Spotlight & Giveaway: Claim the Dragon by A.C. Arthur

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author A.C. Arthur to HJ!

Hi A.C. Arthur and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Claim the Dragon!

 
Hi! Thanks so much for having me today.
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

Steele’s a dragon shifter who predicts death in his dreams. Ravyn steals to keep the people wronged by the government alive. She’s meant to die, but he’s determined to save her.
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

He was watching her again. She could feel his fierce gaze bearing down on her like rolling thunder. Might as well give him something to look at.
She walked onto the dance floor, raising her arms above her head as the beat of the music moved through her, moving her ass so he could see each plump mound bounce along with her steps. The DJ had the bass turned up and she felt each thump in her chest as she turned so her back was facing the wall where he stood.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• The idea for this book came from watching The Mummy and Robin Hood
• The cover for this book is in my favorite color – blue
• My girlfriend’s daughter’s name is Ravyn (but she spells it Raven)
• This was my first time researching Egyptian mythology
• I selected my hero’s name after working on a legal case for the day job that involved steel workers

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Originally, Steele is drawn to Ravyn because her death resembles that of his sister. But once he starts interacting with her, he’s impressed by her tenacity.
Ravyn hates Steele’s bossiness, but is immediately drawn to his strength

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

• Tumultuous
• Sexy
• Invigorating
• Intense
• Mysterious

The First Kiss…

Steele was even faster than Ravyn thought she was. He moved his arms to wrap around her waist, rolling over onto his back and pulling her on top of him. But it was what he did when she was there that shifted everything that had transpired between them so far. It jolted her senses and sent some sort of sparks shooting throughout the room the moment he locked a hand to her nape while the other arm held her tightly and securely to him. He brought her head down and before she could think of whether she wanted to scream, curse or bite him as a last-ditch effort to get free, he kissed her.

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

She tilted her head, lips lifted upward into a smirk, a look that definitely shouldn’t have struck him as sexy, but the quick punch of lust to his gut said otherwise.
“You’re an enforcer who’s sworn to uphold the law and protect the citizens of Burgess, but I don’t trust you or any of the rest of your kind. So, I won’t be putting this down, but I will be leaving here alone.”
Her voice was a smoky rasp that appealed to him just as much as the smirk on her face. Even through his sunglasses he could see her as clearly as if it were daylight. Drakon magick worked a thousand times better at night.
“I’m not an enforcer. If I were, I’d have arrested your ass last week when you stole from the safe in that jeweler’s back office.”

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would be absolutely crucial to include?

Dragons screeched throughout the sky, great winged beasts soaring above the cemetery in a circle of power that held Temptra captive.
She’d dematerialized into the cemetery because she couldn’t go much farther. She wasn’t a full vampire and the witch’s power was nothing without her potions and spells. After setting Ravyn and Cree down beneath a small copse of trees, Steele’s beast took to the sky, immediately seeing the other bronze dragon coming up beneath it.

Readers should read this book …

because it features:

1. fated mates
2. a cursed Egyptian dagger
3. dragon shifters, vampires and witches
4. a family of protectors
5. sexy guys with locs

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

I just completed the third book in the Legion series, titled Tempt the Dragon (release date Jan 2021)
I have a new release coming July 1 titled At Your Service. This is a sexy contemporary book under the Harlequin DARE line. It’s the second in my Fabulous Golds series about a family owned fashion house.

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: To celebrate the release of Claim the Dragon and my love of paranormal romance books, I’m giving away a bag of books(4) and goodies! Just leave a comment and you’ll be registered to win. (US participants only)

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Claim the Dragon and the world of the Legion dragons features many types of preternatural beings, what’s your favorite television show or movie that features vampires, dragons, or witches?

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 
 

Excerpt from Claim the Dragon:

“My name’s Steele Eze. I can help. Let’s just—” He paused and moved to the counter to reach for the green material.
Something—a lot stronger than the buddings of arousal she’d just been experiencing—soared through Ravyn’s chest, swirling like a hurricane and pushing her forward so that she hurriedly wrapped the dagger and then picked it up to pull closer to her chest.
“You’re not going to steal this from me,” she insisted.
He didn’t seem as afraid of the dagger, or her for that matter, as Happy did. She was so pissed at the pawn dealer she tried not to spare him another look.
“I’m going to help you,” Steele said. “Just come with me and we’ll see what we can do about this situation.”
Ravyn was shaking her head but she couldn’t take her eyes off this man. He hadn’t answered her question about why he’d been following her and she didn’t have time to go round and round with him. If Happy wasn’t going to buy the dagger, then she needed to find someone who would.
Without another word she pushed past the stranger and ran down the stairs, slamming through the door until she was outside in the cool autumn air. Her legs must have been moving fast because people seemed to be everywhere around her, buzzing by in flashes. She was no longer sweating and the twisting and turning of her stomach she’d unfortunately become used to in the past days had ceased. Well, at least that was something good to happen today, she was finally getting over the flu.
There was an antiques dealer a few blocks away. The cool air felt good against her skin so she decided to keep walking.
“Excuse me,” she mumbled when a man was coming right for her and she didn’t have enough time to move out of his way.
The man didn’t reply and she barely felt their bodies collide, but Ravyn didn’t care, she kept on moving. She’d seen the picture of the dagger in that book Happy had. When she’d owned her bookstore, she carried very few archaeology books because, given her proximity to the airport, her best sellers were novels and magazines. The book Happy had looked old and authentic, so there might be some sort of ridiculous lore surrounding the dagger. All that meant was she had to get rid of it a lot sooner. Coming to a stop at the curb, she pulled the dagger away from her chest and tried to readjust the material around it. The traffic light was taking an awful long time to change, so she pulled her backpack around to her front and stuffed the dagger back inside. When she adjusted the backpack again and was about to walk across the street, there was a woman standing in front of her.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Ravyn said and stepped to the side.
The woman remained in front of her. Had she moved with her? Ravyn didn’t recall seeing her take a step, but then again she’d been looking at her feet. And why did she even care?
“Sorry,” Ravyn said this time and stepped in the other direction so she could cross.
“No need to apologize,” the woman replied, but her lips hadn’t moved.
Of that Ravyn was certain because she’d been staring at the odd hat the woman wore. If odd could be translated to mean old, because she could have sworn that was the type of hat worn in some of the old black-and-white movies Kal Pagen watched at Safeside because their satellite signal was spotty and the channels which hosted the more recent movies were often the first to blink out.
And had she just acknowledged that the woman’s lips hadn’t moved? Ravyn admitted she was having a day, or actually a week, considering the illness, but how often had she run into a ventriloquist, and why would said ventriloquist waste her talent by striking fear in someone walking down the street? Ravyn’s heart skipped a beat at the thought that the woman might be something other than a person who was trained to talk without moving their lips.
With a shake of her head, Ravyn continued across the street. But now she was much more attuned to the people around her. There were so many, more than she’d ever seen on a Thursday afternoon in this area of Burgess. It was strange but she’d seen stranger—the cursed dagger she was carrying, for instance. The antiques store was a few steps ahead and she was just about to skirt around a trio of men standing on the sidewalk so she could get to the door when a hand on her elbow stopped her.
“You need to come with me,” a man said, and she knew who it was before she even looked up to see his face.
Yanking her arm away, Ravyn balled her hands into fists and lifted them in the stance that said she was ready to fight. “If you don’t back the hell up and stay away from me, there’s gonna be trouble.”
He didn’t move. “There’s already going to be trouble. That’s why I need you to listen to me. Let me take the dagger and—”
“Fuck off!” she yelled and punched him in the chest. His chest felt like his name, hard as steel, which was kinda sexy, but he hadn’t budged an inch. She hadn’t actually presumed that striking him would move a man his size out of her way. It was meant to let him know she was serious about him leaving her alone.
“You don’t understand.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she snapped and this time when she flattened her palms against his massive chest and pushed him, a rush of adrenaline soared through her and he did stumble back a step.
He looked more startled than she felt about the strength she’d managed to accumulate in just a few moments. With no explanation for how or why that had happened she figured it was better to quit while she was ahead. Dodging around the three men on the street she ran into the antiques shop and hurried to the back of the store where the owner usually sat at a small table having tea while she waited for customers.
“Welcome, welcome, my dear. I’ve been waiting for you,” the older woman said when Ravyn came to a stop just short of crashing into her table with the old floral decorated tea set.
Ravyn was about to speak again but instead blinked at what the woman had said. No, the woman couldn’t have meant she was waiting for Ravyn specifically. Just for any customer, right? She shook those thoughts away.
Without hesitating Ravyn said, “I need to sell something, and fast.”

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

To save her, he’ll sacrifice everything.

Born a dream reaper, Steele Eze, a powerful half dragon, half human, is struggling to find his place in the Drakon hierarchy. He is ready to accept his fate until he realizes the next victim on the Reaper’s hit list is the sexy thief who’s caught his eye.

She’s supposed to die.

He’s forbidden to stop it.

But their inexplicable connection makes it impossible to step aside.

Abandoned by her family and abused by local enforcers, Ravyn Walsh lives life on her own terms. She’s created an underground sanctuary for the oppressed citizens of Burgess, and she needs funds to keep it running. When a lucrative job—stealing an ancient dagger—lands in her lap, she doesn’t hesitate, not even when a smoldering tattooed stranger attempts to stop her.

A dagger that can raise the dead is a powerful tool—one that could change the course of history. As they fight to keep the dagger out of the wrong hands, Ravyn will be forced to embrace the truth of her heritage, while Steele will find himself torn between saving a life that isn’t meant to be saved and denouncing the power he was born to wield.
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

A.C. Arthur was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland where she currently resides with her husband and three children, two grandchildren and English bulldog named Vader. An active imagination and a love for reading encouraged her to begin writing in high school and she hasn’t stopped since.
To date, A.C. has written in several genres including, young adult paranormal writing as Artist Arthur, small town contemporary romance as Lacey Baker, and sensual contemporary and paranormal romance as A.C. Arthur
An award-winning author, A.C. is determined to bring a new edge to romance with diverse characters, intriguing plots, and sensual love scenes.
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