Tag: Exact Warm Unholy

Three Things to Never Do as a Critique Partner

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I’m engaged in a project this year to promote my backlist more. (*cough* AT ALL *cough*) So today I’m featuring EXACT WARM UNHOLY. This story originally appeared in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL anthology and it’s one of my favorites. I adored writing this troubled, but super smart heroine. So much smexy in this one.

Tonight my name is Mary…

Or is it? Sometimes she’s Tiffany or Syd or Bobbi. But whatever face she wears, she returns to the same bar, to find a new man and seduce him, safe in the knowledge that no one will recognize her. Until one man does.

“And I was … Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. I mean, seriously. If you don’t fall in love with Peter, you have a heart of stone.”

~ Kristen Ashley on Goodreads

      

This week at the SFF Seven, we’re giving tips on How to Become a Better Beta Reader or Critique Partner. As with many skills, this is one that is acquired over time, through extensive practice and lots of trial and error. In fact, learning to become a better reader for others, with useful feedback to give, is largely a case of figuring out what NOT to do. So that’s what I’m offering today.

  1. Don’t tell the other writer how to change their work. Focus on what isn’t working for you and, if you can, do your best to articulate why it’s not working. But resist the temptation to suggest rewrites or any kind of specific plan. Those kinds of feedback move it into the realm of how you would write it, not them.
  2. Don’t get emotionally involved. So you hate the protagonist? Maybe you hate the premise? Doesn’t matter. Separate your personal reactions from legitimate reader ones. If you can’t step away from your personal buttons being pushed, then recuse yourself from reading.
  3. Don’t argue with the writer. It’s their work. They get the final say. Give them your honest feedback and let it go.
1 With a Prince E-Book Cover

More Missed Connections! Cover Reveal and Deets

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

Coming in two weeks!!! The next Missed Connections book: WITH A PRINCE. 

It’s out on May 30. Yes, that’s sooner than I’d originally predicted, but enough of you loved LAST DANCE and said sparkly things to me about wanting Marcia’s book, that I caved and went ahead and wrote. 

Really, you made me excited about the story, too. And the timing worked out. Win all around!!!

You can preorder the book here. Or – and this is NEW – read through Kindle Unlimited. Yes, I’m putting WITH A PRINCE, LAST DANCE, and EXACT WARM UNHOLY (all the indie contemporary erotic romance books) on Kindle Unlimited. Tell your KU-loving friends! 

A challenge for you all: I need to name the coffee and pastry shop referred to in this book, which will undoubtedly crop up in later books. The reference comes up in a conversation between Charley, Marcia, and Amy, as follows:

“Finish the story, Marcia, or I’ll sit on you. Prince Charming plops himself next to you, sees that you’re romanticizing the stalkery post and…”

“And nothing! What was the plan? He’d walk me from my L stop, and, oh, then we’d stop at some cute little bar and—”

“No, that pastry shop you love,” Amy inserted.

“Oh yeah.” Charley nodded. “Marcia would fall for the guy who says ‘let’s stop at [name], have a cupcake and an espresso and talk.’”

So, what should we call it? Comment here or on social media with ideas and the winner gets a prize! Free book of her choice and a listing in the Acknowledgements. Hey, let’s “sweeten” the deal! The person who suggests the name I choose gets a cupcake from me! I’ll go for local delivery, if possible. If you’re international… we’ll work something out. 

Give me your Little Shoppe of Pastries ideas!

Also, this is what WITH A PRINCE is about:

The guy on the train is just Marcia’s type. A face like an angel, a scent like raw honey, treats her like he has a white horse and suit of armor stowed in his messenger bag. Perfect.

Too perfect. No guy like that would be interested in prim, awkward Marcia, notorious goody-goody and a twenty-something still clutching her v-card. She’s been following rules her whole life—but somewhere, the game changed. And left her behind.

So when she meets Damien, with his rumbling motorbike, gleaming piercings, and wicked imagination, she doesn’t care that he’s the exact opposite of “her type.” Her type would never dare her into such shocking, fiendishly inventive adventures—and she can’t wait to say yes.

Yes to whiskey in the middle of a workday. Yes to letting her hands roam over his body from the back of his bike. Yes to a fling full of wild abandon and absolutely no long-term potential. Except Damien’s not just the straightforward bad boy she imagined. And as they burn through Chicago’s nights, Marcia can’t shake the fear that this happiness is just another fairy tale…

 Just leaving this preorder link here again… 😉

THE EDGE OF THE BLADE on Net Galley! (and Other News)

Jeffe Kennedy / / Blog

I got this a while back and saved it for you all. Fabulous reader Julie Fine texted it to me upon receipt of an ARC of THE EDGE OF THE BLADE. I think she was pleased. 🙂

I’ve been getting bits here and there about EDGE, which releases in a month on December 27, so I’ll start sharing them. The most important bit of info, it’s on Net Galley now! 

Booklist gave it a lovely review:

Kennedy (Pages of the Mind, 2016) continues the Uncharted Realms series with Jepp, a member of the queen’s guard more comfortable on a mission than in society, being named as an ambassador. Luckily, Jepp has Prince Kral, once her lover, to help her along. Jepp’s view of how women are to behave clashes with the norms of the Dasnaria hierarchy. She chafes under Dasnarian restrictions until she is summarily banished from court. She just wants to sleep with whomever she wants, whenever she wants. And she wants Kral—again. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Despite her ejection and reluctance to embrace her new role, Jepp ultimately takes to it in her own way, earning respect from the royal family. Fantasy adventure, snarky dialogue, and hot sex help Jepp find her way back to her beloved queen for her next assignment. Readers new to Kennedy’s series will do well to read it from the beginning, though this book can be enjoyed as a stand-alone.
— Ilene Lefkowitz

Exact Warm UnholyIn other news, if you hadn’t heard, two novellas originally only available in collections are now out as stand-alone buys! EXACT WARM UNHOLY, which originally appeared in THE DEVIL’S DOORBELL anthology, is a contemporary erotic romance, with characters unrelated to any of my other series. Kristen Ashley really liked it, saying on her Goodreads blog: 

And I was again stunned. Stunned by the originality of the concept of this story. Stunned by the emotions it made me experience in such a short expanse of time. Stunned by the beauty of the romance in it that ran parallel to the overwhelming sadness throughout. 

The other, THE CROWN OF THE QUEEN, is a novella set in the world of The Twelve Kingdoms, involving most of the main characters from the initial trilogy and setting up the story that starts up in The Uncharted Realms. 

Dafne holding the crown of the Thirteen Kingdoms with the stained glass window behind her

Also, a bit of exciting news I think I haven’t yet mentioned elsewhere, I’ll be bundling the first three Sorcerous Moons books into a print volume, using the fabulous cover for THE TIDES OF BÁRA. Will have a release date on that soon! Maybe a good holiday gift! *nods* *flutters lashes*new-landing9