Sunday Tidbits: BoD

This book is just fun.

Beware of Dog, Lean Dogs Legacy Book Six, coming soon.  

#ReadingLife: Mr. Mercedes

 

Time to get caught up on posting about the books I've read so far this year. 

The first read of 2025 was Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King. Having exhausted the last of the OG Classic Kings that I hadn't yet read, I debated going back and doing a reread (which I quite enjoyed last year with It, and which was very helpful while I was writing LHM) of something, or venturing into some of his newer work. I had some...doubts, shall we say. King's focus the past few years seems to have been on political proselytizing on X and he's become the "Old Man Yells at Cloud" meme. So I didn't go for a new new release, but, rather, a newer one. I thankfully didn't dive head-first into a sophomoric X rant, but I also didn't venture into Classic King territory. 

Mr. Mercedes is the first installment of a crime thriller trilogy about retired detective Bill Hodges, his unlikely junior detectives, and the sadistic mass murderer who engages him in a game of virtual cat and mouse. The villain POV in this book is unmistakably King. But if not for that, and his name on the cover, I never would have guessed that Bill's story was penned by the same author. It took me the first half of the book to feel anything like a connection to our protagonist. The novel as a whole reads as a commercial thriller. The book is shorter, sharper, much more tightly focused than his early work. It's certainly a well-executed entry in the genre. 

What I missed, however, was the deep, lush, often-meandering sense of character and place that endeared his early work to me at a young age. I just can't help it: I crave that "something special" kind of prose that creates rich, slow-flowering garden landscapes of words. Even if they're terrifying and bloody gardens. 

I think if you don't care for King's doorstop novels, this will be much more to your liking. At this time, I don't feel especially compelled to read the rest of the trilogy, and think I'll see about a classic reread instead. 

Signed Books

I'm opening up sales of signed books again! I have several titles in stock, but will be ordering more of other titles, so now's the time to place your order if you'd like to purchase any of my books as signed paperbacks. (Shaman is the only title not available in paperback; I'll be adding the Hell Theory titles this weekend)

To order, email which titles you'd like, how many copies, and who you'd like me to make them out to, to my author email: authorlaurengilley@gmail.com. Printing has been a bit slow on Amazon's end, so I can't guarantee a quick turnaround, unfortunately. I charge Amazon list price for books themselves, plus a few extra dollars for shipping, depending on destination. 

The Fearless hardback giveaway is still ongoing and will end April 10th. I expect to start shipping after then. 

So send me an email with your order, and I'll invoice you via PayPal once I have your books in stock.

#ThrowbackThursday: Dartmoor Spinoffs

 

A sleepy Keeper joins me for this week's Throwback Thursday look at the Dartmoor spinoff series, Lean Dogs Legacy. I have a few new followers across various platforms, and reading order can get a little confusing with both series running concurrent of one another. 

Here's what first-time readers need to know: 

The Lean Dogs Legacy began on Wattpad. I returned to my fanfiction roots by posting Snow in Texas one chapter at a time while I was writing Dartmoor book five, Secondhand Smoke. I wanted to tell Colin's story, but didn't feel like it fit tidily into the main Dartmoor action, given he was sent to Texas to prospect, and given the overarching narrative unfolding in the main series. Thus, a spinoff series was born. 

Book one takes place in Amarillo, Texas, where an apprehensive Colin meets VP Candyman, and his sister, Jenny Snow. This is also where we first meet Fox, and eventually Michelle, Tenny, Eden, Axelle, Pongo, Melissa Dixon, Devin, Raven, and Toly (though Pongo and Toly first pop up in The Wild Charge, we don't get to spend any proper time with them until their books in this series). 

Each book takes place in chapters outside of Knoxville, Texas and New York so far, and the storylines stray a bit farther from the main club action in Dartmoor. Prodigal Son has strong spy/secret government elements, and Long Way Down is a police procedural/romantic thriller. They might be spinoffs, but the events of each book all contribute to the staggering Dartmoor finale that is Lord Have Mercy. 

I'll provide a link to the whole series, and below, I've folded the books into their proper reading order within the main narrative: 

Fearless
Price of Angels
Half My Blood
The Skeleton King
Secondhand Smoke
Snow in Texas
Tastes Like Candy
Loverboy
American Hellhound 
Shaman
Prodigal Son
Lone Star
Homecoming 
The Wild Charge 
Long Way Down
Nothing More
Lord Have Mercy
Beware of Dog (coming soon)

#TeaserTuesday: Don't Let Go

 

Remember the police procedural I mentioned on Sunday? The one I said I might post part of here just to throw it out into the universe? Well, consider this the wind up, and the pitch. 

Don't Let Go is currently sitting at 61,500 words, and despite lots of waffling, it seems like it would be a shame to abandon it with so much already written. Plus, I've grown attached to the characters, and already have a sequel planned. *ducks tomatoes* 

This is a contemporary novel set in Nashville, TN, that's half M/F romantic suspense, and half police procedural about a group of detectives struggling with personal problems against the backdrop of an assault against a celebrity author. After writing College Town, in which Lawson wants to be and is struggling to become an author, I decided to flip the script: this novel's central protagonist is an author who's hit it big, and has garnered a lot of ugly, unwanted attention in the process. She's attacked after a book signing in Nashville, and the local detectives set about solving the case while the media has a field day. Stuck in Nashville during the investigation, our author, Avery, becomes romantically entangled with the sexy district attorney in charge of taking her attackers to trial. Conflict of interest much? 

It's a whodunnit meets character-driven real-life drama, and I'm dropping the first five chapters here. Have a gander, see if you're interested, and leave me a comment. 😊 

*Fair warning, this hasn't been edited or proofed AT ALL, so here there be typos. 

1

 

An employee in a pin-bedecked ID lanyard claps her hands and then cups them around her mouth to yell, “Attention, shoppers! TBR is now closed! Please collect your final purchases and make your way to the register!”

Avery glances up from the page she’s signing with a start. “It’s ten already?”

“Yes,” her publicist, Trish, says with a gusty sigh and a fast check of her Apple watch. “Thank God.” She then turns a severe smile on the last fan in line that leaves the woman blinking and stepping back. That’s Trish: punctual, organized to a fault, a hell of a hard worker…terrible with people. “No offense, ma’am. We hope you enjoyed the signing.” She gives a little shoo motion with the flats of her hands.

Fearless Read-Along: Chapter Six

 

Chapter Six is a flashback to fourteen-years-ago, the drive-by incident that prompted Mercy being named bodyguard for the Teague ladies. Mercy fled New Orleans because the police started sniffing around the club, asking after the missing persons they were slowly starting to link to Mercy, but of all the chapters, he wound up in Tennessee thanks to a request from Ghost. Things were heating up with the Carpathians, and Ghost wanted to recruit strong, violent, unflinching brothers willing and able to take on the fight. Then the drive-by happened at Stella's, and, without argument from James, Ghost tapped Mercy as personal security for his girls. Maggie and Ava seemed to like him, and Ghost thought Mercy's seeming interest in Ava, the way he didn't ignore her or brush her off, was a good match. 

(Oh, how he'd come to regret that - but only in the short-term.)

This whole chapter is a flashback I included for the purposes of showing rather than telling. Life as the child of an MC officer is just different. Most eight-year-olds are worried about picture day, and their favorite outfits, and what their mom packed for lunch. Ava's worries are much more sinister, and though neither Ghost nor Maggie say so explicitly here, they made a decision early on to keep Ava safe, but not to sugarcoat the reality of their lifestyle from her. Ghost is all-in with the club; he's VP, and knows he'll someday be president, and he's not conflicted at all about being an outlaw. Likewise, Maggie is fully accepting of the club, and the life. Theirs is not a Jax-and-Tara conflict in which she's going to encourage him to walk away from all he's known and try to shield the children from it. As a couple, they're in, and so they've decided that a naive child is a child in danger. I never wanted to have a moral discussion about the ethics of teaching a child how to be an outlaw from birth; rather, this is the reality of their situation, and they're doing what they think is best to help Ava grow up within their world. 

Whether it's Sons of Anarchy itself, or biker books in general, the theme of clashing worlds seems to dominate the internal tension landscape. Hard-nosed criminals falling for civilian women. Maggie started out a civilian, sure, but I had no interest in telling a story that involved Ghost and Maggie clashing over how to raise a child. The way I laid it out in Fearless allows for a totally immersive reading experience, like stepping off a plane in a country in which you don't speak the language and learning on the fly. As we go deeper into Fearless, we'll see more of Maggie dealing with other Knoxville moms, often to hilarious effect. 

Mercy met Ava when he found her hiding in the chapel, but Chapter Six shows them getting to know one another. As a homeschooled kid who became a social outcast prior to joining the club, Mercy's not "too cool" to talk to an eight-year-old, and he finds her straightforwardness charming. When he says, "I never liked being lied to," the poor man has no idea how much his own beloved father lied to him. Ugh. I'm sorry, Mercy. It gets rough. 

But unlike Remy the elder, Mercy is VERY honest, and Ava latches onto that trait immediately. Her parents are blunt with her, but a lot of the other Dogs give her the brush-off in a well-meaning way. He's the first adult Dog to truly engage with her, and give her words any weight, so she gets attached fast and firmly. 

With regard to Stella's re: a Facebook question, Stella's is not based on a real cafe. I have an aesthetic fondness for restaurants that really put in the decorating effort, and I love perusing bakery cases, even if I can't eat anything in them. 

ICYMI 3/16

 

I feel like I ought to start making Sundays official catch-up, in-case-you-missed-it days. Today, I'm feeling incredibly thankful to have made it through last night's violent storm outbreak with no damage to people, animals, or property. We got lucky. 

Here's what's happening in my personal authorsphere:

1) I have a giveaway going on my Facebook page; I'm giving out five copies of the newly released hardback edition of Fearless. You can check this post for entry details. 

2) If you'd like to BUY a hardback copy of Fearless, you can find it here. 

3) If you own/work for an independent bookstore and would like to STOCK signed copies of Fearless (or any of my books), please email me at authorlaurengilley@gmail.com and I'll be happy to order, sign them, and send them your way!

4) I'm conducting a one-chapter-a-week read-along for Fearless. Each Monday, I do a write-up here on the blog, in which I reflect back on the writing process, and my artistic intentions with the book, and then readers can ask questions or discuss the chapter directly in the Read-Along Group on Facebook. 

5) I've got multiple projects going, which means I don't make massive progress on a lone project, but will end up with at least three books ready to go back-to-back. One of my projects is a standalone romantic suspense/police procedural that I'm waffling on. I have more than 60k words of it written, so it seems like a shame to abandon it, but I don't really know if it's something anyone would want to read. I might wind up sharing a few chapters here on the blog to get a feel for interest. Aside from it, I'm also working on The Winter Palace, a Sons of Rome betweener novella, Beware of Dog, Lean Dogs Legacy Book Six, and Avarice of the Empire, The Drake Chronicles Book Six. Which book are you most looking forward to? 

6) If you have a chance, and feel like doing so, Lord Have Mercy could use some reviews, either on Amazon or Goodreads. It would help boost the book's visibility. 

Tomorrow, we start the book club discussion for Chapter Six of Fearless, so be sure to join me here, on FB, or Instagram for that!