Guest author Alexia Reed + Give away!

Please welcome author Alexia Reed!

Growing up, I was a fairly late bloomer where romance was concerned. I loved reading but I read mostly suspense and horror—Dean Koontz, Stephen King, etc. I quickly knew I didn’t like books where there wasn’t a satisfying ending.

My first accidental romance was Tami Hoag’s Cry Wolf. I still remember the day I got it. I was in Coles and was looking at books to get, my arms full of like five or so. My mom was helping me look and she picked out a book with a black and white cover, I guess thinking the title was interesting. Her words were something like, ‘This is about a serial killer. How about this?’. I paraphrase because I’m not entirely sure but it was something along those lines. I’d been reading more thrillers by that point. I decided to try the book out and it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.

It was…quite shocking! There was kissing and…ahem…sex.

You have to realize, to this point, I had never read a book with intimate scenes before, but the moment I read that book I knew I wasn’t going back to a bleak world of no emotion in books. Yes, for years, I did mostly read only the romantic suspense kind, but I was hooked. Here was a genre I could get behind. One where a happily ever after was guaranteed. Not just that, but character-driven stories. It wasn’t just the warm fluttery feelings of the romance on page, it was the connection the reader got with the characters themselves. With romance books, you get to know more than a character’s motivations. You know their fears and dreams intimately. It’s like suddenly they’re your best friend, that one person you know everything about.

There’s a coziness there that you don’t get with some of the other genres.

What was your first romance book? Do you remember? What do you like about it?

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Hunting the Shadows
Amy has spent her life in isolation. Locked away in the Centre, a secret government facility where children with extraordinary abilities are raised as highly skilled fighters, she longs for a normal life. A life where being around people doesn't overload her sensitive telepathic mind. A life where she can't see through the eyes of a murderer as he hunts down his next victim...
J.C. Nikolaiev was a top researcher, but when his conscience got the better of him, he tried to destroy his work and free his subjects—and was imprisoned as a traitor. To save himself and prevent more people from dying, J.C. must catch the serial killer stalking the halls of the facility. But his only leads come from a woman whose thoughts have invaded his mind...
Finally out of the psych ward, Amy joins forces with J.C. to find the killer before he closes in on them. Can their growing attraction withstand the truths they uncover?
You can purchase Hunting the Shadows through the Carina Press, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.
Alexia Reed is a dark paranormal romantic suspense author. You can find her on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.