A warm welcome to author Adrian J. Smith joining us today here @Love Bytes on their blog tour for their Spirit of Grace series.

Welcome, Adrian.

Author Name: Adrian J. Smith

Book Names: For By Grace; Fallen From Grace; Grace Through Redemption

Series: Spirit of Grace #1, 2, & 3 (Series should be read in order)

Publisher: Supposed Crimes, LLC

Cover Artist: Heidi DeCausemaker

Release Dates:  June 1, 2014

Pages:  257 pages

Blurb:

Being a Sheriff’s Deputy is not all about saving lives and arresting criminals, and each day Grace wonders if she’ll make it home.

While kids at the schools Deputy Grace Halling visits see her as the knight in blue-cotton armor, people involved in the cases she is dispatched to have a different opinion. She has every confidence in her ability to do her job and arrest criminals. She easily takes down a knife-wielding woman and a drunken combatant teenager without hesitation. Everyone—victim, suspect, or witness—has a story to tell or to lie about, and Grace is never perturbed by their tales.

That all changes when she looks down the barrel of a gun. She loses confidence in her ability as a deputy, she loses trust in herself and fellow officers, and she struggles to stay afloat as shift after shift passes. Grace cannot find her rhythm of being a deputy again. And when the Police Chaplain unexpectedly barges into her life, her personal and professional lives are flipped upside down. Grace struggles to find her even ground, worrying that the next time she stares a murderer in the face will be the last.

Goodreads Link

Release Dates:  June 1, 2015

Pages:  294 pages

Blurb:

Parables and riddles can’t undo the confusion Deputy Grace Halling experiences after her close call with death. Each morning she wakes up, puts on a uniform that feels far more like a target, and goes out to enforce the laws and protect the innocent. While her comrades in blue are murdered one by one with each passing month, Grace pushes for a call to action from her Captain. Her worst fear has become a reality.

Grace doesn’t know if she’s next.

Goodreads Link

Release Dates:  Dec 1, 2015

Pages:  287 pages

Blurb:

Learning to trust herself again wasn’t easy. Deputy Grace Halling is back patrolling, and after a few months of quiet, murders of her comrades in blue begin again. Scared and determined, Grace follows every lead she can until she finds herself face to face with the barrel of a gun, only this time her finger is on the trigger.

Goodreads Link

Categories: F/F, Police Procedural/mystery

Today I’m very happy to be interviewing Adrian J. Smith author of the Spirit of Grace series.

Hi AJ, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Tell us a little about yourself, your background, and your current book.

I’m a writer who lives in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been published for about three years now and still absolutely love it. I worked for years in security and alongside with the local sheriff’s department, which helped inspire this book series. I wanted people to know what real cops dealt with, not what is shown in television shows and movies.

Tell us something about your character’s friends.

She doesn’t have many? She really only has one, and that’s Crystal. She slowly makes friends throughout the series, but Grace is pretty closed off to people in general.

What is your character’s favorite meal? Favorite dessert? Favorite snack food?

Grace loves orange juice, like is obsessed with orange juice. It’s what keeps her moving. She also loves dried fruit and very frequently snacks on it while she’s on patrol. She has this weird thing with food in general.

What activity does your character absolutely hate?

Paperwork. By far paperwork, which is why she doesn’t ever want to be come a detective. She’s also not a huge fan of sitting still, again why being a detective is not really on her radar much.

What other author’s book do you think your character would be good in?

Ohhh, now that’s an interesting question! I’d love to see Grace in some fantasy world because that would just be hilarious. I don’t think she’d stop cursing. She and some of Barbara Winkes’ characters would probably be really interesting to see together.

What’s your favorite decade and why?

Probably the 2000s, since that’s when I really started to grow up and it’s mostly what I remember.

(From Grace Through Redemption)

Opening her eyes, she was thoroughly disappointed. The guy, with his dark, curly hair and olive complexion was probably dream of a looker for any straight woman or gay man. He had his dick hanging out of his pants and his fist firmly wrapped around it. Grace held her breath high in her lungs and knocked on his window.

When it rolled down, she glared. “Sir—”

“Yes?” he cut her off.

She wasn’t even sure what to say. She balked and swallowed, trying to start over. “Sir, what’s going on?”

He at least had the grace to blush. His mouth opened then closed twice before he shook his head, his hand still wrapped firmly around his dick.

“Sir, I pulled you over because you were driving erratically. Over the speed limit, then under it, then over again, and you couldn’t stay in a lane.”

“I understand.”

Grace shook her head. That wasn’t the excuse for poor driving she normally got. Normally there were excuses thrown at her, the number one being, “I had to pee, Officer!” She blanched and put her hands at her sides.

“I need to know why.”

“I—I was having some issues.”

“What kind of issues?”

“Well, I…” he trailed off and looked down at his dick.

Grace was impressed with the fact he still hadn’t stuffed it back into his pants. She tried to look anywhere except down at his lap, but her gaze kept being drawn in that direction. Of all officers to get that call, why couldn’t it have been a man? She sighed and looked at his face again. He hadn’t looked at her since he’d first rolled down the window.

“Sir.”

“I was masturbating, okay?” He sounded exasperated and completely embarrassed. His cheeks flashed redder than they had been before, and Grace snickered. He did need to blush. At least that meant he had some emotions going on under his mask of “what the hell is going on.”

She shifted onto her left foot and more snow melted down the side of her boot. “Sir, you can cover yourself up.”

“Oh good.” He slid his dick into his slacks and zipped them closed.

Grace shuddered. What guy would need permission to cover up when pulled over by a cop? She shook her head, not wanting to answer her own question. She bit her lip, trying to figure out where to go with the situation next. In all of her nine years as a beat cop she’d seen some extraordinary and embarrassing things—this one had to top it all. She licked her lips.

“You were driving erratically,” she repeated.

“I couldn’t—I couldn’t get off, and it was getting hard to focus.”

“Sir—why were you jerking off while driving a motor vehicle anyway?”

His mouth opened, but Grace put her hand out to stop him.

“Wait. Don’t answer that. I don’t want the answer. Give me your license and registration please.”

Buy the book:

For by Grace

Amazon US
Smashwords
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Amazon CA

Fallen from Grace

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Publisher

Grace through Redemption

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Publisher

Adrian J. Smith, or “AJ” as she is often called, is a part time writer with an epic imagination, sharp wit, and kind heart that gets her into a bit of trouble when it comes to taking in all the neighborhood stray cats. Being obsessed with science fiction, Smith often goes off on tangents about the space-time continuum. She is also a part time lunatic with a secretive past. It’s been rumored that she was once a spy for the government, but anyone who has gotten close enough to know the truth has never lived to tell the tale. When traveling around the world on various classified tasks, Smith requires the following be provided: buffalo jerky, mimosas, and eighty six pennies. This is all we know about the reclusive woman.

Where to find the author:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/adrian.j.smith066

Facebook: www.facebook.com/adrianjsmithbooks
Facebook: www.facebook.com/supposedcrimes
Twitter: @AdrianAJSmith

Tour Dates & Stops:

17-Nov: Jessie G. Books

24-Nov: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words

1-Dec: Unquietly Me, Bayou Book Junkie

8-Dec: Velvet Panic, Happily Ever Chapter

15-Dec: QUEERcentric Books, Divine Magazine

22-Dec: Love Bytes, Havan Fellows

29-Dec: Inked Rainbow Reads, Cathy Brockman Romances

5-Jan: Prism Book Alliance

12-Jan: Wake Up Your Wild Side, Elisa – My Reviews and Ramblings

19-Jan: BFD Book Blog

26-Jan: MM Good Book Reviews

2-Feb: Parker Williams

Rafflecopter Prize: 2 Signed copies of For by Grace and Grace Through Redemption

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