I would like to thank you for stopping by for the Super Duper Release Date Extravaganza Blog HOP. I will be giving you some insider information about Dothe book's Midnight Master and Midnight Lover by Donna Grant, complete with an excerpt and bio's of charachters, brought to you by .
So without further adeu, let me introduce our charachters.
Danielle
Dani Buchanan is dragged into the battle between Deirdre and
Warriors by her magic, and because of that she's shown an entire new world. A
world where she finally fits in. A world full of battles, of danger...and
love.
Ian
The vigilant one. Ian hides the horrors of his torture –
death and resurrection – at Deirdre’s hand from his brother, but Deirdre’s hold
over Ian hasn’t waned. She’s deeper in his psyche than anyone realizes.
Born:August 1381
Turned:1403
God:Farmire, father of battle
Warrior Color:Pale blue
Abilities:Can absorb
another's power
Logan
The youngest
of the Warriors, he’s always ready with a smile. He’s the loyal one, the
Warrior who will never abandon his brothers, but the secrets of his past won’t
lossen their hold and the darkness threatens to swallow him.
Born:April 1470
Turned:1488
God:Athleus,
god of betrayal
Warrior
Color:Silver
Abilities:Control over water
About
Gwen (No Picture Available)
A Druid with
extraordinary magic. That magic will draw her deeper into the forbidden world
of the Warriors and pit her against her family. She’ll have to choose between
her family and the man who captured her heart with one smile.
The Books:
Midnight's Lover Synopsis:
Defenders
against evil. Bound by the gods. The Dark Warriors are taking their battle from
ancient Scotland to the modern world—where a woman’s love can set them free…
A
WARRIOR’S PASSION
Driven by the fierce god within him,
Highlander Ian Kerr is sworn to fight for the land he loves—and the brother he
lost. But when he’s magically transported four centuries into the future, he
finds himself fighting his own desires—for a beautiful, bewitching woman who
could hold a warrior spellbound…
A WOMAN’S
MAGIC
Danielle Buchanan has heard the
legends. She has felt the power of Druid blood in her veins. But she has never
known a man as fearsome—or as haunted—as the warrior Ian. With her magic, Dani
must help him battle an ancient evil. With her heart, she must join him in his
quest. But only with her soul can she free him from his curse…and seal their
fates together.
Midnight Lover's Excerpt:
Somewhere in the Highlands
Ian’s eyes
flew open as he lay perfectly still inside the dark, dank cave he had called
home for…months. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed.
Nor did he
care.
He didn’t
move, didn’t even blink as he listened. The only sound that met his ears
was the shrill sound of the howling wind. But for an instant, he had
sworn he’d heard his brother’s voice.
More and
more he heard Duncan calling to him, beckoning him to leave the mountain.
Ian scrubbed
a hand down his face and sat up. His breath billowed white before his
face. A glimpse through the cave’s entrance showed Ian the sun had risen
on another day.
How many
days had he lost this time? It could have been hours or weeks that his
god, Farmire, had had control. As awful as that was, Ian feared what Farmire
had done while he’d been in control.
It was one
of the reasons Ian had made his home in such a remote place. The farther
his god had to go to appease his need for blood and death, the less likely Ian
was to harm someone.
At least
that was his hope.
Ian dropped
his head back against the jagged rock of the cave and squeezed his eyes
shut. By all that was holy he’d never felt so isolated, never been so
desolate in all his two hundred plus years.
And it was
only going to get worse. So much worse.
Ian thought
of MacLeod Castle and the people who had become a family to him. He
missed the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs, the aroma of fresh
baked bread, and the laughter as they all sat in the great hall and ate.
He missed
the other Warriors.
But most of
all he missed his brother.
Ian rose to
his feet and walked to the cave’s opening and looked out. Everything as
far as he could see was covered in a thick blanket of white so blinding he had
to squint to look at it.
There were
no footsteps leading to or from the cave, and since it wasn’t snowing now,
maybe Ian hadn’t ventured from his hideout.
If only he
could remember…. But it was like huge holes in his memory whenever his god took
over. Though he tried to get a hold of his god, Farmire was too
powerful. Ian’s grief over losing his twin only compounded things to
allow Farmire to gain the upper hand in the first place.
Duncan.
No one had
understood the bond between Ian and Duncan. As twins, they had shared
everything. If Duncan was hurt, Ian felt his pain. If Ian had
needed Duncan, he’d been there without Ian having ever called for him.
The fact
they had also shared a god as twins only strengthened their bond.
Ian
remembered when they’d had their god unbound. It had been Deirdre, an
evil Druid, or drough, who had caught them and unbound their god.
The pain had
been excruciating, unimaginably agonizing with their bones popping and muscles
shredding as the god stretched inside them. But it had been nothing
compared to the strength of the god now bellowing inside Ian’s mind.
No longer
was Ian able to share Farmire’s greedy and insatiable hunger for battle with
Duncan. Now, Ian contended with it all on his own.
And he was
losing badly.
Ian recalled
how he and Duncan had found a way to gain control over their god
together. It hadn’t been easy, but they’d had each other.
Even locked
deep in the depths of Deirdre’s mountain prison they’d learned to face whatever
came their way. Together.
It had been
Deirdre who had taken Duncan’s life just four months earlier. It had been
Deirdre who had taken the only brother Ian had ever known.
And it had
been Deirdre who had put Ian in the predicament he was in now. The drough
had known exactly what she was doing when she killed Duncan. She’d known
Ian would then get the full powers of his god – and the full rage.
Many
Warriors never learned to control their god, and the god soon took over.
Which is what Deirdre wanted in her quest to rule the world.
Ian had been
a proud man growing up in his clan. He’d even been a proud Warrior,
despite the primeval god inside him.
Now, he hid
away from the world because he couldn’t rule his god. He wondered what
Duncan would think of him. Would his twin scorn him? Would Duncan
pity him?
Ian
scratched his head and felt the long, dirty strands of his hair. The hair
felt foreign to him. Ever since they’d been young lads, Ian had kept his
hair shorn to his head to help others tell him and Duncan apart.
The last
time he’d cut his hair was before Duncan had left with Logan on their mission
to find an artifact that would help them destroy Deirdre once and for all.
They had
killed Deirdre once already when they’d rescued the youngest MacLeod brother,
Quinn, from her clutches. Though they had killed her body, they hadn’t destroyed
her soul.
“Unfortunately,”
Ian mumbled.
Ian thought
of the Druids and their pivotal role in the lives of every Britain beginning
thousands of years before. The Druids had been the ones to rule the land,
not kings or clan leaders.
There were
two sects of Druids. The mies, or good Druids, whose magic came
from the earth and elements. And the droughs, who, upon their eighteenth
year, gave their souls to Satan in order to command black magic.
It had been
the droughs who had called up the primeval gods from Hell to
help the Celts send Rome from their shores. Those gods had inhabited the
strongest warriors from each family, creating immortal Warriors with the
strength and power of the god that had taken them.
When the droughs
couldn’t send the gods back to Hell with their magic alone, it had taken both
the droughs and the mies to bind the gods in the Warriors.
Since
Deirdre hunted and killed both droughs and mies
in order to steal their magic and grow hers, there were few Druids left in
Britain. Those that remained stayed hidden.
Ian had
never felt animosity, never allowed himself to hate as he did for
Deirdre. His loathing grew each day his god took control of him.
Because Ian knew, once Farmire was in complete control, Ian would be Deirdre’s.
“I’ll kill
myself first,” Ian stated, his hands fisting at his side.
“Nay, brother. You need to live.”
Ian didn’t
acknowledge Duncan’s voice, though it sounded as if his brother stood right
next to him. It was just proof that Ian was going daft.
At least he
was alone and his friends at MacLeod Castle wouldn’t have to watch as Farmire
slowly pulled him under.
But Ian
missed the other Warriors.
He missed
Fallon MacLeod’s calm leadership. He missed Ramsey’s infinite knowledge,
Logan’s teasing, Hayden’s eagerness for battle, and Arran’s steadfast
friendship.
He missed
Quinn MacLeod’s recklessness, Lucan MacLeod’s easy laughter, Galen’s constant
eating, Broc’s silent gaze, and Camdyn’s quiet presence.
There was
also Larena, the only female Warrior and Fallon’s bride.
Then there
were the Druids. The MacLeods had welcomed all Warriors fighting against
Deirdre into their castle, but they had also made it a sanctuary for Druids.
The MacLeods
had turned their ruin of a castle into a home once more. It was a place
where no matter what you were, you were welcomed to sit at their table and
share a meal.
It had
helped that Ian, Duncan, and Arran had stood by Quinn while they’d been trapped
in Deirdre’s mountain. Ian had known as soon as he saw Quinn that the
Warrior was someone important.
Ian thought
back to when he first met Quinn. Quinn had been battling his own god at
the time. There had instances where Quinn admitted he had nearly given
into his god at one point.
It was too
bad Quinn wasn’t with him now to help Ian win this constant battle of wills
with Farmire.
Even if Ian
hadn’t been snatched from MacLeod Castle, he knew he would have left.
Only a fool would stay and endanger all that they had worked to protect.
And Ian
wasn’t a fool.
“Brother, you must eat. You will need your
strength to battle Farmire. The weaker you are, the more control he has.”
Ian knew
Duncan was right, but to get food meant he would have to leave the cave.
But the voice in Ian’s head, whether it was his brother or not, was correct.
He did need
to keep up his strength to fight Farmire. Not that Ian thought he had a
chance at having the control over his god as he once did, but he wasn’t going
to go without a fight.
Ian glanced
down at his kilt and the large red and green plaid covered in mud and
muck. He needed a bath as well. Which, in the cold, was going to be
grueling.
The freezing
temperatures wouldn’t kill him because of his immortality, but it might help to
keep his god away for a while.
With his first
ghost of a grin in days, Ian stepped out of the cave.
Midnight's Master:
Synopsis:
From the acclaimed author of the Dark Sword novels
comes a thrilling spin off series in which ancient magic in the modern world
ignites a timeless passion…
A
MYSTERY OUT OF TIME
Gwynn Austin has no idea why her
father has disappeared on a mysterious trip to Scotland. When she goes on
a desperate mission to search for him she finds more than she bargains for in a
ruggedly handsome, wickedly exciting Highlander who exudes danger and mystery.
And when she discovers her own link to Scotland, she’ll have to trust her heart
to help lead her….
A LEGEND
IN THE FLESH
Propelled through time by powerful
Druid Magic, Logan Hamilton uses his immortality and powers of the god inside
him to help prevent the awakening of an ancient evil in the modern world. He
never expects to find help in the form of a beautiful, alluring, and all too
tempting woman whose passion and strength matches his own. Together, Logan and
Gywnn must fight for their love—before a demon from the past destroys them
both…
Excerpt:
The
blackness, the unending void ate away at Logan as he was yanked out of the year
1603 and thrown forward in time. He felt himself falling and desperately
reached for something to hang onto
The wind
rushed by him, hurting his ears with the high pitched sound and drowning out
any noise. The wind took his breath, making it difficult to breath.
He was tossed first one way, and then the other. Determining which way
was up was soon forgotten.
Where were
the others? Ramsey, Arran, and Camdyn? The Druids had told him they
didn’t know where any of them would end up. All Logan could pray for as
he felt the years and decades pass by was that he landed in the right time.
Around him,
the inky darkness began to shimmer – the same shimmer that had appeared when
the Druids cast the spell to send Logan and the others traveling through time.
Almost
instantly, he was dumped out of the abyss onto his hands and knees into the
midst of a vicious rainstorm.
Logan
swallowed and gave himself a moment to let his head stop spinning. He
pushed his fingers into the wet ground and smiled when he felt the dirt between
his hands.
He sat back
on his heels and looked around. It was day, but the storm had darkened
the sky. An urgent need pulled at him, called to him to return to Eigg,
but he pushed it aside. He had to find Ian. That was his duty.
Logan wiped
off his hands and took stock of his whereabouts on a hillside, the tall grass
swaying with the howling wind. But what grabbed his interest were the
dots of light below him.
Logan
blinked through the cold, torrential rain and climbed to his feet. Those
weren’t fires he saw flickering in the valley. What they were, he didn’t
know. Yet.
He rose to
his feet and ran a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. It
was time to discover just where the Druids had managed to toss him in the
future.
On his way
down to the valley, Logan crossed a road that had been covered with some hard,
black substance with bright white lines painted on it.
He squatted
down to touch the surface and felt the rumbling of the ground beneath his
fingers. Logan rose and stepped back as something large and loud came
rolling down the lane.
As the
object passed, Logan spotted a person inside who looked like they controlled
the loud contraption.
More
confused than ever, Logan walked over the road and down to the town. He
could hardly believe his eyes when he reached the village to find buildings
lined down the street, one right next to the other. They were all painted
the same bright white with many more of those noisy contraptions lining the
road as well as traveling down it.
Logan kept
to the side of the road where he saw other people walking. A few gave him
odd glances but most paid him no heed.
He passed
store after store, trying to learn the language written on the signs. The
factthere. It had grown tremendously since then.
What else had changed in the four centuries since he had left his friends behind at MacLeod Castle?
“I thank you,” he said to the woman and walked on before she could ask more questions.
Logan looked at the town of Salen with new eyes. If this almost nonexistent village could grow so much in just a few centuries, what had become of Edinburgh or Glasgow? And did he even want to know?
He paused as a young woman ran in front of him to one of the contraptions sitting on the side of the road. She jerked at the handle as she held a bag over her head in an effort to keep from getting wet. It wasn’t working.
“Rory! You wanker! Unlock the bloody door so I can get in the car!” she yelled over her shoulder.
Logan turned his head to see a thin man come out of the shop, walk around the…car, insert something small into the door, and open it.
The woman yanked on her door again then banged on the window above it. “Rory. Unlock the bloody door now!”
After another moment, Rory leaned over the door and pulled on something. A moment later, the woman got in. She was still yelling as the car rolled away.
So, the contraptions were called cars, and apparently people rode them much as Logan rode horses. He sighed and continued forward. It wasn’t just the landscape that had changed. The people had changed as well.
No lady Logan had known would ever have spoken as the woman with Rory had. Not even whores spoke so crudely.
Logan heard footsteps coming fast behind him. His muscles seized and fangs filled his mouth. Logan spun around, claws lengthening as he readied himself to behead whoever thought to attack him.
He pulled his hand back, stopping himself just in time as two young lads who ran past him, laughing and soaking wet. Logan stepped into the doorway of an unused building and took a deep breath.
Was he so used to fighting that he would attack anyone? Even children? He shook his head and struggled to tamp down the god inside him.
Athleus. He was the god of betrayal inside Logan, an ancient god who wanted nothing but death and destruction. It had taken decades for Logan to gain control over his god.
But sometimes, that control slipped.
Logan carried enough burdens. He didn’t need to add the death of two young lads to the weight.
Once his fangs and claws had retreated, and Logan was sure his skin wasn’t the silver of his god, he stepped out of the shadows and lengthened his stride as he exited the town. The urge to return to Eigg was sharp and true in his chest.
If anyone found out that he had a monster inside him, that he could release the god and become a beast, Logan was sure they’d kill him.
But he didn’t just have a god inside him. He was able to use Athleus’ power, a power able to control water. And Logan was going to the Isle of Eigg, an isle surrounded by water.
He wasn’t sure when he had made that decision, only that he had. Logan couldn’t hold back the desperate need to return there as soon as possible.
The last time he had been to Eigg, which to him was just a matter of hours – not centuries – earlier, he had been looking for an artifact hidden there by the Druids.
Not only had he not found the artifact, but his friend and fellow Warrior, Duncan, had been killed by Deirdre. Deirdre was a drough, a Druid who had given herself to evil and black magic. She was on a mission to take over the world, and as great as her magic was, Logan feared she might just win.
It had been Deirdre who had unleashed the gods inside the Warriors. And it would be Warriors who would help end Deirdre once and for all.
But first, Logan had to find Ian, Duncan’s twin.
He couldn’t imagine what Ian was going through. Ian and Duncan, as twins, had shared a god, and with Duncan’s death, the full power and rage of their god would overtake Ian. If he couldn’t control his god, his god would control him and he would be ripe for Deirdre to claim. Which is just what she had wanted when she killed Duncan.
Logan had no idea where Ian had gone, but he knew Deirdre. She had leaped forward in time to 2012 in order to thwart him and the others in their mission to find the artifacts before she did.
He frowned. Or had she?
If Deirdre could travel through time whenever she wanted, why hadn’t she done so before now? She could have changed the outcome to anything that hadn’t gone her way, including gaining the artifacts before the MacLeods.
If Deirdre hadn’t traveled through time on her own, that meant someone had to have helped her.
But who? And, more importantly, why?
Logan wasn’t sure he’d have those answers anytime soon. Regardless, in order to defeat Deirdre, the Warriors would still need the artifacts. The one he had been sent to get was on Eigg.
He paused and looked around him. None of the other three Warriors who had volunteered to look for Ian had landed with Logan. He wasn’t even sure if they had been taken as he had.
Yet, he knew the Druids at MacLeod Castle. Each one was powerful in her own right, and together, they wielded magic and quite literally took his breath away.
He had no doubt they had succeeded in tossing the others forward in time along with him. He had no means of communicating with anyone, nor could he take the chance of traveling to MacLeod Castle yet. He had to find Ian before Deirdre did.
If she didna have him already. that he had a primeval god inside him, a god so ancient his name had been
forgotten, was the only way he was able to pick up this new language so quickly.
“You’re
soaked through, lad,” said an elderly woman as she opened a door to a store
Logan was walking past.
He gave a
slight nod and felt the knot in his belly loosen as he heard her brogue.
He was still in Scotland. Now, to determine when he was.
“Ah, not
much of a talker,” she said and laughed.
Logan
smiled. “What year is it?”
She blinked
and cocked her gray head at him. “You’ve quite the brogue, lad.
It’s been many a years since I’ve heard one so thick.” She smiled, a far
away look stealing across her face.
Logan took a
step toward her. “The year, lady?”
“Oh.” She
chuckled and patted her chest. “Forgive me. It’s 2012. What
an odd question.”
“I’ve been
living by myself…away from everyone.”
“And
everything,” she said as she eyed his kilt.
Logan looked
around him and shrugged. “What village am I in?”
This time
the old woman frowned as she watched him. “Salen, not far from the Isle
of Skye.”
He knew the
village, but the last time he had seen it, there had barely been anything
Finally the woman behind the books.:
Donna Grant
Donna Grant
is the bestselling, award winning author of more than twenty-five novels
spanning multiple genres of romance.
She was born
and raised in Texas but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her
throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica, Mexico, and Scotland.
Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna’s Cajun side of the family
taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin’
and bareback riding.
Her
childhood dream was to become a professional ballet dancer and study under the
amazing Mikhail Baryshnikov. Though she never got to meet Baryshnikov, she did
make it to New York City and performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Later, Donna’s love of the romance genre and the constant stories running
through her head prompted her to sit down and write her first book. Once that
book was completed, there was no turning back.
Donna sold
her first book in November 2005 while displaced from Hurricane Rita, a storm
that destroyed portions of the Texas Gulf Coast. Since then, Donna has sold
novels and novellas to both electronic and print publishers. Her books include
several complete series such as Druids Glen, The Shields, Royal Chronicles,
Sisters of Magic, Dark Sword, Dark Warriors, and her new series, Dark Kings.
Despite the
deadlines and her voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her
two young children, four cats, three fish, and one long haired Chihuahua. She’s
blessed with a proud, supportive husband who loves to read and travel as much
as she does.
Donna's Website http://www.donnagrant.com/
Donna's Facebook http://www.facebook.com/AuthorDonnaGrant
Donna's Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1141209.Donna_Grant
Donna's Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/donna_grant
Midnight Master's Buy link http://www.amazon.com/Midnights-Master-Dark-Warrior-1/dp/0312552483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336602789&sr=8-1
Midnight Lover's Buy Link http://www.amazon.com/Midnights-Lover-Donna-Grant/dp/0312552491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336602815&sr=1-1
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