Spotlight & Giveaway: Warrior Witch by Susan Stephens

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Susan Stephens to HJ!

Hi Susan and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, WARRIOR WITCH!

 
Hi, thank you so much for inviting me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Book 1# in my new HOT HEX Fantasy series, WARRIOR WITCH takes love, romance, and a guaranteed happy ending to a fantasy kingdom where a dragon rules.

Abra, our heroine, must leave her orphaned brother and sister to destroy an evil sorceress who has put a curse on their village, robbing all the inhabitants of the desire to mate.

To stand up to such a powerful black force Abra must share the magic of Bahkran, a mysterious hero. It’s the way she has to do this that proves the real challenge for a young woman who prefers to hunt and fight.

Determined to grit it out, Abra sets off on her sacred quest with determination and courage, and perhaps most important of all, a sense of humour. She is definitely going to need that!
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

“Abra, you have been chosen.” Axel Rey’s words rose with quiet authority above the steady rhythm of the drums.
The ceremony asking the Great Spirit to protect the villagers was over, but the heady scent of incense lingered in the air, drawing a lavender veil over scrub and rock, forming a hay cloud around the striking figure of an athletic young female kneeling at the feet of her brother and leader of the village, Axel Rey.
With her lustrous raven hair severely drawn back and plaited in the fashion of all the warriors in the village, Abra was ready for whatever lay ahead.
But not this time.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• This book kept me smiling throughout. I just love fairy tales and fantasy, and when I cast a kick-ass heroine in the role of Abra, the story sprang onto the page with a life of its own!
• Abra’s appreciation of hero-types is rock bottom until she meets Bahkran. In fact, she doesn’t think much of men at all. Add a dragon into the mix, and things really take off!
• I wrote a couple of short fantasy stories years ago, and recently felt the urge to return to a place where there are no rules, and magic can and does happen. The freedom that gives a writer is just amazing, and I’m looking forward to writing more books in the HOT HEX series. In fact, Look out for ROYAL WITCH and CHRISTMAS WITCH Coming soon!

Please tell us a little about the characters in your book. As you wrote your protagonist was there anything about them that surprised you?

Abra thinks she knows who she is and what she wants out of life, but what she discovers when she meets Bahkran is that things can be better together than they are apart. But it takes quite some time for Abra to come to that conclusion!

Bahkran starts out as a typical alpha male hero, but he too must change to have any chance of getting close to a woman he comes to admire.

It’s the way these two protagonists find their way to each other that intrigues me, and with some threat and heat and disagreements along the way life is never dull in the fantasy world they inhabit.

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

I would use the first time the dragon soars skyward with Abra in his talons as an audition piece for my main characters. That scene was such fun to write, and I can just picture my battling heroine screaming at the tormenting dragon to put her down as he takes her for a flight that turns out to be a bit like a rollercoaster ride with no parallel tracks or safety bars!!

…Abra wasn’t sure what happened next. One moment her feet were firmly planted on the ground, and the next, the dragon had snatched her up by the leather straps holding her weapons.

“Put me down,” she shrieked as it shot like a spear into the sky with Abra dangling from one claw…

What do you want people to take away from reading this book?

I ‘d love my readers to finish this book with the warm fuzzies inside and a big smile on their face. I hope they remember the laugh out loud moments as well as the always satisfying triumph of light over darkness, good over evil.
And of course, I want them to revisit the HOT HEX world for some more adventures and love stories from the wonderful world of fantasy.

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

I am currently finishing off Christmas Witch. Set in contemporary times here in the UK, my gorgeous apprentice witch Davina, and her hot hunky hero Roman Hardy – who packs a few surprises of his own- have been wonderful and funny to write!
I’m also re-launching my BLOOD AND THUNDER romantic suspense series with all new covers as well as the option of print. There will be a new book in this series CONOR coming out in the New Year.
I will also be writing the penultimate book in my Spanish Acosta series for Harlequin Mills and Boon. Yay! I love those hard-living, hard-riding guys so much.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: A free e-copy of my romantic suspense stand-alone – (stand-alone for now lol) Royal Princess book,
SEDUCING THE PRINCESS

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you read across many genres, providing there is a strong romantic element, or do you have a go-to genre?

 
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Excerpt from WARRIOR WITCH:

Bahkran threw back his head and laughed. He had arranged for guards who were to be dismissed for laziness to guard the doors, although he hadn’t realized they were quite so stupid. It was to be hoped that Abra had the measure of them.
He kept a close watch as she disappeared inside the guardhouse, hidden from everyone’s view but his. The first guard dropped the latch as the second guard dropped his pantaloons.
“Your potion,” the first guard demanded.
The fellow needed it. He was already starting to droop. Bahkran could imagine warlike Abra having that effect on some men, but surely not this new, softer version of the same woman? In spite of her voice being carefully modulated to sound as gentle as a kitten, he guessed her eyes must be basalt hard.
He laughed again when she simpered, “Certainly, sir.” But he did have one concern. Abra must ensure that both guards fell unconscious within moments of each other. He waited with interest to see how she’d do that.
Abra had an answer for everything.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

A warrior witch determined to save her people. A dragon hoarding the magic she needs. One sacrifice to melt his dragon’s diamond-hard heart…

The Great Spirit has spoken. Abra has been chosen to save her people from a curse. Much as she hates leaving her orphaned younger siblings, Abra can’t deny she relishes the chance to put her warrior skills to the test. But there’s a catch. To destroy the evil Sorceress who cast the spell, she needs more than cold steel. She needs strong magic.

To get it, she must seduce Bahkran, guardian of all magical power.

In Abra’s view, men’s brain cells never stray far above their belts. Even the wickedly frustrating hero type who’s been taunting Abra in her dreams. But sacrificing her innocence is nothing compared to the barren fate that awaits her people if she fails.

Bahkran hasn’t been tempted to break his vow of celibacy for centuries. But if Abra is brave enough to face the Sorceress, it’s worth the effort to emerge from her dreams for a few minutes of amusement.

Their first coupling will be extraordinary. He has Seen it. But he cannot know that playing with this human female will be like stepping on a scorpion. Or that she’ll make him burn with the kind of passion that melts the heart of his dragon…

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Meet the Author:

USA Today bestselling author susan has global sales in excess of 10 million books. Translated into 26 languages across 109 countries, Susan’s eighty-fifth book recently hit the shelves.

A profession singer and TV presenter before meeting her husband on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta, in true romance style, they met on Monday, were engaged by Friday, and married three months later.

Sue enjoys entertaining, travel, and the theatre, and reads, cooks, walks and plays the piano to relax. When she’s had enough of relaxing, she throws herself off mountains on skis, or gallops through the countryside singing loudly.
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