…because fiction is our greatest escape from reality…
I got the rights back from Harlequin Teen on my Sisters of Fate trilogy and I’m so excited! I’ve been working with Kelley at Sleepy Fox Studio on new covers and I’m planning to release the books in January 2022. But here is a sneak peek at the first cover. They will finally be available in print, too! I love this trilogy and hope you give it a chance.
We wanted to give the Unbreakable Bonds a new and updated look, so we worked with the talented Cate Ashwood to bring our beloved characters to life. Here they are! You can click on the books to go to Amazon, too. Are you ready to binge this complete series?
We absolutely fell in love with our four friends of the Unbreakable Bonds series and enjoyed writing their adventures. These books have action, explosions, duct tape, and of course, hot romance. If you’re new to the series, Shiver is currently on sale for just $.99! You can click on the cover to get your copy. Also, here is a handy reading order. We hope you have a blast and fall in love with our Lucas, Snow, Rowe, and Ian. Enjoy!
Rising Storm is out!
Rising Storm is a quick romp in my Thick as Thieves series, and it features Gareth Jones and Helix Rossington.
I loved jumping back into that world and hope you enjoy their story.
Here’s a bit about it:
Reformed thief Helix Rossington needs to find his little brother.
Finally free of the blackmailing monster who forced him into a life of crime, Helix is ready for a fresh start. A better life.
Unfortunately, making amends for past wrongs and locating his brother means stealing…again.
To make matters worse, he must work with ex-cop Gareth Jones. Not that the man is hard on the eyes, but he was in law enforcement and Helix doesn’t trust them.
Gareth has lost everything. But helping this band of reformed thieves promises to give him a new purpose in life.
If only he didn’t have to work with Helix. The man is hot as hell but a real pain in the ass. Still, his drive to find his lost brother has left Gareth wondering if he’d misjudged the man.
When this simple job goes wrong, Helix and Gareth are left clinging to each other, struggling to deal with new feelings neither thought possible. But are both men too damaged to take a chance on each other?
Rising Storm is the second book in the Thick As Thieves series and contains thieves seeking redemption, enemies to lovers, stealing antics, hot times, and a deep love neither man expected.
You can get your copy here!
Blind Warrior is out! We’re so excited for you to meet Grey and Cort. Here’s a little about the book. You can get it at getbook.at/BlindWarrior.
Grey Ackles
The Soul Weaver feels useless.
A burden endangering his brothers.
The last battle with the pestilents cost Grey his sight and powers.
Now he’s dependent on his vision rehabilitation therapist Cort to learn how to function on a daily basis.
But as he grows closer to Cort, Grey is left wanting his powers back for a new reason—how will he ever know if the man he’s falling for is actually his soul mate?
Cort Newton
There is some really weird stuff going on at that house.
Spell books, guns, and a giraffe in the backyard?
But no matter how strange it gets, Cort is not going to leave the grumpy writer.
Adjusting to sudden blindness is hard for everyone, but Grey clearly has deeper reason for needing his vision back at any cost. Cort just wished Grey would confide in him.
Even with Grey’s secrets, Cort has never been drawn to a man like he is with Grey and he will do anything to keep this man safe.
Blind Warrior is the third book in the Weavers Circle series. It includes fast-paced action, running through Savannah, secrets, shapeshifting, brainwashed assassins, a gorilla, sexy times, fun with water, insecurity, three crazy old ladies, and magic!
I have let this site go! In fact, it updated and is a little messed up, so it needs a complete revamp. You can usually find me on Facebook and also at drakeandelliott.com. I’m currently writing MM romance, but I’m also working on an MF urban fantasy. I love both! (Okay, and MMF romances, since I have a few of those out, too.)
My latest book is the second in the Weavers Circle series I write with Jocelynn Drake. You can find it at getbook.at/WildWarrior. It’s a fun, magical romp featuring Baer and Wiley.
Sometimes you have to dump a book if the plot isn’t right. I just had to do that. Thirty thousand words down the drain. But my new plot is better and tighter and I love it more, so it was worth it. But damn, getting rid of all that work is hard.
Jocelynn and I have done this a couple of times. When the story isn’t good enough, your gut gives you hints. When we realize it’s not right, we’ve started over. We end up having better books because of it.
There’s a trick to having two writers put forth a vision of their story. Luckily, Jocelynn and I have similar story instincts, so we’re able to work through our issues. And we do have them, have different ideas on how a character would react to a situation. We just work through it and find a compromise. And honestly, we usually end up in agreement.
I truly enjoy working with a partner on books because I don’t always trust my own story instincts but funny enough, when something is usually niggling the back of my mind, Jocelynn will point that part out. And vice versa. Our partnership works both ways.
When we started Shiver, we had no idea we’d still be writing books together years later, but here weare. And we have more ideas to come. There are still a few more books in Ward Security and one more in Unbreakable Bonds. Even Pineapple Grove has a couple more books. Next up for us is All for Wesley, book two in our Pineapple Grove series. We’re hard at work on it now. The cover is in finals, so we should have that for you soon. We’re excited about Wesley and Nathan’s story and hope you love it.
And don’t forget that we have our recent release, Ignite, out now. Click here to read more about it.
I’m going to try using my website a little more. I pay for the damn thing, so I might as well. LOL. Most of the time, you can find me on Facebook–especially in our reader’s group, Unbreakable Readers. Other than, that I’m more than likely off writing. Jocelynn Drake and I have a hectic schedule of exciting books planned this year. Right now, Fracture comes out March 29th and we’re hard at work on the next in our Ward Security Series. This one is full of action, intrigue and hot sex! Our favorite type of book!
Remote AccessBlackmail turned Lane Becker into a thief at the age of fourteen.
After ten miserable years, he’s finally free. To make reparation for his crimes, Lane plans to steal back a priceless Metropolis poster and return it to its rightful owner. But to find it, he has to break into the home of Hayrick Letsen, the man who turned his life into a living nightmare. The last thing Lane expects to encounter is Letsen’s nosy but crazy-hot security guard.
Quincy Holt’s life has been ruined. He’s infamous in Oklahoma as a cop on the take, but what no one knows is that he was unofficially undercover, trying to get the goods on Letsen — the most wanted fence in the business. When that failed, he was left with no other option but to take a job as Letsen’s security guard.
Lane and Quincy are on the run from their mutual enemy while trying to right past wrongs. Neither expected a thief and a cop to have the kind of wild, off-the-charts chemistry that could very well end up breaking their hearts.
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You can get your copy here!
Before the hubby was put on a low low salt diet, we used to order Chinese food every weekend. They always included a lot of fortune cookies, so I started saving them up. Now, we only order once a month—maybe—but I still have all these fortune cookies and open one every week. (Well, I did. Apparently, he decided the cookies needed to be thrown out last week in the great clean out. In his defense, he had no idea how much fun I had opening these every week.)
I may build my stash back up so I can do more of these posts. I know fortune cookies are silly and mean absolutely nothing, but sometimes, it’s fun when you get a message you needed to hear. There are a few that came during some very interesting times, so I thought I’d share.
This is the year when ingenuity stands high on the list.
I got this one the night I was discussing two things. Putting out Psycho Romeo in audio and putting out solo MM romances. That was the plan for this year along with the four books Jocelynn and I had scheduled. I hit a few road bumps as everyone knows now, but I’m still hopeful at least one solo will go out this year. (Joce and I are right on schedule with three out this year already!) As for the audio, we jumped into that one and Psycho Romeo is now up with Audible and narrated by the talented Kenneth Obi.
Embrace change, don’t battle it.
Oh, did I need to get this one! As you can tell from that painfully revealing last post, I battle everything. I’m stubborn and always believe I can do things for myself. I’ve always run myself ragged trying to do it all myself. I don’t delegate well. LOL. But accepting that my biggest battle has to do with missing chemicals was hard. Even after I was told, I fought the diagnosis and well, I’m still learning. Like every other human being out there. We are always learning.
When in doubt, mumble.
Including this one because it cracked me up. Not only do I do this, but my characters often do as well. 😉
Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man.
My work has been my savior. I love plotting with Jocelynn and Rachel. Yesterday, I had a three hour plotting call with Jocelynn, and not only did we hammer out an exciting surprise coming up, but we made a few other decisions that have my blood pumping with excitement. Plus, we 
laughed a lot. (It’s not a big secret, but I love making that woman laugh more than just about anything.) In addition to plotting, I love diving into that blank page, even when characters are frustrating me to death and making pace my office. Or bedroom. Or living room. (I move around a lot.) Then, there’s my favorite. Round 2. When you go through that rough draft, and start adding the nuance that makes the characters, story and setting breathe.
Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness.
This one is my favorite so far because there are no truer words.
I have always wanted to be an author. From the time I wrote my first story in the first grade, and the teacher called my mother to come in and talk. It was a moody little story with a sad ending, but the teacher adored it and read it the class. I was so embarrassed! Yet, proud. I wrote a lot of stories through school and yeah, a lot of moody poetry as a teen. Even those of us without chemical issues do that. 😉 But when I wasn’t writing, my nose was stuck in books. I knew I wanted to write romance novels, and I finished my first one at 23 with a toddler playing next to me. I still cringe when I think of sending that to Harlequin. But I got the loveliest two page rejection letter. At the time, I didn’t think it was so lovely, but I later learned that was pretty rare.
I went on to write many, many books over the years and the dream of publishing just wasn’t happening. I lost my joy in writing over and over, but was always pulled back. I was told my heroines were too strong, and that the heroes needed to save them more—when I liked them saving themselves. LOL. I even wrote this funky book I later learned was urban fantasy and got three agent offers for it. (Dweller on the Threshold) I won’t go into the long battle after that because it already here somewhere, but when Jocelynn asked me to write with her, I found my joy again.
I am writing my favorite kind of stories and rediscovering the happiness in what I do. There is most definitely great freedom in that.
THE EXCITEMENT IN THE DRAKE AND ELLIOTT HOUSE RIGHT NOW IS INTENSE!
Yes, Jocelynn and I are feeling it this week. We love our Unbreakable Boys so, so much. And we missed them so, so much. We’d always planned to do a novella and it was actually planned for Lucas and Andrei’s ‘real’ first anniversary later this year. But the story grew and then well, as you’ll see when you read the book, another character’s story also grew…
We’ve decided to write what we want to write. To dive into the stories that speak to us. So Blaze turned into a full book, giving us a chance to delve into the relationship that is Lucas and Snow, as well, because let’s face it, they are the glue that started it all. Lucas, Snow, Rowe, and Ian just breathe inside us. Sounds corny, I know. Eh, don’t really care that it does. We are who we are. 😉
So. FOUR DAYS. Blaze is here in four days! You can pre-order your copy here. And until then, here is an exclusive sneak peek.
A moment later, Andrei’s picture came up on his phone and he snatched it off the coffee table and walked back to the window. “Miss me yet?” he said into the phone.
“Of course. You weren’t here when I got done with wedding plans today. Had to take care of myself.”
“Hate missing that.” And he did. Fuck, he loved watching that man touch himself. His dick, which had grown half-hard the second he’d heard Andrei’s voice, perked all the way up at the memory of the last time he’d watched him do that. They’d been in the shower, and Lucas had sat on the built-in seat with a perfect view. He groaned.
“I know what you’re doing,” Andrei murmured, his voice dropping into that deep, sexy rumble that turned Lucas into mush.
He pressed his hand to the glass and wished his view was a completely different one. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to be home enjoying all that hot, sweaty wedding planning. “Not yet, but you’d better be ready to reload soon.”
“Ooh, orders already.” His chuckle sounded low and rumbly over the phone. “I really called to see why you have my staff looking up your private information. They do have real clients, you know.”
“My stake in the business counts for nothing, huh?”
“You think it gives you the right to pull them off paying jobs?”
He grinned at the note of teasing in his fiancé’s voice. He loved when Andrei got bossy. “Yes. So, is there news?”
“Gidget managed to find the phone—don’t ask me how—but Taylor used it twice earlier today to call local numbers. The calls pinged off two different cell towers. I’m sure she’ll have her location nailed soon, but the problem is, your niece is damn smart. Gidget is pretty sure she’ll dump the phone. Don’t be surprised if it’s a new number the next time she calls.”
Pride warmed him again. He was liking this kid more and more.
“Lucas, tell me the truth. How bad is it?” He paused. “There’s something in your voice besides alcohol.”
“Haven’t had a drop.” Just painkillers, but he’d keep that to himself. Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose. Andrei had his number, and he’d had it from the very beginning. Damn. For so long, he’d had to be so strong. So in control. And this man, this beautiful man, had come along and shared his burden. And he didn’t even realize how much. He pressed his forehead to the window, loving the cool glass on his skin. “I miss you.”
“Lucas?” The thread of warning in that tone made his dick perk right up. “Baby, talk to me.”
He opened his eyes and focused on the glittering lights in the smear of midnight black. “Taylor is mixed up in something bad. Snow and I talked to this woman today who’s received death threats. Seems Taylor is doing a paper on toxic water from fracking and—” he broke off, not wanting Andrei to know someone had come after them. “If this is a company cutting corners by illegally dumping waste, my niece was smart to disappear. Cutting corners like that will shut a company down fast, big or small.”
“And if it’s big, there’s no telling how far they’ll go to keep someone quiet if they know.” Andrei paused. “But small could even be worse. If someone stands to lose the business. Shit, Lucas. Shit!”
“I know. But listen to me. I will be home before our wedding. There is nothing on this Earth that would keep me away from marrying you next week. Nothing.”
“Death could,” Andrei growled. “I don’t like this at all.”
Lucas snorted. “Not happening. Tell me about the wedding plans you and Ian took care of today. I want to hear you get turned-on.”
“I know what you’re trying to do.”
“Then let me. Snow and I are being cautious, I swear. Now tell me about the planning.”
“You find my reactions to all this very amusing, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I wouldn’t change them for anything.” He chuckled. “And it’s not like I’m not having the same reaction. If I were there right now, you’d be facedown on our bed.”