Welcome to the Book Hooks Blog Hop! This week’s excerpt from Demon’s Grotto picks up where last week’s left off. Laura is about to hear the first story in the strange history of the club called Demon’s Grotto.
Don’t forget to check out more excerpts from authors in the MFRW Book Hooks Blog Hop.
Demon’s Grotto:
by Kate Hill
Horror Romance, Paranormal Romance
Excerpt (Rise of the Creature):
Autumn, 1880
Cora Smith sat stiff and tight-lipped beside Doctor Cyril Damp in the wagon.
They traveled down the road leading to the doctor’s ancestral home. Dr. Damp was
well known and respected in the city. People in the area worshipped him. He had made several breakthroughs in treating patients in the city asylum as well as several private patients — relatives of wealthy townsfolk.
He was also kind to the lower class, offering free medical care to those in need during hard times. Though his acquaintances, rich and poor, often wondered what he did shut up for weeks in his mansion, only to reappear thin, drawn, and glassy-eyed, they never confronted him directly. They knew better. Long ago, when someone had
been bold enough to ask about his work, the doctor’s kindly, soft-spoken demeanor turned dark and hostile.
If, and when, he succeeded in his work, everyone would know. Until then he preferred to keep his failures to himself, so his neighbors respected his privacy.
To Cora they were cowards, and in a way so was she. Yet what choice did she have? It was either work here with the doctor or return to the madhouse where she and her twin brother, Connor, had been sentenced for life after being accused of murdering their stepfather.
Blurb:
Ben wants Laura to reconsider staying overnight at Demon’s Grotto, and he has information about the club’s history that should convince her. He tells her three creepy love stories, hoping she will change her mind.
Rise of the Creature: When a mad doctor brings a dead man back to life, only his beautiful assistant can make that life worth living.
The Demon Within: A man on the run stops to rest at a rooming house, not knowing that it’s the hunting ground of a gorgeous succubus bent on devouring handsome guests.
Don’t Cry, Wolf: An ad for a maintenance man at a bed and breakfast is answered by a former soldier who’s harboring a hairy secret. The business’s lovely co-owner becomes involved with this sullen hunk who’s more than she imagined possible.
After hearing these stories of love and murder, will Laura decide to spend the night at Demon’s Grotto?
From Changeling Press.
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Fascinating snippet, Kate! Definitely makes one want to read more.
What a telling incident. Story sounds fascinating.
Your portrait of Dr. Damp leaves much to wonder about, not least the fact that he is employing a woman condemned to the madhouse for murder.
Oh wow! This sounds really interesting.