Today I am so pleased to welcome Kate Hawthorne and E.M. Denning to Joyfully Jay. Kate and E.M. have come to share an exclusive cover reveal for their upcoming release, Blood in the Water. The book releases 10/1/21. They have also brought along an exclusive excerpt. Please join me in giving them a big welcome!

First off, here is the cover!

Excerpt

“You’re awake,” a voice said from across the room.

Adrian startled, yelping and scampering backward toward the headboard. His shoulder blades hit the wood hard, sending a flash of pain up this neck. He threw his hands across his lap to make sure he wasn’t exposed, even though he was clearly tangled in the bedding. His heart slammed against his ribs, and Adrian blinked quickly, trying to pinpoint the location of the owner of the voice and coming up short.

“Can I get you anything?” the voice asked.

“Some light,” he answered quickly, feeling out of sorts and off base.

A switch flicked and an amber ceiling light turned on, casting a soft orange glow over the room. He quickly looked around, finding a chair tucked into the corner of the room near the window, which was covered with a blackout curtain. Adrian was disoriented and confused, with no idea where he was or even what time or day it was.

“How long have I been asleep for?” he asked.

“A day. Or so.”

“What time is it?”

The man peered out the corner of the curtain, a flash of pink light entering the room when he moved the curtain aside. The man was…objectively handsome, if not dreadfully pale. He had blond hair that almost matched his skin, which looked as smooth as porcelain. He wore a pair of black jeans, slim cut, and no shirt. Adrian looked down, remembering he was wearing the man’s shirt.

“Sunset,” the man said, “Do you remember what happened to you?”

Very much so.

“You helped me out of the ocean and brought me here,” Adrian said. “This is your shirt?”

The man nodded.

“It’s been a day, but you didn’t bother to get dressed again?”

The man looked down at his bare chest, a spark of amusement coloring his features before disappearing. “I didn’t think about it.”

“What’s your name?” Adrian asked.

“We did this already. Do you not remember?”

“I’ve had a bit of a trauma,” Adrian snapped.

The man smirked. “Chad.”

“Chad?”

“That’s my name,” Chad said. “Chad.”

What a ridiculous name.

Is that really what humans named their heirs?

Chad?

Blurb

A mer prince on the run from an arranged marriage and a melancholic vampire don’t have much in common, but fate doesn’t care about that kind of thing. 

Adrian has three days.

After fleeing his palace in the depths of the ocean, Adrian finds himself on land, with legs, and in the arms of Chad Bonaventure, a twenty four (or four) year old vampire who would rather be anywhere besides alive (or alive adjacent, as it were).

Chad has forever.

Chad’s world is turned upside down when he hauls a nearly dead (and very naked) man out of the ocean and onto the beach. Chad takes him home to recover, only to find out he isn’t a man at all. He’s Mer. He’s a Prince. And he’s really, really hot.

Chad is immortal (a vampire with a neck fetish), but Adrian (and his obsession with astronomy) has less than a week before he has to return to the sea. Together, they throw caution to the wind and dive headfirst into bed…and love. Even though they’re running on borrowed time, Adrian and Chad decide—for the first time—to live for themselves, not anyone else. But Adrian can’t stay on land forever, and Chad can’t follow him into the sea.

Adrian has fallen in love with the vampire who gave him the stars, and Chad with the Mer who taught him how to live. And they’re both about to learn hearts are wild things, even if they’re not beating.

Preorder Link: Amazon

Bios

Kate Hawthorne

With over two dozen published romances to her name, Kate Hawthorne has built a recognizable brand around telling emotional stories that pack a figurative (and sometimes literal) punch.

Existing on a steady diet of wine and coffee, Kate spends her days dreaming up angsty stories full of heat, kink, and heart. Kate now lives in Louisville, where she writes romance, reads romance, and hides from the humidity.

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EM Denning

E. M. Denning is a writer from British Columbia. She loves her family and animals, and anything cute and fuzzy. She writes romance for the 18+ plus crowd because she’s both a hopeless romantic and a dirty old woman.