Antonia Aquilante
  • Home
  • About Antonia
  • Books
  • Coming Soon/In Progress
  • Blog
  • Contact

Rainbow Snippets May 14-15

5/15/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture

​It's weekend, and time for more Rainbow Snippets! The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.

​This month, I'm sharing a few snippets from The Artist's Masquerade, which was released two years ago this month by NineStar Press with gorgeous new cover art. I feel like picking favorites among my books is like picking favorite children and I can't do that, but I do adore The Artist's Masquerade and Cathal and Flavian's story. This is an opposites attract romance between the uptight and duty-bound duke's heir and a sharp-tongued artist who is in disguise and on the run. There are also spies and intrigue and magic and an exploration of family. When the book begins, Cathal's father has informed him that he has arranged a marriage for Cathal with a relative of the emperor of Ardunn. When she arrives, Flavian is with her disguised as her female companion and prepared to slip away as soon as possible. Things do not go to plan. I've skipped forward a bit for this snippet. Cathal now knows who Flavian is and isn't shy about showing his attraction. (And apparently, I lied last week when I said I would keep to sentence limits this week—I'm sorry!)
Picture


​“Cathal.” He meant it as warning, protest, but he couldn’t make 
himself step away. Why was Cathal standing so close to him? A hand came to rest on Flavian’s back, warm and large, fingers drawing slow, caressing circles Flavian felt all the way down to his toes.

​
He needed to move. He needed to step away from Cathal right this minute and go back to the party where there would be other people and he would be safe from himself. Yet he still couldn’t make his feet move. He just stood, staring up at the lights, while Cathal’s hand moved slowly on his back.

Mesmerizing. The lights swirling and sparkling above them, the slow movement of Cathal’s fingers...the rest of the world faded away. Beautiful though they were, even the lights couldn’t hold his full attention, blurring together in front of his eyes as his focus narrowed to Cathal’s touch. Those strong fingers drawing random patterns up and down his back, the heat of them burning through the layers of fabric separating them from his skin. He tried to make sense of those patterns, tried to anticipate where Cathal would move, but he lost even the attempt in the sensations, the heat shivering through him.

“Flavian...” It was a whisper of sound, and Flavian barely heard it over his own heart beating in his ears.

You can find more about The Artist's Masquerade here. Thanks for reading today, and I hope you're all staying safe and well!
2 Comments
K.S. Trenten link
5/16/2022 12:33:31 am

Steamy!

Reply
Jana Denardo
5/22/2022 06:49:25 pm

You always do such a lovely job with description

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Antonia is a writer and a reader and a copy editor/proofreader. She loves books, travel, art, photography, baking, pasta, and shoes.

    Archives

    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All
    Ace Week
    A Dance Of Water And Air
    A Harmony Of Fire And Earth
    Appearances
    Autumn
    Baking
    Blog Tour
    Book Recs
    Bookstores
    Christmas
    Chronicles Of Tournai Series
    Cover Art
    Dragons Of Ivria
    Elemental Magicae Duology
    Events
    Giveaway
    GRL
    Guest Post
    Halloween
    Holidays
    Inspiration
    Libraries
    My Books
    New Year
    NineStar Press
    Rainbow Awards
    Rainbow Snippets
    Reading
    RWA Conference
    Sales
    Spring
    Thanksgiving
    The Artist's Masquerade
    The Dragon's Devotion
    The Envoy's Honor
    The Merchant's Love
    The Prince's Consort
    The Scholar's Heart
    The Sorcerer's Guardian
    The Spymaster's Secret
    To Know A Dragon Spy
    To Love The Dragon King
    Travel
    Turn The Page Anthology
    Winter
    Writing Updates

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly