A peek into my next book

I’ve been writing the third Two-Natured London novel for a few weeks now. It’s coming along nicely, though it doesn’t have a name yet. I’ve decided not to stress about that; I’ll come up with one when I have to. I hope. Titles really aren’t my forte as a writer, be it a blog post or an academic essay, and with books they matter even more.

I return to the Greenwood wolf-shifter clan I introduced in the first book, The Wolf’s Call. The hero is Kieran Garret, the clan tracker who has tirelessly worked against discrimination of his kind for all his long life. So when a woman shows up to accuse his clan of killing her sheep, he is not exactly pleased.

The woman in question is, naturally, the heroine of my book. Gemma Byrd has been brought up on a sheep farm, but hating it, she has fled the country life for the big city. As a favour for her brother, she returns to look after the farm for a couple of weeks. When she discovers that wolves have killed some of his pregnant ewes, she knows exactly who to blame: the Greenwood clan shifters.

Nothing is ever simple or straightforward in romances. It takes twists and turns to figure out who is responsible for the kill and, more importantly, to bring the lovers together. Set in the countryside, the book has a slightly different feel to it than the more urban books before it. There will be some returning characters from the previous books too – the Crimson Circle will definitely make an appearance for those who like the vampire warriors.

If all goes according to my schedule, the book should come out in October. Here’s the blurb:

Is a common enemy enough for them to overcome centuries of distrust?

Gemma is a vampire and a city girl through and through despite having grown up in a farm. She likes working indoors, not mucking about in a pigsty, and a night out means clubs, not staying up with a ewe in labour. But when her brother Tom asks her help on the farm, she agrees. She soon wishes she hadn’t. Not only does the horse hate her, wolves kill some of Tom’s sheep.

Kieran is a master tracker of his wolf-shifter clan and an ardent speaker for equality among species. He’s proud of being a shifter and in his opinion only openness will make humans accept the two-natured. He most definitely doesn’t understand Gemma hiding hiding her true nature from humans.

When Gemma accuses his clan of killing Tom’s sheep, Kieran gets furious. He sees it as a return to lynch mentality he has worked so hard to erase. But he knows that if humans find out about it, his clan will be in the first line of fire. So he agrees to keep it a secret.

Kieran and Gemma have to find the wolves responsible for the crime before humans learn about it. But shifters and vampires are naturally distrustful of each other and their temperaments are too different for them to get along. So what should they do about the attraction that begins to draw them together?

Then the rogue shifters kill again and this time it doesn’t go unnoticed.