REACH FOR YOU
Dark Heart, #3
by Pat Esden
Date of Publication:
June 27th 2017
Publisher: Kensington
Books
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Her
passion is her greatest weakness.
His
legacy is his prison.
To
reunite, both must fight the demons within.
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Review of
. . . REACH FOR YOU (Dark Heart, #3) . . . I began this journey with Annie and Chase
over a year ago with A Hold On Me and
now here I am with Reach for You.
This has been a ride that gave as good as it got. It showed that there are some
pretty strong women out there that will fight for their role in the world, for
their love, for their family, for their everything. Annie had to stand up and
take charge of her life and make what she wanted become reality. You are truly
tested when you know that you must have an enemy as an ally or even one that
could turn on you with no warning. That was exactly what Annie had to do to
save those she love, but the road still was not easy.
Annie had to battle herself for more than
just to love again. I found this one gave me more everything. There was more
sorrow, pain, loss, danger, deception, fear. I love this world of the djinn. I
find that it was intriguing and entertaining all at the same time. The realm
was mystical and dangerous. Secrets untold open up so much more. Chase and
Annie had a battle before them. The book shows that you don’t have to literally
be together to be together. This was a romance that spanned space and time.
They were together and revealed in the times that had together.
This was well written and very much
anticipated. I found a strong female lead with the brains, guts, and
determination to make that stand even if it cost her the love of her life. She
was willing to do what it took to get him out even if she could not keep him.
Pat Esden gave me a read that I will love to read again. The entire series now
available will be one that I start with one book one day then move on to the
next book the next day. I would read this again.
Pick up the latest addition to the Dark Heart series.
Dark Heart series:
A Hold on Me – Dark Heart, #1
Beyond Your Touch – Dark Heart, #2
Reach for You – Dark Heart, #3
BLURB
A world of deception and danger separates
Annie Freemont from her mother—and from Chase, the enigmatic half-ifrit with
whom Annie’s fallen in love. But she vows to find her way back to them, before
Chase succumbs to the madness that threatens his freedom. The only person who
can help is the magical seductress, Lotli, a beautiful, manipulative woman . .
. a woman who has disappeared.
Annie must stay strong, even as the future
she imagined is slipping away. With the help of family and friends, she
discovers that Lotli is being held against her will, by those who want to
exploit her powers. But though weakened, Lotli remains a powerful alley and adversary.
A bargain is struck. And now Annie’s only chance to rescue Chase could also
tear them apart . . .
Loyalties will be tested, walls will be
breached, and enemies will be fought, yet Annie’s greatest battle lies within
her own heart—to trust her love for Chase to overcome its greatest enemy, and
to save those she holds most dear from the terrifying realm of the djinn . . .
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May 28- July 2
Chapter 1
We journey. Ceaseless and hungry.
Carved into stone
tablet. Tenerife, Spain
The campsite was ominously silent.
Then a breeze lifted and my ear caught the faint clank and rattle of the bones
and knives hanging in the pine trees behind us.
“You don’t think they’re both dead, do
you?” Selena whispered.
I scanned the dilapidated camper ahead
of us, a do-it-yourself RV created out of an old bread truck. Despite the
midafternoon warmth, the doors were shut tight. The tent behind it, barely
visible from our angle, bowed under the weight of rain that had pooled in its
canopy. There was no campfire smoke. No trampled grass. In comparison to when
we’d come here last week, the place looked deserted.
Goose bumps pebbled my skin. I gave
the camper another once-over. “Zea was really old and sickly. He could have
died—or if the kidnappers came here first looking for Lotli, they could have
found him. They might have—”
Selena cut me off with a glower. “You
mean, supposed kidnappers.”
My jaw clenched. Yeah, that was exactly what I meant. I understood why my cousin
didn’t like that everything we’d discovered pointed to her boyfriend, Newt,
being involved in Lotli’s disappearance, and perhaps Zea’s as well. But I
thought we’d gotten past that, like a bunch of times already.
I swiveled toward where we’d parked
our Land Rover. The Professor stood rooted next to it, a mixture of disgust and
apprehension crinkling his face. From
his scholarly glasses and sandy brown hair all the way down to his polished
loafers, he looked anything but ready for our reconnaissance trip out here on
the back roads of Down East Maine. An afternoon of research at Oxford
University would have been more appropriate. “You want to check inside the tent
while we look in the camper?”
His gaze flicked to the soggy tarps.
He cleared his throat, then—as posh as ever—said, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not
totally against the idea. But the thought of discovering a rotting corpse is a
teensy bit abhorrent.”
“Would you rather discover one in a
closed-up camper?” I snapped. It was lucky we’d driven into the campsite from
the main road instead of walking like we’d done the last time. I’d assumed the Professor had an
adventuresome spirit to go with his young Indiana Jones good looks. Especially since he was an
archaeologist, though this summer he was tutoring Selena’s eleven-year-old
brother as a favor. Still, and
despite how eager he’d seemed to come with us, the Professor had freaked the
second we started past the creepy stuff Zea and Lotli hung in the trees to
scare people off: the knives and bones, pieces of copper pipe, broken mirrors,
and doll parts. Frankly, I was surprised he’d even gotten out of the Land Rover
at all.
I pasted on a smile. “Sorry. I don’t
much care for the idea myself. Let’s just hope he’s napping or something.”
The Professor wiped his hands down the
sides of his chinos. “I truly hope you’re right.”
As he headed for the tent, I tramped
toward the camper with Selena close behind. If only Chase were here now. The
creepy stuff hadn’t bothered him at all, and the fear of Zea being dead would
have only driven him forward faster.
My chest tightened, my longing for
Chase aching inside me, raw and unrelenting. If it weren’t for me, he would be
here now. Instead, both he and my mother were trapped in the djinn realm,
prisoners of his father, Malphic. If it weren’t for me, Lotli wouldn’t be
missing either.
“Well?” Selena jerked her head at the
camper door. “Are you going to just stand there?”
I raised my hand and knocked. One
second passed. Two seconds. I rapped harder. Nothing. I tried the doorknob. It
turned beneath my grip. I opened the door a crack, hesitated, and took a deep
breath before pushing it open all the way.
A wave of hot, musty air rushed past
me as if the camper had been closed up for days.
“Hello?” I said, sticking my head
inside. I gave the air a cautious sniff. No dangerous odors, like a leaky gas
stove, permeated the air. No
rotting-trash smell—or decomp.
Selena nudged my shoulder. “What are
you waiting for?”
I swallowed hard and stepped forward.
The place was cramped, a gypsy wagon
on steroids. Tassels and prisms curtained the windows, letting only faint
streaks of light inside. Miles of fuchsia and turquoise fabric draped the
ceiling and walls. Animal skulls, feathers, and nubby candles clustered inside
miniature altars. The fridge, table, and chairs, every surface that wasn’t
fabric covered, was painted purple or black. Stars decorated the ceiling. An
antique bed piled with crimson quilts and an avalanche of pillows took up the
camper’s entire backend. It was cozy enough, I supposed. But I couldn’t begin
to imagine what life had been like for Lotli, apprenticed to Zea as a child
because of her magic abilities, essentially indentured. Not that I thought a
devout shaman like Zea would have been cruel to her. It was just so different
from anything I’d experienced.
“Zea, are you here?” I called out. “We
need to talk to you about Lotli.”
I minced my way deeper into the
cramped space, working my way toward the back of the camper. Cold sweat carved
a trail down my spine. I crept past a tiny kitchen and dining nook, then the
bathroom—one toothbrush in the holder, a washcloth draped over the edge of a
yellowed sink.
I returned to the front of the camper
and pulled aside the curtain that divided the living area from the bread
truck’s cab. Seats for the driver and a passenger, seashells glued to the dash,
insulated coffee cups in the holders—
Something brushed the back of my neck.
I yelped and jumped sideways, whipping
around to see what it was and smacking my elbow against the wall. Pain zinged
up my arm. I glared at Selena, standing barely an inch behind me.
“Shit,” I said, rubbing the sting from
my arm. “You scared the hell out of me.”
She gave me a sheepish pout. “Sorry. I
thought you knew I was there.”
“I didn’t think you were that close.” It wouldn’t have hurt half
as bad, except I was already sore and bruised from being thrown out of the
djinn realm earlier in the day.
Her pout transformed into a smug smile
and she flipped her blond hair over one shoulder. “Looks to me like Zea and Lotli might have
pulled a vanishing act after all. Huh?”
I stopped rubbing. “Or the Professor’s
about to find something disgusting in the tent.”
“Want to bet?”
I closed my eyes, struggling to regain
my composure. We couldn’t afford to waste time discussing the same thing over
and over again, any more than I could have afforded the luxury of staying home
to nurse my aches and pains. Chase and Mother were in danger. And I couldn’t go
back to the realm and rescue them until we found Lotli. Without her and her
flute-magic, it would be too risky, perhaps even impossible to enter or escape
from the realm.
I shoved past Selena and strode to the
tiny bathroom. “While we’re here, we should find something personal of Lotli’s
that you can use to scry and see where they’re holding her.”
Glancing around, I spotted a scruffy
hairbrush. You couldn’t get much more personal than that. I grabbed it and
brandished it toward Selena.
She stood just inside the bathroom
doorway, hands on her hips, eyes narrowed. “Cut it out, Annie, I’ve had enough
of you talking like Newt kidnapped Lotli, the innuendos and little jabs. Maybe
his family’s hiding something, but Newt doesn’t have anything to do with it. So
quit acting like he’s evil, okay?”
I mirrored her stance. “He told you
his dad was a stockbroker, that they owned their summer home. Those were lies.
His brother is a registered creep. No matter what you want to think: Newt’s not
innocent.”
She turned her back on me, her voice
bordering on hysteria. “I don’t know why I bothered coming. You’re so, so . . .
You always have to be right—” Her voice died and she slowly faced me. Angry red
blotches mottled her face. But tears rimmed her eyes.
My anger drained. She didn’t look
pissed. She was trembling like she was about to fall apart. Earlier today, when
we’d first heard about the lies Newt and his family had been telling, I’d seen
something in Selena’s eyes, something beneath her disbelief.
“What is it? Tell me,” I asked gently.
She raked her hands over her face.
“Nothing. You just need to trust me. I know Newt couldn’t be involved. And he
wouldn’t have let his brother do it either.”
I leveled my gaze with hers and
toughened my voice. “What makes you so certain? Tell me the truth, Selena.”
Her chin quivered. “I just know.”
Tucking the hairbrush handle first
into my hip pocket, I stepped closer. I pushed her hair back from her face.
“You’re my cousin. Please. Tell me.”
“Nothing. He just wouldn’t do it. He loves
me.”
“I get that. But—”
She shoved my hand away. “No, you
don’t get it. I know he loves me.
Like forever.” Her eyes pleaded for me
to understand what she couldn’t bring herself to say.
A possibility seeped into my
head. My hands went to my mouth,
covering a horrified gasp. She couldn’t mean. She couldn’t have. “What did you do?”
“I kind of—I put a . . .” Her voice
faded and she looked down at the floor.
“A spell?” A month ago, the idea of
witchcraft being involved would never have occurred to me. Now it seemed more
than likely.
“You can’t tell anyone. Mom, Dad,
Grandfather—they’d kill me.” She curled her arms over her head, her shoulders
shaking as she crumpled down against the wall.
I crouched and put my arms around her.
“Whatever it is, it’ll be fine. It can’t be that bad.”
“It is,” she sobbed.
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Hi
everyone, I’m excited to be a guest on the Book Junkie Reads . . . today. Actually, I’ve
been dancing on air all week. In six more days (June 27th) REACH FOR YOU, the final novel in the Dark Heart trilogy comes out. Readers
will finally get to see how all the events and details of the series come
together in one giant climax.
REACH FOR YOU was a challenge to
write because Annie and Chase are separated for a majority of the novel, but it
is also perhaps my favorite book in the Dark
Heart series. I love to read books where it’s up to the woman to earn her
HEA by finding a way to rescue and fight for her love interest, and then see
them work together to bring down the force that has kept them separated—like a
fairy tale only this time it’s the girl who fights the dragons and chops
through the wall of thorns to awaken the sleeping prince. Well, there aren’t
any dragons or princes in this novel, but there is a ton of danger and magick.
And, just because Annie and Chase are separated that doesn’t mean their souls
can’t find a way to get together for some sizzling romantic moments.
As a
side note, I wanted to mention that I’m also doing a happy dance because
Kensington Publishing recently bought another series from me. In September 2018,
the first book in my Northern Circle Coven
series will be coming out. It’s a bit different than the Dark Heart series. These books will be standalone. They’re set in
contemporary Vermont and center on a disreputable coven. Each book will have a
different witch as the main character and focus on her finding love while
struggling to restore the coven’s reputation.
Author Info
Pat Esden would love to say she spent her
childhood in intellectual pursuits. The truth is she was fonder of exploring
abandoned houses and old cemeteries. When not out on her own adventures, she
can be found in her northern Vermont home writing stories about brave, smart
women and the men who capture their hearts.
An antique-dealing florist by trade, she’s
also a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Romance
Writers of America, and the League of Vermont Writers. Her short stories have
appeared in a number of publications, including Orson Scott Card’s
Intergalactic Medicine Show, the Mythopoeic Society’s Mythic Circle, and George
Sciter’s Cat Tales Anthology.
The first two novels in her Dark Heart
series, A HOLD ON ME and BEYOND YOUR TOUCH are available from Kensington
Books. REACH FOR YOU (book #3 Dark Heart
series) will be released June 27th. Her short story, Black as a Dark Moon,
Scarlet as Sumac, will come out this September in the Fragments of Darkness
anthology.
Author Links:
paperback set of the entire series & gift
certificate
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