Caridad Pineiro Visit & Giveaway!!

Welcome Caridad Pineiro!! 

I adore Caridad, I'm so excited to have her here today ~ and HUGE CONGRATS on the release

of your new book, The Claimed, today!! 

 Hi, Caridad! Welcome to Mimmi's Musings!

I'm thrilled to have you today, to chat w/ us about your Sin Hunters series,
and your new release, The Claimed!

First, I want to say Congrats on your 4 start review in RT!! ~~ Just a snippet ~~

"Just like her characters, Pineiro's books are smart, sensual and irresistible."
     

     
    So tell us a little about The Claimed ~

    THE CLAIMED is a paranormal Romeo and Juliet and filled with action and lots of sexiness, but also tenderness as Shadow Hunter Christopher and Light Huntress Victoria find themselves falling in love in the midst of a civil war between the Hunters.  
      
    This is book 2 in the Sin Hunters ~ do readers need to worry they'll be lost if they didn't read The Lost (although, they SHOULD, as it was awesome!)  

   
    Thank you! I'm so glad you like THE LOST which is nominated for a RITA from the Romance Writers of America. I'm very excited about that and will find out in late July whether THE LOST wins the award. As much as I love THE LOST, readers do not have to read it first in order to read THE CLAIMED. The story in THE CLAIMED stands alone and readers will be able to follow along as they discover all the different powers that the Hunters possess and how they use them.

I know you do a lot of research on your heroes and heroines. Who was your inspiration for Christopher and Victoria?

    I do try to research all kinds of different people in order to have an idea of what the hero and heroine will look like. Since Christopher is a Shadow Hunter, a Dark One, I wanted him to have darker hair and eyes to reinforce that to readers. I imagine him to be a cross between DJ Cotrona (recently seen in Detroit 1-8-7) and Eddie Cibrian, both sexy men. Since Victoria is a LIght Hunter, she's physically lighter in coloring with caramel-colored hair and light eyes. Victoria is also a physically active woman who loves to do things like kayak and swim, so she's long, lean and athletic. I imagined her like a young Daisy Fuentes, but with light hair.
      
    What was the most challenging part of writing The Claimed?

    The most challenging part of THE CLAIMED was writing the fight scenes between the Light and Shadow Hunters. They both have similar powers, but they're also quite different as well. Plus, each Hunter has an affinity for different forces of nature, so it was important to try and get that across and show those differences, especially during the battle scenes. The other thing that was hard was that Christopher and Victoria both have affinities for the same things - water and the ocean, but because they are Light and Shadow, their abilities to use the forces of the ocean and water can't be totally the same.

The Light Hunters and the Shadow Hunters ~ how'd you come up with such a great, new idea?

    I wanted to do a paranormal with something other than demons, vampires or other monsters people have seen before. It made me think about what would happen if there was a race of people who looked like humans and could mate with them, but possessed some very unusual powers. I wanted those powers to be very flexible so that this race could do all kinds of different things. When I started making a list of what they could do, it occurred to me that one way to let that happen was to let this race be able to suck energy from the things around them. Since I wanted them to have different strengths and abilities, I decided that they would have "favorite" kinds of powers, or "affinities", so that they would be unique and so some Hunters would be more powerful than others. From there, the Hunters were born and it's been lots of fun playing around with that mythology and developing the things that each of them can do.

How many more books can we look forward to in the Sin Hunters series?

    I've written the proposals for another two - THE SHATTERED and THE HUNTED. I think that readers will have a hint who will be the heroes in THE SHATTERED and I am really really looking forward to writing the next two. I expect that THE SHATTERED will be out in 2013.  
     
 
    Anything you want to share about the series readers need to know?

    I'd like for readers to know that the books stand alone, although it is fun to read the earlier book, THE LOST, and meet some of the Hunters when they appear in the earlier book. I'd also tell them to check out SINS OF THE FLESH and STRONGER THAN SIN where you can spot some of the characters as well. In fact, the STRONGER THAN SIN e-book is available for 1.99 until April 30th!
Thank you for taking the time to drop by and chat with me! If you've got any other questions about THE CLAIMED for Cariad, feel free to ask away!!

And Caridad has a giveaway today!! 

She's giving away to one lucky commenter

a Tote Bag and a Fifth Kingdom T shirt!! 

Victoria Johnson loves her life. She’s her own boss in a quaint beachside town, and has great friends who keep her grounded. If only they knew who she really is: an heiress to an ancient race who possesses astonishing superhuman powers. It’s Victoria’s duty to restore her clan of Light Hunters to their former glory by choosing the perfect mate. In Christopher Sombrosa, she just may have found him. Strong, smart, and successful, Christopher exudes a powerful energy. Their connection is sensual, irresistible-and forbidden.

A member of the Shadow Hunter clan, Christopher has defied his own father to lead his people away from affliction and violence. Yet he cannot ignore his duty to carry on his ancient bloodline. Stunningly beautiful and brimming with an erotic life force, Victoria is everything Christopher ever hoped for in a mate . . . but as a Light Hunter, she’s his mortal enemy. Together, they could unite their warring tribes. But murderous factions on both sides don’t want peace-and they’ll stop at nothing to keep light and darkness apart forever . .

"The Claimed"

 

SIN HUNTERS, Book 2

Grand Central Publishing

Publication Release Date: April 24, 2012

Amazon / B&N