Raine Balkera - Romance Author

I'm bored and need to write, so here I am. I've done a lot of reading, and I read before going to bed each night, so plowing through my stash is inevitable and why I'm still in the habit of browsing Amazon reviews. One day, while reading reviews for potential new purchases, I came across something that made me laugh. It also caught my attention because, apparently, I too suck at Show v Tell Great protagonists and antagonists. Great plot. Smooth action, solid connection between friends.  But...stop "telling" me and start "showing" me. For example: "The pain eating through Dylan was like a chainsaw cutting through his gut." How much more exciting it would've been if I'd experienced it WITH Dylan: The pain ate through Dylan's gut like an angry chainsaw. OR A chainsaw cut a swathe of pain through Dylan's gut.  Less use of passive words and phrases (phrasing) would catapult your already fabulous writing into the rea...

Pages -  238 pages Device Use -  Unlimited Publisher -  Lachesis Publishing Inc Published -  September 8, 2013 Sold by -   Amazon Series -  Book 1 Gentlemen of Honor Genre -  Regency Sexual Content -  4/5 Language -  irrelevant POV -  3rd Omnis (mostly h) Synopsis She was known as The Spinster of Brightwood Manor, and that suited Lady Beatrice O’Brien just fine. She was happy being a spinster; happy running her father’s estates while amassing a fortune of her own; happy tending to the needs of her community; and most of all, she was happy not having a man around to tell her what to do. But when Beatrice accidentally shoots her new neighbor, the Earl of Drennan, her life turns upside-down. Suddenly, this very arrogant gentleman, who also happens to be charming and attractive, makes himself at home at Brightwood Manor, and proceeds to court her! Beatrice knows one thing for certain. Marriage will...

Pages: 288 pages Device Usage: Unlimited Publisher: Potatoworks Press Published: February 4, 2014 Sold by: Amazon Digital Genre: Regency Romance Sexual Content: 3-5 Language: doesn't apply Voice: third P but Emma's story Synopsis Miss Emma Harlow hasn’t earned the reputation as a hoyden for nothing, so when the Duke of Trent discovers her in his conservatory stealing one of his orchids, he’s isn’t surprised—charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the Duke of Trent himself—imagine, stealing the duke’s prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose! But her vexation doesn’t last long. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia’s engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull!) Sir Waldo Windbou...

SEAL's Honor (Take No Prisoners Series): A Military Romance Print Length -  197 pages Publisher -  Elle James Published -  February 9, 2014 Amazon -   Link Genre -  Action & Adventure,  Men's Adventure, Military Romance Series -  Take No Prisoners Series, Book 1 of  7 Sexual Content -  4/5 Language -  coarse Synopsis SEAL Reed Tucker doesn’t believe in commitment, until he tangles the sheets with one hot pilot, Delaney O’Connell. His phobia against commitment is challenged when his best friend asks Delaney to marry him first. As a helicopter pilot for the 160th Night Stalkers, Delaney knows the risks of loving a SEAL. When her lover's friend loses an arm in battle, she can’t refuse his marriage proposal when he's already lost so much. In love with one man, pledged to marry another, she’s torn. Tuck and Delaney must come to grips with the happiness they owe themselves and the happiness of their friend who has...

The Cryptographer  Author -   Alice Wallis-Eton Genre -  Regency Romance Series -  Second Sons, Book 1 of 4  Pages -  254  Published -  August 11, 2015 Publisher -  Self Kindle link POV -  Third Person Language -  none Sexual Content -  tame Synopsis Everybody has a secret, but some are harder to decipher…  England, 1813. Aster Tanner is alone in the world and keeps a roof over her head by working the one asset she has – her mind. She needs her job; she does not need a Scotsman underfoot making her heart flutter with heated glances and impertinent questions. Iain McIntyre, Captain in the Second Dragoons, has a confidential assignment: find a list rumoured to name traitors working against England. He is looking for anything unusual — like a woman working as a secretary. He tells himself his fascination with the lass is because she holds a man's position, and nothing to do wi...

Length: 353 pages Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (September 1, 2015) Date: September 1, 2015 Sold by: Amazon Series: Covent Garden Cubs (Book 2) Sexual Content: 4-5 Language: mild Synopsis She's beyond his reach... Gideon Harrow has spent his life in London's dark underworld-and he wants out. A thief and a con, he plans one last heist to finally win his freedom. But when everything goes wrong, he finds himself at the tender mercies of one of Society's most untouchable women, Lady Susanna Derring. ...and out of her depth. Susanna has spent her life in London's glittering ton, under the thumb of a domineering mother, and she wants out. When a wickedly charming rogue lands at her feet, she jumps at the chance to experience life before it's too late. But as she descends into London's underworld, she finds that nothing - not even Gideon - is as it seems. As excitement turns to danger, Susanna must decide what price she's willing to p...

Pages: 352 pages Device Usage: Unlimited Publisher: Eve Silver Published: August 4, 2014 Buy: Amazon  Series: Dark Gothic - Book 3 Language: none Sexual Content: 2-5 Narrative: Jane Austen First Blurb Innkeeper’s daughter, Jane Heatherington, is sold into indentured servitude to cover her father’s debts, sold to Aidan Warrick, a man whose handsome face and form mock the rumors that skulk in his shadow, rumors that paint him a smuggler, a pirate…and worse. On the rain-swept Cornish coast, Aidan’s business is carried out in the darkest hours of moonless nights, his secrets are many, and death follows in his wake. Isolated and alone, Jane's only companion is the man she dare not trust, the man who looks at her with heated desire that she both fears and craves. As she finds herself ensnared in the twisted schemes carried out within the walls of Aidan’s looming estate, Jane must decide if Aidan Warrick is the dark prince of her dreams or a monster preying on...