My teaser this week is from Code Name Jack Rabbit,
book one of The Vampire Guard.

Code Name Jack Rabbit is available in eBook, paperback,
Kindle Unlimited and through your local library digital catalog.

My snippet this week is from Code Name Jack Rabbit,
book 1 of The Vampire Guard.

Kai nodded to Blair. “The first real chance we’ve had is you striking up a friendship with Martell.” He leveled a hard stare at Declan. “You ever do that to me again, and there will be blood drawn. It won’t be mine.”

“Why don’t we just dowse all the vampire testosterone and calm down?” Lucas moved to the middle of the room. “The worst that happened is Forge got a dip in the lake.”

“I was shot. It hurt and ruined my shirt,” Forge groused. “Which reminds me…” He dug the bullet from his pocket. “Can you run ballistics on this?”
​
Lucas shook his head and rolled his eyes. “It was an ugly shirt, and your wound is half-healed. No harm, no foul. I think the real question is, who is trying to hurt this woman, who killed her friend, and Mr. Newmann and how is it all connected to a damaged boat?”

There are more diverse and wonderful snippets in the
Rainbow Snippets Facebook group.

This week's excerpt is from Shifting Chaos, book 4 of The Sleepless City. Series co-written with Anne Barwell.

“Why us?” Ben asked. “There is a whole town full of people, and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m feeling very singled out right now. Forge and Declan went to the Coate compound to investigate the killings there. Forge and Lucas are involved in some way in all of the investigations, and we all played a part with the city hall shootings. It’s messed with all of us, other than Blair, who sees it. Why take over Forge?” Ben shrugged. “There’s plenty of other vampires to hijack.”

Declan sat down and rubbed his arm. “He’s a police detective. Not on either Council and has access to practically every part of this town, as well as confidential and possibly valuable information. Why not him? In fact, he’s a great target.”

“Blair, what did you tell us about the place the cambion took you?” Simon grabbed a pad of paper from one of the drawers in the computer desk and picked up a pen. “There were rogue werewolves. You also told us there were other people, but you never had contact with them.” He stopped for a second and pointed the pen at Blair. “And, you said there was something else there. It was dark, frightened you, you were able to sense it but never got a good look at it. The same thing we determined, after the fact, was a demon.”

“Yeah,” Blair said. “The same demon?”

“It would make sense,” Lucas said.

Simon put the pad on the table and wrote Declan and Forge memories not hallucinations. Underneath that he wrote Blair contact with sigil and demon.

“You did handle that thing a lot more than the rest of us,” Declan said. “As well as had contact with the demon. Real, direct contact before any of this started.” Blair was standing to the side, his hand on Jonas’s file, flicking at the edge with one thumb. “Blair? Are you all right?”

“Shit.” Blair darted around them and ran to the other side of the basement.

“Hey, no, what are you—don’t open that!” Lucas chased after Blair but wasn’t fast enough.

Blair punched in the lock code and pulled the door open, at the same time saying, “It’s gone.”

Jonas came tumbling out. His clothes were ripped, and his face and hands were a mess of bruises. Blair slid next to him and stopped him from landing face first on the cement floor. He grabbed hold of Blair with both arms and wheezed out, “Blair,” before his entire body shuddered and he collapsed, unconscious. Lucas helped Blair ease Jonas to the floor.

“It’s really gone?” Simon asked. He knelt beside Jonas, resting one hand on his chest. “He’s out cold.”

“Yes,” Blair dropped to his knees on Jonas’s other side. “As long as I’m with him, I’ll see it if it comes back.” He looked around at the rest of them. Moose sat beside him and licked Jonas’s hand.

Simon stood and moved to Jonas’s head. He sighed heavily and reached down, hoisting Jonas up with both hands under his shoulders.

“C’mon, Lucas, help me. We can’t leave him on the cold floor. Let’s get him upstairs.”

Lucas picked up Jonas’s legs and groaned. “Shit, he weighs, like, a million pounds.”

“Quit complaining and we’ll get him upstairs faster. Then you can put him down,” Simon grumbled.

“Look at Lucas’s room,” Ben said. Declan leaned over his shoulder and sucked in a breath. The room had been assaulted in a way Lucas, in a full-moon shift to complete werewolf, had never done. The padded walls were shredded. Long scratch marks had been gouged into the stone covered with lead-and silver-infused paint. Even the inside of the door was scratched and slightly dented.

While Blair, Simon, and Lucas attended to Jonas, Declan and Ben began repairs to the room Lucas would need in less than a day.

Shifting Chaos is available in eBook, paperback
and through Kindle Unlimited.

Copies of both books were provided by the author via OWI for a fair and honest review. I originally agreed to review book 2, Ameliorate but decided to review both books. This series needs to be read in order.
 
Fracture  (5 stars)
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I love scifi and action, this book did not disappoint. Meredith, a human, has a special skill set when it comes to AI. V is what is termed a malignant AI. Malignant translates to sentient with a galactic sized bad attitude. V’s goal, at first glance, seems to be to kill any human coming into contact with him. V presents as male. Meridith goes from one bad situation to another when she’s dragged from death row to ‘tame’ V so he can be recycled and turn a profit for his creators. Their initial partnership is orchestrated by Mr. Smith, he’s creepy and is only interested in results. Meridith is a talented con artist (another of my great loves), and uses her skills to keep V from overwriting her neural network, in essence killing her. Over time, they form an alliance. Meredith learns V has siblings he wants to be reunited with. Neither V nor Meredith are decent or upstanding, they’re both shellfish, driven by their own goals. Their relationship takes toxic to a whole new level. They’re fascinating, neither good nor bad and completely loveable! These two are focused on their own goals and find working together is to both their benefit.
​
The world building is layered and amazing. I was sucked in from the beginning. The characters are fleshed out and over the course of the book they develop and grow. The action scenes are where this author’s writing shines. There is enough detail to know what’s happening, but not so much to bog down the flow.

This book ends on a cliff hanger, so be prepared to jump into the next book.
 
Ameliorate (4 Stars)
At the beginning of this book, there is a gap in time since the end of Fracture. Here we get to know more about V’s siblings. This AI family might be the most dysfunctional family ever. What was originally five siblings is now three. Being three distinct personalities, they argue, banter and compete with each other. They’re hilarious and creepy at the same time. I enjoyed the expansion of the world created in Fracture.

The story takes place on a space station, where one AI sibling is possessing humans, changing humans so often she’s like the toddler who has to wear different clothes every hour. These people are willing participants in a cult created by the AI and vie for a place on the space station and her attention. A second sibling thinks humans and their messy bodies with fluids are icky. The reader gets many of these AI observations and interactions with humans, driven by the AI individual personalities. The interactions alternate between horrifying and laughable depending on which AI’s POV we’re seeing.

Throughout the book the POV switches between the AI siblings, and Meredith, but in some cases the switch is not seamless, and there were times I had to reread a paragraph or two to understand which POV I was reading. The author does use font changes to distinguish the POVs, but that is not always successful.

As in book 1, the writing is best during the high action scenes, and I couldn’t wait to learn the outcome of each encounter. The next best parts are the banter between V and Meredith, there are truly some priceless interactions and one-liners.

The creepy Mr. Smith gets even creepier, especially when his part in the siblings’ creation and motivation to capture them comes to light.

During the story, Meredith’s relationship with V levels up. Her relationship with the other siblings, Cass and Orwell, develops in different and unexpected ways. Just like with humans, sometimes who you connect with the most isn’t always immediately obvious, and Meredith and the siblings are no different.

This book is a good ending of the story began in book 1, with all the threads tied together marvelously. 

My teaser this week is from Jewel Cave, part of the Circles Box set.

Reading so much accumulated in one place made Clint shiver. Another chill swept through him, and his chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vise. A few key recent events leapt out at Clint. Fern had hurt her foot and Clint had briefly talked about it on his blog. Dylan knew details, accurate details Clint just now realized he’d never written in a blog or e-mail. Then there was a bush he’d removed from the front yard early in the spring. Dylan had mentioned how bare that spot looked, but Clint hadn’t put any pictures of that garden project up online or even discussed it in e-mails. Dylan couldn’t possibly know about the yard work unless he’d seen it in person. Clint hit Save on the document and sent it to his cloud storage.
​
People traveled. Not Dylan, though. He told Clint everything he did, but how did he know about Fern’s foot and the bush? Clint searched everything he’d posted and the few mentions of her injury didn’t include the details Dylan brought up. Maybe there was some discussion in the e-mails Clint had deleted, a way to deflect Dylan’s inquiries about the pictures he’d sent Clint. He couldn’t remember.

Both dogs jumped up and barked, running closer to the front door. Clint held his breath, then slumped back into his chair and relaxed when he realized the noise was simply mail being pushed into the slot beside the door. The outer cover was metal and it often banged and clanked, announcing mail delivery.

“Now you’re just being paranoid, Bishop.”

Something thunked, and then there was another soft sound of metal against metal. Clint stood slowly. Both dogs had turned their attention from the front door to the direction of the side door. They stood, ears forward, tails barely moving.
​
“Lock the goddamn doors.”

Griff’s voice, exasperated and concerned all at once, was a firm command in Clint’s head.

He’d locked the side storm door after letting the dogs back in, leaving the main door open to let light in. Or had he? Clint took a few deep breaths; he was definitely letting his imagination run rampant. There were no screens in the storm door, and the lock was pretty heavy. As Griff had pointed out, breaking through would at least make noise.

That was, if Clint had locked it.

Phoenix blew out a loud breath, and Fern inched back toward Clint and paced a few times in front of him.

“Griff? If you’re trying to scare me to remind me to lock the doors, it worked. Cut it out.” Clint tried to make his voice deep and dangerous. He did not succeed. On impulse, he reached down and hit Record on the voice recorder Griff kept there to charge.

Clint took a few steps closer to the french doors. Phoenix stood in the middle of the living room, ruff and tail puffed out. He didn’t make a sound, but his attention was riveted to the kitchen and side door.
“Griff?”

Where is my phone? He’d had it in the kitchen while he made coffee. The goddamn phone’s still on the counter.

All at once jumbled thoughts began charging through Clint’s head. Dogs don’t act like that with someone they know. That was followed by things Griff had told him over the years: “Don’t let on to an intruder there are guns in the house.” “Lamps, keys, even a pen is a good weapon.” “Cooperate.” “If you have the chance, take it and run.” “Look them in the eye.” “Don’t let anyone get you into a vehicle if you can help it.” “Make noise.”

“Hey, cut this shit out right now!” Clint shouted as loud as he could. It was nice outside, the windows were open. Someone would hear him.

Fern ducked behind his legs. Phoenix didn’t move. Clint looked around for something—anything—to use as a weapon. A creak came from the far side of the house. He could only see part of the kitchen and not through to the side door. Had the noise come from the landing, the basement steps, or the steps to the kitchen?

Clint held his breath. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the signed baseball bat resting on a stand on top of his office shelves. It had been a housewarming gift from his grandmother when he and Griff had moved in.

He could do a lot of damage with a baseball bat.

Unfortunately, to get to the bat, he’d have to go back into his office and would lose the advantage of being able to see most of the kitchen and all of the living room. He had two choices: stand there and watch whoever was in the house come at him, or arm himself with a weapon he could use.

Clint opted for arming himself.

The Circles Box Set is available in eBook and
​through your local library digital calalog.

My snippet this week is from book 1 of the Circles Box Set,
Run for the Roses.

“Except who is doing the killing?” Val asked. “There is one simple way to find out. Let people know I was there when Janelle’s car crashed and that I saw who was there and what happened.”

“That’s pretty damn risky and I doubt the police will go for it. I’m very sure I don’t want to agree to that plan,” Wyatt said.

“Someone was already here. It’s only a matter of time before they come back or catch up to me somewhere else. At least this way there will be some control over the situation,” Val pointed out. “And whoever it is doesn’t know about my secret weapon.”

“What’s that?” Wyatt asked.
​
Val smiled at Wyatt. “You.”

The Circles Box Set is available in eBook and
​your local library digital catalog.

Read more snippets in the Rainbow Snippets Facebook group.

My excerpt is from Run for the Roses, book 1 of the Circles Box Set.

“Go over what Charlie was doing again,” Janelle said while she brushed Sig.
​
“It’s pretty ingenious, actually,” Wyatt said. When both Janelle and Val stopped what they were doing to stare at him, he shrugged and offered a lame smile. “From a purely investigative standpoint.”

“Basically, Charlie was conning you. Both of us. He was setting you up to need money fast for me so you’d throw races for him and whoever else was involved,” Val said.

“It’s a lot harder to prove cheating if it involves losing,” Wyatt added. “No drugs or other illegal substances.”

“Nothing but leaning on the reins.” Janelle shook her head. “I have to admit he had me fooled. I’ve heard stories of jockeys involved in gambling schemes. Never thought I’d be one of them.”

Wyatt put his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “That’s what con artists do, sweetie.”

“Show me all this evidence you found,” Janelle said.

They left the barn and went to the house. Wyatt pulled out all the data he’d collected. “Val says this man is Allen Stein.” He pointed to the picture he’d e-mailed Val.

“This guy looks familiar to me, like I feel as if I should know him, but I can’t put a name to this face,” Val said. He stood behind them, looking over Janelle’s shoulder.

Janelle picked up the photo and studied it. “I have to say the same thing. I know this guy. Do you think Stein and this guy were in it with Charlie?”

“I don’t see how they couldn’t be,” Wyatt said. “The only problem is, other than the fact Marcus Paulle co-owned some of his horses, I can’t find a direct link. Yet. None of his horses’ race records fit the pattern, and he doesn’t gamble enough. Stein is probably the guy that keeps the clean image, gives him more chances to find marks. I think they were just getting set up in this area. Shopping jockeys. Stein gets to know some, then picks one or two to work with his scheme. Their pattern was, run their gambling scheme, then drop off the grid for a while, probably when someone was catching on to them. Then they’d show up somewhere else and start over. Allen Stein is the only one with a consistent presence. Personally, I think his job was only to target the horses and jockeys they could use. That’s not what concerns me. It’s what is going on now that worries me the most.”

“What did the cops say when you met with them?” Val asked.

“They had the pieces, but not all the connections yet. Exactly how Val fit in was a glitch, and that’s one reason they haven’t released your name,” Wyatt said.

“One reason?” Val asked.

Wyatt shrugged and smiled. “There are people who will confess to anything. It’s pretty standard to hold back some information to confirm confessions.”

“So only the people involved would know Val was the real target,” Janelle said.

“Yes,” Wyatt said. “Which is why the scare tactics. These guys were thieves, not killers. I’m still missing something.”

“Maybe whoever was here wanted to find out how much Val knew?” Janelle suggested.

“How would stealing my gas do that?” Val asked.

“Flush you out, make you go to the cops, and if the cops in turn went to our killer they could find out if they could continue in this area or would need to move on. Except…?” Wyatt scratched the back of his neck as he spoke.

“Except who is doing the killing?” Val asked. “There is one simple way to find out. Let people know I was there when Janelle’s car crashed and that I saw who was there and what happened.”

“That’s pretty damn risky and I doubt the police will go for it. I’m very sure I don’t want to agree to that plan,” Wyatt said.

Circles Box Set is available in eBook. Get five books for $6.99!