Thursday, July 6, 2017

Promo + Giveaway: Turned by a Tiger by Felicity Heaton


Turned by a Tiger
Eternal Mates #12
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.ca | Amazon.com.auiBooks USA | iBooks UK | iBooks Canada | iBooks Australia | iBooks New ZealandBarnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Google Play
On the verge of bleeding out and hunted by his merciless torturers, Talon has no choice but to seek sanctuary at Underworld, a nightclub run by a jaguar shifter liable to kill him on sight for being a tiger shifter male. What he finds in the old warehouse isn’t the grim shadow of Death though but an angel of mercy, one who offers him salvation and revenge—one who happens to be his fated mate.

Tending bar at Underworld is never dull when you’re a mortal surrounded by immortals, but when a gorgeous tiger shifter covered in blood stumbles into the club, and set’s fire to her boss’s temper, Sherry’s entire world is in danger of being turned on its head. Something about the mysterious warrior has her stepping in to save him, something that ignites her heart and stirs her soul, and no matter how fiercely she fights it, she can’t hold herself back.

When Talon reveals the name of his captors, and his plan to head back in to save his friends, will Sherry be brave enough to embrace the feelings he stirs in her and step deeper into the world of immortals? And will Talon be strong enough to resist the lure of Sherry to protect his family’s secret or will he risk everything to claim his eternal mate?

Excerpt:


A wave of dizziness, stronger than before, crashed over him and his knees buckled.
The little human caught him under his arms and steadied him, and he froze with his back pressing against the cold brass bar and her firm body warming his front.
Talon gazed down at her, awareness of the world around him washing away again.
Gods, she was achingly beautiful.
“It won’t happen.” Her soft voice offered the comfort he needed, soothing the raging beast inside him, placating it and subduing him with a speed that left him shaken.
What power did this female have over him?
It was dangerous.
He was dangerous.
As much as he wanted her, as deeply as he needed her, he couldn’t have her.
The sandy-haired shifter casually leaned his left hip against the bar and folded his arms across his chest. “It might if he doesn’t start cooperating… but it will be a jaguar shifter returning him by kicking him out of this club and leaving him on the curb for Archangel to find. I still think he did something to make him deserve being there.”
“No.” He lunged forwards, filled with a need to grab the jaguar and fight him to make him listen and believe him.
He hit an obstacle, a soft wall of feminine curves and enticing scent mingled with comforting warmth that stopped him in his tracks.
His gaze dropped to the mortal’s again.
His strength left him, as if her calming presence sucked it out of him, tearing down the barriers and the need to fight, twisting it into a need to surrender and give in. To let go.
To let her be strong for him.
He shook his head, but he couldn’t shake the memories as easily. They clung to him, refusing to let him go, torturing him with the past.
“I did nothing,” he whispered brokenly, lost in her blue eyes, almost able to feel the warmth of the sun on his bare skin as he gazed into their endless azure depths. “They took me… and others… a night raid… a fae town. The others…”
Darkness closed in around the blue and he swallowed hard.
Her hands pressed against his sides, gentle pressure that kept him with her as she softly said, “Don’t push yourself. You need to rest.”
“The others…”
She slowly shook her head. “There’s nothing you can do for them as you are now.”
He knew that. He had barely escaped with his life, might have been dying on the curb outside if not for the female standing in front of him, gently holding him. He knew it but it didn’t stop the need from ruling him, pushing him to do something, even when he didn’t have the strength.
It would be suicide.
“You going to let it go for now and focus on healing?” She canted her head, causing her long blonde ponytail to sway across her shoulders.
He ached to brush his fingers through the silken threads, lift them to his nose and inhale her scent. Gods, she had such power over him, and he didn’t really know her. His tiger side purred at the thought of rubbing against her hair, smelling it and then lowering his head to tease the nape of her neck with his teeth and lave it with his tongue.
Talon nodded slowly, a little lost in his fantasy, in the seductive proposition of surrendering to her and his animal instincts.
“Are we going, or do you want to go all kitty on her and get it over with?” The sharp female voice snapped him back to the room and he looked off to his right, at the elf where she stood with her hands planted against her hips and a sour look on her face.
How the hell had she known his thoughts?
Elves weren’t psychic.
The hard set of the jaguar’s face said he had picked them up too, or at least knew the look he had been sporting well enough to know what he wanted to do. The male’s golden eyes narrowed on his, filled with a warning and a promise of pain if he dared to lay a hand on the human, let alone run his tongue over the deliciously tempting nape of her neck.
The human blinked at both of them, and then at him, a beautifully confused edge to her expression. He wasn’t about to spell things out for her. If she didn’t know what they were talking about, that was all good with him.
She canted her head again and looked as if she was going to ask.
Iolanthe moved forwards, silent on the dark floorboards even though she wore heeled boots that looked as if they had been made for the express purpose of kicking arse. “You want some blood? It’ll accelerate the healing process.”
She offered her wrist.
The jaguar growled low and bared his fangs, leaving Talon in little doubt that taking the offered blood would end in his death and not his salvation.
He shook his head, politely turning her down, and pretended to ignore that baser side of his nature that growled at him to take the human’s blood instead.
Human blood had no healing properties.
His more animal side didn’t care about such trivial facts. It wanted to bite her. He wanted to bite her. His eyes betrayed him and shifted to her neck, to the back of it, just below her hairline, and he ached inside, burned with a need to sink his fangs in there and mark her.
Not going to happen.
She was human.
“Just need rest,” he muttered and looked down, meaning to check his wounds.
He got an eyeful of cleavage instead. Fuck. He hadn’t realised how pressed up against him the mortal was now as she supported him. The urge to drink his fill of the way her breasts were squashed up in her white shirt, and against him, lasted all of a second before it shattered under the blow of a single realisation.
He was bleeding all over her.
He shifted his left hand, swallowed hard as his fingers pressed against her ribs beneath her right breast and she gasped, a wicked little sound that stirred his blood.
“Bleeding,” he rasped, his words hollow in his ears, distant as he stared down at her and grew aware of every place their bodies touched.
She blinked, looked down at her chest where it pressed against his bare stomach, froze for a second in which he could feel her heartbeat pick up, and then she was two feet away from him and busying herself with her ruined shirt.
Talon sagged against the bar and fought a wave of nausea as he was forced to hold his weight up on his own. Damn. The little human was stronger than she looked, must have been bearing almost half of his weight for him. For a moment, he had foolishly believed he had been regaining his strength.
Fucking idiot.
His knees gave out, the human gasped again, and he grunted as he hit the floor.
“Shit,” she muttered and was beside him in a flash, her hands on his shoulders, pushing him back into a sitting position. “Sorry.”
He wasn’t sure why she was apologising.
She caught him under his arms and tried to haul him onto his feet. He would have helped her, but the world was spinning around him, blurring together into colourful streaks that made him dizzy.
“I’ll send word to my brother,” the elf said and he sensed her moving closer as the ground pitched beneath him. “Prince Loren will want to know everything you have to say about Archangel. If they’re up to something, he won’t stand for it.”
It was a relief to hear that, and not only because the elves being on the side of Archangel would sway the odds in their favour if it came to a war between the immortal species and the mortal hunter organisation.
It was a relief because he couldn’t detect any hint of a lie in what she had said. She was telling him the truth. He always knew when someone was lying. The fact that she wasn’t eased him, taming his instinct to survive and stopping him from viewing her as a threat. She closed in, ignoring the grumbling growls of her mate, and he felt coolness on his wrist and then he was on his feet so quickly the room decided to spin the other way.
Her grip was firmer than the human’s had been, strong and unyielding. Not soft and gentle. Not tender.
Not comforting.
Talon squeezed his eyes shut. “Need rest.”
“You’ll have it,” the mortal’s voice gently washed over him, soothing him and making him want to look at her.
He risked it, opening his eyes little by little, afraid that the room would still be spinning and he would vomit or pass out. Neither of those things would particularly paint him in a good light. He wanted her to see him as strong, the male he normally was on a good day, but she was seeing him at his worst.
One hell of an introduction.
“You’ll be safe,” she whispered as she gazed up at him. “I swear it.”
He believed her. He would be safe with her. Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to stay with her, that she was the only place where he would ever truly be safe.
Where he would ever truly belong.
She had seen him at his worst, and she looked at him with eyes that held compassion, and a flare of desire. When she saw him at his best, as the warrior he was and the powerful male he had been moulded into by his family, how would she look at him then?
Would she want him as fiercely as he needed her?
“The journey might be rough.” Iolanthe grabbed his arm, and tossed a smile at the jaguar. “Be right back.”
Before Talon could ask what she was going to do, she had caught hold of the human’s arm too and darkness swallowed them all, cold and clinging.
Like Death’s embrace.
And all he could think about was that he didn’t want to die.
Not because he wanted to avenge someone, or because he wanted to make Archangel pay, or even because he wanted to free the others and return to his pride.
No.
He didn’t want to die because he wanted to see her again.
His fated one.



BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince (Only 99c at all retailers!)

Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King

Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince

Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar

Book 5: Craved by an Alpha

Book 6: Bitten by a Hellcat

Book 7: Taken by a Dragon

Book 8: Marked by an Assassin

Book 9: Possessed by a Dark Warrior

Book 10: Awakened by a Demoness

Book 11: Haunted by the King of Death

Book 12: Turned by a Tiger

Book 13: Tamed by a Tiger – Coming August 2017

Book 14: Treasured by a Tiger – Coming September 2017
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Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today international best-selling author writing passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons! If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, the best-selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand-alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.

Find Felicity and her books
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Enter the grand tour-wide giveaway to win a $25, $50 or $75 Amazon Gift Card at the Turned by a Tiger book page. This giveaway is international and open to everyone, and ends at midnight on July 16th.
 

Enter now:
http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/turned-by-a-tiger-shapeshifter-romance-book.php


Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Review: Grave Ransom by Kalayna Price

Grave Ransom
Release Date: July 4, 2017
Publisher: Ace
Alex Craft Book #1
ISBN:   1405911700
ISBN13: 9781405911702
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Review Copy Source: NetGalley

In the thrilling fifth book in the USA Today bestselling Alex Craft series, Alex comes face to face with the walking dead.

Grave witch Alex Craft is no stranger to the dead talking. She raises shades, works with ghosts, and is dating Death himself. But the dead walking? That’s not supposed to happen. And yet, reanimated corpses are committing crimes across Nekros City.

Alex’s investigation leads her deep into a web of sinister magic. When Briar Darque of the Magical Crimes Investigation Bureau gets involved, Alex finds herself with an unexpected ally of sorts. But as the dead continue to rise and wreak havoc on the living, can Alex get to the soul of the matter in time?


GRAVE RANSOM was a decently strong continuation of the Alex Craft series. I really enjoy the fact that Alex is always working a case in each installment of the series. I like that it is always connected to her roots and that the author hasn't introduced crazy things that leads Alex down crazy paths that don't fit the character that she started out as.

I liked learning about Alex's new home. It was interesting to see how things worked in her new space and who fit into it. They have some kinks to work out to keep people from learning about it, but it was fun watching them scramble a little bit to make some things work. It was very unique all around and I look forward to learning more.

Alex's love life is on the fritz in GRAVE RANSOM, but I have felt like it was a bit broken for a while now. I'm not quite sure how I feel about Death anymore. He hasn't done anything really, I just haven't felt their connection in a while. I am interested to see how Kalayna Price proceeds at this point on that front.

The ending of GRAVE RANSOM was crazy suspenseful. There were a lot of twists thrown into book five and I'm not quite sure where some of them will leave Alex and her friends in the future. Hopefully we don't have to wait forever to find out!

I gave it 4/5 stars

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

Monday, July 3, 2017

Promo + Giveaway: Drakon’s Plunder by N.J. Walters



Drakon’s Plunder
 Blood of the Drakon #3
Amazon US  Paperback  Amazon UK  Amazon CA  Amazon AU  B&N Kobo  iTunes

Life is not going well for archaeologist Sam Bellamy. She's stuck in the middle of the ocean on a salvage boat with people who want her dead. It wasn't her gift for being able to sense objects of power that got her here, rather her need to make a secret society called the Knights of the Dragon pay for killing her mentor. Sam doesn't believe in dragons, but the Knights do, and if she can get one of the sacred artifacts they're searching for away from them, she'll consider it payback.

Ezra Easton is content to run his marine salvage company and live alone on his private island. He may be a four-thousand-year-old water drakon, but he's civilized enough to know just because he pulls an injured woman from the ocean, doesn't mean he gets to keep her...

When she wakes up, she has a few tall tales to share, and it seems the Knights are after her. But this drakon won't give up his treasure.
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Excerpt #1:

“You have no idea who is looking for me.” She shoved the blanket aside and sat up. It was time to get dressed, if she still had any clothes, and get out of here. “These people are dangerous and will stop at nothing to find me. If they don’t find a body at the wreck—” She broke off before she said too much.

“So you were in a wreck. I wondered why you were alone in the dinghy. And who is after you?” He stood, looming like a large, avenging angel over her. “You can trust me to protect you.”

“You might be willing to risk yourself, but I’m not. I need to leave. Where are my clothes?”

As though she hadn’t spoken, Ezra continued. “You must be thirsty. Hungry, too. I’m starving. How about I make some bacon and eggs? Maybe some pancakes and toast.” He left her standing there and padded barefoot into the kitchen. Why did she find it so sexy that he was barefoot?

She was obviously not thinking straight, otherwise she wouldn’t notice the way his long hair brushed his shoulders or the way the soft denim cupped his behind as he walked away. Her toes curled against the rug.

She snatched up the throw blanket, wrapped it around her, and hurried after him. “Didn’t you hear anything I just told you? It’s not safe for you if I’m here. The people looking for me will kill you.”

Ezra pulled a carton of eggs, butter, and a package of bacon out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter. He added a box of pancake mix and a bowl to his collection before getting several large skillets out of the cupboard.

“Did you hear me?” she demanded. “They’ll kill you.”

Ezra propped his hands on his hips and faced her. “Not if I kill them first.”





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N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Find N.J. Walters and her books
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Sunday, July 2, 2017

Week in Review: 6/25-7/1



Books Received for Review

The Hunt by Chloe Neill
Fireblood by Elly Blake

Books I've Read

Shag Lake by Susan McEachern
Blood Gamble by Melissa F. Olson
The Hunt by Chloe Neill

Reviews Posted


Ravenheart by Dannika Dark
The Broken Ones by Danielle L. Jensen

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

* Monday- Promo + Giveaway for The Unlikeable Demon Hunter: Sting by Deborah Wilde

* Thursday- Interview + Giveaway for The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross

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

You can also add me (as in Stacy) to your friends on these sites if you're on them.
 

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

Friday, June 30, 2017

Review: The Broken Ones by Danielle L. Jensen

The Broken Ones
Release Date: June 6th, 2017
Publisher: Angry Robot
ISBN:   0857666975
ISBN13:  9780857666970
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Review Copy Source: NetGalley

A prequel to the USA Today bestseller and Goodreads Choice finalist Stolen Songbird (The Malediction Trilogy).

Below Forsaken Mountain, a plot is being hatched to overthrow the tyrant king of Trollus, and Marc is the right-hand man of its leader. His involvement is information more than one troll would kill to possess, which is why he must keep it a secret from everyone, even the girl he loves.

After accidentally ruining her sister’s chance to become queen, Pénélope is given one last opportunity by her father, the Duke d’Angoulême, to make herself useful: she must find proof that the boy she’s in love with is conspiring against the crown. If she fails, her life will be forfeit.

Marc and Pénélope must navigate the complex politics of Trollus, where powers on all sides are intent on using them as pawns, forcing them to risk everything for a chance at a life together.

Except being together may turn out to be the greatest risk of all.

I had not heard of this series before seeing it on NetGalley so the world is completely new to me. I very much enjoyed reading THE BROKEN ONES and learning about the world that the Malediction Trilogy is set in but, according to the author, it should be read after book two. I'm not sure what I missed out on not having two previous stories under my belt.

THE BROKEN ONES was both interesting and heartbreaking. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the love story definitely pulled at my heartstrings.  Penelope and Marc were both easy to like and the supporting cast of characters brought more to the storyline. 

The ending of THE BROKEN ONES was shocking. So shocking that it definitely made me interested to see how things turn out in the future for a few of the characters. Book One, Stolen Song, is on my to-be-read list.

I gave it 3.5/5 stars

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

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Interview + Giveaway: The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross

UFI welcomes Author Kat Ross. 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 love to travel! I’ve been scuba-diving in Egypt, used book shopping in Havana, and roamed around in the labyrinth beneath Buda Castle in Hungary. Next week, I’ll be swimming with wild pigs in the Bahamas.

What do you enjoy doing on your down time?

For exercise, yoga and running. For fun, movies, books and chocolate!

What is your favorite part of writing?

I like plotting the best. It somehow seems to flow easier than the nuts and bolts of writing a scene.

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

The only one is that I need to get out of my house. Sitting at my own desk leads to procrastination. So I head out to the library or a coffee shop.

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

I just read Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch and loved it, so I plan to read the whole series. It’s set in an alt London where the Metropolitan Police have a special unit to deal with the paranormal, and it’s very witty. Other favorites are The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan and No Hero by Jonathan Woods.

How would you pitch The Thirteenth Gate to someone who has not heard of it before?

Sherlock Holmes meets The X-Files with a dash of The Alienist.

Can you tell us a little bit about the world that The Thirteenth Gate is set in?

It opens in London 1888, just after Jack the Ripper has ended his murder spree and disappeared. The main characters are basically demon hunters. The world of the dead is called the Dominion and there are all sorts of nasty creatures coming through.

Do you have a favorite scene in The Thirteenth Gate?

I do especially like the part where Alec Lawrence faces down the Ripper atop a church spire in Oxford.

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

I’ve always had a soft spot for the necromancer Balthazar because he embodies both good and evil. His scenes are some of my favorites. The arch-villainess Queen Neblis was tougher, because she needed to both really scary and understandable. I think the most memorable bad guys are usually a bit sympathetic.

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

Right now I’m working on a continuation of the Fourth Element series. The first book is called Nocturne and it’s set in a world that’s tidally locked to its star, so one side is always in darkness and other in sunlight. And the bright side is actually much more dangerous.

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Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She's the author of the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day, the Fourth Element fantasy series (The Midnight Sea, Blood of the Prophet, Queen of Chaos), and the new Dominion Mysteries. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios.

Find Kat and her books
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The Thirteenth Gate
Dominion Mysteries  #2
Amazon
Winter 1888. At a private asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland—who's interviewed their patient and isn't sure he's a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she's ever encountered.

As Jack rampages through London, this time targeting rare book collectors, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he's looking for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…

Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Julius Sabelline's death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker?

As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamor of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first
Excerpt:

The Greymoor Lunatic Asylum made a grim impression even in daylight. It crouched at the end of a long, treeless drive, barred windows gleaming beneath a peaked slate roof. After her first interview with Dr. William Clarence, Lady Vivienne Cumberland had taken a hard look at those bars. She’d strongly suggested to the asylum superintendent that he move Dr. Clarence to a room with no window at all.
That had been just over a month ago. Now, in the darkest hour of the night, with rain coursing down the brick façade and thunder rattling the turrets, Greymoor looked like something torn from the pages of a penny dreadful, hulking and shadowed despite the lamps burning in every window. At the wrought-iron front gate, a black brougham drew to a halt. Following a brief exchange with the occupants, two officers from the Essex constabulary waved it through, immediately ducking back into the shelter of a police wagon.
“I told them to watch him,” Lady Cumberland muttered, yanking her gloves on. “To keep him isolated from the staff and other patients. Clearly, they didn’t listen. The fools.”
Alec Lawrence gripped the cane resting across his knees. He had been present at the interview, had looked into Dr. Clarence’s eyes, a blue so pale they reminded him of a Siberian dog. The memory unsettled him still, and he wasn’t a man who was easily shaken.
“We don’t know what happened yet,” he pointed out. “Superintendent Barrett can hardly be faulted considering we withheld certain information. I rather doubt he would have believed us anyway.”
Vivienne scowled. “You may be right, but it was only a matter of time. I’ve known that since the day Clarence was brought here. The S.P.R. made a very bad mistake entrusting him to Greymoor.”
“We still don’t know for sure—”
“Yes, we do. The killings stopped, didn’t they?”
“That could be for any number of reasons,” he said stubbornly.
“Including that the creature who committed them is behind bars. Or was, at least.”
Alec Lawrence buttoned his woolen greatcoat. This was not a new debate. “Perhaps. But there’s not a scrap of hard evidence against him. Nothing but a single reference in a report by some American girl and Clarence’s own odd demeanor. Had there been more, he would have been locked up tight in Newgate Prison.”
Vivienne turned her obsidian gaze on him. With her high cheekbones and full lips, she might have been thirty, or a decade in either direction. Only Alec and a handful of others knew better.
“That American girl is Arthur Conan Doyle’s goddaughter and she seemed quite clever to me. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” she added quietly. “Walls don’t hold Dr. Clarence’s sort for long.”
“Look,” he said, softening. “For what it’s worth, I think we did the right thing taking him off the streets. I just....” He trailed off, unsure how he meant to finish the thought.
“You don’t trust my judgment anymore. Since Harper Dods.”
“That’s not even remotely true. I simply think we need to keep open minds on the matter. The signs aren’t there, Vivienne. I’m the first to admit Dr. Clarence is an odd duck, perhaps worse. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t human.”
Vivienne arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “And yet here we are, summoned by Sidgwick in the middle of the night. I wonder if he’s regretting his decision?”
The note from Henry Sidgwick, president of the Society for Psychical Research, had arrived in the form of a small, bedraggled messenger boy pounding on Lady Vivienne’s front door in St. James an hour before. It was both vague and ominous, citing an “unfortunate incident” involving Dr. Clarence and urging all due haste to the asylum.
“I suppose we’ll find out in a minute,” Alec said, turning his collar up. He swiped a hand through chestnut hair and jammed a top hat on his head. “Off to the races.”
A gust of rain shook the carriage as it slowed at the front entrance. A six-story tower capped by a Roman clock and white spire anchored two wings extending on either side. Unlike most asylums, which had separate annexes for men and women, Greymoor’s residents were all male. The north wing housed those poor souls suffering from garden-variety disorders like dementia and melancholia. The other was reserved for the so-called “incurables,” a euphemism for the criminally insane. Violent, unpredictable men deemed unfit for prison.
Despite his doubts, Alec Lawrence would have happily had the lot of them over for tea rather than spend five minutes in the company of Dr. William Clarence. In his heart, he wondered if Vivienne’s instincts were correct. But he wanted her to be wrong because the alternative was far worse.



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