Adored
by Tali Spencer
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GENRE: Erotic Fantasy Romance
BLURB:
Adora Leonnte, sister to the Uttoran emperor, endured a year trapped in a nightmarish forced marriage to a Sebboyan prince driven by a sinister prophecy to take her against her will. The war that followed destroyed the small country, but she emerges unbroken…if not unscathed. Safe again in Uttor, she vows to put the horrors she faced behind her and once again become the fearless young woman she was before her abduction.
As fate would have it, her hated kidnapper left her carrying his child, and that is a condition even she cannot wish away. Adora’s enduring hope for romance fades until a blue-eyed, self-possessed foreigner walks back into her life and reawakens feelings promising the erotic delights of which she’s always dreamed.
Vallmer Berringen, the handsome and devout prince of a country allied with conquered Sebboy, has come to Uttor for two reasons: to secure the treaty that will give his country a much needed alliance, and to fulfill his father’s orders to use the occasion to find a suitable bride. Captivated by Adora’s intelligence and courage, Vallmer is torn by the fact she is both pregnant and pagan. Her infamous reputation taints Adora, a woman that a man of his position and faith should never be tempted to woo.
Can he reconcile his vision for his country with his passion for a woman whose spirit sets his blood on fire—but for whom kingdoms have gone to war?
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Excerpt One:
Hero
Vallmer shook his head at the ridiculousness of his situation. He was riding in a creaking carriage with a woman three times—maybe four times—his years and listening to a lecture on whom he should choose as a bride. “I am beyond convinced of the lady’s virtues. Adora is everything you say…and more! Even were I to brave her brother to ask for her hand, she is…pregnant!”
Hersilia waved a dismissive hand. “Oh that. All know who fathered that child. Lorant’s bastard will have no claim on Benarri’s throne. Consider it proof of the pot. The woman is obviously fertile! Wed her, then simply father one or several of your own.”
“By my god’s law, Adora and Lorant were duly wed! Her child is no bastard, but a rightful heir to Sebboy and Uttor, too! To wed her would be to bring a bone of contention into my land! What you suggest would be a greater mistake than if I were to wed an Uttoran temple whore.”
The old woman stiffened. “How dare you—”
“How dare I what? Mention her in tandem with a whore? My people do.” With a sigh, he sank back into the cushions again. “I admire the lady, Duqessa, truly I do. I do not mean to diminish her in any way. But I must have a wife who is…unencumbered by a history with other men.”
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Tali Spencer fell in love with writing at an early age and never stopped. Thanks to a restless father, she grew up as a bit of a nomad and still loves to travel whenever she can. Her longest stint in one place was Milwaukee where she went to college, enjoyed a series of interesting careers, and raised three surprisingly well-adjusted sons. She later married her true love and put down new roots in Philadelphia, where she lives in an ongoing Italian American family sitcom. At least she’s learned how make good pasta. When not writing, Tali reads everything from sweet goofy romances to medical research, manages her fantasy football team—go Gekkos!—and takes long walks with her loving, if slightly neurotic, poodle.
Visit Tali’s blog at http://talismania-brilliantdisguise.blogspot.com
E-mail: tali.spencer1@gmail.com
Twitter: @tali_spencer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tali.spencer
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/talispencer/
Adored Buy Links
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GIVEAWAY
Tali Spencer will be awarding $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn host.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
41 comments
Thanks for hosting!
What are your hobbies?
Hi again Mai! 🙂 In addition to cruising, which really is a kind of hobby, I play board games (GenCon is an annual must) and paint miniature game figures. I should post some of my husband’s and my efforts on my blog. We may be amateurs, but our figures look really good, even the zombies. Thanks so much for all your fun questions!
How did you get such a good cover for your book? (is it a long process?)
Hi Helen! The cover is the work of Kris Norris, another romance writer and now I know she’s a talented cover artist. She knows my Uttor series well, so when the publisher arranged for the cover Kris had good ideas in mind. When it’s time to work on a cover, the publisher sends the author a cover sheet to fill out: character descriptions, setting, mood, what the author likes to see (or hate…they don’t want to give our books covers we loathe), and have us provide ideas of covers we like. It’s not a long process for the author. It might weeks before we see the cover concept and go through a tweaking process to get all the details right. Self-published authors have total control; they either hire an artist, buy a pre-made cover, or do the work of making the cover themselves. I’m not good with art, so am glad to work with an artist. 🙂
Thanks so much for the reply. It’s really interesting to hear what goes into the creation of a book. It’s a great cover – Kris Norris is as you say, very talented!
Have you always wanted to be an author?
Hi Amy! I pretty much have always wanted to be an author and I started really young, in the third grade. I told serial stories to my sister while we walked to and from school, all the way through high school, and also at night after the lights went out (we shared a bedroom). Creating worlds and characters and telling stories is my favorite thing in the world. All of my day jobs involved writing: medical articles, legislative assistant, and airport public relations. You can truly say I built my careers around words! Thanks so much for the interesting question!
thank you for the chance to win 🙂
This sounds like a very good story. I loved the excerpt.
Thank you for hosting me. I will be around and I see there are questions already! I love answering questions and am pretty much an open book. 🙂
I enjoyed the post, thank you for sharing!
Thanks for the excerpt! This sounds great and I’m looking forward to reading it. I’ve enjoyed the rest of the series.
Oh, I hope you enjoy this one too. 🙂 I’m nearing the end on the next Uttor book right now and hope to have it out for readers in a few months.
I enjoyed the excerpt, sounds like a wonderful read, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the heads up about this book. It sounds really good and I have added it to my TBR list
What books do you enjoying reading?
Hi Becky! Reading is a wonderful adventure for me and I enjoy many genres. I lean toward historical and fantasy romances, but also love quirky, fun books especially around the holidays. Hot Toy was a winner last year. Fantasy and science fiction are always high on my reading list, as are paranormal and, in nonfiction, history and biography. Oh, and cookbooks! All that delicious food presents a challenge. 😉
Thanks for sharing the excerpt! 🙂
I have enjoyed learning about the book. Thanks for sharing it.
I love the cover. Thank you.
I am looking forward to reading more. Thank you.
The book sounds very intriguing, thank you for the reveal!
Where do you find the inspiration for your books?
Inspiration is all around. The inspiration for Adored came in part from my own life because I’ve had an interesting one and know some very interesting women. I was talking with two of them one day and we got on the topic about how pregnant women aren’t seen as sexual, but we were! We talked about whether a pregnant gal could get a man (silly talk…but then again maybe not). That conversation stayed with me and I decided I might just write a romance with a pregnant heroine. 🙂 Thanks, Helen!
Thanks Tali,
A good backstory to the book. I’ll mention the book to some of my currently pregnant friends – I suspect they’d agree with you on the topic!
Do you ever base characters in your books on people you know in real life?
If you could be any character in a book, who would it be?
When was your first big break as an author (and how did it come about)?
My very first big break came thanks to my sister. As I may have mentioned I have always written stories. When I was 20 and at home with my first baby, my sister read my first finished novel and said she thought it was as good as published ones. So she dared me to send it to a publisher. I think she called me chicken. Well I couldn’t let that go unanswered! So I researched a few publishers and what was required… And I sent that sucker in. Lo and behold, the publisher wanted it! This was back before the Internet or digital books. My first book was a mass market paperback. Thanks to my sister. 🙂
I bet your sister gets awesome birthday/Christmas presents now! That’s a brilliant story! Though do you think eventually you would have submitted to a publisher without her daring you to?
I might have tried publication at some point but much later. I’m terribly shy about approaching ANYONE, so that would have been a hurdle. So yes, my sister did me a huge favor! 🙂
If you weren’t an author, what would you be?
I would either be a doctor, because that was my childhood dream and if my life had gone just a little differently I think I would have been happy as a physician, perhaps a pathologist, or I would be an airport public relations director. I worked in public relations for an airport and loved it! Airports are amazing, complicated, and important–and I liked finding ways to communicate that and deal with the many different issues that come with transportation (can you tell I love infrastructure?). Thanks for asking another fun question, Helen! 🙂
Omg, pathologist would be so cool! (instantly I think of television pathologists). But PR for an airport must’ve been awesome too. You must have met lots of different people! I can imagine that it would’ve been quite stressful at times.
I love infrastructure too. Anything organised!
What was the first book that you remember reading?
Hi Helen! 🙂 When I was seven I read The Adventures of Bobby Coon, by Thornton Burgess, and I just loved that book! I still have a copy. So that’s the earliest one I can identify by title. Boy is that a trip down memory lane!
What’s your favourite film?
Hi Helen! I adore movies, but my favorite will probably always be “Working Girl”. It’s a Cinderella story all the way, and I love it. I identify with the theme of a poor girl making her way by using her smarts.
Do you generally come up with the title for your book first, or afterwards once it’s been written?
Hi Hellen. 🙂 Usually I write the book first and about halfway through I try to come up with a hot, catchy title. I fail at the title every time. The only two books I’ve written where the title came first are MM titles: Dangerous Beauty, and Thick as Thieves. Theme or characters named the others. :-/