Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Now Available ~ From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout

FBaA - RB banner copy

“Action, adventure, sexiness, and angst! From Blood and Ash has it all and double that. So many feels and so many moments it made me cheer for the character. Read. This. Book! You'll be obsessed!”

- Tijan, New York Times bestselling author

From Blood and Ash, a captivating, sexy and action-packed high fantasy novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout, is available now!

FromBloodAndAsh AMAZON

If you love forbidden romance, this book is for you. If you love snark, this book is for you. If you love action and intrigue, edge of your seat moments and being caught off guard by what you’re reading, this book is for you. And if you’ve been missing . . . vampires in your life, this book is for you.

A Maiden…

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.

A Duty…

The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.

A Kingdom…

Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.

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Download your copy today!
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/bloodash
Nook: coming soon


FB&A teaser 1

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FBA tattoo and bookmark gift with purchase IG



Facetune About Jennifer L. Armentrout #1 New York Times and #1 International Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. She spends her time reading, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, hanging out with her husband and her Border Jack Apollo. In early 2015, Jennifer was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a group of rare genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and death of cells in the retina, eventually resulting in loss of vision, among other complications. Due to this diagnosis, educating people on the varying degrees of blindness has become of passion of hers, right alongside writing, which she plans to do as long as she can. Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Tor, HarperCollins Avon and William Morrow, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her Wicked Series has been optioned by PassionFlix. Jennifer has won numerous awards, including the 2013 Reviewers Choice Award for Wait for You, the 2015 Editor’s Pick for Fall With Me, and the 2014/2015 Moerser-Jugendbuch- Jury award for Obsidian. Her young adult romantic suspense novel DON’T LOOK BACK was a 2014 nominated Best in Young Adult Fiction by YALSA. Her adult romantic suspense novel TILL DEATH was a Amazon Editor’s Pick and iBook Book of the Month. Her young adult contemporary THE PROBLEM WITH FOREVER is a 2017 RITA Award Winner in Young Adult Fiction. She also writes Adult and New Adult contemporary and paranormal romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins. She is the owner of ApollyCon and The Origin Event, the successful annual events that features over a hundred bestselling authors in Young Adult, New Adult, and Adult Fiction, panels, parties, and more.

Connect with Jennifer L. Armentrout

Instagram: @jennifer_l_armentrout http://bit.ly/33GWn8R
Twitter: @JLArmentroutnews http://bit.ly/2QvDYpT
Stay up to date with Jennifer by joining her mailing list: https://bit.ly/2qBce5m

From Blood & Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout



A Maiden…
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers.
A Duty…
The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing. And when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard honor bound to ensure her Ascension, enters her life, destiny and duty become tangled with desire and need. He incites her anger, makes her question everything she believes in, and tempts her with the forbidden.
A Kingdom…
Forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals, a fallen kingdom is rising once more, determined to take back what they believe is theirs through violence and vengeance. And as the shadow of those cursed draws closer, the line between what is forbidden and what is right becomes blurred. Poppy is not only on the verge of losing her heart and being found unworthy by the gods, but also her life when every blood-soaked thread that holds her world together begins to unravel.



Now Available!





An intriguing puzzle of a world, a ruthless hero, a determine heroin, and a plot that will keep you up late, this book is one of the best I've read this year.

This is high fantasy peeps.  World building fills the beginning of the book.  And it's an intriguing world.  Full of the Ascended, who are just plain strange.  Enough hints finally had me figuring out what they were.  Then there are the cursed, the craven, and the Descenters.  Not to mention our heroin.  She is gifted.  Not a mere mortal, though she believes she is one.  And there are mortals.  None of these include the Atlantians who lost the war of two kings.  The Dark one remains.  Oh and don't forget the Gods.  Who knows what they are up to.  This mix of strange people had me trying to figure out the puzzle that was this world and I had a great time doing it.

Hawke.  Our hero.  The man is good at killing, if he does say so himself.  He is a guard that helps guard the rise around the community but he's a little bit better at it than most.  He takes note of everything and I would NEVER cross the man.  You will not like the result, I assure you.  He is ruthless but his is also funny, handsome, intelligent, and kind.  Well, he's kind to Poppy when he's not teasing her.  I definitely fell hard for the guy, despite his homicidal tendencies.  (There is one death I cheered.  The man has style and that's all I'm going to say about that).

Poppy.  Penellaphe.  The Maiden.  Chosen by the Gods from birth, she is to usher in a new age for their people.  She is veiled and hidden away.  None can speak to her, see her or have anything to do with her.  Yeah, how would that go over will most teens.  She's drawing near her nineteenth birthday and her ascension.  But she hasn't lived and she wants to.  Of course she's gonna break the rules.  Love that about her.  She's learned to fight, thank you Vikter.  She's good at sneaking out of the castle.  She's intelligent but she misses a few things.  I was happy when she started figuring things out.

As for the story, expect blood.  Lots and lots of blood.  But once the world is firmly in place, these 600+ pages will fly by with you stuck right there in them.  I wanted to know what was going on.  Hints were carefully given but I needed to know for sure.  I figured out the biggest question but I had to know for sure.  So, yeah, I read until 1 AM.  I swear I don't know where the last 4 hours of reading time went.  My husband came to tell me goodnight and I looked back down to my book.  The next thing I knew it was after 1 and I was reading the last line.

And speaking of the last line.  O. M. G.  It is not an Opal (JLA fans know what I mean) and I wouldn't call it a cliffhanger at all.  The characters are not in danger or apart.  But it had me yelling and screaming because I NEED MORE.  NOW.

When an author can write so many different types of books and still do it will such perfection, it is just amazing.  I always enjoy her books.  Some I want to throw but I've come to terms with that.  If you are a JLA fan, you MUST read this one.  If you've never read her books, this is an amazing place to start.



                                             

Stuck In Books Featured Releases & Giveaway




 From Bright Publishing...


Adventure's in Captain Hudson Miller’s blood. For the past ten years, he's spent his days in the sky, serving as a pilot for the Army. But where adventure called him away, something—someone—else is calling him home. On post-deployment leave, he escapes to the one place he hasn’t been since he enlisted: Havenbrook, Mississippi. Hometown of his momma’s peach cobbler, enough memories to last a lifetime, and the only girl who ever left an imprint on his heart.

Mackenna Haven thought she'd have her life figured out by now. Instead, she's a twenty-seven-year-old college drop out who works at her soon-to-be brother-in-law's bar and lives on her parents' land. No husband or kids to her name. Not even a consistent weekend booty call. She's been pretending she's happy working dead-end jobs in an even deader-end town, but she can't stop thinking she was meant for more than this.

After a childhood as best friends and a single weekend exploring more, Mackenna and Hudson haven't seen each other in ten years. But they made a pact that long ago weekend, and Hudson's coming to make good on his promise. Except she has no interest in it or him. After all, he walked away from her once already, and she's not interested in opening her heart and allowing him a second chance at destruction.


From Sourcebooks Casablanca...


These social worker bear shifters give the term "mama bear" a whole new meaning! Bestselling author MaryJanice Davidson is back with this brand-new paranormal romance series featuring a foster care system for at-risk shifter babies and teens.

Werebear shifter Annette Garsea is a caseworker for the Interspecies Placement Agency. When a selectively mute and freakishly strong teen werewolf is put in her custody, Annette has to uncover the young girl's secrets if she's to have any hopes of helping her. And not even the growling of a scruffy private investigator can distract her from her mission...

Bear shifter David Auberon appreciates Annette's work with at-risk teen shifters, but he's not sure if her latest charge is so much a vulnerable teen as a predator who should be locked up. All that changes when he, Annette, and her motley band of juveniles find themselves dodging multiple murder attempts and uncovering a trafficking cartel that doesn't just threaten the kids, but risks discovery of the shifters by the wider world of homo sapiens.




INT as long as you can accept an Amazon Gift Card



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Teaser Tuesday ~ 3/31/20

This is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.



To participate you:
* Grab your current read
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
(Make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!






Adventure's in Captain Hudson Miller’s blood. For the past ten years, he's spent his days in the sky, serving as a pilot for the Army. But where adventure called him away, something—someone—else is calling him home. On post-deployment leave, he escapes to the one place he hasn’t been since he enlisted: Havenbrook, Mississippi. Hometown of his momma’s peach cobbler, enough memories to last a lifetime, and the only girl who ever left an imprint on his heart.

Mackenna Haven thought she'd have her life figured out by now. Instead, she's a twenty-seven-year-old college drop out who works at her soon-to-be brother-in-law's bar and lives on her parents' land. No husband or kids to her name. Not even a consistent weekend booty call. She's been pretending she's happy working dead-end jobs in an even deader-end town, but she can't stop thinking she was meant for more than this.

After a childhood as best friends and a single weekend exploring more, Mackenna and Hudson haven't seen each other in ten years. But they made a pact that long ago weekend, and Hudson's coming to make good on his promise. Except she has no interest in it or him. After all, he walked away from her once already, and she's not interested in opening her heart and allowing him a second chance at destruction.

Amazon | B&N

Now Available

Teaser...


It'd been years since she'd seen Hudson in anything other than pictures or on a screen, but there was no mistaking that the absolute giant who stood in front of The Sweet Spot was her childhood best friend.  He'd been walking but seemed to freeze in place when their eyes connected, just like she had. (Kindle location 325)

Oh these two are in so much trouble!  Hehe.  Time to get to know each other again.  Can't wait to devour the rest. 





Monday, March 30, 2020

Night Game by Christine Feehan ~ Review

Gator Fontenot of the Special Forces paranormal squad must reel in the elusive Iris "Flame" Johnson, a victim of the same horrific experiments that warped Gator--and a red-haired weapon of unimaginable destructive powers bent on revenge in the sultry bayous of New Orleans. But can two people haunted by violent betrayals trust the passion that soon ignites between them? Or is one of them just playing another seductive and deadly night game?





You got to love Gator.  He has the New Orleans charm and the confidence to assume all women love him.  And he's outraged at what Whitney did to Flame.  He volunteered for the experiment and what's happened to him has been horrible.  But Flame was a little girl.  That anger has him agreeing to try and find Flame.  But Flame doesn't want to be found and wants nothing to do with the Ghostwalkers.  Makes for some interesting fireworks. 

Both of these characters have strong personalities that make it easy to care about them.  I get Flames anger but she's missing some important details.  If anyone can charm her into understanding that Lily Whitney and the Ghostwalkers only want to help her, it's Gator.  But this is not all that going on in this book.  Another mystery is taking shape.  Both Gator and Flame have a vested interest in figuring it out.  Together they make an unstoppable team.

I enjoyed seeing some of the characters from the first two books.  This world is exploding into lots of stories and I'm on board to read every one of them.  But the focus in this one was New Orleans and the Bayou.  It's Gator's home and he knows it well.  Flame is comfortable there.  Once they start working on the same side, things get very interesting.  

There is a huge tidbit that comes to light in the series arching story line in this one. For that alone, you need to read it.  But it's also Gator's book.  Can't miss him, I mean really.  It's a great paranormal romance.  I am really enjoying this world of Ghostwalkers and all the conspiracy that's going on.  It's a great series to binge.




                                 

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Stacking Our Shelves ~ 3/29/20


Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews.  Make sure to checkout her post with links to all the other participates.

Click covers for Goodreads links


For Review...








Thanks go to...

Disney-Hyperion
Harlequin
Berkley

Bought...





That's what's new on the shelves this week.  What about you?  What's new on your shelf?

Saturday, March 28, 2020

What Are You Currently Reading? (3)


Hello, friends! I hope you're all holding up well in these tough & uncertain times. It's been a super stressful couple of weeks on my end, but I DID manage to get a tiny bit of reading in. I even finished a book last weekend! So now I want to talk about what's next on my reading agenda.

This weekend I'm reading...

Barbarian's Choice by Ruby Dixon


Barbarian's Choice (Ice Planet Barbarians, #11)I might be the only unmated female in my tribe, but it doesn’t mean I’ve given my heart. I’m waiting. I want resonance, and I won’t settle for anything less.

But when an alien ship lands and a handsome stranger steps out, I know he’s the one. His name’s Mardok and he’s fascinatingly different – and distractingly appealing. But Mardok can’t stay on the ice planet, and he says he can take me with him.

Now, I must make a choice. Do I stay and lose my mate forever? Or do I follow him to the stars and leave behind everything I know?



*Available through KindleUnlimited!*

How much I've read: 0 pages

Thoughts: So I haven't officially started this one yet. But I'm HOPING to breeze through it this weekend. At this point, the only books I've completed this year have been by Ruby Dixon. So I'm thinking I can't go wrong with another book by her, especially since this one is in her Ice Planet Barbarian's series--aka a series that I LOVE. That said, this one is about Farli, and the premise shows it will be a little different than the others so far. Knowing Ruby Dixon's books I'm sure this one will be great...but I'm always & forever nervous. Ha.


I'm also reading some fanfiction right now. Mostly I want to re-read one of my favorite stories by one of my fav ff authors, Moonchild707--it's called Dark Waltz.

And I just got a whole bunch of books from Apollycon, so I miiiight pick up one of those but I'm not sure yet so I'll keep quiet on that for the moment.


Now I'd love to know! What have you read lately? What will you be reading this weekend?? :)


Friday, March 27, 2020

We Didn't Ask For This by Adi Alsaid ~ Excerpt and Q&A


We Didn’t Ask for This 
by Adi Alsaid 
On Sale: April 7, 2020 
Inkyard Press 
Young Adult 
978-1335146762; 1335146768 
$18.99 USD 
352 pages




About the Book

From Adi Alsaid, the acclaimed author of Let's Get Lost, Never Sometimes Always, and North of Happy

Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.

Central International School's annual lock-in is legendary -- and for six students, this year's lock-in is the answer to their dreams. The chance to finally win the contest. Kiss the guy. Make a friend. Become the star of a story that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.

But then a group of students, led by Marisa Cuevas, stage an eco-protest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met. While some students rally to the cause, others are devastated as they watch their plans fall apart. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide just how far she'll go to attain them.



Excerpted from We Didn’t Ask for This by Adi Alsaid. © 2020 by Adi Alsaid, used with permission by Inkyard Press.


The lock-in was going fairly well until Marisa unleashed her cronies and chained herself to the main entrance.

No one really noticed right away, busy as they were taking part in a number of lock-in-related activities: laser tag in the parking garage, a sanctioned food fight in the cafeteria, a photo shoot tutorial with a renowned YouTube influencer.

Once a year, in April, the doors at Central International School’s K-12 campus closed—though they didn’t literally lock—to allow the high school students to roam free for the whole night. Having the next day off school was nowhere near the best part. Nor, strictly speaking, were the activities themselves, though they were extravagant and wonderful and distracted everyone from what Marisa was doing.

People fell in love on lock-in night. They stumbled upon new passions that would shape the rest of their lives, discovered friendships they could not imagine living without, before or after. Traumas were resolved on lock-in night, anxieties disappeared, never to return, not even after the buses arrived in the morning to take the students back home.

This was well known to the few students who had been lucky enough to have attended before, or who had siblings who had attended in years prior. At Central International School, the student body ebbed and flowed, changing drastically from year to year, and often even more frequently. It was common to have different classmates every semester, and sometimes students would find the person who sat next to them in class—the alluring redhead who scribbled song lyrics on the margins of their textbooks, who one time turned and asked to borrow a pen they never returned, though they had offered a smile that carried with it joy beyond a simple gesture; the redhead who might have one day soon become more than just a classmate—was simply gone from one day to the next.

Even by international school standards, the turnover rate of both students and faculty had always been high, though it had a great academic reputation, and the city in which it sat was a diverse and world-class cosmopolis. Yet people never seemed to stick around for long, as if families were carried in by the seaside breeze, and carried away by the same. Most students had multiple passports, and their parents were multinational, or transient because they were diplomats, or titans of industry, or missionaries, or digital nomads, or teachers within the international school world. They had roots in many places, thought of no one place as home—or rather, thought of everywhere they’d been as home.

So it was rare for a student to be around for several lock-in nights. Even the locals, who made up a mere fifteen percent of the school’s population, often temporarily relocated during their high school years—a boarding school exchange in Switzerland, a South American road trip in a van with their family, a missionary excursion in Central America.

Despite all this, the lore surrounding lock-in night was always momentous, starting as an excited murmur the first day of school and building to a frenzy by the night before the event itself a month or so before the end of the year. Students wondered how, exactly, their life would be improved by the evening. There was no question it would—they could feel it on their skin, their heartbeats thudded with the knowledge that things were about to change, they had absorbed the gossip, not just a rumor or two, but dozens and dozens of first-hand accounts or verifiable secondhand stories, so many of them that it did not feel like hearsay but like fact—it was the how that was exciting. Would the redheaded classmate return to slip a hand into theirs during the movie marathon on the roof garden? Would their fear of heights be cured by the trapeze the school had set up on the football field? Or would it simply be a night of such fun that the joy would sink into their bones and change them into happier people?

Lock-in night, simply put, was magic. Even all those who had never experienced it knew it to be true.

Which, of course, was why Marisa planned her protest for that well-loved night. To make people pay attention, disrupt what brings them joy.

The mad desire to act had existed long before her plan did. Marisa loved the water as a baby. Her parents told the stories to anyone who would listen. She always feigned embarrassment at their anecdotes about her hour-long baths and surprising performance in toddler swimming classes, her dark, curly hair unfurling in the water behind her like a mermaid, her brown eyes huge within the goggles she always carried around. But the truth was that she loved the stories. They confirmed this was not a passing fad, not a childhood obsession that would lose its significance over time, not a baby blanket carried around charmingly until age ten, when

it was shoved into a box and donated.

When she discovered snorkeling and, later, diving, that love blew wide open. This? This had been possible this whole time?

Though Marisa was only seventeen, her parents’ constant relocations for work meant she’d seen a hefty percentage of the world’s waters. She’d snorkeled in Mexico, Fiji, the Philippines, the Great Barrier Reef, Belize. And the more she did it, the more her heart broke. Human beings had found a way to kill water.

The places famed for their snorkeling were heart-­ wrenching. The destroyed beige reefs littered the oceans like ornate gravestones. They should have been resplendent with color. Books and scientists told her as much, and other divers did, too. Of course, though, they weren’t. Not anymore. The world had ruined that particular beauty before Marisa had ever had a chance to see it, killing the corals with spilled chemicals, suffocating the oceans with heat. Every time she surfaced, she would dive into the internet, trying to find a way to help. Changing her sunscreen to the reef-safe kind, cleaning up plastic on the beach, asking her parents to donate yet again; nothing felt big enough.

Then came the three-day weekend at the start of the school year that changed it all. She had convinced her parents to take the family to the beach, and the Cuevases, who knew their frequent moves could be hard on the children, relented de-spite the fact that neither of them felt settled in at work yet, and they would have really liked to stay in the city and run errands.

Marisa had heard amazing things about the snorkeling in the region surrounding the beach. She was always skeptical when she heard anything like that; she’d been disappointed enough. She was fine just swimming among whatever fish remained in the area and pretending this was what it had al-ways been like, this was the wondrous alien world other divers described. After their most recent move, she’d done her usual research and found on the most trustworthy sources that an untouched blip still existed, not too far from her new school.

She convinced her parents, who knew it was better to indulge Marisa than fight her, to take a boat to an island, then another, smaller boat to another, smaller island. Arriving at the clear, turquoise waters, which were peppered with butterflies from who knows where fluttering across the surface, whole waves of them outnumbering the tourists she had seen even on the mainland, Marisa allowed herself to hope. Well before her family was ready, Marisa was in her flippers and mask, and she sat on the edge of the boat and let herself fall backward into the warm waters. At first, her heart had soared: greens! Purples! Oranges! Bright colors in the reefs, finally. The schools of fish were more like armies, numbered not in dozens but in hundreds, maybe even thousands, various species all swimming in their separate schools, like great big flags unfurling mightily in the water.

Marisa followed them, kicking delightedly, her heart flooding with joy. Then she turned a corner around some rocks and her breath caught, as if someone had reached inside her chest and closed a massive fist around her lungs. Even here, she found murk and drudgery, the reef not on display so much as its dying was.

She emerged from the water and took off her mask, tears mixing with the waves. People and the trash with which they suffocated the world. She looked around, shading her eyes from the shimmering sunlight with her free hand. Maybe it was time to accept the world as it was.

As she turned to swim back to shore, she caught sight of something on the far end of the island. A construction site. Large, acres and acres of it, from what Marisa could tell, and a handful of bulldozers. She swam closer and saw the sign announcing the coming resort. Nearby, a trickle of brown-gray water weaved its way from below the makeshift wall around the site and dribbled onto the sand.

Yes, it was a travesty, an outrage that the world had been ruined before her arrival. But that trickle hadn’t reached all the way to the shore, not yet.

As soon as she and her family made it back to their eco-hotel that day, Marisa decided she had to stop that waste from reaching the ocean. Whatever she could do for the reefs, she was going to do it. If it was just shutting down that one construction site, or if it was something much bigger, she had to try. What else was there but to try?

Months of stewing later, of planning, of seeing the ruined remains of the ocean floors every time she closed her eyes, of thinking of a way to make everyone else see what she saw. It all led up to this moment, when Marisa hoisted a chain from the duffel bag she’d hidden on campus a few days ago. She weaved it through the handles on the double doors that led into the main school building, then she wrapped it three times around her own body, uncomfortably tight, so bolt cutters could not break through the metal without snagging on her skin. When she was satisfied, she grabbed three giant padlocks from the bag and locked herself in, meaning to stay.

She set the keys in the middle of her palm, rubbing them each in a pad of butter procured earlier from the cafeteria, and which had warmed nicely in her pocket throughout the afternoon. Then Marisa, rehearsing her speech in her mind one last time, looked up. She expected to see a sizable crowd already gathering. What she saw instead was a lanky blond sophomore leaving the bathroom across the open expanse of the building’s foyer. The boy was checking to see if he’d re-membered to zip up. He had not.

When his eyes met Marisa’s, he could tell she had seen him checking, and he stepped quickly away from her line of sight, failing to notice the heavy metal chain wrapped around her torso.



About the Author
Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He's now back in Mexico City, where he writes, coaches basketball, and makes every dish he eats as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he's lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas and Monterey, California. His books include Let's Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. Visit Adi online at www.SomewhereOverTheSun.com, or on Twitter: @AdiAlsaid.
Social Links:
Author website:  https://www.adialsaid.com/
Facebook: @adialsaidauthor
Twitter: @adialsaid
Instagram: @uhhdee
Q&A with Adi Alsaid
Q: What's your favorite thing about Marisa Cuevas?
A: Her willingness to fight for what she believes in.

Q: I love the juxtaposition of a lock-in against a political protest. What was the most challenging part of threading those two very different pieces together?
A: Honestly, it was the logistics of actually keeping the students locked in. The political protest wouldn’t work without it, nor would the plot. So I had to find a whole lot of justifications that felt reasonable within the story. Other than that, one of my goals was to show, embodied in different characters, all the ways people react to political protests, and to make them feel like actual people, not just symbols.

Q: What do you most hope that readers take away from the story?
A: Getting others to care about what you care about is hard, but you’re allowed to try, and it’s possible to succeed.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: I’ve been wanting to write a book that felt like my favorite book, Bel Canto, for a while now. So the very initial inspiration was a group of characters all stuck in the same place for an extended period of time. Then, to make it feel more YA, I thought of The Breakfast Club, but instead of cliques, just bring people with different passions together. Then, because of my increasing awareness over the last few years about environmental issues, combined with the fact that I was traveling and seeing those issues play out around the world, I brought in the fight for climate change.

Q: Is there a character that you found challenging to write? Why?
A: All my characters come easily to me. The challenge is working to get them right in revisions. Jordi Marcos, a sort of villain in the story, was one that was hard to get right, in order to make his actions feel justified. I also have a queer Muslim character in Amira, and I had to work—and had the fortune of being guided by a great sensitivity reader—to not make her representation be harmful.

Q: How does a typical writing day look like for you?
A: Assuming this means not in the time of COVID-19. I wake up and go straight to a coffee shop, where I work/avoid looking at my phone for about 3 hours or so. Then I usually have lunch, take a break by watching a movie, running errands, or something in that vein. Then another work session in the afternoon or late evening at another coffee shop or perhaps a bar, followed by cooking dinner. During deadline times there’s also usually a late night session at home.

Q: What are your current reading?
A: I’m about to finish The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy, listening to The Art of Logic in an Illogical World by Eugenia Chang, and my next read will probably be Incendiary by Zoraida Cordova.

Q: Is there something secret you can share with us about anything in the book or your experience writing it?
A: I don’t know about secret, but I’ll say that I had the unique experience of traveling the world while writing it. So, many of its words were written in the communal areas of hostels, on airplanes, trains, on an island in Fiji, and in many, many coffee shops.





Mind Game by Christine Feehan ~ Review

Possessed of an extraordinary telekinetic gift, Dahlia Le Blanc has spent her life isolated from other people. And just when she thinks she's finally achieved some semblance of peace, her well-orchestrated world comes crashing down...

For a reason she cannot guess, she has become the target of deadly assassins. Suddenly no place is safe--not even the secret refuge she'd established long ago. Now she must rely on Nicolas Trevane--a dangerous warrior sent to track her down and protect her. Together they generate a scorching heat Dahlia never imagined was possible. But can she trust this man with her secrets--especially when some people would kill to get their hands on them?



Nicolas Trevane, Nico, is a big mystery from book 1.  He's quiet, calm and deadly.  He was raised by his Grandfathers in the old ways.  His gifts came well before the experiment that released his physic barriers.  He just knows when there is danger.  And he won't let his emotions get in the way of what needs to done.  Well, that is until he meets Dahlia Le Blanc.

Dahlia can manipulate energy to the extreme.  Her telekinetic power is impressive but it comes at a high cost.  She can't be around people for very long, or around strong emotion without things going up in flames.  No amount of Zen living has helped her until she meets Nico.

It's fun to watch two very controlled characters get out of control.  And even more fun to see them realize how well they fit together, compliment each other.  Their banter was so fun.  Nico's used to being in command.  Dahlia doesn't do commands.   They both had me giggling.  

The story is interesting as they try to figure out who has betrayed Dahlia and how to rescue her friend.  Their one step ahead of the bad guys using Nico's warning system and trying to keep their hands off each other.  Great fun.

More details are revealed about the workings of Dr. Peter Whitney but there is still so much unknown.  Good thing there are more books to read.

I think I like this book a little more than book 1.  Less world building and more action/fun.  If you enjoy a good paranormal romance read, than this one is a great choice.




                                 

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Shadow Game by Christine Feehan ~ Review

The classified experiment is the brainchild of renowned scientist Peter Whitney and his brilliant daughter, Lily. Created to enhance the psychic abilities of an elite squadron, it can transform their natural mental powers into a unique military weapon. But something goes wrong. In the isolated underground labs, the men have been dying-victims of bizarre accidents. Captain Ryland Miller knows he is next. When Dr. Whitney himself is murdered, Ryland has only one person left to trust: the beautiful Lily. Possessed of an uncanny sixth sense herself, Lily shares Ryland's every new fear, every betrayal, every growing suspicion, and every passionate beat of the heart. Together, they will be drawn deeper into the labyrinth of her father's past and closer to a secret that someone would kill to keep hidden.

Amazon | B&N


I admit to loving paranormal romance is my very favorite genre.  I'm always excited to find a series that I love.  Especially one that has lots of books already out so I can just read them straight through.  Such is the case with this series.  And I'm on a reading binge.

Lily Whitney is piecing together the experiment her father conducted.  A murder is out there.  Ryland is trying to protect his men from whoever is sabotaging the experiment.  Both of them are trying to deal with their strong attraction.  Will they be able to figure it all out before it's too late?

All the little pieces that need to be figured out make an interesting backdrop for these two falling for each other.  There are a lot of characters, as this is the first book in a series.  They all have distinct personalities and make me excited to read more of these books.  But, by far, my favorites were Lily and Ryland.  Both are strong characters from very different worlds.  They are immediately attracted to each other.  The sound of their voices having an impact on them.  Lily is sure it isn't real.  It's part of the experiment.  But Ryland is sure and very persuasive.  The heat leave is very high.

The story is interesting and has me wondering a lot.  Some things I figured out but others were a surprise.  It's definitely a book that will keep you stuck in it's pages.  And it had me wanted the next book.

The world itself is very compelling.  Dr. Peter Whitney has conducted psychic enhancement experiments on special forces soldiers.  Their skills are amazing but the consequences of using those skills has become unbearable.  The men are overwhelmed with the emotions and "noise" of others around them.  It's a great place for many stories to live and I can't wait to read them all.

I always enjoy this authors books.  Have you read this series yet?