Hello everyone! Today I am so excited to welcome back our friend J.L. Merrow to the blog. She is here today to talk about her new release, Damned If You Do. J.L. has also brought along a great giveaway. So be sure to leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. And please join me in giving her a big welcome! Hi J.L.!
Hi and welcome to the Damned If You Do virtual book tour! Today, Joyfully Jay has been kind enough to let me talk about my favorite character in the series, which was just released from Riptide Publishing. I’ve also brought along a giveaway— leave a comment below by 11:59 pm on 6/28 and you’ll be entered in a week-long contest to win a $10 gift certificate to Riptide! Follow the tour all week for more Damned If You Do celebrations, including more interviews, thoughts from editor Sarah Frantz, and, of course, more chances to win.
If I could meet any of my characters in real life, I’d love to meet Kitty, Rael’s four-foot pet salamander. Actually, I have met her: she’s based on Gaudi’s dragon in Park Guell, Barcelona. On the same trip, I also bumped into Levi, Rael’s envy demon ex, walking down the Ramblas. The street performers in Barcelona are fantastic! 😉 But Kitty is definitely a favorite—here’s an excerpt from Damned If You Do starring the feisty salamander.
Excerpt
The back street behind the pizza parlor was empty save for a few old burger wrappers blown along by a half-hearted breeze, and a couple dented garbage cans. And, of course, a four-foot salamander with a stump where its tail should be, munching on a lump of coal while being petted by Lars’s own little demon lover.
“Jeezus! Speak of the devil!” Rochelle burst out.
“Rael?” Lars could hear his voice cracking slightly.
“What are you doing—shit, Rael, just walk away from the salamander! You don’t know what those things can do!”
Still hunkered down by the salamander, Rael fixed Lars with a look almost as stern as the ones he’d been handing out the previous evening. “She is not a thing, honey. And the fire thing? That’s a defense mechanism. As long as she’s happy, she’ll be just fine. Poor baby,” he crooned to the oversized lizard. “The mean old detective didn’t mean to pull your tail off. You eat your coal up, sugar, it’ll make you feel a whole lot better.”
The sight of that scaly firestarter snuggling up to his lover was doing strange things to Lars’s brain. He had a whole bunch of questions of varying degrees of urgency, so it figured that the first one that came out was pretty damn irrelevant.
“Uh, I thought it was dragons that ate coal?”
Rael rolled his eyes. “Like it’s only big, blond detectives who eat steak? Coal is one of your basic food groups for all fire elementals.”
“Sorry to interrupt this fascinating discussion of infernal fucking fauna,” Rochelle put in sarcastically, “but now we’ve got the perp, what’re we gonna do with it?”
Rael beamed. “I figured we could let the little cutie come home with us, Lars, honey.” His eyes narrowed. “At least until her tail grows back.”
Lars stared. “With us? Rael, are you nuts? They have regulations about fire hazards in this city. Plus, I kind of like my apartment like it is—you know, not burned to a cinder with a couple of charred corpses inside!”
“Oh, honey, all we need is an old-fashioned kitchen range and she’ll be just fine. She only went critical ’cause she was scared, didn’t you, sweetie?” Rael tickled the salamander under the chin. It made a crooning sound and flicked Rael affectionately with its forked tongue.
Blurb
Sexy male succubus Rael has an insatiable appetite for men that gets him into all kinds of trouble. And he’s just found his favorite flavor: hunky blond detective Lars Thornsson. When those cool Nordic looks combine with Rael’s smoldering dark charms, all Hell could break loose.
Lars’s job at the Paranormal Enforcement Agency means he’s supposed to be policing demons, not falling in lust—or love—with them. But there’s something about this feisty little sex demon that hits all his buttons.
With no shortage of deadly sinners in his city, from serial-killing succubi to drug-dealing demons, all Lars can do is try to keep his private life from interfering with his work. But Rael has a knack for getting mixed up in cases that threaten both their domestic harmony and their lives.
Damned If You Do can be purchased from Riptide here.
JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through is a 2013 EPIC ebook Award finalist. She is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: http://www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jl.merrow.
I’ve got this series on my TBR list.
Hope you’ll enjoy it! 😀
Thanks for sharing this great excerpt and for the chance to win! I’m really looking forward to reading this book.
Glad you liked the excerpt – good luck in the contest! 😀
Please count me in. I’ve been thinking about buying this book.
Good luck! 🙂
Hi, Jay – it’s great to be here again! Thanks so much for the warm welcome. 😀
I’d love to hear from readers which fictional character they would like to meet – and it doesn’t have to be one of mine! 😉
Always great to have you! Fictional character… hmm. Ok, Joey from Collision Course by KA Mitchell
Ooh, interesting. Will have to re-read that one! 🙂
The stories (and Kitty, really) were awesome.
Thanks! I’m glad you liked them. 😀
I always enjoy J L Merrow’s books, so I am looking forward to this one as well.
Aw, thank you! 🙂
Love the excerpt!
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
Thank you! 😀
I’m a huge fan of your contemporaries and historicals, but haven’t tried this series yet! It looks like a fun read 🙂 Thank you for the giveaway and please count me in!
I know this is a paranormal, but I think it should “read” similarly to one of my contemporaries – although it’s somewhat sexier! 😉
Glad you’ve enjoyed my books. 😀
You had me at 4 foot long salamander named Kitty and finished setting the hook with the excerpt. I think I would like to meet Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird; always thought he could use a good hug.
Yay! Kitty is glowing with pleasure at your comment! 😉
And oh, yes – Atticus Finch would be a fascinating character to meet. So much integrity and dignity, and such a great dad too. 🙂
I look forward to reading this, big fan of J.L.Merrow’s work
Jane Wilkinson
Hope you’ll enjoy it! 😀
I’m not normally a fan of paranormal but I love all of your other stories so I’m going to give these stories a try.
Your comment is music to a writer’s ears! 😀
I hope you’ll enjoy it – let me know what you think!
Thank you Jay for hosting J.L. Merrow on your Blog.
Hello J.L., thank you for taking the time to stop by & share with your Fans about her new release, “Damned If You Do” & for your very generous Giveaway. I really liked the Blurb & Excerpt, this is another of your Books that is not to be missed. Wishing you All the Best.
Take Care & Stay Naughty, PaParanormalFan (Renee’) paranormalromancefan at yahoo dot com
Thanks, Renee! Glad you enjoyed the excerpt, and good luck in the contest! 😀
I’m terrible at remembering characters. Probably an alpha wolf shifter from the many I read. Or Nic Lamoureux from Deadly Obsession a het fic by Kristine Cayne and I read very few het fics, lol.
penumbrareads(at)gmail(dot)com
Nic Lamoureux? Great name for a romantic hero! You know, I’ve written wolf shifters, but I’m not sure I’d want one as a RL SO. All that territorial behaviour would get on my nerves VERY quickly, and don’t get me started on the fleas! ;D
I love Gaudi, and I love Barcelona. I love succubi and salamanders, too. This sounds like a treat, thank you! Oh, and I love paranormal, almost forgot to add that detail.
Urb
brendurbanist@gmail.com
Barcelona is lovely, isn’t it? And I was so lucky to be there – quite by chance – on St George’s Day, which is a big thing over there, a sort of mix of a national day and St Valentine’s Day. It’s traditional to give your boyfriend a book, so as well as parades and general goings-on, the Ramblas was filled with stalls selling new and used books – heaven! 😀
One thing I love about writing paranormals is the wealth of myth and legend you get to pick’n’mix from to create your own world. 🙂
This book sounds like a lot of fun. Please count me in! Thank you!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Thank you for this! I think the fictional character I’d most like to meet is Lord Peter Wimsey from Dorothy Sayers’ mystery novels.
Oh, it’d be fascinating to meet the Great Flim. He was a bit of a Scarlet Pimpernel of a character, wasn’t he – and had such a great way of speaking. 🙂
Cute excerpt, JL! Looking forward to reading how things progress, as I’m sure, call it a hunch, Lars is going to be reluctantly bringing home one fiery salamander.
Heh, no spoilers… but I think you’ve got a pretty good handle on the Rael/Lars dynamic! ;D
Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks for the wonderful excerpt. Please count me in.
Glad you enjoyed it! 😀
I want to read this book, please, please count me in, thank you so much….
Hope you’ll enjoy it! 🙂
Great excerpt!
Can’t wait to read more 🙂
Thank you for sharing and lovely giveaway!!!
Best Wishes,
Sydney W
Bookaddict100(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks – glad you enjoyed it! 😀