A Snippet of A Little Too Familiar and early blurbs! (Patreon)

First, let's all enjoy the cookie I got to eat this weekend. I went to an interactive Alice and Wonderland cocktail experience with some fellow authors and we had a blast. It was nice to leave my house and see people--which is good because this week has been super busy with writing stuff, my oldest kid randomly getting hives and having to take him to urgent care, my youngest getting into trouble in school again (and he might need glasses?) and last night one of the crowns on my molars just FELL OFF. So today I had an emergency dental visit. 

I'm trying to not think too much about the impending bill from that. I have dental insurance...sort of. Basically, Delta Dental changed their payment systems in Jan. I pay online and have all of my payment links lined up so I can get to these things faster. Which means I missed them announcing on their website that this was happening. So when I got a notice saying "you will lose your insurance in February if you haven't paid--disregard if you have already paid" I ignored it because, duh, I'd paid. (If this hadn't been going on during a particularly hectic time with my grandmother passing away and all, maybe I would have caught it?)

So anyway, I called them February first when I got my notice that my insurance had been cancelled...and though they plan to refund my money, they couldn't reinstate my insurance. So I had to reapply, but it meant I didn't have insurance for this month because it doesn't kick in until March. But I couldn't exactly wait two weeks to fix the crown. *sighs* Upside? My dentist is really lovely and told me today that she bought Curses after my mom told her it came out. Ha! My mom, #1 hype man.

Since it's been a stressful week, I figured it might be fun to share some early blurbs (those are those little quotes you see on the covers of books where people say "I loved this book because it smells nice" or whatever.) as well as a snippet from A Little Too Familiar. For those that are new here (welcome!) this is an adult contemporary fantasy romance book I'm putting out myself this year as a bit of an experiment. It's still very much a me book, but it will have sex in it and such, which may not be your bag. But if it is your bag, yay!

Nice things people are saying:

"Laughs, danger, and a cast of characters you'll die to hang out with, A LITTLE TOO FAMILIAR has everything I want in a romance. Louise is intriguing and passionate, Declan is honorable and undeniably hot, and when you throw in Dammit, the phoenix, you have a recipe for one unputdownable story! Give me book two now!"-Kristen Simmons, critically-acclaimed author of the Article 5 series and THE DECEIVERS

A romp of a paranormal romance in the best possible way! Solid world building, a family you’d love to belong to, and a couple you root for the first page. I need the sequel, STAT! -Jeanette Battista, author of the Moon, and Demon's Gate series

“Intricate world building, sexy and smart leads who can’t live without each other, a diabolical villain you will delight in hating, vengeance pigeons, murder ferrets - all while sneaking in beautiful messages about the family the heart. What more could you ask of a story?”--Molly Harper, author of the Half-Moon Hollow & Mystic Bayou series

Here is a little snippet of A Little Too Familiar from Declan's point of view:

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting with my new living situation, but weasels hadn’t even made the list of possibilities. I especially hadn't expected them on my pillow first thing in the morning, like a strange version of hotel pillow mints.

They were staring at me. Solid black beady little eyes staring right into mine.

So I yelled.

To be honest, it was more of a scream. In my defense, I hadn't had coffee yet, and also weasels.

There was a thunder of feet and my door swung open.

Lou made it through the door first, still in her pajama shorts and a thin tanktop. Her shorts were short, the material soft-looking. Her skin looked soft, too—I shut that thought down immediately. Crushing on roommates was a bad idea, and in this case it would be disastrous. And yet, I couldn’t look away. I blinked and realized she was carrying a baseball bat, obviously ready to rumble, and I hadn’t even noticed it.

Van stood behind her, bleary-eyed. She’d inexplicably brought the half-full French press with her to my room instead of leaving it behind in the kitchen. Trick sauntered up last, peeking over their shoulders, casually sipping his coffee. An adorable fledgling phoenix perched on a thick leather pad strapped to his shoulder, otherwise Trick wasn’t wearing a shirt. He nudged his way into the room and I caught sight of the arcane symbols tattooed in blacks and grays decorating the insides of both of his lower arms.

The fledgling squawked at me and I startled. Great.

"What happened?” Lou asked, wide eyes darting around the room.

She looked rumpled. I liked rumpled.

“Are you hurt?” She licked her lips and I tracked the motion.

This was when it occurred to me that A) I was naked. I had a blanket, yes, but right now it was only covering my knees, so I yanked it up to my waist. As a rule, werewolves were pretty okay with being naked, but I was feeling vulnerable this morning, and it was hard to be brave when you were buck naked. B) The weasels had fled, or perhaps had never been there to begin with. Maybe I’d been hallucinating, or possibly they were a side effect of Van’s hex, which seemed unlikely and C) I was destined to make a terrible impression on Trick's roommates.

"Were you having night terrors?" Van asked gently. "I have a cousin who gets those."

"Weasels?" It came out as a question. I hated that. "Weasels." There. That sounded much more authoritative.

You mean Kodo and Podo?" Van handed the French press off to Trick, before dropping down to the floor level and giving a soft whistle.

"They have names?" I wanted to take the entire French press and drink straight from the spout. My brain felt fuzzy and useless, and as was beginning to be the way of things, I felt one step behind the conversation in this house.

“Van named them after the ferrets in Beastmaster. You don't name your pets?” Lou asked, letting the tip of the bat drop until it touched the floor.

"Pets?" I watched Van crawl around near the base of the futon, making clucking noises with her tongue. Now that I was slightly more awake, I recategorized the smell, taking it from “weasel” to “ferret.” I wasn’t as familiar with ferrets, though that seemed to be about to change. The two ferrets ran out from under the bed on the other side and started hopping all over the floor and each other, chittering away at Van. She whisked them up with ease, cuddling them to her Rat City Roller Girls T-shirt.

"Sorry," Van said. "I didn't realize they came in here." She snuggled them close, frowning. “Now I have to figure out how they got in here.” She kissed their heads. “To be fair, they are familiars, so they’re a little smarter than the average ferret, which is already pretty smart.”

"Why?" I asked. "Ferrets. Why?"

Trick sent me a sympathetic look. “I think we broke him. And so soon, too.”

Lou shifted, resting some of her weight on the bat. "We were going to get a cat, because tradition, but Trick is allergic."

Van held the ferrets close, her eyebrows pinched together. "Don't say it like that. Don't make them feel like they’re runners up."

Lou looked very solemnly at me. "What I meant to say was that we'd considered getting a cat, but then realized that everyone has cats and though they’re awesome, we wanted a different kind of awesome, so Van got ferrets." She was deadpan with her delivery—It was kind of adorable.

I’d barely been able to sit in a room with Lou yesterday, but right now I couldn’t seem to stop looking at her. Was it progress, or was I still half asleep? At least I wasn’t freaking out. "Ferrets." I rubbed my face with one hand. “Okay.”

"Are you afraid of ferrets?" Trick asked. "Is that why you screamed like a small child?”

Trick was my friend and I loved him and I absolutely was not considering picking him up and tossing him out of my room.