Giveaway and Book Review
of Dead Faint
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BLURB:
Waking up to discover
you're a vampire then fainting at the sight of your number one food source
isn't healthy.
Billie Joyce’s dream visit
to New York City turned into a nightmare. Now not only is she one of the living
dead, but she has to contend with a know-it-all vampire who wants to tell her
how to talk. Not gonna happen!
About the
Author:
Award winning author, Lizzie T. Leaf started life in Kansas, continued her
growing in North Carolina,
and currently shivers through the winters in Colorado.
She has numerous e-books in varying lengths and her first print book, Struck by Lightning, won dual 2007
Beacon awards, in addition to being a finalist in two other contests.
In addition, Making
Christmas, a Christmas Historical novella set during the Civil War won Love
Romances Café Best Historical for 2011 and is a finalist in the Aspen Gold for
Best Novella.
Beyond Magic, the
first book in the Magical Love series won the 2012 Award of Excellence Best
Paranormal/Fantasy/Sy-Fi, and is a finalist for Best Paranormal in the Aspen
Gold. Winners are announced in mid to
late October.
Since discovering the
fun of writing paranormal, she plays with creating vampires, faeries and other
immortals. Her current focus is the DEAD series. Musa Publishing has re-released the first
four novellas in the series and DEAD Hot,
a new novella, is scheduled to release in October. Emerging
Magic, the second novel in the Magical Love series will also release in
late October or early November with Passion in Print Press.
When not creating mischief for paranormal beings, she can be
found exploring the other genres she wants to write. She also serves as the 2012 President for the
Heart of Denver Romance Writers.
Lizzie loves to read, spend time
with her family and travel with her best friend husband during her free time,
on which most of friends ask…“what free time?”
Contacts:
BUY NOW LINK:
ONLINE LINKS:
Website www.lizzietleaf.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/lizzietleaf
Excerpt:
Prologue
One impulsive decision and
here she was, scared enough to wet her pants.
This go-for-it take on life
got Billie Joyce Nolan in trouble as far back as
she could remember. “Dumb,
girl. You’re just plain dumb, taking what you
thought was a short cut
down a dark little street in a strange city. Especially
a big place like New York
City.”
Billie Joyce hoped talking
to herself out loud would help with the apprehension
tickling the hairs on the
back of her neck.
“What made you think this
would get you to the hotel faster in the first
place? Granny was right
when she said you don’t have the sense to come in
out of the rain.” She
quickened her pace. “Now, you know that ain’t footsteps
you hear. Just your
imagination playing tricks on you.”
A shudder ran down her
body, and once again, she regretted leaving the
safety of the small
mountain town where she’d lived all her life. The only
thing she had to worry
about when walking alone there at night was running
into some four-legged
critter. Instead, something else was stalking her now,
and it was two-legged.
Most of her life she’d
dreamed of coming to New York, and now she was
scared spitless. Sometimes
it was best if dreams didn’t come true.
Earlier, when she’d come
out of the fancy department store, night had
arrived and she had to make
her way back to the little hotel. The map she
carried was hard to read
under the street lights, so relying on her sense of
direction — which was dead
on back home — she’d taken a turn through a
dark passageway. She was
sure it would connect with the street she needed
to find in order to get to
back to the safety of her rented room.
“Ouch.” She stopped to flex her right ankle.
Heaven only knew what she’d
stepped on in this littered
little street. She paused to listen, and her heart leapt
into her throat at the
sound behind her. Footsteps. Her imagination wasn’t
playing tricks. Probably
somebody else as dumb as her for taking this stupid
shortcut, but she wasn’t
about to wait around to find out.
Hobbling along, she was
swallowed up by darkness.
No sirree.
If she got out of this
mess, she was hopping on the first bus home. Yes,
she’d sold Daddy’s little
house in town to get the money to check out city life,
and true enough, she’d quit
her job at Kmart a year ago to stay home and
take care of Daddy during
his last few months of battling cancer. But she still
had Granny’s little farm
with its cozy cabin. She could make do living there
and maybe putting in an
herb garden or a small vegetable patch to bring in
a few dollars.
No matter how many lights
or how much excitement the city had, she’d
figured out in a few hours
that Billie Joyce Nolan was a small town girl at
heart. She was plain
country folk and a fish-out-of-water in this strange world.
“Hey, baby. What’s your
hurry?”
The footsteps were close
enough that their owner seemed right behind
her when he called out, and
she didn’t like the sounds of it one bit. Dang. Her
sore ankle made walking
fast difficult.
“I said, what’s your
hurry?”
She gasped when someone
grabbed her left arm and whirled her around.
Billie Joyce came
face-to-face with a grinning young man, and the glint in his
dark eyes spelled trouble.
“Yeah, baby. Why didn’t you
wait up?” Another male, younger than the
one who held onto her arm,
came up on her other side. “We just want to
party. Don’t you want to
party?”
Hell’s bells.
These two were boys. She
doubted they were out of their teens, and she
was old enough to be their
mother. Their idea of partying was probably a lot
different than hers.
Somehow, she didn’t think sitting out on the front porch
after the sunset, picking,
singing, and exchanging stories was the kind of
party they had in mind.
The taller one reached out
and traced his fingers along the side of her
cheek as the stockier of
the two moved around behind her and pressed against
her back. She held her
breath to block the stench. From the smell, neither of
them had taken a bath in a
while.
The man dropped his hand
from her cheek and cupped her breast.
Oh dear God. They’re
going to rape me.
A short marriage in her
late teens might have taken away her virginity,
but to have her body
violated by these two lowlifes didn’t sit well. “Leave me
alone.” She jerked her face
away from the one stroking her cheek.
“Oh, baby. We know you
don’t mean that.”
The man behind her slid his
hands down to her thighs and started inching
her skirt up. The fear that
had settled in the back of her throat bubbled
up and out.
“Help! Help — anybody!” The
plea for help turned into a loud, shrieking
scream.
“Shut up, bitch. We just
want to have a little fun.”
She continued her loud,
shrill screams. Billie Joyce couldn’t shut up, nor
did she want to. She jerked
up her right knee and planted a blow to the family
jewels of the one standing
in front of her.
“Son-of-a-bitch.” He backed
off for a second then lunged at her.
Something hard and sharp
slipped into her stomach. It took a second to
register she’d been
stabbed.
“Fuck! You killed her, man!
Stupid bastard! What’d you do that for?” The
companion of the man who
struck the knife blow sounded scared. “Let’s get
the fuck outta here! The
way’s she’s been screaming every cop in New York’s
going to show up!”
Billie Joyce heard the
pounding footsteps as the two took off and she
slipped down onto the
concrete. Her eyes fluttered twice before they shut.
She felt the life flowing
out of her, and a white light appeared in the distance,
slowly moving toward her.
No. She didn’t want to die.
Not now. Yes, she missed Granny and the
rest of the family, but not
to the point she was ready to join them right now.
She forced her eyes open,
and a face appeared between her and the white
light. An angel. She had to
be an angel. Billie Joyce always thought angels had
long, blonde hair and blue
eyes like the pictures above the pulpit at the little
community church back home,
but this one had short, white hair, and for
some reason she knew the
eyes didn’t match the image she’d carried in her
mind since childhood.
“Please. Please, help me. I
don’t want to die. I’ve only learning how to live.”
The face came closer, and
Billie Joyce smiled, secure in the knowledge
she had a guardian angel
who would delay her meeting the rest of the family
in the afterlife.
Chapter One
Wind whipped passed Dovey
Divine-Lowell’s ears as she huddled on
the roof ’s edge of the old
Victorian brownstone. The sleeping guests
inside the restored
bed-and-breakfast wouldn’t slumber so peacefully if they
knew who lurked a few feet
away.
That thought perked her up
for a moment, but only briefly, and then she
returned to her moody
pondering. She’d been in a funk the past few days and
didn’t understand why. Life
as a vampire was the norm after almost a year.
Was that the problem?
Next week marked the first
anniversary of her becoming one of the
undead. Did one celebrate
their creation date like they did a birthday? If so,
she needed to get her ass
in gear and get a party planned. Maybe she should
ask Daniel, but somehow she
didn’t see the stuffy old vampire celebrating such
an event. From what she’d
observed over the past year, “celebrate” wasn’t in
the somber male’s
vocabulary.
Or did the fact that her
husband had taken off on yet another business trip
contribute to the foul mood
that possessed her? For cripes sake, you’d think
a man as horny as Aaron
Lowell would stay home with his just as horny wife
for more than a few days at
a time. He didn’t have to work after all.
The man was a millionaire
several times over. If he needed a challenge,
like he said, then let his
challenge be keeping her satisfied.
Nope, that’s not it
either. I’m a big girl and can survive on my own when he’s
gone. After all, I have
a club business to run, and that keeps me occupied when he’s
in or out of town.
It’s not Aaron’s being
gone that makes me feel this way. The thing that’s got me
feeling so down is my
feeding. I counted on the urge for fresh blood to grow less with
time, not more. Over the
past week, my hunger is almost out of control. It’s only been
an hour and I’m ready to
search out another supply. Screw the bottled crap at home
in the fridge.
The traffic on the street
below came to a standstill, and irritated drivers
honked their frustration.
Over the noise of blaring horns, Dovey’s sharp
ears picked up another
sound. She listened intently for a moment. A woman
was screaming, probably a
couple of blocks over to her left. Dovey leapt
through the air toward the
sound. Landing on her feet at the end of a dark
alley, she detected two
people running and also whimpers from a body lying
a few yards away. In the
blink of an eye, she knelt beside a female clutching
her stomach with her hands.
The poor woman was attempting to stop the
blood gushing from her stab
wound. “No, no. I don’t want to die just when
I’m learning to live.”
The words were barely a
whisper, and Dovey could understand the woman’s
concern. Her life force
ebbed away with each gush of blood. The strong
metallic odor was driving
her crazy with the need to feed.
I need to get a grip and
stop thinking about my hunger. This woman needs me
to think clearly…and
quickly. Okay, if I get her to an emergency room, she’ll be gone
before they figure out
how badly she’s hurt. There is no way I can stick around to
instruct them on how
quickly they need to act or play fifty questions with a stupid
medical staff,
especially after they call the cops. Besides, she probably won’t survive
long enough for me to
even get her there anyway.
“What to do? What to do?
Aaron where the hell are you when I need you?”
Resentment flared again at
her husband’s absence.
“Please, I don’t want to
die.”
The words were now barely
audible, even to vampire ears. The woman
seemed to either be saying
them to herself or praying to God — Dovey wasn’t
sure which. The only sure
thing she knew was the thready pulse and fading aura
indicated this pour soul
had only a few minutes, if that long, left on this plane.
Oh, what the hell?
Dovey extended her fangs
and bit into her own flesh, grateful she had
recently fed. Blood flowed
from her right wrist, and she allowed the thick red
liquid to drop onto the
dying woman’s lips. When it generated no response
from the woman, Dovey
placed the fingers of her left hand on either side of
her new friend’s mouth and
forced her lips into a pout that created a small
opening. More of the
precious liquid dripped into the open mouth, and a pink
tongue tiredly licked at
the life-giving fluid.
Brushing aside the cross
that lay on the woman’s neck, the vampire leaned
down and bit into the soft
flesh along the side of the barely breathing victim’s
neck. At the same time,
Dovey wedged her bleeding wrist against the open
lips, allowing for a blood
exchange.
The woman’s blood slowed,
and Dovey forced herself to stop. She sat back
on her heels and studied
the still face on the ground. Maybe in her late thirties,
the woman had a steak of
white in the front of dark hair that swooped along
the side of a heart-shaped
face. The porcelain skin had an iridescent quality
to it, which probably
resulted from the loss of blood.
“Crap. What now?” Unsure if
she’d taken enough or too much, Dovey sat
back on her heels and
thought. She had no freaking idea how this conversion
thing worked. This was her
first attempt at making a changeling. Aaron was
too far away for a
mind-call, but Daniel only lived a few blocks from here.
Maybe he could pick up her
cry for help.
Daniel. Daniel, I need
you. Dovey focused
harder and sent out another plea.
Daniel, can you hear me?
“I hear you loud and
clear.”
Startled, Dovey whirled
around. Daniel stood behind her. If she hadn’t
been so intent on
mind-speak she would have smelled him. He reeked of the
cologne she had asked him
to wear so he couldn’t sneak up on her. The strong
sweet scent caused her
stomach to roll over in protest. She shoved the need
for a conversation about
his over-kill on the scent to the back of her mind.
It seemed men on any plane
just couldn’t get things right when it came to
wearing cologne and needed
a female to guide them.
“What’s up, Dovey?” Daniel
moved around her and stared down at the
body lying in the dirty
alley.
“I think I just made my
first changeling.”
“You what?”
Dovey didn’t appreciate the
edge in his voice. The last thing she needed
or wanted right now was to
have to deal with a PMM. It’s bad enough when
my husband has one of
his pissy male moments, but why do the other men in my life
feel the need to bless
me with theirs too? Especially this one.
She counted to ten slowly
to keep from ripping off his lips or something
equally as satisfying
before she spoke. “Hey, don’t get an attitude with me.
The poor woman was dying
and begging not to. What else was I to do, since
there wasn’t enough time to
call 9-1-1 or get her to a hospital?”
Daniel’s dark eyes bored
into her. Damn, here we go again. Another lecture
coming my way. The man had become a father figure to her
over the past year,
but there were times…
“So, you decided to play
God.”
“I didn’t play God. I tried to help someone
who pleaded for me to do just
that.” She’d just be damned
if she’d let him know how unsure she’d been on
who the woman had pleaded
for help from. “All I want is to know how all of
this works. My experience
is limited in this area.” She glared at him.
Sometimes males could be
such asses.
Shaking his head, Daniel
knelt down beside the motionless female. “She’ll
probably be under for a few
days while the conversion takes place. We’ll need
to keep her in a quiet
place.”
“Any thoughts on that? You
know what my living arrangements are like.
The apartment above the
club is fine for Aaron and me, but we don’t have a
spare room or, for that
matter, a quiet one when the club is open for business.”
Somehow, she didn’t think
the blast of music from below would give the quiet
that Daniel said the woman
needed while she went through whatever process
one went through in order
to wake up dead.
Daniel looked up from his
squatting position beside the body. “It’s a good
thing I’m so fond of your
husband or I’d tell you to figure this mess out for
yourself.”
“Ah, come on, Daniel, you
know you love me too.” Dovey gave him her
best helpless grin and
batted her eyelashes. The corner of his mouth twitched,
and she knew she’d won him
over.
“Yeah right.” Daniel looked
at the woman again. “I have to be out of my
mind to say this, but I
have a room that will serve the purpose. She’ll be hungry
when she wakes up, as you
know from your own experience, and someone will
need to be there to explain
her new life. That part I’m going to leave to you.
I’ll call you when it
starts to happen, and you’d better get your ass over as soon
as I do. In the meantime
you need to come over and help me clean her up.”
“Yes, sir, Oh Wise One.”
Dovey gave him a peck on the cheek. “You know
I always do what you tell
me to do.”
“We both know how that’s
not the case.” Daniel picked up the woman and
left. Dovey sighed in
relief, happy he’d taken over the situation.
Glancing down, Dovey saw
the damage to her new shoes. “Crap. I just
ruined a new pair of Jimmy
Choos with all the garbage and blood in this alley.”
She thought about trying to
clean them, but decided the heels were too far
gone. “I need to wear
sneakers to hunt in the future. Oh well, these heels seem
a little tight anyway. Some
idiot at the factory must have mislabeled them.”
She shrugged and took one
last look around. A tote bag that probably
belonged to her new
creation lay in the shadows, and she picked it up. The poor
woman might have her
favorite shoes or outfit in there, and Dovey knew what
it was like to miss those
essential things. She tossed the bag over her shoulder.
God, I am hungry.
Daniel had things under
control, and the cleanup he said was needed could
wait a few minutes longer.
Surely Daniel wouldn’t miss her if she stopped for
a quick snack.
Book Review:
So my favorite part if a vampire who
passes out at the sight of blood. Too
funny! The book is filled with fabulous
puns like this.
I give this book 4 out of 5 clouds.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
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