Review/Giveaway: Crimson Lust by Rebecca Royce

Crimson Lust

by Rebecca Royce

BLURB:

Felicity Hahn is a thief on the run in Ireland. She can’t go home and spends every day hoping Interpol doesn’t catch up with her. But when she steals a crimson-red necklace, she may have gotten more than she bargained for.

Cian Finnegan is a vampire who was turned outside the gates of Castle Tullamore over three hundred years earlier. He chases the woman who stole his necklace back to the Castle, now a hotel, both to recover his possession and because her scent makes him as hard as hell.

Can the magic of the Emerald Isles give these two a happy ending, or is it too late for them both?

EXCERPT 

Just outside of Castle Tullamore, 1615 

“Stop him. He’s getting away.” The panicked voices of Chichester’s guards filled the almost-dawn landscape, replacing the usual sounds of the curlew chirping, announcing the rise of the sun, the beginning of a new day. 

Cian Finnegan grinned, pressing the necklace more firmly into his hand. They could search for him all they wanted—Chichester’s cronies wouldn’t find him. He’d spent enough time hiding out and running from authorities that he could virtually disappear from sight any time he wanted. No one knew the path he was walking even existed, thanks to the numerous landowners who had taken over Tullamore through the years. Thank the heavens for short memories. 

And right now, given that he’d just stolen a small fortune in the form of a ruby necklace from the haughty Arthur Chichester, or to be more specific, Chichester’s wife, Cian had no intention of being caught with the pilfered jewelry. He’d sell it, buy passage on a ship heading for anywhere, and be done with the misery that was Kilmorny. Wherever he went, no one would know anything about his father or what the bastard had done to soil their name. 

Somewhere where the ladies would fawn on him and the Chichester devils wouldn’t be staring down their British noses at the poor commoners too low for their haughty notice. 

Cian stopped in his tracks. A shiver traveled up his spine. He turned around, scanning the area as best he could. The darkness didn’t bother him. He’d walked the dirt paths in the blackness enough that he knew every ditch, every large stone, every possible disaster. The sun would be fully up soon and the dots of light appearing over the horizon gave him more than enough brightness to navigate his surroundings. 

So what had him jittery? 

Nothing alarming called his attention. The air blew lightly around him. His friends would be long home from the pub, not knowing that he’d done what he always wanted to do, taken the crimson symbol of all that was wrong with his world right out from under their noses. 

The guards were going the wrong way looking for him. He grinned. His nervousness had to be some kind of delayed reaction to the whole night. Nothing more. Unless the rumors proved true and monsters really did roam the countryside at night. 

He turned back around. Nope. He would not—could not—let his imagination run away with him. Not when he’d got so close to acquiring everything he’d ever wanted out of life. 

With his hands in his pockets, he strode down the path toward his small cottage. He’d spend one more night sleeping in poverty before he moved on to the next phase of his existence. Soon, Kilmorny would barely factor in his memory. 

He rounded a sharp corner, colliding with something in the still-dark morning. Falling backward, he stumbled two steps before he caught himself. Dodging to the right, he tried to make sense of what had happened. What on earth had he run into? A tree? A wall? Had he misjudged his location? 

“Easy there, Cian. You’re not going to find me swinging around like that.” 

Cian jolted to the right, in the direction of the voice that had spoken to him. He hadn’t recognized it. 

“Who’s there?” He tried wildly to figure out who he was talking with. Had the guards somehow found him? 

“You don’t know me. But I know you. For the last three weeks you’ve traveled these paths at this hour. Planning something, were you? From the way you smell tonight, I’d say you accomplished your goal.” 

My Review:

Wow, seriously wow. Ms. Royce took this book to a unique conclusion and place and the way she set it up had me totally surprised. I enjoy a short and well written story and this is definitely that. She gave me a bit of back story, some amazing characters and then threw in a unique twist. I really liked Cian, and I really adored Felicity, they were both characters that I immediately connected with.

I loved her take on vampires and that she made Felicity someone who has experienced the darker side of life and is just a bit jaded. The backdrop for this story, Castle Tullamore and the way it connected both the present and Cian’s past was a stroke of pure genius.

I highly recommend this for vampire lovers and fans of romance conquering all with a huge helping of the seriously sexy thrown in.

5 Books

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated for my review.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

As a teenager, Rebecca Royce would hide in her room to read her favorite romance novels when she was supposed to be doing her homework. She hopes, these days, that her parents think it was well worth it.

Rebecca is the mother of three adorable boys and is fortunate to be married to her best friend. They’ve just moved to Texas where Rebecca is discovering a new love for barbecue!

She's in love with science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal and tries to use all of these elements in her writing. She's been told she's a little bloodthirsty so she hopes that when you read her work you'll enjoy the action packed ride that always ends in romance. Rebecca loves to write series because she loves to see characters develop over time and it always makes her happy to see her favorite characters make guest appearances in other books.

In Rebecca Royce's world anything is possible, anything can happen, and you should suspect that it will.

Website:   http://www.rebeccaroyce.com/books.html

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Giveaway:

Rebecca will be awarding a backlist ebook to a randomly drawn commenter at every stop, and a Grand Prize of a $50.00 Gift Card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Please comment with a valid email address, and follow on with the tour here for more chances to win.