Mistletoe Magic

By Linda Palmer

Jordyn Patrick, daughter of Magykal parents, has waited 18 years for her powers, but so far...nothing.  To make matters worse, her parents have separated, which means driving from Arkansas to Tennessee through a blizzard to get to her dad's for Christmas Eve.  When her car skids off a lonely highway and slams into a tree, Rio Scott rescues her.  She quickly figures out he's Magykal, too.  His offer to drive her to her dad's is a shocker, but nothing compared to what's waiting for them when they get there.  Can Jordyn and Rio save her dad from the black magic wiles of his new lady friend, Morgan?  And what will happen when a jealous Morgan turns her evil eye on Jordyn?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Palmer
• Release date: Mar 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224883615

Linda Palmer

Linda Palmer admits it all started when she fell in love with Roy Rogers in the fifties. The family TV was boxy; the picture was black and white. That didn't matter. Roy's cowboy courage won the day and inspired her to  create elaborate scenarios when playing with her sisters and friends outside. Indoors, she read romances in every genre from Sci Fi to Gothic. Linda began writing for pleasure in the third grade, mostly poetry, and has letters from her grade school teachers predicting she'd be an author. Her poems eventually became short stories; her short stories became books. And even though a writing career was never actually a dream, it was something she pursued with intent after winning some writing contests and joining local and national writers' groups. Silhouette Books published Linda's first romance novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten-year period (writing as Linda Varner, her maiden name). In 1999 she took a ten-year break to take care of her family, but learned that she couldn't not write. She began again in  2009, changing her genre to young adult/new adult paranormal romance. She has now written over a hundred novels and novellas ranging from traditional romance to erotica. Linda was a Romance Writers of America Rita finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. She was also a finalist in that category in 2013 and in 2014. Linda has been married to her junior high school sweetheart over fifty years and lives in Arkansas, USA with her family. Ever a hopeless romantic, she still falls for unattainable Hollywood heroes that inspire her to write romances about alpha males and the women who stand up to them. Linda hints that her current crush's name starts with Tom and ends with Hardy. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com. You can also find her on Facebook: Linda Varner Palmer.

Book preview

Chapter One

And the Grinch thought he had it bad.

I’d dreaded Christmas ever since my mom and dad separated eight months ago after a really stupid argument over their non-Magykal daughter, a.k.a. me. See, both my parents had powers, which meant I should’ve, too. That’s the way things happened ninety-nine percent of the time. Trust me to be the odd girl out. We’d looked forward to my gifts for eighteen years. Unfortunately, they stood me up. That’s why Dad thought a normal college would be easier. Mom, on the other hand, nagged me incessantly about applying to schools with unpublished curriculums for Magykals just in case. As if I needed something else to make me feel bad.

Dad left Little Rock and moved to Memphis in April, the worst moment of my life and the reason I now drove to his house on Christmas Eve even though Mom had thrown a fit. I adored my father; I missed him more than anything. And the crazy part? My parents still loved each other even though both dated other people. Dad’s current flame was a woman named Morgan West, the type of Magykal who gave all the others a bad name. As a rule, most people with powers preferred to fly under the radar and live semi-normal lives. Not Morgan. Flamboyant in the extreme, she did everything except wear a black hat and ride a broomstick, which was so not cool. I honestly had no idea what Dad saw in her.

My one regret about spending tonight with Dad was that Morgan’s two Magykal daughters, Amber and Selena, were home for the holidays and would be there for dinner. I hated losing even a second of private time with him. It didn’t help that Morgan constantly bragged about her spawn’s amazing gifts and their Magykal boyfriends, the hook-up every parent with powers dreamed of. I’d have loved to brag back, but they’d know I was lying, plus the guy I’d just dumped couldn’t even spell magyk much less do any.

At the moment, I drove too fast through the unexpected snow flurries and the dark of winter because I was already late for the special Christmas Eve dinner Dad was cooking. Could I help it if I had next-to-no experience driving in that kind of weather? Um...no. Without a doubt, Morgan would be pissed about waiting, and she and her Goth offspring would give me the cold shoulder. The fact that their boyfriends would also be there only made things worse since I didn’t have one of my own with me.

But I had more important things to worry about tonight, as in the flurries that were suddenly a blizzard. My car did not like this weather one bit, and I felt the tires slip more than once. Straining to see the road, I turned the wipers on high and ejected the CD I’d been listening to. I needed total silence if I was going to stay between the ditches. Thank goodness another hour would get me to my destination. Then all I had to do was beg forgiveness for being tardy and lay low until the dinner guests left and I got my dad to myself.

Ahead of me, red taillights appeared in the distance, signaling the existence of another car on the highway. That was actually a welcome sight since I’d wondered a couple of times if I’d made a wrong turn somewhere and wound up in the North Pole. Weather this wild and weird definitely belonged there. I decided that if I kept my eyes on the other car, I could better tell when the road curved, which was a good thing. What I couldn’t tell was just how far ahead it was. And the snow swirling in my headlights blinded me to the fact that those red dots were growing in size until I was halfway up the tailpipe of the truck they belonged to.

I screamed and jerked the steering wheel hard to the right. My Toyota went into a slo-mo three-sixty and abruptly hugged the only tree for miles.

COLD AIR BLASTED MY face.

It’s a girl.

And she’s way hot.

Would you idiots shut the hell up?

I made out three distinct male voices but couldn’t seem to raise my eyelids to see who they belonged to.

Is she dead?

I heard a rustle that turned out to be the deflated airbag being pushed away from my face. Warm fingers touched the pulse pounding in my neck. No. Call 9-1-1.

You know we’re in a black hole.

Shit.