Sunday, November 17, 2013

*WEEKEND AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT* Cheryl Davis

CHERYL DAVIS
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Cheryl Davis is a wife and stay at home mother to two sons and two daughters who grew up in Akron, OH and eventually settled down on the Central Coast of California. She’s always had a love of reading and had a creative spark inside of her. She’s very active in arts & crafts. Creating things and stories is a huge part of who she is as a person.

Cheryl’s always had a bug to want to tell the stories of the characters that were always churning around inside of her head but never really thought that she’d be able to get those stories out into the world until she found indie publishing. The more research that she did, the more the idea to actually give her characters their spotlights grew until she just had to write.

Cora’s Kismet is her first novel ever written and published and holds a very special place in her heart. She’s currently working on a short story for an upcoming anthology that she’s a part of that ties into The Twin Destinies Saga as well as book two in the Saga and the first book in a whole new series.



**Be sure to head over to Cheryl's page and enter the giveaway running for the next two days!!**
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Cora's Kismet
(The Twin Destinies Saga, #1)
only $0.99 for the month of November!

Life was bad enough for twins, Cora and Viola Daniels, when suddenly their world was turned upside down.


When Liam Anderson shows up to save Cora and Viola from their situation, and to bring them back into their true family fold, Cora knows that there’s something special about him.


As she and her twin are being chased down by their, now former, guardians, Cora is finding out more and more about herself that she knew nothing about. Suddenly, they have loving parents, bound powers and a prophecy to fulfill, but first they have to find their soul mates that will help them through it all. All of this has to take place before their 18th birthday, which is only six months away.


Racing against time and deadly enemies, will Cora find her mate in Liam, or will all be lost? Will she be able to find herself in this new world and make it to the ceremony that will restore her powers, or will their enemies win, putting the world’s future at stake?



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Cora's Kismet

“Who are you?” Cora asked after they’d been sitting there for a few minutes.
     
“My name is Liam,” he replied.
     
“Liam, I’m Cora and that’s my sister, Viola.”
     
“I know,” Liam told her.
      
“How do you know who we are and where we live?” Cora asked. She knew that she should have known he would know who they were, since he’d been in their room looking for them, and had known who Patrick and Anna were, but adrenaline was making her thoughts scattered.
    
“You will get answers to your questions Cora, just not now. Right now we have to focus on getting where we’re going, without Patrick catching us. I need you to trust me for now, so I can concentrate on protecting you and Viola,” Liam bit out, a little impatient. He wanted to explain things but knew that if he did, he’d be in deep trouble. It was not his place. He had his orders. Oh, but for her, he wanted to defy his orders and answer her questions. He wanted to soothe away the stress lines that had formed on her beautiful face.
      
“You keep saying that. It’s getting on my nerves. I have no reason to trust or believe you. Why should I?” Cora responded. Her nerves were wound tight and it was evident in her voice.
      
“I know you don’t, yet, but you’re going to have to,” Liam responded, with a calmness that he wasn’t feeling. She was beginning to irritate him and the urge to tranq her, like they’d done with Viola, was getting stronger by the minute, but the attraction that he felt for her kept him from harming her in any way.
      
“Don’t even think about it!” Cora exclaimed a bit louder than she’d wanted to.
      
Liam’s head snapped around to look at her. His eyes narrowed while he studied her. There was no way that she was in his head. “Think about what?”
      
“Doing to me what you did to Viola,” Cora responded with an angry glare in his direction. “I could see it written all over your face that you were considering it and I won’t let you.”
      
“Care to tell me how you are going to stop me if I decide that I’m going to?” Liam asked with slight amusement, that he didn’t feel, lacing his voice. How did she do that? He knew that he’d kept his face blank.
     
“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Now, since there’s no sign of Patrick, can we go?” Cora asked getting impatient. All of a sudden she felt the need to move before 
something bad happened.


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* COMING SOON *

Viola's Risk
(The Twin Destinies Saga, #2)


Read the entire Chapter One of "Viola's Risk" below in this Exclusive Excerpt!!
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Chapter One

Viola had never felt so lonely than she did right now, lying in bed staring at the ceiling. Cora hadn’t even taken her stuff with her when she’d suddenly become mated at the end of their unbinding ceremony and left her to be with Liam.

Her mind whirled with everything that had taken place in the last few days. The new power coursing through her veins making her uneasy. It was foreign and she didn’t feel as if she could control it the way that Cora had done a few times already even though they’d had their powers bound until last night.

Rolling over onto her side, she stared toward the window, wishing that she wasn’t so alone. Her mind kept wandering back to when Anna had kidnapped her and held her hostage. The most awful part of it had been that awful recording that kept playing over and over and over again trying to convince her that fulfilling her destiny was wrong.

Closing her eyes, a handsome face hung behind her eyelids. With her mind, she traced his strong features and feeling like a traitor to her sister, Liam, Sage and her newfound parents. He was on Anna’s side, yet she felt pulled to him the same way that Cora described feeling pulled to her mate Liam.

“No way,” Viola exclaimed into the empty room. “There’s no way that I’m meant to be with someone who’s loyal to the other side.”

Sitting up, she tried to pull herself together and put the handsome guy out of her mind with little success. She wiped her face with her hands and left the bed, heading for the shower. One bright side to having the room to herself now was no fighting for shower time with her twin.

Viola dragged the shower out as long as she could, hoping that it would help her feel sleepy. As the hot water started to fade, she turned it off, frustrated that her mind was not slowing down in the slightest. She still kept seeing the face of the man from Anna’s place.

Putting on her pajamas, she crawled into bed and tried everything that she could think of to block him from her mind unsuccessfully.

Giving up, she let the memories of him run through her mind. She remembered how she’d felt the electricity flow between them when he’d put his hand over her mouth and taken her from the room that she and Cora had been sharing in the first house that their parents had taken them. He’d been so gentle with her as he carried her the back ways through the house as if he knew the exact layout and had been there many times before.

As much as she’d wanted to scream for help, she’d been caught up in his smoky gray eyes. The world had seemed to fade around them both. She knew that he felt it to. There was a deep connection binding them even though they’d never seen each other before now.

Her brain would not form the thoughts and commands for her to call out for help as he quickly navigated through the house and out through a secret entrance. He loaded her into the waiting vehicle with no resistance from Viola because she’d been so captured by him and their undeniable connection. She knew in the back of her mind that she should be fighting him but couldn’t seem to make herself do so.

She wasn’t even feeling the fear that she knew should be running through her. All she could process was him, his strong muscles wrapped around her body and holding her tight and how much she’d love to taste his perfect, kissable lips.
As he slid into the vehicle next to her, she had a brief moment of fear that faded as soon as his eyes returned to hers. He reached across her body to pull the seat belt and latch it securely in place to keep her safe before buckling his own belt. She heard the driver ask him a question and saw his lips respond but didn’t comprehend anything that was being said.

Shaking her head, she pulled herself out of the memory that was flooding her senses with him. She needed to find a way to move on from him. There was no possible way that her parents would approve of her mating someone who was loyal to Anna and Patrick and their cause. She couldn’t even believe that, after everything that had gone down, she was still thinking of him.

With a deliberate focus, she turned her thoughts away from him and tried to focus on the events of this past evening during their unbinding ceremony. Things started off well enough until that old hag showed up and crashed the party.

She’d seen the exchange between Cora and their father but couldn’t hear anything that had been said. Wishing that she could have, she rolled over onto her side and wondered why the woman had tried so hard to steal their powers.
The woman was old but extremely strong-willed and determined to succeed in her mission. It took both Sage and Liam to fight her and had killed Liam for a few minutes before Cora had performed her little miracle. Everything was such a mess.

Avoiding the crushing loneliness that came with thinking of Cora and Liam’s impromptu mating ceremony, she switched her thoughts back to a few days ago when her major summer plans had included getting paid to sleep. Things had changed so much from that day.

There was a soft knock on the door before it cracked slowly open and her newfound mother poked her head inside.

“How are you doing my dear?” she asked with concern filling her voice.

“I’ll be okay,” Viola said, not wanting to confide in someone that she didn’t know all that well.

It was more than obvious that Angelica didn’t believe her daughter because she came further into the room and closed the door with a soft click behind her. Before Viola could object, Angelica was sitting on the edge of the bed and smoothing Viola’s hair back from her face with a mother’s touch.

All she could do in response was close her eyes and the touch that she’d longed for her entire life stroked and soothed her in a way that not even Cora had soothed her.

“Baby girl, I know that you are wary of us and I can’t say that I blame you. Both of you have lived hard lives no matter how much Thomas and I tried to make sure that you had everything either of you could have ever wanted. Please don’t shut me out right now. I know that you are lonely and pained. I would like to help in any way that I can,” Angelica said in a gentle, imploring tone.

At first, Viola said nothing. She considered her mother’s words, wishing that she had Cora here to be a buffer between them. Cora was better at all of this than she was.

“What can I do to earn your trust?” Angelica asked. Viola felt the emotion behind her mother’s words.

“I don’t know,” Viola answered. She wished that she had a definite answer for her mother but she didn’t.

“The day that Thomas and I decided that it would be safer for you and Cora to grow up away from us, I held you both close to my body for over an hour and cried my heart out. I couldn’t believe that after the miracle of us having you both when we shouldn’t have even been able to conceive, I had to let you go before you were even able to defend yourselves. My heart did not become whole again until you both came home. I promise you, I will do whatever it takes to earn your trust,” Angelica spoke in a gentle tone and Viola could hear the pain in her voice as she spoke to her.

“I wish it was that easy. I can’t tell you what you want to know because I have no idea. All I know is that things are so confusing right now. I wish Cora were here with me right now,” Viola said, pain and loneliness creeping up into her voice.

“I know you do sweetie. Everything has changed for you so fast that your head must be spinning. I’m not Cora, but I’d be glad to help you try to sort through everything,” Angelica said with hope in her voice. Viola felt bad because Angelica was trying but she just couldn’t bring herself to open up to the woman just yet. She knew that she couldn’t mention the guy rolling around in her thoughts to her mother.

“I’m used to always having Cora here. None of this feels right,” Viola whispered. It was the most that she was willing to divulge at that moment.

“I can relate to that. Before I knew what Anna was, her and I were very close. She was the barrier between my parents and I. We told each other everything. I never knew that she had in her what you and Cora told us of your experience living with her. She’d always been loving and caring with me. She was my guide and I looked up to her,” Angelica said with sorrow in her voice. “If only I had known then what I know now. It would have saved you both a lot of heartache and pain.”

“Anna is very good at making people believe what they want to about her,” Viola said, anger lacing her words. “No one ever suspected what she was like before it was too late.”

“We used to lay in bed for hours after dark talking,” Angelica whispered. Viola could hear the pain in her mother’s voice. Anna had meant the world to Angelica in a way that only a sister could and now that the truth about her was out, Angelica was mourning the loss of her closest confidant and friend, her sister.

“That’s how Cora and I are…were,” Viola said with loss filling her heart.

“The two of you will still be close in the way only sisters can be Viola, don’t ever doubt that. Cora did not leave you and never would. The two of you have just reached the next stage of your lives. Cora is not Anna and will never betray you. She was frantic when you were abducted,” Angelica told her with complete confidence.

“I don’t want to be a third-wheel,” Viola whispered. Part of her fear being revealed even though she’d have rather kept it locked tight inside of herself.

“You won’t be. Cora would never allow that. She adores you. I’m sure that you know that,” Angelica said, she was doing her best to reassure her daughter.

“I want to believe that,” Viola responded.

“You should believe that. Keeping Cora in that car while the rest of us came in to rescue you was very difficult. Sage worried that he was going to have to physically restrain her and risk a fight with Liam in the process to keep her from going in there and risking her life for you,” Angelica confided.

“Really?” Viola said, her voice perking up with hope.

“Yes. Without a doubt, even though it would have hurt Liam, she would have entered that building, put her life at risk to save yours. Have no doubts about losing your sister Viola because you have nothing to worry about,” Angelica said and smiled.

“Thank you,” Viola replied.

“You’re very welcome my dear. Is there anything else bothering you that I can help you work through?” Angelica asked.

“I do have a question…” Viola started but let her voice trail off.

“What is it?” Angelica asked with extreme patience.

“Who was that horrible woman who showed up tonight?” Viola asked and shuddered.

Angelica reached out and rubbed Viola’s back in a gentle circle. She stayed quiet for a few moments before meeting her daughter’s eyes with shame in her own.

“That was my mother, Camilla. She’s named after the ancestor who started all of this horrible conflict in our race. I knew that she was mean but never knew that she could be this horrible,” Angelica said with tears building in her eyes.

“Well, I guess we know where Anna learned her cruelty from,” Viola said trying her best to ignore her mother’s pain. “I’m glad that you’re not like them though.”

Her mother looked up and met her eyes and beamed at Viola’s words. Her heart swelled as hope for the relationship between herself and her daughter grew. Without saying anything else, Viola moved so that her head was lying in Angelica’s lap as her mother’s calming touch continued to rub circles on her back. In no time, she was sound asleep.

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