Realm Walker Series Book Tour: Mini-Review & Excerpt

Welcome to the Realm Walker 
Series Book Tour,

sponsored by

Bewitching Book Tours!!

For my stop, I'm featuring a mini-review

along with an excerpt!

Realm Walker
(Realm Walker, Book 1)
Kathleen Collins
Trade Paperback, page number unknown
Kindle Edition, 189 pages
Carina Press, October 28, 2013
Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Book Synopsis

An estranged mate, a mangled body and a powerful demon who calls her by name…

As a Realm Walker for the Agency, Juliana Norris tracks deadly paranormal quarry using her unique ability to see magical signatures. She excels at her job, but her friends worry about her mysterious habit of dying in the line of duty without staying dead. That’s only the first of her secrets.

Most people don’t know Juliana became the mate of master vampire Thomas Kendrick before he abandoned her seven years ago. Most people don’t know the horrors she endured at the hands of the vampire he left in command. Most people don’t know her true parentage, or why a demon on a world-threatening rampage has taken a personal interest in her…

Even as Juliana pursues the demon, it goes after all she holds dear—including Thomas, who is back to claim her for his own. But if she can’t reconcile her past and learn to trust herself again, she will lose him forever.

Amazon/Barnes & Noble
Harlequin Print 

 Death's Daughter

(Realm Walker, Book 2)
Trade Paperback,
267 pages

 Kindle Edition, 176 pages

Carina Press,
March 31, 2014

Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Book Synopsis

Juliana Norris, Realm Walker with the Agency, is an Altered. A fact that she runs up against every time she's forced to work with human police officers, and their species-ist commissioner, on cases they can't solve themselves. Which happens more than they would like to admit.

Her gift--the quality that makes her the best Realm Walker in the business, without boast--is the ability to read magical signatures. Whether the gift came from her father, the dark fae god of death, or the mage mother she can't remember, is anyone's guess. And when Altered children start going missing with only wild magical signatures as clues, her heritage is the last thing on her mind.

She can't afford such distractions, and she definitely can't afford to worry about the fact that her mate, master vampire Thomas Kendrick, hasn't spoken to her since she saved him from a demon--maybe it's because she had to stab him to do so. Because whoever is kidnapping these children must be very powerful to wield wild magic. Very powerful, and very dangerous indeed.

Amazon/Barnes & Noble
Harlequin Print  

Blood Slave

(Realm Walker, Book 3)

Kathleen Collins
Trade Paperback,
254 pages

Kindle Edition, 195 pages

Kathleen Collins, August 25, 2015

Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy

Book Synopsis

Can she find a killer in a town where the basest desires are allowed to run free?

There are zombies in the Dead Zone and Juliana Norris is sent to take care of the problem. And for there to be zombies, there had to be bodies. When vampires are found to be the culprits, Juliana is sent undercover in Kansas City. Lying to her mate, Thomas Kendrick, isn’t something she wants to do, but she’s in another vampire’s territory and Thomas would not be pleased. Besides, she’s more than capable of doing the job and she needs to prove it to everyone. Most of all herself.

Charles Morgan is in control of the Kansas City area, making a rich living off his various enterprises. Juliana goes undercover and gets sucked into his dark, decadent world. More victims turn up and the Agency is positive they’ve got their man, but Juliana is not so sure. When the Agency refuses to listen, she reluctantly turns to Thomas for help. He intervenes but finds Juliana unaware of the danger she is in and discovers she may just be too deep for him to save. 

Amazon/Barnes & Noble/iTunes

The Making of Michael Bishop

(A Realm Walker Short Story)

Kathleen Collins

Kindle Edition, 20 pages

Kathleen Collins,
August 29, 2014

Paranormal Fiction,
Urban Fantasy

Book Synopsis

Keep your distance. Don't look him in the eye. Feed him and leave.

Michael D'Augustino is a priest in the time of the Inquisition. Marked as weak for his refusal to torture those charged with sorcery, heresy, devil worship or worse, he's given another task. Feed the prisoner in the cell in the darkest corner of the dungeon. With the edict comes a set of instructions.

Ever obedient, Michael does exactly as he is told. Until the night his charge doesn't eat and Michael has to enter the cell to find out why. Instead of the beast he believes to be imprisoned there, he finds a man. A broken, tormented man who asks for help.

But all is not as it seems and, before the night is through, Michael will be changed forever. 

Amazon/Barnes & Noble

This excerpt has totally fascinated me! I LOVE reading about kick-butt female heroes, and Juliana Norris certainly fits the part! I also like that she's working with a werewolf, and that she's able to see magical "signatures". These are bands of color in the air that tell her what type of magic has been used in a given area. Also to my liking is that she's hunting a troll, which means she must face a formidable opponent, and take him down. I have already purchased the Kindle edition of the first novel, Realm Walker, and have just read how the encounter between Juliana and the troll ends. Needless to say, I'm very excited for the rest of the book, as well as the rest of the series! I'm buying the paperback edition of Realm Walker soon!!

Realm Walker: Chapter One

Juliana Norris didn’t want to die in the cold Canadian snow. Of course, she hadn’t wanted to die on the rain-slicked streets of Bern, the cool sheets of her freshly made bed or the backwoods of Alabama either, but that hadn’t stopped it from happening just the same.

Despite her grim thoughts, the odds of actually freezing to death were low. The troll would kill her before she lasted that long. She let out a laugh that sounded more like a snort. Gods, she was such a pessimist. She blamed the weather.

Her breath formed a cloud around her face and ice crystals in her nose. Her eyes burned, her fingers ached. For hours, she’d been hunting the troll. Hours she was supposed to have been spending in the warm Fiji sun drinking a Mai Tai and walking barefoot in the sand at a mermaid coronation. The Agency called to tell her about the reassignment just as she’d been ready to walk out the door. Damn, stupid flea-bitten troll.

Her only consolation was that she wasn’t here alone. She’d conned her mentor at the Agency into coming with her by reminding him that he still owed her for tracking down a band of feral pixies the month before. Nathaniel West was a 150-year-old werewolf with an immunity to silver and a wicked sense of humor. He’d taken her under his furry paw when the Agency recruited her and he’d been looking after her ever since. Last she’d seen, he’d been in full wolf form as he followed the troll’s path into the trees. All that fur probably kept him warmer than she was at the moment.

She thrust her hands out in an angry gesture and thought of fire. Flames sprang up before her in a thin line. Her spell, mediocre at best, was enough to melt the foot-deep snow and harden the ground beneath when it threatened to turn to mud. The warmth soaked through her jeans, thawing her briefly before it disappeared, leaving the cold to seep into her skin right to her bones. A brief thought of the idiot the Agency sent to Fiji in her place had her gritting her teeth. She didn’t even know who it was, but she doubted they deserved the sun and the sand more than she did. She always pulled the crap assignments. Maybe if she quit being so cursed good at her job they’d quit calling her.

Juliana needed to find her prey. She couldn’t go home until she did and she didn’t intend to spend the night in the wilderness. The beast had been making supper of the locals’ prize steers for months. Game wardens had been looking for the troll with no success. After losing four cows in a fortnight, the farmers complained to the right people and the Agency was called in.

Once her target entered the heavily forested area, it followed a well-worn game trail. The troll kept meandering off into the trees, but she wasn’t even tempted to follow the three-toed tracks. She left that to Nathaniel and his nose. Filling her lungs with crisp air, she forced herself to relax and let her gift flare to life. Neon bands of color immediately shrouded the landscape showing her the path of any creature recently in the area. Apparently, there were a lot of gnomes in Eastern Canada. Who knew?

Every being had a signature. A color uniquely theirs. Juliana didn’t know anyone else who could see them. Which was why she hunted the troll. It could cover its tracks all it wanted, but there was no way it could hide from her.

As she followed the main path, she kept her eyes locked on the landscape around her, searching for the troll’s earthy brown signature or Nathaniel’s vibrant mix of yellow, brown and red that marked him as a shifter. For a while she’d seen both paths intersecting as her friend followed the trail laid by the beast, but she’d seen neither for some time.

Her line of sight shrank as the ground dropped away over the edge of a hill. She paused and sucked in several deep breaths, wanting to be in top form before she went farther. After a moment, she eased forward again. Trolls were lethal opponents. If it snuck up on her, she’d be in more trouble than a knight at a dragon rally. When she reached the top of the hill, a clearing came into view below her. So did the troll.

Kathleen Collins lives and works in Missouri. By day, she labors in the local prosecutor's office. At night she writes while surrounded by her husband, two boys, and two lovable mutts. She is constantly thinking of her next project, and loves to connect with her readers. You can find her most often on Facebook or on her website.

Website/Twitter/Facebook
Goodreads




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