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Meri's Corner

~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

Meri's Corner

Monthly Archives: March 2020

Cover Reveal: Twisted Devotion by Jessi Elliott

23 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by MBenson in Cover Reveal

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amblogging, amreading, amwriting, books, Cover Reveal, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, Jessi Elliott, online presence, review, reviews, thoughts, time, Twisted Desire, Twisted Fate, Twisted Gift, Twisted Series, update, Urban Fantasy

Title: Twisted Devotion
Series: Twisted Series #4
Author: Jessi Elliott
Genre: NA/Paranormal Urban Fantasy Romance
Release Date: April 21, 2020
Cover Design: Arijana Karcic, Cover It! Designs
Being responsible for the survival of someone you loathe really dwindles all hope for a fresh start.

Kelsey Young is ready to leave Rockdale—and the darkest parts of her life—in the past. After barely escaping the massacre of her foster family and taking down the evil behind The Experiment, she wants nothing more than to relocate and start over.
 
That is, until the fae leaders offer a reward too good to refuse, derailing her plans in the process. Kelsey agrees to put her future on hold to protect an arrogant creature with far too much charisma for his—or her—own good.
 
While she’s no stranger to the rumors of Jackson Hawthorne, she is new to his charm. And soon, she finds it nearly impossible to resist—especially when he makes no effort to hide his blatant desire for her.
 
Tensions run high as Jackson’s well-being is threatened by angry fae and humans alike with a mission to destroy his business—and him.
 
But temptations run even higher after Kelsey swears to safeguard his life—even on the days she wants to kill him herself. And what about his heart—or hers? When they find common ground in new territory, lines blur, defenses crumble, and devotion begins to outweigh duty.

I walk up the steps and stop in front of the set of frosted glass doors, where I knock twice. Admittedly, the luxury of this place is rather intimidating; somehow more so than what I’m here to do. It’s ridiculous, considering I’m used to spending time at the Westbrook Hotel. But this place is next-level fancy.I clench my hands into fists and then let them go, shaking them out to release the tension.

It doesn’t do a whole lot the first time, but before I can do it again, the door opens, and Jackson Hawthorne smirks at me.

My eyes drop from his mouth to his bare chest and stick there.

Does he often answer the door half-naked? And with sweatpants riding dangerously low on his hips? Jesus.

“Long time no see, Red.” His voice is as smooth and warm as caramel.

After another second of admiring his lean, tight muscles, I meet his gaze and blink. His eyes—how could I forget how stunning they are? Melted honey with flecks of amber that pull you in. I want to believe they’re fake—costume contact lenses or something—but they’re completely real. They put my green eyes to shame.

Jackson leans in the doorway, those annoyingly captivating eyes roaming over my face as they glimmer with faint amusement. “Last I checked, Tristan and Aurora were the only ones who experienced fae amnesia. You good?”

I snap out of it and force a nod. “I’m fine. Hi, Jackson.”

Granted, I’ve only seen this guy a handful of times during The Experiment takedown—none of which involved him actually participating in the fight. But somehow, I forgot about his ridiculously charismatic personality. Perhaps if he’d fought with us instead of hiding, I would have gotten to know him better.

You will now, a voice sings in my head, and I fight the urge to scowl This guy got off scot-free and has been profiting from the deal Nik and Sky were essentially forced to make. Resentment isn’t an emotion I enjoy—feeding on or experiencing first-hand—but I’d be more comfortable protecting Jackson’s life if he’d risked it like the rest of us did ours. That thought prompts the wall to go up around my emotions, blocking my aura from view. Even though I don’t enjoy hiding it, I’d much rather Jackson not be able to see it.

He grins at me, clearly unaware of my distain, and far too chipper for this hour. I suppose it’s partially my fault for showing up so early.

“Please, come inside. Make yourself at home. Yada, yada, yada.” He glances behind me. “Did you bring anything? A change of clothes, perhaps?”

“It’s in the car.” Shrugging, I add, “I’ll grab it later.”

Nodding, he walks away, leaving the door open for me to enter the foyer.

I follow him inside, closing the door behind me. “Is Skylar here yet?” I glance around but don’t see or hear anyone else. “She said she’d meet me here this morning.”

“Are you kidding?” Jackson’s voice comes from the other room, and I follow the sound into the kitchen. “It’s barely daylight. Sky ain’t going to pull her ass out of bed until she absolutely has to. Nik would keep her there all day if he could.” He winks at me before tossing a blueberry into his mouth.

I stop in the doorway; my arrival interrupted his breakfast.

He must pick up on my reservation because he waves me into the room. “Coffee is fresh,” he murmurs, pointing behind him. “If you’re hungry, Gloria can make you pretty much whatever you want. She’s here a few days a week to cook and clean.”

My eyes widen, though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he has staff here. “I’m good. Thanks.”

Jackson nods, cutting into what looks like a ham and cheese omelet.

In the silence, my gaze can’t help but venture back to his very well-maintained stomach. I just need to get my fill of the delicious, taut muscles there, and then it won’t affect me anymore. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

Jackson laughs deeply, and my cheeks go red. “See something you like?”

I narrow my eyes, but I can’t deny it. “Your house too expensive for you to afford a shirt?” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.

His eyes sparkle, and he drops his gaze to his bare chest then back to me. “Nah, this is your welcome gift.”

I gape at him before grumbling, “Here’s hoping you kept the receipt.”

His lashes are still lowered when he smirks. “Now, that’s not very nice to say to your boss.”

I choke on a laugh. “You’re hilarious.”

He beams. “Thank you. Much better.”

I push away from the doorframe and walk closer, crossing my arms over my chest. “You are not my boss, Hawthorne. If anything, I own you.”

Nikolai’s words echo in my head. Keep him in line. I’m going to do just that.

He wets his lips. “Do you now?” His gaze travels the length of me, lighting my skin on fire. “I might be okay with that.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it. Now—”

“My goodness, I had no idea you were here!” a middle-aged, mousy-looking woman says as she rushes into the room. Her cheeks are flushed and a light sheen of sweat lines her upper lip as if she’s been running around for a while. She makes quick work of pulling back her frizzy brown hair and smiles at Jackson. “I apologize, Mr. Hawthorne. I was upstairs preparing Miss Young’s room and didn’t hear the door.”

“It’s not a problem, Gloria,” Jackson tells her with a charming smile. “I was happy to greet our new houseguest.”

She wipes her hands on her apron and smiles at me, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Can I show you to your room, Miss Young?”

I nod, grateful for the interruption. “That would be great. And please, call me Kelsey.”

Gloria heads out of the kitchen, and I go to follow her. But when I step forward, Jackson shifts in front of me to block my exit.

I suck in a breath, surprised he used the ability in such close proximity to his human employee even though she wasn’t close enough to see him do it. He made it look effortless.

As if it was as easy as taking a step to close the distance between us.

Maybe it was. Maybe for most fae who actually use the abilities they have, it’s just that easy. I, on the other hand, try my best not to use them—especially shifting. Even during my early days of training, I hated it. The movement leaves my body tingling as if a strong current of electricity has just run through me. I shiver at the thought and force myself to meet Jackson’s gaze. It’s not difficult to do with him standing so close.

“For the record, my bed is the comfiest in the house,” he says in a low voice so Gloria doesn’t overhear.

I speak in a normal voice; I don’t care who hears. “For the record, let me be very clear with you, Mr. Hawthorne. I will never spend a night in your bed. We clear?”

The corner of his mouth lifts like I’ve just offered him a challenge. Fuck.

I shake my head and walk away before he can say something that’ll make me do something I’ll get in trouble for—like punch him in the face.

Skylar better get here soon, or there may not be a need for my services.

Jessi Elliott is a law clerk and author of both young adult and new adult romantic fiction. Her love of writing was born after many years of reading and reviewing books on her blog.

She lives in Southwestern Ontario with her adorable cat, Phoebe. Yes, named after the Friends character.
 
When she’s not plotting her next writing project, she likes to spend her time hanging with friends and family, getting lost in a steamy romance novel, watching Friends, and drinking coffee.
 
You can find Jessi at www.jessielliott.com, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can join her newsletter to stay up to date on book news and upcoming releases.
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🎵 Just another Manic Monday 🎵

16 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts

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amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, ramblings, real life, staysafe, thoughts, time, time management, update, virus life, viruslife, what do, work, work update

So interesting fact that I’ve learned over the last few days – I touch my face a lot. Like, I’m constantly rubbing my eyes or scratching the top of my nose and I’ve started to notice it more and more with the instructions being to not touch your eyes, nose or mouth. But how do you get those little gunkies out of the corner of your eye if you can’t touch your face? How I ask you, How!

Also, the photo above was the Sam’s Club by my house – yes I went out on Sunday. Mom and I took some inventory of the house and braved the stores for a brief, and I do mean brief, time to grab a few needed items for the house. That was the line to get into the store just as they opened. It trailed behind us down the length of the building and in front of the store next to it. Though in the 30 minutes after we slipped in, got everything we needed of the things that were left, and then slipped out to the car with our limited spoils of shopping there wasn’t a line to get in anymore.

And the good news is I am stocked up on all the non-perishable items we need should they be missing from the store, the stores are closed, or I have to self quarantine now.

Aside from food things, I slipped into the Walmart next door and wandered briefly through their lego section. I have mighty needs for legos. I love legos, I love building legos, and I stumbled across this interesting thing. It’s like a cross between Polly Pocket and Legos.

And I was like, well that’s a definite have to own. So I picked up two. This little science lab and the pet photo studio. Both of the littles are put together, yes. They’re adorable and I love them.

I also saw this beauty on the shelf.

I couldn’t justify getting it right now. But I want it. I want it so badly I’m not even joking. But I’m going to see if I can push my family to buy it and sets like it for me for my birthday. This beauty is the Baking Competition set. I did however buy the cupcake shop set which was half the cost. I haven’t opened it to build it yet.

Also, work has been trying to stay on top of the virus situation. Or well, really they’re trying to stay ahead of it. Because I not only work for a University, which comes with its own set of complications for remote working, I work literally next door to the hospital in the College of Pharmacy, with clinicians and pharmacists that have to continue to work at the hospital and clinics during this time. I’m just administrative staff, but it’s the administrative staff that keeps departments running while they’re off doing all the science-y things.

The students were all given this week off at my University – extended Spring Break – so they won’t return to classes until March 30th. This break allows all the faculty to work with IT staff in order to transfer their classes to 100% virtual learning so when the students come back to classes it will be virtual, likely through the remainder of the semester.

A lot of the non-essential to be physically here staff have been prepping all the work we do as well, so we can work remotely in the coming week or so. I’ve been told my department may shift that way before the week is out.

Anything and everything we can do in order to keep everyone healthy but still maintain the University functions. Luckily in this day and age, a lot of what we do now can be done via phone or skype/webex for meetings and systems that are all interconnected via online, so we don’t actually have to be in the office to accomplish a lot of what we need to do.

Whatever you do for a job, wherever you are, make sure to wash your hands and be safe during this time. A lot of people are panicking about how things are going and how bad it’s getting, but if we take precautions and are careful, we’ll be okay.

Update – My Monday has become my Friday

06 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts

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amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, cat life, cat mom, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, resin, resin art, resin magnets, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, writing

So the sick Kitty is doing better. Have a shot of him while we drove him to his two-week check-up. He was not a happy kitty to be outside, but then he never is. He hates the outdoors, he hates being in a car, but he quiets down when I let him stick his head out of the bag and look around while we drive.

Overall, the prognosis is, he’s doing better! He hates his meds. He knows what time meds are given due to work schedule, and tries really hard to hide so we can’t give them to him – I feel bad that it’s gotten to this point but they’re needed to get him to feeling better. I’m hoping next week, after his four-week check-up, that we’ll be at a point where he won’t need the drops or the steriods and so the only meds will be the antibiotic shot to give him.

We learned how to properly clean his ears, with the best practice for him so it’s lower stress on him while we do it. The goal they said every three to four weeks is good to keep the build-up from getting to infection point.

Writing-wise for me has been slow. The last two weeks I’ve felt super low, kind of like I was drowning in the world. This week has been better. I feel more on top of everything, more like I’m at least paddling in the boat instead of trying to hang onto the side for dear life. I still have a good deal of catch-up to do but I’m more confident I’m getting it done.

I’m hoping to get my one novel that’s in editing stages done faster. Like, actually finish it and release it into the world this year, done. Preferably around September or October. I may or may not be poking one of the Sci-Fi cons mom and I attend to see what it actually costs for a table to sell, and maybe sell the pretty finished book along with some resin and costers and things.

Because for all my dabbling in things, the resin isn’t going away. If anything, it’s getting stronger. Like, I just bought some mica powder and more molds to do more things. And I am super excited to try all the things with resin.

I recently sent these guys off into the world. And I mean, how cute are they?! Two are currently keychains, but they could be necklaces. And the other two are magnets – they have a magnet on the back of them.

I also ended up getting a mold for zodiac constellations which I found super fun and cool and I’m still working on them in order to get the best results. And more mermaid tails.

I also ended up picking up this cool heart puzzle mold that fits together that I want to play around with a little more, but I’m already loving how it’s coming out.

So yeah, resin is now my life in general. Along with all the words and things. The great thing about the resin though, is that once I pour it and it’s curing, it hast to sit for 24 hours, which means after it’s poured, it’s all about working on those words. =)

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