From
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY best-selling author Lynn Red comes a steamy,
sensual, seductively hilarious shifter romance!
Publisher: Yellow Moon Press, LLC
Date Publishers: 11/4/14
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Word Count: ~70000
Jamie
Ampton is a sharp-tongued, pointy-toothed, vampy shifter with a penchant for
neatly done-up hair buns and a habit of attracting EXACTLY the wrong sort of
guy. Guys with a dash of arrogance, a pinch of cocky swagger turn her head...
but when her last one turned out to be more “self-important jackass” and less
“gruff and strong and takes what he wants,” it left her cold.
So to
speak.
Ryan
Drake has a dark past and a mysterious present. When he shows up demanding the
town alpha do his part to care for Jamesburg’s aging shifters, the first thing
Jamie notices is that her heart starts beating a little quicker. The second is
a knot in the pit of her stomach. And then, before she can catch her breath, he
stares straight into her eyes.
She’s
never been one for the big, loud, muscled-up types, but in the space of two
breaths, the elegantly detached Jamie finds herself falling for a bear.
Little
does Jamie know that before he stomped into that courtroom, Ryan decided that
nothing was gonna stop him from getting what he wanted. But, once he saw Jamie?
Suddenly there were two things that this massive blue-eyed alpha bear were
going to have, no matter what it took: help for his friends... and Jamie.
And
Ryan? Ryan is one bear who ALWAYS takes what he wants.
***The
Jamesburg Shifters is a series of standalone novels each with a unique hero and
heroine, and HEA! No cliffhangers here – the stories can be enjoyed in any
order you like, though once you start, you might not want to stop!***
Buy links:
The Scene
Ryan’s
gaze was so hot on her skin that she felt every breath, every thump of her
heart. She was flustered, she was irritated at herself, but damn if she
couldn't taste his lips without him even kissing her. She was burning hot, and
wanting to feel him against her skin, to see if he wanted her as much as she
did him.
And
when he finally grabbed her shoulder, she knew. Those fingers, warm, strong,
gripping her like velvet iron. She knew he felt the same thing, no matter how
hard he was going to fight it.
He
left his hand there for just a second before pulling it away, but even when it
was gone, she felt the ghostly vibration of his heat on her skin. Ryan shook
his head, slowly. "They need food more than I need..."
"Me?"
she asked. "I can see it in your eyes. I felt it just now."
He
turned away. "I can't," he whispered. "Not until I know they're
safe. Not until--"
"You're
a coward," Jamie said, coldly. "A beautiful, big-hearted, incredibly
sweet, giant coward. You know what you're feeling. I know what I'm feeling, and
I'm a big old wimp too, because I just let you turn away."
"You
know what I am," Ryan said shortly. "You know who I am."
"I
do?" she asked, stepping forward and grabbing Ryan. "The only thing I
know about you is that you're willing to give up your whole life to help
people, no matter what it takes. That's literally all I know about you, but for
some reason, you got under my skin."
He
chuffed a laugh, dismissively. "So you don't know me, but you're willing
to make wild generalizations about my personality?"
There
it was, Jamie saw, the grin from earlier. That cocky, slightly smug, absolutely
disarming grin. She couldn't stand it, but every time he did that, it made her
realize her own weakness. She recognized it, but had no idea where it came
from, or why it was for him that she had these feelings.
The
two of them stared at each other for a second, Jamie coming to grips with
herself, and Ryan apparently wrestling with the same thing, judging from the
way he kept moving his hand like he wanted to touch hers, but then backing
away. Finally, he did, he laid his hand on top of hers, and let a grin crack
his face. The corners of his eyes turned down as he squinted, slightly.
There
it is, Jamie thought. His wall is cracking.
And
for just a second, it did. The look on his face was pure. She could feel the
passion radiating from his hand on top of hers, and then just like before, he
clenched his eyes, smile lines wrinkling them at the corners. He shook his head
and looked away before he opened them again.
"I
need you to meet someone," he said.
"I
shouldn't," Jamie started, but trailed off for a moment. "I shouldn't
interfere with your life."
He
turned back, one eyebrow cocked. "Who’s the coward now?" he
challenged. "You're willing to talk about wanting to help these people,
but you won't even meet them?"
The
words stung. They bit deep, but underneath it all, Jamie knew he was right.
She'd watched both her parents grow old and die, and it broke her heart. For a
long, long time, she couldn't face reality. Her two years away from Jamesburg,
to take care of them, were the hardest of her life, and when she returned, she
was different. Everyone noticed, everyone asked, but she'd never let anyone in.
She couldn't stand the fact that she'd gotten... scared.
Scared? Is that all it was? Was it
just fear? Or was it seeing a little bit of that weakness they showed at the
end... in myself?
"Come
on," Ryan said, grabbing her hand.
It
felt so good to hold his hand, although he was just leading her. This wasn't
the sort of hand holding that happened at Sandra Bullock movies, or in the back
of a car on a deserted road overlooking a river. But she wanted it to be so
badly, and still, she didn't understand her own desire.
Explain
what's happening in the scene (the conflict) if it's not immediately evident.
LYNN SAYS:
This is the first scene where the two main characters get into it
with each other. They’ve had a couple short romantic interludes, and fooled
around a little, but this is the scene where Jamie – who works for the town of
Jamesburg – has to confront the fact that she’s falling in love with a thief,
no matter how noble his cause.
Ryan, for his part, is stuck in the past, not wanting to get her
involved and possibly hurt – and at the same time, he’s protecting himself from
the possible pain of loss.
Explain
what you really love (or hate) about the scene.
LYNN SAYS:
We’ve all been there.
The first time you really
get to know someone, their good and their bad, and everything in between. It
doesn’t much matter that Jamie’s a vampire and Ryan’s a werebear – they both
have to come to terms with the same thing we’ve all had to deal with.
A partner we love, but something about them is something we can’t
reconcile... but as we all know, you don’t get to pick who your heart falls in
with.
And then there’s the background of both of them still hanging on to
a few secrets – not necessarily because they don’t trust the other, but because
they just can’t deal with letting everything go at once. I can’t count how many
times I’ve been there!
What
inspired the scene?
LYNN
SAYS:
Like
with most of what I do, it’s hard to draw direct “influences” from something
else. All my characters and all my stories, are adaptations of my own
experiences, or the lives of my friends and family.
Which...
uh, probably says a lot about the people I know!
But
this particular book, and this scene in particular, was exaggerated (wildly.
WILDLY exaggerated!) from the story of two of my best friends meeting under
vaguely similar circumstances. Although she’s not a vampire, and he’s not a
werebear – he sort of is a regular bear – I remember her calling me pretty late
one night, and venting about the experience that became this scene.
In
reality, it was a lot less dramatic, and a lot less illegal, but the two of
them had a tremendous difference of heart and mind, and butted heads over it
for a LONG time. It all worked out though! They’re still hitched.
AUTHOR BIO: .
LYNN RED is a former history professor who got so caught up in her
own world that she couldn’t handle the politics of academia. So, she took a
wild, ridiculous leap into a world she’d always loved – paranormal romance.
Now she’s a full time author who lives with her husband, two kids, a
corgi and a pit bull in the north Florida jungle. When she’s not writing, and
it’s not too hot, you can almost always find her reading outside with one or
more of the above mentioned family members trying to get her attention!
lynn.red.romance@gmail.com
provides readers with a sneak peek at unreleased books as well as the opportunity to have a say in what gets chosen. The timing of Scout was amazing. The announcement came just as I neared completion of my novel. The terms being offered are attractive. As a publisher, Amazon has as much clout as one of the traditional publishers. This simply seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass on, so I submitted Battle Cry for consideration.
