☀ The Grotesques - Tia Reed

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for The Grotesques, a Urban Fantasy by Tia Reed (8 October 2015, Tyche Books Ltd, 342 pages).

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

Author Tia Reed will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.   Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other exclusive excerpts (☀).

Synopsis | Teaser: Exclusive Excerpt | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

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Synopsis

Discredited journalist Ella Jerome isn't thrilled about working at Adelaide's fanciful tabloid The Informer. So when zoologist Adam Lowell seeks her help in finding his missing cousin, she's cynical of his claim a monster lurks near the Church of the Resurrection. The trouble is, solving the gruesome case could be her best shot at restoring her shredded reputation.

With her old instincts resurfacing, Ella combs the Port for clues. Experience tells her the only monsters are the human variety, and the bloodied stonemason certainly raises her suspicions. But when her investigation turns up everything from petrified remains to the headless carving of a dragon, the truth threatens to steal both her sanity and the man she's falling for.

After all, gargoyles can't be anything other than harmless stone. Or can they?

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Teaser: Excerpt

The tempest blew across the Seine with a ferocity unheard of in the living memory of Rouen. Struggling against the pounding waves, Hubin moored his boat. Like as not the patched vessel would splinter by morning, his entire livelihood gone.
     With a frustrated cry, he trudged through the deluge, a firm grip on his meagre catch. He had no hope of forgetting which night he stalked, not with thumping heart and crawling skin. The demons skittered at the edges of his vision, shadowy, slippery, and deformed. They dogged his step. They tore at his rags, and raked his skin. There was nothing to do but pull his shins from their claws. Shivering, he quickened his step into the screeching wind. By the gods, he would make it home alive.
     His chest was tight when at last he reached the looming planks of his tiny hut. He pushed open the door and stumbled into the relative warmth. There he froze, dripping water while gusts whipped leaves past his bloodied legs. Regaining his senses, he braced his back against the door and shoved it closed.
     “B-by the g-gods, not t-tonight, woman,” he said, shivering uncontrollably.
     “By gods or devils it will be tonight,” the midwife replied, placing a cloth over his wife’s forehead.
     Felicitè squatted near the bed, swollen belly protruding rudely over bent knees. Her fretful eyes turned to him as she groaned and gripped the midwife’s hand.
     “Not yet,” the midwife admonished. “Don’t you push yet,” she said above the howl of wind and whip of rain.

The Grotesques
Available NOW!

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About the Author

Tia Reed loves nothing better than burying her nose in a story of her own imagining, cuddling her bossy cat and rescuing chewed pillows from her hyperactive dog. She takes every opportunity to do all three when she is not teaching English as a second language.

Her other hobbies usually take a back seat but include trying to tame her beast of a garden, hiking and travelling. The latter has thrown her many interesting, sometimes hair-raising experiences, which she loves twisting into stories.

She was born in Malta, but lives in Adelaide, Australia.

Follow Tia Reed:

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Giveaway and Tour Stops

Enter to win a $20 Amazon/BN GC – a Rafflecopter giveaway
Remember to comment to win!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow The Grotesques's tour at:

Sep 26: BooksChatter
Sep 27: Author Deborah A Bailey
Sep 28: Blog of Jacey Holbrand
Sep 29: Straight from the Library
Sep 30: Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews
Sep 30: Books, Dreams, Life
Oct 3: Book Lover Promo
Oct 4: Where the Story Comes First
Oct 5: fuonlyknew
Oct 6: Fabulous and Brunette
Oct 7: EskieMama Reads
Oct 7: Long and Short Reviews

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