I hope you all enjoy the fantastic trailer and excerpt! I'm really excited to read Taste when it is released in May, I hope you are too.
Taste Blurb:At Barinkoff Academy,there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soonfinds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselvesnight students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluringboy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is bothirresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerousworld of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has otherplans.
When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, shebecomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of anancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realizeuntil it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the moreshe is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.
Author Bio:When Kate Evangelista wastold she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: enteredmedical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser,M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her university and neverlooked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of paper that says to theworld she owns a Literature degree. To make matters worse, she took Master'scourses in creative writing. In the end, she realized to be a writer, none ofwhat she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing. Plain and simple, honestto God, sitting in front of her computer, writing. Today, she has fourcompleted Young Adult novels.
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Song Credits:"Hunger" © Noelle Pico.
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Taste Excerpt
I mentally stomped on the intimidationtheir perfection brought into my mind and said, “Excuse me.”The group froze, startled by my words.The girls had their brows raised and the boys stopped mid-speech, mouths agape.They stared at me with eyes the shade of onyx stones.I smiled and gave them a little wave.The boy a step ahead of the restrecovered first. His stunning features went from shocked surprise to intenseinterest. He reminded me of a hawk eyeing its prey. I gulped.“A Day Student,” he said, his eyesinsolent and excited.Something about the way he said “DayStudent” made my stomach flip. “Excuse me?”They snickered. The boys looked at eachother while the girls continued to stare, muffling their laughter by delicatehands. I seemed to be the butt of some joke. “You broke the rule.” The boy’s grinturned predatory.The students formed a loose semi-circlein front of me. My gaze darted from face to face. Hunger filled their eyes. Theimage of lions about to chase down a gazelle came to mind. I mentally shook myhead. I was in the mountains not the Serengeti for crying out loud. I took a small step back and cleared mythroat. “Can any of you give me a ride back to the dorms?”The boy wagged his forefinger like ametronome. “Ah, that’s unfortunate for you.” One of the girls pinched the bridge ofher nose. “Eli, you can’t possibly—”“It’s forbidden, Eli,” another boyinterrupted, pronouncing the word “forbidden”like a curse. The nervous murmur at the pit of mystomach grew louder. Six against one. Not good odds. Instinct told me to cut mylosses and run. Bad enough I faced expulsion, now it seemed like weird,beautiful people who’d suddenly appeared on campus wanted to beat me up. No,scratch that. Judging from the way they studied me, beating me up wouldn’tsatisfy them. Something more primal prowled behind their looks. I definitely wasn’t going down withouta fight. Years of self-defense and hand-to-hand combat classes had me prepared.While other children from rich and important families got bodyguards, I gotdefense training. But I think my father meant for my skills to go up againstpotential kidnappers, not against other students who may or may not be crazy.Oh God! Maybe I stepped into a parallel universe or something when I reenteredBarinkoff. “None of the students are supposed tobe on campus,” I said. Then, realizing my mistake, I added, “Okay, I know I’mnot supposed to be here either. If one of you gives me a ride back to thedorms, I won’t say anything about all this. Let’s pretend this never happened.I didn’t see you, you didn’t see me.”“We’re not ordinary students,” Elianswered. “We’re the Night Students.”He’d said “Night Students” like thewords were capitalized. I didn’t know Barinkoff held classes at night. What wasgoing on here?Eli smiled with just one side of hismouth and said to the group, “She’s right, no one will have to know. We’re theonly ones here. And it’s been so long, don’t you agree?” The rest of them nodded reluctantly.“What’s been so long?” I challenged. Ifisted my hands, ready to put them up if any of them so much as twitched myway.“Since the taste of real flesh passedthrough my lips,” Eli said. He came forward and took a whiff of me then laughedwhen I cringed.“Flesh.” Yep, parallel universe. “Yes,” he said. “And yours smells so fresh.” Someone grabbed my shoulders frombehind and yanked me back before I could wrap my mind around the meaning behindEli’s words. In a blink, I found myself behind someone tall. Someone reallytall. And quite broad. And very male. I realized he wore the same clothes Eliand the other boys did. Not good. He was one of them. Although… I cocked myhead, raking my gaze over him. He seemed born to wear the uniform, like he wasthe pattern everyone else was cut from. My eyes wandered to long, layered,blue-black hair tied at the nape by a silk ribbon. Even in dim light, his hairpossessed a sheen akin to mercury. I looked down. The boy’s long fingerswere wrapped around my wrist like a cuff. His fevered touch felt hotter thanhuman standards, hot enough to make me sweat like I was standing beside aradiator but not hot enough to burn. “I must be mistaken, Eli,” the boy whoheld my arm said in a monotone. “Correct me. Did I hear you say you wanted to taste the flesh of this girl?”A hush descended on us. It had thehairs at the back of my neck rising. How was it possible for the atmosphere toswitch from threatening to dangerous? Unable to help myself, I peeked aroundthe new guy’s bulk. Eli and his friends bowed. They all had their right handson their chests. “Demitri, I’m sure you misheard me,”Eli said. So the guy standing between me and theperson who said he’d wanted to taste me was named Demitri. I like the sound ofhis name. Demitri. So strong, yet rolls off the tongue. Definite yum factor.“So, you imply I made a mistake?”Demitri demanded.“No!” Eli lifted his gaze. “I did nosuch thing. I simply wanted to show the girl the consequences of breakingcurfew.”“Hey!” I yelled. “Don’t talk about melike I’m not here!”Demitri ignored my protest andcontinued to address Eli. “So, you threatened to taste her flesh.” His fingerstightened their grip around my wrist. “In the interest of investigating thismatter further, I invoke the Silence.”All six students gasped, passingsurprised glances at one another.Before I could ask about what was goingon, Demitri yanked me down the hall toward the library. But why there? Oh,maybe we were getting my things. No, wait, he couldn’t have known about that.Everything was too confusing now.Eli and the others didn’t try to stopus when we passed them. Demitri’s cold command must have carried power.Handsome and powerful, never a badcombination on a guy. We reached the heavy double doors inseconds. He jerked one open effortlessly. I’d needed all my strength just tosqueeze through that same door earlier. To him, the thick wood might as wellhave been cardboard. I raised an eyebrow and mentally listed the benefits ofgoing to gym class.“Why are we here?” I asked after my curiosityoverpowered my worry. I’d almost forgotten how frightened I’d been right beforeDemitri showed up. I wasn’t above accepting help from strangers. Especiallyfrom gorgeous dark-haired strangers with hot hands and wide shoulders. Demitri kept going, tugging me along,snaking his way deeper into the library. I had to take two steps for everystride his legs made. I tried to stay directly behind him, praying we didn’tslam into anything. He stopped suddenly and I collided withhim. It felt like slamming into a wall. “Hey,” I said, momentarily stunned. “Alittle warning would be nice!”He faced me, and I gasped. His eyesresembled a starless night, deep and endless. Their intensity drilled throughme without pity, seeming to expose all my secrets. I felt naked and flusteredbeneath his gaze.“You could have died back there,” hewarned.A lump of panic rebuilt itself in mythroat.
