Review - Lion To Get Her by Lynn Red (Grayslake: Kindle World & Jamesburg Shifters #8)

Lion To Get Her

Grayslake: More Than Mated Kindle World

Jamesburg Shifters #8

by Lynn Red

Goodreads blurb:  Who the hell has time for love? Lion-shifting Laney Langston, Redby Township’s assistant librarian, sure doesn’t. Between juggling book clubs, story time for the town’s cubs, and her increasingly neurotic best friend, she’s got just about all she can handle.

The last thing she needs is more drama in her life, but when a half-naked lion is found asleep in the library she feels stirring in places she’d really rather not stir in a public library.

Rip Black is one big, bad lion who is sick of the spotlight. Once he was a firebrand who fought endlessly for shifter rights, but lately this muscled-up alpha is just looking for somewhere to hide. As luck—or fate—would have it, he chose the “S” section of the Redby Public Library to take a nap.

When he wakes up with one supremely irritated Laney hovering above him, Rip realizes in the blink of an eye that everything he’s ever wanted is right here in Redby... and he ain’t gonna stop until he gets EXACTLY what he wants.

***This sexy, steamy, hilarious lion-shifter romance is the crossover between Jamesburg and Grayslake that you’ve always wanted...and now it’s gonna make you ROAR!*** 

About the Author:  Lynn doesn't love anything more than being wrapped up in a hammock with her corgi on her stomach and a pile of her favorite books to read. And by "pile of books" she means "a kindle."

She loves all sorts of romance, but especially ones that feature big, strong alphas who will stop at nothing to prove themselves to the women who melt their hearts.

Sign up for her mailing list to keep up with new releases and get free reads and exclusive excerpts!

AKA Anya Karin

Connect with Lynn:

~ Website ~ Facebook ~

My Thoughts - 4 out of 5 Unicorns - I really liked it!!

***Received the ebook for an honest review

The cover is fierce.  My favorite shifter covers always have both sides of the shifter and cats are my fav!

This fits into the Jamesburg series and the Grayslake kindle world.  You can read this standalone and enjoy it, but it may help if you know a certain wolf shifter and his shenanigans by reading the other Jamesburg books.  I’m bad because I read this over a month ago, but then all heck broke lose and I was side tracked.

This has Lynn Red’s usual quirky characters which I find unique and fun to read.  I always have some laughs reading her stories.  Laney and Rip are no exceptions.  I also loved the cubs in the library :)

I recommend this book to all of Lynn’s fans especially if you love the Jamesburg shifter series.

Interested in reading???

~ Amazon ~

Other books by Lynn Red I’ve Read :)

See my review of Bear Arms

See my review of Bearing It All

See my review of Can’t Bear to Hide

See my review of Can’t Bear to Run

See my review of Bear With Me

See my review of Bearly Breathing

See my review of Bear Me Away

See my review of Lion in Wait

See my review of Werewolf Wedding

See my review of Horns for the Harem Girl

Review @JessieDauthor - Surrendering to the Dragon by Jessie Donovan (Stonefire Dragons #7)

Surrendering to the Dragon

Stonefire Dragons #7

by Jessie Donovan

Goodreads blurb:  Nikki Gray has reason to hate the dragon hunters—they brutally murdered one of her friends a year ago. Not only that, they have caused havoc on several of the British dragon clans, injuring countless individuals. Determined to defeat the hunters by kidnaping their leader, Simon Bourne, she teams up with a human male in the British special forces. After six months of work, they’re finally ready to carry out their mission and capture Bourne. However, one kiss derails their plans and changes their lives forever.

At the request of his sister, Rafe Hartley agrees to work with the dragon-shifters. After all, the dragon hunters are a pain in his arse and the fewer of them, the better. The woman assigned as his Stonefire liaison, however, is the same one he hurt four years ago in Afghanistan. Pushing aside their past, they learn to work together. Yet with each passing encounter, he is drawn to the lively, stubborn woman. He finally gives in to his attraction and kisses the dragonwoman. What follows turns his life upside down.

Rafe and Nikki must now decide what to do with their futures. Can they still work together and find a way to capture Simon Bourne? Or, will their fated kiss result in a divide that can’t be healed? 

About the Author:  Jessie Donovan wrote her first story at age five, and after discovering the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey in junior high, realized that people actually wanted to read stories like those floating around inside her head. From there on out, she was determined to tap into her over-active imagination and write a book someday.

After living abroad for five years and earning degrees in Japanese, Anthropology, and Secondary Education, she buckled down and finally wrote her first full-length book. While that story will never see the light of day, it laid the world-building groundwork of what would become her debut paranormal romance, Blaze of Secrets.

Jessie loves to interact with readers. When not reading or traipsing around some foreign country on a shoestring, can often be found on Facebook and Twitter.

The one thing you'll find in all of Jessie's stories are strong, capable women and the people who love them.

Connect with Jessie:

~ Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads ~

My Thoughts - 5 out of 5 Unicorns - I loved it!!!

***Received the ebook from the author for an honest review

The cover is awesome as I’ve come to expect for one of Jessie’s book.

This is the 7^th Stonefire Dragons book.  I have read all of Jessie’s dragon shifter stories.  I recommend reading all the books and in the order they were written including the new Lochguard spin off too!  This is a adult series due to the steamy content.

I can only say this about 2 or 3 authors, but I have yet to read a book of Jessie’s that I have not thoroughly enjoyed.  I look forward to every book that comes out in most of her series’.  I think there is only one that I haven’t read yet, but I have already bought them all.  I will be picking up this book in the future too.  My free time has been very scarce recently, so I didn’t get to sit down and read this straight through like I would have loved to. 

This story is Rafe and Nikki’s story.  I’ve been looking forward to Nikki’s story as there have been hints toward their mating in other books.  This book was packed with action as all of her books are, but it also has its built in humor that makes me laugh as I read.  I always get attached to the characters and invested in what happens to them.  Loved this book!

I highly recommend the whole series to any shifter lover especially if you love dragons.  I can’t wait to see what Jessie comes up with next!!!

Interested in reading???

~ Amazon ~ AmazonUK ~

Stonefire Dragons series!!!

Sacrificed to the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons#1)

See my review of Part One!!!

See my review of Part Two!!!

See my review of Part Three!!!

See my review of Part Four!!!

Seducing the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons # 2)

See my review of Part One!!!

See my review of Part Two!!!

See my review of Part Three!!!

See my review of Part Four!!!

See my review of Revealing the Dragons (Book #3)

Healed by the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons #4)

See my review of Part One!!!

See my review of Part Two!!!

See my review of Part Three!!!

See my review of Part Four!!!

Reawakening the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons #5)

See my review of Part One!!!!

See my review of Part Two!!!!

See my review of Part Three!!!!

See my review of Part Four!!!!

See my review of Loved by the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons #6)

Lochguard Highland Dragons Series!!!

See my review of The Dragon’s Dilemma (Book 1)

See my review of The Dragon Guardian (Book 2)

Friday Reveal & Giveaway @Month9Books - The Perilous Journey of the Much Too Spontaneous Girl by Leigh Statham

Today Leigh Statham and Month9Books are revealing the cover for THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE MUCH TOO SPONTANEOUS GIRL, book 2 in THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE NOT SO INNOCUOUS GIRL Series! Which releases October 11, 2016! Check out the gorgeous cover and enter to be one of the first readers to receive an eGalley!!

Here’s a message from the author.

Why I love the cover: Hello, GOGGLES! I love how artist Christel Michiels captures Marguerite's amazing fashion sense and tech gadgets. Plus this cover, like the first, is just the right mix of danger and fun. Who doesn't love leather gear cuffs and a good tophat?

On to the reveal! 

 Title: THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE MUCH TOO SPONTANEOUS GIRL (THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE NOT SO INNOCUOUS GIRL #2)

Author: Leigh Statham

Pub. Date: October 11, 2016

Publisher: Month9Books

Format: Paperback & eBook

Find it: Amazon | B&N | TBD |Goodreads

Lady Marguerite Vadnay and her trusty automaton, Outil, have settled into life in New France rather well. Marguerite is top of the class at flight school and her future as an aerpilot is nearly secure. She has everything she wants— except a commission on the pirate hunting dirigible The Renegade. Using every card in her aristocratic arsenal, Marguerite wiggles her way onto the finest warship France has to offer. But as usual, Marguerite’s plans endanger the lives of those she holds dear— only this time no one else is going to save them. As Marguerite and Outil set off on a rescue mission they may not return from, she finally realizes it’s time to reorder her cogs.

This steampunk adventure is littered with facts from The Golden Age of Piracy and follows (not too closely) some of the lives and adventures of the brave men and women who sailed the seas as privateers, pirates and soldiers.

Leigh Statham was raised in the wilds of rural Idaho, but found her heart in New York City. She worked as a waitress, maid, artist, math teacher, nurse, web designer, art director, thirty-foot inflatable pig and mule wrangler before she settled down in the semi-quiet role of wife, mother and writer. She resides in North Carolina with her husband, four children, five chickens and two suspected serial killer cats. If the air is cool and the sun is just coming up over the horizon, you can find her running the streets of her small town, plotting her next novel with the sort of intensity that will one day get her hit by a car.

Where you can find Leigh: 
 Website |Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

1 winner will receive an eBook of THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE NOT SO INNOCUOUS GIRL & an eGalley of THE PERILOUS JOURNEY OF THE MUCH TOO SPONTANEOUS GIRL (when available), International.

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Cover Reveal @ChristineAmsden - Kaitlin's Tale by Christine Amsden (A Cassie Scot Companion)

Kaitlin Mayer is on the run from the father of her baby – a vampire who wants her to join him in deadly eternity. Terrified for her young son, she seeks sanctuary with the Hunters Guild. Yet they have their own plans for her son, and her hopes of safety are soon shattered.

When she runs into Matthew Blair, an old nemesis with an agenda of his own, she dares to hope for a new escape. But Matthew is a telepath, and Kaitlin's past is full of dark secrets she never intended to reveal.

*Companion to the Cassie Scot Series

Buy Links - Coming Soon

Ebook Release:  May 16, 2016

Print Release: July 15, 2016

Audiobook Release: TBA

 

Facebook Launch Party

May 16 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. US-CST

https://www.facebook.com/events/249660888702652/

 

The Cassie Scot Series

Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective (Cassie Scot #1)

·Amazon

·Barnes and Noble

·Audible.com

Secrets and Lies (Cassie Scot #2)

·Amazon

·Barnes and Noble

·Audible

Mind Games (Cassie Scot #3)

·Amazon

·Barnes and Noblet

·Audible

Stolen Dreams (Cassie Scot #4)

·Amazon

·Barnes and Noble

·Audible

Madison's Song (a Cassie Scot Companion)

·Amazon

·Barnes and Noble

·Audible

About the Author

Christine Amsden has been writing fantasy and science fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves to write and it is her dream that others will be inspired by this love and by her stories. Speculative fiction is fun, magical, and imaginative but great speculative fiction is about real people defining themselves through extraordinary situations. Christine writes primarily about people and relationships, and it is in this way that she strives to make science fiction and fantasy meaningful for everyone.

At the age of 16, Christine was diagnosed with Stargardt’s Disease, which scars the retina and causes a loss of central vision. She is now legally blind, but has not let this slow her down or get in the way of her dreams.

Christine currently lives in the Kansas City area with her husband, Austin, who has been her biggest fan and the key to her success. In addition to being a writer, she's a freelance editor, mom, and foster mom.

Social Media Links:

· Website

· Newsletter

· Blog

· Facebook

· Twitter

· Goodreads

· Google+

Friday Reveal & Giveaway @Month9Books - Scepter of Fire by Vicki L. Weavil (Crown of Ice series)

Today Vicki L. Weavil and Month9Books are revealing the cover and first chapter for SCEPTER OF FIRE, a companion novel in the CROWN OF ICE Series! Which releases October 18, 2016! Check out the gorgeous cover and enter to be one of the first readers to receive an eGalley!!

Here’s a message from the author.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier,” SCEPTER OF FIRE is a companion book to CROWN OF ICE, my retelling of “The Snow Queen.” It takes place a few years later, in the midst of an invasion by a power-mad foreign emperor, and includes most of the characters from CROWN OF ICE.

However the protagonist in SCEPTER OF FIRE is someone new—17yo Varna Lund, an ugly duckling among swans, who’s certain her destiny lies in taking on the mantle of village healer after the death of her aged mentor. But when a young soldier enlists her aid to care for his injured friend, Varna and her sister, Gerda, are catapulted into the war that has engulfed their country.

Forced to flee enemy troops with her sister and the two soldiers, Varna must also evade her mentor, Sten Rask—revealed to be a powerful mage seeking the enchanted mirror hidden by a former Snow Queen.

To protect the mirror, and their country, Varna, Gerda, and the soldiers join forces with a sorceress, an enchanted reindeer, a brilliant scholar, and a young woman traveling with a wolf. But Varna faces a terrible temptation. Promised beauty and power by the devilishly handsome Rask, she must choose—achieve her own desires, or protect a society that has never embraced her.

The Cover:

I love how this cover matches the cover of CROWN OF ICE, and yet is different enough to set the books apart. Both feature striking young women, but whereas CROWN is glazed with icy blue tones, SCEPTER is saturated with reds, golds and other fiery hues. If you look closely, you can even see flames reflected in the girl’s eyes—very appropriate for a book that deals with sorcerers who wield fire. Although the cover model is not an “ugly duckling,” she does accurately reflect the protagonist during one portion of the book, which I will not reveal at this point due to “spoilers”! 

Title: SCEPTER OF FIRE

Author: Vicki L. Weavil

Pub. Date: October 18, 2016

Publisher: Month9Books

Format: Paperback & eBook

Find it: Amazon | B&N | TBD |Goodreads

Sharp as pine needles, and twice as bitter, seventeen-year-old Varna Lund’s determined to become a healer. At least patients don’t care about her looks, unlike the young men who spurn

her for eighteen-year-old Gerda or even her younger sisters. An ugly duckling among swans,

Varna hopes to bury her passionate nature in useful work.

Her healing skills are put to the test when Varna encounters Erik Stahl, a young soldier who’s

deserted the battlefield to carry his injured friend, Anders Nygaard, to safety. Varna, enlisting the

aid of Gerda, cares for Anders in secret.

But a brutal betrayal catapults the four young people into life on the run, where Varna discovers

her old mentor is actually a powerful wizard. Seeking the enchanted mirror hidden by a former

Snow Queen, the wizard hopes to use Gerda as a pawn in his plan to aid the invading emperor.

Other forces ally against the wizard, including an auburn-haired sorceress, an enchanted

reindeer, a brilliant scholar, and a young woman traveling with a wolf. Along with the soldiers

and Gerda, they vow to prevent the mirror from falling into enemy hands. But tempted with promises of beauty and power from her now devilishly handsome mentor, Varna must choose

between her own desires and the good of a society that’s never embraced her.

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Ugly Duckling” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”,

SCEPTER OF FIRE is a companion book to CROWN OF ICE.

Vicki L. Weavil was raised in a farming community in Virginia, where her life was shaped by a wonderful family, the culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and an obsession with reading. She holds a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Virginia, a Masters in Library Science from Indiana University, and a Masters in Liberal Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. After working as a librarian at the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center, and the Museum of Television & Radio (now the Paley Center for Media) in NYC, she is currently the Director for Library Services at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Vicki loves good writing in any genre, and has been known to read seven books in as many days. She enjoys travel, gardening, and the arts. Vicki lives in North Carolina with her husband and some very spoiled cats. A member of SCBWI, Vicki is represented by Fran Black at Literary Counsel, NY, NY.

Where you can find Vicki:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr

1 winner will receive an eBook of CROWN OF ICE & an eGalley of SCEPTER OF FIRE (when available), International.

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Friday Reveal & Giveaway @Month9Books - un/FAIR by Steven Harper

Today Steven Harper and Month9Books are revealing the cover and first chapter for un/FAIR which releases September 6, 2016! Check out the gorgeous cover and enter to be one of the first readers to receive an eGalley!!

Here’s a quick introduction from the author.

When the doctor said my son Aran was autistic, my world turned upside-down.  I spent years playing special games with him to help him understand the world better.  But in the process, I learned to understand him.  While I struggled to pull him into our world, he quietly pulled me into his.  This book came out of that.

People always ask authors--including me--why I got a certain scene on the cover or why I didn't put a particular character on the front.  The truth is, authors almost never draw the book covers.  We get a picture of it by email, and it's always a surprise, like getting an early birthday present.  Sometimes the present is a wool sweater you want to wad into a ball and stuff under the bed.  Sometimes the present is a toy you didn't know you wanted until you got it.  The cover for un/FAIR was the latter.  Ryan looks very much like I imagined him in my head, and the salamanders creeping down the top make it clear this isn't a happy fairy book.  The artist even snuck in a reference to the Fibonacci sequence!  I loved getting this one.

On to the reveal! 

Title: un/FAIR
Author: Steven Harper
Pub. Date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Month9Books
Format: Paperback & eBook
Find it: Amazon | B&N | TBD | Goodreads

It's difficult enough to live in the neighborhood "freakazoid" house. It's even more difficult when you're autistic and neither your family nor best friend really understands you. So when Ryan November wakes up on his eleventh birthday with the unexpected ability to see the future, he braces himself for trouble. But even his newfound power doesn't anticipate that the fair folk--undines, salamanders, gnomes, and sylphs--want him dead, dead, dead. Ryan races to defend himself and his family against unrelenting danger from the fairy realm so he can uncover the truth about his family history--and himself. Except as Ryan's power grows, the more enticing the fairy realm becomes, forcing him to choose between order and chaos, power and family. And for an autistic boy, such choices are never cut and dry.

Excerpt

Un/FAIR

PART I

CHAPTER ONE

Ryan November woke up on his eleventh birthday and knew he’d be able to see the future by breakfast. He rolled over. His clock said 6:56, so he couldn’t get up for four more minutes. That was all right. He didn’t mind waiting.

Not until he saw the string.

The string was made of liquid silver and lay piled in the exact center of a perfect square of May sunshine on his bedroom floor. It gleamed where the sunlight struck it. Ryan stared. He had never seen it before. The messy string looked out of place in the perfectly neat room. In Ryan’s room, every piece of clothing hung in the closet or lay folded in a dresser drawer. Every book sat in alphabetical order on the shelf. Every toy and video game stood arranged in rows more orderly than troops of soldiers. The squiggle of silver string on the floor made Ryan’s head itch on the inside, where he couldn’t scratch. He wanted to pick the string up and put it away.

The clock stopped him. The little red numbers read 6:57 now — three more minutes to go, even though he wanted to examine the string very badly.

Maybe he could find a way around the problem. Automatically, Ryan ran a flowchart in his mind. If he had written it down, it would have looked like this:

[See Figure 1.]

The chart put him at “Stay in bed,” so he lay there, trying not to scratch his head or squirm with suspense, until at last the numbers flicked to 8:00. Ryan pushed the blankets aside and hurried over to pick up the string, still squiggled across the floor. The moment he touched it, the string moved on its own. It jumped into his hand like a little snake. He felt a cold, tingly sensation, and the string was gone. Instead, there was a perfect circle of raised skin around the palm of his left hand.

“Wow,” Ryan said.

Ryan liked circles. He liked their symmetry, the way you couldn’t tell where they started or ended, the way every part was like every other part. He traced the circle with his finger and smiled. He could have a circle with him wherever he went. Then, because Saturday was a brown day, he put on brown cargo pants, a brown shirt, and brown socks before pulling on his shoes and heading for the stairs. Ryan had red-blond hair that he tried to keep combed but always got away from him, a thin sprinkling of freckles that thickened in the summer, and somber eyes that his best friend Alison always described as “blue pools of inexactitude,” which bugged Ryan because he didn’t know what it meant. At the last second, Ryan remembered to grab his cell phone from his dresser. The circle had almost made him forget. There were already two text messages on the screen:

Happy Shared B-Day, R!!

And

Happy day kiddo!

He texted back, his thumbs jumping across the keypad like precise, tiny frogs:

Happy Shared Birthday to you, too, Alison!

and Thanks, Mom.

Ryan never felt quite right abbreviating, so he didn’t. Then he traced the circle on his hand one more time and tromped downstairs.

There were fourteen wooden steps leading down to the kitchen. Each one had nine wooden pegs pounded in a straight line across the front edge, and Ryan automatically counted them all at a glance. 126 pegs, just like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. He liked the number 126. The digits added up to nine, which was also the number of pegs in each step. The number 126 was a good number to start the day with. He jumped over step number twelve. Ryan didn’t like the number twelve. It was divisible by too many other numbers — itself, six, four, three, two, and one. That was half the numbers between one and twelve. Ryan always felt like twelve would keep dividing itself until it vanished entirely, and he didn’t want to step on a stair that might disappear.

Ryan rounded the turn in the staircase and emerged in the kitchen. It was big and airy, and right now it smelled like butter and hot batter. Aunt Zara was on breakfast duty this morning, and today she had settled on pancakes, Ryan’s favorite. Ryan quietly took his usual place on the bench that ran down the long wooden table. Everything in the Cottage was wood — walls, floor, cupboards, ceiling. Wood hinges held the doors on, and wood latches held them shut. Raw exposed beams ran up to support the roof, and the shingles were made of flat wood. The entire house was held together with wooden pegs. Ryan’s dad boasted that not one scrap of steel held the house together. Instead, the builders had used copper and plastic and ceramic. Ryan liked this. Metals like iron and steel felt heavy and harsh and made his stomach queasy.

“My, my. Happy birthday, Ryan,” Aunt Zara said, and put a plate of pancakes in front of him. Ryan tensed a little. Food you could count had to come in even numbers. Mom always remembered this when she cooked, but Aunt Zara sometimes forgot, and it could turn a simple meal into a disaster. Quickly he counted. Two pancakes, two pieces of sausage. Ryan sighed with relief. It would be bad to get the wrong number of pancakes on his birthday.

Ryan glanced up at Aunt Zara. She favored blue blouses and long skirts that flowed together like waterfalls. She wore her blond hair loose around her shoulders except for two blue barrettes that kept her bangs out of her face. She had a long nose and a wide mouth. At the moment, she was smiling with her teeth showing. Her voice had an upbeat tone to it, and she moved like her body was relaxed. Ryan added these things up and decided Aunt Zara was happy. The appropriate response, Ryan had learned, was a smile. So he smiled. Then he remembered that she had just given him something — his breakfast. It meant he had to say something.

“Thank you,” he said slowly, and tensed slightly, wondering if he had gotten it wrong. It seemed like he got it wrong a lot.

“You’re welcome.” Aunt Zara tried to pat his shoulder, but Ryan ducked away. “Sorry, sweetie. I forget.”

Ryan didn’t like it when people touched him. It felt beyond weird to feel their skin sliding over his in ways he couldn’t control. And a hug felt like being suffocated in wet blankets. When he was little, he had screamed and hit. Now he ducked and dodged.

Aunt Zara headed back for the stove. Ryan was turning to his pancakes, silver fork poised, when his world flickered for a second. Everything grew brighter, as if someone had doubled the sunlight, and he heard a knock. A dark-haired girl poked her head through the screen door and said, “Is he still eating breakfast?” and her voice had a strange, ghostly quality to it. Then the extra light vanished and everything snapped back to normal. Ryan realized no time had passed at all.

A knock came, and a dark-haired girl poked her head through the screen door. “Is he still eating breakfast?” Ryan stopped eating to stare. He had just seen this happen twice.

“Come in, Alison,” Aunt Zara sang out. “You’re just in time for pancakes.”

Alison Ferrier stalked through the door and angled across the kitchen to the table, her skinny legs and sharp elbows flopping carelessly in all directions. Even her ponytail looked sharp. Ryan watched her, caught in an awful fascination. One day she was going to puncture something; he was sure of it. Alison was Ryan’s best — his only — friend, and she lived in a tiny trailer in the woods with three sisters and two brothers and one mother (making seven people total, and seven was a prime number). Like him, she was turning eleven today (another prime number, and if you added one and one, you got two). It took two people to be friends, and two was the only even prime number. Ryan liked that.

Alison folded herself onto the bench beside him. “Two pancakes, two sausages,” she said, looking at his plate. “Will it bug you if I have three and three?”

“No,” Ryan said. “That plate over there” — he pointed — “has one pancake on it, so that makes everything Fibonacci.” He said the word the Italian way: feeb-oh-NAH-chee.

“Fibonacci?”

“You know. Zero and one make one, then one and one make two, two and one make three.”

“Oh, right. Cool.”

“My, my. Doesn’t your family feed you?” Aunt Zara asked, setting a plate down in front of her.

“Nope,” Alison said, her mouth already full, and Ryan couldn’t tell if this was a lie or not. He thought about asking, then decided not to and ate more pancakes instead.

“Today is our birthday,” Ryan said. “May first.”

“Yep.” Alison grinned, showing a big mouthful of smooshed-up Fibonacci pancake. Ryan laughed. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I don’t know,” Ryan said.

“Your dad went down to the lake for some early fishing,” Aunt Zara said from the stove. “Aunt Ysabeth and your mother are wrapping birthday presents. So stay out of your mother’s bedroom, Ryan, if you don’t mind.”

There was another flick. The world brightened again, and this time Aunt Zara dropped a spatula. It clattered on the stove. Alison spilled her milk, creating a chaotic mess that rushed over the table and dripped into Ryan’s lap.

The world flicked back to normal. Aunt Zara dropped her spatula. It clattered on the stove. Alison reached for her milk glass. Ryan flinched at the upcoming mess. Chaos was the worst. It hurt his stomach and made his head feel like it was going to explode. So he reached out with his own hand and slapped hers down, pinning it to the table.

Steven Harper/Piziks is the author of multiple fantasy and science fiction novels written for adults, notably the Clockwork Empire and Silent Empire series for Roc as Steven Harper and movie novelizations and tie ins for Pocket Books as Steven Piziks (IDENTITY, THE EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, GHOST WHISPERER: THE PLAUGE ROOM). He's also the father of an autistic son.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive an eGalley of un/FAIR. International.

a Rafflecopter giveaway