Deke Murphy and Maddie Hall should never have worked as a couple in high school. She was the class valedictorian and he the jock who took nothing seriously…except her. Together they formed an amazing team, and young love blossomed into something that strengthened them both. Until tragedy struck and Deke made a sacrifice that split them up forever.
An unexpected reunion
Seventeen years later, Maddie is living her dream working for a brilliant tech guru in the beauty of Southern California. She’s made a life for herself and it’s first class all the way. She rarely thinks of the jock who dumped her all those years ago. But when Maddie realizes her boss might be part of an international conspiracy, she can’t deny Deke might be her best bet to solve the mystery. Her one-time sweetheart works for one of the world’s premiere security and investigative firms. She’ll hire him and prove to herself their relationship could never have worked.
A dangerous future
As Maddie and Deke begin to uncover her boss’s secrets, they can’t deny the chemistry that has reignited. But before they can explore the connection growing between them, they must survive the deadly forces hunting them down.
New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband and three kids. Since starting her publishing journey in 2010, she’s sold over three million copies of her books. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings.
A truce has brought the Grove peace—but things are not as they appear.
Deep within a secret rainforest, live the keepers of unknown spells—a lost Landaffen colony with the power to keep Laura from fulfilling her fate by setting a trap and using Prince Brell as bait.
But Laura has become more Landaffen than human, her abilities sharpening as she infiltrates the forgotten and unforgiving Grove. She must learn to control the colony’s magic before their powers are at their peak.
If she fails, Prince Brell will die, and the joining of both worlds will be incomplete. It is Laura’s duty. Her calling. Faith must be restored, and the enemy defeated.
With a broken treaty and imminent conflict bringing death and war, Laura must build trust and bring order . . . before the PERILUNE!
I twisted, turning my head, and shifting my shoulders. Snow and more snow. I stretched my arm downward, clawing it with my fingers.
Where was he? My whole body numb, I lost my sense of direction. Was I facing up or down?Was my body vertical or parallel to the ground?
Weightless, I reached down again for my protector, my hand digging and finding nothing other than compacted snow.
I inhaled, each breath a fight for air as the snow rested compactly and heavily against my chest. I sucked a breath between tight lips and couldn’t feel anything.
“Dassh,” I tried to shout, my lips too numb to move. With a last effort, I punched through the snow layer below me, trying to feel for him. Snow and more snow. I dug with gloved hands, clawing against snow-compacted ice.
I gasped for air. My mouth filled with snow, and I coughed and choked, my body wrenching. Dizzy and without my sense of direction, I closed my eyes, punching the snow beneath me, trying to break the layer of ice separating me from Dassh.
I’m coming, Dassh!
My body spasmed, and I shook uncontrollably against the tight casket of snow and ice.
No! No! Stay calm! Stay calm! Don’t give up!
I counted to ten, the words in my head muffled and strained. Giving into each twinge, I forcefully relaxed my muscles in a futile attempt to regain my strength and fill my lungs with air.
The shaking stopped. I pushed through the ice below me, reaching to feel for him again. Sinking deeper and deeper, suffocating, my lungs empty, gulping and taking in nothing but snow, I continued, swinging my elbows inch by inch, hoping to create a pocket of snow at my nose.
As if pushed by a plow, snow tumbled against the sides of my face, rolling in balls, pushing, and compacting under my nose and mouth.
I gasped, swallowing more snow, and gagged, my numb tongue unable to move. My lungs tight and heavy, I inhaled a tiny breath that immediately shot from my lungs with the weight of snow on my back.
I opened my mouth, trying to take another breath. Snow caked at my nostrils and filled my mouth. My head and body became weightless. Balloon like, my arms and legs lifted, floating as though I was still trapped and smashed and hadn’t moved.
Making one last attempt to recover Dassh, I used my last strength to wriggle my fingers, loosening the snow just enough to jab them downward. Nothing! Nothing but more snow. My jaw tightened. I could no longer move.
Karri Thompson, a native of San Diego, attended San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not writing novels and teaching high school English, she can be found nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con and cooking delicious meals for her family. Karri is the recipient of the San Diego Book Awards Best Published Young Adult Novel for 2014.
From the moment I was born, I was destined to be a Death Hound. Tragedy tore me from my family at an early age and cast me into a reality so dark, I contemplated ending it all. But my club brought me back from the edge, fostering my dreams and giving me a new lease on life. Years later, with secrets from my tormented time threatening to pull me back into the abyss, the innocence of a child kept me hanging on.
In finding her family, I discovered a beautiful woman who understood that in darkness, light could be found. She understood me like no one else had, but her life was complicated, full of despair and loneliness on a level I couldn’t comprehend. Every day, she fought her own demons.
When the nightmares returned, pulling her into a world of depravity and pain, I found a part of myself that I didn’t know existed. I never asked to be a protector, but no one deserved to live in fear. So, I would walk through hell to save her.
H.J. Marshall began her love of reading and writing at an early age and has always dreamed of being a writer full-time. A nomadic youth exposed her to different perspectives of life, community, and culture, resulting in a lifelong love of food, music, and history. When she is not writing, she enjoys the music of all generations and genres, writing full-time, and living in her quiet cabin in the woods. Currently landlocked, H.J. dreams of her beach house, salty air, and a life filled with laughter.
