Synopsis
Plagued by enemies from above and below ground, a group of Vârcolac warriors fight a desperate battle to keep their secret town safe from invasion
A different place to find her dreams…
The night Marissa Bonaventure is saved from vicious kidnappers by special operative, Dev Nichita, her life is changed in ways she never could have imagined. Brought to the safety of an underground “research institute,” she’s offered a hefty sum of money to stay on and work for a year, money that will allow her to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. But the surreal events that unfold in the strange community of Ţărână soon make her wonder if all is what it seems. When the shocking truth about Dev is exposed, Marissa faces an impossible decision. She loves Dev deeply, but committing to a Vârcolac is a forever proposition, and the only way she can be with Dev will require her to throw away her one chance to redeem a miserable past.
The man he wants to be…
The night Dev Nichita rescues Marissa from the claws of the Om Rău demon race, he knows she’s meant to be his mate. Lying to her about his true nature feels wrong, but he needs time to make her fall in love with him before he reveals that he’s a different breed of human being. When that secret finally comes out, their relationship is shattered in ways Dev hadn’t predicted. A 100-year-old betrayal rises up to threaten their future together—devastating every member of his family—and Dev’s own angry withdrawal becomes a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Then the Topside Om Rău enemy threatens a catastrophic breach of the hidden community, and Dev must call upon all his power as he races against the clock to save the most important people in his life.
** Contains profanity and adult situations.
A different place to find her dreams…
The night Marissa Bonaventure is saved from vicious kidnappers by special operative, Dev Nichita, her life is changed in ways she never could have imagined. Brought to the safety of an underground “research institute,” she’s offered a hefty sum of money to stay on and work for a year, money that will allow her to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning a restaurant. But the surreal events that unfold in the strange community of Ţărână soon make her wonder if all is what it seems. When the shocking truth about Dev is exposed, Marissa faces an impossible decision. She loves Dev deeply, but committing to a Vârcolac is a forever proposition, and the only way she can be with Dev will require her to throw away her one chance to redeem a miserable past.
The man he wants to be…
The night Dev Nichita rescues Marissa from the claws of the Om Rău demon race, he knows she’s meant to be his mate. Lying to her about his true nature feels wrong, but he needs time to make her fall in love with him before he reveals that he’s a different breed of human being. When that secret finally comes out, their relationship is shattered in ways Dev hadn’t predicted. A 100-year-old betrayal rises up to threaten their future together—devastating every member of his family—and Dev’s own angry withdrawal becomes a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Then the Topside Om Rău enemy threatens a catastrophic breach of the hidden community, and Dev must call upon all his power as he races against the clock to save the most important people in his life.
** Contains profanity and adult situations.
About the Author
Tracy is the award-winning author of gritty romance, her books spanning genres across paranormal (The Community series), military suspense (The Wings of Gold series), and Historical (The Baron’s War trilogy). During nearly a quarter of a century spent as a military wife, she lived all over the United States and in Europe, enjoying seven years overseas in the diplomatic community, first in Rome then in Madrid, until she settled back in San Diego. Tracy holds a master’s degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling, and has used this background to create a fan-based website called The Character Couch, where romance’s favorite couples are brought into a fun session with therapist, Regan Malloy. Her debut paranormal novel, THE BLOODLINE WAR, is a Bronze Medal winner for romance of the prestigious Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY). To learn more, please visit her website at www.tracytappan.com
The Dauntless Indies Sit Down with Tracy Tappan
DI ~ Please
tell us a little about yourself and how you started writing. Where do you find
inspiration?
TT ~ I started my working career doing clinical
work, actually; I have a master’s degree in MFCC (Marriage, Family, Child
Counseling). But my husband is a Naval aviator, so we moved every three years,
and it became too difficult to maintain a client base. My husband knew I had a
vivid imagination (poor guy), and he said, “You should write a book.” Famous
last words, right? But it turned out my husband probably knew me better than I
knew myself. It was the perfect choice. I absolutely adore what I do!
Where do I find inspiration? Right out of
my ol’ creative brain. Ideas tend to pop there. Funny enough, I write when it’s
quiet, but when I’m imagining and plotting, I like music and/or to be jogging.
DI ~ What are you currently working on? What can we,
readers, expect in the near future?
TT ~ In addition to
juggling three genres, paranormal, military suspense, and historical, I run website
called “The Character Couch” (www.charactercouch.com) where fans can go to
nominate a couple from their favorite romance novel to go into a lively therapy
session. To celebrate the month of Halloween, this month I’ve got a ghost on
The Couch!
I’m especially excited about the launch of
my new military romantic suspense series, Wings of Gold, later this
year. The books focus on a brotherhood of naval aviators, and readers can
expect as much action as passion. Military men rely on each other for survival,
as much as their woman, which is an awesome kind of relationship to write
about. Luckily, I’m in a unique position to capture that accurately. I’ve been
married to a naval aviator for twenty-five years and have definitely know the
life, the romance and the sorrow.
Readers can head to my website to read an
excerpt. www.tracytappan.com
DI ~ What genre is
your favorite to write?
TT ~ I write in three romance genres, as I said, and I love them
all; changing it up keeps me fresh. So I might answer the question by focusing
on what is my favorite “brand” to write. And gritty realism is something you’ll see throughout all of my genres.
Not to worry, my stories are always full of hope, and, of course, end happily,
but I like to write some scenes that I refer to as “car accident” scenes: you may think you don’t want to look, but
then you can’t help yourself, and when you do…well, you’re kind of morbidly
fascinated despite yourself.
DI ~ Who is your favorite author and why?
TT ~ On
the paranormal romance (or maybe Urban Fantasy) side of the house, I’m loving
Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series these days. This writing team REALLY knows
how to world build cleverly, and their hero and heroine (Curran and Kate)
engage in some of the all-time best bantering. Of course, then there’s the
incomparable JR Ward and her Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Talk of alpha
males, whew! Recently a reviewer on Goodreads wrote about my Varcolac from my
Community Series, saying, they “can hold his
own against the best of the black dagger brotherhood!” I just about fell out of
my chair. That was an amazing honor. I also love Lara Adrian’s Midnight
Breed series and Jeaniene Frost’s Cat and Bones.
DI ~ Red or white wine?
TT ~ Ahhhh, wine. If it’s
good, I’ll drink it. Seriously. But, generally, summertime is for white and
winter is red.
DI ~ Fuzzy friends?
TT ~ I cannot
LIVE without fuzzy friends! I have a white-and-red cat, who spends much of the
day on my lap while I write, and two dogs: a chocolate lab named Harley and a
yellow Lab named Durham. My daughter and I raised the yellow for Guide Dogs for
the Blind (we’re volunteer puppy raisers for that organization), and Durham
made it to Phase 8 of 8. So he’s a smart fella, but then he got career-changed
for “dog distraction.” So we adopted him back into our home.
DI ~ Tell us an
interesting fact about you that’s not included in your bio:
TT ~ How about one of my most embarrassing
moments? When I was in 7th grade, my biology teacher asked me to
read out my definition for organism. To which I answered, “An orgasm is a
single-celled life form that—”
I couldn’t get any further. Everyone in the
classroom (the teacher included) was laughing their butts off. While I, of
course, sank beneath my desk. You know…now that I think on it, I should’ve seen
that as a foreshadowing of things to come. With orgasms on the brain even at
that young age, how could I not end up as a romance author?
EXCERPT
June,
2:36 a.m.
Marissa Bonaventure sat bolt upright in bed. Wood cracked and
splintered, a door banged, furniture scraped. She gulped for air, her heart
galloping in her chest. A hovering silence followed. She waited, the thundering
of her heart trying to outrun her fast breathing, but there was only silence.
Okay, Jesus… She squeezed her lids
tight then peeled them open again. Only a nightmare. She blinked groggily at
the dim numbers on her digital clock—2:36 a.m.—her mind slowly registering that
she’d only been asleep for about an hour. She’d worked late cooking at Bleu Boheme restaurant tonight, some
lactose intolerant asshole endlessly chewing her ear off about all of the
cheese on the menu. Well, yes, sir, this
is a French restaurant, after all,
and generally—
A gruff voice growled a command, and
then her roommate, Lila, started screaming. Holy
frick! Not a nightmare.
There were men in her apartment!
Coming fully awake on a searing
blast of adrenaline, Marissa vaulted for the cordless phone on her nightstand.
Her wildly groping fingers knocked the receiver out of its holder and sent it
skidding across the thin synthetic carpet. “Oh, God, crap.” She threw herself
after the phone, and crashed off her mattress, the sheets tangled around her
legs. Air drove from her lungs. “Crap,” she gasped again. “Crap.” Darts of pain shot through her elbow.
The report of heavy boots in the
hallway vibrated through the floor beneath her, the footsteps thundering toward
her bedroom. Panic shot through her stomach and clawed up her spine. She
stretched one arm toward the phone by her hamper, scooting her body across the
floor like an epileptic caterpillar trapped in its cocoon.
The door slammed open.
She jerked to a sitting position,
her heart lurching to a dead halt. A broad-shouldered shadow loomed into her
doorway, the light from her digital clock offering only a vague impression of
dark, baggy clothing, the cut of a hard jaw…and the most sinister eyes she’d
ever seen in her life. A scream launched up her throat but stuck there, unable
to make it past the strangulation of terror gripping her larynx.
“In here!” the intruder shouted down
the hall, his head turning to reveal what looked like stripes of gangrene on
his jaw. No…a black flame tattoo.
Another man entered, and her mouth
sagged. And she thought Gangrene Face’s shoulders had been broad. The man who’d just shoved into her room
was twice as big, his shoulders size Incredible Hulk, and a hundred times
scarier. She saw him clearly as the lights from a Navy helicopter on its weary
way home to NAS North Island raked through her organza curtains like a prison
searchlight. A body clothed in a black leather jacket and dark cargo pants was
revealed, along with the man’s shaved head, sporting tattoos—same black flames
as Gangrene—climbing from above his ears to the top of his bald head. He looked
like an Aryan Nation sociopath, brutal and violent and…what could he possibly
want with her?
He stalked toward her, and her
stomach iced. She scuttled sideways against the wall like a crab, her teeth set
in a grimace, her eyes darting toward her bedroom window. Only a few feet away,
but…five floors down equaled lots of bone breakage on the streets of San
Diego.
“She must be the bit o’ skirt we’re
lookin’ for,” Gangrene told Hulk in a British accent which really didn’t fit this scenario.
Hulk drew up right in front of her,
six-feet-umpteen-inches of darkness, chilling, ruthless power emanating from
him.
She kicked violently at the jail of
her sheets and found a scream, finally, belting it out as loud as she could.
“Shut your gob,” Hulk snarled.
Like a genie being commanded into its
bottle, her voice obeyed immediately and rammed back down her throat. Yes, yes, upsetting a man like this is an
extremely bad idea.
He reached for her.
She pressed backward so hard, she
wondered the drywall didn’t crack against her spine.
Grabbing her shoulders, Hulk jerked
her out of the wrap of her sheets and onto her feet, the violence of the
gesture jolting a cry past her lips. With a bruising grip still on her upper
arm, Hulk hauled her at a stumbling pace from her bedroom into the hallway.
“Please,” she gasped, hot tears
spilling down her face. “What do you want from me?”
They passed her roommate’s bedroom,
and Marissa glimpsed Lila peeking out from behind the door, a bed sheet wrapped
toga-style around her body. Not such a good night to get caught sleeping in the
nude.
Lila’s lips trembled. “Oh, Marissa,”
she breathed.
Her roommate’s you’re doomed tone turned Marissa’s legs to pudding, just, squish, down she went onto her knees.
Hulk made a guttural sound of
impatience and yanked her to her feet again.
“P-please,” she stammered. “D-Don’t
hurt me, please.” She pulled against his hold, but it was like trying to stop a
Kodiak bear. Her feet skidded along the length of the hallway, carpet burning
the soles of her feet.
“Cow,” Hulk snarled. So much for not
upsetting the man. He tossed her over his shoulder, the chains on his biker
jacket biting into her skin through the thin fabric of her pajamas. The rounded
position of her back pulled painfully at her spine, and she choked on her next
breath. The fragility of her body, something she usually so successfully
ignored, roared dead-center into her consciousness. Panic greyed the sides of
her vision at the feel of hard, solid muscles beneath her. This man was
massive. He could do anything to her, anything,
and she’d be utterly helpless to stop him.
“Lila!” Marissa screamed, more tears
dripping off her nose. “Call 911!”
“Oh, shit!” Lila lurched out from
behind her door.
With a careless backhand, Hulk
swatted Lila across the mouth, the blow, shockingly, lifting Lila off her feet
and rocketing her all the way back onto her bed. She thumped onto her mattress
with a frightened cry, her makeshift toga breezing above her waist and her legs
flinging wide, giving everyone a full-on shot of her muff.
Gangrene leered at the sight. “Hang
about, Mürk. I want to give this one a stuffin’.”
“There’s no time,” Hulk—apparently, Mürk—retorted. “We’ve got to leg it,
Tëer, everyone else is at the warehouse by now.”
Tëer grumbled something foul, but
tramped out of the apartment along with Mürk, thankfully for Lila’s virtue, and
got into the elevator.
Fingers tangled into the back of
Mürk’s jacket, Marissa prayed for some late night partier to come home
conveniently now and find her upended
on this behemoth’s shoulder. She filled her lungs with a potential scream just
in case, but no such luck. The parking lot was equally Judgment Day deserted
and dark. The scratching together of palm fronds in a mild June breeze was the
only sound besides the clomp of both men’s heavy boots on the asphalt.
They stopped at a rusted-out blue
Honda Civic, one headlight-eyeball dangling from the front by wiry veins, and
then screech, metallic hinges wailed
for oil as Mürk hauled open the trunk. He flung Marissa off his shoulder with
all the care he’d show a dead body, and—the
trunk!
She fastened cat claws into his
T-shirt and clambered back up his body. “No!”
He peeled her off and thrust her
toward the dark opening again.
She crammed her foot against the
edge of the trunk, the metal sharp and cold against her bare flesh. “Don’t put
me in there!”
With a growl, he folded her into a
ball and slammed her inside.
Ribs met spare tire in a dizzying
blast of pain. Her spine throbbed. She wheezed a breath and shoved upright,
ignoring the pinpricks of light sparkling across the field of her vision.
With a palm on her shoulder, Mürk
rammed her back down. “Bloody hell,” he hissed.
“Not in the trunk!” She opened her
mouth to yell for— He stuffed a ball gag into it, then flipped her onto her
stomach. The stench of brake fluid assaulted her nostrils; a lug wrench ground
into her cheek. Liquid fear clutched her lower belly as Mürk secured the strap
of the ball gag tight against the back of her head, then bound her wrists.
She bucked and flailed, whipping
herself back over. She gnashed on her ball gag and tried to scream around it. Not in a trunk!
“Stop throwin’ a benny, you split
arse.” Mürk’s gaze was tundra cold, black as the end of the world.
She sobbed in panic, her nostrils
pinching and releasing, pinching and releasing. She couldn’t breathe! She
kicked her legs up.
“You keep givin’ me trouble, ducky,
and I’ll sock you in the turnip so many times you’ll never find your way back
from ugly, savvy?” His voice was deep and dark like first generation Hell, but
also incongruously laced with that touch of British culture. He braced a hand
on the open lid of the trunk, his Guns & Roses T-shirt hiking up to reveal
a peek of gnarled scar on his belly. Somebody had tried to gut this maniac
jerk? Shocking!
The trunk lid started to come down…
She shook her head wildly at him,
trying to scream again, her chest and throat tightening.
He slammed the lid shut, interring
her in black. She thrashed her head from side to side, her heartbeat erratic,
her eyes bugging and rolling as she tried to see anything…anything...
Laugh out loud funny, I think I even snorted out loud, ok, so it was more than once. This book is solid! Wit, humor, snark…love
story, steamy romance, sexy men, secrets, intrigue, and fantastical creatures. What wasn’t
to love? I could go on for hours. I’ll admit that I haven’t read the first book
in the series, but I will totally be getting it! Even without reading it, this
book stood well on its own.
I totally enjoyed the fantastic world building. Vivid
descriptions brought the characters, places and events to reality. My
imagination was in overdrive! Tracy
Tappan, you have a new fan for life! In a library full of muddled books,
especially in this genre, this is a standout
gem of unmuddledness (yes I made that up!). If you haven’t read any of her books, what are
you waiting for?
4.5 STARS
4.5 STARS
Tour Giveaway: 5 Kindle copies of the first book
in the series, THE BLOODLINE WAR.
GIVEAWAY
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