Blog Tour: Shadowborn by Jocelyn Adams (@jocelynadams) #LilaGray

In my time in the writing biz, I have made a few close friends of the writerly persuasion. I am happy to say, my guest today, is one of those friends. I met Jocelyn Adams through a critique site we both used at the time, Scribophile.com. If you aren’t familiar with the site and you write, you are missing out. While a peer critique site, it has been invaluable to me in making connections and forming friendships with authors I have grown to love and admire.

In this particular case, Jocelyn Adams is the kind of writer that I strive to be. She inspires me with her gift for storytelling and with her amazing ability to finish entire novels in less time than it takes me to come up with a title for one.

The second novel is Ms. Adam’s Lila Gray series, Shadowborn was released from J. Taylor Publishing on October 1st. If you haven’t ordered a copy or added this one to your Goodreads TBR pile, you are seriously missing out.

Here are the details on the newest release:

Back of the Book:

Why me?

That’s the question Lila Gray asks every time yet another bad guy tries to destroy the earth, and she learns she’s the only one who can stop it. Once again, something’s on the prowl, leaving hundreds of comatose, soulless victims in its wake.

Couldn’t the deadliest assassins of the Otherworld go after someone else instead of the brand new Queen of the Seelie? One who still hasn’t adapted to her new role.

Lila would ask Liam Kane, King of the Unseelie, for advice, but something’s off with him, too. He’s holding back. In some way. About some thing. In fact, he refuses to tell her what’s going on.

The truth holds Lila back from the greatness of her role—the people she was born to lead—the man who she desperately loves—and the solution to the latest war raging around her.

To find the answers, she’ll need to fight through her own darkness and embark on a journey through her psyche.

If she doesn’t succeed, the Shadowborn will claim not only her world, but her soul.

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While I have a full review of the novel to come, today Jocelyn Adams was kind enough to allow me to share with you a special Halloween themed Lila Gray short.

I’m beyond excited to have a chance to be the first to share it with you all.

Devil in Heels – A Lila Gray Short

I groaned as Brígh spun me toward the mirror.  “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Oh, suck it up, Lila.  It’s fun.” Rock music shook her house from the party going on beyond her bedroom door.  “You said you’ve never dressed up for Halloween, so now’s your chance.”

“I think you missed the part where I said dressing up is lame and even as a kid, before the world went to shit, I never dressed up.  And since when do fae celebrate a human occasion?”

“Oh, hush with your minor details.”  Her fingers fluffed my hair.  “Okay, you can open your eyes.”

“Do I have to?”

The smack sound came before the sting in my shoulder.  “Yes, you do.”

Chuckling, I rubbed my arm.  “Damn, that hurt.  You’re so dainty I didn’t think you had it in you.”  At her huff, I sighed.  “Fine, fine, I’ll look.”

I opened my eyes to the reflection of a short red vinyl skirt that barely covered my naughty bits.  Black fishnet stretched over my legs, at least what wasn’t hidden behind thigh-high red boots with silver heels that could have skewered a wild boar.  On top, she’d squeezed my girls into a black corset with red silk ribbons as laces.

I glared at her reflection in the mirror, though she only grinned in return, her sapphire Seelie eyes sparkling with it.  “You have got to be freakin’ kidding me.  What the hell am I supposed to be?”

“The last few pieces you’ll have to add using glamour.”  She pranced in place, wearing her black vinyl cat suit complete with tufted ears.  Her pink ringlets bounced with the motion.

My fingers massaged my temples.  “And what would those be?”

“Um … your red devil horns and tail?”

I whirled to face her.  She took a step back.  “A devil, Brígh?  The entire fae nation, both of them in fact, already think I’m Lucifer’s nasty step-sister.”

She waved me off with a flick of her black-painted fingernails.  “No, they don’t, and you’re not just a devil.”  Her grin widened.  “You’re a smoking hot, sexy as hell devil.  You’re positively sinful in that outfit.”  She squealed and danced over to the door.  “He’s going to love it.”

My heart stumbled before sprinting.  “Who’s going to love it?”

She shrugged, winked and pulled the door open, flooding the room with music and excited voices from the revelers in full party swing.  “You’ll see.”

I stared after her as she walked out in her high heeled shoes, swinging her kitty tail in her fingers.  She couldn’t have meant … no, that would be insane.  Liam was an Unseelie fae, enemy of my people since some idiotic war separated us.  He hadn’t been allowed inside the gateway to Dun Bray in months despite my efforts to change the old laws.

Unwilling to get my hopes up only to have them dashed, I shook off thoughts of seeing my secret lover tonight, and used my glamour to finish off my costume as Brígh had instructed. She’d only nag me until I complied anyway. By the time I’d finished, two short red horns poked out from my hair and a long, arrow-head tail swung behind me.

My cheeks heated as I exited her bedroom and stepped into the large party room her ancient shifter house had created for the occasion.  Orange and black crepe paper streamers hung in scallops along the ceiling above the horde of Seelie fae writhing and swaying to the music.

A group by the bar turned to look at me.  I recognized a few of my royal guards beneath their costumes.  Their smirks and cat calls accompanied their waves.

“This is not happening to me,” I muttered as I waved to them and ducked into the crowd hoping to disappear.  If the shifter house was so inclined, he could open up the floor and swallow me up, but no doubt Brígh had given him strict orders not to.  So much fae energy swirled around me it took effort to move through it.

“Care to dance?”

I jumped at the deep voice in my ear.  “I don’t dance.”

“Not even with me?”  His familiar, seductive tone tightened everything south of my belly button.

Breath stalled in my throat, I turned to find a large man wearing a yellow and black spandex suit.  A cowl of the same colors obscured the upper portion of his face, all but his deep blue eyes.  My focus wandered over the swell of his chest, down to his tight abs that showed through the fabric he wore like a second skin.  I knew that body, had explored every inch of it in painful detail.  I reached for the Unseelie king to make sure he was real.

A familiar grin crooked one corner of Liam’s lips.  “Brígh really outdid herself this time.”  He chuckled as his gaze swept over me.  “Though, now that I’m wearing this ridiculous Wolverine outfit she made for me, I realize I’m going to be turning it into a circus tent if I look too hard at you.”

Laughing, I leapt at him, wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed until he grunted.  “I can’t believe you’re here!”  When I remembered where we were and that my people would be watching me, I released him and pulled my tiny skirt back into place.  “Wait, how did you get through the portal?  If Nix or Gallagher find you inside Dun Bray, they’ll have a fit.”

“Brígh let me in.  And you didn’t recognize me, so why would they?”  Liam pulled me against him with one arm looped around my lower back and the other holding my hand in a dance pose.  “Now let’s enjoy the time Brígh’s given us.”

Bewildered by his power flowing like fire through my skin, I allowed him to set us in a swaying motion amongst the crowd and smiled at Brígh across the room, who winked in return.  “How did she even know … you know … about us?  I thought only Gallagher and Nix knew we were sneaking around.”

“She’s a Seer.  She probably saw us together in a vision.”

Liam’s breath warmed my ear and turned my core molten.  Heat invaded my face as I considered what Brígh might have seen the two of us doing.  Usually within three seconds of our meeting we were naked and pawing at one another like horny teenagers.

I groaned and buried my face against Liam’s throat, inhaling his heady scent and wishing the crowd would disappear so I could rip the fabric from his body the way I wanted to.  “I have no idea why she’s so good to me, though she could have warned me you were coming.”

Liam snickered and held me tighter.  “She’s good to you because she sees beyond your hardness to the soft, amazing woman beneath.”

My fist lowered from his shoulder and rammed into his side.

“Ouch!”  His laughter induced my own.  “It’s true.”

I hit him again.

“Now, now, kiddies.  Play nice.”  Brígh twirled up beside us wearing a smile that could turn night into day.  “My room is over there, freshly made up with new sheets and everything.”  She winked and squeezed Liam’s arm.  “Be a shame to let it go to waste, don’t you think?”

Liam and I locked gazes long enough for me to catch the dark ideas swirling behind his.  They matched my own, and then some.

As he grabbed my hand and tugged me toward Brígh’s bedroom, she shouted, “Happy Halloween, you two!”

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What an awesome little tale! Just loved it. Of course, I can’t seem to get enough Lila, and her friend, Brigh is one of my favorites from the new novel. (Yes, I was lucky enough to get a review ARC of Shadowborn).

If you want to learn more about Shadowborn, or any of Jocelyn’s other amazing stories you can find her here:

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Purchase Links:

Shadowborn:  Amazon, Barnes & Noble

The Glass Man:  Amazon, Barnes & Noble