Rufus: Just Saying: Embers of Fire is Summer HOT!
1 July 2017
It’s been a busy summer, and it’s only beginning! I have a new friend. Hank Martin is now Dawg #2 in our family. I’m Dawg #1. Just to be clear. Hank is a good guy, and I sure do like him better than the four little monster cats who live upstairs. Me and Hank in the Man/Dawg Cave. We watch Dog TV between O-U-Ts.
And then there’s good Summer books. I don’t think Hank can read, but Mom People can, and she told us about this really good new book from Ally Shields- Embers of Fire (Guardian Witch Legacy #1).
You remember Ally Shields: She grew up in the Midwest along the Mississippi River, still considers herself “a river rat,” and currently resides near Des Moines. After a career in law and juvenile justice, she turned to full-time fiction writing in 2009. Her first urban fantasy,
Awakening the Fire (Guardian Witch #1) was published in 2012, and she currently has thirteen published novels. She loves to travel in the US and abroad and incorporates many of those settings into her books. Ms. Shields loves to chat with readers through her website/social media and can frequently be found on Twitter (@ShieldsAlly).
I talked with Ally about her new book:
Rufus: Hi, Ally! How is summer in your part of the woods? Is Ranger keeping squirrels under control? Very important that boundaries are established with squirrels! Ranger will keep you safe.
Ally: Hey, Rufus. Sorry Ranger isn’t with me today. He’s on yard duty. We live in a relatively new subdivision and the trees aren’t big enough to attract squirrels–a HUGE disappointment to Ranger–however, the rabbits keep him very busy. They’re quite brazen and need constant reminding of their trespasser status.
Rufus: My MomPeople says you have a new series!!! And it has witches. Oooh, tell me about it!!! WAIT!!! MomPeople says it’s a sequel series to the Guardian Witch series!!! Ari’s my favorite witch in the whole world!
Ally: I’ll be sure to tell her. She’s a fan of yours too–reads all your blogs.
Rufus: Wowee! Tell me all about the new book. Where did you leave off in the Guardian Witch series, I mean where does this one start? Who’s in it? How many books will be in the series? Oh Boy!!!
Ally: Embers of Fire (Guardian Witch Legacy #1) is the first of a three or four book series that follows up on the original seven Guardian Witch novels. The same characters are back plus some newcomers, both good and bad. The book starts three years after the Epilogue to Eternal Fires (Guardian Witch #7).
Ari and Andreas’s daughter Rayne is now a precocious five year old, and life has become so domestic that her parents are considering relocating to his estates in Tuscany, Italy. Of course, the Otherworld refuses to stay quiet for long, and skills like Ari and Andreas possess would be wasted on the vineyards. An early morning murder, followed quickly by two more deaths and evidence of an evil intrusion, soon force their lives in an entirely different direction.
Rufus: I think MomPeople will need to read the Guardian Witch series over again to us. Then we can start Embers of Fire. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I forget things. Like which tree the squirrel went up. Don’t tell Ranger. Or Hank. He thinks I know everything.
Ally: Your secret is safe with me. Ranger has his lapses too, but then he is getting a little gray around the muzzle. As for rereading the original series, it’s not unusual. I know readers who do that with every new book in a series. I need to get home before Ranger starts looking for me. Thanks for the chat, Rufus. Here’s an excerpt from the novel.
Embers of Fire Opening lines
A crisp breeze caught the last of the early morning fog and swirled it over the gravestones. The Olde Town cemetery slowly emerged from the mist, its silent memorial to the dead marred by an unusual amount of activity. A uniformed Riverdale cop completed a final loop of bright yellow tape around several stone vaults and two small crabapple trees. CS techs snapped photos and set out evidence markers as they processed the crime scene.
With a hot Styrofoam coffee cup in each hand, Arianna Calin bumped her jeans-clad hip against the iron entrance gate, knocking it open, and slipped inside, her footsteps crunching the brittle September leaves. When an eerie chill nudged her senses, she swept the scene with a sharp glance.
Nothing she hadn’t expected. Not yet. Nothing bad enough to trigger her witch alarms. But then, it was a graveyard. The remnants of so many dead souls could mask a great deal.
She ducked under a high section of the bright tape and focused on the blond man in jeans and a dark gray sweatshirt crouched beside a still form. “ME’s not here yet?” she asked.
Lt. Ryan Foster, her partner from the all-human Riverdale Police Department, looked up and stood, his blue eyes lighting on the cups in her hands. “On his way. One of those for me?”
A smile touched her lips, and she handed him one, withholding further comment until he’d taken his first jolt of caffeine. “Dispatch said it was a stabbing. Human female victim. Is the suspect one of mine?” As a supernatural cop and guardian for Riverdale’s Olde Town district, Ari wouldn’t be notified of an RDPD case unless the Otherworld was involved. Usually that meant vampires or werewolves—the predominant species in town—had run amok
.
“I’m not sure….” Ryan rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Sorry to drag you out so early on a hunch, but I have a weird feeling about this one.”
Ari nearly choked on her coffee. “Oh, no you don’t. That’s my line. There’s only room for one of us with spidey senses in this partnership.”
“Cop instincts,” he corrected. His early-morning face was grumpy, displaying his constant annoyance with things he didn’t understand. “It works for us mere mortals.”
“OK. Show me. What have you got?” She stepped around him, the humor slipping from her lips at first sight of the victim.
“Judge for yourself if something doesn’t feel off.”
Vivid red blood stood in stark contrast to the middle-aged woman’s light lemon sweater. Not a typical stabbing…her throat had been slashed, leaving a spray pattern of arterial blood on the fading grass around her and a glistening trail down the sides of a gaping wound. It had soaked her neckline.
Ari’s nostrils flared, taking in the sharp, metallic scent and seeking something more, whatever had triggered Ryan’s reaction. All kidding aside, working with him for eight years meant she trusted his gut feelings almost as much as her magic.
Oh Boy!
Rufus.
Contact the Author:
Website: http://allyshields.com
Blog: http://allyshields.com/blog.html
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ShieldsAlly
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6527209.Ally_Shields
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Ally-Shields/e/B009AKNDZU
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100652807699295011703/posts
Online Newsletter: http://paper.li/ShieldsAlly/1353941420
Email Newsletter: http://www.allyshields.com/contact-menewsletter.htmlhttp://www.allyshields.com/contact-menewsletter.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AllyShieldsAuthor
Book Title: Embers of Fire
Series Name and book #: Guardian Witch Legacy Book 1
Author: Ally Shields
Release Date: June 30, 2017
Publisher: Etopia Press
Link to publisher’s website: http://www.etopiapress.com/
Genre: Urban Fantasy/Romantic Paranormal
Book length: novel
Blurb:
A chilling prophecy. A child in danger.
Following the defeat of the vampire elders, Guardian fire witch Arianna Calin and vampire prince Andreas De Luca are considering moving to his estates in Italy to raise their daughter in its idyllic setting. As if being descended from two powerful witch bloodlines wasn’t challenging enough, Rayne was born with a mysterious star tattoo on her shoulder. Her parents suspect she is the Chosen, the focus of the Star of Esielen prophecy. But that’s something to worry about in the distant future. Isn’t it? After all, their child may be precocious, but she is only five.
Then the murders begin. The stench of demonic activity hangs over Olde Town, and a symbol carved in blood indicates Rayne may be the next victim. Suspicion points in several directions: a rival vampire prince, a mysterious stranger, and a werehyena leader attempting to break the bank at Andreas’s new casino.
Abandoning plans for a quiet life, Ari and Andreas hunt for the killers. While Rayne may someday have to face her destiny alone, it’s up to them to make sure she’s ready…and to keep her alive.
Cover art: Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35554155-embers-of-fire
Youtube book trailer: https://youtu.be/-I-B_OHsN2E
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073H49YJS/
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/embers-of-fire
B&N:fire-a https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/embers-of-lly-shields/1126658380?ean=2940158758874
ibookstore: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/embers-of-fire-ally-shields/1126658380?ean=2940158758874https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/embers-of-fire-ally-shields/1126658380?ean=2940158758874
GooglePlay: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Ally_Shields_Embers_of_Fire?id=ShQqDwAAQBAJ
Etopia Press: http://www.etopiapress.com/embers-of-fire/
Other published works by Ally Shields:
Awakening the Fire (Guardian Witch 1)
Fire Within (Guardian Witch 2)
Burning Both Ends (Guardian Witch 3)
Blood and Fire (Guardian Witch 4)
Fire Storm (Guardian Witch 5)
Wild Fire (Guardian Witch 6)
Eternal Fires (Guardian Witch 7)
Cross Keys (An Elvenrude Novel)
Cross Keys: Revelation (Elvenrude Trilogy Novel 2)
Cross Keys: Unity (Elvenrude Trilogy Novel 3)
Ghost Walking (Maggie York Paranormal Mystery 1)
Ghost Witching (Maggie York Paranormal Mystery 2)
Ghost Haunting (Maggie York Paranormal Mystery 3), expected fall-winter 2017
[All photos used in Kath-LettersfromEarth.blogspot.com are the sole property of Kath Marsh. Not for public use. Not to be reprinted.]
