The News
Adventure in Moldavia
My blog will be hosting guest authors starting TOMORROW!! Our first author is MIRIAM NEWMAN and she'll be featuring her book - "The King's Daughter." I'm really looking forward to it!
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The News from Publisher's Weekly
The Small Press Expo will be held this weekend in North Bethesda, MD this year. It usually has a large visit from comics and self publishers.
Romance Editor Kate Duffy Dead at 56
Renowned romance editor Kate Duffy died Sunday at age 56, following a long illness. Duffy was well-known in the industry for her contributions to the romance genre, from the late 1970s and the “romance revolution” of the early ’80s through the present day. Duffy published and worked with Jude Deveraux, Julie Garwood, Lori Foster, Heather Graham, Judith McNaught, Mary Janice Davidson, Jacqueline Frank and Mary Jo Putney.
ME: I've read Judith McNaught, but I recongize a lot of good romance authors on this list.
Ebook Readers are expected to be in demand for Christmas this year.
ME: I'm definately putting one on my Christmas list!
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PROMO MATERIAL FOR "THE WOLF'S TORMENT"
The following is a review from Forword Clarion Reviews done by Lee Gooden on my book, "The Wolf's Torment."
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The Wolf’s Torment
Professional Review, Clarion/ForeWord Magazine
FICTION: ROMANCE / FANTASY
The Wolf’s Torment
S.G. Cardin
iUniverse
355 pages
Softcover $20.95
ISBN: 978-0-595-41733-9
4 stars
A good romantic novel is not the massed-produced formulaic massively consumed quickie book commonly known as a “Bodice Ripper.” A romantic novel is more than thin plot lines designed to get the main characters from one sexual congress to the next.
S. G. Cardin’s debut novel, The Wolf’s Torment, is a romantic novel without being a clichéd ridden “romance” novel. With elements of historical fiction combined with the gothic supernatural, The Wolf’s Torment is in the similar vein as Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witch Chronicles, but the story is also convoluted like Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations as well as dark Arthurian undertones. It is an erotically charged novel with powerful sexual scenes that are not gratuitous, but necessary for the development of character and plot.
Cardin’s hero, child Prince Mihai Sigmaringen of Moldavia in the 1800s, watches helplessly as his mother is murdered by an evil witch. An older Mihai realizes that he lives in country with real monsters, and the modernization and unification of Romania is the only way to rid Eastern Europe of these ancient evils. Cardin writes, “He had a future to fulfill… He would modernize the country and drive out such beings as witches and werewolves that would have the rest of the world think his country as uncultured.”
But the ancient evil persists, and Mihai’s best friend Victor, who he met in England while attending university, is bitten by a werewolf. When the beast overcomes the man, Victor’s werewolf nature invades his humanity and he betrays Mihai.
Mihai makes his own betrayals: to see his plans reach fruition he submits to an arranged marriage to the Lady Theresa von Kracken, even though Alexandra, his gold-digging mistress from London, is pregnant with his baby. Theresa believes that Mihai is the prince that her precognitive dreams had shown her as a child.
After the death of his father, Mihai is crowned King and Theresa becomes his queen. Like Lancelot and Guinevere who betray King Arthur’s trust, Victor has his way with Queen Theresa—the difference being Victor drugs Theresa and takes advantage of her vulnerability. Unlike Guinevere, she never stops being deeply in love with her husband.
The story turns desperate as King Mihai relentlessly drags a reluctant Moldavia into a modern age, even while chthonic forces attempt to pull Moldavia out of enlightenment and back into the darkness of magic, fear and superstition.
Cardin has provided a Q and A session as well as deleted scenes and discussion issues. Readers that enjoy fast-paced novels with some scares and mystery will find themselves waiting impatiently for a sequel to this historical and supernatural romance.
Reviewed by Lee Gooden
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