Thursday, June 9, 2016

Artificial by Jadah McCoy - Excerpt & Giveaway


I was supposed to review this book for the tour, but due to some family issues I was unable to read it. I am really looking forward to reading this novel. It is at the top of my reading list when my brain returns to normal function. Please enjoy the excerpt!


Artificial

Jadah McCoy

New Adult Science Fiction
Curiosity Quills Press
April 4, 2016

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

She struggles to feel human.

In 2256, the only remnants of civilization on Earth’s first colonized planet, Kepler, are the plant-covered buildings and the nocturnal, genetically spliced bug-people nesting within them: the Cull. During the day, Syl leaves her home in the sewers beneath Elite City to scavenge for food, but at night the Cull come looking for a meal of their own. Syl thought gene splicing died with the Android War a century ago. She thought the bugs could be exterminated, Elite city rebuilt, and the population replenished. She’s wrong.

Whoever engineered the Cull isn’t done playing God. Syl is abducted and tortured in horrific experiments which result in her own DNA being spliced, slowly turning her into one of the bugs. Now she must find a cure and stop the person responsible before every remaining man, woman, and child on Kepler is transformed into the abomination they fear.

He struggles not to.

For Bastion, being an android in the sex industry isn’t so bad. Clubbing beneath the streets of New Elite by day and seducing the rich by night isn’t an altogether undesirable occupation. But every day a new android cadaver appears in the slum gutters, and each caved in metal skull and heap of mangled wires whittles away at him.

Glitches—androids with empathy—are being murdered, their models discontinued and strung up as a warning. Show emotion, you die. Good thing Bastion can keep a secret, or he would be the next body lining the street.

He can almost live with hiding his emotions. That is, until a girl shows up in the slums—a human girl, who claims she was an experiment. And in New Elite, being a human is even worse than being a Glitch. Now Bastion must help the girl escape before he becomes victim to his too-human emotions, one way or another.


Excerpt

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you come,” grumbles Lucca as he points his phaser into another empty room. “I didn’t sign up to be a babysitter.”
Well, at least I can hit a fucking target. I stop just short of saying the words.
“You couldn’t stop me,” I tell him. “I’d just follow you.”
“Have you no fear?” Serge asks. I can hear the smile in his voice. That look is back—the starry-eyed one I always ignore. Maybe if I ignore it long enough, his feelings will go away.
I kick a few pieces of glass out a window, watching as they bounce down the building. “No. My adrenal gland is full of curiosity.”
I see it then, my keen eyes catching movement on the demolished floor below us—a blur of dark armor and hulking mass in my periphery.
Cull.
We’ve been talking, and that means we haven’t been listening. Even now, Serge’s and Lucca’s quiet voices are a constant background noise.
“Serge,” I say, horror coloring his name.
The two men stand as still as the strange plastic people I’ve seen lined up in shop windows. Birds trill in distress as they flee their nests, and worse, there’s the rustling of something coming toward us.
I lied when I said my adrenal gland is full of curiosity. Curiosity isn’t what makes my blood thick and scalding in my veins, like magma. It’s fear.
I touch the knife at my side. I was trained to shove my blade deep into the chest cavity and twist upward until my hands are slick with hot viscera. I refuse to be one of those wide-eyed women back at the Sanctuary—the ones who stare as the Cull’s pincers slice them in two.
But Cull are ruthless creatures, monsters left over from a time when genetic warfare was the norm. They were people once, and that’s what scares me the most.




About the Author

Jadah currently lives in Nashville, TN and works in law. When not babysitting attorneys, she can be found juicing her brain for creative ideas or fantasizing about her next trip out of the country (or about Tom Hiddleston as Loki - it’s always a toss up when she fantasizes).

She grew up in rural Arkansas, yet can still write good and sometimes even wears shoes! She did date her first cousin for a while but they decided against marriage for the sake of the gene pool.

Her true loves are elephants, cursing, and sangria - in that order. If you find an elephant that curses like a sailor whilst drinking sangria, you’re dangerously close to becoming her next romantic victim - er, partner.

She cut her writing teeth on badly written, hormone-driven fanfiction (be glad that’s out of her system), and her one true dream is to have wildly erotic fanfiction with dubious grammar written about her own novels. Please make her dreams come true.

Author Links:


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Tuesday, June 7, 2016

New Release: Bound by Birthright by Janeal Falor - Excerpt & Giveaway



Bound by Birthright
by Janeal Falor

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: June 6th 2016

Summary:

Elven princess Arabella is set to marry the human Prince Phillip but her countrymen do not hesitate to express their anger with her parents' attempt to improve relations with the humans. With death threats plaguing her, Arabella is forced into hiding.
When her sanctuary is usurped by pirates, Arabella goes on the run with humans who vow to help and keep her safe. She finds herself drawn to one of the humans, the dashing Robert, who steals her heart.
Arabella would like nothing more than time to get to know Robert better, but with pirates attacking and her wedding date approaching, time is one thing she doesn't have. Arabella's on a flight for her life and must reconcile with the truth—she can never be with the one she wants.
If only her heart would agree. 


BOOK SALE $0.99 UNTIL JUNE 13th!
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Excerpt

My hand brushes his.
I should pull away. I will pull away.
Only, before I can do so, he leans closer.
My breath becomes shallow and catches in my throat. A flame kindles in my heart. It’s small at first, but then bursts into a blaze coursing through my body. I tilt my face toward his, and time ceases to exist as I’m aware of nothing but him.
My own breathing matches the rapid rise and fall of his chest. I can't help but take him in, from his chiseled jaw line all the way to his distinguished brow. From his angular nose to a small scar above his mouth—a sharp line that cuts across a portion of his upper right lip. I'd noticed it before, but never paid much attention to it.
Now it consumes me. My fingers want to touch it. My lips want to brush against it.
We stay locked in a halfway almost-there-but-not-quite kiss. With his strong arms, he pulls me in closer. The warmth of his body fills me, fighting against the chill in the air. His lips hover just above mine. He reaches up and strokes my face.
As we gaze into each other's eyes, I melt into him, losing myself. The spell I cast on my eyes falters, and they change to their true hue.
Stiffing a cry of pain, I bend my head down and reactivate the spell. My eyes fill with tears from the stinging, but they'll no longer appear as my own. The crushing ache is much worse in my chest, though I can't tell if it’s from not kissing him or almost doing so.



About the Author
Amazon best selling author Janeal Falor lives in Utah with her husband and three children. In her non-writing time she teaches her kids to make silly faces, cooks whatever strikes her fancy, and attempts to cultivate a garden even when half the things she plants die. When it's time for a break she can be found taking a scenic drive with her family or drinking hot chocolate.




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Monday, June 6, 2016

Fated Memories by Joan Carney - Excerpt & Giveaway


Fated Memories
Joan Carney

Publication date: April 15th 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Time-Travel
A woman, a war, a vision of the future past…
Burdened with the scars of a tortured childhood and a shattered romance, Kitty is being forced to resign from the dull, anonymous job she’s been hiding behind. With her life in shambles and her friends moving on without her, she jumps at her cousin, Maggie’s, invitation to visit. However, Maggie’s new boyfriend, Simon, has a secret that accidentally hurls the trio a hundred and fifty years into the past. Trapped in the midst of the bloodiest war in American history, the events that unfold will require more mettle than Kitty’s ever had.





EXCERPT:

Kitty’s hands shook and her vision blurred with tears. It didn’t matter. After having read the short note three times, the words ‘… transfer to the second floor’ had been engraved on her brain. She’d found the letter in her mail slot at the hospital where she worked, just this morning. That’s Richard’s floor! The wound from their breakup still scarred her heart. What do I do now? Quit my job?

The elevator doors opened and Richard Delaney stepped off surrounded by his physical therapy staff, who were tittering at one of his clever quips. Kitty wheeled around, making a beeline for the restroom. She couldn’t let him or those bitchy nurses see her cry. In her haste to become invisible, she miscalculated the corner of the wall and, smacking her shoulder against it, bounced back flat on her ass. Silence washed over the unit as everyone’s eyes turned to her.

Flushed with embarrassment, she scrambled to her feet, faced her audience and curtsied. “I’m here all week, folks, don’t miss the show!” Then she burst through the lady’s room door.

Kitty locked herself in the stall, working to salvage her dignity while dialing her cell phone for her pillar of strength; the one who always knew what to do.

“Ma?” Despite her efforts to control it, her voice still shook.

“Kitten, honey, are you crying? What’s the matter, are those silly boys in school teasing you again? Should I go speak with the principal?”

“Funny, Mom, no I only need to talk to someone. Remember when I told you the hospital makes the ward clerks reapply for their jobs every few years so they can weed out the ones they no longer want? Well, it’s that time again. I got my take-it-or-leave-it offer today and it says they’re bumping me from the step-down unit, to the pits of the med/surg dungeon. If I don’t accept it, I’ll be out of a job. I don’t know what to do.”

Silence.

“Mom, are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m here.” She blew out a long breath. “Kitty, you’re a smart lady, but if you don’t respect yourself enough to stand up and take charge of your life, you’ll always be at the mercy of others. Remember, the choices we make follow us and decide our fate.”

“I know, Mom, but…”

“The best advice I have for you, sweetheart, is to move home with us so you can go back to college and learn more marketable skills.”

Kitty had battled with them before over this. In her mind, living with her parents at her age was the same as having a big red letter “L” tattooed on her forehead. “I see, okay. Um, I have to get back to work now. I’ll talk to you later, Ma. Thanks for listening.”

As she washed off the mascara tracks from her tears, she studied her reflection in the restroom mirror, mulling over the misery that was her life. You’re almost thirty years old, Kitty Trausch, what have you got to show for it? A man? Not since Richard dumped me last year. A career? More like a crappy job that’s become unbearable.

Kitty remembered her mom’s mantra “When the world gets rough,” she’d say, “remind yourself of the good things you have.” She thought hard for a positive slant, but only came up with her prized closet full of shoes and salvation from her acne plague. Great, at least that and two-seventy-five will get me on the subway. Oh, and one more good thing. Rooming with Sonia allowed her to walk the short distance to the hospital and not have to ride the train from Tuckahoe to Manhattan. Wow, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.




Author Bio:
A transplant from the Bronx to San Diego, Joan’s lucky number is four. She has four children, four grandchildren, drinks about four cups of coffee a day, and is now enjoying her fourth career as a novelist. When not planted in front of the computer writing or doing genealogy research, Joan enjoys spending time with family and friends and volunteers at the local church. 





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