Monday, December 18, 2017

The Raven Prince and Other Stories by Jean-Paul Whitehall


Title:  The Raven Prince and Other Stories
Author: Jean-Paul Whitehall
Publisher:  NineStar Press (SunFire Imprint)
Release Date: December 18, 2017
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: Male/Male, Female/Female
Length: 54700
Genre: historical, paranormal, contemporary, LGBT, YA, fantasy, coming out, kidnapping, sports, family, shifter, gay, lesbian, romance

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Synopsis



Our Lady of the Axe: In a Regency England where magic used to be real, Eleanor, her dear friend Diana, and three young girls are kidnapped. It will take all of Eleanor’s strength and courage, plus a magical axe and cleavage (not that kind) to set them free, and foil the man behind the kidnapping.

Edging: Will a mistake about meaning make a mess for Tommy and Vince? Or maybe lead to something more?

The Plan That Didn’t Gang Aft Agley: Jack’s plans have a tendency to go way agley. He hopes his special plan for Billy at football practice is the one that won’t.

Family Be Damned: Look for the two Br’er Rabbit moments. One: She wasn’t unhappy Tommy got paid to take her to the eighth grade dance. She even slipped him $25 to agree. Two: Her mom made her older brother take her to the dance. The $50 she paid him was just a sisterly bonus.

The Raven Prince: Sixteen-year-old Mike hopes he can blend in at his new school. Except he’s short, slender, goth-looking with the shiny black hair, black eyes and thick lashes, wears an elegant suit and tie, and drives a Mercedes convertible. He’s also gay, a raven shifter in a human school and eventually he has to be the Raven Prince.

Standing up to the bullies who rule the school—Preacher’s Son, Banker’s Son, Sheriff’s Son, Principal’s Daughter—isn’t blending in. When the Four can’t get to Mike, they go after him through his best friend, Johnny, the devoutly straight wrestling star who doesn’t care about the gay thing.

If Johnny is hurt, will it take the Raven Prince to get justice? Raven justice?

100% of the author’s royalties will be donated to a local LGBT youth organization.

Excerpt


The Raven Prince and Other Stories
Jean-Paul Whitehall © 2017
All Rights Reserved
Our Lady of the Axe
Saturday, 19 May 1804

Cavendish House
London

I looked up at the painting in pride of place. It is not a large painting, no more than two feet wide and not quite three tall. The frame is plain wood, as if the artist did not want to draw undue attention to what it surrounded. The colors are muted, age-dimmed, the oils dried with fine cracks marring the clarity of the woman who is the reason for the artist’s work. The lady. She wears ragged furs, but you know they’re not poverty-forced—they’re what a warrior wears. She stares off to the viewer’s left, her eyes intent on whatever it is we cannot see. A single thin braid frames each side of her face, and smears of dark paint make a half moon around each eye, a slashing line along her cheeks, a vertical one on her chin. If anyone ever knew what the paint symbolizes, if anything at all, the knowledge is long gone.

In her hands she clasps a two-headed axe. Something about the handle makes it appear it was designed for her and no other. The blades are long arcs, and you can tell when the painting was new they would have been shining with the bright silver glow of magicked steel.

I didn’t understand why it was hung above the large fireplace in the parlor where, even at such a young age, I knew our guests were always welcomed, and it was an important part of the wonderful parties Papa and Mama gave. It looked quite small in a space large enough to hold a full-length painting of Grandpapa, even one with a wide, ornate, gilded frame.

Paintings like the ones I saw in the homes of my friends when I went to visit. No one else had a painting like that.

So, since Papa was in his chair and his neatly folded and carefully ironed copy of the Times was still on his lap, I asked him.

He lifted the newspaper, unfolded it, snapped it open to its full width and height, and raised it before his face. This was his signal he was not to be bothered further. But still, his “Earl of Cavendish, do not disturb your father, child” voice drifted over and down, instructing me to speak to my mama.

When I inquired, in my best, eight-year-old “I don’t wish to be a bother, Mama, but I would truly like to know” voice, Mama’s reply was odd. “It always is, my dear. And one day, when you are married, it will be yours, and it will hang in the same place in your new home.”

I kept my lips clamped tight around several opinions. One being the painting was dumb and old and faded and not at all impressive. The other being, when I married ten-year-old William, heir to Viscount Delacourt, in our home we’d have a grand and glorious and gold-framed painting of his wonderful father above the mantel. Or maybe even one of Papa.

If asked immediately after those thoughts, or any time later, I would swear a solemn oath I felt a sharp, twisty, hurting pinch on my bum and heard the words “Don’t be impertinent, little girl.” But Mama’s lips were closed and smiling, her face remembering something pleasant, and there was no one else in the room.

I kept my imaginings to myself, and carefully rubbed my bottom so Mama did not notice. The right part. Where the imaginary pinch didn’t happen.

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Meet the Author

Jean-Paul is, as they say, older than dirt. The stories in The Raven Prince collection are the first YA he’s written, although he’s been reading YA since before it was well-known genre. He’s been a Tamora Pierce addict pretty much as long as she’s been writing. He has some YA stories in progress, like “Prospero’s Zipper” and “The Day After” but has no idea when another collection might be ready. He lives in the Midwest with two elderly rescue dogs—the Peke (Max), and Australian Shepherd mix (Lucky Dog)—and the recent addition of a younger Rottweiler mix (Rocky).

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NineStar Press Holiday Collection


Title:  Holiday Collection, Week Five
Author: Multiple
Publisher:  NineStar Press
Release Date: December 18, 2017
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male, Female/Female
Length: Multiple
Genre: Multiple, LGBT, ghost, hauntings, Christmas, gay, new love, matchmaker, holidays, musicans, bands, DJ, angst, friends to lovers, second-hand sweaters, sibling betrayal, reunited, age gap, stranded, grief, lawyer, writer, Christmas, dragons, fantasy, hurt/comfort, lesbian, illness, young adult

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Synopsis



CARRIAGE HOUSE:
Ash isn’t exactly filled with the Christmas spirit. He left Texas after being outed by an ex, and isn’t in the mood for family holidays. When one of his neighbors shows up out of the blue insisting that Christmas decorations are mandatory per their lease, he rolls and goes along with it as long as he doesn’t personally have to do anything.

The fact that the guy filled with “cheer” is the most attractive man he’s seen in his new hometown has nothing to do with it. He does agree to dinner, though.

Will the determined ghost get her way and make this an unforgettable Christmas for Ash and Tristan?

THE CHARITY SHOP REJECTS - LIVE IN CONCERT
Mikaal Sarhadi has been in trouble since the moment he met guitarist Declan Hyde. Declan treats music like religion, setting high standards for himself and his bandmates. Mikaal struggles to even step on stage. He will do anything to justify Declan’s belief in him—even if that means ignoring the powerful attraction between them.

After a chance meeting with Brandon, Declan’s estranged brother, reveals just how much Declan will sacrifice for his music, Mikaal wonders if he can even call himself a musician. Worse, drummer Hiro’s visa application has been denied. With time running out for The Charity Shop Rejects, Mikaal must conquer his stage fright or lose music—and Declan—entirely.

CHRISTOPHER'S KIND
Spending an unexpected holiday break alone following his parents’ sudden death, thirty-something lawyer Zane Anders attends to unfinished business: getting his parents’ dilapidated Cape Cod cottage ready to sell and retrieving a mysterious Christmas present Zane’s mother left behind. But an acquaintance from the past interrupts his solitude at the beach. Christopher DeVries has morphed awfully fast from the awkward, infatuated teenager Zane remembers to a handsome college senior living next door. He’s still too young for Zane. Although he’s remarkably mature…and beguiling.

Deterred by their age difference, Zane hesitates to make the first move. But when a fierce Nor’easter closes highways and paralyzes the Cape, both Zane’s and Christopher’s Christmas plans are rewritten.

So what if winter isn’t beach weather?

A DRAGON FOR CHRISTMAS
Carmen is eleven years old and wants to get her dragon. Since she was seven years old, she understood two things. One, she was going to be the strongest Dragon Keeper there ever was. The second was that she was going to marry her best friend, Mattie.

As Christmas approaches the magical charms Carmen has to use to fight off her curse are taking a toll on her health. But that can’t stop her from taking her final test to become a Dragon Keeper. If she passes her test she gets her dragon, if not, she has to start all over, relying on different magical charms to fight the curse for her. That is something Carmen doesn’t want to have to go through. The testing is difficult and charms make her sick. Carmen has decided that if she doesn’t get her dragon this Christmas she’s not going to go for a third attempt, even if that means she can’t marry Mattie when she grows up.

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