Spotlight on Suspense with L.K. Kuhl

Today's spotlight features Chasm by fellow Clean Reads author, L.K. Kuhl,
an Adult Suspense novel.

Warning: Kuhl gives Chasm a PG-13 rating for some fighting and gore.

What happens when you’re in love with your children’s abductor?

Blurb:

Taylor Vine thinks she can fight off the demons of her past when she moves back home to Estill Springs, Tennessee, but it doesn’t take long to see that things aren’t quite that easy. The bumps she hears in the night soon escalate, keeping her up at nights, and it isn’t long before her most precious possessions, her children, get abducted. She finds herself in a race against time to try to find them before it’s too late. One wrong move and the outcome could be disastrous.  

Excerpt:

Her heart picked up its pace, and she reached for the phone. She hesitated, unsure whether to even answer it. But she plucked it from its receiver. “Hello?” Her voice slid out rickety and unsure.

The male voice on the other end was dark and deeply plagued with distress. It broke, and she struggled to make out what he was saying.

What she heard next was unimaginable; it didn’t sound human. The grief penetrated through the voice—through the phone—flanking it with wretched wails and sobs. “I’ve killed the children. Heaven…help me…I’ve killed the children.” The phone went silent.

Taylor’s knees buckled. “What?” The hyper pitch in her voice strained out. “Goodness gracious, who is this? What happened? Whose children?” Her knees about took her down again. She caught the edge of the counter, catching herself before she fell. “Answer me, for crying out loud! Don’t hang up on me!”

She listened desperately, plastering the phone to her ear. But the phone was silent. “Hello, hello? Answer me!” Frantically clicking the telephone cradle button, she tried to bring him back, but there was only a dial tone.

She pounded the phone on the counter so forcefully that the plastic mouthpiece broke into a million tiny pieces. She let it fall, left it dangling by its cord. Swiftly making her way to the hall closet, she rummaged through the plastic totes for a flashlight. “There has to be one in here somewhere,” she mumbled to herself. Extension cords and old Christmas lights spilled over onto the floor.

Finally finding a flashlight, she clicked it on. It was dim, but it would do. She ran back to the hall, to the children’s rooms, feeling no pain in her swollen ankle.

Flinging Cody’s door wide, she flashed the light toward the wall where his bed sat. In slow motion, the lonely, empty, disheveled bed yanked a horrifying scream from her gut, reverberating through the house. The earth quit spinning, and she was lost to oblivion. “NO! Not my children! Please, God…not my children.” She needed life support, couldn’t breathe; the air was being sucked from her body in rapid swells. She dropped to the floor, her world going black—closing in—smothering.

Not knowing how long she’d been out, Taylor struggled to her feet, she was sure it wasn’t long; it was still black outside, flashes of lightning still cracking in through the window. She raced to check on Nora. Her room was the same: deserted, hollow, puncturing a bleeding, oozing hole in Taylor’s chest the size of a large, bottomless chasm.

“For crying out loud, no…please, no.” The tears coursed down her face. She staggered numbly to Nora’s empty bed, collapsing on it, her hand reaching, groping—trying to find the warmth of her baby girl. But the only thing the tangled blankets and sheets offered her was a bleak and disgusting coldness. It shocked her through her hand. How long had they been gone? Time couldn’t wait, she needed to find them.

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L. K. Kuhl

Author Bio:

L.K. Kuhl lives in Nebraska with her husband of twenty-nine years, young son, Nathan, and Greg and Will, their furry dog kids. She has two older daughters, Morgan and Brittani and son-in-law, Trevor. L.K. has been writing for over twenty years. She first began writing children’s books and poetry, moved on to writing music, and is now writing Young Adult and Adult novels. Her first book, Everlasting, a Young Adult Paranormal Romance, was published in February, 2016. She loves spending time with her family, vacationing, writing, reading, and taking long walks. It’s the characters who write their own stories in her novels, and she is just their messenger, sharing it with the world.

I got the idea to write Chasm because my husband used to be an engineer for the railroad. Although my husband never worked with this gentleman directly, one of the engineers on the railroad hit and killed his wife and children with the train he was driving. It was no fault of the engineer. The wife did it deliberately to get back at her husband, the engineer. The engineer said the last thing he saw was his children looking up at him from the windows of the car.

Although this is a work of fiction, and this is just a story between two, make believe people, I felt compelled to tell his story about how utterly and completely devastating this would be. The engineer was never able to return to work after this. 

                                                                                                                      

Author Links:

Website: https://kuhlreads.com/     

Author Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/kuhlreads

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynettehoff1

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lynettehofferbe/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l.k.kuhl/

Blogger: http://kuhlreads.blogspot.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28674602-everlasting

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01BXDJGIY

New Young Adult Series from Jaclyn E.Brod

The Descendants Book One

Author: Jaclyn E. Brod

In the year 2030 a war is waged, and only one can save human kind, but will she die before she can save The world? 

Everything comes with a price, even if it isn’t what you expect.

Excerpt:
Genevieve. It was poor Genevieve who was blocking the front door with bruises adorning her flesh like a molting fledgling. Blood trickled down from the corners of her hazel eyes. Her arms were thrown out to her sides as if that motion alone could stop Theo’s guards and the Experiments.

“Move,” Jaxs hissed, her hands blazing with a midnight glow, but Theo stepped in front of her as fear for the heiress surged in his veins. He heard the safety of Sage’s gun switch from safe to fire. Genevieve said nothing; her knotted golden hair did not even twitch.

Hazel eyes bored into Theo, pleading for him to turn around and give up. He knew that this was the moment. This was the moment where he chose. He looked at Jaxs with the disheveled sneer hanging on her face with frightened eyes and then back Genevieve’s hardened visage.

“You could have come with us,” Theo muttered just loudly enough for her to hear. He knew that time had passed, that there was nothing that would change her mind now, but he had to be sure that this was what she wanted. The blood pouring from her eyes only increased as her eyes watered slightly. “We both know that is not true. You belong here. I belong here. The Confinement harbors souls, Theo, because we need to be kept safe from the world. You don’t know what you are getting into. You don’t know what that thing,” she gestured to Jaxs, “Will do to you. You don’t know what you are causing here, but I do. Stay here and trust me.” She held out a hand, ignoring the clatter of footsteps echoing down the hall toward them. Theo felt a vice tighten around his throat as he shook his head.

This was not the wonderful girl that he had come to know before. She was not the freedom loving, loyal soul that he once knew. “No, Genevieve.” He shook his head. “I don’t trust you.” The golden-haired young woman reached into her thin pocket and before anyone could stop her, she shoved a syringe into her own exposed neck. It was as if a bomb had gone off.

Manic laughter echoed off of the cobblestone floors of the castle and melded with the yells of approaching guards. Genevieve dropped her hands to her sides, her head twitching upon her neck as shadows fell over her face.

The once graceful mouth twisted into a maleficent sneer and hazel eyes glazed over with black pigment. “I will obey my Mother!” Genevieve said, or what was left of her. Theo took a step back in horror as thick blackened tendrils exploded throughout Genevieve’s body. Her delicate hands rose to the ceiling with smoke flying from her fingertips.

Her hysterical laughter revealed blackened, charcoal teeth just below the surface that housed bleeding gums. At some point in the transformation Jaxs had moved from her position behind Theo without him noticing. Her outstretched hands pushed him behind her as she let loose a surge of power directed at Genevieve.

There was nothing Theo could do except scream as Jaxs’s blast threw Genevieve to the ground. The former head guard just stared at her twitching body on the cold floor as Sage dragged him out the front door.

The five of them made it outside, but when the heavy door closed behind him Theo swore that he heard a weak, mournful whisper of, “I told you to be careful.” The door clicked shut.

Guards rushed into the room. Some ran to Genevieve’s fallen form, but they were quickly waved away by Dr. Grant. The foreboding woman crossed the lobby with her head held high, a cold mask settled over her face. She did not react. Stilettos clicked across the uneven cobblestone, echoing eerily across the floor. The stilettos dug into flesh as she stepped on her daughter’s shuddering body.

Blood washed over the bottom of Dr. Grant’s heels, which she ignored in favor of pulling open the door. The weeping willows were churning in the wind as Dr. Grant felt a snicker rise up in her throat. The darkened sky did not allow the woman to see the escapees, but she knew where they were going. A laugh permeated the silence of the outside world as she dug her heels into Genevieve’s flesh. Dr. Grant stood there for a moment before she looked down upon the girl.

“Get up, my love,” she cooed. “We have some work to do.” 

There was no hesitation. “Yes, Mother.”

Bio: Jaclyn E. Brod is a full time writer and student, currently going to school for medical billing as a background but her true passion is writing. She has one cat named Zazzie whos she loves more than anything and a fiancé whos a cook and a gamer nerd. When Jaclyn Isn’t writing she is spending time with her best friends and her best friends children who she calls her niece and nephew. She is the author of the newly debut novel The Descendants. Many of her inspiration from stories comes from music and reading. And her biggest inspiration of all, Harry Potter.

Social Media Sites: 
Facebook Author Page: Jaclyn E. Brod
Instagram: Jaclyn E. Brod
Tumblr: Itsjaclynebrod
Email: Jaclynbrod1@Gmail.com
Twitter: @JaclynBrod

Krysten Lindsay Hager's new YA novel in the Landry True Colors Series

Today I welcome the fabulous Krysten Lindsay Hager, whose Landry's True Colors Series is a clean reads young adult humor series about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, crushes, and self-image. It’s suitable for ages 10 and up.

Landry in Like (Landry's True Colors Series: Book 3) by Krysten Lindsay Hager

​Blurb: Things seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her back, and her boyfriend Vladi has becoming someone she can truly count on…and then everything changes. Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are into hanging out at a new teen dance club, while Landry just wants to spend her weekends playing video games and baking cupcakes at sleepovers. Then, Yasmin McCarty, the most popular girl in school, starts to come between Landry’s friendship with Ashanti. Things take a turn when Yasmin tells Vladi that Landry is interested in another boy. Can Landry get her relationships with Ashanti and Vladi back or will she be left out and left behind?

  

Excerpt:

I wanted to call my friends and tell them about being on the talk show, but Mom said we had to be at the TV station super early — even before school started. She said I could text them, but I had to turn off my phone and go to bed.

“I’m waking you up at four a.m.,” she said. “You have to be there at five-thirty.”

“Can I just call Peyton and Ashanti? Please?”

“Fine, but you have five minutes and then that phone is mine and you’re in bed.”

I dialed Peyton, but her mom said she was in the shower. I told her mom about the show tomorrow and said my mom wouldn’t let me stay up any later to call Peyton back.

“How exciting! I will make sure Peyton knows, and I will be watching you tomorrow. Good luck, honey,” Mrs. Urich said.

I called Ashanti next and told her.

“Get out. Get. Out. No way. This is so exciting!”

“I’m so nervous. My stomach is already doing cartwheels. I can’t do one, but my stomach can. Seems unfair. What if I throw up before I go on? I did that right before I went on at the statewide Ingénue modeling competition in Detroit, and my mom had to give me a cough drop to cover up the smell.”

 “I’m sure you’ll be fine, but… just in case, take a cough drop with you,” Ashanti said. “Good luck. You’ll be great and I’ll go set the DVR now.”

 I hung up and sent a text to Vladi, India, Devon, Thalia, Tori, and Ericka, so no one would be mad and feel left out. Then I shut off my phone. Mom poked her head in the door to make sure I was in bed.

“Night, hon. Try to get some rest,” she said.

Easier said than done. I stared at my ceiling while thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong tomorrow. Seeing as the show was on in the morning, I never got to watch it, so I had no idea what the set was like — did it have super high chairs and I’d struggle to get into them? And what if it had those higher stools that were kind of tippy and my rear overshot the seat and I fell off? Or what if the prep questions got lost and the interviewer asked me random things like my feelings on nuclear war or asked me about some foreign political leader who I had never heard of before, and I appeared stupid? Why did I say I’d do this? I tried to get comfortable and it felt like I had just dozed off when I felt my mom shaking my shoulder.

“Rise and shine, TV star,” she said.

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Landry-Like-Landrys-True-Colors-ebook/dp/B01AL6AUA2/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Landry-Like-Landrys-True-Colors-ebook/dp/B01AL6AUA2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453196883&sr=8-2&keywords=krysten+hager

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/landry-in-like-krysten-lindsay-hager/1123253456?ean=2940157767242

Nook UK: http://www.nook.com/gb/ebooks/landry-in-like-by-krysten-lindsay-hager/2940157767242

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/landry-in-like

Itunes/ibooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/landry-in-like/id1076225388?mt=11

Author bio: Krysten Lindsay Hager is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series, a clean reads young adult series and the new ​Star Series. Krysten writes about  friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image in True Colors, Best Friends…Forever? And Landry in Like, as well as in, Next Door to a Star (Star Series). Her sequel to Next Door to a Star will be out March 22 2016.

Krysten is a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes YA, MG, humor essays, and adult fiction. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently resides in southwestern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.

Follow:

Website: http://www.krystenlindsay.com/

Instagram: http://instagram.com/krystenlindsay

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Krysten-Lindsay-Hager/e/B00L2JC9P2/

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/krystenlindsay/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystenLindsayHagerAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystenLindsay

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8298036.Krysten_Lindsay_Hager

Author talk show interview: http://wdtn.com/2014/11/06/true-colors/

True Colors (Landry’s True Colors Series Book 1):

What people are saying about True Colors (Landry’s True Colors Series Book One):

From Teenage Book Recommendations in the UK: “This is a fantastically relatable and real book which I feel captures all of the insecurities and troubles which haunt the modern teenage girl. It is about a young model who has to go through tough times when she is torn between a life as a model and managing her friendships. You learn which friends she can most trust and which will create the drama typical of teenage life. Follow the life of Landry and try to see if you can find out which are her true friends before their true colors are revealed. This book is all about relationships, hopes and truth. I loved this book!”

A few questions for Krysten:

Who is your favorite author?

F. Scott Fitzgerald is my favorite. I had to read The Great Gatsby twice in school, but I didn’t connect to it until I was an adult and then I fell in love with it.

How do you describe your writing style?

I always write with humor and my main characters wear their hearts on their sleeves. My two teen series both deal with self-esteem, growing up/coming of age, and first love.

Use no more than two sentences. Why should we read your book?

Landry in Like will take you back to your school days and make you laugh and feel for her as she grows up and navigates through school. There are funny moments, cringe worthy moments, and life lessons on how to deal with everything from frenemies, first loves, anxiety, and friendships.

If you could exchange lives with any of your characters for a day which character would you choose and why?

I would choose Hadley from Next Door to a Star (Star Series: Book One) because when she moves to a beach town, she has the chance to reinvent herself and start over and that idea is very intriguing to me. Plus, she lives in Grand Haven, Michigan—a beautiful beach town.

What books have most influenced your life?

I read a biography of a YA author, Paula Danziger, years ago and it made me realize that writing young adult fiction was what I was meant to do. It was always something I wanted to do, but I never realized that all those awkward and difficult moments I went through in my teen years might have been setting me up to help another teen in the same situation down the road. That biography shaped my vision of what I wanted to do in life.

Second Chance at Love

Rachel Jones is back with a new contemporary romance!

TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE

 A touchdown for the coach when the music teacher accepts his love

BLURB:

From childhood, Virginia Manning has planned for a career as a concert clarinetist. Blindsided by family circumstances, her plans are interrupted, taking her down a path she would never have chosen. As a music teacher, Virginia’s relationship with the football coach goes from problematic to romantic. After Blake’s brush with death, a scared Virginia runs away looking for the contentment music has always brought to her life.

Because Blake Oliver has experienced disappointment and pain, he opts for a fresh start in a small New England town. Accepting the position of football coach, he isn’t looking for love when it finds him. But when Virginia leaves to pursue a performance career, Blake realizes it’s not where you live but having someone to love that matters. His only problem is making her understand that as well.

Buy Link  Amazon

EXCERPT:

She pulled her arms across her chest in an attempt to calm her shivering. Bright lights reflected from her rearview mirror, the only headlights she had seen since she had stopped on the side of the ride. Releasing a sigh of relief, she waited for flashing blue lights to interrupt the blackness surrounding the car. No blue lights. Her heart began racing at hearing a car door slam. She was alone, on a deserted highway. Checking the locks on her doors, she thought about driving away, but how far could she go with a flat tire?

A tap on the passenger window made her jump. “Hey.”

The dark night made it impossible to see the face outside the passenger window. Fear made it impossible to move.

“Come on, Gin. It’s wet out here.”

No one else called her Gin. She hit the automatic button releasing the lock and Blake pulled the door open. Relief flooded her body and was replaced by anger.         

“Blake — you nearly scared me to death.”

“Not the best time for a flat tire. You’re soaked.”

“You’re not so very dry yourself.”

“Where are you headed?”

“I was on my way home. I had an early dinner with my family before they left for the weekend. Staying to play my piano wasn’t a bad idea — I just got caught up in my music.” She loved how her music could take her away from everything, but the downside was eventually she had to come back to reality. “Anyway, I was going through my options when you drove up.”

“Your spare is lying in the mud.”

“I was going to try changing it, but when the lightning started, I chickened out.”

“Well, you can’t drive all the way to Boston soaked to the skin. And I really don’t want to change a tire in this downpour.”

“So what do you suggest I do?”

“Let me take you back to your sister’s house. You can stay the night and deal with the tire in the morning.”

Virginia didn’t respond, didn’t want this moment to end. He was here, beside her and the intensity of how much she had missed him came crashing down upon her like tumultuous waves hitting a jagged rock wall along the seashore.

“Gin?”

She looked up. “That sounds good.”

As he leaned over and pulled the keys from the ignition, it took all Virginia’s willpower to keep from pulling him close.

AUTHOR BIO:

It was thoughts of what she would do after retirement from a twenty-eight-year career in healthcare that spurred Rachel to begin writing her first manuscript in March of 2012. Needing guidance and support with her new endeavor, she joined local and national writing groups.

Rachel signed her first contract in 2013 and her debut novel, To Dance One More Day was released in June of 2014. She is eagerly awaiting retirement to write full time.

A music enthusiast for decades, Rachel resides in Kennesaw, Georgia with her husband of thirty-seven years and a spoiled Labrador retriever. She is a member of Georgia Writers Association, Georgia Romance Writers and is a PRO member of Romance Writers of America.

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

https://www.racheljonesauthor.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/RachelJonesAuthor?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/RJonesAuthor

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8336834.Rachel_Jones