I’m shining the spotlight on LA Dragoni’s paranormal romance GHOST TOUCH. You may have seen LA here on the blog with her kidlit alter-ego Kai Strand (fellow #InkRipples founder!). Let’s give her a big welcome!
For fifteen minutes each night a portal opens in Tamara’s barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and Dex work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch—the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal—and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice and when they learn they can sip energy from her ghost touch, they become greedy putting her life at risk.
Each time Cal has to pull her from the mass of ghosts, her touch restores him more and more until he is at danger of being stuck on earth—forever, which is very enticing to Tamara the better she knows him. Will she and Dex figure out how to help the spirits cross and if they do, will she be able to let Cal go?
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Excerpt:
Tamara rubbed her hands together then held them toward the fire. The air had an extra chill to it. “Hurry up, they should be here soon.”
She’d barely finished speaking when bright light burst through the barn. Tamara spun back around. “Dex!”
She shielded her eyes with a hand searching for Dex’s familiar silhouette, but couldn’t make him out in the chaos of ghosts streaming from within the building.
“Dex!” she shouted again, leaping forward and running toward the door. A stabbing pain of cold sliced through her upper arm when she knocked against the ghost with the shovel in his hand. He stopped to stare at her with a surprised expression on his face. She pushed forward, ignoring the increasing pain as she jostled up against the ghosts.
A knot of ghosts hunkered together where she last saw Dexter. She pushed through them, her warm touch surprising enough to make them jump back. Dex lay crumpled in a quivering ball at the center of the group. Tamara kneeled beside him and clutched his shoulders.
“Dex! Are you okay?” He didn’t respond, just rocked to and fro, mumbling incoherent words. She shouted. “Dex! Can you hear me?”
His gaze finally lifted, a wary look colored with terror.
“Oh my God.” Tamara wrapped her arms around him. His body was ice cold. She pressed as much of herself against him as she could and buried her face in his hair. “I gotcha. You’ll be okay.”
Then she became aware of an ache worming through her muscles and realized hands pawed at her, clutched her, and were trying to pull her away. She raised a furious glare at the eager crowd of ghouls and snarled. “Stop! Leave us alone.”
However, hunger showed in the eyes of those who’d been dead a short enough time to still have them. Actions became more insistent and then combative. The group shoved and swayed until she worried she’d be crushed beneath them when they fell. She kept her arms wrapped around Dex, hoping to keep the spirits off him, but many simply reached through him to get to her. He shuddered violently and had grown quiet.
Each individual touch drained her of warmth and energy, yet they continued to grope at her arms and back, tug on her hair and clothing. She grew weaker and weaker until the edges of her vision dimmed and she could barely feel the boy she was trying to protect. Just before she passed out, a roar penetrated her frozen mind and she sensed more than saw the crowd spring away. But she was already too far gone and lost consciousness just as lukewarm hands gripped her upper arms.
Reviews:
“The writing’s terrific, the storyline compelling. Truth be told, I rushed to the end to find out who Tamara would end up with.”
-Stuart R. West
LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Follow LA on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to her mailing list and learn more about LA and her work at www.ladragoni.com
Kai is multi-faceted! This^ cover blew me away.
She is! And I love this new cover as well.
Ha ha, Mirka, I try to keep people on their toes. 😉
Thanks Katie for sharing Ghost Touch.
Happy to help out, LA!
I really like the idea of this story. Thanks for sharing it!
You should definitely check it out if you get the chance. A fast, fun read!
I had no idea Kai Strand had an alter ego. Great excerpt. Very intense. Thanks for spotlighting Ghost Touch, Katie.
She’s a woman of many names! 😉 Thanks for popping in, Ruth.