A Guest Post by Luki Belle, Author of The Sexy Seven Supernaturals (@lukibelleauthor @goddessfish) #giveaway

Mylakena the young rural and innocent protagonist female of 23 is taken from her humble and naïve life in a village to the bustling and fashionable city where begins her forced transformation by the devious acts of four men, one of whom is her uncle Kahtin. Mylakena is sold into the scary and strange household of the young, athletic, and strikingly handsome Jerallenar and his father Krajick. Here Mylakena finds hope in the friendship of Fayishtar and his sister Lalini, Jerallenar’s second cousins, only to discover that both brother and sister may have their own ulterior intentions towards Mylakena. Krajick, Jerallenar’s father, terrifies Mylakena from the onset, especially after what he does to her on her first night at his mansion. Crumbling from all these experiences, the reader is led to feel pity and sympathy for Mylakena yet just like her the reader is forced to question whether her circumstances are indeed bad considering her humble beginnings and alternate choices. The small red bird that accompanies her from the village all the way to the mansion of Krajick and Jerallenar, is a symbolic metaphor as she moves from her innocent life of a young girl into a formidable one as mistress of a household, wife and daughter-in-law.

Mylakena’s initial infatuation over Jerallenar and Fayishtar when she meets them at the country club opens the door for lust to enter her life without her consent. She is innocent to men and to what it means to physically be with a man. Her naivete opens the door for her eventual conquest when she embraces lust and takes the reign in seducing. The ills of lust is a major theme in this story as the reader will discover near the end, it is however the reason Mylakena was brought into the strange and scary realm of Krajick and Jerallenar. The vicious and scary condors surrounding the mansion are another symbolic metaphor for the reader as Mylakena begins her new life with Krajick and Jerallenar surrounded by dark and dense forests. The condors are in contrast to the little red bird, and these predatory birds lust for blood which is the color of the little bird. Mylakena is initially petrified of the condors but just like her infatuation she realizes that the condors may actually lead her to overcome her weak position in Krajick’s household due to her poverty, if only she is bold enough to make daring moves.

The lack of wealth is not something Mylakena becomes conscious of until Fayishtar invites her and her uncle Kahtin to coffee in the city’s country club where she and her uncle work. It is interesting that until then she chooses to admire the fashionable people of the city without feeling a lack of money. A reader is left to wonder what could have caused the change of mindset for Mylakena after the coffee event. She becomes aware of her status in life and feels vulnerable making her defensive and wary when Jerallenar offers her and Kahtin a ride in his fancy car. This is a pivotal point in the story where wealth and poverty confront Mylakena and she has to pick, or is she forced to pick?

It is only after she makes her choice that Mylakena gets to find out about the devious plots that had been spun around her and more of this is revealed in each turn in her new life at the mansion of Krajick and Jerallenar. She finds herself surrounded by not just the vicious condors but also dark forces and cunning people. Lalini, Fayishtar sister, presents Mylakena with two gifts that taunt her and draw her further into the plot of the gypsy family. Secrecy is prevalent between father and son, between second cousins Jerallenar and Fayishtar. Mylakena is then led to begin her own secret life amongst them while being forced towards the darker forces by the condors. This is when the reader is introduced to Rhonkard and Yasiyara, family members of Krajick and Jerallenar (no spoilers!). This is another pivotal place in the story when Mylakena is bound to secrecy for her own survival in the mansion, but this secret leads her to make a very bold decision that almost kills her.

A reader could draw parallels between young and gorgeous female Yasiyara and Mylakena both of whom represent the epitome of innocence, naivete and pure of hearts. Now while Yasiyara is led to her tragic fate because of her attributes the reader hopes that for Mylakena it is a different fate. Will Mylakena rise above the secrecy, the devious plots, the dark forces, all of which surrounds her and use her intelligence to reign over those who forcefully decided her fate? Will she learn to play the games that were played upon her unlike Yasiyara? Can Mylakena use her femininity to seduce those who compelled her to succumb to lust? And can she forever protect herself from eternal poverty and loneliness or will she fall prey to the dark forces that surround the mansion?

The appearance of the little red bird alongside the condors are metaphors for what Mylakena finally achieves in the end for herself.

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Excerpt:

1) The Photo and the Letter

“My dear, you have broken my heart in so many pieces that I feel like I live now without one, yet, feeling the pain of it being torn to shreds. It is that pain with which I must now live for the rest of my life. How could you betray me? When I gave my everything to you and loved you like my own flesh and blood! My soul and harmony, I found nectar in your essence and to think that you would do such a cruel deed to me makes me want to tear my flesh so that I strip myself of pain forever, the pain of watching you in bed with my very own brother! I damn you! I damn you for the rest of your life! And I curse my brother for betraying me with you! Know this now my dearest, beloved wife, I will leave you both to your damnation of cheating against me! You will never see me again until the day I will return when I die, to take what belongs to me from you! Frederick”

2) Strength of Feathers

“You also own this place?” Vanessa asked nervously while sitting down across from Eliza instead of beside her as she was asked to do by the lady.

Eliza smiled “Okay let’s get it out of the way once and for all! I own this entire building and everything in it, though not everyone but all the businesses. There! Can we talk plainly now?”

“We could unless there is more to show me about how rich you are!” Vanessa snapped and gulped down the entire champagne putting down the glass with a hint of temper.

“Is there something wrong my dear?” Eliza said while gently touching Vanessa’s hand.

Vanessa exhaled in a frustrated way “Look Lady Eliza…I…I…” the champagne was rushing to her head in her empty stomach “…I am not going to sleep with you okay! I…I…”

But before she could finish Eliza began laughing hysterically in a shrill voice letting her head jerk back from the amusement.

3) The Aunt

As a child Krem had heard rumors about his aunt, through gossip between his mother and her sisters. They talked about Zaylinar having been raised by a sisterhood in the northwestern desert that bordered Xenia and that his aunt was sent away because she was rebellious in nature as a child. She was returned to her family only when she had been sufficiently tamed. It was then that her father, the Head Counsel of the Republic at the time, offered his daughter to the Minister’s son Ruhr. Both fathers had quickly blessed and sealed the engagement. Growing up, Krem had become emotionally attached to stories of his mysterious aunt whom he did not see until he was an adolescent. On the day when Zaylinar came to meet the young boy, the stories became very much alive in the teenager’s mind. The lad felt his very first pangs of love and physical desire for his aunt. Feelings that magnified over time, without subduing. Yet the enigmatic woman shunned her nephew’s affections telling him that he could never be like Ruhr and that the only way she would ever have him would be if he proved himself to her.

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BLURB:

Seven haunting tales of women, young female adults, and an adolescent girl whose lives change irreversibly because of entities who come into the lives of these female protagonists, mysteriously, invited by yearnings and distresses that exist in these women and girls –

1) The Photo and the Letter: Larissa, a heartbroken young woman, finds a captivating photo of an elderly friend and becomes compelled to discover more about the bitterly written letter that was addressed to the elderly woman, who had a fascinating past.

2) Strength of Feathers: Vanessa, an orphan, who struggled her entire life to survive and achieve professional success, decides one night to overcome her fear of heights and her reluctance to be spontaneous when she meets an enigmatic, wealthy woman who has ulterior motives.

3) The Aunt: Anika, a teenage girl, niece of a notable and authoritative commander of her nation’s army, finds herself in a precarious situation when at a bloody crossroads of her nation’s history, she falls for a young, ambitious, and ruthless military man from a long-rival nation, who is about to take over rulership of Anika’s nation and her uncle’s army.

4) Ravenous: Sabrina, a young adult, daughter of a coalminer, is forced to leave her hometown with her father and siblings. Her family is taken in by a kind doctor who has mixed intentions for helping the homeless father and his three children.

5) The Bride’s Matchmaker: Mylakena, a young rural woman, comes to live in a dynamic, metropolitan city with her uncle, when she falls for two handsome, rich, and athletic young city men and realizes that her innocent infatuation has severe consequences.

6) The Picture Ghost: Elsa, a young adult daughter of a farmer, starts attending college far away from her hometown. Her poor grades lead her to a professor whose art collection draws Elsa uncomfortably close to an enigmatic stranger from the past.

7) The Old Willow Tree: Helen, a highly successful businesswoman, retires in a foreign country where, while searching for a permanent home with a garden, she falls in love with a stunning willow tree on a property that she desperately wants to buy.

Available from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Barnes & Noble

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Luki Belle works in the media industry. Storytelling was a fixture from childhood when she would listen to stories told by her grandparents, parents, sisters, and cousins, who would read to her from diverse cultural fiction books. Scary and ghost stories in particular, captured Luki as a child and led to her fascination with the concept of feeling haunted or being haunted by something or someone, whether desirably or whether uninvited. In the Sexy Seven Supernaturals, Luki explores the amalgamation between the psychological and the paranormal, enabled by the human mind through its power to imagine, visualize, and yearn. The female characters in this book each have strong or subtle conscious desires created or triggered by subconscious or unconscious distresses, leading each of them to unexpected fates.

Websites

Facebook: Luki Belle | Facebook

Instagram: Luki Belle (@lukibelletheauthor) • Instagram photos and videos

Twitter: Luki Belle (@lukibelleauthor) / Twitter

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GIVEAWAY!

Luki Belle will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Be sure to follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here.

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