Spotlight & Giveaway: Unpredictable Magic by Faith Hunter

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Faith Hunter to HJ!

Hi Faith and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Unpredictable Magic!

Hi All! Thanks for having me!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Set in the world of Jane Yellowrock but standing on its own, Unpredictable Magic opens two decades in the future, in a world that has been torn asunder by the demon war and is now trying to heal. Angie Baby and her brother, EJ Everhart-Trueblood Jr., are adults with their own paranormal private investigation firm. Their lives are on a mostly peaceful trajectory until a client brings them a case to find a missing woman. That woman disappeared from a party The Firm’s owners attended, so there is no way for the the Everhart-Truebloods to refuse the case. But it hits too close to home when the Vampire Emperor of Europe might be implicated in the disappearance. Worse, Angie’s ex is involved. Angie’s battle magic is unpredictable, but it might be the only thing that could keep them alive.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

My arms over my head, my body swaying to the beat, I turned my back to the band, keeping the man in sight. Good looking, well- coiffed, he wandered the room by a circuitous route, stopping at a table full of men to clap one guy on the back, give a fist bump to another. Friendly guy. Knew some of the regulars. A moment later, he bent over a table full of women, attempting to flirt. The women waved him off, laughing. He left with a smirk that promised he’d be back. Idiot.
Or dangerous.
Deep inside, something whispered dangerous.
My precog gift or simple paranoia? Which one?

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

Angie Baby was eight-ish years old when I finished the Jane Yellowrock series. Now, a LOT has changed in the world: new tech, new magic, more wars, more personal mayhem. Angie and EJ lived through it all. My inspiration for this book was taking the Yellowrock world and our world today and tossing that mixture into the future. That meant adding robots, weapons, magic, and dangers I hadn’t considered in the world of the (mostly) present. The research was crazy, like what power sources have we humans not considered that we might in twenty years? What will our food supply and fresh water supply look like? The climate? Convenience tech? AI? Music and art? I had a ball inventing things that we might have far sooner than I indicate in the book. And of course there’s the love interest. Where has he been? Why did he disappear in collage? Why did he stay gone so long? For EJ, it’s “I refuse to fall in love because that would be too dangerous for for my family and for me. Therefore, I’m aloof, distant, and mostly cold to the women I date.” For them both it’s … What now?
 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

He loved her at first sight. She loved him unconditionally. Then the war started. He vanished. Why? Worse, why didn’t he say goodbye?
 

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

In the Yellowrock world, drinking vampire blood in in any quantity, makes the drinker … uhh … amorous. That’s a good word. In Unpredictable Magic, Angie and her once-upon-a-time boyfriend have to be fed by Angie’s sworn protector to heal. They both end up blood drunk, with two of the queen’s best security people to keep them apart. But how long can the duennas keep them apart? (Answer? Not long.)

“I don’t need the help. I don’t need a babysitter. I need you to go ’way.”

“You do need us, sweet pea,” Grizz said. “And we’re staying. You want to have hot hetero monkey sex?—which is gross by the way—with the cop, you’ll do it sober. Right now, you’re blood-drunk, and no way are you getting your blood-drunk hands on him.”

I gave Grizz my best scowl. “Hetero sex is not gross. It’s messy, but not gross.”

“All sex is messy, kiddo.”

“I want Villetti.”

“Not my problem.”

“I’ll turn you into a toad.”

Grizz laughed. “And MG will flay the skin off you until you change me back.”

“Boots?” Angie begged the other woman. “Please?”

“What is this? Mama says no and so you ask Mama number two? Nope.”

I opened my mouth.

“I said no.” She turned to the side and grabbed a hand that was reaching across her for me.

“Villetti, get off me, or I’ll knock you out and drag you to the balcony to die of hypothermia,” Grizz said.

Readers should read this book….

Three reasons to read Unpredictable Magic: You want something different with a full and grand backstory that you can peek into as the story itself takes you on a whirlwind ride, or, you want to catch up on the Yellowrock world characters and see their future conflicts, battles, and loves. Or there’s Walter, The Firm’s vampire security guard / martial arts trainer. Oh my goodness. I decided to write this book in great part because Walter came to me and settled into my brain like he had always been there. He’s fabulous.
 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Working title: Second Chances and Flying Goats . SC&FG is set in a our world with one exception–magic falls on people in their 60s and 70s as a curse. The cursed are picked up by an elite trained law enforcement group and forced into school to lean how to train their gifts for use by the world. Except … what if that age of magic sometimes falls early? And what happens if bad guys grab the magic users first?
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: For US only: Giveaways are books, swag, bits of jewelry I make myself.

To enter Giveaway, please share this post on your Socials and Leave a comment below to this Q: What happens if Faith Hunter adds betrayal and romance to her fast paced novels? Oh myyyy.

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Excerpt from Unpredictable Magic:

With a kick, Walter threw his entire body into the air, spun while horizontal. And kicked my brother in the face. I stopped dead, my back to the door.

I had always known EJ wasn’t as innocent as he pretended, that he harbored secrets as violent as my own, maybe more so. But EJ made a move that rocked my own head back in shock. The instant of Walter’s kick, EJ’s face closed down in a flash of something beyond instinct and action/reaction. In that same fraction of a second, EJ took a single step back, angled his body, and stretched back his head. The black silk of Walter’s slipper brushed his cheek. As the foot swished by him, still at an impossible angle, EJ raised his arm and caught Walter’s ankle.

The momentum of the kick pulled EJ into the motion. Closer. He slammed his other fist into Walter’s crotch. Missed. Caught only his inner thigh.

Dropped the ankle. Still using the kick’s momentum, EJ delivered a fist into Walter’s kidney.
I flinched as I heard a rib break.

Walter oofed out a breath. Caught his weight on one hand, arm outstretched. Rolled across it. Kicked to free himself and landed on his feet. Attacked instantly.

EJ blocked twice. Stepped into a kick. EJ grabbed Walter’s thigh in the soft inner tissue. Delivered a fist to Walter’s throat.

“Holy catfight, Batman,” I whispered.

Walter leaped back. “Where in the fires of hell did you learn that one, boy?” he demanded, his face in a dead rictus of a grin. He pressed fingers to his throat. “If I’d been human that would have taken me out.”

EJ said simply, “Uncle Eli taught me that one after the war.”

“A sneaky bastard, Eli is. I like it. Show me again.”

Eli Younger was Alex’s older brother and both had been uncles to us when we were young: Uncle Alex, and Uncle Eli. But Eli had changed when we left the queen’s household, and not simply because he was the no-longer-human-guy in charge of overall security for the queen’s house and grounds, training, her armory, the queen herself, her extended clans, family, and friends, and was known to one and all as the queen’s right hand. In the years since I was known as Angie Baby, Alex had become a hardass. Eli had become a block of stone masquerading as a biological entity. The war had damaged them both.

EJ and Walter went through the move several times and then began to refine it for when an opponent was in a slightly different position, or heavier, or shorter. Adding a thumb into an eye. A fist to a temple. And then they began to work through how to defend against the move. It wasn’t popcorn-worthy. But it was entertaining, especially when they went back at it, sparring move for move, block for punch, at full speed and strength for EJ and a fair portion of Walter’s.
After half an hour, EJ held up both hands and backed away, breathing like he’d just been used as a boxing bag. My brother was surely covered with bruises. Walter dropped to the floor and lay there, needing to breathe, a rarity for the vamp. His heart must have actually beaten a few times during the match.

Walter’s sparring matches were always intense, sometimes leaving EJ or me needing to be healed by vampire blood, which was a much faster method than using healing amulets. Though Walter on the floor was a new one.

I couldn’t help myself. I dropped my workings and clapped. Slowly. Conveying both sarcasm and amusement. “Good work, children. You look like you both need a medical center.”

“I think I’m dying,” EJ gasped. He bent forward and held himself upright by putting all his upper body weight on his hands, braced on his knees.

“Scoot out of the way,” I said to my brother. “Now that Walter’s all warmed up, I may as well get in some sword practice.” I strode across the room while a soft voice inside my brain suggested this course of action wasn’t exactly wise, considering my mood. I ignored it. Royal protocol and royal restrictions were in my life again and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t go dance, so I’d fight instead.
From the weapons wall, I chose a wood waster and tossed it at the vampire.

From his place on the floor, Walter snagged it out of the air, vamp-fast.

Wasters were shaped like swords and would leave bruises and break bones but would seldom kill, unless they were used for blows to the neck or head. Anything above the shoulders or to the groin was off-limits in practice matches.

I walked toward the vampire, taking a two-hand grip on my own wooden weapon, one built to mimic the weight and balance of a bastard sword. I liked bastard swords, I liked sparring with Walter and, despite my better judgment and dislike of having a one-man protection detail forced on me, I liked Walter himself. Not that I ever told him so, after that one attempt to be friendly.

EJ had never once been interested in being Walter’s pal, but I was stupid enough to always want more from the people around me.

EJ stood slowly, moaning. “Oh, dear God,” he grunted. “That’s going to leave a bruise.”
“More than one,” I said, my eyes on the gorgeous vampire in front of me. Walter’s dark skin glistened with sweat, and his eyes had gone bright and amused.

“Go get an ice bath, kiddo,” I said to my brother.

“I thought you were going to yoga,” EJ said.

“Tried it. I need more tonight.”

“Ice bath, Evan Junior,” Walter commanded, his eyes never leaving me.

I grinned, showing teeth. It was a vampire challenge, even when a human with no fangs did it.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m going,” EJ said.

I watched both Walter and EJ as my brother limped to the kitchen and poured ice from the large-capacity ice maker into a ten-gallon bucket. The ice pulled him into an unnatural position, but he didn’t look totally incapacitated as he limped into the gym’s recuperation area. That space consisted of a single ice tub, a two-person hot tub, a small steam room, and individual bathrooms, each with a shower stall, sink, and toilet, and enough space to change clothes. EJ closed the door on us, leaving us alone.

Walter assessed my face, rolled to his feet, and assumed a stance similar to mine. He gripped his weapon. “Bastard swords for three rounds,” he said.

“I nearly beat you with my bastard last time,” I warned with a taunting smile. “You nearly lost your cojones.”

“Nearly doesn’t count in battle, Little Angelina.”

Walter attacked.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Witches Angelina and Evan Everhart-Trueblood take a case that spirals out of control until the whole city is at risk in this exciting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Faith Hunter.

Angelina Everhart-Trueblood and her brother Evan run Everhart Investigations, a PI firm in Chattanooga that solves paranormal crimes committed by supernatural beings. When their new client wants help finding her friend, who supposedly disappeared during a reception at Angie’s aunt Jane’s winter residence, things get . . . complicated.

The client is not who she appears to be, and demons strike the city for the first time since the Witch War. On top of that, evidence is pointing toward the involvement of an overly ambitious vampire—who just happens to be Angie’s ex-husband.

As Angie and Evan team up with CPD, they will have to dig deep into their magical reserves—and rely on some friends in high places—to rid Chattanooga of the danger creeping into their city.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | kobo | Google |
 

Meet the Author:

Faith Hunter writes urban fantasy, science fiction, and (under the name Gwen Hunter), thrillers, action adventure, and mysteries. She was born in Louisiana and raised all over the south, loves to kayak and RV, and write.
The dark urban fantasy Skinwalker series, featuring Jane Yellowrock, is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling series with multiple books and compilations. Jane Yellowrock is a Cherokee skinwalker who tracks, hunts, and kills rogue-vampires for a living — until she takes a gig working for Leo Pellissier, the Master of the City of New Orleans.
Her Rogue Mage novels, a dark, urban fantasy series, feature Thorn St. Croix, a stone mage in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality, urban fantasy world.
The Soulwood series features Nell Nicholson Ingram. Nell is an escapee from a cult, a solitary woman with deadly magic of her own.
Faith’s Junkyard Cats series is a post-apocalyptic, SciFi series of novellas, set in a near future alternate universe, where alien peacekeepers are real and humans have been kicked back to Earth.
She has 50+ books in print in 30+ countries.
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