Mated in Treason release day!

Today my new vampire novel Mated in Treason releases.
I am so excited to share this story with you.

I took me a while to finish this book. And, I thought I'd share with you a few facts about writing it.

1. I started this story in the hotel during my daughter's dance convention. I think I might have had too much coffee because the first draft of Chapter One had so many cliches in it that I had to take pruning sheers to them. The ones that stayed in the final product are the ones I couldn't part with and they define Gunnar's state of mind, perfectly.
2. When I originally wrote Gunnar he had a different last name. Because I was in a hotel without wifi, I didn't have the resources to check the name's origins. Turns out, the name didn't come from any of the regions around where the Kan Asma vampires lived for the last three centuries. So, I changed his name to Nakani which is found in the Georgian regions near the Caucasus mountains.
3. Nadia's parents were inspired by a famous Jane Austen couple.
4. The restaurant that Gunnar goes to is based on an actual place in Los Angeles that I drove by twice a day during my daughter's dance camp. The sign on the actual building says: Real Food since it opened over 75 years ago.
5. The food Gunnar orders is from a restaurant called Chimera. This is also based on a Beverly Hills high end cafe. Readers who have already read my Blood-Vine series will recognize this place as the same restaurant Katiya goes to for her date with a human,
6. When I researched a certain squicky scene, I was in the middle of an infusion, and my nurses all gathered around my bed, providing ideas, medicines and their suggestions. All of what they said makes it into the scene in some capacity.
7. The other scene that made it into the final cut of the story involves everyone's favorite vampire to hate. Ivan has a pretty intense scene and he's just as stuffy as always.
8. Yes, there's more of Mikhail in this story and he's even more irreverent than normal.
9. Nadia is as close to your average human woman who has to work, is tired and aging. She isn't a perfect size 4 either. So, I love her for simply being normal.
10. The faction came out of left field and tipped the scales in terms of my affection for characters and I found myself struggling to keep them from leaping off the page to outdo the heroes. In fact, they sort of become the antiheroes of the story and I hope you are intrigued by them.

 

Blurb:

When the kraliyet bodyguard ended up in her hospital bed after an explosion left him in critical condition, Nadia tried to warn herself not to fall in love with him. After all, she's no vampire Cinderella, and happily-ever-afters didn't happen to low-born females of the Kan Asma. But, her heart wouldn't listen and, soon, she wanted to claim Gunnar as her forever mate, even if it meant taking him the only way possible, as a husband in a disgraceful human ceremony.

Gunnar fell in love with his nurse the moment he saw her smile. He yearned to claim her as his but the Council would never allow him to mingle his powerful blood with a female from a poor family. The penalty for an unsanctioned mating is a death sentence. He doesn’t care about the threats and possible consequences of making her his. Though, due to the high probability of genetic incompatibility, he can't complete their blood-bond without knowing if it might take her life. Losing her would be worse than torture.

Their only hope lies with the treasonous Faction hell-bent on destroying the very people Gunnar calls family. Determined to find a way to be mated, Gunnar seeks out the leader of this hidden uprising. Together, Nadia and Gunnar must break every law and rite of their vampire culture to become bonded for life. Gunnar will play a deadly game of subversion or pay a blood price that would sever him from their people and put a bounty on his head. They must survive a dangerous infiltration of the Faction, because they’ll do anything to be together, even if it means being mated in treason.