Today I bring to you a wonderful addition to the paranormal genre as Karin Shah is here discussing her new book, In Like a Lion. Read my review to learn even more about this book and then make sure to sign up for the giveaway so you can win a copy. Let's get this party started and welcome Karin Shah......
What's In a Name?
Names are important. Anyone ever bullied in school with an unfortunate twisting of her name knows this. Superheroes do, too. Ratman is far less fear-inspiring than Batman. Finding good names is a problem for writers, too, and readers recognize it, because I get asked, "How do you come up with names?" all the time.
Romance names carry a lot of weight. Dwayne Dibbley does not give rise to images of a strong, handsome and courageous hero.
Romance names have to be evocative. There's a reason names like, "Stone" and, "Brand" and "Hunter" have almost become cliches.
Many times, when asked where I get names, I give the quick answer--a baby book, but there's a lot more that goes into it than a name that sounds good and has a pleasant meaning. I changed a secondary character's name in IN LIKE A LION only a few months before handing it in to my editor. That change caused me a lot of angst because although she only has a few quick minutes of "screen time" in IN LIKE A LION, I have her slated to be the heroine in book four of the series. Her original name was Jade. I love this name, it's evocative, lovely and short (which is important if you're going to write a name hundreds of times*g*). But the heroes name is Jake, another character's name is John, and there were getting to be far too many "J" names in the series. I could foresee a scene full of Jade's and Jake's and John's and though that would pass muster in "real life," I don't want to confuse my readers (or myself).
Last names are tough, too. When I conceived of the Chimera series, I thought I was going to get around this. They're brother's right? All their last names can be Mara. Then I realized they couldn't be very well hidden from their enemies as children, if they all had the same last name! Then, there are the unconscious things I do. After I began Chimera 2, I noticed that, starting in BLOOD AND KISSES. All my heroines, except Anjali, had names that were places in England, Kent, Devon, Coventry.
What are your favorite romance names? Which ones can't you stand? I'd love to hear!
Romance names carry a lot of weight. Dwayne Dibbley does not give rise to images of a strong, handsome and courageous hero.
Romance names have to be evocative. There's a reason names like, "Stone" and, "Brand" and "Hunter" have almost become cliches.
Many times, when asked where I get names, I give the quick answer--a baby book, but there's a lot more that goes into it than a name that sounds good and has a pleasant meaning. I changed a secondary character's name in IN LIKE A LION only a few months before handing it in to my editor. That change caused me a lot of angst because although she only has a few quick minutes of "screen time" in IN LIKE A LION, I have her slated to be the heroine in book four of the series. Her original name was Jade. I love this name, it's evocative, lovely and short (which is important if you're going to write a name hundreds of times*g*). But the heroes name is Jake, another character's name is John, and there were getting to be far too many "J" names in the series. I could foresee a scene full of Jade's and Jake's and John's and though that would pass muster in "real life," I don't want to confuse my readers (or myself).
Last names are tough, too. When I conceived of the Chimera series, I thought I was going to get around this. They're brother's right? All their last names can be Mara. Then I realized they couldn't be very well hidden from their enemies as children, if they all had the same last name! Then, there are the unconscious things I do. After I began Chimera 2, I noticed that, starting in BLOOD AND KISSES. All my heroines, except Anjali, had names that were places in England, Kent, Devon, Coventry.
What are your favorite romance names? Which ones can't you stand? I'd love to hear!
Research scientist, Dr. Anjali Mehta, lost her beloved family in an earthquake. Only her work cuts through the paralyzingly grief, but when she finds her new research subject, reputed mass murderer, Jake Finn, maddeningly uncooperative and inexplicably sexy she's tempted to run away. How can she burn to touch a killer--a man behind bars?
What she doesn't know is that Jake is a chimera, a shapeshifter who can change into a lion or a dragon with all the strengths of both even in human form, who believes his ability to shape shift is nothing but a terrifying hallucination, and his overpowering attraction to his new doctor proof positive he’s finally gone over the edge.
And the employer she trusts has an agenda all his own. If she can't believe the impossible, neither she nor Jake may make it out alive.
EXCERPT:
As Anjali stepped out into the corridor, a shout made her freeze.
The exclamation’s guttural force spurred her heartbeat into double time. What the hell?
She tracked the alarming sound to a door with a glass window and peered inside.
In the center of a large room, a shirtless man moved with fluid grace on exercise mats. Karate? Or Tae Kwon Do? That explained the shout. She shrugged.
Before she could slip away, the man turned and came closer. She ducked to the side so he couldn’t catch her watching.
Her breath caught as she saw his lean face.
She swallowed, pulse leaping. God, he was gorgeous. Staring much, Anjali? she admonished herself, scraping together the remnants of logic blown away by the sight of him.
This was just a man, his face, just a pleasing arrangement of features.
Papers on the appeal of symmetry to the human mind had been mandatory reading in some of her classes.
His movements took him deeper into the room and she inched closer again, her long exhale fogging the window in front of her. She didn’t need calipers to know when God had handed out facial symmetry, this man had pushed to the front of the line.
Odd shadows lent the suggestion of a tiger’s stripes to the man’s elegant cheekbones and clean jaw. She glanced at the ceiling and noticed metal baskets caging the fluorescent light fixtures, throwing voids into the harsh glare.
Her attention zeroed back to the man.
His hair—raven black with the sheen of a crow’s feather—hung past his chin and fell forward, masking his eyes. She caught herself wishing he would raise his head so she could see them. Her gaze drifted downward, following the delicious curve of his shoulder.
His large body was a work of art, each muscle defined and chiseled, as if Michelangelo had carved him from a piece of granite. The impish light played more tricks, lending his golden skin the sheen of satin as he defended against the attacks of invisible adversaries.
Her mouth dry, she watched him flow through the movement, muscles rippling beneath that flawless skin. Who was he? A guard?
Given his size and superior musculature, if he was a doctor, he was nothing like the doctors and researchers she’d worked with in the past.
Goose flesh pimpled the back of her arms. There was just something about a man that big that called to her most basic instincts.
A disparaging laugh huffed from her chest. She’d been living like a nun for years and now she was drooling over a man so out of her league he might as well have been a movie star.
What sounded like a voice—short and harsh, but indistinct—reverberated through the thick, metal-reinforced glass. The man halted mid-move and glared over his powerful shoulder.
For the first time, Anjali noticed there were other people in the room; uniformed men with sleek, ugly rifles, not only drawn, but leveled at the man as if prepared to shoot him at the slightest misstep.
She gasped as an awful realization washed over her. This man—the first man to draw her interest since her loss—was not a guard or a doctor.
He was Jake Finn, her subject, and a stone-cold killer.
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THIS BOOK:
Anjali has been alone since the death of her family and cut herself off from others for fear that she'll lose someone else. She's smart and strong-willed but has been living in a box not wanting to put herself on the line. She finds herself instantly attracted to the men behind the bars though and quickly realizes that what she's been told about him is nothing but lies and that she's his only hope to escape being put to death. They're soon on the run to reconnect with a long lost brother and the changes that Anjali noticed upon meeting Jake soon transform her forever and forge a deeper bond between them.
The sexual tension is palpable once these two meet and as the action and suspense take off on a life or death journey there's a constant sense of fear. Their escape takes them from the city to the desert to Las Vegas in a bloody and heartpounding rampage. Luckily there's time for a bit of sexual healing along the way that is satisfying but seems a bit out of place considering they're running for their lives. Their final encounter with the bad guys unearths a villainous plot that is just scratching the surface and promises to rear its ugly head again.
With so much happening and so many characters introduced it's easy to get bogged down and lose track of who's who. This didn't ruin the story for me but did lead to a reread of certain passages. With a few strong and sexy brothers left to meet though and a loss of control for those not mated by the age of thirty, there's still plenty of drama ahead in this paranormal series that shows us lions, dragons, and witches. In Like a Lion had a fast pace with lots of suspense and action and a likable couple that you rooted for every step of the way. I look forward to discovering more of these sexually tempting brothers and recommend this exciting paranormal story to others.
My rating for this is a B+
*I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.
BUY AT: Amazon
I live in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio and worship Jeni's Ice Cream, JK Rowling, Jayne Ann Krentz, the tv show Supernatural, and the movies, Hunt For Red October and The Princess Bride (though not necessarily in that order).
I am a fanatical reader of Romance, particularly Sci-Fi Romance, Fantasy Romance and Paranormal Romance. I always write the book I want to read, so I tend to jump sub-genre a bit. My husband and I are the parents of two kids (a girl and a boy) and slaves to two dogs (a basenji and a vizsla).
I was born in Rochester, NY, attended SUNY Oswego and got my Master's in Information and Library Science at the University of Buffalo. I was a School Librarian in Webster, NY for five years before starting my writing career. (I still miss my students).
http://KarinShah.wordpress.com
@KarinShah
**********GIVEAWAY**********
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Love the premise of this book! Thanks for the interview and excerpt.
ReplyDeleteCarole
The premise sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chance!
Kassandra
sionedkla@gmail.com
Thanks, Carole and Kassandra! Good luck! :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat giveaway, thanks!
ReplyDelete