I’m so excited to announce I’ll be releasing a brand new series this October. What better day than Friday, October 13! Especially since this series is paranormal. Get ready for some spooktacular, ghostly fun!
Third Time’s the Charm
Genre: paranormal romance
Series: a Haunting Love novel, #1
Release date: 10/13/23
Amazon | Apple Books | Google Play | Kobo | Nook
Blurb
He’s not running this time…
Kade thought nothing could be worse than when his wife died in a car accident—especially because he’d been behind the wheel. To forget the pain, he moved on. Maybe too quickly. Now he’s the prime suspect in the death of his second wife. But they have nothing on him because he didn’t kill her.
Buying a house that needs more repairs than it’s worth seems like a good escape. When he meets Bailey, despite everything telling him to look away, guard his heart, he can’t help but fall under her charm. There’s just one problem. She’s a ghost. There can’t be any harm in loving a ghost, right? Nothing can hurt her, not even him. Except there’s another presence in the house. One that terrifies her.
Between contending with a pesky detective determined to peg him for murder, a ghost he’s falling in love with, and the mysterious accidents that keep happening to him at work, Kade fears he might be joining Bailey on the other side sooner rather than later.
Excerpt
The house rattled, hiccuped, then went silent. It hadn’t made that kind of noise in ten years. She sat up, looking around. Nothing else could be heard. Odd.
She rose from the couch, walking around the living room, waiting for something to pop out and announce itself. Nothing.
Ten years of silence. Ten years of being trapped by herself. Now this.
Her eyes trailed to the vent on the ceiling when it burped loudly, sputtering some before settling into the sound that had been so familiar so long ago. She raised her hand to feel air hit her skin, sighing in defeat. Nothing.
What else was going on in the rickety old building?
She bounded around the house, rushing from room to room, seeing things that hadn’t worked in years, turning to life. The refrigerator rattled that cranky tune, bringing joy she hadn’t felt in forever. Oh, how she missed that sound. The old heater in the upstairs master bedroom, groaned in triumph as it tried to do its job. Again she put her hand out to feel the heat. Nothing.
The ceiling fan in the spare room flew in circles, the chain that controlled it having been pulled before the power went out. She stepped closer, raising her face to the whirlwind of air and waited for the blessed feeling. Nothing.
The basement was hard to navigate with no light, but she knew this house like the back of her hand. Inside and out. Every wall, every room, every little sound it made she knew by heart. She didn’t need light to see a thing. She stood in front of the furnace, listening to the joyous sound of it clattering to do its job.
She jumped when a short spark lit up the dark room.
Giggles erupted.
“Oh, don’t be a ninny. That thing can’t hurt you.”
Because nothing could hurt her.
Only her thoughts could and she never let that happen. Or tried to anyway.
Her ears perked when she heard another sound.
The blessed sound she hadn’t heard in forever.
She raced back upstairs into the living room and waited, her eyes staring so hard at the front door, as if willing it with her mind to open.
Then it did.
The man that stepped through the threshold had her sucking in a breath. Well, sort of.
She’d seen many people come and go through these walls. Old people. Young ones. Fat ones. Skinny ones. Tired and upbeat ones.
But this one.
It’s as if a God had stepped in to answer all her prayers.
Dark brown hair that had a slight curl behind his ears suggesting he needed a haircut in a few places. His eyes were grayish with a hint of green. Odd, as she’d never seen that sort of color on a person before. She couldn’t tell much about his physique as he had a black winter coat on, considering it was the dead of winter, but he was tall and looked built like a king. She’d definitely enjoy drooling over him.
He shut the door, leaving the cold behind, not that it was much warmer inside the house. It’d take the furnace awhile to do its job. If it did it at all. It hadn’t been started in ten years.
The man looked around the room, taking it all in. A short sigh even released.
“I know. It’s not much to talk about, but it has great character if you look hard enough. Trust me.”
He blew out a breath, nodding. “I like it. This might be one of the worst things I’ve ever done on an impulse, but I like it.”
She clapped, jumping giddily. “I’m so glad to hear that. Most people hate it. They never stay very long. I hope you stay awhile. I’ve been so lonely.” She glared. “I don’t admit that to everyone either. Don’t hold it against me. Do you want a tour?”
He shivered, rubbing his hands together. “I should check on the furnace. It is cold as shit in here. I wonder how long it’ll take to heat this place up.”
“A long time. You better have some great blankets. I’m telling you, the heaters around here suck.”
At least, based on other people’s experiences it didn’t do so well. And hello, it’d been ten years since it last ran. Couldn’t he hear the gurgling going on everywhere in the house? It was such a blessed sound. She loved it.
He walked around her, heading for the basement door. She followed close on his heals, jaunting down the stairs with merry. The lone light lit up the room, making everything a weird orange glow. It didn’t seem to bother him as he crouched near the furnace, tinkering with this and that, before standing up.
“It needs a few parts to getting it working better, but it’ll do the job for now. Thank God.”
“I told you, have some good blankets. I don’t lie.”
She followed him back up the stairs and into the kitchen. He winced when he opened the fridge.
“Yeah, the last owners didn’t care about grabbing everything. You should see the bathroom upstairs.” She stuck out her tongue, making a gross face. “Like, be prepared when you open the toilet lid. That’s all I’ll say.”
He waved a hand in front of his nose as if something smelled atrocious. She figured it did when she peered over his shoulder to see the few bottles of condiments on the shelves, and the chicken the last lady had been preparing before hightailing it out of the house. It was still sitting on the plate, not covered, marinating in the sauce and spices.
“Ewww. I would never eat chicken again after seeing that. Gross.”
“Yeah, so no chicken for a while.” He shivered, slamming the door shut. “I don’t even want to touch that.”
“Don’t ask me to touch it.”
She tailed him as he went room to room, commenting on this and that. Smiling sometimes at things he’d see, groaning at other times. Like she had originally said. The house had character if you looked hard enough.
They made it back the living room and she felt more alive then she had in the longest time.
“Yeah, this’ll do.” He shivered. “Though I do need more blankets than I have.”
“Told you!”
“I’ll be back later. Maybe tomorrow. I don’t think I can sleep here tonight.”
She shook her head, the panic hitting her like a ton of bricks. “No. No, you can’t leave yet.”
He looked around the room. “We have a lot of work to do. It’s all going to be okay.”
“Stop!”
She stepped in front of him, shivering for the first time—ever—when he stepped right through her.
He turned at the same time she did.
“You felt that. Just like I did,” she said with awe.
She’d never actually went through a person before. She always sidestepped them.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “First thing is fixing that damn furnace. Too many drafts in here.”
Then he walked out, shutting her inside the big lonely house once again.
(Copyright © 2023 Amanda Siegrist. Unedited and subject to change.)
I seriously can’t wait for this book to release. Mona and Mason will be making an appearance in this new series, so it might be helpful to read their stories in The Paranormal Chronicles if you want more of their background! They are one of the funnest couples I’ve written to date…
