Flame’s Dawn by Jillian David – Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

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Description:
The Vietnam War throws tough but vulnerable Specialist Jane Larson into the strong arms of cursed immortal Captain Barnaby Blackstone. As the world disintegrates around them, one night of passion ends with him shoving her onto a helicopter as a bomb explodes right where he stood.

Years later, Jane is neck deep in an undercover DEA operation gone horribly wrong. Kidnapped and then committed to an asylum, she has no hope of escape from the clutches of cult leader and narcotic trafficker, Tim Thompson. The only thing that sustains her through the pain is the image of a certain Captain’s handsome face. Now that she is broken in body and spirit, she has no future with any man, including Barnaby.

As cursed Indebted killer, Barnaby has spent several of his immortal years searching for the fierce and beautiful woman who had unlocked hope in his cold, hard soul. When he finds her near death in a hospital, he uses his Indebted strength to help her escape, but in the process attracts the attention of a maniac who is intent on revenge. To save Jane, he must reveal his deepest secret and risk her rejection.

Review

Flame’s Dawn by Jillian David is a prequel to her Hell to Pay series.
I have read the whole series, and loved it, so I inhaled the next chapter of this series.

This is about Barnaby. Having read this series so far, I know how this ends. And it’s a great story. We hear so much about Barnaby through the other books in the series, and how he interacts with the other characters, it was great to read his story. Only downside …… It wasn’t long enough 😉

For those who haven’t read the series (boy you need to read the series) indebted are immortal killers for their master Jerahmeel (like the devil) they kill using a special knife, it absorbs their soul and it feeds their master. They start as humans, but after an injustice, Jerahmeel may or may not hear their cries, he gets them to sign a contract, and they are eternally his. They can only escape once they have completed the special kill. No one knows how to end their contract.

We start Barnaby and Jane’s story in war torn Vietnam. Both have noticed each other for a while, but neither have acted on it.  This is where you think the story ends, but it doesn’t.

We jump to the future, Jane is now working for the DEA, going deep undercover to break a drug and cult ring, she is soon in over her head. Being forced to take drugs, poor Jane is broken, and to keep her quiet, she is placed in an asylum.

Barnaby is now sick of his life as an indebted, he searches for a loophole, a way to release himself and others from their servitude, but he has never forgotten Jane; always wondering where she ended up.

The couple are reunited when he finds her in the asylum, breaking her free, as they attempt to hide from the cult/drugs leader. As the drugs begin to leave Janes system, she begins to notice things. Barnaby heals really fast, can do things that shouldn’t be possible. And when confronting him, will she believe the things he will say to her ?

If you’ve read the other books, then this is a must, if you haven’t, then this is a good place to start.  It’s a prequel, but really, you can read it at the start of the series, or at the end. But I’m going to read it again, then go back to the other stories.

Reviewed by Julie B

Copy provided by Author

Heating Up the Pages

Steam factor. Swoon. Heat level. The tingly good feels.

Maybe it’s that moment when the hero and heroine’s eyes meet. Or the zing of sensation when a hand brushes against an arm or a shoulder. The way her mouth moves when she tells a story. The way he intently watches her walk across a room. Maybe it’s a simple smile. Or maybe it’s that promise to fulfill all those dark fantasies.

We all love some level of heat in our romances. Some readers enjoy just enough heat to make the tummy flutter and the heart skip a beat. Some readers want so much that they need supplemental oxygen and nitroglycerin tablets to make it through certain scenes.

On a scale, if you figure handholding falls at a 1 and wild monkey sex with whips and chains in zero gravity falls in at about a 10, then I like to write a heat level around a 6-8. Where my characters fall within this scale depends on their past, their belief systems, their fears, and how they respond to their partner.

I like to write to a heat level that’s enough to spice up the night and makes the encounter oh-so-satisfying, but still leaves some…depths…uncharted. But is the heat all about the act of sex itself – upping the kinkiness or sexual ante to creative heights? Or is heating up the pages about much, much more?

Gentle reader, you know the answer to that question. Heat levels totally depend on what comes before the actual sex. Chapters and pages well before the actual sex, in fact.

It’s really fun to write about the kind of heat builds and builds until it combusts like a match to a gasoline spill. I like the sexiness and steamy hot connection simmering for a long time before going into a full boil. Because when that flash point is reached. Wow.

Creating the heat is about everything BUT sex. Ok, it’s somewhat about sex, but the not-sex part is the most important part. How the fuel is mixed, how the accelerant is added, how the tinder is stacked, and finally, finally…striking that match. Giving that one tiny spark that – boom – flashes into Earth-shattering passion.

So how do you get to the kaboom? (Euphemistically speaking, of course!) It’s all about the little things.

The big O moment (whether that means Orgasm or Oh let’s be together forever) doesn’t happen without a bunch of little moments leading up to it – and I don’t mean foreplay in the bedroom beforehand. They say the woman’s erogenous zone is her mind, and I believe it. The intense gaze, the way he focuses on what she’s saying, his little touch in the small of her back – each action turns up the heat another few degrees. The way she brushes past his arm, or gets him to open up about his life, or tells a joke. Click, click, click – turn that knob. Increase the heat.

So heat isn’t about “Tab A into Slot B” details. Well, okay, maybe it is a >little< about the mechanics of kissing or petting or sex. But true heat is when there is meaning and history and longing infused into every movement of passion. That’s at least how I try to write the scenes. Turning up the heat is all about what got your characters to this moment that makes the moment mind-blowingly amazing. It’s about the things in the character’s past that has made him or her so vulnerable in the moment.

So, when that spark hits the fuel —

It bursts into flame.

Jillian is offering 2 e-copies of Immortal Flame (Book #1  of Hell to Pay series) to TWO (2) lucky commenters at The Reading Cafe

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