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3.07.2013

Tour Stop & Giveaway: Blood Flows Deep in the Empire

Welcome to the official blog tour for N. Isabelle Blanco's new book, Blood Flows Deep in the Empire, released today from The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House. I'll be your host for today's tour stop as we explore this great new series and its talented author. We'll also have a giveaway for a free ebook! So, without further ado . . .





THE BOOK
First I've got to say, way hot cover. Even if the premise hadn't caught my attention, the cover totally would have. Very yummy. As in, hot damn, gimme gimme.

Ahem.

Okay, now that's out of my system, let's talk books. Yummy cover dude aside, this book caught my attention because of the variety it presented. With vampires and werewolves essentially passé, and zombies too trendy (you may recall my thoughts on that), what's a girl to read about? Well, how about gods? And not the tried if beloved concept of the Greek pantheon come to life, but rather a fresh, imaginative cast of beings with lots of power and sex appeal. Sounds good to me.

Buy it now!
Blood Flows Deep in the Empire is the first book of N. Isabelle Blanco's new Szolites series. It features Dyletri, a millennia-year old fertility god with an axe to grind. After lifetimes of fulfilling his function, he's finally found a woman to care about. But fate takes her away from him and leaves her soul to suffer in the afterlife. Then he is given the chance to save her, to have her reborn and returned to him. Fate offers him a deal: a human sacrifice in exchange for the love of his life. Now the time to fulfill his promise has come upon him, but it won't be that simple.

Ismini knows what Fate has in store for her. She even knows the face of the man who will trade her life for that of his beloved. It's a face she has dreaded–‒and longed for. It's insane to be attracted to the immortal god that plans on sacrificing her without a second thought, but her body won't listen to reason. She's going to lose her life, there's no stopping that, but can she get through her last days without losing her heart as well?

This story introduces what promises to be a hot, entertaining new series. The book jumps feet first into a world of strange beings with incredible powers and a strong dose of sexy goodness.

Dyletri is a thrill ride of a protagonist. He's vibrant with emotions, good and bad. He's hostile, impassioned, commanding–‒all in the best ways, I promise you. And Ismini compliments him wonderfully with her own strength and determination. Spicing things up is an entire crew of side characters, a mixed bag of superbeings that liven up the story and promise more fun in subsequent books. I was reminded of Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series, and I think fans of Showalter's work would definitely enjoy this book.

I will say, reading this book was occasionally tricky. At times it felt a bit confused and hard to follow, especially as Blanco sets up the world and this strange new pantheon. Even still, the book was consistently engaging thanks to the intensity and drama than runs through the whole story. Between the overwhelming attraction between Dyletri and Ismini, the supernatural battle of good versus evil, and the genuine lure of Blanco's characters . . . this book packs a serious punch. I'll be keeping my eye on this series, hoping for more of this godly goodness.


THE AUTHOR
N. Isabelle Blanco, the woman who would come to be known as “Nyddi,” was born in Queens, New York. By age three, due to an odd fascination with studying her mother’s handwriting, she’d already begun to read and write. By the time she reached kindergarten, she was reading at a second-grade level, not to mention talking up a storm and showing off her extensive vocabulary. Her obsession with words and reading ended up bleeding into every aspect of her life. As she got older, romance novels took the reins of her obsession, leading her to devour every romance story she could find.

Thanks to the world of Japanese Anime, N. Isabelle was introduced to the wonderful universe of Fanfiction. She would come to write fanfics on and off again as a hobby for the next ten years, but it wasn’t until the Twilight phenomenon came along that she began dedicating hard hours to writing. For the next year and a half, she amassed a following that, by her own admission, she would never be able to live without. It is those fans that encouraged her to step beyond the fanfic realm and take her talent out into the publishing world.

N. Isabelle’s first ebook novel, Destructively Alluring, came out in July of 2012, followed by Addictive Lunacy in September, and Allure Magnified in November of 2012. 
Blood Flows Deep in the Empire is Blanco's first full-length novel, and it's available now from The Writer's Coffee Shop in print and ebook formats. Put it on your TBR list because you don't want to miss out on this one.


GIVEAWAY
Okay, now to the part that I'm sure you were all waiting for. Thanks to the kind folks at The Writer's Coffee Shop, I'm offering a free ebook copy of BFDE to one lucky winner. Just use the form below to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


This book was received courtesy of NetGalley and The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House in exchange for an honest review.

3 comments:

  1. Very intrigued by the concept and hope to read it soon! Best of luck to Nyddi!

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  2. Sounds very good! Can't wait to check it out

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  3. I first came by this a treat our so ago on Nyddi's fb page have have been anxious for it ever since. It sounds good!

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