KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench where 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!

~~~

YOU HAD ME AT COUGAR
Heart of the Cougar Book Nine
BY TERRY SPEAR

Blurb

Master baker Ava Lamar has one mission in mind after baking tons of treats for the Fourth of July celebration in Yuma Town—swimming at Lake Buchanan on this hot summer’s day. What she doesn’t expect is to be saddled with running the fortune telling booth—using her real psychic abilities—and giving a hot, bachelor cougar a place to stay for the whole weekend.

Cougar Shifter Force Special Agent Chet Kensington has just finished a tough mission, been chewed up a bit by rogue cougars, and he’s taking a break to be with his old team, but he has no place to stay, everything being booked up in Yuma Town for the big cougar celebration. When Ava reluctantly allows him to stay with her, he finds himself drawn to her the whole celebration long.

But back home in Wyoming, things are getting out of hand. A serial killer is murdering female cougars and he and some of his old team have to find him, pronto. The problem is all the trouble leads right back to Ava—and now he has to do his best to keep her safe before the killer adds her to his list of victims.

YOU HAD ME AT COUGAR
Heart of the Cougar Book Nine
BY TERRY SPEAR

Excerpt

Chet sensed the tension in Ava as soon as he offered his hand for her to give him a reading. He knew she was a true psychic, and he wondered if she would give him a true reading or something that was just made up. He could handle it if she wanted to tell him his life was in danger or something like that. He lived for danger. It was all part of his job. Though he hoped she could tell him a bit of good news. Like if he had to apprehend or eliminate rogue cougars, he would survive the mission.

She frowned as she took his hand and ran her finger over his lifeline. “It’s good news. You’re going to get a pay raise.”

“Really?” He was so surprised at her reading, he wasn’t sure what to think. Was it for real, or made up to disguise something bad? Maybe she’d just been tense because she’d worried she might see something bad and she couldn’t see anything about him.

“Take the good news and go spend some more money on something else,” Chase Buchanan said behind him. He was a part-time deputy sheriff and the owner of the Pinyon Pines Resort on Lake Buchanan, and Chet knew he was just joking with him.

Chet arched a brow at him. “I just paid a hundred dollars. I need a little more of my fortune read.”

“Isn’t a pay raise enough?” Chase asked, frowning at him, but he was just playing with him. “Tell him what he wants to hear, Ava. He’s going to be in a world of danger before he knows it.”

Chet laughed. With the kind of work he did, that was a given.

“Tell him he’s going to lose the canoe race to me if he doesn’t paddle hard enough,” Chase added.

Chet doubted she would see anything like that. It wasn’t a situation that would be dire enough, as far as he thought.

“I can tell you right now, neither of you will win,” Ava said, looking perfectly serious.

“Oh, so who does?” Chase looked surprised that she would know that, despite knowing she had real psychic visions.

“Me.”

Chase laughed. Chet smiled, but he again wondered if she knew it for real or she was she just playing with them.

“You are going to be in the worst sort of danger,” Ava said, looking really serious, frowning. Then she smiled brightly.

“Seriously?”

“Of course, with your line of work it’s inevitable. Next.”

Smiling, Chet moved out of the way and folded his arms, watching while Chase got his reading. Ava took his hand and said, “Oh, you are going to be in the worst kind of danger.”

Chase smiled and shook his head. “I know. It goes with my line of work as a deputy sheriff.” Chase left to let the next person in line get their fortune read, Mandy Jones, their nurse at the clinic. He was about to say something to Chet but stopped to hear what Ava had to say to Mandy. She was one of the newest members of the cougar family, having been accidentally turned by her former boyfriend Ricky, also a deputy sheriff, who had also been newly turned earlier—not born as cougar shifters like the rest of them.

“You are expecting twins in the fall,” Ava said, smiling.

“Ohmigod, really? For real? No joke?”

“Yeah, for real.”

“Ohmigod. I’ve got to get back to the clinic. I just had a break to have my fortune read. I guess I’m going to have to have a blood test then.” Mandy reached into the booth and gave Ava a hug. Then she pulled out her phone and hurried off. “Ricky, we are having twins. No, I didn’t know. Ava told my fortune. Yes, for real. No, she wasn’t making stuff up. Aren’t you glad? Yes, yes, I’m getting a blood test to confirm it. Aren’t you glad?”

Chet chuckled. “Ricky is going to be experiencing fatherhood sooner than he planned, it appears.”

About Author Terry Spear…

~~~