Book Blitz: Exiled by Lana Grayson
Exiled by Lana Grayson
(Anathema #2)
Publication date: March 19th 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Suspense
The only thing more sacred than the Anathema MC is the vengeance of a wronged man…
Excommunicated…
Exiled from the Anathema MC, Brew Darnell escaped the bullet only to face the unforgiving
solitude of the road. With no future before him, Brew battles his past and vows to protect the one
he loves the only way he can—by hunting the man who destroyed his family, devastated the Anathema MC, and betrayed every
promise he ever made.
Saved…
Trapped in an abusive relationship with a sadistic biker, Martini Wright learned to manipulate,
controlling her boyfriend’s temper with a wink and a smile until she’s traded as collateral to a
rival MC. Her captor, Brew, has never trafficked a woman before, and Martini intends to
exploit his guilty secrets to escape. Caught in the middle of a gang war, Brew and Martini
fight a dangerous attraction—a second chance to heal from the mistakes of their past if they can confess the terrible truth.
Redeemed…
Brew failed his family before, but Martini can still be saved. With redemption delivered at the
edge of a blade, Brew must choose who to rescue—the one he already lost…or the love he never deserved.
Purchase:
A woman sat on my bike.
It was the most dangerous place in the world for her.
Had a man trespassed, he’d be laid out on the concrete cradling a broken nose and counting the
teeth scattered on the pavement.
But the blonde leaning against the handlebars gave me a fucking smirk. The kind of look that
gripped a man by his jeans and twisted until he handed over his wallet or fell in love.
She mugged with a smile, charmed with a twirl of her hair, and saved her perfect ass from
my temper with an arching eyebrow.
She was the type of pretty worth a night of regret, but I knew better. Pretty was about as
good for my bike as a ride on dry gravel. I jerked a thumb over my shoulder.
She spoke first.
“Hi.”
Disarmed, and she didn’t even throw a punch. The leather jacket tailor-fit her frame, snug against a thin waist and swelling hips that promised endless trouble. Her
boots had heels, probably to pin down the men who fell for her siren song. Her jacket wasn’t
zipped, but a pink, silk scarf tied over her neck and obscured the cleavage from her plunging
neckline.
She was the most beautiful woman I’d seen in three thousand miles and thirty-eight years.
And she sat on my bike.
“Get off.”
I counted the seconds her silver eyes dared to meet mine. She glanced down, batting her thick
lashes as she studied the ground with a bite to her lip and another squeeze on my jeans.
How fucking old was she? College probably, though I doubted many people in the coal mining
town saved their pennies for higher education.
“I can’t get up.” Her lips puffed into a perfect pout.
She didn’t want to play this game with me.
“It’s real easy, Darling. Stand up. Get the hell off my bike.”
“I told you. I can’t.”
Those silver eyes pierced my patience, daring me to haul her over my shoulder. I considered it.
She thought she could tease without consequence, thought she’d handle how I punished little
flirty girls for playing a game they’d never win. She crossed her ankles and settled in. Defiant.
I hardened.
And I hated myself for it.
“Get off the damn bike.”
“They’re waiting for you inside the garage.” The woman teased me with a glance over my leather. “I won’t let anyone touch your ride.”
A scratch to the paint would be nothing compared to the bruise on her ass.
Guest Post
Grammar-Blind
Yinz. Pop. Nebby. Buggy. Gum Band. Jagoff. Red up.
So, my hometown of Pittsburgh is a little…special. We’re not big like New York or well-known like LA, but a lot of people recognize us. They can’t help it—our regional dialect is impossible to hide.
Not only do we have our own vocabulary and quirky pronunciations (Go up to Gine Iggle and
get some jumbo and chipped chop ham n’at before dat Stiller game dahn-town starts), we actually have our own grammar rules. We speak in ways I didn’t realize
were incorrect until I published my first book!
Pittsburghese is so common with my friends, family, and coworkers, I’ve become
grammarblind. I can pick out the “yinzer” words that easily identify us, but there’s one
major grammar
rule we break all the time and no one from the area one realizes it!
The floor needs scrubbed. The baby likes cuddles. The cat wants fed.
To a Pittsburgher, these sentences are perfectly fine. To the rest of the world—and my very, very patient beta readers—they’re so horribly wrong one they thought I did it on purpose to make my characters seem
less intelligent. The Pittsburgh region collectively drops the “to be” from our past participles,
and they have absolutely no idea they’re doing it!
Whooooops.
So, what do I do to fix it? Well, I scour for those typos, that’s number one. Finding beta readers
outside of Western Pennsylvania was a good plan too. But…for authenticity’s sake, I set Exiled in the middle of Pittsburgh and I’m crossing my fingers to
hope people think I just researched really, really well!
Still, for a region voted the worst accent in America, Pittsburghers really embrace their language
quirks, and, if nothing else, it does lend a bit of flavor to the text.
I’d love to hear from readers on what they think of dialect in books. Anything from Huck Finn
to Flannery O’Conner’s shorts to Trainspotting. Do you like seeing the region in books? Is it fun?
Distracting? Let me know!
Biker…Romance? How can a motorcycle club story be a romance?
I get that question all the time.
I won’t lie. Exiled is a pretty grim book, and my first novel, Warlord, was no walk in the
park either. The dark and gritty life of a motorcycle MC isn’t normally the setting for romance.
Instead of rolling Scottish highlands or the sleek penthouses of New York City, MC Romance
gives us oil-stained garages, cheap motels, and lots of time spent on the road.
The lifestyle is a hard one full of blood, muscle, and betrayal, and I think that’s why I love it so
much. The stories focus on an aspect of life outside our normal society but beyond what we
like to imagine with billionaire and royalty romances. The MC isn’t just a character trait for
the heroit’s a way of life, a setting, and a living, breathing representation of his
strength and toughness.
Bikers are the definition of alpha. They’re powerful enough to live outside the normal
conventions of the law and morals, but they still uphold a rigorous code of honor that
binds them to their brothers and cause. In terms of romance and escapism, you can’t go
wrong with the sexy, brooding hero facing the open road and all the bloodshed and mayhem
that comes from tracking his enemies and serving the brotherhood he loves. Throw in a heroine
with a secret or some past nightmares, and that dedication to the MC can mirror in his
protection and love of her. It’s a perfect combination.
But I do get a couple weird looks when I describe when I write, even from my own family.
Bikers and Motorcycle Clubs have a well-known reputation for being dangerous and frightening. But that element of risk is the perfect
setting for a beautiful romance. Amid the violence and revenge, aggression and pride, the
passion between the heroine and the toughened, grizzled warrior is brought to life.
The danger intrigues us, the suspense entertains us, and the romance…well, these men aren’t afraid to use their strength and skills to take their women.
MC Romance is just a fun genre to experience—all the danger without messing your hair up with a helmet. It’s one of my favorite to write,
especially as it blends action, suspense, and all the passion of dark romance with a unique setting.
If you haven’t tried one, know they aren’t for the faint of heart, but for pure pulse-pounding excitement and super sexy romance, you won’t find a better read out there.
Sex in Romance
Oh, it’s a lovely topic, isn’t it?
I write romance for a living now, and I still giggle when the S-E-X word is mentioned. However, sex is one of the most important elements of a romance novel—and not just because it happens to be the place where the pages are dog-eared in our favorite paperbacks.
Passion and romance not only build a delicious tension within romance books, but the actual
act is one of the purest and best ways to develop a character’s emotional arc. So much about a
character’s motivations, feelings, fears, thoughts, and desires are revealed within this moment.
The sex isn’t just an opportunity for a bit of fun in the book, it builds the relationships between
the main characters and helps to explore the emotional blocks, problems, and secrets which
prevent the hero and heroine from finding happiness.
In Exiled, both main characters face their own demons in the bedroom. My hero—a rough biker with a heavy burden—denies his dominant sexuality as he fears becoming a man like his abusive father. My heroine—a feisty flirt with a penchant for bad boys—refuses to submit to her desires as she attempts to learn from her mistakes and leave an abusive
relationship. Both characters suffer through their internal conflicts and, through their sexual
encounters, they begin to heal their hearts enough to trust the other with their pasts.
The characters’ passions reveal so much about their personalities and desires, and, just as they
strip bare for each other, the sexual encounter should also strip their emotions for the readers—letting the characters grow and evolve as well as share more of the darkness or hesitance that
prevents them from fully giving their hearts to their partner. Sex is the greatest vehicle to
expose the hero and heroine and have them face those truths they aren’t ready to admit, and
the experiences for the characters becomes a meaningful expression when they can learn and
grow from the embrace.
And, of course, a good bedroom scene is also fun for the obvious reasons. ;)
Alpha Males—Acceptable Character Flaws
Have you ever heard the term “Mary Sue?” It’s a term for a generic heroine—one who is pretty and smart and funny and everyone likes her and she had no discernable flaws.
She’s a vehicle for the story and little else, and the character hardly has room to grow within
the story as she’s perfect already.
Romance novels tend to come down pretty hard on heroines, but it’s the heroes I’d like to
examine today.
Most readers want to connect with the characters from the first page, if not immediately like
the hero from that first introduction. This tends to get a little tricky, especially if the hero is a
darker soul, someone who needs to grow and soften as a character before the end of the story.
A good hero is redeemable, but he’s not so far gone readers can’t relate to his thoughts and actions.
It’s a fine line to walk.
As a result, a lot of heroes tend to have the same flaw—arrogance. And that makes sense. An alpha hero relies on his confidence to woo his women,
outshine his competition, and fuel his anger when he’s challenged. He thinks himself
better/greater/more than the heroine, and is often broken by her stubbornness, beauty, or attitude.
However, I like a story where the hero makes mistakes and seeks redemption for past sins.
I want to see a man examine his behavior and choices and come to terms with the events that
affected others in a profanely negative way. I love to see a strong man broken by his own
conscience and then rebuilt through friendships, family, and lovers as well as his own pride
and sense of morality.
I wrote Exiled to explore just what a terrible revelation from the past would do to my hero’s pride,
confidence, and soul, and the result was a whirlwind of emotions and discoveries about the character. I love having the freedom to explore and let my hero make same mistakes of his past, only to redeem himself and learn from the experiences.
I want to see more flaws from heroes—tempers, liars, foolishness, greed, etc. Romance is an emotional experience, and I’m always
looking for stories where both characters are pushed and forced to grow.
If you guys have any recommendations, comment below. I’d love to find some new, exciting
romances to read!
Lana Grayson was born to write romance. Her favorite genres range from the dark and twisty
to the lighthearted and sentimental—as long as the characters are memorable, the story is fun, and the romance is steamy. Lana lives
in Pittsburgh with her husband, and, when she isn’t bundled in her writing chair, she’s most
likely cheering on the Steelers or searching for the ‘Burgh’s best Italian restaurants.
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