Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.
After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. She is the author of the Playing with Fire series and the Chocolate Lovers series. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book.
In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.
City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare
Release Date: May 27th 2014
Preorder: Amazon
ΕRCHOMAI, SEBASTIAN HAD SAID.
I am coming.
Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last installment of the Mortal Instruments series!
To Fix You by Samantha Towle
Release Date: Fall 2014
I’m a gigolo. Male escort. Hustler… whatever you like to call us. And in the past seven years, I’ve had sex with… well, I stopped counting after I hit five hundred… basically, I’ve screwed a lot of women.
I know what you’re thinking… I must have had a terrible childhood, something horrendous happened in my life that drove me to this career.
Wrong.
The best thing to ever happen to me is why I work this job.
My daughter.
I’m a single dad. And I have sex with women for money, to feed, clothe and put a roof over my eight year old daughters head.
Not ideal, I know, but now I need the money more than ever…
Four weeks ago my worst nightmare happened… my baby girl was diagnosed with Cancer. Now, I have to earn, and earn big, to pay the mounting medical bills.
I have never felt more terrified, and more alone, in my life.
My name is Lizzie Connelly.
Beautiful, twenty-two . . . I have it all, including a new internship most girls would rip out their own souls for. I work for Margaret Manning-Emerson, vice president at Emerson & Taylor—one of the biggest fashion powerhouses this country has ever seen.
I’m ambitious.
I want success.
Since we’re friends, maybe I should start from the beginning.
My real name is Elizabeth Emerson.
Alone, twenty-two . . . I have nothing but broken promises and a string of shit luck, and it’s all because of the woman who took it all ten years ago after my father died. My stepmother–Margaret Manning-Emerson, the woman who, before two months ago, had never laid eyes on me.
I’m ambitious.
I need the truth.
Things are complicated, though.
My plans are flawed from the beginning, and the biggest obstacle comes in the form of Landon. Sexy, too smart for his own damn good, and infuriating, he’s the one person who could blow my plans to uncover that bitch Margaret and expose her for what she really is. She’s his mother, and in another life, I guess that would have made him my stepbrother.
I’m ambitious.
I need to know what happened ten years ago.
But I want . . . him.
*This is a standalone title
**Release date to be announced closer to date
Ever since Lily died two years ago, Evie has been lost. She exists but doesn’t live. And she copes the only way she knows how: by wrecking things.
She exposes her dad’s affairs, ends things with her longtime boyfriend, and just last semester, she destroyed her music scholarship. Desperate to break away from all the destruction she’s caused and start over, Evie reinvents herself at her new university.
But then Rhys, her new voice instructor, happens. He’s gorgeous, insanely talented and apart of the dark past she’s trying to overcome. Rhys’s brother is the reason why Evie’s life is such a mess right now, the reason why Lily, Evie’s sister, is dead. And even though Rhys is the last person Evie should ever want, for the first time in two years, wrecking things seems…right.
Dark Skye (Immortals After Dark #14) by Kresley Cole
Release Date: August 5th 2014
Preorder: Amazon
Eternal Obsession
As a boy, Thronos, Lord of Skye Hall, loved Lanthe, a mischievous Sorceri girl who made him question everything about his Vrekener clan. But when the two got caught in the middle of their families’ war, tragedy struck, leaving Thronos and Lanthe bitter enemies. Though centuries have passed, nothing can cool his seething need for the beautiful enchantress who scarred his body—and left an even deeper impression on his soul.
Endless Yearning
Lanthe, a once-formidable sorceress struggling to reclaim her gifts, searches for love and acceptance with all the wrong immortal suitors. But she’s never forgotten Thronos, the magnificent silver-eyed boy who protected her until she was ripped from the shelter of his arms. One harrowing night changed everything between them. Now he’s a notorious warlord with a blood vendetta against Lanthe, hunting her relentlessly.
Can the heat of desire burn brighter than vengeance?
With their families locked in conflict and battles raging all around them, will Thronos and Lanthe succumb to the brutal chaos that threatens everything they cherish? Or will the fragile bond they formed so long ago spark a passion strong enough to withstand even the darkest doubts?
Tame Me (Stark International #1) by J. Kenner
Release Date: March 11th 2014
Preorder: Amazon
Aspiring actress Jamie Archer is on the run. From herself. From her wild child ways. From the screwed up life that she left behind in Los Angeles. And, most of all, from Ryan Hunter—the first man who has the potential to break through her defenses to see the dark fears and secrets she hides.
Stark International Security Chief Ryan Hunter knows only one thing for sure—he wants Jamie. Wants to hold her, make love to her, possess her, and claim her. Wants to do whatever it takes to make her his.
But after one night of bliss, Jamie bolts. And now it’s up to Ryan to not only bring her back, but to convince her that she’s running away from the best thing that ever happened to her–him.
He’s everything I admire plus things I can’t even put into words.
I crush on Jericho Barrons violently.
My brain almost shuts down every time I see him and that’s a lot of gray matter to stupefy.
Used to be, if I couldn’t fall asleep I’d fantasize all kinds of ways I’d impress Barrons by killing monsters or saying something really smart or saving the world, and he’d see me as a grown up woman and I’d glow just from the look on his face.
But then Ryodan began popping into my fantasies like he had some kind of business being there, and he’d look all, well…like…Ryodan and he’d laugh and do that husky groan thing he did on level four, so I terminated that happy little exercise in somnolence.
Now I count sheep.
Lately even those buggers look like Ryodan with clear, cold eyes and some weird kind of hypnotic hold on me.
Fecker.
I’m beginning to think I’m going to have to figure out a way to kill him, permanent-like just to get him out of my head.
My fists clench and teeth grind at the last words—words that feed off the worst of my fears—the urge to break something returning. To drown the pain that’s back with a vengeance. I know he’s pushed me to the breaking point. I can hear his quiet sigh through the screaming of every ounce of my being.
He stands slowly and I tell myself to look at him. To show him somehow I’ve heard him, but I can’t make myself do it. I feel his hand on the top of my head, like I’m a little boy again, and his uncertain voice whispers, “I love you Colton.”
The words fill my fucking head but I can get them past the fear lodged in my throat. Past the memories of the chant I used to say that was followed by the brutality and unspeakable pain. As much as I want to tell him—feel the need to tell him—I still can’t.
Series order:
★ (#1) Driven
★ (#2) Fueled
★ Preorder (#3) Crashed (out March 3rd 2014)
★ A teaser from Saving Quinton (Nova #2) by Jessica Sorensen!
I’m pretty sure I’m dreaming. Or maybe I’m dead. I’m hoping for the latter, but I don’t it’s the correct assumption because this feels different than the first time I died. If I’m dreaming, it’s a beautiful dream, one where I’m with Nova and we’re happy. I’m surprised I’m seeing myself with her and normally I’d stop my thoughts from going there, but I’m not awake enough to care. Plus I feel really good, better than I have in a while. Everything feels light. Breathless. Hazy and weightless. My memories of my past are fading. I can no longer feel the blood on my hands or the weight of guilt on my shoulders. Something wonderful is taking over. I’m not in the darkness, locked within myself. I’ve been swept up by light and I feel like I could do anything at the moment as I lie on my back, gazing up at the sky. Nova hovers over me, cupping my cheek, and her skin is so damn warm and she smells amazing. And her eyes… bright blue with specks of green, her skin dotted with freckles, and her full lips that look so delicious I want to taste them… and I’m going to, because nothing matters at the moment. It’s not real, which makes it easier to take what I want—admit what I want.
I lean up, not even thinking about what I’m doing, and press my lips to hers. It hurts my mouth but the pain is worth it—it’s worth everything just to taste her again. I could do it forever, and I want to, but when I slip my tongue deep inside her mouth, she pulls away, her eyes widening and swarming with confusion. I open my mouth to tell her to come back to me, because I want her—need to kiss her again—but then her lips start moving and the haze from my brain gradually starts to lift.
“Quinton, can you hear me?” she asks, her voice soft, distant. Or maybe I’m the one who’s distant.
“I…” It hurts to talk, my throat too dry, and the brightness of the sun is stinging at my eyes.
“Are you okay?” she says and the sunlight dims as the blue sky changes into my shitty bedroom ceiling stained with water and cracks. That stupid drip comes into focus, haunting me again.
I suddenly realize that I’m in my room. Awake. And Nova’s here. With me.
★ Teaser from Thoughtful (Kellan’s POV of Thoughtless) by S.C. Stephens:
When the coffee was done, I prepared our cups, and set Kiera’s down in front of her. I leaned back in my chair, perfectly content as I drank mine. Kiera hunched over her mug like she was freezing and it was the only source of warmth in the room. I knew her reaction wasn’t from the cold though, and knowing that made my smile even wider. Jealousy is a bitch, isn’t it, Kiera?
★ Special announcement and sneak peek from K.A. Linde!
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
I’ve been working on a super secret project for a little while now. I wasn’t sure if it was going to turn into anything, but I can’t seem to stop writing it. I’m madly in love with this book! Now that I’m at a comfortable distance, I can tell you about it!!!
Yeah, that might sound cocky or maybe a bit disgusting even, but I’ve never given two fucks. I wasn’t about to start now.
And whoever was lying beside me right now needed to get the fuck out before I started remembering her name. Did I remember her name? Lany. Lacy. Lucy? No. Fuck. I didn’t give a shit. She just needed to leave so that I could get back to sleep.
“Babe,” I grumbled, nudging the chick in the ribs. “Darlin’.”
“Mmm,” she groaned. “I love when you call me darlin’.”
I already knew she liked it. She had lost her clothes quickly enough to the sound of it last night. Now, I was pretty sure I’d never say it again if it meant that she would get out quicker.
“Time to go home.”
The girl turned on her side and tucked the comforter over her tits. Well, there went her best quality. She gave me a come-and-get-me look and pouted her lips as if that was going to change my mind.
“Oh come on, Grant,” she whispered throatily.
Her hand slid down my chest and then farther south. Yeah, not happening. I wasn’t interested in another mediocre performance on her part. Maybe a blowjob, but even then probably not.
She stroked my cock and I was reconsidering that blowjob. She had to be better at sucking dick then fucking. It was some unwritten rule. Either they sucked or they fucked.
“No, honey. It’s time for you to go home.” I rolled onto my back and reached for a joint on my nightstand.
“That’s not what you were saying last night.”
I flicked the zippo to life and took a drag on the joint. “That’s what I’m saying now. You knew how this was going to go when you came back with me. So save me the headache and just leave.”
“Whore,” she snapped. She hopped out of bed, snatched up her clothes, and then stormed toward the door. I waited until it slammed shut behind her before blowing out the smoke.
Wasn’t the first time I’d heard that either. I preferred the term man whore. I’d earned that title and I was fucking proud of it.
★ Toxic (Ruin #2) by Rachel Van Dyken has a blurb!
Everyone has a secret…
Gabe Hyde is on borrowed time. He’s been hiding his identity for over four years-hidden from the world that used to adore him–obsess over him–driven to the edge of insanity by one poor choice.
But that one choice, altered the course of his life forever.
Pretending isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, especially when pretending means hiding your real self from the people that care about you the most. But if anyone ever discovered the truth it wouldn’t just be his life at risk–but hers.
Saylor doesn’t hate men.
Just Gabe.
Only Gabe.
He’s a reckless, happy-go-lucky, silver spoon fed pain in her ass. Everything about him makes her more and more confused. Unfortunately they both donate time at the same Group Home. If she wasn’t afraid of flunking, she’d be long gone. She hates that she’s attracted to him almost as much as he hates that he’s attracted to her–and she can tell, especially since their first encounter ended up making her knees so weak she couldn’t form coherent sentences for weeks afterwards. But the closer she gets to him, the more confused she becomes. He isn’t who he says he is, and he’s hiding something big.
What happen when two worlds collide? Two worlds that never should have met in the first place? Some secrets are too big to be hidden forever–the only question? Will his destroy everyone he loves? Or finally bring about the redemption he’s been craving for the past four years?
★ This is Sylvia Day’s live Q&A! And she’s writing a new series called Blacklist!
★ The Swan & the Jackal (In the Company of Killers #3) by J.A. Redmerski has a blurb!
Fredrik Gustavsson never considered the possibility of love, or that anyone could ever understand or accept his dark and bloody lifestyle—until he met Seraphina, a woman as vicious and blood-thirsty as Fredrik himself. They spent two short but unforgettable years together, full of lust and killing and the darkest kind of love that two people can share.
And then Seraphina was gone.
It’s been six years since Fredrik’s lover and sadistic partner in crime turned his world upside-down. Seraphina went into hiding and has eluded him ever since. Now, he’s getting closer to finding her, and an innocent woman named Cassia is the key to drawing Seraphina from the shadows. But Cassia—after sustaining injuries from a fire that Seraphina ignited—suffers from amnesia and can’t give Fredrik the information he desperately seeks. Having no other choice, Fredrik has been keeping Cassia locked in his basement as he not only tries to get her to recall her past—because she and Seraphina share it—but also to protect her from Seraphina, who clearly wants her dead.
But Cassia is a light in the darkness that Fredrik never believed existed. After a year subjected to her kindness and compassion, he finds himself struggling with his love for Seraphina, and his growing feelings for Cassia—because he knows that to love one, the other must die.
Will light win out over darkness, or will something more powerful than either further destroy an already tortured soul?
(Note: THE SWAN & THE JACKAL is NOT a New Adult title. It, and all other books in the series are categorized as Suspense/Crime/Thriller/Romantic Suspense and Adult.)
The release date for Apolonia has been changed to November 2014. But the good news is that Trent’s book’s release date has been moved up, and you’ll be getting it sooner than fall 2014!
A standalone companion book to the internationally bestselling Shiver Trilogy.
Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole’s story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole’s darkest secret — his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel’s life. Can this sinner be saved?
“Legions of fans — myself included — have wanted Maggie to return to the world of Shiver, and now she’s found an ingenious, sexy, utterly compelling way to do it,” says David Levithan, VP/Publisher and Editorial Director, Scholastic Press. “This isn’t so much a re-visitation as it is a reinvention, with Maggie taking readers to many places they’ve never been with her before. There is nothing quite so amazing as Maggie Stiefvater at the top of her game.”
Author Maggie Stiefvater says, “For me, finishing the Shiver trilogy was a bittersweet moment — I knew that I wouldn’t be returning to Mercy Falls once Sam and Grace’s story was over. But Cole and Isabel still lurked in the back of my mind. Both of them were only half-fixed at the end of the trilogy, and I wanted to know if they could be fixed the rest of the way.”
Every Second With You = Sex. Love. Addiction. Heartache. Pain. And Hope.
In the sequel to the bestselling THE THRILL OF IT, Harley and Trey face new challenges that will make battling blackmail, sex addiction, and a virgin call girl past look easy…
I used to think love was a lie. Now I know it’s real, powerful, and I don’t want to lose it…But my future scares me, and there’s no way this can be happening, especially since I’ve finally broken free from all the people who wanted pieces of me. I don’t even know how to start over, but I have to find a way. So when I discover what my mother’s been keeping from me, it doesn’t make me hate her. It gives me hope for a new life, outside of New York. But the ties that bind me to this city are so strong, sometimes they are chains. If only I could leave with…
Trey…
I will do anything for her. She owns me, heart, mind and body. But when Harley tells me this, I am rocked to the core, and terrified of what happens next. Especially when this time it’s not her past that chases me, it’s someone from my own. And that someone is messing with my head when I’m trying to be strong for Harley. But all I really want is to escape with the girl I love…For the rest of our lives.
How can you move forward when the past keeps chasing you?
The epic romance between an all-American beauty and her Aussie continues in this final installment of The Beauty Series.
Jack McLachlan is fulfilled by more than he dared to dream possible. He finds everything he never knew he wanted—or needed—in Laurelyn Prescott, his last and final companion. Life is beautiful with his beloved by his side but their post-wedded bliss is cut short when his dark past springs into their present happiness. He wants to shelter Laurelyn but keeping her untainted by his previous life proves impossible when yesterday’s sins insist on returning to haunt him. Will it be possible for them to find happiness in their forever with a past like his?
Beauty From Love is an adult contemporary novel and is not intended for younger readers due to mature content.
Alayna Withers relationship with Hudson Pierce has tested both her and his ability to trust. They decide that the only way they can move forward together is with open doors and transparency. It won’t be easy for the scarred lovers, but they’re committed to each other more now than ever. Alayna, in particular, has grown through their trials, and has emerged more confident and faithful to the man she loves.
But while the pair is focused on the future, their past shows up again to threaten their fragile bond. Promises that were made are broken, and Alayna learns that Hudson still has very potent secrets—secrets that will tear them both apart. As much as she feels for him, her ability to forgive and forget is tested beyond her limits.
Even though she found the only man who could fix her, a forever with Hudson seems more and more out of reach.
“I love that you love me, professor.”
“I love loving you, beauty.”
Since their intense, passionate beginning, Professor Dean West and his wife Olivia have fought dark secrets and betrayal in order to save their marriage. Now reeling in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Liv and Dean are driven further apart by a vindictive threat to Dean’s career.
Struggling to stand on her own for the first time in years, Liv is determined to defend her husband and prove herself. Then an unexpected letter dredges up old insecurities and endangers Liv’s newfound independence. As Dean fights for his professional life, he is forced to confront his worst fear when he discovers that he can’t protect his beloved wife from her own painful past.
His eyes fall to my legs, and I have to cross them, because the way his gaze penetrates my body makes it seem as though he can see right through this dress I’m wearing.
His eyes close tightly, and knowing the effect I’m having on him makes me feel as if there might be a lot more truth to these lyrics than he’d like there to be:
“It’s making me feel like I want to be the only man that you ever see.”
Ridge suddenly stands and drops his phone onto the bed, then walks straight into the bathroom and slams the door. I listen as the shower curtain slides open and the water kicks on.
I roll onto my back and release all my pent-up breaths.
Preorder Maybe Someday: Amazon (releases March 18th 2014)
A few lines from what I’m working on now. Stay With Me Ah, this book… it’s bringing the feels.
“Already explained that, honey, but I’ll explain something else to you. When I want something, I go for it. Life is way too damn short to live any other way. And I want to get to know you better.” Those lashes lowered one more time, his gaze tracking to my lips like they were some kind of mecca. “Yeah, I want to definitely get to know you better.”
★ You can read an exclusive excerpt of Rome (Marked Men #3) here!
★ It’s a Burned (Dani O’Malley #2; Fever #7) teaser from Karen Marie Moning!
★ You can see teasers for Sempre: Redemption on J.M. Darhower’s Facebook! Sempre: Redemption releases Dec. 17.
Few things in life can come between a grim reaper and her coffee, but the sexy, sultry son of Satan is one of them. Now that Reyes Farrow has asked for her hand, Charley Davidson feels it’s time to learn more about his past, but Reyes is reluctant to open up. When the official FBI file of his childhood abduction lands in her lap, Charley decides to go behind her mysterious beau’s back and conduct her own investigation. Because what could go wrong?
Unfortunately, another case has fallen into her lap—one with dangerous implications. Some very insistent men want Charley to hunt down a witness who is scheduled to testify against their boss, a major player in the local crime syndicate. If Charley doesn’t come up with an address in 48 hours, the people closest to her will start to disappear.
Add to that a desperate man in search of the soul he lost in a card game, a dogged mother determined to find the ghost of her son, and a beautiful, young Deaf boy haunted by his new ability to see the departed as clearly as he sees the living, and Charley has her hands full. The fact that Reyes has caught on to her latest venture only adds fuel to the inferno that he is. Good thing for Charley she’s used to multi-tasking and always up for a challenge…especially when that challenge comes in the form of Reyes Farrow.
★ You can vote for the title of the sequel to Breaking Nova by Jessica Sorensen here!
★ Read a deleted scene from Dare You To (Pushing the Limits #2) by Katie McGarry on her blog here!
When I wrote Because of Low I fell in love with Cage York and I had to write While It Lasts next. THE SAME THING has happened while writing Misbehaving. I have fallen in love with Krit. I realized his book would have to be next after writing this scene in Misbehaving:
“I’m not in the mood for guys,” I told him.
Krit shot up in bed and looked down at me. “Holy hell, love. Are you saying you want a woman? ’Cause I’ll pay shitloads of money to see you with another woman. Fucking cut off my left nut to watch that.”
I shoved him and grimaced, causing him to laugh. “You’re so ridiculous. Of course not. That isn’t what I mean. I just don’t want the flirting and touching and all that.” (this is a scene with Krit and Jess from Misbehaving) For those of you who don’t remember Krit he is the lead singer in the band that the Sea Breeze crew goes to see play at Live Bay. He is also Trisha’s (Rock’s wife) little brother.
It was so hard to choose only 10 books because there are just so many AMAZING new releases coming out next year that I’m absolutely dying to read! But here are my top top top I-will-die-if-I-don’t-read-them-as-soon-as-they-release books! Let me know what books you’re excited for!
1. Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
Releases March 18th 2014
2. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer
Releases February 4th 2014
Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi’s New York Times bestselling Shatter Metrilogy, this book collects her two companion novellas, Fracture Me andDestroy Me, in print for the first time ever. It also features an exclusive look into Juliette’s journal and a preview of Ignite Me, the hotly anticipated final novel of the series.
Destroy Me tells the events between Shatter Me and Unravel Me from Warner’s point of view. Even though Juliette shot him in order to escape, Warner can’t stop thinking about her—and he’ll do anything to get her back. But when the Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment arrives, he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner cannot allow.
Fracture Me is told from Adam’s perspective and bridges the gap betweenUnravel Me and Ignite Me. As the Omega Point rebels prepare to fight the Sector 45 soldiers, Adam’s more focused on the safety of Juliette, Kenji, and his brother. The Reestablishment will do anything to crush the resistance . . . including killing everyone Adam cares about.
The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent and The Hunger Games. This captivating story, which combines the best of dystopian and paranormal, was praised as “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love” by Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
Alex thought things were already complicated, but then Gemma shows up possessed by Stephan and she wants to kill him. Normally, he would eliminate someone in Gemma’s position to protect himself, but his feelings for Gemma won’t allow him to do that. She’s too important to him and he knows he has to save her without hurting her.
But can he find a way to save her before someone gets hurt?
Far too young, Apollo Ulfr lost Ilsa, his wife, the love of is life and the mother of his two children. The grief of her loss does not settle in his soul, it solders to it. But when he discovers there is a parallel universe where his wife may have a twin, he feels there’s hope and sets about bringing her to his world so he can have her back.
But Ilsa Ulfr of our world is married to the parellel universe’s twin, Pol, who is not a good man. Not in any way. She’s on the run from him and the last thing she wants is to be transported to a fantastical world and be forced to take his side as his wife, even if he is not Pol. And Apollo finds the broken, bitter Ilsa nothing like his beloved and he further wants nothing to do with her.
But darkness is looming and evil is amassing. Apollo must protect his land and keep his family safe, including the new Ilsa.
★ The prologue of Rush Too Far by Abbi Glines is here! Rush Too Far releases May 2014.
They say that children have the purest hearts. That children don’t truly hate because they don’t fully understand the emotion. They forgive and forget easily.
They say a lot of bullshit like that because it helps them sleep at night. Such sayings make for good, heart-warming clichés to hang on the walls, to bring out a smile in people passing by.
I know differently. Children love like no other. They have the capacity to love more fiercely than anyone else. That much is true. That much I know. Because I lived it. By the age of ten I knew hate and I knew love. Both all-consuming. Both life-altering. And both completely blinding.
Looking back now I wish someone had been there to see how my mother had sown the seed of hate inside of me. Inside of my sister. If someone had been there to save us from the lies and bitterness she allowed to fester within us, then maybe things would have been different. For everyone involved.
I never would have acted so foolishly. It wouldn’t have been my fault that a girl was left alone to take care of her ailing mother. It wouldn’t have been my fault that the same girl stood at her mother’s graveside, believing that the last person on earth who loved her was dead. It wouldn’t have been my fault that a man destroyed himself after his life became a broken, hollow shell.
But no one saved me.
No one saved us.
We believed the lies. We held onto our hate, and I alone destroyed an innocent girl’s life.
They say you reap what you sow. That’s bullshit, too. Because I should be burning in hell for my sins. I shouldn’t be allowed to wake up every morning with this beautiful woman in my arms, who loves me unconditionally. I shouldn’t get to hold my son and know such a pure joy.
But I do.
Because, eventually, someone did save me. I didn’t deserve it. Hell, more than anyone it was my sister who needed saving. She hadn’t acted on her hate. She hadn’t manipulated the lives of our family members, not caring about the outcome. But her bitterness still controlled her while I had been delivered. By a girl…
No, she wasn’t just a girl. She was an angel. My angel. A beautiful, strong, fierce, loyal angel who had entered my life in a pick-up truck, carrying a gun.
★ It’s an excerpt from Burned (Dani O’Malley #2; Fever #7) by Karen Marie Moning!
The king stirred from his reverie and stared down at the unconscious female in his wings.
Half a million years since he’d last seen her. Held her. Touched her.
It was no illusion. She was here. She was real.
She felt as small and gossamer fragile as the new worlds he spun.
He inhaled. She smelled the same as she had on the day he’d met her, of sunshine on bare skin, moonlight on silver oceans and enormous, sky-no-limit dreams. He closed his eyes and opened them.
She was still there.
After an eternity of grief and regret, he held the only thing he’d ever wanted more than he wanted to be God.
A second chance.
He’d imagined this, dreamed it, hungered for it beyond reason.
They are replaceable, one and all, insisted the Fear Dorcha, his dark traveling companion through insanity. You will forget her.
But he never had.
Grief will pass, lisped the Crimson Hag, one of his more exquisitely terrible creations.
But it never did.
He, who had once been whole was halved without hope of ever being complete again. And when you’ve known that kind of love, to exist without it is to live a half-life where nothing else ever feels real.
He’d fabricated their reunion in countless illusions, slipping in and out of madness for millennia, talking to her as if she were beside him, answering. Drawing to his side one mortal woman after the next that possessed the body, the hair, a pale imitation of the passion, never seeing them, calling them by her name, pretending they were her until they died.
He’d lived lie after lie to escape the unbearable truth: She’d left him by choice, killed herself to escape him. He’d come to believe she’d never loved him at all, or worse—had stopped loving him because of the things he’d done.
Gazing down at her now, he found it easy to pardon Cruce for stealing her, forcing her to drink from the Cauldron and erasing all memory of their time together.
Somehow his soulmate was at long last the very thing he’d struggled to make her: Fae, immortal unless killed in one of a very small number of ways. (He intended to eradicate all of those ways immediately.) Funny how things turned should time enough pass. But the king knew the natural state of Universes was not to list toward entropy, rather wholeness. Universes were healthy. It was sentient beings with free will that were the true disasters.
So what if he’d suffered an eternity of hell without her? If someone had offered him this bargain a half a million years ago, said—you need only endure a half a million years without her to have her for all time—he would have taken it in a human heartbeat. What was a brief time of madness for eternity with her?
Fire to his ice. Frost to her flame.
He was whole again.
The Unseelie king bent his head and kissed her. Lightly. Reverently. He’d sliced open his soul and bled it out over memories of the woman he would never kiss again. Deep in his chest, thunder rolled.
Lashes fluttered. She opened her eyes. He drew back and stared down at her, unable to speak. Creator of worlds, God, Devil, whatever he was, words failed him now. His massive black wings shuddered with the depth of his feeling. He shifted and resettled them.
There was wonder in her gaze as she stared up at him: a moment of precious, pre-conscious dawn where all is dew and promise and anything at all might bloom.
Beginnings are fragile things.
Was it as he hoped? Was the power of true love greater than the power of the Cauldron of Forgetting? Did the body recall despite the damage done the mind? Memory, carved into gray matter, never obliterated. What would she say? What would her first words to him be?
Time ground to a halt and, as a human might hold his breath, the Unseelie king held his existence in silence, filling the frozen moment with tiny miracles: the blush of her skin, the curve of her lips, the arch of her brows.
Was that a flicker of confusion? Of duality preceding recognition? He knew her face intimately, had never forsaken a nuance, yet these were expressions he’d had no cause to learn.
After all she’d been through—eternities about which he knew nothing and might have contained any number of atrocities spent as they were at the Seelie Court with Cruce—but more recently kidnapped, interred in a tomb of ice and nearly killed by the power-hungry prince, he sought to reassure her:
“My love, you are safe. I have you now.” He paused, to lend emphasis to his next words, a pledge he would keep until the end of time, which he was fairly certain he was in some fashion or another. “And I will never let you go again.”
Envisioning their joyous future together as immortals, he waited for the first sound of her voice in half a million years…
She screamed.
★ You can read the epilogue from Until You (Fall Away #1.5) by Penelope Douglas on her Facebook here! It’s told in Madoc’s POV.
★ A snippet from Ilona Andrews’ Avon book! You can read it here.
Other News!!
★ If you haven’t heard Sylvain Reynard’s new novel announcement, you can read the blog post here. His next book will be called The Raven.
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Gabriel Series comes a dark, sensual tale of romance in a city shrouded in mystery…
Raven Wood spends her days at Florence’s Uffizi Gallery restoring fine works of Renaissance art. But an innocent walk home after an evening with friends changes her life forever. When she intervenes in the senseless beating of a homeless man, his attackers turn on her, dragging her into an alley. Raven is only semi-conscious when their assault is interrupted by a cacophony of growls followed by her attacker’s screams. Mercifully, she blacks out, but not before catching a glimpse of a shadowy figure who whispers to her…
Cassita vulneratus.
When Raven awakes, she is inexplicably changed. She returns to the Uffizi, but no one recognizes her and more disturbingly, she discovers that she’s been absent an entire week. With no recollection of the events leading up to her disappearance, Raven also learns that her absence coincides with one of the largest robberies in Uffizi history – the theft of a set of priceless Botticelli illustrations. When the baffled police force identifies her as its prime suspect, Raven is desperate to clear her name. She seeks out one of Florence’s wealthiest and elusive men in an attempt to uncover the truth about her disappearance. Their encounter leads Raven to a dark underworld whose inhabitants kill to keep their secrets…
★ Gayle Forman’s next book will be called I Was Here, and it comes out in the first half of 2015.
This gritty, powerful new YA novel follows Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend Meg’s shocking suicide. Delving into Meg’s secret life as she searches for answers, Cody discovers both her strengths and her vulnerabilities, testing her ability to love, to protect, and to forgive.
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