Welcome Caridad Pineiro!

Today, I'm thrilled to welcome the amazing Caridad Pineiro to the party! She has a brilliant excerpt lined up for us, but first, here she is on the subject of her fascinating kick-ass heroines... Welcome, Caridad!

I was the kind of girl who preferred playing with G.I. Joes to Barbies.  I just loved the thought of action and being able to save the day.

Small wonder that when I turned my hand to writing, the one thing that would be a common thread through all my books was strong powerful women.  Women who were able to save themselves and oftentimes, the hero as well, but in a variety of different ways.

Sometimes it’s physically, like in THE CLAIMED where Victoria helps watch Christopher’s back as he battles his Shadow Hunter clan in order to forge a new and better way of life for his people

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Sometimes it’s emotionally as my strong-willed heroine and her equally determined hero find a way to become equal partners in a committed relationship.  That’s what happened in THE LOST, as Bobbie Carrera not only finds a new role in life after coming back wounded from Iraq, but also finds a man who needs love, family and an identity he never had before.

But what I love the most is when I get a mix of both of those in storyline, like in THE CALLING vampire novel series, which will be REBORN in February 2013 with BORN TO SERVE.  In this series of my heart, I have a kick ass heroine, FBI Agent Diana Reyes, who saves the vampire hero, Ryder Latimer, from certain death and from a lonely and loveless existence.  In turn, Diana is saved as well, both physically and emotionally from entering into a partnership with her sometimes over-protective vampire lover.

That battle between the need for the heroine to protect others and her reluctance to be protected is one that I love to explore and is at the heart of the kick-ass heroine.  The barriers that these kick-ass heroines put up around themselves to appear strong are the kind that I love to break down to explore them and to hopefully allow them to grow.  I love that moment of discovery when they realize that true strength comes from within and can be achieved even in a moment of weakness.

I love challenging my kick ass heroines that way, as well as physically.  I just love a good fight scene and lots of action and adventure.  And I love the calm after the storm and the peaceful and loving moments that happen when death has been overcome and it’s time to celebrate life.

Now that I’ve told you what I love about kick-ass heroines, what do you love (or hate) about them?

THE CLAIMED

Available May 2012 

ISBN 0446584606

GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING 

The second book in the exciting new SIN HUNTERS paranormal romance series 

RT Book Reviews - 4 Stars: "Second in the Sin Hunters series, The Claimed will not disappoint fans new or old. The Light Hunters and Shadow Hunters are mortal enemies and this paranormal Romeo and Juliet romance with an edge will keep readers intrigued. Just like her characters, Pineiro's books are smart, sensual and irresistible."

Alternative Worlds: "The second Sin Hunters romantic urban fantasy is a terrific tale of forbidden love between beloved enemies. The cast is fully developed whether they are Victoria's BFFs or clan members, but especially the protagonists. Fast-paced, Caridad Pineiro provides a wonderful west side of the Hudson paranormal romance."

Single Titles.com - "The love story in THE CLAIMED is enchantingly romantic, while the paranormal aspects are particularly creative .... Caridad Pineiro masterfully creates innovative paranormal worlds. The supernatural characters in the Sin Hunters series are extremely distinctive in their inherited skills, and how they use their natural abilities is cleverly shown in THE CLAIMED ... THE CLAIMED is imaginative paranormal at its best, where the characters are genuine with affecting emotions."

Paranormal Romance Guild - 5 Stars - "Ms. Pineiro the story has everything you could want in a love story and More. We have lovers, villains, treachery, pain, bloodshed and perhaps towards the end another love story in the making???? ... .You have left me breathless!" 

Victoria Johnson loves her life. She's her own boss in a quaint beachside town, and has great friends who keep her grounded. If only they knew who she really is: an heiress to an ancient race who possesses astonishing superhuman powers. It's Victoria's duty to restore her clan of Light Hunters to their former glory by choosing the perfect mate. In Christopher Sombrosa, she just may have found him. Strong, smart, and successful, Christopher exudes a powerful energy. Their connection is sensual, irresistible ­and forbidden.

A member of the Shadow Hunter clan, Christopher has defied his own father to lead his people away from affliction and violence. Yet he cannot ignore his duty to carry on his ancient bloodline. Stunningly beautiful and brimming with an erotic life force, Victoria is everything Christopher ever hoped for in a mate ... but as a Light Hunter, she's his mortal enemy. Together, they could unite their warring tribes. But murderous factions on both sides don't want peace-and they'll stop at nothing to keep light and darkness apart forever ...

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Victoria tugged on Christopher’s hand as they stepped into the early summer air, drawing him away from the auditorium and over to a nearby gazebo where they could have a private discussion. Where their hands touched, there was no denying the flow of power, passing between the two of them in a perfect and untainted circuit.

Once they were within the protection of the gazebo, she dropped his hand and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to contain her energy and restore some kind of balance.

“I don’t understand,” she began, still unsure of what he had mentioned earlier. “Why does your father want Adam?”

“Salvatore told him Adam had great power and my father is all about the power,” he responded, no hint of evasion in his voice.

“Speaking of power, how is it possible that our life forces are so similar? You’re a Shadow,” she said, pacing back and forth in the small space.

Christopher dragged shaky hands through the thick locks of his dark wavy hair and blew out a long breath. “I don’t know, why, except . . . my affinity is water.”

“As is mine,” she confessed, imagining that was one reason for the synchronicity of their energies.

“We were once the same people. Before the pox and contamination. We are not all that different,” he urged.

Victoria could not accept such a bald-faced statement. There was very little that was similar between the warlike Shadows and her people.

“Why does your father want Adam?” she pressed yet again.

He shrugged those impossibly broad shoulders, and beneath the fabric of his dress shirt, powerful muscles rippled with the action. “Why else? He wants to suck him dry of every bit of energy.”

“And you don’t?” Victoria immediately challenged, standing directly before him, but in a defensive stance, legs slightly apart and her hands at her sides, where, if need be, she could release an energy blast to protect herself.

He mimicked her posture, but there was something almost relaxed about him. Especially as he approached until he stood barely an inch from her and the thrum of his power became one with hers, creating that circuit once more without even touching her. The energy was so in tune with hers, an almost audible tone sang in the silence of the night.

“If I wanted to take you, don’t you think I would have already?” It was impossible to miss the double entendre behind his words.

“Do you think I am that easy?” she asked, and took hold of his hands, releasing a wave of energy from deep within that had him shaking beside her with want. But her display backfired as the power surged back through the circuit between them and into her.

She stifled a moan as desire slammed into her. When she attempted to break away, he held her fast with a gentle grip. As their gazes connected, the slow rise of fluorescent light in his eyes mimicked the revelation of his real life energy.

His dark, nearly black eyes grew a startling shade of teal, and his aura, unlike the muddied energies of other Shadow Hunters, was a clear crystalline sapphire. It was as pure as her life force, which awoke in response, acknowledging the similarity of their vitality, making it impossible to tamp down the need that weakened her physically and stole her resolve with each passing second. But as he drew near, leaving not a millimeter of space between their bodies, she realized she was not alone in her insanity.

Christopher raised his hand and, with his index finger, traced the line of her cheek, leaving a trail of warmth and excited energy everywhere he touched. Then he dipped that finger lower, along the edges of her lips, before an almost playful swipe across her chin.

But then he went farther, skipping down the long line of her neck to the swell of her breasts, exposed by the scoop neck of the gauzy summer blouse she wore. In response, her nipples tightened, and as he circled the tight peak with just that one finger, her insides clenched and she could no longer just stand there.

She slipped her hand between them and to his rock-hard midsection. Running the back of her hand all across those lean muscles, she moved farther up to a spot directly above his heart. With one blast there she could take him down, but instead she splayed her palm across that spot and experienced the surge of his energy, sympathetic and strong.

He moaned and his erection jumped against her belly, yanking a pleased smile to her face before she shifted her hand over and covered the swell of his chest. The hard button of his nipple pressed against the palm of her hand and she mimicked his actions, tweaking that tight bud.

Over and over they touched, caught up in something bigger than themselves. In something almost primordial, as the true essence of their beings, unique and yet similar, stirred the Equinox tucked deep inside both of them.

Victoria sensed the tendrils of his energy seeking hers, wrapping around the core of her Hunter vitality for a more lasting binding, but she retreated, stumbling away from him, thanks to the force necessary to break the connection and the weakness in her knees.

He would have reached for her again, but she whipped her hand up to stay his motion. He jerked to a halt, his eyes glittering in the night, the sapphire of his aura and silver-blue threads in its field gleaming as bright and clean as a newly minted coin.

“This is not possible,” she said, fearful of what had almost happened. That she had nearly started to bond with a Shadow, because if she had not pulled away, she would have made love to him right there in that gazebo.

“I didn’t think it possible either—for Light and Shadow to share so common an affinity. But I don’t have much time to wait. Unlike you, whose Equinox has only just awakened, I have been delaying mine for some time.”

When she had asked her parents to choose her own mate, she had never imagined that it would be the call of a Shadow that would tempt her. Shaking her head, she laid her hand over her stomach to stop the flutters in her midsection, needing calm before she returned to the hall and faced her family and the other Light Hunters gathered there.

She wasn’t sure what she should do about Christopher. The presence of his people here was a danger to her clan, but so far they had done nothing to cause concern.

But he was a definite danger to her on many levels, and her attraction to him was . . . insane. Until she knew more about him, she needed distance, and she started by taking another step back from him.

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CLICK TO ORDER:

Also available as an E-Book!

Copyright 2012 Caridad Pineiro Scordato All Rights Reserved

For more information, please visit www.caridad.com

Today Caridad is giving away a collection of her Nocturne Cravings e-novellas, namely, NOCTURNAL WHISPERS, THE VAMPIRE’S CONSORT and AMAZON AWAKENING. To enter the drawing, answer her question above: Now that I’ve told you what I love about kick-ass heroines, what do you love (or hate) about them? The contest will close at midnight tonight and the winner will be announed tomorrow on this thread.