You’ve seen the cover reveal, now experience the tour!

The urban fantasy about a half Jinn is back on the blog with the official blog tour.

As part of the blog tour am hosting a guest post from author Janeen Ippolito about one of the meaty themes explored in her story.

But first for those who may have forgotten, a refresher on what the book is about.

So I accidentally killed a shifter. On purpose.

With genie powers I shouldn’t be able to use, thanks to my curse-mark.

In my defense, the damn grizzly was threatening civilians and might have been a vampire as well. Pittsburgh is safer without him. Only the Fae court doesn’t believe my story, and the shifters are out for blood.

Now I’ve lost my job as a romantic investigator, and I’m on death row. My only hope is an oddly outgoing vegetarian vampire lawyer who seems strangely familiar. Too familiar. 

Almost like we’ve met before, and this whole thing was a set-up to take us both down.

Wishing won’t get us out of this mess.
But my forbidden wish magic just might.

A snarky urban fantasy with a heart, some romance with heat (nothing graphic), and gleeful send ups of many tropes, all wrapped up with an otter-shifter in the bargain.

The book releases February 12, you can preorder it now for just 99 cents:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wishes-Were-Curses-Steel-Genie-ebook/dp/B07M743SN8

Add it to your Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43502789-if-wishes-were-curses

Now it’s time for our Be our Guest post from author Janeen Ippolito:

Trusting When You’ve Been Cursed: Abandonment in If Wishes Were Curses

 When I first started writing If Wishes Were Curses, I knew main character Allis Evanenko had some issues relating to people deeply. But I wasn’t exactly sure why. Yes, her mother died from illness, but I knew Allis had grieved deeply and made peace with that. And Allis was always close to her half-brother Gideon. Their sibling bond is so tight that Gideon left his father’s otter-shifter family to stick with his sister. So why did Allis feel so haunted by this deep sense of loss? As a matchmaker she worked so hard for people to make meaningful connections with each other. Why was she unable to open up and trust others would be there for her?

Then I realized that Allis had been abandoned before she was born. Her Jinn father had abandoned her mostly-human mother as soon as he learned she was pregnant. Allis’s mother never learned the reason why. She just woke up, alone and at the mercy of the Fae court who were very concerned about the possibility of a half-Jinn child. Some of them even strongly urged Allis’s mother to abort the child for the Fae peace of mind. She refused and chose to raise Allis on her own, with much Fae oversight, but little actual support. Moreover, the Fae insisted that Allis receive a curse-mark upon birth, blocking the majority of her magic and disabling her from any meaningful interaction in Fae society.

No matter how much Allis’s mother and brother assured her that she was wanted and loved, Allis grew up knowing that she was abandoned by not only her father, but also Fae culture in general. And while she fought for meaning in the church and clung to her brother, she still believed that the only way to survive was to remember that ultimately, she’d be alone. And that it was all her fault, just for existing. Since she could never fix her own problems, she could at least prove herself by fixing relational issues for others. Helping others find true love that works and stopping people from getting into bad relationships—or helping them flee bad relationships—brings her comfort in a way nothing else can. Even if people around her often scoff at her little mission as being “light” and “fluffy” as opposed to people who do “real, serious cop or investigative work.” She takes her work seriously, has a college degree in interpersonal studies, and has devoted herself to figuring out how people work. All while making sure no one knows how alone she feels inside.

Of course, I’m quite terrible to Allis, because in the story she’s arrested, and even her handful of friends appear to desert her. Enter Cendric Atelier, a vampire with a story of abandonment of his own. You’ll have to read the book to learn more about that but sufficed to say that they connect over a deep understanding of what it’s like to be left behind. And that shared experience can turn them into a powerful team—if they can overcome their own insecurities.

Maybe it’s my own extroverted side, but I love writing stories where people must join with others to defeat evil. Ensemble casts rule! And in Allis’s case, one key part of her personal journey is accepting that Cendric is there to stay—and so are her Fae friends.

One major song with this is Piece by Piece by Kelly Clarkson, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTMz6Nfhjg

Janeen Ippolito writes steampunk fantasy and urban fantasy, and creates writing resources, including the reference book World Building From the Inside Out and the creative writing guide Irresistible World Building For Unforgettable Stories. She’s an experienced teacher, editor, author coach, marketer, and is the leader of Uncommon Universes Press, a small traditional science fiction and fantasy publishing house. She’s also the cohost of the podcast Indie Book Magic. In her spare time, Janeen enjoys sword-fighting, reading, pyrography, and eating brownie batter. Two of her goals are eating fried tarantulas and traveling to Antarctica.

Website: https://janeenippolito.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janeenippolitounique/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaneenIppolito
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janeen_ippolito/