Welcome to the book blitz for GUARDIAN, the second book in the adult urban fantasy series, The Liminal Chronicles, by Amy Winters-Voss. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
GUARDIAN (The Liminal Chronicles #2) by Amy Winters Voss)
Synopsis
“One hundred pieces of gold for every kitsune head laid at my feet!”
Convinced redemption lies in becoming a Guardian, Umeji Tatsuya seeks mentorship from the legendary tengu king Soujou-bou. Though, the rest of the Guardian Council is skeptical he’s left behind his dark yakuza past. There’s no time to prove his loyalty and worth before disaster strikes.
A pair of kitsune refugees arrive and hot on their heels is a massive oni army led by Ibaraki Douji, who plans not only to exterminate kitsune kind but also to resurrect the title of Shogun to become ruler of Japan. As kitsune are slaughtered and Umeji and his family fight for their very survival without the support of the Guardians, Umeji questions where his loyalties actually lie.
Just when Umeji thinks things couldn’t get worse, the oni army lays siege to the rural town of Nonogawa and takes on the League of Guardians themselves. When Ibaraki makes off with a legendary sword, the Guardian Council blames Umeji for its loss. He’s done playing by their rules. With family and friends by his side and all of kitsune kind counting on him, Umeji vows to recover the sword and stop Ibaraki for good.
Will the cost be too high? Because the search leads to places mere humans don’t dare tread and what Umeji and his crew find is darker than anything he saw in the mob…
Guardian is the second book in the Liminal Chronicles series. Buy now and enjoy Umeji’s action-packed journey into Japanese myth, personal redemption, and found family.
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Excerpt #1 Next, the tengu king’s eyes narrow and his wings ruffle. “Let us see you in your original shape, boy. Your magic doesn’t quite match the kitsune form you present.”
He waves his feathered fan, popping me back into human shape. At least I had the sense to dress formally, in a navy suit and a tie that Su-chan picked out for me. Though, I still feel out of place. Besides my aunt and I, everyone else wears a kimono and hakama. It’s different from the streets of Kyoto, where you see the traditional clothing only occasionally.
Then Soujou-bou raises a bushy eyebrow. “Nakamura-san, why do you associate with a magic thief?”
“That is his story to tell, Soujou-sama. Know that I believe him,” she responds in a flat, neutral tone that raises my hackles. She’s never this submissive.
As I give a deep, reverent bow, he remarks, “Boy, Nakamura-san’s recommendation does not excuse the evil in which you’ve partaken. Why did you stoop so low and steal kitsune magic?”
My insides twist at having to contradict the tengu king right off the bat. Taking a deep breath, I keep it simple. “We did not steal it, sir.”
But he snaps, cutting through the air with his feather fan. “No one gives such a gift! It destroys the owner. If I do not find your explanation satisfactory, you’ll not leave my palace alive.”
The declaration sends a shiver down my spine and my words spill out. “The fox I was fighting was Date Sari. She’d repeatedly attacked me and Aunt Hisako because of an old grudge and used her magic for evil—mixing it with that of an oni to add to her power.
“When she attacked my girlfriend, I tried to stop Date without killing her by dispelling her abilities. We didn’t know it would split and settle into each of us. The kami judged Date for her actions and Inari Okami was merciful. He didn’t require us to return her magic or hoshi no tama, which would have killed us.
“My aunt gave me a chance to start again after leaving the yakuza, and I wish to honor her and follow in her footsteps.”
“Yakuza, you say?” His eyes flick to my aunt.
I whisper, “I have much to atone for, sir.” Pressing my palms together in front of me, I bow as low as I can and remain in the position as I ask, “Please, teach me so I can serve as a Guardian.”
About the Author Amy is a former programmer turned author after her first trip to Japan in 2017. Now she writes Japanese myth-based urban fantasy to reconnect with the country and culture that captured her heart. She lives in South Dakota with her supportive husband, two wonderful kids, and three wily and crazy ferrets.
Welcome to the book blitz for STORMS AND EMBERS, the third book in the adult urban fantasy series, The Reign of Goddesses, by C.D. Britt. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
STORMS AND EMBERS (The Reign of Goddesses Series #3) by C.D. Britt
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited
Title: STORMS AND EMBERS Series: The Reign of Goddesses Series #3 Author: C.D. Britt Release Date: November 1, 2022 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT
Synopsis
Archon of Zephyr. Queen of the Goddesses. A Broken Woman.
Hera has reigned over Olympus and humanity for millennia. Seen as cold, sarcastic, and callous, she uses this to her advantage, keeping everyone, including her sisters, at a distance. It’s a lonely life, but it worked, until the Titans decided that breaking her father out of Tartarus was a good idea. A move that put her and her sisters against the Titans in a battle for their thrones upon Olympus.
Dr. Viktor Alden understands being alone. As a man who has spent his immortal life as a nomad, living with an oath that has kept him from allowing anyone to really know him, he is fascinated by the enigmatic woman who quite literally runs the world. Too bad they have a battle they may not win, or even live through, for him to learn the intricacies that make up the Queen of the Goddesses.
Now, two people who have spent their entire lives distrusting the world must learn to trust each other if they want to survive the upcoming war.
Storms and Embers is the final book in the Reign of Goddesses series.
TW: violence, cursing, adult situations.
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Excerpt #2 Stepping into the domed part of the building, he took in the rows of curved benches lined up before a raised platform, where a long table overlooked the would-be crowd. For a moment, he was distracted from his ordeal by the gravitas of the chambers. He’d seen much of human civilization, and now he stood in a place that held such importance to the much smaller version of the world.
But for all the power he felt in the air, every bit of it gravitated toward one person.
Hera, the Archon and Queen of the Goddesses, stood in the middle of the long table. It’d been so long since he’d glimpsed her in the flesh, not on a screen or a paper. Her blonde hair fell in curls around her oval face and grazed her shoulders, and her stormy gray eyes pierced him with the intensity of a bird of prey spotting its next meal. She was gorgeous; he would never deny that.
When they approached the center of the chambers, West gave him a short nod, and left his side to join Amphitrite, who stood next to the first row of benches with her arms folded
On the opposite side of the aisle was her other sister, Persephone, Ruler of the Underworld. A male with dark blonde hair stood next to her. His green eyes were not hostile, but watchful, much like the guards out front. Viktor felt the man’s power thrumming around him, searching and seeking. If he remembered correctly, this was Devon, West’s closest friend and Demeter’s scion.
When he looked at everyone, they all stared at him pensively, as if struggling to reconcile him with Hestia’s power—or perhaps the memory of Hestia herself, for the Goddesses. Questions were obvious in their eyes, but the answers were unattainable for now, and he was unsure how they would react when he couldn’t give them what they wanted.
The room remained quiet for so long that when Hera finally spoke, he caught West jumping a bit in his seat from his periphery.
“Dr. Viktor Alden, according to Amphitrite, you hold the power of our sister, Hestia. Is this correct?”
Words could trigger the curse, and he was going to play it as safe as he could. So, he silently extended his hand and ignited a flame in his open palm.
About the Author C.D. Britt began her writing journey when her husband told her she needed to use her excessive imagination to write stories as opposed to creating a daily narrative for him. Ever since she penned her first words, life has been a lot more peaceful for him.
She currently resides in Texas where she has yet to adapt to the heat. Her husband thrives in it, so unfortunately they will not be relocating to colder climates anytime soon.
Their two young children would honestly complain either way.
When she is not in her writing cave (hiding from the sun), she enjoys ignoring the world as much as her children will allow with a good book, music, and vast amounts of coffee (until it’s time for wine).
C.D. Britt is the author of Shadows and Vines and the upcoming book, Sirens and Leviathans.
Both books are part of the Reign of Goddesses series.
Welcome to the book blitz for MAGIC AND MAYHEM, the second book in the adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series, The Wrong Witch, by Annie Anderson. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
MAGIC AND MAYHEM (The Wrong Witch Series #2) by Tammy Lowe
A week ago, I was the perpetual screw up of the Bannister coven and a probationary agent for the Arcane Bureau of Investigation. Somehow, I’ve managed to get myself mated to an Acosta Alpha, pissed off my family, and gotten on the radar of a dark Fae.
As much as I’d like to bury my head in the sand, I have a badge to secure—and with a new case on my proverbial desk—a job to do. Because I’m not the first witch that the Fae has tried to steal, but I will definitely be the last.
Just as soon as I get this curse under control…
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Excerpt #2 Wren’s badge smacked me in the face, the hard metal shield catching me in the forehead. “A strike against my freedom? A strike against my freedom? You don’t know the first damn thing about me if you think I’m just going to let you railroad me into anything, Nico Acosta. I’m going to my cabin by myself, and I’m going to bed by myself, and I’m going to Savannah. By. My. Self.”
There was a problem with all three statements, namely that none of those things were true.
I bent, snatching her badge from the ground, and in my distraction, Wren skirted around me, marching double-time to her cabin.
Welp, in for a penny, in for a pound.
Catching up to her in no time, I put a shoulder into her belly and lifted her over my back. Wren screeched as I adjusted course, heading for my—or rather, Wyatt’s—cabin.
“You put me down right now,” she ordered, but I was doing no such thing.
I’d tried sleeping without her last night, and that didn’t work, and after the events of the previous twenty-four hours, there was no chance in hell I was trying it again tonight. Plus, the woman needed healing. Again. Already. The remnants of an acid burn and poison from a dart still coursed through her tired body.
We passed Wyatt on the trek to his cabin, the big man trying not to laugh at our antics as he polished a bright-green apple on his plaid jacket. “You’re sleeping somewhere else tonight.”
What had Wren called me? High-handed? Well, I was an Alpha, and I needed that cabin more than he did right now.
“I figured,” Wyatt said before biting into the apple. “Good luck, buddy.”
I’d fucking need it. Wren kneed me in the chest and elbowed me in the back. I’d need to teach her how to get out of this hold later, but for now, I needed her in a space—any space—with me.
Preferably sans clothes, but I’d take what I could get.
About the Author Annie Anderson is a military wife and United States Air Force veteran. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a southern girl at heart, but has lived all over the US and abroad. As soon as the military stops moving her family around, she’ll settle on a state, but for now she enjoys being a nomad with her husband, two daughters, an old man of a dog, and a young pup that makes life… interesting.
Welcome to the book blitz for BLY, a standalone new adult urban fantasy by Kelsey Ketch. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis I left the United States to find inner peace. Instead, I find myself confronting a malicious ghost.
Astyr Salt is a spiritual and emotional empath who moved to England with the intent to forget about a traumatic, supernatural event that occurred during her freshman year of college. However, when she takes a spiritual cleansing assignment in a haunted country home in Essex, she is isolated with all her own pent-up emotions.
These emotions energize the ghosts inhabiting the country home, helping them draw their own tragedies to the surface. Searching for the truth, Astyr is forced to relive the past. And the deeper she dives into the country home’s horrific history, the more the intertwined memories place her in the path of an evil and demented predator.
A blend of contemporary fantasy, horror, and mystery, Bly is inspired by Henry James’s classic novella, The Turn of the Screw.
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Excerpt #2 I find myself sitting on the bench in the center of the box hedge maze behind Bly. To some relief, there are no endless hallways, staircases, or doors. Nothing unusual. Well, for the most part. The lake glistens in the distance, yet there is no light in the sky. No moon. No stars. Even the tree line that separates the manicured lawn from the woodlands and fields is swallowed by the inky blackness that conceals the sky. The only light is the candle that sits on the bench next to me. The flame steady, but dim. I take in a breath of crisp air and turn toward Bly. The house is completely dark, and from the exterior, nothing appears out of the ordinary. No extra windows or doors. Yet, something is still off.
Touching the pentacle charm on my bracelet, my thoughts travel to Nolyn. Despite his absence, I sense a small amount of his energy radiating from the tourmaline, acting as my anchor. Ever since I came to Bly, the anxiety I once felt in my dreams has started to ease. Maybe it’s because my mind has been focusing on Bly and the spirits of the house. Or maybe it’s because I have been wearing the bracelet both day and night since Nolyn gave it to me. I’m not really sure. Yet, I’m still feeling an emptiness. Especially right now, sitting in the darkness alone. I didn’t realize how much I have been missing him. How much I want him here with me.
The candle beside me suddenly sputters out, and a deafening silence envelops the estate. The temperature drops to the point that I cross my arms over my chest and rub my hands over the sleeves of my white nightgown. A presence glares down at me from the windows of the third level, above the governess’s rooms. I tilt my head to meet its gaze, only to find nothing but thin air. For several moments, I refuse to avert my eyes. My breathing becoming shallow as my chest constricts. Then I hear childish giggles and leaves crackling under a pair of running feet. I stand and turn, accidently knocking the candle from the bench in the process. The box hedge around me begins to grow vertically, climbing from two feet to four feet to six feet. In a matter of seconds, I’m in the middle of a box hedge maze that reaches ten feet high. My heart pounding, I work my way down the path that should lead me out of the maze. Unfortunately, having left the unlit candle by the bench, I’m walking blind. I lightly brush the palms of my hands over the branches and leaves on either side of me. My hyped-up imagination half expects large spiders or creepy vines with a mind of their own to crawl out of the evergreens.
I take several turns that should have led me out of the maze only to find myself trapped in a dead end. I back myself out and continue down the last path I was on. Taking a few more turns, I find myself at another dead end. This happens again for a third, fourth, and fifth time. Obviously, the maze has become more complex than when I first started. I take a breath and silently ask for Geb’s guidance as I attempt to draw energy from the earth. Finally, a soft, prickling sensation tickles the soles of my feet. I continue to walk until I feel it becoming stronger. The energy of the earth leading down several bends and U-turns. The box hedge falls away from my palms, opening into a wider space. In front of me are two doors, one a black-stained oak and the other a light honey-stained pine.
The prickling energy fades when I step forward to examine the doors. There is nothing obvious. No signs. No guards. No sphinx. I place my palm on the first door to see if I can get a sense of the energy on the other side. Nothing. I try the other door, just to be sure, but the only thing I can sense is the masked energy approaching me from behind. I turn, hoping to catch sight of the presence. Sadly, all I can see is darkness. The presence brushes the back of my head, running over my neck. I shiver while I feel the presence pick up several strands of my hair. The smell of fresh cut grass, tobacco, and alcohol wafts by as a frigid chill envelops me.
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Author Kelsey Ketch
About the Author Kelsey Ketch is a young-adult/new-adult author, who works as a Wildlife Biologist and Data Analyst. During her free time, she can often be found working on her latest work in progress. She also enjoys history, mythology, traveling, and reading.
Welcome to the blog tour for CAMBION’S BLOOD, the second book in the adult urban fantasy series, Cambion, by Erin Fulmer. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
CAMBION’S BLOOD (Cambion Series #2) by Erin Fulmer
Synopsis Half-succubus attorney Lily Knight has blood on her hands.
Haunted by guilt, behind on her rent, and facing professional disgrace, Lily must figure out how to survive in the wreckage of her former life. To make ends meet, she accepts a contract job she never wanted but can’t seem to avoid—hunting another demon murderer. This time, the victims are human, and a shadowy government agency will reward Lily with a way out of her dire financial straits.
If Lily doesn’t solve the case before the news gets out, fear and hatred will put all demonkind at risk from the proverbial torch-carrying mob. But when a young succubus on the run from the authorities begs for her help, Lily faces a new conflict of interest—especially after the suspect, Eve, reveals her father is Lily’s old frenemy.
Now Lily must juggle the pressures of a high-stakes murder case, her complicated relationship with her “not-boyfriend” Sebastian, and responsibility for a wayward teenager as she races to find the real killer. Worse, the culprit isn’t just a demon, but a self-proclaimed goddess who will stop at nothing to carry out her bloody quest for justice. To stop the killings, Lily must confront that which she most fears: the truth about what went down with Eve’s father in the desert—and its consequences.
That is, if the goddess doesn’t get to her first…
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Excerpt “That right there. That’s what I don’t understand.” His voice went rough around the edges again. It sent goosebumps shivering down my spine. “Talk to me. Did I do something wrong?”
“No!” I forced myself to meet his eyes. They burned into mine, but his desiderata pleaded with me. Damn it, I couldn’t afford to screw this up. “Of course not. The opposite, in fact.” Maybe that was the problem, the way he said all the right things, what I wanted to hear and what I couldn’t believe.
“Then explain it to me.” The rough edges in his tone deepened, verging on a growl. “You’re holding out on me again. But I’m a big boy, I can take it. Tell me the truth. Why do you keep pushing me away?”
He couldn’t handle the truth, and I couldn’t hold his gaze. I turned my head away. Outside our aerie, purple twilight had faded to full night, and the city glowed like a reef of jewels in a dark sea. “It’s complicated.”
“I like complicated.” He sighed. “Come on. I didn’t ask you to define our official social media status.”
“You’re not even on social media.” I tried on a casual shrug and half a truth. “I’m just scared, I guess.”
“Yeah, I got that much. You’re not as hard to read as you think. Scared of what? That I’ll hurt you, or that you’ll lose control?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, all of it.” I swallowed hard. “You can’t understand what it’s like for me. It’s not just sex for me. If I let it, it could own me. And I…I could own you.”
A certain incubus had told me once that a succubus couldn’t have a sex addiction. But he also tried to convince me that demons were superior beings who deserved to rule over weak, inferior humans. And before that, he’d let me believe he meant well, that he respected consent, personal agency, the right to live and love as one pleased.
He’d told so many lies, and even though the liar had died, his lies still wove their tangled web around me like a shroud.
“I know you could,” Sebastian said calmly. “I’ve known from the beginning. It’s not so different for me as you think.”
I had to look back at him, then. “You think you could…own me?” Heat flooded my cheeks at the words. They sounded much filthier out loud, especially when his desiderata pulsed in response.
“If you let me. If you wanted me to.” His expression seared through me, and he drew me toward him. “My own desires run pretty dark and deep. If I give them free rein, they’d control me, too.”
“It’s not the same.” I could break free with ease. My strength outmatched his by a factor of ten. But his need sang to me. It hammered at my resistance like thunder, like the beat of huge dark wings. “Sebastian, I—” But the words died on my lips.
I couldn’t tell him the truth about what happened that night, our first night together. I couldn’t tell him what I did with my power, his power, the alchemy of our pleasure.
I couldn’t tell him that I killed someone with it.
“It’s all right,” he said, in that rippling velvet voice. “Come here.”
I took a long breath and pushed the box of things I couldn’t say back into the shadows. Then I stepped toward him of my own free will. Or at least, right now, I chose to believe I did.
“I have a confession, too,” he murmured, his lips inches from mine, not touching me anywhere skin to skin.
My breath came short. “I’m not a nun, Mr. Ritter.”
“Thank fuck for that.” His desiderata enveloped me, deep, rich, and overwhelming. “Because I didn’t just ask you here so we could take in the view.”
“You lied to me,” I whispered, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t need truths right now. I needed what he offered me.
“By omission only.” He put his hands on my hips, turning me with gentle pressure and steering me backward until my ass hit the hard edge of the desk. “The truth is, I’ve been very distracted lately during my workday by thoughts about you, me, and this desk.” His fingers worked under the band of my jeans, skimming my skin, and I moaned.
“Say ten Hail Marys and ten…oh, fuck.”
“Now that’s the kind of absolution I can live with,” he said, and bent his head to claim my mouth with his. His kether flooded through me. It suffused my body with a rush of light. It made my head spin, driving all my doubts away.
I drank him in, drank him deep, and when he pressed me down against the hard, cold surface of the desk, I did beg in the end—but not for absolution.
About the Author Erin Fulmer (she/her) is a public benefits attorney by day, author of urban fantasy and science fiction by night. She lives in sunny Northern California with her husband and two spoiled cats. When she’s not writing or working, she enjoys yoga, taking pictures of the sky, playing board games with friends, and napping like it’s an Olympic sport.
CAMBION’S BLOOD, the second book in her Cambion series and sequel to her debut urban fantasy CAMBION’S LAW, is out June 7 from City Owl Books.
Welcome to the book blitz for DEMON THRONE, the first book in the adult paranormal urban fantasy romance series, Demons of Morningstar, by USA Today bestselling author, Debbie Cassidy. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
DEMON THRONE (Demons of Morningstar Series #1) by Debbie Cassidy
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited
Title: DEMON THRONE Series: Demons of Morningstar Series #1 Author: Debbie Cassidy Release Date: April 14, 2022 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Nothing brightens up a Monday like finding out you’re the spawn of Satan
The big bad is dead and now Satan’s spawn must fight for the Morningstar throne. I’m tossed into the ring, whether I want to be there or not.
I’m mostly human, a hunter by trade, and totally outmatched by my half siblings. The chance I’ll survive these tests and claim the throne is slim.
Then someone starts assassinating my siblings.
It’s only a matter of time until I’m next.
I’m not the kind of girl who depends on anyone, but there are four demons who could help me survive this fiasco—a sadistic Nightmare, a psychotic efreet, a charismatic Fallen and Sin, an unhinged monster. Problem is, like all demons, they’re absolutely, sinfully tempting.
I’m pretty sure they each have their own agenda.
I’m also pretty sure one of them is the killer.
Let the games begin.
An Urban Fantasy Paranormal Romance filled with action, mystery, sizzle and multiple love interests for our lucky heroine.
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Excerpt Sin stood, ass propped on the workbench, legs planted wide, head tipped back as a demon female knelt before him, working him noisily. Sin wasn’t touching her. His hands were braced on the workbench behind him, chest vibrating as she applied herself to her task. What was she doing with her teeth? And that gobbling noise? That was not the best technique.
I tore my gaze from her, dragging it up Sin’s washboard abs and hard pecs to find his midnight eyes fixed on me. “Nyx.” He said my name like an invitation, and I found myself fighting the urge to step forward, shove the useless woman out of the way, and take her place. I didn’t do any of that, though. Instead, I crossed my arms and arched an amused brow. “Hello, Sin, did I interrupt something fun?”
To give her credit, the demon hadn’t stopped working him; if anything, her ministrations become faster, almost desperate.
Sin placed his hand on her head. “Enough.”
She disengaged with a pop, looking up at him. “But you said you had to come. You haven’t come yet.”
He looked down at her dispassionately. “I know.”
“But that means I won’t get what I want.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
She stood slowly and turned to glare at me. “This is your fault. You interrupted us and ruined it.”
“No,” Sin said. “Your technique leaves much to be desired. Come back when you’ve perfected it and we can trade.”
She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times and then pressed her lips together, pushing back her shoulders in determination. “I will be back, Sin. Mark my words.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Sin smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
The woman brushed past me and dove into the stacks, eager to get away now, but her departure left me with an unobstructed view of Sin’s demonhood, and damn…
Sin reached for himself, slowly, carefully tucking away his prize. I cleared my throat and pulled my gaze up to his face. F*ck, he had a beautiful face, hard planes and chiseled jaw, wide, flat cheekbones, and dark eyes that swam with flecks of silver. He would have been angelic in appearance if not for the slightly crimson hue to his smooth, velvety skin and the horns that curved up and back from his head.
“What do you want today, Nyx?” he asked in his deep, gravelly voice.
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Author Debbie Cassidy
About the Author Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes Urban Fantasy, Fantasy and Reverse Harem Fantasy. All her books contain plenty of action, romance and twisty plots.
Welcome to the book blitz for A WISH TOO DARK AND KIND, a stand-alone adult dark fantasy horror/urban fantasy, by M.L. Blackbird. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on his giveaway.
Synopsis
Among the immortals that inhabit our world, Arnaud Demeure is known as the man who can fulfill your one true wish or who can also conjure your worst nightmares.
Eight invitations are sent to eight immortals, and when Arnaud Demeure hosts a party, no one refuses his request. Why have they been summoned? Is it for a celebration or does a sinister fate await them? After all, in the ways of Magick, a party can also be a ritual to end the world.
As the mystery deepens, the attendees must overcome their personal grudges to unravel the threads of Demeure’s grand plan that has been centuries in the making. But, with one of the guests secretly working with their host to sabotage the group’s every move, it seems impossible to look behind the curtain to learn Demeure’s true intentions.
With each guest hiding dark secrets and darker intentions, will they be able to uncover Demeure’s mysterious motives or will the party prove to be the deadly nightmare that they each fear?
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Excerpt #1 Had you walked with us on the roads of Paris in the old days, you would have heard many stories. And yet the nightcrawlers cared only about those talking of a man: Arnaud Demeure. The one with the gift to fulfill any wish. Only one rule—it had to be your one true wish.
If while walking in the shadows of a dark alley at midnight, you met one of ours and asked him, “What news do you bring, brother?” They would respond, “Have you heard of Arnaud Demeure?” And if by the witching hour, while hunting for prey, you talked with those of us who spy and report, they would tell you, “Arnaud Demeure . . .” So, when dark gave in to the light, on your way home to escape the sun, you thought, What’s my true wish, Arnaud Demeure?
Consider what you’d do if that fine little man invited you to his castle. Imagine, any wish you have he’d grant it, if it is true. They say the hardest thing for those like us is dying. Others say it is to stay human as time carries us around. But we are like you. We want something; we don’t know what it is and never get it. For you, it’s years, for us, centuries. Now you understand why that night many years ago, when I received his invite, against any logic, I accepted.
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Author M.L. Blackbird
About the Author Born and raised in Sicily, M.L. spent most of his early life inventing stories and believing he could live in them. In high school, he spent way too much time watching B movies, playing video games, and reading everything he could get his hands on, provided it wasn’t recommended by any authority figure.
M.L. spent most of his college years and adult life writing in languages only machines can understand until he decided to put some of his stories on the page. After a few years spent in Scotland, now M.L. lives in Seattle with his wife, his cat, and a large assortment of books. When not writing, he still enjoys playing video games and explaining board game rules to his friends.
You can follow M.L. on: https://mylittleblackbird.com.
Welcome to the book blitz for FIREBORN, the first book in the adult urban fantasy series, Halley Ashwood, by Jessa Graythorne. See below for information on the book, buy links, and exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
FIREBORN (Halley Ashwood Series #1) by Jessa Graythorne
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: FIREBORN Series: Halley Ashwood Series #1 Author: Jessa Graythorne Release Date: October 5, 2021 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Halley Ashwood is well on her way to achieving her dream of being a doctor. Focused and independent with a mother she never knew and a father who never loved her, the only constant Halley has ever had in her life is her brother, Flynn. Whilst Halley is logical and grounded, and Flynn a reckless conspiracy theorist, they have always been able to trust each other above anyone else.
Halley and Flynn don’t believe in making promises. So when Flynn leaves Halley a message the day before her scheduled trip to visit him in Amsterdam, asking her to promise him she won’t come, she knows something is wrong. Halley arrives in Amsterdam to find her brother is missing, leaving only those ominous words in his wake. Halley sets out to find out what happened to him and makes a terrifying discovery. Turns out Flynn’s conspiracy theories maybe weren’t so farfetched after all: demons are real, they’re stalking the streets of Amsterdam, and they may hold the answer as to what happened to Flynn.
Determined to find out the truth about her brother’s fate, Halley begins a dark journey that will force her to question everything she thinks she knows about the nature of the world, the forces within it, and even herself.
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Excerpt #2 “Good girls don’t sit around here this time of night.”
I didn’t register that the voice was speaking to me. The only reason I even looked up was because it was the first American accent I had heard all night and it sent a comforting shiver through my entire body. When I saw its owner leaning against the bar beside me, that turned to a chill.
Let me admit here and now that powerful people scare me. I’m not afraid of them, per se, but I am afraid of what they are capable of. They don’t make me fear for my safety; they make me fear for my entire world. It frightens me how anyone can become so consumed by themselves that they lose sight of everything but their own ambition. Power isn’t quiet. The power I fear clings to the fabric of their clothing and oozes from the place in which they stand. It’s palpable, touchable, electrical, and I despise it.
So, when I first laid eyes on Azrael Falkov, it was like being christened in ice water.
I guessed he was around thirty, and if I was six-one in these shoes, he was at least six-four, with the build one required to pull off that height. He was dressed in black from head to toe, from his pointed dress shoes to his bowtie. He beat me hands down in the tan department, and his face had the angular elegance of an old photograph—you know the kind, those portraits of your grandparents’ youth that you look at and wonder why you didn’t inherit that perfect skin, those sharp features. His dark hair was styled back off his face and eyes a startling shade of amber were fixed steadily on me.
He was the kind of man I would not take home in a million years. Because never in a million years would he carefully drive my Viper GTS downtown to buy coffee and crawl back to me in reverence.
He was the kind of man who would burn out my clutch and kill me to keep my car for himself.
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Author Jessa Graythorne
About the Author Jessa Graythorne is an Australian author from the south coast of New South Wales. She lives near the beach with her partner and two cats, Henry and Ophelia—who, despite their names, are disappointingly disinterested in Shakespeare.
Jessa holds a Bachelor of Engineering and works in a steel mill. She adores the sea but not the sand, prefers sunrises to sunsets, and would decorate the world with fairy lights given half a chance. After writing, her second great love is travel, and she is eternally thankful that she has been able to spend the past year living vicariously through books.
Welcome to the book blitz for GRAVE WATCH, the third book in the adult urban fantasy series, Soul Reader, by Annie Anderson. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, and exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
GRAVE WATCH (Soul Reader Series #3) by Annie Anderson
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: GRAVE WATCH Series: Soul Reader Series #3 Author: Annie Anderson Release Date: September 28, 2021 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Meeting long-lost siblings should be awesome, right?
Well, when you happen to be on the wrong side of the law and have every intention of staying there, having a cop for a sister isn’t exactly ideal. And teaming up with said sister? Well, that is just the cherry on top of the craptastic pie that has been my life.
But when our brother decides to attack us head on, banding together is the least of our problems.
Because in our family? Being the hunter also means being the hunted.
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Excerpt #2 I felt the swish of wings a moment before my father spoke, his appearance making both Bastian and Emrys jump nearly out of their skins.
“You called?” Azrael asked from the doorway.
I tossed an irritated glare over my shoulder. “Yeah, I did. Lots. Good of you to show up.”
Bastian found my hand and squeezed my fingers, likely trying to get me to shut up. But he didn’t realize just how many times I had pleaded for Azrael for help in my head. Hundreds maybe thousands of times over the last two days and he’d stayed gone. When our brother showed up, when that stupid note was in the grass, when Darby was breaking her living room apart. I had begged and pleaded with him to come and help us—help her—and still he’d stayed away.
“Sorry,” he said, tilting his dark head to the side as he assessed Bastian. “I was working.”
He and I both knew could do his job from anywhere. In fact, he had done this job from a squat prison underneath thousands of pounds of rock and rubble and water where he’d stayed for nearly twenty years. And now when we needed him that’s when he decided he needed to be on site to collect souls?
About the Author Annie Anderson is a military wife and United States Air Force veteran. Originally from Dallas, Texas, she is a southern girl at heart, but has lived all over the US and abroad. As soon as the military stops moving her family around, she’ll settle on a state, but for now she enjoys being a nomad with her husband, two daughters, an old man of a dog, and a young pup that makes life… interesting.
Welcome to the blog tour for AMENDS, the second book in the adult urban fantasy/mystery series, Diana Hawthorne Supernatural Mysteries, by Carissa Andrews. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, my review, and details on her giveaway.
AMENDS (Diana Hawthorne Supernatural Mysteries #2) by Carissa Andrews
Synopsis
For as psychic as she is, shit goes sideways far too often around Diana Hawthorne.
Diana now has everything she ever wanted–her memories, and the soul mate she didn’t realize she was missing. There’s just one problem… the old gods expect her to make amends for her absence. And her work starts now.
But time lost at the oracle isn’t the only thing she has to atone for. Her friend Demetri was stripped of his powers–and it was all her fault. If she could just set things right, she’d feel a whole lot better about moving forward. Unfortunately, Demetri wants nothing to do with her and knows exactly how to keep her out of his head.
To make matters worse, in the age of social media, Diana’s abilities have gone viral. People from all over the world are clambering to get on her books. One case, in particular, hits her radar and despite herself, she can’t shake it. A 14-year-old boy is wrapped up with a deadly governmental agency and he’s scared to death. And he should be–they want to weaponize his power.
Torn between what was and what is, Diana struggles to fully embrace who she’s becoming. Will she be able to help Demitri and make things right? Or will her new role mean leaving the past behind?
Calling fans of KF Breene, Shannon Mayer, and Shayne Silvers! If you like snarky-fun humor, gripping supernatural scenes, and twists that leave you spellbound — then you will LOVE Carissa Andrews’ world built especially for Diana Hawthorne.
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My Review She’s baaaack! Diana Hawthorne from ORACLE returns with a whole new host of problems. If you haven’t read ORACLE yet, be aware there are mild spoilers head for book 1. Our favorite psychic/goddess is back, along with the rest of the cast, with a new mission — fix the problem she created for Demitri, and oh yeah, make amends for her past. Now that Diana finally knows who she is (the big question in book 1), with Blake by her side again, just as annoying and steamy as before, she has her work cut out for her. While Diana attempted to live in the past before, she’s now thrust into the twenty-first century with a vengeance she cannot ignore, which only complicates what she needs to do.
AMENDS picks up right after where the first one ends. This time, Diana will be forced to choose between her two worlds or find a better way to straddle them, all while still carrying a heavy dose of guilt over Demetri’s loss of powers she fully blames herself for.
Plot As with book 1, AMENDS has an intense plot with solid subplots, including ones that span at least two books and definitely a third. Andrews does a stellar job with plotting, weaving the pieces together brilliantly. She ups the stakes this time, which was hard to do, considering we were dealing with a child sex-trafficking ring in book 1, but she manages to pull it off, generating another unputdownable page-turner.
Characters Once again, the characters are complex and fun. Bringing in new characters, like the curmudgeonly Kyros, who is the oil to Ren’s water, along with favorites from Greek mythology, including Apollo. The “will they or won’t they” between Diana and Blake is only further intensified, making this even more delicious. Especially since they now both have the added insights of who they each other truly is.
What I Enjoyed About AMENDS 1. Greek Mythology. I absolutely love this part of the book. The author incorporates the mythology with expertise, that only adds to the story.
2. Diana. She really grew on me over the course of ORACLE, so by the time I started AMENDS, I already loved her. She’s more her than ever, now that she has her memories back.
3. Blake. The man with the perfect ass is less of a mystery, making him much more fascinating.
4. Kyros/Ren. The battle of the assistants is worth the price of admission alone!
5. Psychic Powers. I’ve always been fascinated by this particular trope, and the author does a great job of brining the supernatural to the modern world without making things too easy for Diana and crew.
Bottom Line Better than the first, AMENDS is a wild page turner with a fantastic cast.
Disclaimer I was provided with a copy of the book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: AMENDS Series:Diana Hawthorne Supernatural Mysteries #2 Authors: Carissa Andrews Release Date: July 23, 2021 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy/Mystery Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
About the Author “An author emerges from the depths of Minnesotan waters. Sci-fi/Fantasy is my pen of choice.”
Carissa Andrews is a Minnesota-based genre-bending author who writes a combination of science fiction, fantasy, and dystopia. When not writing her own books, she’s busy reading them. Carissa’s internationally bestselling trilogy, The Pendomus Chronicles, is now in digital, print, and audiobook formats. She has hit the scene as an up and coming speculative fiction author who uses a mix of scifi and fantasy, twisted in modern mythology and alternative history. Check out The Final Five, Oracle, Awakening, and Love is a Merciless God!
Carissa has big plans for 2020. Check out her upcoming series, The Windhaven Witches. For more information on their release, visit Carissa Andrews’ author website: www.carissaandrews.com and sign up for her newsletter notifications. She lives in central Minnesota with her husband and brood of five kids. Not to mention, her insane husky puppies, Aztec and Pharaoh.
Carissa is also a freelance graphic designer, writer and content creator, social media manager, and marketing professional. She writes consistently on topics of science, technology, art, writing, photography, graphic design, health, self-improvement, and more. Her articles can be found published across the interwebs. Carissa is also a Top-Rated Freelancer on Upwork, and can be contacted for freelancing opportunities: http://bit.ly/UpworkCarissaAndrews.
Welcome to the book blitz for A SHIFTER’S SIN, the first book in the adult urban fantasy romance series, Wolves of Hawthorne Cove, by USA Today bestselling author, Debbie Cassidy. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive teaser excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
A SHIFTER’S SIN (Wolves of Hawthorne Cove Series #1) by Debbie Cassidy
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: A SHIFTER’S SIN Series: The Iron Fae Series #1 Author: Debbie Cassidy Release Date: June 18, 2020 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy Romance Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis A Lycan that can’t shift is no use to anyone.
I’ve made it my mission to be useful to my pack. As pack enforcer, I’m fast and strong, but when the time comes to bond with my mate, it isn’t enough.
Rejection means lone wolf status and isolation from the pack. But when a package arrives with an unexpected inheritance, the pack that wants to shun me, suddenly has a new use for me.
Turns out, I’m the proud owner of a house in mysterious territory, rumoured to be home to a pack of beautifully twisted shifters. Hawthorne Cove is Impregnable to Lycans, but not to a half human like me.
Now I have a second chance to be accepted by my pack.
All I have to do is infiltrate the Hawthorne pack, find the source of their power and steal it.
Easier said than done.
Because once I pass the mystical boundaries surrounding the town, I’ll be absolutely, and totally at the mercy of the wolves of Hawthorne Cove.
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Author Debbie Cassidy
About the Author Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head – in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes Urban Fantasy, Fantasy and Reverse Harem Fantasy. All her books contain plenty of action, romance and twisty plots.
Welcome to the book blitz for MAGICIAN RISING, a stand-alone new adult urban fantasy, by Renée des Lauriers. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis Dark powers she can’t control. Deadly hunters tracking her down. Can she rip the target off her back before it turns fatal?
Jun Bear has lived with bad luck all her life. And when a professor threatens to give her a failing grade, the college senior sees her hopes for graduating in two months going down another ill-fated drain. But her fortunes plunge further when an unnatural earthquake shakes the campus and unleashes cold-blooded assassins after her head…
Unsure what’s happening, Jun finds herself facing a trained killer intent on exposing the wielder of the dangerous magic. And when she’s provoked into revealing her unexpected new abilities, she’s determined to prove her innocence before she’s permanently eliminated.
Can she win over an ally and survive a bloodthirsty secret society fixated on wiping her out?
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Excerpt #2 Then Nikolai felt it: the air pulling tight, like the bowstring of an arrow drawn back, about to be let loose. Nikolai clenched the wooden arms of his chair. This was magic capable of much worse than a 6.5 earthquake and one injury. He braced himself in the case of a quake, scanning down the rows in front of him for any sign of a magician at work.
There were too many people, and all of them could be crushed to death if the building collapsed. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid. If he stopped the magician before the magic spiraled out of control, he could limit the amount of casualties.
Then the lights went out. Everyone was plunged into a deep darkness. There was a pause for a beat before a worried murmur took over the class. Cell phone lights flashed around the room. Nikolai knew this was the moment he could strike; his aim with the knife would be deadly. If only he had a target.
Almost as soon as the pressure in the air started, it faded away. Nikolai felt the charged air around the room recoil and disappear, vanishing like mist. The lights flickered back on. Immediately he tried to identify the source, but it was impossible with everyone looking around, talking in hushed voices while their spineless professor tried to calm the students. The class began to settle once more, though a lot of students quickly packed their belongings to leave. Maybe they could feel it, the unsettling shift in the air. Or smell the burnt ozone.
It was strange, though. He never experienced anything quite like this. When magic was built up to that strength and caliber, it typically rampaged into mass destruction. This was something else. This magician was nothing like the others he’d taken down in the past.
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Author Renée des Lauriers
About the Author Renée was raised by a folk singer and an accountant to be analytically creative. From thirteen, she played guitar and sang on stage at coffee shops. She also oil painted and wrote poetry on odd paper scraps. Besides writing, Renee has worked as an emergency medical technician and a high school English teacher. Now she lives in California with her family.
Author Renée des Lauriers is revealing the cover to MAGICIAN RISING, a stand-alone new adult urban fantasy, releasing May 25, 2021. See below for the cover, information on the book, and a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR.
MAGICIAN RISING by Renée des Lauriers
About the Book Title: MAGICIAN RISING Author: Renée des Lauriers Release Date: May 25, 2021 Genre: New Adult Urban Fantasy Links:Goodreads
Synopsis Dark powers she can’t control. Deadly hunters tracking her down. Can she rip the target off her back before it turns fatal?
Jun Bear has lived with bad luck all her life. And when a professor threatens to give her a failing grade, the college senior sees her hopes for graduating in two months going down another ill-fated drain. But her fortunes plunge further when an unnatural earthquake shakes the campus and unleashes cold-blooded assassins after her head…
Unsure what’s happening, Jun finds herself facing a trained killer intent on exposing the wielder of the dangerous magic. And when she’s provoked into revealing her unexpected new abilities, she’s determined to prove her innocence before she’s permanently eliminated.
Can she win over an ally and survive a bloodthirsty secret society fixated on wiping her out?
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Author Renée des Lauriers
About the Author is the author of young adult and new adult science fiction and apocalyptic fiction.
Welcome to the book blitz for THE HAUNTING OF SOLOMON HOUSE, the first book in the adult urban fantasy series, Blair Graves, by Marnie Vinge. See below for, information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
THE HAUNTING OF SOLOMON HOUSE Blair (Graves Series #1) by Marnie Vinge
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE HAUNTING OF SOLOMON HOUSE Series: Blair Graves Series #1 Author: Marnie Vinge Release Date: January 25, 2021 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Blair Graves’ father went missing seven years ago.
The legal death of her paranormal radio host father tilts her world sideways on its axis. When no will can be found, Blair is forced to adapt to a quickly shifting reality. One in which she’s forced to sell her family home.
When a historical fixer-upper catches her eye, she goes all in, hoping to escape her father’s legacy and the long shadow cast by his very public disappearance.
But when the house starts presenting more problems than just the creaks and groans associated with old age, Blair starts questioning what she knows about life, death, and what comes after.
When the very arrogant and handsome Cash Kelly–a ghost-hunting expert–offers his help, Blair is sure he’s the same kind of attention-seeking, conspiracy-promoting, dollar-chasing content creator hack as her father.
As she begins to question his motivations for helping her, the haunting escalates to a dangerous point, forcing Blair to confront the reality of the world her father believed in.
And what it means to be his daughter.
The X-Files meets Supernatural in this urban fantasy series about the strength of a father-daughter bond and how, sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.
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Excerpt #2 I lean my back against the door and listen to the crackle of the fire in the fireplace. I’m not quite ready to put it out yet. I look around, wondering how to fill another hour before bed and my eyes land on the door that leads to the backyard.
My little furry friend.
I grab a coat, scarf, and some mittens and decide I’m going to spend a little time outside and see if I can spot the raccoon. Out back, I walk to the edge of the empty art deco pool. I glance to the bottom, now clean and free of the animal remains it once held. My eyes travel upwards to the tree line at the back of the property. I narrow them to slits, trying to make out any shape in the darkness.
And that’s when I hear it.
Chuff. Chuff.
Almost a snort. A huge exhalation through a snout. An animal. An animal much larger than a raccoon.
And the same sound that woke me in the middle of the night.
A chill descends on me.
My heart begins to race. An instinctive part of my brain suddenly shifts into prey mode. That’s what I am. Prey. Meat. Sustenance for whatever is making that sound.
A bear? A mountain lion?
Why would I have heard it in the house? In my bedroom? So close to my ear that I could practically feel the hot air being forced from its lungs.
I stand, frozen on the spot, my eyes still trying to make out shapes in the darkness. But now, through a lens of fear, I feel like I see them everywhere. A shadow here, one over there. My eyes dart around, trying to follow whatever it is that I’m seeing—or that I think I’m seeing.
Fuck. I feel crazy.
Suddenly, I’m wishing Noelle and Hooper were still here.
That anyone was here.
That I wasn’t surrounded by empty fields for miles.
I’m sure of one thing, though, as I creep back to the house.
I may feel lonely.
But I’m not alone.
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Author Marnie Vinge
About the Author Marnie Vinge is a novelist and storyteller as well as the creator of the podcast, Eerie Okie.
She first started writing at the ripe age of 7, creating a science fiction horror story about a monster that lived in seaweed off the coast of Corpus Christi. Since then, she’s stretched her wings by writing urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and horror.
To check out Eerie Okie, search your favorite podcast platform. If you’re an Oklahoma ghoul who loves the morbid and macabre, it’s the podcast for you..
Author Leslie Scott is revealing the cover to BLACK WATER MAGIC, the first book in her adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series, Teagan Blackwater, releasing January 12, 2021. See below for the cover, information on the book, preorder links, and a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR.
BLACK WATER MAGIC (Teagan Blackwater Series #1) by Leslie Scott
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: BLACK WATER MAGIC Series: Teagan Blackwater Series #1 Author: Leslie Scott Release Date: January 12, 2021 Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Teagan Blackwater’s biggest problem used to be hiding her relationship with a demi-demon from her grandmother, Nola, the most powerful witch in all of Florida.
When Nola is murdered, Teagan learns how insignificant her secret really was. And how rare it is she only had the one. Firewater Springs is a small town, and every one of its residents seems to have secrets of their own. Including the friendly cop Teagan had a crush on in high school and the Demi-demon she’s been sleeping with.
But the person with the most secrets was Nola herself, and Teagan needs to unravel them to break a curse and solve Nola’s murder. It’s no secret Teagan doesn’t feel up to the task, but she is the new Swamp Witch of Firewater Springs, so what choice does she have? Everyone is counting on her.
About the Author Award nominated author of Two Hearts, One Stone and the Arkadia Fast Series, Leslie Scott has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. The happier the ending, the better. Currently, she lives and writes amidst her own happily ever after with her soul mate, son, and domestic zoo.
Welcome to the book blitz for GRAVES’ ANATOMY, the first book in the new adult urban fantasy series, Luna Graves, by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on their giveaway.
GRAVES’ ANATOMY (Luna Graves Series #1) by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson
About The Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited
Title: GRAVES’ ANATOMY Series: Luna Graves Series #1 Author: Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson Genre: New Adult Urban Fantasy Release Date: November 17, 2020 Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Tattoo artist Luna Graves’ life turns upside down when her estranged father dies and she learns it’s her destiny to be a doctor…to monsters.
Destiny? Fairy tale endings? Things that go bump in the night? Luna Graves doesn’t believe in any of them. Her father took off when she was three, and she’s worked hard to become one of the best young tattoo artists in Los Angeles. Of course, there was that mysterious exchange she had when she was 12 with Heath Guillaumet, who might not have been human…naw, that was just her imagination.
When her estranged father dies, Luna discovers that he led a secret life as an uphir, a doctor to the shadowkind — what we would call monsters. Now that he’s gone, she has to take his place — or be killed by the powerful Council. Thrust into a world she doesn’t know, the stubborn Luna refuses to give up on her original dreams. Soon Heath Guillaumet will return to unleash a disease last battled by the Knights Templar…the Black Death.
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Excerpt #2 It was one of the few remaining no-man’s lands in downtown Los Angeles – the kind of area that was commonplace before the neighborhood’s transition into “DTLA.” A desolate block of Wall Street, down where the fabric district jutted up against the flower district and all of the storefronts were blocked off by corrugated metal doors.
Silence reigned. To the west and north, loft windows lit up the night.
Chelle strode down the center of the street, her black overcoat swinging by her sides. The chunky heels of her Doc Martens boots splashed through puddles left after the flower sellers had hosed down their stalls. Her high cheekbones gleamed in the amber streetlights. Like Minx she was a matianak, a type of creature that could pass for human. But Chelle knew the matianak, though vastly outnumbered by humans, were the superior species. They measured their lives in centuries, and, with their tall, thin builds, had it particularly well now that Rubenesque was no longer the physical ideal. Of course, eating wasn’t an issue as they were incubi and succubi. It was a misunderstanding that they gained energy from sex, however. What really provided them with nourishment were human feelings like anger, grief, pain and passion. Sex and touching were just the most economical ways to get there.
She turned down a decrepit alley, her boots crunching on gravel. Rats gathered on the lip of a nearby dumpster glanced up, then returned to feasting on garbage. Save some room, guys, she thought. Fresh pickings are on the way.
Chelle’s target was up ahead: an alley door, covered in dull red peeling paint.
A six-foot-high statue rested next to it: a stone gargoyle. The fierce features were worn with age: cocked eyebrows, squinted eyes, long claws. It would seem out of place if it weren’t for the broken beer bottle at its feet and the green and yellow graffiti tags on its haunches.
Chelle’s footsteps were steady, unfaltering. As she passed a streetlight it flickered, one-two, one-two.
When Chelle was eight feet away from the door, the stone gargoyle opened yellow eyes and turned its head. A low growl sounded from its throat.
Chelle froze. Her prey was in her sights.
The gargoyle’s lips twitched into a snarl, revealing long canines and a glistening black tongue. It shifted its weight, turning to face Chelle.
A smile played around the edges of Chelle’s lips. She raised her right hand in front of her face, watching as her sharp red fingernails receded and long talons emerged from her nail beds. Come on, bitch.
For a moment both matianak and gargoyle remained still, staring at each other.
They leapt at the same moment, as if responding to some agreed-upon signal. Their bodies crashed together in mid-air, the gargoyle’s muscled jaws aiming for Chelle’s neck. At the last moment she pivoted, all willowy grace, and the gargoyle’s teeth closed on air. She ducked and the gargoyle sailed over her, landing in the alleyway and thundering toward the street before turning around, the growl in its throat growing deeper.
Facing the dull red door, Chelle raised both arms in front of her. A soft breeze played around her feet, and her long coat billowed around her legs. The door began to shake in its hinges: barely perceptible at first, then stronger, stronger…
The gargoyle leapt, smacking Chelle in the back and sending her to the ground. The door fell still.
It tried to bite the back of her neck but she elbowed it, knocking it to the side. In a blur of limbs, teeth and claws, the two creatures rolled in the alley muck, fighting with everything they had.
A few of the rats looked up from the dumpster, distracted from their evening meal.
Just a few minutes more, guys. It’s almost over.
The loss of focus cost her. Sharp teeth flashed, sank into Chelle’s shoulder. She screamed, in rage as much as pain, and drew her right hand back. Her long talons glinted in the low light. Now you’re just pissing me off.
With a quick stabbing motion she plunged her talons into the gargoyle’s abdomen, puncturing the stony flesh. Gray fluid spurted out and the gargoyle let out a high-pitched, piercing scream.
Her advantage secured, Chelle raked her fingernails through the creature’s belly. Three deep gashes opened. The gargoyle writhed.
Chelle threw the gargoyle to the side. Enjoy being rat food. She thought she heard the rodents closing in but didn’t bother to look back.
Her focus was only on the door. She ripped it off its hinges and headed into the dark.
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Trailer
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Authors Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch
About the Authors Tattoo artist Luna Graves’ life turns upside down when her estranged father dies and she learns it’s her destiny to be a doctor…to monsters.
Destiny? Fairy tale endings? Things that go bump in the night? Luna Graves doesn’t believe in any of them. Her father took off when she was three, and she’s worked hard to become one of the best young tattoo artists in Los Angeles. Of course, there was that mysterious exchange she had when she was 12 with Heath Guillaumet, who might not have been human…naw, that was just her imagination.
When her estranged father dies, Luna discovers that he led a secret life as an uphir, a doctor to the shadowkind — what we would call monsters. Now that he’s gone, she has to take his place — or be killed by the powerful Council. Thrust into a world she doesn’t know, the stubborn Luna refuses to give up on her original dreams. Soon Heath Guillaumet will return to unleash a disease last battled by the Knights Templar…the Black Death.
Welcome to the book blitz for I, ANGEL, the first book in the adult urban fantasy series, Angels in L.A., by Julie Light. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
I, ANGEL (Angels in L.A. Series #1) by Julie Light
Synopsis I never asked to be an angel. Truthfully, being an angel kinda sucks.
But some angels don’t get harps. We hunt demons.
I might be a social weirdo. And okay, I black out whenever I fly and wake up naked in random places. I can only sleep in windowless rooms. I have that gun problem. Oh, and I can’t drink alcohol, since I randomly start fires.
But I, Dags Jourdain, do good. Sort of. I mean, I try.
When I’m not hunting demons, I work as a P.I. in Hollywood, California.
One night, I get in a demon fight in an alley, and accidentally save the life of a movie star, and everything changes for me.
Meanwhile, someone opened a hell portal under the Hollywood sign, a dead guy left me his dog, and a homicide detective who hates me from high school is trying to decide if I’m a serial killer.
Did I mention being an angel kinda sucks?
*
I, ANGEL is the first book in the Angels in L.A. series, a gritty angel urban fantasy, ideal for fans of K.F. Breene, Shayne Silvers, Patricia Briggs, C.N. Crawford, Linsey Hall
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Excerpt #3 The guy got the jump on him, which didn’t help. Truthfully, that really threw Dags in the beginning of the fight, but somehow it didn’t bother him as much as the woman just standing there, watching him get his ass kicked.
Anyway, the other thing was Dags’ own fault.
He had the same weakness as the guy currently kicking him in the ribs. He’d gotten too cocky, too used to fighting people who were painfully easy to beat. He’d followed the guy into the alley without the slightest attempt to scope out the scene from a safer angle.
“Get up!” the woman yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Dags looked up at her in disbelief.
Seeing her standing there, against the opposite wall, which was covered, funnily enough, in an enormous pair of spray-painted angel wings, he scowled.
He waved a hand at her towards the mouth of the alley.
“Get out of here!” he snapped.
“Get off the ground!” she shot back. “Are you stupid?”
“Why are you yelling at me?” He motioned again with a jerk of his hand. “And why are you still here? RUN! Don’t just stand there like it’s reality t.v. Get your ass out of here! NOW.”
Hands on her hips, she frowned.
Under other circumstances, he might have laughed.
She looked like she was about to ask to speak to his manager.
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Author Julie Light
About the Author I write quirky, smart, conflicted, and unforgettable characters who live in realistically fantastical worlds. Many of those characters want redemption. A lot more want tacos, a margarita, and a beachy vacation with lots of sex. They all kind of hate me for never giving them enough of those things.
I write mostly in urban fantasy, paranormal romance, paranormal mystery, and supernatural suspense, and my books are chock full of love and magic, light versus dark, angsty, steamy romances, sharp dialogue, gritty worlds, and metaphysical and paranormal whatsits.
I’ve traveled a lot, lived in various funky places, but currently live and write full time in Los Angeles, California...
Welcome to the book blitz for WICKED WOLVES AND TANGLED TRUTHS, the first book in the young adult urban fantasy/paranormal romance series, Blood and Magic: Hellbound, by Danielle Annett. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway. For a limited time, you can pick up the eBook for just $0.99.
WICKED WOLVES AND TANGLED TRUTHS (Blood and Magic – Hellbound Series #1) by Danielle Annett
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: TROUBLE WITH WOLVES Series: Magic and Bone #1 Author: Danielle Annett Release Date: February 8, 2020 Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT
Synopsis Welcome to Hellbound High, where the students carry weapons and the bullies bite … hard.
I never wanted to go to this stupid school. I had a life before coming here. A Pack. People who cared about me. But all of that is torn away when my mother dies, my boyfriend cheats on me, and my very human father rips me away from the only life I’ve ever known.
I thought my life couldn’t get much worse, but Hellbound High is about to prove me wrong. Just by showing up, I’ve caught the attention of the local Alpha’s son. Goody.
He’s arrogant, stubborn, and used to getting what he wants. Sometimes that’s to get into my pants. Sometimes it’s to make my life hell. He runs hot one minute and cold the next, leaving my head spinning.
But I have bigger problems than the school’s resident hot werewolf. I’m a lone wolf in a new town, which means I have a big red target on my back.
With no Pack, no friends, and no protection, I’m about to find out just how bad things can really get …
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Teaser Excerpt #2 It’s all so confusing. I barely know Rafael Castillo, and what I do know paints him as an arrogant wolf that thinks much too highly of himself. I shouldn’t be here with him. I shouldn’t let him hold me like this. But I am and no matter how many times I tell myself I need to leave, I stay.
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Author Danielle Annett
About The Author Danielle Annett is a snarky AF Latinx Author. Born and raised in sunny California, she now makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their three tiny terrors. She hates cheese—of all kinds—and yes that means she orders cheeseless pizza. She loves to talk (a lot) and is probably as extroverted as they come so feel free to shoot her a message, send a raven, throw up smoke signals. Whatever it may be. She love’s chatting with readers so feel free to stalk her.
Welcome to the blog tour for OUTFOXED, the first book in the adult paranormal romance/urban fantasy series, The Fox Witch, by USA Today bestselling author, R.J. Blain. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis Death is a way of life outside of the safety of Inner Tulsa, and Jade means to keep flipping Mother Nature off until old age claims her. With one eye always on the sky, the last thing she needs is a pack of bounty hunters out for her living head. With no idea of why anyone would want her, her wits might keep her free, assuming she can resist the charming lures of Sandro, one of the men out to claim her as his own.
Left with the choice of being the evening snack of a tornado or taking shelter with the bounty hunter, she does what she does best: she lives on the edge.
Striking a bargain with the handsome bounty hunter buys her another day of life, but it also dumps her into the heart of a sinister plot, one meant to enslave the residents of the storm-tossed city—and the others brave and foolish enough to call the Alley home.
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Chapter One Friday, May 1, 2043.
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Alley.
I’d been in the Alley long enough to understand only one thing mattered when faced with yet another twister: survival. The swarm of them headed for Tulsa roared, warning all of their impending arrival. The incessant crash of thunder accompanied the lightning, which struck with such frequency the dark clouds glowed white. I decided to stop counting after five funnels; one, five, ten—it didn’t matter how many of them snaked down from the sky. If one of them got a hold of me, I’d just be another corpse strewn over the Alley. A day didn’t go by when I didn’t cross a new skeleton in the outskirts.
Death was a way of life outside of the safety of Inner Tulsa.
Another twister joined the party, bringing a cascade of hail with it.
Great. Just great. What was one more? Hadn’t Mother Nature figured out she didn’t need to fling everything she had at Tulsa? A single tornado would’ve done the job just fine.
A few minutes too late to do me any good, the lightning-lit clouds turned a putrid shade of green, a promise that Mother Nature wasn’t screwing around this time. Green meant go, and if I’d had any sense in my head at all, I wouldn’t have left shelter at sunrise; I would’ve stayed in hiding until right before work. Everything would’ve been different if I’d just slept in rather than explore the ruins of Tulsa’s outskirts for salvage.
If I hadn’t been looking for salvage, I wouldn’t have been spotted by the tall, dark, and handsome hot on my heels and determined to ruin my day if he caught up with me.
The swarm would cause me enough problems, but if the bounty hunter caught me, I’d be in worse shape.
Some choices in life were tough, and I hated myself for even contemplating taking my chances with the bounty hunter. Losing my freedom for profit could be reversed.
Nothing could reverse death.
I flattened my ears, and I lashed my tail back and forth, the rain whipping off it. While I was part fox, I’d adopted more feline tendencies than canine ones. And according to the tail and ears I couldn’t banish with any amount of magic, I was definitely a cat trapped in a partly canine body.
I could shift into a full fox, a secret I held close to my chest. The instant anyone learned the truth, I’d go from a common annoyance to a desirable. Nobody cared about powerless hybrids.
Everybody wanted full shapeshifters in their bloodlines, and I had enough trouble without every wealthy single man on the planet wanting to claim me as his wife.
Since six twisters wasn’t enough, the churning clouds spawned two more, and with unerring accuracy, they surged towards the city in a wall of churning wind, rain, and hail.
Tornado season had come, and it looked like it was going to open with a bang.
I skidded around a corner of a destroyed home, a victim of a twister a few months back, before the sky had opted to give us a break for a change. Shacks had sprouted like persistent little weeds, but I expected none of them would survive the storm. I worried for their inhabitants, but if they had half a brain, they’d take shelter in a cellar.
If they didn’t, they’d add to the bodies littering the dying suburban streets.
While I had the advantage of knowledge, the bounty hunter had me beat everywhere else, and he snagged the back of my shirt, yanked hard enough to cut off my breath, and slammed me into the broken brick of the trashed house. “Are you insane?” he screamed over the wind. “You’re not supposed to run towards tornadoes, you little idiot!”
I blinked, checked where I’d been running, and sure enough, Mother Nature had truly tired of my shit, opting to dump another handful of twisters directly into my path. When the twisters converged, probably where we were standing, it’d puree the neighborhood and leave matchsticks in their wake.
Stuck between a rock, a hard place, and a bounty hunter, I had few options if I wanted to keep my head long enough to figure out if death beat being picked up by some fortune seeker. Fortunately, the sensible had left the area anticipating the weather to sour, leaving their storm cellars open for my use—our use, as I wouldn’t leave him behind despite wishing I could ditch him.
Sometimes, I really questioned why I tried to meet society’s standards of being a good person. Being a good person was a pain in the ass.
As Mother Nature was a bitch on a mission of destruction, the twisters barreled our way. I cursed myself, cursed the hunk of a bounty hunter making a mess of my morning, and cursed my choice of moving to the Alley in the first place. “There’s a cellar nearby.” I pointed down the street in the general direction of my favorite bolt hole, which I’d have to abandon once I shared it with the man out to profit from my head—my living head, at least.
The bounty hunters wanting my living head in their possession was looking to be the bright part of my morning.
“Go,” he ordered, giving me a shove to make it clear he was the boss.
Any other day, I would’ve fought him on principle, but the hail came down harder, hammering the broken streets as though determined to flatten the neighborhood without needing the help of a tornado to do it.
I ran for it, my worn shoes slipping on the ice-slicked road. Once again, the bounty hunter snatched my arm, holding me upright until I regained my balance.
Fortunately for us, the cellar wasn’t far. While I wanted to sprint for the opening, I shuffled along so I wouldn’t fall on my ass and need even more help from the man determined to make a profit off me.
Once upon a time, a wooden door had covered the entry into the storm cellar, but the last twister to pass through had torn it off. The sensible never checked it as an option, but I’d learned to leave no stone—or hole—unturned since moving into the Alley. I jumped into the hole, grunted as I splashed into the mud below, and waded through the standing water to the slight rise that led to the second door. I shoved that open, gesturing for the bounty hunter to hurry his hot ass up.
He joined me in the mud, looking less than impressed with my choice of cellars. “Aren’t storm cellars supposed to have doors?”
I pointed deeper into the cellar. “There are two more ahead.”
“I stand corrected. Lead on, Miss Tamrin.”
Yep, the bounty hunter knew exactly who I was, although I would’ve preferred if he’d addressed me as Jade. What sort of bounty hunter addressed their victim so formally, anyway? If I had to share a cellar with someone out for my head, living or otherwise, I was of the opinion we needed to be on a first-name basis. “Got a name, or am I going to have to give you one?”
“More leading, less talking,” he ordered. He cast a glance over his shoulder up at the entry for the cellar, which would be a bitch to escape from after we rode out the storm. “They’re coming.”
I could tell; the ground shook, the wind screamed, and the hail graduated to chunks of ice capable of slamming through someone’s skull with terrifying ease. I shouldered open the door, grimacing at the creaking wood. I gave it another storm or two before it gave up the ghost, too.
Fortunately for me, the slope on the other side made it hard for water to penetrate the cellar, and the third door was crafted of good steel. I scrambled up the incline, waiting long enough for the bounty hunter to follow me through. “Close it,” I ordered.
He did as told, and the tunnel fell into darkness. The wood did little to buffer us from the sounds of the storm tearing through the neighborhood above. I made my way to the crest of the incline by feel, patting until I located the top concrete step. “There’s a set of concrete steps at the top. If you’re not careful, you’ll crack your forehead in the ceiling and fall. It’s a long way down.”
I already regretted my decision to be a good person, as it would lose me access to the best storm cellar I’d found in Tulsa. I’d have to search for a new hiding place and hope it was half as secure and safe from the weather.
Then again, I had to get away from my new unwanted friend first, which would be a challenge considering we’d have to share space until the storm ended.
It could take minutes, hours, or days.
I’d only stashed enough food and water for one person for one week, so if it took days, we’d be in trouble.\The bounty hunter joined me, and I eased down the steps once certain he wouldn’t take a lethal tumble to the steel door below. At the bottom, I felt around for the hatch wheel, grabbed hold, and turned until the door popped open.
Light spilled into the staircase from the luminescent moss I’d cultivated on the walls, barely bright enough to guide my way to the crank-powered lamp. I sat on the concrete floor and went to work charging the device. It’d only last for a few hours before I’d have to charge it again, but it would give me a chance to set up my home away from home.
The bounty hunter entered, closed the steel door, and whistled at my shelter. “I definitely stand corrected. Your file didn’t mention you have a good cellar. You’re listed as a vagrant.”
I scowled. Unless rich, wealthy, or a hell of a lot braver than I was, everyone in the Alley counted as a vagrant. We went where the storms were least likely to strike, although there were few places left safe from the weather’s fury.
If I’d been thinking, I would’ve taken him an extra block down the road to a shallower cellar, although I had no idea if it would survive through an entire swarm of twisters. Sighing, I kept cranking on the lamp. “Who isn’t a vagrant here?” I finally asked, aware of him waiting for an answer.
“Those who live in Asylum.”
Asylum. The rich, the famous, and the powerful received invitations from its lord and master, Benedict Mansfield. He’d bought the land rights beneath Tulsa’s city center, digging deep and converting the sandstone and the underlying limestone into habitable space. I’d given up figuring out how people could live underground long ago. They did, and everyone with a grain of sense and a desire to survive wanted to live in Asylum.
Hell would freeze over before average folks like me were welcomed down there.
I figured Mansfield had the right idea—as long as I ignored how many people would die without access to the underground sanctuary. But when I thought about it, I loathed the man for choosing who got to live and who got to die.
One day, I, along with everyone else uninvited to Asylum, would die to the swarms that grew in number and intensity each passing year.
“They can kiss my ass,” I announced, flipping the switch to turn on the lamp and properly illuminate the cellar. A mess of storage boxes and plastic water bottles littered the floor, and I regretted showing him my disorganized tendencies. “So, are you going to give me your name, or am I going to have to give you one?”
“I’m tempted to find out what sort of name a smart-assed woman like you would give me,” he replied. The lamp offered enough light for me to get a good look at his face.
His mouth curved into a grin.
It’d been so long since I’d gotten any action that a hot ass bounty hunter out for my head was giving me bad ideas. Damn it. I should’ve taken my chances with the swarm. At least I would’ve emerged from the storm either dead or with my sanity intact. There was nothing sane about what I desired to do with the man who wanted to turn me in for some quick cash. It involved a complete removal of our clothes and a good time.
Neither the clothing removal or the good time were on the agenda. Unfortunately for me, the cellar, for all it was deep and safe from even the angriest of twisters, didn’t come with a cold shower.
I really needed a cold shower and a stiff drink.
I blamed my unreasonable interest in the man on adrenaline, the aftermath of pure terror, and his sun-kissed skin, too dark to be American Caucasian but light enough I pegged him as an Italian, Greek, or some other flavor of Mediterranean European. “I’ll just call you Idiot for testing your luck with a swarm on the way, Idiot.”
“Sandro is preferable to Idiot, but I’ll give you that. It’s pretty idiotic to be outside during a swarm. Should I call you Queen Idiot? I wouldn’t have been out at all if you didn’t insist on taking morning strolls through the hot zone. Did you not pay attention to the forecast?”
His question pegged him as someone from Inner Tulsa or Asylum; nowhere else still had electricity enough to watch tv, use the internet, or otherwise pay attention to the forecast. I hadn’t touched a computer since I’d left the East and run to the Alley to avoid an arranged marriage. Had I known the Alley was just as bad as the rumors claimed, I might’ve thought twice about whatever asshole my parents wanted me to marry to meet their standards rather than mine.
With my luck, Sandro had been paid off by my parental assholes to drag me back to Buffalo, New York to do their bidding through marrying some twerp with better genes than personality.
“You think someone like me is welcome in Inner Tulsa?” I laughed at him, hung the lamp from the chain dangling from the ceiling, and went to work checking over the supplies. Everything was as I’d left it a few weeks prior when I’d prepared for the start of the tornado season.
The steel door and thick concrete walls dulled the storm’s fury to an unsettling rumble. Within an hour, if the swarm persisted, I’d feel the sound in my teeth and be headed straight for madness.
If it continued on for longer than that, I’d be tempted to smack my skull into the wall to make the sounds filtering down from above go away.
“Your work history is good and you’re reliable. You could find work in Inner Tulsa easily.” He looked me over, raising a brow. “All you’d have to do to be hired at a strip club is show up.”
“I’ll tell you what. You keep your bounty to yourself until the storm clears, and I won’t bust your balls for implying I’d make a good stripper.”
“I’m not implying. I’m telling you. You’d make one hell of a good stripper. A natural auburn vixen with a good complexion doesn’t come around every day. Hell, now that I’ve gotten my first real look at you, it’s no wonder you’re worth so much. You’re enough to tempt a man to forgo the cash to keep you.”
Had we been in the South, we’d both be at risk of spontaneous combustion. Then again, I wasn’t an elementalist.
I’d be a lot better off if I could convince metal to bend to my will. In a city in constant need of repair, everyone wanted a metal elementalist.
Then again, I didn’t want anyone knowing just what I could do, especially the hot ass bounty hunter ready to take me into his custody.
If he found out I was a witch on top of being a fully fledged shapeshifter, he’d be drooling all over me like I was a fresh bone up for grabs. I’d also crank his profits through the roof, as being a fully fledged shapeshifter would easily triple my bounty value, whatever it was. Being a witch on top of that?
I’d make him rich in a hurry.
“How about we just keep our hands to ourselves,” I suggested, doing my best to scowl without admiring the man’s lean, muscular body through his rain-soaked clothes. Any other day, I would’ve suggested he wear a coat to keep from getting cold when the storms kicked Tulsa in the face, but his shirt, when wet, did him a lot of justice.
“I’ll do you one better. Let’s call a truce. Once the storm blows over and it doesn’t look like another swarm will hit, I’ll give you a five minute head start. You escape me, you win this round. If I catch you today, you’ll come along quietly. I’d rather not have to hurt you to catch you.”
I could work with a five minute head start. I’d disappear so fast his head would spin, and he’d go home frustrated, alone, and without his quick profits. “Deal.”
The rumble escalated, and the lamp swayed on its chain, a warning one of the twisters passed directly overhead. Sandro frowned, his gaze locking on the light. “I wonder how much damage that swarm’s doing.”
People from all over the United States came to the Alley, and I’d joined everyone else in no longer caring where someone came from. He had an accent compared to the locals, but I couldn’t tell if he was deliberately hiding where he came from or if he always sounded like he could have lived anywhere in the world and magically fit in.
His question, however, told me a simple truth: Sandro hadn’t been in the Alley long. Those who’d survived through their first tornado season no longer cared about the damage ratings of a twister or a swarm.
It didn’t matter.
No matter how bad it got, like a weed in the cracks of a sidewalk, Tulsa endured.
* * *
Friday, May 1, 2043.
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Alley.
The twisters danced around Tulsa for over an hour before Mother Nature decided she’d toyed with us enough and moved on. As always, I’d wait at least thirty minutes, keeping an eye on my watch to make sure I didn’t emerge early, before I left the safety of the shelter. Mother Nature was a tricky bitch, and she liked adding lulls to her storms to lure out the unwitting.
She killed a lot of people that way, and I had no intentions of becoming the next victim in her little black book of corpses.
I spent the time checking the storage boxes and doing an inventory so I wouldn’t indulge in staring at the bounty hunter’s hot ass. He liked to pace, and every time something crashed overhead and made the cellar shake, his hand either went for the hilt of the sword hanging at his hip or reached for something over his shoulder. The shoulder habit baffled me.
What kind of weapon did he use that he strapped it to his back?
I wanted to know.
I blamed my second nature for my unhealthy interest in the man. Like cats, foxes were curious beasts, and I shifted often enough my animalistic nature brushed off at times. Winter was the worst; natural foxes had aggressive breeding instincts, and I’d learned early I needed to avoid shifting during peak mating season, as men became far too interesting for my sanity.
Some fox shifters went mad during the winter unless married—and married fox shifters were happy, insatiable fox shifters during the coldest months of the year.
“You’re well stocked for a vagrant.”
I flattened my ears. “Well, no thanks to you, I’ll have to ditch this cellar.”
“I’ll cut you another deal, then. I’ll stay hushed about your cellar, but if we happen to be in these parts during another blow, you share. If you’re in here, you won’t be a fair target, and I’ll always give you five minutes after the storm ends. That fair?”
My brows rose. “What sort of bounty hunter are you?”
“An ethical one.”
I pinched myself. It hurt. I dug out the temperature monitor from one of the crates, which also had a carbon dioxide monitor. After checking the battery, I turned it on. According to the device, the carbon dioxide levels were higher than I liked, an indication the ventilation tubes above had gotten blocked off. I could fix it, given time and the snake drill I’d scored as salvage last storm season.
Eliminating a dream or hallucination, I turned off the detector, put it away, and considered the bounty hunter. “Since when have there been ethical bounty hunters?”
“Since I decided to become a bounty hunter.”
Why did hot men always have overly robust egos? I’d have my chance to pop his bubble soon enough. I just had to play along until it was time for me to make my break. “All right. This is neutral ground, and I get a head start. Five minutes. And you can count those minutes with a watch.”
“Don’t trust me to count?” he asked, his tone amused.
“Only if you count Mississippis and confirm the five minutes with a watch. That’s a lot of Mississippis you’d have to count.”
“What is the going rate for a Mississippi nowadays?
“Approximately a second each, if you say it right and don’t cheat.” I’d checked against a stopwatch once, startled to discover the method was fairly close to an actual second. “That would be three hundred Mississippis you’d have to go through. You’ll probably go mad trying to count them after a hundred.”
“That would help your cause a little, if I were to go mad counting to three hundred. Fortunately for you, I can count that high, and I’m a patient man. Usually. I’ll enjoy catching you. It’s so rare bounty hunting work is fun. You’re worth a pretty penny.”
“If you’re trying to convince me you’ll keep your word about the five minutes, you’re not doing a good job of it.”
“Run, and I’ll prove it to you.”
I listened again to make certain the storm wasn’t gearing up to take another swipe at Tulsa. When it seemed quiet, I nodded. “Close the door behind you.”
“Always. While a bounty hunter, I am a gentleman.”
With his ego, which might be bigger than the Mississippi during the spring thaw, I believed he thought he was a gentleman. “And why is a gentleman working as a bounty hunter?”
Sandro looked me over. “To test my ethics, apparently. I’ll have to decide if I keep you after I catch you.”
“I’m not up for sale.”
“Your bounty says otherwise, and vixens are always in high demand. Tell yourself otherwise if it makes you feel better about the situation, but I give it a week before you go to the highest bidder—two weeks at most. That could work out. I could claim your bounty but spend that windfall to buy you. You might just be worth your price tag. For some reason, I expect you’ll give me the slip a time or two before I get you to where I can claim your bounty. Keep on your toes, Miss Tamrin. You’re as good as bought and sold as it is, and if you’re smart, you’ll figure out you’re safer with me than the others after you.”
I liked to think of myself as smart, and I had contacts in high places; it would take a trip into Asylum, but I’d get down to the bottom of the bounty on me. While I was at it, I’d ask around and figure out exactly when the United States had gone back to its roots and traded in human lives. I figured my ears and tail played a part.
What didn’t look quite human no longer counted as human. What no longer counted as human could be bought and sold without remorse. Worse, the numbers of those who no longer counted as human grew a little each day. I gave it a few years before most women, outside of the wealthy and influential, joined the club of those up for sale.
Some days, I really questioned why I didn’t just shift into a fox and stay that way. Foxes led simple lives.
They also lived short lives.
That likely had something to do with my unwillingness to live as an animal exclusively.
Shaking my head, I restored everything in the shelter and headed for the door, pointing at the light. “Turn that off and set it near the hatch before you leave. Turn the wheel one full revolution to close it; you’ll feel it click.”
“Understood. I’ll see you very soon.”
According to his amused tone, he expected to catch me right away.
He had a lot to learn about me, and I’d enjoy taunting him the next time we crossed paths. I scrambled out of the shelter and up the concrete steps, grimacing when I reached the top and discovered the second level had completely flooded. If I wanted to use the cellar again, I’d have to salvage a pump and drain the entire damned thing.
Life needed to give me a break—and not the type that resulted in a cast and a long recovery time.
The water level made climbing out of the cellar entrance interesting, but I managed after digging a few hand and foot holds for myself. It cost me valuable time, but I didn’t need a lot of time once I got on the move. I sprinted a block away, climbed onto some of the new rubble, most of it from the shacks the twisters had tossed around during their temper tantrum. The rain fell in sheets, which would do a good job of hiding my tracks.
As always, shifting hurt, especially when I didn’t have time to ease into my new form.
My fur grew in first, stabbing through my skin. I bled, another unfortunate reality of being a full shifter; someone who changed forms too often could bleed out. I guessed I could shift six times in a day before I faced certain death, but I tried to avoid shifting more than three times.
I liked living too much to risk it.
My clothes and everything I carried shifted with me, a phenomena I didn’t understand but refused to question. Most left their clothes torn and bloodied on the ground around them. Once I made distance, I’d stop, shift again, and focus on compressing my body; when in a hurry, the laws of equivalent exchange applied, and a fox weighing in at well over a hundred pounds drew attention.
If anyone spotted me, they’d remember me, a mastiff-sized fox.
With luck, no one would notice me, and I’d find a safe place to finish shifting properly. Unwilling to find out if Sandro counted all of his Mississippis, I kept one eye on the sky and headed towards Inner Tulsa, one of the few places in the area the storms usually bypassed. The rise in elevation likely had something to do with that. When Benedict Mansfield had begun construction of Asylum, he’d picked the highest ground as the heart of his underground city. Each year, the storms drew closer, but I figured Inner Tulsa had a few years of life left in it before Mother Nature wiped it off the map, too.
In addition to more wreckage strewn over the streets, I found four fresh bodies in the time it took me to reach the trashed neighborhood skirting Inner Tulsa, where debris often rained down but tornadoes rarely ventured.
Chunks of wood littered the streets along with hail, so thick it resembled snow.
For a rare change, no one had been lobbed into Inner Tulsa as a gruesome reminder Mother Nature didn’t give a shit about humanity. The lack of curious spectators eyeballing the passing storm worried me—and warned me the storm was likely revving up for another show.
Someone needed to set Mother Nature straight and tell her to give the Alley a break already.
Deep in the heart of Inner Tulsa, a tornado siren wailed, and I halted long enough to listen while regarding the dark sky warily. I supposed the swarm had moved north to visit another neighborhood—one closer to the city’s heart, which people still cared about.
While the clouds remained an ominous green and the wind howled, I couldn’t spot a single funnel reaching for the ground.
Shaking my head, I went in search of one of the elusive sewer covers that hid something other than the city’s sanitation system: an illegal entrance into Asylum, one of the few safe places left in the Alley.
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Author by R.J. Blain
About the Author RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.
In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until satisfied.
Authors Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson are revealing the cover to GRAVES’ ANATOMY, the first book in their new adult urban fantasy series, Luna Graves, releasing November 17, 2020. See below for the cover, information on the book, preorder links, and a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR.
GRAVES’ ANATOMY (Luna Graves Series #1) by Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson
About The Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited
Title: GRAVES’ ANATOMY Series: Luna Graves Series #1 Author: Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson Genre: New Adult Urban Fantasy Release Date: November 17, 2020 Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Amazon DE | Amazon IT | Amazon FR
Synopsis Tattoo artist Luna Graves’ life turns upside down when her estranged father dies and she learns it’s her destiny to be a doctor…to monsters.
Destiny? Fairy tale endings? Things that go bump in the night? Luna Graves doesn’t believe in any of them. Her father took off when she was three, and she’s worked hard to become one of the best young tattoo artists in Los Angeles. Of course, there was that mysterious exchange she had when she was 12 with Heath Guillaumet, who might not have been human…naw, that was just her imagination.
When her estranged father dies, Luna discovers that he led a secret life as an uphir, a doctor to the shadowkind — what we would call monsters. Now that he’s gone, she has to take his place — or be killed by the powerful Council. Thrust into a world she doesn’t know, the stubborn Luna refuses to give up on her original dreams. Soon Heath Guillaumet will return to unleash a disease last battled by the Knights Templar…the Black Death.
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Authors Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch
About the Authors Adam Gierasch and Jace Anderson are a husband and wife writing team, known for their work in the horror genre. Adam Gierasch is also known as an actor and director, and he released his directorial debut Autopsy in 2008.
