Welcome to the Evernight Christmas Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Evernight Holiday Blog Hop!

We love the holidays, we love making our readers happy and we love giving away swag. What better way to do that than to hold a blog hop?

Here's how it works... the more blogs you hop to (shown below) the more chance you have of winning prizes. Each site on the hop is offering a prize and Evernight is offering an iPad 2 as the grand prize! To be in with a chance of winning the site prize simply follow the blog you're visiting and leave a comment which includes your email address. Each entry on each blog is then counted towards the grand prize draw. The more entries you have, the better your chance of winning that iPad 2! You also get extra points for liking the Evernight Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/evernightpublishing. Just make sure you let us know in the comments that you've done so.
 
Happy hopping!

As part of the hop, I'm giving away a copy of my ARe bestselling ebook, SHADOW CURSED - just leave a comment here to be in with a chance of winning. And how about a teaser to whet your appetite?

Treading lightly for fear for alerting the violinist to her approach, Emmeline reached the room her mother always called the rose room. The wallpaper was a dusky pink, the carpets the deep red of crushed berries. The walls were lined with botanical sketches by the hand of some long-dead tenant of Nachtholm. Why it was disused, Emmeline had never understood. It was a beautiful room. Perhaps if her parents had had more children it might have been a nursery or a playroom. But they’d only had her, and she’d been a disappointment, a torment.

She opened the door slowly, inching it just a crack, enough to let the music flood out and swamp her with its beautiful misery. She closed her eyes, happy to drown.

And then it stopped.

The door flew open violently, knocking her to the floor. She landed with a cry, the breath jolted from her. A shadow fell across her and she raised her head to see Rainart standing over her, his violin clutched in his hands as if he wanted to break it.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked. There was just a touch of tenderness in his voice, the mere suggestion of concern. She shook her head. Even if he had hurt her, she'd never admit it. “I apologise, but I don’t like being spied on,” he said.

Emmeline flushed and scrambled to her feet. “I was not spying! I heard the music...I...this is my house! I don’t have to explain myself to you!”

He growled deep in his throat, an animal noise that both thrilled and terrified her. He backed her up against the wall, bracing his free hand next to her head and leaning over her, trapping her. “I am the master in this house, Emmeline. If you think otherwise, you’re sadly mistaken.”

His closeness was breathtaking. Her heart raced, her blood burnt. She’d never been so close to a man before and she’d never even seen a man like Rainart, a man brimming with a power and authority that made her want to fall to her knees again. His eyes flashed with fury, his lips were tight with it. The heat of his anger blazed against her body, and all Emmeline could think was that if he touched her—if he kissed her—she would faint.

When she found her voice, it was hoarse and fragile. "I'm not afraid of you."

He moved back then with a bitter laugh, and she felt his sudden absence keenly, like a thorn in her side pulled out too fast. He lifted his hand as if to touch her cheek, then snatched it back again. "Oh child," he said, that flash of pain back in his eyes. "I wish you were."

Don't forget to visit all the other blogs taking part to up your chances of winning some fabulous prizes!