Guest post and giveaway with Hailey Edwards

Love Against All Odds

I married young. I was seventeen and my soon-to-be husband was twenty-one. We had known one another for nine days before he proposed. We got married two months later. On April 10^th, we celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary. Amazing how time flies, isn't it?

While I was writing A Hint of Frost, I used those newlywed memories as a point of reference for Lourdes. 

Here's this young woman. Her parents have died. She has a family to support, a clan to protect. She's willing to give herself to the strongest warrior to make sure her people are protected. Enter Rhys. He's this handsome, mysterious, deadly man she knows nothing about but is attracted to despite herself. 

When he vows to make her clan safe, she gives herself to him.

I like the idea that love can thrive regardless of your circumstances.

Lord knows my husband and I saw some lean years there in the beginning. I would say we're much closer to being Mimetidae than Araneidae for sure. What kept us going was laughter, being able to enjoy ourselves on a tight budget and still get the bills paid. It was a fun time, a magical time. Learning to live with someone else, to share your personal space and all that you are with them, takes time. There's a lot of give and take and setting personal boundaries.

Lourdes and Rhys underwent the same trials of learning to love one another. Physical attraction is one thing. True and abiding love is another. One punches you in the gut at a glance. The other grows slowly over time, and must be nurtured, respected.

All this leads up to a couple of good questions. Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you believe in soul mates, that you can recognize your other half at a glance?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

One lucky commenter will win their pick of one title from my backlist in any digital format.

 Hope dangles by a silken thread.

When the head of the Araneidae clan is found poisoned in her nest, her eldest daughter, Lourdes, becomes their clan's new maven. If her clan is to survive, she has but one choice: she must marry before her nest is seized. All she needs is a warrior fierce enough to protect her city and safeguard her clansmen. Such a male is Rhys the Cold. 

Born the youngest son of an impoverished maven, the only things Rhys has to his name are his sword and his mercenary reputation. His clan is starving, but their fondness for the flesh of fellow Araneaeans makes them unwelcome dinner guests. Torn between loyalty to his clan and fascination with his future bride, Rhys's first taste of Lourdes threatens to melt the cold encasing his heart.

Amid the chaos of battle, Lourdes's sister disappears and is feared captured. Lourdes and Rhys pursue their enemies into the southlands, where they discover an odd plague ravaging southern clans as it travels north, to Erania. Determined to survive, Lourdes will discover whether she's worth her silk or if she's spun the thread by which her clan will hang.

Warning: This book contains one mercenary hero with a biting fetish, one determined heroine who gets nibbled, and an answer to the age-old question, “What does dragon taste like?” Matricide and sibling rivalry are available upon request. The house special is revenge, best served cold.

Author website:

http://haileyedwards.net/