The Monster Hunter Guardian eARC is out now!

https://www.baen.com/monster-hunter-guardian-earc.html?fbclid=IwAR3xR55TQs0hhK4lPJMOv7Sj9NQIczQvnFsxOuea-ZsmDt8TVQRo9D95lT4

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Baen eARCs, that’s an Electronic Advanced Reader Copy. That’s an early version of the book that normally only gets sent to reviewers, but Baen also sells them to readers several months before the book comes out. (the official release for Guardian, hard cover, ebook, and audio, will be in August). eARCs are not copy edited so as a bonus you get to see all our typos. (on that note, my manuscripts are pretty clean so there isn’t usually much difference between the eARC and the final)

This is the next book in the regular MHI series and is about Julie Shackleford. It’s a collaboration between me and Sarah Hoyt, because I love the voice she came up with for Julie. It overlaps with Siege in the timeline.

Here’s the back cover blurb:

When Owen Pitt and the rest of the Monster Hunter International crew are called away to mount a month’s-long rescue mission in a monster-infested nightmare dimension, Julie Shackleford—Owen’s wife and descendant of MHI founder Bubba Shackelford—is left behind. Her task: hold down the fort and take care of her new baby son Ray. Julie’s devoted to the little guy, but the slow pace of office work and maternity leave are starting to get to her. But when a routine field call brings her face-to-face with an unspeakable evil calling itself Brother Death, she’ll get more excitement than she ever hoped for.

Julie is the Guardian of a powerful ancient artifact known as the Kamaresh Yar, and Brother Death wants it. In the wrong hands, it could destroy reality as we know it. Julie would die before giving it up.

Then Ray goes missing, taken by Brother Death. The price for his safe return: the Kamaresh Yar. If Julie doesn’t hand over the artifact it means death—or worse—for baby Ray. With no other choice left to her, Julie agrees to Brother Death’s demands. But when you’re dealing with an ancient evil, the devil is in the details.

To reclaim her son, Julie Shackleford will have to fight her way through necromantic death cults, child-stealing monsters, and worse. And she’ll have to do it all before Brother Death can unleash the Kamaresh Yar.

It’s one woman against an army of monsters. But Julie Shackelford is no ordinary woman—she’s one tough mother!