Description:
Love in the time of superheroes...
The year since Galilee Falls lost its reigning superhero Justice has not been kind to Joanna Fallon. She's lost her best friend, her boyfriend, her badge, even her mind. The city of Galilee Falls hasn't fared much better with supervillain related crime skyrocketing to cataclysmic proportions.
Deliverance for the city arrives in the guise of The Royal Triumvirate--King Tempest, Lady Liberty, and Lord Nightingale--who vow to be the heroes the city needs. Salvation for Joanna appears in the brilliant form of Dr. Jem Ambrose, another lost soul in need of saving. But salvation comes with a high price.
When Emperor Cain, an old nemesis of The Triumvirate, decides he will stop at nothing to make sure there is no city left to defend, it is up to Joanna to rise not only for her city, for her new love, but for herself as well…
It’s hard being a regular police officer in Galilee Falls, a city with the highest concentration of superheroes and villains in the country. It’s even harder watching your best friend, the man you’re secretly in love with your whole life, planning to marry another woman. Detective Joanna Fallon has to contend with both. When the vilest supervillain in the city’s history, Alkaline, the former crime boss who can shoot acid from his wrists, escapes from the maximum security prison, the whole city is gripped by panic. Leading the pursuit is Captain Harry O’Hara, Joanna’s boss and secret lover, and the city’s champion superhero Justice, who caught the villain last time, much to Joanna’s chagrin. Before her father was murdered in a mugging twenty years earlier, Joanna worshiped the hero, but when he disappeared and failed to save her father, that adoration turned to contempt for all supers. After Alkaline attacks too close to home and targets Joanna as his next victim, tough-as-nail Joanna has to contend with her increasing fear while struggling to choose between her life-long crush and her new-found love.
At turns vulnerable and fierce, equally mordant and winsome, Joanna is an earnest yet emotionally damaged heroine, who despite the tough breaks of her childhood sees the good in people and vow to protect her beloved city at all costs. An ass-kicking petite firecracker with no superpowers of her own, she charges after supervillains unflinchingly, never losing her wit even when facing her toughest fight. With a coy blend of whimsy and vivid imagination, she delivers both humor and thrills in an action-packed and edgy blend of comic book cool, fantasy-noir, and bitter-sweet romance.
EXCERPT:
His last
words were, “I love you.”
“Joanna?”
My tear filled eyes fly open, and I
spin around. Jem stands a few feet away, concern radiating from his every pore.
His hair is a mess, wild and his clothes rumpled. No glasses either. He came in
a hurry. Not like him to forget the details. “Joanna, please get away from
there. It’s dangerous.”
I turn back to the abyss. “I was just
thinking. About last words.”
“Last words?”
“Yeah. I read the most common are,
‘Oh, shit’ or ‘Oh, God.’ Justin’s were, ‘I love you.’ He looked me square in
the eyes and told me he loved me. He’d said it in passing a few times, the
usual, ‘You’re my friend, I love you,’ type of thing, but deep down I never
really believed him. If he loved me then he should love me, you know? Like I did him. But at that moment, his last
moment, I finally became a believer. Because that’s what love is, right?
Putting someone before yourself? For twenty years he loved me, and I think I
just now realized he loved me a hell of a lot more than I loved him. If I even
really did love him. Maybe I’m just not capable of it. Two people were on that
fence, and the thought of letting go
never even crossed my mind. Not even for a millisecond. But it crossed his.
Because he was good, and strong, and capable of the biggest love of all. And
he’s dead. And I’m here. It should have been me.”
“No,” Jem says forcefully. All of a
sudden he’s next to me, grabbing and turning me toward him. “No.”
“Anyway you look at it, his life was
worth more than mine. I die, a few people are sad for awhile, but they move on.
He dies, the whole city implodes.” I wipe a tear off my cheek. “Who the hell am
I? I’m nothing. A traumatized alcoholic who ruins everything and everyone she
comes into contact with.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is. I hurt everyone I care about. Justin, Harry, Lucy. I make everything
worse. I mean, why the hell would God let me live when such better people die?
Rebecca, Daisy, my dad, Justin. It-It-It doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t. That’s why it’s the
eternal question: why him and not me? Why does a murderer go free while an
innocent man is convicted? Why does my brother draw breath but Uma doesn’t?
There is no answer, Joanna. I’ve searched for it all my life and haven’t found
a clue. And believe me when I say if you let that question take over your life,
it can nearly destroy you. Pursuing that question allows guilt to guide your
life, and that is no way to live it.” He closes his eyes. “Believe me.” He opens his beautiful eyes again, looking square in
mine. They’re brimming with sadness and hope. “You-You turn around and survey
your life, your goals, and you don’t recognize them. Or yourself. But you
continue looking because the quest is all you have. And you’re alone. So alone for so long with only that
guilt to drive you that when someone wonderful comes along, so wonderful you
actually begin to imagine another life for yourself full of love and joy, it
rocks you to your core. You’ve seen the dawn after a million starless nights,
and it’s beautiful, but you’re afraid
it’s just an illusion. That it’ll be taken from you, or that you never really
saw it, and you’re alone again once more with that ache. I don’t want that for
you. Justin wouldn’t either. You survived. You’re alive. So live.”
I can’t hold back a moment longer. I
fling myself against him, wrapping my arms around his torso in a hug. His limbs
envelop me as I finally allow myself to burst into tears right against his
pulsing heart. It beats so fast and strong against my cheek. Our limbs melding,
his warm body feeding my cold one, his smell of stale sweat mixed with faint
cologne, all of it bliss.
We remain like this for one perfect
second before I sense him gazing down at me. I pull apart to look up but don’t
dare meet his eyes. His hands move to my cheeks, cradling my face. His thumbs
wipe my still falling tears, and I place my hands over his. “Please tell me I’m
not crazy,” he whispers desperately. “Please tell me I’m not imagining this.
Please tell me you feel this too. Please.”
I want to speak, but the words won’t
come out. Everything becomes real when you say it out loud. Somehow I find the
courage to gaze into his eyes, the sadness brimming in them shifts to awe and
something else that scares me to fucking death. I leap away. “I-I have to go.
I-I can’t…I’m sorry. Bye.”
Like the fucking coward I am, I
sprint off that rooftop as fast as I can, down the stairwell, and out of the
hospital before all my resolve fades. I can’t take much more of this. I can’t
keep this up. He just needs to…no. I stop at the edge of the dark river to
catch my breath. No more. This needs to end one way or another. I’m done.
I quit.
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About the author:
Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator.
Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad, Midnight Magic Mystery series and Justice, the first in the superhero thriller trilogy. For the soundtrack to her books and other goodies visit her at
Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator. Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad, Midnight Magic Mystery series and Justice, the first in the superhero thriller trilogy. For the soundtrack to her books and other goodies visit her at
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