Fall in Love With Books Hop & Giveaway

I'm so excited to be hosting our first giveaway blog hop here at Readers Confession and also with the awesome,Toni Aleo. Toni is having a Kindle Fire Giveaway so make sure to check it out!

Falling in Love with Books Hop!

 Since Fall is here and 2013 is just around the corner, I figured we'd talk about new books or authors we have fallen in love with this year. Is it that new phenomenal indie author or new series that has blown you away. Who have you been gushing about all this year? Is there a new genre you found and  now love. Tell your readers more about it. 

What have I Fallen in Love with in 2012?

THE WATCHER SERIES BY TAMELA BUHRKE

Tamela is an independent author I met on Twitter. I kept seeing her Twitter posts promoting her books; so, I thought I would give Angel Unraveled a try. I'm so glad a I did! I loved it! So thereafter, I dove into Angel Unprepared. Loved that too! I'm thrilled to have found a new series. I have reviewed both books, plus Tamela was gracious enough to do an Author Spotlight. I highly recommend that you try this series. It is so much fun and you will love the heroine, Andi.

Since I want to you to enjoy it as much as I do, I'm giving away a copy of Angel Unraveled. Also, if you make it to the end of the post, you are in for a treat! Tamela has given us an excerpt of Angel Unleashed, the third book in the Watcher Series.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Angel Unraveled by Tamela Buhrke, I found a gem of a book. It's the first book in the Watcher series. I really enjoyed every page. It has very likable characters and fast-paced plot. As the title indicates, you might think this just another angel series. But, in fact, it has vampires and demons as well. Plus there there was a little tease for fairies and shapeshifters. 

The story is from the perspective of Andi Andreas, psychic neophyte. She is not comfortable with what she thinks are her newly acquired powers. She continually fights with herself on how to live with her psychic abilities. I really like Andi. She is different from other urban fantasy heroines. She's not the typical hardcore warrior type that is often portrayed in many UF novels. Don't get me wrong, I do like those characters, but Andi is someone you can identify with. She gets frustrated, freaked out and completely overwhelmed with what she has to face. When Andi is thrust into the supernatural world she basically has a complete meltdown. Like with most people, she has a difficult time accepting it. However, eventually she does and finds herself trying to prevent a vampire and demon war. 

Throughout the book, Andi is slowly discovering who she really is. Ms. Buhrke did a great job putting you in Andi's head. I felt every emotion throughout her journey. I felt her anger, distrust and confusion. 

Another fun part of the book is the potential love interests. I found this is not your typical paranormal romance. It's not a boy meets girls kind of story. Andi has several suitors and she is attracted to them all, one more than others. Who will she end up with? Who knows! We will have to read more of the series to find out. 

Overall, I really like the first book in this new series. Ms. Buhrke introduced some good characters and storylines. It will be fun watching the new stories unfold. Next up, Angel Unprepared.

Angel Unravel Excerpt:

Who are you to enter into my territory and threaten what is mine?” Came the buttery sound of a Spanish accent.
My insides melted with the fluid tones of his voice.  I swayed a bit and Calhoun gripped my arm to steady me, but I pulled away from him, wiping self-consciously at the spot he’d just touched.
Out of the darkness, Esteban glided into view.  Spike trembled, then foolishly puffed up his pride.
“I am a vampire!” He announced.
Esteban laughed softly, walking toward the trembling young creature.
“Really.  You think so, niño?”
He traced the top of the table next to him with his fingers.
“What do you know of being a vampire?” His voice rumbled like ancient rocks beneath a glacier.
Spike had no answer.  Esteban smiled, showing fang.
“Just one day old.  You think you have the right to threaten the master of the region?” He asked.
One of the vampires holding Spike chuckled.  Esteban nodded to him and the vampire ripped open Spikes t-shirt, leaving it hanging in rags from his arms.
Esteban crooked his finger at me. “Come, my darling.  Witness what I do with those who would hurt you.”
I had no choice.  My wobbly legs took me to Esteban’s side.  Tucker took a few steps closer to me, but then stopped.  His eyes darted back and forth between Esteban and I.
Esteban jerked his finger, ever so slightly in a slashing motion. I had to put my hand up to block the fine mist of Spike’s blood from soaking my face.  A large gash appeared across Spike’s cheek.  Esteban continued to slash through the air with his finger.  He didn’t even need to touch him.  Spike screeched with pain.  Blood poured from long thin slashes all over his body.  Esteban let go of me and moved toward the boy.
 “You are not a vampire,” he barked.  Only now did his voice betray the anger he felt.  “You are an aberration, a chemically induced mutation!”
He slammed his fist on the table disintegrating it in an explosion of splintered wood.
“For your insult to me, to mine,” he yelled, gesturing at me, “and to all vampires, you will die.”
“No!”
Ah hell, did I just say that?
Esteban turned to me, eyes red and enraged.
“He knows things.” I struggled for words under the weight of my fear.  “He knows who murdered my friend.”  I raised my gaze, careful to look only at the bridge of his nose.  “He knows who is creating this vampire drug.”
Esteban stood still for a moment.  Finally, he reached into the pocket of his suit jacket and removed a handkerchief.  Gently, he lifted my chin, then wiped the splatter of blood off my face.
“You are right, mija,” he agreed, his fingers gently brushing a lock of hair off my face.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tucker’s whole body tense in response.  But Esteban merely turned and gently guided me to Spike, who was now limply hanging in the arm of Esteban's vampires.
Blood poured from his wounds, creating a puddle at his feet.
Esteban leaned close to me, “Use your gift, mija.  Tell me what he knows.”

Angel Unleashed Chapter One:

You know the old saying, life’s a bitch and then you die?  Well, today the bitch came calling for that debt.  Thankfully, I was too busy gripping at the arms of my chair to notice her.  Isn't it funny how, when you sense danger, you do things like that?  As if gripping the arms of the chair would stop the winds from buffeting or our plane from shuddering?

Before I could finish the thought, we plummeted through an air pocket like an out of control elevator.  Finally, hammering to a stop as if we’d found our emergency brake.   It sent a resounding groan through the cabin.  Unfortunately, my stomach hadn’t been warned to catch up.  The drop had shot it up into my throat where it lodged itself.  Thankfully, it suffocated the stupid, girlie shriek that had been threatening to erupt.

 About Tamela:

I escaped by childhood in the drab, frigid winters of Chicago by delving into the fiery worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Soon hobbits, fairies and elves became more real to me than snow and rain. As I got older, I stumbled upon Anita Blake and the urban fantasy genre. Having all my favorite fantasy creatures living in our world and being regulated by our laws tickled my imagination bone.

Before long, I was sucking down paranormal fiction like an alcoholic at a free wine tasting festival.

Soon I would absorb so much paranormal juiciness, that it would start oozing out my fingertips. They twitched to write my own urban fantasy. In the 1990s, I could be seen at local coffee houses in Tempe, Arizona, devouring books, mumbling over their plots and jotting down story notes. It's taken many (a lady never tells how many) years of shaky typing, but finally those words formed my first novel, Angel Unraveled and then the second novel, Angel Unprepared.

Currently, I watch the waves wash over the Mexican Baja coast while writing novel three and dreaming of mermaid novels yet to come.