Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Cool Aussie authors

April is Aussie Author Month in celebration of AU/NZ authors of popular fiction.

Participating sites are BookThingo, A Writer Goes On A Journey, Fangtastic Books and Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, along with any Aussie authors and readers who want to have a go.

Seeing as the month's' half gone, I guess I'd better step up... here are a couple of cool books by Aussie authors that I've read and enjoyed this month.

Thief of Light by Denise Rossetti, second in the Four-Sided Pentacle fantasy/erotic romance series.

Denise is the author of the delightfully erotic Strongman (m/m) and The Gift of the Goddess (f/m/m) from Ellora's Cave, and The Flame and the Shadow from Berkley Sensation, which features (among other things) a menage/romance between a guy, a girl, and the guy's shadow. I shit you not.

Denise writes wonderfully realised fantasy, emotional romance and luscious eroticism. Her heroes are tough and sexy and real men without being assholes, and her fantasy heroines aren't wusses, but they're not leather-clad tramp-stamp bitches with annoyingly snarky mouths, either. Real people in fantasy, oyy.

The hero in this book is an opera singer, and he has a magical Voice that compels people to do his bidding, but he's sworn never to use it to control anyone, since once he gave a careless order and someone died. But he can't resist the challenge when the heroine seems to be the only one who's immune to his musical charms. It's fantastical, sweet and sexy. Check it out.


Endless Lust by Lexxie Couper, second in the Seven Deadly Daemons series.

Lexxie writes erotic romance for Ellora's Cave and others. Endless Lust is the lead novel-length title for EC's new Shivers line of erotic horror. And erotic horror is just what it is.

This is a spooky book about a woman who's visited by a persistent and deliciously violent ghostly lover she can't see. He gives her intense pleasure, but she's terrified -- who is he, and what does he want from her? And does her dark and sexy new colleague at work have anything to do with it? It's erotic and creepy and cool. It has stalkers and black magic and hot sex with an invisible dude. And it's a romance!

Next on my list of Aussie reads is Death's Sweet Embrace by Tracey O'Hara, book 2 in her Dark Brethren UF series. It has heart-eating serial killers and a snow-leopard shifter heroine. Also Power Unbound by Nicole Murphy, second in her Dream of Asarlai contemporary fantasy/romance series, about a secret society of magical beings who are hunting down their stolen sacred texts.




Oh, and in other news: I'm going to RWA national in New York! Apparently being half the world away wasn't a good enough excuse not to come. Hope to catch up with you all there.