Guest Post & Giveaway: Isabo Kelly - BRIGHTARROW BURNING

Hi Everyone. Please help me welcome Isabo Kelly to the blog today! This is the first stop on her Goddess Fish book tour. She is here to promote her novel, Brightarrow Burning. Today she s going to talk about bad guys.

Loving Those Bad Guys

In my latest fantasy romance, BRIGHTARROW BURNING, I managed to include two types of bad guys. The kind we hate with a passion and can’t wait to see them get their own. And the kind we love to hate because we want to see them redeemed in their own book.

The Big Bad Guys (capitals intended!) are the Sorcerers who have invaded my heroine, Layla Brightarrow’s, city. These guys are wicked, in a bad way. They are scary, powerful humans who have used blood, torture and slavery of other humans to augment and strengthen their powers. If they can manage to conquer and subjugate an entire human city, they’ll amass a limitless degree of magic.

As they’ve conquered half of Sinnale when this story starts, they’ve turned a bunch of their slaves into minions, soldiers who are wasting away, rotting form the inside, even as they serve the Sorcerers in trying to overthrow the people they formerly called their friends. Those who aren’t turned into minions are used for blood sacrifice and torture. These guys are not nice and I hope readers will want to see them overthrown as much as I do.

The second antagonist is my hero Ulric’s brother, Althir. He’s one of a number of elves who have sided with the Sorcerers in the war. Up to the point that these elves turned traitor, the elves of the neighboring city, Glengowyn, remained neutral in the conflict, claiming it was a human war. Once some of their own defected, the elves were brought into the war.

Althir is one of the traitors. He went with the other elves to side with the Sorcerers because of the promised power. Not magical power, though there was some element of that promised to them. Primarily, Althir wants influence over others (or so we think in this book—shhh, no spoilers for future books). He’s felt under-estimated and under appreciated for years, despite his many talents, because the elf Court prefers his brother Ulric, the war hero. They ignore that Althir also fought in the same wars, ensures the trading with Sinnale benefits his people, and they dismiss his not inconsiderable charm. His brother, stoic and serious, is a shadow out of which he wants to step, and the Sorcerers provided him with the opportunity he needed.

Ah, Althir. He has a lot to learn. There’s also a lot more to him than meets the eyes. He is an ass. But he’s the kind of ass I will want to write more about. Kind of like Dr. House, you just can’t resist him even at his most rotten. I’m hoping we’ll get to see more of Althir in the future. Without giving anything away, he’s got no idea what he’s in for.

So tell me about some of your other favorite bad guys. Oh, I’ve got another (besides my own *g*), Jayne from Firefly. I adore Jayne. He’s also an ass, and you can’t trust him for a minute, but he’s so much fun. So what about you? Favorite bad guys? What do you like to hate in a bad guy? What makes them irredeemable in your eyes? What makes them interesting enough that you want more of them?

Brightarrow Burning
by Isabo Kelly
Publisher: Samhain Publishing

War tore them apart. Betrayal could bring them together…

Layla Brightarrow’s world fell apart the day the Sorcerers invaded her city, intent on using her fellow humans’ pain to augment their spells. Worse, the neighboring elven kingdom declared neutrality, effectively abandoning her people to struggle for survival. 

Then some of the elves break neutrality to trade with the Sorcerers, and Layla is ordered to assassinate Althir, brother of the elf lord she has secretly loved all her life. 

When Ulric of Glengowyn uncovers his brother’s plot—and that Layla is one of the assassins sent to stop him—his first instinct is to protect her from all possible harm. He’ll even use seduction, if necessary, to get her into a position to talk some sense into her. 

Years of pent-up desire is too much for Layla to resist…and one touch unleashes an unquenchable fire that changes everything. Leaving Layla caught between duty and a love that could be her destruction. Or her salvation. 

Warning: This book contains evil sorcerers, a scarred heroine, a sexy elf hero, naughty language, and an intoxicating and addicting pheromone that leads to wildly hot sex. Plus traitors, deadly magic, bespelled baddies, and a really, really rotten brother.

Excerpt (from Chapter One):

“I knew I’d find you here.”

Layla Brightarrow flicked a glance over her shoulder, then returned her stare to the labyrinth of cobbled streets below. “What do you want, Ulric?”

“I’d like to know when you’re going to stop trying to kill my brother.”

“When he stops luring, capturing and selling my people.” She felt Ulric move up close behind her but refused to flinch. Her every sense, however, focused on his presence, his movements, his breathing. Her muscles instinctively tensed, preparing for action, but she forced her body to relax.

“You know I don’t condone what he’s doing…” Ulric murmured.

“So you’ve said.”

“But this is dangerous. For you.”

She snorted, still refusing to face him. Ulric of Glengowyn was beautiful, sexy, and the man she’d been in love with since she was old enough to understand what those strange feelings in her gut meant whenever she looked at him. He was also an elf, and while he wasn’t exactly an enemy now, he wasn’t an ally either. “Go away, Ulric.”

“No.”

“If you’re so concerned about your brother—”

“I could care less about that traitor, and you know it.”

She turned her head just enough to glance at him from the corner of her eye. “Do I?”

“Don’t play games, Layla. You know I don’t support the traitors.”

She made a vague noise in the back of her throat to keep from giving him a direct reply and looked out over the cityscape again. 

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/brightarrow-burning-p-6480.html

Author Bio -

Isabo Kelly is the award-winning, best-selling author of multiple fantasy, science-fiction and paranormal romances and erotic romances. She regularly publishes articles on the craft of writing and the writer’s life and has taught various workshops on world-building (which she claims is a lot more fun than teaching classes on dissecting insect mouth parts).

Reviewers have called Isabo’s books “Hot, hot, hot…”, “sexy, fun…”, “fast-paced, page turning…” and “Beautifully romantic…Isabo Kelly is one author you should add to your auto buy list.”

Her gypsy soul has taken her around the world, including Hawaii where she got her B.A. and worked with dolphins and Ireland where she got her Ph.D. in animal behavior watching deer. Now she’s a stay-at-home mom and a full time writer living in New York City with her brilliant Irish husband, her son and their mad dog.

For more about Isabo and her books, visit her at www.isabokelly.com. You can also find her on Twitter (http://www.Twitter.com/IsaboKelly) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/IsaboKelly). Or just email her at isabo@isabokelly.com.  She loves to hear from readers.

Links for Isabo Kelly

Website:  http://www.isabokelly.com
Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/IsaboKelly
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IsaboKelly
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/isabokelly

Giveaway:

Isabo will be awarding a $25.00 gift card to Amazon or Barnes and Noble to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. The more comments you leave the better your chances of winning.

To Enter:

Leave a comment answering Isabo's question about bad guys and include your email address.

Be sure to visit the other blogs on this tour. Click on the tour button below for a list of participating blogs. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.