There’s a ghost in New Orleans! Check out this new paranormal romance, and see below for a post about why we can’t get enough of this genre!

Blurb:

Ready to get her life back on track after ending a painful marriage, Danica Giles returns to the Creole cottage where she grew up in the New Orleans French Quarter. Danica is anxious to rekindle her friendship with a former resident from her old neighborhood, the seductive Gaston Deslonde. But Gaston isn’t exactly a normal guy. The charming man has been dead for over a hundred and fifty years, and the childish crush Danica once had on her ghostly playmate quickly turns into something much deeper. When a handsome new man enters Danica’s life, Gaston vows to do whatever he can to hold on to her. Danica soon discovers that the most forbidden of all desires cannot be satisfied without paying a grave price. Love can blur the lines between life and death when you are living among The Ghosts of Rue Dumaine.

Buy Link:  Amazon

Excerpt:

Danica leaned against the doorframe and reflected on the various stages of childhood and adolescence she had gone through while occupying this room. The rainbow-painted walls her mother had painstakingly decorated for her had been replaced with posters of boy bands and television heartthrobs until her mother had died. After the funeral, Danica had come home and removed all the posters in a fit of rage, wanting to be surrounded once more by her mother’s rainbows. The last year she had spent in this room, she had felt comforted by those rainbows, as if her mother’s love had been forever sealed beneath the paintbrush strokes on her walls.

“I missed this old place,” she whispered.

A sudden rush of cold air moving down the hallway caused Danica to turn away from the bedroom door and peer into the darkness behind her. She took a few steps further down the hall until the aroma of cigar smoke mixed with a hint of brandy wafted in the air around her. Danica remembered that smell. It had always filled her bedroom whenever the dark man would appear.

“Is it you?” she softly called into the hallway. “It’s me, Danica. I’ve come back. Just like I said I would.”

Danica walked briskly past the entrance to the master bath to the final door at the end of the hall. Without hesitation, she pushed the cypress door open and walked inside the master bedroom. The light from the large picture window overlooking the courtyard shone into the room, accentuating the deep burgundy color of the carpet beneath her feet. She stepped into the center of the room and observed the ceiling fan above. Danica waited, straining with every breath to hear the slightest stirring.

“Welcome home,” a man’s wispy voice resonated around her.

A hopeful smile curled the edges of Danica’s heart-shaped mouth. “Thank you, Gaston. It’s good to be home.”

A few minutes later, Danica returned to the living room, where she found Pat scrolling through messages on her cell phone.

“Let’s sign the papers,” Danica happily announced. “I want to get moved in as soon as possible.”

Pat gave her a wary going-over with her brown eyes. “You positive about this, Danica? I need to make sure you’re aware that other tenants have had problems—”

“It’s fine, Pat. I know you said the place is haunted and people have had some bad experiences, but this….” Danica waved to the room around her. “Just feels right.”

Pat gave a skeptical shrug. “I have the papers ready back at the office. The rent is eight hundred and fifty a month. Mr. Caruso wanted me to charge you the same rate he charged your father. He insisted I make this as appealing to you as possible. You must have made quite an impression on the old man when you were a kid. He never cuts anyone a deal.”

“Please tell Mr. Caruso I appreciate it.”

Pat replaced her cell phone in her front jacket pocket. “Let’s turn off all of these lights and head back to the office.”

Suddenly, from the shuttered window beside them, three loud knocks reverberated across the room.

Pat grabbed at her chest. “Jesus! What in the hell was that?”

Danica smirked as she watched the color drain from Pat’s perfectly made-up face. “Just someone outside on the street banging on the wall…happened a lot when I was a kid. Drunk tourists would often bang on the shutters at all hours.”

Pat regained her composure. “Of course, you’re right. I didn’t think of that.”

Danica motioned to the pocket doors leading to the kitchen. “Let’s get you out of here, Pat, before you have a heart attack.”

“Gladly,” Pat offered and rushed to the doors. “I never liked this place. I just hope you know what you’re doing, Danica.”

“I know,” Danica asserted with a grin. “I’ve always known.”

Guest Post:

Topic: Why we cannot have too much of Paranormal Romance

 Can one ever have enough of hot vampires, shifters that combine the best of animal and human form, witches, ghosts or all other assorted creatures that go bump in the night? Of course not. Since we began telling stories as hunter-gatherers huddled around the fire, the allure of the life that exists beyond the safety of that firelight has enthralled us. Paranormal romance is a testament to our imagination and a way of bringing all the legends of our past into our present, and preserving them for future generations to come.

I know some paranormal romances may be bit much for future readers to swallow, and fiction tends to blur the lines of fact, but it is the preservation of the concept of what these paranormal creatures represent that will always captivate us. How such stories have the power to transport us to another place and time is vital. Feeding the imagination with stories, any kind of story, is as important as feeding the body with food or the soul with spirituality. Without our imaginations we cannot thrive, and whether stories are about vampires that live throughout the ages, ghosts that fall in love with the living, or strange mortal creatures that have the power to change form, all are needed to keep us growing.

Plus, there is a great deal we can learn about our humanity from such tales. When we can see another’s life, read their thoughts, and for a moment walk in their shoes, then we also learn to embody compassion. Yes, they are supernatural creatures, but when we feel their pain at not being able to walk in the sun, know the touch of another, or live openly as they are, we begin to understand and empathize a little more with that strange neighbor next door who feeds all the stray cats, and never talks to anyone. Sure we might picture that neighbor as weird, and perhaps be leery of their company, but we eventually learn to accept them; just as we accepted Lestat, and Frankenstein as important aspects of our culture.

Lastly, we can never have enough of such stories because they give us hope and joy. They entertain, and for a few hours take us away from the burdens of life. We all need to escape, and paranormal romances allow us that escape. We become the hero or heroine, we live vicariously through their adventure, we find love, we face difficult odds, and for as long as the book lasts, we are enthralled. Isn’t that what it is all about? To find a story that touches your soul? Because in the end, what moves us matters. Sometimes to be able to appreciate life, to be uplifted, you must first be swept away. No medium does that as well as a book. And when it is a paranormal romance, well, that’s even better. Love, after all, knows no limits. If we can believe a lonely vampire or abandoned ghost can find love, then perhaps, hopefully, we can, too

Author Bio:

Alexandrea Weis is an advanced practice registered nurse who was born and raised in New Orleans. Her first novel, To My Senses,introduced readers to the world of Nicci Beauvoir and garnered numerous awards and rave reviews. Her popular second Nicci Beauvoir novel, Recovery, won the Gold Medal for best romantic suspense from The Reader’s Favorite Book Awards 2011, and was named best Romantic Suspense novel by the Spring 2011 NABE Pinnacle Book Awards. Her fourth novel, Broken Wings, won best Contemporary Romance by the NABE Pinnacle Book Awards in 2012, was a Silver Medal winner in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards for Romance, as well as a finalist in the USA Book Awards for Romance in 2012, and a finalist in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards for Contemporary Romance for 2012. Diary of a One-Night Stand, was released in August 2012 and was named a Paranormal Romance Guild’s Best Reviewed of 2012. Her last novel, Acadian Waltz was a Readers’ Favorite Book Awards finalist for Best Contemporary Romance and Best Southern Fiction. A permitted wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, Weis rescues orphaned and injured wildlife. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans.