Book Spotlight: Strays by Garrett Leigh

Strays

(Urban Soul #2)

by Garrett Leigh

Release Date: March 27, 2017

Riptide Publishing

About Strays

Work, sleep, work, repeat. Nero’s lonely life suits him just fine until his best friend, Cass, asks him to take on a new apprentice—a beautiful young man who’s never set foot in a professional kitchen. Despite his irritation and his lifelong ability to shut the world out, Nero is mesmerised by the vibrant stray, especially when he learns what drove him to seek sanctuary on Nero’s battered old couch.

Lenny Mitchell is living under a cloud of fear. Pursued by a stalker, he has nowhere left to run until Nero offers him a port in a storm—a job at the hottest restaurant in Shepherd's Bush. Kitchen life proves heady and addictive, and it’s not long before he finds himself falling hard and fast for the man who has taken him in.

Fast-forward a month and neither man can imagine life without the other, but one thing stands in their way: a lifetime of horrors Nero can’t bring himself to share with Lenny. Or can he? For the first time ever, happiness is there for the taking, and Nero must learn to embrace it before fate steps in and rips it away.

Read my five-starred review of Strays.

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Purchase Links

Riptide Publishing

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An Excerpt from Strays

He’s here.

Lenny stumbled out of the restaurant and into the muggy night air. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but where would he go? His pockets were stuffed with the leaflets the police had given him, but what good were they now?

Despair washed over him. He dropped the leaflets onto a nearby bench and sat down. His back hit the dented metal with a thud that should’ve rattled his bones, but he felt nothing beyond the hopeless dread he’d lived with for so long. His trip to Kentish Town police station replayed in a loop in his head. “We need evidence, Mr. Mitchell.” Lenny had some now—but did he? What use was a clipping of his own fucking toenail? There might be fingerprints on the envelope. But Lenny was too far gone to catch the rationale before it slipped through his fingers. Too drunk, too scared, it didn’t matter, because whichever way he turned, he was fucked.

He’s never going to stop.

Lenny leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands. The world around him spun. His heart beat an ominous tattoo, and only the rum still swirling in his veins gave him any reprieve.

A car stopped in front of him. A door slammed. Familiar voices echoed in his head, but he didn’t look up. Couldn’t, even when someone called his name. The bench shifted as someone sat down beside him. Lenny’s pulse raced impossibly faster, and he braced himself for those dirty fucking hands finally touching his skin.

But they never came. Instead, warm fingers closed around his wrist, and a rough voice he’d heard somewhere before gently spoke his name.

“Lenny, mate? Do you need some help?”

About Garrett Leigh

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer, currently working for Dreamspinner Press, Loose Id, Riptide Publishing, and Fox Love Press.

Garrett's debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits, was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award-winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.

Cover art enquiries can be sent to blackjazzdesign@gmail.com.

Connect with Garrett

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Strays, one lucky winner will receive $25 in Riptide Publishing credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on April 1, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!

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