Book Tour: Redemption By Susannah Sandlin

REDEMPTION

Book One Penton Legacy

Susannah Sandlin

Paranormal Romance

Montlake Romance

Ebook

357 pages

Following a worldwide pandemic whose vaccine left human blood deadly to vampires, the vampire community is on the verge of starvation and panic. Some have fanned into rural areas, where the vaccine was less prevalent, and are taking unsuspecting humans as blood slaves. Others are simply starving, which for a vampire is worse than death-a raging hunger in a creature too weak to feed.

Immune to these struggles-at first-is Penton, a tiny community in rural Chambers County, Alabama, an abandoned cotton mill town that has been repopulated by charismatic vampire Aidan Murphy, his scathe of 50 vampires, and their willingly bonded humans. Aidan has recruited his people carefully, believing in a peaceful community where the humans are respected and the vampires retain a bit of their humanity.

But an unresolved family feud and the paranoia of the Vampire Tribunal descend on Penton in the form of Aidan's brother, Owen Murphy. Owen has been issued a death warrant that can only be commuted if he destroys Penton-and Aidan, against whom he's held a grudge since both were turned vampire in 17th-century Ireland. Owen begins a systematic attack on the town, first killing its doctor, then attacking one of Aidan's own human familiars

To protect his people, Aidan is forced to go against his principles and kidnap an unvaccinated human doctor-and finds himself falling in love for the first time since the death of his wife in Ireland centuries ago.

Dr. Krystal Harris, forced into a world she never knew existed, must face up to her own abusive past to learn if the feelings she's developing for her kidnapper are real-or just a warped, supernatural kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which she's allowing herself to become a victim yet again.

Susannah Sandlin's REDEMPTION is the first in the Penton Legacy series. Book two, ABSOLUTION, will be out September 18, and book three, OMEGA, on December 18.

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Excerpt:

Krystal Harris pulled to the shoulder of the two-lane road-highway was too grand a word-and punched the button to turn on the old green Corolla's dome light. She counted to five before thwacking it with the heel of her palm, and a dim light blinked as if considering her demand. It stayed on-this time.

The car was a dinosaur, but it was a paid-for dinosaur.

She dug a folded Alabama road map from beneath her briefcase on the passenger seat, smoothing the creases to make sure she hadn't driven past Penton, which she suspected was no more than a wide spot on a narrow road. She didn't want to get lost out here in the boonies.

Yep, County Road 70. The highway to Penton just looked like the express lane to nowhere.

A gust of wind rocked the car, sending icy air around the loose door seals. Maybe the chill of this night was an omen that she should take this job if they offered it, just so she could buy a more respectable form of transportation. Still, doubts nagged at her. What kind of clinic conducted a job interview at nine p.m.? She should never have agreed to it, but the Penton Clinic administrator had waved big bucks in front of her huge college and med school debts, and she'd trotted after them like a donkey after a carrot.

"You had the goody-two-shoes idea of practicing rural medicine, plus you're already here," she chided herself, clicking off the overhead and pulling back onto the road. "And you've gotta admit, this is rural."

Another omen, and not a good one: she was talking to herself. Out loud.

A couple of miles later, her headlights illuminated a battered wooden sign covered in peeling paint: Welcome to Penton, Alabama. Founded 1890. Population 3,275.

Twenty years ago, maybe. Krys had done her Penton homework, and that was the boomtown population, when the mammoth East Alabama Mill still churned out threads and batting. It had wheezed its final belch a decade ago, and the town had suffered a slow death by attrition even before the pandemic. The most recent listing Krys found online estimated a population of three hundred. She was surprised they could afford to hire a doctor, much less pay a more-than-competitive wage.

But this was what she wanted, right? A place to practice medicine and be her own boss, to find a community where she could belong? After growing up in Birmingham-the wrong side of Birmingham-she hated the grime and crowds and noise of the city.

Lost in thought as she approached the outskirts of town, she thought she saw an animal in the road-a deer or a bear, maybe-God only knew what wildlife lived out here. But it was a man. He wore a long coat that flapped in the wind and was backlit by a lone streetlight in front of an abandoned convenience store. She'd have blown past him if he hadn't moved into the middle of the road when the glare of her headlights hit him like a spotlight.

He stood with his hands in his pockets, feet planted apart, watching calmly as she floored the brakes. The Corolla's old tires squealed, stinking up the air with the smell of hot rubber and stressed brakes.

Good Lord. Was he nuts?

She got the car stopped and took a deep breath, hands frozen to the wheel, her muscles jittery from the aftershock. The man walked around and tapped on her driver's side window, motioning for her to lower it.

Krys's foot hovered over the accelerator, indecisive. Should she drive on and get the hell out of here?

No, by God, she should not. She'd at least lower the window enough to tell the jerk how close he'd come to ending his life as a hood ornament on a green Toyota Dinosaur.

He held up his empty hands in a gesture of peace. Right. Like he was going to hold up a sign that said Beware of Murderous Backwoods Whack Job.

She snaked her right hand to her purse in the passenger seat, wrapped cold fingers around the handle of a small pistol, and slipped it into the pocket of her suede jacket-after she was sure the man had seen it. The .38 Smith & Wesson snub-nose was her security blanket, and she knew how to use it.

His only reaction to the gun was a raised eyebrow. "I have a man injured here." His voice was deep and melodic, and he had a trace of an accent, as if he'd grown up not speaking English but had been around a few too many Southerners. "You the doctor coming to Penton for the interview?"

She lowered her window an inch and stared as he knelt next to the driver's side door, putting his face at eye level. And damned if it wasn't one of the most beautiful faces she'd seen since…maybe ever.

He'd pulled his dark hair into a short ponytail except for one wavy strand that had pulled loose and blew against his cheek. The streetlight cast enough illumination for her to see the dark lashes fringing blue eyes that reminded her not so much of summer skies or robin's eggs but of the richness of an arctic sea flowing over darker depths. They appeared to lighten as he studied her with an intensity that almost robbed her lungs of air. He had a strong jaw, full lips, and a slight cleft in his chin.

If he was a serial killer, he was at least a pretty one.

He cleared his throat. "Are you Dr. Harris?"

Krys caught her breath. Good Lord, what was wrong with her? She'd been practically drooling through a half-open window as though he were Adonis personified. He could be Charles Manson's separated-at-birth, unidentical twin.

Except he knew her name.

My Review:

The following review is my opinion and not a paid review. I was given a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.

Krystal Harris (yes she is named after the restaurant) grew up in an abusive home where her father used her and her mother as a punching bag. Krystal applied and was accepted at a college she had to like run away from home to attend. When she told her parents about being accepted her father hit her and refused to let her go. Her mother being his victim as well only says well you can find a job around here.

Krystal's plan after college and med school was to work in rural area where she could be her own boss. So when she is offered a job in Penton, Alabama and big bucks are dangled in her face she had to go for the interview. It sounded like her dream job and with the money she would be making she could pay off her college and med school debts. And even have enough to buy herself a new car and get rid of her dinosaur.

Krystal's interview with the clinic's CEO Aidan Murphy is at 9 pm which makes her suspicious. He must be a very busy man during daylight hours if he is having interviews at night or hiding something. What Krystal doesn't know is that Aidan is a vampire one of the few left after the worldwide pandemic hit. You see when the pandemic hit the vaccine given to humans was deadly to vampires. This caused the vampire community to become all but extinct. They were very few humans who didn't take the vaccine for whatever reason for them to feed from. Some vampires would take humans as slaves to feed from and others loved the thrill of a hunt.

Aidan Murphy happens to be a very smart man with a very smart idea. He set up his own little community in Penton, Alabama with vampires and vaccine free humans they could feed from. The humans were not taken against their will. They lived there of their own free will and choice. Aidan saw that they had as normal of a life as possible with their families. Only they couldn't become pregnant and have children while living there. Aidan was afraid that a vampire might lose it and turn a child into a vampire which was something that he was dead set against. But if he came across a child that had already been turned by another vampire he would take them into his community and see that they were taken care of.

There is a paragraph in the excerpt above where Krystal is describing Aidan and she makes him sound very nice looking as well as hot and sexy. She describes him with long dark hair or at least long enough to put in a ponytail and dark eye lashes with blue eyes. Now don't that sound gorgeous and one hot dude. Aidan sounds like he would make your tongue slap your brains out. (Taking hand and fanning myself here) The book cover for Redemption is so very cool but it sure would be nice to have a full face *cough* full body shot of Aidan. The question now is a full body shot without a shirt or with tight fitting jeans and a tight fitting white t-shirt wait, wait make that a white, tight fitting tank top. (Hot flash, hot flash)

Redemption is a very good book I totally loved it and Aidan too. (He he he he) No, no seriously now I did love the story and all of the characters the good ones as well as the bad ones. I mean you wouldn't have a good story without the bad characters too. There would be no excitement of that nature. The bad guys have their parts to play too. I love Aidan's idea of having his own little community of vampires and humans whom they can feed from without worrying about dying or where their next meal is coming from or even where. I also like that there is a good side and a bad side. Good and evil is what keeps the world balanced what keeps it going. One can't survive without the other.

Thanks Susannah for writing a fantastic story. I love to see the worlds that authors create and seeing these worlds through their eyes. I can't wait to see what is waiting for me in the next book Absolution. Check back for my review of Absolution next Friday April 26.

About the Author:

Susannah Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there are always things that go bump in the night. A journalist by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch and the horror fantasy of Stephen King. (Um…it is fantasy, right?) The combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana.

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