1Night Stand BLOG HOP! July 5th - 8th!

 Who is this Madame Eve, Anyway?

Since Kate Richards, Olivia Starke and I came up with the 1Night Stand concept two years ago this month, Madame Eve, the proprietor of the fictional 1Nightstand.com has been busy! To date, she has a documented list of over 125 love matches that you can read from Decadent Publishing!

View the complete list HERE

The first 1Night Stand book, To Feel Again (by yours truly, natch) was released in early April 2011. That’s just over a year ago! Kate and Olivia’s books soon followed and the rest was history. This series has been amazingly popular. Evidently, readers love the idea of a match between strangers (typically) who find that instant connection. The matching services on TV don’t have anything on this dating service!

But who is Madame Eve?

Nobody really knows, except for Jackson and Jagger Castillo, the owners of the Castillo Hotel & Resort chain where many of the 1NS stories take place. They’ve both spoken to her, but as far as we know, they’re the only ones on the planet to have done so. She did blog one time and revealed enough about herself that we know enough to be even more curious:


READ HER BLOG HERE

Here’s what we do know about Madame Eve:

1.   She’s French. And she’s a pure romantic at heart.

2.   She’s mysterious. We don’t know how old she is, or how she does what she does. But man, can that lady figure out who needs who (or is that whom?). She knows what most lovers need before they know it themselves.

3.   She’s a one-woman show. She runs the 1Night Stand dating service with a velvet-covered iron glove. You know how those French women can be. Don’t mess with her, she’s got a job to do.

4.   She does a great job.

Here’s what we don’t know about her:

1.   Where she lives.

2.   What she looks like.

3.   How old she is.

4.   Where she learned to do what she does so well.

It drives authors crazy not to know very much about her. They constantly and sneakily try to insert the answers to their own questions into their manuscripts. Kate Richards and I are the editors for 1NS and like Eve, we rule the series with a velvet-covered iron glove. Don’t mess with Eve. Don’t make her something she’s not. She’s mysterious for a reason, we like it that way, and so does she.

What may seem odd to others but not so much to us is that through the many authors who have written 1NS stories, they’ve brought Madame Eve to life! She’s real to Kate and I! Maybe that's weird. But it’s pretty obvious by the sheer volume of stories, as well as huge author and reader fan base, she’s pretty real to most everyone else, too!

What do you think? Who and what do you picture when you read about Madame Eve? Leave a comment of your vision of Madame Eve and I’ll pick a random comment for a chance to win the first 1Night Stand ebook, To Feel Again, plus another 1NS of your choice. Hurry, I’m picking the winner on July 9^th!

What else can you win, you ask? A Kindle Touch, an Amazon Gift card, a bag of goodies from Coffee Time Romance...plus more at each stop! But you have to follow the hop to win!

You made it!

Hooray! You made it! I know I'm near the end of the blog list, but I'm glad you persevered! I'm giving away to one commenter a copy of my latest release, To Feel Again, published with Decadent Publishing. To Feel Again is the first book in the hugely popular 1Night Stand series. 1Night Stand is a dating service, operated by the very mysterious Frenchwoman, Madame Evangeline. Eve has an uncanny knack for matching the right people together, knowing what they need, even if the clients don't! Her success rate is phenomenal. Wouldn't it be nice if there truly was a Madame Eve? If you'd like to take look at 1NS more closely, here's a link to its very own blog.

When Leah loses her fiancé, Mark, in Afghanistan, it takes nearly a year to get to the point where she’s ready to live again. Although she doesn’t want an emotional commitment, a night of consensual sex, even with a stranger, might help bring her some closure after Mark’s death. Enlisting the services of Madame Evangeline’s high-end, online dating service, One Night Stand, promises exactly what Leah is looking for—sex with a man she doesn’t have to see again, but one who will satisfy her physical needs now that she's ready to move on with her life.

Jackson Castillo has no desire to go on a date with one of Evangeline’s clients. One Night Stand uses his hotel for its client’s rendezvous, but otherwise, he never gets involved. When Eve threatens to take her business elsewhere unless he helps her with a particular case, he’s no fool. He’ll go on the date. But he won’t sleep with the woman.

When one thing leads to another, his good intentions to stay out of the bedroom with Leah are shattered. The sex is phenomenal, but there’s more to Leah he wants to explore. After she leaves the next morning without a goodbye, he’s both disappointed and royally pissed. Will he let her go or find a way to convince her she’s ready…to feel again?  Click HERE to read more...

LEAVE A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF TO FEEL AGAIN! Oh heck, I'll thrown in another 1Night Stand book while I'm at it! Yay!

Thanks for stopping by! If you want to keep track of your journey, here's a link to the Master List at A Journey of Books. Each blog you track as having visited earns you another point for special giveaways. And below are the next few blog stops. Have fun!

186 vvb32 reads

187 Wendi Zwaduk - Romance to Make Your Heart Race

188 What Book is That?

189 What's On the Bookshelf

190 Writing is a Blessing

Other books by me:

Mile High Club                 Hey You                

                                             Fanning Old Flames         Hide & Seek

Romance and America's Independence...

          **Originally published 7/4/11 at Decadent Publishing's Daily Dose of Decadence blog**

     Happy 4^th of July, to all of my American friends! For those of you not from the United States, I’ll give you a brief history of this American holiday…it’s the anniversary of our independence from British rule.

     Fortunately, we got over the pesky squabbles with our friends on the other side of the pond and think the Brits are awesomesauce now. I have no doubt women had a part in that make up process. We’re all about the HEA.

     Anywho, July 4^th is one of my favorite holidays, I love my country. And it got me thinking…about the two lovebirds in my 1Night Stand story, To Feel Again. And what Jackson and Leah’s story would be like if it took place during Colonial times.

*queue time travel music* (though I have no clue what that sounds like) 

      Leah thought her plea to the mysterious Frenchwoman, Madame Evangeline, had gone either missing or ignored. What folly to think the woman had the ability to bring the man of her dreams to the isolated countryside of Virginia. After losing her betrothed, Mark, in battle, Leah had little hope of marriage prospects. Eligible men were off, fighting in the war, dying for their country and she had no doubt that unless she took appropriate measures, she’d live a lonely life without a husband or children. Sending a heartfelt letter to Madame Eve a year after Mark had passed and the mourning lifted from her weary heart had seemed like the right thing to do if she had any hope of happiness.

     And finally, Madame Eve had replied—the letter tucked snug in the pocket of Leah’s apron. Her heart raced each time she read the words:

My dear Leah, my heart cries for you and the loss of your patriot. His sacrifice will never be forgotten. Yet time must march on and I am happy therefore to have found a gentleman of fine integrity who I trust you will find most agreeable. He is the owner of the trustworthy establishment, The Castle Inn….

***

     “I don’t have time for this.”

     Jackson read the letter from Eve one more time before leaning back in the chair with a curse. His agreement with her extended only to providing lodging for the affaires de coeur she initiated. He had no desire to partake of her business other than to receive the generous funds the satisfied patrons readily added to his inn’s coffers. However, Evangeline appeared to have other ideas and threatened to find another proprietor to attend to her matchmaking needs—if he didn’t agree to his own affair.

     A sound in the courtyard below drew his attention and he brushed the curtain aside. Emerging from a small carriage was a lovely young woman. Her plain yellow dress fluttered in the brisk spring wind and wisps of blonde hair escaped her bonnet.  Her hand, fine-boned and petite, brushed the wayward strands back and as if drawn to him, she glanced upward, catching his gaze.

     Lovely young woman, indeed.

Okay, so forgive my lack of historical writing, I'm pleading artistic license. But hey, romance is romance, no matter when it happens! And I'm quite sure that if Leah and Jackson had met back in 1776, they would have had just as much fun as they did in 2011, when Madame Evangeline did that mysterious matchmaking thing!

Valerie Mann

www.valeriemann.com

by Kate Richards

stolen, liberated, BORROWED from the Decadent 1Night Stand blog.

Last summer, while hanging out with a couple of my favorite online authors, we had a wonderful idea, to write a few stories about a unique dating service. We thought that a situation where, for reasons of their own, ordinary people wanted to have one great night, no strings attached. We had a few thoughts about why that might be and so Valerie Mann, Olivia Starke and I agreed to each write a story about what we thought might happen under those circumstances. 

The Mysterious Madame Evangeline, owner of 1NightStand, is without peer in her gift at matching lovers for a 1NightStand, and always gives her clients more of an experience than they would have dreamed possible. Most of the dates happen at one of the fabulous Castillo Hotels and Resorts scattered around the world, with several at luxurious Castillo Las Vegas, Jackson Castillo’s flagship hotel, right on the Vegas Strip.

When we presented our idea to Decadent Publishing, we were given the green light to invite other authors to contribute to the series. To date there are more than a dozen stories accepted and a second series focusing on GLBT on the way.

Virgin and the Playboy was my first contribution to the series, although I have another in the works. Check it out and see what happens when a girl who was too consumed with her education and getting started in business to pay attention to her love life meets a guy who dates a different girl every week. And who has no idea he’s got a virgin for a 1 Night Stand.

Kate’s The Virgin and the Playboy as well as the other stories currently released are available at www.decadentpublishing.com or at your favorite online bookstore!

To Feel Again is under contract!

I'm super thrilled to announce a new contract with Decadent Publishing for their new 1Night Stand series! My book is the launch and it's hawt! 

 Stop by the Decadent 1Night Stand BLOG to find out more about this fun series!