Spotlight & Giveaway: The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Alexandria Bellefleur’s new release: The Devil She Knows

A down-on-her-luck woman makes a deal with a crafty demon to win back her ex-girlfriend after a proposal gone awry, only to discover the girl of her dreams might be the devil she knows, from nationally bestselling author Alexandria Bellefleur.

 
Samantha Cooper is having a day from hell.

In less than 24 hours, her life has unraveled, leaving her single and with nowhere to live. Adding insult to injury, she’s trapped in an elevator with a gorgeous woman claiming to be a demon.

Daphne is not at all what Samantha expected from someone claiming to be an evil supernatural entity. She’s pretty, witty, dressed in pink, and smells nice. And she’s here to offer Samantha a deal she can’t refuse. Six wishes in exchange for one tiny trade—Samantha’s soul. There’s a glaring loophole in their contract, one Samantha fully intends to exploit so she doesn’t fork over her soul. After all, she only needs one wish to win her ex back.

Hell-bent to gather the last of the one thousand souls she needs so that she can be free of her own devilish deal, Daphne grants each of Samantha’s wishes . . . with a twist, so that Samantha is forced to make another.

As Samantha’s wishes dwindle and Daphne offers her glimpses into the life she thought she wanted, the unlikely pair grows close. Perhaps the girl of Samantha’s dreams is actually the stuff of nightmares, but Samantha and Daphne will have to outsmart the Devil himself if they want a chance at happily ever after.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from The Devil She Knows 

Realization crashed over Sam, mortification hot on its heels.
Of course she’d gone viral. With her luck, she’d be a meme come morning, a reaction GIF by noon, doomed to join Bad Luck Brian and that poor Ermahgerd Girl in internet infamy. Assuming she wasn’t one already.
“Don’t worry,” the perfectly-pulled-together stranger standing across from her assured her, as if reading her mind. “You haven’t quite gone viral. Not yet at least.”
What a cold comfort that was.
“Just between us, I think you dodged a bullet. Your girlfriend, or, sorry, I guess I should say your ex? She seems a little . . .” She tapped a finger against her chin; her polish, the same shade as her lips, fresh blood spilled on snow, gleamed. “Bitchy?”
Sam’s hackles rose, bitter indignation clawing up her throat. “You don’t know her.”
One perfectly sculpted brow rose. “And you do?”
Sam scoffed. Of course she did. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Hannah and I have been together for over two years.”
She knew Hannah. She loved Hannah, loved her so much that it hurt sometimes. An ache between her ribs, a stitch in her side that stole her breath. Growing pains.
“Interesting.” Corn-silk hair spilled over her slender shoulder as she cocked her head. “I imagine you proposed because you believed she’d say yes and not because you wanted to, I don’t know . . .” The corners of her mouth quirked in a smile, the pretty bow of her lips notching an arrow aimed straight at Sam, pinning her in place. “Torture yourself? Honestly, though, as a chef, dating a . . . what is she this week? An ovo-lacto, gluten-free vegetarian who eschews sugar? You must be a little bit of a masochist, mustn’t you?”
“Keto,” Sam murmured, perturbed that this stranger knew as much about Hannah’s diet as she did. And who the hell said mustn’t? “She’s doing keto.”
She snapped her fingers. “Keto! That’s the one where you eat stupid quantities of meat, isn’t it?” Sam’s stomach swooped as the woman bared her teeth in something too vicious, too sharklike to pass for a smile. “She certainly chewed you up and spit you out, didn’t she?”
Sam took a step back that didn’t exist, her hip pressing painfully against the handrail. She didn’t know who this woman was or where she got off, but—
The elevator lurched to a sudden stop, her stomach lurching with it. The canister lights overhead flickered ominously seconds before extinguishing altogether, plunging them into total darkness.
Sam cast around inside her pocket for her phone, finding it, fumbling it, and recovering it, all within the span of a few heart-stopping seconds. A cracked screen was all her broke ass needed.
“Ch ch ch ah ah ah.”
A giggle followed, sending a shiver skittering down Sam’s spine.
“Would you stop,” she hissed, heart jackrabbiting painfully. No amount of jabbing her thumb against her screen caused it to light up. The damn thing was deader than dead. Her fault for forgetting to charge it this morning, too nervous for tonight to think straight. That she’d remembered the ring was a miracle. Or not. “You’re not funny.”
“You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?” the woman taunted.
With shaking hands, Sam reached for the zipper of her purse, an illicit cannister of pepper spray buried somewhere in its depths in case of emergency. For the record, no, the dark had never frightened her; bayous and backwoods didn’t come with streetlights. What lurked in the dark was a different story.
Right now, Sam’s fears were much more tangible and far too close for comfort as she started to worry that the woman standing only a few feet from her was a few fries shy of a Happy Meal.
Before she could unzip her purse, the elevators lights flickered, strobe-like flashes of too-bright fluorescent light illuminating the space, reflecting off the mirrors, distorting her vision, making her see things, impossible things, things that couldn’t be real. The byproduct of an all-too-active imagination and not enough sleep, for a split second Sam could’ve sworn that nestled between her blond bangs and beehive bump, the woman across from her had actual horns jutting from the top of her head.
An ominous grinding noise filled the air, followed by a low hum, the sound of the backup generator kicking on. Seconds later, the striplights at Sam’s feet lit up, bathing the elevator with a warm amber glow.
From the corner of her eye, she chanced a glance at the woman standing across from her, an irrational part of her afraid of what she’d see. Horns, a tail, a dark, velvety aura clinging to her closer than a shadow . . . Sam scoffed softly, feeling silly. For a moment there, she’d thought the stranger’s eyes had been black. Entirely onyx, sclera and all. Ridiculous, considering now, like before, they were blue. Strikingly sapphire, but not exactly supernatural. Nothing to wig over.
There was nothing strange about her, nothing stranger than there’d been before the elevator had plunged them into darkness.
“Something funny?” The perfectly normal—the verdict was out as to whether she was sane—woman standing in front of Sam asked.
“I thought . . .” Sam sighed and dragged a hand through her hair, mussing her already messy braid. “I thought I saw something.”
The woman rocked forward on her toes, her big blue eyes unblinking. “Like?”
“Forget it. It’s nothing. Just my brain playing tricks on me.”
“Ah.” She nodded sagely. “We all go a little mad sometimes.”
Sam bristled. “I’m not crazy.” She gave the woman her most withering glare. “Verdict’s out on you, though.”
A bright peal of laughter burst from the blonde’s lips, sending another shiver skittering down Sam’s spine, goose bumps rising along her skin. “It’s from a movie. Psycho? There’s no way you haven’t heard of it.”
Sam ignored her in favor of shuffling over to the elevator’s control panel, jamming her thumb into the elevator’s call button, and waiting impatiently for the dial tone, some sign that someone—building maintenance? the fire department?—was going to answer. The ensuing silence made her heart beat faster.

Excerpt. ©Alexandria Bellefleur. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: One print copy of THE DEVIL SHE KNOWS, US only

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Meet the Author:

Alexandria Bellefleur is a bestselling and award-winning author of swoony contemporary romance often featuring loveable grumps and the sunshine characters who bring them to their knees. A Pacific Northwesterner at heart, Alexandria now lives in New York City with her cats, Mills and Boon. Her special skills include finding the best Pad Thai in every city she visits, remembering faces but not names, falling asleep in movie theaters, and keeping cool while reading smutty books in public. Her debut novel, Written in the Stars, was a 2021 Lambda Literary Award winner and a 2020 winner of The Ripped Bodice Awards for Excellence in Romantic Fiction.
 
 
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