Friday, October 20, 2017

Familiar Angel by Amy Lane | Cat's Release day Review, Author Guest post & #giveaway @Dreamspinners @amymaclane



Some lovers are as familiar as the family pet.


One hundred and forty years ago, Harry, Edward, and Francis met an angel, a demon, and a sorceress while escaping imprisonment and worse! They emerged with a new family—and shapeshifting powers beyond their wildest dreams.


Now Harry and his brothers use their sorcery to rescue those enslaved in human trafficking—but Harry’s not doing so well. Pining for Suriel the angel has driven him to take more and more risks until his family desperately asks Suriel for an intervention.

In order for Suriel to escape the bindings of heaven, he needs to be sure enough of his love to fight to be with Harry. Back when they first met, Harry was feral and angry, and he didn’t know enough about love for Suriel to justify that risk. Can Suriel trust in Harry enough now to break his bonds of service for the boy who has loved his Familiar Angel for nearly a century and a half?


Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Cat gives this one 5 Meows with a 2 Purr heat index...

Cover Love.- I could see this model as Suriel and it with the cat I could see where familiar comes in. 

One hundred and forty years ago, Harry, Edward, and Francis barely escaped their fate at a brothel. A sorceress was rescuing her lover from hell and performing the spell she turned the three boys into her familiars and they all became a family.  Now they use their powers to save people from human trafficking. Harry was in love with the Angel Suriel the moment he saw him.

This was a very intriguing story. I liked the combination of characters, sorceresses, Angels, demons, and the shifting cats. The storyline is also fast paced, action packed and keeps you turning the page. 

If you are looking for a great paranormal, urban fantasy book for your October reading this one is a fabulous choice!


Guest post with Author Amy Lane

My Don’t You Look Familiar?

By Amy Lane


So, I love titles.

I do.

Naming characters and titling books are two of my favorite things about this job.  Sometimes a title comes to you before the book is even started—the last three Manny books were a result of my editor and I giggling over all the manny puns we could make in a title.

Truth in the Dark and Keeping Promise Rock were the result of several failed attempts at titles before I dismantled those ideas and came up with something that felt perfect.

The Familiar series was sort of a combination of both those things.

See, with the Familiar series, I started with the opening sequence (feel free to read it HERE at Dreamspinner Press) and looked over it and thought, “Oh, hey! I’d planned on three heroes here—and look! I have the potential for all three of their mates as well!” 

So, part of the them was that the romantic leads would be “familiar” to our heroes.

And then I thought, “Oh—wow. I established that these couples are going to be part of the extended family. So, Suriel is the family angel, and he’s familiar to Harry by the start of the romance too. That’s pretty awesome.”

And then I thought, “Oh, geez, Amy. The cats are familiars you dork. It’s the familiar and the angel and could a title be any more obvious than that?”

AND THEN…

Wait for it.

“Oh yeah. Isn’t ‘familiar demons’ sort of a truism? A saying? A common figure of speech?”

Oh…

Yeah.

So this is a story about three boys who are transformed into a sorceress’s familiars.  And instead of holding them in captivity, she treats them as family. And with their extended lifespan, they embark on a very dangerous hobby.

And they often go where angels fear to tread.

Except Suriel, who looks after this family. He was there at their inception. He loves them. He’ll go anywhere his beloved Harry goes.

And his favorite familiar is in trouble.

And Suriel becomes his angel—and his alone.

It works, right? I mean, as titles go?

And before you all think I’m too smug about this “title working on many levels”, I have a little secret to tell you.

For an entire half-second when I was thinking about names of the boys, when I picked Harry, Edward, and Frances as appropriate sounding Victorian-era names, I realized this book would be Harry’s book.

You know where this is going, right?

Yeah.

It was almost Wild About Harry.

Which would have been fine—except, the next two books—Familiar Demon and Familiar Lover would have been Wild About Edward and Wild About Frances, and that just doesn’t have the same ring.

So even though I hope you are “Wild About Harry”, I hope this story of the familiar people in our lives and how they can be the love of a lifetime is better captured by the title presently on the cover.



 Angst and pain, Amy Lane Amy Lane has two kids in college, two gradeschoolers in soccer, two cats, and two Chi-who-whats at large. She lives in a crumbling crapmansion with most of the children and a bemused spouse. She also has too damned much yarn, a penchant for action adventure movies, and a need to know that somewhere in all the pain is a story of Wuv, Twu Wuv, which she continues to believe in to this day! She writes fantasy, urban fantasy, and m/m romance--and if you accidentally make eye contact, she'll bore you to tears with why those three genres go together. She'll also tell you that sacrifices, large and small, are worth the urge to write.

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7 comments:

  1. congrats and enjoyed the excerpt
    jmarinich33 at aol dot com

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  2. Amy I loved the title. It fit perfectly. I’m glad you chose it. I cannot wait for the next two!

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  3. Interesting route to a great title. The book will be on my wishlist for sure. Not sure if I'll buy it as soon as funds allow or wait until I can afford all three so I don't need to wait for the stories about the other brothers.

    felinewyvern at googlemail dot com

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  4. I don't remember seeing anything about this before however I'm loving the blurb!
    legacylandlisa at gmail dot com

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    1. Congrats Lisa, you are the monthly giftcard giveaway winner!

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  5. Thanks for the review! I'm excited about reading this one.
    serena91291@gmail.com

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  6. I hope you all enjoy this title-- and thanks for reading the post!

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