EXCERPT: Arcadia's Gift and Arcadia's Curse by Jesi Lea Ryan

By Jesi Lea Ryan

Most people who experience death don't live to tell about it. When sixteen year old Arcadia "Cady" Day wakes in a hospital after experiencing what can only be called a psychic episode, she finds her family in tatters. With her twin sister gone, her dad moved out, her mom's spiraling depression and her sister's boyfriend, Cane, barely able to look at her, the only bright spot in her life is Bryan Sullivan, the new guy in school. When Bryan's around, Cady can almost pretend she's a regular girl, living a regular life; when he's not, she's wracked with wild, inexplicable mood swings. As her home life crumbles and her emotional control slips away, Cady begins to suspect that her first psychic episode
was just the beginning...     Think high school sucks? Try being an empath who has to experience everyone else’s suckage on top of your own. (Literally.) In the months since her family life imploded and her psychic gifts began to arise, Cady has struggled to figure out how she can fit into her normal life without going crazy from the constant presence of emotional energy. Her grades have tanked. Her best friend is afraid of her. And she begins to have doubts about why her boyfriend, Bryan, is really keeping her around. But a chance meeting with another gifted girl online opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Unfortunately, this new world comes at an awful price.
Find The Arcadia Novels here: Amazon (Arcadia's Gift)/Amazon (Arcadia's Curse) AUDIBLE Audio Book of Arcadia's Gift

EXCERPT:

But another part of me understood how Cane felt and longed to comfort his sorrow away. Lony’s death was not his fault, and he’d had every right to break up with her if he wanted to. I never understood how they handled all of the stress from their bickering anyway. Perhaps it was due to the contact of our bodies making the emotional connection between us so strong, but I could feel how his guilt was tearing him up inside. I couldn’t be angry with him for hurting my sister. Not when he was hurting too. I reached my arms around his shoulders to pull him to me. He crumpled against me, burying his face into my shoulder. 
After a moment, my friendly hug turned into a different kind of embrace. The full length of him was pressed against me, trapping me between his muscled body and the steel door of his truck. Our breathing grew shallow, and I was too aware of our hearts beating in unison. For the second time that night, my traitorous body echoed the stirrings of another’s arousal. The heat of his growing passion flowed through me, awakening a need deep in my belly. My mouth dropped open in shock just as Cane leaned in and kissed me deeply. I couldn’t fight my body’s response to his hot mouth, faintly tasting of vodka. For one moment, I allowed myself to kiss him back, letting my tongue match the rhythmic movements of his, trailing my fingers down the strong plane of his broad back. The feedback of our completed circuit of emotions threatened to carry me away…until I remembered Bryan. I brought my fists up to push against Cane’s chest. 
“Stop!” I cried, twisting my body to get out from the jail of his arms. 
Cane snapped his head back in surprise as if just realizing what he did. The drunken glaze was completely gone from his eyes. He let go of me and stumbled back.

Author Bio:

Jesi Lea Ryan grew up in the Mississippi River town of Dubuque, IA. She holds bachelor degrees in creative writing and literature and a masters degree in business. She considers herself a well-rounded nerd who can spend hours on the internet researching things like British history, anthropology of ancient people, geography of random parts of the world, bad tattoos and the paranormal. She currently lives in Madison, WI with her husband and two exceptionally naughty kitties.
Stalk Jesi Lea here: Facebook/Twitter/Website/Blog

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