This is a bit of a crazy week for me with both personal and writing deadlines. So I’m leaving you to take some time to check out this wonderful Happy Endings Giveaway Blog Hop! Take a moment to read this happy ending story and leave a comment here or tweet/share the following for a chance to win a copy of THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT and NIGHT OF THE COUGAR novellas as well as a $10 gift card to your online book retailer of choice.

Ring of Honor Ring of Love #HEAGiveaway http://bit.ly/Vf7yMe

So here goes for my happy ending story!

After Castro came to power in Cuba, my family had to leave in a hurry. My mom and dad were forced to leave first to avoid imprisonment, leaving my sister and me behind with my maternal grandparents.

It took my parents over a year to get us out and when the word came to be ready, the house was in quite an uproar. My grandparents were not only getting us ready to leave, but giving away everything we had so that Castro and his people would not get it.

One of the things my grandma gave away was a bath robe to a friend and neighbor since she thought her friend would like it.

When the day came for us to leave, my grandmother could not find her engagement ring anywhere. She left Cuba without it and my grandfather knew just how much she missed the ring.

Times were tough here at first, but my family worked hard to achieve the American Dream. My grandfather also worked hard and set aside a little bit from each paycheck. He located the jeweler who had originally made my grandmother’s engagement ring and in time, he had another one made.

A ring of love for his wife of so long.

Fast forward a dozen years from when we left Cuba. We were living on Long Island and one day there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find someone who said he had been an old neighbor and friend in Cuba. He had been visiting Cuban friends nearby who happened to mention where we were living. He said that when he heard where we were, he had to come and return something: My grandmother’s engagement ring.

The ring had been in the bath robe that my grandmother gave to his wife.

It brought tears to my eyes to know that he had held onto the ring all those years, knowing the suffering he must have had in Cuba and how selling the ring would have helped. He was a man of great honor to keep it and return it.

A ring of honor and of love.

I hope you enjoyed this Happy Endings story!

Click here to visit the rest of the #HEAGiveaway participants!

We are switching it up today for this Wicked Wednesday! I’m visiting with the fabulous Elisabeth Staab to chat about THE PRINCE’S GAMBLE and tell you a little more about my campaign to raise money for the Jersey Shore.

I had the pleasure of meeting Elisabeth at last year’s RT Convention and I’ll be seeing her again soon at the 2013 RT in Kansas City as well as the awesome Liberty States Fiction Writers Create Something Magical Conference! Whether your a reader or writer, this is a great conference with a multitude of panels, workshops and some awesome networking events, including a fun Saturday night party.

Elisabeth is here to tell us about her latest release, Prince of Power, and to tell us why she loves the undead! Please welcome my friend, Elisabeth!

Why I love Vampires

Hi there! Thank you so much to Caridad for having me today. We are sort of playing a blog version of “Trading Spaces.” While I’m here today, she is at my place, promoting The Prince’s Gamble and her amazing fundraiser for the Jersey Shore cleanup.

I had the pleasure of meeting Caridad for the first time at the RT Convention last April where we were part of a fabulous panel that brought together authors and readers who all shared a mutual adoration of vampires (We will be there again in for RT2013, will you be joining us?). Now, for those of us who love reading and writing about vampires, the reasons why are many.

I’ll go ahead and admit that for me, while the fangs and whatnot are sexy, what I love most is the blood itself. Principally, the mythos that the blood exchange is sensual between two creatures who share an attraction. They drink, they desire, they make love, and they are not just bonding emotionally and physically but on a deep, primal, biological level. More than falling in love, they are creating an everlasting link.

We see this in Prince of Power, sequel to my debut novel, King of Darkness. In King of Darkness we met a wizard, an enemy of the vampire race, named Anton. Anton was supposed to kidnap the vampire king’s sister, Tyra, but instead he fell in love. Anton saved Tyra’s life, and then offered to help wipe out his own kind. Generous guy, that Anton. Unfortunately, some of the vamps don’t trust his motives and he takes a beating that lands him in a coma. It’s okay in the end, because Tyra can heal him with his blood, and then comes the desire…

… Anton groaned in his half sleep and swallowed again, tipping his head unconsciously and sliding his tongue on her skin for better suction. His breath deepened audibly, and his bare chest rose and fell with the effort. Something deep and primitive and fiery stirred inside Tyra. Something she’d never experienced before.

She knelt there by the bed, her breath coming in shallow pants while her free hand gripped a fistful of duvet. “Oh hell.”

Sometimes the blood exchange was sensual, sure. But this… a rush of desire chased Anton’s panic, melting the icy slush as it flowed from his body into hers and pooling deep in her core. It couldn’t even possibly be something he was conscious of.

Anton sucked harder and Tyra gasped. A part of her was embarrassed at having such a very base response, even though nobody was there to witness it. Not even him, actually. His eyes were still closed, and though he reacted physically, he clearly was still on a different plane somewhere.

She closed her eyes and shifted a little, thinking she might clear her mind or find a position where the seam of her fatigues wasn’t pressing in such a stimulating way. But when she opened her eyes again, everything was even more muddled. It wasn’t clear anymore what was her own physical need and what was channeling from Anton.

Her hand wandered from the bed across his face. A coarse dusting of stubble coated his jaw and chin. His cheekbones were prominent, his nose almost patrician. His chin was square, with a slight divot under all the stubble. In sleep, with his impossibly long eyelashes, he didn’t look like someone capable of great evil. Or even the offspring of a great evil.

It was incomprehensible that he’d done so much to protect her. That he could claim to love her. He didn’t know her. But the way he’d charged Siddoh. For her. 

Damned if that didn’t do things to a female…

PRINCE OF POWER BY ELISABETH STAAB

Wizards and vampires have been mortal enemies since the beginning. Now Anton, son of the Wizard Master, has one last chance to steal the unique powers of the vampire king’s beautiful sister, Tyra…and then kill her. But when he meets Tyra face-to-face, everything changes…

Tyra will stop at nothing to defeat the wizards, until Anton saves her life and she suddenly sees an opportunity she never could have imagined…

As the sparks ignite between them, together they could bring an end to the war that’s decimating their people, but only if they can find a way to trust each other…

FIND IT:

• Amazon
• B&N
• Indiebound
• Discover a New Love

Elisabeth Staab still lives with her nose in a book and at least one foot in a fantasy world. Her bestselling paranormal romance novel, King of Darkness, debuted in February of 2012. Her second novel, Prince of Power, is just out now. Find out more at ElisabethStaab.com and follow her onTwitter, Facebook and her newsletter.

Thanks again to Caridad for having me today and to all of you for stopping by! Tell me, what is it that you love most about vampires?