Margo Maguire – Vanessa Kelly, Author

Lethal Confessions Now Available!!

March 15, 2016September 10, 2013 by VanessaKelly

Most of my readers know that I write contemporary romance with my husband as VK Sykes. We also love writing romantic suspense, and I’m thrilled to announce that our first book in this genre is now available. And for you fans of our sports romance series, The Philadelphia Patriots, you might be interested to note that Lethal Confessions is set against the backdrop of pro baseball.

Here’s the blurb:

The brutal murder of her twin sister drove Amy Robitaille into a career as a homicide detective for Palm Beach County. When a serial killer targets the wives of local baseball players, Amy has more than just a professional interest at stake—her only surviving sister fits the profile of the other victims. Amy’s hell-bent on catching the killer, not only to protect her sister but to destroy the demons haunting her since the death of her twin.

Baseball star and former soldier Luke Beckett has just retired from the game and is looking to move on with his life. When he’s asked to consult on the serial killer case for the local police, he finds the challenge he needs—despite the objections of lead detective Amy Robitaille. But Luke has no intention of backing away from the job and every intention of getting to know the intriguing detective.

Amy has no time to babysit a celebrity consultant while trying to catch a serial killer. But Luke is not the man she assumed him to be and he threatens to become a powerful distraction. That’s the last thing she needs, especially when the killer starts closing in on her family. But without Luke’s help, Amy stands to lose everything.

The book is available in both print and digital on Amazon.

And to celebrate the release of Lethal Confessions, hubby and I are hosting a party on facebook, tomorrow from 7 – 9 pm. We’ll be joined by a bunch of great authors who will be giving away copies of ARCs and books. Here are the details:

When: Wed. the 11th, from 7 – 9 pm

Where: Facebook!

RSVP: You can register for the event here.

Visiting authors: Pamela Clare, Margo Maguire, Mia Marlowe, Juliana Stone, Kris Kennedy, Bella Love, Norah Wilson, Erin Kellison, Laurie London, Monica Burns, Lila DiPasqua, Jennifer Apodaca, and Cynthia Eden!

Giveaways: An ARC of Pamela Clare’s upcoming I-Team novel, Striking Distance, an ARC of Mia Marlowe’s upcoming Christmas historical, Plaid Tidings, ARCS of Lila DiPasqua’s upcoming historical romance, The Duke’s Match Girl, and lots more!

Grand Prize Gift Basket: includes a $25 Amazon gift card; reader’s choice of a print or digital copy of Lethal Confessions; an ARC of my upcoming historical romance, Secrets for Seducing a Royal Bodyguard; copies of my last two books, My Favorite Countess & His Mistletoe Bride; a beautiful box of Godiva chocolates.

Again, to RSVP visit my facebook page and sign up!

And I almost forgot! I’m on a rolling excerpts blog tour all this week–each day, one blogger is posting an excerpt from Lethal Confessions and doing a giveaway of two of my books. For the schedule and links, please visit LitConnect. Today, I’m visiting with Stella Ex Libris.

See you around the blogosphere!

LETHAL CONFESSIONS – Release Day Party Planning!!

March 15, 2016September 8, 2013 by VanessaKelly

I’m so excited that my first V.K. Sykes romantic suspense novel will be hitting virtual and print bookshelves this Tuesday, Sept. 10th. To celebrate the release of Lethal Confessions, my co-writer (my hubby) and I will be hosting a party on facebook – which will include visits from some fabulous authors and giveaways of their books. Here are the details:

When: Wed. the 11th, from 7 – 9 pm

Where: Facebook!

RSVP: You can register for the event here.

Again, to RSVP visit my facebook page and sign up! Thank you!

Rock*It Reads: Heating Up The Holidays Blog Hop!!

March 15, 2016November 10, 2012 by VanessaKelly

Welcome to the Rock*It Reads Heating Up the Holidays Blog Hop. There are 15 stops on the blog tour. The more blogs you visit and comment on, the greater your chances of winning the grand prize, a $75 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and a huge collection of books from the authors of Rock*It Reads. Smaller prizes will be available at each stop along the way.

Good luck, and have fun!

As you can tell from that luscious header, the theme of our blog hop is Heating Up The Holidays. And how are we going to heat up our holidays, you might ask? I’ll tell you–with sexy men!

It so happens that I have a holiday-themed historical romance that came out in October. The hero of His Mistletoe Bride, Lucas Stanton, the Earl of Merritt, is definitely one sexy dude. And it was easy to create him that way because I used a very inspiring template for his character–the drop-dead gorgeous actor, Henry Cavill.

Nice, eh? My heroine, Phoebe Linville, thinks so too. Phoebe isn’t very experienced when it comes to men. After all, she was raised in a small Quaker village in America. But when she lays eyes on Lucas for the first time she feels a tingle in places that she didn’t even know could tingle! Lucas certainly heats up her holidays, and if I ever ran into Henry Cavill while Christmas shopping…well, I better stop there or I’ll get in trouble with my husband.

To read an excerpt of His Mistletoe Bride and to get a peek at my hero, Lucas, visit my books page.

I also have another new book out with a hero who heats things up in a big way. Bigger Than Beckham is my latest sexy contemporary romance, co-written with my husband under the pen name of VK Sykes. We will neither confirm nor deny that a certain soccer player perhaps served as a wee bit of inspiration, but our hero, Tony Branch, is definitely his own man. And our fabulous cover artist certainly gave us a model to inspire any red-blooded woman, don’t you agree? Just click on the cover photo for a bigger image of hunky goodness.

Whew! I’m fanning myself here, but that cover is my idea of heating things up! Bigger Than Beckham will heat you up for the holidays, too. Trust me when I say that this is one steamy book. To read an excerpt from Bigger Than Beckham, book three in our Philadelphia Patriots series of sports romances, please check out our website. I think you’ll enjoy meeting the sexy Mr. Branch!

Readers, who would be your dream man for heating up the holidays? Would you like to take a sleigh ride with Henry Cavill, go ice skating with David Beckham, or is snuggling with your honey by the fireside more your speed? I’ll be giving away two prizes:

One person who comments will win a print copy of His Mistletoe Bride and a lovely Christmas ornament.

One person who comments will win a digital copy of Bigger Than Beckham and a $10 Amazon gift card.

Leave a comment below to enter for your chance to win!

Don’t forget to visit the other authors on the Blog Hop for more chances to win!

Kris Kennedy	Bonnie Vanak	Erin Kellison
Sharon Page	Lila DiPasqua	Elisabeth Naughton
Norah Wilson	Jennifer Lyon	Monica Burns
Vanessa Kelly	Mia Marlowe
Pamela Clare	Margo Maguire	Rock*It Reads

Guest Author: Mia Marlowe & Giveaway!

March 15, 2016August 13, 2012 by VanessaKelly

Mia Marlowe writes absolutely gorgeous historical romance, and she’s got the phenomenal reviews to back it up. Her last book, Touch of a Rogue, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the Top Ten Romances for Spring 2012. Pretty cool, eh?

Mia has a new book out, and she’s here to tell us all about it.

Can you tell us a bit about your Touch of Seduction series? What’s the premise behind it?

First of all, thanks for having me here today, Vanessa. My Touch of Seduction series is near and dear to my heart and I hope readers will find it great fun, too. In each of the stories, my hero or heroine has the “gift of touch”—a psychometric gift that allows them to glean information by touching certain objects. It’s an occupational hazard for my jewel thief heroine in TOUCH OF A THIEF. It’s a help sometimes to my enquiry agent hero in TOUCH OF A ROGUE. And in TOUCH OF A SCOUNDREL, my hero sees it as a curse because in his case, he sees the future but cannot do anything to change it.

Your lovely historicals contain a touch of the paranormal. What do you like about combining historical romance with the paranormal?

I adore both sub-genres. Nothing takes me away quite so well as a historical hero in glossy Hessians with a sword at his hip. My paranormal elements are pretty tame compared to some. I don’t have any vampires or shifters. My characters are ordinary people with extraordinary gifts. I like to think my magical elements are things that might actually happen.

The heroine in Touch of a Scoundrel is a bit different from the average historical miss or seductive courtesan. Can you tell us a bit about her?

Ah, yes. Emmaline Farnsworth, adventurer, dutiful daughter and con artist. She and her foster father have bounced around Europe hocking fake reliquaries. Now they’re in possession of an unusual Egyptian artifact which they hope to parlay into a big score. They’ve convinced Theodore Nash to fund a bogus expedition, but unfortunately, it’s his older brother, Griffin, the Earl of Devonwood who holds the purse strings. And Griffin is no one’s fool. Emma has never run such a trying long con. She’s fending off the offers of marriage from the younger brother while fighting the wild attraction she feels for the elder.

Like so many authors, you’ve been venturing into the realm of indie publishing. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I’m very excited to be writing for both Kensington and Sourcebooks, but indie publishing is opening up some new opportunities as well. I’ve self-published 4 novels and 3 novellas since last fall and readers have been writing to let me know they love it. I’ve been fortunate to be able to partner up with a group of talented traditionally published authors who are also self-publishing to form a self-published brand called Rock*It Reads. My partners in crime are: my lovely host today—Vanessa Kelly, Pamela Clare, Elisabeth Naughton, Monica Burns, Kris Kennedy, Margo Maguire, Lila DiPasqua, Sharon Page and Joan Swan. Check out my Books page for my Rock*It Reads titles.

GIVEAWAY: Leave Mia a comment or question today and you’ll be entered in the random drawing. One lucky person will win a copy of TOUCH OF A ROGUE, Book 2 in the Touch of Seduction series and one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top 10 Romances for Spring 2012! Another winner will receive TOUCH OF A LADY, my enovella prequel to the series in your choice of Kindle or Nook format.

Here’s a question to get the conversation going: If you could have any special paranormal ability, what would it be?

Vanessa, here. Thanks for joining us today, Mia! Folks, be sure to visit Mia’s website for all her book news (she has lots), and to read an excerpt of her latest book! And be sure to check the blurb for Touch of a Scoundrel:

Griffin Nash, Earl of Devonwood, wants to believe that he’s seducing Miss Emmaline Farnsworth out of protectiveness for his young brother. After all, if his brother is convinced that the tantalizing professor’s daughter is unworthy of his trust, perhaps Teddy will lose all interest in such an inappropriate choice for his station.

But in truth, something else motivates Devonwood: a scintillating vision he’s had of a future tryst with the lovely Emmaline. A vision too realistic to be doubted–and too scaldingly passionate to be denied.

Yet Emmaline is not as easily tempted as Devonwood might have hoped–nor is she actually in pursuit of a wealthy husband. No, the real reason for her visit to the manor is something much more shocking… though being enticed by a dashing earl may prove to be a most welcome by-product of her schemes…

And don’t forget to answer Mia’s question for a chance to win her books!

Launching Rock*It Reads!!

March 15, 2016April 11, 2012 by VanessaKelly

It’s here! The launch day of Rock*It Reads, the exciting new project I’ve been working on with a group of fabulous writers whose names you will surely recognize. Here’s the scoop:

Rock*It Reads is a group of New York-published authors who are also self-publishing romance. We’re not a publisher—more like a coop or a brand, and we’ve made a commitment to put out only high-quality self-published works. No second best at Rock*It Reads! Our RIR logo, featured at the top of this post, will appear on the covers of all our self-published books. It’s our ‘seal of quality’ and our commitment to readers that we care as much about writing great stories as you do about reading them.

My Rock*It Read partners are: Pamela Clare, Cheryl Holt, Elisabeth Naughton, Monica Burns, Kris Kennedy, Margo Maguire, Lila DiPasqua, Sharon Page, Joan Swan, and Mia Marlowe. What a lineup of talent, eh? I’m thrilled and honored to be included in this group.

For all the details and a list of our books, please stop by our beautiful new Rock*It Reads website. We’ve got gorgeous covers and some of the best-indie published romance on the market. I know you won’t be disappointed with the fantastic selection of books we’ve already got listed.

In fact, I’ve got a new book up this week, all bright and shiny for the RIR launch. It’s called Hot Number, and it’s another one of the sexy contemporary romances I write with my hubby under the pen name of VK Sykes.

In Hot Number, a geeky math professor determined to have a wild week in Las Vegas soon runs into trouble with a hard-nosed but very sexy casino security chief. The ensuing mayhem leads to a whole lot of fun and romance. I love this book, and my husband and I had a great time writing it. For more details, check out my VK Sykes website.

But, wait! There’s more news. The Rock*It Reads gang will also be doing a twice-a-month column with Barnes & Noble, which will spotlight indie-published romance. We’ll help you sort through the tidal wave of books to find the quality reads that really stand out. The column is called Love Rocks and it launches April 23, 2012, at Barnes & Noble Review.com.

Now you know the scoop, so drop on by the Rock*It Reads website and let us fill up your Nook, Kindle, cellphone, or e-reader with all the best in indie romance. I guarantee you won’t regret it!

And for my visitors to the blog today, I’ll be giving away three copies of Hot Number to celebrate its release. Just tell me what books you’re looking forward to reading this month – three people who comment will win a copy of my new book!