Posts Tagged ‘Suzanne Johnson’

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I recently won the hard cover copy of Elysian Fields and am dying to read it. But I want to start this series at the beginning. Can’t wait to dive into these and read for myself about the great things I’ve been hearing.

Check out this series, enjoy the glimpse inside the book and the book trailer and don’t forget to enter the awesome giveaway!

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Elysian Fields Sentinels of New Orleans Series

Book Three

Suzanne Johnson

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Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Books / Date of Publication: August 13, 2013

ISBN: 978-0765333193 / ASIN: B00CQY7TOI

Number of pages: 352 / Word Count: approx. 102,000

Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen

 

Amazon  Barnes and Noble Book Depository

 

Book Description:

The mer feud has been settled, but life in South Louisiana still has more twists and turns than the muddy Mississippi. New Orleanians are under attack from a copycat killer mimicking the crimes of a 1918 serial murderer known as the Axeman of New Orleans.

Thanks to a tip from the undead pirate Jean Lafitte, DJ Jaco knows the attacks aren’t random–an unknown necromancer has resurrected the original Axeman of New Orleans, and his ultimate target is a certain blonde wizard.

Namely, DJ. Fighting off an undead serial killer as troubles pile up around her isn’t easy. Jake Warin’s loup-garou nature is spiraling downward, enigmatic neighbor Quince Randolph is acting weirder than ever, the Elders are insisting on lessons in elven magic from the world’s most annoying wizard, and former partner Alex

Warin just turned up on DJ’s to-do list. Not to mention big maneuvers are afoot in the halls of preternatural power.

Suddenly, moving to the Beyond as Jean Lafitte’s pirate wench? It could be DJ’s best option.

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Excerpt

By midafternoon, I was out of ideas and full of nervous energy that finally sent me out of doors, catching up on yard work I’d neglected all season, raking the small, crunchy leaves from the live oaks into piles a kid would love to play in.

“Need help?”

I ignored the voice and counted to ten, hoping it would go away. Instead, Quince Randolph knelt next to a tall pyramid of leaves I’d erected and took the lid off the big green trash can he’d brought with him. He began scooping up armfuls and piling them in the can. “You should compost this down. It would make a good mulch for flowerbeds. Plus you need more color in your landscaping.”

           “Whatever.” I didn’t know what mulch was, didn’t care enough to ask, and had such a brown thumb that flowers never survived my gardening efforts.

Rand wore a chocolate-brown sweater almost the same color as mine, with jeans in a similar wash. With our comparable shades of long blond hair, we resembled grown-up Bobbsey Twins, except he was prettier. Freddie and Flossie do New Orleans.

“Are you here for any particular reason?”

He squinted up at me against the soft afternoon sunlight. “I just want to get to know you better.”

Uh- huh. “Tell me what you are, and then we’ll know each other better. I’m betting elf or faery.” I was kind of betting elf— it might explain his interest in me although, thankfully, he’d never shown any inclination to plunder my brain.

He grinned. “Go to dinner with me and I might tell you.”

I noted the return of his peridot earrings. Big liar. Super-big cheater. “Where’s Eugenie? You know, your girlfriend?”

A flash of irritation spoiled his perfect features a half second before he answered. “Working. Can we—”

What ever he planned to ask, my answer would be no, but he didn’t get a chance because a clomping noise reached us from the direction of Prytania Street. Rand and I both were stricken speechless at the sight of Jean Lafitte sitting like royalty in the back of a gold and white French Quarter tourist carriage. It was being pulled by a light- gray mule wearing a hat festooned with

fake flowers and driven by a smiling guy who had no idea how many daggers his undead pirate passenger had hidden on him.

The ornate carriage rolled to a stop, and the mule flicked an ear at the passing traffic. Those animals pulled tourists around the French Quarter all day, and it would take more than an impatient Toyota driver to rattle one of them. The carriages were also ridiculously expensive if one commissioned a ride outside the Quarter.

Then again, Jean Lafitte was loaded. The driver probably had a reason to smile.

Jean exited the carriage with extraordinary grace for such a large man. He was tall, powerfully built, black-haired, cobalt-eyed, a shameless flirt, and talked with a raspy French accent that made me swoon even though he was technically dead. In other words, I had a bit of a problem with Jean Lafitte and my own common sense being present at the same time.

Jean said a few words to the carriage driver, then turned to prop his hands on his hips in a broad pirate-like stance, giving Rand a disapproving visual once-over. The mule backed up a

few awkward steps before pulling the carriage into my driveway.

God help me, I hoped Alex didn’t get home in time to see this. I’d never hear the end of it.

“Do you wish me to rid you of this intruder, Jolie?”

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River Road

Sentinels of New Orleans

Book Two Suzanne Johnson

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Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 978-0765327802 / ASIN: B00842H5VI

Number of pages: 336 / Word Count: approx. 92,000

Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen

Amazon  Barnes & Noble  Book Depository  Indiebound

 

Book Description:

Hurricane Katrina is long gone, but the preternatural storm rages on in New Orleans. New species from the Beyond moved into Louisiana after the hurricane destroyed the borders between worlds, and it falls to wizard sentinel Drusilla Jaco and her partner, Alex Warin, to keep the preternaturals peaceful and the humans unaware. But a war is brewing between two clans of Cajun merpeople in Plaquemines Parish, and down in the swamp, DJ learns, there’s more stirring than angry mermen and the threat of a were-gator.

Wizards are dying, and something—or someone—from the Beyond is poisoning the waters of the mighty Mississippi, threatening the humans who live and work along the river. DJ and Alex must figure out what unearthly source is contaminating the water and who—or what—is killing the wizards. Is it a malcontented merman, the naughty nymph, or some other critter altogether? After all, DJ’s undead suitor, the pirate Jean Lafitte, knows his way around a body or two.

It’s anything but smooth sailing on the bayou as the Sentinels of New Orleans series continues.

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Royal Street

Sentinels of New Orleans

Book One

Suzanne Johnson

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Genre: Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 978-0765327796 / ASIN: B006OM459U

Number of pages: 337 / Word Count: approx. 94,000

Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen

Amazon    Barnes and Noble   Book Depository

 

Book Description:

As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ’s boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerald St. Simon has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and the killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter roux.

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About the Author:

Suzanne  Johnson

On Aug. 28, 2005, Suzanne Johnson loaded two dogs, a cat, a friend, and her mom into a car and fled New Orleans in the hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

Four years later, she began weaving her experiences and love for her city into the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series, beginning with Royal Street (2012), continuing with River Road (2012), and now with Elysian Fields (August 2013).

She grew up in rural Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace, and lived in New Orleans for fifteen years—which means she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football and fried gator on a stick.

As Susannah Sandlin, she writes the best-selling Penton Vampire Legacy paranormal romance series and the recent standalone, Storm Force.

Website and Blog    Twitter    Facebook    Facebook Fan Page     Goodreads

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1 $25 GC to Amazon or equivalent to Book Depository

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2 signed books and swag packs

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Don’t you just love the cover art for Christmas in Dogtown?

Suzanne wrapped up her short story with a pretty bow!

I’m dying to tell you about this holiday story so let’s get to it!

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 Christmas in Dogtown

by Suzanne Johnson

Genre: Sweet Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Story Vault

Date of Publication: December 2012

ASIN: B009RBKTSG

Number of pages: 30

Word Count: approx. 11,000

Amazon / Barnes and Noble

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Synopsis

A woman who spent years escaping her rural past learns that Dogtown, Louisiana, hides more family secrets than just the recipe for boudin blanc…..

Resa Madere’s on the verge of losing it all. The boyfriend’s gone. The job’s history. Her beloved house is on the brink of foreclosure. She’ll do anything to save it—even spend a long Christmas holiday working in St. James Parish, Louisiana, helping her uncle run the family meat business. But the community of Dogtown, which has been home for seven generations of the Madere and Caillou families, has deep roots and deeper secrets. For Resa, going home is one thing.

Getting out might not be so easy.

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My Review

I love short stories. Christmas in Dogtown is wonderful.

Right from the beginning you are connected to Resa. She’s lost her job and been dumped by her boyfriend.

When her Uncle Emile calls asking her to come help him at Madere’s Meats in Paulina for the holidays, she figures why not. It would pay a few house notes and she’d be with her family for Christmas.

Life seems to be conspiring against Resa. She just wants to go back to New Orleans, but her family and fate may have other plans.

Resa has to decide what she really wants.

I live on the Gulf coast and am always on the lookout for stories with a southern voice.

Suzanne had me at boudin!

I had a roommate years ago who grew up in Houma, Louisiana. Every Christmas she’d go see her family and come back loaded down with Boudin sausage and gator balls.

Her mother and father made the best boudin. My eyes would water, my mouth would drool, and I’d stuff myself as full as the pork casings!

The gator balls are not what you think. They are punched out plugs from the tail meat of a gator. You can grill them or steam them. They are a lot like scallops and melt in your mouth.

Resa is a perfect cover girl for bayou life. She can clean and cook gar with the best of them.

For those of you who don’t know, a gar is actually a fish, an alligator gar, named as such because they get as big as some of the gators and resemble them when you see them rise to the surface.

I was told that the best way to cook and eat a gar is to nail it to a 2×4, roast it, then throw away the gar and eat the 2×4. In Dogtown, it sounds like they have a better recipe.

The fun begins immediately when Resa arrives in Paulina, called Dogtown by the residents. All 50 of them. Her family is up to their old tricks, trying to set her up with Chandler Caillou, a childhood friend.

When she opens the door to her little trailer, she’s face to face with him and he sure has grown. I knew before I read it that she was thinking, maybe she should rethink her protests about the matchmaking.

You’ll like Chandler too. At first you think he’s shy, but he’s really just self-contained. He’s certainly not a wuss. Afterall, he’s the towns gator man. His job is to catch and remove the troublesome beasts when they eat someones pooch or become too bold.

I found myself wishing Resa and Chandler would fall in love. I wanted my happy ending. They seemed perfect for each other.

But there’s a huge secret in Dogtown. I didn’t see it coming, and it makes me so happy. It leaves this story open to be developed into more stories. Don’t get me wrong, there is an ending. But there’s also an opening to follow this town and it’s folks.

I hope the author pursues this short story and gives us more. Dogtown opened it’s doors and made me feel warm and welcome. I want to return someday.

5 Stars

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Excerpt

“You are stupid,” Resa told her reflection in the tiny, scratched mirror of the WhiteCastle’s rose-pink bathroom. “Stupid, ridiculous, and absurd.”

She’d been wrestling with her curly black hair for a half hour, and the brown eyes that stared back at her from beneath freshly plucked brows and carefully applied eyeliner looked more jittery than sexy. “And idiotic.”

First, it had been almost a week since Chan had asked her to the Saturday night community dance, popping the question almost shyly as they hacked at the bodies of gigantic dead fish. They’d both been covered in blood and smelled like they’d been rolling in bait, which should have tipped her off that anything in Dogtown reeking of romance, well, reeked.

Second, her potential date had left immediately after asking her out so he could catch an alligator that had eaten somebody’s poodle in one of those backwater houses near the swamp. He burned rubber out of the Madere’s driveway after making sure he had enough duct tape to wrap around the gator’s jaws. Adequate duct tape was not an attribute she’d ever sought in a man.

About Suzanne Johnson

Suzanne  Johnson

Suzanne Johnson writes urban fantasy and paranormal romance (under the name Susannah Sandlin) from Auburn, Alabama, on top of a career in educational publishing that has thus far spanned five states and six universities—including both Alabama and Auburn, which makes her bilingual. She grew up in Winfield, Alabama, halfway between the Bear Bryant Museum and Elvis’ birthplace, but was also a longtime resident of New Orleans, so she has a highly refined sense of the absurd and an ingrained love of SEC football, cheap Mardi Gras trinkets, and fried gator on a stick. She’s the author of the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and, as Susannah Sandlin, the Penton Legacy paranormal romance series.

Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew.

Have a wonderful holiday ya’ll!

A Gulf Coast Christmas

WWW Wednesday

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Hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

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What are you currently reading?

Chameleon

by Kenya Wright

Chameleon 

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Cameo lives in a caged supernatural city where all species are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads. Her X brand identifies her as a Mixbreed, but she’s so much more. Like a chameleon, she can shift from one person’s image to another.It’s a great way to make money for a habitat street kid, or Cage Punk as most people call them. Wiz, her street partner-in-crime, finds her jobs to use her abilities. Some jobs entail changing into people to take academic tests. Others require more skill and involve higher risk.So when Wiz asks Cameo to stand in for a Were-wolf teenager who doesn’t want to go to her debutante ball, it seems like just another job, until a corpse is discovered and an old friend of Wiz appears.

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What did you recently finish reading?

Christmas in Dogtown

by  Suzanne Johnson 

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A woman who spent years escaping her rural past learns that Dogtown, Louisiana, hides more family secrets than just the recipe for boudin blanc.

Resa Madere’s on the verge of losing it all. The boyfriend’s gone. The job’s history. Her beloved house is on the brink of foreclosure. She’ll do anything to save it–even spend a long Christmas holiday working in St. James Parish, Louisiana, helping her uncle run the family meat business. But the community of Dogtown, which has been home for seven generations of the Madere and Caillou families, has deep roots and deeper secrets. For Resa, going home is one thing. Getting out might not be so easy.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

Braineater Jones

byStephen Kozeniewski 

18226374

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Braineater Jones wakes up face down in a swimming pool with no memory of his former life, how he died, or why he’s now a zombie. With a smart-aleck severed head as a partner, Jones descends into the undead ghetto to solve his own murder.But Jones’s investigation is complicated by his crippling addiction to human flesh. Like all walking corpses, he discovers that only a stiff drink can soothe his cravings. Unfortunately, finding liquor during Prohibition is costly and dangerous. From his Mason jar, the cantankerous Old Man rules the only speakeasy in the city that caters to the postmortem crowd.As the booze, blood, and clues coagulate, Jones gets closer to discovering the identity of his killer and the secrets behind the city’s stranglehold on liquid spirits. Death couldn’t stop him, but if the liquor dries up, the entire city will be plunged into an orgy of cannibalism.Cracking this case is a tall order. Braineater Jones won’t get out alive, but if he plays his cards right, he might manage to salvage the last scraps of his humanity.
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So, whatcha readin?

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