The next author in our GRL featured blog tour of 2017 is J.V Speyer.

Welcome J.V 🙂

I’ve tried to write this guest post something like six times. I’m not kidding. I’m excited to do it. I think I’m just maybe a little keyed up by everything that’s going on in the world right now. Every time I start to write, it turns into a long rant about something that really doesn’t belong in romance, or a discussion about romance. And I can’t seem to figure out how to end it, and it’s just a mess, like cold overcooked pasta that just sticks together in an ugly clump.

 

Appetizing, right?

 

Well, I took my daughter to the playground after school. I try to do that as often as weather allows, because it gives her some social time and because it lets her move around a bit. I have a friend who does the same thing, and we hide in the corner and snark about suburban life while our kids tear up the playground pretending to be Sith Lords.

 

I’m sitting here writing on the evening after the Las Vegas shooting. We talked about the shooting, and about the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. We found we were working ourselves up about both horrors. Now, there’s a time and place to get worked up. Both events are terrible. Both demand action.

 

There isn’t a whole lot two people can do about them from the corner of the playground, though. Anything we might be able to do has to wait until school hours.

 

So I pulled out my phone. I opened up my Pinterest app. Most of the time Pinterest is a dangerous wormhole from which few return alive. I opened it up for one thing the other day and the next thing I knew I woke up several hours later, convinced I needed to Try These Seventy Two Essential Cleaning Hacks With Essential Oils Right Now To Banish Evil Spirits From My Home and Detoxify My Liver.

 

But I also have a pin board specifically for Cute Stuff (no, really, its name is Cute Stuff) and I figured this was what we needed.

 

We looked at adorable sloth pictures. We looked at super-cute bat pictures and cooed over baby piggies. We squealed at the sight of puppies and kittens, or calves sleeping on sheep.

 

The world was still, in essence, a dumpster fire when I got home. But I felt a lot better.

 

In The Dented Crown, Malires tries to distract Aleric from his worries in quite a few locations. (He doesn’t use adorable baby koala pictures, he uses sex, but you know. I don’t have that kind of relationship with my friend, or a body like Malires.)

 

Most of the time, the distraction is ancillary to real love and affection. Malires truly cares for Aleric. He wants him to relax for his own sake. Given that each recovered memory comes with real physical pain, and pursuing more could cause harm to Aleric, Malires has a point. When pressure mounts, and Malires puts distraction first, he finds he gets a different result.

 

I guess it’s a matter of priorities. At first, Malires is prioritizing Aleric, and their relationship. Later, he prioritizes the secret between them.

 

It’s okay for me to distract myself here and there with something bright and shiny – like Pinterest, or that awesome new book I pre-ordered that just arrived today, or occasional drinks with friends. Sometimes only focusing on the bad things out there in the world is just no good. It’s when I start to let those distractions interfere with my actual jobs that I need to take a step back.

 

Although I did see an awesome afghan pattern, it’s going to be so cute. When I finally learn to crochet. Oh, what’s linked to it over there?

 

J. V. Speyer has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her father raised her on a steady diet of science fiction, horror, and fantasy, and she came to romance later in life. Most of her inspiration is drawn from music, whether from a specific song or just a rhythm.

 

J. V. grew up in Upstate New York, in a deeply diverse city in the heart of the Rust Belt. She now makes her home just outside of Boston in an old farmhouse with more animals than people. She’s held jobs in security, accounting, finance, and non-profit management before turning to writing professionally.

 

In her spare time, J. V. enjoys baseball, history, and music. She can often be found avoiding direct sunlight and seeking out the perfect martini.

 

J.V brought with her a wonderful giveaway for our readers

She is offering a $10 Amazon GC !
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

Two kingdoms. Two princes. One secret to break them, or to bind them.

When a rowboat washes up on the riverbank, Prince Malires puts his kingdom’s security first. The dead man lying in the boat can’t answer many questions, but the seriously injured survivor might be able to give Malires some details about what happened in the hostile kingdom to the north. If, that is, the young man ever wakes up.

Malires knows who the survivor is: Prince Aleric, youngest son of the King of Gerelen. He’s the most renowned warrior that Gerelen has ever known, and Malires has barely survived their previous encounters. Only his need to understand why Gerelen suddenly stopped communicating with the outside world keeps him from taking advantage of the situation and taking out this threat to his kingdom.

It has nothing to do with the sudden discovery of how beautiful Aleric is.

Unfortunately for Malires, when Aleric does awaken he has no memory of who he is or even of his own kingdom. The court physicians insist that Aleric’s memories must return naturally, or else they might be lost forever.

While both men recognize the urgent need for answers, they cannot fight their attraction for one another. Aleric comes to feel just as defensive of Malires’ kingdom as he once did of his own. When the truth comes out, will love conquer all, or will misunderstanding and pride drive Aleric to a desperate undertaking?

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