Silverskin (Paperback) - #1 in The Portlock Trilogy

$16.99

Silverskin (Paperback) - #1 in The Portlock Trilogy

Name: Silverskin (Paperback) - #1 in The Portlock Trilogy
Brand: Laughing Elk Press
Price: 16.99 USD
Availability: InStock

$16.99

An abandoned town. A legendary monster. And a hidden evil, biding its time ...

Ellie Forth and Oliver Cole have something in common: they’re both haunted by the ghosts of their pasts.

Ever since the accidental deaths of her mother and sister, Ellie has battled fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of risk, and worst of all, fear that she’ll lose everyone else she loves. But when a once-in-a-lifetime Alaskan adventure with her remaining family members lands in her lap, she cautiously agrees to go, hoping the challenge will rekindle the courage that she feels she’s lost.

Oliver Cole’s goal, on the other hand, is simple: outwork, outrun, or out-busy the shame that still plagues him from his time as a gang member in Anchorage’s dark underbelly. The days he spends on his boss’s commercial fishing boat are almost long and brutal enough to make him forget … until Ellie and her surviving family members arrive at his uncle’s cabin. The time Oliver spends with the Forths before his wilderness-guide uncle whisks them away to the backcountry is a sharp, painful reminder of everything he’s not sure he’ll ever be good enough to have.

But nothing in the backcountry goes as planned.

After Ellie survives a horrific supernatural encounter deep in the Kenai Peninsula, she must team up with Oliver to discover the truth about what happened - and about the creatures she accidentally unleashed on the world. With one terrifying realization after another, Ellie's desire for revenge grows, while Oliver grapples with both his own demons and his growing feelings for her.

And the monsters? They want them broken. And then, they want them dead.

All paperbacks are signed by the author!

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Tropes, Triggers, & Parents' Guide

The Portlock Trilogy is broadly suitable for adults and teens aged 14 and up. Because the trilogy is intense and addresses some heavy topics, parental discretion is advised for children younger than 13. (If it were a movie, it would comfortably fit within a PG-13 rating.)

Violence: The main characters often have to fight monsters intent on killing or hurting them. However, there is very little person vs. person violence; it's almost exclusively person vs. monster.

Gore: Several characters are injured throughout the novel, and the narrative varies in the degree of description of those injuries (including bruises, cuts, broken bones, and burns.) There are also two very brief instances of characters discovering the aftermath of animal mutilation (postmortem) by a nonhuman entity.

Sex: There are no sex scenes in The Portlock Trilogy; it is a closed-door romance. There is passionate kissing, some innuendo between a married couple on their honeymoon, and a non-sexual, non-descriptive scene in which that same couple is in the shower together, discussing the events taking place in the novel.

Drugs & Alcohol: One of the main characters is a former gang member, and briefly mentions underage drinking and doing illegal drugs during his rough childhood. Additionally, a secondary character gets dangerously drunk during a supernaturally caused depressive episode. Alcohol and drugs are never portrayed in a positive light in this trilogy.

Profanity: There is brief, mild swearing in The Portlock Trilogy (e.g. d-mn, h-ll.) There's no heavier cursing (e.g. sh-t, b-tch, or f-ck) anywhere in the trilogy.

The Portlock Trilogy crosses genres between supernatural suspense, thriller, and romance. It is intense in both plot and emotion (readers often compare it to the TV show Supernatural, or the first two seasons of Stranger Things, though with less gore and swearing.) Readers who have a low tolerance for spookiness should proceed with caution.

Triggers may include:

Mentions of modern-day hunting (for meat, not sport; no animals are killed on-page.)
Anxiety and depression, both naturally and supernaturally caused
Character deaths
Grief
Brief mentions of suicide (off-page)
Brief mentions of prostitution (off-page)
Brief alcohol and drug references
Burn injuries
References to one character's former life as a gang member, including illegal drug distribution, gang violence, and illegal prostitution
Death of a teen

NOTE: We've tried to be very thorough on our list of triggers. If you find one that you think should be added to this list, please reach out!

Tropes in The Portlock Trilogy include (but aren't limited to):

Found Family
Everyman's Heroes (normal people who get shoved into bad situations and rise to the challenge)
Friends to Lovers
Socioeconomic Gap
Slow-burn Romance
Multiple POV
Forced Proximity (both in the romance and in the other relationships)
Ultimate Evil/Eldritch Evil
Creepy Old Forest
Reformed Bad Boy
A "Gentle Giant" Character
Hidden Worlds
Monsters. (Lots of them.)
Varied and beautiful settings (Alaska, Colorado, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Hawaii)
Amateur Sleuths (Book 1)
One Bed (Book 2)
Epic Journey (Book 2)
Chase Scenes (all books, but mostly Book 2)
Deal With The Devil/Uneasy Alliance (Book 3)
Newfound Superpowers (Book 3)
Small Town Dynamics (Book 3)
Ticking Time Bomb (Book 3)
High-stakes battle for the fate of the world ... that no one else will ever know about (Book 3)

Yes, The Portlock Trilogy is all one continuous story. Books one and two end on cliffhangers, each novel flows directly into the next one, and the story is not wrapped up until the end of book three.