Dark Paranormal Romance
Date Published: January 18, 2021
Publisher: FyreSyde Publishing
The Sunfire Queen, Sierra, has waited for her chance to rule, thinking life would be better with her mother dead. She was wrong. The Court of Light is in Shambles. Her people are terrified and despise her. She has no friends, no love, and no hope. When a new war hovers on the horizon, Sierra must find the lost beastkyn Mikhail or her court will perish, and she’ll lose her shot at redemption.
Quick to grin and quicker to kill, Mikhail has made his share of mistakes–being imprisoned has given him time to ponder each poor decision. But when Sierra frees him, he earns the opportunity to make some more. She’s gorgeous and despite her fiery nature, as cold as the snow-capped mountains of Russia. He can’t wait to see how fast he can make her melt.
About The Author
Rachel Hailey was born and raised in the South. She’s all about that nerd life and in between writing she’s dedicated herself to raising the next generation of nerds. If she’s not online or staring at a book she can usually be found at the local game store rolling dice, shuffling cards, or planning her next cosplay.
Her childhood was most prominently shaped by the works of R.L. Stine, Stephen King, Anne Rice and the Brothers Grimm.
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Rachel Hailey
Mikhail leaned down, giving her plenty of time to turn her head or pull away. The orange specks bloomed in her eyes. He closed the minuscule gap, capturing her lips. They were as soft as rose petals. He stifled a hiss of pleasure as her mouth opened under his, and when his tongue swept over hers, her entire body shuddered, and she moaned.
He deliberately kept his hands where they were, but how they wanted to roam down her body. Too soon, the song ended, and she broke the kiss.
He opened his mouth to apologize, but stopped. He wasn’t sorry about keeping secrets. This was how his life was. Yet, when he looked up and found her brown eyes leveled on him, the scent of sadness rolling through the car, he was sorry this was the life he had to offer.
“How many other secrets are you hiding?” she asked, but not accusingly, more like she was as tired of his issues as he was of hers.
“Enough.”
“So, where does that leave us?” Sierra asked, voice low.
He smiled, baring his teeth. “The closest thing to friendship two Kyn royals can have.”
The pink lightkyn made a strangled sound, her back pressed harder against the door. He expected her to disappear into the glass.
Scalded by shame again, his talons shrank. He ran a hand through his hair. None of this was the girl’s fault. He opened his mouth to apologize, but before the first syllable left his lips, she exploded into laughter. The sound was like chiming bells and as lyrical as a child’s rhyme. Although beautiful, it was joyless and manic, the kind of sound the condemned might make as they laughed on their way to the gallows.
Reassessing her threat level, it was his turn to take a step away. Was she dangerous or merely unbalanced? Any creature who laughed like that needed to be handled carefully.
“Are you well?” he asked as the loud peals continued to ring out.
“No, I am most certainly not,” she said between gasps. “Are you?” She collapsed against the door, dropping her injured arm.
Wary of the lightkyn and her bizarre reactions, he shook his head. “No.”
She sobered and looked at him with soulful brown eyes. “I suppose you wouldn’t be. Would you like to come inside?”
“Who are you?”
“Sierra.”
“Sierra,” he said, tasting the name. It rang with power and depth, matching this girl with wild laughter and sad eyes. “Will you help me escape before the new ruler finds me?”
She smiled, revealing even white teeth, and tilted her head. The last of the sunlight fell across her face like a mask. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that. I am the new Queen of The Court of Light.”
Jaclyn lives in the woods of Maine on a Mountain next to a lake. She shares her version of utopia with her husband, two sons, and furbabies! She’s a recovering English teacher who loves digging in the garden, but seems to kill everything she plants and cooks daily, but burns more dinners than she can count. Good thing she knows how to write!
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Funny you ask this! I never did until this year when a fellow author mentioned that she likes to form her writing year around one word to define her year. So, I decided that I would give this Word of the Year a try and this year it’s Create. To remind me that is my goal and what I am driven to do. Create stories. Create an engaging author platform to connect with readers. I want to share the worlds I am creating and the stories I weave from those worlds. I’m finding that this word is driving me to produce not only books, but also create ways to engage readers in my life and get them interested in my work. It’s also forced me to create a network with other authors so we can help each other and learn from one another.
Last night, I decided another word needs to be in my office and life too. UNPLUG. I’ve been so driven to create I can’t forget about the other things in my life that need attention too. So, I’ve started turning off my mobile and other electronics so I can create and maintain meaningful relationships where I am present and engaged.
I am finalizing edits on my debut – Dark Legends: Curse Breaker that will be released on March 15, 2020.
It’s a novella about the Goddess Isis who is reborn into this century in the body of Kalissandra Doe though Kali doesn’t know it yet. She must travel across the world to a remote Island and break a curse to free not only herself but also the man of her dreams.
Kalissandra Doe has a to-do list worthy of the reincarnated goddess she could be.
Break a curse, or die.
Raise a long-dead god, or die.
Reassemble the Osiris Stone…or die.
But when she comes face-to-face with the man, she has literally dreamed of all her life,
Kali realizes that much more than her life is at stake.
The other project I have in the works is called Charming.-
It will be featured in the limited edition Once Upon Another World: A Twisted Fairy Tale Box Set on October 6, 2020.
It’s a re-imagined take on some of your favorite fairy tales with some wicked twists. If you were a fan of Once Upon Another Time, you’re going to love this series. Charming is about a runaway princess who escapes a dark fate by being transformed into a boy. She hides as a servant in a brothel, where she has a chance meeting with a charming prince who persuades her to follow him on a quest. Will they escape the clutches of evil, break curses, and find their happily ever after?
When I was little the best thing in the world to me was a bookstore. I called them my mecca and being there was heavenly for me.
At 11 years old, I’d walk over two miles from my house just to go sit and read crossed legged in the aisles of the closest bookstore being transported to the many different worlds the author’s crafted. Every detail of that store is etched into my memory; including the way it smelled of freshly printed books and promises of adventure. I’d always buy a book or two with any money I saved up, but there were so many I wanted. I could, and probably, did spend hours choosing the right ones. I traveled the world and through time as a knight, a princess, evil queen and many more in that store.
When it closed, I was sad. There wasn’t another bookstore within walking distance. No longer could I stop in after school or spend almost every weekend with new books to enjoy. That is until I learned how to drive of course. 😉
That’s the best thing about being an author. The potential to one day to be that, do that, for a reader. Inspire them to walk distances and sit on a hard floor for hours reading the worlds I craft. With all the technology now, that looks different than when I was younger, but the sentiment is the same.
Yes, I listen to custom created playlists on Spotify. I have one’s I listen to for each work in progress and a general #amwriting playlist.
When I am distractible and need to concentrate I listen to Ambient Sound Mixer. I love their Scottish Thunderstorms channel and the Ravenclaw lounge. Fun fact – when I was writing Curse Breaker, I exclusively listened to a channel I made myself.
I love the sound of a Diesel Engine most specifically a Diesel Train.
I used to live on Long Island and commute by train 2 hours to Manhattan. I would wake up at 4am getting to work an hour early every day and leaving a half hour later just to take the Diesel train. The whole truth is that I couldn’t nap on the electric trains. Something about the rumble of the Diesel makes me sleepy to this day!!
My husband and kids on the beach. Sand, sun, fun and no electronics or responsibilities. Just hanging out, being present, and making memories with them.
Readers can pre-order both of Jaclyn’s books below. While you’re waiting for them to arrive, you can read two of Jaclyn’s stories for free. Kiss Me I’m Irish , is a flash fiction short story she wrote last year for Charmed Writers and is available here on A Slice of Orange. Another piece of flash fiction, Harvest of Memories, is available in Charmed Writers Presents Flash Fiction 2019. This collection of short stories will only be available for a short time, so down load your copy today.
My steamy werewolf novella, Ilona’s Wolf, will be free at amazon.com starting today and running through Dec. 20! If you’re looking for a hot read on a cold night, this story is for you!
Ilona’s Wolf
Kingdoms & Legends, Part 1
Blurb:
Imagine a world filled with magic, a tormented knight, a damsel in distress, an evil sorcerer…
While picking herbs in the woods, Princess Ilona is rescued from a woodsman by a wolf. When the creature licks her wounds, it is suddenly transformed into a man. A very handsome, very naked man who makes passionate love to her in a glade.
Cursed by an evil wizard, Rolf was trapped in wolf form until he tasted the blood of a royal. Now he must escort the princess on a hazardous journey back to the castle to stop an ill-fated wedding.
Passion flares between them, but both know there is no future for Ilona and her werewolf. Or is there? In a world where magic and passion combine, anything may be possible.
Buy (or borrow on Kindle Unlimited) at: Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon Canada, and Amazon UK.
Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season!
Lyndi Lamont
Get your freebies here after pre-ordering the book: https://www.subscribepage.com/RitetoReignGift
(Must be pre-ordered by December 10, 2018.)
Willful witches, supernatural sorcerers, cruel queens, and powerful priestesses fall out of favor and rise to rule in this highly sought-after collection of spellbinding stories!
RITE TO REIGN includes stories from 24 award-winning and bestselling authors. This bewitching boxed set collection includes the best PARANORMAL ROMANCE and URBAN FANTASY books in the genre, each brimming with stories of royal magic.
Journey through worlds of danger and mayhem, where witches and warlocks battle for influence and wizards fight for unrestricted power.
But reader beware: the highly addictive stores in RITE TO REIGN will put you under their spell. One click to secure your limited edition copy today!
USA Today bestselling author Heather Marie Adkins
Teresa Roman
JJ King writing with Candace Osmond
USA Today bestselling author SJ Davis writing with P. Mattern
Scott Hungerford
USA Today bestselling author Shawna Romkey
USA Today bestselling author Ash Krafton
USA Today bestselling author Christine Ashworth
Anna Santos
Melissa Winters
Colleen S. Myers
Andie M. Long
Alex H. Singh
Sabrina Ramoth
L.C. Ireland
Louisa Bacio
Grace White
Helen Scott
Carma Haley Shoemaker
Kyndra Hatch
Mirren Hogen & Stephanie Barr
E.B. Black
Ella Middaugh
Kat Parrish
Tanya Dawson
One-click today, but beware – these highly addictive stories will have you under their spell.
Buy here: books2read.com/ritetoreign
0 0 Read moreSusan Squires grew up among the giant redwoods of California. She thought she was being practical by changing her major in college from theater to English literature. Immersed in a PhD. Program, she slowly realized that none of her graduating friends had work. So she dropped out after receiving a Master’s degree to take a paying job in the business world.
As an executive in a Fortune 500 company, she returned to her love of writing while continuing to hold her day-job, much to the amusement of her fellow executives. Her novel Danegeld, had already been purchased by Dorchester by the time she accepted a Golden Heart for Best Unpublished Paranormal Manuscript from Romance Writers of America. It was the first of an eclectic group of historical and contemporary paranormal stories known for their intensity. Body Electric was named by Publishers Weekly one of the ten most influential paperbacks of 2002, for blending romance and science-fiction. Book List compared No More Lies to the works of Robin Cook and Michael Crichton, but it was also a Rita finalist for Best Published Paranormal Romance by Romance Writers of America.
Susan’s Companion Series for St. Martin’s Press, continued to garner attention with admiring reviews and several visits to the New York Times Bestseller List. Publishers Weekly named One with the Shadows a Best Book of the Year, and several of the series received starred reviews. Her books have won the many regional contests for published works of paranormal romantic fiction.
Susan no longer has to use tales of romance and adventure to escape budgets and projects. She finally left her day job, and researches and writes her books at the beach in Southern California, supported by three Belgian Sheepdogs and a wonderful husband named Harry who writes occult mysteries as H.R. Knight.
Jann: Today, the amazing Susan Squires is going to share a little bit of magic with us.
Jann: A Romance Writer of America Golden Heart winner, a Rita finalist and a New York Times Bestseller—what a resume. How did these achievements impact your writing?
Susan: I don’t think these affected the writing itself at all. I have always written big, intense books with a lot going on in them to support the romance. Winning the Golden Heart and being a Rita finalist certainly impacted my confidence and my determination to persevere. The Golden Heart looks great in a query letter, too. In my case by the time of the Golden Heart ceremony my book (DANEGELD) had already been acquired by an editor for a NY publishing house. But he found that book by judging a contest I’d entered through the Orange County Chapter of RWA, so I definitely believe in entering contests. Being on the NYT list gave me access to a wider audience. Even when I began to self-publish as well as working with traditional publishers, I had a large mailing list to boost my sales.
Jann: You write historical and contemporary paranormal romance—Time Travel, Vampires and Magic. On February 7, 2018 you released Book 6 in your Magic series, This Magic Moment. Let’s talk a little magic.
Susan: Whenever I try to write straight romance, paranormal elements just seem to creep in. The Tremaines in the Magic series are a big family who live on an isolated bluff over the ocean in a ritzy suburb of Los Angeles. Sounds pretty ordinary, right? But they are descended from Merlin of Camelot, and they inherited a magic gene. Merlin’s powers were dispersed through the ages, but now the magic wants to come together. So when two people who have the gene meet, they are irresistibly attracted to each other, and each gets a magic power. Sounds great, right? But magic has a cost as well as being a gift. Besides, what if your destined lover is someone you just can’t stand? Or maybe you feel trapped because the choice won’t be yours? What if you’re sure your family’s destiny has passed you by? Each book in the Magic series features one of the Tremaine siblings. And of course, there are also those who got their power from Morgan Le Fay. The Tremaines want to do good in the world with their abilities. Morgan’s Clan, not so much.
Jann: Where did you get the idea for the series?
Susan: I wrote a book in my DaVinci time travel series called THE MISTS OF TIME. In it, a romance writer wants to escape her life and return to Camelot, to the age when courtly romance began. Of course, Camelot isn’t at all what she imagined. In fact, she herself isn’t who she thought she was.
Merlin and his son were characters in that novel. I liked them. It occurred to me that what Merlin must have wanted most was to pass his powers down through his progeny in order to change the world for the better. But he didn’t, did he? In the legends he didn’t even have a son. So I began thinking, what if his lost powers did come down to the present day? Who would get them? How would they work? What would those people do with them? That’s when the story of the Tremaines started taking shape.
Jann: You have written such amazing characters for this series. Did you have them all worked out before you started the first book, Do You Believe in Magic ?
Susan: I did have to work them all out in advance. The problem with writing a story about an extended family with an overarching villain plot only resolved in book six, is that you have to know how everything works before you start. The younger siblings have to be, in the very first book, who they will be by the time they get their own story. Of course they will be affected by events in between, but they can’t turn into different characters. So I wrote an extended synopsis that included stories and characters for each book. Not that I stuck exactly to the script, and I certainly embellished, but it was a roadmap.
Jann: Tell us about Tammy Tremaine and Thomas, the main characters in This Magic Moment.
Susan: Tammy is the baby of the Tremaine family. She’s been isolated at the family compound since the family was put in danger by the Clan, so she’s never had a normal teenage experience. Thomas was raised in a monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, sent there when he was nine by his mentor—Morgan Le Fay. Now she’s brought him back to the U.S. to fulfill a purpose. He doesn’t even know what it is. Tammy sees him across a parking lot and knows instantly that she is so, so doomed. Her destined lover is a member of the Clan. Morgan’s plans are coming to fruitio, and both their families will be ranged against them. The question is, will they be able to conquer their differences before it’s too late?
Jann: Will there be another Magic book?
Susan: Well, that’s a bit of a trick question. I have not planned another one. I wrote six, as well as a novella with the Tremaine parents back story. But readers will see that I Ieft at least one trap door, in case I want to come back to this wonderful family. I have grown to love them so much that I will truly miss them.
Jann: Do you find yourself returning to certain themes in your stories? What? Why?
Susan: As I look back on my books I think there is a common theme. I guess it would be that you have to embrace what you fear most in order to be whole. It’s expressed in many different ways, but this is how my characters grow and change.
Jann: What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
Susan: The best writing advice I ever got was one word. Persevere. It takes time to get good at writing. My first book was horrible. So were most writers’ first books. I remember hanging out at the bar with Charlaine Harris after we’d been on a panel together. She was so tired of being asked what it felt like to be an overnight success. She said “What about the 25 mysteries I wrote before the Sookie Stackhouse books? What about the five books before that which were so terrible they couldn’t even be published?” No success is overnight. You have to persevere and learn your craft.
Jann: Where can we get your books?
Susan: All my books are available at Amazon.com in digital format and trade paperback. For a list, you can visit. susansquires.com. You can also find the order of the Magic series books there. While they can all be read as standalone stories, I think they benefit from being read in order, beginning with DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
Jann: Thank you Susan for spending time with us here on A Slice of Orange.
Jann Ryan grew up with the smell of orange blossoms in Orange County in sunny Southern California, where she has lived her entire life and dreamed up stories since she was a young girl. Never an avid reader, she was in her thirties when she picked up her first romance quite by accident. She fell in love with happily ever after and has been reading romances ever since.
Wanting to put pen to paper, Jann joined of Romance Writers of America®. Currently, she is working on a romantic suspense series set in Stellar Bay, a fictitious town along the California central coast to fulfill her publishing dream.
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With his passion for romance novels, it was only a matter of time before Vlad wrote one.
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More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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