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Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA| Amazon AU ~~Her biggest mistake was falling for the enemy~~ Sixteen-year-old Lux Whitmore's first kiss was a disaster. She thinks her life can't get any worse until a mysterious stranger shows up with a warning: her life is in danger. She'll die if she doesn't go with him. But how can she trust someone with the strangest eyes she's ever seen? Is he her Angel or the Devil in a black hoodie? With his help, Lux enters the Haven, a training facility for Demons. With Zay as her Guardian, she's safe... or so she thinks. Whispers follow her everywhere she goes and weird things begin to happen. The Haven has secrets and Lux Whitmore is one of them. She just doesn't know it yet.
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 A Touch of Deadly, the first book in our new series, the Midnight Valley Vampires, is now available in ebook format from all retailers. If you enjoyed the Briar Creek Vampires, you'll probably enjoy this new series. Here's the summary:
When Emily Brooks’ mom packed up their bags and moved them thousands of miles away from Oklahoma, the only home she’s ever known, she knew she would have a hard time adjusting to their lives in Midnight Valley. On the bright side, her hot new neighbor with the dazzling green eyes helps her make new friends. She even lands a role starring in a movie that’s being filmed in town. But life becomes harder than she thought it would be when she realizes that something just isn’t right about Midnight Valley - and it has nothing to do with the bats that swarm the town, her strange new neighbor, or even the fact that the town doesn’t have cell phone service. After a few odd occurrences, Emily is convinced the whole town is haunted. The only problem? No one believes her. And even worse? She thought Midnight Valley was only haunted by the dead. Not the living, too. Now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo. I've been meaning to write this post for a while now, but things have been busy. Jayme and I have been working on a lot of projects: some of which you already know about, some that you don't. I'll post about that later in the week. Right now, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the passing of Lois Duncan. The news broke out that YA author Lois Duncan passed away on June 15th, 2016 at 82 years old. She lived a long life, though I wouldn't necessarily say a happy one. Her career of writing YA paranormal and suspense came to an abrupt end when her daughter Kaitlyn was tragically, mysteriously murdered. Duncan chronicled the mystery and investigation surrounding her death in the book Who Killed My Daughter? Lois Duncan's death made me think about how much I have to thank her for. She was one of the first authors to ignite a love for reading and writing within me. It is through her books (my favorites of which were Down a Dark Hall, Locked in Time, and Stranger With My Face) that made me fall in fall in love with the young adult paranormal and suspense genres in the first place. Growing up, her books were always at the top of my summer reading list and they were some of the only books throughout my lifetime that I've re-visited more than once.    (These books are still proudly displayed on my bookshelf. Though the new editions have new covers, I've always preferred the old covers).
Without Lois Duncan's influence, I don't believe that Jayme and I would have chosen to write in the YA paranormal romance genre. A lot of authors who write YA paranormal romance thank Stephenie Meyer for their love for the genre, but not me. Lois Duncan wrote the first paranormal books that I fell in love with. And for that, I will be forever grateful. R.I.P. Lois Duncan. Thank you for the stories you told and for the inspiration you gave me. Hey, guys! So I realize it's been an extremely long time since I've written a blog post. We have a sneak peek at Shadow Creatures (The Sherwood Wolves #3) for you, but first I want to explain to you why I've been out of commission for awhile. The past year was a rough one.  Lisa and I both recovered well from surgery. The kidney is working great, and I feel amazing -- better than I've felt in many years, in fact. Jayme and I have finally been able to get back into our writing routine, so you can expect to see a lot more releases from us in the upcoming year.
Our next book, Shadow Creatures (The Sherwood Wolves #3) is already available for pre-order at all of the retailers (Amazon US, Amazon UK, B&N, Kobo & iTunes). So, now, without further ado, here's a sneak peek at the book's first chapter. ***(Warning: This post does contain spoilers for those who haven't yet read the first two books in the series, Wolfbound and Starcrossed).*** Chapter 1 I waited in the bathroom stall where I’d just watched Isaac claim Roxy as his Host only moments before, my heart pounding against my chest. I was so nervous that he’d seen me. I could’ve sworn he’d noticed me through the crack of the bathroom stall, but I was pretty sure that if he’d known I was there and that I’d overheard his conversation with Roxy, he would’ve done something to hurt me and he hadn’t. No, I was pretty sure that I’d gotten lucky… this time, at least. After a few long moments, I stepped out of the stall and pressed my ear against the restroom door. All I heard was the sound of a Pitbull song thumping in the background. I was pretty sure the coast was clear. Of course, the only way to know was to open the door. Cautiously, I opened it and glanced around. There was no sign of Isaac/Roxy in sight. I breathed a deep sigh of relief as I stepped back into the party room, scanning the restaurant for Jax. I didn’t see him anywhere. My mind went into a frenzy of panic. What if I was too late? What if Isaac had already gotten to him? Except, I realized, that Isaac really hadn’t gotten to him. I spotted Roxy’s body over by the refreshments table. She was serving herself some punch. Isaac had sounded so determined to get revenge on Jax right away, but apparently, punch had to come first. Then again, I guess he must’ve figured that if he wanted to carry on this charade, he needed to play the role of the birthday girl so no one would suspect anything. I watched as Ace approached Roxy. Isaac turned and tossed Roxy’s short hair seductively. A smile spread across her lips. To someone completely unsuspecting, she looked flirtatious and not much different from usual. She looked like Roxy, even though she wasn’t Roxy. Not really.' As Ace wrapped an arm around Roxy, my stomach tightened in knots. I knew Isaac wanted to get revenge on Jax, since he was the one who’d buried him, but what about the rest of the Sherwood family? Isaac hadn’t mentioned wanting to hurt any of them – not even Mila, who had helped Jax bury him. I wasn’t sure if Ace would be safe with Isaac, but it wasn’t like there was really anything I could do about it at that moment. I wanted to warn Ace, but at the same time, I wasn’t about to blow up my spot. I was lucky enough to have gotten out of that bathroom alive. I couldn’t pull Ace aside to tell him the truth about Isaac using Roxy as his Host. That would only make Isaac suspicious of what I knew. I wasn’t sure what Isaac would do to me if he found out I knew the truth – especially if he found out I was Jax’s mate. I wasn’t sure if this Shade version of Isaac was the same as the Isaac who I’d known my entire life. I wanted to believe that he was good, but… the Isaac I knew wouldn’t have been out for blood. In any case, I didn’t want to find out what he would do. A part of me felt guilty about not saying anything to Ace, but I wasn’t sure if he would’ve even believed me, anyway. He was so into Roxy that he might not have been willing to believe or accept that she was gone… or that she was a Hunter. I didn’t know what that meant, but after overhearing her conversation, I could only assume that it meant one thing: Roxy was a werewolf Hunter, which was why she’d been planning to kill some of the werewolves tonight. My stomach twisted with a sick feeling. Roxy had seemed so nice. I thought the two of us could get to be best friends, like she was the missing part of the Camryn-Blair-Zoe friendship puzzle. But I was wrong. Instead, she’d wanted to get rid of the Sherwood family and me, all because we weren’t human. Her words echoed through my mind. “There are more of them in Cedar Falls than we originally thought.” I peered around the room. How many of the people on the dance floor weren’t actually people at all? How many of them were werewolves? I’d known most of them my entire life, but how much did I really know about any of them? They’re not kidding when they say people in small towns have big secrets. As much as I wanted to ponder who in the room might’ve been a wolf and why, I didn’t have time to think about it. I needed to get to Jax and the two of us needed to get out of here, before it was too late. “Camryn, there you are!” Blair said exasperatedly, a look of relief in her eyes. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Where have you been?” “Sorry,” I apologized. “I was talking to Demetri—I mean, my dad. And then I had to use the bathroom.” “When did the whole ‘dad’ thing happen, anyway?” She eyed me curiously. “Not long after you left,” I replied, unable to pinpoint the exact date of when I’d learned that Demetrius was my father. The past few weeks had been such a whirlwind. It felt like so much had happened in such a short time. “Zoe found out about him before I did.” “Why didn’t you tell me about him before now?” “This is the type of news you can’t really share over the phone,” I admitted. “I wanted to tell you in person.” She nodded understandingly. “What’s he like?” “He’s an ass.” I wished that I could’ve found something nice to say about my father, but… I couldn’t. I mean, let’s be real. He’d forced my sister into getting married and now he was planning to kill her husband. The more I thought about it, the more the whole thing infuriated me. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?” My best friend met my eyes with a look of genuine concern. I knew what she was thinking. For years, I’d always talked about what my father might’ve been like. My mom had never really talked about him, so I hadn’t known. I’d wondered if he was a doctor who saved lives like Zoe wanted to be, or if he was a clown who made children smile. Or maybe he was an astronaut. I’d thought he could’ve been a lot of things, but a monster had definitely not been one of them. To learn that he was less than amazing… well, I wasn’t going to lie. It was really heartbreaking. “Yeah, I will be,” I assured her. “Hey, have you seen Jax anywhere?” Blair nodded. “Yeah, I just saw him answer his phone and then go outside a few minutes ago.” She motioned to Caleb and Bash, who were talking on the other side of the room. “Are those his brothers?” “Those are two of them. The rest of them are here, too… somewhere,” I said, glancing around the room but not sure where his other brothers were. I figured that they must’ve been dancing deep within the crowd. “I’ll introduce you to them, just as soon as I find Jax. I’ll be back.” I knew that was a lie, of course. Jax and I weren’t going to come back to the party. We couldn’t come back to the party, or he couldn’t, at least – not if I wanted him to get out alive. We had to get away from here – away from Isaac – and then come up with some sort of plan. I wasn’t sure where we would go, but then it hit me. The compound. With its security guards and the walls that kept things from getting in and out, I couldn’t really think of a safer place to be. Yeah, as soon as I found Jax, we would go straight there. We wouldn’t come back to the party, contrary to what I’d told Blair. My best friend didn’t seem to see through my lie, though. “Don’t take too long or I might have to introduce myself to them without you,” she said with a sly grin. “I’ll try not to.” I breathed a slight sigh of relief. I knew I didn’t need to worry about leaving Blair in the room with someone as dangerous as Isaac. The other Sherwood boys and Mila were there. I was pretty sure that they would keep her – and anyone else – safe, if anything should happen. At least, I hoped they would. I turned away from Blair and headed for the door. As I stepped outside into the warm night, I glanced around the parking lot. Jax’s car was gone. Panic flooded my veins. Where had he gone? And why hadn’t he let me know where or why he was going? These questions circled around in my mind as I reached for my cell phone to call him when I noticed three guys out of the corner of my eye. They were headed straight for me. From a distance, I could see that all three of them were tall with broad shoulders. They were dressed identically; each of them wore dark wash jeans and plain black t-shirts that revealed large muscles. It was hard to tell from so far away, but I was willing to bet that they were about the same age as me. Maybe they were security guards at the Purple Swan, the restaurant the party was being held at? It was the only explanation I could seem to think of… except for the possibly that, whoever they were, they had news about Jax. Like the type of news I didn’t want to hear – like that something bad had happened to him. My gut wrenched at the idea. “Are you Camryn Evans?” one of the guys asked in a husky voice as the three of them approached me. He stared me up and down, his dark eyes boring through mine as though he was searching them for something. Up close, I realized that I recognized him from somewhere. I wasn’t sure where from, but he looked so familiar. “Yeah, that would be me,” I said slowly, feeling uneasy about the fact that I was confirming my identity to strangers. What if they wanted to hurt me? “What makes you ask?” The guy with the dark eyes nodded to one of the other guys, this one a blonde. Before I even knew what was happening, the blonde guy thrust a needle into my arm. I felt it stab into my skin and then a burning sensation hit as whatever was in the needle entered my bloodstream. I tried to let out a scream, but suddenly the scenery around me was spinning. I heard the sound of my phone hit against the black pavement as it fell to the ground. My eyes instantly grew heavy and everything in my line of vision went blurry. We would love to hear your thoughts on the first chapter. Does it make you want to read the next book? Were you already looking forward to it? Have you given up on the series? Leave your comments below! :) Exciting news! Wolfbound, the first book in our brand new YA werewolves series, the Sherwood Wolves, is now available for pre-order for all e-readers. Even more excitingly, you can pre-order it for a discounted rate of $2.99. Once the book is out on November 30th (squee!), the price will be raised to $3.99, so take advantage of the discount while you can! Pre-order now on: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or iTunes And here is the official summary:  My life isn't supposed to be this complicated.
At least that's what I thought... until I met Jax. I was in for the most boring three months of my life. With my best friend and sister gone for the majority of summer, I was stuck by myself in Cedar Falls, our small town in Indiana. But then he showed up on my front doorstep - my mysterious, insanely attractive new neighbor. I was instantly drawn to him. It was like there was a magnetic force between us, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. When a series of strange events happen, it seems like there's only one thing that links them all together: Jax and his family arriving in town. Little did I know, I wasn't only imagining it. Jax has a secret, one that affects both of us. He's a werewolf. I've fallen completely head over heels for a werewolf, which is just as dangerous as it is stupid. But I don't care. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to be with him, even if it means putting my own life on the line. But wait. My life was already on the line, even before Jax and his family came to town. Chapter 1 - Wolfbound - The Sherwood Wolves #1  It was going to be the worst summer ever.
Of course, that wasn’t saying a whole lot, considering every summer in Cedar Falls sucked. It was a one-stoplight town with only one hole in the wall diner, an old movie theater that only played movies like Sixteen Candles, and a two hour’s drive to the closest mall. It was nearly impossible to find anything to do. Most of the time, my sister, Zoe, and my best friend and next door neighbor, Blair Roberts, and I spent our time working on our tans, reading celebrity gossip magazines, and talking about boys. It was always boring, but at least the three of us were always bored together, so we always tried to make the most of it. But this summer was going to be different. Zoe was already at a summer-long pre-med school camp, and Blair was about to leave for New York City to spend the rest of the summer with her dad, just as soon we piled all of her crap into her mom’s car. I was the only one who wasn’t going anywhere, which meant I was going to be on my own for most of the summer – hence why it was going to be the suckiest summer of all time. I had no freakin’ clue what I was going to do with myself besides sleep in pretty much every day of the week, binge-watch Pretty Little Liars on Netflix, and eat way too much chocolate chip mint ice cream. By the time my sister and best friend got back to Indiana, I was probably going to have the biggest muffin top ever. Blair’s mom, Melody, groaned as she heaved a suitcase, which looked huge in comparison to her own petite frame, into the trunk of her black Jeep Liberty. “What’s in this thing, Blair?” she groaned. Peeling her eyes away from her cell phone, Blair glanced over at the suitcase. “Shoes,” she said, as though the answer should’ve been an obvious one. “Do you really need this many pairs of shoes?” her mom asked exasperatedly. “You’re only going away for the summer, not an entire year!” “I had to coordinate shoes to go with every outfit, Mom. I am going to New York,” my best friend said pointedly, rolling her cat green eyes, which popped against her mascara-coated eyelashes. “Everyone knows that people in New York are fashion conscious.” Her mom didn’t look too happy, but she didn’t protest, either, as she tried to find a way to stuff the suitcase into the trunk with the other luggage. Giving into whatever Blair wanted was how Melody had been dealing with her daughter since the divorce. Blair glanced over at me and turned her glossy lips into a pout. “So, I guess this is it.” “You make it sound like you’re going to be gone forever. It’s only going to be a couple of months.” Even as the words left my mouth, I had a hard time believing them myself. Those months were going to feel like forever. “It’s the longest we’ve ever been away from each other,” she pointed out quietly. “I know.” It was true; Blair and I had lived next door to each other since we were born, two weeks apart. We’d seen each other every single day for as long as I could remember and had way more sleepovers than I could count. Her parents had only gotten divorced earlier this year and her dad had moved to NYC, so this was the first summer she would be spending away from Cedar Falls. When her mom finally managed to make room for the suitcase, she slammed the trunk shut and then glanced down at her watch. “Blair, we’d better get going or you’re going to end up missing your flight.” “And I can’t miss my flight. Daddy splurged for me to fly first class.” Blair grinned proudly. Then she turned to me and flung her arms around me. “I’ll call you, okay? And we’ll text message all day, every day. It will be just like I’m not even gone at all.” “Yeah,” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t true. It would only seem that way for Blair, who would be seeing the city for the first time. I imagined that she would be spending her days in Central Park, maxing out her dad’s credit cards at Saks on Fifth Avenue, and stalking celebrities with a pair of binoculars, all while I’d be in Cedar Falls doing… well, nothing, besides working on that muffin top. It wasn’t that I was jealous. Okay, maybe I was sort of jealous, but mostly I just wished that I’d known that both Zoe and Blair were going to ditch me this summer, so that I could have found something to do with myself. But they’d both waited until the last minute to break the news, and it was too late now. Every summer camp program I’d had any sort of interest in was booked, and I didn’t know what else I could do with myself on my mom’s low budget. I was stuck. As Blair pulled herself from my embrace, she shot me a sad smile. “I’ll text you when I get to the airport, okay?” “Okay.” I forced a smile, but I was secretly forcing back the tears that were clogging my throat. I knew that spending the summer away from my best friend would suck, but I didn’t expect to be on the verge of crying before she’d even left. “See you later, Camryn,” Melody said, giving me a small wave. “Bye.” I watched as the two of them climbed into the SUV and backed out of the driveway, the tires stirring up dust as they pulled out onto the dirt road. I cut through Blair’s yard and into my own. When I reached the front porch steps, I decided I didn’t want to go inside. With my mom working a double-shift at the hospital and Zoe gone, I knew the house would be dark and lonely. Sitting down on the porch swing, I sighed. As I racked my brain for more ideas on what to do with my summer, I heard the sound of tires squealing as a car turned onto the dirt road. Blair must’ve forgotten something at the house, which was typical of her. My best friend could’ve easily have lost her head if it wasn’t attached to her neck. But as the car inched closer, I realized it wasn’t Blair’s mom’s black Jeep making its way back down the narrow dirt road. It was a sporty-looking tiger lily orange convertible, which I’d never seen before. Trust me when I say that Cedar Falls is such a small town that I could’ve probably told you what everyone drove. And no one in this town drove a sporty orange thing like that. I didn’t think anyone even would. No one around here ever drove anything flashy. That made me think that whoever was in the car must’ve been from out of town. It was the only explanation. I tried to steal a glance at who was inside. There were five guys in the car – five guys who I’d definitely never seen before, which only confirmed my suspicion; they weren’t from around here. Not that it made much sense why they were here. Cedar Falls wasn’t a hot vacation spot, and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would move here. I figured there was always a chance that they were visiting family. The car slowed down to a crawl and then almost seemed to come to a total standstill. The guy who sat in the front passenger’s seat glanced up at my house, his gaze lingering on the front porch. I was about to look away, because I didn’t want him to know I was staring like the loser I was. But it was already too late. His striking blue eyes had already caught on mine. My breath caught in my throat. Even from a distance, I could tell that his eyes were a shade that didn’t even look human. They were like light blue gemstones, which sparkled in the setting sun. An eternity seemed to pass, and neither of us looked away. As he continued to hold my eyes with his gaze, I could’ve sworn I saw his lips curl upwards into an amused smile. As the car continued its way up the street and then pulled onto a side road, I quickly shook the thought away. He probably hadn’t smiled, and I doubted that he’d even looked my way. Why would a gorgeous guy like that look at a small town girl like me? I was probably just imagining the entire thing. But even after he was long gone, the only image that seemed to fill my mind was his blue irises burning straight through mine. So excited to share the new cover of our upcoming YA paranormal romance series with you! This is so far our favorite YA series we've written. It will be coming out in the near future and you'll be getting more details shortly before it goes on pre-order. Okay, so now for the reveal!  It's been a while since I've written a blog post. As you've probably noticed, our release dates have fallen back several times over the past year. There *is* a reason for that, which I promise you will hear about in the near future. That's not the point of today's blog post, but we do apologize for all of the postponed release dates. So, onto the exciting news: The 4th book in the Koto Chronicles series, Dark Awakenings, will be released by the end of the month at the latest, but likely within the next few days. Here's the cover and summary:  Summary: Skye’s body is alive, but her soul is stuck in the Other World – a place where werewolf souls go when they may not be recovered. She must fight against the cold water and the urge to let herself drown and remember that she needs to be there for the ones she loves. Skye still has to find the Jewel of Kate to get Chance and Hunter back from the demanding Alpha who has them. That’s not even to mention that she needs to get revenge on whoever has been hurting her friends, and find out, once and for all, who her mate is. Will she be able to do it or will her soul be lost forever? We're excited to finally get it into your hands. The book is slightly shorter than the first three books in the series, but keep in mind that we only planned for there to be 4 books in the series total, and we ended up changing it to 5. So, you can sort of look at it as a bonus book that was never meant to happen. It's actually my personal favorite in the series so far, so I hope you enjoy it as much as we did writing it! :)
Now for the not so great news. We originally planned to have All I Ever Wanted (Summer Haven #3) out by the end of summer, but it looks like that isn't going to happen. We're hoping to have it out in fall now. It still has some fine tunings that we need to do. We know it's been a long wait, which we again apologize for. We will have it out to you as soon as possible and will be releasing the cover and blurb shortly. We're also almost finished with the first book in our brand new YA werewolf series, so we expect to have that out to you this fall. It will also likely be our first book we put on preorder (yay!!!), which we know a lot of you have asked for over the years and you're finally going to get it. No lie, you guys, this is our favorite YA series we've written to date, so we really think you'll enjoy it. It's a lot different from the Howl series. It takes place in a completely different world, so you'll see new werewolf "rules" and entirely new characters, which we hope you will grow to love as much as we have. Keep an eye out for more info about this series in the upcoming weeks. :) We're giving away a limited number of free copies of the audio edition of Howl in exchange for an honest, unbiased review on Audible.com. If you're interested, please go to "Contact Me" and fill out the contact form or drop us a message on our Facebook fan page inbox. We'll be giving out the coupon codes on a first come, first serve basis, so try to let us know right away if you're interested! :)
So, we have good news and bad news about Summer Haven #3. The bad news is that we originally planned for the 3rd book to be a continuation of Wes and Teagan's story, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen for the time being. That doesn't mean we won't finish writing what we had planned for them in the future, but right now, it just doesn't feel right, if that makes sense.
The good news is that the series will still go on, though the 3rd book will be coming out a little later than expected. Instead of focusing on Wes and Teagan, the 3rd book (which will now be titled All I'll Ever Be) will follow Logan's little sister, Kadence. We're expecting it to come out later this summer. |
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