The Pain Season (Covalent Series #2)
by Libby Doyle
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction Romance
ASIN – B01M0ISS3Z
ISBN – 978-0-9972985-3-6
Publisher – Fairhill Publishing LLC
Release Date – October 31, 2016
ON THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX, ZAN O’GARA’S LIFE WILL CHANGE.
Tonight’s the night. Rainer Barakiel is going to tell me all his secrets. I thought I’d be excited, but I feel like someone shoved a knife into my gut.
Heh. Fitting, considering I met Rainer because of his expertise in edged weapons. The daggers used in that ritual sacrifice became our best lead thanks to him. What kind of omen is it, that I met the love of my life because someone found a human spleen in the bushes?
I didn’t expect someone like him. When he opened his door I couldn’t talk, I was so stunned. God, how I flirted with him. Hell of a way for an FBI agent to act. This whole relationship is a hell of a way for an FBI agent to act. I didn’t want to face that he was hiding things from me.
What if he has something to do with the murder?
I’m being paranoid. He’s denied being a criminal and I believe him. I don’t see how my instincts could be so wrong. He can’t be bad. He can’t.
He’s hiding things from me, but he loves me. I feel it. Maybe he didn’t expect to fall in love with me, but he did, and now he wants out. He’s going to confess, leave it all behind. For me.
C’mon, O’Gara. Get ahold of yourself.
I wonder, after he tells me all his secrets, will this become a wacky story we love to tell? Or a story I tell only to myself, alone in a stale-smelling apartment, stewing in pain? The story of how my heart got damaged beyond repair.
WARNING: This book contains foul language, violence, and explicit sex. Adults only, please. Although not a cliffhanger, this is not a stand-alone novel. The story begins in The Passion Season and will continue in The Vengeance Season, arriving in 2017.
Review:
I had the chance to read and review The Passion Season back in May and as you can imagine I have loved every word of it. So it comes to no surprise to anyone that I was so deeply touched when Libby asked me to read and review book 2 The Pain Season.
As you can imagine I was thrilled and I dove deep into the book the moment I got my hands on it. though I had to deal with boxes, movers and a new apartment looking like a hurricane went through it, I still managed to only put it down once and that was just to sleep.
I will be straight, the book is aptly named, my gosh my heart was broken pretty much the first 2 thirds of the book and I was so so sad torn between wanting to give Barakiel a hug or throttle Zan. Though I do not want to give it all away, we start this book where Zan pretty much discovers Barakiel is a Covalent, she freaks out breaks up with him and runs. The rest well stems from there, thus the title and me saying that I was so sad.
Though quite a lot of things happen in the Covalent realm and on earth, I thought that Libby handled Zan and Barakiel’s struggle and pain so beautifully. Not that enjoyed it in any way but it was really nicely done. Out of the 2, I think Barakiel was the one who suffered the most and I was hurting for him the most.
I do not recall if this was meant to be a trilogy or more, but it is really a fantastic second book and is setting everything up for the next one. My question would be when will it available as I am sure all the readers who like me read both The Passion and The Pain Season will be dying to see how the story ends.
On a side note, can I say that I got to love Pellus more and more in this book?
There is also a special mention to the badass Commanders from the Covalent army, those ladies kick ass and it is really nice to see all that girl power!
So there you have it, remember that you need to read The Passion Season first to get the full effect and really love this book and series as much as I do. The writing is truly great, there are some amazing pieces of wonderful in the book and frankly it has the emotional gravitas that takes it to the next level.
Thank you so much Libby for the opportunity and I hope you will trust me again for book 3 of the series.
Excerpt – Autumnal Equinox – Chapter 1
Set up: At each change of seasons, Barakiel, a superhuman warrior and the male protagonist of the Covalent Series, is attacked by demons. At the solstice and the equinoxes a rift opens between dimensions that allows them access to Earth. The demons are the servants of his father Lucifer, who wants Barakiel dead. Here, he has just killed them all. All he want to do is get home to Zan, the love of his life. He plans to tell her what he really is, but he has this mess to deal with first
***
Finally, Barakiel severed the head of the last demon. He rushed to the two sets of damaged tracks in succession and bent the twisted rails as close to flat as he could get them, hoping this would make it easier for Pellus to repair them so that the trains would not derail. As a traveler adept, Pellus could manipulate the properties of matter and energy, but it was not easy to alter metal. It took time and a great deal of effort.
After Barakiel had smoothed the rails, Pellus signaled him with a flash of light. The warrior charged over to find the adept’s face creased with anxiety.
Balance help us. Pellus rarely looks worried.
“What in all the realms is going on?” Barakiel asked. “The other demons, did you see where they went?”
“They ran into the street and got into a truck.”
“A truck?”
“The false monks’ followers. I do not know how they knew we were here, but it must be them. They drove onto the highway.”
Two months previous, Barakiel had killed a group of men in France who had apparently worshiped his father. They claimed to be monks of the same order Barakiel had lived with centuries before, and who had witnessed one of his battles with the demons. He and Pellus discovered that these false monks had murdered Emanuel Morales, and that he was not the only human they had sacrificed to Lucifer. These men also trafficked in repulsive images of murdered and tortured women, making a sexual fetish of their suffering.
Compelled to kill them, Barakiel had paid a great price. In acting against his purpose and destroying the weak, he lost Balance and became weak himself. He would have died in battle if Pellus had not saved him.
The two Covalent knew the predator monks had followers in Philadelphia, but they had not succeeded in tracking them down. Now this. Barakiel darted his eyes from the tracks to the highway, unsure which was worse for the citizens of Philadelphia, a truckload of demons or a train derailment. He howled in frustration.
“Pellus, what should we do?”
“We need to pursue the demons, immediately.”
“But what about the tracks? Can you repair them?”
Pellus directed his penetrating stare to the west. Barakiel had keen eyesight, but it was nothing compared to the senses of a traveler adept, who could detect disturbances in air and light caused by objects moving miles away.
“A train is approaching. Around that bend, no more than five minutes from here. Not nearly enough time for me to restore that metal to its former state.”
“We have to do something! People may die if a train derails.”
“People will die, a lot of them, if those demons get loose in a neighborhood.”
“We have to do something,” Barakiel repeated. “Conceal me. I will force the train to stop. That will buy you time.”
“Not enough, I am afraid.” Pellus grimaced as he held Barakiel’s eyes. The warrior was about to dash off to the approaching train when the adept muttered, “Of course.”
“What?” Barakiel almost shouted.
“I will disrupt the electrical system. I can do it quickly. The humans will think it was caused by the vandalism. All the trains in the system will lose power, and you will stop the only train close enough to roll to the damaged tracks.”
Barakiel wanted to kiss him. Instead, he barreled off toward the oncoming train. He ran next to it, matched its speed, got a sturdy hold on the front and gradually reduced his pace, his muscles straining as the massive column of metal fought to jump his grasp. Whatever Pellus was doing caused a blinding arc of power to rise over the rail yard. Barakiel grinned. He let go of the train and spread his arms as the bolt of electrical energy shot right to him. For a moment, he luxuriated. Then he slowed the train as if it were a toy. He ran back to Pellus, his momentary elation gone as his frantic thoughts turned to the demons. He couldn’t imagine what his father would gain by siccing them on the population.
Then it hit him.
They are going after Zan.
A superhuman warrior from another dimension must win back the heart of the human woman he loves while he battles his father, the ancient and powerful Lord of Destruction.
When a courageous FBI agent discovers the love of her life is an alien warrior, she nearly loses her mind, but there are violent criminals to catch and he’s just the beautiful demi-god to help her.
An ancient alien warrior falls in love with a fearless FBI agent. He will do anything for her, but does she have the capacity to accept what he wants to give her?
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Is your book a HEA (happy ever after), HFN (happy for now), cliffhanger, sad/tragic, etc.
The Pain Season is HFN. The first book, The Passion Season, is a cliffhanger.
Can your book be read as a stand-alone book or do readers need to read previous books in the series to have the best reader experience with this book?
I think readers would have to read my first book, The Passion Season: Book I of the Covalent Series, to have the best experience. I did a lot of world building in Book I. In The Pain Season, I devote some space to reminding readers about Book I plot points, but the story is complex. It would be hard to take it all in without having read the first book.
About the Author:
Libby Doyle is the pen name of an attorney and former journalist who took a walk around the corporate world and didn’t like it. Considering she’s written an extravagant yarn filled with sex and violence, she thought a pen name would be prudent. She also thinks it’s kind of fun.
Libby grew up on the East Coast of the United States. She attended college in the 1980s and became immersed in the underground music scene. She met talented people and troubled people. She met people who taught her what it means to be your own person. In the 1990s, she went back to school to get a master’s degree in journalism. Before beginning work in her chosen field, an attack of wanderlust set her traveling. For all that Libby loves books, she believes nothing compares to the education of travel.
After her wanderings, she returned to her career. For more than a decade, Libby worked as a journalist, until her interests led her to law school. She kept her full-time job while attending law school at night, the most brutal experience she’s ever had. She cursed her own stupidity countless times as her body and mind became sick with exhaustion, but she’s glad she did it.
Libby knows she’s a lucky woman. She’s had countless adventures, memories that feed her imagination. She stood atop a hill in Connemara in a cold wind, watching sunlight sparkle off the pristine sea below. She crested a trail after a grueling hike to find the glory of the Continental Divide spread before her. She was followed by a howler monkey in a Mexican jungle, shared the midday meal with Buddhist monks in Korea, and got pummeled by an opponent in a martial arts test in Japan. She trekked for days among the Himalayas, mountains so high and timeless they made her feel completely insignificant.
She’s married to a man who is funny and kind and patient enough to listen to her chatter on about her characters. They’re not even real, but she feels like they’re her friends. She’s confident they’ll keep you entertained. Through her fanciful tale, she hopes they speak to you.