Skinless (Part 1)
by L.M. Davis
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Novella
Description:
Looking at Luca, who’s just saved my life, I can’t respond. No explanation I might offer will satisfy after all of the extraordinary things he’s just witnessed. —Ankh
AnCaela Murphy's body is a ticking bomb that only her mom can defuse. The problem: her mother is missing and presumed taken by the Skinless, bogeymen from Ankh’s home world who have been hunting her and her mother for two years--ever since they fled that world and certain death.
With help from Luca, a boy whose touch confuses and who refuses to back down, Ankh races against time to find her mother before the bomb inside of her detonates, taking her life. Tracking the Skinless across the country, the pair search for her mother and uncover the horrifying truth behind the generations-old war.
Teaser
LUCA We are crouched down in the back of Mat’s car with a blanket thrown over our heads; a necessary precaution since the whole plan’s pretty much blown if the psychos spot us on the way out of town. Ankh’s cradled against my chest and I’m cursing testosterone with every fiber of my being because even in the middle of the strangest six hours of my life the only thing on my mind right now is how amazing it is to be this close to her and how good her hair smells. Mat swerves into another lane—despite the fact that he would probably curl up in a ball and die if anything ever happen to this car, he’s an amazingly bad driver—and Ankh falls against me. She tries to smother it, but I hear her cry of pain. I wish she would have let us take her to the hospital, but she wants no part of it. I have the aspirin Bret gave me for when things get really bad, but she doesn’t want those either. Though I guess I can’t blame her for that one; I’d probably be wary too, if aspirin knocked me on my ass and had me slurring words like a drunken frat boy. The car slows, which must mean we’re close to Boston, because that’s where we agreed to make the change over. I put my hands around Ankh’s waist, with intentions that are as pure as the new fallen snow. All I want is to steady her so that the motion causes as little pain as necessary. Of course, even though my brain decrees the absence of perverted feels in the act, my body doesn’t seem to take heed. I’m having all kinds of reactions to being this close to Ankh, absolutely none of which are within a hundred miles of being appropriate. The car door can’t open soon enough and when it does, I throw the blanket off our heads and scramble out of the car. We’re at a gas station right off the expressway. Overhead, cars zoom by. Chuck and Mat stand around like sentinels scouting for trouble. Behind us, Bret pulls up in her mother’s car, which she will use to get the guys back to Pilgrim’s Creek. She jumps out of the car and comes running to the back door of Mat’s car, where Ankh’s just managed to swing her legs over the edge. I don’t know what she’s thinking but she wraps her arms around Ankh a pulls her in for a hug. Even though it must hurt like hell, Ankh returns the squeeze. “Be careful.” She’s holding Ankh, but at the same time she’s looking over her shoulder, straight into my eyes. Chuck and Mat are watching the whole scene with looks that say they wish they had the guts to take Ankh into their arms that way. Their goodbyes are definitely less passionate. I hop into the car and start it because I can’t stand one more minute of this moping and because this is no time for the drawn out goodbyes so someone has to cut this short. Besides, the whole thing is just a little too final feeling, like they think their never going to see Ankh again and in my mind that’s not even a possibility. She’s not leaving forever, so I wish everyone would just quit acting like she is.
Skinless (Part 2)by L.M. Davis
Genre: YA Sci-Fi Novella
Book Description:
All I can say is when the girl I like looks at me with wide, freaked out eyes and then runs away, the only thing that I can do run after her. Even if she didn’t ask me, even if she told me not to, I’m not superman enough to fight the instinct to protect her. -Luca
For Luca Valken, AnCaela Murphy is like no other girl he's ever met and that's exactly what makes him so crazy about her. Never in his wildest imaginings, and they got pretty wild, did he dream what that difference truly means. By the time that he's followed her to Atlanta, in search of her missing mother, he's in too deep.
Too deeply entangled in the mystery surrounding her mother's disappearance.
Too deeply terrified for Ankh's safety.
Too deeply in love to ever consider walking away.
Teaser
ANKH Squeezing Luca’s hand in mine, his anxiousness is my own. His pulse beats too fast between his thumb and index finger. His palm is damp with sweat. I’m also afraid, but somehow holding Luca’s hand helps. We reach the bottom of another flight and now there are only two more. We’re almost there. The pounding startles me. Abruptly, the footsteps, which had been fading seem like they’re right above us and coming down fast. Luca grips my hand tighter and we abandon any attempt at stealth. All that matters now is getting away. At the bottom of the last flight, the door opens not to the street but into another hallway. Ahead, through a glass wall is the turquoise swimming pool. We veer right, dashing down the hall and out into a huge lounge filled with cream and gold furniture. In the center of the room, an escalator leads down. Behind us, the door slams and noise echoes across the silent hotel. We run that much faster, trying to reach the escalator before our escape route vanishes. The escalator is deactivated, so we take the frozen stairs two at a time. Out off the corner of my eye, I watch the gray figures spilling into the lounge.
Author L. M. Davis
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Definitely Dulce de Leche
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Any kind of cookie. Breakfast of champions!
Night owl, or early bird?
Early bird, which sometimes means three in the morning, so Night Owl?
I’m a study in contradictions.
One food you would never eat?
Snails (escargot)
Skittles or M&Ms?
Hmmm…tough. Do the M & Ms have peanut butter?
When you were little, what did you want to be when you "grew up"?
Writer, Astronaut, Paleontologist, Lawyer, in that order and all at the same time.
You have won one million dollars what is the first thing that you would buy?
A trip to South America (Brazil, Peru, Chile, the whole nine yards).
Print or Ebook?
Still a print gal at heart.
What movie are you looking forward to this year?
So many great ones, do I have to choose just one. Then, eeny, meeny, miney, moe: Wolverine
Finish the sentence- one book I wish I had written is....
Honestly, I can’t answer this because it would inevitably change the best elements of the books I love.
What is next on your to read list?
Finally getting to The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest!
Any other books in the works?
Working on the final two books of my Shifters Novel series, which will be out next year.
Thanks so much for hosting me!
Thanks! You’re awesome! :D
L. M. Davis loves great storytelling. She needs nothing more than a good book and a comfy chair to be happy. She was born in the south, raised in the north, and has a few degrees under her belt. She doesn't like to admit it, but she may have something of a "shifter" fetish. She still hasn’t gotten her black cat, but she thinks about it everyday. Her thoughts go something like this: "I really should get a cat." For now, she contents herself with spoiling the pets of her friends and family. She is the author of Interlopers: A Shifters Novel, Posers: A Shifters Novel, and skinless.
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2 comments:
Michelle this series is new to me, so thanks for sharing it. I am a night owl who rises early..so i drink lots of coffee!
Hi Michelle, I am a new follower. I absolutely love your blog design. This is a new series to me as well, but it sounds intriguing. I enjoyed the interview and the quirky answers. Thanks for the intro and it is nice to meet you.
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