When I first picked up A.J. Larrieu’s Anchored, a novella set in the world of her upcoming Guardians series, I thought it would be a light read to give me a break between GraveTells reviews.  I ended up finishing the story in less than a day and didn’t want to put it down.  Ms. Larrieu’s writing style and the universe she created reminded me of Nalini Singh and her Guild Hunters series… bold, crisp, gritty, and emotional, with characters you always want more of.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ms. Larrieu is a debut author and Anchored was self-published!  Ms. Larrieu was gracious enough to agree to a guest visit here on GT and has brought along a deleted scene from Anchored.  Don’t worry, if you haven’t read the story, this scene won’t give anything important away, and it’s short enough to read in just a few minutes!  Read more about Anchored below then check out the Deleted Scene!

Fierce, powerful and nearly immortal, Susannah March is a guardian, a winged protector charged with keeping Biloxi and its citizens safe. For decades she’s resisted taking a partner, a healer who would complement her weaknesses. Then Jason Delacourt shows up.

Jason is everything Susannah isn’t: young, impulsive, and unconcerned with rules. Susannah expects him to flake out within a week, but when a nest of vampires threatens her control of the city, Jason proves he’s stronger than he seems. As she fights to take back her territory, Susannah can’t deny that the healer has his uses—in more ways than one. What started out as irritation turns to lust, and then to something stronger. Susannah is used to risking her life, but risking her heart may be more than she can bear, even with the fate of her city at stake.

With deadly angels, a charismatic thief, long-buried secrets and Southern charm, Golden Heart ® Finalist A. J. Larrieu has created a world you’ll want to get lost in.

If you missed our review of Anchored, check it out here!

Deleted scene from Anchored

Please help me welcome author A.J. Larrieu!

Do you ever get the feeling your favorite characters have a whole other life off the page? Sometimes I think they walk out of the book and into brand new stories, and I wish I could follow them. Today, I’m sharing a snippet of one of those stories, a deleted scene from my novella, Anchored. In this scene, my heroine Susannah has yet to meet her hero—in fact, she’s just ended things with another Mr. Not-Quite-Right, and her friend Max is trying to cheer her up the only way he knows how.

Afternoon light came through the blinds and cast shadows on the padded floor of my training room. I tightened the wrist straps on my sparring gloves and stretched while Max slipped a striking pad over his forearm.

“Ready?” I asked him.

“Give me a second.”

I paced, the rubberized floor cool under my bare feet.

“I noticed Evan hasn’t been by in a while,” Max said.

“What did you say?” My foot connected with the pad before I realized I’d struck, and Max fell back with an oof!

“Nothing,” he said from the floor. “Absolutely nothing.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and held out a hand to help him up. He ignored it and jumped back to his feet, crouching down and bracing his forearm on his leg.

“Evan has his own territory to handle.” I attempted a spinning back kick at the target, but Max slipped sideways at the last moment, and I overextended and landed on my chest. Not many humans are faster than I am, but Max was a telepath. He could see me coming. I flexed my wings and leapt up, turning to face him again.

“Does that mean you guys are…you know. Broken up?”

I came at him with a punch-roundhouse-jab series, pushing him to the back wall of my training room. “Stop trying to distract me.”

“I’m not trying—”

I shut him up with another round of jabs, forcing him to circle around the weight bench.

“I was hoping—”

The flat of my foot connected squarely with the pad, and Max sat down hard on the bench. “Hoping what?”

“I thought you two were hitting it off.” Max pulled off the striking pad and rubbed his forearm. “I was hoping things were going well.”

I rubbed my face with the back of my sparring glove. Things would be going a lot better if Evan hadn’t tried to complicate them.  He was a guardian, like me. He should’ve understood that the job came first. I beat my wings, the cooling sweat making me shiver.

“You sure you’re okay?”

I pulled off my gloves and re-tightened my ponytail. “I’m fine.”

Evan had been a distraction. He’d started talking about finding a place between our territories where we could live together. “Split the distance,” he’d said. “We’ll make it work.” As though I’d even consider living at the edge of my territory like that. Irresponsible.

“Maybe it’s okay to be a little irresponsible every now and then.” Max’s voice had gone uncharacteristically soft. He usually stayed out of my head when we weren’t sparring. At least that’s what he liked me to think. I frowned at him.

“I said, I’m fine.”

Max only looked at me. Opened his mouth and closed it again. “You want to go another round?”

“I think that’s enough for today.”

He nodded.

“I’m sure you’ve got somewhere to be, right? What was her name? Kristen?”

“If you want someone to talk to—”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I turned my back on him, heading for my shower. I’d spent most of my hundred-plus years alone. I could spend a hundred more the same way.

Buy it on Amazon here!

(5/26/13) Psst – Anchored is currently in the Kindle lending library and Prime members can “borrow” it for free, or you can snag a permanent copy on your reader for only $0.99!  Click the link above for both.

Add Anchored to your GoodReads “to read” list here!

About the author

A. J. Larrieu grew up in a small town fifty miles west of New Orleans. She spent every summer either knee-deep in mud exploring the swamps or nose-deep in a book exploring other worlds, so it’s no surprise she grew up to be a biologist moonlighting as an urban fantasy and paranormal romance novelist. Her first manuscript, Questionable Miracles, was a finalist in RWA’s Golden Heart competition. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son, and even though she’s been in the Bay Area for almost a decade, she still misses those pounding Gulf Coast thunderstorms. Visit her on her website or hang out with her on twitter—she loves to chat with book people!

Givewawy (US/Int)

Ms. Larrieu is giving away one e-copy of Anchored (delivered via Kindle gift) to a commenter on today’s post! To enter to win, leave a comment below letting us know what you think about Susannah and the deleted scene, then fill out the Rafflecopter below.

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