About the Book
Title: Rex
Author: Rita Stradling
Genre: YA Fantasy
In
seventeen year old Dakota Kekoa’s line of work, a job can go bad in a split
second.
And when a job goes bad, people die.
Suspended from working as a tax collector in her draconic family’s protection
racket, Dakota is assigned a secret mission from her grandfather. A foreign
queen has offered a grave insult to Dakota’s grandfather by running a vampire
dinner cruise off the coast of the Mabiian Islands, and his retribution must be
swift.
Yet, when Dakota infiltrates the ship ‘Crimson Sunset’, nothing is at it seems.
In a split second, not only is Dakota in deathly peril, all of New Anglo is on
the road to war.
Author Bio
Rita Stradling is the
author of The Deception Dance series, the Dakota Kekoa series and The Fourteen
Day Soul Detox Serial. She has a BA in Art History and a particular love for
modern and medieval art.
Rita lives with her husband and son in Northern California.
She has an insatiable novel addiction and mostly reads young adult and adult:
romance, paranormal, urban fantasy and high fantasy.
Links
Book Excerpts
Excerpt #1
“What is your name?”
Harrison asked me, drawing my attention back to him.
I gave him a small smile.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, I’d like to
know.”
“You like your
regional cuisine to have a name?” I raised an eyebrow at him.
His jaw clenched. “My
brother is an idiot. I don’t feel the same way about humans as he does.”
As Harrison stepped
closer, I felt my heartbeat quicken. I should be talking him out of biting me.
I should be telling him I have some horrible communicable disease. I should be
pulling out my gun. Instead, I was staring at his mouth, curious about how it
would feel to have his fangs puncture my neck.
It would be a bold
move, bold enough that perhaps Wyvern would dissolve the contract.
Harrison’s chest was
inches from mine and I knew that this was the moment for me to voice an
objection. There were about a thousand reasons why I should do everything in my
power to stop him.
Yet, ever since that
moment I broke things off with Wyvern, I’d felt lost, so much more alone than
I’d ever been before Wyvern blasted through my life. For the first time in a
long time, standing here in this very dangerous situation with this very
dangerous stranger, I didn’t feel lonely.
Harrison’s hands
touched my arms and gently moved up and down. “You’re shivering, are you cold?”
“No,” I whispered,
looking up at him.
“Tell me your name.”
His gaze again moved over my face slowly.
“I don’t want to have
a name right now, please.” My heart picked up speed as he leaned in.
Adrenaline and a
dangerous curiosity pumped through me from my stomach and I let my head fall to
the side just slightly, showing him my neck.
Harrison’s canines
lengthened as his head moved forward.
Excerpt #2
The look Wyvern
turned on me was full of heat and interest, as if I’d shut the door hoping for
a make-out session. I needed to squash that right now.
“Wyvern,” I snapped.
“No more kissing, hand holding, or holding me for more than like a minute,
okay? This is getting out of hand. We’re friends.”
“But a minute is
okay?” he asked, with a mischievous smile. In an instant he had his arms
wrapped tightly around me and I was pressed to his chest. “Because a minute is
a pretty long time to hold you, let me show you: one-one-thousand,
two-one-thousand…” His arms moved up and down my back as he spoke.
“Ugh, ten seconds,
you can hold me for no longer than ten seconds,” I said.
He leaned back,
looking down at me, “What if it was ten second kisses instead.”
I swallowed hard. “No
kissing.”
“Are you sure?” he
asked, leaning in so close I could smell his sweet, spicy breath.
I nodded, glancing
between his eyes and his lips.
“Not even for this
long?” he asked as his lips came down and brushed gently against mine for one
second.
When he pulled back,
I nodded again, then remembering what he asked, and I shook my head instead.
“How about for this
long?” His lips met mine with a sudden hungry intensity that I wasn’t expecting.
His hands buried in my hair while his lips pushed against mine, sucking on my
lower lip before his tongue entered my mouth.
I lifted to my toes,
unable to stop myself from kissing back. I grabbed onto his jacket and opened
my mouth to his kiss. My lips were as hungry on his as his were on mine.
My breaths were
coming hard and fast when he broke away. “You play so dirty,” I whispered.
“I always will.” He
grabbed me, holding me tightly against him. “I’ve missed you so much, Dakota,”
he whispered into my hair.
It was like I could
literally feel him reeling me back in. And it wasn’t with one of those cheap
plastic fishing lines either, he was reeling me in with a giant net. It didn’t
matter how much I struggled, the net would always win.
Excerpt #3
Wyvern vanished.
One minute there was
a growing mass of limbs the size of a mid-sized car sprawling across the golf
course lawn, the next, only my little eastern portal purse sat nestled in the
grass. That strange shimmering line between us did not vanish, it instead
changed its direction to lead straight down to the ground.
I looked back up to
my uncle Glacier.
He shook his head
ever so slightly. “Do not even think about it. That’s an order Dakota!”
“I’m suspended from
taking orders!” I dove for the purse. A second later, three bodies smacked into
mine, pining me to the ground.
When one of my
not-so-well-known uncles and cousin soldiers wrested me into showing both my
hands, Glacier looked at my closed mouth where I had already shoved the purse
in, sticking my tongue through the portal.
I looked up at
Glacier, seeing the pure terror wafting off his soul as he shoved his fingers
into the sides of my jaw. His soul was a solar flare of fear; I’d never seen so
much fear condensed into one place before. His thumbs dug into the sides of my
face.
Even though I was
sure I was going to have two perfect bruises, I locked my jaw.
“Damn it, Dakota!”
I straightened my
lips into a sort-of smile. I couldn’t help it; I’d never heard Glacier swear
before in my entire life.
“Don’t do this! At
least let me go with you!” he shouted in my face.
I shook my head,
sudden tears coursing down my face. My last thought was, ‘oh gods, I hope
Wyvern cleared a path for me,’ as my body was suddenly stretched like a noodle
and pulled through the portal.
