The Purest of the Breed by Tracy Tappan – Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

 

 

 

The Purest of the Breed
The Community series – Book #2
by Tracy Tappan
Release Date: June 27, 2014

Amazon

Description:
Plagued by enemies from above and below ground, a group of Vârcolac warriors fight a desperate battle to keep their secret town safe from invasion

A different place to find her dreams…

The night Marissa Bonaventure is saved from vicious kidnappers by special operative, Dev Nichita, her life is changed in ways she never could have imagined. Brought to the safety of an underground “research institute,” she’s offered a hefty sum of money to stay on and work for a year, money that will allow her to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. But the surreal events that unfold in the strange community of Ţărână soon make her wonder if all is what it seems. When the shocking truth about Dev is exposed, Marissa faces an impossible decision. She loves Dev deeply, but committing to a Vârcolac is a forever proposition, and the only way she can be with Dev will require her to throw away her one chance to redeem a miserable past.

The man he wants to be…

The night Dev Nichita rescues Marissa from the claws of the Om Rău demon race, he knows she’s meant to be his mate. Lying to her about his true nature feels wrong, but he needs time to make her fall in love with him before he reveals that he’s a different breed of human being. When that secret finally comes out, their relationship is shattered in ways Dev hadn’t predicted. A 100-year-old betrayal rises up to threaten their future together—devastating every member of his family—and Dev’s own angry withdrawal becomes a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Then the Topside Om Rău enemy threatens a catastrophic breach of the hidden community, and Dev must call upon all his power as he races against the clock to save the most important people in his life.

 

Review:

Good grief !!! I love this series, and hope there is more to come. What an awesome ride. Got totally sucked in from book 1, devoured this one, and now I want more !!!

So……

DEV, our hero, was in the first book, and he was a secondary character in that one, and I hoped he would get a book. Marissa, our heroine, is human and has DNA that will make her compatible to mate and bear children with the Varcolac. The Varcolac are the vampires that live underground; they are more civilized than the Topside Om Rau. Although both races kidnap human females. The Varcolac woo and win their females, the Om Rau don’t.

This book starts off where the last one ended. Dev and his warriors off to rescue those women. The kidnapping of Marissa and 2 other women was a little hard to read, but it brought home how different the three warring factions are. Marissa and her fellow slaves are rescued by Dev and his team. The fight scenes are fast and furious, but had moments where you would chuckle. Especially, the one liners the Varcolac would throw out.

Dev felt an instant attraction to Marissa, but put it down to the smell of unattached dragon females produce. Dragon females are human women with compatible DNA that match both the Varcolac and the Om Rau vampires.

All Marissa ever wanted was to have her own restaurant. And the thought of owning one in Tarana, which is the underground city in which the Varcolac live, and the Om Rau keep trying to break into,was too good to turn down. She liked the idea of maybe spending time with Dev, what she didn’t bank on , was spending FOREVER with him. And that to stay with him, meant giving up her dreams, and being bitten by a vamp!

We have a lot of the original characters from the first book, so it felt more of a continuation of the whole story, rather than a new book. And we also had a few new threads added as well

Both Marissa and Dev have their own issues and hang ups, and they do hamper the couple from getting together. But I liked that they don’t get down and naughty within the first few pages. Dev HAD to work at gaining Marissa’s trust. And when I mean issues I mean ISSUES !!!! (mothers who hate you, and sisters that sabotage your every dream, and wish you dead)

There were the usual bad guys posturing and doing their usual sneers, and a few OMG moments.I do see a few females being taken in the future (hint hint hint at more books)

So to round this up, I totally recommend this series. If you like your alpha males with a bite and growl, then The Purest of the Breed is the book for you. Oh …. When is the next one out ?

Reviewed by Julie B.

Copy provided by Author

 

The Character Couch

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the action-packed movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” are a husband and wife who don’t know each other are assassins. The movie opens with these two sitting in front of a therapist, squirming with discomfort; we guess this is as much from the possibility of having to bare their souls—something an assassin can’t do—as from the idea of talking about a marriage that has obviously been filled with lies. Either way, it’s going to be entertaining. And, oh, yes, the therapist kicks off the session with a bang.

“How often do you have sex?” he asks.

“I don’t understand the question,” Angelina Jolie returns, dead-pan.

“Is this on a scale of 1 to 10?” Brad puts in.

“So is 1 very little,” Angelina continues, “or is 1 nothing? Because, technically speaking…zero would be nothing.”

So it seems that Bran and Angelina haven’t been having sex for a while.

We can hardly believe it.

The episode is funny, touching, and intriguing, which is exactly the tone of my reader-focused website, The Character Couch (www.charactercouch.com), where fans can suggest their favorite romance couple to be brought into a therapy session. Yes, this is therapy, but these sessions are anything but angst-ridden. They are written in the same spirit as “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” drawing us in to be a fly on the wall and peek at something we normally wouldn’t be able to see.

Will there be amusing bantering in these sessions, a sense of firm, quiet resolve, poignancy? Sure. All of it. Every session is different, but always attention-grabbing.

Don’t you find that the best books always stick with you long after you’ve turned the last page, leaving you hungry for more? I know I go crazy waiting for the next novel in a series to come out, and I figured other readers felt the same. So I came up with an idea that would combine my two loves—of doing therapy and writing romance—in a way that would provide innovative, free entertainment for fans. Today, I share about my unique endeavor.

What could we expect to see if you had “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” on The Character Couch?

LOL. Well, I think first you’d see the therapist secretly getting moon-eyed over Brad Pitt! And could we blame her?

Therapist Regan Malloy has been so exciting to create. I’ve already morphed her to fit a multitude of romance sub-genres. She’s been a French ex-pat from a time travel romance, a bespeckled Brit from a contemporary racehorse romance, a saloon mistress in America’s old west, and a wizened crone facing down a couple of vampires.

Regan also brings her own struggles into the session, whether that’s fear or uncertainty, confusion about her clients, or maybe just a verbal blunder of some sort. So, each month, the therapist is as different as her clients.

It’s all about keeping the site dynamic and entertaining!

That does sound like a great deal of fun for readers.

Oh, definitely. I always pose questions at the end of the session, too, because fan involvement adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the experience. Readers get a chance to join the “analysis” and tell me and the participating author what they think. This month for NY Times bestselling author Deborah Cooke’s paranormal romance, SERPENT’S KISS, the debate centers around the impending parenthood of the hero and heroine. Will they be able to handle it? I’m impressed at how thought-provoking and insightful people’s comments have been.

It’s a fantastic time.

It seems that this site also benefits authors.

Without question. The commentary I was just talking about offers an excellent way for authors to increase their social reach; comments are managed through Facebook Plugins which means that the discussion is laterally posted on Facebook, so that the topic matter can be seen by all of a fan’s friends—which means thousands!

The Character Couch is an innovative way for authors to market their books, and they’ve been really creative with their use of it. Many authors run contests, where fans are asked to vote on which couple from one of the author’s romance series they’d like to see go into therapy. Several lucky participants win prizes, and the book with the most votes earns a session on The Couch. This kindles fan enthusiasm even before the session is posted!

The procedure for readers is very user-friendly: people just click on the “Suggest A Book” icon in the side bar of the site and input their choice—anytime!

Readers don’t have to wait for a contest to make a suggestion!

This month author Deborah Cooke is using this session to encourage readers to sign up to be notified of the launch of the final book in her series, FIRESTORM FOREVER. I track numbers through Google Analytics, and the response to these kinds of requests is always really good.

You write the sessions, though, don’t you?

I do. It’s a process that requires a great deal of attention to detail on my part in order to represent absolutely correctly another author’s characters. No pressure, right? Not one word goes onto the site without an author’s full approval (authors can go to the FAQ section on the site for more detail).

And so far, so good! The testimonials page glows with the praise from alumni authors.

This has been one of the most satisfying parts of this endeavor for me; it means I’ve succeeded in honoring their stories, and that feels terrific.

How does a session typically end?

Oh, there isn’t a “typical” with these sessions. That’s another fun part. Every month, it’s a new journey, and you never know at what point you might laugh or get a clench of emotion in your chest. Or where a surprise might pop out at you.

Like the ending to “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

During the course of the movie, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have discovered that each other are assassins. With the truth out, there’s hope for their marriage now. They end up in front of the therapist again, recapping, still spouting off to each other, but in a way that makes us chuckle; we know they’re going to be okay. The therapist seems to agree, talking about how marriage takes work, but—

Brad interrupts to say, “Ask us the ‘how many times did you have sex this week?’ question again.”

“John,” Angelina Jolie scolds quietly, while Brad Pitt proudly flashes ten fingers outside of Angelina’s sight lines.

Oh, yes, expect fun surprises!

 

Tracy is the award-winning author of gritty romance, her books spanning genres across paranormal (The Community series), military suspense (The Wings of Gold series), and Historical (The Baron’s War trilogy). During nearly twenty-five years spent as a military wife, she lived all over the United States and in Europe, enjoying seven years overseas in the diplomatic community, first in Rome then in Madrid, until she settled back in San Diego. Tracy holds a master’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling, and has used this background to create a fan-based website called The Character Couch, where romance’s favorite couples are brought into a fun session with therapist, Regan Malloy. Her debut paranormal novel, THE BLOODLINE WAR, is a Bronze Medal winner for romance of the prestigious Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY). Available on Amazon:

Tracy loves to keep in touch with readers. You can follow her on Twitter at @TracyTappan, Facebook at Tracy Tappan Romance Author (http://on.fb.me/1hs0Z3L), or mosey around her website at www.tracytappan.com and write to her at Tracy@TracyTappan.com.


Tracy is offering an e-copy of the Purest of the Breed to two (2) lucky commenters at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click GET NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

4. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

5. LIKE Tracy Tappan on FACEBOOK for an additional entry

6. Giveaway is open to USA only.

7. Giveaway runs from July 22  to July 26, 2014