Welcome to the Skeleton Crew. Bring your knitting needles and a good, strong brew. : A Curse for Samhain LGBTQ PNR, Cozy Mystery by Dahlia Donovan Book Tour with Giveaway
Welcome to the Skeleton Crew. Bring your knitting needles and a good, strong brew.
A Curse for Samhain
The Skeleton Crew Paranormal Cozy Series Book 1
by Dahlia Donovan
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Cozy Mystery
Welcome to the Skeleton Crew. Bring your knitting needles and a good, strong brew.
Gender fluid, autistic vampire Hyde Snodgrass runs Between the Leaves—a cosy village book store. Their life revolves around books, all things autumnal, and the two cats who rule their world. The shop also plays host to a weekly knitting group called the Skeleton Crew.
When one of the leaders of the village coven fails to show up for the weekly knitting meeting, Hyde finds themselves investigating a horrific murder side by side with their long-term crush, Teresa Vega.
Suspicion immediately falls on other members of their group. Hyde and Teresa struggle to find answers to the growing list of questions. It’s made all the more difficult when the killer has them in their sights.
Can working together spark the romantic flame within them?
Will they solve the mystery before death comes too close?
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“What
do you think, Mortar? Pestle?” Hyde finished adjusting their button-down collar
out of the blue sweater and glanced at the two cats observing them. One meowed
quite loudly while the other sniffed before licking a paw. “You’re both
remarkably unhelpful.”
The
outfit of the day was one of their favourites. A lovely blue sweater with a
well-worn button-down underneath. Jeans. A little boyish style from yesteryear
with their trousers tucked into their socks and a vintage pair of brown boots.
I am a chubby ginger icon. I can seize the day.
Or I can seize a book to read.
That sounds better.
I’ll seize a book.
A
particularly loud yowl caught their attention. The cats were definitely ready
for their breakfast. They both looked pitifully up at Hyde.
“All
right. Come on, you two.”
Mortar
was a stunningly beautiful Persian with startling blue eyes who’d definitely
been a queen in a previous life. Pestle, on the other hand, had probably been a
court jester. His long ginger fur and almost glowing yellow eyes certainly set
him apart, as did his sense of mischief.
They
were Hyde’s constant companions. They ruled the roost. And more often than not,
they kept the right people in the shop and the rest from overstaying their
welcome.
Between
the Leaves had been Hyde’s passion project for almost eighty years. The
building had been a gift from the woman who’d taken them in as a child. A
little shop with a comfortable flat on the second floor, it had once been a
place serving afternoon tea, but books had been more interesting to Hyde.
Returning
to stare at the mirror, Hyde attempted to corral their short, curly red hair
into some semblance of a style. It was going to be a hat day. A hat day.
It was a mostly nonverbal day. And a they day.
Being
a vampire had its perks; being almost a hundred yet having stopped ageing at
thirty was certainly a plus. Being an autistic one, though, had drawbacks.
Every sound and smell was amplified by what felt like a thousand. The world
could be an incredibly overwhelming place. It was Flossie who’d come up with
the idea for the signs.
Flossie
Vandermark was one of the three witches who ran The Spiked Cauldron, the
village pub. She also happened to be a proud member of the Skeleton Crew, a
weekly knitting group who met up at Hyde’s bookshop. Flossie had suggested a
sign for days when Hyde didn’t want to talk or when they felt more they
than she.
It
made Hyde feel accepted. Everyone wanted to do what made them comfortable. It
was part of the magic of their village.
Acceptance.
Everyone
knew about South Myrddin. The little village on a loch in the Scottish
Highlands was founded by Merlin himself, or so the lore went. It had a
reputation for taking in the abandoned.
Hyde
had come as a child when their family vampire coven had rejected them. South
Myrddin was the place for stragglers, odd ones, and outliers. A place to find
family if one wanted.
A
place to find home.
The
village had a healthy coven of witches. A few vampires. The odd werewolf. A
collection of naiads, dryads, and brownies. Druids and shifters. A stray
kelpie. An incubus and succubus, who were Italians who ran a restaurant. And
one lone fae who’d been in South Myrddin since the beginning, or so they
claimed.
The
eclectic bunch of magical beings had all made South Myrddin their home. Most of
the villagers came searching for a place to feel comfortable in their own skin.
Hyde considered themselves grateful to have been left there all those years
ago.
Dahlia Donovan wrote her first romance series after a crazy dream about shifters and damsels in distress. She prefers irreverent humour and unconventional characters. An autistic and occasional hermit, her life wouldn’t be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.
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ReplyDeleteThe excerpt sounds good. Thanks for sharing.
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