Monday, February 23, 2015

Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire by Rachael Stapleton





Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire
Temple of Indra Series
Book Two
Rachael Stapleton

Genre: Mystery, Adventure, Romance

Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Date of Publication: February 3rd, 2015

Cover Artist: Rebecca Boyd

ASIN: B00SNAF018

Print Length: 215 pages
Word Count: 66, 400

Book Description:

As a librarian, Sophia Marcil loved reading, especially books about ancient curses and reincarnation, but she never imagined the legend of the Purple Delhi Sapphire was true until she inherited it and was transported back to a past life where she was murdered. Now she knows that not only is reincarnation real, but so is the devil’s magic locked inside the precious gem. Just as she’s about to tell her boyfriend Cullen about it, he proposes with an engagement ring made from a piece of the very sapphire that’s cursed her. Reeling from the shock and surrounded by his family, she allows him to place it on her ring finger. As soon as it touches her skin, she feels herself being wrenched back in time.

Before she knows it, she’s wandering the hallway of an old Victorian house in the body of her great aunt. Unfortunately, her nemesis has also reincarnated in 1920—as one of her family members. Sophia struggles to locate the Purple Delhi Sapphire in time to prevent the deaths of those she loves, but she fails and returns to her present-day life, to the precise moment she left, with a deep understanding that her killer’s soul is also tied to the sapphire and every life she has, he is resurrected as someone close to her.

Her stalker ex-boyfriend Nick seems like a prime candidate this time but she’s convinced she’s a step ahead of him, thanks to a tip from a medium, she knows that if she uses the magic of the stone correctly she can trap Nick’s soul in the sapphire and save herself. But when Nick is murdered, she finds evidence that has her questioning everything she thought she knew.

Is Cullen husband material or is history doomed to repeat itself?


Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/VCeG9eA09Fg


Available at Amazon


Chapter Seventeen

Lightning lit the sky, revealing the outline of tree limbs through the kitchen window. It was followed so closely by a crack of thunder, which shook the house, that I thought the storm must be directly overhead. Leslie cleaned off her plate and placed it in the dishwasher. “Wow, it’s getting bad out there.”
My stomach tightened. Another thunderclap rattled the house as if on cue and I shivered. “Was it supposed to rain?”
Leslie smiled. “This is Dublin—it always rains, although when I lived here there wasn’t a lot of thunder. Let’s go watch the movie. I’ll protect you.”
“Yeah, you’d put the fear of God into a burglar.” I laughed, draining my wineglass for emphasis while staring at her petite five-foot frame.
“Hey! I’m tough! Although I do plan to be pretty inebriated tonight, so scratch that. You’re on your own, sister.”
I rolled my eyes and grinned. “Why did I let you talk me into a supernatural thriller?”
“It’s not that scary. I promise.”
“Yeah, well, now with the storm, it will be.”
“It’s just a little rain.”
“I know—I’m just jumpy ’cause of the Betty thing.”
Leslie’s eyes were shining. “You mean the fact that the poor woman was killed by your ex who is now stalking you?”
“Honestly, Leslie, you’re not helping.”
“What? I’m just trying to make you laugh. Where’s your sense of humor tonight?”
“It’s gone…much like Betty.”
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire
 “There you go,” she said, laughing.
I grabbed the bottle off the counter and double-checked the bolt on the door as I followed her into Cullen’s living room. A huge fireplace took up most of one wall. Cullen’s house was small but cozy. Once upon a time, it had been his family’s cottage. Most of the properties the O’Kelley family owned had been passed down through the generations.
My eyes focused on Leslie as she sat on the couch and pulled a book from her purse.
“If you don’t want to watch the movie, we could always use this?” She held it in front of her with both hands.
“Oh, you brought the book, that’s right. I need to put it in some sort of safe.”
“Why don’t you try using it—using the magic?”
“No way.”
“Come on, Sophia, it’s not like you to pass on a challenge. Throw yourself into it. Read through it at least, and see if there’s anything that can help you.”
“Last time I looked in it, I wound up with killer nightmares and I mean that quite literally. I dreamt about the crimes that my uncle Velte committed and, unfortunately, at times from his sick and twisted perspective. And I do not ever want to go back inside that pycho’s head.”
“That sucks. But what if there was a different spell that could help.” She gave me a look that oozed guilt. “Don’t be mad, but I had a look through it on my way here, and there’s a way to contact Rochus.”
“Leslie, what were you thinking?” I snapped, grabbing it out of her arms and setting it down.
Her face was guarded and careful. “What? Nothing happened.”
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire
 “Lucky for you. Who knows what happens when that book is opened? You could have wound up cursed like me.”
“Why do you see this as a curse, Sophia?” she asked softly.
“I don’t know. Wouldn’t you?”
“No. You’re living every librarian’s dream. Experiencing the past when the rest of us can only read about it.”
“Yes, but as you so lovingly reminded me, Nick is trying to kill me.”
She reached out to touch the faded leather cover and I looked up, startled, frightened by her curiosity.
“No one can stop destiny. Maybe you were just meant to experience all of this and maybe, instead of fighting it, you should try embracing it. If he always finds you anyway, then hiding is only prolonging the inevitable, isn’t it? Why don’t you use the magic and call on Rochus for help?”
I took a deep breath. “You have a point,” I said, feeling torn. The adventurous, knowledge-seeking librarian half of me wanted to do it; it was the other rational half of me that was still afraid. I looked past Leslie, out the windows…toward the darkened sky. “I’ll think about it. But let’s just watch this movie for now.”
I shoved the book under the coffee table.
“Is that where you plan to keep it?”
“I don’t know. Where’s a good spot to keep explosives? Because that’s what this book is.”
She took the movie out of the case and smiled mischievously at me just as thunder exploded, rumbling and echoing off the walls.
The opening scene began with a man creeping through the woods, flashlight in hand.
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire
I tugged the blanket off the back of the couch, hastily pulling it over me before I picked up my wine.
“Feeling the need for fortification?” Leslie smirked.
“This is already unnerving. I don’t like it.”
“It gets better,” Leslie assured, reaching out to pet Daphne who was now curled up beside her.
“Mmm-hmm. I have my doubts.”
Another thunderclap crashed and reverberated through the house and the room went dark and silent. Cursing, I got to my feet, chucking the blanket aside.
“Glad I lit that candle.” I strode to the other room to grab it. The lightning lit up the kitchen, and outside the wind blew the trees about wildly.
“It’ll blow over soon. We should light some more candles, though,” Les called from the living room.
Three drawers later I found some votives and a box of matches.
I set the cinnamon candles aglow on the coffee table and sat back down. “Sorry ’bout this.”
“What, like you knew the electricity would go out?” She laughed. “Or was this all part of your master plan to get out of watching a scary movie? Did Rochus give you a spell for just such an occasion?”
I snickered, but my eyes immediately shot down to the coffee table. There was a Kleenex box and remote. “No. No. That he did not.”
“What are you thinking about? The book?”
“No. Maybe. Yes.”
“Come on, Sophia. Let’s call on him for help.”
“I don’t know.”
“What—why not? You’re super-freaked out that Nick’s after you, and we can’t watch the movie anyway.”
“Yeah, well anything’s better than watching that stupid movie.”
Curse of the Purple Delhi Sapphire
I paused, then reached under the coffee table and pulled the book out, running my hands over the familiar design embossed on the spine and stamped in gold.
The room’s dim lighting made the faint shimmer that danced from within more prominent, as if to once again alert me to just the right spot.
“Quit stalling and open it.”
“Okay, okay. I’m just kind of nervous about playing with magic. It hasn’t exactly gone off without a hitch in the past, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Thumbing through the pages, I searched for a spell. “Here’s one, but it says we need to create an incense portal for summoning ancestor spirits from the otherworld.”
Leslie peeked over my shoulder. “And we will need a picture, lavender, cinnamon, and wormwood.”
“Great. Like I just have all that stuff lying around.”
I flipped to the next page that was emanating a faint glow.
“What about that one—it’s a summoning spell, too, but you don’t need the picture and you do already have lavender and cinnamon candles burning.”
“I don’t know. It says it will take me ‘there.’ That sounds creepy. What if I get stuck in the nineteenth century again?”

About the Author:

Rachel Stapleton spent her youth cultivating a vivid imagination inside the book lined walls of an old Victorian library where she consumed everything from mystery to biography, creating magical worlds, hidden elevators, and secret spiral staircases. At sixteen, she penned a column for the local newspaper and in 2006, wrote her first book featuring an adventurous librarian.

She lives in a Second Empire Victorian with her husband and two children in Ontario and enjoys writing in the comforts of aged wood and arched dormers. She is the author of The Temple of Indra’s Jewel and is currently working on a third book in the Temple of Indra series.

Visit her website and follow her on social media or sign up at www.rachaelstapleton.com to receive email updates.






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