Blog Tour ~ Clockwork Heart by Heidi Cullinan ~ (Review, Exclusive Excerpt + Giveaway)
RELEASE DATE: Feb 2, 2016
Format: Novel
Genre: Historical/Alternate History/Steampunk
Length: 80,000 words (estimated)
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Cover Artist: Kanaxa
Ebook ISBN: 9781619227231
Print ISBN: 9781619233959
Characters: Johann Berger, Cornelius Stevens
Blurb:
Love, adventure and a steaming good time.
As the French army leader’s bastard son, Cornelius Stevens enjoys a great deal of latitude. But when he saves an enemy soldier using clockwork parts, he’s well aware he risks hanging for treason. That doesn’t worry him half as much, however, as the realization he’s falling for his patient.
Johann Berger never expected to survive his regiment’s suicide attack on Calais, much less wake up with mechanical parts. To avoid discovery, he’s forced to hide in plain sight as Cornelius’s lover—a role Johann finds himself taking to surprisingly well.
When a threat is made on Cornelius’s life, Johann learns the secret of the device implanted in his chest—a mythical weapon both warring countries would kill to obtain. Caught up in a political frenzy, in league with pirates, dodging rogue spies, mobsters and princesses with deadly parasols, Cornelius and Johann have no time to contemplate how they ended up in this mess. All they know is, the only way out is together—or not at all.
Warning: Contains tinkers, excessive clockwork appendages, and a cloud-sweeping tour of Europe. A little absinthe, a little theft, a little exhibitionism. Men who love men, women who love women, and some who aren’t particular.
His patient was a remarkable student, which helped because Cornelius wasn’t much of a teacher. When Conny went on nervous babbles in French so rapid-fire there was no way the man had any idea what Conny said, Johann listened so politely, so prettily, Cornelius had a hard time not talking to him constantly. About everything. And he couldn’t seem to stop.
This was dangerous, because Val hadn’t been exaggerating when he said Conny was always fucking someone, or thinking about fucking someone. And right now the only man Cornelius longed to take to bed was the beautiful brute of an Austrian listening patiently to him from the other side of the room.
He tried to keep things business between them, to remind himself as much as possible why an affair would be a terrible idea even if Johann were interested. “My father is the archduke,” he explained to Johann one morning. “Guillory. The one who thinks he’s going to conquer all of Europe, the one who, despite the existence of Emperor Éloi, is the real ruler of the French Empire. Which is why I need to be careful about anyone seeing you here. Well, I would need to be careful regardless of who I was, but being Francis’s bastard makes everything more complicated.”
Johann’s eyes widened. “Sie sind des Erzherzogs Sohn?” He paused, then added, “Unehelich?”
Conny sat at the other end of Johann’s bed—technically his bed, though he’d been camped on the pallet by the hearth since Johann’s arrival—and crossed his ankles. “I have no idea, but goodness, everything that comes out of your mouth is deliciously guttural and raw.”
Johann blinked at him, then smiled uncertainly, looking for all the world like a large, charming boy.
Groaning, Conny rubbed his thumb along his bottom lip and shifted to make room for his erection. “I should tell you, darling, I’m what my mother refers to as a nancy. We call it mignon, in French. I don’t know what it is in German. None of the terms are nice, though, so I mostly say that I prefer the company of men to women in my bedroom. Which isn’t to say this is all about seducing you. I’m not so coarse as that. Well—unless you wanted me.”
Johann brightened and gestured around them. “Bedroom. This is bedroom, yes?”
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*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie in exchange for a fair and honest review.***
Cornelius "Conny" Stevens is the bastard son of a French army general and an English spy, and well on his way to becoming a master tinker surgeon. When he stumbles upon a barely alive enemy soldier, he can't think of anything else but saving him by giving him clockwork limbs and a heart that he steals from his mentor.
Johann Berger has had a difficult life. First joining the Austrian army at 14, then the pirates at 16, before the army rescued him again at 18. He'd been sent on a suicide mission to distract the French and the last thing he expected was to wake up and have mechanical parts.
Conny resolves to hide Johann in plain sight, by making him pass as his pirate lover. When Conny's life is threatened, they resolve to escape, and it's only then that Cornelius tells Johann about the clockwork heart he had to use on him, which is the device that both Austria and France want to get their hands on. This revelation along with them running away from the people that want to kidnap Cornelius, send them in a tailspin journey.
This was such a fantastic book! I had never read a steampunk romance before and I'm very happy I gave this a chance. I loved that we get a detailed account of what this alternate world is, the setting and the intrigue blending with a very hot romance and an adventure filled with pirates, spies and a kickass princess.
Cornelius and Johann are sweet and fun, have a great chemistry and I adored how they grew into a force to be reckoned with as the book advanced. Johann was adorably confused at the start, but quickly decided that Conny was what he wanted and Cornelius was too sweet as he tried to not give into his impulses and crowd Johann, at least until he realized that Johann wasn't as opposed to his advances as Conny thought.
Valentin, Crawley and the rest of the sky pirates were amazing! Same as Félix and Princess Gisa, who was absolutely delightful.
Definitely a story you won't regret reading!
Rating: 5 Stars!!!
Giveaway
About The Author:
Heidi grew up in love with story. She fell asleep listening to Disney long-playing records and read her Little House On The Prairie books until they fell apart. She ran through the woods inventing stories of witches and fairies and enchanted trees and spent hours beneath the lilac bush imagining the lives of the settlers who had inhabited the homestead log cabin and two-story late 1800s home on her family farm. She created epic storylines for her Barbies until it wasn’t satisfying enough to do so any longer (age ten), and then she started writing them down. Her first novel, The Life and Times of Michelle Matthews, was published when she was twelve in the school anthology and took up nearly half of it.
Though Heidi continued to write novels through high school (and still has the Rubbermaid tub full in her bedroom), she stopped in college, deciding it was time to grow up and do something meaningful with her life. When the specifics of that didn’t pan out, Heidi ended up in grad school to become a teacher, and through one of the courses rediscovered her love of romance novels. She began to write again on the side, continued to do so while she taught seventh grade language arts and reading, and when she quit teaching to have her daughter, she took up writing with more seriousness, both as a stress relief and as a potential means of bringing in money.
Many million pages later, Heidi has learned a lot about writing, more than she ever wanted to know about publishing, and most importantly, finally figured out that writing IS the meaningful something she wants to do with her life. A passionate advocate for LGBT rights, Heidi volunteered for One Iowa during the fight for marriage equality and donates with her husband as a monthly partner to the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal. She encourages you to support your own local and national LGBT rights groups, too.
Heidi enjoys reading, watching movies and TV with her family, and listening all kinds of music. She has a husband, a daughter, and too many cats. Heidi is an active social networker, and of course has good old-fashioned email(link sends e-mail).
Looking for a more media-oriented set of bios for Heidi? Seeking avatars, headshots, and more? Check the All About Heidi page.
Thanks for awesome giveaway and great review!! Can't wait to read this story!!
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