BooksChatter: ☀ Released: The Eternal Balance [3]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Released, a New Adult Paranormal Romance by Jus Accardo (28 March 2016, Entangled: Embrace, 200 pages).

This is the third and final book in The Eternal Balance series.

Don't miss our interview with author Jus Accardo.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first chapter with Amazon Look Inside.

Comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀) interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).

Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | Author Q&A | About the Author | Tour Stops

Synopsis

He'll move Heaven and Hell to keep her safe...

Jax Flynn’s life just went from bad to worse. He was already sharing his body with a demon named Azirak, but after killing its mate… Well, shit got real. Now the demon has taken control of Jax’s body and everything he cares for is at stake, including Samantha, the girl he loves. Yeah, that’s not going to happen. It’s time Jax showed everyone what he was really made of.

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter One

Azirak/ Jax

     She hadn’t left my side in days. Samantha Merrick, the girl with fury in her eyes and unrelenting determination in her soul. She was also my… What the hell was she? Girlfriend wasn’t right. The word was too loose an interpretation of our relationship. I also couldn’t call us lovers. That was off the table— for now. She was my conscience, my craving, the source of every dirty thought I’d ever had… Sam was the reason I kept going.
     One I could hear from across the room.
     As she approached, my heartbeat quickened, and a noxious scent filled the air, coming from the plate thrust into my face. “Eat it,” Sam demanded.
     Azirak took the plate from her and placed it on the bar in front of me.
     Azirak. The demon who’d made my life hell from the moment I’d taken my first breath.
     Azirak. The demon living inside me.
     Azirak. The demon who now had control of my body.
     Human food was offensive to it. The demon survived on the darker side of human emotion— not cheeseburgers. My— its— our— gut twisted in revulsion. I couldn’t force the bastard to eat it, but I could fill its mind with images of doing just that.
     “No,” Azi said, barely hiding the disgust I’d inspired. “It has an unpleasant odor.”
     Sam made a sound like a growl and kicked the edge of my chair. I felt the vibration as though it were my head she’d kicked in. That’s what it was like riding shotgun in your own fucking body. Everything was amplified. Sounds were sharper, lights were brighter, and feelings… Let’s just say that when Sam accidentally brushed my wrist while setting down the burger? Yeah. I felt it all over.
“Does it look like I care?” she ground out. All I wanted to do was feel her against my skin again. I pushed for control, straining with all the energy I had, but it was useless— not even the flicker of a finger under my command. “Hold his damn nose and stuff it down his throat.”
     The girl on the other side of the bar, a dark-skinned woman with multiple colors in her hair, watched us with a strange expression. With a slow shake of her head, she went back to wiping down the bar.
     Azi studied the burger. Under his command, my finger poked at the meat, and a ripple of disgust went through me. I wasn’t sure if it was the demon’s— or mine. “Why?”
     Sam’s skin took on a reddish hue, and the muscles in her neck tightened. Sweet-tasting anger, a red haze that rolled off her in waves and drifted into the air between us, made my mouth water. “Because he needs to eat!”
     Just eat the fucking thing.
If I could do it over, would I have killed Malphi, Azi’s mate, knowing it would get me locked inside my own body while the demon took control? Yeah. I would. It’d saved Sam’s life. And even though it now meant I couldn’t communicate with her, I could still annoy the shit out of the demon. It was the only bright spot in my miserable fucking life at the moment.
     She won’t give up until you do.
     It pushed me back and lifted my head to meet her gaze. The fury there was enough to rival any demon, tenfold. A swell of admiration washed through Azi. It often wondered what kind of a demon Sam would have made. It had an unhealthy obsession with my girl…
     Azi nudged the plate away. “So long as I continue to feed, he will be nourished.”
     She stood her ground, glaring like she wanted to rip me apart. I knew the contempt wasn’t for me, but I still hated seeing it aimed in my direction, hated what all this was doing to her. “His body needs actual food.” Leaning in close, she added, “Not other people’s bad vibes.”

We’ve been over this. Unless you want us to shrivel up, my body needs food.
     Azi growled and snatched the burger from the plate. The action rattled the flatware and nearly sent it over the edge of the counter. Weakness, considering recent events, could get us killed. It could get her killed.
     It stuffed the overcooked animal into my mouth and choked the thing down in three large bites. It was dry, the texture unpleasant, but it calmed the annoying rumble in my gut.
     “Thank you,” she forced out, as though the words caused her physical pain. She reached around the bar to grab her coat, taking care not to brush my hand— which was a mind-fuck all its own. A part of me wanted the contact, craved it like air. But another part of me, the one trapped inside here, hated the way it made me feel— helpless. “Now, are you ready to go?”
     Azi stood and, giving the plate one last glare, nodded.
     Sam led the way, weaving through the diminishing crowd of Viking employees. It was four a.m. and the club was closing. Since the demon had totaled our only ride a week ago, we had a long walk ahead of us.
     Heading out the back door and into the alley next to the club, Sam pulled her coat tighter. She looked one way and then the other. Satisfied that we were alone, she started for home. Azi followed, remaining silent.

Released
Available NOW!

The Series: The Eternal Balance

|| [1] || [2] ||

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Ruined [1]

Hell is looking for a way to break loose...

Jax lost the genetic lottery. Descended from Cain, the world's first murderer, he's plagued by a curse that demands violence in exchange for his happiness. He left everything behind, including the girl he loved, but thriving on the pain of others is lonely... And it's killing him.

After a series of heartbreaking losses, Samantha put rubber to pavement and headed for college as fast as her clunker could carry her. But she can't outrun her problems. When an attack at school drives her back home, she's thrown into the path of a past--and a guy--she's been trying to forget. Sam strains Jax's control over his darkness, but running isn't an option this time.

Someone--or,　something--followed her home from school: a ruthless monster with a twisted plan centuries in the making. Forced together to survive, and fighting an attraction that could destroy them both, Jax and Sam must stop a killer bent on revenge.

[Published 30 December 2013, 325 pages]

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Embraced [2]

Descended from Cain, the world's first murderer, Jax Flynn is destined to spend his life making others suffer. To shield the world from horrific chaos, he was forced to sacrifice the one and only thing he loved. Samantha Merrick.

Sam is special. She doesn't know how—or why—and she hasn't had any luck finding out. But there's a bright side to her life. She finally has Jax back. Sort of. They're living life on a strict look but don't touch policy, but with the explosive chemistry between them, keeping their hands to themselves is getting harder every day.

Unfortunately, keeping their libidos in check isn’t Jax and Sam's biggest problem. When an enemy from the past resurfaces with an ultimatum—complete a simple task or Sam dies—they're backed into a corner. The goal? Kill a demon called Malphi. The problem? Jax's demon, Azirak, has no intention of letting that happen…

To gain a chance at heaven, they’ll need to embrace hell…

[Published 16 November 2015, 239 pages]

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About the Author

Jus Accardo is the author of YA paranormal romance and urban fantasy fiction.

A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.

When not writing, Jus can be found volunteering at the local animal shelter or indulging her passion for food. After being accepted to the Culinary Institute of America, she passed on the spot to pursue a career in writing and has never looked back. As far as she’s concerned, she has the coolest job on earth—making stuff up for a living.

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