Title: Dead Handsome: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Clara Allen needs a husband in order to keep a roof over the heads of her assorted dependents, a roof her nasty grandfather will re-appropriate unless she is married by her 21st birthday, only a few days away. Strong-minded, unwilling to take orders from any man, she decides to solve her problem by raising a murdered prisoner from the dead and marrying him. She expects an empty-headed puppet; she certainly never dreams he’ll be so devastatingly handsome.
Liam McMahon doesn’t recall much about his life before his hanging in the prison yard, other than being Irish. He does remember the kiss Clara bestowed as she brought him back to life. Every time he looks at her, his desire gets out of hand. But his former life is chasing him down like a steam engine, and when a couple of mad geniuses decide he’d make a fine experiment, he wonders if he’ll live long enough to claim Clara’s heart or if he’ll die all over again.
Book Trailer:
Excerpt:
The room needed to be warm–she had learned that during past experiments. It helped if the subject awakened in an environment that was moist and heated, akin to the womb. And the breath of life was more easily received by warmed flesh.
Still obviously uneasy, Georgina rejoined Clara at the table. "You know you're going to have to touch him."
"I've already touched him. Ruella and I stripped and washed him down."
"You're going to have to kiss him."
"It isn't a kiss. It's a resurrection."
The room had warmed quickly. Now clouds of steam billowed and surrounded the table, lending an unreality to this thing she undertook. It blurred the edges of her vision and her reason.
She rested her fingertips lightly against the corpse's chest and closed her eyes. He no longer felt cold but he did feel quite dead. She'd learned the difference over these many months. Against all the distractions she quieted her mind and reached for the power within.
It slept much the way the man's flesh did, resting in oblivion. Like a separate entity within her, it mellowed and simmered until she called upon it, when it flared to life, bringing life.
She let the power grow and flare and burgeon inside of her because she would need a great quantity of it, more than ever before. When it threatened to overspill her like hot water in a steaming kettle she opened her eyes.
She felt full; she felt ready. She drew a deep breath–deep, deep, deeper than ever before–leaned down and placed her mouth upon that of the corpse.
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Author Biography
Born in Buffalo and raised on the Niagara Frontier, award-winning author Laura Strickland has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. She believes the spunky, tenacious, undefeatable ethnic mix that is Buffalo spells the perfect setting for a little Steampunk, so she created her own Victorian world there. She knows the people of Buffalo are stronger, tougher and smarter than those who haven’t survived the muggy summers and blizzard blasts found on the shores of the mighty Niagara. Tough enough to survive a squad of killer automatons? Well, just maybe.
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Title: Off Kilter: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
James Kilter has few illusions about himself. Maimed in a boiler accident when young and routinely reviled by those he encounters, he’s no prize for any woman. He’s content working security for a good friend until he sees Catherine Delaney disembark from an airship one May afternoon. Her fragile beauty calls up all his protective instincts. But will she accept a monster as her defender?
Having traded her own safety to save her young sister, Cat Delaney has landed in the hands of a ruthless, wealthy man who intends to use her as a pawn to his avarice. Alone in a strange city, she has nowhere to turn except to the very man hired to keep her from running. Can she trust James, with his ruined face and crusader’s spirit? Dare she give him her heart?
Excerpt:
James switched his gaze to the three people who had just disembarked, two men and a woman, and promptly lost all the breath in his body.
They made an unlikely enough trio—one of the men willowy and slender, clad in a splendid suit that screamed wealth, the other broad and squat if also well-dressed. James dismissed both of them almost immediately, for the third of the group gathered all his attention and focused it the way a mirror gathers light.
"That his doxy?" Latham persisted.
She wore one of the new tailored gowns of some thin fabric that fluttered around her slender body in the breeze off the water. Strawberry-blonde hair clustered round her head in a woven crown of curls and even from fifty paces away James could see the delicate perfection of her features. She stood between the two men like a doe trapped by wolves, and something about her demeanor bespoke the fact that she longed to flee. Suddenly James wanted to tear the two men apart with his bare hands, rescue her, change her world. He knew he could do it too; at that moment he could best anyone.
"Nice piece," Latham muttered. "Wouldn't mind the job of guarding that."
And just as abruptly, James wanted to tear Latham apart also, a visceral reaction that flowed from the core of his being outward to his fists.
"Button it," Tate snapped before James could. "That's our client, Mr. Sebastian Boyd—one of the wealthiest men you'll ever meet."
And with him, James amended in his head, the most beautiful woman he'd ever hoped to behold.
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Title: Sheer Madness: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb
All her life, Topaz Hathor has denied her ability to see the spirits of the dead. She despises her father—an infamous spiritualist—for exploiting his wealthy patrons and the souls that flock to him. But when the spirit of an attractive man appears in her bedroom claiming he's been drawn to Topaz rather than her father, she sits up and takes notice.
Though not dead, Romney Marsh has been banished from his body while confined to an asylum and can't remember much besides his name. Yet he can feel Topaz's spirit calling to his, and he's not leaving until she agrees to help him. Through an increasingly violent spiral of danger and their discovery of unspeakable undertakings, they bond ever more closely. But can Topaz be in love with a man she's never touched, or would that be sheer madness?
Excerpt:
He observed as, clad only in a silken dressing gown, she spoke at length with a dark-haired man—discussing him.
And when the dark-haired man—her brother?—went out, leaving the two of them alone, seen and unseen, he knew it would be now or never.
Concentrating with unprecedented intensity, he hovered beside her bed, pictured himself as he knew he appeared when in his body, and did his best to make himself look solid.
She turned. Her unusual golden eyes widened, and she saw him.
About bloody time, he thought with a victorious rush. And now what? Could they communicate?
“Who are you?” she breathed in a low, husky voice that should have raised his pulse—did, for all he knew, back where his body lay.
“You can see me?” he asked, projecting the word-thoughts into her mind the way he had projected his image.
“Of course I can see you. Why else would I ask who you are?”
“Romney Marsh,” he supplied the name to which he clung so hard.
Her eyebrows, like two black slashes above those incredible eyes, twitched. “Well, Mr. Romney Marsh, you’ve strayed to the wrong place.”
“I don’t think so.”
“The party’s downstairs in the solarium, where my father’s summoning the souls of the dearly departed. You must have taken a wrong turn at the stairs.”
“No. I don’t want him. I want you.” Abruptly he realized it for truth: he wanted her as only a man possessed of flesh could—and surging flesh, at that. It made no sense, yet he couldn’t deny it.
She shifted slightly on the balls of her feet the way she had just before she took on the two thugs who’d come through the window. Did she, then, think she needed to fight him off?
He said quickly, “I’m not here to harm you. Rather, I need your help.”
She tipped her head. The black hair slid over one shoulder to caress a generous breast. His nonexistent fingers itched.
“I’m not able to help you.” She waved a hand in the air. “Be gone, spirit, to the next realm.”
“I can’t.”
“Of course you can.” She leaned toward him, and her gaze moved over him with considerable interest. “Do not partake in my father’s mischief. Spare yourself that. Move on and embrace peace. I dismiss—”
“No.” He moved closer, and her eyes widened again. “Don’t do that. Don’t send me away.”
She drew herself up to her considerable height, which had he possessed his body must nearly match his. “But, Mr. Marsh, it’s where you belong.”
“It isn’t.”
“Give me one good reason why,” she challenged.
He could give her the very best of reasons. “I’m not dead.”
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Title: Steel Kisses: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Reynold Michaels might not be the smartest man in the city, but he knows a beautiful woman when he sees one. The lovely creature he watches disembark from the steam tram every morning simply cannot be a prostitute…or an automaton. Yet at the high-priced bordello where she works he discovers she’s not only a hybrid mechanical, she’s funny, vulnerable, and quite possibly the missing piece of his heart.
Lily Landry understands that as an automaton she isn’t entitled to make her own choices. She must do as instructed or face the ultimate horror of being shut down. But when she forms a bond with Reynold, she quickly learns what it means to desire a life of her own.
In a city conflicted over automaton rights, can they hope for a future together?
Excerpt:
She smiled at him. “How would you like to begin?”
“I don’t rightly know.”
She reached for the buttons on the front of her dress, which had been sewn of pearl-colored silk. “Most my clients like to see what they have paid for. Would you like me to strip?”
He swallowed convulsively. A dull flush rose to his cheeks.
“Have you ever visited with one of Landry’s Ladies before?” Maybe he did not know what to expect, thought she would not look or feel like a human woman. Unless he touched her in certain places, he should not be able to tell the difference.
“No. No, I haven’t.”
She wondered how to put him at ease. She abandoned the buttons and reached for her hairpins instead. “Would you like me to take my hair down?”
“I would. I’d like that very much.”
A scratch came at the door which opened to admit the little mechanical maid with a tray holding whiskey and one glass.
The client leaped away from it. As soon as the maid left, he filled the glass with whiskey and gulped half of it down.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” He extended the glass to Lily. “Will you take some?”
“I cannot drink.”
“No?”
She shook her head. Her loosened hair fell down around her shoulders in separate tendrils, and he took a step closer.
“My God, you’re beautiful.”
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Title: Last Orders: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Buffalo Police Sergeant Brendan Fagan, investigating a series of grisly murders spurred by clashes between humans and automatons, only wants to save his city. The last thing he needs in his life is a rule-bending, steam-cannon-toting, unpredictable female like Ginny Landry, a woman who could possibly bring down his career and the one woman he quite likely can't resist.
Ginny means to settle the estate of her mother, an infamous madam, quickly and get out of town. She has no intention of becoming involved with any part of her inheritance or falling for Brendan. In fact, she makes it a point never to date handsome men. But when her rash behavior brings them together, the attraction can’t be denied.
And when the city erupts in chaos, forcing her to choose a moral side, can she deny what’s in her heart?
Excerpt:
Ginny glared harder at the tall, strapping hunk of man—police officer—who stood before her. She supposed being a police officer didn’t exclude him from being a man but at the moment she felt a little fuzzy about it. In any case, he was much too good looking, well over six feet with a good set of shoulders, reddish hair and features that had been entirely too well-carved. And those eyes—just look at those eyes: bright blue and snapping with rage.
She detested handsome men.
He had to be the most detestable she’d ever seen. And his voice! That Irish accent of his caressed his words the way his tongue might well caress a woman.
“I do not wish to be arrested. What blame fool would want to get arrested?”
“Then hand over your weapon. You can reclaim it tomorrow at the station.”
How professional he was. How well he kept his anger under control. But Ginny could feel it and she wondered what it would take to make him lose that control.
“I’ve had this steam cannon since I was fourteen years old.”
“Well you and it are going to have to spend the rest of the night apart. Dennis?” The officer jerked his head at the second cop—at least Ginny thought there were two and she wasn’t just seeing double. The two of them closed in on her again, one from either side.
She raised the weapon, dimly aware it was a stupid thing to do.
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Title: Tough Prospect: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure
Author: Laura Strickland
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Book Blurb:
Mitch Carter's a hard man. He's clawed his way up from Buffalo's gutter through a combination of ruthlessness and stark loyalty to become the King of Prospect Avenue. But when he sees lovely Tessa Verdun, a crack appears in his tough veneer. He wants her for his wife even if making it happen requires coercion, dirty dealing, and a touch of blackmail.
Mitch is the last man Tessa would choose to wed, but he's forced her into marriage, even though she's ready to give her heart to another man. Now he tries to win her with lavish gifts and watches her with veiled passion in his eyes. But when everyone else turns against Tessa, it's Mitch who's there offering strength. And when vying factions in the city place Tessa in danger, it's Mitch for whom she longs, though loving such a man is certainly a tough prospect.
Excerpt:
“No, Tessa.” He sat up straight and clasped his hands together. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this, have it out.”
“Have what out?”
“Don’t play dumb, you’re not dumb. I’m talking about how you act toward me, how you feel toward me.”
She gave a hard laugh. “I should think that would be obvious.”
Yeah, it was. Real obvious. But it couldn’t go on much longer before Mitch snapped.
He said, trying to sound patient, “We’ve been married two weeks. You’re gonna have to reconcile yourself to it.”
“Am I?”
“Well yeah. We live in the same house. We should be sharing a bed. What’s it going to take?”
Tessa bared her teeth in a grimace. Tears filled her eyes. “It will never happen.”
“What?”
“The deal was I should marry you. Only that.”
For an instant, Mitch felt totally helpless, a condition he didn’t tolerate well. Indeed, he’d worked hard since his days back in the orphanage to guarantee he’d never feel that way again.
And now here came this woman with her hands on his heartstrings, hating him.
“But…” he began.
She leaned forward in her chair and lowered her voice even though no one else in the house could hear. “I know what you are, Mitch Carter. A tough. A brute, a lowlife. You may have blackmailed me into marriage. That doesn’t mean I’m ever going to like it.”
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