Karen’s Killer Book Bench: Shifting Dreams by JM Kline

KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH

Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench where, every Wednesday, readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

SHIFTING DREAMS by JM KLINE

Book Blurb

The town of Shadow Hills has secrets.

Nestled in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains lays the town of Shadow Hills. Driving through, you would never suspect the town’s inhabitants have secrets.

Tessa’s is the biggest secret the town’s seen in a century.

Tessa Brooks has lived all her life in Shadow Hills. She’s always thought she was just another ordinary girl. She is wrong.

When her parents reveal the town’s Big Secret the day before she’s supposed to start high school, she thinks it’s the worst thing that could ever happen to her…and that’s when things get even weirder.

The question is…is Tessa up for the task at hand?

Tessa tries to balance high school, family, friends, a new maybe-sort-of-boyfriend with new powers and responsibilities she’s not ready to embrace. Her life as she knows it has ended, and a new one is beginning. Whether she’s ready or not.

SHIFTING DREAMS by JM KLINE

Excerpt

Thank you so much for having me on your blog this week, Karen! I am so excited to share with you my book, Shifting Dreams.

As my first full-length story, Shifting Dreams has taken me a while to write, but I feel it’s been well worth the wait. Tessa’s story came to me in a dream, and I knew I had to share it.

As adults, we sometimes forget what it was like to go through high school, worrying about what other people think about us, worrying about what’s going to happen after high school, or just plain worrying. I thought it might be interesting (okay, I have to admit I had fun with this) putting a teenager into yet another volatile situation: learning she isn’t actually human after all.

I had a lot of fun writing this book, and I hope everyone has a lot of fun reading it.

ON TO THE EXCERPT! Tessa has just been told that she is a shape shifter. After talking with her best friend about it, she is wrought with worry. Read on to find out how she deals with this worry….

I sighed and left. When I crawled into bed that night, my mind was racing. What was school going to be like? I’d imagined high school to be pretty similar to middle school, only a lot harder. Now I had to wonder if I would walk in to class and see an ostrich. I had no idea what to expect.

A lot of my classmates got really excited about the new werewolf movies and stuff, but I’d never been into that sort of thing. Now that seemed to be my life.

I pictured myself as a slobbering half-human monster and shuddered. Just because Mom and Dad looked like “normal” animals when they changed in front of me doesn’t mean that I was going to be as lucky. What if I changed into some human-animal monster? Good luck trying to find someone who wants to date that.

I flopped to my side and stared at my door. My whole future changed and I had no idea what I was in for. That probably explained what happened next.

I noticed the dark first. I looked around and realized I was in a cave. An eerie blue light emanated from the center, where a cluster of quartz jutted from the earth. The top was flat and almost smooth and came up to my knees.

As I walked toward the pedestal – I realized now that’s what it was – I saw more details. I could see the ceiling, the same smooth red limestone that made up the foothills around my home. I looked down and saw I wore a white linen dress and no shoes. The stone was cool on my feet. I heard a humming noise coming from all around me and looked up, searching beyond the reaches of the faint light.

Several sets of glowing eyes emerged from the dark. As my eyes adjusted, forms started to materialize. I saw my parents in their animal forms – a beaver and a golden eagle. Behind them were an owl and a deer. When I saw the bear, I thought I should be frightened, but the sight actually made me feel better, maybe even a little safer.

I stepped up onto the pedestal and knelt in the center. My knees pressed into the rough quartz and I was grateful for the linen dress I wore, even as thin as it was. I heard a shuffling, and my dad pressed his head against my hand. Feathers ruffled beside me and my mom leaned into my left side.

The humming got louder and the animals moved close to me, creating a circle. I noticed some smaller animals I hadn’t seen earlier – a snake, a fox, a ferret, and a German Shepherd.

Suddenly, I felt a searing pain that started in my toes and worked its way up through my body and exploded in my head. I cried out and the pain stopped as quickly as it started. I heard my dad’s voice. It’s over sweetheart. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. The cave had gotten bigger. Or maybe… I looked down and saw my paws –

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Meet JM Kline, Author….

JM Kline was born in Colorado, and was raised to love books by her mom, a published author. While she grew up reading many different genres, anything with paranormal or fantasy elements caught her eye most often. She grew up writing fantastic stories about Rindercella and her Prince, talking monkeys, and fairy princesses.

JM Kline brings a fresh voice in the Young Adult scene. She writes paranormal stories about shape-shifters living in the Rocky Mountain foothills of Colorado. Her first publication is a Christmas short story, full of love, laughter, and holiday spirit. The Christmas Shift is available on amazon.com for Kindle only.

When she isn’t writing, JM spends her time with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and two rambunctious dogs. She enjoys reading and crocheting in her spare time.

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Links to JM’s website, blog, books, etc.

BECOME A FAN! Visit JM Kline at www.facebook.com/jmklineauthor to get updates on books, websites, blogs and much more!

Purchase The Christmas Shift, a holiday short story for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Shift-Shadow-Shifters-ebook/dp/B00AN9928Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371333345&sr=8-1&keywords=the+christmas+shift

Purchase Shifting Dreams on Amazon for Kindle on June 19, 2013 and in paperback shortly thereafter!

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**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: JM will give away a Kindle or PDF copy of her new release, SHIFTING DREAMS, reader’s choice, to one of her lucky readers who comments on either her Monday Interview or Wednesday Book Bench blogs!! Winner will be randomly selected and announced Monday, June 24, 2013. Thanks, JM, for sharing your stories with us!