Review: All Fixed Up by Linda Grimes

All Fixed Up

Author: Linda Grimes

Release Date: May 24, 2016

Publisher: Tor

Ciel Halligan Book #4

ISBN:   0765376393

ISBN13: 9780765376398

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Review Copy Source: Publisher

The hilarious adventures of human chameleon Ciel Halligan continue in the fourth installment of this original urban fantasy series from Linda Grimes, All Fixed Up.

Ciel Halligan, aura adaptor extraordinaire, has a lot of experience filling in for her clients--as them. A rare genetic quirk gives her the ability to absorb human energy and project it back out in a flawless imitation. She's hard at work, posing as a well-known and celebrated astronaut, about to make a stunning announcement on behalf of the space program...when the photographer documenting the job sees right through her aura. Worse, it soon becomes apparent that he not only knows Ciel’s not who she's supposed to be, but means her harm.

When Ciel's elderly Aunt Helen—also an aura adaptor—is murdered in Central Park, and the same photographer shows up at the funeral, Ciel starts to feel even more exposed. Then more adaptors are killed in the same way, and she becomes terrified her friends and family are being systematically exterminated ... and it's starting to look like she's the ultimate target. She turns to Billy Doyle, her best-friend-turned-boyfriend, for help, but when an unexpected crisis causes him to take off without a word, she's left to rely on her not-so-former crush, CIA agent Mark Fielding.

Staying alive, keeping control of her romantic life, and unraveling the mystery of why adaptors are being pursued becomes a harder balancing act than ever in this new Ciel Halligan adventure from Linda Grimes.

This is one of those series that you shouldn't judge by it's covers. I truly dislike the covers—they don't do the story justice—, but the story is fantastic.

In ALL FIXED UP, we have some pretty shady stuff going on stemming from Ciel's current job. On top of that, she finds herself having a bit of trouble on the relationship front. Speaking of that.... I really hope we get more relationship development in the next book, but without the triangle drama. I think ALL FIXED UP gave us a little bit of hope on that front at the end.

I absolutely love Ciel's—and Billy's—family. They are highly amusing and their is never a dull moment with them. We learn a lot about what makes Billy, Billy in ALL FIXED UP. We also get another glimpse into Mark's feelings for Ciel, but I won't tell you why.

Not only is this series fun, but there is always plenty of things going on in addition to the main storyline of the book to entertain. I will continue to read the Ciel Halligan series.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

New Releases: 6/12-6/18

Tue. June 14th

 Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) by Nalini Singh

 Blood in the Water (Destroyermen #11) by Taylor Anderson

 The Ghostfaces (Brotherband Chronicles #6) by John Flanagan  

 Gifted by H.A. Swain

 Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) by Julie Eshbaugh

 The King Slayer (The Witch Hunter #2) by Virginia Boecker

 Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire #1) by Yoon Ha Lee  

 Reliquary (Reliquary #1) by Sarah Fine

 Sea Spell (Waterfire Saga #4) by Jennifer Donnelly

 Spellbreaker (Spellwright #3) by Blake Charlton

 Spells of Blood and Kin by Claire Humphrey

 Steeplejack (Alternative Detective #1) by A.J. Hartley

Happy Reading!

Interview + Giveaway: Grimm and White by Emily Ann Hansen

UFI welcomes Author Emily Ann Hansen. Thanks for Joining us!!

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview?

I’m kind of an open book (no pun intended), so this one was hard for me. I love makeup! I used to work at Macys on State Street in Chicago at the Benefit counter. That was all the way back in 2007. The store always smelled like the various perfumes that cluttered the glass counter tops. Some of my best stories come from the brainstorming I did as I asked people to sit down and try all the fun products!

What do you enjoy doing on your down time?

Down time? I’m going to be completely honest and say that I don’t enjoy down time very much. I’m a lot happier when I’m running around and working towards a goal of some kind. As an English teacher, waitress, writer, and blogger, down time is pretty non-existent. However, I’m really into Game of Thrones, so I watch that when I can’t sleep. On the weekends I’m either at brunch, on a date, laying at the pool, or in a coffee shop. Except I usually have my laptop and I’m probably still working.

What is your Favorite part of writing?

When I’m writing I feel the most like myself. Home really isn’t a place. It’s a state of mind and when I’m typing away or dragging a pen across paper, my brain feels a sense of serenity. One second I’m in my bedroom and the next I can be anywhere that I think up.

Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write?

Music has become a big part of the process. I get more done in coffee shops but sometimes it’s nice to cuddle in my bed with my cat. AKA: Keeping my cat hostage while I force her to love me.

What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres?

I really like Cassandra Clare and Neil Gaiman.

How would you pitch Grimm and White to someone who has not heard of it before?

Read this book because it’s super cool! Oh, is that not appropriate? Okay. Okay. I would say that Grimm and White is a YA (Teetering on NA) book that is heavily influenced by fairy tales. Alice Cabot was born without a heart and if she doesn’t rip out the heart of the one she loves on her 19th birthday she will die. (Insert ominous music here). IF it means keeping him safe, the boy who has shared in her darkest secrets, she knows what she has to do.

Kallin Grimm has other ideas. He’s not letting Allie go without a fight.

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that Grimm and White is set in?

Grimm and White is set in various locations in the U.S., but there are a few otherworldly places that exist within the setting. The main locations are California and Chicago. In Chicago there is a bar called Wonderland that is underneath an old television repair shop. That is where Allie, the protagonist, and her best friend, Miles, end up hanging out a lot. It serves as a bar. It also has other uses, including being the entrance to a particularly magical place.

    “Through that door,” she points to a door to the left of the bar, “there is a place called the Underground. The Underground is a place beyond our own world.”

    “It isn’t beyond. It is simply underneath. A little earth mixed with a smidge of magic. That’s all,” Lucky concludes.

Do you have a favorite scene in Grimm and White?

I do have a few favorite scenes. One of them is right at the beginning. Gram and the Aunts, Allie’s guardians, absolutely have a mind of their own when it comes to personality and their actions. I never know what they are going to do before I write it down. They are always surprising me and making me giggle. I can’t imagine what my roommates think as I laugh like a hyena, all alone in my bedroom. There is a particular scene in which Allie describes the Aunts and their quirkiness. It always makes me smile.

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about?

Allie is my favorite because she is so horribly tormented. I know that sounds like it would be the opposite, but I’m kind of a ball of sunshine. Getting to dive into somebody else’s head that is extremely different from me is fun.

The hardest to write was probably Lyve. There is something I can’t figure out about her and I know she is going to kick my butt in the next book. She is one of those characters with thousands of layers, and every other chapter she is telling me something new about herself. This can make for a good story, but this can also complicate the plot a little bit. I have a feeling that she’s worth it.

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?

I’m working on a novel called the Lies of Lizbeth Dresden. This novel completely took me by surprise. I was watching the news and Paris Hilton’s brother came up. Apparently he was making all sorts of trouble. All of a sudden the character of Brooks Keaton was born. He is a sassy, foul-mouthed, trust fund kid.

Lizbeth Dresden happens to be in the same class as him, her boss’s son. When he forces a plane to make an emergency landing, Lizbeth finds herself being volunteered to become Brooks Keaton’s life coach.

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Emily Hansen is a writer currently living in Baltimore City. She grew up in Illinois and will always call Chicago home. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Fiction. She is a 9th grade English teacher. She became a writer because she thinks that people should not have to look far to find magic in their lives. Her obsessions range from depressing poetry to one or ten cups of coffee a day. Grimm and White is her first novel.

Find Emily and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Grimm and White 
Heartless #1
Amazon

How far would you go to save your own life? Would you kill the one you love?

I want you to put your hand over your heart. Press down against the skin, meld your fingers into the flesh, and listen to the beats. Can you hear how that one organ is keeping you alive? One pump. Two pumps. Three.

Alice White Cabot would consider you lucky. She can press down in that same exact spot and she would feel … nothing. She is under the curse of the Heartless, and on her nineteenth birthday she will have to rip out the heart of the one she loves or she herself will die.

Kallin Grimm is a regular nineteen-year-old guy from the Chicago suburbs. He’s completely normal, except for the strength he can’t explain. Not to mention, Kallin is in love with a girl that he has never met. The only means of communication between the two of them is through an enchanted journal. Whatever is written in one can be seen in the other. For the past year Allie and Kallin have shared their secrets and their souls, which is why Allie knows they can never be together. It is the only way to keep his heart safe.

Enter the dark world of curses, secrets, and a history as old as time. The novel opens on Allie’s eighteenth birthday. With one year left, she, along with her best friend Miles set off from California to find out more about the curse, her past, and to stay as far away from Kallin Grimm as she can. Their first lead is in Chicago. Maybe this curse is stronger than she thinks. Tick-Tick-Tick.

Who would you choose?

Excerpt:

Prologue: “Happily Never After”

 On Lighthouse Avenue, inside the house at the end of the street, lives a girl with no heart. This is not to say she is cold or unloving, but it is literal and true. If you peeked inside her pale skin, peeled back her veins and muscles, you would find a cavernous hole of sorts.

 Her name is Alice White Cabot, and she is eighteen-years-old today.

 A light turns on in the shed behind the Cabot house. Beyond the roses that line the aged rocks on the side wall of the large house, past the stepping stones, a few feet farther than the toad rot, gundly flax, and verbena flowers (I’m sure we will get to that later), and finally we reach a small wooden box. What served as a gardening shed, now is filled to the brim with papers, maps, pens, various supplies, two pictures, one knife, and the girl in question.

 Allie sits at the window on a small black stool with the knife in her hand. Her dark hair and blue eyes are the only vivid colors in the otherwise grey shed. She is absentmindedly cutting her finger again and again. Three droplets of blood bead off of her fingertips and fall on to the white carpet. Not flinching, she stares out the window at the snow falling like feathers from the sky. Allie thinks she must have heard that somewhere, some time ago. When and where are lost to her.

 It’s Christmas and almost time for dinner. She looks around the ancient space, with its empty flowerpots and cobwebs, and knows this is the last time she will be in this room that has given her solace for so many years. When her mother first died she hid under the desk in the corner and read every book she could find; mostly adventure stories, like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Robinson Crusoe. The ceiling leaked and mice occasionally set up house, but it was her special place.

 The gash on her finger has closed and all that remains is dried blood crusted on the knife blade.

 On top of the cluttered desk is a purple music box. She gets up from her seat and places the knife on a dilapidated shelf. She gingerly opens the golden latch. A ballerina springs to life, and a haunting song echoes throughout the four walls of her sanctuary.

 She pulls out a note. On the front of the folded paper, the words Happy Birthday are scrawled in pretty script.

 My darling Allie,

 I wish more than anything I could have given this to you myself, but I know Gram will be there to do it for me. You must feel the time slipping away like I did. There is so much I want to say and so much that I, myself, don’t know how to explain. I cannot tell you what to do my love. Whatever you decide, no matter what, you are my sweet bean. I know you will choose to be better, to be good. You are so loved and that will never change.

 -Mom

 Her face is scrunched up, her nostrils flared and forehead taut, but she will not cry.

 Allie grabs the knife again. She cradles it in both of her hands for several seconds before she takes the hilt and turns the blade towards her stomach, so close that the tip digs into her belly button.

 Her breath mingles with dust in the unheated shed. Allie holds the knife like one would hold a brush or maybe a spoon—casually, yet calculated.

 With no other thought she plunges the weapon into her stomach, causing blood to immediately pool onto her white sweater. She makes no sound, not even a whimper. Both eyes are popped open, wide and surprised, while her other expressions remain suppressed. As quickly as she put the blade in, she pulls it back out.

 Allie drops the knife, and it clatters across the floor. She raises her hands and clutches them to her stomach, probing the area gently. 1 … 2 … 3 seconds pass.

 “Damn it.”

 She lifts her T-shirt revealing a smooth layer of skin, like the day she was born. The wound is gone; not so much as a scar to remind her of the pain.

Today, Allie White Cabot does not feel like celebrating because in one year’s time, she has to rip out the heart of the one she loves, or she will die.

 “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

 But, until then she is cursed to breathe and live and what she doesn’t want more than anything else, she is cursed to love and be loved.

 The curse of the Heartless.

 What do I know? I’m just the mirror who watched the curse come to life. I’m just a mirror who is trapped like the rest … destined to bend to the will of the curse or break under its power like so many before.

This is not just her story, but it is his as well. Kallin Grimm, the boy who loves the girl.

The boy who can save us all.

 Allie walks over and snatches a map of Illinois from the clutter on the desk. There is a bold red circle around the city of Chicago.

 “See you soon,” Allie says. She opens the door. A gush of cold air blows inside, causing the music box to slam closed. The melody stops abruptly. She wonders if that’s what it will sound like when she dies.

 A snowflake lands on her lip and she licks it off. It will all be worth it. If she can keep him safe.

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Week in Review: 6/5-6/11

Books Received for Review

Blood of the Earth by Faith Hunter
The Sight by Chloe Neill
Chaos Rises by Pippa DaCosta

Books I've Read

Nemesis by Anna Banks
Perfekt Order by S.T. Bende
Perfekt Control by S.T. Bende
Perfekt Balance by S.T. Bende
Beyond the Veil by Pippa DaCosta

Reviews Posted

Rootbound by Shannon Mayer
Remnants by John Hennessy

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* New Releases for the week. Was there anything you were looking forward to reading?

* Monday- Promo + Giveaway for Dark Siren by Eden Ashley

* Wednesday- Guest Blog + Giveaway for The Dark Cycle Series #1-2 by Rachel A. Marks

* Friday- Promo + Giveaway for Ride: Felicity + Niall (Box Set) by AC. James

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* Did you know you can follow UFI on these other sites?

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 * I love comments so if you see something you like (or not) please comment away and let me know.

Promo + Giveaway: Ride: Felicity + Niall (Box Set) by AC. James

Felicity + Niall (Box Set)

Felicity Forrest has the perfect job as an investigative blogger for Everyday Supernatural. This curvy girl gets sent to the Aran Islands to find out whether a púca shape shifter is responsible for the strange accidents haunting a construction site.

Niall O’Leary is tall, broody, and totally alpha. His mission is to discover why the veil between the human world and the Realm has lifted. And as the Chieftain’s son he must find a mate or his twin will be promised to a stallion he despises. He has a duty to his family, his clan, and a need for offspring. Otherwise the púca could become nothing more than folklore.

Passion and frustration ignite when a curvy human female tempts his inner stallion like no other. There’s only one problem… She just got out of a relationship that left her heart broken.
Is she ready for a second chance at love?

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author A.C. James writes paranormal romance and erotica, including Eternal Ever After which was featured in the bestselling Spice Box anthology. She pounds out sexy scenes at her keyboard where romance is laced with horror in hot stories of vampires and bad boy werewolves. Her stories feature strong heroines and alpha heroes, with plenty of action, twists, and turns that will keep you turning pages.

A.C. resides in northeast Pennsylvania where she entertains her husband with her imaginative yarns and quirky sense of humor. She spends her time drinking large vats of coffee while taming two toddlers by day and writing by night. Recovering video game beta tester and tech geek who grew-up going to cons and watching SmackDown. There’s probably some cosplay pictures around somewhere of her dressed up as Bloodberry from Saber Marionette J. Just don’t tell anyone.

Find A.C. James and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Review: Remnants by John Hennessy

Remnants

Author: John Hennessy

Release Date: October 14, 2016

Publisher: Innovation Today

Remnants Trilogy Book #1

ISBN:  1532908393

ISBN13: 9781532908392

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Review Copy Source: NetGalley

Night one brings marked doors to every home in the world. Day one sees confusion and fear. Night two takes half the planet’s population. Day two leaves panic and mayhem. Night three watches the second half disappear. Day three the fight for survival begins.

The world ended in silence. No birds chirping. Dogs barking. Cars thrumming. No people going about their busy lives. After the aliens arrive, they clear the globe of every living animal, except for a few scattered bands of human survivors. Now Maggy, a strong-willed intellectual, leads Darrel and Félix, two shy geeks, on an expedition down the west coast, searching for safety in a landscape that promises only a gruesome death, as the aliens hunt down the remnants for sport. But when one of them is abducted, a much more sinister truth unfolds, one that will change the course of humanity forever.

Remnants is perfect for fans of The 5th Wave, alien invasions, the apocalypse, and just pure sci-fi adventure.

Note: For verisimilitude of teenagers facing the apocalypse, this book contains strong language, and is intended for mature young adults. If such words offend you, you might not enjoy this book.

There was a lot of unbelievable going on in REMNANTS which made it really hard to enjoy the storyline. In fact, I'm actually surprised I read the whole thing and didn't just give up on it. 

On top of some of the unbelievable things that happened in REMNANTS, I didn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. One in fact annoyed me. I think if the characters were more developed, I might have connected a bit more. They are just kind of thrown into the mix at different parts of the storyline. I think I needed more back story on them or more character advancement throughout.

It really all boils down to the fact that a lot in REMNANTS was in no way believable. How am I supposed to believe that trained military personnel would not be more qualified and successful in defeating the alien invaders than a group of young teens? Could they maybe come up with ideas? Sure, but actually be the saviors of the world? Especially THIS group of teens. I just didn't buy it. I have zero interest in reading more.

I gave it 2/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Guest Blog + Giveaway: The Dark Cycle Series #1-2 by Rachel A. Marks

UFI welcomes Author Rachel A. Marks. Thanks for Joining us!!

What can you tell my readers about yourself that they might not know from looking on your bio or reading in another interview? Weeellll.....something most of my readers don't know is that I got kicked out of a private high school three weeks before my graduation for being a witch. :)

What do you enjoy doing on your down time? In my down time I'm a total nerd and I, um, write. LOL I may like my job a little too much.

What is your Favorite part of writing? When an idea sparks! I love that buzz I get inside that's like a switch flipping inside me. And I can see the character so clearly. It's almost as if they tapped me on the shoulder and I turned, and there they were.

Do you have any certain routines you must follow as you write? I'm ever-changing in where I sit or how I work. Mainly, I need my coffee and my apple.

What are some of your Favorite books or Authors in the Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Genres? For UF and Paranormal, I usually read adult, with some YA peppered in there sporadically. I am a huge fan of Kelley Armstrong and Kresley Cole. I also like Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books. And Melissa F. Olson is amazing! For YA, I'd say my favorite has got to be the Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins.

How would you pitch DARKNESS BRUTAL to someone who has not heard of it before?  

This is a tough one! It's funny, but no matter how long you're a writer, pitching a book you know inside and out is nearly impossible.  

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that The Dark Cycle Series is set in?  

The series is set in the streets of LA, and it was really fun researching some local ghost stories to play up and toy with. And having grown up around here, it was extra fun! The bummer is I didn't get to use all the ones I wanted to, like the abandoned Dairy Factory, called Scary Dairy, or the park bench in Griffith Park that's haunted by a pair of lovers. But I really enjoyed getting to paint the diverse and gritty LA that I know for readers to see.

Do you have a favorite scene in The Dark Cycle series?  

I have several, but I think my absolute favorite will always be the final scene in DARKNESS SAVAGE when all the strings come together, and we see what life is going to be like for them all. In the end it was a very emotional scene to write, and I really hope the readers feel like the story was what they wanted it to be.

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about? What about the hardest to write about? 

My favorite character to write was Jax, one of the teens in the house. He was just so snarky and impossible. And the toughest one to write was most definitely Finger, another housemate. He says absolutely nothing for three books but he's very important to the story as a whole, and he still has feelings and abilities that I had to portray.

What Other Projects can we look forward to reading from you?  

Right now I'm working on a YA fantasy tentatively titled, THE RAVEN CALLS. It's gritty (of course) and hopefully full of mystery. It's about a boy, a goddess, and a silver raven: Dickens' Great Expectations meets Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy. I'm really really enjoying writing it and trying to make all the layers of story work together. It's a challenge, but a good one.

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Rachel A. Marks is an award-winning author and professional artist, a SoCal girl, cancer survivor, a surfer and dirt-bike rider, chocolate lover and keeper of faerie secrets. She was voted: Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse, but hopes she'll never have to test the theory. Her debut series The Dark Cycle, described as Dickens' Oliver Twist meets TV's Supernatural, is now out through Skyscape, beginning with DARKNESS BRUTAL.

Find Rachel and her books

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook

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Darkness Brutal
The Dark Cycle #1
Amazon

Aidan O’Linn’s childhood ended the night he saw a demon kill his mother and mark his sister, Ava, with Darkness. Since then, every three years the demons have returned to try to claim her. Living in the gritty, forgotten corners of Los Angeles, Aidan has managed to protect his sister, but he knows that even his powers to fight demons and speak dead languages won’t keep her safe for much longer.

In desperation, Aidan seeks out the help of Sid, the enigmatic leader of a group of teens who run LA Paranormal, an Internet reality show that fights demons and ghosts. In their company, Aidan believes he’s finally found a haven for Ava. But when he meets Kara, a broken girl who can spin a hypnotic web of passionate energy, he awakens powers he didn’t know he had―and unleashes a new era of war between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness.

With the fate of humanity in his hands, can Aidan keep the Darkness at bay and accept his brilliant, terrifying destiny?

Listen to an Audio Sample 

 Excerpt:

I let the pulse of the music coat me and mute my surroundings. A mass of people crowd the dance floor of the club, and I sit on an abandoned couch in the corner. The lights beat at the air in blues and greens, and bodies twist and merge to the thunder. I lean back, close my eyes, and try to get lost in it, the smells and sounds of people and their collective high.

Something moves next to me. I look over to find a girl sprawled on the seat beside me, trying to catch her breath. She’s not dressed in the usual club gear, more like a girl who got lost on her way to a beach party: Hurley T-shirt, jean skirt, and red Converse. Her cheeks are flushed pink; her throat and forehead glitter with sweat. She glances at me like she didn’t know I was there. She licks her upper lip, her eyes not leaving mine. Then she says something I can’t hear.

I point to my ear and shake my head.

She smiles and laughs, lighting up the space around her. She rests her hand on my arm, like we’re friends and I just told her the most hilarious joke, and then she gets up and disappears into the mass of bodies again.

My arm tingles, my body reacting to the moment of contact in a sudden and disconcerting way. I think I’ve had my fill of watching people indulge their baser instincts. I need to get out of here.

The beat of the music speeds up, vibrating faster as I move through the crowd. I try not to touch anyone, which is nearly impossible. All the emotions and appetites are overwhelming, as if the rising rhythm of the music makes their yearnings rise, too. Lust buzzes in the air. A hunger stirs in me, a gaping hole, needing to be filled. With touch.

The touch of female fingers. A hand on my arm, taking my wrist, pulling me into the fray, into the pressing bodies. And I don’t try to escape. I let her take me.

Because I’m tired.

Because I’m a dumbass.

A girl moves in front of me—not the Hurley girl, not the one I was hoping for. She presses closer, so close I can almost taste the salty perspiration on her skin. She has thin, birdlike shoulders, a swan neck, a heart-shaped face, and black hair, long and tangled, turning blue and green with the light. Her hands slide up my chest. She wraps her arms around my neck and tilts her head to look up at me.

Her lips are full and painted dark purple. There’s a dimple in her left cheek that gets deeper with her growing smile. And her eyes . . .

Fog fills my head for a second, interrupting my thoughts.

“Hi,” she mouths, calling attention to her lips again.

And then she’s rising up on her toes, pulling me down to her, twisting her fingers in my hair, her lips smashing against mine.

My body buzzes from her touch, and my hands react, drawing her into me. I drink her in. She tastes like the air around me, hunger and urgency, and—

Green apple Jolly Ranchers?

I grip her sides, her ribs so delicate beneath my fingers. The sweet tang of her teases me, the hunger becoming a monster deep inside. I have to press her closer, tighter, try to feed it, as I feel the fire of her need link with mine.

She pulls back a little and looks at me with wide eyes, like she’s shocked. That’s when I see the mark, a glowing, blue-inked line of what looks like Chinese symbols, trailing down the nape of her neck to her shoulder blade. Symbols that I’m suddenly sure mean: touch this girl at your own risk.

It’s the only thing I see for a second: Beware. Beware.

Until her energy reaches for me, wispy tendrils of blue light wrapping their way around my wrists and snaking up my chest.

I jerk away, into the guy behind me, stepping on his girlfriend’s toes. I get shoved— thankfully farther from the hypnotic girl—through a space in the crowd, saying a hundred excuse-me’s even though I know no one can hear them. I find my way out of the press of bodies to the edge of the room again where it’s safe.

It’s time to leave. I should’ve left an hour ago.

 Darkness Fair
The Dark Cycle #2
Amazon

Against the backdrop of an ancient battle between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness, Aidan struggles to control the newly awakened powers that seem to be his only hope for rescuing Ava, his little sister, trapped somewhere beyond the Veil. As he gravitates to Kara, the dangerously unstable girl who helped him realize his abilities, a terrible mistake of fate is revealed that points him back toward Rebecca, whose role is becoming more critical to the battle. And no matter what his heart wants, it might be too late to stop the pieces already in motion.

Without knowing the sacrifices that will be required of them, Aidan and his motley crew of friends—each with their own role to play—must face the demon threat head-on. They’re the only ones keeping the growing army of Darkness at bay, and if they fail, the future of humanity could be lost.

Listen to an Audio Sample

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