I'm so excited to be hosting K.D. Grace again today with the final book in her Lakeland Heatwave series, Elemental Fire. Today you'll get a glimpse into this story, along with my reviews of each book, along with the chance to win some prizes for following the tour. So keep reading to learn about Elemental Fire......
First of all let me say how happy I am to be guesting again on WOW From the Scarf Princess. And I’m especially pleased to be here on my blog tour for my new novel, Elemental Fire. Thanks so much for having me!
Earth and fire, you can’t really have one without the other. Our planet lives and breathes because of its volcanic activity. I’ve just come back from nine days in Oregon, a living monument of what fire does to earth and what earth then does with the volcanic rock that results.
Our planet lives because of its molten core, the movement of which generates the electro-magnetic field that protects our planet from the sun’s deadly radiation and from solar winds that could literally blow our atmosphere away. In essence that molten core allows our planet to bloom and grow and breathe. No fire inside equals no life outside.
The Lake District has its own version of Earth and Fire. The Ska Fell range is the remnant of an ancient volcano. And on Honister Pass, where more than a little of the Lakeland trilogy action takes place, a good bit of Fleet with Pike is hollowed out do to slate mining. Most of the slate in the Lake District has been quarried, but because of Fleetwith Pike’s hard volcanic capstone the expensive and beautiful Honister slate has to be mined.
I really wasn’t thinking about the science of fire and earth when I wrote Elemental Fire, the third book in the Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy. When I conceived the idea of the Lakeland Trilogy I was thinking of the four directions of a magical circle and the powers they represent in the pagan world.
The Elemental Coven was imagined with the idea of one person representing each element and being charged with the guardianship of that element and that compass direction. In the beginning of the trilogy, the Elemental Coven, decimated by the evil demon, Deacon, is a coven made up almost entirely of ghosts except for the coven’s high priestess, Tara Stone, who is guardian of the North and of the element of Earth. Through the course of the trilogy, as the coven is restored to its full strength and is once again able to do battle with Deacon, each of the directions receives a new living guardian imbued with new love and lust and the spark of fire that drives everything that lives. As the coven is rebuilt and it’s sex magic strengthened, Deacon’s desire for and connection to the coven also grows.
When Kennet Lucian shows up, first in Tara’s dreams, and then in her bed, he doesn’t come alone. He has allowed himself to be possessed by the fire demon, Lucia, who has her own secrets and her own reasons for wanting Deacon destroyed. But Kennet has a fire of his own that ignites passion Tara Stone has been afraid to feel for a very long time. With Kennet possessed by Lucia, the coven is ready to face Deacon in the final battle, which will either destroy him for good or tear the coven apart. When fire and earth come together, how can the attraction and the results be anything but volatile? When sex and magic ignites the whole world of the Elemental Coven and when the stakes are a matter of life and death, is there room for love in a world where the price for defeating Deacon is higher than anyone in the coven could have ever imagined?
Obsessed with revenge, KENNET LUCIAN makes a deal with a demon, a deal he comes to regret when he meets TARA STONE, head of the Elemental Coven, and a powerful witch with a desire for revenge at least as great as his. Even though the attraction between the two is magnetic and the lust combustive, Kennet must betray her to accomplish his goal, which is ultimately her goal as well; to put a final end to the demon, Deacon’s, reign of terror. But can Tara trust the man who has wormed his way into her heart and the heart of the Elemental Coven? Can she trust LUCIA, the demon with whom Kennet is allied, a demon with her own agenda. The path to Deacon’s destruction is far from clear, and the price that must be paid to be free of him forever may be too high, even for Tara Stone.
EXCERPT:
‘Will you dream with him?’ Cassandra asked, as she handed Tara the last pot.
‘I don’t see that I have much choice, do I?’
‘Is it really that much of a hardship?’
They both turned to find Kennet standing in the door of the greenhouse.
Tara laid aside her dibber and gently touched Cassandra’s hand feeling the welcome buzz of her power. ‘Go and tell the others to prepare the Dream Cave.’
Once she was gone, she turned her attention back to her seedlings.
Kennet moved inside and pulled the door to. ‘I understand you not trusting me,’ he said. ‘I’d feel the same way, I’m sure. But Tara, I’m not the enemy. I need you to believe that.’ He rested a hand on her shoulder, and she stiffened.
Carefully he removed it and turned his attention to stroking the leaves of the thyme plants. ‘You’re afraid,’ he said, his voice barely more than a whisper.
‘Aren’t you?’ She continued to fuss over the seedlings, mostly just to stave off the panic of his nearness.
‘Terrified.’ His answer surprised her.
She turned to face him and as she looked up into his eyes, it suddenly felt like she had looked into the sun.
‘But not for the same reasons you are,’ he said. He crooked a finger under her chin so she couldn’t look away. ‘Why do you make love only with ghosts?’
Everything in her wanted to turn and flee before it was too late, but she stood her ground and held his gaze. ‘It hasn’t ended well for the living when I’ve had sex with them.’
‘Are you afraid it won’t end well for me?’
She didn’t answer. She was afraid of what might happen if she tried to speak. There were too many memories too close to the surface, memories she had taken lifetimes to bury deep, and this man had dug them all up in only a few hours.
He took both of her hands, ignoring the compost on her fingers, then brushed a kiss gently across her lips, making her want like she hadn’t allowed herself to want in a very long time. Then he pulled away and brushed the pad of his thumb along her lower lip. ‘I’m already dead, Tara. Physically I may not be a ghost, but I’m already dead. Everything that I lived for was taken from me seven years ago.’
She pushed him away. ‘Seven years? Only seven years? You’re not dead yet, Kennet. You haven’t even begun to die. You haven’t had nearly enough years to really beg for death, long for death, pray that it’ll come in the night and set you free.’ She reached for the staging table for support. Her knees were weak, her insides felt like snow on the wind. ‘But then you realize that you’ll be no freer of him dead than you are alive. So no, you’re not dead, Kennet. Don’t even wish for it, and if you think your pet demon will protect you, then you don’t know demons.’
This time he grabbed her by the front of her shirt and pulled her to him with such force that she gasped out loud. He took her mouth with stunning anger, like nothing she’d ever felt before, and she returned his assault with her own rage, meeting his tongue thrust for angry thrust, bruising his lips with the force of mouth and teeth, biting and aching, as he bit back. Then he pulled away breathless. ‘She’s not my pet demon, Tara and, trust me, I fucking know demons.’
Then they were kissing again as though they would tear each other apart, as though they would rip the very breath from each other in angry, scorched shreds. His hands moved to her hips, and he hoisted her onto the staging table, shoving aside the gypsy skirt until she could feel the rough wood against the silk of her panties. He fingered aside the crotch and she tried to squirm away from him. ‘I don’t fuck the living,’ she gasped against his mouth, then she bore down as his thick middle finger found its way between her labia and thrust upward. She pulled him to her even as she tried to push him away with her words.
‘Yes you do, as of this morning you do. You need it, I need it, and it’s time you stopped letting Deacon call the shots.’
She felt his last words like a slap and like an aphrodisiac at the same time, and everything in her felt wet with need. ‘Do it, goddamnit,’ she growled. ‘If you’re gonna do it, do it and don’t make me wait!’ She grabbed for his fly with an awkward grip from a bad angle that caused him to flinch and push her hand aside. ‘Damn it, get them off,’ she gasped, ‘I can’t wait!’
With trembling hands he practically ripped the zipper out of his fly, then shoved his jeans and boxers down around his hip and his erection bounced free from its exquisite nest of copper brown curls. The view was brief, and she told herself in a sliver of a thought that was left to her, that sometime she’d like to linger and explore, though in her heart she didn’t really believe she’d ever be afforded that luxury, so she’d take what he’d give her.
Once again he tore at her panties until they were stretched over one buttock and she could feel the cool air of the greenhouse against her gape, then while she held herself open, he cupped his hands under her arse and lifted her from the table, down onto his heft. With a grunt and a slight thrust, he pressed up into her, and she yielded like soft butter, then gripped like a fist. Then she grabbed him by the hair and pulled his face back to hers, and their tongue dance matched the rhythm of the thrust and glide. Grunts became feral cries, throats became raw, and vision blurred in searing heat that had nothing to do with Lucia.
‘Great Goddess,’ he gasped. ‘If I’m not dead, I’m dying now, and it’s your fault.’
She bit his neck hard and he flinched and surged inside her tight grip. ‘You asked for it, and I don’t believe in making people beg.’
‘I can’t think of a better way to go,’ he grunted.
In truth, she wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t dying right along with him, but it didn’t really matter, dead or alive, it was pretty much the same to her.
‘Fuck,’ he breathed between barely parted lips. ‘I can’t hold back any longer, woman. I have to come now.’ And as his cock convulsed inside her, and his groin raked upward against her clit, she came in great sobs that made her throat ache, that made her body feel like some animal, curled deep at her centre, had awakened ravenous and needy with an emptiness to fill that was bigger than the void. And strangely enough, Kennet Lucian felt like he might begin to touch the emptiness.
For a long time, he held her there, both of them gasping for breath, her arms and legs wrapped around him, his large hands cupping her bottom. ‘Tara,’ he whispered against her ear. ‘Please trust me.’
She ran a hand through his hair and nipped his ear with her teeth. ‘Then prove to me that I can.’
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THIS BOOK:
As the final book in Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy, an exciting and sexy journey comes to an end in an action-packed story that races to an immensely satisfying conclusion. Tara Stone and her sexy coven are back for a final battle against the demon, Deacon, and will need all the power they can get to do so. The way they gain that power is through sex, featuring every kind of coupling possible. While these scenes are steamy they also reflect a sense of family and support for one another. And with a villain like Deacon they'll need all the help they can get as he's capable of entering other's dreams and twisting perceptions to weaken his adversaries.
Tara and Kennet don't trust each other but can't deny their attraction. They're a powerful and compelling couple and I found myself fully immersed in their lives. They'll have to work through their issues as only together can they defeat Deacon. As the story deals with their distrust and lust, the action races to an all out war and a satisfying conclusion to this story and the entire series. I was sad this ended but look forward to what Ms. Grace has planned next.
My rating for this is a B.
BUY LINKS: AMAZON | AMAZON UK | EXCITE BOOKS
This second book in the series picks up right where the first left off as the coven has to work together to fight the increasingly powerful demon, Deacon. In this story we have Cassandra, who has a unique ability that can only be brought out fully by the ghost Anderson. They can only be together in the Ether though which can be dangerous, so their attraction could get them killed. Cassandra wants answers though and is willing to brave everything to get them as her coven needs her. She must embrace her past for the future she wants with Anderson. This story is hot from the beginning and as sex is what fuels them, you see lots of sexual encounters. Surprisingly, these scenes gave great insight into the characters and I found myself completely immersed in their lives. Along with the main characters you get a glimpse of characters from the past who add to an already exciting and fast-paced story that leaves you clamoring for the next installment.
My rating for this is a B+
The Lakeland Heatwave Trilogy gets off to a intriguing start in this sexy yet action-packed story that starts out slow but quickly gains speed. For American Marie, a sexy dream introduces her to a whole new world of witches, magic, and sex. As she learns the true extent of her abilities she realizes the deadly demon she's unleashed, Deacon, seeks to destroy all and only the Elementals coven can stop him. Joining her in her journey is Tim and together their connection will get them through the danger ahead.
There's a lot of set-up in this story with lots of characters and explanations about this magical world that weigh the story down at first but it quickly becomes apparent how important each and every person and action is. Ms. Grace has created a unique world where sex is as important as breathing and beautifully balanced the steaminess with substance and leaves you wanting more....
My rating for this is a B-
*I received all these books from the author in exchange for my honest opinion.
AUTHOR INFO:
K D Grace believes Freud was right. In the end, it really IS all about sex, well sex and love. And nobody’s happier about that than she, cuz otherwise, what would she write about?
When she’s not writing, K D is veg gardening or walking. She walks her stories, and she’s serious about it. She and her husband recently walked the Coast to Coast rout across England. For her, inspiration is directly proportionate to how quickly she wears out a pair of walking boots.
K D has erotica published with Xcite Books, Harper Collins Mischief Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Black Lace, Erotic Review, Ravenous Romance, Sweetmeats Press and others.
http://kdgrace.co.uk
http://www.twitter.com/kd_grace
http://www.facebook.com/kdgraceauthor
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