Life Cycle (Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy: Preternaturals Book 4) [Kindle Edition]

Zoe Winters (Author)

Book Description

If you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the Twilight series, you’ll love Zoe Winters’ paranormal romance series.

Gothic romance bestseller.

Life Cycle: The Preternaturals, Book 4

… Immortality can be a bitch

Cain: the first murderer... now the first incubus. And the most lethal. He’s killed too many women to count, luring them to his bed, feeding his dark urges, then taking their lives for their foolishness. He especially likes killing witches, one of the few beings dangerous to his kind. So killing Tam shouldn’t be a problem.

But there’s one thing he doesn’t know about her.

Tamara has lived nearly two thousand years, trapped by a spell of her own creation. An enemy and former lover is stalking her, intent on torturing her to take her magic. There is only one demon strong enough to release her from the curse and let her die for good... out of Jack’s reach. But will Cain honor her death wish, or keep her as his concubine forever? Eternity with a demon lover? He could be her darkest torment or everything she’s ever needed.

Zoe Winters’ Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Series: The Preternaturals

Enter a world of dark desire and dark magic where today’s hero is tomorrow’s villain... or vice versa. Unleashed passions between unlikely lovers rage against the backdrop of a world of conflict and infighting among the secret factions of the preternatural underworld.

Are you the villain if you’ve got good reasons? Are you the hero just because we’re rooting for you? Tormented alphas, charismatic and ruthless leaders, and the women torn and trapped between them, forced into situations they never should have had to face.

Amidst a world of ignorant humans, the demons (true immortals), vampires, and therians (shapeshifters) fight to keep their territories. The only humans aware of this world are the magic users: witches, wizards, and sorcerers who enjoy the ability to mix with the humans or the monsters depending on what suits their current purposes.

If the preternatural world is discovered and war breaks out, the humans have a chance... IF the magic users choose to cast their fate with their own kind.

Dark lovers you’ll meet in this series:

Luc: Another incubus. Taking this demon lover to bed is a touch safer. He’s grown a conscience from being trapped for fifty years via a curse that not only keeps him under house arrest but has reawakened his humanity. He’s learned the most dangerous thing in his immortal existence is an angry witch scorned. Still, a demon’s gotta eat, and there is only one woman that satisfies both the demon and man in him.

Anthony: The vampire king. Cold, ruthless, undead, and hard to like. Yet, all it takes is one human with amnesia, to soften his heart. More than anything, he wants to return to a time when Charlotte saw him for the man he is, instead of the monster she’s discovered. It soon becomes clear that the only way to protect a fragile human is if she’s claimed. Meanwhile, his deepest wish is to have his lover awakened from the memory loss that took everything... not just the memories he meant to erase.

Blood Lust (book 1) (Kept, Claimed, Mated)

Save My Soul (book 2)

The Catalyst (book 3)

Life Cycle (book 4)

Shorts:

Cat Fight

Dark Mercy

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Cain and Tam have that I hate you but I want to rip your clothes off kinda relationship. They fight and press each others button but they still want to get one another naked."  -- Awesomesauce Book Club

"...supernatural creatures in all kind to satisfy any paranormal romance lovers, a sexy and torn demon (incubi) king willing to do almost everything to satisfy his lust toward the main female character and a bad-ass chick willing to do everything to have what she wants and needs."  -- Proserpine Craving Books

From the Author

Life Cycle is the book I wanted to write from the moment I finished Save My Soul. Early on, I knew Cain was getting his own book. How could he not? He's my favorite incubus. I knew there were other layers to him and was excited to explore them.

But I didn't know who I was pairing him with, not for awhile. Since Tam was the best friend in Save My Soul, you'd think it would be an obvious choice, but it didn't occur to me nearly as early as it should have.

Part of the reason may have been that Tam was keeping some very big secrets about just how old she was. From me, the author! That little sneak. Once I became aware of that, it was obvious that she was supposed to be Cain's mate. After all, she kicked his ass once in Save My Soul. And a witch dropping Cain like he's a baby demon is no small thing. We can't just fluff that off with "she's a super witch".

I really should have known then that she was lying to me about her age. A lot of women lie about their age. Most of them just aren't that convincing at it, particularly when larger and larger spans of time are involved. But two thousand years? Tam... honey... what moisturizer are you using and who is your trainer? I want names!

Once I was into the rough draft of The Catalyst, I knew about Tam's little secret, and I was bursting at the seams to make it the subject of the next book... Cain's book. In addition to being Cain's "Save the Cat" book, The Catalyst gave me an opportunity to build some more love/hate between the demon king and the snarky very very old witch who doesn't look a day over twenty-five. God, I hate her.

It was also a perfect pairing because Cain doesn't trust witches. And with good reason.  He's watched Luc get cursed by one and trapped in a house. He's been cursed by one (and rescued by a werewolf). They're just bad news all around in his book. When you're that all-powerful, you don't often cavort with the one type of being that can magically seal you in a glass jar and bury you in the desert.

But Tam has the one thing Cain longs for in a mate... life experience. He just waited too long to take a mate. He was busy enjoying his hedonism, not wanting anybody or anything to really matter that much.

Demons can only take human mates. It's a soul exchange issue, and therians are off-limits because the results are so predictable. That's how they got the first vampire and Cain doesn't want a repeat of that.

Either way, a few hundred years of life experience (like many therians/shapeshifters) is nothing next to Cain's 8,000 years on one single time line. No wonder he's lonely. Tam is the closest thing he's getting in an eligible mate to someone who can even begin to understand him.

Despite how much he doesn't trust her witchy ways, he does like that she isn't afraid of him. She's got a strong mind that he can't just get into unless she lets her shields down. She isn't easy prey. She's his equal in more ways than he thought he'd ever find.

While writing this one, I didn't want it to end because I'd been waiting to write it for so long. There is a little bit of heaven stuff in this one as well. I got to explore some Jack-the-Ripper theories and ideas since Jack plays a role in the book. In fact, he's a major catalyst for things which happen in future books. He's quite the trouble maker, and just as old as Tam. (No wonder they never caught him!)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 339 KB
• Print Length: 258 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: IncuBooks (July 23, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008OCMEWI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #43,031 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! August 16, 2012

By Amber I @ AwesomeSauce

Format:Kindle Edition

Oh I have been waiting for Cain's story. A sexy incubus with a bad attitude, can kick some ass and is always pissing people off. That is so the kinda man I want to read about. And he was as yummy as I imagined!!

Cain and Tam have that I hate you but I want to rip your clothes off kinda relationship. They fight and press each others button but they still want to get one another naked. When Tam's past comes knocking on her door, Cain comes in to protect her. And this is where the fun begins.

I don't want to sit here and lay out the whole book. And that is what will happen if I try to just give you a piece of the puzzle. So I won't do it. But this book was amazing! We get to see a lot of the characters from the past books which include the sorcerer Dayne, cat therian Greta, the human Charlee, the Vampire King Anthony, the werewolf Cole, the succubus Jane, the incubus Luc and the witch but is kinda ghostly Anna. See how many awesome paranormals this series has to offer you.

Life Cycle is so far my favorite in the series. Cain and Tam sure know how to heat up the pages. Her wanting death by orgasm's and him wanting her to beg him to keep her just to mess with her mind, turns out a lot different then they ever expected. If you haven't checked out these books yet then you are missing out! I love them!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars About time Cain woke up! October 14, 2012

By Barbarina

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

It is Cain's turn in this book to find his just deserts with love and we are happy to see it. Again the worlds combine so that old characters join the new to expand our orbit as we travel in the land Withers creates for her readers. Some interesting things in this, Cain's strength to lead, Anthony's continuing blindness to the needs of people except for his mate, and the way it is the women that subtly ensure things run as they should, is well developed.
But, to be honest I did not enjoy this one as much as the previous novels and it is only the fact that she writes too well and the plot is too interesting that kept its rating up. There is a lack of something in this one, spontaneity perhaps, that needs to be addressed if the series is to continue to grow.

4.0 out of 5 stars Another great addition to all things paranormal.... May 21, 2013

By A. Fischer

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Another fun addition to the series. In this book Cain and Tam are coupled, I think they are a match made in heaven so to speak. Everything paranormal is given in this series, and a little of the past is intertwined in this book. I love the way Ms. Winters integrated a past horrific entity into this story giving it a twist you can sink your teeth into. I hope to see more in this series and get updates from more of the past character couplings. A great read for those who like all things paranormal.

More About the Author

Zoe Winters writes quirky and sometimes dark paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Her favorite colors are rainbow and clear.

She is known for her preternaturals series which combines romance front story with larger urban fantasy back story which develops over the course of several books.

Her world contains: demons, vampires, werewolves, werecats, and other shapeshifters, magic users such as witches and wizards, angels, and humans who are unaware of the magical world around them.

Her style is quirky and oftentimes sarcastic with plenty of banter between the hero and heroine. But though some of her works, particularly "Cat Fight" and "Kept" are largely tongue-in-cheek and campy, as the series progresses the snark is balanced by drama and emotion.

A villain of one book may be a hero in another or vice versa. But though some heroes may become villains, the love story of the couple is not compromised. In the preternaturals world being a villain is less about being pure evil and more about having conflicting interests from the other side.

The series theme could be summed up with: Everybody is the hero of his own story.

Zoe can be found at zoewintersbooks.com To subscribe to her newsletter, fill out the contact form.

Fun supplementary material for the preternaturals series can be found at theriantype.com