Thursday, 25 July 2013

Shrouded in Illusion Blog Tour: Review, Giveaway & Excerpts

 
Hello, Therians!
 
Welcome to my stop in the I.O. Book Tours, Shrouded in Illusion by H. D. Thomson Blog Tour!
 
Keep reading for a glimpse into this exciting book, and be sure to enter the giveaway!!

 
 

Someone wants Skye Hunter’s son and they’re willing to kill her or anyone else to get to him. On the run for her life, she is forced to turn to the only person who can help her—a complete stranger with a shared past—David Bishop, a renowned illusionist.

David’s life is also an illusion, built of smoke and little else. He meets Skye, a woman filled with passion and conviction, and the pain he sees in her eyes is a mirror to his own soul. But when he realizes she has the same strange, telekinetic phenomenon inside her body that he does, he is forced to question his life, his childhood and the father who raised him. Can these two lost souls uncover the mystery behind their powers and save Skye’s son and themselves in the process?

 BUYING LINKS
 


 
 EXCERPT 1

Skye’s lips parted as he moved closer. The air conditioner on his damp skin didn't cool his suddenly heated skin.
She edged backward.
He inched forward.
“Okay, Bishop.” The ice-cubes rattled in her glass as she set it on the counter with a snap. “That's close enough.”
“Why? Am I getting to you?”
“Of course not.”
He stroked a knuckle along the tender skin below her ear. “Then why is your pulse fluttering like a terrified mouse?”
“That must be your imagination.” Her throat flexed as she swallowed, but she didn't step away. Her nipples pressed against the thin cotton of her shirt, tempting him to cup and caress both breasts until they tightened even more beneath his touch.
“Really?”
She raised her hand as if to pull his away, but he caught her wrist and brought her palm to his mouth. He licked the fleshy part below her index finger, inhaling her distinct lavender and feminine scent. At her indrawn breath, doubts of her lack of sexual interest in him scattered. David smiled against her hand with satisfaction.
Soon. If not tonight, there’d be another time when he’d have her spilling her hidden agenda from between those delectable lips.
He lifted his thumb from her inner wrist and brushed his mouth over her rapid pulse. He tasted salt and a possibility of something more. From above her hand, he watched for a reaction as he murmured against the warmth of her skin, “What is it about you that keeps me off balance and ties me in knots? You don’t know how much I want to pull off your clothes and take you here on the floor.”
Skye’s chest rose and fell in quick succession as the color of delicate rose bloomed into her cheeks and melded with the dusting of her freckles. The desire that flared into her eyes hit him in the gut.
David wanted her, wanted her more than he could remember wanting a woman.
His grip on her wrist tightened. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and applied pressure to the small of her back until her body grazed his. The cool cotton of her shirt and shorts brushed against his bare stomach and legs.
He released her wrist and caught her chin between a finger and thumb, urging her to look up and meet the hunger he knew burned in his eyes. “I think you like being this close.”
He didn't wait for an answer. Hell, he knew, she'd come up with an argument if he gave her more than a second. He lowered his head, and the touch of her lips dragged a rattling sigh from his own. The taste of her, warm, female and alluring urged him to take more than a fleeting kiss. He held off. Savoring the moment. The anticipation.



EXCERPT 2

The fear and unease she’d tried to bury resurfaced. Her heartbeat quickened and sweat thickened across her skin, causing her t-shirt to cling tighter against her body. She’d been here before. Skye didn’t have to search her memory. She’d lived, breathed inside these four walls as an orphan.

After passing several doorways, Skye stepped into a room to the right. A floorboard creaked beneath her weight. Broken blinds hindered the sunlight from struggling through a large bay window. A couple of desks, decades old sat like large bull frogs, bulky, brown and weathered. Laughter and tears echoed through the past and into the room, faint but unmistakable memories from Skye’s past.

Other children had lived here and died.

She paused, frowned.

A sound, possibly a footstep, resounded from the hall. She backed up against the wall beside the door. Forcing air in and out of her nose, slowly, quietly, she waited and listened.

Silence.

Cautiously, she re-entered the hall and found it empty, dark and ominous. Moving as quietly as possible, she eased back down the hall from where she’d started. By one doorway, ‘Office’ was stenciled in faded gray across the open door. Sadly even if there were filing cabinets inside, she didn’t think she’d find anything useful inside them. Still...

She slipped inside, past what looked like a waiting room and into an office with three tiers of metal files in the same faded beige as the walls outside. She eased two drawers open and found both empty.

Exactly where would years of records be?

Helplessness gnawed into her stomach. There must be a storage unit somewhere. They couldn’t have all been destroyed, could they?

As the drawer scraped shut, the noise almost masked the rustle of clothing. That and the sigh of someone’s breath alerted her too late. She gasped. A hand roughly clamped over her mouth, locking the breath in her lungs. Before she had a chance to latch onto the drawer handle, the person jerked her backward. Her fingers clutched at air.

Focusing past the panic, she forced her mind on the drawer and stared hard at the cabinet. The drawer flew from the cabinet, rushing past and grazing her shoulder but missing her attacker. Damn it. She couldn’t get to the person behind her without hitting herself.

Trying to bite at the hand across her mouth, she struggled against the steel-like arm around her stomach. A man. His scent of soap and aftershave filled her senses. Skye stiffened in shock.

David whipped her around and pushed her up against the nearest wall, his hand firmly latched over her mouth. The buckle of his belt dug into her stomach. She shivered as the heat of his body scorched through her clothing and into her skin as fear and a sick sense of excitement rushed through her limbs.

“Shhh,” he whispered by her ear, his breath feathering her hair back from her temple. “We’re not alone.”




REVIEW



This was a unique and exciting read. From the very start I was thrown right into the action and that's when I was hooked.

So much mystery surrounded Skye Hunter and her son that I had to know more. The further I read the more questions I had. Who was she? What or who was she running from? Why was she so interested in David? How did Peter tie into the whole thing? Did her Ex-husband have anything to do with the danger she was in? What was the evil lizard creature? And so they kept going.

Skye and David's chemistry was undeniable but I loved that she didn't turn into a puddle every time he was near her. Sure, her thoughts contradicted that last statement, but she held her own and made him work for it; for a while anyway. Skye was an amazing, kickass mother. Hell bent on protecting her son, he acted a bit psycho at times but it was great to have such a strong female MC who was also soft and vulnerable. I was riveted when she went to see her ex. That scene was the real turning point in the story when everything fell apart but also came together at the same time. Skye pushed herself to her limits and was left a little broken by the end of it.

I didn’t completely trust David. He was far too suspicious and it seemed to be more than just a fear of Skye ruining his career. Even though he couldn’t be blamed for the past I had an odd feeling that there was more to his story. Things didn’t add up, especially when certain information came to light about his father, who was one of my favorite characters. Gordon was witty and sarcastic, and I loved his upfront way of dealing with things. I had fun reading the scene in the diner when he first met Skye.  

Of course, like any great mystery, the more you search for answers, the more you think you know, but not everything is as it seems. Towards the end of the book, the many secrets started to unravel, some shocking and so unexpected, others confirming what I had been thinking.

The only thing I would have liked more of from this story was what really happened to the orphans. Although the truth was uncovered, and it tied most of the story together, I still felt like there were a few holes that were left open.

This story has a paranormal element but I think it will be enjoyed by readers of most genres because it has mystery, romance, drama, action and plenty of suspense.

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GIVEAWAY
 
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR


H.D. Thomson moved from Ontario, Canada as a teenager to the heat of Arizona where she graduated from the University of Arizona with a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in accounting. After working in the corporate world as an accountant, H.D. changed her focus to one of her passions-books. She owned and operated an online bookstore for several years and then started Bella Media Management. The company specializes in web sites, video trailers, ebook conversion and promotional resources for authors and small businesses. When she is not heading her company, she is following her first love-writing.












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