Unholy
Heart’s True Desire Series: Book Three
By
Kathryn Amurra
About
the Book:
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Publication
Date: October
20, 2025
In
her last semester of college, Beth D’Angelo has one goal—to get her
thermodynamics experiment to work so she can graduate. But everything changes
when she nearly runs over a mysterious stranger with her car—a man whose
hauntingly handsome face fills her with an inexplicable sense of dread.
Suddenly, her failed experiment becomes the least of her worries. Strong,
alluring, and centuries-old, Thomas Callahan is a vampire whose powers are as
dangerous as his secrets. After Beth nearly runs him over, her sweet nature and
innate fear of him become an irresistible challenge—to corrupt her innocence.
As they spend more time together, Beth’s fear dissipates and becomes something
Thomas finds himself craving more than blood. Knowing it is only a matter of
time before she discovers what he truly is, and with two hunters on his trail
seeking vengeance, Thomas must decide if loving Beth is worth risking both
their lives.
Purchase Links:
Excerpt:
As she stood there,
looking up at Thomas, his magnificent appearance struck her again. A bit taller
than her five feet four inches, he was easily six feet tall. His dark hair was
on the long side of clean-cut, and the cold wind had made it just messy enough
to look incredibly sexy. His nose was straight and perfectly placed on his
strong, masculine face, and his eyes were a beautiful dark brown. Perhaps it
was his dark lashes and eyebrows, or perhaps something else, but Beth couldn’t
help feeling that there was something ominous behind those eyes. It was almost
as if his eyes held a warning, even while his mouth invited her to draw closer.
Before Beth realized she was staring at
Thomas’ mouth, his lips parted and he spoke again. “Well, I don’t mean to brag,
but damsels in distress are my specialty.”
Blinking free of her
trance, she shook her head. “Well, I’m not a damsel. In distress, I mean. I
don’t need your help.”
He pressed his lips
together and nodded slowly. “I understand. In that case, perhaps you can help
me instead.”
“Me help you? With
what?”
He smiled smugly
again. “I’m thirsty.” He paused, almost long enough to allow her to speak,
before continuing. “Come have a drink with me.”
She could feel her
eyes grow wide with shock even as she told herself to act casual.
“I’m not a big
drinker.” At least her voice sounded calm, even if her hands were fidgeting
inside her coat pockets.
“Coffee then?”
“I don’t drink
coffee after four o’clock. It would keep me awake all night.” She realized as
the words left her mouth how much like an old lady she sounded. Lin was
right—she may as well have told the guy that she had to get home to soak her
dentures.
Though her responses
should have completely put him off from pursuing any further interaction,
Thomas simply replied, “Then how about some chamomile tea? I’ve read that’ll
help calm your nerves and get you in the right mindset for bed.”
The way the man said
“bed” sent Beth’s heart racing, and she couldn’t help but wonder if the
innuendo was intentional.
“Maybe some other
time,” she managed to utter.
He took a step
closer to her, and her breath caught.
“I will remember you
said that.”
What
Readers Are Saying:
“Ms. Amurra brings deep, interesting characters that she
developed them so well from the beginning of the book and throughout the story.
Even the vampire was realistic, and Ms. Amurra created such a unique story line
that I was intrigued and captivated until the very end.” –Kelly Barr
“I’m not a fan of vampires. With that being said. After
reading the first two pages I was hooked.” –Jean
About
the Author:
Guest Post:
There’s
Just Something About Vampires
Vampires have been around for centuries in stories and
folklore. According to some historians, there have been references to
vampires since 1047AD in Russia. Even before that, ancient civilizations
believed the dead could return to harm the living. The ancient Mesopotamians told
of female demons who drank the blood of children and caused stillbirths and
illness. The Greeks and Romans believed in creatures called lamiae who
seduced and devoured men, as well as shape-shifter demons called empusae
who fed on the souls of humans.
Another predecessor of the modern vampire was the strigoi
of Romanian folklore. Strigoi were believed to be the undead spirits of
those who had lived an evil life, died without being baptized, or were cursed
by a witch. They could rise from the grave to suck the blood of the living,
spread illness, and cause general misfortune.
Though the term “vampire” supposedly made its first
appearance in the early 18th century in Germany, Austria, and other parts of eastern
Europe, where suspected vampires were exhumed and destroyed, our modern definition
of vampires is due in large part to Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula,
published in 1897. Stoker chose the name Dracula for his vampire based on his
research on Vlad III Dracula (the word “Dracula” meaning “son of the Dragon”).
Also known as Vlad the Impaler because of his penchant for impaling his enemies
on wooden stakes, Vlad III ruled the Hungarian region of Transylvania (now
in present-day Romania) in the 15th century.
The United States has had its own share of vampire lore
throughout its (relatively shorter) history. In the late 18th
century, the early victims of widespread diseases like tuberculosis were deemed
“vampires” by survivors, who saw them as the reason other family members also fell
ill. One of the most well-known examples of this is the case of
nineteen-year-old Mercy Lena Brown, a young woman in Rhode Island who
contracted tuberculosis and died in 1892. Believing her to be a vampire after
her mother and her sister also succumbed to the disease, Mercy’s father had her
body exhumed, cut out her heart, then burned it to prevent Mercy from coming
back to claim more victims.
While we may no longer be exhuming dead bodies and staking
them through the heart, vampires are still very much a part of our modern
world—at least in literature. Bram Stoker’s Dracula started a trend of
vampire novels, including some of my favorites: Interview with the Vampire
by Anne Rice (1976); Twilight by
Stephanie Garber (2005); and The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (2001), on which the
show True Blood was based.
As should be obvious by now, I am not immune to
the charms of vampires (in literature), and I couldn’t resist the urge to write
my own vampire story, Unholy. Light on gore but heavy on romance, Unholy
tells the story of Thomas, a handsome, confident, powerful, and
centuries-old vampire living his best “life” on a college campus—that is, until
he meets a girl who represents everything he is not. After Beth unknowingly
runs him over with her car, Thomas begins to remember his past human life. And
with each memory, long-forgotten human feelings awaken in him, bringing
him closer to Beth and making it much more difficult to survive as the vampire
he once was.
There are no signs that vampires are going away anytime soon.
So, allow yourself to indulge in a good vampire story now and then, but keep
your garlic handy. And don’t invite strangers into your home, no matter how
attractive they may seem!
Contact Links:
Email - kathrynamurra@gmail.com
Website: https://www.kathrynamurra.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/kathrynamurra/
X – https://x.com/AmurraKathryn
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20280375.Kathryn_Amurra
BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kathryn-amurra
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