Today
we celebrate the release of Knight of
Pentacles, book three in Nina Mason’s Knights of the Tarot series. Unlike
the first two books in the series, which Nina revised and re-released on May
24, Knight of Pentacles has never
been released before.
Knight of Pentacles,
an erotic PNR/UF set primarily on Scotland’s Black Isle, tells of the romance
between Sir Axel Lochlann, who guards the portal into Avalon, and Jenna
Cameron, the daughter of a witch who hasn’t yet discovered her powers. Their
love story is based on the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, which plays an
important role in the book.
The future looks bleak for Jenna Cameron when, after a five-year engagement, her fiancé breaks it off the night before the wedding. Hoping to regroup, Jenna decides to drive alone to the cottage on Scotland’s mysterious Black Isle where they were supposed to spend their honeymoon. When her car breaks down, Jenna wonders if her troubles can get any worse. Then, while cutting through a secluded glen, she sees a handsome man bathing in a waterfall. The next day, she learns the man she saw is the faery knight who guards the portal into Avalon, the otherworld island ruled by Morgan Le Fay.
Jenna, ready to be rid of the virginity she’s saved in vain, offers herself to Sir Axel Lochlann, the shaman knight of Faery Glen. From that moment on, she finds herself inside a faery tale complete with druids, goblins, runic magic, and vampire owls. She also discovers powers she didn’t know she had—powers she can use to break Sir Axel’s bonds to Queen Morgan.
First, however, she must persuade Axel to put his desire to be free ahead of his duty to the queen he’s sworn to serve and obey.
Jenna Cameron is going to stay in a cottage in the country while she decides what to do with her life. She has walked away from the man she was about to marry after her dead mother spoke to her in a dream. That man did nothing but belittle her , the same way her father had.
She has more strength than even she thinks, she will need every bit.
Sir Axel Lochlann is a Fairy Knight who is bound to the evil Queen Morgan. He is usually left to guard the portal between the realms. Just occasionally called upon to service in her bed. The torque he and the queen's other drones wear stops them from using their magic against her. His is a mostly solitary life until a beautiful red-headed witch appears and makes him want more.
This is the third in a series, but could be read on it's own. It is by far the best yet. Our heroine is taking a big journey of self discovery. She also finds out there are magical beings in the world and some are very evil . Our poor hero finds himself in more trouble than he can cope with. There are some rather gruesome scenes, lots of danger, scorching hot sex and magic everywhere. I loved it.
Axel
Lochlann, the hero of Knight of Pentacles
is a Highlander of Viking descent who uses runes for divination and magic. For
those who don’t know what runes are, they’re the letters of an alphabet called
the Futhark, the first system of writing developed and used by the Germanic
peoples.
More than just letters to make words, each rune is an ideographic or pictographic symbol of some cosmological principle or power. When written together in various sequences, the powers can be invoked to cast protective spells. Individual runes carved into stones, bone, or wood are used to seek the guidance and wisdom of the Old Norse gods, especially Odin, who discovered the runes after hanging upside down for nine days from Yggdrasil, the Old Norse tree of life .
Sir Axel Lochlann is a Fairy Knight who is bound to the evil Queen Morgan. He is usually left to guard the portal between the realms. Just occasionally called upon to service in her bed. The torque he and the queen's other drones wear stops them from using their magic against her. His is a mostly solitary life until a beautiful red-headed witch appears and makes him want more.
This is the third in a series, but could be read on it's own. It is by far the best yet. Our heroine is taking a big journey of self discovery. She also finds out there are magical beings in the world and some are very evil . Our poor hero finds himself in more trouble than he can cope with. There are some rather gruesome scenes, lots of danger, scorching hot sex and magic everywhere. I loved it.
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More than just letters to make words, each rune is an ideographic or pictographic symbol of some cosmological principle or power. When written together in various sequences, the powers can be invoked to cast protective spells. Individual runes carved into stones, bone, or wood are used to seek the guidance and wisdom of the Old Norse gods, especially Odin, who discovered the runes after hanging upside down for nine days from Yggdrasil, the Old Norse tree of life .
GIVEAWAY!
Order Knight of Pentacles today for a chance to win the beautiful
blue-onyx runes pictured above. To enter, simply email your proof of purchase
to NinaMasonAuthor@gmail.com.
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Here’s an excerpt from
Knight of Pentacles:
As the sputtering engine gasped its
last, Jenna Cameron set her forehead against the steering wheel and groaned.
Could this day get any worse? As if it weren’t enough her world had turned
upside down, now her car decided to quit in the dead of night on a desolate
stretch of road with no bloody cellular signal.
If not for the
dream she’d had last night, she’d be Mrs. William Comstock right now, on her
way to the honeymoon cottage she’d rented with the man she’d waited five long
and frustrating years to marry.
The thought of William sent a chill
through Jenna. In the dream, she’d seen herself driving off the edge of a cliff.
She was married to William and utterly miserable. As her car soared over the
edge of the precipice, she heard her mother’s voice. “The right man is out
there, waiting for you to find him. But it will never be if you bind yourself
to a man you don’t love.”
As soon as she awoke, she rang William.
When she told him about the dream, he said, as she’d secretly hoped he would, “I was willing to overlook that your mother was a witch because I
believed your father had safely guided you away from the path of darkness, but
now I see that, like her, you have been led astray. I pray someday you will
embrace the Light of God, Jenna. I truly do. But, for now, I cannot risk my own
immortal soul by marrying someone so susceptible to the darkness.”
William, a Presbyterian pastor like her father, blamed
everything he did not understand on the devil.
As relieved as Jenna was to have
escaped, the sudden change of course had thrown her life into chaos. Expecting
to be married, she’d given up her job and flat in Edinburgh and, consequently,
was left with no source of income and nowhere to live.
So, she was on her way to the rented
cottage in Rosemarkie, a small seaside town on Scotland’s Black Isle. Since she
couldn’t get her deposit back, it seemed like a good idea to use the cottage to
reflect and regroup.
Coming all this way alone had suddenly
lost its appeal, but here she was—and wallowing in self-pity was not going to solve anything.
According to the Google map she’d printed out, she wasn’t far from her
destination. She might as well suck it up and walk the rest of the way. When
she got there, she could ring a garage about her car.
Grabbing
her purse, her forest-green wool cloak, and the battery-powered torch she kept
in the glove box, she climbed out of the car and set off along the rural
tree-lined road, which was dark and a little spooky. No cars passed her in
either direction. Crickets chirped all around and small rustlings from the
surrounding woods startled her sporadically. Senses alert, she stopped
repeatedly to check her mobile for a signal.
Her
heart pounded and, despite the chill in the air, she was sweating under her
cloak and sweater. The only good thing she could say about her present
predicament was that her fear of being torn to pieces by wild animals had temporarily
eclipsed her other worries.
She
didn’t know how long she’d been walking when she came to an old stone bridge.
Just beyond was a sign. She shone the beam of her torch at the words carved
into the wooden plaque.
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Here’s
a little more about the Knights of the Tarot series:
Knights
of the Tarot, a four-part series, was born of a relatively simple concept. Nina
wanted to write a paranormal/fantasy series incorporating different forms of
divination. Tarot cards, astrology, runes, numerology, and the like. From that
kernel grew the overarching storyline. The heroes of this contemporary
paranormal series are Scottish noblemen of times past who were taken by the
faeries into Avalon to serve as breeding drones to the queen, the legendary
Morgan le Fay. Each of the books tells the story of a particular knight and the
heroine whose love saves him from his unhappy existence.
Each
hero grapples with a different relationship with their cruel and selfish queen.
Callum Lyon, the knight of book one (Knight
of Wands), is free of Morgan’s influence, having escaped Avalon after
faking his death. Leith MacQuill, the knight of book two (Knight of Cups), was expelled from Avalon after the queen
discovered his affair with one of the ladies of her court. To punish Leith,
Morgan cursed him so any women he should fall in love with in the future would
die.
In
Knight of Pentacles, Axel Lochlann is
still enslaved to the queen, who he serves as a guardian of the portal between
the mortal and immortal realms.
The
Knight of Swords (book four) is Finn
MacKnight does not yet know he is destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy
telling of the queen’s overthrow by a natural-born drone.
The
knights are blood-drinking shape-shifters who can assume the form of any
creature, real or mythical, but generally take the form of their alter ego.
Callum’s preferred form is a lion, Leith’s is a Kellas Cat, Axel’s is a
gyrfalcon, and Finn’s is a jaguar.
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Haven’t
read the first two books in the Knights of the Tarot series?
No
worries. Both are on sale this week for only 99 cents!
Nina Mason is an incurable romantic who strives to write the same kind of books she loves to read: those that entertain, edify, educate, and enlighten. She has one series out at present, Royal Pains, which follows a Scottish duke and duchess through the events of the Restoration period.Born and raised in Southern California, Ms. Mason currently lives with her family in Woodstock, Georgia. When she isn't writing, she works as a consultant for Pure Romance, a line of relationship-enhancement products. Nina combines author readings with in-home Pure Romance parties. She also does Pure Romance parties on Facebook. For more information, email her at ninamasonauthor@gmail.com.
Nina is the author of two other series: Royal Pains, an erotic historical romp set in the Restoration era, and Knights of the Tarot, a paranormal romance/urban fantasy featuring shapeshifting faery heroes and various forms of divination.
Here’s where you can find Nina on social media:
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * Newsletter
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