SHRIKE: The Masked Songbird by Emmie Mears

This was a fun post for me to put together, because I know that on one level, the existence of this book is a HEA of a sort. I've been on-line friends with the author, Emmie Mears, since we both took a blogging class something like four years ago. I got sad when she was frustrated by the query trenches, got excited when she signed with an agent, and got even more excited when she contracted this book with a nice publishing house. It was released *cue the happy dance* but then it wasn't, and then it seemed like everything that could have gone wrong, did. 

(Check out Emmie's blog HERE if you're curious about the deets.) 

But now SHRIKE: The Masked Songbird is available again, and I'm pleased as peaches to feature it here on the blog today. Also want to give a wee shout-out to Jes Negron, who did the new cover art, because I think it's fantastic!

Blurb:

Edinburgh accountant Gwenllian Maule is surviving. She’s got a boyfriend, a rescued pet bird and a flatmate to share rent. Gwen’s biggest challenges: stretching her last twenty quid until payday and not antagonising her terrifying boss. 

Then Gwen mistakenly drinks a mysterious beverage that gives her heightened senses, accelerated healing powers and astonishing strength. All of which come in handy the night she rescues her activist neighbour from a beat-down by political thugs. 

Now Gwen must figure out what else the serum has done to her body, who else is interested and how her boss is involved. Finally—and most mysteriously—she must uncover how this whole debacle is connected to the looming referendum on Scottish independence. 

Superpowers don't make a superhero. Real strength isn't something you're born with -- it's something you build.

Available from Amazon.

Add it to your "Want to Read" shelf on Goodreads.

Bio: 

Emmie Mears is an author, actor, and person of fannish pursuits. Born in Texas, the Lone Star state quickly spit her out after a measly three months, and over eight states and three different countries, Emmie became a proper vagabond. She speaks four languages and holds a degree in history. She writes science fiction and fantasy and loves to weave in sociological and psychological threads through her novels...which was probably not what her university professors had in mind for using her degree. Emmie is the head of a pride of cats in the suburbs of DC, and she’s pretty sure at least one of them thinks she’s its mother. Slightly obsessed with Buffy and Supernatural, Emmie haunts the convention circuits and joins in when she can on panels and general tomfoolery. She is the author of SHRIKE: THE MASKED SONGBIRD (2014) and STORM IN A TEACUP (2015). Emmie is open to bribery in the form of sushi and bubble tea.

She spends most of her time causing problems and ruining worlds. 

Emmie is also the editor and Grand Pooh-Bah of Searching for SuperWomen, a geek hub focused on furthering the conversation about the role of women in geekdom and loving awesome things in the process.

Emmie may or may not secretly be a car.

She is represented by the indomitable Sara Megibow of kt literary.