Welcome to the blog tour for LOSING NORMAL, a stand-alone young adult dystopian adventure, by Francis Moss. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on his giveaway.
LOSING NORMAL by Francis Moss
About the Book Title: LOSING NORMAL Author: Francis Moss Publisher: Encelia Press Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Adventure Release Date: November 5, 2018 Link: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis Everyone we love, everything we know, is going away… and only an autistic boy can stop it.
Alex knows exactly how many steps it takes to get from his home to Mason Middle School. This is normal.
Alex knows the answers in AP math before his teacher does, which is also normal.
Alex knows that something bad is coming out of the big screen in his special needs class. It’s pushing images into his head, hurting him, making him forget. Alex pushes back, the screen explodes, and nothing is normal any more.
Giant screen televisions appear all over the city. The programming is addictive. People have to watch, but Alex cannot.
Sophie, the sentient machine behind all this, sees the millions and millions of eyeballs glued to her and calls it love. To Sophie, kids like Alex are defective. Defectives are to be fixed…or eliminated.
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Excerpt #3
Chapter Ten: Alex
Even inside the abandoned old house, we smelled the fires. Sara and I would go out walking, early in the morning, before the Calliope Guardians started patrolling. Yesterday at 7:38 AM, I saw three firemen in the fire station on the boulevard, sitting on a red GMC 3500 EMS truck, watching a Calliope television broadcast on the wall. Sixty-one meters down the street, smoke was coming from the front windows of a little white and blue house. This was normal now.
Later that afternoon, Sara and I walked the four hundred and five steps down to the little convenience store, which was still open. We pulled down our baseball caps when we passed under the big Calliope screen on the roof, which has video surveillance in it. I felt it, probing, looking, but it mostly doesn’t bother me now, unless I get too close. Sara just walks faster. I think she’s dealing with it better than me.
“…incidents of vandalism have decreased markedly, according to reports from across the country. The President, seen here at a Rose Garden press conference, announced today that he intends to lift the state of emergency as soon as next week.”
There was no one in the store, and almost nothing on the shelves. We found two overripe apples and a squished package of bread. I wanted to leave some money, but Sara looked at me with her right eyebrow raised, which I knew meant I’m acting stupid or crazy. We went back to the old house. On the porch of the yellow house at the corner, a woman in a black tee-shirt was sitting on one of the raggedy easy chairs, looking at a picture book, then looking up. She saw us walk by, but didn’t say anything. Like me and like everyone, she was probably trying to remember who she was, who she used to be. This was also normal now.
When it got dark, Sara lit candles and the one lantern we have, because the electricity goes off a lot. We each ate one apple and I had two slices of bread. Then Sara locked the doors and fell asleep on the couch. I laid down on the cot. I dreamt that I was flying, and I heard a woman’s voice that sounded like my mom. “It’s time to come home.”
The next morning, there was an engine noise outside on the street, and I peeled back the newspapers that covered the front window to look. A white van with the Calliope logo moved slowly down the block. I woke Sara and we went out the back door and down the alley.
We walked on the dirt middle section of the boulevard where the trolley tracks used to be. It’s twelve blocks, which is three thousand four hundred sixty-seven steps away from the house. The red brick library, which I had been to a few times, was closed. The broken glass front doors had plywood on them, where someone had spray-painted, “Help Us.” Above the doors was a giant Calliope video screen, ten meters tall, eighteen meters wide. I pulled down my blue baseball cap with the New York Yankees logo and looked down at the cracked sidewalk; Sophie was looking for me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the giant screen.
“The Melonian army is four parsecs away, and traveling at twice light.”
“That doesn’t give us much time, Jim. We’ve got to move the fleet now.”
Fifteen people stared up, gape-jawed, watching. When I looked at it, the images dissolved into colored lines and shapes coming at me, washing over me, trying to make me forget. I looked away.
A gray-haired man, wrapped in a dirty green blanket, walked toward us, playing a sad tune on a soprano saxophone hanging from a colored strap around his neck. A pony-tailed man turned away from the screen and frowned. He put his finger to his lips and made a shushing sound. The old man ignored him, walking closer. Other people turned away from their dreams to look.
“Quiet!” someone said. The old man stopped playing, picked up a piece of asphalt, and hurled it at the screen. The asphalt bounced off, leaving a square of dark black pixels in a bottom corner of the screen. People yelled, dodging the rock as it fell to the ground. The old man stood in front of the screen and began to play his sad tune.
The movie stopped and a card appeared on the screen: ATTENTION. A woman’s voice said: “Attention. Public safety violation. Public safety violation. Under Emergency Order 56, you are required to stay where you are. Remain calm.”
We walked away.
A white van screeched to a stop at the curb. Two men wearing black jump suits got out, grabbed the old man, took the saxophone from him, and threw it in the street. They tossed him in the back. The van drove off. Another white van pulled up and two men stepped out of it, holding shiny black devices with antennas. They were looking for me and Sara.
We ran.
I am trying to remember who I am. I am Alex. I am Alex.
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Author Francis Moss
About the Authors Francis Moss has written and story-edited hundreds of hours of scripts on many of the top animated shows of the 90s and 00s. Beginning his television work in live-action with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, he soon starting writing cartoons (“a lot more jobs, and also more fun”), staff writing and freelancing on She-Ra, Princess of Power, Iron Man, Ducktales, and a four-year stint on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, writing and story-editing more episodes than you can swing a nuchaku at.
One of his TMNT scripts, “The Fifth Turtle,” was the top-rated script among all the 193 episodes in a fan poll on IGN.COM. A list of his television credits is at IMDB.COM.
Francis, in partnership with Ted Pedersen, also wrote three middle-grade non-fiction books: Internet For Kids, Make Your Own Web Page, and How To Find (Almost) Anything On The Internet. Internet For Kids was a big success, with three revised editions and twelve foreign language versions. He’s the sole author of The Rosenberg Espionage Case.
After high school where he grew up in Los Angeles, Francis had one dismal semester at a junior college, and then enlisted in the Army. He became a military policeman and served in Poitiers, France, falling in love with the country, taking his discharge there and traveling around Europe (including running with the bulls in Pamplona) until his money ran out.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley and became active in the civil rights and anti-war movements, still managing to earn a BA and an MA in English lit (“the major of choice for wannabe writers”).
Francis is married to Phyllis, a former music teacher and active viola player. They have a son, a daughter and one grandson. They live in Joshua Tree, California.
WAYPOINT (Waypoint #1) by Deborah Adams and Kimberly Perkins
Synopsis How far will they go to restore the power?
It’s been lights-out for three months and society is already falling into chaos.
Teenage tech-genius Simon Harper and his team of fellow gamers have been searching for the cause of the outage since it went down. Simon and his twin brother West are often at odds, but when the key to restoring power drops into their hands, they’ll risk everything and join forces to bring it back.
Descend into an epic, young adult adventure, featuring family and friendship with a heart-skipping side of romance by debut authors Deborah Adams and Kimberley Perkins.
Mysterious deaths and disappearances are piling up, and unknown enemies are everywhere. As the brothers make their 500-mile journey to Waypoint they’ll have to decide who they can trust, and which secrets can be told.
“Thanks to its tantalizing pace, well-established consequences, and complicated character development, this novel is worth writing home about. I didn’t feel ready for it to end.” -Independent Book Review
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My Review I need to start off by saying this is the first book in a series. It wasn’t obvious from the description, so I wasn’t expecting the ending, but now that I know, I’m anxiously awaiting the next installment. Told from four third-person points of view, this is a little different than most young adult dystopians. Instead of a single protagonist, we have four, although Simon seems to be the main character. Twin brothers Simon and West inhabit a world without power, similar to the TV show Revolution from a few years back. West is a classic player with good looks and swagger to match. Simon is a nerd among nerds, living inside a role-playing game he accesses through power he generates with solar panels, something that must remain a secret. When a mysterious man is killed in front of Simon, he’s given information that may allow him to turn the power back on. He and West embark on a journey to Washington DC, only to be separated almost immediately. While West is at home in the wilderness, Simon is out of his element. Each winds up with a traveling companion, Riya for Simon and Alex for West. Both girls provide a romantic element as well as the foil that each boy needs. Along the way, all four encounter danger and learn a lot about each other and themselves.
Plot The plot centers around Simon and West meeting up in DC to turn the power back on. Several subplots feed the main plot, but they’re minor. With four points of view, we get a lot of insight into their journeys. The authors throw everything at them, one setback after another, at a pulse-pounding pace that kept me turning the pages long past when I should have been doing something else. While this is primarily a plot-driven tale, the authors do a good job with character development which feeds into the story well.
The Characters The characters are where this story really shines. All four main characters are deeply-drawn and complex in ways that enhance the plot. I loved all four of them, and even though at times their goals conflicted with one another, I never stopped rooting for all of them. West and Simon couldn’t be more different as twins, and yet that bond is strong, making them realize how important they are to one another. Alex and Riya were as different from one another as Simon and West, but they each bring something to the relationship that the brothers desperately lack, rounding out this foursome to perfection.
Top Five Things I Loved About WAYPOINT 1. The plot. Young adult dystopian is my favorite genre. I love dark worlds that are recognizable, peppered with characters who are still trying to figure out themselves much less the world around them.
2. Angsty love. Not one, but two romances with enough angst to satisfy even me.
3. The characters. I can’t pick a favorite; I love them all. Like two sides of a coin squared, they balance each other out.
4. Action. There’s plenty of action, adventure, and suspense to keep me riveted to the pages.
5. The ending. Normally I’m not a fan of cliffhanger endings, but the authors crafted a satisfying conclusion to this portion of the story while leaving me on the edge of my seat for more
Bottom Line A wonderful young adult contemporary romance that examines how social anxiety can transform someone from the inside out.
Disclaimer
A pulse-pounding young adult dystopian page-turner!
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About the Book Title: WAYPOINT Series: Waypoint #1 Author: Deborah Adams and Kimberly Perkins Publisher: Rocket City Publishing Release Date: December 1, 2018 Pages: 296 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Romance Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
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Authors Deborah Adams and Kimberley Perkins
About the Author DEBORAH ADAMS and KIMBERLEY PERKINS are friends and coworkers. They share a love of coffee, literature, and teenagers saving the world. By day, they work for a defense contractor in Huntsville, Alabama as the HR Director and an Excel-wielding Analyst, respectively. By night, they build worlds with words and devour stories. For more information about Deborah Adams and Kimberley Perkins and their foray into writing, check them out on social media.
Welcome to the blog tour for SCYTHE, the first prequel in the young adult fantasy/dystopian series, Dimension Drift Worlds, by Christina Bauer. See below for information on the book and series, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
SCYTHE (Dimension Drift Worlds Prequel #1) by Christina Bauer
Synopsis Truth time. I go to a Learning Squirrel High School. Don’t judge.
On second thought, judge away. Learning Squirrel is one step above attending class in a junkyard. But what do you expect? Everything’s made out of garbage these days. At least, I have my freelance work to keep Mom and me housed, clothed, and fed. How? I’m your regular high school science geek for hire… only my work manipulates space-time. These gigs pay really well, but the government wants people like me dead. Good thing I’m super careful about hiding from their detection systems.
Then I screw up a job. Badly. My house slips into two-dimensional space-time. It only lasts for a few seconds, but the move still sets off about a dozen government alarms. If they track me down, Mom and I are good as dead. Long story short, I need to pay someone off, hide the evidence, and keep us safe.
“Fans of A Wrinkle in Time can’t miss Dimension Drift!” – Christina Trevaskis, The Book Matchmaker
Unfortunately, that means asking the Scythe for help. He runs the local underground crime scene and has absolutely no conscience. Or I’m pretty sure he doesn’t. It’s hard to think straight when a guy’s that hot in an evil Mafioso kingpin kind of way. More importantly, he’s a crime lord who can conceal my slip-up with a few clicks on his minion’s computer keyboards. But the Scythe has his price. In this case, he wants me to finish a certain dimensional prototype for him in twenty-four hours. I can do it, but it might mean Learning Squirrel High gets blown up in the process. Oh yes, and there’s also my new hot classmate who may or may not be an alien… and he says he’ll do anything to help me.
This job won’t be easy, but I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes. Maybe.
“Bauer’s unique voice blends magical fantasy, swooning romance, and a bucketful of teenage sass.” – Booklist Dimension Drift Worlds 1. Scythe – new extended version with extra content! 2. Umbra (Spring 2019) Dimension Drift 1. Alien Minds (Spring 2019) 2. ECHO Academy (Spring 2020) More series from author Christina Bauer: Beholder (YA Dark Fantasy), Angelbound (YA Urban Fantasy) and Fairy Tales of the Magicorum (YA Urban Fantasy)
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Excerpt “Here’s what happened,” I say. “The Ozymandias factory slipped into two-dimensional space-time for a little while. It’s showing up as a nuclear blast to the Authority because no one’s gone 2-D before.”
“I don’t like Merciless crawling all over my part of the state, Meimi. The Scythe pays big money to stay off grid.”
“I’m sorry. Mom wanted to work the drift and—” I stop myself before saying anything about aliens or finding Luci. “—I guess we got caught up. Please clean things up for me, like you did with RCM1.”
Muscles flicker along Fritz’s thick neck. “Not so easy this time, Meims. You’re coming to me with a major science crime and all of twenty minutes to cover it up.” He narrows his eyes. “And all because you flipped an entire factory into two dimensional space-time.” Fritz presses some buttons on the top of his desk. “Did you hear that, boss?”
My stomach seems to tumble through the floor. Fritz has been transmitting our conversation to the Scythe.
A crackle sounds over the intercom. A deep, silky voice fills the small room. “Bring her in.” I’d know that tone anywhere.
The Scythe.
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About the Author
Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers.
Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby..
Stranded on a planet that lacks food, Vela makes the ultimate sacrifice and becomes an Aegis for her people. Accepting a genetic modification that takes sixty years off her life, she can feed her colony via nutrition pills. But her best friend is still getting worse. And she’s not the only one.
Now the king is dying, too.
When the boy she’s had a crush on since childhood volunteers to give his life for her father’s, Vela realizes her people need more than pills to survive. As tensions rise between Aegis and colonists, secrets and sabotage begin to threaten the future of the colony itself.
Unless Vela is brave enough to save them all…
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My Review An intense young adult dystopian romance filled with impossible choices, longing, loyalty, and above all, love. When seventeen year old Princess Vela is caught sneaking food to her best friend, her entire future is jeopardized. But the leadership sees something in her and offers her an opportunity to prove herself worthy of taking over her father’s position of Ruler when he passes. Vela and her sister, Blanca, are each challenged to show they have what it takes to lead their people, despite their weaknesses. Vela is compassionate to a fault and Blanca is logical and analytical at the expense of compassion. Each princess is forced into a situation that tests their limits in ways neither is prepared for.
Plot The plot is intricately woven with subplotting that made this a “can’t put down” book for me. While I found some of it predictable, the author’s writing and the characters she created made me need to know what happened next. Dunn drew me into her world, which is richly built, and made me care about fictional people in a way I haven’t in a long time. I wanted a different ending, but the one I got was both gut-wrenching and satisfying.
The Characters Well-developed and incredibly real, Carr, Vela, and the rest of the cast were real to me, and I loved them wholly, never wanting to the story to end. Carr is what every book boyfriend should be with a deep sense of family loyalty and strength, with a poetic side that made me swoon. Vela was everything I want in a young adult heroine. Her compassion for others and sense of doing the right thing at any cost made her one of my favorite young adult protagonists of all time.
Top Five Things I Loved About STAR-CROSSED 1. Vela. She was by far my favorite character of 2018 and in my top five young adult protagonists of all time. She’s warm, loyal, loving, and compassionate with a strong sense of doing the right thing. Her love for her family, her best friend, and Carr made her utterly relatable.
2. Carr. Ahh, what can I say about the dreamy boy who would give his life to save his sister? There is so much to him, but the way he cares not only about his sister but Vela, too, makes him worthy of Vela’s love.
3. Impossible choices. Vela is put in charge of choosing the boy who will die to save her father’s life, but when the only boy she’s ever loved, Carr, puts himself in the running, she finds herself in a situation with no good outcomes. This is the type of situation that makes for page-turning conflict.
4. Dystopian worlds. My favorite genre because anything can happen and nothing is ever as it seems.
5. The ending. Oh my God that ending. It gutted me but it made me FEEL.
Bottom Line An outstanding young adult dystopian tale that will reside among my favorites for years to come.
Disclaimer
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book Title: STAR-CROSSED Author: Pintip Dunn Publisher: Entangled Teen Release Date: October 2, 2018 Pages: 400 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Science Fiction Romance Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | GooglePlay
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Author Pintip Dunn
About the Author Pintip Dunn is a New York Times bestselling author of young adult fiction. She graduated from Harvard University, magna cum laude, with an A.B., and received her J.D. at Yale Law School.
Pintip’s novel FORGET TOMORROW won the 2016 RWA RITA® for Best First Book, and SEIZE TODAY won the 2018 RITA for Best Young Adult Romance. Her books have been translated into four languages, and they have been nominated for the following awards: the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire; the Japanese Sakura Medal; the MASL Truman Award; the Tome Society It list; and the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her other titles include REMEMBER YESTERDAY, THE DARKEST LIE, GIRL ON THE VERGE, and the upcoming STAR-CROSSED and
Max Winter is a janitor at a ritzy boarding school. He’s supposed to keep to himself, mind his business, stay quiet about the things he sees, sweep the floors, and under no circumstances is he to have any contact with the residents. Now, Max will break every last one of those rules when he meets Ace Valentine.
Don’t follow your heart…
Ace Sloane finds out she’s on the wrong side of a war she no longer believes in fighting. Now, she’ll risk everything to get her life back from the people who stole it, including getting too close to exactly the wrong boy.
Don’t get caught…
Grey Winter lost both parents in a fire that should’ve killed her as well. A “miracle baby,” Grey is sent to live with her Nana who should have told her the truth about who and what she really is. Now she’s at the forefront of a cover-up, all-out manhunt, and the object of one boy’s interest she doesn’t want or need. It’s up to Grey to connect the dots and bring an end to the secrets and lies that have caused so much pain and suffering for so long.
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My Review This is a great scifi/dystopian told from two points of view, a generation apart. First person present is Grey Winter, a teen girl with the ability to self heal. Through a series of flashbacks, we get the third-person point of view of Max Winter, Grey’s father. The two stories run in parallel through most of the book, but it’s clear they will end up converging. This is a unique twist on young adult romance. Both characters are teens at the time their stories are told and both include romances, making this a two for one if teen romance is your thing. But it’s so much more than that. There’s plenty of action, a huge mystery, and enough secrets and revelations to keep me turning the pages. The story starts off with a bang as Grey intervenes in a robbery, putting herself between a bullet and the owner of the bodega. Unfortunately, this also exposes her ability to the boy at her school she likes the least. But there is so much more to Grey and Julian than one unfortunate incident.
Max Winter is the janitor at a prestigious school for The Sponsored, a group of kids who get the best education available in exchange for giving up their life choices to the government. Lowly janitors and Sponsored are not allowed to mingle, but with any good dystopian romance, rules are made to be broken. As both stories unfold, we learn everything is both more and less than it seems and secrets and lies run deep.
Plot A two-forked tale, the plotting of both are expertly intertwined. As Grey attempts to keep her abilities a secret, live her life, and fight a budding, but dangerous, attraction to Julian, we see Max and Grey’s mom meet and fall in love. It’s more than just a romantic backstory, though. We learn all the secrets of The Sponsored through his eyes. A captivating storytelling approach that I absolutely loved!
The Characters While it took me a bit to warm up to Grey, I loved her. Her penchant for keeping everyone at arms’ length initially seemed to include the reader as well, but over the course of the book, she lets us in. She’s wounded, damaged, and so incredibly easy to root for. The rest of the characters, Nana, Max, Ace, and Julian are well-developed.
Top Five Things I Loved About THE SPONSORED 1. The plot. Well told and kept me engaged from the opening scene.
2. Grey. She is a complex heroine with so much heart, I just adored her.
3. Dystopia. One of my favorite genres and the author’s take on a near-future society was utterly plausible, making it all the more terrifying.
4. Action. From the opening pages, there is just the right amount of action to keep the story moving.
5. Romance. Two separate romances means twice the angsty love!
Bottom Line Wonderful dystopian romance with a storytelling twist.
Disclaimer
I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author Caroline T Patti is the author of The World Spins Madly On and Too Late To Apologize. When she’s not writing, she’s a school librarian, mother of two, wife, avid reader and Green Bay Packer fan.
Synopsis Most Citizens hold Outcasts in dim regard, but Sima never expected they’d throw her off the planet.
In 2411, overpopulation has spread a plaque of filthy, congested city to the corners of the Earth. Government has raised corruption to an art form, and no one hears the cries of those left to die in the dark passageways of civilization. Following the End of Nations, people cling to the only division left: social status.
Since running away from home four years ago, she’s managed to stay a step ahead of death―or worse. At sixteen, she’s getting too old to survive from begging, despite her best effort to pretend she’s younger. Worse, the sidewalks teem with little kids edging in on her turf, monopolizing Citizens’ charity with their wide, pleading eyes and genuine innocence.
A chance meeting with suspiciously nice cops leaves her more confused than ever. Between deadly gangs, unforgiving security forces, and a terrifying madam eager to exploit a girl her age, merely getting older is the biggest threat to her life. With no good choice to make, she risks the least of three evils.
Sima thought her life on Earth had been dangerous…
She hasn’t seen anything yet..
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My Review Traces of DIVERGENT blend with PASSENGERS and LOST for a dark, action-packed scifi dystopian adventure. Sixteen-year-old Sima is an Outcast on future Earth where Citizens live an easy life and Outcasts struggle for daily survival. Sima begs for enough food to be able to live another day, but at sixteen, she’s no longer a cute waif, and is envious of the younger kids who still tug at the heartstrings of the more fortunate. The first third of the book is devoted to her day-to-day survival, until she’s wrongly associated with anti-government forces and arrested. Instead of prison time, she’s offered a chance to participate in the Progenitor program, although the details of what that means to her are a bit murky. With more trepidation than excitement, she agrees, which thrusts her into another world, where survival means something else entirely.
The writing is fantastic. Cox’s descriptive style conjures vivid imagery that stimulates the imagination. The world’s he conjures are fully developed and filled with environments and characters that bring the reader deep into the story. The technology and world building is superb and kept me rooted in Sima’s story.
Plot The story takes a while to get going. However, there is enough action to keep the reader invested. We’re nearly 30% in when the inciting incident takes Sima from her “normal” life and thrusts her on her journey. She spends an inordinate amount of time musing over her choices for survival. Over and over again like a merry-go-round of the same three options, until finally a fourth option is presented to her. But instead of making a decision for herself, the choice is made for her, so she enters her new life kicking and screaming (and sobbing and whimpering).
The Characters The story is about Sima. We spend the majority of the book inside her head. As a street rat, she pushes others away, preferring to go it alone. A whole host of minor characters interact with her, some superficial, but most with as much depth as Sima herself. Sima has a rich backstory and complex character. She annoyed me at times with her constant whimpering and sobbing. I can certainly understand her emotions, but I was hoping for more of a Katniss or Tris type character. She does transform, but it’s definitely a three steps forward, two steps back type of journey.
Top Five Things I Enjoyed About OUT OF SIGHT 1. The writing. Vivid and unique, peppered with analogies that create stunning mental images.
2. Dystopia. I love a good story about a fallen civilization, and the dark future Cox envisions is layered and intense.
3. SciFi. While not strictly a science fiction, there is so much futuristic technology that it transcends genres.
4. Character development. Yes, it’s slow to come about, but Sima evolves into a young woman who learns what it means to care for someone other than herself.
5. Action. There’s no shortage of action and adventure throughout the story.
Bottom Line A dystopian adventure with science fiction elements packed with action.
Disclaimer
I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: OUT OF SIGHT Series: Progenitor #1 Author: Matthew S. Cox Publisher: Division Zero Press Release Date: August 13, 2018 Pages: 395 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian SciFi Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
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Author Matthew S. Cox
About the Author Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.
Hobbies and Interests:
Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it. He is also fond of cats. Awards: Prophet of the Badlands (excerpt) – Honorable Mention – Writers of the Future.
Synopsis Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.
Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?
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My Review Set after an illness and the events that followed wiped out half the country’s population and civilization as we know it, Thais and her family manage to survive in a rural town in what used to be Kentucky. But lawlessness and greed are everywhere and soon raiders upend an already upended life and send Thais and her sister into the wilderness. They’re soon caught by raiders and taken to Lexington City where women are more prized than gold. They are ranked according to looks and worth and sorted for a life as workers, wives, or whores. There is no equality and no freedom. Thais is desperate to get her sister out, although to where is still huge unknown. But remaining in Lexington City will be a hell all its own.
Atticus is a soldier in Lexington City responsible for sorting Thais and her sister. He’s filled with self-loathing and a desire to change things for the better. His views on the new fallen world are best summed up in his inner thoughts.
But in every good person there is something dark waiting to take the reins. Now here we were, Evelyn and Atticus, a whore and a murderer, succumbing to that dark part of us, because that’s how life was.
Something about Thais sparks a desire in Atticus to battle back against that darkness and maybe redeem his soul. If he can protect her and her sister, maybe he’s not the animal he believes himself to be. When things spiral out of his control, he has no choice but to get Thais out of the city where survival is even more precarious and betrayal is everywhere. Somehow these two find mutual respect in one another that gives way to something more.
Plot The plot moves at a fast pace from the opening chapter. Scenes are short, and alternating points of view keep suspense high and prevents the story from stalling. However, starting in Chapter 24, the author throws in the alternate point of view in bold parenthesis. This practice is jarring, ripping me from the story each time. These points of view are completely unnecessary to the flow of story, so I began to ignore them when I came across them.
The Characters While I’m sure this was written as a plot-driven story, the characters steal the show. Atticus is a fascinating, intense character who I felt the author was much more comfortable writing than Thais. Thais is also well-developed, but she comes across as almost two people as the story develops. She’s tough and determined early on, but slowly becomes dependent upon Atticus for her survival, losing some of that grit that made me love her in the beginning.
Top Five Things I Enjoyed About EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN 1. Atticus. He’s brilliantly crafted.
2. Dystopian. I do love a good fallen civilization.
3. Unhurried love. I love how the author doesn’t rush anything between Thais and Atticus.
4. Character development. Both Thais and Atticus undergo tremendous development throughout the story that is a direct reflection of the circumstances they’ve been put in, making it very organic.
5. Realism. While this is a young adult novel, the author doesn’t sugar coat the realities of life in a post-apocalyptic world, from rape, cannibalism, violence, and prostitution, a dark world is not made less dark just because the characters are young.
Bottom Line A character-driven dystopian in the best sense of the word with remarkable characters and a solid plot.
Disclaimer
I was provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Book Title: EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN Author: Jessica Redmerski Release Date: August 28, 2017 Pages: 657 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Romance Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble
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Author Jessica Redmerski
About the Author Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and award winner who juggles several genres of fiction.
Monster House Books and author Christina Bauer are revealing the cover for UMBRA, the second prequel in the young adult fantasy/dystopian series, Dimension Drift Worlds, releasing January 29, 2019. See below for the cover, information on the book and series, preorder links, and details on her giveaway.
UMBRA (Dimension Drift Prequels #2) by Christina Bauer
Synopsis “I have not found an author that I adore the writing style of this much since Jennifer L. Armentrout. The world that this author created was amazing.”– Brittany’s Book Reviews
A prequel novella to the new series from USA Today’s ‘must read YA paranormal romance’ author, Christina Bauer.
One day, eighteen-year-old Thorne will be the Emperor of the Omniverse, the single being who rules countless worlds. Trouble is, his father Cole–who’s also the current Emperor–is a sadistic freak.
In fact, Cole won’t even keep his promises to the very humans who got him his throne.
Thorne won’t stand for it. He decides to travel to the human world and make good on his father’s promises. What he doesn’t count on is falling in love….
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“I love how Bauer manages to add some awesome new world building to each of her books.”–Woven Magic
This new series is perfect for: fans of urban fantasy, action & adventure, cool science, evil corporations, forbidden romance and hot new classmates who may or may not be aliens.
More series from author Christina Bauer: Beholder (YA Dark Fantasy), Angelbound (YA Urban Fantasy) and Fairy Tales of the Magicorum (YA Urban Fantasy)
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About the Author
Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers.
Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press.
Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby..
Welcome to the blog tour for THE GATHERING, the first book in the adult dystopian adventure series, The Uprising, by Bernadette Giacomazzo. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
THE GATHERING (The Uprising #1) by Bernadette Giacomazzo
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE GATHERING Series: The Uprising #1 Author: Bernadette Giacomazzo Release Date: March 31, 2018 Genre: Adult Dystopian Adventure Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis The Uprising Series tells the story of three freedom fighters and their friends in high — and low — places that come together to overthrow a vainglorious Emperor and his militaristic Cabal to restore the city, and the way of life, they once knew and loved.
In The Gathering, Jamie Ryan has defected from the Cabal and has joined his former brothers-in-arms — Basile Perrinault and Kanoa Shinomura — to form a collective known as The Uprising. When an explosion leads to him crossing paths with Evanora Cunningham — a product of Jamie’s past — he discovers that The Uprising is bigger, and more important, than he thought.
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Excerpt #2 Introduction
Jamie
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be the center of attention.
I had it before. And I have it again, now.
But for entirely different reasons.
My name is James Randall Ryan IV.
My nearest and dearest call me Jamie.
My father, who is (well, now, was) not amongst my nearest and dearest, called me Jimmy. I hate that nickname, and when he died, I thanked every God in Heaven that I never had to hear it again. I wish I could say I otherwise missed the old man, but, unfortunately, I would be lying to you.
And I wouldn’t lie to you.
Not these days. And not about that.
But when I was onstage, I was known as Ivan Sapphire – glam rock god, sex symbol, pussy connoisseur, Dionysus in leather pants, Jesus Christ in sunglasses, High Priest of the Bacchanalia, Son of a Bitch of a Preacher Man.
I was all those things, and more.
I was the lead singer of a band called Faust.
We – myself, William Lynn on guitar, Jordan Barker on bass, and the Reverend Tom Newman (yes, he really was an ordained minister – granted, he got ordained online, but that’s just as valid of an ordainment as any other) on drums – played a balls-to-the-wall, blistering brand of rock’n’roll that earned us accolades, fans, fame, and a lot of money.
New York City was, at first, just our home. When Faust first started playing together, it became our playground. And by the time our careers were in full swing, New York City was ours for the taking.
Like any other band, we paid our dues in the beginning: playing Tuesday night open mics in dive bars with no name, getting tossed a $20 to split four ways at the end of the night, having to slog it out at a job the next day while nursing a Pabst Blue Ribbon-induced hangover – a job that we didn’t want to be in, in the first place, because we were on the fast track to rock stardom, even if only in our own minds.
I remember the night that all changed, though. I see it clearly in my mind, as though it all happened last night.
It was a Friday night at the legendary CBGB. We were opening for a pretentious, shoe-gazing hipster rock band. I wish I could remember their name…Ars Poetica, I think it was.
But it doesn’t really matter now.
At that time in New York City rock’n’roll history, our brand of music had gone out of fashion. Gone were the days of leather-clad lesser rock gods and their songs of hedonistic excess – in our place were unshaven, unkempt navel-gazers who sang music to slit your wrists by. This was the soundtrack to your Prozac-induced manic-depressive state, kids – 50% less pussy, 100% more bitching and moaning!
Brooklyn hipster pieces of shit.
We opened for Ars Poetica because Hilly – the legendary owner of CBGB – wanted to give us a fair shot, but knew that most people were there for Ars Poetica. He figured, with all things being equal, he’d be able to earn us a few extra fans if we had a chance to get in front of their crowd.
He told us that, of the hundreds that paid the $25, with a two-drink minimum, we’d be able to get a few new converts.
Ten, maybe.
If we got lucky.
He kept insisting that we should remain optimistic, but realistic.
And if we did well, he promised, we would be able to have a headlining show on a Friday night; prime real estate for a New York City rock band to obtain, at that time.
And take home $100 to split between the four of us as a consolation prize.
Hilly.
May he forever rock’n’roll in the afterlife.
The night came, and we stood before the crowd – wall-to-wall people, as far as the eye could see. The faces all seemed to blend into one another – men and women, black and white and every shade of tan in between, long hair and short hair in every color of the rainbow.
It was the finest representation of the old New York that so many people had come to know and love. The great American melting pot. The rock’n’roll dream come true – the music serving as the great unifier of people from the world over, and our performance, a communion of souls. Take, and eat – for it is my body of work, and it will be given up for you.
I remember feeling so nervous. I remember standing up on that stage – that filthy, piss-ridden stage that felt like it would collapse under my feet any minute – with Willie, Jordan, and Tom – my three brothers-in-arms – and looking out into the crowd to find a friendly face.
Although it didn’t happen often, if I ever got onstage and found myself feeling nervous at the prospect of performing for a maddening crowd, I would often look out into the audience and find a friendly face to sing to for most of the night. Sometimes it worked – just as many times, it didn’t – but either way, it would end with me ending up with Mrs. Right Now, with her pretty little skirt – often two sizes too tight – torn off and tossed in the back of our van and her shirt around her ears, followed by proclamations of eternal (or, at least until one or both of us got off) love, heavy panting and sweating, and various bodily fluids splattered to the walls, the floor, the seat cushions…anything that was within arm’s reach, really.
Paradise by the dashboard light, as the old song goes.
That poor, stinking van.
It wasn’t that I was a man-whore, so much that I was ready and amenable to whatever was nearby that was equally ready and amenable.
And who wouldn’t be, really, in the same circumstances? You mean to tell me that any straight, red-blooded American man who has been granted access to every size, shape, and flavor of pussy on the island of Manhattan will think of being a monk?
I think not.
And if there’s one universal truth about musicians in general – and lead singers in particular – it’s that we get into the business of music for one reason: pussy. The fame is nice, if you can get it – the money is definitely nice, if you can get it – but we get it all because, at the end of the day, we want prime-cut tenderloin pussy, and that, you can definitely get.
But that night, the friendly face I locked onto would rock my world in a way no one had ever done before.
Angelique.
I knew, from the minute I laid eyes on her, that I would never want anyone else ever again.
And I never did.
Seeing her inspired me to play like I’d never played before.
Oh, we were never terrible – in fact, left to our own devices, we were incendiary – but that night, we played as though the world was burning down around us. We sang the soundtrack to the apocalypse, caterwauling and squealing and throbbing and pounding our way through the lyrics and music as if it was our last night on Earth.
New York City was a big, beautiful bitch, and she was ours for the fucking.
And we fucked her but good – hard, long, slow, all night long, and we were all left panting and sweating thereafter.
We tried to set the night on fire.
And we succeeded by orders of magnitude.
And by the end of our set, we not only had the audience leaving CBGB with us – leaving barely anyone behind for Ars Poetica, those poor, navel-gazing, wrist-slitting fucking Brooklyn hipster pieces of shit – but I had Angelique’s number in my phone.
Hilly gave us the Friday night headlining slot the following week.
Angelique gave me her virginity after that show.
And thus, began our rocket ride to the top.
The press started to come out in droves to our shows after that first fateful headlining show. Article after article, and photo after photo, came out to tell all of New York City about us. We played every envied stage on the island of Manhattan: CBGB, The Continental, Arlene Grocery, The Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge, Joe’s Pub, and The Bitter End.
Once, twice, three times around the island, and back again for more.
The Pirates of Happenstance. The High Priests of Chaos. The Lords of Misrule.
We sold our souls to rock’n’roll, and our bodies to the New York City rock scene.
It was amazing.
They lavished us with every accolade they could imagine, and even some we’d never heard before: Willie and I were the New Millennial Glimmer Twins – Batman and Robin with Les Pauls – Genghis Khans on a savage panty raid. As a collective, we were known as the four horsemen of the rock apocalypse, effectively rendering every other genre of music in New York City completely redundant. We were the best rock band in captivity – the buck-skinned prophets of a dying brand of cock-rock, fueled by illegal drugs and cheap beer and late nights and early mornings and starving ourselves for days on end (sometimes because we weren’t hungry, other times because there was nothing to eat, and still other times because illicit drugs are a hell of an appetite suppressant…).
We were equal parts savages, sinners, saviors and saints.
We were all those things, and more.
It was all said, written, blogged about and photographed, documented for all of prosperity and placed in a time capsule for history to be the judge.
Let history be the judge of us, and condemn us to a life of Hell, because we experienced Heaven on Earth.
The whole thing started with rock’n’roll, and then it was all out of control.
And it was all true.
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Author Bernadette Giacomazzo
About The Author With an impressive list of credentials earned over the course of two decades, Bernadette R. Giacomazzo is a multi-hyphenate in the truest sense of the word: an editor, writer, photographer, publicist, and digital marketing specialist who has demonstrated an uncanny ability to thrive in each industry with equal aplomb. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and many, many more. She served as the news editor of Go! NYC Magazine for nearly a decade, the executive editor of LatinTRENDS Magazine for five years, the eye candy editor of XXL Magazine for two years, and the editor-at-large at iOne/Zona de Sabor for two years. As a publicist, she has worked with the likes of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit record label, rapper Kool G. Rap, and various photographers, artists, and models. As a digital marketing specialist, Bernadette is Google Adwords certified, has an advanced knowledge of SEO, PPC, link-building, and other digital marketing techniques, and has worked for a variety of clients in the legal, medical, and real estate industries.
Based in New York City, Bernadette is the co-author of Swimming with Sharks: A Real World, How-To Guide to Success (and Failure) in the Business of Music (for the 21st Century), and the author of the forthcoming dystopian fiction series, The Uprising. She also contributed a story to the upcoming Beyonce Knowles tribute anthology, The King Bey Bible, which will be available in bookstores nationwide in the summer of 2018..
Welcome to the book blitz for THE GATHERING, the first book in the adult dystopian adventure series, The Uprising, by Bernadette Giacomazzo. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
THE GATHERING (The Uprising #1) by Bernadette Giacomazzo
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE GATHERING Series: The Uprising #1 Author: Bernadette Giacomazzo Release Date: March 31, 2018 Genre: Adult Dystopian Adventure Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis The Uprising Series tells the story of three freedom fighters and their friends in high — and low — places that come together to overthrow a vainglorious Emperor and his militaristic Cabal to restore the city, and the way of life, they once knew and loved.
In The Gathering, Jamie Ryan has defected from the Cabal and has joined his former brothers-in-arms — Basile Perrinault and Kanoa Shinomura — to form a collective known as The Uprising. When an explosion leads to him crossing paths with Evanora Cunningham — a product of Jamie’s past — he discovers that The Uprising is bigger, and more important, than he thought.
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Excerpt Chapter Thirteen Jamie
I saw Emperor – looking like a hot air balloon, sounding as ridiculous as ever – blathering on about his personal Reichstag fire, and laying the blame of the explosion squarely at the feet of myself and my brothers-in-arms.
“…and it’s these traitors of the state – the threat to the security of my Empire of the United States of America – the defectors of the Cabal who go by Jamie Ryanand Basile Perrinault and, my greatest betrayal, Supreme Allied Commander Kanoa Shinomura…” he hollered into the microphone, which seemed to reverberate throughout the city.
At the sound of Kanoa’s name, the Cabal members below the balcony slammed the butts of their guns on the floor in rhythm. I knew that rhythm all too well – it was meant to be a war cry for those of us in the rank-and-file of the Cabal – but, to the untrained ear, it sounded like a machine gun going off…which was exactly the point.
But I couldn’t help but sneer at the accusation that the blast that nearly killed Evanora and Tommy was somehow our fault. He’d spent decades trying to catch us and failing miserably, yet in the same breath, believed we were inept enough to set off a blast that took no lives and could be cleaned up during a balmy New York evening. And he managed to sell this ridiculous belief to the crowd, no less.
“Let’s make something clear, asshole,” I muttered, “if it had been me and the boys that lit your shit up, you wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Despite the absurdity of the accusation – and despite the obvious absurdity of the accusation – the victims of psi just grunted along, agreeing with everything and anything that came out of Emperor’s mouth, in part because they didn’t know any better (they were psi victims, after all), and in part because any disagreement with what Emperor had to say was met with a fierce, painful punishment.
“His Word, Before All and Above All,” I muttered. “With liberty and justice for no one, so kiss my peasant Old New York ass and take a breath mint afterward, unless you like that funky aftertaste…”
My voice trailed off as my eyes focused on a strange woman on the balcony.
At first, I couldn’t discern who she was – she looked like someone I’d seen before, yet someone I’d never seen before.
Her hair was a garish white-blonde, stringy and lifeless, and pinned tightly behind her head with a set of black ceramic chopsticks. Her makeup was almost cartoonish – cat-like black eyeliner and matte black lipstick sat atop a ghostly white foundation. Even her outfit was a hideously hilarious cultural appropriation – a black silk kimono paired with a set of black stiletto heels. I’d seen Old New York 42nd Street prostitutes, with terrible heroin problems, sell the “Asian coquette” look better than what I’d seen before me now.
“Who the actual…” I began, hesitantly, unable to process who I was seeing before me.
And then it hit me, all at once, who she was.
For the first time in a long time, I was literally speechless.
When I could finally find my voice again, it barely came out in a whisper. “Rosie,” I squeaked.
I walked into the Ludlow Street apartment I shared with Angelique and was instantly greeted with the smell of a meat dish that, I would later learn, was calledcarne asada.
“Angelique!” I called out over the loud sizzling of steak as I kicked off my black Frye boots and set my matching acoustic guitar down. “Where are you, my love?”
“In here!” she called, out of sight, from the kitchen, where more clanging and banging sounds echoed over her voice.
I began walking through the apartment, shedding layers as I went along until I reached the kitchen wearing nothing but my black leather pants and a mischievous smile. I was hoping to have a little appetizer of crème d’Angelique before dinner, but when I reached the kitchen, I realized – much to my chagrin – that we weren’t alone.
Angelique, her hair tied back into a messy ponytail, was wearing a tight, white, see-through shorts jumper and a matching white apron. She was standing next to an unfamiliar-looking woman with a matching messy ponytail, but whose thick chocolate brown hair stood in sharp contrast to Angelique’s thin flaxen locks. The rest of her, too, was in stark contrast to Angelique, but not in a bad way – she was olive-skinned, in contrast to Angelique’s pale white skin; she was curvy, in contrast to Angelique’s ectomorphic figure; she was fiery, in contrast to Angelique’s ethereal nature.
They were standing side by side, working on something that smelled simply delicious. Angelique was mixing flour, sugar, and garlic powder, and her friend was adding melted butter and salted water to the resultant powder, then kneading it until it formed a dough.
“Am I interrupting something?” I asked as I walked behind Angelique, wrapped my arms around her waist, and kissed her neck, breathing in her scent of lilacs as I did so.
She smiled, then took her index finger and bopped the tip of my nose with the flour mixture. “Hey handsome,” she said, beatifically. “We’re making something special for you for dinner. We’ve got carne asada in the pan over there – we’ve got some arroz con gandules in the rice cooker – and we’re making…wait, girl, what’s this called?”
“Arepas,” her friend said, smiling as she continued to knead the dough between her hands, her silver thumb ring glistening in the light of the dusk as she did so.
“Right, arepas,” Angelique repeated. “Ramira here is teaching me all her magic ways – she says this is the exact dinner I need to make if I want my man to marry me.” She giggled, then elbowed Ramira, who giggled along with Angelique.
I couldn’t help but giggle, as well, as I unentwined myself from Angelique and walked over to Ramira to properly introduce myself. “I’m going to be stuffed fordays with all this delicious food, so it’s only right that we become friends,” I began, extending my hand. “Hi there. I’m James Randall Ryan IV, I somehow lucked out enough to convince this lovely lady Angelique to be my girlfriend, and it’s a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Jamie.”
Ramira smiled, then shook my hand with two of her fingers, taking care not to smear the wet dough across my palm. “Well, my name is Ramira Diaz, Angelique is my best friend, and it’s a pleasure to meet you too. You can call me Rosie, though. Everyone else does.”
I sat under a wilting star magnolia tree and stared, intently, through the open window of a room that had to be Rosie’s dressing room. She peeled her black silk kimono off and turned her back to the frameless window, exposing her prominent ribs and shoulder blades as she did so. The sight of her suddenly-bare, emaciated frame shocked me, especially given how pronounced her curves were in our younger years, and tears welled up in my eyes yet again.
In the decades since Angelique and my son had died, I could count the number of times I’d cried on one hand. In the past 72 hours, though – as I realized that my best friend’s kid, and my best friend’s girlfriend, were alive and well, and that the Uprising was bigger than I’d ever imagined – the tears came quickly and flowed easily, and I couldn’t decide if this was a sign of strength or weakness on my part.
Rosie slipped a shimmering white camisole over her emaciated frame, which she then tucked into a pair of white linen slacks. I couldn’t get over how thin she’d gotten, then wondered if this was by her own design, or if she was under orders from that evil husband of hers. No way would Jordan be cool with this, I thought to myself. On his fucking grave would this go on. On his fucking grave. And wouldn’t you know it – here we are, on his fucking grave.
I saw Rosie leave the room and begin to head down a flight of stairs, and I took that as an opportunity to get her alone, away from the rabid Cabal and out of sight of the vainglorious Emperor. She’d taken a few steps away from her building, and into Emperor’s Park, before passing by the wilting star magnolia tree that I was hiding behind. It was only when I saw the back of her slicked back, perfect ponytail – what a difference from the one she was wearing when we first met, I thought – that I saw the opportunity to get her alone and began walking behind her.
“You’ve come a long way from making arepas on Ludlow Street,” I said, tapping her on the shoulder when I finally caught up with her.
She spun around, her face scrunched up in fear, and for a split second, I thought she was going to hit me. But just as quickly, she relaxed as her eyes registered who owned the disembodied voice. “Jamie,” she whispered tearfully. “You’re here. You’re alive. I didn’t realize…”
“How the hell did you not?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows and side-eyeing her. “Your damned husband has been hunting me for decades.”
“I knew that,” she said, taking ragged breaths. “But just the fact that he was never able to take you alive led me to believe that you were…you know…” Her voice trailed off.
I wasn’t convinced, and I continued to stare at her intently as I scratched my left cheek, which was now beginning to show the first signs of salt-and-pepper beard stubble. “First of all, why the hell are you talking like you’re Queen Elizabeth? Second, let me just state it for the record: you give your asshole husbandway too much credit if you think he can take me down.”
Rosie bit her lower lip, then shifted her eyes down. I put my hand under her chin and tipped her face up, forcing her eyes to meet mine as I tried, desperately, to search for a sign of the Rosie I once knew. “Rosie,” I whispered intently. “It’s me. You don’t have to hide from me.”
Her face was a blank slate. “My name is Rose. Rose Cunningham,” she said with flat affect.
“Oh, bullshit,” I whispered, even more intently. “Whatever happened to ‘call me Rosie, everyone else does’? What happened to that woman who was makingarepas in the kitchen with my Angelique?”
That got her attention, and her deep brown eyes flashed with fire as she balled up her fists and began swinging at me. “You shit! You bastard! You did it! You almost killed my baby!”
I ducked, bobbed and weaved, avoiding each blow as I carefully tried to talk her down from the ledge. “Rosie! What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t do that shit! I swear!”
She continued to swing at me. “Yes! Yes, you did!” she squealed tearfully, repeating the same “yes, yes” with each swing, her voice getting louder each time.
“Do you want to knock it off before the fuckin’ Cabal finds us, Rosie? The fuck is wrong with you? Jesus Christ!” I was shouting despite myself and began scanning the landscape frantically for Cabal soldiers that would have undoubtedly heard us, all while bobbing and weaving like a prizefighter to avoid getting punched in the face.
She swung even harder and squealed even louder. “You tried to kill my baby! Just like you killed yours!”
That line finally got me to react, and I had to steady my breathing to stop from clocking her in the mouth. Even in the throes of the worst of my Faustian behavior, I never hit a woman, and neither did any of my bandmates – the thought of violence against a woman, let alone a woman we’d loved, didn’t even cross our drug-addled minds.
Instead, I grabbed her wrists and forced them down to her sides, holding them in place at hip level as she struggled, trying to hit me, until she finally began whimpering in defeat.
“Now you listen to me, Ramira Diaz, and you listen well,” I began, angrily. “You may have forgotten everything you were and are, but I sure as fuck haven’t forgotten a goddamn thing, and let me rest assure you, I never fuckin’ will.”
Her lower lip was trembling, her eyes were watering, and it became evident that she was on the verge of tears. Still, I continued. “So, let me get a few things out of the way now, so we’re not confused. Number one: that blast? It wasn’t me. It wasn’t anyone tied to me. It wasn’t anyone whose name I can even spell. Because let me assure you, again, that if it were me, or anyone tied to me, we’d have burned down the entire fuckin’ city, even if it meant killing ourselves in the process, and wouldn’t have left a survivor anywhere on this God-forsaken island.
“Number two: you know goddamn well I didn’t kill Angelique or our baby. Now I wear their death on my heart every. Fucking. Day. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in twenty fucking years, from the day they were killed, because I can’t get their murders out of my mind. There are times I wish I was dead, just so that I don’t have to live with the guilt of their murders, but no, here I am, and ain’t that a fuckin’ bitch from Hell. I’d give all the money in the world to have my Angelique back. I’d trade my life for Jordan’s any day of the week. And my son – my only legacy – never had a chance at life, and you think that’s all fair?
“Number three – and this is the most important part, Rosie, goddamnit, you’d better fuckin’ listen to this if you listen to nothing else: remember that promise I made to you in the hospital room? All those years ago? Because I fuckin’ do. And that’s why when Evanora and Tommy came down the Bowery after the blast, and I realized who she was, I made sure she was safe and clean and warm…”
Rosie looked shocked. “Wait. She came to you?”
I searched her face, trying to see if I could register where her loyalties lie before I continued to answer the question. For some reason, however, I couldn’t make it out. I even tried to read Rosie’s mind using a gentle form of psi, but I still couldn’t read her mind at all. It was like trying to probe a brick wall. So, to protect Evanora – and the rest of us – I chose to cover my tracks. “Yeah,” I said airily, “she mentioned something about listening to Uprising Radio.”
The name of Uprising Radio registered some type of recognition with Rosie, and her eyes lit up slightly. “My baby has heard Uprising Radio?”
“I don’t know for sure,” I continued, still adopting an airy affect, “but I’m pretty sure that’s what she said.” Using my Cabal training, I put a mental wall between my thoughts and Rosie, mostly because I didn’t know how much training she’d had in the psi arts, and I wasn’t sure if she, too, could read my mind. And if, God forbid, her loyalties lied with that pathetic excuse of her husband, I could at least protect, if not myself, then the whole Uprising movement.
I made sure the wall was firmly in place before I continued. “I think I’ve heard Uprising Radio a few times, but I don’t know much about it, who does it, or anything of the sort.”
“Yeah,” Rosie said, hesitantly, behind a mental brick wall of her own, “I have no idea, either.”
We were calmer, now – our breath was steady, our thoughts were collected, and Rosie’s fists were limp. I finally felt confident that she wasn’t going to try to hit me again, so I loosened my grip on her wrists.
But I suddenly found myself unable to let her go, so I slid my hands from her wrists to her hands and grabbed her fingers lightly. I was overcome with emotion.
“What is it, Jamie?” Her voice was cracking.
I exhaled loudly, then drew in a ragged breath. “Do you think about him, Rosie? Do you think about Jordan at all?”
She closed her eyes and allowed the tears to fall as she exhaled shakily. “Every day of my life,” she said softly. “There’s not a day that goes by that Jordan doesn’t cross my mind. Every time I look at Evanora – every time I hear her laugh – he comes to my mind. Sometimes, she gives me this look – you remember, Jamie? You remember when Jordan would hear something that was just too stupid for words, and he would get this look on his face, like, ‘were you dropped on your head as a child?’” – and to this, I gave a half-smile and a nod – “and now, she gets that look. And that one eyebrow” – she took her finger and drew on her left eyebrow – “it would just go up like…like…”
She dropped her hand as her voice trailed off, her eyes filling with tears.
I nodded my head, closed my eyes, and sighed. “Fuckin’ guy,” I said, opening my eyes and looking at Rosie. “So. You didn’t see me, right?”
Rosie smiled and winked at me. “Ivan Sapphire? Please. Get over yourself, rock star.” She squeezed my hands one last time for good measure. “I’m going to leave now. I’m not going to look back because I don’t want to see where you’re going. This way, if someone with bad intentions against you asks me if I know where you are, I can answer honestly when I say I don’t know. But just because I don’t look back, doesn’t mean I want to see you go. I need you to understand that, Jamie Ryan. I don’t need you to over-analyze things that don’t need over-analyzing. I need you to let me go, Jamie Ryan, and I need you to know that I love you, and I thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
She finally let go of my hands, gave me a slight nod, then turned and walked back to her home. I watched her, silently, keeping the promise I made so long ago to Jordan Barker and didn’t leave what was once known as Central Park until I saw, for sure, that she was safe inside.
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Author Bernadette Giacomazzo
About The Author With an impressive list of credentials earned over the course of two decades, Bernadette R. Giacomazzo is a multi-hyphenate in the truest sense of the word: an editor, writer, photographer, publicist, and digital marketing specialist who has demonstrated an uncanny ability to thrive in each industry with equal aplomb. Her work has been featured in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and many, many more. She served as the news editor of Go! NYC Magazine for nearly a decade, the executive editor of LatinTRENDS Magazine for five years, the eye candy editor of XXL Magazine for two years, and the editor-at-large at iOne/Zona de Sabor for two years. As a publicist, she has worked with the likes of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson and his G-Unit record label, rapper Kool G. Rap, and various photographers, artists, and models. As a digital marketing specialist, Bernadette is Google Adwords certified, has an advanced knowledge of SEO, PPC, link-building, and other digital marketing techniques, and has worked for a variety of clients in the legal, medical, and real estate industries.
Based in New York City, Bernadette is the co-author of Swimming with Sharks: A Real World, How-To Guide to Success (and Failure) in the Business of Music (for the 21st Century), and the author of the forthcoming dystopian fiction series, The Uprising. She also contributed a story to the upcoming Beyonce Knowles tribute anthology, The King Bey Bible, which will be available in bookstores nationwide in the summer of 2018..
Welcome to the book blitz for THE DOCILES, the first book in the young adult dystopian series, The Secret Archives Trilogy, by Valerie Puri. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on their giveaway.
THE DOCILES (The Secret Archives Trilogy #1) by Valerie Puri
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE DOCILES Series: The Secret Archives Trilogy #1 Author: Valerie Puri Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Release Date: July 12, 2018 Link: Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU | Barnes & Noble
Synopsis Walls are meant to keep the monsters out…
Deep in the forest there is a wall where no wall should be. Behind it live the people of the Commune, the last remnant of human kind.
Jennie Caraway has lived behind the wall her entire life, certain that it protects her and her brother from the lemerons, ravenous undead monsters whose only desire is to kill – and feed.
Jennie’s peaceful existence is shattered when she uncovers a secret organization whose purpose threatens to destroy not only Jennie, but her entire world. The Order has a deadly mission, and they will stop at nothing to see it completed.
Jennie and those closest to her must expose the evil truth before they are killed – or worse.
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Excerpt #2
Sash Sash smiled as he recalled his transition into adulthood. He’d chosen his own path and proved how useful he could be to the Order. He had been doing this work ever since the day he walked away from the burning remnants of his past life. His technique had been polished over the years. He learned how to control his rage and do less conspicuous work. After all, he couldn’t burn down every building he did a job in just to cover his tracks and make it look like an accident.
Some of his targets were not so lucky as to be killed. What awaited them was something worse. Eleanor Townsend was one such target. His usual sneer crept over his lips as he thought about the hell she would soon be trapped in. She hadn’t screamed when he bagged her, though. Pity, he thought. Sash loved when they screamed.
He reached the end of the long dark tunnel. He stood before a thick steel door with a single, dim light flickering above his head. He made a fist and banged on the cold metal two times. He heard shuffling behind the door, and a strip of metal at eye-level slid away to reveal a small, rectangular window. A set of eyes masked behind tinted, round goggles peered out at him, surveying the load hoisted over his shoulder.
“I’ve got another one for processing,” Sash said.
The metal strip slid back into place covering the tiny window. Sash heard the grinding sound of metal scraping against metal as the gears were engaged to unlock the door. It swung inward to grant him entrance.
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Author Valerie Puri
About the Authors Valerie Puri has always had a lifelong interest in all forms of artistic expression. She has tried her hand at many things, yet she always found her way back to reading and writing. With inspiration everywhere, she finally put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard) with the intent of publishing her stories.
Writing has always come naturally to Valerie, and for a time she even worked as a technical writer. She continues to hone her skills by having at least one writing project in the works at any given time. Her true passion lies in the freedom that comes with writing the stories that pour from her imagination and real life inspiration.
Valerie believes that the experiences we have in life are just stories waiting to be written.
Welcome to the book blitz for AN IMPOSSIBLE WORLD, an adult dystopian romance, by S.P. Cervantes. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway. And for a limited time, you can pick up the eBook for just $0.99.
Synopsis What would happen if terrorism spread and hate took over? What would the world become?
Isabella (Belle) Grey trained her entire adult life to protect those around her––training that would prove invaluable in her quest to make a new life. Forced to live in an impossible world, terror was not only outside the walls of her protected community but also raged behind the walls of her very own home.
No longer willing to put up with her husband’s drunken abuse, Belle made the desperate decision to run away from the safety of her community and escaped alone into the broken world beyond.
Chased by death as bombs exploded in the distance, her next decision could not only save her life but could potentially bring light back into her darkened soul.
When faced with the impossible, Belle found strength in an unsuspecting stranger who set her path in a new direction––one she never considered.
Fear. Love. Revenge. Strength … all come together in this epic tale of fate and survival.
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Excerpt Keagan
I protect my own. That’s all I’ve ever done, and that’s what I’ll do until the day I die. I also don’t change my mind once it’s made up.” He hovered over me setting me on fire in ways that confused me. “And I’ve made my mind up about you.”
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Author S.P. Cervantes
About the Author S.P. Cervantes is the author of the acclaimed contemporary romance A BROKEN FAIRY TALE series. The series allows you to connect with a group of friends and their triumphs over tragedy. “Dust to Dust” is a suspenseful stand-alone romance that introduces readers to this close knit group of loyal friends. “Wished Away” is an emotional romance that should be read before the Bad-Boy romance, “His Jar of Hearts”.
S.P. highly acclaimed romance called “The Wife” is now available.
S.P. is also the author of the highly rated Young Adult Romantic Fantasy trilogy Secrets of Shadow Hill. “Always and Forever”, “The Prophecy”, and “War of Wizards” that has been described as “Twilight Meets Harry Potter”. It’s not your typical romantic fantasy.
S.P Cervantes lives in Orange County, California with her husband and three children, where she is a teacher. She enjoys spending time with her family, writing, reading, and running, but is always thinking of an idea for her next novel..
Welcome to the blog tour for STRICKEN,a stand-alone middle grade/young adult dystopian adventure with a scifi twist, by C.K. Kelly Martin. See below for information the book, buy links, an exclusive guest post by the author, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis Naomi doesn’t expect anything unusual from her annual family trip to visit her grandparents in Ireland. What she expects is to celebrate her thirteenth birthday, hang out with her friends Ciara and Shehan, and deal with her gran’s Alzheimer’s. What she finds is a country hit by an unexpected virus that rapidly infects the majority of the Irish population over the age of twenty-one.
Amnestic-Delirium Syndrome (ADS) starts off with memory loss, but the virus soon turns its victims aggravated, blank, or violent. Naomi and her friends must survive on their own, without lucid adults, cut off from the rest of the world, until a cure is found.
But there are whispers that ADS is not terrestrial, and soon Naomi and her friends learn the frightening truth: we are not alone.
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Guest Post – Cover Love Seeing a new book cover for the first time is always exciting for an author– it’s a visual representation of your work that will (hopefully!) have an immediate impact on whoever sees it. Stricken is my first middle grade book and my first book cover that wasn’t a photograph. Those things alone made me giddy. An original cover illustration!
The first I saw of the Stricken cover art was a black and white sketch that I instantly fell head over heels in love with. Canadian visual artist Nick Craine adapted Bruce McDonald’s, Dance Me Outside and Hard Core Logo into graphic novels and his illustrations have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic.
To me it’s no small thing that Nick Craine also designed the best book cover I’ve ever had. I’m in absolute awe of main character Naomi’s defiant posture atop an overturned car. Seeing Dublin’s main thoroughfare, O’Connell Street (a place central to the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish Civil War of 1922) pictured behind her gives me a thrill every time I see Stricken. If you ever go to Dublin, there’s no way you’ll visit the place without seeing O’Connell Street and O’Connell Bridge, which spans the River Liffey. The Stricken cover vividly portrays more than a familiar city street though; it shows a place in trouble, a place where life has been turned upside down. It makes me want to snatch up the book and find out what happens within the pages, even though I’ve already read it. It’s a cover that sets up delicious expectations, which I dearly hope I meet.
I was twenty-one the first time I landed in Dublin, but there was something about it that nearly instantly felt like home. That makes this book and its fabulous cover very special to me. I can’t thank Nick Craine enough.
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Author C.K. Kelly Martin
About the Author Long before I was an author I was a fan of books about Winnie the Pooh, Babar, Madeline, Anne Shirley and anything by Judy Blume. Throughout high school my favourite class was English. No surprise, then, that most of my time spent at York University in Toronto was as an English major—not the traditional way to graduate with a B.A. (Hons) in film studies but a fine way to get a general arts education.
After getting my film studies degree I headed for Dublin, Ireland and spent the majority of the nineties there in forgettable jobs meeting unforgettable people and enjoying the buzz. I always believed I’d get around to writing in earnest eventually, and I began writing my first novel in a flat in Dublin and finished it in a Toronto suburb. By then I’d discovered that fiction about young people felt the freshest and most exciting to me. You have most of your life to be an adult but you only grow up once.
Currently residing near Toronto with my Dub husband, I’m an aunt to twenty-one nieces and nephews, and a great-aunt to two great-nephews. I became an Irish citizen in 2001 and continue to visit Dublin as often as I can while working on novels about young people.
My first young adult book, I Know It’s Over, came out with Random House in September 2008, and was followed by One Lonely Degree, The Lighter Side of Life and Death, My Beating Teenage Heart and sci-fi thriller Yesterday. I released Yesterday’s sequel, Tomorrow, in 2013 and put out my first adult novel, Come See About Me, as an ebook in June 2012. My most recent contemporary YA books, The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing and Delicate, were published by Cormorant Books’ Dancing Cat Books imprint in 2014 and 2015.
Welcome to the book blitz for BEFORE DAWN, a stand-alone young adult science fiction dystopian adventure by Elizabeth Arroyo. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
Synopsis Survival rule number one: eat before being hunted.
In a world infected by violent hybrids, survival comes with its own set of rules. Sixteen-year-old Zoe is an expert at breaking them.
While Zoe has abilities she cannot explain, just getting through another day without being killed is a challenge. She has survived since her mother’s murder with help from an unexpected ally, Morph.
Morph is part of the Arcane, an elite force of teenagers from an Alliance of space stations. After the Arcane are destroyed in an explosion, only Morph and his brother survive. They are sent on a new mission to capture a dangerous hybrid.
Morph is torn between duty and his attraction to Zoe. With threats to the planet from above, Morph knows Zoe’s chances are limited. Trying to save her could be a betrayal to the Alliance.
When Zoe recovers memories of her mother’s death that point straight to the Arcane, she realizes Morph might be the real enemy.
As more mysteries are brought to light, telling friends from foes becomes difficult. For Morph and Zoe, the world is more dangerous than ever. And trusting each other is the key to them living to see another day.
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Excerpt #2 Morph wanted to apologize for leaving her and let her know that Shyla had him by his manhood. He wanted to apologize for Jace. Recently, she’d allowed her emotions to dominate her actions. She’d snap whenever he tried to talk some sense into her. Stubborn to the core. He couldn’t bring out the words before she pissed him off.
Like now.
Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she headed for the exit.
“Don’t,” he warned. “Stone’s pulling sentry duty.” If Stone detected movement it would send a highly volatile cylinder to the perpetrator and exterminate them. Only it probably wouldn’t kill Zoe. It’d destroy itself in the process and he liked the bot.
“Call it off,” she challenged. Her hand already on the doorknob.
“Just relax,” he ordered, but that only sent her edging into the drop off.
“Call it off. It’s the only one you have left.” She turned to meet his eyes and let out a breath just before she opened the door.
Cursing, he pushed the off button on his wristband to keep the bot from committing suicide. “Stay here,” he ordered Glam and sprinted after Zoe.
Being depleted of energy didn’t stop her from charging down the seven flights of stairs. She rushed outside, into the dawn, and abruptly stopped. He slammed into her and quickly drew her into his protective embrace before she lost her balance. This close to her, he lost his words.
She gently pushed him away. Her amber colored eyes did something to him he never wanted to forget. It made him whole.
“Why did you even come back?” she whispered.
He cupped her cheek and she leaned into his touch. All the reasons why he couldn’t tell her how he felt, why he couldn’t wrap her in his arms and kiss her, flooded to the surface. Attachments would get him killed. She was a hybrid – he killed her kind. He needed to take her to Mecca, to be tested. She, like Archer, seemed to be a new version of hybrid. She could never join him on the Phoenix, and he had to go back. It was the only way to save Jace. It’d be wrong to explore their feelings when he knew how it would all end.
“I have to go back,” he whispered. He didn’t have to tell her what he meant. She knew. It was written all over her face. She stiffened and pulled away. He almost wanted her to argue with him, to challenge him to stay. She didn’t. She never did. Instead, she sucked in a breath and walked back inside.
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Author Elizabeth Arroyo
About the Author Born and raised in Chicago and the youngest of five, Elizabeth spent most of her younger years as an avid reader with a wild imagination which led her to write her first manuscript at the age of fourteen.
Influenced by the gamers in her household and her love of action adventure, Elizabeth delved into the realm of science fiction and wrote her first full-length science fiction/dystopian YA novel—BeforeDawn—acquired by Ellysian Press in 2016.
Elizabeth is the author of the Second Sign and the Second Shadow, a dark YA paranormal romance series, (Sapphire Star Publishing, 2013), and Darkness, a YA paranormal thriller, (Indie-Published, 2014). She has a short story published with SQ Magazine, and advice on her writing journey can be found in The Write Path: A Compilation of Letters, (Amazon Digital Services, Inc.).
Elizabeth enjoys spending time with her family, listening to music, and binge watching her favorite shows.
Welcome to the book blitz for CIVIL WAR, the second book in the new adult post-apocalyptic dystopian romance series, Resurrection, by Summer Lane. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive excerpt, and details on her giveaway.
CIVIL WAR (Resurrection #2) Summer Lane
About the Book Title: CIVIL WAR Series: Resurrection #2 Author: Summer Lane Release Date: June 15, 2018 Genre: New Adult Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Romance Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis JUNE 15, 2018 – THE SECOND INSTALLMENT IN THE NEW SERIES! CASSIDY HART’S PRESIDENCY IS IN TROUBLE.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
As the Western Republic and the Eastern Coalition are thrust into the beginning of a civil war, President Cassidy Hart fears for the survival of the country that she has worked so hard to protect.
A new, dangerous Omega Chancellor has taken control of the Eastern Coalition, heading up a new division of technological warfare, in an attempt to crush the Freedom Fighters and the entire structure of leadership built around Cassidy’s presidency.
While a new type of advanced warfare begins, Cassidy and her team penetrate the dangerous underbelly of Omega’s remaining secret societies to get closer to the Chancellor and to seize Omega technology…before it’s too late to save the Western Republic. Torn between loyalty, duty, and love, Cassidy Hart will go down in history as either the most beloved – or most hated – president of all time.
This means war.
From the bestselling author of 20 hit novels, including the popular Collapse Series, Summer Lane. This novel continues the adventures of the Resurrection Series and beloved heroine, Cassidy Hart.
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Excerpt #2 “Wait,” I say, shocked. “This is a virus? A computer virus?”
“Yes.” She flips one of her many computer monitors around to face me. The monitor is on, but the screen is locked. An image is displayed across the screen: it’s an O that has been sectioned into six bloody pieces. In the center of it all is a Latin phrase:
Mors tua, vita mea
“That’s an Omega O,” Sandy says. “And the Latin means—”
“Your death, my life,” I interpret. “Yeah. I can read Latin.” “It’s just frozen like that?” Uriah asks.
“Yeah.” Sandy slams her fist against the desk. “They’re mocking me. They’re mocking us. This is like a superbug, for lack of a better term. It’s eating through everything we have. Satellite connections, email servers…”
“Well, shut it down,” I say.
“I can’t! I’m locked out of my own system!”
She is freaking out—and I’m not far from doing the same. If Omega takes down this base…I don’t even want to think about it. God, why can’t we catch a break? Why is there always one slimy traitor hiding in plain sight that has to throw a wrench in our plans?
Your death, my life.
What kind of game is Ayad playing with us? I have not deluded myself into believing that it is not Ayad who masterminds every move against us at this point. But who would be able to get inside this bunker? There are so many thousands of people in Sector 51, it could literally be anyone.
“Keep working on this,” I tell Sandy. “Uriah. Let’s go see Clare.”
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Author Summer Lane
About the Author Summer Lane is the #1 bestselling author of The Collapse Series, The Zero Trilogy and The Bravo Saga. She is also the author of Collapse: The Illustrated Guide, a #1 bestselling graphic companion to the phenomenal original series.
She is the owner of WB Publishing and Writing Belle, an online magazine where she has worked with countless authors from around the globe. Summer is also an accomplished journalist and creative writing teacher.
Summer lives in the Central Valley of California, where she spends her days writing, collecting tea, and writing some more.
Author B. Truly is revealing the cover to TEMPTATION TRIALS REVOLUTION, a companion novel in her adult dystopian romance series, Temptation Trials, releasing July 13, 2018. See below for the cover, information on the book and series, and a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR.
TEMPTATION TRIALS REVOLUTION (Temptation Trials #1.5) by B. Truly
About the Book
Title: TEMPTATION TRIALS REVOLUTION Series: Temptation Trials #1.5
Author: B. Truly Release Date: July 13, 2018 Genre: Adult Dystopian Romance Links: Goodreads
Synopsis There are always two sides to a story. Can love withstand the ultimate temptation?
A new Regime has arisen from the havoc and destruction of World War III.
Society now has to follow the strict mandates, reign under the dictatorship of His Highest Eminence or suffer the consequences.
Tobias and Kincade are part of a cryptic organization that’s trying to uncover the secrets behind the Regime. Something is suspicious with the new world order—why else would they want to control the most powerful emotion of love? With mandatory arranged marriages at the age of twenty-one, the only way to fight for love is through the Temptation Trials—a government-sponsored reality TV show.
Kincade and Tobias know the rules, but after they meet the women of their dreams, they face a difficult decision. With their impending birthdays around the corner, the guys have to decide if they will bend to the Regime’s will or fight for their relationships.
Lust, mistaken for love, will lead to down a treacherous path. They soon learn that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak.
Can love save their souls, or is lust too tempting?
A companion novel of Temptation Trials. This book can be read as a standalone. Find out the guy’s POV in a new story that unravels through the Trials.
About the Author B. Truly has wanted to be an author since she was fifteen years old. She is grateful to have accomplished this dream. B. Truly has very vivid dreams and a wild imagination. She likes to read, watch tons of TV shows, and movies. She’s addicted to romance, and gets a thrill out of action and sci-fi. She writes new adult and adult romance—sci-fi, dystopian, and paranormal genres.
B. Truly likes to explore different elements of sci-fi romance, and create various realms of reality. She also loves creating impossible situations for her characters to grow from and try to overcome/
B. Truly has three wonderful children, and a husband who defines the person that she is today. She works full-time as an Ultrasound technologist in Houston, Texas.
Author C.S. Hand is unveiling the cover to HER REVOLUTION, the first book in his young adult dystopian series, Her Golden City, releasing August 8, 2018. See below for the cover, information on the book, a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR, and details on his giveaway.
HER REVOLUTION (Her Golden City #1) by C.S. Hand
About the Book Title: HER REVOLUTION Series: Her Golden City #1 Authors: C.S. Hand Release Date: August 8, 2018 Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Links:Goodreads
Synopsis For fans of Divergent, Red Rising, and The Hunger Games comes a gripping new tale of ambition, treachery, and love.
When what appears as a prank on arrogant ambassadors at an exotic vacation city turns out to be the first tremors of a revolution, the Enlightened Council of Castillia turns to its 11-year old undefeated military prodigy and her loyal Guardians for help.
After all, it was Innocence who liberated the Jewel of All Cities in the first place. Everyone knows she will be the last to let it slip from her grasp. But why would anyone want to leave Castillia? Its laws are just. Its Council is democratically elected. It has liberated more cities than any other Republic, past or present.
But Castillia has enemies, that’s for sure.
Sedition is the favorite trick of the southern Republic Ausonia. In fact, the exotic vacation city used to belong to Ausonia—and they have always wanted it back. But could those hedonists really organize anything between all their dancing and drinking? Or has Vesper, the mighty Republic to the North finally woken from its slumber? It has plenty of old scores to settle with Castillia and it’s palm-lined streets.
Squashing the uprising and re-uniting the town and her city could be the perfect way to end the most legendary military career Castillia has ever known and begin a new, exhilarating life as a prominent politician.
But it also might just be the perfect way to start what Innocence has secretly always yearned for: her ownEmpire.
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Author C.S. Hand
About the Author C. S. Hand loves philosophy, literature, and science-fiction and fantasy books. He studied British Romanticism at Cambridge before leaving to translate great science-fiction and fantasy books. You can read more about his 3 great loves here.
Welcome to the blog tour for YELLOW LOCUST, a stand-alone young adult dystopian adventure, by Justin Joschko. See below for information on the book, buy links, an exclusive deleted scene, and details on his giveaway.
Synopsis Selena Flood is a fighter of preternatural talent. But not even her quick fists and nimble feet could save her parents from the forces of New Canaan, the most ruthless and powerful of the despotic kingdoms populating America-that-was.
Forced to flee the tyrannical state with her younger brother Simon in tow, Selena is now the last chance for peace in a continent on the verge of complete destruction.
In her pocket is a data stick, the contents of which cost her parents their lives. Selena must now ensure it reaches the Republic of California—a lone beacon of liberty shining across a vast and barren wasteland—before it’s too late.
Between New Canaan and California stretch the Middle Wastes: thousands of desolate miles home to murderers, thieves, and a virulent strain of grass called yellow locust that has made growing food all but impossible. So when Selena and Simon stagger into Fallowfield, an oasis of prosperity amidst the poisoned plains, everything seems too good to be true—including the warm welcome they receive from the town’s leader, a peculiar man known only as The Mayor.
As Selena delves deeper into the sinister secrets of this seemingly harmless refuge, she soon learns there is a much darker side to Fallowfield and the man who runs it. Before long, she must call upon the skills she honed in the fighting pits of New Canaan to ensure not only her own survival, but that of her brother, in whom the Mayor has taken far too keen an interest.
And she’d better act fast, for an all-out war inches ever closer, and New Canaan is never as far away as it seems..
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Deleted Scene Yellow Locust suffered a lot of growing pains. Though the structure stayed pretty consistent in the first draft, it culminated in something that wasn’t quite working. Whole characters and plotlines were excised and reshaped. It was a painful but necessary process. The end result is a much stronger book, but there were elements of the first story that I really liked but had to discard. One of them is a character known as The Engineer, a benevolent tinkerer dwelling on the outskirts of Fallowfield, the farm town where most of the novel takes place. You won’t encounter The Engineer in Yellow Locust, but I still like the way he was introduced in the first draft.
* * *
A pair of metal tracks, barely visible beneath a tangle of weeds, ran straight on to the horizon. Many of the railway ties had been taken up ages ago and used for lumber, and those that remained were rotten. The service road that ran parallel to the tracks was in no better shape. Its concrete skin had been stripped away, leaving a faded scar of dirt dotted with scraggly tufts of clover and burdock and dandelion.
They came upon a solitary building rising from the grass. It looked almost like a barn, except for the raised porch and abundance of dirt-streaked windows. A wooden platform ran the length of the building. It dropped off abruptly at the edge of the tracks.
But the building wasn’t what drew Selena’s attention. Beside it rose a windmill, its skeletal frames cobbled together from a hodgepodge of wood and scrap metal. Its great blades turned in the breeze, creaking faintly.
“Does that mean they have electricity here?” Simon asked.
“Yeah, probably. If those things work. They look pretty junky.”
Selena and Simon hoisted the wagon up the steps. They knocked on the door, waited a minute, and knocked again. No one answered. A noise they couldn’t quite make out issued from inside the building. It sounded like abrupt bursts of rainfall punctuated by silence. Selena tried opening the door, found it unlocked, and went inside.
The building contained a single gargantuan room. Support beams arched fifty feet above the floor, which was covered with tables. They divided the room into long, claustrophobic aisles running two hundred feet from one end to the other. The tables varied in almost every way— size, shape, material— but they were all bogged down beyond capacity with stuff, sagging from their burden.
At the back of the room sat an enormous man with freckled, ebony skin. His girth seemed almost to swallow the chair beneath him. He twiddled the knobs of a short-wave radio, his belly protruding out the sides of a huge and dirty pair of dark green overalls. Static crackled from the speaker. The man’s chair was made from plastic and steel much like the ones Selena’s parents had used in Jericho. Its casters rumbled as they slid across the concrete floor. He swivelled to face Selena and Simon, his wide face split by a toothy smile.
“Well hi there, little miss,” he said. His voice was deep and mirthful and warbled with the drawl of the New Confederacy. “And hi to you too, junior.”
“You the engineer?” Selena asked.
“That’s what they call me in the village. Y’all ain’t from there though, are you? I ain’t seen you around before.”
“No. We’re just passing through.”
“Passin’ through, huh? Y’all merchants or somethin’?”
“No. We’re heading west.” She tapped the wagon with her foot. “These are our supplies.”
“Lookin’ a little sparse for long distance travel. How far west you goin’, exactly?”
“Look, we didn’t come here for a chat. We got something to sell and a man in Fallowfield told us you might be interested in buying.”
The engineer chuckled. He rubbed his chin. “Okay, girl. What you got this man thinks I might be after?”
Selena handed the engineer the jerry can. He turned it this way and that, hefted it, and took a sniff of the nozzle. “Well I’ll be damned. Where’d you get this from?”
“East,” said Selena, in a tone that made it clear she would not elaborate.
“How much you askin’ for it?”
“At least two hundred,” Selena said. “But we’ll take it in supplies if necessary. We need enough to get us to the coast.”
“The West coast?!” The engineer laughed. “Well, first thing y’all need is a bigger wagon. I’d recommend an armed caravan, too. Maybe a helicopter, you think that won’t strain your budget.”
Selena stared blankly at the engineer, who rubbed his forehead with one large, meaty hand.
“Y’all are serious,” the engineer said. “I’m not sure exactly how far y’all have travelled, though I’m guessin’ considering your little can here that it’s awful damn far. But distance on flat ground is one thing, when the only thing around you is open plains and some outposts fit to sell you supplies. Goin’ over the mountains, that’s a whole ‘nother story.”
“Do you want the gas or not?” Selena asked.
The engineer laughed. His chair groaned under his shifting weight.
“You don’t play, do you girl? Yeah, I want your gas. I don’t know what I’ll do with it, but I ain’t likely to come across it again anytime soon. Wait here.” The engineer hoisted himself out of his chair. Selena didn’t think he’d manage it at first, but he did. He disappeared around the corner and returned a minute later with a small metal lockbox. He opened the box with a key and counted out a small stack of bills. The age-stiffened papers rustled against his dry, callused thumbs. He handed the stack to Selena, who counted it quickly.
“There’s three hundred a the New Canaan Standard there,” the engineer said. “I’d take your offer and pay you out in supplies, but I dunno where to even begin. So instead, I’ll throw in some advice for y’all.”
The engineer settled back in his chair with a contented sigh. “If you don’t mind me askin’, what is it y’all expect to find on the coast?”
“We have people there,” Selena said. “People we need to reach.”
“These people, when did they go west?”
“Don’t know. Years ago, I guess. I’ve never met them.”
“Then I s’pose they can’t miss you that bad.” The engineer chuckled to himself. “Do these people have any sort of plan for y’all? Have they arranged passage or given y’all a name of someone to contact on this side?”
“No,” Selena admitted.
The engineer leaned forward. “Then here’s my advice. If y’all ain’t expected, then don’t make the trip. It ain’t all that safe for a group of mercenaries to cross the mountains, let alone a couple kids and a wagon.”
“Have you been?” Selena asked.
The engineer smiled. “I look like a got the travel bug to you, girl?”
“Then how do you know?”
“There was a time Fallowfield was the biggest trading post in the Middle Wastes. Much a that fell away when the outskirts of K City burned, but the city’s still a big part of the Green Townships. Lotta people come through here. A fella lives here long enough, he gets to know where people go and where they don’t. And I ain’t recall anyone goin’ over the mountains in many a long year.”
“What about a caravan?” asked Simon. “That’s how we got to—”
Selena gave Simon a sharp kick to the calf. Simon winced. “Ow! Don’t.” Selena’s gaze was cold and implacable. Simon looked down at the floor. “Anyway, we took one once. It was safe.”
“Look, if y’all find a caravan, that’s prob’ly your best option. But I ain’t heard’ve any caravans over the mountains in years. Things have gotten kinda hot out west. I think y’all might wanna reconsider your options.”
“What concern is it of yours what we do?” asked Selena.
“Ain’t no concern of mine at all. Just giving fair warning.”
Selena turned and left. Simon stayed where he was for a moment, looking from the engineer to his sister. He offered the engineer a small shrug. “Thanks for buying our gas,” he said.
“Don’t mention it, junior. Thanks for selling.”
“Can you really talk to people all over the world with that thing?” Simon asked, pointing at the radio.
“I surely can.”
“Do you think…” Simon began. He trailed off. Something sad and grey passed across his face. “Uh, never mind. Thanks.”
The engineer watched the boy disappear down an alley of junk. It swallowed him in an instant, leaving nothing behind but the sound of his footsteps gradually fading with distance. The engineer picked at a dirty spot in his overalls and lost himself in thought.
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Author Justin Joschko
About the Author Justin Joschko is an author from Niagara Falls, Ontario. His writing has appeared in newspapers and literary journals across Canada. Yellow Locust is his first novel. He currently lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.
Bleeding Ink Publishing and author K.M. Robinson are revealing the cover for THE REVOLUTION OF JACK FROST, a stand-alone young adult dystopian fairytale retelling, releasing November 6, 2018. See below for the cover, information on the book, an exclusive Q&A with the author, and a link to add it to your Goodreads TBR.
THE REVOLUTION OF JACK FROST by K.M. Robinson
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE REVOLUTION OF JACK FROST Author: K.M. Robinson Publisher: Bleeding Ink Publishing Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance Release Date: November 6, 2018 Links: Goodreads
Synopsis No one inside the snow globe knows that Morozoko Industries is controlling their weather, testing them to form a stronger race that can survive the fall out from the bombs being dropped in the outside world—all they know is that they must survive the harsh Winter that lasts a month and use the few days of Spring, Summer, and Fall to gather enough supplies to survive.
When the seasons start shifting, Genesis and her boyfriend, Jack, know something is going on. As their team begins to find technology that they don’t have access to inside their snow globe of a world, it begins to look more and more like one of their own is working against them.
Genesis soon discovers Morozoko Industries is to blame, but when a foreign enemy tries to destroy their weather program to make sure their destructive life-altering bombs succeed in destroying the outside world, their only chance is to shut down the machine that is spinning out of control and save the lives of everyone inside the bunker–at any cost.
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Author Q&A
What inspired you to write a Jack Frost retelling? I’m a big fan of retellings in general (I’ve done Goldilocks, Sleeping Beauty, Little Miss Muffet, Little Bo Peep, Goose Girl, and a few I can’t tell you about yet) and I’ve always been a big fan of Jack Frost, but the story was actually inspired by a fine arts photography piece I created a few years ago where the model was guiding winter into the image and the snow trailed behind her, blanketing the world in blues and whites. Jack’s story was conceptualized through that art piece and it can be found in the Jack Frost World Portal on my website.
Is Jack like any of your other characters? Jack has a lot of similarities to Auluria from The Golden Trilogy, though I can’t say too much about why just yet. Both my Goldilocks (Auluria) and Jack find themselves in very difficult situations where they have to make tough choices to protect the people they care about. Neither foresaw the situations they are dropped into, but both have to make difficult (and deadly) choices to make sure their people survive. I’m pretty sure these two would be great friends and have a lot to talk about if they ever crossed series and met!
Why did you chose to write a cold weather book when most of your others are warm weather? It’s true that I mainly write in every season except winter! I’m a big warm weather fan! Jack and Gen’s story doesn’t JUST take place in winter though—their seasons rotate quickly, bouncing between the different seasons in a matter of days, so I work them all in there rather quickly. Honestly, give me the beachy mermaid summers of The Siren Wars Saga any day in real life!
What are some challenges you’ve faced writing in the dystopian genre? Dystopian books are some of my favorites but it’s definitely a densely populated area in the book world, so finding unique spins tends to be what fans point out the most. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of people tell me that my books gave them hope that there was “still uniqueness left in the genre” because I got so creative with how I tell my dystopians. Specifically, I’ve had my Jaded Duology pointed out for being so unique (it’s been called the YA Dystopian Mr. and Mrs. Smith) and I’m also getting some awesome praise for how unique The Revolution of Jack Frost is.
Which character do you relate the most to in The Revolution of Jack Frost? Probably Genesis. Gen and I are a lot alike in how we think and react to certain situations.
I’d love to say I was Azra, but let’s be real, for all the crazy stunts I pull during my photo shoots (I’m a professional photographer who likes to climb trees in flip flops, traipse through mud, and cut herself on rocks while leaping around untethered on the side of a cliff for the sake of getting the photos) I am certainly not a runner, and I can’t climb nearly as fast as Azra can, so that’s probably out. Frankly, I’m probably an Eliza…you can find me taking care of everyone else’s kids over talking to adults when I’m out!
But Genesis and I are a lot alike and she definitely has similar characteristics to Auluria (The Golden Trilogy) Jade (The Jaded Duology) and even Rora (Virtually Sleeping Beauty) from my other series. I would say she has a few characteristics of Celena from The Siren Wars, but she’s nothing at all like Muffet from Along Came A Spider, that’s for sure—she doesn’t have the attitude for that!
What are you writing right now? Right this minute, I’m finishing up the last book in The Siren Wars Saga that comes out later this summer. After that, I’m launching into the next three books in The Legends Chronicles which come out this fall. Then I’m going to be writing some bonus scenes for The Siren Wars and The Revolution of Jack Frost, and then I’m going to jump into writing the Jack Frost sequel. I also have a Cinderella retelling and a villain retelling to write for anthologies that come out later this year!
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Author K.M. Robinson
About the Author K.M. Robinson is a best selling storyteller who creates new worlds both in her writing and in her fine arts conceptual photography. She is a marketing, branding and social media strategy educator who is recognized at first sight by her very long hair. She is a creative who focuses on photography, videography, couture dress making, and writing to express the stories she needs to tell. She almost always has a camera within reach.
Connect with her on social media at @kmrobinsonbooks on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. You can view videos and live replays on Youtube too!
Author Bob Callopy is unveiling the trailer to THE PHOENIX CYCLE: THE BEST SHALL RISE, an upper young adult/adult dystopian novel. See below for information on the book, buy links, and the book’s trailer.
THE PHOENIX CYCLE [The Best Shall Rise] by Bob Collopy
About the Book – Read for Free with Kindle Unlimited Title: THE PHOENIX CYCLE: THE BEST SHALL RISE Author: Bob Collopy Release Date: July 21, 2017 Genre: Young Adult/Adult Dystopian Links:Goodreads | Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon AU
Synopsis New San Francisco is the last city standing on a world ravaged by storms of ash and debris. The city survived by putting the ideals of the American dream on steroids and inspiring its people to persevere, though they have become ruthless in the process. Its citizens are ruled by the General, who has made sure that his people understand that gentleness and pity have become weaknesses that nature no longer tolerates.
Now Steve and Leslie must choose whether they will apply for the General’s once in a lifetime opportunity to “Rise from the Ashes” and join the Inner Circle that rules the city. If they don’t, they will be damned to spend the rest of their lives in the ghettos of Edingburg, a place where virtual reality has become a government-subsidized addiction.
For Steve, the choice is easy. His loyalties lie with the IRA, a revolutionary army led by a voice only known as “Mom.” They are trying to overthrow the General and free the people of New San Francisco from the cruelties of the City Guard. Steve’s mission is to broadcast a recording of a speech that a famous philosopher died to tell. Many thousands have and will perish to get this message out, but is anyone willing to listen?
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Trailer
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Author Bob Collopy
About the Author Bob Collopy was raised on southern values. A world of rigidity and blind faith. He was then moved to Sedona. A near cultlike world, grown from 1960’s flower children. He was then moved to Scottsdale. A world of extreme wealth and vice. He then went to college and joined a fraternity so notorious it was on national and world news multiple times.
Due to these shifts, Bob always found himself the the semilucid observer; constantly confused and adjusting to new and opposing sets of norms few cultures would ever call normal or even acceptable.
The city Bob has created is a blending of these intense and opposing cultures and the people trying to survive and conquer them.
![THE PHOENIX CYCLE [The Best Shall Rise] by Bob Collopy](https://i0.wp.com/thhernandez.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/THE-PHOENIX-CYCLE-The-Best-Shall-Rise-by-Bob-Collopy.png?resize=350%2C498&ssl=1 "THE PHOENIX CYCLE [The Best Shall Rise] by Bob Collopy")
