The Wicked Within by Kelly Keaton (Gods and Monsters book 3)

"No one is safe for her fury."

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read the first two books in the series, A Beautiful Evil and Darkness, Stop! I don't want to ruin the series for you.

Two weeks have passed since Ari stabbed the goddess Athena during their battle in the ruins. With just three and a half years until her twenty-first birthday, Ari is desperate to stop the centuries old curse on her family and becoming a gorgon forever. For the first time in her life, she no longer feels lost and alone. Ari has found a home and family in New 2.

With Henri and Violet, they travel to the swamp to visit the River Witch. He tells Ari that she must locate the Hands of Zeus or everything she holds dear; her family, friends and New 2 will be destroyed by the wrath of Athena. The destruction of New Orleans by her hand fifteen years earlier will be child's play compared to what she will unleash. The Hands of Zeus are actually Athena's child, frozen in stone. It will be their only chance at survival. Athena wants Ari to resurrect her child but she also knows that Athena would not spare her life. If Ari finds the Hands and brings them to him, the River Witch will lift Ari's curse. It is known that Josephine Arnaud, a Novem council member, head of the Arnaud family of vampires and Sebastian's grandmother, has knowledge of the whereabouts of the Hands. It seems that Josephine has something against Athena. The River Witch knows too much about the situation for Ari to trust him, but he did teach Violet some things when she was younger. Before they leave, the River Witch tells Violet that her day is coming and to face fear head on. Ari is frightened by his words.

Sebastian has changed as well since Athena turned him to stone and Ari resurrected him. Now that he has drunk blood and turned towards his vampire side, he has withdrawn from Ari and the rest of the kids at the GD house. Now he will always need blood to live. Part vampire and part witch, his powers have manifested since he was brought back to life. Not wanting Ari and his friends to see how the blood lust has changed him, he has lied to and kept things from them. Sebastian is determined to help Ari and find the Hands of Zeus, especially when Athena offers the Novem a deal. Knowing where the Hands are, it is not long before they are found to be missing. The race is on to find the Hands before someone else's agenda can be fulfilled.

Can Ari find the Hands of Zeus before Athena or someone else? Are the Hands really Athena's child frozen in stone? Why did Josephine hide the Hands and what does she have against Athena? How is the River Witch connected to Athena and the curse? Will Ari know her destiny when the time comes? What is Violet's part in the ultimate showdown? Will Ari be able to break free from Athena's curse? Can Sebastian accept what he has now become? Can Ari and Sebastian live happily ever after?

Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

 

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton (Gods and Monsters book two)

“A power she can’t deny. A destiny she’s determined to fight.”

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Darkness Becomes Her, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.


For Ari Selkirk, coming to New 2 has presented new opportunities and answered some questions about who exactly she is. With all of the good things occurring in her life; a home, friends, including the gorgeous Sebastian, and school, some truly horrify facts are uncovered. Ari is the latest in a long line of women descended from Medusa; the beautiful maiden priestess of Athena who was raped by Poseidon in the temple and was changed into a gorgon by Athena as revenge. Ari’s destiny will be that she gives birth to a daughter and becomes a monster herself at the age of twenty-one, if she doesn’t commit suicide first, like her mother. With the legacy of her father’s lineage, Ari is capable of tapping into her powers sooner. A showdown in an old New Orleans cemetery between Ari and Athena, leads to the capture of Ari’s father and her young friend Violet. Ari is desperate to get them back.


Going to class and training at the Novem school, Presby, Ari is attempting to prepare for the inevitable showdown with Athena. Appalled by what she will become, Ari doesn’t want to tap into her powers and resists. With unprecedented access to the Novem’s secret library, Ari seeks answers to her questions. She uncovers a clue and when the opportunity presents itself to find where Athena’s secret temple is; Ari and Sebastian go to check it out. Under attack by rogue vampires, Ari and Sebastian accidentally go into Athena’s temple, woefully underprepared.


What are Athena’s plans for Ari? Can her father and Violet be rescued? Will Ari be able to stop Athena? Can Ari trust the Novem? And will Ari and Sebastian be able to create a happily ever after or will Ari fall to Athena’s curse?


Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

As for book 3, Ms. Keaton has siad she is not currently under contract but will write and publish the next in the series for her readers.

Darkness Becomes Her by Kelly Keaton

”A curse beyond her darkest fears.”
New Orleans and the southern half of Louisiana have been destroyed by two back-to-back Category Four hurricanes. No one was prepared for the devastation and no one returned. Thirteen years later, “no one in their right mind ventured past The Rim.” Now known as New 2, the once grand and now decaying city is privately owned and “A sanctuary for misfits and things that went bump in the night.” The Novem, composed of nine of the oldest families in New Orleans, created what is believed by most to be a sanctuary for the paranormal.
Ari Selkirk has gone to Rocquemore House to find information about her mother who gave her up to the state of Louisiana social services just after her fourth birthday. What Ari was not expecting to find out is that her mother was schizophrenic, had a delusion about snakes under her scalp and committed suicide six months after her self-admittance, on the eve of her twenty-first birthday. Even more surprising to Ari is that family claimed her mother’s body and buried her in Greece. The doctor she speaks to, Dr. Giroux, offers to give her a box of her mother’s things. She is a little disappointed by the light weight of the box.

At seventeen, Ari has teal-colored eyes and hair that is “the bane of her existence.” Light in color it looked silver in the moonlight and was full, glossy and unnaturally straight. Her hair brings her unwanted attention and always grows back no matter what Ari does to rid herself of it. Her current foster parents are bail bondsmen and Ari is employed in the “family business.” They are supportive of her desire to find out more about her birth mother. So when Ari finds a letter her mother wrote to her, she is surprised it tells her to run and stay away from New Orleans and those who can identity her. She decides to make a quick solo trip to New 2 to find her birth records, even though she knows it’s dangerous. Ari is attacked by a man who is intent on killing her. When she finally gets the upper hand and delivers a fatal blow, he fingers a strand of her hair and ‘so beautiful” before dying. Before she can regain her senses, a truck halts and asks Ari if she is alright.

Ari realizes that it is actually a mail truck from New 2 and she decides to hitch a ride with the driver, twelve-year-old Crank. Crank also offers Ari the opportunity to stay at her family’s house and she accepts. Crank tells Ari that her brother can help her locate the information she is looking for. When Ari meets Henri she immediately notices his eyes are like her own, not quite normal. After seeing the rest of the family, Ari decides to leave. But before she can, a guy walks in the door and looks at Ari “like he could see inside her and says, ‘They’re already looking for you, you know.’” The guy turns out to be Sebastian and he agrees to help Ari find her birth records. When she goes back through her mother’s box of things, she finds an old newspaper clipping and a letter her grandmother wrote to her mother. Their family is cursed. The women don’t live to the age of 21 and always leave a young daughter behind. Unfortunately her birth records bring more questions, including a link to a member of the Novem who happens to be Sebastian’s grandmother. Ari’s day gets worse when a voodoo practitioner refuses to remove the curse from her.

Join Ari on her journey of self-discovery as she tries to find out her family history and why she fits in in New 2. Who wants to kill her and what do the Novem want with her? And why is everyone she meets terrified of her? Nothing will stop Ari even when the stakes are too high or too dangerous. Just who or what is Ari?

Part paranormal, part mythology with a bit of mystery and romance thrown in, Darkness Becomes Her is the first in Kelly Keaton’s Gods and Monsters series.

Visit Kelly Keaton’s website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZoW82HrIt8