Hello Readers! Another fun day of Book Content for You!
Today I have the pleasure of sharing some excerpts from a YA Series called: The Witches' Sleep Trilogy by Kaitlyn Deann, the third book is coming soon so the author is even offering a giveaway of the first book in the series to get you started! :)
I hope you enjoy the excerpts and have a chance to check out the books.
The Witches' Sleep (Book 1) by Kaitlyn Deann
About the Book
At only seventeen, Ella Barnes is shot and killed for an
unknown reason. She is shocked when she wakes up in a different world, a
world of witches. Ella has to learn to adapt to a new body, new life
and new world, surrounded by new people. As Ella gets to know Raena, the
world of the witches and its people, she realizes they aren’t the
perfect creatures they believe themselves to be, and she’s not the type
of person to stand around and twiddle her thumbs. Will Ella succeed in
changing the mindset of the people? Or will she be doomed to die another
cold and tragic death because of her rebellion?
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World of the Beasts (Book 2) by Kaitlyn Deann
About the Book
Sea-Anna and Tuck have been weretiger slaves to the
witches for over twenty years. But now, because their master happens to
be the leader’s worst enemy, they have been sold to the beasts behind
their master’s back. Sea-Anna and Tuck are separated, bought by
two different beasts. Sea-Anna, who dreads the beasts more than
anything, promises herself to stay strong, but not for herself, not to
save her own life. She has to protect her secrets. But will she buckle
under the pressure Aphalie, the world of the beasts, shoves at her? Or
will she overcome the trials and become the weretiger she was always
meant to be?
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About the Author
Find the Author
THE WITCHES' SLEEP, has won the Gold Medal for Readers' Favorite 2013 Annual Book Contest under the Fiction - Paranormal genre.
KEEP READING FOR EXCERPTS & A GIVEAWAY!!
PROLOGUEElla’s life hasn’t been so bad. She can’t complain. Others have had it
worse than her. But she didn’t know that her life would end so soon. Why
would anyone want her dead?
He has been hunting her for weeks now and has tried killing her in subtle ways
many times. The car wreck on the loop, the carbon monoxide leak at her
house and the cut brakes on her car. They were all his attempts to murder
the seventeen-year-old.
Ella’s head is spinning as she begins to put the pieces together. She thought
she was going crazy, thinking someone was trying to kill her.
She’s not as crazy as she thought.
Sad thing is, she doesn’t know what she’s done in her life for him to
think she deserves to die. In fact, Ella doesn’t even know who
he is. She doesn’t have any enemies. And very few people don’t like
her.
What did she do?
All those death sentences she had barely escaped, but this one she can’t.
This time the Assassin is making sure she’ll die. He plans on shooting her. It’s
not the way he was told to kill them, but the “accidental death” doesn’t seem to
be working.
Might as well, he thinks. Besides, I like the fear in their eyes. For
once, I’m superior.
Ella runs through the bare, snow-covered trees and brush near her home in
Logan, Utah. Her lungs are begging for more oxygen. It doesn’t make it easier to
breathe in this cold weather.
Ella had simply gone for a walk through the forest to admire nature when
he approached her wearing a ski mask to hide his features. He doesn’t want her
to be able to put the pieces together after she’s gone. But still, Ella could
tell that he has a long, thin nose and black, beady eyes. He’s slim built as
well, she notes.
“Ella,” he said her name as if he’d known her for years.
Her heart hammered painful beats against her ribs.
He continued, “With you out of the way, I can finally continue with my
business.”
Ella wanted to turn and run the moment she realized his intention was to
end her life. This was her hunter, the man that wanted her dead, a man she had
hoped she would never meet.
Her feet wouldn’t move. They were frozen to the ground. Fear coursed
through her body. Her head spun, making her dizzy.
He took a slow step towards her. Ella could imagine the sick, twisted
smile under the mask.
“You’re a lucky witch,” he said. “But it looks like your luck has finally
run out, huh?”
“No,” she cried softly, her voice stuck in her throat. “Please
don’t.”
He paused for a second. “I’m not the bad guy,” he tells her after a
moment. “I only want what’s best for my people.”
Ella saw his hand wrap around his back. A gun. She just knew that was
what he was reaching for.
Suddenly, Ella was in control of her feet again. She flew from him like
there’s no tomorrow.
And for her, that’s very likely.
She hears the gun go off. The bullet ricochets off a tree near her head,
but by some miracle, it doesn’t hit her.
He fires again. It misses her by a hair.
Bang! Again, he fires, again, he misses. She doesn’t slow down. She pushes
her legs harder, faster. Her legs cry out from the pain. Her lungs gasp for
relief, her heart bangs on her chest, begging her to stop. Ella refuses to give
in.
The firing doesn’t cease. The bullets keep flying by her, hitting trees
as she runs past them.
Out of nowhere, a familiar nursery rhyme begins playing in her head, and
she’s confused as to why. The song drowns everything.
Row, row, row your boat gently
down the stream…
It’s her mother’s voice singing in her head. It is a memory of her
singing that song to Ella as a child.
Bang! The bullet flies by her
ear. But the music doesn’t stop.
Merrily, merrily, merrily,
merrily —
The next thing Ella knows is she’s on her face on the ground, eating the
freezing, dirty snow. Her back cries out in pain. Her insides scream in agony
from the bullet that ripped through her body.
She tries moving, but she’s too far gone to do anything but lay there on
her face in the cold snow, her blood slowly draining from her body.
Ella had always thought that life was supposed to flash before the eyes
of a person who’s about to die. To her utmost disappointment, it doesn’t hers.
All she can think about is how much she wants the pain to go away.
How ready she is to be done with life now.
Ella suddenly wants to die. She decides she’s ready. After all, her life
hadn’t been so bad. In fact, it was a good life.
Ella’s mind begins shutting down. Her organs are freezing. She forgets
how to take in a breath and let it out.
She slips into the dark abyss, knowing that she’s too far gone to even
try to muster up whatever hope she has left of surviving. What else can she do?
So she welcomes death with open arms as her blood stains the snowy
ground.
Life is but a dream…
Excerpt from WORLD OF THE BEASTS
PROLOGUE
REVENGE
Weathered Rock, the new Slave Trader, watches as Speaks Wise Words, the Leader of Raena, pinches his lips and narrows his eyes. He’s watching the television screen in Rock’s office like a cat watches a mouse. With his thumbnail, he scratches his cheek. Rock can tell by the look in Wise’s eyes that his anger must be much deeper than he realized.
On the screen is the famous Sunlight Reflecting off the Moon—Rebel Sunny, as she is commonly called now—and Wise’s very own son, her soul mate, Kindness in His Heart. Rebel Sunny and Prince Kindness.
Rock can’t tell if it’s the fact they’re soul mates and he can’t stop them from loving each other that he hates so much, or if it’s the fact that they’re at a Freedom’s Calling meeting now, where the cameras flock. Rock assumes that it’s the latter, since he knows Wise was blackmailed by Sunny into making Freedom’s Calling a legal organization. But that’s all Rock knows. He wonders what Rebel Sunny has on Wise to make him agree to do something he hates.
“I want you to do something,” Wise says darkly when the cameras focus on Sunlight’s pretty smile. Her scarlet hair falls in perfect curls around her face and down past her shoulders.
“What do you mean?” Rock asks Wise.
Wise tells the television to power off, and it obeys. Then he turns to the Slave Trader. “Do something to put her in her place. Something that will make her hurt.”
Rock’s eyes widen. “But sir, she’ll be your daughter-in-law in less than a week. She’ll be family.”
“She’ll never be part of my family!” he says so harshly that Rock startles. “She blackmailed me! Are you going to let someone like that get away with something as wretched as blackmailing your Leader?”
Rock blinks several times, trying to recover from the shock of Wise’s temper and from what he’s asking him to do. He understands why he should avenge Wise, since Sunny blackmailed him, but a part of him feels that he shouldn’t. What other choice does Rock have?
“What do you suggest?” Rock finally asks.
“Figure something out,” Wise says. “But don’t tell me. She’s a Matured Silver now. She’ll read me easily. Which also means you need to keep away from all Silvers and practiced Browns.” He pauses for a moment and taps his chin with a black pen he took from Rock’s desk. “Have you ever heard of the outlaw called the Man in Black?”
Rock nods once. “Of course I have. Why?”
“Contact him. Offer him a bountiful reward for his service to me.”
Rock’s eyebrows furrow together. “Contact him? How, sir? He’s a fugitive. I have no idea how to get in touch with him.”
Wise reaches in the front pocket of his beige suit. He pulls out a small notepad and flips it open. Taking Rock’s pen, he jots down a few numbers and letters on the paper, rips it out, and hands it to Rock.
“You can find him here.”
Puzzled, Rock glances at the paper. It’s an address in Territory Three. How would Wise know this? And why has he never turned the information in to the authorities? The Man in Black is wanted all over Raena for the disappearances of multiple slaves as well as select witches, whose bodies have never been found. Rock knows this because he studied this particular case a while back. The Man in Black always took witch girls that were shorter than five foot three inches, and they all had the darkest auburn hair witches can possibly have. Hair like Wise and Kindness. But the slaves he abducted never had anything in common. The only similarity he could possibly find was they had complained to Peace Officers of being abused, but they were ignored. Some were-creatures the Man in Black had even saved from the gallows, but then they disappeared, leaving no traces.
“Rock,” Wise says darkly, catching his attention. “The Man in Black has special connections. Find him. He will aid you if you tell him I sent you.”
Rock blinks several times, still in shock. Wise is in contact with an outlaw? Rock can’t believe what’s going on in his own office. Wise not only is in contact with the Man in Black, but he also wants Rock to work with him—to aid him in this job of hurting Sunlight.
“Sir,” he begins to argue, but the look on Wise’s face makes him change his line of thought. Instead, he stammers, “Will he not want something in return?” Wise grins slightly. He reaches in his coat pocket, pulls out an envelope and hands it to Rock. “What is it?” Rock asks.
“A generous check. Give it to the Man in Black for payment.” He starts to leave, but he pauses just before he makes it completely out the door. He says over his shoulder, his voice darker than Rock has ever heard it, “Do you know what awaits you if you shall fail, Slave Trader?”
Rock looks around his office once, unsure what to say. He’s still in shock. He’s positive that what Wise wants him to do is illegal. When he looks back at Wise, he sees that he’s pulled out a clear vile with dark blue grainy sand sealed inside. He tosses it at the Slave Trader and then leaves, not saying another word.
Rock examines the vile for only a few seconds before realizing what it is.
Tanzanite. The only element in the known universe that’s poisonous to witches, that can kill them. It’s what all the weapons are made of on Raena. Bullets, knifes, arrowheads. Rock knows this very well from being Head Peace Officer for over twenty-five years before his recent promotion.
He turns back to the television, rolling the cylinder vile between his fingers and thumb. He watches Sunny embrace her proclaimed best friend Sea-Anna, who is a weretiger slave, and then Tuck, the other weretiger standing by Sea-Anna. He’s Sea-Anna’s husband, according to the media. Kindness had imported a deer for them to hunt together: a tiger’s wedding ceremony. This has shown Raena that Kindness and Sunny care about them deeply.
The vile heats up the more Rock rolls it in his hand. He inhales deeply and exhales, holding the vile up to examine the contents more carefully.
If he doesn’t do enough, if he doesn’t satisfy Wise’s desire to hurt the future Princess, he’ll die; Wise made that painstakingly obvious. If he goes too far, he’ll be haunted for the rest of his life, a guilty conscience following closely behind him forever.
He could not risk being careless.
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