Yes, Sense, Sensibility & Shifters will be released tomorrow. I can’t wait to share these wonderful stories that are perfect reading for spooky season.
Get ready to cosy up with this capitating anthology of paranormal romance featuring short stories inspired by the work of Jane Austen—with a supernatural twist.
Here are some teasers to entice you:
The Tables Turned
By Angela Kady
Quiet, serious, and reserved, Captain James Benwick has buried himself in poetic verses full of broken hearts and wretchedness, trying to cope with the death of his fiancée. How can he ever be happy again, if happiness means that someone else takes Meg’s place in his heart?
Louisa Musgrove captured the attention of Captain Wentworth with her good-humoured vivacity and high praise of the Navy. But he disappears after a serious head injury leaves her convalescing in the home of strangers. Then unexplainable things start to happen around her and the grieving Captain Benwick.
Fanny Margaret Harville—Meg to those closest to her—would do anything for James, even if it means helping him learn to love another. How can she convince him to move on without her…when she’s dead?
Excerpt:
“Captain, do you ever feel that—oh, I don’t quite know how to put this— that strange things sometimes happen in this house? As if there is some kind of presence. Nothing sinister, just unexplainable.”
James stared, astonished. “Now that you phrase it like that, yes. An unexplained presence. I kept telling myself that some recent experiences were just my imagination, or my grief.”
“Your grief? What has happened?”
James swallowed hard, unsure if he should share the sorrowful account of losing his Meg. “I would not want to burden you with such a melancholy tale.”
Louisa reached out toward him, palm upturned, inviting him to clasp her hand. “I can be your confidante too, if you need one. We are friends now, are we not?”
He hesitated to take her hand. It seemed an especially intimate act when they’d really only spoken for two days. But her face was so sweet and guileless, he couldn’t reject the innocent gesture. When their hands connected, a gentle warmth flooded his entire body. He looked up, surprised, only to see a somewhat stunned expression on her face as well. He withdrew his hand quickly.
He cleared his throat. “What has happened to make you feel that there is an Unexplained Presence here?”
“I have at times had a strange sensation, as if someone is standing next to me. Sometimes I imagine that an invisible hand is comforting me or soothing my aching head. I thought I was merely dreaming. But then this morning…”
“Yes?”
“This morning,” she continued, “as I was waking up, I saw an unfamiliar woman in my room. I thought I was still asleep at first, but I blinked several times, and she was still there. It was only when I started to raise my head, intending to get a better look, that she disappeared. I felt so awake, but could it have been a dream?”
“What did she look like?” James was feeling some trepidation now. Nothing amiss, she’s had a head injury, she was dreaming.
“Oh, she was lovely. She had dark hair that curled all around her face, and such a sweet expression. She was wearing a yellow dress, like daffodils in the springtime. She didn’t move or say anything, just gazed at me and smiled a little, as though she knew me. Oh! And after she disappeared, I would have sworn that my room was scented with lavender.”
James jumped out of his seat and crossed the room, pacing. He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. Lavender!
“What is it? Captain Benwick, are you well? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost!”
He stopped pacing and stared intently. “I haven’t. But I believe you have.”
Pride and Possession
By Roslyn St. Clair
Violet Ventree wants nothing more than to avoid the attentions of the overbearing Marquess of Middlevale, so much so that she’s forced to slither out of windows and spy around edges in order to avoid meeting him on the streets of their small village. She might be successful, too, if not for the interference of Elizabeth Darcy, who, ecstatic in her own marriage, wants nothing more than to matchmake other loves.
Middlevale—Aurelias—is no ordinary marquess. He’s a vampire, and no ordinary vampire, but Lucifer’s own emissary above shell. He regularly enforces the law of free will upon the ends of his fangs and lethality. Unfortunately, he’s arrived at the place where he’ll willingly break every edict in an effort to make Violet love him. He knows her fears. He wants to free her from them, but that will require keeping her still in one place and showing her what she’s missing.
But in a tussle of wills, he might physically overcome her and hold her captive, but she’s the one who will always prevail… because she has his heart. And he’ll give anything to have hers.
Excerpt:
With one hand he kept her close. With the other, he traced a vein in her neck, stopping just under the jawline she rotated away. Slowly, inevitably, he angled her face away. His lips, hot and demanding, sucked at the flesh over the pulsing point laid bare.
“P-please,” she sobbed, as the realization of what he intended shot terror through her melted core. The scandal sheets were filled with tales of what Society might encounter among their newest supernatural citizens. And all of it left Violet dizzy with dread.
She couldn’t catch her breath. It stuttered as she whined once more. But even the words of a plea evaded her.
“I shall knock down the towers you’ve built against me, darling, and this is the first. Tell me what you fear.” He kissed over the spot, his lips hot embers, burning down to her soul.
“Middlevale.” She tried to push against his chest, but he was as immovable as a mountain.
His rough words vibrated against her skin. “There’s only one way through the panic, isn’t there? Fear is masking your desires.”
Horror, sharp and hot, gave her extra strength to push away, but still it wasn’t enough against his vampire strength. She had known it would come to this. Every time the marquess had sought her company at the various dinners and festivities, she had sensed impending disaster. Not only would she tumble for him and her virtue fail, he would consume her. And then he would subsume her, leaving her little but a trembling doll waiting for him to play.
“You are mine, Violet…
Finally, here’s a teaser from my short story:
In the Service of Heaven
Rowena, a thousand-year-old vampire, has been forced to serve her enemy for the past century. In two days, she will be free. But Rowena’s plan to bide her time is thwarted when she is sent on her last mission: to investigate the savage murder of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
Yet hunting a vampire is never simple, especially when her former husband interferes and tries to lure Rowena back to him.
To secure her freedom, Rowena must follow her orders, catch a rogue vampire before it kills again, and resist the charms of her husband, no matter how tempting they may be.
Excerpt:
Rowena stepped towards the large doors and pulled a thin leather wallet from within her cloak.
“Do you often desecrate graves these days?” His fingers itched to delve within the thick wool and discover what else she concealed inside the voluminous folds.
“The role of vampire hunter cannot be accomplished without it.” She withdrew two long, thin metal tools and inserted them into the keyhole.
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “How far you have come, once the pious nun, now the lock picker and disturber of those at eternal rest.”
She paused to glare at him. “I have you to thank for that.”
Disappointment settled upon him like a wet blanket. “Are we going to revisit this centuries-old argument?”
“Perhaps we should. I was content with my life at the abbey until barbarians attacked us, and you kidnapped me.” She tutted and retracted the two needle-like tools before re-inserting them into the keyhole.
“Would you exchange a thousand years of seeing the world together for a short life of daily prayers and self-sacrifice in that damned convent?”
“I had devoted my life to God, no matter how brief. Instead, you condemned me to an eternity of violence and blood. You went raiding, and I was told you had been killed. Yet you returned days later and transformed me into a vampire.” The lock clicked, and she straightened. “And let us not forget the years before that, when you kept me as your thrall.”
His jaw tightened. “I freed you and married you. And, if I recall, you were thrilled to do so.”
“Thrilled is an exaggeration, and almost a millennium of experience has changed my mind.”
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