The book is live! You can find it here. I hope you all enjoy Antonio and Bain’s story. I love the way they love each other.
Blurb:
Bain never thought he’d escape the prison he’d lived in for
the last five years. He spent his days chained up like an animal, and his
nights…they were better not spoken about. Until one day Antonio came stumbling
into his darkness, lighting a fire in his soul and giving him a chance at a new
life.
Antonio loved his position as a Bellator, and he loved his
brother Luc; it was Luc’s friends he could do without. When he came upon an emaciated
and beaten boy at his brother’s best friend David’s house, he knew he had to
get him out of there. Risking his place on his team, his relationship with his
brother, and even death was something he’d never regret. After all, Bain was
Antonio’s sodalis vitae, and soulmates were forever.
The small problem of Bain being a member of the Tenebrix,
the Bellators’ mortal enemies, was nothing compared to what could happen if
David found out where he was. But Antonio won’t let anything—race, being hunted
by his own kind, or Bain’s fears—keep him from finally claiming his mate on
Valentine’s Day.
This novella is a
standalone in The Bearer of Truth world and takes place three years before
Shadowing the Light. Antonio and Bain do appear in The BoT series as side
characters, but you do not need to have read those books to read this one or
vice versa.
Another Announcement
I’m going to be here on the 9th from 7pm to 8pm. There will be several other authors too. Along with giveaways, we’re each offering 500 word flashfic about one of our characters on Valentine’s Day. I hope to see you there!
I know I was supposed to be starting my new posting schedule here this week, but obviously, I did not. My kids have been sick all week, and I’ve accomplished nothing during that time. I also haven’t really read much to recommend. I reread some old favorites, and that’s about it. So I’m going to combine a Me Monday post and a Watch Out Wednesday.
Me Monday on a Wednesday
News! I will be doing a cover reveal on February 1st here. This cover was hard for me because this book is still Urban Fantasy even if it does have a more standard romance bent than the series because it’s a Valentine’s Day story…sort of. You’ll have to read to see why I say sort of, but I will tell you this story does have a lot of the elements people seemed to love in the main The Bearer of Truth series.
Since it also is the story of how Antonio and Bain met and fell in love, it will be classified as a romance as well as fantasy novel. Unlike the ones in my main series that I do not market as romance because the romance is a subplot, this book has a solid HFN/HEA ending. So the cover is less Urban Fantasy and a bit more Romance.
Excerpt
Unedited Copyright 2019 Miranda Turner
Looking down at the phone
Antonio gave him, Bain worried. Antonio had been called away for a mission a
few days ago, and Bain hadn’t heard from him in over forty-eight hours. That
wasn’t like Antonio at all. Every time he’d been called away before, Antonio
had made sure to check in daily. He knew how afraid Bain was to be there alone.
Bain’s brain would start playing tricks on him when he was alone. He’d hear
noises, see things, become convinced things had moved, and eventually, he’d lock
himself in his room to stay safe. He was proud of himself that he was still functioning.
Maybe he was getting better.
Pacing the house from one end to the other, Bain tried to work out his anxiety through motion. He probably shouldn’t rely so much on Antonio. What would he do if he didn’t come back? He didn’t even know anyone else who hadn’t done terrible things to him. Where would he go? Running for the bathroom, Bain got to the toilet just in time. After the heaving stopped, he moved over to the sink and rinsed his mouth out several times. Looking up in the mirror, Bain caught sight of his drawn and haggard appearance.
What a sight he’d be for
Antonio to come home to; he’d be more likely to scare the man than entice him.
Walking back out to the
living room, Bain picked up his phone and checked it again. When the blank
screen once again mocked him, he curled up on the corner of the couch and
stared toward the front door, willing Antonio to come through it. As the hours
passed, Bain didn’t move from his post, begging any god or goddess who would
listen to return Antonio home to him whole.
The shadows were
stretching across the room when his phone finally chimed. Picking it up
quickly, Bain saw one word…
Hide
Watch Out Wednesday
Since my week has been so crazy, I haven’t had time to write any reviews. Instead, I’m going to post my favorite new-to-me book I read this last week, a fantastic PNR, and a great contemporary with the twist of being a MMMM where the relationship actually feels equal. Shock and awe, I know.
New-To-Me Book ~ I have book two for this one waiting on my Kindle for a spare moment. I love the world building here, and I even like that one of the MCs is a lovable asshole. Messenger – The Shifter War Book 1
PNR ~ Love the characters and the concept of meeting your soulmate in your dreams before you meet them in reality, especially if they might be scary. I always enjoy M.A. Church’s books. Night’s Fall – The Mystic Bay Series
This book managed to be both rough and sweet. There were moments of pain and beauty scattered throughout, and this very talented author managed to mix them all together to create a relationship that felt amazingly equal between four men. Four Ever
That’s all for me for today! I’ll be back Friday with a cover reveal! Otherwise, I’m going into my writer cave for the rest of the week.
Hello everyone! Sorry the post is so late this week. It’s been a wild one with a holiday Monday, snow days, and sick kids. So let’s get to it.
Updates
A Blaze in the Dark is with my editor after it was approved by both my alpha reader and a beta reader. It looks like February 7th is definitely the publication date. I’m still waiting on the cover, but as soon as it’s done, I’ll do a cover reveal. This story is in the Bearer of Truth world, but you don’t have to read it to keep up with the BoT books, though I did put some fun clues in it for those who do! You also don’t have to read the BoT books to understand what is going on in this novella. It’s more of a romance than the BoT series because the focus is on Antonio and Bain’s relationship.
I’m currently back to work on book 2 in The Bearer of Truth series. I need everything I’ve already written fixed up for my new direction before Wednesday when I’m renting a place to be alone for a few days and write. I’m really excited about this book, and I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as you enjoyed the first book. Again, this will be romance light as Gabriel and Evander are on a journey to making their relationship work, but it is not at the forefront of the story. The main story line is about what they’re trying to accomplish in the world as a team and who Gabriel is. But, for those of you who want to throat punch Evander, he is going to make some important positive steps.
Also, I’m going to give this blog more structure, so here is my proposed schedule:
Me Monday – This will be personal posts including author stuff or any subject I choose to discuss.
Watch Out Wednesday – Book Recs and Reviews
Fantasy Friday – Delving into the lore of my worlds or any other Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Sci-Fi subject
Gabriel, Evander, & Series Direction
This is another post that was previously posted on the blog tour but I edited it a bit and cleaned it up. I wanted to share the information here too. Next week will be an entirely new post about how the immortal warriors fell from grace.
A lot of what I know about my characters and world can’t be shared yet since I’ve only released the first book and it’s a planned five book series. I don’t want to spoil anything. So, I’m going to give you a little insight into Evander and Gabriel and why they avoided each other for so long. Also, some information about the mate bond.
I think it’s hard to strike the
right balance when you’re writing a series following the same two main
characters stretching over several books. We often want the characters to
change quickly, to get better and become better people immediately because
seeing that change is so satisfying and being able to point at exactly what
changed them makes us feel like there’s a chance it can really happen. But my
guys aren’t so easy, unfortunately. They are, in fact, stubborn.
Gabriel is a good guy at heart, but he’s damaged. He has a dark past we don’t know anything about (yet), and it still affects his present. He’s very clearly a good person, but he’s closed off, doesn’t trust anyone, and too apt to use his tongue as a weapon. Evander is arrogant and has made the mistake of believing his own hype. He’s sheltered, ignorant of the real world, and even worse, doesn’t care to learn, and his team isn’t much better. They’ve been living in an isolated location, some of them for decades, only leaving when sent on missions individually or as a team. They didn’t even take the time to really get to know each other outside of the superficial.
Evander and Gabriel have known they were mates for a few years, but they have been very careful not to establish any type of real connection between them. You can feel the mate bond’s pull, but without acknowledgement or feeding it by getting to know each other, it can be ignored and will have very few real consequences. Or at least the one’s it did have both Evander and Gabriel were willing to put up with; though they each had their own reasons for doing so. They were still able to fight on opposing sides; Evander was still able to try to kill Gabriel, or at least he believed he could. He never really wondered why he kept coming close but never finished the job. At the start of the first book, they can no longer avoid one another and have to function in each other’s orbit. That’s when things get interesting because the pull gets stronger, and the true side effects of an incomplete mate bond start to show.
That being said, the romantic element of this book is merely a subplot. The main focus is on their mission as a team, building relationships within the team, and the other strange occurrences that are happening all around them. They are trying to complete their mission and figure out what is happening on earth. Are all the things they keep stumbling upon just coincidences, or are they all connected? Is there a master plan, or have they been sent on a wild goose chase? What do their leaders know that they don’t? What is Gabriel truly capable of? Along with many, many more questions, some of which will be answered in this book, but most will be answered as the series goes along. I hope to answer enough of these questions in each book that they feel like a satisfying read by the end even if it’s obvious there’s more to come.
If you haven’t read it yet and would like to check it out, you can find Shadowing the Light at this universal link.
Author Miranda Turner 