Dear humans,
The female’s day has been less than stellar. She had to deal with yet another armchair editor incident. Add in a lot of administration-type work she needed to do, by the time she got to the ‘write book’ portion of her day, she was out of spoons.
She had to write anyway. (Correction: she still needs to write tonight. Oops.)
It’s okay, though. The book is progressing nicely. On Tuesday, Dirty Deeds releases, which will be nice. (And the female is almost done the prep work for that release. Whee!)
Today’s teaser is from Diana Pharaoh Francis’s The Pixie Job!
The thing about taking a vacation is that you always feel guilty that you aren’t being productive, or someone wants you to do something you don’t want to do. Case in point: the ghost elf sitting on the lounge opposite giving Mal the fish-eye stare because she refused to go train.
“I told you. I’m on vacation. I promised Law, and the other ghosts, and So’la. I’m not supposed to do anything but relax for an entire month.”
Mal reached for her mimosa and sipped it deliberately. She wasn’t generally a drinker, especially in the morning, but Edna, another of her ghost companions, had encouraged her to try it out. She could have done without the champagne in the orange juice but whatever. She was on vacation, and apparently this is what people did on vacation. She wouldn’t know. She’d never actually taken one before.
Merrow’s lips twisted downward. She looked entirely out of place. Well, generally ghosts did look out of place among the living, especially since generally the living made sure they were exterminated like vermin. Mal used to be one of those exterminators until she couldn’t stomach it anymore. Now she had her own family—collection? cult? hangers on? —of ghosts.
She had eighteen of them, now that Merrow had joined. They fed off her magical energy, which they needed to survive. Which was sort of an oxymoron but whatever.
Anyhow, Merrow had been an elf. A militant one, part of an elite fighting force. She’d been betrayed by her own and killed, then joined Mal in order to get revenge. She’d achieved that and Mal thought maybe she’d have crossed over in whatever way elves do, but she’d stayed.
Merrow was bored.
Law, Mal’s boyfriend and the blood-bound security witch of Effrayant—where Mal was vacationing, just as she’d promised after her most recent near-death experience—had arranged charging stations for the ghosts so they could go anywhere and find sustenance. This was not an unselfish act. He’d been motivated by a desire for privacy with Mal, but the ghosts were grateful.
Most of them.
When the going gets tough, the tough get their hands dirty. Dirty Deeds can be preordered at the following vendors: (We would have given you properly labeled links, but the female is a little tired and this was… an error free method of doing this. Hee.
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Deeds-Urban-Fantasy-Collection-ebook/dp/B083TCG6S3/
- Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dirty-deeds-rj-blain/1136016469?ean=2940163974443
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/dirty-deeds/id1494802029
- Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/dirty-deeds-44
Paperbacks:
- Mass market paperback (unsigned) on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Deeds-R-J-Blain/dp/1649640099/
- Trade paperback (unsigned) on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Deeds-R-J-Blain/dp/1649640102/
- Barnes & Noble Mass Market Paperback (Unsigned): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dirty-deeds-rj-blain/1136016469?ean=9781649640093
- Barnes & Noble Trade Paperback (Unsigned): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dirty-deeds-rj-blain/1136016469?ean=9781649640109
Onto the book faire, hopefully without link errors this time! Hooray!
Gold & Glacier by Anne Stryker (YA Fantasy)
Purchase Link: Amazon (Kindle Unlimited)
Price: $3.99
Age Rating: N/A.
Note(s) from the Publisher: No advisories! Hooray!
Three Souls. Two Stories. One Price.
A land of ice and fae rests beyond a kingdom shrouded by glass and iron. Aurea would do anything to live peacefully and safely in Dale with her best friend Daryl, but the horrors haunting her nights foretell a future where no one is safe. When stranger powers awaken within her, the price for her life is a simple lie about turning straw into gold. A simple lie that only the faerie king can make true.
Rumpelstiltskin has waited many years to hear Aurea promise that which she couldn’t keep. In exchange for her salvation, he requires her firstborn, a child woven with ancient magic who is capable of paying the price needed to save his people, the fae, from destruction. What he doesn’t expect is for the girl he manipulated to beat him at his own game.
Aurea’s happy ending is the start of Rumpel’s damnation, and if he can’t orchestrate from the shadows a way to retrieve his stolen princess, all he’s worked centuries for will be lost.
A Rumpelstiltskin Retelling with a twist. View the true story from the eyes of both the hero and the villain.
Our Thoughts: This cover is fascinating! The description definitely seems to support the twisty nature of the tag line at the end. So, if fairy tales are your thing, this one is probably going to be a fun romp for you.
As always, check the sample to see if you’ll like it, and if you read it, let us know if you liked it!
Fun fact: the female almost forgot the link on this one altogether. But she didn’t. Then she almost forgot… basically everything.
Female has no brain, and we think this is hilarious.
Happy reading, and have a great night, everyone.
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