Happy Friday!

I am brimming over with news about the Salt Planet Giants series that I can’t tell you yet, so…I don’t know what to say except stay tuned! May is going to be a busy month, and not just because it's my birth month! Yep, I'm a Taurus, which...explains some things. 😂😂😂

Speaking of busy, I am working hard on Seduced by Starlight, although I have not yet tackled the dreaded task of writing the blurb. Oops. I guess that’s my weekend project.

Though the writing is, as always, going slower than I'd like, I've already fallen madly in love with these characters...the king who hides his heart behind a pleasure-seeking playboy image. The human woman he has stowed away in his palace because she's hiding from everyone and everything. The fact that she's pregnant with a baby that isn't his, and he has no idea. Eeeeeee.

NEW CHARACTER ART

I doodled some new art for The Ballast’s Bride. If you’ve been following me on socials, you may have seen it already, but in case you missed it…here’s Hinri and Mimma in the scene when he carries her down to the docks to board a ship that will take her to meet her groom-to-be. They’re both working up the courage to say goodbye, knowing these are the last moments they’ll spend together. Their mutual despair is heartwrenching, and their inability to part is what sets the whole story in motion.

I might have exaggerated the size difference a little too much. Or maybe not...

Excerpt from Chapter 6 of The Ballast's Bride

She was quiet at first, rocking gently in the hollow of his clavicle, and he breathed deep, memorizing her scent, honey and earth. Then she shifted, leaning close to his ear. She tugged the lobe like a reprimand. “I’ll never forget you, Hinri. It may not have meant as much to you, but I didn’t know what friendship was until I met you, and I’m grateful for it. For you.”

Didn’t mean as much to him? Corek, what was happening? “It meant everything to me.”

“I’ll miss you,” she said, sliding her hand along his tight jaw until it rested on the root of his tusk. “I’ll think of you every day when I wake and every night as I fall asleep. How good you were to me. How patient and kind. How steady and brave and strong.”

They were empty words. She meant them now, but once she married, she would forget him. “You will have your husband to fill your thoughts. New friends. Pretty things.”

 “None of them will replace you. Even if—” She broke off and drew a great, shuddering breath before continuing. “Even if my husband is cruel, I will have you in my heart as a comfort, and I thank you for that.”

His grip on her trunk faltered, and its contents chimed inside it as he righted it. This was torture, and he needed to end it. He desperately lengthened his strides.

“I hope you do not think of me,” he grit out.

“How can you say that?” Her words were salted with the scent of tears.

“Because I want you to have fields of flowers to flit between, so many that they fill your days. And at night, I want your husband to lick you senseless and drive all thoughts out of your head.”

“Hinri!” she gasped, and he felt her thighs clench against his shoulder plates.

“What do you mean? I haven’t—I don’t—what?”

“I’m not sure whether Nightborn treat their females this way,” he barreled on, heat building behind his rocky plates at the admission. “I only know Skarr ways, but I know you would enjoy it, so I hope they do.”

 “Why are you talking like this?” she squeaked.

 “Because I hope you will be so loved that I never cross your mind.” His heart felt bare and burning, and part of him was sorry he’d said anything at all. “It’s the only way I can say goodbye to you, Mimma. Believing that you’ll be loved. If I thought you were walking into cruelty—even indifference—I couldn’t let you board that ship.”

Read it here >> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BJC816N3

DEALS FROM OTHER AUTHORS

Like stoic alien warriors, thirsty human heroines, and cute alien puppies? Possessed by the Alien Prince by Krista Luna is 99c in the US and 99p in the UK, this weekend only! And of course it's free to read in Kindle Unlimited if you're a subscriber. Grab it here! >> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N4YVRDS

LAST CHANCE GIVEAWAYS

My paperback giveaway is still open through April 30. Win a signed copy of one of my Salt Planet paperbacks…there are lots of easy ways to enter (including a daily free entry)! ENTER HERE >>

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Sci-Fi & Fantasy Romance Giveaway!

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Have a great weekend!

Love,

Sara

www.linktr.ee/saraivyhill