LOVE FAERIES? New Excerpt from STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper

"The latest stand-alone novel in Dani Harper’s Grim Series will delight old and new fans alike, transporting them to the ancient fae realm beneath the modern human world,
where magic rules and menace abounds…"

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was back in July to see Storm Crossed named as one of the 3 finalists for the PRISM award in Urban Fantasy! But it was nothing compared to the feelings that overwhelmed me on September 30th when I found out that my story had actually WON!

I'm still a little dazed, but truly thankful. Much appreciation goes to the organizers and judges of the PRISM - it's a lot of work to put on a writing competition. Most of all, I'm grateful to my wonderful readers who have taken this story to their hearts.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Heir to a noble fae house, Trahern is forced to watch helplessly as his twin brother is cruelly changed into a grim—a death dog—as punishment for falling in love with the wrong person. Trahern doesn’t believe love exists, but he will do anything to keep his brother alive—even join the Wild Hunt and ride the night skies of the human world.

Lissy Santiago-Callahan believes in love but has no time for it. She’s busy juggling her career as an academic and her home life as a single mom to a young son with Asperger’s. Her hectic life in sleepy Eastern Washington is made even more chaotic with the sudden arrival of a demanding fae and his unusual “dog.”

Mortal and immortal have nothing in common, and the attraction between Lissy and Trahern surprises them both. But when their desire places Lissy and her child in the path of a deadly faery feud, will the connection last, or will their separate worlds prove too great a divide?

EXCERPT:

The ear-piercing screams would have done a pterodactyl proud as nine-year-old Fox entered total meltdown mode in the produce department of Naturally Yours Organics. As usual, the din won either disapproving glares or pained expressions of sympathy from other shoppers. Today the glares were in the majority. In a last-ditch effort to defuse the situation, Lissy sat down on the hardwood floor next to her son’s flailing body. “Just breathe, bud. Breathe in and out.” She kept her voice calm and matter-of-fact, even as she slid his beloved Squishy Bear close to him. Sometimes the soft toy was a life preserver in a storm of stimulation that he couldn’t process fast enough.

Not today.

“It’s okay, we’re going now.” She got to her feet and hefted Fox, all fifty-one struggling pounds of him, onto her hip. He was small for his age—what on earth would she do when he got bigger? Either rent a hand truck or get a hip replacement. Especially when he continued to thrash like a netted tuna all the way to the front of the store. Once she’d taken a few steps outside, however, he went completely limp, his shrill screams subsiding into strange, silent sobbing, punctuated only by the occasional hiccup. Lissy remembered plenty of occasions those first few years when she’d sobbed all the way to the car, too.

She settled his rag-doll body into his booster seat, placed his bear and his favorite video game within reach, then half sat, half collapsed into the driver’s seat. The closing of the car door shut the world out with a satisfying clunch, and Lissy imagined a baseball umpire yelling, Safe! 

Taking a couple of deep breaths in the blissful quiet, she turned the key and switched on the air-conditioning. The car was parked in the shade, but temperatures climbed early at this time of year. Besides, cool air often relaxed Fox, no matter what time of year it was. She checked on her son in the rearview mirror. He lay unmoving, his blond head turned away from the window, face pale and his ever-serious blue eyes staring. He looked exhausted. Although he lost control much less often now, an episode still took a toll on him.

Truth be told, it took a helluva toll on her, too. But Melissa Santiago-Callahan would never give up. The word quit just wasn’t in her vocabulary. Sometimes, though, she couldn’t help but wish that things were different—

She had been close to finishing her doctorate in geophysics when she met Chief Warrant Officer Matt Lovell, on leave from Fort Carson.

Funny, thoughtful, intelligent, and every bit as driven to succeed as she was, the tall helicopter pilot fell hard for her—and she for him. On the six-month anniversary of their first date, they were engaged. Two months after she said yes, he was deployed to Iraq. And one month later he was gone. Death came for him not in the skies that he loved so much but on the ground in an IED explosion.

The shock to her heart was enormous. To go from such a high-intensity relationship to nothing in the space of a heartbeat was hard enough. But even as she swung between soul-searing pain and frozen numbness, Lissy discovered she was pregnant.

And seven months later, Fox was born by emergency C-section.

Despite his abrupt introduction to the world, her son was healthy and strong. Lissy was determined to be the very best parent possible, and if the universe was fair, it should have worked. She should have been able to shower Fox with love and have everything turn out fine. 

But by the time his third birthday rolled around, she realized that her beautiful son was different from other children—

.....

STORM CROSSED by Dani Harper is available on Amazon in these formats - Kindle ebook, paperback, Audiobook and MP3-CD.

https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Crossed-Grim-Book-4-ebook/dp/B073TTTGZD

Check out all Dani Harper's novels or sign up for her newsletter at www.daniharper.com

Bring It Back(list) Feature: THE GRIM SERIES by Dani Harper - plus a Sale!

LEGEND · LORE · LOVE · MAGIC

You'll find them all in my Grim Series. These full-length novels combine Celtic myth with faery lore from Wales – but one way or another, the characters land in modern-day America!

Why "Grim"? One of my favorite Welsh folktales concerns a legendary canine with countless names: The Black Dog, the Gwyllgi, the Barghest, Black Shuck, or THE GRIM. This spectral creature is said to resemble a giant mastiff, larger than any living dog, and its eyes are often fiery red or gold - and glowing!

The legend dates all the way back to Celtic times, and tales of the beast are told in many parts of the British Isles. Often associated with the Fae, the Grim acts as the herald of Death, and those who see the animal are usually destined to die very soon. The dog appears without warning, follows or even chases people – yet vanishes without a trace. 

However, the Grim never threatens the innocent. In some tales, the creature is an instrument of justice, hunting down betrayers and murderers. And sometimes the otherworldly beast protects children or guards lone travelers. 

Stories like these made me wonder... What if the creature had a conscience, a sense of right and wrong? What if the Grim didn’t mindlessly follow its mission? What if the Black Dog didn't want to BE Death's Messenger? 

That's when the characters showed up and demanded I write their stories!

ABOUT THE GRIM SERIES:

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel.

The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

Storm Crossed won the 2019 Golden Quill Award for Fantasy Romance

KINDLE EBOOK SALE:

Storm Warrior, Storm Bound, 

Storm Warned, and Storm Crossed

by Dani Harper

Just 99¢ each, but hurry!

Sale ends soon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074BRZ9NK

It was a Dark and Stormy Night... a Bring It Back(list) feature by Dani Harper

An excerpt from
STORM WARNED, 
Book 3 of the Grim Series:

The sound of shattering glass woke him, and for a moment Liam didn’t know where he was. Another crash from somewhere above cleared some of the sleep from his brain, but the roaring in his ears continued. Wind, he realized suddenly. A hellacious storm was shaking the entire house to its century-old foundations. He’d fallen asleep in front of the damn TV again, but it was off and so were the lights. Power must be—

Twin bolts of lightning struck close by, and instinct had him diving for the floor behind the couch just as something exploded in the yard. Before he could take another breath, thunder battered his senses until he was forced to clamp his hands over his ears. The floor beneath him vibrated and shards of glass and wood rained down around him. And something huge, dark and heavy came crashing down beside him like a damn refrigerator, narrowly missing him.

This is Book 3 but 
every story in the series
can stand alone.

When the tumult finally died away, lightning continued to flare and flicker, enabling him to see part of a tree impaling the living room wall, stripped of all branches like a giant’s spear—and right where Brewster the Mooster had always hung. Uncle Conell’s ancient trophy had been named by a three-year-old Liam, and was practically part of the family. Now the searing flashes of light revealed the enormous stuffed head upside down mere inches from to Liam’s hiding place. Its monstrous antlers had been driven into the floorboards, and one glass eye hung free like something out of a horror movie.

Every window in the room had shattered, and the force of the wind drove the rain sideways through the opening, the furious drops soaking everything.

Cautiously, Liam rose and felt his way to the kitchen where a collection of candles, flashlights, and battery-filled lanterns collected dust on top of the fridge. He grabbed a lantern, and tucked a small penlight in his pocket, but with the near-continuous flashes from the storm, he quickly realized there was little point in turning either light on. No point going upstairs either—the sound alone was enough to tell him that the windows were gone up there as well, and he couldn’t do anything more about that than about the broken glass that blanketed the living room. 

Suddenly the house shook hard enough that pictures fell from walls in every room, as if to underscore that this was no ordinary thunderstorm. Tornadoes were rare here but not unheard of, and Liam decided to err on the side of caution, taking shelter in the bottom of a solidly-built hallway closet. 

Whose bright idea was it to put the door to the damn cellar on the outside of the house?

Image: Bigstock.com

From the back cover:

When Caris’s unearthly musical talent attracts the attention of the Wild Hunt, the Welsh farm girl is stolen away to serve as a faery grim, a herald of death. Two centuries later, she’s finally escaped back to the human world—and into the present-day life of a reclusive and heartbroken American musician.

Music was Liam’s whole life—until a crushing betrayal left him desperate to flee the public eye. Yet long-dormant passions awaken within him after a powerful storm strands a beautiful, strong-willed woman on his isolated farm. When a Fae prince bent on ruling both human and faery realms threatens Caris’s life, Liam must decide if he can finally believe in love again, not just for her sake—but for the sake of two worlds.

* * * * *

LEGEND ∙ LORE ∙ LOVE ∙ MAGIC

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim.

Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

THE GRIM SERIES BY DANI HARPER

Available in paperback, Kindle ebook and Audiobook

You can check out and purchase ANY of Dani’s books on her Amazon Author Page: 

https://www.amazon.com/Dani-Harper/e/B004FD8RV2

The Magic of Paper

September brings many things to love. There’s the final harvest from our vegetable garden, the glorious arrival of Pumpkin Spice Coffee, and the opportunity to enjoy some quality time outdoors without frying to a crisp. 

Best of all, the month of September is perfectly placed between my two favorite seasons, Halloween and Back-to-School.

Back-to-School? Yup, it's officially classed as a season in my mind, and I look forward to it. Like the classic Staples ad used to sing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." 

Yet it’s not because I have kids heading off to class and I'm anticipating some peace and quiet. I have 2 dogs, 30+ chickens, 2 roosters and a neighborhood with many ATV enthusiasts, children, feral cats, and a drummer who lives next door. “Peace and quiet” is definitely not in my future.

Nope, the real magic of September is in all the wonderful office supplies that go on sale just as the delightful Halloween decorations appear!

And my favorite? 

PAPER!

Lined, unlined, reams, pads, loose-leaf, you name it... I’ve never met a piece of paper I didn’t like. It’s purest zen for me to wander the aisles of Staples or Office Depot, inhaling the heady combined scent of all that marvelously pristine stationery.

Don't even get me started on sticky notes.

At any given time, there are enough supplies socked away in my crowded office to outfit a small classroom. But the appeal of it has nothing to do with school (my apologies to teachers everywhere) and everything to do with 

P-O-S-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y

Truth:  Ever since I was a kid, I’ve found an amazing bliss in simply contemplating the sheer potential of all that magnificently blank material. I find myself smiling, my brain kicks into high gear and my imagination begins whirling away at the very thought of ALL THE STORIES just waiting to be written. 

It’s a library that hasn’t happened yet, a bookstore on the verge of existence. 

See? Magic.

And in that magic lies every writer's hope: that if I work really hard and keep my mind open, maybe, just maybe, some of the magic will leach out of the paper and into the words I write.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE GRIM SERIES by Dani Harper

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

See ALL Dani's novels on her Amazon Author Page

Sirens and Mermaids - Beautiful but Deadly

Sea Goddess mural in Monteray, California
Image: Bigstock.com

A new TV series, SIREN, premiered in March of this year and by May it was signed for a second season. With it comes renewed interest in sirens and mermaids, two legendary sea creatures who have merged into one over the centuries. 

In modern times we think of sirens as glamorous women who captivate men with their beauty, or deliberately lure and seduce them into forgetting their own better judgement. The term "siren" comes to us from Greek mythology and literature, in which the Sirens were once handmaidens to Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demeter. When Persephone was kidnapped and taken to the underworld to marry the dark god Hades, Demeter blamed her handmaidens for allowing this to happen to their mistress.

As punishment, Demeter marooned the hapless women on a beautiful green island surrounded by treacherous rocks. Any ship that ventured too close to the island would be wrecked so that rescue was impossible. However, merely banishing the women wasn't enough for the vengeful goddess. The women were changed into strange half-human creatures. Still alluringly beautiful, they are sometimes portrayed with bird wings and feet. However, in many versions of the story, they became the first mermaids. While we usually picture them as possessing the head and upper body of a lovely woman and the lower body of a fish or a dolphin, there are some legends where mermaids have legs and appear human.

Demeter gave these unfortunate women unearthly voices and commanded them to sing without ceasing. Sailors in passing ships would hear the sirens' song, and either steer the vessel onto the rocks, or dive from the deck into the sea and drown. Any man that managed to survive the ocean and the rocks would make his way to the island, but find it far from a paradise. So enchanted was he by the siren's songs that he would follow the women wherever they went, forgetting everything else in the world. The hapless sailor would even forget to eat and eventually starve to death. The island became covered with bleached bones.

The Sirenuse Islands in the Mediterranean Sea
Image: Bigstock.com

Embittered by their unfair fate, the Sirens eventually took great pleasure in their cruel task of luring men to their doom. Stories tell that they would often sing passing sailors into a deep sleep. The sirens would then board the ship and kill all the men as they slept, feasting on them for days afterward and tossing their gnawed bones into the ocean—or making musical instruments from them!

The only man to hear the song of the Sirens and live to tell about it was Odysseus (also known as Ulysses). He filled the ears of his men with wax and bound their heads with cloth, so that they would be able to row directly past the deadly island, unaffected by the alluring music. Odysseus himself, however, had not plugged his ears. Instead, he commanded his men to tie him to the mast, so he could hear the Sirens' songs, but not be able to jump overboard or steer the ship into danger.

Demeter's magic had condemned the Sirens to live forever—but only until the day came that a mortal was finally able to resist them. After Odysseus's successful plan, the Sirens were said to have flung themselves into the sea which turned against them and drowned them.

Ever since, maritime superstition claimed that hearing the song of a mermaid is a sign of a particularly ferocious storm approaching, or even spelled certain disaster for the ship.

Mermaids are found in the mythology of many countries, including China, Cambodia, Thailand, Africa, the Phillipines, the Caribbean, Brazil and Japan. They are called merrows in Ireland, and rusalkas in eastern Europe. Undines are freshwater mermaids from Celtic legends, which live in the faery realms of my Grim Series novels. In some myths, the mermaids are kind, even benevolent. In a few stories, a mermaid even falls in love with a human (Hans Christian Anderson’s 1837 tale, “The Little Mermaid, was based on such folklore). Unfortunately, most of these sea creatures behave like the Greek sirens, luring men to their doom, drowning them, and even eating them!

Female figureheads ensured fair weather
Image: Bigstock.com

Christopher Columbus wrote of sighting mermaids on three occasions, noting that they weren't as beautiful as the legends claimed. It's generally accepted that what he actually saw were manatees. However, the infamous pirate Blackbeard also noted in his ship's log several times that he had witnessed mer-folk, and instructed his crew to steer clear of the areas they frequented. And in more modern times, from 1870 to 1967, both sailors and ship's passengers have reported seeing mermaids in the waters off British Columbia, Canada!

Strangely, despite all the ancient tales of dangerous sirens and mermaids (and later, the notion that women on board were just plain bad luck), there was a prevailing belief for at least two thousand years that the sight of a woman's bosom could settle an angry ocean.

By the 1800s, most sailing ships featured an amply-endowed female figurehead on the bow, often with breasts exposed to the salt sea air. And the most popular of all? A mermaid!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE GRIM SERIES by Dani Harper

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

See ALL Dani's novels on her Amazon Author Page

Is There a Monster in Your Lake?

Ah, summer! Flipflops, swimsuits, and picnics by the lake. If you decide to take a dip, however, do you know what might be swimming below you?

My friend, Angela Campbell, wrote a wonderful post on Here Be Magic about her fascination and affection for the Loch Ness Monster. And this month scientists will be sampling the dark waters of that mysterious lake, hoping to tease out a DNA sample. Personally, I’m cheering for them – as a fantasy and paranormal writer, I can’t help but love a good monster!

While we wait for those results, let’s talk about Nessie’s possible relatives. Did you know there are several other legendary water beasts scattered throughout the British Isles? And here in the United States, approximately 22 Nessie-type creatures have been reported! That's enough to give a person pause before swimming in deep waters...

As a Canadian, I can attest that the Great White North has its share of aquatic monsters too – over a dozen, not counting the ones that share waters with the U.S. I've been lucky enough to visit a few of the lakes, and one more than once: Lake Okanagan in British Columbia. About 80 miles long and surrounded by steep-walled mountains, it’s been compared to a coastal fjord with depths of nearly 1,000 feet in some places. 

It certainly seems like an ideal home for the most famous fresh water monster in Canada: “Ogopogo”.

First Nations peoples told stories about the “water demon” or “snake in the lake” long before European settlers arrived, and some native pictographs (rock art) have been found that are said to represent the beast. The Salish people in the area called the lake monster N'ha-a-itk, or “lake demon”. The Chinook peoples called it "wicked one" and "great-beast-on-the-lake." 

In 1924, however, a Vancouver newspaper reporter parodied a British song, “Ogo-Pogo, The Funny Foxtrot” in order to make fun of the reported sightings of the time:

His mother was an earwig, his father was a whale;

A little bit of head. And hardly any tail.

And Ogo-pogo was his name.

Unfortunately, the original native names for the monster were promptly forgotten or ignored, and the mysterious creature has been called Ogopogo ever since!

Reports of the Okanagan monster by Europeans predate the first sightings of Nessie in Scotland by about 60 years. In 1854, settler John MacDougall was in a canoe, swimming his team of horses across the lake. Without warning, the horses were dragged under by forces unseen. He was forced to cut the lead ropes to save the canoe from being pulled under as well, and narrowly escaped. The horses disappeared without a trace.

The first recorded sighting of the creature was by author Susan Allison in 1872. She was watching the lake for signs of her husband returning from a canoe trip, when suddenly she spotted an unusual animal swimming against the waves. And in 1880 a shipment of timbers was going to be floated to Osoyoos. As the hand-sawn timbers were being made into a raft, the monster was seen to raise its head from the water and watch! In 1890, Thomas Shorts was captain of a steam ship on the lake and claimed to have seen a finned creature about sixteen feet long with a head like that of a ram. It disappeared when he turned the ship in its direction.

Sightings have occurred ever since—including some by large groups of people at the same time! On September 16, 1925, a large creature was seen swimming in the lake by about 30 cars of people parked along a beach. (The government subsequently announced that the new ferry being built for travel across the Okanagan Lake would be equipped with special "monster repelling devices".) On July 2, 1947, several boaters reported seeing the monster . On July 17, 1959, a number of people claimed to have seen a huge creature with a long neck for about three minute before it submerged.

Most witness accounts describe a serpentine creature from 12 to 70 feet long. It's usually glossy black or brown and undulates through the water. It isn’t clear if the creature actually has a number of humps or if it just looks like that because of its method of locomotion. The Ogopogo is described as having a goat-like or horse-like head on a very long neck. And sometimes the creature has been spotted emerging from the water and onto the shore!

So is it possible that Okanagan Lake has an undiscovered animal, or “cryptid”, living in it?

Maybe. In 1989, a fisheries scientist named Jim Walker drafted an amendment to British Columbia’s Wildlife Act (http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/news/article_e2a5f54a-5c88-11e7-92c9-2b85dc01e30b.html ). The result was that Ogopogo enjoyed protected wildlife status for several years.

Meanwhile, each summer brings thousands of tourists to the beautiful shores of Lake Okanagan for waterpark fun, for camping and fishing, for beautiful scenery – and maybe, just maybe, a glimpse of its most famous non-human resident.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LEGEND ∙ LORE ∙ LOVE ∙ MAGIC

  

STORM WARRIOR, STORM BOUND, STORM WARNED, STORM CROSSED

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

THE GRIM SERIES

See ALL Dani's novels on her Amazon Author Page

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Here Be News

New Releases:

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Other News:

Image: Bigstock.com

Winners! We have winners! 

The giveaway associated with the "TALK NERDY TO ME" blog post has come to a close.

Congrats to Bianca N (wins a Star Wars book light), Carra L (wins a Doctor Who makeup bag), and Cassandra D (wins a Star Wars book light).  All 3 winners have been contacted by email.


Many thanks to our readers and fellow nerds who took time to join in the conversation. We loved your comments! Let's all "talk nerdy" again next year on or around May 25 for "Nerd Pride Day".

P. S. - If you didn't get a chance to check out the nerdy secrets of some of our Here Be Magic authors, check it out here:  https://herebemagic.blogspot.com/2018/05/talk-nerdy-to-me-celebrate-nerd-pride.html 

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Image: Bigstock.com

Bring It Back(list):

What if someone who's never even heard of a coffee break suddenly had to take a SUMMER VACATION?  

Check out the conversation between Rhys and Ranyon, characters from Dani Harper's Grim Series!

https://herebemagic.blogspot.com/2018/06/bring-it-backlist-ranyon-and-rhys-talk.html 

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Sales & Promos:

Veronica Scott's AYDARR (Sectors New Allies Series Book 1) is on sale for $.99!

The story:

Jill Garrison, a maintenance tech at the Sectors Amarcae 7 colony, goes to sleep one night as usual only to wake up in her nightgown stranded in the middle of a forest on an unknown world. There’s no time to think as she’s stalked by carnivorous predators and rescued by genetically engineered warriors calling themselves the Badari. Turns out they and she, along with her whole colony, are now prisoners of the Khagrish, a ruthless race of alien scientists. Working for enemies of the Sectors, the Khagrish have created the Badari to be super soldiers.

Aydarr, the Badari alpha, isn’t sure he can trust Jill but his attraction to her is undeniable. He impulsively claims her as his mate to prevent her death at the hands of the Khagrish.

Can he continue to protect her from the experiments already underway?  Will his claiming her put his pack in jeopardy from their alien masters?

As Jill searches for a way to rescue her fellow humans and get them all to safety, she finds herself falling for Aydarr, despite the secrets he’s keeping. She has a few of her own.

The situation becomes dire when Aydarr and his pack are sent offplanet on a mission, leaving Jill unprotected, prey for the senior scientist. Can she escape the experiments he has in mind for her? Will she be able to thwart the Khagrish plans and liberate humans and Badari alike? How will she and Aydarr reunite?

Amazon      B&N   Kobo     iBooks

Bring It Back(list) - STORM WARNED by Dani Harper

LEGEND ∙  LORE ∙  LOVE ∙  MAGIC

Passionate musicians Caris and Liam grew up centuries apart. When their fates collide, they must learn to trust each other and work together to stop a dark force from seizing both Fae and human worlds.

.....

From the back cover of STORM WARNED:

When Caris’s unearthly musical talent attracts the attention of the Wild Hunt, the Welsh farm girl is stolen away to serve as a faery grim, a herald of death. Two centuries later, she’s finally escaped back to the human world—and into the present-day life of a reclusive and heartbroken American musician.

Music was Liam’s whole life—until a crushing betrayal left him desperate to flee the public eye. Yet long-dormant passions awaken within him after a powerful storm strands a beautiful, strong-willed woman on his isolated farm. When a Fae prince bent on ruling both human and faery realms threatens Caris’s life, Liam must decide if he can finally believe in love again, not just for her sake—but for the sake of two worlds.

Storm Warned is Book 3 of
the Grim Series

EXCERPT 1:

The sound of shattering glass woke him, and for a moment Liam didn’t know where he was. Another crash from somewhere above cleared some of the sleep from his brain, but the roaring in his ears continued. Wind, he realized suddenly. A hellacious storm was shaking the entire house to its century-old foundations. He’d fallen asleep in front of the damn TV again, but it was off and so were the lights. Power must be –

Twin bolts of lightning struck close by, and instinct had him diving for the floor behind the couch just as something exploded in the yard. Before he could take another breath, thunder battered his senses until he was forced to clamp his hands over his ears. The floor beneath him vibrated and shards of glass and wood rained down around him. And something huge, dark and heavy came crashing down beside him like a damn refrigerator, narrowly missing him.

When the tumult finally died away, lightning continued to flare and flicker, enabling him to see part of a tree impaling the living room wall, stripped of all branches like a giant’s spear – and right where Brewster the Mooster had always hung. Uncle Conell’s ancient trophy had been named by a three-year-old Liam, and was practically part of the family. Now the searing flashes of light revealed the enormous stuffed head upside down mere inches from to Liam’s hiding place. Its monstrous antlers had been driven into the floorboards, and one glass eye hung free like something out of a horror movie.

Every window in the room had shattered, and the force of the wind drove the rain sideways through the opening, the furious drops soaking everything.

Cautiously, Liam rose and felt his way to the kitchen where a collection of candles, flashlights, and battery-filled lanterns collected dust on top of the fridge. He grabbed a lantern, and tucked a small penlight in his pocket, but with the near-continuous flashes from the storm, he quickly realized there was little point in turning either light on. No point going upstairs either – the sound alone was enough to tell him that the windows were gone up there as well, and he couldn’t do anything more about that than about the broken glass that blanketed the living room. 

Suddenly the house shook hard enough that pictures fell from walls in every room, as if to underscore that this was no ordinary thunderstorm. Tornadoes were rare here but not unheard of, and Liam decided to err on the side of caution, taking shelter in the bottom of a solidly-built hallway closet. 

Whose bright idea was it to put the door to the damn cellar on the outside of the house?

EXCERPT 2:

In the human world, the horizon was just blushing with dawn, yet evening was new as Caris returned to the Nine Realms, and the moon had not reached its height. The cool air was thick with the scents of exotic night-blooming flowers, and strange constellations glittered high above. She would never understand how the faery kingdom could lie far beneath the Black Mountains of Wales and yet have a sun and moon and stars! It should be black as Hades here, dark and suffocating, but all was brighter and more vivid than the world above, even at night.

The beauty did not cheer her, however. Her appointed task had taken her to a sullen young man who routinely stabbed his body with needles. Thinking the great black dog in his room was a hallucination, he’d thrown an ale bottle at her, then laughed out loud when it passed right through her as if she were a ghost. Like most of the human world, he had forgotten the old faery legends—if he had ever heard of them at all. But whether or not he understood her purpose, he would still be dead the next day of his habit.

The thought made her soul sick, and as always, Caris loathed her morbid role. She cared about the people she appeared to—and surely that was the worst quality in the world for a death dog to possess. She couldn’t seem to help herself, though she suspected the heartache would eventually kill her soul. So far, she hadn’t forgotten what it was to be mortal herself, hadn’t forgotten what it was like to be part of the human world above. Not yet. Other grims, she knew, eventually lost sight of their origins, especially the ones who had been among the Fair Ones for a very long time. Some began to worship their fae captors, who surpassed all human dreams of beauty. Other grims became despondent, wishing that the death they foretold was their own, or they stopped feeling emotion at all, as if their hearts had died within them. Far too many turned cruel, deriving great pleasure in frightening or tormenting those whom they were sent to warn.

Caris still attempted to lessen people’s fears. She behaved calmly, tried not to surprise them, and she certainly didn’t chase them. In fact, she tried to model her behavior from the loyal and friendly collies her da had kept with the sheep. Sadly, it didn’t work very often. Not surprising when all grims were black as sin itself, and monstrous in size. Most were like mastiffs or like wolves. Some had glowing eyes, and their very appearance was designed to inspire raw terror, even if the person had no idea what the dog’s morbid mission was.

Though tall as a man’s waist, Caris was more slightly built than the other grims. More like a deerhound, she thought—as far as she could discern without being able to see her reflection—or perhaps it was because she was female.

And the only female grim at that.

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KINDLE EBOOK SALE 
April 1-30, 2018

THE GRIM SERIES by Dani Harper

The fae are cunning, powerful and often cruel. The most beautiful among them are often the most deadly. Hidden far beneath the mortal world, the timeless faery realm plays by its own rules—and those rules can change on a whim. Now and again, the unpredictable residents of that mystical land cross the supernatural threshold…

In this enchanting romance series from Dani Harper, the ancient fae come face-to-face with modern-day humans and discover something far more potent than their strongest magic: love.

LEGEND ∙ LORE ∙ LOVE ∙ MAGIC

  

STORM WARRIOR, STORM BOUND, STORM WARNED, STORM CROSSED

Note: Every book in this series is designed to stand alone.
It's fun to read them in order, but you won't get lost if you don't!

See ALL Dani's novels on her Amazon Author Page

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