Secondhand Heart (34 page)
Authors: Kristen Strassel
Expected Release Date: November 2014
T
his Christmas isn’t about celebration for eighteen-year-old Kyndra, it’s about survival. Grieving the loss of her grandmother and struggling with the indifference of her family, Kyndra now splits her time between her dead-end mall job, her junkie ex-boyfriend’s bed, and the streets. Longing to be close to her grandmother one more time, she wanders into Christmas Eve mass and prays she’ll find the place she belongs. Home.
Aidan isn’t ready to let go of the past either, even though he’s had nearly three hundred years to do it. He chronicles the search for the reincarnation of his beloved wife as the vampire romance author Allison Duprois. Aidan knows the wife he mourns is out there, but fears writing their story is as close as he will get to her.
At Christmas Eve mass, he finally finds her. Alone, with no place to go.
Aidan brings Kyndra into his home, and gives her the safety, comfort and love she longs for. Though he gives her second chances she never thought she’d have, Kyndra still can’t get over Aidan’s mysterious past. Not to mention that he claims that he’s a vampire. Life alone on the streets is dangerous enough without handing her trust and love to the wrong person. Can Aidan break through the walls around Kyndra’s hardened heart to convince her that she belongs with him, forever?
Read other books by Kristen Strassel
Secondhand Heart is the book that changed everything for me, and helped me figure out the writer that I’m supposed to become. Even though the words came easily, I almost threw in the towel on this one many times. Once it was finished, I almost shelved it without showing it to another soul. It was also the book that solidified my decision to become a completely independent author.
Independent author is a horrible name for this process, as is self-published. There is no way I could ever do this by myself. Nor would I ever want to. You might write a book alone, but you publish it with a colorful cast of characters.
Autumn Hull, thank you for telling me what I knew all along was right, and helping me find my path. It’s prettier here. Julie Hutchings, Tammy Farrell, and Sara Chaudhary held my head above water during this transition. My beta readers—Jessica Evans, Eva Saur, and Lydia Aswolf—you all helped make this book sleek and shiny. Speaking of sleek and shiny, Hang Le starts every cover with the enthusiasm that makes me excited. The Twitterazzi---you know who you all are—thank you for making the writing process less lonely and more fun.
I have to thank my hometown of Plymouth, Massachusetts for being as comfortable and quirky as my favorite old sweatshirt, which I’ll probably be wearing the next time I run into one of you at the supermarket.
And of course, you. This is the end and you’re still reading. You are a bad ass.
Kristen shares a birthday with Steven Tyler and Diana Ross. She spends each day striving to be half as fabulous as they are. She’s worn many hats, none as flattering as her cowboy hat: banker, retail manager, fledgling web designer, world’s worst cocktail waitress, panty slinger, now makeup artist and aspiring author. She loves sunshine, live music, the middle of nowhere, and finding new things to put in her house.
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Secondhand Heart
Copyright 2014 Kristen Strassel
All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so through your retailer’s “lend” function. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected]
Cover images Copyright 2014
Cover Design by Hang Le
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