UFI welcomes author Regan Summers. Thanks for Joining us!!
THE ALMIGHTY UNLIKELY
I like a battle of equals, but I love a good underdog story.
Linda Hamilton is stunning in Terminator 2, but give me Sarah Connor 1.0 with her feathered hair and her ill-fitting, sherbert-colored shirt, stunned and scared but somehow willing to learn to make bombs in a motel kitchenette.
Someone’s built massive humanoid machines that can stand up to a kaiju? Boring. That machine is animated by the merged minds of two traumatized little humans (who are, oh my God, so gorgeous)? I’m in, Pacific Rim. I’m in all the way.
Captain America, all muscular and square-jawed, standing up to tyranny? Well…no, that’s fine. I’d eat that with a spoon, thank you very much. But I think we can agree that scrawny Steve Rogers standing up to an anonymous movie house ruffian in an agreed-upon buttkicking alley beforehand makes Cap even better.
A battle of equals gives us the opportunity to admire technique and skill, maybe someone’s swank armor or blinged-out sword. But when an underdog fights, it’s all heart. The unlikely heroine isn’t full of skill and power, only needing a catalyst to turn her on. The underdog knows that she should lose. She knows she’s probably going to lose, or at the least end up in really bad shape. But she fights anyway and she keeps fighting.
Sydney Kildare, the heroine of the Night Runner series, is pure underdog. She’s human in a sub-world of vampires. She’s honest, but surrounded by liars, cheats, and criminal masterminds. Malcolm Kelly, who never figured himself for a hero, spent a couple of lifetimes outrunning or outfoxing other vampires, but he’s caught now. Bound as a servant to a master vampire, unable to do much other than watch the big, fat bullseye grow over the head of the mortal he’s falling in love with.
FALLING FROM THE LIGHT, as the title might suggest, is a pretty dark story. Syd’s dragged farther away from the human world. Malcolm’s chain is wrapped tighter and tighter around his neck. But what do underdogs do? They fight. And sometimes, just sometimes, they win.
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Regan Summers is the author of the romantic urban fantasy Night Runner series. As a native Alaskan, she’s used to long, cold nights but thinks they’re better with a helping of sexy vampires. Don’t Bite the Messenger, the first in the series, was a finalist for the 2013 EPIC eBook Awards in the paranormal category.
Find Regan and her books
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Falling From the LightNight Runner #2
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Phoenix, AZ__________________________________
All Sydney Kildare wants is a minute in the slow lane, some time to decide where she’s going with her vampire lover, Malcolm Kelly. But after sitting out the last battle, the powerful Master Bronson is giving orders again, and he isn’t above blackmailing his former courier to get what he wants.
With Mal sent to track a vicious killer, Syd is forced to infiltrate a pharmaceutical company responsible for a drug that turns vampires into real monsters. She’s unprepared and alone, but fiercely determined. If her investigation doesn’t satisfy the Master, Malcolm will pay the price. A wrong turn throws her into the middle of a vampire power play. Caught between twisting forces, with their freedom at stake, she’ll have to decide what’s more important: love, power or revenge. But choosing what feels right might turn out all wrong.
Excerpt
I turned to find Thurston staring, like he’d been focused on the back of my head. “When met Chev on the way in,” I said. “The owner of the casino. She said that you can ask the front desk for…uhm…for when you get hungry.”
“Should I go now?” he asked, uncertain.
“If you want,” I muttered, distracted by a sudden rush of warmth. I drifted toward the door as Mickey started speaking to Thurston in Spanish. She was her usual enthusiastic self. His responses were brief and tense. I opened the door and leaned against the frame as Malcolm walked into view.
He wore a thin, brown sweater over a bright white t-shirt, and the cuffs of his dark pants were red with dust. Petr shuffled along beside him, his limp more pronounced as he pointed something out on the armful of paperwork he carried. Mal raised a hand to wave him off and, anticipating it, Petr shoved a couple of pages into his palm before falling back.
“Of all the hallways of all the prickly vampire hotels in all the world, you walk into mine,” I said. “Whatcha been doing?”
Faint lines crinkled around his eyes and his dimple emerged as he smiled.
“Communing with scrub brush and cacti. It’s therapeutic, and pointy. What are you…” His smile faded as he stared past me. I turned to find Mickey holding a pair of tighty-whities in one hand and plaid boxers in the other.
Thurston slumped in the armchair in front of her, glowering up from beneath heavy eyebrows. Mickey tsked and gave me an exasperated look.
“Tell him he has to choose one.”
“What? No. I’m not telling him that.”
“He can’t go without.” She shook them at Thurston. “You cannot go without.”
Malcolm backed away.
“Don’t you leave me here with this,” I hissed.
“As if I’d leave a lady in distress.” Malcolm’s arm snaked around my waist and he swung me against his side. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find something to erase that scene from our memories.”
“Are we going to drop acid?”
“I was thinking dinner, but do what you need to.”
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