Fabulous and Brunette: #NicoleSallakAnderson

Showing posts with label #NicoleSallakAnderson. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2022

It Takes Two by Nicole Sallak Anderson - Blurb Blitz - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hey, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Nicole Sallak Anderson and her new book, “It Takes Two,” here on FAB!! For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Nicole and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of good luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

It Takes Two

by Nicole Sallak Anderson

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

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BOOK BLURB:

Twenty years ago, Willow Dwyer nearly died in a school shooting that stole the life of her true love, James. Now she’s forty, infertile, newly divorced from a man who refuses to leave her alone, and on the brink of a breakdown.

Even after all this time, she still finds herself unable to move forward from the dream of a life and family she lost that day of the shooting. At the suggestion of her therapist, Willow takes up the tango, the dance she’d mastered with James before his death. It seems an innocent enough plan, until Willow dances with Merrick Montagne.

Merrick is a strikingly handsome, twenty-year-old college student with an uncanny ability for the tango. He makes her heart race for the first time in she can’t remember how long, and the strangest thing is, he claims he’s been searching for her his entire life. Willow doesn’t know if she believes him, or if she can handle the scrutiny she’s sure to get for dating someone so much younger than her. Yet no matter how hard she tries, she just can’t seem to walk away. When revelations begin to connect Merrick even further to her past, Willow must decide how much she’s willing to risk for a love that should be impossible, a love she’s not sure she could survive losing again.

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EXCERPT TWO:

“Dance again?”

Willow wanted nothing more. Within moments, she was again near his chest and breathing in his scent, lost in the beauty of this younger man. Triplet after triplet, he refused to let her go. Soon he was leading her in a familiar sequence of steps, reminding her of the last dance she’d choreographed with James.

The room grew smaller, her desire changing into the short breaths she knew signaled a panic attack.

Stop, she said to herself, recalling her therapist’s word for this—transference. He reminds you of James because he’s young, has blue eyes, and is a god on the dance floor.

Yet the moves were too familiar, sequences she’d practiced over and over with James in college. The tango had been their favorite form of foreplay, but they’d also performed in college, and both she and James had been competitive in their own way.

Stop. James is dead.

She was losing the battle with her mind. The young man in her arms embraced her even closer, his fingers entwined with hers in her right hand, his own right hand cupping lower on her back, drawing her closer to his chest.

“Willow, it’s so good to see you again,” he said into her neck.

Chills ran up and down her body as she considered her options. It was a crazy thought—she’d been at the milonga only a few hours and hadn’t had a one-night stand in a long time. But damn, she might have a chance here. She was in need on so many levels, and Merrick fit the bill.

“You have anywhere you need to be tonight, young man?” she asked.

He leaned into her face, his lips millimeters from hers. His breath was hot on her cheek, and she swallowed back her desire.

“The reason I’m here is to meet you,” he said as he leaned in for a kiss.

At once, Willow felt as if she were both a nebula at the edge of the universe and the specks of dust in the room, and every bit of matter in between, experiencing a timelessness she’d never known before. No one had ever kissed her this way, or had they? What had just happened? One minute, she was dancing the tango to get over her traumatic past; the next, she was kissing the most beautiful creature on earth.

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AUTHOR BIO & LINKS:

Nicole Sallak Anderson is Computer Science graduate from Purdue University, and former CTO for a small Silicon Valley startup, turned novelist, speaker, and blogger. Her essays range from AI and Zen to direct democracy to the loneliness of modern parenting— featured as a top twenty story on Medium. She is the author of The Song of the King’s Heart Trilogy, is a series about the last native Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt and his quest to take back his ancestral kingdom from the Ptolemaic Empire. All three installments, Origins, Blood and Chaos, and Civilization’s End, are available on Amazon. Origins is also available on Audible.

Her recent novel, It Takes Two, is about forty-year-old Willow Dwyer, who takes up the tango and finds herself dancing in the arms of Merrick Montagne, a man half her age who claims he’s been searching for her all his life.

You can keep up with all her latest writing on her website nicolesallakanderson.com or by following @NSallakAnderson on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Medium. Feel free to contact her, she always answers any query or comment!

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CONNECT WITH NICOLE:

Website:

https://nicolesallakanderson.com

Blog:

https://nicolesallakanderson.com/blog

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/NSallakAnderson

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/NSallakAnderson

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/nsallakanderson

Medium:

https://nsallakanderson.medium.com

BookBub Author Page:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/nicole-sallak-anderson

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/720916.Nicole_Sallak_Anderson

Amazon Author Page:

https://amzn.to/34D7Gnh

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AMAZON BOOK BUY LINKS:

Amazon US Kindle eBook:

https://amzn.to/3JnwD4H

Amazon US Paperback:

https://amzn.to/33kdNME

Amazon CA Kindle eBook:

https://www.amazon.ca/Takes-Two-Nicole-Sallak-Anderson-ebook/dp/B09R16JT8Q

Amazon CA Paperback:

https://www.amazon.ca/Takes-Two-Nicole-Sallak-Anderson/dp/B09RM4DR5H

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Nicole will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card (Winner’s Choice!!!) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those fabulous community outreach projects and awesome giveaways on here**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Origins by Nicole Sallak Anderson - Book One of The Song of the King's Heart Trilogy - Book Tour - Book Sale - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi, lovelies!! It gives me great pleasure today to host Nicole Sallak Anderson and her new Book Series “The Song of the King’s Heart Trilogy,” here on FAB!! While Nicole’s Book Series consists of THREE books, today’s post will focus solely on Book One, “Origins.” For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour and to check out the other TWO featured books in this exciting trilogy, please click on the banner above or any of the images in this post.

Please note that all tour hosts participating in this event will be featuring only one book in the series as the tour has been split into three groups to properly showcase the book series. The specific book that each host will be featuring will be based on the following schedule: Book One, “Origins,” runs July 20^th – August 19^th; Book Two, “Blood and Chaos,” runs August 24^th – September 23^rd; and Book Three, “Civilization’s End,” runs September 28^th – October 28^th. The entire book tour event and giveaway is live from July 20^th – October 28^th, but each book in the series is only highlighted over a specific time frame.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!!! Also, come back daily to interact with Nicole and to increase your chances of winning!!

Thanks for stopping by!! Wishing you all lots of luck in this fabulous giveaway!!

Origins

The Song of the King’s Heart Trilogy

Book One

by Nicole Sallak Anderson

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GENRE: Historical Fantasy

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BOOK BLURB:

This is the lost story of Lord Ankhwenefer, known to the Greeks as Chaonnophris the Rebel, the last native Egyptian Pharaoh. The brilliance and heartache of his rebellion weave a tale that history has forgotten.

Until now.

In the year 205 B.C., after centuries of Persian and Macedonian occupation, a rebel king rises from the south to take ancient Egypt back unto native hands. He will battle the Ptolemy line for twenty years, and rule almost eighty percent of Egypt, yet in the end, history will never mention his name.

Born Prince Ankhmakis, the last in a line of native Egyptian kings, he is raised with one purpose—to help his father reclaim Egypt from the Macedonian occupiers and return their country to dynastic greatness. Fate, however, has its own plans. For lies and deceit live in the hearts of all involved, from his family to the priesthood, and the Greeks aren’t the only ones who seek to destroy him.

Natasa is in training to become the High Priestess of the temple of Isis. Her task is to strengthen the royal family with the magic of the goddess through love and pleasure. She never thought the connection between her and Ankhmakis could be so strong, or carry a power coveted by those lurking in the shadows. Nor did she know that the child they would create would have her own great destiny to fulfill.

Together, Ankhmakis and Natasa must defend the potential of their love from those who would seek to use it for their own gain. Theirs is a world of magic, power, riches, and lust, and there are those within the court who would do anything to keep Ankhmakis and Natasa apart. Between mystical forces, murder, and illicit schemes--only the gods know if they’ll survive.

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EXCERPT ONE:

Before sunrise on the final morning of their journey, Natasa woke to the sound of gentle music. She slipped away from her snoring father, who was, of course, sleeping beside her and made her way up to the deck. There she found Iu-Amon standing in the shadows. He was watching Ankhmakis, who stood at the bow playing his pandura, unaware he had an audience. Natasa smiled at how beautiful and noble the prince looked, singing to the rising Sun God, Ra.

“What’s he doing?” she asked Iu-Amon.

“He’s played this song every morning since Alexandria,” Iu-Amon whispered.

“It’s beautiful,” she sighed.

The sky turned purple, and streaks of pink and gold paled the horizon.

“Why does he do it?”

“Well,” Iu-Amon said, smiling as bright as Ra himself, “it’s been my experience that only one thing compels a young man to sing to the sunrise.”

“What?” she asked.

“I think the prince is in love.”

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GUEST POST:

Exploring Ankhmakis’s Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt is perhaps one of the most mysterious eras. Much has been written online about it, and when I began to research Ankhmakis’s and Natasa’s world, I found as much oddity as I did wonder. Most stories about this time period that we see on the screen tend to have a few key elements; pyramids, Cleopatra, deadly booby traps, curses, and mummies. Few, however, bring to life the beauty and majesty of the age. The ancient Egyptians were monument builders, creating tombs and temples never matched again in any era until the gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. They were also innovative farmers, creating irrigation systems in synchronicity with the Nile River that would channel the floods of the Inundation inland, where the trapped waters would create the rich, dark, silt used for farming in the spring when they receded. They had a complex religious life, where the higher gods and goddesses such as Isis and Osiris were worshipped alongside local deities in each of the forty-two nomes of the kingdom, creating a rich pantheon of myths, legends, and poetry. Through their complex burial and mummification practices, ancient Egyptians understood the interior organs of the body and created a medical system that was vastly superior to the empires that surrounded them, so much so that Herodotus, the father of Greek history, wrote in the forth century BCE of their miraculous healing abilities. Most people don’t know that the most famous of the pharaohs, Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last pharaoh to rule before the empire fell to the Romans, wasn’t Egyptian. She was the final ruler in a long line of Macedonian kings, the Ptolemys, who inherited the empire when Alexander the Great died in 323 BCE. The Song of the King’s Heart trilogy is the story of the native nobles and their quest to take back their lands from the Macedonian invaders during the Great Egyptian Revolt of 200 BCE. Ankhmakis was the last of the native kings to wear the crown in Thebes before his arrest in 186 BCE and the dream of Egypt in the hands of her people was forever lost.

The people of the Nile River created a culture that survived in perpetuity for over three millennia. No other kingdom has managed such a feat. It’s no wonder then, that they continue to inspire and captivate the human imagination long after their last native pharaoh took his final breath. It is a timeframe often neglected in historical fiction, but one I have enjoyed living in the past six years as I’ve written and published The Song of the King’s Heart trilogy.

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AUTHOR BIO & LINKS:

Nicole Sallak Anderson is Computer Science graduate from Purdue University, and former CTO for a small Silicon Valley startup, turned novelist, speaker, and blogger, focusing on the intersection of technology and consciousness. Her essays range from AI and Zen to direct democracy to the loneliness of modern parenting (https://medium.com/@NSallakAnderson/pretty-birds-in-pretty-cages-could-the-nuclear-family-be-the-reason-were-all-miserable-46126d573263) — featured as a top twenty story on Medium. In addition, her work on Universal Basic Income has been included on 2020 presidential candidate, Andrew Yang’s, website: https://www.yang2020.com/policies/the-freedom-dividend.

Her latest project, The Song of the King’s Heart Trilogy, is a series about the last native Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt and his quest to take back his ancestral kingdom from the Ptolemaic Empire. The first two installments, Origins and Blood and Chaos, are available on Amazon. The last novel in the series, Civilization’s End, will be released October 2021. You can keep up with all her latest writing on her Website: nicolesallakanderson.com or by following @NSallakAnderson on Facebook: (https://www.facebook.com/NSallakAnderson), Twitter: (https://twitter.com/NSallakAnderson), Instagram: (https://www.instagram.com/nsallakanderson) and Medium: (https://nsallakanderson.medium.com). Feel free to contact her, she almost always answers to any query or comment!