New Adult

Snippet Saturday: Sept 19

Here’s another snippet from Negative Energy, my new release!

“See, it’s not so bad sitting by me, and this time it doesn’t appear like your shadow will be glaring at me. Boyfriend?”

“Cousin,” I corrected, already knowing that he was talking about Theodore.

“Really? Because he doesn’t act like a cousin to me.”

“Protective and always in my business, that doesn’t sound like a cousin to you?”

Jackson shrugged. “Put like that, I suppose he does. Is he the one who made you jump earlier?”

“No.” Not this again. “I like Theodore. He can be a bit much sometimes, but I like him. He’d never make me jump unless he meant to tease me.”

“This other person doesn’t mean to tease, then.”

“Not usually, and the teasing isn’t the fun form either. Okay-.”

“So, a bully,” Jackson cut me off, his voice low and harsh. “You’re being bullied.”

I covered my face. “If I tell you what’s going on will you leave me alone?”

“You mean will I stop being your friend?”

“I mean cut that friend crap out. You know we can’t be friends.”

“I know we can be friends,” he stated, more persistent than ever. “Why can’t we? Because our people say we can’t?”

“Are you always this stubborn?”

Jackson snickered beside me as the teacher, Mr. Henry, called out roll. “My mother would say yes, and I’d have to agree with her.” 

“Well stop being so stubborn and leave me alone.”

mybook.to/NegativeEnergy

Snippet Saturday: Sept 12

It’s release day for Negative Energy!!! Again, this is a standalone novel. Here’s the blurb, snippet to follow:

Shannon Dart’s magic is out of control. Rather, her flaring temper causes her magic to blow up the nearest object. With ninety days to learn control, and a bully set on making that impossible, Shannon is at her wits end. That is, until a wolf shifter appears in her first hour class after his pack moves to town. There’s something about this shifter that Shannon can’t put her finger on.

With Jackson’s help, Shannon is hopeful to learn control, especially when her magic responds to him. However, the rising tension between the magical coven and the wolf pack create problems for the two friends. If Jackson is the key to unlocking Shannon’s control, can they find a way to make it work while keeping their distance, or are they bound to fail?

Snippet:

Jackson’s grin grew wider as his steel eyes returned to me, their depths pulling me in. “My one goal today was to make a friend, and I chose you.”

“You chose me?” I stared openly. “You know what I am, right?”

He tapped his nose. “I smell that too. Which makes me wonder, what creature, or what person, makes someone like you so afraid?”

I ground my teeth together and stared back at the papers on my desk. “It’s no one.”

“Fine, if you don’t want to tell me, I’ll just have to figure it out for myself.”

“Why do you care?”

“Because I chose you as my friend, and no one is going to cause the amount of fear I smelled and the spiked heart rate I heard from my new friend. Not without me stepping in.”

“First-.”

“Welcome to class everyone,” Mrs. Gulf called from the doorway as the second bell rang and she closed the door. 

She began instructing us about the packets on our desks when Jackson leaned closer. “I’m still listening. Talk low, I’ll hear it.”

I looked down at my paper like I was listening to the teacher, though I was only half aware of what she was saying. Covering my mouth so she couldn’t see my lips move, I spoke as softly as I could, not worried he’d hear me. “First, you don’t just choose a friend like that. The other person has a choice. Second, you can’t help me with my problem. No one can.”

Jackson leaned over toward me, pretending he was digging in his bag for something, likely a pencil. “We’ll see about that. And you do have a choice to be my friend, but you’ll find I’m completely irresistible.”

“And cocky.”

“Self-aware.”

mybook.to/NegativeEnergy

#Freebie Alert!
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#Freebie Alert!

If you’re like me right now in this time with the COVID 19 virus, you don’t have any more time available to you than you had before because you’re able to work from home the same hours you did before. Or you’re a medical professional, grocery store employee, or other essential worker who don’t have the choice but to go to work to help the rest of us. However, I know many people who don’t have the ability to work from home or their places of employment have closed and have more free time than they’ve had because of it. Many authors did sales to help those in this situation to have more books to read. Good for them, but I wasn’t ready to throw mine in yet.

Free Graphic 1

So, I held off, and now I have my freebie ready for those who are still looking for social isolating reads! It’s also a way to celebrate that Fourth Bunker, the next standalone in the series, has finished being written!! This book should be released this summer and more information will be given at a later time. However, I will say that this is Avery’s book and the events take place after Third House. Thus far, betas are loving it!

If you’ve read First Blood and enjoyed it, please reach out to your friends and let them know it’s free! Hopefully it can spread some good vibes during this rough time in our lives. I know I’m handling social isolation much better than so many of my friends and family, but many others are like them and this is a difficult time. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this book and it can bring some fun to your life.

Free Graphic 4

Like most other college students in the United States, Koda Niklane’s dream is to join the government’s most advanced military unit: the Elite. Since the President’s great reveal of supernaturals living amongst humans, every college student is required to Interview for the Elite. Being human and unable to fight are setbacks for Koda, but she soon learns she isn’t quite as human as she’d thought, or rather, she’s not human at all.

When a purple-eyed blood drinker named Raven Cartana, a Captain in the Elite, announces publicly that she’s one of his kind, Koda refuses to believe him. As her new Elite trainer, Raven’s job is to keep Koda alive and teach her the ropes. Teaching is the easy part as Raven, Koda, and their team work to keep the streets safe from Threats. It soon becomes apparent that keeping Koda alive will be much harder than Raven had anticipated as the attacks on her become more personal.

As Koda works with Raven and the Elite, she can’t help but wonder how much of herself will remain once her maturity has finished. Will she still be Koda, or will she be something different? And is that why someone has their sights set on her?

Click for your Free copy of First Blood

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Werewolves vs Wolf Shifters

Am I the only person who loves the trend where authors create a wolf shifter and have them called a werewolf because real werewolves are a myth but shifters are real? One True Mate (Westin Pack Book 1) by [Trettel, Julie]

I know I can’t be. In my opinion, that opens up so many more options. However, I still do love me some straight up naturally evil werewolves! So today, let’s talk about this.

The werewolf from legend/mythology is that one who changes at the full moon and can’t control that shift, and is pretty much a normal human being the rest of the time. Legend says they can be killed by a silver bullet, and that being bitten by a werewolf is all that it takes to start turning into one every full moon. They’re usually depicted as a wolf who stands more like a human on their hind legs than an actual wolf on all four, though they are versatile when chasing their prey.

Knight (Sons of the Alpha Book 1) by [Carmichael, Addison]

Meanwhile, wolf shifters keep their true wolf form for the most part, and can secondarily in some cases choose to stand straight like a human. I’ve read where some are also prone to being killed by silver, and others were any means that would kill a regular wolf would kill them. However, in these cases they can withstand far more than a regular wolf and heal more quickly in wolf form.

A lot of these similarities and differences can be found in movies as well as books (and obviously this is the case in a book to movie adaption.) It’s always fun to see what the artists in both mediums do to portray these creatures.

When I was working on First Blood, I knew I wanted to incorporate both versions of the Werewolf, what I call the true version and shifter version. While Jackson is only a shifter, and is referred to as such, many wolf shifters use the name werewolf loosely. I guess that makes Jackson a werewolf in some circles. That left me with the real werewolves. Creating rules around their species, specifically the laws they have to abide by, was so fun. And when the werewolves got out…well that was bound to happen, lol.

 

Off the top of my head, some books with one of the other version that I would recommend are:

 

Karen Lynch: Relentless Series

Melissa Haag: Judgement of the Six Series

Melanie Gilbert: Alpha King

Julie Trettel: Westin Pack Series

Heather Hildenbrand: Dirty Blood Series

Quinn Loftis: Grey Wolf Series

Addison Carmichael: Sons of the Alpha Series

Rachel Jonas: The Lost Royals Saga

Alpha King by [Gilbert, Melanie]

Others I have in my TBR Pile:

Bethany Wicker: Unexpected Alpha

Karina Espinosa: Shift

Olivia Wildenstein: A Pack of Blood and Lies

Leia Stone: Matefinder

SHIFT (Mackenzie Grey: Origins Book 1) by [Espinosa, Karina]

I’m probably forgetting several, but off the top of my head, this is what you get! Hopefully you found this fun. More creatures to come!

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Snippet Saturday: Dec 14

Today’s snippet comes from First Christmas which is currently FREE until Dec 17th!

Free FC

Move out of the way, dragon. She is ours, Drake ordered the man at my back.

“No, she is mine. If you try to harm her, I will kill you.”

My ears pricked at the sound of my mate’s deep, husky voice. I fought a shiver from the lethal edge that chilled the threat in his words. It even caused the dragons on my side of the fight to take a step back. Whoever my mate was, he was not a dragon to be taken lightly, and he hadn’t even thrown a punch or shifted yet.

You should move on, dragon. She isn’t yours. We found her first. Now, step aside. I took notice that Drake’s words were less confident.

The dragon on my left took a step closer, heading toward me, but my mate swung his head around to face him, pulling his top lip back in a feral human snarl. “My mate is not yours. Now, leave before I tear you to pieces. This is your final warning.”

mybook.to/FirstChristmas

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#SnippetSaturday: Nov 8th

It’s Snippet Saturday again! That week rolled by pretty quick. Today’s snippet comes from the upcoming Christmas book, Snowbound Christmas. Here we have Flint meeting some of the North Pole’s occupants! Cider is one of my new faves.

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Cocoa House was on the corner of Mistletoe Lane and Christmas Crossing, and like the Bakery, it was bustling inside. A tiny elf with spiky black hair with red tips noticed us walk in and she squealed as she ran around the counter and straight for Lizzette.
“You’re back!” She threw herself into Lizzette’s arms and the two hugged one another for longer than was customary, so they had to be friends, if the excited greeting wasn’t enough to prove that. “Who’s this?”
“This is Flint, he’s the polar bear shifter we brought back with us from Alaska. He likes hugs too.” Lizzette winked at me before the elf threw herself into my arms for a tight squeeze that wasn’t nearly as long as Lizzette’s hug had been, but I didn’t expect it to be any longer considering we were strangers. “Flint, this is Cider, my best friend in Christmas Village. Actually, she’s my bestest friend in the whole of the North Pole.”
Cider stepped back and surveyed me, tapping her fingertip against bright red lips. “Polar bear, huh? I heard Santa was bringing one of them back. So, what, you’re on tour guide duty?” She arched a brow at Lizzette, who grinned and shook her head.
“No, Flint is a friend.”
I’d better end up being more than a friend by the end of this or I’d done something seriously wrong. My bear and I had taken quite a bit of time while shoveling to study our mate, and not in a friendly way. If Lizzette had noticed, she hadn’t said anything. Then again, would she have called me out if she had caught me staring?
Of course she wouldn’t. We weren’t supposed to be anything more than that publicly. This was depressing.
Cider studied me again, and I kept my gaze locked on hers until she nodded. “He’ll do. Okay, now boy, follow me.”
Turning to Lizzette, I gave her a questioning stare, but she shrugged and motioned me to follow her friend. Before I moved, I handed over our muffins, my stomach complaining about giving the food away. Then I followed Cider behind the counter, hesitating to do so until she crooked her finger at me.
“Take your coat off,” Cider ordered, and I did. She took it from me and tossed it into a back room before returning to where she’d left me and handed me a tray with four mugs of hot chocolate on it with four cookies on a center plate. “You see that table in the far corner, this goes to them. Hurry up before it grows cold.”
Uhhh….

US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZZKVG4R

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Snippet Saturday: April 27

Phoenix Ebook FinalI’ve been failing at remembering to do this on the certain Saturday’s I had listed…so, I’m going to be doing them on whatever Saturday I remember! Or post ahead and schedule when I remember during the week.

This week’s snippet comes from Phoenix Awakened, my newest release! Be on the lookout for snippets of my upcoming pre-order as well.

 

Snippet:

Stepping out of the bathroom, I found Phoenix standing in a nice pair of khakis with a long sleeved button up under a cardigan. In my head, dinner was casual, so I’d changed back into my jeans and shirt from this morning. Embarrassed by my misunderstanding, I stuttered over a plausible excuse for the way I looked while trying to think if I actually packed clothes that would be suitable to match his.

“Sorry, I forgot my clothes out here and wasn’t going to come out here in a towel, no matter how much you’d enjoy it.” I dug through my suitcase, hands shaking as Phoenix took my shoulders and turned me to face him.

“You look beautiful. I don’t mind if you wear that.”

“I look like a slob. Let me change and I’ll be right out.”

“May I kiss you?”

The question popped out of his mouth so fast I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right, but the nonwavering expression that held mine told me for a fact I’d heard correctly. If this was his way of distracting me, he was succeeding. My gaze flew to his lips, remembering our last, and first, kiss.

“I don’t know if that would be a great idea,” I murmured, trying to make my feet back up, but that was useless since a bed stood right behind me. Then again, sidestepping away would be better. There wasn’t a bed in that direction.

Phoenix’s shoulders slumped. “One little kiss.”

“You’re very pushy, you know that don’t you?”

“I do, yes, but persistence is everything.”

Closing my eyes, I sighed. He was persistent, that was for sure, and that was how he was going to win me over. Patience and persistence. And his gentleness and kindness.

Warm lips brushed mine as stiff bristles rubbed against the sensitive skin around my mouth. Unlike last time, there was no burning desire or unbridled passion behind the kiss, only a gentle sweetness that was Phoenix. After a few seconds, he leaned back and I opened my eyes.

“I didn’t say yes.”

“But you didn’t say no.” He grinned. “Next time I’ll wait for an answer.”

mybook.to/PhoenixAwakened

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#Indiebooklist Monday: Week 14

Week 14

Week 13: Heather Hildenbrand

Book: Dirty Blood

Heather and I interacted a little on Facebook over the last few years, but more so last year when we started sprinting together in a Facebook group (that’s basically where you write at the same time to keep one another motivated). We got to meet for the first time in Frankenmuth, MI and I was so excited to meet her! Y’all, she’s so sweet and funny, and just a fun person to be around. When we met up at Penned Con 2018 a group of us chatted for a while when she arrived and it was great. And you guessed it: I had to buy a copy of Dirty Blood! I’d had the ebook on my kindle for forever and one day I felt inclined to read it, and I wasn’t disappointed in the least! It’s completely amazing! Yup, I gained yet another book boyfriend. Don’t worry, you will too!!

Website: http://heatherhildenbrand.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeatherHildenbrandAuthor/

I killed a girl last night.

I’m not a murderer—but then she wasn’t a normal girl, either. One minute she was a stranger with a chip on her shoulder and the next she was a wolf. Right down to the teeth and claws. There was no stopping her attack, but somehow, I knew exactly what to do when I decided to fight for my life. By the time I stood over her lifeless body, she was human again.

That’s when he showed up.

We’re not going to be friends. I know that. But I don’t think friendship is what he’s after. Not with me.

A complicated relationship is the last thing I need right now. Turns out, everything I was taught is a lie. Now, there are only two things I know for sure. One, werewolves exist. And two, I was born to kill them.

Dirty Blood: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004V08RS2/

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#Indiebooklist Monday: Week 13

Week 13

Week 13: Kelly Martin

Book: Dark & Deadly Things

Maybe it’s my weird sense of humor, but I find it appropriate that Kelly Martin gets to be week 13. Honestly, I think I stalked Kelly Martin before she even knew I existed, and when I finally got to meet in her Roanoke, VA a few years ago, I was kind of freaking out on the inside. You see, one of the things I love most about Kelly is her accent. Love it! And she’s completely amazing! Actually, this past year at the Roanoke Author Invasion, I bought this book from her (come on, how could I pass up buying a signed book from her when her table was two away from mine???). Reading last year wasn’t something that was easy for me to do, but I’ve been slowly hacking away at my to be read pile, and this is near the top because it sounds soooooo good! Just remind me not to read it in the dark…(pun intended)

Website: https://www.kellymartinbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KellyMartinAuthor/

Since Elise Morgan left her father’s fake reality television show, Dark and Deadly Things, she put the ghost-hunting life behind her, able to comfortably watch from her couch– next to the ghost of her mother.

When the Halloween episode airs live on television, something goes horribly wrong. Four people end up dead, and Elise’s father is the lead suspect in their murders. But Elise knows the truth. She watched the thing that crawled from the darkness. It most certainly wasn’t her father.

Abel Hale was in the house when his family died. He felt the icy chill, heard the scraping of nails along the wall, felt the fear and gleeful anticipation as the entity stalked them. The thing that killed the people he loved was not human. There is only one person who believes him, one person who can help him– Elise, the daughter of the man he blames for his family’s death.

Reality mixes with fantasy as Elise and Abel’s world turns upside down.

Dark & Deadly Things: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYCJC65/

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#Indiebooklist Monday: Week 12

Week 12

Week 12: Nikki Jefford

Book: Wolf Hollow

Nikki has always been one of those authors that I saw on Facebook and secretly stalked from afar thinking I was too little on the reader/author food chain to even attempt communication. Honestly, it’s silly, and I shouldn’t have worried because Nikki is amazing! We met for the first time at Penned Con in 2018 and gosh she made me laugh. To be honest, I haven’t read many of her books yet, but it’s something I’m going to rectify. Those that I have read, I’ve truly enjoyed, and this book is seriously on my to read list. I’m sure I’ll love it!

Website: http://nikkijefford.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authornikkijefford/

An attraction that threatens the future of the pack…

Spirited, stubborn, and deeply loyal wolf shifter, Sasha feels the pressure from her pack to claim another pureblood, yet no one is brazen enough to defy the elders and toy with her . . . no one besides a hotheaded half-breed.

Tabor, a rebellious outcast, is the hollow’s only wizard shifter. Constantly overlooked despite his strengths, Tabor believes Sasha is as shortsighted as the rest of the pack until she proves there’s more to her than a blindly obedient lapdog.

Unable to resist the proud and sensual pureblood, Tabor would risk everything to claim her. Despite her vanishing bloodline, Sasha can’t resist the charismatic half-breed, even as the elders set her up to breed with another pureblood.

Predators are closing in, threatening the strength and stability of their pack, and there are shifters within Wolf Hollow willing to do anything to prevent the pair from mating.

Recommended for mature audiences ages 18+.

Wolf Hollow: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075QVVKFR/