Before I reveal what I have planned for books in 2022, I wanted to say Thank You!
Thank you to all of my amazing readers, ARC reviewers, Street Team members, followers, and everyone who’d send me an encouraging email. You’re amazing.
I couldn’t do any of this without your help. 2021 was a struggle for me and you helped me to keep chugging along with writing to get more books out even in the face of rejection or worse.
THANK YOU!
MAY 2022
May will finally bring you Madeline’s story. Introduced in Pride & Pancakes, Maddy Prix is Beth’s best friend. She fosters kittens she rescues, adores musical theater, and has had a crush on Everett Berry her whole life. Imagine her shock when that sweet southern boy appears in her city before Christmas.
Madeline’s Park is a modern retelling of Mansfield Park and is coming in Mid-May.
EXCERPT
“You got it, ma’am?” one of the guys in construction orange asked. She glanced around at the burly men who didn’t dress for the cold, their breath spurting out smoke. All stared at the kitten nuzzled in the crook of her muddy arm. Did they want to pet it? She could offer. The kitten probably wouldn’t mind.
“Yes,” she said while shielding the kitten from more of the drizzle. They had work to do—doubtful anyone wanted to waste their time with her.
“Well, you heard her. Back at it!” the first guy said. With a slow turn, the other men walked away from the tiny dash of excitement in their dreary day. For Madeline, this was normal. She didn’t pluck kittens from culverts every day, but finding one in dumpsters, walking down the middle of highways, buried in garbage bags…that kept her busy.
At the sound of jackhammers roaring up, Madeline stared down at the tiny face she had rescued. It peered at the strange world uncertain of life outside of the culvert. What am I going to call you?
“Maddy?”
Her heart stopped dead. No, it couldn’t be. New York was rather known for being crammed full of people. Whoever that was had to mean someone else. Of course.
She burned her focus on the kitten, trying to juggle it safely in her arms when the same sweet-tea voice called her name again. “Maddy?”
No one called her that. Not in years. Not since high school. No one, but…
Her jaw plummeted as she watched a ray of sunshine puncture through the dreary gray world. Hair of spun gold swept back and to the side, a square jawline and strong nose, thin but sculpted lips forever in a wide smile—he was the epitome of gorgeous boy-next-door. The one she had pined for during all of high school. The boy she dreamed of taking her to prom, of giving her a ride in his truck, of asking her to be his girlfriend.
Everett Berry, a man so jaw-dropping it was a wonder bluebirds didn’t perch upon his shoulders, was talking to her. Asking about her. Staring at her in concern because she had fallen stupid.
JUNE 2022
They’re back! And this time, they’ve found Layla.
Layla thought she had enough on her plate with an insatiable incubus, a secretive werewolf, and a vengeful ghost. Then the witch hunters found her. In this book, her worst fears come true and Ink finally gets some of the spotlight as more of his past and secrets are revealed.
Badge is coming Mid-June
EXCERPT
All of his posturing snapped away. The closed off, gruff werewolf transformed into the panicking boyfriend. “What are you talking about? Gone? How can Layla…?” His voice peaked to rockslide levels, directing eyes to us. Dropping it lower, he whispered against my face. “Even if she left…you’d find her. You always find her.”
“Yet I cannot,” I said, waiting for his feeble mind to catch up.
He twisted on his heels, keeping his feet planted while trying to pace with only his hips. The fangs elongated and he spat out, “How can she be gone? How can’t you find her? Did you even try?”
“Do you take me for an imbecile? Of course I tried. I pulled myself to her location, sliced apart three cars, and each time I found nothing.”
Cal wrapped his hands to my collar and raised me off my feet. In a great growl, he snarled, “Where is she?”
“Why do you think I came to find you?” I asked, swaying my feet through the air.
“Are you okay?” a soft spoken woman asked from near the front door. She stared past the animal nearly sprouting fur to me dangling off the floor.
I gave a little wave to assure her I had this under control. “No problem,” I said, “merely a lover’s tiff.”
Cal snorted, but he placed me back on the ground. “Is she hurt? Or worse… Who could keep her from you? I can’t even get two minutes alone with Layla.”
Hyperbole. I’d left them alone for a good half hour at a time. More than enough for him to finish his dance. Confronting the wayward boyfriend had cooled my temper and distracted me. But now with him in agreement, the panic in my soul returned. I spoke in a dark voice, “Someone who knows how to ward off demons.”
He ceased tugging on his hair and turned his glare upon me. “You don’t mean…?”
“I think we need to find her fast before they prepare the kindling.”
JULY 2022
A summer vampire romcom is coming this July! Jareth despises his exile to a tropical island full of sun, waves, and necks slathered in sunscreen until he spots the bright Laiken. But Laiken’s hiding a secret that will change everything in Jaretnhs undeath.
This hilarious romance also features a cowboy and elderly woman vampires.
EXCERPT
“I wasn’t in any clothing at the waterfall,” he said, causing me to melt in the chair. Oh how I knew.
“Yes, I…quite remember. But for the sake of politeness I did not let my gaze wander to the south pole, as it were.”
Laiken scrunched his nose and he drew his chair closer. “You weren’t at all curious?”
Exceedingly. My body was beyond my control, my throat struggling to swallow what wasn’t there, my arms flailing against the table as if that could find a suitable explanation. In all my centuries, I’d never spoken with a man so direct. Every look had been covert, every compliment guarded. I was at Laiken’s complete mercy, and yet he didn’t strike.
What was his game?
“I was uncertain of the rules.” Especially the game we played now. He thought he had me on the ropes, but I rallied and leered at him with the full confidence of a strutting cock. “Though, I did appreciate the depths of the golden hue of your…”
I drew my teeth across my lip, biting down while whispering, “…toned body.”
Laiken didn’t simply blush but burned. A hit, a palpable hit. He placed his palms to his chest as if surprised to find the muscles there and swept them lower. I shifted at the reminder of how he’d guided my hand in the same manner. Before he reached the topic of fascination, Laiken paused and ticked his head. “I was a little sad you didn’t want to strip down at the dive. But I can’t blame you with your pale skin.”
The sickly vampire, once the height of fashion when consumption was all the rage, was turned into a social pariah due to ever-changing beauty standards. I raised my chin, prepared to take the hit of the vampire hunter attacking my ego. “It is not a sight for the faint of heart.”
He smirked. “I bet. Makes me think of a great white shark.”
Interesting tactic. “And your heart’s aflutter with where my big, sharp teeth will bite?”
“Well, it is now.”
? ? ? ?
The fifth book in Coven of Desire will hopefully be coming at some point in 2022. I can’t say much beyond there’s a new man in Layla’s life than he’s cuddlier than a teddy bear and comes with a seven-foot-long sword.
EXCERPT
“You’re a…” I stared past the man with giant white wings to Ink staggering to his feet. I jabbed two fingers at them while waiting for him to look to prove I was right when the angel caught my hand.
Oh my god, he was so soft and warm. It was like his ebony skin glowed with a heavenly gold sparkle when I touched it, which shut my brain down.
Flecks of amber sparkled in his so deep brown to be black eyes as he shook my hand up and down. “You must be a witch.”
Here it comes. I girded myself for the typical reaction of either fear or disgust. Didn’t matter who it was, if they knew about witches they hated us at first glance.
“Wonderful!”
“Come again?”
Garavel smiled wide with teeth brighter than his shockingly thin robe. He wore two pieces of white cloth that clung to his wide chest and solid stomach before tapering at the hips and dangling near his sandaled feet. The clothes were attached via gold loops at the shoulders and a strip of gold fabric at the waist. It left the entire sides of his chest exposed, which he didn’t seem bothered by at all. Instead, he stared at me as if I was the answer to all of his problems.
My heart leapt at the idea I could mean anything to a creature of such divinity. Garavel sheathed his giant sword on his back and tucked his wings in. They vanished along with any sign of the blade. “I cannot believe my luck to find a child of creation here!” he bellowed like a kid at their birthday party.
“Well, I’m…that’s me, witch lady. I mean lady who does witchcraft. Um, spells and stuff.” I tried to smile through the pain in my chest at how stupid I sounded and twirled my hair around my finger.
A slow chuckle drew not only my attention, but the angel’s as well. Ink tipped his head at my embarrassing fumbling, then he extended his shadow wings wide. Oh no, he’s a demon, Ink’s a demon.
SEE YOU ALL IN 2022!
Ellen Mint 