Guest Post and Review: Love Chosen by Marne Ann Kirk

I want to welcome Marne Ann Kirk today.  She is taking over my blog today.  Marne is promoting her new book, Love Chosen.  This is a fantastic paranormal romance.  For more of my review check it out after Marne’s post.  So without further ado here she is….Marne Ann Kirk.

Sometimes in Life, You Don’t Get That Garden…

Hi, Maven. Thanks for having me on The BookMaven! I’m excited, and a bit nervous, to hang with you today (I’m still a new enough author that if I know a review is coming, I’m going to be a bit nerved up), but I want to make sure you know I really appreciate the time you took to read and review “Love Chosen.” Sometimes reading gets put on hold when you’re chasing a toddler…Heck, sometimes LIFE gets set on the back burner while we focus on our most valued gifts in life, our kids …

Gardening is kinda my thing. When I’m not writing or reading (because what writer doesn’t like read like crazy, right?), I love to bake and garden. Well, this year I didn’t put in a garden. At first, I was pretty bummed about it. However, in retrospect, I can’t help but think sometimes things just work out the way they’re supposed to.

This last spring, our youngest girl graduated from high school and we made plans to go to Disneyland (first time EVER) on the heels of her celebrations. We live on the Western Slope of Colorado, which in a wet year is still as dry as sandpaper. Because of these two events, and the dry clime we live in, I decided it would be foolish to plant a garden only to be too busy for it for one week and then gone a second. Little did I know just how wise a decision this was…

Even though the decision was mine, it still killed me, every morning through April and May, to look out my big picture windows and see the large garden area all ready to go, just itching to be played in. So many times I thought, “I’m going to plant something, just one or two tomatoes…” But I didn’t. My kids whined, my husband questioned my decision, my mother shook her head and smiled, certain I’d cave to my need to garden. And still, I didn’t.

Two weeks before the graduation, Mother’s Day weekend, I was in the hardware store, the flowers and garden plants called to me…and I gave in–but just a bit. I bought some deck flowers and I dug up a friend’s strawberry patch, moving the lovelies to my home.  That was the extent of my gardening, though.

And it was a good thing, too. Like I said, sometimes life has a way of just working out the way it’s supposed to. If I had planted a huge garden, complete with twelve tomato plants, eight cucumbers, eight squash, four watermelon, four cantaloupe, garlic, cilantro, four potato barrels, green onion, and eight green pepper and jalapeño plants and marigold, they would have dried out, withered to dust, and blown away on a stiff breeze.

And I would have been devastated.

You see, not only did Colorado not get any snow in the mountains this last winter (depleting our stores of water), we got little to no rain this spring (the longest recorded stretch of rainless days), and that’s just the external stuff that would’ve made gardening difficult.

On a more personal note, while we were in Disneyland (which truly is the happiest place on earth), my youngest son developed a problem at the base of his spine. Honestly, we thought he’d broken his tailbone (and since there was nothing to be done about a broken tailbone…), we gave him some Motrin and called him good.  The problem persisted, though. By the time we returned home, a week later, his problem had developed into something much…well, more.

Needless to say, two and a half months, three surgeries, a 24/7 wound-vac and three-times-a-week nursing visits in the home for most of that time, I’m pretty sure of several things…

1. When my boy says he broke his tailbone, he probably didn’t…
2. I can garden next year.
3. Nothing is more important than family…
4. Sometimes, life has a way of working out just the way it’s supposed to…

Love Chosen

The Fae Dragon Chronicles

Book One
By Marne Ann Kirk        

Genre: Fantasy Romance

Publisher: Crescent Moon Press

http://crescentmoonpress.com/books/LoveChosen.html

Book Description:

 For millennia, dragon and fae have peacefully co-existed, but the fae themselves have lived segregated and very different lives.

Now a malevolence threatens to separate them all permanently. Can a Queen’s guard and a rebellious outlaw join forces to defeat this common enemy?

Tyler’s touch sparks fierce desire, drawing Issie to him, but she despises his way of life and all that palace society represents. If he learns she wields majic to help the less fortunate escape the kingdom, he’ll charge her with treason. Her punishment – death.

Issie is a sassy rebel who is constantly looking for ways to circumvent the conventions of their society. Tyler’s head warns that she’s a non-majical lower, beneath him. His heart sees by her inner strength and outer beauty. Only a binding love will lend them strength to save her life – their world.

Excerpt:

Tyler pushed his way through the onlookers. They reeked of sex and sweat. The foul odor made his eyes water and his vision blur as he forced his way to the front of the crowd, almost stepping on the female lying in a heap on the floor. He turned, saw his guards at the rear of the crowd, and addressed the unfortunate Lowers. “Leave now.”

He turned back to the scene, expecting them to follow his orders. Disgust filled him as he assessed the scene. Blood pooled on the bed where two bodies laid holding each other. The heads from both bodies were missing. He wouldn’t bother searching for them now. He wouldn’t find them. The killer, it seemed, liked to keep the heads as trophies.

Tyler sighed, becoming aware again of the others crowding the room. When he found those heads, he’d find the sick bastard who did this.

“But what ‘bout Lenore?”

“I ‘eard Issie scream.”

“She all right?”

One chattered over the next in their efforts to find out what happened. They weren’t listening to him.

His eye twitched. He hated when that happened.

How could he make these dullards leave? Did they not see the violent murders on the bed? Or did they not care? Were their lives so barren and meaningless, death didn’t bother them?

His gaze fell on the female at his feet. Her face covered by her mass of honeyed tresses, she lay in a limp pile, her robes undone and revealing a creamy swell of ample breast.

The two victims in the bed were beyond help, but this unconscious female held the concern of the others.

He knelt by her side and lifted her in his arms. She smelled clean, like moss and sea air, instead of the sweaty body he’d expected. Her hair caressed his arm when he stood with her nestled to his chest. It fell like a lowered curtain and hung almost to his knees. A waterfall of honey.

She felt right in his arms; her neck fit into the crook of his shoulder, her breath warmed his chest like she belonged there.

Where had such a thought come from? He didn’t associate with the powerless Lower class. Ever.

He pushed aside a rising need to draw her even nearer.

Tyler faced the crowd again. “As you can see, she sleeps. She’s not injured. Now go. All of you.” He fixed a few of them with the glacial silver stare which always yielded results. “Go back to your beds. I’m Tyler, of the High Council. My warriors will take care of this.”

“But, Issie. Is she hurt?” one barmaid asked, wrapping her arms around her waist as if she feared retching.

“You, take me to Issie’s rooms. The rest of you, go. She’ll be fine.” Or at least I’ll be, if I can have some quiet to think.

“But–”

”What ‘bout Lenore? She pass through the gates?”

Everyone began speaking at once, like a gathering of Lower younglings after a sweet. They had no regard for his orders. Such disrespect was unacceptable. He had to get this under control.

”Go,” he roared, silencing the room.

The crowd shuffled down the hall and disappeared behind different doors. Bits of conversation– “Can’t believe Lenore’s gone,” and “who could do such a thing?” –floated back to him.

Who indeed? The fae were peaceful caretakers for the dragons. Murder didn’t happen among them. It was a coarse crime of the mortals–until three moons ago. And now, it had happened again–to another messenger and another whore-maid.

Review:

This was a terrific book one of this series.  I can’t wait to read more about Issie and Tyler.  The story flows very good for a fantasy romance.  The world that Marne Ann Kirk creates is vivid and believable.  It could definitely be a world we could just wander into.  The surroundings are described so beautifully that I wish I was a character in this book.  The descriptions of the dragons and the magic are reminiscent to worlds built by Tolkien and Rowling.  Love Chosen‘s love story is also a phenomenal one.  Even though it is predictable you are very happy when things get on the right track.  Issie is strong-willed and Tyler is typically a bit dense, but together they find their way.  I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.  I hope we see more of Issie and Tyler.

I would like to thank Marne Ann Kirk for stopping by and taking over.  I would also like to thank Bewitching Blog tours for allowing me to host this stop.  For more information about Marne Ann Kirk, Love Chosen or anything else she is up to check out her links below.

Author Bio:

Marne Ann Kirk grew up wild, exploring the vast high deserts and mountains of the West with her family as a child. Marne Ann loved making up stories and, well, lied about just about everything. Thankfully, she grew out of the lying stage…now she calls it story-telling.

Her debut novel, “Love Chosen: Book One of The Fae Dragon Chronicles,” is available now. “Love Dared: Book Two of The Fae Dragon Chronicles,” is coming soon. “Goddess on the Run,” a paranormal romance, will be available September 17, 2012. You can find out more about Marne Ann through her publisher, Crescent Moon Press, or visit her at: www.marneannkirk.com  or www.cowboysndragonscafe.blogspot.com

Web: http://www.marneannkirk.com

Blog: http://www.cowboysndragonscafe.blogspot.com

Twitter: MarneAnn

Facebook: MarneAnnKirk or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marne-Ann-Kirk

Goodreads: Marne Ann Kirk or http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5822484.Marne_Ann_Kirk