Sunday, April 28, 2013

A Matter of Fate, Monkey Bread & Sticky Situations with Ellie Heller Plus a Giveaway



A Matter of Fate, Monkey Bread & Sticky Situations

Mona, the main character in A Matter of Fate, is a bit of a foodie. She loves to cook; she even attended a culinary institute for a while before dropping out to pursue other interests.

One of the first foods she talks about is how she introduced 'monkey bread' to one of her old bosses, the chef at D'Allesandro's. If you've never had monkey bread it's a delicious mix of mini rolls of yeast dough or biscuits, coated with cinnamon, butter and often brown sugar, baked up in a bundt pan for yummy, sweet morning goodness. Now at D'Allesandro's the chef makes everything from scratch, similar to this recipe from Chow.com - http://www.chow.com/recipes/30689-monkey-bread-pluckets . However, when I make it at home, I tend to use a quick and easy recipe like this one from Pioneer Woman: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/monkey-bread/. One, there's a little less planning needed, and two, the smaller bits and insane amount of butter make this recipe have a high sugary-goodness to dough ratio.

Another meal from D'Allesandros, one from the chef this time, but which Mona adores, is mushrooms marsala. I particularly like this recipe from Simply Recipes.com, the tip on dry sautéing first is key! http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/marsala_glazed_mushrooms/ Be sure to read the comments too, lots of ideas there.

Of course in A Matter of Fate it's not all about food for Mona, there are henchmen after her, a missing friend to track down and a half-elf shifter who tempts and distracts her from her goals.  Here's a sneak peek of the scene with the monkey bread when the sizzle of attraction between Mona and Cart flares into something more:

“I’ll take some now.”
She handed him the bag.
“No, the other.” He nodded to the one in her very sticky, sugar-covered hand.
Their eyes locked as she held the morsel up to his mouth.
He enveloped her fingertips with his mouth, his teeth gently grazing her skin as he removed the pastry. Sucking gently, he cleaned the tips of her fingers before he licked the sugary remnants off her upper knuckles. His hand came up and clasped her wrist, turning her hand so he could trace a path of kisses across the center of her palm.

So, which would monkey bread would you choose, entirely made from scratch like D'Allesandro's or the quick, but extra gooey version? Sorry, but Cart doesn't come with either. :-)




April 15 Interview
Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews     

April 15 Spotlight
Share My Destiny

April 16 Guest blog
Place of Reads Book Blog

April 17 Guest blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom

April 18 Guest blog
Sylv Jenkins

April 20 Spotlight and review
Faerie Tale Books

April 21 Guest blog
Paranormal Romance Fans for Life

April 22 Interview and review
My Home Away From Home – 

April 23 Spotlight
Lisa’s World of Books

April 25 Interview
Cloey's Book Reviews and Other Stuff

April 26 Spotlight
Books Books and More Books 

April 27 Spotlight and review
3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!   http://3partnersinshopping.blogspot.com

April 28 Guest blog
Roxanne’s Realm

April 29 Guest blog
Fang-tastic Books



A Matter of Fate
Ellie Heller

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Contemporary Fantasy Romance

Publisher: Crimson Romance

Book Description:

Someone is setting death-spells targeting mortals and elf blood alike. With her mentor out of commission, it’s up to half-trained Warder Mona Lisa Kubrek to stop the magic. Despite being told repeatedly her job is to nullify spells and not go after the source, too many people are at risk for her to not track the spell-caster down. Even meeting a sexy half-elf shifter won’t distract her from her goal.

Except Cart Dupree is fully trained and has the team to search for the evildoer, so she’d be stupid to not use his expertise. Stupid is something she can’t afford to be, not with her enemy’s henchmen after her. Later she’ll deal with Cart and his questions about her special abilities and the non-standard training her mentor has given her. Right now, they need to unravel where the magician is, and who he is, before he builds enough power to decimate them all.

First, though, they need to stay alive.

Amazon

About the Author:

After living in several cities east of the Mississippi, but never quite out of the snow belt, I've settled down in SW Ohio with my three kids, two dogs (one of whom thinks he's a cat) and one cat (who thinks he's a dog).

I write paranormal romance and contemporary fantasy, all with a suspenseful edge. A MATTER OF FATE, a 'traditional' paranormal romance, will be available this spring from Crimson Romance. My first published short (GLBT sensual), "Ginny's Capture" is available now.

I'm also an acquisitions editor (i.e. slush reader :-) ) for Curiosity Quills Press using my full first name, Alison.


@EllieWrites2






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4 comments:

Debby said...

My kids used to love Monkey Bread. Great post.
debby236 at gmail dot com

Unknown said...

Thanks Debby! We still make it once in a while now that the kids are older. :-)

Unknown said...

Wonderful post. I love the cover and the premise of your story. Thank you for sharing.

Unknown said...

Thank you Leta!