Title: CAT-ASTROPHIC
Author: Sue C Dugan
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Book Blurb:
Nick, a popular and well-liked high school junior, is looking forward to another outstanding year, coasting toward graduation and a stellar football career like his dad.
This all changes when a new girl, Cat, enrolls in school and says they were once boyfriend and girlfriend—years ago! But worse still, Nick begins remembering WWII and a boy named Jean Claude, who while enrolled in a military academy in a small French town, was in love with a gypsy girl, Chaton.
Nick’s perfect life begins to unravel bit by bit. And he’s starting to be attracted to Cat, much to the disbelief and anger of his class-president girlfriend, Emily. In one short moment, Cat has turned his life into a catastrophe.
Excerpt:
With growing dread, Nick waited for his name to be called. As people paired off, odds were Nick would get stuck with Catherine.
“OK, then,” he nodded. “Nick and Catherine.”
Catherine remained motionless and when Nick turned to look at her, she nodded to him. Did she know his name? Since she hadn’t moved, he stood, and walked to her desk.
“Hi, I’m Nick.” He sat in the vacant desk next to her.
“I know.”
“You’re Catherine?”
“I only answer to Cat—or Chaton,” she said with a wink.
He studied her features then. She looked a bit like a cat with her black hair, topaz eyes, and long fingernails.
“So which is it? Cat or Chaton?”
“They mean the same. Chaton is kitten in French.”
“I don’t know French.”
She quirked a brow at him. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” Whatever. Oui. Je suis sûr. Oh, damn, where had that come from? He clamped his gaping mouth shut.
“I was once a cat,” she said.
Nick remained quiet. His thoughts skittering around like a mouse being pursued by a... Whoa! First he was thinking in French and then she tells him something like that? How was he supposed to respond? He frowned, studied the top of his desk, and said nothing.
“I have eight more lives to go,” she added.
He moved his gaze to hers, assessing her statement. Was she teasing? She stared boldly back at him, blinking slowly.
“So…,” Nick said, tapping his pencil on his World History notebook. “What do we want to do for our project? Do you want to read over my notes on what we’ve covered, you know, before you came?”
“Saumur. Let’s start there.”
He frowned. “We haven’t discussed Saumur.”
“No? Don’t you remember it?”
He flipped through his notes. “No, I don’t remember anything about Saumur.” He looked up and frowned before going back to perusing his notes. “It wasn’t one of the major battles.”
“Think, Nick.” She moved a finger with a long red nail up to her temple. “You were there.”
He drew away from her slightly. “I’ve never been to a place called Saumur.”
Nick’s mind scrambled around, searching for that town.
“You know, Saumur,” Cat said. “You said you would come for me.”
“What the heck are you talking about?” The queasy feeling in his stomach intensified.
“The last time I saw you.” She raised her brows over her heavily made-up eyes, studying him. “In Saumur.”
“N-n-no,” Nick stammered. “I don’t know you at all.”
“Not like this,” she said.
Nick’s brows furrowed. “Not like what?”
“Not in this life. Not in this body.”
“What?” Nick’s breath seemed to stick in his throat, a cotton ball strangling him, making him cough and pound on his chest. “How?”
“I recognize your eyes.” Cat’s pupils seemed to dilate as she talked. “The eyes are the mirrors to the soul, Nick. I know your soul.”
He blinked rapidly. Sure, her eyes looked familiar, but nothing else. Another stirring in his gut. “Are you trying to say…” What was the word? “I’ve been re-in-car-nated?”
“That’s one name for it,” she said. “And yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“I don’t believe in that stuff.” Nick eased out of his chair. “Coach.” He raised a finger. “Can I speak to you?”
“Certainly, Nick.”
He leaned on Coach’s desk and lowered his voice. “That girl,” his voice shook. “Do I have to work with her?”
“She’s new, Nick,” Coach Sullivan said, expectation in his voice as if he anticipated this question.
His heart did a little tap dance in response. “She’s weird,” he mumbled.
“Nick…” Coach gave him the are you joking frown.
“She told me some weird stuff,” his voice rose an octave as he talked. “I’ve never heard of Saumur.” Nick noticed several heads turned in their direction. “What the heck is Saumur?”
“Where have I heard that?” Coach Sullivan frowned and drummed his fingers. “Oh, I know, it’s a battle site.”
“So it’s a real place?” Nick asked, his stomach sinking. “Where?”
“France, I believe.” Coach switched on his tablet and typed the name in search, scratched his head, and typed in something else. After several tries he said, “Yes. Here it is.”
Nick leaned over and read: Saumur was the site of the famous Battle of the Loire where the students of Cadre Noir held off the elite Nazi soldiers at the end of WWII.
“It’s not one of the major battles or internment camps,” Coach said, “and you’ll have to do some digging for sources, but it might be an interesting project.”
Nick’s stomach sank further. “You really think that would be good for our research?”
“Sure.” Coach flipped off his tablet. “It would be something different. She’s obviously done her research.”
“OK,” he sighed and trudged back to his desk, imagining a poor grade because they were researching something obscure like Saumur. Cat watched him sit.
“OK, we can start researching Saumur, and the battle, and the people who were imprisoned there,” Nick said.
“The Romas,” Cat yawned.
“Romans?” Had he heard her right? “No, this is WWII.”
“Romas,” she repeated slowly, emphasizing each syllable. “You call them Gypsies,” she said with a sneer. “I don’t need to do research. I know.”
“Well, I don’t know anything about Gypsies.”
She blinked at him. “Oh, but you do.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
“You do,” she insisted, staring at him with her tiger-like eyes, lazy, but alert at the same time, unsettling. “You were at Saumur too. On the other side. I’ve been searching for you. Wondering when we would get together again.” She smiled. “Even though you left me to die.”
“Don’t talk so loud,” Nick whispered. “Someone might hear you.” Their conversation was beyond the bizarre and a bit frightening.
“So?” she said.
“This is crazy,” he whispered.
“I can’t believe we’re together again!”
What the heck? He had never seen her until she whirled into the cafeteria this morning. He would have remembered a tall, mysterious girl, wouldn’t he?
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
AMAZON
BARNES & NOBLE
GOOD READS
What makes your featured book a must-read?
It’s the first book in “The Cat with Nine Lives” series. Book two, CAT-ATONIC, was released in October of 2023.
The book is about reincarnated past lovers Nick and Cat and how their previous lives impact their current ones. The past refuses to stay in the past and is causing many problems. Imagine you are running for a touchdown on the football field, and you think the Nazis are pursuing you. It gets awkward when you tackle your team member, thinking he’s a German soldier.
This book is for all readers who like imagining or know they had once lived before and what it means. Were they notorious or famous? Or just ordinary people who have come back for a purpose, but the body they inhabit has yet to reveal why.
Giveaway –
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Open Internationally.
Runs January 9 – January 21, 2024.
Winner will be drawn on January 22, 2024.
Author Biography:
Sue writes five-star LitPick novels that keep readers of all ages turning pages long into the night. When she’s not writing, she reads, attends author events, or walks her dogs. Sue has two children and five grandchildren. Snack-wise, Sue is a salty-type gal, but she wouldn’t say no to an occasional chocolate kiss or two! She isn’t sure she’s a reincarnated author, but if she were, she’d want to be Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, or Emily Brontë. When her novels are run through author comparison sites, she gets Anne Rice through Mark Twain—quite a widespread, which makes for interesting reading (Tom Sawyer Was a Vampire?), don’t you think?
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