My book hook this week is from Spirits of Christmas, my paranormal romance that will be available this Friday from Changeling Press. Thank you for stopping by, and don’t forget to visit the other stops on the Book Hooks Blog Hop.
Spirits of Christmas (Wild Witches of Beaver Bay)
by Kate Hill
(Holiday Romance, Paranormal Romance)
Blurb
On Christmas Eve twenty-five years ago, a brutal murder was committed at the house where Christa Wild works as a live-in maid. When the other servants leave for the holiday this year she stays behind, hoping that any spirits dwelling there will help her regain the psychic power she lost. She’s surprised when the intriguing but disturbed owner of the house appears several days before Christmas.
Action star Joel Connor has kept a terrible secret for most of his life. Despite his success as an athlete and actor, he is plagued by flashbacks of a gruesome attack that destroyed his family. This Christmas, Joel returns to the house where it happened to face the ghosts of the past, but finds he is not alone.
Joel and Christa are instantly attracted, but will his psychological state prevent them from finding peace and love?
Excerpt:
Christa might be telling the truth about just being a maid with nowhere to go for the holidays. Even if she was lying, she had no idea about his connection to the murders twenty-five years ago. His professional biography, under his legally changed name, stated that his parents died when he was a child and he had been raised by his aunt. All true. His past couldn’t affect him, except for the fear he had spent his life trying to shake. This year, he would confront it once and for all. What would everyone think if they knew the truth, that Joel Connor, martial arts champion and action movie star, had never kicked his childhood fear?
He straightened from where he had been leaning against the top of his car. Snow fell into his face and he brushed it away before reaching for his suitcase and gym bag.
After locking the car, he trudged through the rapidly accumulating snow back to the house. He stomped his feet on the rug in the foyer, closed the door, and locked it. Not that locks mattered terribly, if someone was intent on breaking in.
In the living room, Christa collected her Christmas decorations and placed them in reusable shopping bags. She wasn’t tall — maybe five three — but had gorgeous curves. Nothing felt better than a girl with padding. He glanced discreetly at her rounded bottom as she leaned over to unplug a plastic light-up reindeer.
“What are you doing?” he asked, wondering if she had decided to leave after all.
She glanced at him with big blue eyes. “You said the decorations are atrocious, so I’m putting them away. It’s your house.”
He furrowed his brow and shook his head. “Leave them. I don’t like Christmas.”
“Then why would I leave them?”
“You must like them. They don’t bother me.” He was lying. The house had been decorated on the night it happened. His mother had loved Christmas and always put up lots of decorations. They always had a huge tree that made the entire house smell like pine, but since that night twenty-five years ago, he couldn’t smell pine without smelling smoke and plastic tape.
“Are you okay?” Christa touched his arm.
He glanced into her concerned eyes. “Fine. Why?”
“You got really pale just now. Are you hungry maybe? I made cookies.”
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Sounds like a great story, lots of emotions happening here.
Dee
#PMInc
A guy with bad memories of Christmas and a woman who seems to feel that Christmas (i.e. the decorations and cookies) is good for whatever ails you. Not exactly a match made in heaven.
Waiting for the arrival of the book