Wednesday, October 20, 2021

NOW AVAILABLE (HAPPY BOOK WEEK AUTHORS.)

 







What’s a girl to do when her celebrity crush needs her to be his fake girlfriend?

 

 

Sealed With a Kiss, an all-new opposites attract romantic comedy from New York Times bestselling author Erin Nicholas is available now!

 

 

"Sealed with a Kiss is a heartbreaker that will steal your heart while tickling your funny bone. An instant love kind of read." - (Isha C., Blogger, Reader, Reviewer - Hopeless Romantic)

 

 

 

Keep her damned feelings to herself, of course.
Child TV star turned adult wallflower Naomi LeClaire has vowed never to return to the spotlight.
But when she’s stuck in a storm with Donovan Foster, the hot, charming, wild-life rescuing internet sensation, and she finally gives in and kisses him...and a few articles of clothing end up on the floor...suddenly her simple, quiet life is tossed upside down.

 

 

Especially after the paparazzi catches a heat-of-the-moment kiss. Now everyone assumes she's his girlfriend and, when she realizes that’s the best way to keep Donovan out of trouble, Naomi agrees to play along. Even though it puts her center stage with her private life in very public view. Again.

 

 

They’re a whirlwind of opposites-attract chemistry the fans love, but they'll surely blow over faster than a Gulf Coast hurricane. As long as they can keep straight what's real and what's just a once-in-a-lifetime fantasy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall in love today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2VoGROU
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/Sealedwith
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3xlywbX
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Add Sealed With a Kiss to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3jnH2lO

 

 

 REVIEW: SEALED WITH A KISS (BOYS OF THE BAYOU GONE WILD) BY ERIN NICHOLAS

 

Sealed With A Kiss (Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild, #4)Sealed With A Kiss by Erin Nicholas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Count on Nicholas to spread her special brand of sunshine to bookshelves everywhere. Naomi and Donovan bring the fun to another adorable installment of The Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series. She's a small town girl with a big heart. He's a larger than life celebrity that couldn't be more out of her league. Sealed with a Kiss is a heartbreaker that will steal your heart while tickling your funny bone. An instant love kind of read.





View all my reviews

 

 

Start the series of standalones today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3e7KfDs
Apple Books: https://apple.co/3aaZ2Mm
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/otterlyirresistible
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Kobo: https://bit.ly/32eESMY
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3ablaWL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Erin Nicholas

 

 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Erin Nicholas has been writing romances almost as long as she’s been reading them. To date, she’s written over thirty sexy, contemporary novels that have been described as “toe-curling,” “enchanting,” “steamy,” and “fun.” She adores reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines, and happily ever afters.
Erin lives in the Midwest, where she enjoys spending time with her husband (who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books), her kids (who will never read the sex scenes in her books), and her family and friends (who claim to be “shocked” by the sex scenes in her books).

 

 

 

 

 

Connect with Erin
Website: http://bit.ly/2NkB2uF
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2tdTM8e
Twitter: http://bit.ly/2QLd1Pr
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Website: http://bit.ly/2FM3Doo
Stay up to date with Erin Nicholas by joining her mailing list:
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  *****

 

 



 

 

Save Me, an all-new standalone romance and in the addictive Phoenix Book series from USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy is available now!

 

 

Can this fantasy last forever?



"Save Me shrouds deep emotion behind a temptingly, naughty facade. Kennedy turns heartache into a sensual tale of the risque and the revealing. A picture of the heart in all it's facets is laid bare ...." - (Isha C., Blogger, Reader, Reviewer - Hopeless Romantic)

 

 


 

From USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy comes a captivating romance set in the exclusive world of the Phoenix club, where sizzling fantasies become reality...

 

 

Reporter Hazel Rose has a new assignment: locate the masked man in a photograph taken at the Phoenix sex club and snag an interview with him. The only problem? She recognizes him as her new roommate, Kieran Black. The elusive mystery man she's been lusting after for months. But her biggest problem is that there's no way Hazel could ever talk to Kieran about a secret sex club. His smile alone makes her blush. And after being beaten down by an emotionally cruel ex-boyfriend, Hazel has never really regained her self-confidence.

 

 

Kieran loves his sex dirty and his relationships brief. A child of a terrible divorce, Kieran has never seen the point in commitment. But suddenly, all his of best friends are getting married, and he's beginning to realize how empty his life is. As Kieran and Hazel are both forced to attend wedding celebrations, he starts to learn more about his quiet roommate. When she explains her past struggles with relationships, he offers her a trade. He'll fulfill all of her wildest sexual fantasies if she'll help him understand how to be the type of partner a woman wants in a relationship.

 

 

Hazel knows this sizzling fantasy with Kieran isn't supposed to last, but she quickly finds herself falling for the sweet, caring Kieran who is much better at relationships than he believes. But when Hazel's job invades her personal life, she'll have to decide what's more important. A career that hinges on revealing Kieran's identity or a fake relationship that is starting to feel very real...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grab your copy today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2WuY0Hc
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/SaveMeSK
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2Wi8f1L
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Kobo: https://bit.ly/3zni2BY
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3sQ2S5r

 

 

Add to Save Me to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3ylp5cV

 

 

 REVIEWSAVE ME (PHOENIX) BY STACEY KENNEDY

 

Save Me (Phoenix, #3)Save Me by Stacey Kennedy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Save Me shrouds deep emotion behind a temptingly, naughty facade. Kennedy turns heartache into a sensual tale of the risque and the revealing. Kieran and Hazel are forced to face the shadows that haunt them while confronting an attraction like neither has ever known. A picture of the heart in all it's facets is laid bare in the most enticing way.



View all my reviews

 

 

 

Start the series now!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3k3koxC
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/WatchmeSK
Apple Books: https://apple.co/2Zt2H2D
Nook: https://bit.ly/33h9Vb9
Google Play: https://bit.ly/3hobPvr
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2ZqBBJC

 

 

 

 

About Stacey Kennedy

 

 

Stacey Kennedy is a USA Today bestselling author who writes contemporary romances full of heat, heart, and happily ever afters. With over 50 titles published, her books have hit Amazon, B&N, and Apple Books bestseller lists.
Stacey lives with her husband and two children in southwestern Ontario—in a city that’s just as charming as any of the small towns she creates. Most days, you’ll find her enjoying the outdoors with her family or venturing into the forest with her horse, Priya. Stacey’s just as happy curled up indoors, where she writes surrounded by her lazy dogs. She believes that sexy books about hot cowboys or alpha heroes can fix any bad day. But wine and chocolate help too.

 

 

 

 

 

Connect with Stacey
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2GndEc8
Website: http://bit.ly/38IpidY
Bookbub: http://bit.ly/30UzJIw
Facebook: http://bit.ly/38IX6au
Twitter: http://bit.ly/38I0Zgc
GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2sXZlYo
Stay up to date with Stacey by joining her mailing list:
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 *****

 

 

 

What if I Never?, an all new must read steamy first book in the Necklace Trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is now available!

 


BUY WHAT IF I NEVER:
Amazon: http://mybook.to/Necklace1
Apple: http://apple.co/3pIeHYe
Nook: http://bit.ly/2ZIL7Hv
Kobo: http://bit.ly/3pGnpq0
Google: https://bit.ly/3oJ0zRT
Audio: https://adbl.co/3n7Y7Cb
Print: https://mybook.to/Necklace1PB

In the vein of her Inside Out series, New York Times Bestselling Author Lisa Renee Jones returns with the dark, seductive world of the Necklace Trilogy...

Allison Wright is delivered a package meant for a different Allison—a unique, expensive necklace. Determined to right the confusion, she seeks out the proper recipient, a journey that takes her to the doorstep of Tyler Hawk, a good looking, recluse billionaire who deals with fine collectibles such as the necklace. She also learns that Allison, his employee, quit her job registering and restoring his vast assortment of collectibles. Ironically, Allison is home to care for her sick mother, on leave from her job at Riptide, the world renowned auction house and her love of such things has her jumping at the opportunity. Soon, she is spending every waking moment immersed in the job the other Allison left behind.

As Allison begins diving into the job for Tyler, secrets about the other Allison begin to surface that have her concerned for her safety. And as she starts hunting for answers, her path crosses with the enigmatic famous author who has a business endeavor with her boss. Dash Black is a man who is dark and edgy, intense and yet quiet. Funny and yet somehow reserved. He draws her in, sets her pulse racing, and her body on fire. She knows there's a dangerous edge to him, but she can't seem to care. She's addicted to everything he is and she simply can't turn away, no matter what the cost. As Allison is drawn into the life and mystery of the other Allison, a mystery demands answers and passion burns hot. Allison will travel a path that leads to shocking truths and a side of herself she never knew existed.

 

 

 

 

 



EXCERPT:


Yes, please do send the press kit etc. And the below excerpt is a little longer.

His eyes soften and he catches my hand. “Come here.”
I let him ease me closer, and when he pulls me onto his lap again, I say, “Am I going to end up with my hands behind my back unable to touch you again?”
“Not unless you want me to tie you up and tease you.”
There’s no denying the idea of Dash in control and me at his mercy, is a delicious prospect I won’t even try to deny. And so, I don’t deny anything. Instead, my arms slide around his neck, and I lean into him. “Not this time, Dash. Please.”
“Well now, as long as you say please, you can have just about anything you want.” 
With his promise that I can have anything I want if I say please, Dash’s hands slide under the T-shirt I’m wearing and up my back. Molding me close, my breasts pressed to his hard chest.
“For instance,” he says, his voice low, a rough sandpaper tease on my nerve endings. “I’ll lick you anywhere you want to be licked if you just say please.”
I’m really, truly a rather shy person and no one has ever spoken to me so boldly as Dash has this night, but I’m different with Dash I’m starting to realize. More comfortable in my own skin and sexuality. I just can’t find it in me to hide from this or him. “What about where I want to kiss you?”
“Where do you want to kiss me?” he asks, squeezing my backside and Lord help me I can feel the thick ridge of his erection between my thighs and through his jeans I want to be gone now.
“Everywhere,” I assure him.
His lips curve and he says, “Is that right?”
“Oh yes, but you resist me, Dash Black.”
“I assure you, Allison, I am not resisting you.” Somehow him calling me Allison in this moment is more intimate than Allie, and I don’t know why. “I want nothing more than your hands and mouth on my body,” he says. “But you’ll have to allow me to kiss you everywhere first.” He drags the T-shirt over my head and by the time it’s on the ground his hands are on my breasts, and when my hands cover his hands, his finger strokes my nipples.
My fingers catch long strands of his light brown hair and I tilt his gaze to mine. Any control I’d thought to gain in that moment is lost when Dash pinches my nipples, sending darts of pleasure straight to my sex. I moan and he captures the sound with his mouth, kissing me with the kind of passion that a girl thinks she will never know because it can’t be real.
Oh, but it is. It so is.
My hands tunnel into his hair and when his gaze lifts to mine, I find hunger there. So much hunger, and all for me. He catches my hands and presses them behind me, bracing them on his powerful thighs, his arm wrapping my waist, securing me. Watching me now, he cups my breast and leans in, licking my nipple, sensations rippling through me, my sex clenching with impossible need, need for him.

 




About Lisa Renee Jones


New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series. Suzanne Todd (producer of Alice in Wonderland) on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful, complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy – a modern girl we all can identify with. Inside Out has been optioned to STARZ, Paramount, and now Marvista Entertainment. Marvista has also optioned the spin-off series, Careless Whispers.

In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists.

Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.


Connect with Lisa Renee Jones


Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YBWJz2


Facebook: https://bit.ly/3iNLef4


Twitter: https://bit.ly/3DpKm85


BookBub: https://bit.ly/3oKTccv


Instagram: https://bit.ly/2YEOWAA


Website: https://www.lisareneejones.com/




 *****

 

A Shadow in the Ember, the brand new fantasy women’s fiction set in the Blood and Ash world from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout is available now!

 

 

“One of the best fantasy worlds I have ever read.”
-- Carrie Ann Ryan, New York Times bestselling author



 

 

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout returns with book one of the all-new, compelling Flesh and Fire series—set in the beloved Blood and Ash world.

 

 

Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort.

 

 

However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania—she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission—one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then…end him. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot.

 

 

Sera has always known what she is. Chosen. Consort. Assassin. Weapon. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. A monster. Until him. Until the Primal of Death’s unexpected words and deeds chase away the darkness gathering inside her. And his seductive touch ignites a passion she’s never allowed herself to feel and cannot feel for him. But Sera has never had a choice. Either way, her life is forfeit—it always has been, as she has been forever touched by Life and Death.

 

 

 

 

Grab your copy today!


Amazon: https://amzn.to/3bROCSS


Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/ShadowEmber 


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Hardcover: https://bit.ly/2S6RP9Z


Apple Books: https://apple.co/3eyxHoD


Kobo: https://bit.ly/3aGWsxR

 

 

 

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3gCGatH

 

 

 

 

Excerpt


She reached back, curling her arm through mine. The unexpected contact caused me to flinch, and I was suddenly grateful for the veil. Like any of the Chosen, my flesh should not encounter another’s unless related to my preparations. It spoke volumes that Lady Kala had touched me.
She led me through the twisting, endless halls of nothing but doors and numerous blazing candle sconces. I had just begun to wonder if she was lost when the hazy outline of two silent figures draped in black appeared by a set of doors.
Shadow Priests.
They’d taken their oath of silence to all new heights, having stitched their lips closed. I always wondered how they ate or drank. Based on their wraithlike, sunken frames under the black robes, whatever method they used wasn’t exactly working out that well for them.
I suppressed a shudder as each of the Priests opened a door to reveal a large, circular chamber aglow with hundreds of candles. A third Shadow Priest seemingly appeared out of thin air, taking Lady Kala’s place. The bony fingers didn’t touch my skin but pressed into the center of my back. The contact still bothered me, made me want to pull away, but I knew better than to step away from the coldness of his fingers seeping through the thin layer of cloth. Forcing myself to breathe, I stared at the etchings carved into the otherwise smooth stone. A circle with a line through it. The symbol filled each stone tile. Having never seen it before, I wasn’t sure what it meant. My gaze lifted to the wide dais before me. The Priest guided me down the aisle, and some of the pressure returned to my chest. I didn’t look at the empty pews. If I had truly been Chosen, those benches would be full of the highest-ranking nobility, the streets outside alive with cheers. The silence of the room chilled my skin.
There’d only ever been one throne before, constructed from the same stone as the Temple. Shadowstone was the color of the deepest hour of night, a marvelous material that could be polished until it reflected any source of light and whetted into a blade sharp enough to pierce flesh and bone. The throne was the glossy sort, absorbing the glow of the candlelight until the stone appeared as if it were full of dark fire. The back of the seat had been carved into the shape of a crescent moon.
The exact shape of the birthmark I bore just above my left shoulder blade. The telltale sign that even before I was born, my life had never been mine.
Tonight, there were two thrones.
As they led me to the dais and helped me up the steps, I really wished I had asked for that glass of water. Guided to the second throne, they sat me there and then left me alone. Resting my hands on the arms of the throne, I scanned the pews below. Not a single soul from Lasania was in attendance. None even knew that their lives and their children’s lives all hinged on tonight and what I needed to do. If they ever discovered that Roderick Mierel—the one the histories of Lasania called the Golden King—hadn’t spent day and night in the fields with his people, digging and scraping away land ruined by war until they revealed clean, fertile soil… That he hadn’t sown the land alongside his subjects; his blood, sweat, and tears building the kingdom… If they learned that the songs and poems written about him had been based on a fable, what was left of the Mierel Dynasty would surely collapse.
Someone closed the doors, and my gaze stretched to the back of the chamber, where I could make out the shadowy forms of my mother and Tavius in the candlelight. A third figure stood beside them. King Ernald. My stepsister, Princess Ezmeria—Ezra—stood beside her father and brother, and I didn’t need to see her expression to know that she hated every aspect of this deal. Sir Holland wasn’t here. I would’ve liked to have said goodbye to him, even though I didn’t expect him to be here. His presence would raise too many questions among the Shadow Priests.
Would reveal too much.
That I wasn’t the beacon of Royal purity, but rather the wolf dressed as the sacrificial lamb. I wouldn’t just fulfill the deal that King Roderick had struck. I would end it before it destroyed my kingdom.
Determination filled my chest with warmth as it did whenever I used my gift. This was my destiny. My purpose. What I would do was bigger than me. It was for Lasania.
So, I sat there, ankles crossed demurely beneath the gown, hands relaxed on the arms of the throne as I waited.
And waited some more.
Seconds ticked into minutes. I didn’t know how many passed, but tiny balls of unease formed in my belly. He’d been summoned to his Temple. Shouldn’t…shouldn’t he be here? My palms dampened as the knots grew, stretching into my chest. The pressure increased. What if he didn’t show?
Why wouldn’t he?
This was his deal.
When King Roderick had grown desperate enough to do anything to salvage his lands ruined by war and save those who were starving after already suffering so much loss, I imagined he’d expected a lesser god to answer his summons—which was far more common for those bold enough to do such a thing. But what had answered the Golden King was a Primal.
And when he’d granted King Roderick’s request, this was the price the Primal of Death had requested: the firstborn daughter of the Mierel bloodline as his Consort.
The Primal had to come.
What if he didn’t? My heart pounded as my fingers curled against the chilled stone of the throne.
Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out. Hold.
If he didn’t arrive, all would be lost. Everything he’d granted King Roderick would continue to come undone. If he didn’t come for me, and I failed to fulfill this, I would doom the kingdom to a slow death at the hands of the Rot. It had started upon my birth, first with just a small patch of land in an orchard. Unripe apples had fallen from trees that had begun to lose their leaves. The ground below had turned gray, and the grass, along with the roots of the apple trees, had died. Then the Rot had spread, slowly taking out the entire orchard. In the time that passed, it had devastated several more farms. No crop could be seeded in the soil and survive once tainted by the Rot.
And it wasn’t only affecting the land. It had changed the weather, making the summers hotter and drier, the winters colder and more unpredictable.
The people of Lasania had no idea that the Rot was a clock, counting down. It was an expiration date on the deal the Golden King had made, one that had started with my birth. There was a good chance the Golden King hadn’t realized the bargain would expire no matter what. That was knowledge gained in the decades after the deal had been struck. If I failed, the kingdom would—
It started as a low rumble, like the distant sound of wagons and carriages rolling over the cobblestone streets of Carsodonia. But the sound grew until I felt it in the throne I sat upon—and in my bones.
The rumbling ceased, and the candles—all of them—went out, plunging the chamber into darkness. An earthy-scented breeze stirred the edges of the veil around my face and the hem of my gown.
In a wave, flames sparked from the candles, surging toward the pitched ceiling. My gaze fixed on the center aisle, where the very air itself had split open, spitting crackling white light. A mist seeped out from the tear, licking across the stone floor and seeping toward the pews. Tiny bumps erupted all over my skin in response. Some called the mist Primal magic. It was eather. The potent essence that not only had created the mortal realm and Iliseeum but also what coursed through the blood of a god, giving even the lesser, unknown ones unthinkable power.
I blinked. That was all I did. I blinked, and the space in front of the dais that had been empty no longer was. A male stood there, garbed in a hooded cloak and surrounded by pulsing, churning tendrils of deep shadows laced with luminous streaks of silver. I didn’t allow myself to think of what Tavius had said about him. I couldn’t. Instead, I tried to see through the wispy mass of smoky shadows. All I could tell was that he was unbelievably tall. Even from where I sat, I knew he would tower over me—and I wasn’t short by any means, nearly the same height as Tavius. But he was a Primal, and in the stories written about them in the histories, they were sometimes referred to as giants among mortals.
He appeared broad of shoulder—or at least that was what I thought the deeper, thick mass of darkness was that took the shape of…wings. His hooded head tilted back. I forgot those breathing exercises in an instant. I couldn’t see his face, but I felt the intensity of his stare. His gaze pierced straight through me, and for a brief, panicked moment, I feared that he knew I hadn’t spent seventeen years preparing to become his Consort. That my tutelage went beyond that. And that the meekness, the submissiveness I’d been taught, was nothing more than another veil I wore.
For a moment, my heart stopped as I sat on the throne meant for the Consort of the Shadowlands, one of the Courts within Iliseeum. Looking up at the Primal of Death, I felt real terror for the first time in my life.
Primals couldn’t read mortals’ thoughts. In the back of my mind, where some bit of intelligence still existed, I knew this. There was no reason for him to suspect that I was anything other than I appeared to be. Even if he’d watched me grow over the years, or if spies had been sent to Lasania, my identity, my heritage and bloodline, had been kept hidden. No one even knew there was a Princess of Mierel blood. Everything I did had been carried out in highly planned secrecy—from training with Sir Holland to the time spent with the Mistresses of the Jade.
There was no way he could know that in the two hundred years it had taken for me to be born, the knowledge of how to kill a Primal had been obtained.
Love.
They had one fatal weakness that made them vulnerable enough to be killed, and that was love.
Make him fall in love, become his weakness, and end him.
That was my destiny.
Gaining control of my hammering heart, I pulled from the hours spent with my mother, learning what would be expected of me as his Consort. How to move, speak, and act in his presence. How to become whatever he desired. I was ready for this—whether or not he was covered head to toe in the scales of the winged beasts that guarded the Primals.
My fingers relaxed, my breathing slowed, and I allowed my lips to curl into a smile—a shy, innocent one. I stood in the glow of the candlelight on feet I couldn’t feel. I clasped my hands loosely across my midsection so nothing would be hidden from him, just as my mother had instructed. I started to lower to my knees as one would upon greeting a Primal.
The stir of air was the only warning I got that the Primal had moved.
Shock silenced the gasp of surprise before it reached my lips. He was suddenly in front of me. No more than a handful of inches remained between us. Swirling light rippled the air around me. He felt cold, like the winters to the north and east. Like each winter here in Lasania slowly became with each passing year.
I wasn’t sure I even breathed as I looked up into the void where his face should be. The Primal of Death shifted closer, and one of the shadow tendrils brushed across the bare skin of my arm. I gasped at the icy feel. He lowered his head, and every muscle in my body seized. I wasn’t sure if it was his presence or the innate instinct we all had that warned us not to run. Not to make any sudden movements in the presence of a predator.
“You,” he said, his voice smoke and shadow and full of everything that awaited after someone took their very last breath. “I have no need of a Consort.”
My entire body jerked, and I whispered, “What?”
The Primal pulled back, the shadows retracting around him. He shook his head. What did he mean?
I stepped forward. “What—?” I said again.
The wind whipped from behind me this time, pitching the chamber into darkness as the candles whooshed out. The rumbling was weaker than before, but I didn’t dare move, having no idea where he was. I wasn’t sure where the edge of the dais even was. The earthy scent disappeared, and the flames slowly returned to the candles, sparking weakly to life…
He no longer stood before me.
Faint wisps of eather wafted up from the now-sealed opening in the floor. He was gone.
The Primal of Death had left. He hadn’t taken me, and in a deep, hidden part of me, relief blossomed and then crumbled. He hadn’t fulfilled the deal.
“What…what happened?” My mother’s voice reached me, and I looked up to see that she was before me. “What happened?”
“I…I don’t know.” Panic sank its claws into me as I turned to my mother, wrapping my arms around myself. “I don’t understand.”
Her eyes were wide and mirrored the storm brewing inside me as she whispered, “Did he speak to you?”
“He said…” I tried to swallow, but my throat tightened. The corners of my vision turned white. No amount of breathing exercises would help the alarm that took root. “I don’t understand. I did everything—”
The burning sting of my mother’s slap came as a shock. I hadn’t expected it—hadn’t even prepared myself for her to do something like that. Hand trembling, I pressed it against my cheek, standing there stunned and incapable of processing what had happened—what was happening.
Her dark eyes were even wider now, her skin a ghastly pale shade. “What did you do?” She pulled her hand back to her chest. “What did you do, Sera?”
I’d done nothing. Only what I’d been taught. But I couldn’t tell her that. I couldn’t tell her anything. Words failed me as something shattered inside me, shriveling up. “You,” my mother said. While her voice was not smoke or shadow, it was just as final. Her eyes glistened. “You’ve failed us. And now, everything—everything—is lost.”

 

 

 

 

About Jennifer L. Armentrout
#1 New York Times and #1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. She spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, hanging out with her husband and her Border Jack Apollo. In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting in loss of vision, among other complications. Due to this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become of passion of hers, right alongside writing, which she plans to do as long as she can.
Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Tor, HarperCollins Avon and William Morrow, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her Wicked Series has been optioned by PassionFlix. Jennifer has won numerous awards, including the 2013 Reviewers Choice Award for Wait for You, the 2015 Editor’s Pick for Fall With Me, and the 2014/2015 Moerser-Jugendbuch- Jury award for Obsidian. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA. Her adult romantic suspense novel TILL DEATH was an Amazon Editor’s Pick and iBook Book of the Month. Her young adult contemporary THE PROBLEM WITH FOREVER is a 2017 RITA Award Winner in Young Adult Fiction. She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.
She is the owner of ApollyCon and The Origin Event, the successful annual events that features over a hundred bestselling authors in Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult Fiction, panels, parties, and more.

 

 

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Website: https://jenniferlarmentrout.com

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