Highland
Secrets
A
Dragon Lore Prequel
Ann
Gimpel
Dream
Shadow Press
60K
words
Release
Date: 9/08/15
Genre:
Paranormal romance
Tumble
off reality’s edge into myth, magic, and Scottish dragon shifters
Book
Description:
Furious
and weary, Angus Shea wants out, but no matter how he feels, he can’t
stop the magic powering his visions. The Celts kidnapped him when he
wasn’t much more than a boy and forced him to do their bidding.
He’s sick of them and their endless assignments, but they wiped his
memories, and he has no idea where he came from.
Dragon
shifters are disappearing from the Scottish Highlands, and the Celtic
Council sends Angus to investigate. He meets up with Arianrhod,
legendary virgin huntress from Celtic myth, in Fire Mountain, the
dragons’ home world.
Arianrhod
prefers to work alone, mostly because she harbors a dirty little
secret and guards her privacy for the best of reasons. She’s not
exactly a virgin, and she’d be laughed out of the Pantheon if the
truth surfaced. Despite the complications of leading a double life,
she’s never found a lover who tempted her to walk away from her
fellow Celtic gods.
Attraction
ignites, hot and so urgent Arianrhod’s carefully balanced life
teeters on the brink of discovery. Angus is everything she’s ever
wanted, but he’s far too close to her Celtic kin to keep her secret
safe. Angus wants her too, but she’s a Celt. He’s hated them
forever, and she’s part of everything he’s lain awake nights
plotting to escape from.
Can
they risk everything?
Will
they?
If
they do, can they live with the consequences?
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Excerpt:
…Excitement
thrummed through her, and she considered how to proceed once she
arrived at Fire Mountain. Mayhap she could pretend she was interested
in pairing with a dragon. She narrowed her eyes and chewed
thoughtfully on her lower lip. Should she join with Angus and the
dragon, Eletea? Or pretend she knew nothing about them. If she chose
to masquerade as a wannabe dragon shifter, would the Ancient Ones
believe her?
“Why
would they?” she muttered. “I haven’t shown the slightest
interest in anything dragon-related since the dawn of time.”
Perhaps she could tell them she was bored, that her life lacked
meaning, purpose. All true. Immortality held a big downside,
particularly since somewhere along the line, she’d fashioned
herself as the virgin huntress.
Arianrhod
rolled her mental eyes. Why the hell had she thought that was a good
idea when Danu suggested it? At the time, she’d hoped to escape
Bran’s attentions, but she hadn’t planned on a millennia tossing
and turning in an empty bed. The god of prophecy—Bran—was as big
a pain in the ass as he’d always been, but at least he had a cock…
She
winced. It had taken stealth and cunning to maintain her artfully
crafted persona and still have a sex life. Nothing frequent enough to
draw attention, but she’d lain with an amazing coal black dragon.
He’d worried his kin would shun him if their affair were
discovered, but it hadn’t made a dent in his hunger for her.
Nothing
quite like the forbidden to fan those flames…
Truth
smacked her between the eyes. Loneliness and lust were why she’d
volunteered so readily to make the trek to Fire Mountain. And why
she’d sidestepped Gwydion. The last thing she needed was a witness
if she stumbled onto Keene—or another likely candidate. Dragons
lived forever. Perhaps Keene might be interested in another fling—for
old time’s sake if nothing else.
Usually
she stopped herself from thinking about her past and what she wished
she’d done differently, but she couldn’t shut off her thoughts.
If she’d had children, real children, it would’ve made such a
difference.
The
two sons she’d conceived magically were odd. But how could they
have been aught else? She’d been forced to jump over a magical rod
to prove she was a virgin, and twin sons were the result. Dylan sank
into obscurity, retreating to the seas when the strain of day-to-day
life without enough power to light a candle became too much to bear.
Lleu would’ve left as well, but Gwydion subverted every single one
of Lleu’s escape plans as he grew to manhood. Lleu blamed her for
Gwydion’s meddling, and she hadn’t laid eyes on him for a very
long time. She suspected Gwydion hadn’t, either.
Her
empty life mocked her, but she was damned if she could figure out
what to do to change it. It wasn’t as if she could march up to
Ceridwen and the others, clear her throat, and say, “Sorry, but I’m
sick of being a Celtic god. Think I’ll be a mortal for a while. And
hey, if that doesn’t please you, I’ll take to my owl form and be
done with the lot of you.”
“Oberon’s
balls!” She crashed one fist into an open hand, taking care not to
jostle the traveling portal. “I have to pull my head out of my ass.
Ceridwen handed me a fascinating problem. I need to focus on it. No
dragon f******. No diversions. Go in. Put my head down. Get the job
done.”
Nice
lecture, but can I do it?
Arianrhod
stroked the shiny bow draped over her shoulder. It was a work of art.
She’d made it herself from yew wood, not cutting any corners, so it
took months for the wood to shape and cure. She twisted her mouth
into a wry smile. The huntress part of her title was fine. It fit,
and she enjoyed the cunning, planning, and forethought it took to
outsmart prey. If she was sick of the pretend-to-be-a-virgin part,
who could blame her?
The
rhythm of her traveling tube shifted. Arianrhod glanced at a node to
check her location and understood her journey would be over soon. She
rotated her shoulders to relax and ready herself, thought about her
virgin huntress title once more, and laughed.
“The
virgin part may grate, but I adore being a huntress. Fifty percent
isn’t bad,” she told the gray-pink walls as they shuddered to a
stop. “Most people don’t even get that.”…
To
Love A Highland Dragon
Dragon
Lore
Book
One
Ann
Gimpel
Dream
Shadow Press
75K
words
Release
Date: 9/22/15
Genre:
Paranormal romance
Tumble
off reality’s edge into myth, magic, and Scottish dragon shifters
Book
Description:
A
dragon shifter stirs and wakens in a cave beneath Inverness, deep in
the Scottish Highlands. The cave’s the same and his hoard intact,
yet something’s badly amiss. Determined to set whatever’s gone
wrong to rights, Lachlan Moncrieffe ventures above ground—and
wishes he hadn’t. His castle’s gone, replaced by ungainly row
houses. Men aren’t wearing plaids, and women scarcely wear anything
at all, particularly the woman who accosts him with unseemly banter.
What manner of wench is she to dress so provocatively?
In
Inverness for a year on a psychiatry fellowship, Dr. Maggie Hibbins
watches an oddly dressed man pick his way out of a heather and gorse
thicket. Even though it runs counter to her better judgment, she
teases him about his strange attire. He looks so lost—and so
unbelievably, knock-out gorgeous —she takes a chance and stands him
a meal. Lachlan’s shock when he picks up a local newspaper at a pub
is so palpable, Maggie jumps in with both feet.
She
knew something was off, but the hard-to-accept truth bashes gaping
holes in her equilibrium. He looks odd, sounds odd, acts odd because
he’s a refugee from another era. Her half-baked seduction scheme
takes a hike, but her carefully constructed life is still about to
change forever. Born of powerful witches, Maggie runs headlong into
the myth and magic that are her birthright.
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About
the Author:
Ann
Gimpel is a national bestselling author. She’s also a clinical
psychologist, with a Jungian bent and a vagabond at heart.
Avocations include mountaineering, skiing, wilderness photography
and, of course, writing. A lifelong aficionado of the unusual, she
began writing speculative fiction a few years ago. Since then her
short fiction has appeared in a number of webzines and anthologies.
Her longer books run the gamut from urban fantasy to paranormal
romance. She’s published over 30 books to date, with several more
planned for 2015 and beyond.
A
husband, grown children, grandchildren and three wolf hybrids round
out her family.
@AnnGimpel
(for Twitter)
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