Welcome to my stop on the Shades of Desire Blog Tour brought to you by Bewitching Tours.
I have tons of great things to show you for this stop. I have an excerpt from the book for you to check out and then I have 2 reviews. I will be reviewing Book one(Shades of Grey) and then Book two (Shades of Desire).
Here's the really cool excerpt from Shades of Desire:
Let’s face it, leading a group of any size requires the help of a lot of people. A group with over a thousand individuals? Definitely going to need some outside help. What better way to make sure that everyone gets along than to have your very own police liaison?
Detective Duprees turned as I opened the door to the informal parlor, no doubt alerted by the slight groan of the hinges. “Ms. Henries?”
“Detective Duprees, right?” I crossed the room to shake his outstretched hand, not surprised to feel calluses. He had the look of someone who spent a lot of time being active even if he wore a jacket and tie now. His dark blond hair looked in need of a cut, his skin a light tan color speaking more to heritage than the sun.
What caught me were his eyes. A brilliant shade of blue, they reminded me of the blue and white china in one of the hundred and one cabinets of the Crossroads. Full of intelligence and directness, you knew right away he took his job seriously.
The bad guys were so in trouble.
“Yes, Ms. Henries. Your assistant no doubt told you why I’m here.” He scanned the assembly at my back before turning his gaze back to me. “I wasn’t aware you’d be bringing a crowd with you.”
I lifted an eyebrow, amused. Gesturing to a seat, I settled into the sofa, left space for Theo on one side and Celia on the other. On our way downstairs, Celia popped out of her bedroom and announced she was ready to go. In the interest of timeliness, nobody argued.
“Introductions, then, before we continue. Theo Rossiere, my….” Well, hell. Boyfriend seemed so juvenile, baby daddy way too ghetto. “My Theo.” I caught his grin out of the corner of my eye. Guess he didn’t mind his title.
“Celia and Elizabeth Malley. Rian Flannery. And you’ve already met Lies.” Now that I thought about it, I didn’t even know if Lies had a last name. Something to find out later. “Now, Detective. Perhaps you’d care to tell me something about Deiadre.”
“Like I said, your assistant has probably told you why I’m here. Ms. McKee was murdered sometime last night. Her personal information said to contact you in case of an emergency.” Those eyes were hyper focused on me now. I wanted to squirm slightly, even though I knew I was in the clear on this. “Not her parents or any other family. But you.”
“Deiadre didn’t have any other family. Her parents died a few years back in a plane crash over the Atlantic.” Good thing Elizabeth had a memory for family trees. Although how serious Detective Duprees would take her when she looked like a tart I didn’t know. “Most of the people of the Covenant who don’t have any family have Ms. Henries listed as emergency contact.”
“The Covenant.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement. “In that case, are you, Ms. Henries, the leader of the Covenant?”
The surprise must have been evident on my face because Duprees continued hastily. “I don’t believe I fully introduced myself. I’m your New Orleans Police Department liaison. Any potential criminal issues you’re involved in, I handle.”
“You’re not the same person I saw at the reading of Gillian’s will.”
“Detective Neasterly was only a few months away from retirement. I’d been his partner for the past two years, so when he took early retirement, the department offered me the position.” Duprees smiled, a touch of humor in the gesture. “Actually, the higher ups begged me. They didn’t want to go through the trouble of explaining everything to someone else.”
“Understandable.” And really, it was. It took me more than a few minutes to wrap my mind around the existence of the Covenant, let alone the extent of how huge it was. I couldn’t begin to imagine how a nice, normal person would take the idea of throwing fire and producing gusts of wind with a thought.
“With all that being said, yes, I’m the leader of the Covenant. Now, can you tell me anything about Deiadre’s death?” If he gave me the crap line about early hours of the investigation and so on, I’d have to seriously control my temper. I didn’t like cryptic when things actually were kind of crypticy. Cryptic when it involved people dying really pushed my buttons.
“She was found in St. Louis No.1 by a group of tourists, earlier this morning.”
“She didn’t go there willingly.” Every head in the room turned in Rian’s direction. “Deiadre hated the cemetery. She wouldn’t have gone there at night for any reason, I guarantee it.”
Duprees looked like he wanted to ask a question or two, but decided against it. If he’d spent any time with the Covenant, he probably knew random statements weren’t really random. “That’s the same conclusion that we reached, Mr. Flannery. The cemetery was merely the dump site, which leaves us with more than a few problems.”
“Such as?” Theo’s hand tightened ever so subtly around my shoulders, his heat bumping up a notch.
“Well, the first would be why Deiadre. The second would be why the cemetery. But the big one would be why she was completely exsanguinated.”
Even the high school drop-out knew what that meant. “Not a drop of blood left in her?”
Duprees’ eyes stayed steady on mine. “Not one.”
Well, hell. “I think you should take us to the cemetery.”
Here are my reviews:
Shades of Gray
Author: LM Pruitt
Publisher:Red Hot Publishing
Published: August 13,2011
Format:Ebook
Number of Pages:263
Series or Standalone: Book One of Jude Magdalyn Series
Source:Author Via Bewitching Tours for Blog Tour
3 Stars
Goodreads Summary:
Jude Magdalyn Henries lives what many would call an unconventional life.
Orphaned at birth, raised by nuns, a teenage runaway living on the streets… she now earns a living at odd jobs, including one as a fake tarot card reader. Very little about Jude’s life appears normal, by any scale. When she accepts a gig to do a private reading, unconventional takes on an entirely new meaning.
Life as she knows it ends when she’s thrust into a world she never knew existed—one filled with magic, vampires, and her beloved New Orleans on the verge of an underground war. To make matters worse, she's got two men in her life vying for attention, Williams and Theo. Both call to a different part of her, but one scares her just a little bit. Can she step up to the challenges set before her and make the right choices for the greater, which may or not be the greater good?
My Review:
I fell in love with this book from the beginning. I loved Jude. She is such a take charge heroine that holds no punches. I loved her implusive and fiery spirit. She was so snarky and sarcastic too and it was so hilarious to hear the things that she would say. It was great to see her come into her powers and learn how powerful she really was. I love that she and Theo just clicked so easily and fit so seamlessly into each others lives. They were willing to look past each others faults. All the other characters were really cool also especially Celia. I could just picture her being a little pint size terror. This book was a really wonderful surprise for me. I loved it and got a fix of some of my favorite things I love in a good book romance,suspense,historical elements and friendships. It was also cool to have the New Orleans backdrop for the setting. Overall this was a great read and I highly recommend it.
Shades of Desire
Author: LM Pruitt
Publisher:Red Hot Publishing
Published: January 20,2012
Format:Ebook
Number of Pages:360
Series or Standalone: Book Two of Jude Magdalyn Series
Source:Author Via Bewitching Tours for Blog Tour
3 Stars
Goodreads Summary:
All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.
Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.
On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job. All I wanted was a little peace and quiet.
Instead, I've got dead Covenant members and a steady stream of letters from the new guy in town. His beverage of choice? A 2002 Merlot, with a shot or two of powerful virgin blood.
On top of that, I'm breaking in a new police liaison, failing at playing matchmaker, and fighting nausea like it's a full time job.
Did I forget to mention that I've also got enough girls living at the Crossroads to start my own boarding school?
Peace and quiet? Out the window.
My Review:
I loved this book more than the first one. Jude was back in all her snarky glory amped up by news of her pregnancy. I loved how the pregnancy brought Theo and Jude even closer and made them more parental.It was cute watching them finally reign in little Celia. Jude seemed to really come into her own more in this book. It was like the babies brought a new side to of her out. I loved that this book centered around an actual major historical event. It was so great to see this story play out the way it did in the book. It was also nice to see Jude really use her powers in amazing ways. Overall I liked this book as well. I can't wait for the next book in this series to see where the birth of the babies takes Jude and Theo next. I have a feeling they will be powerful in their own right. Bravo LM Pruitt for an amazing series. I can't wait to read more from this fabulous author.
About the Author:
L.M. Pruitt has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. A native of Florida with a love of New Orleans, she has the uncanny ability to find humor in most things and would probably kill a plastic plant. She is the author of the Jude Magdalyn Series as well as New Moon Rising, featuring Cari Gravier, and Taken, featuring Frankie Post. She is currently at work on the next book in the Moon Rising series, Harvest Moon Rising, due out April 2012. Ms. Pruitt makes her home in Florida with two cats--one smart, the other not so much.
Author Links:
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/LM-Pruitt/364776895104
Blog: http://www.lmpruitt.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lmpruitt
I hope you liked my reviews and my stop on the tour.
This tour brought to you by
