Title: Bear with Me, Strawberry Shifters Book 1
Author: Marilyn Barr
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book Blurb:
Blue eyes, dimples, and silky brown hair; Grant Luther has all of Alison's weaknesses.
When he asks for one last chance to save their marriage, she agrees to relocate their family to isolated Strawberry, Kentucky in pursuit of his career dreams. Grant views Alison's sensory issues as limitations and protects her from outside threats. When he finds his new job includes changing him into a shifter in a war against the soul-sucking Sluagh he vows to keep the changes a secret. What he doesn't know is Alison has been hiding a magical secret of her own. One that makes her a target of the Sluagh.
Will Alison emerge from Grant's shadow to protect her family? And can Grant learn that being different can be a strength not a weakness?
Excerpt:
“You look perfect. I mean perfectly healthy. I mean mostly uninjured,” she stammers. She places her tiny hand over her eyes.
Feeling braver than ever, I walk right up to her. I gently remove the hand from her face and hold it to my own. “See, I’m fine,” I whisper as I gently rub my thumb over her tiny knuckles.
Her eyes lift to mine and lock our gazes. I have always found the golden color of her eyes fascinating but never studied them up close. They are light brown with a golden star in the middle. I am literally star gazing as she takes in the injuries to my face. We stand there for about a minute, lost in time.
I wonder if she is thinking about when we first started dating, the hard times that followed, the present, or the future. I search her face for clues but don’t want to break the spell by opening my mouth. I decide to put said mouth to better use by lowering my head toward hers.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
If you could dress up as anything or anyone this Halloween, what or who would it be and why?
Since childhood, I have loved Smurfette. While I have dressed up as her in the 1980s plastic bag costumes, I would love to acquire blue body paint and her signature clothes. I would enjoy spinning around in a flowy dress and long blond wig for a night. Even though we do not resemble each other on the outside, I felt a kinship with Smurfette throughout my college years. Being the only girl in the chemical engineering program and later in the particle physics master’s program felt oddly similar to her status as the only girl in the village. Could you believe that I learned to navigate a male-dominated environment from my Saturday morning cartoons? It stands as proof that you are always learning and growing, even in front of the Tv.
Explain why your featured book is a treat to read:
Witches, vampires, shifters, magical pumpkins, and scary soul-sucking phantoms make this paranormal romance a spooky Halloween read. However, October is also sensory processing awareness month. Bear with Me’s heroine, Alison the Green Witch and I share sensory processing disorder (SPD). Our sensory differences are highlighted throughout this novel as she integrates herself in a new town and finds her voice in asking for the accommodations she needs to function. The sweetest parts are Alison’s homeschool classes with unruly child werewolves (and her son) where she teaches them about modifying the environment so their oregano plants can thrive. It is a thinly veiled metaphor for her desire to be a part of her community instead of locked in a mansion on the outskirts of town. I hope to raise awareness for SPD and how a few modifications are better than excluding those who can contribute to our communities.
Giveaway:
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Open internationally
Runs October 1 – 31
Drawing will be held on November 1.
Author Biography:
Marilyn Barr currently resides in the wilds of Kentucky with her husband, son, and rescue cats. When engaging with the real world, she is collecting characters, empty coffee cups, and unused homeschool curricula.
She has a diverse background containing experiences as a child prodigy turned medical school reject, biodefense microbiologist, high school science teacher, homeschool mother of a savant, and advocate for the autistic community.
She would love to hear from readers via her website: www.marilynbarr.com.
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