BOOK BLITZ w/EXCERPT - YA FAIRY TALES - WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF? (Big Bad Wolf Trilogy, #1) by Janie Marie

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

The Big Bad Wolf Trilogy, #1

by Janie Marie

Publication date: October 27th 2020

Genres: Coming of Age, Fairy Tales, Young Adult

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Fantasizing about Trevor Grimm is Kylie Hood’s favorite escape from her cruel reality. So, when he asks for her help on a school project, sparks are bound to fly and her dreams are going to come true . . .

Not in this fairy tale.

No, everything changes when Kylie meets Logan Grimm, Trevor’s older cousin and a professional MMA fighter some call the Big Bad Wolf.

He’s the first person to peer under the hood she hides beneath. He’s the first person to see the signs that something is wrong. He’s the first person to give her any attention. And he’s offering to help protect her.

But Logan’s world isn’t safe. It’s dirty, exhilarating, and dangerous. It’s everything Kylie needs to stay away from.

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Amazon

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EXCERPT:

“I’ll be there,” came a male voice that wasn’t Trevor’s. “Put five on me. Yeah, I have it.”

Kylie snapped her head up and forgot the growing pain behind her eyes, because what she was seeing could only be a gift from God.

It was a boy. No, he was a man. A man-boy. He was more mature than the boys she went to school with, but not that much older than her—maybe early twenties. A hot twenty-something, at that. With the perfect body, glistening with a light sheen of sweat, he was glorious. Solid and lean—not an inch of fat. Just pure muscle and sun-kissed skin painted with beautiful tattoos along his arms, chest and—dear God—the attractive V dipping below his low-sitting shorts.

Breathe, girl.

She sucked in a breath. Thank goodness he hadn’t noticed her sitting there. He rummaged through the fridge, his phone still pressed to his ear. It looked as though he’d found what he wanted because he stood, shutting the door as he lifted an apple to his lips.

The man was a god. And he was about to see her sitting there. Staring at him.

“Nah, I think I already fucked her, didn’t I?” He took a bite of the apple, finally making eye contact with her. He froze, staring at her with the same shocked expression she had stamped across her face.

Kylie gulped, unsure of how to explain who she was and what she was doing there, eavesdropping, all while admiring the apple juice dripping down his chin.

“What?” he said, shaking out of his daze but not looking away from her. “No, I’ll pick one later.” He wiped his chin, and with a jerk of his head, his black hair shifted away from his dark-brown eyes. “I said, I’ll pick. Yeah. See ya.”

Kylie started sweating under his intense stare as he ended the call. At first, he just kept staring at her. His gaze drifted over what he could see of her face and body, which couldn’t have been much, but even with her hood up, she felt as if he could see right into her soul.

Too afraid to speak, Kylie looked back down at the table, hoping he would just leave her alone. He was too intense for her, and she didn’t need to know him to understand that.

“What’s your name?” He spoke roughly and to the point.

She knew he wouldn’t care that she was the freak of their school. It was easy to see he was the kind of person who demanded and received.

She started to say, “Ky—” but Trevor’s return prevented her from answering him.

“Hey,” Trevor greeted the man who had yet to stop his inspection of her. “I didn’t think you’d be here today. Don’t you have a fight tonight?”

Trevor dumped his work on the table, causing her to flinch.

The man-boy narrowed his eyes on her. “I do,” he told Trevor, still watching her. “Are you going to ignore your friend, or introduce me?”

Trevor looked over at her and said, “Oh, this is Kylie. Kylie, this is my cousin Logan. I live with him while my dad is overseas.”

Logan took another bite of his apple as Trevor took a seat. She nodded in acknowledgment and looked away. She wasn’t used to meeting new people anymore, especially sexy guys like Logan.

“What’s your last name?” Logan asked.

Kylie couldn’t stop herself from jerking her head up. He had moved closer, standing opposite her now. His eyes never left her face. He no doubt figured she was a freak like everyone else did.

“Hood,” she said, wringing her hands together on her lap. “Kylie Hood.”

The small twitch at the corner of his mouth threatened to turn into a smirk, but he took another bite of his apple, finishing it and tossing it into the trash.

“Well, Kylie Hood,” he said, sounding amused, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He stuck out his hand as he cut Trevor a dark look, but he focused on her as he grinned. “Logan Grimm.”

 

Author Info

Janie Marie is a native Texan and resides in her hometown north of Austin, Texas, where she devotes her time to family, pets, and her writing.
Much of her life experiences--good and a lot of bad--are where she has chosen to draw inspiration from to create her characters and stories. It's important to her to create the kind of characters she needs or needed at one point in time because she wanted to create something only the saddest souls would recognize as brave and strong. 

Be ready for raw, emotional tales, as Janie never holds back. With her darkest thoughts she found light is still possible, that the sad girl can sometimes glow the brightest. Because she is beauty surrounded by darkness.

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BOOK BLITZ w/EXCERPT - YA FANTASY/FAIRY TALES - Wonderland Academy: Book One by Melanie Karsak

Wonderland Academy

by Melanie Karsak

Publication date: August 27th 2019

Genres: Fairy Tales, Fantasy, Retelling, Young Adult

Welcome to Wonderland Academy. Don’t lose your head.


BLURB
Getting into Wonderland Academy is easy:
You must be a little mad.
You must follow the white rabbit.
You must find the key to enter Wonderland.
You must not be named Alice or risk being beheaded by order of the Queen of Hearts.

We might have an issue with that last one.

My name may be Alice, but Wonderland Academy is everything my real life isn’t. Who wouldn’t want to learn how to ride a jabberwocky, train with a vorpal sword, cast spells using a teacup, or shapeshift into a fairy? As long as no one figures out my real name, I should be fine.

The only problem? Aden, the Queen of Hearts’ son, is quickly becoming my best friend. And then there’s Corbin. Brooding, surly, tattooed, and definitely not my type, I can’t stop thinking about him. But Corbin has secrets of his own, and Wonderland and secrets don’t mix.

How I’m going to pass my classes and protect my secret like my life depends on it is beyond me. But I better find a way. Because in Wonderland, no Alice is safe.

Wonderland Academy re-imagines the fantastical world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland for a fresh, new adventure. Combining whimsy, magic, and a splash of steampunk, New York Times best-selling author Melanie Karsak invites you into this beautifully re-envisioned fairy tale adventure.

* * *
Wonderland Academy is a college-level academy novel. It contains a slow-burn (not rh) romance. The novel is clean aside from mild language. This is Book 1 in a planned trilogy. Book 1 ends on a cliffhanger (Frodo didn’t reach Mount Doom in a day, after all).

Trigger Warning: This novel also includes references to a school shooting.

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Amazon

—

EXCERPT:

Setting my bag in a chair by the window, I pulled on my coat. It was pouring. Drops rolled down the windowpane, distorting the view of the sidewalk below. As I pulled my jacket on, however, I noticed someone on the sidewalk below. He was looking up at the window. I couldn’t make him out clearly, but from what I could see, he was wearing some kind of period costume and a top hat. He had long, pale blond hair that almost looked white.
“You all think I’m a lunatic? There’s some guy standing outside in the rain in a Victorian get-up and top hat.”
“What?” Mom asked. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. Just some rando guy standing in the rain,” I said then turned, zipped up my coat, and grabbed the bag.
Nurse Gilman stepped to the window and looked outside. “It’s really coming down,” she said, eyeing the sky. She then strained her neck to the left and right. “Your mystery man must have gone back inside.”
“He was right there,” I said.
A sick feeling rocked my stomach. No, no, no. He was there. Dammit, he really was there. I edged toward the window and looked outside. I was right. The man was standing right there, looking up at the window.
He waved at me.
“Where?” Nurse Gilman asked, looking up and down the sidewalk.
“There,” I said, motioning hesitantly.
“I must have missed him,” Nurse Gilman said with a shrug.
I stared at the man.
He waved again.
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.
“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe they’re doing a show in the children’s wing or something,” I muttered then turned from the window.
I didn’t want Nurse Gilman to see my face.
Mom, however, caught my eye. Her eyebrows scrunched together as she gave me a hard look.
I dropped her gaze.
I absolutely, positively, did not want to have that conversation on the way home.
“I’m ready,” I told Mom.
“Good. Let’s get you the hell out of here.”
“Be well,” Nurse Gilman said. She motioned to the nurses’ station. The door to the waiting room unlocked with a click. Nurse Gilman motioned to us that we were free to go.
Mom and I headed down the dim hallway of the fifth-floor psych ward. The narrow hall felt like it was a million miles long. It wasn’t until we were safely inside the elevator that I finally exhaled.
“Your phone,” Mom said, handing it to me.
I had a few missing calls, messages from old friends, but there wasn’t anyone I wanted to talk to anyway. I stared at the screensaver, which had a picture of Nicholas and me. The photo had been taken just before homecoming, before everything went to shit. We’d gone for a hike that day. The autumn leaves in the background were bright orange and burnt red. We were both bundled up, our cheeks red, faces pressed together. We’d spent the entire hike planning a future that would never come to pass.
I turned off my phone and stuck it in my pocket.
Mom punched the elevator button for the ground floor.
I kept my eyes on the lights above the door, praying Mom wouldn’t ask anything.
It wasn’t until we’d passed the second floor that Mom whispered, “Lacey, are you seeing—”
“I’m fine. Really. I’m fine.”
She didn’t answer, which told me she knew well-enough I was not fine.
They’d been popping up in my periphery more frequently for the last two weeks. People who were there then not there. Flickers of light. Shadows that whispered. Otherworldy shapes. Their presence wasn’t anything new to me. While I was more prone to see them during times of stress, they’d been there all my life. I knew that if I really looked, I’d see them. It was better to ignore them.
A mermaid had taught me that.
Mom and I headed to the front of the hospital. I couldn’t wait to get away from the terrible hospital smell. A weird mix of the scents of bleach, chrysanthemums, green beans, and Band-Aids perfumed the place. It was enough to make a person gag.
Raining or not, I was relieved when the hospital doors opened. I inhaled the sweet scent of the rain-soaked air. Mom’s rusted-out Mustang sat waiting just outside.
“Okay. Let‘s run for it,” Mom called, and we sprinted to the car.
Holding my plastic bag above my head, I ran, flinging open the door of the vehicle. But just before I climbed inside, I cast a glance down the sidewalk.
The man was still standing there. He pulled something from his pocket and tapped on it. He waved to me, a broad smile on his face.
“Lacey, you’re letting the rain in,” Mom yelled.
I slipped into the car, slamming the door behind me.
Mom revved the engine then drove off, her nineties rock springing to life. I leaned forward and clicked off the music. The last thing I needed was the dulcet tones of Nirvana shouting at me post suicide watch.
Sighing, I leaned back into the seat and closed my eyes.
Why was I seeing them again?
The white-haired man had been pointing at a pocket watch. A pocket watch.
What in the hell did that mean?
I hadn’t meant to kill myself.
Not this time.
It figured. On the morning I’d been discharged from the psych ward, I was beginning to lose my mind.

Author Info
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Melanie Karsak is the author of The Airship Racing Chronicles, The Harvesting Series, The Celtic Blood Series, Steampunk Red Riding Hood, and Steampunk Fairy Tales. The author currently lives in Florida with her husband and two children. She is an Instructor of English at Southern New Hampshire University.

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