I'm so excited to be here today to talk about my new paranormal series. Before I start, I want to leave a link for a giveaway. I'm giving away a copy of both book 1(The Secret Keeper) and 2(In The Dying Light) in an easy-peasey rafflecopter giveaway. Enter to win here
Now, what is a Secret Keeper? Simply put, a secret keeper is a person, male or female that bears an ancient curse that allows them to change a person’s history and erase their mistakes, making their secret disappear, forever. The catch, next time the guilty party has a secret, they will not be able to tell it, even if they want to.
And this is where the Secret Keeper series starts……
In book one of the Secret Keeper series Winter Merrill does something she regrets. Her need to hide her mistake is a powerful catalyst that leads her to the door of a mysterious and enchanting woman who calls herself The Secret Keeper. Sure that she’s done making mistakes, she gives her fateful secret to the woman. One week later she finds herself the keeper of another, far more devastating secret. Will she be able to break the curse in time, or she pay an unthinkable price to loose her tongue and save everyone she loves?
Released March 2016: In The Dying Light
You can find The first two books of The secret keeper series(plus some awesome contemporary stand-alone books) at:
Amazon - Barnes andNoble – Kobo - Smashwords - Ibooks
Over
and over in my head I repeated, “She can make my secret go away.”
I’m not sure if I was trying to convince myself, or trying to keep myself
from going nuts, but the phrase calmed me as I drove.
I
found Lejo Street and began the steep climb to the top. The houses in
this neighborhood were small. Most were weathered if not completely
forgotten. Pines grew too close together. Piles of rusted tools
and
long-forgotten bathroom fixtures littered the landscape, hidden only
by overgrown grasses and neglected Quakies. No wonder everyone
thought
it was creepy.
My heart rate quickened with the ascent, and my palms left sticky
sweat
on my steering wheel. I wiped them on my jeans only to have the
moisture
build up again immediately. Soon there was nothing but dense
forest;
a blur of green, broken only by the ashen skies above. The rain
came
down in unyielding sheets and I turned up the windshield wipers.
Back
and forth they went like a giant metronome, keeping in step with
my
nervous heartbeat.
I strained to see out the windows until all at once there was nothing
in
front me but a large rusted metal gate and a cracked wood sign, painted
long
ago, that declared, “No trespassing.” Beyond the gate, through the
trees
and the rain, I saw the pale blue house that the girl in the park had
described.
One more time I said out loud, “She can make my secret disappear.”
I’d
almost convinced myself now. I had to be convinced, what with the
dilapidated
house in the middle of nowhere and the stormy weather.
Everything
screamed “Don’t go in!” but I was driven to try something,
anything,
not to lose my best friend and boyfriend.
I climbed from the car and ran until I reached the porch, slipping and
having
to catch myself as I tried to take the stairs too fast. Light spilled
out
through a crack in the curtains, letting me know someone was there.
I
lifted my hand to knock on the old splintered door and froze. I didn’t
know
the secret keeper’s name. How would I address her? Before I could
decide
what to do, the heavily scratched door handle turned and the door
opened
a crack. My mouth fell open. The eyes that peered through the
opening
were surprisingly young.
My throat felt tight as I swallowed and it sounded loud to me. I
could
turn and run. Everything in my gut told me to go, but I stood like
a
marble statue frozen by my anguish.
“Who are you looking for?” she asked.
Her melodic voice made me think of dozens of wind chimes all
tinkling
at once. Still, I felt uneasy.
I made myself spit out the words. “The Secret Keeper.”
An excruciatingly long minute passed and I thought she might tell
me
that I had the wrong house or that I should get off her property.
Finally,
in a voice no louder than a whisper she said, “Come in. I’m The
Secret
Keeper.”
A little about Angela
Angela Carling was
raised in Palm Springs California, but lives Arizona with her husband, three
kids and five felines. After years of
denial she finally admitted that she is a hopeless romantic which led her to
write her first Young Adult book Unbreakable Love. Since then she’s published
three more books, Shackled, Becoming Bryn and The Secret Keeper. Shackled won
the silver IPGA award in 2012 and has been optioned as a screenplay. She always
eats the frosting off her cake and leaves the rest, and can be caught singing
in public bathrooms. When she’s not
writing YA novels, she’s mentoring teen writers, making pizza with her family
or dreaming of taking a nap, not necessarily in that order.
Links to connect with Angela
Website http://www.angelacarling.com/
Facebook https://twitter.com/angelacarling
Guest Post
Now that you know what a Secret Keeper is, we are going to talk about who could’ve really used one! Many of you be familiar with the o-so-handsome British actor Hugh Grant.
A book
excerpt from Winter’s perspective
Chapter 1
I knew he
had a secret. After six months as a secret keeper, I could always tell. Usually
their eyes gave them away. This time it was his body language: his shoulders
slumped and his hands hung low, barely touching the sides of his pressed
business suit. I wasn’t fooled by his expensive clothes. Rich people do stupid
things, too, and this was going to bad one—one that would break hearts and
destroy lives. It might be infidelity or a business deal gone wrong. Whatever
it was, his confession was going to be painful to me. He was the cocky
type, bound to do something stupid again. He might even come back to me. I
could entice him to make a final deal, and I would be free of the secret keeper
curse. I pushed aside my own despicable thoughts. He prodded along,
inching ever closer to me. He knew I was his savior. I didn’t know who’d told
him, but he was sure I could make his secret go away. I leapt up from the park bench and ran. My bare feet
made almost no noise on the long sidewalk that pushed me deeper into the city.
“Wait!” he called, his footsteps pounding overly-loud like angry blood
coursing through my veins. I ducked behind a one-story building and slid my
body against the scratchy stucco wall. My shirt snagged and tore, leaving my
tender skin vulnerable. He kept in pursuit. “I have to tell you my
secret,” he screamed into the long alley that bridged the distance between us.
“You have to fix it!” The word it reverberated off the walls like an
odd, taunting echo. I turned, and the man behind me was inexplicably next to
me. He grabbed me, pinning me to the wall with his whole body. He smelled of
rot, stinky wet forest rot, of life breaking down and disappearing forever. I
hated that smell. It was the scent of the secret keeper before me. Now, because
I bore her curse, it would become my stench. I thrashed against him, but
he held me firm. Every muscle in my body tensed. I closed my eyes and braced
myself. “I killed my partner so I could have control of everything,” he
confessed. Words sank through my porous skin and into my defenseless
soul. I arched my back in pain as I absorbed and erased his unthinkable crime.
A scream tore through me and out into my dark apartment.
I sat up,
abruptly woken from my nightmare, gasping for air. My hand went to my face to
find it sticky with sweat, and my heart raced as if I’d actually been attacked.
The dreams were getting worse. The longer I was a secret keeper, the
more real they felt. Now I wasn’t just taking on secrets during the day, I was
reliving them at night with unforgiving clarity. Is this what my secret keeper
experienced? No wonder she hid herself in a forest so no one could find her. No
wonder she was willing to let me suffer so she could be released. I
blinked my burning eyes and tried to focus. With fumbling fingers, I reached
for my phone. It was a gift from my boyfriend Liam so that I’d never have to
feel alone. Once I’d become a secret keeper, no one, not even my parents
remembered me. My heart rate was slowing down, but I still struggled to
push the right buttons. I hit send, and my eyes darted to the clock. I’d been
in such a fog, I hadn’t considered the time. It was 3:00 a.m. Liam would be
sleeping, exhausted from his classes and work. I quickly mashed the glowing
rectangle with the words End Call. The screen went blank, and then a picture of
Liam and I standing in front of a sign that read Welcome to ASU filled the dark
space. I ran my hands down my face as if I could wipe away not just the
bad dream but the last six months of my life. I let myself fall back on the
bed. On my unclad arms I felt the dampness left by my sweat. I’d have to wash
my sheets again tomorrow. I’d do it after I met Liam tomorrow night.
Thanks for stopping by and may you never need a Secret Keeper!
your giveaway link is broken! =(
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/6a3008415/?
DeleteTry this one and good luck:)