The Heartbeat Thief

Publisher Marketing: Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth-she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it. In 1860 Surrey, a young woman has only one occupation: to marry. Senza Fyne is beautiful, intelligent, and lacks neither wealth nor connections. Finding a husband shouldn't be difficult, not when she has her entire life before her. But it's not life that preoccupies her thoughts. It's death-and that shadowy spectre haunts her every step. So does Mr. Knell. Heart-thumpingly attractive, obviously eligible-he'd be her perfect match if only he wasn't so macabre. All his talk about death, all that teasing about knowing how to avoid it... When her mother arranges a courtship with another man, Senza is desperate for escape from a dull prescripted destiny. Impulsively, she takes Knell up on his offer. He casts a spell that frees her from the cruelty of time and the threat of death-but at a steep price. In order to maintain eternal youth, she must feed on the heartbeats of others. From the posh London season to the back alleys of Whitechapel, across the Channel, across the Pond, across the seas of Time... How far will Senza Fyne go to avoid Death? Contributor Bio:  Krafton, Ash Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction author. Krafton's first novel Bleeding Hearts was published in 2012 as part of an urban fantasy trilogy "The Books of the Demimonde" (Pink Narcissus Press). The series was completed with Blood Rush (Demimonde #2) and Wolf's Bane (Demimonde #3). She is also the author of two titles with The Wild Rose Press: an urban fantasy novella, Strangers at the Hell Gate (2013), and a fantasy romance novel Words That Bind (2014), which won first place in the HeRA RWA "Show Me the Spark" 2013 competition. Krafton also writes New Adult speculative fiction novels under the pen name AJ Krafton. Titles in this line include The Heartbeat Thief, Face of the Enemy, and the award-winning Takin' It Back. She is part of a YA/NA collective known as the Infinite Ink Authors. In addition to novel-length fiction, Krafton enjoys writing poetry and short prose, some of which earned distinctions in various writing competitions. One of her poems was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She's a proud member of Pennwriters, Romance Writers of America, and Pikes Peak Writers. She resides in northeastern Pennsylvania with her family and bossy German Shepherd dog.