Hey all, it’s Kelly Meade! I was going to open this up with the whole “aka Kelly Meding” thing, but this isTeam ROMP, y’all. I’m going to put Meding away for a while, because Meade writes romance! Why the team jump? Because my Cornerstone Run trilogy is all about finding true love for three sexy shifter brothers.
And is there really anything sexier than a shifter? Don’t answer that, it’s a trick question.
No, there is nothing sexier than a shifter. Bird shifter, cat shifter, bear shifter, you name it, it’s going to be sexy. But the reason that werewolves continue to be popular in paranormal romance is because no one is sexier than a wolf shifter. Am I right, Joe Manganiello fans?
Sexy. Alpha. Male.
And he’s embracing his gray hair. *thud*
Okay, climbing back up off the floor….sexy shifter brothers. Three of them, no less.
Now wolf shifters are a classic for a reason, and that means that there are a few stereotypes running rampant in paranormal romance. Possessive Alpha males. Fragile females who need protecting. Instant, easy shifting. One and only true mates. All of these things have been done badly, and they’ve been amazingly well. The challenge in playing with wolf shifters in romance is striking a balance between familiar and new—and let me tell you, there isn’t much new under the sun.
Personally, I don’t like the “one and only true mate” concept. I find it limiting to a story’s potential, so I didn’t go there with my sexy shifters. In my world, there are multiple possibilities for a shifter’s mate, which means the hero has to work a little harder at winning her over. And making him work for it is half the fun.
For me, the sexiest Alpha not the one who yells, demeans or demands to get his way. He isn’t the uber-control freak who won’t let his woman be touched by another man without losing his mind. He’s the one who makes your heart flutter with a look across a room. He’s the one who snap your neck with his hands but holds you like you’re the most precious of jewels.
He’s the one who shifts into a big, bad-ass wolf.
GO TEAM ROMP!
Check out what Team Stomp is talking about over at Rabid Reads with Amber Lynn Natusch
Black Rook by Kelly Meade
Series: Cornerstone Run Trilogy #1
Published by Penguin on July 15th 2014
Genres: Paranormal Romance
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She never saw this coming…
Brynn Atwood is a low-level Magus whose unpredictable precognitive powers have made her an outcast among her people—and an embarrassment to her highly-regarded father. After a frightening vision in which her father is murdered by a loup garou man, Brynn decides to prove herself by finding the killer, and stopping them at any cost.
Her target is Rook McQueen, the son of a small-town loup garou Alpha. Despite being the youngest of three, Rook is first in line to inherit the role of Alpha, a duty he isn’t sure he’s capable of fulfilling. When Brynn finally meets Rook, she doesn’t expect the attraction that draws her to him—and him to her.
No longer believing him a murderer, Brynn and Rook strike an alliance to find her father’s real killer. But when his older brother is targeted by an unknown enemy, Rook will have to choose between his growing feelings for Brynn and his duty as the future Alpha of his community.When I heard that Kelly Meding was writing a PNR series under the name Kelly Meade I KNE
About Kelly Meade
Raised on a steady diet of Star Wars, Freddy Krueger and “Fear Street” novels, Kelly Meade developed a love for all things paranormal at a very young age. The stealthy adolescent theft of a tattered paperback from her grandmother’s collection of Harlequins sparked an interest in romance that has continued to this day.
Black Rook is the first novel in her Cornerstone Run series, a paranormal romance trilogy from Berkley Intermix that also includes Gray Bishop and White Knight. It follows three loup garou brothers who will do anything to protect their town, their family, and the secret of their existence—and maybe fall in love in the process.
Writing as Kelly Meding, Three Days to Dead is the first book in her Dreg City urban fantasy series. The series follows Evangeline Stone, a paranormal hunter who is resurrected into the body of a stranger and has only three days to solve her own murder and stop a war between the city’s goblins and vampires. Additional books in the series, As Lie the Dead, Another Kind of Dead, and Wrong Side of Dead, are available in both digital format and mass market paperback from Bantam. Book five, Requiem for the Dead, is available digitally through all platforms.
Trance begins the story of the grown-up children of the world’s slaughtered superheroes who receive their superpowers back after a mysterious fifteen-year absence, and who now face not only a fearful public, but also a vengeful villain who wants all of them dead. Trance and Changeling are available now in both digital format and mass market paperback from Pocket Books. Tempest and Chimera are available in digital format only via Pocket Star. All four MetaWars books can also be purchased as a digital bundle.
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