Guest Post & Giveaway with Regan Summers

BP Note: We are lucky today to have Regan Summers visiting us in honor of her newest release Falling From the Light and sponsoring a giveaway. Details are at the end of the guest post. E is a huge fan of Summer’s Night Runner series so she was very excited to hear about this release. Her review will be up next Monday so make sure you stop by to see what she thought.

I like big, dramatic Show Me declarations of love. Romance is full of them. Paranormal romance takes them to a soaring level. You hear drums pounding while you’re reading these scenes, see the world flood red as someone’s love is realized. (A lot of these moments are also really freaking violent, I’ve noticed.) Personally, I’ve never had someone say they love me then like decapitate some Earth-crushing monster as punctuation. I’m sure I’d find it adorable. Lately, however, I’ve been looking for a different show of love. A quieter declaration.

The most piercingly romantic stories, the ones that have really stuck with me, are the ones where the lovers aren’t massive warriors wielding unstoppable swords or preternaturally smart scientists laboring day and night to stop the disease that killed everyone it has ever touched and is now creeping through their other half.

I love O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi”. Jim and Della aren’t immortal. They aren’t tortured warriors or the greatest beauties of their generation. They’re barely scraping by. It’s Christmastime and they want to show their love to each other. I’m sure you know the story. They have only two things – Della has this lovely long hair and Jim has an heirloom pocket watch. She sells her hair to buy him a chain for the watch. He sells the watch to buy her pretty combs. I sat in my sixth grade reading class weeping onto my desk. Wait, what?

It took me a long time to figure out why I love this story. It’s not just the sacrifice. Stories of sacrifice tend to irritate me because they’re usually meant to be lessons and the characters are flat representations. You can empathize with Jim and Della. You know they’re staring at the calendar and into their pocketbooks in the days leading up to Christmas. You can feel the desperation welling up inside them, the need to do something for the other. But what can they do? They’re constrained. These are normal people. They can’t march out and buy a matching pair of red Mercedes to surprise each other on Christmas morning. (Do those commercials bother me? No, not at all. They’re fabulous.) They can only give up something they hold precious because their lover is more precious. There’s nothing possessive about their love.

In the Night Runner series, Sydney Kildare is a human in the vampire underworld and Malcolm Kelly is a vampire in a reduced station. (Do you like that description? “Reduced Station.” Very Jane Austen.) They’re constrained. They can’t eradicate the people who make their lives hell bother them and they can’t leave a bad situation. Sometimes bad things happen to people in love. And sometimes love becomes the one thing twists perspective around and makes all the bad things seem insignificant.

I won’t spoil Falling from the Light. But I will say that, if I’d written “The Gift of the Magi”, Jim and Dell would have bought a lottery ticket with their hair and heirloom money and end up loving each other in a nice warm house. I like quiet declarations, but I also like big rewards.

***

Blurb

Phoenix, AZ

All Sydney Kildare wants is a minute in the slow lane, some time to decide where she’s going with her vampire lover, Malcolm Kelly. But after sitting out the last battle, the powerful Master Bronson is giving orders again, and he isn’t above blackmailing his former courier to get what he wants.

With Mal sent to track a vicious killer, Syd is forced to infiltrate a pharmaceutical company responsible for a drug that turns vampires into real monsters. She’s unprepared and alone, but fiercely determined. If her investigation doesn’t satisfy the Master, Malcolm will pay the price. A wrong turn throws her into the middle of a vampire power play. Caught between twisting forces, with their freedom at stake, she’ll have to decide what’s more important: love, power or revenge. But choosing what feels right might turn out all wrong.
94,000 words

Buy it here: Kindle iTunes Nook Kobo

***

About the Author

Regan Summers is the author of the romantic urban fantasy Night Runner series. As a native Alaskan, she’s used to long, cold nights but thinks they’re better with a helping of sexy vampires. Don’t Bite the Messenger, the first in the series, was a finalist for the 2013 EPIC eBook Awards in the paranormal category.

Find her here: Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook | Newsletter

BP NOTE: Regan Summers is providing two winners a digital copy of their Night Runner installment of choice. Open internationally. Winner will be announced Wed 10 Dec. To enter leave a comment about your favorite quite declaration or big reward. Good luck!