Book Name: Finn: Endangered Fae One
Author Name: Angel Martinez
Author Bio: While Angel Martinez is the erotic fiction pen name of a writer of several genres, she writes both kinds of gay romance – Science Fiction and Fantasy. Currently living part time in the hectic sprawl of northern Delaware, (and full time inside the author’s head) Angel has one husband, one son, two cats, a changing variety of other furred and scaled companions, a love of all things beautiful and a terrible addiction to the consumption of both knowledge and chocolate.
Author Links:
https://www.facebook.com/amartinez2
https://www.facebook.com/Angel.Martinez.author
http://angelmartinezbooks.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AngelMartinezrr
Cover Artist: Lex Valentine
Publisher: MLR Publishing
Blurb:
When Diego rescues a naked man from the rail of the Brooklyn Bridge, he just wants to get the poor man out of traffic and to social services. He gets more than he bargained for when he discovers Finn is an ailing pooka, poisoned by the city’s pollution. To help him recover, Diego takes him to New Brunswick where Finn inadvertently wakes an ancient, evil spirit: the wendigo.
While they struggle to find a way to destroy the wendigo before it can possess Diego or kill nearby innocents, Diego wrestles with his growing feelings for Finn. Kill the monster and navigate a relationship between a modern man and a centuries old pooka. Piece of cake.
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Excerpt:
The ordeal of the shower seemed cruel, but Finn was filthy and smelled like a dumpster during a garbage strike. Diego placed one of his plastic kitchen chairs in the middle of the shower and installed Finn there, but he only slumped against the chair back, eyes closed, face turned into the spray.
Too exhausted to even flinch.
Diego fought down the little shiver of revulsion at the stench, stripped to his boxers, and stepped into the stall with him. He attacked the tangled mass of hair first, positioning Finn so his head hung back over the chair. No lice—a good sign. He might have been homeless, but he probably hadn’t lived on the streets too long. The nest of midnight snarls unwound under the caress of water and shampoo. If Finn stood, his hair would reach at least to the top curve of his butt. A strange blue-black iridescence shone in it, his natural coloring as far as Diego could tell rather than bottled special effects.
The rest Diego washed with a loofah, shoving away modesty out of a need to get Finn to his rest. An ache lodged around his heart to see how malnutrition had ravaged what probably had been a lean-muscled frame. An athlete, perhaps, before he went off the deep end, an impression reinforced by the absence of almost all body hair. Waxed or electrolysis-denuded—only Finn’s crotch sported a black thatch of soft hair. Swimmer, perhaps. The Olympic competitors often shaved it all off for every small gain in streamlining.
He turned off the water and tugged at Finn’s arm. “Come on. Let’s get you settled. You can’t sleep in the shower.”
Finn staggered to his feet and Diego all but carried him to Mitch’s room. The spare room, he corrected himself. He usually kept the door closed so the stark, unfurnished space wasn’t glaring at him.
He sat Finn down against the wall, brought him a pair of flannel pajamas, soft with age, and went out to the front closet to retrieve the air mattress and vacuum. Six boxes lay stacked against the wall; all that remained of Mitch’s things. Diego ran a hand over one, and then shook his head against the temptation to open the top and look at its contents. When he returned, Finn hadn’t moved from where he sat, naked and dozing in a patch of sunlight.
“You might want to put those on.” Diego toed the pajamas closer as he dragged the air mattress into place. When Finn’s only response was a long sigh, he added, “We need to get you warm. I don’t want to have to take you to Emergency.”
With a puzzled frown, Finn unfolded the material and managed, after looking back and forth between the pajamas and Diego’s jeans a few times, to pull the bottoms on. His efforts with the top, though, were sabotaged when the vacuum roared to life. He startled and scuttled sideways, wide-eyed and panting.
Diego hurried to switch it off. “Sorry. Should have warned you.”
“Is it some sort of small dragon?”
For a moment, Diego stared in blank surprise before he caught himself. At least the nature of Finn’s delusion was becoming clearer. He might even share his history later when he had the energy, perhaps some tragic story of an exiled prince. For now, Diego thought it best to play along.
“Not a dragon. Just a machine. It blows out and sucks in air with great force.”
“Ah.” Finn seemed disappointed, but waved a hand for him to continue.
Mattress inflated, Finn dressed and installed in bed, Diego thought he should get something in him before he drifted off. He tried tap water first but Finn jerked his head away, the color draining from his face.
“Tainted,” he gasped. “Great Dagda, it reeks.”
Diego sniffed above the glass, puzzled. New York City water, piped in from the mountains, was cleaner than most but it was treated. Chlorine. Fluoride. Maybe Finn had an allergy to one or the other.
Bottled water produced a less violent reaction. Finn smelled it, nose crinkled, but he downed half the bottle in desperate gulps before Diego could take it back from him. Hydration, at least, wouldn’t be an issue.
The hurdle of food remained. Starvation often did terrible things to the body’s ability to accept nourishment. Not the best time to offer a hamburger and fries. Diego decided he should start with the foods one was supposed to give sick kids: bananas, rice, applesauce and toast, minus the applesauce, since he didn’t have any.
Finn wouldn’t touch the boiled-in-tap-water rice. He nibbled a corner of the toast and set it aside with murmured apologies. The banana completely stumped him. He turned it over and over in his hands and finally tried to bite through the skin.
“You eat these?” He handed it back to Diego with a grimace.
All right, so his reality doesn’t include New World fruit. Diego peeled the banana for him and handed it back. “You don’t eat the skin. Try the inside.”
Finn took a careful bite and his eyes widened. “That’s not bad.”
Diego could only watch anxiously, praying his guest wouldn’t choke, as the rest disappeared in three bites. With a contented sigh, Finn handed the peel back, gathered the covers into a circle in the center of the mattress, and curled into a tight ball inside his nest. By the time Diego brought an extra comforter to cover him, Finn was fast asleep.
Clean and at rest, his face had a childlike quality with his hair tucked behind one finely-curved ear. Diego wasn’t certain it was a handsome face, almost unearthly in its delicacy, and though Finn stood six inches taller, he had the odd feeling he could scoop that long frame up in his arms without much effort.
He backed out and closed the door as quietly as he could, confident Finn wouldn’t die on him. Tomorrow he would see about finding the right agency to take his guest, preferably one that wouldn’t hand him right over to immigration.
A few hours of peace while Finn slept should let him at least get through the current chapter he was writing.
The moment he sat ready at his desk, fingers poised over the keys, the phone rang.
5 Questions to Angel Martinez:
The days are 25 hours. How do you spent that extra hour?
Reading. Authors don’t have enough time to read and it’s terribly sad. We put ourselves under deadlines, under obligations, under tight marketing schedules, but why do any of us start to write? Because we love to read. It’s a terrible thing to be denied what we love so much.
Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?
This is a question I absolutely, categorically can’t answer. I don’t have a favorite author. I have never had a favorite author. I have scads and scads of favorite authors, lists of favorite authors, in all sorts of genres, styles, and time periods. We could start with the scribe who finally wrote down Beowulf and move forward. We’d be here all day.
Different things will attract me to an author’s work. It’s not always the same thing. A good plot. A good mystery. An intriguing character. An engaging or even frustrating relationship. Dialogue that grabs me/convinces me/makes me laugh. An odd sense of humor. An unexpected way of turning phrases. An imaginative world/concept. I’m rarely engaged by prolonged angsty scenes and misunderstandings that could be resolved with a phone call. I need things to make sense, to a certain degree.
List three books you have recently read and would recommend.
1. Blood Of Tyrants – Naomi Novak: This is not M/M, it’s alternative history fantasy. Napoleanic Wars with dragons. Your argument is invalid.
2. King Perry/ King Mai – Edmond Manning: Yes, I’m cheating. But these books go together. Edmond’s unique writing, his way of looking at the world, his quirky, confounding, undeniable optimism all go into the stew pot to make these novels. I felt both wrung out and uplifted after reading these. Highly recommended.
3. There are so many books I’d like to list here L I’ll go with the next most recent, Necropolis – Jordan Hawk: this whole series is not to be missed, M/M Paranormal-historical horror with Lovecraftian elements. Again, your argument is invalid.
Who in history would you like to have met?
There are so many historical figures who fascinate me that I think would be egotistical jerks. Alexander, Lorenzo de Medici, Catherine the Great and so on. I don’t think I’d actually like to meet most of them. I think I would most like to have met Nikola Tesla – genius, sometimes recluse, and a pretty handsome fellow in his prime. Yes, he was troubled and had some serious issues, but he was so far ahead of his time, people thought he was crazy.
How would you describe this book to someone who has not read any of your books?
Finn, in the broadest sense, is a story what happened when the Otherworld became separated from the human and one grieving, wounded pooka was left behind. Waking to a poisoned world in the present day, he’s rescued from despair and eventual death by a novelist who mistakes him for a bridge jumper. Urban fantasy with a bit of paranormal in the mix, this is probably the lightest of the four Endangered Fae books despite the bit of violence in the mix.
and I would like to add what is coming soon from you 🙂
The Endangered Fae series will have books 1, 2 and 3 released this spring/summer.
Finn: Endangered Fae 1 – released on 5/2/14
Diego: Endangered Fae 2
Releasing 6/6/14
Takes place a few months after the end of Finn:
After defeating an evil wendigo, a man and his pooka lover deserve a little quiet. Unfortunately, Diego and Finn’s hard-won peace is disturbed when Diego, in a jealous rage, unwittingly rips a hole in the impenetrable Veil to the Otherworld.
Separated, stuck on the other side of the Veil where Finn has to face old conflicts and Diego is the only human in a land of fae, the two of them navigate rocky waters between huge egos and ancient feuds. Worse still, some of the fae are dying of a mysterious illness and everyone believes Diego is the key to a cure. Things can’t possibly get any worse, can they? Oh, yes—they can when the US government gets involved.
Semper Fae: Endangered Fae 3
Releasing 7/11/14
Takes place a few months after the end of Diego:
Zack thought he had a strange job before. Working as a Marine medic in a secret government installation was odd, but working as a human liaison to the fae and as the personal assistant to a sidhe prince is downright bizarre. Throw in the fact that he’s pretty damn sure he’s fallen in love with his boss, and things are close to unmanageable.
Of course, around the fae, a man learns never to say ‘things can’t possibly get any worse.’ Unexplained events have begun to plague the human world. Strange sightings, spontaneous explosions of magic, and odd bends in reality crop up. When Finn falls terribly ill and a monstrous creature attacks Zack one night, things quickly slide into disaster. Lycanthropy, loose-cannon mages, and Lugh conspire to make a hellish mess out of things – but the real peril begins when Diego loses an important piece of his mind.
Tour Dates: June 2, 2014 – June 13, 2014
Tour Stops:
June 2: Tara Lain
June 3: Parker Williams
June 4: Kimi-Chan, Jade Crystal, Talon SO
June 5: Book Reviews, Rants, and Raves, MM Good Books
June 6: Nephylim, Hearts on Fire
June 9: Prism Book Alliance,Dawn’s Reading Nook
June 10: Love Bytes, My Fiction Nook
June 11: Fallen Angel Reviews
June 12: The Novel Approach,Rainbow Gold Reviews
June 13: Amanda C. Stone, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words
check out Vicki’s 4.5 star review of Finn here : https://lovebytesreviews.com/2014/05/14/review-finn-by-angel-martinez/
Rafflecopter Prize: E-Copy of Finn