Book Tour--SHEPHERD'S MOON

SHEPHERD’S MOON by Stacy Mantle
A fantasy thriller

BLURB
It's taken twelve years to earn the official title of Shepherd but she's now mostly trained, fairly effective, and the first female in over two centuries to hold the position as protector of animals. All animals…

The Territorial Council isn't thrilled with her new title of Shepherd, but they don't have any more control over the appointment than they have over her. All they can really do is wait for her to screw something up - which Alex is determined not to do.

Everything changes when a chance encounter with a genetically modified Shifter leaves Alex shaken and initiates a quest to locate its maker. Despite years of training, Alex finds herself woefully unprepared to tackle the new threat.

To make matters worse, she must work with a mysterious man who's been trying to kill her since the day they met…

EXCERPT
I listened to him shuffling papers as he searched for the file. “Body count of twelve in the last two months. Four in the past four days — throat ripped out on each.” He paused, scanning the notes. “Impressive… The profile fits a PSK.”

I chuckled softly. Preternatural Serial Killer — the standard moniker assigned to any serial killer. The acronym worked with the local police who attributed the P to psychopathic rather than preternatural, and allowed access to funding that the department wouldn’t normally have access too. The additional funding afforded them the ability to outsource the unconventional and bizarre cases to people like me, which allowed the public to remain oblivious to the fact that we had creatures they had only read about in horror novels out roaming the earth.

Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

To qualify as a serial killer with the police, a person has to have three kills inside of a month. Unfortunately, a lot of people fit that profile these days… The only real difference between a preternatural and a psychopath is that preternaturals tend to have a much higher body count within a much shorter timeframe.

“The profiler made a few comments,” Richard continued.

“Let me guess, I interrupted. “White male, loner, mid-thirties, with a God complex who was recently laid off work?”

“You got it.” He paused, and I could almost picture him searching the file for a preliminary sketch. But he needn’t have bothered. Any sketch coming back would reflect someone who looked like Jeffrey Dahmner or Ted Bundy—a seemingly normal, somewhat attractive man who people would describe as such a normal-looking person that they would never have suspected of being such a monster.

“No Handler listed.” Richard continued, “At the very least, we haven’t been able to locate one, so finding him will be your first priority.”

ABOUT STACY

While Stacy Mantle is most well-known as the Pack Leader of the popular website, PetsWeekly.com, however she is rapidly gaining a fan base in the genre of fantasy with the publication of Shepherd’s Moon, the first book in her Alex Wilde “Shepherd” series.

Stacy has a B.A. in English, a post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with an emphasis on Marketing. She is active in animal rescue and is a nationally-known pet industry authority. She currently resides in the deserts of the Southwest with several cats, a few dogs, and a very understanding husband. You can learn more about her at StacyMantle.com.

Connect with Stacy on Facebook and Google+. Follow her on Twitter at @stacymantle, and find her on Pinterest.

Find the SHEPHERD’S MOON series on Google+ and Facebook.

Buy SHEPHERD’s MOON as a paperback or ebook at Amazon and B&N. It’s also available as a hardback from Lulu and an ebook from Smashwords.

Animal lovers, check out Stacy’s PetWeekly links.

-Website
-Pinterest
-Google+

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Hey readers,

Preternatural Serial Killer? *shiver*

Follow the rest of the tour here

And don’t forget to comment for a chance at a prize.

Stacy will be awarding a $15 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Book Tour--COVER OF DARKNESS

COVER OF DARKNESS by Gregory Delaurentis
A crime thriller

BLURB
A high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer, they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down a brutal murderer.

EXCERPT
The pool area was wide and reflected the sun on this hot summer day. It was edged with white marble so polished that it looked like pearl. Deck chairs lined the sides of the long pool, which was two lengths more than Olympic-sized. Outside the deck area was the carpeted lawn of the vast backyard, dappled with sun.

Hugh Osterman walked along the side of the pool wearing a heavy terry cloth robe and sandals. In his right hand, he held a martini glass. He ran his left hand through his sandy sun-streaked hair as he looked over his shoulder at the man following him.

“What’s going on? I don’t get it,” Osterman said, stopping at the end of the pool where the flotation chairs were kept.

“They said no,” the man replied. Considering the backdrop, he was incongruously dressed in a dark suit and tie.

“They said no . . . just like that?”

Osterman sat his drink down on the marble surface, and pushed a flotation chair into the deep end of the pool, sending it out and away. Then he peeled off the robe and dove smoothly into the water, emerging next to the floating chair.

“You go back and tell them that we aren’t pleased,” Osterman said sternly, pulling himself up and into the seat of the chair. “You tell them that Hugh Osterman wants to know what’s holding things up—what the problem is.”

The suit just stood at the edge of the pool, opening his jacket against the heat of the day. Osterman paddled to the side, and reached out and retrieved his martini glass. “I take it you have nothing to say about this?” he persisted, despite the other man’s silence.

The suit shook his head. “Well, what are you waiting for?” Osterman said as he tipped the glass up to his lips. Suddenly, the bottom of the stem shattered. Osterman gurgled as he dropped the glass, blood bubbling from his mouth, an open tear in his neck. He jolted upright in the chair as the suit closed the distance between them, his Colt .38 Super still trained on its victim, its silencer smoldering.

Osterman slowly sat back as the suit pumped more rounds into Osterman’s bare, well-defined chest—the hot shells of his pistol ejecting out and striking the surface of the water, settling to the bottom. His life ended as his body tumbled from the floating chair, his blood a widening crimson slick roughly in the area where his body slipped through.

The suit popped his clip, slipped in a new one, and headed for the sprawling house.

ABOUT GREGORY
Gregory Delaurentis spent his adult life roaming from job to job, working for Lockheed in California, various law firms in New York, and financial firms on Wall Street. Throughout this period of time, he was writing—unceasingly—finally producing a large body of work, albeit unrecognized and unpublished . . . until now. Cover of Darkness is the first in a series of upcoming books that include Edge of Darkness, Pale of Darkness and Cries of Darkness. These novels follow the lives of three individuals who do battle bringing criminals to justice, while they struggle to understand the complex relationships that exist among themselves. This intriguing trio has absorbed the attention of Mr. Delaurentis for the past year and a half, so much so he decided to self-publish their stories to bring them to a wider audience. [AUTHOR’S DISCLAIMER: These are works of fiction. Name, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.]

Check out Gregory’s blog. Visit the Dark Novels website. Connect with Gregory and the books on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter @cupgrease.

Buy COVER OF DARKNESS.

-Amazon
-Kobo
-B&N
-Sony Ebookstore
-Smashwords

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Hey folks,

Oof, murder. Nice hook.

Follow the rest of the tour here.

And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance at a $50 amazon/bn gc.

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Book Tour--BLOOD DESTINY SERIES

BLOOD DESTINY SERIES by Helen Harper
Urban fantasies

BLOODFIRE

Mackenzie Smith has always known that she was different. Growing up as the only human in a pack of rural shapeshifters will do that to you, but then couple it with some mean fighting skills and a fiery temper and you end up with a woman that few will dare to cross. However, when the only father figure in her life is brutally murdered, and the dangerous Brethren with their predatory Lord Alpha come to investigate, Mack has to not only ensure the physical safety of her adopted family by hiding her apparent humanity, she also has to seek the blood-soaked vengeance that she craves.

BLOODMAGIC

After escaping the claws of Corrigan, the Lord Alpha of the Brethren, Mack is trying to lead a quiet lonely life in Inverness in rural Scotland, away from anyone who might happen to be a shapeshifter. However, when she lands a job at an old bookstore owned by a mysterious elderly woman who not only has a familiar passion for herbal lore but also seems to know more than she should, Mack ends up caught in a maelstrom between the Ministry of Mages, the Fae and the Brethren.

Now she has to decide between staying hidden and facing the music, as well as confronting her real feelings for the green eyed power of Corrigan himself.

BLOODRAGE

Mack begins her training at the mages' academy in the hope that, by complying, the stasis spell will be lifted from her old friend, Mrs. Alcoon. However, once there, she finds herself surrounded by unfriendly adults and petulant teenagers, the majority of whom seem determined to see her fail.

Feeling attacked on all fronts, Mack finds it harder and harder to keep a rein on her temper. Forced to attend anger management classes and deal with the predatory attentions of Corrigan, the Lord Alpha of the shapeshifter world, her emotions start to unravel. But when she comes across a familiar text within the walls of the mages' library, which might just provide the clues she needs to unlock the secrets of her background and her dragon blood, she realizes that her problems are only just beginning…

EXCERPT FROM BLOODFIRE
I jogged along a small brook until it curved upstream towards the hills, then hopped over it and headed towards where I knew John would be. I finally found him crouched in a clearing, not far from the edges of the moor.

“You sound like an elephant running through those trees,” he complained.

I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow. “Is that the thanks I’m getting for interrupting my run to come and investigate the over-energetic dalliances of some bunny rabbits?”

“That was one time.” He straightened up. His salt and pepper beard and bald head, along with the laughter lines around his eyes, hinted at the wisdom and experience contained within that smart mind of his. John had been alpha in Cornwall for thirty-two years, and was universally liked and respected by the pack, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t still have a little fun.

“So what is it this time? Don’t tell me, I’ve got it, a sheep has gotten lost on the moor and its bleating is terrifying the farmers.”

He held out his palm. There was a small shiny black object resting in the middle. “I wish that’s what it was,” he said grimly. “Take a look at this.”

I picked it up from his hand and rolled it through my fingers. It was almost entirely weightless, and very smooth. There was also something else. I held it up to my ear and heard an odd chiming sound.

John looked at me sharply. “You can hear it?”

“Sure,” I said surprised.

“Describe it to me.”

“You mean you can’t hear it?” I was puzzled. Compared to my own hearing, John could hear a leaf drop from fifty paces away. “It’s like bells. Only not, it’s more continuous than that. Like a never-ending echo of a chime.”

He pursed his lips, clearly unhappy. “It’s a wichtlein’s stone.”

“A mine fairy’s? They knock three times and a miner drops dead?”

“You’ve been reading too many fairy tales. Wichtleins do sometimes hang around old mines and tease the men that work there, but more often than not they are true harbingers of evil. I don’t think one has been seen in the British Isles for more than a century.”

ABOUT HELEN

Helen Harper is an English teacher currently living abroad in Malaysia. As a long time reader of urban fantasy, she finally bit the bullet and began to develop her own series of novels.

Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland. "I always loved the escapism provided by those genres," states Helen. "No matter how bad life gets, you can always find a route out, even if only temporarily, in the pages of a good book.”

The growth of urban fantasy fascinated her - the mix of reality and fantasy along with strong heroic female characters appealed from the very beginning, and inspired her to write her own.

Like Helen’s Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter @HarperFire.

Buy the books in the BLOOD DESTINY series on amazon.

-BLOODFIRE
-BLOODMAGIC
-BLOODRAGE

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Hey readers,

Always looking for a new urban fantasy series. Finally, one where I don’t have to wait for the books to come out. Yay!

Follow the rest of the tour here.

And don’t forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance at a prize.

Helen will award a $25 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway