Guest Guilty Pleasure by Rachel Firasek - Take That Cookie and Die

Today's Guilty Pleasure post is hosted by author Rachel Firasek. I was first introduced to Rachel Firasek when I was asked to review her other book Piper's Fury. Review here. Since I've followed along with Rachel on Twitter and I am happy to have her take over my blog today. Please give a warm welcome to Rachel Firasek. 

Take That Cookie and Die 

Growing up in my neighborhood meant there weren't many extras. The 80's recession left many of us depending on each other and Mom and Dad with two too many mouths to feed. Nope, this isn't going to be sappy--promise. 

At age seven, there weren't many jobs that I could do, but we had a sweet landlord who had an orchard. My parents were too proud to let him bring us a gift when he collected rent, so he put us to work for a quarter each. Sounds like child labor, right? 

He'd give us these cool pecan tools and my five year old brother and I would spend hours collecting pecans in his orchard. (We played a lot, too.) When Mr. Landlord finished chatting with the tenants, he'd give us each a quarter and pat us on the head for a job well done. Score! Money! Time to eat!

We took our bounty and walked the three houses down to the corner store. Our cash bought us a small pack of cookies and a soda pop. I'll never forget spreading those cookies on the kitchen table, our two small cups filled to the brim with the sweet soda and a big smile on our faces. Now, because of our rather poor background. My brother was a terrible theif of food. He'd take any extra sweet, hide, and eat it where no one could find him. (Promise, we weren't really starving.) 

So, my guilty pleasure is eating the last bite. I know that sounds nuts, but I used to let him have that last little morsel or cookie/cake/chip/etc... And now that I'm an adult and make plenty to keep everyone from going without, I've developed this phobia of someone taking the last bite. It's a sign of how crazy I really am, I know. 

You'll never be able to picture the look on my sweet hubby's face when I morphed into Raetroll and nearly bit off one of his fingers when he tried to snatch the last Santa cookie on our first Christmas together. "Take that cookie and die." To this day, he warns the children to always leave me the last bite. ")

How about you? How do you feel about that last delicious bite? Can you let it go or does your family & friends fear for their fingers like mine? 

Rachel Firasek grew up in the South, and despite the gentle pace, she harassed life at full steam. Her curiosity about mythology, human nature, and the chemical imbalance we call love led her to writing. Her stories began with macabre war poems and shifted to enchanted fairy tales, before she settled on a blending of the two.

Today, you’ll find her tucked on a small parcel of land, surrounded by bleating sheep and barking dogs, with her husband and children. She entertains them all with her wacky sense of humor or animated reenactments of bad Eighties dance moves.

She’s intrigued by anything unexplained and seeks the answers to this crazy thing we call life. You can find her where the heart twists the soul and lights the shadows…

Piper’s Fury: A Passion of the Soul Novel By Rachel Firasek

Crescent Moon Press
Piper’s Fury: A Passion of the Soul Novel
By Rachel Firasek
Editor Heather Howland

Book Blurb:
It's an empath thing...
Using your "powers" to help the Dark Hills Police Department hunt down serial killers doesn't leave much time for dating. Not that Piper Anast is complaining. The last thing she needs is some guy brushing up against her and pumping his pornographic thoughts into her head.

When she meets Bennett Slade, a sexy, tormented vampire, Piper stumbles headlong into a telepathic connection with his missing daughter. She can't leave the kid to the evil surrounding her unwanted visions, nor can she resist her draw to Slade. He's the first guy she's been able to touch vision-free in, well, forever.

As she and Slade close in on the evil creature holding his daughter, Piper's powers morph into a deadly fury. To save Slade's daughter-and herself-Piper must face down demons she never knew she had and trust the one thing she keeps from everyone.
Her heart.

Piper’s Fury had me hook, line and sinker at the prologue. I love when a good prologue grasps the reader and you have a burning desire to click the pages forward. The prologue starts the reader off when Piper was a child and a catastrophic event occurred that shaped the rest of Piper’s life. From the moment Piper whispered the word, “Momma?” I was done for.

What an engaging and interesting paranormal story Rachel Firasek created. There is a saturation of vampire books out there right now so when I first received Piper’s Fury to review, one of my first reactions was “not another vampire book”. However Piper’s Fury is not just another vampire book. In fact as clever as the vampire storyline is, it is rather secondary to the exciting and suspenseful search for a missing child. Learning all of the different aspects of Piper’s life and abilities was a thrilling page turning journey. Her empath powers are very well described and I loved that Piper was using her abilities to help the police force.

Many times throughout Piper’s Fury I questioned how or why or didn’t understand the character emotions. Why do men lust after Piper? Why is she so angry all the time? Why would she go there alone? How can that be? Etc. But one of the things I truly loved about Piper’s Fury is that the reader’s questions eventually get answered. It’s like all the puzzle pieces come together and it all fits perfectly. Like all great mysteries there is such a satisfaction when it all makes sense.

The heat factor in Piper’s Fury is low but that is not meant as a negative. The pace for intimacy was well matched for the story.

Rachel Firasek has done an awesome job setting up for a book two. There are unresolved issues that you want to learn more about and with the introduction of Slade’s daughter Evie, there are many curious directions the author could take. I believe that once a few of these books gets published, Rachel Firasek will have a fan following.