Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Blake Manor by Maghen Connolly


Blake Manor
Maghen Connolly

Genre: Supernatural Fiction

Date of Publication: August 23rd 2019

ISBN:  9781088498682
ASIN: B07W3QCQNQ

Number of pages: 407
Word Count: 90,938

Cover Artist: Michael Weick

Tagline: Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Book Description:

Be careful what you wish for, you just might find it...

Kyra Blake just wanted the answers to who her mother was before she was born. What kind of family she was a part of. With her mother's untimely death years ago, she thought those were answers she would never receive, until a phone call changed her life. She discovers from one phone call, three things. A town deep in the backwoods of Maine that her mother was raised in. Within that town a house she never knew her family owned. All left to her by an uncle she never knew existed. Finally, she will discover, along this trip to the deep parts of Maine, not only who her mother was, but who she truly is as well. She will learn of a legacy that she cannot escape, one covered in mystery, shrouded in blood, and fated from the moment she took her first breath.

She wants answers, well she's about to get them. The only question is, can she live with what she discovers...

Within the halls of Blake Manor, secrets will feed off of you. Family secrets will be discovered, and the past is never at rest, it's just been waiting for Kyra to come home...


Excerpt:

Prologue

20 years…
It's always been this way. 20 years of laying my head on my pillow at night just to wake up the folliwing day exhausted and confused . A feeling of melancholy always consuming me. It’s getting to the point that I am begging to question what’s real and what’s just in my mind. It all comes down to those damn dreams.
20 years I’ve dreamed of her. I don’t know her name or who she is, or if she’s even real. But I know the gentle touch of her hand as it reaches for mine. Know the power of her gaze as she uses there full weight to stare at me. Never once looking threw me but looking at me as if we are long forgotten friends. I smile at her as I always do and extend my hand towards her. Knowing that she will take it as she always has before.
20 years and we’ve never spoken, not one word. We just stand frozen before one another, not being able to say the things were really feeling. Or put into words the randomness and oddness of this recurring dream that we both seem to share. I slowly feel myself being pulled back into the world of the living. Into the world of reality and being pulled farther away from her. The one place even in silence I feel completely myself. How I hate to leave her.
She smiles at me as I begin to fade and soon wake. I can feel it almost cut into the air like a sharp blade. The change she looks behind her for the first time into the nothingness surrounding us. She turns back. Whipping her strawberry blonde hair out of place. Fear grips her angelic features I can see the fear in her Light green eyes.
‘Help Me’’.
Her voice cut through the quiet and makes me suck in a shaky breath. So beautiful she sounds even more so then I could have ever dreamed. This would be beautiful if I didn’t hear the complete terror in her voice.
I stand frozen I try to speak but it’s as if my lips are glued shut. She walks over towards me and places her hands on either side of my face. I avert my gaze for what felt like a mere moment but who knows how long it actually was. I see a mark on her wrist and try to adjust my eyes to get a clearer look. A Blue butterfly spreading out its wings is burned into her Right wrist.
A tattoo?
‘’Help me.’’.
She pleads with me. Her eyes begin to tear I can see the look in her eyes begging me to understand what she’s trying to say. Instead however I am left more confused than ever.
‘‘Say Something!’’.
She screams.
I look right into her sea green stare truly look. For the first time my lips start to unlock.
‘‘How do I help you? I don’t even know who you are. You’re not real just a figment of my imagination. I wish you were real after all this time but you’re not you can’t be so you see I can’t help you. Because you don’t exist.’’.
She smirks at my reply.
‘‘Nothing is a dream Alex.’’
Suddenly the room we are standing in begins to take on a more definite shape and as my eyes begin to adjust more to the light I notice a pale hand gripping her left shoulder.
I walk closer towards her
Suddenly the Hand falls from her shoulder and a woman steps forward.
Looking no older than me. She looks at me with identical Emerald eyes as the girl I have dreamed about for as long as I can remember. She looks at my Dream girl and smiles a kind knowing smile. Suddenly I am overcome with the Feeling of love and joy and something bitter … Something I can almost taste on my tongue. Regret. She steps closer to me and grabs my hand into hers I can feel the heart radiating from her grip like a hot iron I moan slightly at the pain. I try to remove my hand from hers but she’s got it tight within her own. She looks at me and smiles like a mother would to a beloved child.
She opens her mouth to speak and I am taken aback by how much she sounds like the young woman next to her who I feel I have known all my life.
 ‘’ She’s coming home. You’ll know her the second you see her’’
She turns her head looking at the young woman and then back at me
‘’ But the problem is she won’t know you so you’ll have to help her to remember’’.
‘‘Remember what?’’.
She smiles at pats my hand reassuringly.
‘’ Help her to Remember You. Help her to remember who she truly is. Help her to Remember me. But most importantly keep Her Safe Alex. We're all counting on you to keep her safe...? To help her whatever comes ‘’
‘’ Who is Counting on me you and who else?’’
For the first time I can see true sadness come over her beautiful features She scowls and downcast her eyes and I can feel the true pain whatever this is overtaking her.
She looks back up at me
‘’ I hope for your sake and hers you never find out that answer. Just promise me you will do as I say.’’
I didn’t even hesitate.
‘’ I promise.’’
I can feel myself slowly waking up being pulled awake the image in front of me begins to fade my dream girl has disappeared completely … All I can see now is the face of this Other woman I hold on as hard as I can.’’
‘’ Wake up Alex’’
‘’ What’s her name?’’
She turns around also noticing she is no longer with us. I see a tear slide down her cheek.She turns back at me and right when I think I can no longer hold on I hear her answer my question with a whisper.
‘’ Kyra’’.
I sit bolt upright in bed trying to catch my breath and still my raging heart. None of that has ever happened before. We’ve never spoken or asked the other for any type of help. It was just a silly crazy dream I try to tell myself. Like all the other nights before. My mind is once again playing cruel tricks on me.
At least that’s what I tell myself. Suddenly I hear light pounding on my window Paine. I stand and slowly walk over to my window and throw open the blinds. What I see shocked me and run's my blood cold. I pinch myself almost certain it’s another dream. I pinch myself and soon realize it can’t be I’m awake.
Something is definitely wrong in my small town of East brook Maine. A lot of crazy things have happened here in the past but what I see before me is certainty a first. Waking up to a snowstorm in the middle of July.
Needless to say I grabbed my car keys and got the hell out of there. I ran not walked to my car and drove pajamas and all to the only person in the world that would understand this. The only person in the world that wouldn’t think I’m crazy. My sister.
‘What the hell is going on either I’m losing my mind which is a very real possibility I admit. Or something really wrong is happening in East Brooke and I know in my bones it has something to do with her.
The girl with the Deepest green eyes I’ve ever seen.
The most beautiful Strawberry blonde hair.
What really takes the cake is her tattoo a butterfly. It’s the first solid thing to make me believe she’s real and not some crazy figment of my imagination. Just when I think I’m over analyzing the situation. Hale the size of a basketball breaks my windows. I swerve almost completely off the road.  Oh yes something is definitely wrong in East Brooke and no matter what I’m going to find out what it is.
And as much as I’m still in the dark about all of this I have something now that I never had before. Something to hold onto when my mind begins to think it’s all a dream.
I have a Name…
Kyra.
About the Author:

Maghen Connolly is a writer from New York born and raised in Manhattan’s West Village with her mother, father, and a very cute cat.

She has always been an avid reader. She loves to read anything she can get her hands on, but her favorite genre is mystery. She’s also a huge horror fan having grown up on all the classics. The love of the scare has helped her create some of her most interesting and complex characters over the years.

She now lives in Queens with her fiancé and 2 rescue cats, Shadow and Shade.  She spends her days writing, over analyzing, watching horror movies, spending time with family, and eating some of the best food New York City has to offer.





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