Diane’s Book Blog: The Morrigan: Damaged Deities by Kennan Reid: Interview & Giveaway

The Morrigan
Damaged Deities , Book 1
Kennan Reid

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance
Word Count: 106k
Cover Artist: Najla Qambar

Book Description:

Morrie Brandon is the best horse trainer in Oklahoma, able to tame the wildest of beasts. She's also the Celtic goddess of War and Sex, The Morrigan, abandoning her supernatural life for a simpler, more human one.

When Morrie is hired by a secretive Scottish family to capture a killer horse ravaging their Highlands manor, the past she has spent thousands of years running from calls her back.

Will Morrie learn from her past mistakes and embrace the bold goddess she truly is, or is it too late?

Excerpt

“Did no one tell ye it’s rude tae give a man the best night of his life and then run away?” a voice rumbled low and soft and managed to be as seductive as it was menacing.

“Kade,” Morrie sighed, hoping he couldn’t hear the desire and relief laced in the sound.

She shouldn’t be this excited over knowing he had raced home after her, but inside she nearly bounced like a giddy school girl.

And what did he say? The best night of his life…Morrie would have to admit, she felt the same.

She spun around on the stool to face him, leaning back when she found him standing too near.

He closed the small space, towering over her as he dipped his head to be eye level with her, forcing her back against the bar.

“Ye will no’ leave like that again,” he growled.

Morrie frowned at his order and opened her mouth to respond, but the words caught in the back of her throat.

Emotion flickered in his eyes, eyes that had grown black with what could have been either desire or fury, she wasn’t sure. But also something else…

Morrie tilted her head to the side. “Did I scare you?”

Kade huffed with quick offense and straightened up, leaning back from her. But his expression changed to one of wonder.

“Like ye would no’ believe,” he admitted on an exhaled breath as though surprised by his own revelation.

“I told you I was here for business.” And that business was quickly becoming an obsession of hers.

A challenge that would determine just how far down the mortal hole she had fallen and whether she could find her true nature as a goddess once again.

This job tested her mettle because it should have been done by now. She knew she could find the horse if she used her powers, but she needed to know she could find him on her own.

Though why she needed that, she couldn’t say.

Kade turned his angry eyes on her. “Do ye really expect tae succeed in this daft quest?”

Morrie blinked, surprised by the…well, vehemence of his question and the turn of his questioning.

Of everyone in the home, he had seemed the least concerned about her reasons for being there.

“If I didn’t think I could catch him, I wouldn’t stay.” And she had thought he wanted her to stay, but his question had elicited an unwanted response—one of insecurity. “If you think I’m wasting my time, then I should just leave.”

For emphasis, she moved to slip off the stool, to really get away from him before he could see just how his doubts had touched her, but he stopped her by placing his hand on her hip.

“Wait, that’s no’ what I want.” Morrie paused but crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her lips together and waiting for him to continue. Kade sighed. “O’ course I think ye can catch him. If anyone can, it’s you. I doona doubt ye.” He blinked, like a discovery had been made. “Maybe ye’re supposed tae. In fact, I’ll help ye do so.”

Morrie gave Kade a sidelong glance. He was up to something, she just wasn’t sure what.

“You’ll come with me to the loch?”

There it was again!

A passing cloud of fear across his face, but this time it was different. It seemed spurned on by a different place.

But it came and went so quickly, Morrie soon questioned seeing it at all.

“I’ll follow ye anywhere,” he answered her and there was a deep truth behind his statement. “Just doona leave again like ye did this morn.”

Morrie studied him like a suspicious package wrapped in a thin veil of desperate relief. He seemed changed from the night before—this emotion even different than the cloud that settled over him after the encounter with his mother.

Kade either wore many masks or his true nature was too complex to determine.

Like the horse, Kade was a challenge.

And Morrie was a sucker for challenges.

And his dark eyes turned her into a puddle and it seemed there was nothing she could do about it. Her shoulders slumped before she muttered, “Stop making me melt.”

Kade frowned. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Morrie stood up, placing her body much too close to Kade’s, but she couldn’t appear weak. She pulled out some money and slapped it down on the bar to well cover her tab.

“Alright, you can help. But what happened last night cannot happen again. I am your brother’s employee, I am your employee. And for us to entangle ourselves…” Kade’s responding grin caused Morrie to roll her eyes and regret her word choice, but she continued on, hands on her hips, “would only result in an unnecessary distraction.”

She hoped to glower that smirk right off his beautiful lips.

At the fire in her eyes, Kade threw up is hands in surrender.

“Aye, lass, as ye wish. If ye insist on lying tae yerself and pretending, then I will no’ impose my will on ye.”

Morrie’s face burned with outrage, but that only resulted in Kade laughing at her, gazing down with desire in his smoldering eyes and adoration in his smile.

“Stop that!” she complained, pushing past him.

“Stop what?” he asked with feigned innocence.

She whirled around and nearly smacked her face into his chest.

Sighing, she stepped back and looked up at him.

“Stop trying to provoke me. Nothing will happen between us.”

“If ye say so. As I said, I will no’ impose myself on ye, but if ye canna keep yer hands tae yerself, lass, I will no’ stop where they may roam. And we both know they’re curious, lil’ things.”

Volumes were spoken in his heated gaze. Morrie flushed anew.

Her body grew rigid, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

“My hands do not—there will be no—gah!” Morrie sputtered and turned her back to him, stomping out of the restaurant and towards what was going to surely be a violent battle of wills.

For the first time in her existence, Morrie didn’t know if she would be the victor.

Author Bio

Kennan Reid is an American writer from the San Francisco Bay Area where she lives with her husband in a house overrun with pets. Because she's always been a lucky little brat, her life has taken her all over the world from the hot, humid streets of Hong Kong and the crowded markets of Cairo, to the cobbles of Vienna and the ruins of Rome from where she has shamelessly stolen ideas and material for her stories.

She self-published her first young adult novel, Always Me, in September 2011.

Other Novels include Return to Arèthane and Prince of Arèthane.

For more information on Kennan who also writes as Kelly Riad visit: http://kellyriad.blogspot.com/

Interview

Please welcome The Morrigan: Damaged Deities author Kennan Reid to Diane’s Book Blog.

What is your favorite part of the story,The Morrigan: Damaged Deities?

There’s an encounter my protagonist, Morrie, has with other “supernaturals” where she does a mental catalogue of what they are while they’re pretending to be something else. And these supernaturals are close to Kade, the book’s hero. So there’s tension and jealousy. Morrie’s trying to be inconspicuous and it’s this fun little moment of a power struggle between her and the supernaturals in which Morrie makes a startling and frightening discovery about herself that will alter her fate for the rest of the book.

If you were stranded on a desert island which of your characters do you want by your side?

Morrie, aka The Morrigan, aka a FREAKING GODDESS!! She has awesome magical powers and could just use them to save us.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I had read a pretty bad YA novel and thought, “I could that!” I made the comment to a friend and she replied with, “So, do it.” It started out with just a few pages, this scene I’d had in my mind. I handed it over to my friend and she came back with, “More please.” After a few times, I had the makings of a book.

What is your favorite book that you wrote?

I write YA under another name and have an elf series titled, The Elves of Arèthane. The first book in that series is the first book I wrote - it changed and grew with me and I’ve always held a special place in my heart for it.

What books have most influenced your life?

Oh, wow, that’s a very good question. When I was younger, my grandmother gave me a box of her books and among them were about six or seven books written by Phyllis A Whitney - my favorite was The Turquoise Mask. I consumed those books and loved everything about them - they were thrillers and adventurous and always featured a very strong, smart woman. It made me want to overcome my fears and be as adventurous as those women.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

Of course! See below for a small excerpt from The Morrigan: Damaged Deities

What do you prefer paperback, hardcover, or ebooks?

Okay, I’m a bit of a book hoarder so I actually collect all three for different reasons. Sometimes I just want to stop by the bookstore and so I’ll pick up a few paperbacks. If the book is part of a series, I try to get the hardbacks because they usually have nicer covers and look good as a set. And then if it’s a book I know I’ll want to stay up late reading, I’ll get the ebook so I can read my ipad in the dark. It’s common for me to buy a paperback/hardback AND the ebook. But ultimately, ebooks! Because I probably wouldn’t be here without them.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Thank you for taking the time to read about my book and me. I really hope, if you decide to read The Morrigan, that you enjoy reading about Morrie and Kade as much as I did writing about them.

The Morrigan: Damaged Deities, An Excerpt

Morrie took a deep, steadying breath and entered the room.

Kade looked up, his eyes lighting at the sight of her as he grinned and winked. The younger MacLeod simply peered over his newspaper before folding it up.

Both stood as Morrie approached the table. She noted Kade stood taller than his brother, which meant he towered over her. Both seemed to fill the large dining room.

“Good morning,” Kamden said to her. “Morrie Brandon, this is my brother, Kade MacLeod.”

Morrie opened her mouth to say they’d already met, certain the older MacLeod had filled his brother in on all the raunchy details, but Kade didn’t let her, instead smiling and holding out his hand as he said, “Welcome, Morrie. It’s a pleasure tae meet ye.”

Unable to help her frown, Morrie shook his hand, letting him hold it a little longer than what was proper as she questioned him with her eyes, and sat down.

He simply winked at her.

After their first meeting she hadn’t thought anything about him could be gentlemanly, but if he’d apparently kept their encounter secret, then maybe she was wrong.

“You never mentioned your brother being here,” Morrie said, an edge to her voice.

“Did I no’?” Kamden replied, his eyebrows innocently raised.

The brothers sat, with Kamden returning to his newspaper and Kade forgetting about his plate, focusing instead on Morrie while still grinning in a devilish way that put her on alert.

“Wha’ brings ye all the way tae MacLeod Manor, Morrie?” he asked. He quirked an eyebrow. “An arrangement?”

Okay, so maybe not such a gentleman.

“No,” she answered, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

“Morrie’s an expert horse trainer from Oklahoma,” Kamden answered in a gruff tone. “I hired her tae catch that wild horse we have plaguing our lands.”

His smile faltering a bit, Kade’s eyebrows rose as he turned to his brother.

“Didya, noo?” He grinned at her. “Got a bit o’ a way wi’ the cuddies, do ye?” When she shrugged, he asked, “So ye’re stayin’ until the horse is caught, then?”

“Yes, which means I’ll be leaving today.” Both brothers turned their attention to her. “I caught him last night.”

The men exchanged a look with Kade muttering, “She works quick.”

Kamden put his newspaper down, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned forward.

“What did ye do wi’ him?”

“I have him locked up.” Morrie scowled, offended at their apparent disbelief. “He’s out in your stables, if you’d like to see him.”

“I’d love tae see this brilliant steed,” Kade said, standing as Morrie did.

With an unreadable expression, Kamden stood as well and both brothers followed her out to the stables.

Morrie brought the apple to feed to the horse.

He might be a killer, but he was still a living creature. And if they were all honest, she had blood on her own hands, as well.

As soon as the cold air hit her, Morrie wished she’d had grabbed a coat, only to remember it had been torn to shreds by the very horse they headed out to visit.

No matter, she won't need it once she was back in Oklahoma.

Kade sidled up beside her, hands in his low-slung jeans pockets, brushing his arm against hers.

“Bit chilly out, aye?” he murmured, his gaze dipping to her chest. “Could wrap my arm ‘round ye, tae keep ye warm.”

“I’m fine, thank you,” she forced a smile at him, inwardly cursing the longing in her stomach to have him wrap more than just an arm around her.

The feeling creeping to her breasts, she crossed her arms over her chest, hoping to conceal the evidence of how he affected her.

“Ye an American?” he asked, keeping his tone light as he gave her a little space.

“I suppose so,” she answered, eyes focused on the stables ahead and anxious to encounter the horse again.

She wondered how he would look in the daylight. It had been hard to tell the color of his coat in the dark—would he be a deep chestnut or black as tar?

“I always wanted tae visit America,” Kade said as they approached the stable doors.

Grabbing one door with Kamden getting the other, the brothers pulled them open and Morrie stepped inside.

The daylight broke through in streams, but the once excited horse was silent. The other two seemed to go about their business without a care.

Morrie approached with apprehension, only to have her mouth fall open to find the stall empty.

What the fuck?

Absently handing the apple to Kade, she yanked open the stall gate and searched its lonely contents—the pressed hay and knocked over feed bucket—unable to accept the horse was gone.

“Where did he go?” she asked with disbelief.

Kamden stood behind her at the gate entry frowning, while Kade rested his arms on top of the low stall walls, peering in.

Morrie turned around to the younger brother.

“He was here, I swear it. I found him last night, down by the lake. I caught him and—!”

Morrie cut herself off.

The only valid explanation for the horse’s absence was she had bee right in her assumptions. If the horse were really a kelpie, the stall wouldn’t hold him.

She narrowed her gaze on Kamden, suspicions filling her mind.

A sympathetic expression passed across Kamden’s face as he studied her.

“He wouldn’t be such a pest,” he grated, “if he were so easy tae catch.” The hard lines of his face softened. “I didna expect ye tae catch him quick.”

Resigned to her annoyance, Morrie leaned back against the inside of the stall.

She’d never let a horse get the better of her before, mystical or otherwise. Her mind could barely comprehend it.

“Ack, that’s a shame,” Kade said, shaking his head as he held the apple up before his mouth. “Guess ye’ll be staying awhile longer then, aye?”

He took a big bite, filling his cheek, and grinned at her.