Claws and Effect!!!

Congratulations to Bonnie who one the giveaway!

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So, like most of us, I’m still recouping from Christmas (where I hosted twenty-four at my little house on Christmas Eve), New Years, (where I shopped like it was 1999), and a book launch in between.
My brain is a little zapped, partially from the holidays and partially from the secret that I'm dying to tell you guys.
So, let me just tell you about my favorite character in Claws and Effect, my second book that came out December 27th. While writing this novel, I completely fell in love with Tucker Briggs. I’ve never written healing male before. He really becomes stronger and I loved his development into what Violet needed, not a romantic interest but a brother. The Tucker Briggs that you see in the first few pages is not the Tucker Briggs at the end.

An without further ado, a small excerpt, featuring Tucker Briggs.

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The buffet we found off the highway said it was all you could eat, but the owners shot me dirty glances from behind the cash register as the four men kept getting up and going for seconds and thirds and fourths. It was worse than a high school basketball team.

Tucker ate with a little more reserve, though he did plow through two plates before he said a word to me. “Sorry about them.”

“I’ll expect better next time.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with military efficiency. I could see him curse himself afterward. But he was learning.

It begged the question. “Were you in the service?”

“Army. Four years right out of high school.”

“And your brother?”

“When I came back, Tyler had been changed over, and he wasn’t strong enough to make it on his own.”

I winced. “And he attacked you?”

Tucker shook his head. “I chose.”

I dropped my fork. Well, more like, my entire body flinched in disbelief and my fork flew across the room. The owners scowled harder.

“You let him?” the words were like cotton balls falling out of my mouth.They left an odd taste that wasn’t the pork dumplings I was pushing around my plate.

“He couldn’t do it alone. So we did it together.”

I gulped. I couldn’t fathom choosing this life. If it weren’t for Chaz, I think I would rather had just curled up in that alley and died if I knew what was coming, if I could have predicted all of this.

“And the others?”

“Picked them up along the way.”

“So you’re like THE big brother.”

Tucker just shrugged.

I looked back down at my low mein. “Huh. Never had a big brother.”

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If you like that, then let me know and I’ll choose a random commenter to get a signed copy of the first in the series, Diaries of an Urban Panther.

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Amanda Arista

Facebook: Amanda Arista

Twitter: @pantherista

www.amandaarista.com