unleash.

Read more about Athan and his lovers at
http://www.adriannadane.com/bodyparts.html

Purchase the book: http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=637

Taboo Ideas

Recently I purchased a set of Goddesses Knowledge cards. I wasn't exactly certain what I was going to do with them, but I have always been interested in the goddess figure and the various representations and archetypes through different cultures.

I shuffled the cards the other morning and chose one. It is interesting that it should have been "Eagle Woman." The Bird Woman Goddess is fearless, yet nuturing. She is in many respects a marriage of masculine and feminine.

The Bird Goddess goes far back into foundations of goddess mythology, one of the oldest archetypes of the goddess figure.


My time and thoughts this week have been focused on my upcoming new release, Body Parts, and the edits to another of my stories, An Acquired Taste. These are very different stories, but contain taboo elements. In particular, Body Parts doesn't follow the accepted rules of romance stories. I'm finding the more I write, the less I follow the traditional rules. It must be the rebel in me, or maybe it's just the way the story needs to be told.

Often when we read something, certain words or ideas pop out at us. These will visually be the words that touch on something important to us, that are meaningful and useful in our lives.

I read the narrative on the back of the Eagle Woman card and these are the words that spoke to me today, considering my state of mind.

"...linked with the masculine" "...vessel" [this word holds particular meaning in relation to Body Parts] "...ability to break out of millennia-old stereotypes and find a new definition..."

I didn't know what to expect when I pulled a card the other morning, but Eagle Woman certainly connected with some part of me. Or maybe I just reached out to claim what I felt was mine.

Certainly an interesting exercise for the morning. I guess I was looking for an answer, and I got it.

For more information on the cards, Goddesses Knowledge Cards are published by Pomegranate and can be purchased at Isis Books (www.isisbooks.com) or another online store of your preference.

Adrianna

A Change in the Air

I was standing outside this morning and it was around six a.m. I was waiting for Mikala to finish investigating and I was sipping at my first cup of coffee for the day. I could sense the subtle change in temperature and could feel the pull of autumn just beginning to awaken.

The fall is my favorite time of year. We've lived on the East Coast and now the West Coast and what I love best is the change of seasons. Sometimes we ease quietly one into the other, and sometimes it's a quick burst. But no matter what way it happens, I love to watch the changes around me.

I live in a fairly rural part of the state and I walk out to the backyard where the blackberry bushes, in all their thorny glory, grow and a field beyond that, leading into a forest at the back, and farmland beyond that. So I get a good glimpse as the vivd rust and golden colors of fall begin to erupt and the brisk change in temperature begins to alter. I can smell and taste and see the changes taking place in the land. When I begin to hear the call of the geese as they fly overhead, leaving us for the winter, then I'll know fall has truly arrived in my part of the world.

In some ways the land is preparing for hibernation and I'm just waking up. I always have been a bit contrary.

I find that many of the stories I write take place in late summer and early fall. Several of the stories in my latest anthology, "Esmerelda's Lovers," take place in that time of year.

There's just something about the air in autumn. The clean briskness wakes you up, makes you more aware of what's around you. It's why I've always enjoyed living in areas of the country that court the four seasons clearly. Each one has a uniqueness all it's own. I guess we all have our favorites. Which season stirs the romance in your soul? Makes you feel more alive?

Adrianna

Tempt Me Not - an excerpt from my latest release

Title: Tempt Me Not
Author: Adrianna Dane
Publisher Purchase Link: TemptMeNot
Author Website: Adrianna Dane Website
ISBN: 978-1-60272-087-9

Blurb:

In a moment of weakness and bad choice, Diantha made a deal with a seductive demon. Zacchias wants something from Diantha that she's unwilling to give. Asher has also made a deal with Zacchias. If Diantha breaks her contract by making love with Asher, she will lose her soul. If she does as Zacchias wants, she could lose much more, including a love she has only just discovered. Scorched by the seductive flame of temptation, love will find a way.

Excerpt:

“I want him, but I can’t have him. The temptation is too much,” she whispered as she opened the drawer and pulled out the dildo she’d used infrequently since her arrival at Zacchias’s stronghold. But Asher Smith drew feelings and desires from deep within her that she long thought were dead and buried. Her body now told her that they weren’t and she needed to do something before she lost control.

There was no relief of daylight here, only the thick, clinging blackness of night, a suitable home for a twisted demon. It was his job to tempt, and he embraced his role with enthusiasm and devilish delight.

Diantha climbed onto the bed and spread her legs, pressing the instrument of pleasure against her wet opening. She leaned back and closed her eyes as she pressed inward, her greedy lips separating and accepting the phallus into her body.

Tonight, for the first time, she’d met Zacchias’s latest mortal acquisition—Asher Smith. One look and her heart had pumped faster than a speeding train heading toward collision. She knew he was the temptation she might be unable to resist.

Using her other hand, she swirled a finger over her clit, driving herself toward oblivion, away from this room. She imagined it was Asher’s cock burrowing deep and she arched and pressed deeper, gasping at the penetration.

He came from her world and still retained his soul. Like her. Dressed in a black tuxedo and pristine white shirt, he’d entered the dining hall accompanied by Zacchias, a soulless woman clinging to each arm.

Diantha studied him from her relaxed position seated in a leopard-patterned armchair situated next to the fireplace. A mantel overpainted with scenes of gigantic, predatory, mythical beasts overpowered the room, standing guard. Waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Just like Zacchias. It was a room she had come to hate. Just like Zacchias.

Presentiment spilled over her as it seemed she gazed into the eyes of her destruction. Rising from the overstuffed chair, she sauntered across the room to greet Zacchias with a kiss to his smooth, chiseled jaw.

“Welcome back,” she murmured. Then her gaze turned to the man and she studied him closely. He was probably not much older than herself, perhaps in his mid thirties. “I see you’ve brought someone with you.”

The women were touching him, sliding their hands over the silky smoothness of the jacket he wore, rubbing against him. One of them inched her hand below to cup the front of his trousers, smiling up at him lasciviously.

“Enough, ladies,” Zacchias commanded. “Leave us.”

The women pouted but did as he asked, slinking out of the room, leaving the three of them alone, silently surveying each other.

Zacchias reached for her arm, linking it through his own, and they moved back into the main part of the dining room.

“Pour us a couple of drinks, my dear.” He walked toward the striped, black and white settee on the opposite side of the fireplace.

Diantha poured whiskey into two etched glasses and tracked across the room to hand them their drinks. First she offered Zacchias his drink and then she turned to the other man. Their fingers touched briefly as he reached for it, and she inhaled sharply at the connection.

“You like him,” Zacchias purred softly from behind her. She straightened and turned toward him, smoothing her expression. She knew better than to expose her thoughts to him.

He was staring at her, studying her reactions. He raised the glass into the air. “To new associations. May they lead to fruitful endeavors.”

Adrianna
"Passionate stories with adventurous heart"
www.adriannadane.com
www.midnight-pearl.com
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