Love Bytes says hello and welcome to author Bru Baker joining us today to talk about new release “Camp H.O.W.L”, part of Dreamspinner press series Dreamspun Beyond.
welcome Bru 🙂
Title: Camp H.O.W.L.
Author: Bru Baker
Release date: Nov. 1, 2017
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Aaron Anderson
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 238 pages
Tags: Gay; M/M; werewolves; Dreamspun Beyond
Blurb:
Moonmates exist, but getting together is going to be a beast
When Adrian Rothschild skipped his, werewolf puberty, he assumed he was, somehow, human. But he was wrong, and he’s about to go through his Turn with a country between him and his Pack, scared, alone, and eight years late.
Dr. Tate Lewis’s werewolf supremacist father made his Turn miserable, and now Tate works for Camp H.O.W.L. to ease the transition for young werewolves. He isn’t expecting to offer guidance to a grown man or find his moonmate in Adrian. Tate doesn’t even believe in the legendary bond; after all, his polygamist father claimed five. But it’s clear Adrian needs him, and if Tate can let his guard down, he might discover he needs Adrian too.
A moonmate is a wolf’s missing piece, and Tate is missing a lot of pieces. But is Adrian up to the challenge.
Getting to know Adrian, fail!wolf extraordinaire
Hi, I’m Bru Baker, and thanks for joining me here on Love Bytes today while I continue my release tour for Camp H.O.W.L.
I was on Open Skye Reviews earlier this week talking about how my werewolf lore differs a bit from the traditional trope, and today I’m going to introduce you to Adrian, who I lovingly think of as a fail!wolf. My favorite characters to write are the ones who are a little bit broken, and Adrian definitely fits that bill.
In a world where werewolves hit their second puberty and experience their first shift at nineteen, Adrian is a late bloomer. His nineteenth birthday came and went and left him disappointingly human. Almost ten years later he’s come to terms with it, which is of course when his Turn blindsides him and he’s whisked away to Camp H.O.W.L. to help him through his first shift and adapting to being a werewolf after nearly thirty years of being nothing but human.
He’s so firmly on Team Human that he can’t read the signs of his impending Turn, even though he grew up the son of an Alpha surrounded by a Pack. Today’s excerpt is our adorable fail!wolf staying deep in denial about the changes his body is going through.
“Venti Caramel Macchiato, extra shot, no whip for Aaron?”
Adrian blinked blearily, struggling to focus past the tightening band of his tension headache. The girl at the counter looked at him expectantly.
Venti for Aaron? she said again, waving the drink. Extra shot, no whip.
It was the right drink but the wrong name, and when no one else stepped up he surged forward clumsily.
A little advice, Aaron? You drink too many of these and you’re gonna have a heart attack, she said when he reached out for it. That’s four shots. Nobody needs four shots.
Maybe Aaron didn’t need four shots, but Adrian most definitely did. He grunted out a noncommittal agreement and took it from her. He felt halfway to a heart attack anyway, so surely the coffee could only help.
He’d been feverish when he woke up, and since then he’d swung back and forth between cold sweats and pins and needles all over his body. If he didn’t know better, he’d say he had a hangover between his pounding head and the way his stomach had roiled at the scent of breakfast. But he’d called it an early night after his run and relaxed in bed with a minibar snack that had definitely not included any sort of alcohol.
Adrian took a sip of his coffee as he stopped at a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. He nearly heaved when the bitter liquid spilled across his tongue. He’d ordered this drink dozens of times, and it had always been sweet and smooth. Nothing like this awful concoction. The taste of burned coffee lingered in his mouth, held there by a syrupy residue he could feel like a weight against his tongue.
He scraped his tongue against his teeth, trying to rid himself of the sensation. This entire day had been a nightmare, and he’d only been up for an hour. Even the hot shower he’d taken to try to loosen his tense muscles and ease his headache had been a disaster. The hotel must have been having water pressure problems because the rain showerhead had been anything but relaxing. The water had hit his skin like tiny missiles, leaving him feeling tender and raw afterward.
The light changed, and Adrian moved across the wide street with the smattering of people who’d been waiting near him. The man closest to him must have had his Bluetooth headset turned up to eleven Adrian could hear every word. He glanced over, surprised the nicely dressed businessman wasn’t more concerned about privacy. From what Adrian had heard, it sounded like the man was listening to an audiobook or podcast describing a sex scene in lurid detail. No one around them looked the slightest bit scandalized, which made Adrian reevaluate some of his assumptions about Indianapolis. The book would have raised some eyebrows even in his liberal hometown of Portland, but it got nary a sideways glance here in the Heartland. Adrian hadn’t felt this embarrassed about sex since the Werewolf Tribunal-mandated sex-ed class he’d had to take when he turned eighteen. All wolflings were required to take the class before the Turn, and it had been hell on earth squirming in discomfort as an eighty-year-old female werewolf droned on about the nuances of werewolf sex.
Camp H.O.W.L. by Bru Baker, release date Nov. 1, 2017
Buy links:
Dreamspinner Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play
Bru Baker spent fifteen years writing for newspapers before making the jump to fiction. She now balances her time between writing and working at a Midwestern library in the reference department. Most evenings you can find her curled up with a mug of tea, some fuzzy socks, and a book or her laptop. Whether it’s creating her own characters or getting caught up in someone else’s, there’s no denying that Bru is happiest when she’s engrossed in a story. She and her husband have two children, which means a lot of her books get written from the sidelines of various sports practices.
Visit Bru online at www.bru-baker.com or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.