Tara Maya's Tales

Darkness is covering the land. As the city of Mezrah grows with power and greed, the rest of the world can only stand by and wait for their inevitable destruction. The only hope against this growing power is an ancient prophecy that people have stopped believing in. Then a star begins to fall. Princess Kyla of Taramon stopped trusting in the power of light the day her father died. Trapped in a city she does not care for, under the watchful glare of her mother, the queen, she struggles to accept her fate. Then a star begins to fall. Jethro has loved Kyla for as long as he can remember. Learning that she was to marry his cousin drove a wedge between him and the feisty princess. Watching her from a distance is a torture he is unable to free himself from. Then a star begins to fall, sparking an ember of hope and sending these two seekers on a treacherous journey into the unknown. Download Unknown , Book 1 of The Elements Trilogy ,   from Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Kobo...

Loving Jean-Louis for eternity doesn't mean that Maxie Gwenoch will let him turn her. Jean-Louis is a vampire, is gorgeous, is the second-in-command of the Kandesky Family of Hungarian vampires, and is her boss at SNAP, the multinational, multimedia celeb gossip empire where she is the VP for International Planning. She moves to Kiev to build a home with Jean-Louis and finds her future under a cloud from Leonid, a rival from the Huszar family, now living in a bolthole in the ruins of Chernobyl. Will Maxie find safety by giving up her days and joining Jean-Louis in the vampire nights? Download SNAP: Happily Ever After? from Amazon  and  Barnes and Noble . Excerpt Had I forgotten Leonid? Oh no, I’d never forget him. He’d captured me, held me hostage for Jean-Louis, beat and raped me, let his toady Jules rape me. Much of the immediate horror of that time was pushed so far back in my mind that it took an effort of will to bring it out, but the fact that it happened nev...

Danger lurks in the dead of night... Seventeen year old Nikki and her twin brother, Nathan, move to the small town of Shore Lake to start over after their mother is brutally attacked. When a missing teenager washes up on shore during their first night at the cabin and there are whispers of vampires in Shore Lake, Nikki begins to realize that there are things roaming in the darkness that are far more sinister than what they left behind in the city. Blur  is recommended for mature readers. You can download it at  Amazon ,  Barnes and Noble ,  iTunes ,  Sony  and  Kobo . Excerpt A strange noise jolted me awake, and I looked towards the window, only to find myself alone. Must have been dreaming… Sighing with relief, I checked the time and noticed I’d been in the tub for a half hour. The water was too chilly to enjoy anymore so I decided to get out. I toweled myself dry, put my robe on, and unplugged the bathtub. I then padded into the b...

A dangerous secret. A deadly skill. Nya is an orphan struggling for survival in a city crippled by war. She is also a Taker—with her touch, she can heal injuries, pulling pain from another person into her own body. But unlike her sister, Tali, and the other Takers who become Healers, Nya's skill is flawed: she can't push that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it into another person, a dangerous skill that she must keep hidden. If discovered, she could be used as a human weapon. But one day Nya pushes her luck too far and exposes her secret to a pain merchant eager to use her shifting ability for his own sinister purposes. She refuses—until Tali and other League Healers start disappearing mysteriously. Now Nya must decide: How far will she go to get Tali back alive? You can find The Shifter  on Amazon , Barnes and Noble or IndieBound . Excerpt Danello lived in one of the better boardinghouses on Market-Dock Canal, in a...

To break up my writing time, I design book covers for fellow authors. Here's my latest cover design and a bit about Edward L. Cote's Violet Skies , the first book in his new series of the same name.  Each book is a novella, short and easy to read. This is a fresh twist on classic fantasy, but it keeps its essential nature intact. Taya Mindaerel and her mother, the Oracle of the Prairie Winds, must flee their home or face certain death at the hands of a dark hunter and his man-eating horse. Their journey takes them to Aurum, the City of Gold, where they seek the aid of the Great Magus Olbinaar. On the way they meet three allies- Alex, a vagabond, Brand, a master swordsman, and Ogger a wild creature. They will need all the help they can get to surmount all the obstacles in their path. In the city however, they learn that their journey has just begun. Download Violet Skies  on Amazon and Smashwords , or purchase the paperback . Prologue Olbinaar stood in the Gr...

Hell hath no fury like a selkie separated from his true love. The gate to the sea creature realm is finally open. Yara wants to bask in the glow of her budding relationship with Treygan and explore Medusa’s world, but as the new leader of Rathe her powers are needed to save a sea creature she’s never met. Rownan assumes the worst is behind him when he returns home to be reunited with his wife, Vienna, only to discover she’s gone. She traveled to the evil realm of Harte to find another gateway to Earth and was never heard from again. Rownan claimed he would go through hell to be with her, and now he must prove it. Rownan, Yara, and Treygan will put their lives and souls at risk by traveling to the most dangerous realm of all. Love is supposed to conquer all, but no one has ever conquered Harte. Purchase Dangerous Depths in ebook or paperback on  Amazon  and  Barnes & Noble . Find more from Karen on her website , Facebook , Twitter , Goodreads , and Pinter...

A young boy leaves his village to become a cavalryman with the famous King’s Third regiment; in doing so he discovers both his past and his destiny. Gifted and cursed with a unique memory, the foundling son of a notorious traitor, Rhodri joins an elite cavalry unit stationed in the harbour town of Northpoint. His training reveals his talents and brings him friendship, love and loss, and sexual awakening; struggling with his memories of his father who once ruled there, he begins to discover a sense of belonging. That is, until a face from the past reveals a secret that will change not only Rhodri’s life but the fate of a nation. Then, on his first campaign, he is forced to face the extremes of war and his own nature. This, the first part of The Art of Forgetting , is a gripping story about belonging and identity, set in a superbly imagined and complex world that is both harsh and beautiful. Download The Art of Forgetting: Rider  on Amazon . Excerpt The first gleam o...

There are worse things than death, worse people too. The "talk" was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they're a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn't until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life. Download Persephone on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Kobo , iTunes , Smashwords and Musa . Excerpt The branch crashed in front of me, scraping my legs. I ran for the parking lot as fast as I could. The frost closed in, surrounding me. I’d never been claustrophobic, but as the frost cut off my escape path with a solid white wall, I panicke...

Bronwyn and Blayke are two strangers being drawn into the same war. Their world is facing invasion from the Third Realm. While they move unknowingly toward each other, they are watched, hunted, and sabotaged. When the Dragon God interferes, it seems their world, Talia, will succumb to the threat. Can they learn enough of the tricks of the Realms before it’s too late, or will everything they love be destroyed?

 The young Realmists’ journey pushes them away from all they’ve known, to walk in the shadows toward Vellonia, city of the dragons, where an even darker shadow awaits. Download Shadows of the Realm , the first book in the The Circle of Talia  series, on Amazon , Amazon UK , Barnes and Noble , iTunes and Smashwords . It's only 99 cents for the next two weeks!   Prologue In a lonely brick farmhouse a child named Blayke slept under cosy blankets. He dreamt of splashing in warm summer puddles. His nostrils filled with the scents of grass and earth. He reached...

A guest post from Jason Halstead.  It was about this time in 2012 when I decided to take a chance and write a traditional fantasy book called Child of Fate . I assembled a cast of characters that were part imagination and part remnants of time spent playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. The real D&D, with paper, pencils, and dice. It also required lots and lots of soda and pizza so our character sheets could end up spotted with grease stains. Child of Fate climbed slowly but steadily up the charts until in early 2013 it exploded and was selling like crazy. I was quick to use this as a springboard and wrote the sequel, Victim of Fate , early in 2013. Silver Dragon followed and the trilogy continued to perform very well. Unfortunately, a trilogy ends at three books but I still had more stories to tell. That meant I had to start a new series about those characters. The new series was longer and dealt with established characters coming to terms with their rise to fame a...

Alex has a good life. Being a unique half demon, he's used his powers to conquer feral vampires, the darkness inside him, and help ghosts in need. But there's one more challenge that will be his strongest. Marrying Cindy, the love of his life. Jack has been cursed by a witch's magic for two hundred years. Unable to sleep, unable to die, his only hope for peace lies with young Kevin, a pure witch. Kevin has his own problems. Controlling the forces of magic is only the beginning. He's lost, unsure of himself, trying to find his place in the world. Now, a man named Jack is asking him to perform magic he didn't even know existed. A wedding, a witch that needs guidance, an invulnerable man with anger issues, and a new threat, with evil intentions. Four-hundred-year-old vampire Victoria may finally be in over her head. Download Demon's Doorway  on Amazon and Smashwords . Excerpt The timing couldn’t have been better. Alicia was finally alone. She sat on the...

"It all comes down to one simple fact - the Children of the GEM are perfect. We are the ugly and imperfect. We are the Blemished." In a world filled with stunning clones Mina Hart is Blemished. Her genes are worthless and that takes away her rights: her right to an Education, her right to a normal life and her right to have a child. Mina keeps a dangerous secret which she never thought she could share until she meets Angela on her first day at St Jude's School. But their friendship is soon complicated by Angela's adoptive brother Daniel. Mina finds herself drawn to his mysterious powers and impulsive nature. Then there is the gorgeous clone Sebastian who Mina is forbidden from even speaking to... The Blemished is a frightening take on a fractured future where the Genetic Enhancement Ministry have taken control of Britain. It will take you on a ride filled with adventure, romance and rebellion. A beautiful world comes at a price... Download The Blemished  on Amazon ,...

In this first book of The Gatekeeper’s Saga, fifteen-year-old Therese watches her parents die. While in a coma, she meets the twin sons of Hades—Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. She thinks she's manipulating a dream, not kissing the god of death and totally rocking his world. Unused to attention from anyone—god or mortal—Thanatos makes a deal with Hades and goes as a mortal to the Upperworld to try and win Therese's heart, but not all the gods are happy. Some give Therese gifts. Others try to kill her. The deal requires Therese to avenge the death of her parents. With the help of Thanatos’s fierce and exotic sisters, the Furies, she finds herself in an arena face to face with the murderer, and only one will survive. Download The Gatekeeper's Sons  for free on Amazon , Barnes and Noble , Sony ,  Kobo and Smashwords . Excerpt Whether McAdams injured himself in one of her traps or in some other way, he was nevertheless injured, and this added...

How do you live with the gut clenching truth that the one you love will die if you meet them? Twenty year old sorcerer Scott Tabors is learning how. After seeing seventeen year old Olivia Whitehead outside of a coffee shop, his heart will never be the same. He longs for her, he wants her, and he knows she will be his. They are heart mates. …but due to a curse on his family, he can’t meet her. Not yet. So for now, he visits her in her dreams. Her dreams where he can tell her everything but his name. Olivia Whitehead is a typical junior in high school. She and her best friend are having the time of their lives, but she can’t help but notice the changes happening to her. Especially the changes in her heart after she begins dreaming about a mysterious dark haired young man. But what will happen when the school heartthrob decides he wants Olivia? Will she realize the dream man is real or will she move on?  The White Aura is the first book in The White Aura series. Download it...

Sherry has always known there was something out there. She's eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago, and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal, dull life. Then the moon disappears. People start to go missing only to reappear later...but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who shows up on her doorstep and claims to be one of these beings. He's no longer the same person in that body. He tells her he has come to protect her and her brother and takes her underground, against her will, to save her. There they meet others like them. She begins to unravel the truth about Merrick, about what he's really doing here, about the way he looks at her, about the crazy new dangerous world they live in. Can he convince her that he's here to help? Will she like what she finds when she opens up to the truth? Will he be the one to love her when everyone else has failed her? Will he be able to protect her? Collide is currentl...