SOUTHERN COMFORT is the first of three books in the SOUTHERN Series...Romance, Paranormal Intrigue, Abduction, Murder, and Eternal Love.
Southern Comfort immerses the reader in the essence of southern Louisiana culture, history, voodoo and folklore. The supernatural story takes a back seat to the romantic story line between the protagonist, Chandler Collins, and the handsome dark-haired Navy SEAL, Banton Gastaneau.
When a car accident takes the lives of her parents, Chandler leaves the sheltered world of small-town Texas and moves to southern Louisiana. There she settles near her only remaining family - her aunt, uncle and cousins and plans to finish college at LSU.
Through the purchase and renovation of an old antebellum house near campus, she meets two neighbors, ex-Navy SEALs Banton Gastaneau and John Calder, who appear to have a hidden agenda and seek much more than a casual friendship with Chandler. As Chandler works on a writing project and unlocks the secrets of the old house and local folklore, she is drawn into a world where blood-drinking Orcos, Sange-Mele half-breeds, Aldon protectors and spirits exist.
As Banton's interest in Chandler moves from friend to protector to lover, the story moves from Chandler’s spirit-filled house to the college campus in Baton Rouge, the French Quarter in New Orleans, and the underground sewers of the city where Orco terrorists plot to destroy the SEAL team now protecting Chandler, endangering Chandler’s life.
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About the Author
Shelley L. Stringer was born and raised in a small town in Texas, where cattle, oil and Friday night football was king and the teenagers spent their weekends cruising up and down the main drag. As small-town Texas as they come, Shelley married her high school sweetheart, and they both attended the small community college in the county. She has an Associate in Science in English from Vernon College, and empty-nest syndrome prompted her foray into writing. As her uncle put it, "Her imagination is completely off the charts! She has managed to create a paranormal world full of history and colloquialisms, and she's lived in the same house the first eighteen years of her life, and the same town her whole life!" Shelley has always loved romance novels, and re-kindled her interest in reading after a friend encouraged her to read the "Twilight" series. Finding a following series they read lacking, she told the friend that she could write a better love scene than the one they were reading. The friend challenged her to do it, and then loved the result so much that Shelley expanded the story and completed her first work, "Southern Comfort" in 2011. After several failed attempts at querying agents and publishers, her husband encouraged her to self-publish. "You might as well sell 'em instead of walking around with those damn manuscripts asking, 'will you read my book?'" Five years later, her published works include "Southern Comfort," "Southern Secrets," "Southern Spirits," and "Texas Hellcat." The sequel to "Texas Hellcat", her fifth novel, is now in the editing phase and "Texas Girl Grit" will be released sometime in the fall of 2016. Shelley has high hopes that someday she can convince her husband (now married thirty-two years) that he can stomach the "Five-hundred pages of mushy romance," and he will finally read one of her books!
Description:
SOUTHERN COMFORT is the first of three books in the SOUTHERN Series...Romance, Paranormal Intrigue, Abduction, Murder, and Eternal Love.
Southern Comfort immerses the reader in the essence of southern Louisiana culture, history, voodoo and folklore. The supernatural story takes a back seat to the romantic story line between the protagonist, Chandler Collins, and the handsome dark-haired Navy SEAL, Banton Gastaneau.
When a car accident takes the lives of her parents, Chandler leaves the sheltered world of small-town Texas and moves to southern Louisiana. There she settles near her only remaining family - her aunt, uncle and cousins and plans to finish college at LSU.
Through the purchase and renovation of an old antebellum house near campus, she meets two neighbors, ex-Navy SEALs Banton Gastaneau and John Calder, who appear to have a hidden agenda and seek much more than a casual friendship with Chandler. As Chandler works on a writing project and unlocks the secrets of the old house and local folklore, she is drawn into a world where blood-drinking Orcos, Sange-Mele half-breeds, Aldon protectors and spirits exist.
As Banton's interest in Chandler moves from friend to protector to lover, the story moves from Chandler’s spirit-filled house to the college campus in Baton Rouge, the French Quarter in New Orleans, and the underground sewers of the city where Orco terrorists plot to destroy the SEAL team now protecting Chandler, endangering Chandler’s life.
**
About the Author
Shelley L. Stringer was born and raised in a small town in Texas, where cattle, oil and Friday night football was king and the teenagers spent their weekends cruising up and down the main drag. As small-town Texas as they come, Shelley married her high school sweetheart, and they both attended the small community college in the county. She has an Associate in Science in English from Vernon College, and empty-nest syndrome prompted her foray into writing. As her uncle put it, "Her imagination is completely off the charts! She has managed to create a paranormal world full of history and colloquialisms, and she's lived in the same house the first eighteen years of her life, and the same town her whole life!" Shelley has always loved romance novels, and re-kindled her interest in reading after a friend encouraged her to read the "Twilight" series. Finding a following series they read lacking, she told the friend that she could write a better love scene than the one they were reading. The friend challenged her to do it, and then loved the result so much that Shelley expanded the story and completed her first work, "Southern Comfort" in 2011. After several failed attempts at querying agents and publishers, her husband encouraged her to self-publish. "You might as well sell 'em instead of walking around with those damn manuscripts asking, 'will you read my book?'" Five years later, her published works include "Southern Comfort," "Southern Secrets," "Southern Spirits," and "Texas Hellcat." The sequel to "Texas Hellcat", her fifth novel, is now in the editing phase and "Texas Girl Grit" will be released sometime in the fall of 2016. Shelley has high hopes that someday she can convince her husband (now married thirty-two years) that he can stomach the "Five-hundred pages of mushy romance," and he will finally read one of her books!