Guest Post from Elizabeth Hunter and GIVEAWAY of A Hidden Fire

Diego Rivera, The Kid

Thanks to the lovely Smittens Kitten for letting me steal her blog for the day! My name is Elizabeth Hunter, and I’m writing today about my debut novel, A Hidden Fire, on sale today at Amazon and Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. I also wanted to post a little about the Dia de los Muertos holiday celebrated in Mexico and the American Southwest at the beginning of November.

In my paranormal romance, A Hidden Fire, one of the first social interactions Gio and Beatrice have is a community center celebration of Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. Originating in Mexico, Dia de los Muertos is a holiday that blends indigenous Native American traditions with the Roman Catholic celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

“Do you know much about Dia de los Muertos?” Beatrice asked as they walked. He shook his head. “Not much. I haven’t spent a great deal of time in Latin America.” He knew plenty, of course, but he preferred to hear her explanation. “It’s not usually celebrated until November second, but the art center hosts a family fair on Halloween so parents have an option other than trick-or-treating for the kids.” Beatrice smiled at a pair of small children in skeleton costumes with flowers in their hair as they rushed past on the way to the carnival games. He observed their small, retreating forms. “It certainly seems popular.” “It is. It used to be just Mexican families, but now a lot of people like the tradition.”

The meaning behind this unique celebration is that the dead should not be mourned, but celebrated, and that by honoring their souls through gifts and decorations, the souls will “meet” the living and hear their prayers. Humor and celebration is encouraged and the day has become the equivalent of a national holiday in Mexico. Often dancing, singing, poetry and art are part of family or community celebrations.

The women stepped back to examine the effect, whispering to each other in Spanish but smiling and laughing as well. Giovanni cocked his head and looked around the room. Though it was filled with symbols and depictions of the dead, there was no fear and very little sorrow. It was unusual to find such celebration in the name of loss, and he found himself touched by the demeanor of the partygoers.

While traditions vary in different communities, most include an altar set up either in home or local cemeteries and decorated with pictures of loved ones, along with marigolds, toys for children, and favorite foods and drinks of the deceased, which are then eaten by friends and family after the celebration.

Though the initial setting is in Texas, the Elemental Mysteries is an international story, with characters originating in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and North Africa. Since I was dealing with such a huge cast of characters from so many periods of history, the series involved a lot of research. Luckily, many of the settings are places I have traveled or lived personally!

While I’ve been writing online and professionally for a while, A Hidden Fire is the first time I’ve published a novel of this length. The journey to independent publishing has been a crazy ride, but I’ve met so many amazing people along the way. If you want to learn more about the books, subscribe at the website, ElementalMysteries.com.

Thanks for reading!

Elizabeth 

 

Thank you Elizabeth, for the great post about Dia de los Muertos and introducing everyone to A Hideen Fire. It was a pleasure having you on my blog.  

Elizabeth is giving away one copy of her book A Hidden Fire to a  reader. This giveaway is open to EVERYONE so all you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment for Elizabeth along with your profile link or email address. Winner will be chosen on 1st November.

A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter

Released date: October 18 2011

"No secret stays hidden forever ..."

A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mystery he’d abandoned years before. He never expected a young librarian could hold the key to the search, nor could he have expected the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice de Novo will follow a twisted maze that leads them from the archives of a university library, through the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation they never could have predicted.

A Hidden Fire is a paranormal mystery/romance for adult readers. It is the first book in the Elemental Mysteries Series.

You can purchase the book from Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Smashwords

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Hunter is the author and independent publisher of the Elemental Mysteries Series. She is a graduate of the University of Houston Honors College in the Department of English (Linguistics) and a former English teacher. A native of Central California, she now lives in Southern California with her husband, son, and an assortment of dogs. She enjoys reading, writing, travel, and bowling (despite the fact that she’s not very good at it.) Learn more about Elizabeth Hunter's writing at her author website, elizabethhunterwrites.com or contact her by e-mail at elizabethhunterwrites@gmail.com.  Goodreads A Hidden Fire is her debut novel.

Review: A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter

A Hidden Fire by Elizabeth Hunter

Series: Element Mysteries Book #1

Genre: Paranormal, Mystery

Page: 355

Released Date: 18 October 2011

My copy:
ARC provided by the author for reviewing purposes

Buy Links

Amazon 
Barnes & Nobels
Smashwords

 Book Synopsis from goodreads

"No secret stays hidden forever ..." A phone call from an old friend sets Dr. Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mystery he’d abandoned years before. He never expected a young librarian could hold the key to the search, nor could he have expected the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice de Novo will follow a twisted maze that leads them from the archives of a university library, through the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation they never could have predicted. A Hidden Fire is a paranormal mystery/romance for adult readers. It is the first book in the Elemental Mysteries Series.

My Thoughts 

In four words, I absolutely loved it. 

A Hidden Fire, is a paranormal mystery where you learn yet some new things about the para world with Dr Vecchio and Miss De Novo. Italian scholar Giovanni Vecchio meets the alluring librarian Beatrice de Novo in a trip to the local library. A friendship is formed between them and eventually a mystery of finding some age old documents that leads them in a journey where Beatrice learns some of the hidden truths about the world. Giovanni and Beatrice becomes something more than just acquaintance along the way and at some point of their journey Giovanni finds himself attracted to Beatrice. Her humorous and quick retort stirred feelings inside him that he had put away long ago. 

Giovanni's Italian accent and his dark brooding looks finished with the dash of the supernatural powers, he was definitely an eye catcher. Beatrice is a student working only part time as a librarian where she meets Gio, her Spanish heritage is not so strong in her appearance. 

Both Giovanni and Beatrice are very much in denial of their feelings for each other in front of their friends and to themselves. Giovanni's reluctance to admit about his feelings is understandable. Beatrice did seem to have strong feelings about the Italian but she too was guarded of her emotions. I loved how the relationship between Beatrice and Giovanni grew, their friendship gradually grew into something more.     

Elizabeth Hunter very successfully included some of the most well known Italian renaissance figures in her story, blending them in with ease. I don't want to giveaway anything from the story too much, as there are many twists in the book that took me by surprise, I'll wait for the readers to find that out for themselves.   

A Hidden Fire is the first book of Element series, and at the end of the first book you can read the first chapter of the second installment to Element series, This Same Earth. After reading that, I am in a heap of emotions...

It's been awhile that I read a book with a vampire being its main character. And I am so glad that I did! A  Hidden Fire is a beautiful creation of Elizabeth Hunter, her detailed lively description about each character and situation is one of the things that captured my attention. Recommended to all paranormal fantasy readers. This is a must read!

The book cover might not give the paranormal vibe as it should but I love this cover anyway. An old library stuffed with books that has a rich liquorish furnish all over, in reality this can make any book loving girl like me go weak on the knees. 

I give thiiis

 

Check out the trailer of A Hidden Fire