Author Ambsuh with Karina Cooper

Hello everyone!

Book Monster Reviews and LITERAL ADDICTION are very happy to have the wonderful Karina Cooper

back with us today.

Karina has a great ‘unofficial’ bio on her website so we thought we’d borrow it for today’s Event:

“After writing happily ever afters for all of her friends in school, Karina Cooper eventually grew up (sort of), went to work in the real world (kind of), where she decided that making stuff up was way more fun (true!). She writes dark and sexy paranormal romance, steampunk urban fantasy, and writes across multiple genres with mad glee. One part glamour, one part dork and all imagination, Karina is also a gamer, an airship captain’s wife, and a steampunk fashionista. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with a husband, a menagerie, a severe coffee habit, and a passel of adopted gamer geeks. Visit her at www.karinacooper.com, because she says so.”

Karina’s the proud creator of the DARK MISSION Paranormal Romance and ST. CROIX CHRONICLES Historical Urban Fantasy series.

The DARK MISSION series currently has 6 installments – “Before the Witches – A Novella”, “Blood of the Wicked”, “Lure of the Wicked”, “No Rest for the Witches – A Novella”, and “All Things Wicked”. The 4th full length novel, “Sacrifice the Wicked”, was just released 9/25/12.  “One for the Wicked”, the 5^th full length book is due out in April of 2013.

The ST. CROIX CHRONICLES is new. Its first installment, “Tarnished”, was just released in June and the 2^nd book, “Gilded” is coming out 12/26/12. 

For those of you not yet familiar with Karina’s work, we thought we’d give you the synopses of the available full length books to get you up to speed and peak your interests a bit…

DARK MISSION series

“Blood of the Wicked”, Book #1:

As an independent witch living off the grid, Jessie Leigh has spent her life running, trying to blend in among the faceless drudges in the rebuilt city. She thought she was finally safe, but now she’s been found in a New Seattle strip club-by a hard-eyed man on a mission to destroy her kind.

A soldier of the Holy Order, Silas Smith believes in the cause: trawling the fringes of society for the murderous witches who threaten what’s left of the world. Forced into a twisting web of half-truths and lies, he has to stay close to the most sensuous and electrifying woman he has ever seen and manipulate her into leading him to the witch he has to kill: her brother. Silas doesn’t know that Jessie’s his enemy, only that he wants her, needs her, even as he lies to her…and must protect her until his final breath.

“Lure of the Wicked”, Book #2:

Naomi West was plucked from one prison and placed undercover in another: the gilded cage that is Timeless, New Seattle’s premier spa and resort, where owner Phinneas Clarke—the most seductive man Naomi has ever met—may be hiding a killer. She’s an agent of the Holy Order, trained to hunt the guilty and render justice. But while she’s tracking down a rogue agent on a killing spree, Phin is determined to uncover her most damning—and dangerous—secrets. Whatever the cost.

“All Things Wicked”, Book #3: 

Juliet Carpenter thought of the coven as family, but when she falls for a man that betrays them all, she’s left alone and desperately searching for a reason why. Caleb Leigh has spent the last year in hiding, unable to escape his demons. When Juliet finds him again, her need for vengeance clashes with the hunger still burning between them.

It’s a fight born from the embers of a half-forgotten attraction and the wounds of a past too raw to ignore. With enemies circling and secrets threatening to consume them, Caleb has no choice but to fulfill a promise made long ago – Protect her, save her. Even if it costs him his blood, his body…and even what’s left of his mind.

“Sacrifice the Wicked”, Book #4:

Parker Adams has always done what’s expected of her . . . until a double agent with nothing to lose ignites a passion she doesn’t dare give in to.

Mission Agent Simon Wells is everything Parker Adams has been trained to fight: manipulator, murderer, spy… witch. But for her, what makes Simon most dangerous is his mesmerizing sexual magnetism, powerful enough to tempt even the famed ice queen of the Mission. Though she knows better, each encounter with the deceptive agent leaves her craving more.

Simon isn’t a man to let go of what’s his, and his pursuit forces Parker, a woman he can’t get out from under his skin, to make a stand that could destroy her. If they can work together, they might survive the politics that have enslaved their devastated world—or fall victim to the pitfalls of desperation, bone-deep mistrust, and a hunger that threatens to consume them.

ST. CROIX CHRONICLES

“Tarnished”, Book #1:

In Victorian London, where science skirts the line between magic and mechanics, one stubborn miss will face shadows from her past, demons from her desires, and choices that will forever shape who she is.

A brand-new, sexy series from Karina Cooper featuring fearless heroine Cherry St. Croix-debutante by day, bounty hunter by night-set in an alternate London where proper Victorian society sits above a seedy steampunk underworld teeming with dubious loyalties, advanced technology, and incredible magic.

“Gilded:, Book #2:

Coming 12/26/12

The second book in Karina Cooper's stunning steampunk series featuring fearless heroine Cherry St. Croix, in which she is faced with two men after her heart-and one killer out for her blood.

Mmmm, hmmmm…. Can’t get online or out to your favorite book-seller fast enough can you!? We know. Make sure you add them to your TBR lists, but for now, let’s see what Karina had to say when we let her take over the site for the day…

Kick-Ass Heroines and Why I <3 Them

Morning. Wake up. If I’m lucky, there’s enough hot water for a shower. I’m not usually so lucky. By  the time I make it through one cup of coffee, it’s time to save the world again...

Strong heroines are making a comeback, and I’ve never been happier to see it. The romance industry has certainly led the rest on the trend. With the advent of urban fantasy as a new “niche” in the romance market—to say nothing of its existence prior as its own fiction field—I noticed that we started seeing more female characters holding their own. Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels, Nalini Singh’s Elena Deveraux, Kalayna Price’s Alex Craft; all of these women are strong, spirited, and smart.

When I was in the fifth grade, I grew tired of the children’s books I was reading and started branching out at my local library. Of all the books I read, one of the ones that really stuck with me was Robert Heinlein’s Friday. A science-fiction read, I remember being highly skeptical about a book where a man writes the protagonist as a woman. And then I remember being blown away by how good it was. I wanted to be Friday—a tough, capable female gynoid (that’s female android, as it were) who managed to be both feminine and incredibly strong all at the same time.

Then I found Jennifer Roberson, whose heroines left me stunned by how fragile they could be, but also how incredibly strong they became. Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown and it’s sequel, The Blue Sword, convinced me that I, as a girl, could be every bit as tough as the female protagonists of both books. In fact, when talking about books that shaped my life, I frequently pull out both of McKinley’s books as my tipping point.

So, when I told Avon that I wanted to write women who could hold their own—women who were tough, focused, even bitchy and flawed—and they turned around with, “Well, yeah, of course you can!”, I was over the moon.

I like alpha women in a story. I’m often accused of being one myself (I’m not arguing!), so when I see a woman take charge in a book, hold her own, develop a personality that isn’t dependent on the men around her, I want to cheer.

In Sacrifice the Wicked, the fourth installment of the gritty Dark Mission series, Parker isn’t a woman who has relied on any man for any reason. She’s cool, calm, collected, and completely over the shenanigans double-agent Simon Wells is pulling. But even a no-nonsense lady of authority can’t just wave a magic wand and bully a man like Simon into submission. He tests her at every turn; will her secret desires prove that she’s not as tough as she claims to be?

Tarnished’s heroine, Cherry St. Croix, is a fiercely independent heroine at a time when women were discouraged from such dreams as “independence”. We learned about her status in the first book, torn between the dangerous liberties of the world below the foggy drift and the safety and polish of Society above. In Gilded, out December 26^th 2012, Cherry’s going to have to make some hard choices. Part of being an independent woman in any era is making decisions, and when others rely on those decisions—can a wealthy heiress make the right call? Does she have real strength buried deep inside her heart, or is it all fueled by the laudanum she drinks to ease a checkered past?

This pattern of strong women occasionally rears up on TV, which makes me incredibly happy. I sat down to watch the new CW version of Beauty and the Beast. When they made the heroine, the main protagonist, a cop, I thought, “Eh, yeah right.” I expected another Elena from The Vampire Diaries, and frankly, I want to murder her with a spork—in my list of smart, capable women, she doesn’t even rank. Yet as I watched our new Beauty take on muggers, beat the crap out of assailants, and even make some smart decisions (when she isn’t justifiably swept away by her flaws—namely, her obsession over her mother’s murder and the way she compartmentalizes everything into case files). I cheered when I saw this was a pattern, a character decision, and not some quirk of writing.

What about you? Who are some of your favorite heroines of TV or literary background? What traits inspire you the most? We’ll pick two winners to send Sacrifice the Wicked and Tarnished to!

Karina is offering up to a copy of “Sacrifice the Wicked” to a winner from Book Monster Reviews.

To Enter:

Fill out the Rafflecopter widget for Karina’s Event, follow the directions, take action, and mark as ‘Done’.

For another chance to win a copy of “Tarnished”, go to LITERAL ADDICTION enter the contest over there as well.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway