THURSDAY TEASER - Nicole Murphy

Not all of us are looking for that perfect man. Taylor Wilson certainly isn’t. Her job is everything to her. But this is a romance and that means Taylor’s world is about to be turned upside down.

The Right Connection is my self-published fantasy romance novella. It’s a story that’s been with me for a long time, and I’m really happy to finally give Taylor and Roden their moment in the sun.

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The Right Connection – blurb

Time after time, the missions to retrieve the stolen children have failed. This time, rules will be broken in a last-ditch attempt.

Taylor Wilson is a respected soldier in the Land Corps with a terrible past that has scarred her. When she’s offered the opportunity to work on the mission to save the children taken by the socolapede, Taylor’s ready to jump at the chance until she finds it means she has to connect with a man.

At first, Roden is everything she feared—brash, overbearing, uncompromising. But as she comes to learn of his honour and strength, Taylor not only loses the fight against connection, she loses her heart too.

Can she form a connection with Roden strong enough to save the children? And if they succeed, do the two of them have a future together?

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Excerpt

The room was plainly furnished, but not with anything professional—instead what sat before her was a steel table, with two padded chairs on a brown rug. Two servings of a hearty meal of meat and potato sat on the table—real food, not the Land Corps rations that was served in the cafeteria.

“All for us. Special, aren’t we?”

Taylor spun around and could barely see a figure standing in the shadows. Whoever it was, they had the advantage over her for they could see her clearly.

“Buttering us up. Nice.” The man moved from the shadows into the dancing light provided by the candles.

Taylor hoped her face remained expressionless. This must be Roden. He was huge; a head taller than any man Taylor had ever known and heavily muscled. There was not an ounce of fat on him, as evidenced by the leanness of his cheeks. His face with its pointed nose and grey eyes reminded her of a wolf; strong and unwavering in his confidence. His head was bare of hair and the skin of his scalp was criss-crossed with scars. Looking over his uncovered arms, she saw more scars. He had not survived his fights unscathed.

Taylor was suddenly aware that his success as a fighter owed as much to his physical intimidation as to his skills. She looked again into his eyes and saw the determination there, and also a certain aloofness. She was supposed to control this man? Better luck controlling the stars.

“What do you mean?”

A small crease appeared between Roden’s eyes. “The meal.” He gestured to the table and she turned to look at it. “Trying to get us on side early, so we won’t automatically reject each other.”

“What?” Not incredibly intelligent, but Taylor couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“As they’re seemingly so concerned about this, let’s get a few things straight right now.” As Roden spoke, he crossed his arms across his chest.

Taylor was flummoxed by his easy confidence. “What things?”

“About how this is going to work. Particularly as you’ve never connected with a man since the—let’s call it the incident, shall we?”

Taylor wasn’t sure what shocked her more—that he knew about it or that he called it what she did.

Roden took advantage of her speechlessness to continue. “I’m sure that means that you really don’t trust men when it comes to connections and you’re intending to control me like a puppet, while you keep yourself to yourself.”

How had he known what she was thinking?

Roden wasn’t finished talking. “Now I want to tell you how things will really be. I need you to complete the mission but you will never control me. Be prepared to work with me as a partner and we’ll get through this. Try to be my boss and I’ll do it by myself.”

Taylor blinked several times to assure herself that she really was awake and that she had in fact heard the words just spoken. “And how do you as a fighter plan to go ahead in a mission without a soldier?”

His next words had her wishing she had studied him as thoroughly as he had her. “I trained as a soldier, went to within a month of graduating. I may not be as good as you, but I can send my mind if I need to. I can get by without you. I can just do it better with you, which is why I agreed to this connection. So that’s the way it’s going to be, soldier. We’ll develop a close enough connection to do this, but it will be on my terms or it won’t happen at all.”

Without waiting for Taylor’s reply, he sat down and began to eat. Taylor stared at the back of his head. She could not believe a fighter had spoken to a soldier like that. She could not believe a fighter had gone within a month of graduation as a soldier. She could not believe she would not be the one in control of this connection.
She wondered what to do, how to handle the situation. Training had never taught them how to deal with a fighter that wasn’t open to connection. It just wasn’t thought possible.

Taylor marched around the table so she was looking at Roden, but did not sit down. “I don’t believe you.”

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You can win a free copy of The Right Connection (your choice of electronic format) by commenting below. Best of luck!


Nicole Murphy has been a primary school teacher, bookstore owner, journalist and checkout chick. She grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin; spent her twenties discovering Quick, Lindsey and Deveraux and lives her love of science fiction and fantasy through her involvement with the Conflux science fiction conventions. Her urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai is published in Australia/NZ by HarperVoyager. She’s just commenced a new venture, In fabula-divinos which is aimed at mentoring up-and-coming writers. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website 

Where can you win a copy of Nicole's new book? You can win a free copy of The Right Connection (your choice of electronic format) by commenting below. Best of luck!

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Thanks so much for dropping by today Nicole! I love the sound of your new book..congratulations!