Thursday, November 8, 2012

Of Love and Deception






















BLURB:


Two years after escaping the duplicitous and sadistic Blake Sheldon, Daniella Kurtz' life is finally back on track. With a damn hot boyfriend, Cruz Canton, who showers her with kisses and gifts, she knew she was on the road to her happily ever after.

During a whirlwind romance, Cruz introduces Daniella to his longtime friends, Meg and Falcon Landers. The foursome become best buddies, almost like family, until a bittersweet moment changes everything.

Concealing her doubts, Daniella is desperate to conceive a child for Cruz. She turns to Meg and Falcon’s fertility clinic for help. Good news and happy moments are short lived when love, lies and jealousy mix with her past, and raise suspicion. Cruz withdraws emotionally and physically, leaving Daniella fearful, confused, and alone.

Daniella seeks answers, but the deeper she digs, the darker the secrets. Deception and devastation envelop her. Alone and fighting for the truth, and her life, she must confront the ultimate question: Whose child is she carrying? And will she live to find out? 
~Prologue and chapter 1 available at: (click on banner)







 

 



 
WARNING: Adult Romatic suspense. Language and mature content not suitable for readers under 18.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Free at Amazon! 7/25 - 7/29/2012




TWENTY WEEKS
'It’s his too, Maya! What if he wants it? What if?'
The little voice buzzed in my head, and just when I was about to turn away and run out of the clinic, my name was called.

Sixteen-year-old, Maya Rockwell, has it all: a new set of wheels, straight-A grades, and Alex, a hotter than Hades boyfriend with the personality of an angel.
When her best friend kicks off the biggest party of the school season, Maya and Alex jump at the invite for some innocent fun, certainly not the drugs and predatory older crowd they confront.
Maya barely escapes with her life: hers and another new one. Alone and afraid, Maya seeks answers, but a single terrifying moment opens her eyes... and she can no longer pretend to be ignorant. Will Maya brave the storm of negative publicity and peer pressure to do the right thing?


Sunday, April 15, 2012

King David, Romantic Hero by Rachelle Ayala


FREE BOOK, MICHAL'S WINDOW
April 15-16 at Amazon!
King David, Romantic Hero by Rachelle Ayala

If you’re looking for the perfect romantic hero, look no further than King David, the greatest king of Israel. A handsome charmer and yet, inherently good, a man after God’s own heart, David was a man of contradictions, a lover, a criminal, a poet, a warrior.

Why was David, whose name means “beloved”, adored by swooning women everywhere? Let’s examine David’s character from a romantic point of view.

David the Rock Star
It’s 1000 B.C. A handsome young musician tours the King’s Palace with his harp and soon, the entire capitol city is in love with him.

Physical beauty is the hallmark of every romantic hero. Make it a basic requirement. But David wasn’t just looks. He was also the first rock star in history. A cunning player of the harp, his music wooed a princess, and calmed a mad king. He had a large following among the village women as well as the king’s own servants.

But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

As if being a rock star wasn’t enough, David was also a real hero. When danger threatened the nation, and men of war cowered in their sandals, David defeated the giant Goliath and won the princess’s hand. The people accorded him a hero’s welcome and upstaged their king. “Saul has killed a thousand, David ten thousands.”

David the Rogue
Ah... but every romantic hero needs a flaw, something to further endear him to the reader. After all, who wants to read about Mr. Perfect Dudley Do-Right? And thankfully, David was also a bad boy. Oh yes!

Forced from hero to outlaw by the king’s jealousy, David survived by his wit, grit, and appeal to women. His wife, the princess Michal, loses everything to aid his escape by lying to her father. Another woman, Abigail, literally falls at his feet, defying her husband and giving him food. Not surprisingly, David immediately offers marriage when Abigail’s husband conveniently passes away.

Who doesn’t like their romantic hero with a few rough edges? David, the rogue, swindles the Philistine king out of a city by pretending to kill Israelites. After collecting women like seashells on a tropical beach, David becomes king and tears his first wife, Princess Michal, away from her second husband.

A consummate alpha, David would not take the back seat to anyone. And herein again, is a trait for romantic heroes. Power, lust, and dominance.

David the Romantic
But, deep inside our hearts, we want our romantic heroes to be lovers, to have a soft side, and to become vulnerable to that one special woman. Is this possible with a man like David? A warlord with a burgeoning harem, a king who killed a man to take his wife?

We turn to David’s psalms, the poetry he wrote to God. David was a romantic. He believed in the ultimate triumph of good over evil, and the love of God for a repentant sinner. He writes of his yearning for God in flowery language.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.

David had that winsome spirit, emotional and repentant. He swam in his bed of tears and cried out to God, sorry for his sins. Unable to forget his first love, he brought his princess back even after she had been a wife to another. He comforted his wife when her baby died, and at the end of his life, he told his son, Solomon, to love the wife of his youth.

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.



David in Michal’s Window
David is the only man in the Bible that is recorded as being loved by a woman. This excerpt from Michal’s Window captures the kindling of that love:

  “So you’re a man of peace. Very good. What about love? Do you wish for love?”
He took my hand and traced my palm with his thumb.
   Oh, my soul. A thrill shot straight to my heart. A lone hawk screeched, banked and crested toward the tip of the disappearing light.
   “Tell me, Michal, have you ever been in love?” He raised my hand to his lips but dropped it without kissing it.
   Crickets serenaded the darkening sky with scratchy chirps, accompanied by the throaty croak of a persistent toad. I trembled, and David wrapped his arms around me. His scent pulsed hot with sandalwood, raking me with a newborn sense of longing. And his hands, oh, so firm, tightened around my waist, and his prayer shawl entangled my fingers, and his body, oh, the press of his body… made me want…

Michal ended up sacrificing her comfortable life as princess, her relationship with her parents, and ultimately David, as she saves him from her father’s wrath and he escapes into the wilderness.

Is David Your Romantic Hero?

Can you resist the magnetism of a man like David? Valiant, yet humble, comely, yet prudent in his manners, a mighty king, but inside, a boy who dreamed great things and loved the LORD God above all. How can any woman resist the sweet psalmist of Israel, the charismatic seducer, the powerful warrior-king? Rock star, Rogue, Romantic. There is a part of David that endears him to any woman’s heart.
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Michal's Window, a novel, imaginatively recreates the love life of this fascinating king. Download it free from Amazon April 15-16, 2012.


"RIVETING... a heartwrenching romance deftly evoking challenges between the sexes in Bible times."
- Terry Long, Author of The Notorious Proposal

"Never has a story drew me in and took me to the past, but in a present kind of way, as this one has. We get to walk, run, fear, and most importantly, love as Michal does."
- Melisa Hamling, Author of Twenty Weeks