Read an excerpt from Maria Paoletta Gil’s exciting new novel, Witch’s Moon:

A fragrant wind blew across the land, a desert wind that mingled with ocean breezes. Tor sat on the taffrail and swung his long legs. The feel of the air, of sand and salt, reminded him again of the sloe-eyed Marhaba vixen. He was not one to bed every snip that lowered her lashes and raised her skirts. If he were, he’d be spending all his time ashore with his britches around his ankles. But Honifa…something about her like the scent of Eastern spices that clung to her skin, like the taste of her tongue and crush of her breasts. What evil Loki had kept  him wandering the marketplace when he should have been long since aboard the Witch’s Moon happily checking the plimsoll mark or sorting the instruments in his binnacle? And why in the name of Odin, once he’d sent the knaves packing, did he walk with her like some smitten milk-mouth? He knew why he kissed her, why he held her in his arms. Oh yes, that he knew. But he should have listened to his brain instead of his bollock.