(I’m going to be reposting the contest rules at the beginning of each post. If you’ve already read them, scroll down for today’s post and questions.)

To celebrate the release of ENTWINED, I’m giving away a BUNCH of prizes. There are two parts to this contest:

PART ONE :
Post the ENTWINED widget (below) on your FB page, blog sidebar, tweet about the contest and/or book, email your friends and spread the word…basically, any way you talk up the book or contest will enter you for one of three $25 gift cards to the online bookstore of your choice. Winners will be selected after I return from RWA Nationals, the first week in August. Once you’ve done that, email me at elisabeth@elisabethnaughton.com and tell me blabbed about ENTWINED. Be sure to put ENTWINED Release Contest in the subject line. (If you already posted the widget from the blog post I did last week, you’re already entered.) Enter as many times as you like. Every time you spread the word about book 2 in the Eternal Guardians series, send me an email.

PART TWO: Each day for the next two weeks I’ll be giving away AWESOME prizes and spotlighting some fabulous authors. Comment on the daily post to be entered into that day’s drawing. Winners will be chosen randomly from comments and will get to pick their prize. Once a prize is chosen, it’s crossed off the list. Here are the prizes you can win:

Got Demon? Mug from author Saranna DeWylde
Beneath the Surface by MJ Fredrick
Primordial by Denise Agnew
His Darkest Embrace e-arc by Juliana Stone
Unbridled by Beth Williamson
Huddle With Me Tonight by Farrah Rochon
Relentless by Lauren Dane
Revelation (ecopy) by Lauren Dane
Sunrise in the Garden of Love & Evil by Barbara Monajem
All He Desires by Anthea Lawson
The Phoenix Charm by Helen Scott Taylor
Animal Instinct (ecopy) by Michelle Pillow
$10 Starbucks Card from Phyllis Bourne
Montana Dawn by Caroline Fyffe
Dangerous As Sin & $10 Borders Gift Card from Alix Rickloff
Ancient Whispers by Marie-Claude Bourque
Forged of Shadows by Jessa Slade
Shadow Bound by Erin Kellison
Lord of Pleasure & $10 Starbucks Gift Card from Delilah Marvelle
$20 Borders Gift Card from Joan Swan – won by Limecello (day 1 winner)
Deadly Fear by Cynthia Eden
Forbidden Highlander by Donna Grant

Today you get a two-fer! Two great new books, two winners chosen from the comments!

First up: Denise Agnew!

Thanks so much to Eli for including me in her blog! I’m honored. This month I have two books out, Dark, Deadly Love July 13 at Samhain Publishing http://www.samhainpublishing.com/ and Daryk Hunter, the first book in my Daryk World trilogy at Samhain Publishng http://www.samhainpublishing.com/ July 14. Today I wanted to give you a snippet of Daryk World I: Daryk Hunter. This trilogy is my first foray into fantasy romance.

When Magonian archaeologist Ketera Aldrancos’ father is imprisoned, she’s determined to save him. Before she can do so, her ship is wrecked. Water laps at her, a man’s strong arms surround her. His husky voice sooths her. Then she realizes she’s on a foreign beach in the arms of a dreaded Dragonian. A man who looks nothing like the men she’s known. His closeness, his touch sends shockwaves of need through Ketera’s deepest core and shame runs through her. After all, passions are sinful. Dane Charger, a Dragonian Daryk One, cradles the Magonian woman in his arms, He aches to introduce her to the headiest lovemaking imaginable. His eyes flame red and a growl vibrates his throat, conscious that he’ll need to protect her from marauding slave traders led by a vicious rogue who just happens to also be his half brother. Two people whose supercontinents are separated by ocean and two thousand years of prejudice and fear. Two people who may be the secret to saving a race from extinction…

And now, take this taste of Daryk Hunter:

Her father’s execution was scheduled. Soon he would be murdered.

Ketera Aldrancos gasped as she came to full consciousness and reality returned, heartless and sharp.

Icy water lapped at her toes and her body ached with a dull throb. The rushing whisper of the ocean filled her ears and lulled her backward into the darkness as it threatened to return her to blessed oblivion. Rain delicately touched her skin and wind ruffled across her body in a gentle caress. For a moment she almost relented and opened her eyes to see why the elements coaxed her so sweetly.

But clear, relentless rage rushed in to choke her.

Father.

Everything she loved would perish if she couldn’t—

She sobbed and then heard a rustling, a deep voice. She didn’t understand the language at first—a strange, guttural spilling of vowels.

Seconds later someone dropped onto the sand near her. A deep voice rumbled, husky and soothing. “Who are you, sprite?”

Ah, the language was clearer now. Odd. The pronunciation different, the accent peculiar, but still her language.

A Dragonian. The enemy.

A warm touch glided over the pulse at her neck. She wanted to move, to fight, but her entire body throbbed. She couldn’t move.

The man grunted. Then with strong but gentle hands hauled her upward into his arms. His thighs beneath her buttocks felt rock-hard, his arms powerful enough to shelter her from the ocean and weather.

“Wake,” the man said, his voice rough with command. “You breathe, therefore you live. Come on now, that’s it. Another deep breath. Don’t fade on me.”

She obeyed, hearing the relentless, almost angry demand in his tone. “Where—?” she rasped the word, her throat sore, her voice raw. She coughed and choked.

“Easy. You’re safe. Here. Drink.”

A container with cool liquid touched her lips and she drank with greed, her thirst tremendous and her throat aching for relief. Water, all around her rushing. She remembered the terrible tempest that had swallowed her ship.

“Slowly.” His tone was harsh. “You’ll take ill.”

She sipped until he drew back the container. “More.”

“No. Open your eyes.”

She sighed, the sound resentful to her own ears. “No. I…”

By the god, she ached to the bone with fatigue. The gruff man caressed her hair. His big hand wandered down over her upper arm then skimmed her legs with impersonal attention. With a hot jolt, one piercing thought came back to her.

Father. I must save him.

It took three tries, but her eyelids peeled open.

Her gaze landed on the man holding her. And her breath stopped. He watched her with a strange feral intent. A thick tousle of dark auburn hair cascaded around his broad shoulders. Thick, dark lashes framed eyes as green as a tyrant stone from a mine in Opali. A few days’ growth of red and gold stubble darkened his handsome jawline. His nose was bold, but not obnoxiously so, and his mouth hardened in heavy concern. His long, impressively carved arms were bare, but he wore a strange, hard metal chest plate over his torso. She couldn’t see his legs.

“There,” he said. “What is your name?”

She glanced past his shoulder and saw the ship mast towering upward not far in the distance. Its torn sails flapped in a persistent wind.

She blinked as her vision fogged. She reached up to rub her eyes. “My name?”

His arms tightened. “What are you called?”

Her head throbbed if she thought too hard. “Ketera Aldrancos.”

She sucked in a pained breath. Her ribs ached.

“Easy. You’re ill and hurt. I’ll take you back to the castle.”

A word launched through his lips she’d never heard before, but it sounded like a curse. He eased her onto her back. He stood and withdrew a huge knife from its sheath.

Terror gripped her heart with a sharp talon. He meant to kill her.

Oh god Magon.

She closed her eyes as weakness eased like liquid into her limbs. She felt almost as if she sank into the sand, her body heavy. Heavier. She opened her eyes, desperate to meet her enemy head-on and show him she wasn’t afraid. If she would die, then she’d face her executioner by looking him in the eye. He turned away from her.

She made an effort to move and found her protesting muscles cooperated. She stifled a deep groan of pain as she struggled to sit up and succeeded. Determination pushed her to rally. She wouldn’t die when her father needed her.

From the back her rescuer stood tall and broad-shouldered. His arms coiled with muscle, a long knife gripped tight in his right hand.

Across from him an equally tall, powerfully built man with spiky, short blond hair stood at the ready, an animal spring-loaded and eager to pounce. His ugly face was distinguished by a lightning bolt blue tattoo zigzagging across his right cheek.

“The spoils can be shared by all.” The lightning-bolt man sneered. “By Draconus there are plenty of riches to go around, including the woman.”

“You’re right.” The man who stood near her shifted on his feet. “It’s a shipwreck, but the spoils go to no one. Especially not this woman.”

“Are you saying you’re claimin’ her as your own?” Lightning Bolt asked.

“I’m claiming her.” The man who’d stood over her walked away toward the other man.

Where was her knife? She looked around for her shoulder pack but didn’t see it anywhere. More than anger stirred inside her. Panic rose up to choke her. She couldn’t lose the pack. Her father’s life depended on her keeping the documents within safe.

“What if I say I’ll take her from you?” the other man asked.

“I’m a Daryk One. If you think you can take anything from me, you are mistaken.”

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed this tidbit! Stop by my website at http://www.deniseagnew.com/ for more information on this book and all my other novels. Feel free to sign up for the newsletter and monthly contest.

Denise A. Agnew

And last but not least, Alix Rickloff!

In 1815 London, passion and duty, human and Other collide…

Morgan Bligh has honed her body and her magic into weapons, but she’s always lived by her heart. Yet to defeat a traitor whose unspeakable dark power threatens both her worlds, she must forget her feelings— because her partner in the hunt is wicked war hero Cameron Sinclair. He’s broken her heart once, and from the looks of him, he could do it again…

Cam Sinclair wants nothing more than to forget the horrors he’s lived through. He’s done his duty for king and country, turning himself into an assassin and an outcast in the process. Chasing after a sadistic murderer with a sultry Amazon who hates him seems unbearable. Yet though the beautiful Morgan chafes his every nerve and they’re both in constant danger, he can’t help but wonder if this second meeting is truly a second chance…

To learn more about Alix and her upcoming releases, visit www.alixrickloff.com. And to purchase Dangerous as Sin click here.

If you could only read one romance subgenre for the rest of your life (oh, the horror!) what would it be and why? (And hello? Have you ever seen abs like those on Alix’s cover? Yowza.)