Sunday, June 24, 2012

Promo Monday with Karenna Colcroft AND A GIVEAWAY!!

Fated to be Mated

There’s a trope in romance that I’ve seen referred to as “fated to be mated.” It’s most prevalent in paranormal romance, of course, but it sometimes shows up in other romance genres as well. It’s when one person (vampire, werewolf, whatever) sees the other and knows instantly that they’re meant to be
together, they can’t live without the other person, they are mates. For life, however long that might be for the paranormal creature involved, if there is one.

Fated to be mated can be amusing sometimes. There have been stories where characters who are complete opposites and can barely stand each other turn out to be mates. Sometimes that’s played for laughs; sometimes the characters end up falling in love in spite of themselves.
Since I write paranormal romance involving werewolves, among other things, I use the fated to be mated trope. In my universe, werewolves can love anyone, but each werewolf has one other wolf in the world who is destined to be their mate. Sometimes they’re fortunate enough to find each other; sometimes the pairing makes no sense when they do come together. And sometimes they never find that mate.
In my novel Beta Test, which came out June 16 from Passion in Print Press, Justin Ruel is a no-nonsense pack Beta who isn’t sure he’ll ever find his mate. When he does find her, on the Boston subway, he’s astonished to realize she’s human. Werewolves are not supposed to have human mates, though it happens occasionally. Justin is afraid for Tareth’s safety; Tareth, when she learns the truth about Justin, is afraid he’s insane. Will the mating bond—or their love—be enough to keep them together?
This coming Saturday is my birthday, so I’m celebrating all week with guest blog appearances and gifts for my readers. Comment here to be entered in a prize drawing; one name will be drawn to receive an autographed print copy of Beta Test (U.S. and Canada only, I’m afraid) or a PDF copy of the book if you’re in another country. Another winner will receive a deck of Ellora’s Cave playing cards, featuring book covers and the Ellora’s Cavemen, and three others will receive a pair of romance trading cards featuring Kyle Slidell and Tobias Rogan from my M/M romance series Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat. (No mailing restrictions on the cards.)
And for those who doubt “fated to be mated” exists in real life: My husband and I have been together literally since five minutes after we met, four years ago. We looked into each other’s eyes while introducing ourselves, and that was it. If we weren’t fated to be mated, I don’t know what else to call it.
Find out more about Karenna Colcroft and her books on her website, http://www.karennacolcroft.com, or hang out and chat with her on her Facebook group, http://www.facebook.com/groups/261093317316839/. Beta Test can be purchased from the publisher, http://passioninprint.com/ShowBook.php?10=KC_BETATEST, or on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, or AllRomance Ebooks.

EXCERPT from Beta Test:
As they walked out of the subway station, Justin fought the urge to hold Tareth’s hand. Eventually, he might earn her trust enough to be able to touch her. Right then, she didn’t know him well enough.
She wouldn’t understand why he felt such a strong need. Even if he got to know her better, he wasn’t sure he’d dare to tell her he thought she was his mate. She was human. Humans weren’t supposed to know about werewolves.
At least he’d talked her into going for coffee. He’d watched her on the subway for a few weeks now. The first time he’d seen her, he’d been drawn to her. His intense reaction had kept him from speaking to her beyond small talk until today. He’d been too worried about scaring her off. Seeing her standing alone this morning, he hadn’t been able to resist saying something to her. Especially since she’d looked like she wanted to cry when the announcement had come that the train would be delayed.
He’d thought she actually would cry when her boss fired her. He’d been completely serious when he’d offered to try to persuade her boss to rehire her. If he’d been able to do anything at all to help her, he would have. The only thing he could think of to do was offer to pay her bills until she found a new job.
That, too, would cross boundaries he didn’t want to cross yet.
“Which shop do you want to go to?” he asked, nodding toward the two coffee shops on opposite corners.
“They’re multiplying.” Tareth looked from one to the other. “Does it really matter?”
It did to Justin. He wanted to make her happy, as strange as it seemed to feel that way about a woman he didn’t know. He hadn’t even known her name until that morning. He’d heard about things like this happening to other people. Love at first sight, some weird connection, whatever. His friend Ludovic had claimed he’d felt something like that when he’d met his mate.
She’s human. No way in hell she’s my mate.
For a little while, at least, he could pretend she was. He could take her to coffee and let himself believe he might have a future with her. The kind of future he might have had if a fucking werewolf hadn’t attacked him one night during his senior year at Boston University.
He’d been planning to be a lawyer and marry Sharon, the woman he’d been dating for two years. Instead, he did legal research for the City Pack, the largest werewolf pack in New England. He was on the payroll of the company owned by his alpha, and as the beta of the pack he had his choice from among the unmated females.
He hadn’t wanted any of them since the day he’d first seen Tareth.

5 comments:

  1. I absolutely love stories like this. The thought of two people fallin in love at first sight and them not even being the same is just magical. I do think in the real world there may be people who are meant to be together it is just often hard for them to find each other. Sounds like a wonderful read. ~~~Rhonda Lynne

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    1. Thanks, Rhonda. I must agree, I also think that it is real for some people as well. Just like Karenna, my fiance and I have been together since the day we met. Many people doubt that you can just know when somethin will last, but it's true, you can just know these things. Too many people these days shut out their instincts and don't listen to our subconscious.
      Ok I'm goin to stop there before I get too in depth on the whole spirituality vs technoloy thing! Hahaha thanks for stopping by, Rhonda, pleased to see Blogger finally let you join in!

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  2. Thanks for hosting me, Casey! And thanks for the comment, Rhonda. Given how I met my husband, I definitely agree.

    By the way, I forgot to say in the post... The contest will be open until Saturday (my birthday) at noon Eastern, so anyone who comments before then will be entered.

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  3. Rhonda and Casey, you both win... Please contact me at karennac@hotmail.com with your mailing address--let me know if you want the M/M trading cards or the Ellora's Cave cards, or both--and Rhonda, you get a copy of Beta Test, just let me know if you are in the US or Canada for a print copy or if you'd rather have the PDF.

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  4. Ooooh that's awesome! Will let Rhonda know as well and I'll be forwarding my address to you. Thank you for coming on The Naughty Pages, sorry there weren't more comments!

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