Orphaned at six
and sent to live with abusive relatives in Bucharest, Mariah learned early in
life to box up violent, agonizing memories and put them in permanent mental
storage. Now almost nineteen, she has a paying job, a tiny apartment, and a
plan to attend university. She loves her independence and is steadily
overcoming her past, but when an enigmatic stranger walks into the pub where
she works and the trajectory of her life changes yet again, she begins to
wonder if she’ll run out of mental shelf space.
The only females
unafraid of the Mephisto brothers are the extremely rare Anabo, born without
Original Sin. Over one hundred years ago, Phoenix was first to find one, but he
made a fatal mistake and she was murdered by his oldest brother and enemy,
Eryx. Phoenix soldiered through the next century wrapped up in grief and guilt,
his only outlet planning takedowns of those who pledged their souls to Eryx.
When one of his brothers brings Mariah to Mephisto Mountain, he’s torn between
his instinctive, powerful need to pursue her, and his certainty that he can
never have her.
Drawn into the
world of the Mephisto, Mariah sees the pain and misery Eryx unleashes on
humanity, and the boxes in her mind begin to fly open, one by one. All that
keeps her from slipping off the edge is her unlikely, sexually charged
friendship with Phoenix. He’s incredibly screwed up; she’s completely broken.
It would take a miracle for them to find happiness. Then Eryx brings the war
for Hell to a whole new level, forcing Mariah and Phoenix to make a choice that
will bind them together for all eternity, or rip them apart forever.
***While this is the 3rd book in the series, it can be read
as a standalone***
Excerpt:
Watching Mariah shout her triumphant joy as she came closer
to me at breakneck speed, my want, my need
to join her was a physical thing that coiled around me and squeezed so hard, I
was breathless.
Her stop was flawless. She was breathing hard, laughing up
at me as she moved her goggles to her cap. Her eyes were bluer, I could see her
glow, and her scent was beautiful. My brothers and Sasha skied up just behind
her and looked at me with obvious anxiety. They knew I was pissed.
Mariah didn’t. I bit back what I wanted to say to them and
instead said to Mariah, “I wish you weren’t a liar. That whole I’m poor thing really had me going.
Clearly you’ve lived in Switzerland your entire life and trained with the
Olympic team.”
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had. It’s such a rush! And
the mountains are beautiful, and all the snow.” Still breathing hard with
exertion, making her breasts rise and fall, she looked down at my boots. “Where
are your skis?”
Peeling my gaze away from her chest, I focused on her eyes.
“I don’t have skis.”
“What? Why? Go get some and ski with me.”
“I’d love to, but I have to work on—”
“Are you scared? I mean, it’s dangerous, I guess, but it’s
not like you’re ever permanently hurt. If I get hurt, Sasha says she can fix me.”
The only thing in the world I was scared of was what I could
do to her if I wasn’t constantly on guard. She was so wounded. I had to keep
that front and center in my mind at all times. Had to be careful and not step
over a line. Not only my words, but actions and even thoughts.
I fought to keep from looking at her breasts again. Jesus,
that dream had me undone. I wished I could see her as I saw Sasha – like a
sister. I’d never, even once, had a sexual thought about Sasha. Strange,
because honestly, I had sexual thoughts about most women. Except for the
Luminas. I was a son of Hell, but even I couldn’t have impure thoughts about
angels.
Would this low hum of sexual awareness disappear once Mariah
became a Lumina? Could I then see her as a beautiful girl and not a hot woman
I’d sell my soul to see naked, to touch, just once? I cleared my throat and
said, “I assure you I’m not scared of skiing.”
“Then work later and ski with us now.”
I leaned down and whispered, “You’re away from the mountain,
at risk.”
With her face scarcely two inches from mine, she whispered
back, “They think I don’t know, but Sasha is keeping Eryx front and center in
her mind. He’s in Washington and I’m nowhere on his radar. Come on, Phoenix,
don’t worry so much. Go get some skis and do this with me, just for a little
while.”
“I’d rather take you home.”
“Three more hours until dark, then I’ll go back and stay
there until it’s safe for me to leave again.”
I knew I should say no. It was a needless risk. But the look
on her face, the sound of her laughter – I wanted to hear it again and again. I
sighed. “All right, fine, but the second you ski too far away from any one of
us, we’re going back. Capice?”
She grinned at me and my heart thudded hard against my ribs.
“Let’s race.”
I groaned, then we all popped down to Mountain Village so I
could get some skis. And food. I hadn’t eaten and was starving.
We went in the Blue Dog Grill and ordered crab claws,
chicken kabobs, and burgers. Mariah ate almost as much as Sasha, who ate far
more than an ordinary human girl because of Mephisto. I wondered if Mariah was
too poor to buy food? She obviously relished what she ate, seeming to enjoy
every single bite.
When we were back up on the slopes, she beat me twice, I
beat her twice, and Jax said we had to have a tie-breaker, which is how we
wound up at the top of the most difficult run at Revelation Bowl. I looked down
at the almost vertical drop, at the tiny figures that were Jax and the others
waiting for us at the bottom, and asked her, “Are you sure about this?”
“You’re chicken, aren’t you?”
“They say chicken in Romania?”
“It’s a worldwide euphemism for cowards.”
“I doubt that.”
“Look it up.” She schussed left ski, then right ski,
gripping her poles, focused on the slope. “Are you in, or not?”
This was going to be epic. “I’m in.”
“Prepare to lose, my friend.”
“I’m out of practice.” I was never actually in practice. Until today, I’d skied four
times my whole life, and those were related to a takedown back in the fifties.
I learned, practiced, then we did the takedown, and my skiing career was over.
“Excuses already? You must think you’re going to lose.”
My competitive nature roared to life. “Not hardly.”
“Okay, on three.”
We counted together and as soon as we both said three, I
pushed off. Just as I’d thought, it was incredible. Exhilarating. I risked a
glance at her and saw she was laughing. We were neck and neck, moving faster
and faster. I could see Jax and the others clapping and yelling. I’m pretty
sure they were all rooting for Mariah, which only made me want to win that much
more.
Unfortunately for my manhood, she smoked me, probably
because I tried to be tricky and jumped a mogul instead of skiing around it. My
landing almost sent me crashing, and by the time I’d regained my balance, she
was ten yards ahead, and I never caught up.
When we were with the others, she pulled off her goggles and
hat and high-fived Sasha. And she laughed. For the first time in a thousand
years, I didn’t mind losing. I’d do it over and over, just to hear her laugh.
About the Author:
Author of the RITA
winning Pink Files series, Stephanie Feagan has had a love affair with romance
novels since she was eleven and discovered there are kissing scenes in Victoria
Holt books. She spent a lot of time in her closet with a flashlight, reading as
fast as possible to get to the end, only to start a new book and begin the
whole Leave-Me-Alone-I’m-Reading cycle all over again. She still stays up until
the wee hours to finish books, now courtesy of a lighted e-reader which she
believes is mankind’s greatest invention ever.
Stephanie also
writes Young Adult and New Adult paranormal romance as Trinity Faegen. A
practicing CPA who loves travel, books, new pencils, old keys, and smart guys,
she lives in the oilfields of west Texas with her engineer husband and a mean
cat. She’d love to hear from you. She answers to Stephanie, Trinity, Hey Lady,
and Mom, and can be reached at Stephanie@StephanieFeagan.com or Trinity@TrinityFaegen.com
She’s aware the
similarity between her pseudonym, Faegen, and her real name, Feagan, confuses
pretty much everyone, herself included. Since so many mispronounce Feagan as
FEEgan instead of FAYgan, she thought she’d mix it up when she took a pseudonym
and make it easier on people. Now people say FayEEgen, and spell it wrong. Next
time she takes a pen name, she’s totally going with Smith or Jones.
Tour Schedule:
September 23
September 24
September 25
September 26
September 27
September 28
girls in the stacks--Interview
September 29
September 30
October 1
mommy's read and treats--Excerpt
October 2
October 3
October 4
October 5
October 6
Meagan's Review:
I’m not sure where to start this review. My top favorite
paranormal is probably anything dealing with werewolves. Something about alpha
males and packs and the dynamics of all of that. Now I while I love vampires
and everything at heart I'll always be a werewolf girl (shhh...don't tell
Edward :)) However, outside of that "normal realm" I LOVE LOVE LOVE
LOVE stories about angels. Good and Evil. God vs Lucifer. Fallen Angels finding
love on earth, Nephilum. All of it. This type of story
just fascinates me and pulls me in. So with that being said
I absolutely loved this book from the first moment Kyros walked into
the bar and met Mariah. I especially loved learning about the Anabo and how
they came to be. Those born without Original Sin because a daughter was the
decendent of Adam and Eve from Eden. I mean really how awesome is that
thought??? Pretty dang awesome. We always hear about Cain and Able when Adam
and Eve are banished from Eden, but not a whole lot about any time they
actually spent in the garden. They could have had 10 kids and we wouldn't know
it. So honestly that is what truly pulled me into this story to begin with
because I love the spin off this book creates. Lucifer’s second hand the dark Angel
of Death fell in love with an Anabo and they had children together. That and
the AMAZING characters and their relationships with each other.
So Mariah's story is not an easy one to read or understand. I
will warn you now the girl has literally been through hell and back. As a child
she had to deal with not only physical abuse but sexual abuse as well. However,
this is not the main premise of the book, just a small factor. But with that
being said I love Mariah’s character because not only has she been through all
of that she sill has compassion for humanity. For trying to do the right thing
(most of the time) and for having hope. At the end of the day that's truly all
she has to hold onto. Mariah's world is turned upside down when Key
(Kyros) a Mephisto comes into her work to meet her and talk to her about her long lost sister. The sister that
no one knows about....hmm....
When he takes her back to the Mountain to not only
meet her sister Victoria (or Jordan) she also meets his brothers (the boys of
Hell as I like to call them). As soon as Mariah arrive's one man stares at her
like he wants to snap her neck and throw away her body without a second
thought; Phoenix. And
OMG I want to smack the crap out of this dude. He's rude and mean and just an
outright asshat to Mariah, not knowing her story or anything else. And I love
that Zee stepped in and brought him down a lot of levels. Now at first Mariah
has no idea why Phoenix is so hostile toward her, but after he settles and
comes to apologize she finally starts to have an understanding. Not only does
she understand his background history, he also get's a HUGE wake up call into
the life that Mariah lives and it sobers him up quite a bit. Something else
interesting about these two is that Mariah confides some things to him that she
doesn't with ANYONE else.
So Mariah and Phoenix continue their whatever. It's really
complicated relationship. For obvious reasons Phoenix wants her. She wants him.
However, there are sooooo many factors stacking up against them, you really
wonder if there's a future for them? Could God have gotten it wrong twice???
Speaking of getting it wrong....okay so there is one Anabo to one
Mephisto. I found it very interesting that in one lifetime Phoenix would be
given the opportunity twice when some of the brothers are still waiting for
their Anabo. I was also very interested in the other girl's (Jane) story and
how she ended up dying. I also had a huge wake up call along with an ahhhh....OMG
that makes sense, but wait that's not supposed to happen. I found it to be an
awesome moment.
Back to The Boys of Hell. Okay so Key is basically the leader
and he does is leader things and he's with Jordan (Mariah's sister). Next is
Jax who is with Sasha. I like Jax and seems like an open level headed guy and
all. Then we have Ty, Zee, Denys and of course Phoenix. So when I Mariah first
met the brothers she made an interesting observation about Denys and
I thought he was going to be my favorite and that him and Mariah would become
close. Although he has an outburst toward Phoenix and I'm pretty sure he puts
on a good show for his brothers and I understand that outburst a little better
now. However, as the story progressed my favorite (besides Phoenix) is Zee.
I absolutely love him. He's honest with Mariah and doesn't want to
beat around the bush with her. And he makes fun of her for all the food she
consumes while with the brothers.
So obviously we have to have some kind of bad guy/drama come
about in this book. The last and oldest brother is Eryx. He's pretty bad and his ultimate goal is to overthrow Lucifer and take over the underworld. I know he's bad and
all and I don't agree with his methods at all, but I feel bad for the guy. He
really has a thing for Jordan (in a weird twisted way) and if I didn't like Key
so much, I might wish for them together. But I just want him to find his person
too. But because he's obsessed with Jordan he's trying to mark her himself and
get her to be with him.
So much happens in this book. Every
minute of every page sucks you in further because of the amazing world that Trinity has created. I've tried so hard not to give too much away with this book, because it is such a good read that you have to see its amazingness for yourself. You feel each of the characters pain and heartache as if it was your own. You find yourself craving more needing to know how it ends. And wow there was a twist in here I didn't see coming. I just couldn't put this book down....found myself reading till wee hours of the morning because I HAD TO KNOW!! And it was well worth it. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Incinerate
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