Lethal Obsession going wide -- reborn all over the web!

My debut novel, LETHAL OBSESSION, has been reborn, with a new cover, tighter editing and writing, but the same arousing, blood-chilling story of Detective Angela Martin, who becomes involved with a man she meets through a Craigslist personal ad.

A man who she begins to fall for.

A man who enjoys controlling her, tying and tormenting her.

A man who brings a sense of desire, longing, passion back into her life.

A man who might very well be a killer.

If you like tales that are heavy in sensual Fifty Shades of Gray-style bondage; if you like thrilling, edge-of-your-seat murder mysteries, if you like dark romance, and a tale that will keep you guessing from page to page -- and most of all you like it all rolled into one explosive story -- then LETHAL OBSESSION is for you.

Here's an excerpt:

She heard a whimper as the hot sting of leather kissed her buttocks, then the whimper grew to a muffled cry with the second and third strike, and Angela realized it was her own voice she was hearing, what little voice she could form through the gag.

Her body trembled at a fourth and fifth strike. Fear and adrenaline coursed through her body, and Angela moaned. Embarrassment competed with fear, embarrassment at being naked and vulnerable, and at the realization her body was responding to his actions, that she could no longer control herself, with each lash from the belt arousal grew; fear as the realization dawned on her, not rationally but in some deep, visceral way, that she was helpless and alone, at the mercy of a stranger who clearly had painful intentions for her.

Then it all went away, replaced by the hard sensation of ice, first against her right nipple, then her left. Angela cried out at the cold, her body jerking, but the sound was muffled, and she moved little, with her arms stretched overhead, wrists bound, snugly held in place by…by what she wasn’t sure, with her vision nothing more than blackness behind a blindfold.
She turned her body away from the cold as much as she could, and Angela felt another sharp sting of leather across her buttocks.

“You will stand still.”

Again the ice, but Angela held her footing, though her body trembled in spite of her attempt at remaining perfectly still. The cold pressed against her, hard, and then she felt the ice slipping around the nipple, making larger and larger circles outward, spiraling across her breasts.

As suddenly as the ice had come, it was gone. In its place she felt his lips...kissing her right nipple, gently at first, ever so softly. A mix of sensations rolled through her body..

LETHAL OBSESSION is available now at these outlets:

LETHAL OBSESSION at Excessica  (including Kindle-ready format)

LETHAL OBSESSION at All Romance  (including Kindle-ready format)

LETHAL OBSESSION at Excitica  (including Kindle-ready format)

LETHAL OBSESSION at Barnes and Noble (Nook)

LETHAL OBSESSION at Amazon (well, that is KINDLE, isn't it?)

LETHAL OBSESSION at Smashwords  (including Kindle-ready format)

HELPLESS is ready for download and reading!

I won't say I feel like I've given birth -- while I have never given birth I've seen that way too up close and personal -- so I know writing and publishing a book is nothing like bringing a child into the world. Still, I do feel like I'm putting a little piece of me out there, something I've written and edited and revised and rewritten.

And now it's out there.

HELPLESS, Book 2 of he Lethal Obsession Trilogy is on sale!

What's it about? Here's a peek:

Detective Angela Martin returns to pick up the pieces of her life – and track down a killer – in the darkly erotic thriller HELPLESS, the sequel to the acclaimed erotica suspense tale LETHAL OBSESSION.

In LETHAL OBSESSION, Angela found herself in the clutches of a BDSM master who knew exactly how to control her body and mind, to make her feel pleasure – mingled with a hint of pain and submission – in ways she had never imagined. Then women started turning up dead in her town of Moose Creek, N.C., bound and tortured in ways eerily similar to what Angela's mysterious master had done to her.

Despite the danger to her life and career, Angela couldn't stop herself – she kept going back to him, ostensibly to learn more about him as she investigated the deaths, but in truth because she craved his touch, his control. She belonged to him, body and soul, though her devotion had tragic consequences.

In HELPLESS, she is working through the guilt of having killed, the grief of having lost, trying to rebuild her life and career. She is driven to seek out darker, more dangerous sexual thrills, even when the bondage killer, or a copycat, returns to Moose Creek.

Her life is complicated when a writer from a national publication shows up in her town, determined to do a series of articles on the bondage killer, and her life. The writer turns out to be more than expected, and this time Angela finds herself fighting not only for her career and life, but maybe to save others as well.

*****

As you no doubt know, given the title, HELPLESS is a sequel to LETHAL OBSESSION. If you haven't read LETHAL OBSESSION, I think you can still read HELPLESS and come away feeling as if you've read a complete story. But the characters, and some of the story lines, will be so much richer if you check out LETHAL OBSESSION first. If you've already read it, then jump right in to HELPLESS.

To download HELPLESS from Amazon, go here.

And from Barnes and Noble for your Nook, go here.

Smashwords will be coming soon.

To get a copy of LETHAL OBSESSION for your Kindle, go here.

To download to your Nook, go here.

And from Smashwords, go right here.

BONUS: If you want to hear a super sensual audio version narrated by the talented Karen Kruper, you can get the audio copy and the e-book of LETHAL OBSESSION, both for just $4.98 total, right HERE.

I hope you enjoy my work, and thanks for stopping by.

xoxo

Helpless cover revealed!

Today I'm soooo excited, because I get to unveil the cover to my now erotic-suspense novel, HELPLESS, Book Two of the Lethal Obsession Trilogy. Actually, the cover was officially unveiled on three other sites this weekend (Secret Narrative, the website belonging to author Gemma James, and at Deliza's Dirty Dramas). If you haven't seen those, please pay them a visit -- those are some great blogs and websites certainly worth checking out.

If you haven't read LETHAL OBSESSION, please pick that one up. As the title of HELPLESS, Book Two of the Lethal Obsession Trilogy implies, it's a sequel to my debut novel, LETHAL OBSESSION, and while HELPLESS stands fairly well on its own, you most definitely need to read LETHAL OBSESSION to get the full effect. You can get a bit of a discount on it if you're a member of the Goodreads Erotic Enchants group. It's a read of the month staring Aug. 19 there (details at Erotic Enchants reads LETHAL OBSESSION).

You can also get an audio version of LETHAL OBSESSION at Amazon and Audio. com. Right now, Amazon is running a special – you can buy the audio version for just $1.99 after you buy the e-book! At Audio. com, if you join the group, you can get LETHAL OBSESSION for free! That's an Amazon special, so I don't know if they'll honor that price if you bought LETHAL OBSESSION a couple of months ago, but it's certainly worth asking.

But, enough about LETHAL OBSESSION. Let's turn our attention to the sequel, HELPLESS.

Here's the cover:

And now for an excerpt:

Excerpt one

I’m going to die.

The thought flashed through Angela’s mind. No panic. No fear. No emotion. Just a simple, resigned understanding.

I’m going to die.

Not that she could do much, with the man’s face buried between her legs, biting, tongue slipping inside her, probing, sending waves of arousal through her body.

Angela’s legs were bound in what is known as a frog-tie – each leg folded at the knee, right ankle tied to her right thigh, left ankle bound to her left thigh – her arms tied behind her. She was on her back, legs in the air, while he assaulted her.

A rope looped her neck, slip-knotted so that as tension increased the rope tightened, similar to a noose. The other end of the rope was fastened to the headboard. He had protested, said the neck bondage was too dangerous, but she had made her position plain – tying the neck was part of the deal, or there was no deal and he could walk right out without so much as a taste.

So he acquiesced, and once she was bound, helpless, there had been no foreplay. He slapped the exposed inside of her thighs, first one and then the other, over and over until the skin glowed red. 

With each blow Angela gasped, felt her face and body flush.

“You like that?” he whispered, and without waiting for an answer he pulled his belt from this pants. 

Using it as a whip, he struck her across her cunt, hard. The sting of leather sent a shock rolling through her body, and when Angela moaned he struck a second and third time, then he plunged in, kissing, licking, forcing her legs wider. Hands cupping her ass, he pulled her toward him, and unknowingly moved her down the bed, stretching the neck rope taut.

Angela couldn’t breathe. The desperate, involuntary struggle for air, while his tongue lapped inside her, hands squeezing her ass, brought shudders through Angela’s body and tears to her eyes. She tried calling out, a raspy scream escaping her mouth as the pleasure and agony blended into a sensation that rumbled through her body like a summer storm.

Her vision grayed, and that’s when the one, final thought crystallized in her mind.

I’m going to die.

The idea of trying to cry out, of somehow signaling him, briefly crossed her mind, but she didn’t bother.

I’m going to die, because I deserve to.

Then her world went black.

*****

HELPLESS will be available at Amazon.com Aug. 15, as well as Barnes and Noble and at Smashwords (for any format e-reader) within a day or two of the release on Amazon.

I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lethal Obsession now available, and the blog tour commences!

My novel, LETHAL OBSESSION, is now available for purchase from both Amazon for your Kindle and from Barnes and Noble for your Nook.

What's the novel about?

Here's the dust jacket promo:

Angela Martin is like everyone else. She wants acceptance. Love. Passion.

For five years she’s lived with the pain of knowing her husband cheats on her. She’s dealt with the heart-rending rejection by rebuilding her life around her work, becoming the first woman detective in the history of the Moose Creek, N.C., police department.

Then she stumbles upon him. A man who reawakens desire, who makes her feel more alive than she believed possible by pulling her into a world of bondage and dominance, devotion and trust taken to a new level, fear mingling with desire, a craving stronger than any drug.

Soon women start turning up dead in Moose Creek, bound and tortured, tied in ways that Angela finds startling familiar. Angela’s heart tells her that her newfound love cannot be the killer, her detective instincts tell her otherwise, and her obsession with this new lifestyle draws her back to him, even at the risk of her life.

LETHAL OBSESSION is a tale of sex and bondage, love and fear, desire and suspicion, with an ending that will leave you breathless, craving more.

Download it now. Even better, buy it and then join my Facebook LETHAL OBSESSION Blog Tour for a chance to win a gift card, free fiction, and other prizes!

Time for erotica to grow up?

Erotica.

It’s a genre as old as story-telling, yet in some ways that particular form of writing is in its infancy.

What I mean is that when someone mentions erotica, one of two things often come to mind: creative ways to describe sex, often with no storyline other than sex, all for the sake of describing sex; or more recently – thanks to the popularity of Fifty Shades – some sort of story laced with BDSM, most for the sake of writing about BDSM.

That’s a gross simplification, I understand. But it’s true. Peruse most titles on Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Check out the websites with erotica fiction on display. Most of them will have thinly disguised porn or people being tied up and whipped without hint of any larger story arc or plot line.

If there’s a third incarnation of erotica, it would be romance with rather explicit love scenes, sometimes filled with what’s best described as purple prose, in which everyone eventually lives happily ever-after.

Maybe it’s time for erotica to take another step toward maturity. Why can’t a science fiction story be a cross-genre work, with main characters whisking through the universe while engaging in explicit sex scenes that are integral to the story rather than tacked on for a little shock value? What about a coming-of-age novel that includes a healthy dose of bondage?

Or, just maybe, a murder mystery that doubles as an erotica BDSM tale?

My novel, LETHAL OBSESSION, is just that – a dark suspense story that delves into the world of loneliness, the search for love, exploration of bondage, and a serial killer who’s getting closer and closer to the main characters.

The novel will be out March 1, but I’m curious to know what you think – can bondage and erotica successfully cross into other genres? Or is erotica cursed to always be alone in its own little corner of the literary world? If so, is that because the larger readership of the world won’t accept it in any other genre, or is it because writers simply refuse to stretch themselves and change the genre?

Don’t be shy – go ahead and put your comments below!

Thanks for stopping by.

Shandra

xoxo