I am so excited to have Paul A. Destefano here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Spotlight.
Thanks Paul and Pump Up Your Book for allowing me to join your RiftSiders Blog Tour! Please take it away, Paul!
A team of possessed friends cope with the difficulties of being different while navigating relationships and getting attacked by demons…
The lead couple meet
each other at a support group for the possessed. They get tangled in all
sorts of affairs, normal and otherworldly, facing threats from
humanity, demons, monsters, bounty hunters and bigotry, all while trying
to fit in. And maybe saving the world a few times along the way.
Title: Unlawful Possession (Riftsiders: Book One)
Author: Paul DeStefano
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: April 18, 2022
Pages: 263
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
The lead couple meets at a support group for the possessed.
Enrique Marin wants a quiet life after the death of his wife. Just one problem
stands in the way—he’s possessed by the misanthropic English demon,
Tzazin. A violent night under demonic influence accidentally leads
Enrique to love, and it’s anything but quiet.
Shy, autistic yoga instructor Elle thought allowing herself to be possessed
by the very-not-shy sex demon Key would help her find love. She finds
Enrique, but she didn’t count on coping with the anti-demon bigotry of
society.
Fate—and AA meetings for the possessed—brings them together, but hostile forces,
demonic and human, fight to keep them apart. It might cost them
everything to keep their love alive.
Unlawful Possession is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QRYQRJR.
Title: Identify Theft (Riftsiders: Book Two)
Author: Paul DeStefano
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: February 15, 2023
Pages: 287
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Enrique thinks he’s probably innocent.
Enrique and the demon inside him didn’t kill a man in New Mexico. No. No way. Did
they? His possessed autistic girlfriend, Elkie, doesn’t think so either. Probably. Even with all that evidence.
Guidry the Technomancer isn’t so sure, but he’ll do what he can to help Enrique reveal the truth before Memphis “Witchkiller” Aldrain, the Shotgun Sorcerer, catches up.
It’s going to take help from their friends, demonic and otherwise, to unravel the mystery of how Enrique didn’t or did commit murder. On the run, they’ll find hidden Riftsider towns, demonic night clubs, and unworldly ways to get around–a necessary precaution once a hellhound gets on their trail. The clock is ticking. Will they find the truth before bounty hunters – or worse – find them?
Identity Theft is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQGQSGSZ.
Title: White Collar Crimes (Riftsiders: Book Three)
Author: Paul DeStefano
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Publication Date: December 30, 2024
Pages: 315
Genre: Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
Enrique’s first official field assignment leading a team of demonically possessed agents is investigating remains found in the New Orleans bayou that fit in a shoebox.
Elkie insists they first get rid of Enrique’s recent curse by visiting an old and dangerous adversary.
The others hunt the city and swamps where Father Ebbs uncovers blasphemous truths with a new friend—truths that will tear the group apart and fill the bayou with blood.
White Collar Crimes is available at Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK3WFJB9.
Book Excerpt
“Does he talk to you?” asked Enrique.
“We communicate, but not quite in words. More like hunches and feelings. When he’s mad, I can tell.”
“Does yours talk?” Enrique asked, turning to Ebbs.
“She would love it if I listened,” Ebbs replied. “It’s more like a constant distant howling. I’ve learned to box that out. Elle’s passenger is entwined. They both exist in the same space. I’m sure you’ll meet her, too.”
“Tell us a little about yours,” Dante said, taking a slow sip of his coffee.
Enrique slumped backward in the seat, looking to the ceiling with a chuckle.
“Yes,” taunted the lilting British accent only Enrique heard. “Do tell about me.”
“Tzazin,” Enrique said. “My demon is Tzazin Auropolus. I call him Taz. He, well, he’s kind of like me in that sometimes he just doesn’t know when to shut up. When I look in reflections, I can see him. Always just over my left shoulder. Glass reflection doesn’t always work. Sometimes it does, and he insists it’s due to how natural or man-made the material is.”
“Now tell them how startlingly handsome I am,” Taz whispered.
“He looks like a man with gray sandpaper skin. And his eyes are this weird sickly off-yellow.”
“That’s not even slightly flattering,” Taz complained.
“But he’s got some sort of knowledge tap. It’s like having a running connection to Google.”
“I’m an archivist, you human nimrod. Show some respect.”
“Oh, he’s telling me right now I should tell you he’s an archivist.”
“And when Taz pilots?” Dante asked.
“When Taz pilots, I blackout. And end up in jail. And told I can be out on probation if I come here to learn to control him.”
“You make that sound so one-sided,” Taz said with a snicker. “Who’s fingerprints were there? Certainly not mine.”
Enrique set his jaw and placed his coffee cup on the floor.
“Yo, ain’t no one told me we got a newbie.”
Enrique turned to see a young girl with dreadlocks step into the room biting into an apple and letting the juice flow down her chin.
“Enrique, the rude teen girl is my niece, Yesania,” Dante said with a slight smile and a gesture. “You bring enough for everyone?”
“You got your doughnuts,” Yesania pointed. “Not poisoning my body with more of that shit than I have to, oh sorry for the language, Father. No offense. Hey, Elle.”
Elle looked up and brushed long hair aside, smiling with a wave.
“None taken,” Ebbs said as he reached for another doughnut. “Especially since that means more for us who know what good food is.”
Yesania screechingly pulled a chair to sit directly in front of Enrique, throwing off her hoodie to the floor and pushing dreadlocks from her face. She leaned forward and stared into Enrique’s eyes.
“Go ahead. Show me who you got,” she demanded.
“Yesania,” Dante warned, putting his hand on her shoulder to ease her away.
“No, Unc,” she snapped, shrugging him off. “Show and tell. You ain’t here for some small-time imp. Show me.”
“You don’t want that.” Enrique slid his chair back.
“She wants it,” Taz said, clearly with a grin Enrique felt in the back of his mind.
“She doesn’t want that,” Enrique hissed.
“You show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” Yesania teased. “Lookie.”
The room was overwhelmed by the smell of lilacs as Yesania held out her palm and blew across it as if blowing flower petals from her hand. A sparkling yellow dust scattered from her empty hand and hung in the air in a vaguely feminine shape that bowed politely.
“Meet Cali,” Yesania announced.
Enrique reached his hand out, curious. The sparkling dust extended what would be a hand and settled on his. It felt mildly electric and warm.
“Caliosandra,” the dust shape whispered in introduction as it appeared to grow less dense.
Yesania panted as the dust form fell but vanished before it touched the floor.
“You okay?” Dante asked.
“Yeah, letting her out is tiring sometimes,” Yesania said. “Long day of practice. That’s kind of why I’m here. Can’t get completely rid of her unless I just go to sleep. She’s not the prize I originally thought.”
“She means die,” Taz said to Enrique.
“I know what she meant,” Enrique replied.
“Oh, you got a full-time talker,” Yesania smiled. “Come on, I showed you mine. You got some sort of manifest?”
“You don’t want to do that,” Enrique cautioned.
“Too scary? I can handle it.”
“Yesania, stop,” Dante said flatly.
“No, Unc, I don’t think I will. If I gotta be in this room, I want to know who’s here with me. Show me.”
“If he’s not ready, Yesania,” Ebbs added.
“I am not staying if I don’t know who’s here,” Yesania insisted.
“Reveal me,” Taz called. “It’s only fair if I make myself known.”
Paul DeStefano has been writing professionally for tabletop gaming companies for decades and now brings his unique worldbuilding skills to his own novels. As a writing teacher and supervisor of a Recreation Therapy team at a rehabilitation center, he has unique views on classically disadvantaged populations and their need for representation and expression. After the release of the smash hit game Oathsworn: Into The Deepwood, his novels and lectures went on to explore the quirkiest aspects of human nature.
Website & Social Media:
Website ➜ www.PaulADestefano.com
Book’s Website ➜ www.TaintedDragonInn.com
Facebook ➜ https://www.facebook.com/tainteddragoninn
Please follow the rest of the tour here, thanks:
https://www.pumpupyourbook.com/2025/02/03/riftsiders
Anime
Black Butler
Vampire Knight
Vampire Knight Guilty
Manga
Black Butler
Cain
Godchild
Vampire Knight
Movies
Dracula Rising (1993)
The Evil Dead (1981)
Evil Dead II (1987)
Fright Night 1 and 2 (1985 and 1987)
Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)
Jack Be Nimble (1993)
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Sometimes They Come Back Again (1996)
To Die For: Dracula: The Love Story (1989)
PC Games
Gabriel Knight 1: Sins of the Fathers
Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within
Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh
Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness
TV Shows
Blood Ties
Videogames
Clock Tower Series
Fatal Frame Series
Haunting Ground
Resident Evil Series
Rule of Rose
Silent Hill Series
Obscure Series
Until Dawn
Nightcry
Having received a letter from his deceased wife,
James heads to where they shared so many memories,
in the hope of seeing her one more time: Silent Hill.
There, by the lake, he finds a woman eerily similar to her...
"My name… is Maria," the woman smiles. Her face, her voice... She's just like her.
Experience a master-class in psychological horror ― lauded as the best in the series―on the latest hardware with chilling visuals and visceral sounds.
With ray tracing and other cutting-edge technical enhancements, the world of SILENT HILL and its unsettling ambiance is even realer than before.
And with the inclusion of new, immersive soundscapes, you'll feel like you're standing in the thick of it.
Explore locations and buildings that were once inaccessible, or are newly added in the remake.
Enjoy the same acclaimed story, even while you experience the town of Silent Hill with fresh eyes across an expanded map.
The remake moves from the original's fixed-camera viewpoints to an over-the-shoulder perspective, putting you closer to what James sees, for a more thrilling, more immersive experience as you explore the town and come face-to-face with monsters.
Familiar weapons like the steel pipe and handgun make their return, but now with an updated combat system.
Avoid attacks with carefully timed dodges, aim down sights, and more, making monster encounters more engaging and nerve-wracking than ever.
The developers describe the content like this:
This Game may contain content not appropriate for all ages, or may not be appropriate for viewing at work: Frequent Violence or Gore, General Mature Content
The developers describe the content like this:
Extreme violence, gore, mutilation and worse on PSX-style characters.
A tech-noir survival horror short story, set in the urban decay of a long abandoned British city. Solve environmental puzzles, manage limited resources and fight for a way to escape beyond the wall.
About This Game
It's a Shipper's biggest fear. You're grounded in the exclusion zone, twenty miles of death and decay sealed off by the towering, suffocating walls erected after the collapse.
The developers describe the content like this:
Contains scenes of explicit violence and gore..
