This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Megan Starks will be awarding a prize pack of best-selling urban fantasy romance + a copy of House of Ash and Brimstone to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
…but Gisele Walker has no plans to pay the debt.
As a half-demon paranormal bounty hunter, Gisele is used to flirting with death, but stealing a curio and opening a portal to Hell’s demon court is more than your average day job.
Now, she’s partnered with an infuriatingly handsome demon, Shade, who has more levels of grey than she can count.
Who can she trust to help save the city as Baltimore burns to the ground and ghouls roam the streets?
With a white-hot attraction burning between them and secrets blocking their path, Gisele must face her past and venture into the twisted heart of the demon royal court.
But with no memory of her past…
…will she be able to save their future?
A jumble of computer equipment and business supplies littered the office floor. Orange, blue, and manila folders spilled from an overturned metal cabinet. And in the shadows, Shade sat slumped in her green swivel chair, the hundred-page contract in his hands. He’d torn half of the place and the whole of her desk apart. He’d rummaged through her files, knocked over her pen and paperclip jars, and ripped the bottom right drawer out completely, dropping it on the floor. It was the drawer she kept locked—the drawer she’d left the contract in.
Clearly, it was what he’d been searching for.
“Real mature,” she said, irritated with his reckless, temperamental violence and his blatant disregard for her privacy. “Find what you were looking for?”
No doubt he planned to tattle on her to their boss. Her contract aside, the grimgolem was going to blow a gasket when he accounted for the damage to their computers alone.
“I hope it was worth it for you,” she continued, “because I am not cleaning this up.”
Rather than glare at her, he looked away. His brows drew together, lips pressing a tight line. “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” he said, voice raw. “They’ve tricked me.”
“Who has?” Gisele asked, but he ignored her.
The muscles in his arms corded as he gripped the contract tighter, crinkling the thick stack of pages, and she knew who he meant. He really was working with them—the elghoul and its master. For them. Working against her.
Son of a gun.
She chucked a stapler at him hard enough to bruise his chest, then crossed the room, closing the distance until she could have yanked him up by the collar of his soiled, bloody shirt. Instead, she smacked her hand on the desktop. Wood splintered.
“The woman in this contract? Who is she?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he answered, not even looking at her. Not even now. He sounded so defeated. “They’re going to kill you, and they’re going to use me to do it.”
“But why?”
“Because they’re cruel.” Bitterness swirled in his voice. “Because they can.”
And if they demanded it of him, he’d do it, just like that? What kind of a cold-blooded monster was he?
“Are you going to?” she asked, dreading his answer. “Going to rip me apart with your claws? Tear my throat out?”
The image of him, darkly winged and terrifying in the Office of the Paranormal, came crawling back, unwanted.
“Would you really do it?” she asked. It hurt, but she needed to hear him say it. “What happened to ‘I’ll protect you, so you don’t have to be afraid’?”
His little declaration hadn’t even lasted four hours.
“I won’t have a choice.”
When she's not penning novels about magic and strong, kick-butt heroines, she enjoys playing video games and spending time with her husband and their cat, Sushi, in California.
Look for Night of Sunder & Sorrow, the sequel to House of Ash & Brimstone, coming in Spring 2020.
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Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteGood morning! Thank you so much for having me, Straight from the Library and readers.
ReplyDeleteThis release as gone absolutely amazingly thanks to you all for checking out the book and helping to spread the word of its sale — for most of the week I've been hanging out in the top 50 books for my romance and fantasy categories next to Neil Gaiman, Shayne Silvers, and Shannon Mayer which is such a dream come true!
I'm a professional video game writer and a long time fan of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. This novel was a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist for paranormal romance. It's the first novel I've written (but many more are to come - book 2 in the series is slated for Spring 2020), so when I was writing it, I wanted to toss in all of my favorite tropes:
- strong, kick-butt female protagonist
- hate-to-love / enemies-to-lovers
- tall dark and broody (and snarly and monstrous but secretly sweet) hero
- forbidden love
- lots of fight scenes with monsters
- danger and suspense!!!
- smoking hot sex
What are some of your favorite tropes in paranormal and fantasy romance, readers?
Don't forget to enter the URBAN FANTASY BOOK BUNDLE give away in the post. I'm giving out books by some of my favorite authors like Ilona Andrews and Nalini Singh.
Love always, and love like hell,
Megan