I have an addiction.

It started a few months ago over at Bam’s blog when she started “The Serial”. The first offering came from Bettie Sharpe and it’s a retelling of Cinderella, but ladies and gents, I feel the need to warn you… this isn’t a fairytale you want your kids to read.

One of the comments was …. It’s like Tanith Lee on acid. Think Sherry Thomas said that. My take? Not too different. Literary crack. One little taste and you are hooked.

Bettie taunted us with little snippets from her Cinderella tale, Ember, for weeks. I kid you not. Weeks. But if you haven’t read it… you’re lucky. Because now the entire book is up on her website here as a freebie ebook.

I remembered reading that she had a book coming out from Samhain… her first. Man, I’m on what… forty+ plus and I can’t do with words what Bettie does. I’m so insanely jealous. Anyway, the book was due out in January, but a combination of my absentmindedness, three… or was it four, weeks of back to back edits, and a Feb 1 deadline, I wasn’t keeping track of the books I’ve been wanting to buy.

But then I was over @ Dear Author and saw a guest review on Bettie’s Ember & Like a Thief in the Night and I realized I’d forgotten something. I remedied that, like immediately. Bought, downloaded & devoured Like a Thief in the Night last night and the first thing I did when I finished was email Bettie and demanded asked for info on secondary characters. And if I could post an excerpt. And if she’d mind if I did a little contest.

Just to give you an idea of Bettie’s way with words…from Like a Thief in the Night… (posted with permission)

∞

Tonight, her face was bare. Her dark eyes were wide. Her cheeks were flushed. Her lips were an almost rosy shade of pink. She had a gamine quality that belied everything he knew of her lethal nature. And she looked young, too young.
He almost laughed at the thought-a man who had been born in an age where most people were married by thirteen and parents by fourteen worried over a woman who looked like she was well into her twenties. Besides, even if she were a crone with the memory of hundred summers behind her, she would still be young by comparison.

He had watched civilizations rise and fall. He had stolen the treasures of a hundred ages. Time was a river that broke its path around him, carrying briefer, brighter lives away in the blink of an eye while he remained.

But this small woman-this cold, old soul cast in hot, young flesh-pulled him into the current of time. He had endured eons, but she made him impatient.

He wanted her with an urgency he had no right to. An immortal had no need to rush. Yet he craved her with an immediacy that had compelled him to take her when he should have tempted her, to seize what he might have seduced.

∞

A word of warning… Bettie’s way of telling a romance is a little dark. It’s kind of violent. There are some gory moments. (Hmmmmm… I keep craving horror romance… wonder if Bettie’s ever considered doing one…) Rambling…

Anyway, Thief is a bit gory. It has some violence… or as quoted @ Samhain and Mybookstoreandmore

Warning, this title contains the following: Sex, Violence, Violent Sex, Naughty Words, Assassins, Thieves, Samurai Swords, Explosions, Breakfast, a Nuclear Wasteland, Mythical Creatures, a Nefarious Corporation, Death-defying Adventure, Happily Ever After.

And she isn’t kidding. Sex. Violence. Violent sex. She failed to mention…romance…though.

So are you curious? Want a chance to read it?

All you need to do is leave your name in the comments. I’ll draw one winner who’ll get a free download of Like a Thief in the Night and $5 GC to Mybookstoreandmore in case you feel like trying out some other titles. And if you need a list of recs for that GC… *G*…

Winner’s name to be posted here later this week and yes, you do need to check back to see if you’ve won.

just a reminder, I do draw by the ISP and entries are limited to one per household. If you have a habit of leaving multiple comments, using different names (but not changing the email) I don’t go by your name. Please play fair or don’t play at all.

I know sometimes family members, etc share a computer and the ‘one per household’ rule might not be fair to those. I’m sorry… really…but there are a select few who enter repeatedly, using different names but the same email~ once had a person enter under five different names…same email addy.

I’m just trying to keep this as fair as possible.