Catch Me When I Fall Blog Tour: An Excerpt

Guys! There are some things I love about being an author, and one of those things is the amazing people I get to interact with who are also authors. This week, I am helping my agency sister, Vicki Leigh, to celebrate the release of her debut book, Catch Me When I Fall.

Don't miss out on the chance to enter Vicki's contest for the My Worst Nightmare blog hop. 

Here is an awesome excerpt: 

“Kayla, I’d like for you to stay a minute.” When the others had filed out of the room, Dr. Malcolm closed the door and sat across from Kayla. “You were pretty shaken up last night, so I didn’t have a chance to get much information from you. I’d like you to tell me what happened.”“It was another dream.”“The same as last time?”Kayla nodded. “I grabbed the gun and tried to shoot him, but I kept missing. Then he burst into flames, just how I… wanted him to.”
Dr. Malcolm paused, calculating her response. “You mean, just how you remember?”Kayla’s eyes fell to the floor.Dr. Malcom sighed. “Kayla, we’ve talked about this. You need to start believing that what you thought you saw was your brain’s way of protecting you during the attack —”“I know what I saw!” Kayla yelled. She gripped the seat of her chair and fought the tears that pooled in the bottom of her eyes.
Dr. Malcolm spoke calmly. “This is why you’re here, Kayla. What you saw was your mind’s reaction to what that man did to you. As soon as you come to terms with this, the dreams will stop feeling so real and you can move past the pain.”The word “attack” brought up memories from my past I’d tried to forget. I’d died saving two women from the brutality of savage men. By the way Kayla’s face looked right now, I was positive I knew where this was going, what happened to her. Having heard enough, I balled my hands into fists, closed my eyes and evaporated to Rome.Tabbi was awake when I arrived, though my sudden appearance startled her. “Jeez, Daniel. You could’ve at least knocked.”“Sorry.” I sat in the chair next to her bed and tried to appear unfazed. “How are you feeling?”“Better. Trishna did a good job healing me, but Bartholomew wants to keep me one more night until he’s certain I can return to work.” She squinted at me. “What’s wrong?”Damn. Can’t hide anything from her. “When you read Kayla’s mind, did you read all of it?”
Tabbi scrunched her small nose. “Well, yeah. It is my job to know my charge.” She spoke like I was stupid to forget. I would’ve smiled if my heart wasn’t already consumed with anger.
“Then you saw what happened to her the night she was attacked.”Tabbi frowned. “Yeah.”“Was she raped?”Tabbi shook her head. “Here. Let me show you what happened.” She held her hand out to me.Since I was Tabbi’s partner in protecting Kayla, I could see what she saw in Kayla’s mind once I linked hands with her. The connection was part of the supernatural bond we’d created with Kayla when we performed our ritual the first day we were assigned to her. I grabbed Tabbi’s hand and closed my eyes. Within seconds, I was in Kayla’s head, seeing through her eyes and feeling her emotions. I had become Kayla.

Genre: young-adult, urban-fantasy, paranormal-romance

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Date of Release­­: October 23, 2014

Cover Artist: Conzpiracy Digital Arts

About Catch Me When I Fall:

Recruited at his death to be a Protector of the Night, seventeen-year-old Daniel Graham has spent two-hundred years fighting Nightmares and guarding humans from the clawed, red-eyed creatures that feed off people’s fears. Each night, he risks his eternal life, having given up his chance at an afterlife when he chose to become a Protector. That doesn’t stop a burnt-out Daniel from risking daring maneuvers during each battle. He’s become one of the best, but he wants nothing more than to stop.

Then he’s given an assignment to watch over sixteen-year-old Kayla Bartlett, a clinically depressed patient in a psychiatric ward. Nightmares love a human with a tortured past. Yet, when they take a deep interest in her, appearing in unprecedented numbers, the job becomes more dangerous than any Daniel’s ever experienced. He fights ruthlessly to keep the Nightmares from overwhelming his team and Kayla. Soon, Daniel finds himself watching over Kayla during the day, drawn to why she’s different, and what it is about her that attracts the Nightmares. And him.

A vicious attack on Kayla forces Daniel to break the first Law and reveal his identity. Driven by his growing feelings for her, he whisks her away to Rome where others like him can keep her safe. Under their roof, the Protectors discover what Kayla is and why someone who can manipulate Nightmares has her in his sights. But before they can make a move, the Protectors are betrayed and Kayla is kidnapped. Daniel will stop at nothing to save her. Even if it means giving up his immortality.

Find Catch Me When I Fall Online:

Goodreads | Amazon  US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

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About The Author:

Adopted at three-days-old by a construction worker and a stay-at-home mom, Vicki Leigh grew up in a small suburb of Akron, Ohio where she learned to read by the age of four and considered being sent to her room for punishment as an opportunity to dive into another book. By the sixth grade, Vicki penned her first, full-length screenplay. If she couldn’t be a writer, Vicki would be a Hunter (think Dean and Sam Winchester) or a Jedi. Her favorite place on earth is Hogwarts (she refuses to believe it doesn’t exist), and her favorite dreams include solving cases alongside Sherlock Holmes.

Vicki is an editor for Month9Books and Curiosity Quills Press, an intern at TriadaUS Literary agency, and is represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

Find Vicki Leigh Online:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Blogfest: Love at First Sight...or Not So Much.

Okay, I admit I'm not big on blog fests of this sort. I'm not all that comfortable posting portions of my works-in-progress online. Especially ones I'm currently querying.However, in honor of Valentines Day, and because I've had a couple requests for this particular scene, I'm going to make an exception. 

The following excerpt is from a finished manuscript, currently titled GIFTED. The characters, Kye and Abby, are on a bus, on a trip with a large group of kids from school.They don't know each other well, but are extremely comfortable with each other--a phenomenon which is explained later in the story. (Sorry, kids. You only get 450 words!)Abby has fallen asleep on Kye.

My dreams are riddled with Kye and Eric fighting, Kye and me kissing, more kissing, and various other activities that make my heart race and my blood run hot. The strangest part is that it all feels more like distant memories than dreams. I have mixed senses of peace and dread, happiness, and deep, profound sorrow. Then an awful laugh breaks through, rough and mean. Frightening.


When I jerk awake, Kye rubs my arm and smoothes my hair. “Shhh. Just a dream.”


Heat creeps up my cheeks as I lift my head to meet his gaze. Something in his eyes makes me long to stay right here, wrapped in his arms and staring into the endless pools of blue, for the rest of forever.


I tear my eyes away, feeling silly, and glance at his watch. After only an hour, my crush has developed into something far more dangerous. The full moon bounces above the mountains like a glowing eye, a bright ball in the darkening sky, gilding the edges of the distant cliffs. Kye traces circles up and down my arm, and my chest tightens when his hand slides under my chin and tips it up.


Our eyes meet again, and a spark of recognition passes between us, something undeniably strong, and just as unexplainable, and I can’t look away. Can’t break the spell. Conversations buzz around us, but we float in our own little bubble, focused and unmoving for eons of time. His hand moves down my arm until his fingers lace with mine.


He shifts, pulls me closer. His heart beats a quick, irregular thrum under my free hand. “I can feel your heart,” I whisper.


He breathes deep. “Did you feel it skip a beat just now?”


“Your heart didn’t skip.” I try to smile, lighten the mood. Something is happening and I don’t understand what, exactly. “It sped up, but it didn’t skip.”


His expression is serious. “It practically stopped. So did yours, I felt it.” He closes the distance between our faces, and his lips touch mine, soft, experimental. 

This time our hearts stutter together. Kye smiles against my lips, because he knows I felt it too. He takes a breath and leans in again, this time harder, more demanding. We melt together like chocolate and caramel. My mind screams for me to stop, that it’s too soon for this. I don’t know him, not really. But my heart has a different idea, and so do my lips.


When we break apart, I’m trembling. Time feels quick, racing. I have a surge of panic that makes me keep my eyes on him, like I only have so much time to drink him in before he leaves me forever. The idea becomes unbearable, and I catch myself clutching his arms around me.


“You okay?” His voice is breathless.


“Okay?” I shake my head. I’ve completely lost my mind.

To read more entries from the Love at First Sight...Or Not So Much blogfest, check out the full list here.


Have a fab Valentines Day!