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Showing posts with label Dystopian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dystopian. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Book Blitz | Exiled by RaShelle Workman | Giveaway




EXILED (Immortal Essence #1)
by RaShelle Workman
Published: January 17th, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Paranormal, Romance
WORLDS DIVIDED THEM. DESTINY BROUGHT THEM TOGETHER. ONLY LOVE WILL SAVE THEM.

Venus isn’t from Earth, she’s from Kelari. On her planet she’s next in line to rule, but there are those who will go to great lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen. Including frame her as a traitor.

Accused and sentenced, the gods of her planet exile her to Earth. They’ve given her one week to help a human find his true love. If she doesn’t succeed, she’ll die, but if she does she might lose her heart.





Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Newsletter

RaShelle Workman is an international bestselling author. Several of her books have been translated into Turkish and her BLOOD AND SNOW series has sold over a million copies worldwide. When she isn't writing, she enjoys baking, creating new taco recipes, and watching Supernatural.

RaShelle lives in Utah with her husband, three children and their three dogs. Find her online by visiting her website at: www.rashelleworkman.com. And sign up for RaShelle's newsletter to receive free books and get information on book release dates: http://eepurl.com/sd_xP.


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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Book Blitz | Alone by Kate L. Mary | Giveaway




ALONE
by Kate L. Mary
Published: March 29th, 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance
For the past two years, Jules has floated through life.

When the virus was released it changed everything about the world. Jules lost her mom and her home, forcing her to live with the father she barely knows. Now, even as society works to rebuild, Jules still feels like she doesn’t quite fit in.

Then she meets Roman.

Even before the zombies, he only had himself to depend on. Brooding and rebellious, Roman isn’t anyone Jules would have pictured herself with before the zombies came. But now she finds herself willing to give up everything to be with him.

The attraction is too strong for either one of them to ignore, but Roman and Jules soon discover that the uncertainty of their new world extends much farther than just the zombies. When disaster strikes, Roman must race against the most terrifying clock imaginable to save Jules, or once again end up alone.






I’m still grinning when we step outside. The wooden porch sags beneath my feet, feeling a little less than sturdy, but that isn’t what makes my heart almost stop. My smile melts away and my feet stop moving, and within seconds I’m shaking like a leaf.

There are three zombies in the yard. Three of them. I haven’t come this close to one since the first few months of the outbreak, and now there are three.

Roman steps in front of me and shoves the shoebox into my hands as he pulls his knife out, all in one fluid movement. “It’s okay.”

It doesn’t feel okay. It feels the complete opposite of okay.

Roman steps off the porch, and one of the zombies spots him right away. The thing groans and moves toward him, chomping his mouth. Gray skin stretches across his face, and the deep gashes that cut across the decaying flesh ooze with black goo. Thankfully, the other two creatures are facing the other way and haven’t caught wind of us yet.

Roman doesn’t seem afraid in the slightest as he walks toward the dead man. His knife is held firmly in his hand, but he’s steady. Sure of himself as he walks in a big arc around the zombie. He was right. They are slow. But it’s still terrifying, and I’m still shaking, gripping the box of batteries so hard the cardboard bows under the pressure. Just as Roman reaches the back of the first zombie, the other two notice him and head his way. My heart jumps to my throat and I reach out like I’m trying to stop them, but no sound comes out when I move my lips.

I try again, and this time his name comes out like a strangled cry. “Roman!”

He smiles like all of this is nothing, then drives his knife into the back of the first zombie’s skull. The thing drops to the ground, and Roman spins to face the others. He charges the second one, a sad-looking woman whose nightgown is stained and tattered, her gray skin barely clinging to her bones. Roman dodges her arms and loops around her back, then jabs his knife into her skull just like he did with the first one.

Two down, but my heart is still pounding wildly.

The third one is so tall that Roman’s head only goes up to the zombie’s shoulders. Next to him, Roman looks like a child. Even worse than his size is the fact that he seems to be faster than the other two. Less decomposed, even, like he’s just recently died.

Roman circles him, but the zombie spins too. His hands reach out to grab Roman, but Roman ducks out of the way. His face tenses, and his eyes dart over to me. I watch, frozen in terror from my place on the porch as Roman tries to get behind the zombie again. He could stab him in a different location, but with as tall as the decaying man is, it wouldn’t be safe. Only no matter how many times Roman tries to get behind the corpse, it doesn’t work. The thing is too fast and too hungry. Determined.


Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Award-winning author of WHEN WE WERE HUMAN and the Amazon best-selling BROKEN WORLD series, Kate L. Mary writes everything from post-apocalyptic tales of the undead to new adult contemporary romance. A mother of four and an Air Force wife, her days are divided between keeping her household in order and creating new worlds for readers to get lost in.




Goodreads Book Giveaway

Alone by Kate L. Mary

Alone

by Kate L. Mary

Giveaway ends April 07, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday | Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights an upcoming book release that I'm looking forward to. This week I'm sharing with you the first book in the Everlife series,  Firstlife by Gena Showalter. This book is set to be released on February 23rd, 2016.


ONE CHOICE.
TWO REALMS.
NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

****

Why am I looking forward to Firstlife?

1.) It's a new YA series from Gena Showalter.

2.) I think that the concept is really interesting.

3.) I'd love to find out what Ten's choice will be.


You can preorder Firstlife for $9.99 on Amazon!



Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Waiting on Wednesday | The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights an upcoming book release that I'm looking forward to. This week I'm sharing with you The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth. This book is set to be released on January 12th, 2016.


“I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her…

****

Why am I looking forward to The Killing Jar?

1.) I don't really read that many mystery thriller type books, but just reading the book summary has my heart starting the race. 

2.) I really want to know what her powers are and what her new family is planning.

3.) I love the cover! 


You can preorder The Killing Jar for $9.99 on Amazon!



Thursday, November 12, 2015

Book Blitz | Sugar Skulls by Lisa Mantchev and Glenn Dallas | Giveaway




SUGAR SKULLS
by Lisa Mantchev and Glenn Dallas
Published: November 10th, 2015
Genres: New Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Romance
Purchase: Amazon | B&N
Welcome to Cyrene, a city where energy is currency and music is the lifeblood of its young citizens. Everyone lives on the grid, and the residents of the world’s largest playground are encouraged to pursue every physical and emotional pleasure imaginable.

Vee is the lead singer of the Sugar Skulls, an all-girl band that is Corporate’s newest pet project. Micah haunts the city like a ghost after an overdose of a deadly illegal street drug knocks him off the grid. When Micah and Vee forge an immediate, undeniable connection, their troubled worlds collide.

Trading concert stages for Cyrene’s rooftops and back alleys, they have to evade vicious thugs and Vee’s possessive manager as they unravel the mysteries connected to their dark pasts. And before the curtain falls, Micah and Vee will bring the city to its knees in their desperate bid for love, home, and a future together.


M

She looks straight at me. Gazes at me. Gazes through me.

The first note slips past her lips. It rolls over the crowd, and they’re instantly hers, already amped and soaring higher. There’s nothing quite like popping your Cyrene cherry, and a hundred newbies are experiencing it all around me as their nanotech processes the music, the drugs, the booze.

I miss that.

So it damn near knocks me on my ass when her words smash into me, and inside I unfold, like flesh-and-blood origami. Hands numb, mouth dry, blood on fire. I just stand there, rigid, muscles refusing to respond. Can’t move. Gotta move. Too exposed here. But her voice runs through my veins like napalm.

For a moment, a long moment, an eternity of a moment, I’m lost. This . . . this is impossible. Flutters and tingles and frissons long absent, jolting me as dormant synaptic pathways are jarred back into service. If strings ran up my spine, she just plucked the high E, a fierce vibration that shakes me to my core.

She looks away, and quakes subside into mere tremors. I close my eyes, welcoming new sine waves of sensation for three sharp breaths, then open them again, back in control. Propping myself up against the bar, I abandon my drink to process the last few seconds.

All these months, there’s been nothing. But just now? I felt it. I feel it. I pulse with life, lightning dancing across my skin as she batters the crowd with furious verses.

But I’m stuck on that first gasp.

One note. One word. She laid me low and resurrected me in one fell swoop.

Who is this girl?

V

Wrapping the microphone cord around my hand, I really lay into the lyrics, jacking straight into the brains of the audience. The boys and girls slosh around the pit like iridescent-foamed water in a dirty fish tank.

Except for the guy. The guy at the bar with the piercing gaze and the messy hair and the look of a lost soul. I’m too far away to see the color of his eyes, and he isn’t wearing anything worth noticing. Not the sharp edges of clothes fresh off the rack. Not the silver glint of a dozen facial piercings. None of the writhing subdermal implants or interchangeable magnetic tattoos that are the latest trends to hit hard and fast. At least, not any I can see from my vantage point. Black shirt and jeans that help him fade into the background. Dark blond, lacking all the bleach and color of anyone who spends any time in the sun or a salon. Even leaning back, every line of his body indicates a readiness to bolt.

I force my attention back to the pit, determined not to spare him another thought.

Just another gig, Vee. Just another audience. Get through the song, already.

M

Need to move. Need to run. Should run. Should get out of here.

It takes supreme effort to tear my attention away from her long enough to acknowledge her partners in crime. Treble summons entire orchestras and metal bands from her laptop and synth with a few frenzied keystrokes. Trouble snarls with hungry delight as she channels torrents of sound with a pair of haptic gloves, manipulating the very notes midstream like an angry sorceress as holographic turntables whirl in the foreground.

But front and center, there’s Her. She’s a creature of myth, with Her siren song and Her banshee wail. The set’s barely begun, but the hive’s heart and my heart both beat to Her drum.

Our eyes finally meet again, and I’m thrown back into a surging sea. When that first note hit, I was a drowning man finally breaking the surface. This time, the current simply takes me.

Outside, I betray nothing. Cucumber-cool and casual, even as Her eyes narrow and Her gaze bores into me. My crippled nervous system allows little else to show. But inside, I’m a being of crystal, oscillating in perfect harmony.

Running is the last thing on my mind now.

V

I should call a bouncer and have him ejected. Injected. Hauled off for a diagnostic and a thorough probing. There’s something not right. Not right with him. Not right with the way he looks at me or the way the song pours into him like water into the desert.

I force myself to look away, to push through the next song. If it’s not working for him, he’ll leave, right? He’ll go register a complaint with the main office, and they’ll roll up to the Loft and ask a lot of questions that boil down to the same freaking one I have:

Why isn’t he responding to the music?

Approaching the end of the set, the lyrics get rough around the edges, liable to rip if I lean into them any more than I already am. Everyone below me is frantic, writhing. Thrum output’s still on the rise as the lasers scan the crowd, gather up the ambient energy, and funnel it away. Neat, clean, efficient—and why we’re all here.

Except for the guy leaning against the bar. Separate from the others. Motionless. Gaze latched on me like he’s dying and I have the cure in my pocket.

That’s when I realize he’s responding, all right. Just not the way I expected.

Fuck the grid. I’m the one with the power right now.

M

The mood is shifting. The air is thick with it, the crowd buzzing and overstimulated, neurons firing and misfiring as the hive responds to Her rage, and She unleashes it. I swear, the ground trembles with thumping bass lines. She just might bring Hellcat Maggie’s down around us.

Now Her eyes won’t leave mine. She’s no longer the eye of the storm; She’s the storm itself, pounding the crowd and sweeping them along with Her.

V

I’m pushing it. I can feel the stress building in the new thrum-collectors like a force field against my bare arms, my throat, my lips. It’s too much for this crowd, too, their fresh nanotech already blitzed out and buzzing. I should dial it back. Get backstage. Take a handful of pills. Chill the fuck out.

It’s been a year since the last blowout, the last blackout. Three hundred and sixty-five days of uninterrupted consciousness, flushed down the toilet for the sake of some asshole staring at me from the bar.

I twist the microphone out of the stand and launch into something new. To hell with the set list. To hell with Corporate-approved garbage. I find words that have been bouncing around in my head for so long that I can spit them out now, perfect and round. “It’s all just screams and whispers, just prettied-up and dyed. Your fuck-façade all faded, a tarnished future bride . . .”

Somewhere behind me, Jax loses her shit.

“What the hell are you doing?” she shouts over the thumping rhythm that’s our artificial heartbeat. “Break time! Sasha’s gonna wet ’em, and I need a hit of silvertip!”

Despite the protest, she turns up every dial and pushes up every slide, fingers moving over the touchscreens with brutal efficiency. Sasha’s already pulling in chants from sixteenth-century monasteries and screams recorded in hospital waiting rooms. I can feel the fluid in my inner ears pulsing.

I’m going to get a reaction out of our silent onlooker, even if I fall headfirst into a blackout.

So I let him have it, all the words and the anger and betrayal and despair I hold in my hummingbird heart. The rest of the crowd moans and sways, crashing into each other, molecules colliding. Hellcat Maggie shouts something at Sasha, then tries the headset, but all I get from my earpiece is crackling feedback that drives me hard into the next verse.

I lock eyes with the stranger, vomiting up all my dark, dirty guts for him to see. Below me, the flotsam holds itself upright. If these people were pleasantly giddy before, now they’re stumbling drunk. A few fall and are dragged to the side by security. A couple kisses so hard that blood trickles from the corners of their mouths. A threesome in the back crashes into an alcove, tearing the velvet curtains from their brass rod.

I can’t stop myself now. I close out the set with a crescendo that drives everyone and everything off a cliff and into glorious sonic freefall.


Lisa Mantchev

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Lisa Mantchev is the acclaimed author of Ticker and the Théâtre Illuminata series, which includes Eyes Like Stars, nominated for a Mythopoeic Award and the Andre Norton Award. She has also published numerous short stories in magazines, including Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Weird Tales, and Fantasy. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State with her husband, children, and horde of furry animals.


Glenn Dallas

Author Links: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

When not working on puzzles for Penny Press or writing about them for PuzzleNation, Glenn Dallas is an author of short stories and at least half of one novel. After appearing in the acknowledgments of several outstanding novels, he looks forward to returning the favor in the future.


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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Waiting on Wednesday | Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights an upcoming book release that I'm looking forward to. This week I'm sharing with you the first book in the Forget Tomorrow series, Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn. This book is set to be released on November 3rd, 2015.



Imagine a world where your destiny has already been decided...by your future self.

It's Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she's eagerly awaiting her vision―a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they're meant to be. A world-class swimmer. A renowned scientist.

Or in Callie's case, a criminal.

In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in Limbo―a hellish prison for those destined to break the law. With the help of her childhood crush, Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years, she escapes.

But on the run from her future, as well as the government, Callie sets in motion a chain of events that she hopes will change her fate. If not, she must figure out how to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all—Callie, herself.

****

Why am I looking forward to Forget Tomorrow?

1.) The story sounds incredible.

2.) The cover is gorgeous.

3.) There's timey-wimey stuff going on in this book. I love that stuff.


You can preorder Forget Tomorrow for $7.99 on Amazon!



Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Waiting on Wednesday | Dark Heart of Magic by Jennifer Estep + Omega by Lizzy Ford

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights an upcoming book release that I'm looking forward to. This week I'm sharing with you the second book in the Black Blade series, Dark Heart of Magic by Jennifer Estep. This book is set to be released on October 27th, 2015.


Something Wicked This Way Comes...

As a thief, I stick to the shadows as much as possible. But when the head of the Sinclair Family picks me to compete in the Tournament of Blades, there's no escaping the spotlight—or the danger.

Even though he's my competition, Devon Sinclair thinks I have the best shot at winning what's supposed to be a friendly contest. But when the competitors start having mysterious "accidents," it looks like someone will do anything to win—no matter who they hurt.

As if I didn't have enough to worry about, mobster Victor Draconi is plotting against Devon and the rest of my friends, and someone's going around Cloudburst Falls murdering monsters. One thing's for sure. Sometimes, humans can be more monstrous than anything else...

****

Why am I looking forward to Dark Heart of Magic?

1.) I really liked the first book and can't wait to continue the series.

2.) It looks like tensions are increasing exponentially between the Families and I want to see what Victor Draconi has up his evil sleeve and how Lila and her friends handle it.

3.) This line has me intrigued, "someone's going around Cloudburst Falls murdering monsters. One thing's for sure. Sometimes, humans can be more monstrous than anything else..."


You can preorder Dark Heart of Magic for $7.53 on Amazon!


I'm also sharing with you Omega by Lizzy Ford, which is the first book in the Omega series. This book is set to be released on October 26th, 2015.


In a modern world ruled by territorial Greek gods, the human race has been oppressed, exploited and now, nearly destroyed by the constant infighting of gods.

However, a human girl with the power of a goddess is coming of age. Alessandra is the Oracle of Delphi – the last prophesized – and bears the mark of the double omega. Soon after she turns eighteen, Alessandra is told her destiny: to step between the warring gods and the human race and save her world from certain ruin.

For the gods, her appearance marks the beginning of the end – their end. They and the Triumvirate – leaders of the human elite – who serve them will stop at nothing to preserve their power.

Alessandra emerges from the forest where she spent her life hidden from gods and men and immediately plummets into a race against time, gods, and herself to discover who and what she is in a world where everyone she meets has a hidden agenda, and those pulling the strings remain in the shadows.

Before she can determine exactly what kind of savior her world needs, she must first master her power by completing three trials devised by the Triumvirate to enslave her.

One lone girl stands between warring gods and the people she’s destined to protect, but it’s the battle to understand who she is that she must win first.

****

Why am I looking forward to Omega?

1.) I love Greek mythology.

2.) I love retellings.

3.) It's by Lizzy Ford.


You can preorder Omega for $3.99 on Amazon!




Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Book Blitz | Taming Tigers by Daisy White | Giveaway




TAMING TIGERS
by Daisy White
Published: July 30th, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Fantasy
Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Smashwords
Seventeen year old Talia is struggling to earn a living as a seamstress, surviving in the infamous Camps of war torn Arista. When her soldier fiancé Kellar suggests a bizarre route of escape — stowing away in the cross desert freight train to Leonore, Talia jumps at the chance.

In Leonore she can marry Kellar and expand her business — leaving the war behind... But a freak accident leaves her stranded and alone in the desert. Caught between the two countries, and forced to face her troubled past, Talia must choose between love and revenge, whilst playing the ultimate game of survival. Comforted by The Guardian and haunted by The Ghost, Talia begins a journey that will change her life forever...

‘A rich mix of evocative mysticism and gritty fantasy – Beautiful...’


GUEST POST - Am I In Your Book?

An often asked question for authors has to be along the lines of the above, along with, “Do you use real life people or are they entirely fictional?”

The answer is of course that yes, whether I know you or not, you probably feature somewhere in my books. My best friends (and I am lucky to have a whole bunch of amazing people I count as friends), all make guest appearances. Not as themselves of course, but I might use Claire’s habit of twirling her hair, Abi’s bravery, Sophie’s cool urban sass, all in one character. Then the character may be visually resemble someone I was staring at in the supermarket queue last week.

Writing Taming Tigers, I drew heavily on my days of travelling, and brought in half-forgotten people and places, blending them to form a living, breathing story. I love dialogue, and find if I can get inside the characters’ heads, the words flow easily.

Talia, is smart, clumsy, and wary. Living in a refugee camp she has to be street smart, but I knew she had a softer, more innocent side that only emerges when she is with Kellar, or later in the book, with The Guardian.

Kellar owes much of his character to a family friend, who just happens to be a former military test pilot, and the rest comes from a barman in Cancun, a doctor in Grenada, and that surfer at the beach last summer...

Writers store details as naturally as breathing, and I often drift off when I am in a queue at the airport/supermarket/school pick up and get caught staring at people.


Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

DAISY WHITE is an author, literary entrepreneur and community pop up shop consultant. She also runs award-winning pop up indie bookshop Daisy White's Booktique, lives in a cowshed and has a passion for mud-running, vintage hats and reading .

Roadkill was Daisy's first YA book, self-published with Amazon, and this was followed by YA fantasy Killing Time which was also self-published.

In 2014 she was delighted be signed by traditional US publishers Melange Books and her debut YA fantasy (Taming Tigers) for their Fire and Ice imprint is out July 2015...

Daisy would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to read and review her books, as she learns something new from each critique.



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