Author Names: Bellora Quinn and Angel
Martinez
Book Name: Kellen’s Awakening
Series: AURA
Book: Three
Series should be read in order
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29245467-kellen-s-awakening
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Cover Artist: Emmy Ellis
Release
Date: May 3, 2016
Blurb:
The staff at AURA has had a busy
summer. Between chronic understaffing, dealing with warring goblin factions and
an unusual number of hazardous Events, everyone is overworked. Sinistrus the
incubus, newly hired as an AURA medic, actually enjoys his busy new life of
responsible employee and faithful lover to his gorgeous police sergeant, Ness
the centaur. Life would be perfect, except for a niggling suspicion about a
colleague. Everyone else seems to disagree, but Sin’s certain something’s not
right with that pixie.
Kellen,
a pixie crossover, loves his job working in AURA medical, even if he is
something of an outsider. His job and the friends he manages to make are happy
spots in an otherwise dark and secretive life. As the rest of AURA tries to
discover the root of the inexplicable rise in violence and large scale Events,
Kellen fights to preserve his own life and what dignity he has left.
These two unlikely heroes must put
their differences aside and navigate tragedy and ever-escalating disaster
together in order to stop the sinister forces that hold Kellen in thrall.
Pages or Words: 69,000 words
Categories: Alternate Universe,
Contemporary, Gay Fiction, Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Excerpt:
“Before Kai gets lost in regaling you with wedding details…”
Tenzin settled, then grunted as several flower fairies immediately popped into
view around his head to land on his shoulders. “Our lovely Sin, now that we’re
among friends and not at work, can you tell me why you insist on tormenting
Kellen so terribly?”
“Oh, I dunno.” Sin picked up a spicy fried mushroom with
his claws and popped it in his mouth. “I think I’m pretty good at tormenting
him.”
Ness nudged him. “Be serious, love. Why do you pick on
him? Even I’ve seen it.”
“Look, I just don’t like everyone, okay?” Sin spread his
hands when everyone gave him side eyes. “Took me a bit to warm up to Val,
right?”
“You had good reason to be angry with Val,” Ness said as
he reached for an oat muffin. “I don’t think Kellen ever actually caused you
harm.”
Sin heaved a dramatic sigh. “Fine. He’s absolutely
useless as a paramedic.”
“Not everyone is suited for emergency field medicine,”
Tenzin said gently.
Ness leaned over to kiss the top of Sin’s head. “You are
because you’re brave and don’t stop to think.”
“Hey!” Sin swatted at an equine flank.
“Oh, dear. I didn’t mean it that way.” Ness flushed
darkly while the others laughed. “You don’t overthink. When someone needs help,
you just do instead of overanalyzing. Not everyone can be that sort of heroic.”
“Good recovery.” Sin grinned up at his flustered lover.
“Yeah, I get it. He’s not the first responder kind. But the little guy’s just
sneaky. He doesn’t look people in the eye. He flinches at the weirdest times. I
don’t trust him.”
Tenzin frowned as he ladled vegetable panang onto a plate
and set it in front of Kai. “Eat, beloved, before you waste away. About Kellen.
I believe it’s deep-seated trauma, something so terrible that he doesn’t want
to have to talk about it, since that would mean acknowledging it.”
“Tenzi’s so often right about these sorts of things.” Kai
took up his fork, toying with his food rather than eating yet. “But this time,
I have to disagree. There is something uneasy about him. Something beyond old
fears.”
“You hardly see him thirty seconds out of any week,”
Tenzin protested. “What could you possibly base this on?”
“Ah, love. A drow knows deception. There’s something not
quite right about that pixie.”
Buy
the book: https://www.pride-publishing.com/book/kellens-awakening
When I read a series and I’m really
into it, I love seeing how the story unfolds from book to book and revisiting
the characters we were introduced to in book one, but sometimes I find myself
wishing I could hear more from interesting supporting characters. That’s what
happened with AURA. Angel and I had created this world and it has such a cool
concept of limitless possibilities that I found myself wondering more and more
about what secondary characters were doing when our eyes were looking elsewhere,
so to speak.
That’s what happened with book
three. Sinistrus has always been an intriguing character and we knew I think
from the start that we’d be hearing more from him. Kellen is newly introduced
in book three but he seemed a perfect counterpoint to Sin’s over the top
nature.
Angel
It’s hard to prevent thinking about
secondary characters, isn’t it? If the authors have done their jobs, then the
secondary characters should be as real to us as the main characters. We should
wonder about what they’re doing and what their lives look like. When we wrote
Sin, he really was just a way to get under Val’s skin, a vehicle to get under
that tight elvish prince control. But as we neared the climactic scenes of that
first book, Sin insisted on a more heroic role. He even made one of our readers
(maybe more, but one admitted to it) cry anxious tears over him. We started out
with a smart-mouthed bad boy and ended up with a whole person.
Nestor the centaur, too, grew on us
slowly. He starts out almost a sketch of a character, rounding out a
multi-species police squad, and ends up showing himself to be a compassionate,
intelligent individual. It’s much like getting to know a real person, someone
who might start out as “that guy behind the counter” but who ends up a whole,
rounded person as you get to know them.
Bellora:
In book two we revisited some of
the characters from the first book, but also introduced new characters, and
that’s what we wanted to do with book three as well. We had Sin and Nestor and
the rest of the characters we’d already introduced, then Kellen came into being
almost all at once. We had actually been working on another story and when we
hit some roadblocks there I suddenly had a completely different idea for book
three and somehow managed to talk Angel into starting over. Kellen seemed to
come out of nowhere and we were back in the zone.
I’d been writing a
mystery/suspense/detective series and I think a little bit of that spilled over
into Kellen’s story. He’s got this secret and it takes a while for that to be
revealed. It was a lot of fun getting Sin to play detective and try to figure
out what he was up to.
Meet the authors:
The unlikely black sheep of an ivory tower intellectual family, Angel Martinez has managed to make her way through life reasonably unscathed. Despite a wildly misspent youth, she snagged a degree in English Lit, married once and did it right the first time, (same husband for almost twenty-four years) gave birth to one amazing son, (now in college) and realized at some point that she could get paid for writing.
Published since 2006, Angel's cynical heart cloaks a desperate romantic. You'll find drama and humor given equal weight in her writing and don't expect sad endings. Life is sad enough.
She currently lives in Delaware in a drinking town with a college problem and writes Science Fiction and Fantasy centered around gay heroes.
Bellora Quinn
Originally hailing from Detroit Michigan, Bellora now resides on the sunny Gulf Coast of Florida where a herd of Dachshunds keeps her entertained. She got her start in writing at the dawn of the internet when she discovered PbEMs (Play by email) and found a passion for collaborative writing and steamy hot erotica. Soap Opera like blogs soon followed and eventually full novels.
The majority of her stories are in the M/M genre with urban fantasy or paranormal settings and many with a strong BDSM flavour.
Where to find the authors:
Facebook:
Facebook Author Page:
Twitter:
@BelloraQ
@AngelMartinezrr
Pinterest:
Tour Dates & Stops:
3-May:
Oh
My Shelves, The
Novel Approach
Rafflecopter
Prize: $10 Pride Publishing gift card
Hello Angel & Bellora! Congratulations on the release and looking forward to reading it!
ReplyDelete