Monday 31 July 2017

Forbidden Addiction ❤ Blog Tour ❤ Out Now!



Forbidden Addiction (Forbidden #4) 


With a tortured past, she’s a cat-shifter who refuses to get close to anyone. Yet she can’t seem to resist the leader of the vampire protectors.

Phoenix Kaplan has never felt a connection like the one she has with Dante Leonidas. She might service him monthly, allowing him to feed from her blood, but as much as her body tells her differently, she knows it can be nothing more, not with her insecurities and inability to be intimate with a male.

That is, until she realizes the one thing she desires most in the world is something he can give her…and she propositions him to impregnate her.

She’s never wanted anything more than to be a mother, and all she needs is this one thing from Dante.

Although he should refuse, Dante can’t resist the temptation. He’s addicted not only to her blood, but also to the enigma that is purely Phoenix. And he is determined to prove to her that he can give her much more than what she asked for.
She might protect her heart with an impenetrable wall, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to break down that wall in order to get what he desires most in the world.

Forbidden Addiction
Forbidden Series
Book Four
R.L. Kenderson

Genre: Paranormal romance

Date of Publication: 8/1/2017

ISBN: 978-0-9988770-3-7

Number of pages: 270
Word Count: 78,000

Cover Artist: Estrella Cover Art

Excerpt Forbidden Addiction:

Dante Leonidas raised his head from the map spread out on his desk from where he’d been studying it when he heard the rap at his door.
Phoenix.

Usually, he prepared himself before she arrived, but he’d been so lost in thought that he didn’t notice her scent or her presence, despite her blood in him. He cursed himself for not paying attention, but it didn’t really matter. He’d never be truly equipped to see her.
“Enter,” he called out.
The entrance to his office opened, and Phoenix slipped through before closing the door behind her. 

Dante held his breath as the aroma of sunshine flooded the room, but it was too late. Her scent teased his nostrils, and suddenly, his pants were too tight as his cock hardened under his fly. He had to reach down and adjust himself under the desk before the painful position caused him to wince. Males always talked about having big dicks, but honestly, it wasn’t that great. It could really be a pain in the ass sometimes. No pun intended.

“Hey,” the beautiful cat-shifter said as she approached his desk.
She was sans makeup with her long red-and-black hair in a ponytail while she wore her usual outfit of shapeless clothing. Today, it was a sweater and jeans. But, despite her baggy attire, Dante could still make out her curves underneath. It didn’t hurt that he’d seen her without her clothes in the past. Picturing her naked didn’t help his hard-on.
She glanced down at the Minneapolis/St. Paul area map that he’d been reviewing before she entered. “What are you looking at?”

He pointed to the Xs he’d made in red. “I marked all the incidents on the list in hopes that maybe a pattern or something would jump out at me.” Dante threw the pen he held on top of the map as he leaned back in his chair and exhaled his frustration. “So far, it’s been a bust.”
Over the last few months, crimes had been happening to vampire and shifter residences and places of business. It wasn’t like the paranormal community was immune to crime, but the unusual part about it was how they were all coming in pairs. Whatever happened to a vampire-owned place, the same thing would happen to a shifter-owned place. The first incident had been graffiti at a vampire-owned restaurant on the same night a shifter-owned restaurant was hit. It was an obvious message to both vampires and shifters. The latest incidents were fires started at vampire- and shifter-owned homes with an hour of each other. The worst part of the entire situation was that the human police were starting to notice. 

Phoenix came around to his side of the desk and leaned over to read the map and his notes. Her baggy pants hung on her hips, but when she bent over, they stretched across her ass, and Dante had to fight not to ogle her. His erection got harder, if that was even possible, and he fought his desire to pull her into his lap, strip off her clothes, and bury himself inside her.
But that would never happen.

Despite the fact that she was there to feed him, they were not in a romantic or sexual relationship. Dante didn’t know all the details about what had happened to Phoenix in her past, but he knew she had been traumatized. So, while he usually had sex with the females he fed from, the only thing he’d be sinking inside her were his fangs. His little head didn’t get it, but his big head did, and he wasn’t going to add to her issues. For now, feeding from her and being her friend was enough. But, damn, this celibacy thing just might kill him.
Maybe, someday, he would tell her how he felt about her, but today wasn’t that day. She wasn’t ready to hear it.

Turning his thoughts back to the task at hand, he asked her, “Have you guys come up with anything?”
She spun around and sat on the edge of the desk, the emerald greens of her eyes filled with vexation. “No. Are you coming to the meeting tomorrow?”
“Yes, we’ll all be there.”
“That’s good.” She nodded her approval. “One of the wolf-shifter sentinels is an officer in the Minneapolis Police Department. Damien told Vance that the sentinel would fill us in on what the humans knew.”
The wolf-shifter alpha was really proving himself to the cat-shifter alpha. Damien wasn’t going to let the newly healed bond between the two subspecies get fractured again, it seemed.

Dante furrowed his brows. “You don’t have any cat-shifters in the police force?”
“Yes, we do, but none of them are sentinels. They give us information, but we don’t share what we know back with them. It’s a good idea, what Damien did, having someone working both angles. I just hope Vance doesn’t make one of us sign up for the police academy.” She made a face of disgust. “At least, I hope it isn’t me.”
Dante chuckled. “Humans aren’t that bad.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “Humans aren’t that bad? The same species that traditionally comes at your species with a stake through the heart?”
“Pretty sure none of the members of the St. Paul Police Department are carrying stakes.”
“No, just guns.”
He laughed again. “I suppose you have a point.”
“So, does that mean you have vampires on the force? How does that work with the sun thing?”

“Of course we do. They enter the academy before their conversion, and after, they work the night shift.” Dante frowned. “Although I never thought to have one of the Guardians work for us and the police at the same time. It is smart.”
The conversation stalled, and silence fell over the room. Their eyes met, but neither moved.

The knock at the door broke the quietness, and Dante looked at the bare skin on Phoenix’s neck. “Come back later. I’m busy.”
He swiveled his chair to face her and opened his legs. “Come here, Red.”

Question One: What type of reader would you recommend this series for?
Readers who like paranormal romance, heavy on the romance part. I know there are readers who like paranormal romance and urban fantasy, but if you're more of an urban fantasy fan you might not like the Forbidden series as much. Even though our characters are paranormal with extraordinary abilities, we often joke with each other that our books are contemporary romance with a paranormal twist. So on that note, if you love contemporary romance but only like paranormal romance, you might want to give our books a try.

Question Two: We meet some new characters and catch up with some already known personalities in Forbidden Addiction. Who is your favourite character and why? 
R.: That is such a hard answer. I don't even know if I can answer that. I like so many of our characters for different reasons.
L.: That is too funny because I think it's an easy question. Naya. She started it all. I love how she's a normal person who happens to be a vampire and who happens to be royalty. I have a lot of love for all of our characters, but Naya will always be number one for me.
R.: That is such a good point. I love Naya. I love that she's just a nice woman trying to make the best of things and get by. I also have a special spot Vaughn too. He is our first hero, after all.
Question Three: I love how you describe the taste of blood in Forbidden Addiction. What was your inspiration? 
Ha. Well, we knew it had to be different from human blood, and who hasn't sucked on a finger when they've cut it, so people know what blood tastes like. But we also want it to be as realistic as possible, even if vampires aren't real, and of course it has to taste good. Which leads to my husband who eats almost everything with sweet chili sauce on it. It's his ketchup. And I guess inspiration struck. :-)

Question Four: We meet our first potential gay couple in this book, and I'm hoping they get their own story. Is this something that just happened or was it always a storyline you wanted to explore?
Well...not to give anything away, but they will get their own story. Probably not the next book, that's looking to be **** and ********, but you will see them both in the next story. As for the next part of your question...I would have to say somewhere in the middle of those two. We never talked about doing a same-sex couple or not doing a same-sex couple until this book, but we were a little hesitant at first when we did talk about it. Not because of politics or anything like that, though, but because one of our favorite paranormal series has a gay couple in it, and there is always that fear that readers will think that you're trying to copy them. However, we both read a book about a gay couple and we both thought it was super hot, and we knew we had to explore this option in our next story. And the fact that Hunter and his emotions and feelings are so real to us will hopefully dispense any notion that we are trying to be like anyone else.

Question Five: Forbidden Addiction had a bit of everything; mystery, betrayal, love, lust and heartache. Did the book turn out the way you expected? 
Better, I think! *R. looks to L. to confirm her thoughts. L. nods in agreement.* We were quite nervous about this book because we hadn't written anything for two years. It was kind of scary. And thanks to our famous memories (note: they suck) we had to reread our own books to remember what happened before Forbidden Addiction. Mostly the Phoenix and Dante scenes, but still...lousy memories. Anyway, yes, we think the book turned out great. Not only did Phoenix and Dante's relationship flourish better than we could have hoped, but we were both surprised by Phoenix and Kenzie's friendship, and Lexine and Sterling took an unexpected sexy twist. 

Question Six: R. L. Kenderson is actually two best friends who write together. How does this work? Do you write together? Brainstorm and then write separately?
Brainstorm together. Run ideas by each other. And we write separately. We work different shifts so we write in MS Word, and then we go through the book and make comments to each other using the Review option. Every once in awhile we run into something that we have to call each other for because it gets too complicated to try and message back and forth. But even then it's fun.

Question Seven: You had a 2 year gap between book three and four. Are you planning the next installment for a years time?

We don't know exactly when the next book for the Forbidden Series will be out. We recently wrote our first contemporary romance so we may do another one of those first. But no matter what, our goal is to get the next book out before next year, and we will not be waiting two years in between again. Those were special circumstances that were very personal, so we had a good reason for lying low, but we don't see that happening again.


R.L. Kenderson is two best friends writing under one name.
Renae has always loved reading, and in third grade, she wrote her first poem where she learned she might have a knack for this writing thing. Lara remembers sneaking her grandmother’s Harlequin novels when she was probably too young to be reading them, and since then, she knew she wanted to write her own.
When they met in college, they bonded over their love of reading and the TV show Charmed. What really spiced up their friendship was when Lara introduced Renae to romance novels. When they discovered their first vampire romance, they knew there would always be a special place in their hearts for paranormal romance. After being unable to find certain storylines and characteristics they wanted to read about in the hundreds of books they consumed, they decided to write their own.
They both live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area where they’re a sonographer/stay-at-home mom/wife and pharmacist/mother by day and a sexy author by night. 
You can find them at http://www.rlkenderson.com, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and Goodreads. Or you can email them at rlkenderson@rlkenderson.com, or sign up for their newsletter here. They always love hearing from their readers. 

Book Review: ♥ ♥

The Forbidden series is back with its 4th instalment! I would recommend you start from the beginning. This book features characters from the other stories, and the other books contain background information to the main characters. I'm a huge fan, and can't get enough of the forbidden series. These books are hot, super sexy, and have gritty storylines. They are more than a romance novel, and I'm hooked.

We meet Phoenix and Dante in the previous book. This is their story, and they have already been through so much together. Phoenix's isn't used to being close, and intermit with others, but that doesn't mean she isn't trying with Dante. She has already let him get so much closer than anyone else. Even though she has a long way to go. She doesn't think she stands a chance at having her happily ever after, and getting the family she always dreamed of.

Dante wants Phoenix to be happy. He has never been committed to feeding on just one blood donor, and he is used to mixing it with sex. He knows Phoenix's past makes her reluctant to want more with him, but she is already his regular blood donor. He wants to prove he can be so much more. Naya and Vaughn's babies are on their way. Phoenix's can't help but be envious of what they have. Dante is about to get the chance he wants. He just has to convince her how good it can be.

We meet some new characters in this book and some old faces return.

5 stars out of 5. Hooked!

*Beta Reader*