Tag Archives: Elizabeth Ellen Carter

First Kiss Friday with Elizabeth Ellen Carter

04 Friday Jan 2019

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Not only is it First Kiss Friday but today we’re going to celebrate Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s new release, Live and Let Spy! Isn’t the cover just gorgeous? We hope you enjoy this excerpt and the first kiss scene! Happy reading, my lovelies!

Excerpt:

He got as far as three yards away when Olivia Collins called out to him. “She’s not there, Mr. Hardacre. You won’t find her interred at Ponsnowyth.”

He span about. “What the hell?”

The profanity was out of his mouth before he could censor himself – too much time at sea and not enough time in drawing rooms – yet the woman in front of him did not seem disconcerted in the slightest. Rather, he saw in her the righteous anger of an avenging angel.

At that moment, Olivia Collins was beautiful.

“Her father, in his deference to his own reputation,” she continued, contempt clear in her voice, “refused to accept charge of her mortal remains. He also refused to let anyone else in the family aid her. There was an aunt, I believe, with whom Constance was close.”

The recollection of Squire Denton’s own grave marker in the church cemetery – the large and ornate marble headstone boasting his status to the world – lit the spark of Adam’s anger.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

He gave vent to a volcanic rise of fury. “That vicious old bastardcondemned his only daughter to a pauper’s grave?”

Tears sprang once more to the woman’s eyes.

Before he knew what he was about, Adam had advanced and has his arms around Olivia, holding her close as she wept into his chest. The force of her emotion, not his, touched something deep in his soul. A desire to protect, to comfort, reached in and took hold. For a moment, with the scent of honeysuckle in his nostrils and the gentle curves of a woman in his arms, Adam embraced, and accepted the embrace, of both Olivia Collins andConstance Denton.

When he closed his eyes, Constance’s face finally appeared before him as though only twenty minutes, not twenty years had passed. He rained kisses in her hair, grateful someone as wonderful and beautiful as she would ever give him the time of day, let alone her body. Having once touched her, he wanted – needed – that feeling again. He kissed her with increasing passion.

Adam tasted a protest on her lips at his last open-mouthed kiss.

He stopped and opened his eyes. The lips did not belong to Constance.

Olivia pulled out of his arms, eyes wide with alarm and hand across her mouth, her neatly pinned chignon in disarray with one long lock tumbling down her shoulder. And, in a split second before she had raised the hand to her mouth, he had seen her lips, full and red with the force of his. To his shame, Adam felt his body stir.

He took a few paces back to protect himself as well as her.

“That was unforgivable. Miss Collins, Olivia, I…” He tried to fashion the words for an apology. He had none.

“That was unforgivable,” he repeated. “I’m sorry…”

Here’s the blurb:

Refused his rightful promotion, Adam Hardacre quits the Royal Navy in disgust and is quickly approached with an intriguing proposition to serve his country undercover.

His first assignment takes him home to Cornwall to expose traitors plotting a French invasion of England. There, he meets newly unemployed governess, Olivia Collins, who has stumbled upon a hidden secret from Adam’s past – his youthful summer love affair with the local squire’s daughter. It is a tragic history that brings Adam and Olivia closer than is wise.
However, with the attraction deepening to something more, neither realize that Olivia unwittingly holds the key to his mission.

As Adam infiltrates the plot, Olivia finds out the shocking truth behind his lost love’s death many years ago, and both their lives are in danger. But their growing relationship is clouded by suspicion. Who can and cannot be trusted – anyone or no one?

Or… even each other?

Here is the buy links:
US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L23VCZT
CA – https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07L23VCZT
AUS – https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07L23VCZT
UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07L23VCZT

Bio:

Elizabeth Ellen Carter is an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.

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First Kiss Friday with guest Elizabeth Ellen Carter

20 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in 2018, First Kiss Friday

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It’s always a pleasure when I can welcome back one of the Bluestocking Belles to my First Kiss Friday blog. Today I have Elizabeth Ellen Carter as my guest who will be sharing an excerpt from her novel Shadow of the Corsairs. Happy reading, my lovelies! Take it away, Elizabeth…

Thank you very much Sherry for inviting me to take part in First Kiss Friday.

This is from my latest release Shadow of the Corsairs, the third and final installment in the Heart of the Corsairs series.

The hero, Jonathan Afua is the son of an Ethiopia Ras – the equivalent of a Duke. He has power, wealth, and status taken from him as well as his freedom. In the slave raid on his camp, Jonathan’s wife and children were killed.

He is coming to terms with his grief and rebuilding his life far from home.

Morwena is a straight talking Sicilian woman, she looking after her father who is suffering what we would recognise as dementia, her brothers are estranged from the family so it is up to her to run the family business.

With Jonathan and Morwena it is truly a case of opposites attract, but is there too much that stands between them?

Excerpt:

The trio made their way through the quiet streets of Palermo in silence and not once did Morwena’s hand leave his.

He liked it, this trust. He was honored by it. In this way, Morwena reminded him of Mellesse. When both women made up their minds, it was final. He smiled to himself. They would have liked one another, he was sure of it.

Mellesse, there wasn’t a day in prison I didn’t think of you and our girls…

It was an excuse, an apology for thinking about Morwena in the same mental breath as his wife. He was well aware there was still much unfinished, he didn’t need his conscience plaguing him. What kind of weak character was he that found another woman attractive when his wife had been dead for little more than a year? And still, he could not bring himself to relinquish Morwena’s hand.

Was it his drive for justice for his wife and daughters that gave him pause? Perhaps, it was only his fear. Perhaps, that was no longer a good enough reason.

The night air grew colder still. It had to be early morning. He breathed it in and forced it deep into his lungs to wake himself as Morwena unlocked the back door of the shop.

“Papa isn’t expected back until noon, you can sleep in your old room,” she told Nico.

The young man still looked pale. He nodded listlessly and shuffled his way up the stairs.

“Is he going to be all right?” Jonathan asked.

“Eventually. Nico idolized Pietro. It has been a shock to him.”

Jonathan perceived an edge in Morwena’s voice. In the newly-lit lamplight he looked at her, and noted dark shadows under her eyes. Her skin revealed so much to him without words.

“But it was not a shock to you.”

Morwena shook her head and headed up the stairs also. She looked back at him which he took as an invitation to follow.

“I love my brothers, but I was always closer to Nico. I suppose it was because we were nearly the same age. Pietro was much older,” she said.

They ended up in the kitchen. Morwena restoked the fire in the stove and set a pan of water on it to boil. Jonathan himself did not want for anything, but he suspected Morwena needed to do this to keep busy.

“He was always a bully, but he became worse after mother died,” she continued. Before Jonathan knew it, he found himself seated at the dining table.

“Perhaps that was his way of coping with grief. Anyway, he and Father would argue bitterly. One day, Papa learned that Pietro had been taking money from the till and threw him out.”

“Morwena…”

“… I still remember Pietro standing outside the shop screaming curses on us all. That was six years ago.”

She hiccoughed another sob

“Morwena…” Jonathan stood up and approached her. His first instinct was to pull her into his arms once more, but he held back. “Sometimes in life there are things we can’t control. All we can do is wait out the darkness and pray for the dawn to arrive soon. And it will arrive.”

Silence fell between them for a moment and Jonathan wondered whether he’d revealed too much or too little of himself in his attempt to comfort her.

She set the boiling water aside.

He wished he hadn’t turned around at that moment. If he couldn’t see her eyes, he could deny the truth, even to himself, but now she was here before him, so much color – black hair, beautiful, large, brown eyes, soft, creamy skin, and lips, now red from biting them.

It was as though he was looking at the sun – so beautiful, but it hurt his eyes

“Was it like that when you lost your wife?”

The sun was extinguished, plunging him into blackness.

“She was murdered and I could do nothing. My daughters were killed and I could do nothing!”

Morwena was in his arms once more. He could not be sure who comforted who. It felt good to hold a woman in his arms again and feel the soft curves pressed against him. Her hair smelled of lemons and felt like the softest silk as he ran his hands over her hair, stroking her cheek. Black eyelashes stood out starkly against her skin.

He wanted to kiss those lips. But the only woman he had ever kissed was Mellesse. It was Morwena who bridged the distance. Lips as soft and plump as their promise touched his. Arousal shot through his core, an aliveness like the shift of light heralding an upcoming dawn.

He deepened their kiss and she responded, opening her mouth to him.

The Past Casts a Shadow Over a Second Chance For Love….

Palermo, 1810

Morwena Gambino is struggling to keep her family’s business going against mounting troubles. Her widowed father, once shrewd, is now increasingly forgetful, letting debts mount and disavowing his sons. Morwena runs the shop behind his back, forced to hide her enterprise not only from her father but also her bitter older brother.

In Tunisia, Tewodros “Jonathan” Afua is struggling to stay alive. Once an Ethiopian prince, he is a captive of the corsairs who slaughtered his wife and children. When a US naval bombardment provides an opening for escape, Jonathan falls in with a seemingly deranged English pirate. Aboard Kit Hardacre’s rundown ship with its ragtag crew, Jonathan learns the real reason he was taken by slavers.

Reluctantly joining Hardacre’s crew, he meets Morwena in Palermo. The fiery young Sicilian woman is the opposite of his quiet reserve, but he is attracted to her despite mourning for his late wife. As he and Morwena grow closer, it emerges that they have something in common – secret betrayal by those close to them – and they must count what they’re willing to risk for a future together.

Shadow of the Corsairs is available on Kindle Unlimited and is available to purchase here: https://www.amazon.com./Shadow-Corsairs-Heart-Book-ebook/dp/B07DM9VJ5Z

Bio:

Elizabeth Ellen Carter writes richly detailed historical romantic adventures. Her full length 3 book Regency era series Heart Of The Corsairs is released in 2017 and 2018 – Captive Of The Corsairs, Revenge Of The Corsairs and Shadow Of The Corsairs. She is starting work on a new 4 book historical romantic suspense series, The King’s Rogues for release during late 2018 and into 2019.

Her other full length titles include the Roman era thriller Dark Heart, the medieval romantic adventure Warrior’s Surrender, and the Regency titles Moonstone Obsession and Moonstone Conspiracy. Also available are the novellas Nocturne and The Thief of Hearts.

A former newspaper journalist, Elizabeth ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. She lives in Queensland, Australia with her amazing husband and two adorable and mischievous cats. In addition writing books, Elizabeth produces a online reader magazine called Love’s Great Adventure.

Follow Elizabeth on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and her web site – http://www.eecarter.com

First Kiss Friday with guest Elizabeth Ellen Carter

24 Friday Nov 2017

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Today on First Kiss Friday I’d like to welcome back Elizabeth Ellen Carter who will be sharing an excerpt from Revenge of the Corsairs. Happy reading and enjoy!

Excerpt:

And suddenly they were just a hand’s span apart. He watched Laura take one of his hands in hers. Why had he never noticed the difference between a man’s hands and a woman’s? His fingers were long and tapered – one of things which made playing guitar easy for him, but Laura’s were more slender still. Then there was the color. His were tanned golden with the sun, but hers were like blush marble.

He remained mesmerized as she placed his hand on her belly, gently pressing until his hands spread over where the baby lay. He felt a movement and let out a gasp when what felt what appeared to be a tiny foot pressed into the palm of his hand.

There was a sentimental side of him – one he suspected he inherited from his own father – that wanted cry out at the miracle he’d been permitted to experience that moment. But instead, he swallowed and looked into Laura’s eyes. Their forget-me-not blue warmed him from within.

“He has been restless all evening. No matter what I do, I can’t get comfortable, but he settled as soon as he heard your voice. Say something, Elias.”

“I love you, Laura.”

He saw her eyes widen at the words then his mouth descended to hers. He thought the kiss would be brief, a light caress, but, as soon as his lips touched hers and felt their soft texture, it deepened. He felt Laura’s mouth open under his. Instinct born from years of longing guided where his experience lacked.

Their first kiss was everything he imagined it to be. The tentative touch of her tongue on his sent a jolt through him. He mirrored her action and was rewarded by a sigh that redoubled his own pleasure.

Eventually, it was he who stopped. He stroked one of Laura’s flushed cheeks; they were, indeed, as hot as their color indicated. But it was the look of surprise on her face that warmed him. No fear, no regret – perhaps no love yet, but he was a patient man.

Blurb

Rescued after two years a concubine in an Ottoman harem, former debutante Laura Cappleman faces a difficult journey back to normal life. As she travels to Palermo aboard Kit Hardacre’s ship, the Calliope, she is deeply traumatised – and pregnant to her kidnapper.

Laura rejects the emotional support of her long-time admirer, Calliope First Officer Elias Nash, and her cousin, Sophia, Kit’s wife. She withdraws into herself and her art. Finally, after giving birth, she decides to return to London, hoping to erase the torment of harem life from her mind.

Powerful Emir Selim Omar died on the day of Laura’s rescue, but his wickedness lives on in his third wife, Rabia, in whose household Laura was held. The ruthless widow may yet hold onto the favour and power she wielded as mother to Omar’s only male heir. However, as opportunists pick the Emir’s empire apart, the child is killed.

When Rabia learns Laura has given birth to a boy, the solution is obvious–the concubine is stolen property and so is the child sired by her late husband. She will take the boy and kill anyone in the way.

As Rabia’s assassins close in, Elias – both embraced and rejected by the damaged woman he loves, uncertain she will ever return, and alone in Palermo with a child to whom he has given his name – must take the battle to the enemy. Otherwise, there may be nothing for Laura to come home to.

Buy Links

Unfortunately I don’t have a release date or buy links for Revenge of the Corsairs just yet – soon! I promise! – but you can find out more about the origins of Laura and Elias’ story in Captive of the Corsairs – exclusively on Amazon $0.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0721NSPJ6

Biography

Elizabeth Ellen Carter is an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.

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First Kiss Friday with Elizabeth Ellen Carter

04 Friday Aug 2017

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Thanks for stopping by my blog today for another First Kiss Friday. Today’s guest is fellow Bluestocking Belle, Elizabeth Ellen Carter. Elizabeth is celebrating her latest book baby! Captive of the Corsairs is the first in a new series called Heart of the Corsairs – a Regency adventure romance series set in the Mediterranean. We hope you enjoy this first kiss scene. Happy reading and enjoy!

captive-of-the-corsairs-coverExcerpt:

“May I escort you topside, Miss Green? Perhaps you would like to dance?”“Just a turn about the deck, if you would be so kind,” she said. “It’s been a long day.”

There. A peace offering of sorts. Had she been truly mad at him, she would have excused herself immediately, but she hadn’t.

Kit rose and offered his arm. Tonight was still and the crew on duty hunted the breeze to keep the Calliopemoving towards their destination. He and Sophia made a leisurely pace to the ship’s bow. Her head tilted towards the moon suspended above them. Her eyes were closed and dark, fan-shaped lashes rested on her cheeks. Then her eyes opened, those dark, fathomless eyes.

“I wanted to thank you for not saying anything to my cousin or Professor Fenton about my absence,” she said.

Kit rested his hip on the railing and shrugged. “By the time I was aware of the circumstances, it was a moot point. It would have been a different matter had I known. Searching for you would put my men at risk and cost us a full day if we missed the tide.”

Sophia swallowed and nodded her head, keeping her face from him.

“Then you’ve placed me further in your debt,” she whispered.

He kept his voice to the same level as hers. “And that’s not a place you like to be, is it?”

Sophia shook her head and coal-black strands flew loose from the chignon.

“’Neither a borrower nor a lender be’, Captain Hardacre.”

“Kit,” he insisted. “With so much in common, surely we’re friends now.”

She gave him a closed-mouth smile, and her eyes closed, too, shuttering the windows of her soul. She was right to do so. He was little more than a pirate and a thief. He would steal what was behind those lids if he could.

“Kit.” His name on her breath was so faint he was lucky to catch it. “I don’t wish to be in your debt.”

He was unprepared for the surge of emotion when those rich brown eyes opened and looked up at him. Kit’s lips lowered to hers and he tasted surprise on them. He shifted his feet to hold her against him more firmly. Desire pumped through his veins as he felt her respond. The soft sigh as their lips parted sent a maelstrom of emotions crashing over him.

He lifted his head far enough to see her clearly. Her eyes were open and bright, perhaps with shock. Even in the pale moonlight, he could see her lips were full with color. Caused by him. He did that to her and it had only been a kiss – a bare touching of flesh.

Never before had he been so quick to arousal. The caress of professionals had never achieved that end so quickly.

Possibly, it had been a one-off, a fluke He’d better make sure. Sophia was quicker and turned her head away.

“Don’t… please… I’m in love with someone else”

 Captive of the Corsairs is exclusive to Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0721NSPJ6

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Bio:
Elizabeth Ellen Carter is an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.
 
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First Kiss Friday with guest Elizabeth Ellen Carter

12 Friday May 2017

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Today on First Kiss Friday it’s my pleasure to welcome Elizabeth Ellen Carter and her characters from Dark Heart. I just love this beautiful cover and I can’t wait to dive into her latest release. We hope you’ll enjoy this first kiss scene! Happy reading.

Excerpt:

Kyna felt it wiser to hold her tongue. It was often the best way to get others to loosen theirs.

She bobbed down to pluck a small, pink, wild flower and twirled it in her hands to give herself something to do with the remains of fear scalding her veins.

When she looked up, Marcus stood much closer, just a hand span away. He bridged it, his larger hands engulfing hers, stilling the movement of the sweet pea in her fingers.

Her attention was caught just as surely as her hands. She imagined she could read an apology in his features although the words were absent.

His hands left hers. Fingers lightly traced up her arm leaving goose bumps in their wake, across her shoulders, then one hand cupped her cheek tenderly. Kyna’s heart pounded again but now it was with a different sort of fear. Feelings and desires she thought dead and buried were being resurrected.

She closed her eyes and savored the feel of his hand on her face. A soft touch to her lips reawakened something else.

She sighed and the kiss deepened.

Her arms wound around the broad expanse of his back. How could she have considered him as cold as marble when, through the linen of his tunic, he was warm flesh and blood?

Warmth suffused her and pooled low in her belly. His lips and tongue sampled her cheeks and her neck, trailing heat.

Crickets competed with the birds to fill the ending day with sound.

Perhaps, Marcus really wasn’t going to murder her. Maybe, his intent was to seduce her to death.

Blurb

Can the woman who is free in her heart save the man who is a slave in his?

Rome, 235AD

A series of ritual murders of young boys recalls memories of Rome’s most wicked Emperor. Magistrate Marcus Cornelius Drusus has discovered the cult extends to the very heart of Roman society.

Despite his personal wealth and authority, Marcus is a slave to his past – conflicted by his status as an adopted son, bitterly betrayed by his wife and forced to give up his child.

Kyna knows all about betrayal. Sold into slavery by her husband to pay a gambling debt, she found herself in Rome, far from her home in Britannia. Bought by a doctor, she is taught his trade and is about to gain her freedom when her mentor is murdered by the cult.

When the same group make an attempt on her life, Kyna is forced to give up her freedom and accept Marcus’s protection. With no one to trust but each other, mutual attraction ignites into passion but how far will Marcus go for vengeance when he learns the cult’s next victim is his son?

Buy Links
Dark Heart is exclusively on Amazon $2.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited – https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Heart-Elizabeth-Ellen-Carter-ebook/dp/B06ZYJ54VD/

Biography

Elizabeth Ellen Carter is an award-winning historical romance writer who pens richly detailed historical romantic adventures. A former newspaper journalist, Carter ran an award-winning PR agency for 12 years. The author lives in Australia with her husband and two cats.

 

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