Q & A with author LeeSha McCoy.

Good morning Diverse Romance Readers!

Today, we had a chat with author LeeSha McCoy about her paranormal romance, The Perfect Waters. Enjoy this short interview!

Interview question #1: Describe what your hero and heroine would consider the perfect date night.

O’Asia’s and Prince Zale’s perfect date night would be spent at the Mother Corals in the water kingdom of Mira, or in The Waterforest, dining on fresh shellfish.

Interview question #2: What does your hero love about your heroine and what does your heroine love about your hero?

Zale loves how fiercely O’Asia cares for all life in the waters. He also loves her vibrant pink tail and how her platinum markings glow against her dark skin. O’Asia loves how pure Zale’s heart is, and how he is always so supportive when he teaches her her sorcery. She also loves his violet eyes and the gold markings over his incredibly broad chest.

Interview question #3: For your hero and heroine, was it love at first sight or lust at first sight?

A little of both for Prince Zale, but this question is trickier to answer for O’Asia. I don’t want to give away any of the story for anyone who hasn’t read it yet, but if I was forced to choose one, it would be love at first sight because of the situation they met in.

A Prince, a thousand-year-old Blue Whale, and the race against time to find the single most important thing to the waters’ survival.

For the waters to be perfect, an Odessa must connect to all life within them, and if the reigning Odessa loses her life, her sorcery is always passed to her first-born daughter.

Only, the daughter the waters know of, is not the first.

Asia’s mother went missing eighteen years ago and since then, Asia has feared the one thing she always dreamt of working with.

The ocean.

So instead, she’s been living life as a lab tech. She doesn’t exactly love her job, but it pays the bills and she has money to spend on nights out with her girls. However, her most recent night out ends up with her gaining markings on her skin and losing body parts…

Prince Zale is son to Emperor Ecthelion and Empress Océane. They rule Ocêllus, also known as the Royal Waters. News quickly arrives of O’Marilla’s murder and the waters become a state of panic.

Darya, the daughter of O’Marilla, arrives in Ocêllus to take her position as Odessa but unawares to anyone, she is not the first-born daughter.

A single member of royalty and Priestess Noelani are always pulled to the next Odessa, but so are the murky sea witches who use hounds to do their dirty work. So, with a woman up on land unawares to how important she is, the hunt for her begins before she gets into the wrong hands.

Who will find her first? And will Asia be able to find the one thing she needs in order to claim her sorcery so she can make the waters perfect again?

Buy link: https://amzn.to/2UyJE4R

*WARNING: ADULT LANGUAGE*

I squint my eyes open and moan. I have the worst hangover of my life, and my mouth tastes like shit. To say I’m hanging is an understatement. As I suspected, I never made it to my bed either; I’m on the floor in the doorway. I feel so thirsty, and as I manage to get to my feet, I feel woozy, too.

Whoever the f*ck drugged me better make sure I never find them.

I walk to the kitchen and think about all the crazy shit I dreamt last night. I shudder when I remember the nightmare of my mother. That shit still hurts to think about now. Everything I saw felt so real. So real.

I grab a glass off the side and fill it with bottled water from the fridge, but I feel my stomach reject it when I raise it to my lips. I smell it and realise there’s something in this water that smells off. What the fuck is this about now? I drank this water yesterday and it was fine…

I look at the kettle and poor some of that into a glass instead. My stomach doesn’t reject it when I smell it, so I down the whole glass. And another, and another…

I set more to boil and then head for the bathroom, but I catch sight of myself in the hallway mirror and fall back on my a** before scrambling into the corner of the hall. Why am I still seeing these trippy a** markings on my skin?

I look down at my pu**y and shriek again when I see that it’s still the same as last night.

How drugged am I?

I lean my body into the view of the mirror at the other end of the hall but quickly sit back against the wall again. Oh, Lawd… Tears flood my eyes before they fall heavily down my face. What am I gonna do?

I bury my head in my hands and close my eyes. The memory of the dream about my mother fills my mind again…

Mom cries out in agony as she slumps against the corner of her water filled room, slowly slipping to the floor. The small black eel in her hand quickly swims away, out through an open window so rapidly, I can barely follow it. I look back at mom; her blue eyes close and her long hair floats around her face, partially covering it. She has a mermaid tail with a beautiful fanned fin at the end, but her multicoloured scales suddenly begin to drain of their vibrant colour. “Forgive me,” she says, and then she begins to disintegrate into gold particles, and they dissolve into the water…

I whimper a sob, because this time, I feel as though what I’ve seen isn’t a dream. As crazy as it sounds, I feel as though this actually happened, and I cry my heart out.

“Mom…”

All these years, I thought there was a chance she might come back, but it’s like I feel as though that won’t ever happen now.

She’s gone.

Oh, Mom… what happened to you?

I cry so hard, my grief tearing me apart from the inside out. My heart aches with a loss so heavy, it’s hard to breathe.

What if everything else I’m seeing is real, too? What if those underwater kingdoms do exist?

I wipe my face and shake my head. Listen to yourself… I’m losing it…

But these markings on my skin aren’t going away…

I crawl to the mirror and look at myself again. Everything I saw last night is still the same. The markings on my chest, the slits between my legs, the dots on both my temples. I feel my hips and those slits are still there, too.

This shit is actually real!

I close my eyes and the voices appear inside my head again. I can hear my neighbours talking in their apartments. Each word is so clear, it’s as if I was in the same room as them. I open my eyes and gasp. My eyes are blue. I recoil; the markings down my chest have changed, too. There are now three swirls along with lines that kinda join the symbols.

I jump when I hear my phone ringing. I reach beside me and find my bag under my crumpled dress.

It’s L’chelle.

“Hello?”

“What the f*ck, sis? What happened to, ‘you’d text when you got home’? We’ve been worried out our minds. Why haven’t you replied to the messages in the group?”

“I’m sorry, I literally just woke up. I think someone spiked my drink.” Although, I don’t know if that’s true anymore.

“What the f*ck? Are you serious?”

“Yeah. I started tripping out. I needed to get home.”

“How you feeling now?”

“Better. I’ve drunk a shit load of water since I woke up, though.”

“Who the f*ck does that? Have you called the police?”

Police? In my state? “No. I’m okay now, and nothing bad happened. I just need to be more careful who I accept drinks from in future.”

She sighs. “Alright. I’ll let the rest of the girls know you’re okay, but you need to send a message on there, alright? And don’t do that shit again.”

“I won’t. Trust me.”

“Alright, sis. Get some rest and eat something to soak that shit up. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Chelle. I will.”

I hang up and look in the mirror. I need to sort myself out. I look a damned mess.

We have two amazing treats for you this month. This month, you could win an eBook from author Suzette Riddick and you could win a swag pack filled with awesome goodies from author Tamika Brown.

Giveaway: bit.ly/AprilGiveaway2020