EXCERPT & INTERVIEW + Giveaway: Foresworn (Sisters of Fate #3) by Rinda Elliott

Foresworn (Sisters of Fate #3)
by Rinda Elliott
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: December 2nd 2014

Synopsis:

It is written that three Sisters of Fate have the power to change the world’s destiny.

But only if they survive…

Kat Lockwood grew up listening to her unhinged mother’s stories about the Norse goddess souls she and her triplet sisters carry, about fiery deaths and a prophecy foretelling the world’s end. Now, to save that world, Kat must find a guy who hosts the soul of a Norse god–a warrior with the lightest blond hair and the darkest brown eyes.

But at a truck stop on her road trip, Kat freezes time while she writes out a cryptic message in runes. The only other person able to see this happen? A gorgeous guy with the lightest blond hair and the darkest brown eyes.

Kat’s not convinced peaceful Arun is the future warrior who will turn the tide in the final battle. Yet, Arun turns out to be a lot tougher than he seems. As soul-carrying teens and underworld creatures gather over the world’s deadliest volcano, Kat finds that no one, including her sisters and mother, is exactly who she thought they were….

Sisters of Fate

The prophecy doesn’t lie: one is doomed to die.

Foresworn

by Rinda Elliott

“Call me later. At this number. Let me know you’re okay.”

“I will.” Other people in the parking lot were stopping, rubbing their ears. “Hey, Raven? Be safe, okay?”

“You, too, Kat.”

The sadness in my sister’s voice cut into me.

Arun came around his truck. “It feels like the world is muffled.”

I nodded because that’s exactly how it felt. Like someone had plugged my ears so all the sound around me came at a different decibel. It was so strange. Like even my nose had been stuffed with cotton balls.

“Come on,” he said. “Maybe it’s better inside the store.”

But the closer we walked toward the store, the quieter it got. I walked around a set of shopping carts, noticed that even the sounds in the air—the cars, birds and snow—seemed to disappear. To test my theory, I went back and walked on the other side of the carts. Sound got louder.

I took Arun’s hand and pulled him back to walk him on either side of the carts to show him. He stared to our left. “Someone yelled over there earlier. Let’s head that way.” He pointed toward the fast-food restaurant at the front of the store’s parking lot. There was a lake beyond the restaurant, and I looked around and realized this was near the place I’d pulled over to talk to Raven yesterday morning. It was hard to believe everything that had happened since then.

We walked closer to the lake. Snow fell hard and fast, coating the trees, the ground. Some even floated on top of the water. A group of blackbirds gathered overhead and I heard the distant sound of their cries.

But they were right over our heads.

They should have been so loud.

After we stepped off the pavement and onto the grass, everything sort of just stopped. I stepped to the right and again heard the cries of the blackbirds above us. Barely. Arun touched my arm and I looked at him. He held up a finger in the universal “wait” signal. Frowning, he took another step to the right, stopped, then moved left. His dark eyes went wide and he gestured for me to follow.

I stepped to the left and even the sounds from the birds disappeared.

At this point, all I heard was the fast pound of my own heartbeat. And it raced, raced, raced because everything in me at this point was screaming for me to start walking backward. Back into the parking lot, back to the truck. As fast as humanly possible.

But another part of me wanted to keep going left so I could see why the noise seemed to be sucked out of the atmosphere with every step.

So I took another.

This time, even my heartbeat stopped sounding in my ears. There was complete and total silence and nothing in my entire weird, crazy life had ever sent this sort of terror singing through my veins. It moved so fast and hard, I half expected to hear it swimming through my body.

I closed my eyes, tried to wrestle back the fear and felt Arun take my hand.

I stared at his hand, then looked up at him, expecting to find one of his kind smiles as he offered me comfort. But he wasn’t looking at me. His eyes were narrow and directed to a group of drooping snow-covered trees right next to the water.

In that moment, something in my chest—this knot that had made everything feel tight and full—sort of loosened up. Warmth flowed through me, and I tightened my fingers around his. His expression, when he looked down at me, turned that warmth into something I hadn’t felt since that night I’d taken another boy’s hand and followed him into the woods.

Excitement.

Hope.

Arun tilted his head left, wanting me to go with him.

I nodded but tugged on his hand first.

He bent close but shook his head. I knew he was telling me he wouldn’t be able to hear me, but I hadn’t planned to say anything. Instead, I stretched up and pressed my lips to his. He smiled against my mouth, then kissed me back. When I pulled away, there was something new in his gaze as he stared at me, something thoughtful. And something kind of hot.

Answering heat crept up my neck, and I guess he could see it because he grinned and touched my cheek.

Brigg’s face appeared right next to ours and he rolled his eyes.

I rolled my eyes back, then glared at him.

He laughed silently, his smile fading fast as he pointed.

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? 
Rocky Road

What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? 
Eggs Benedict-though this is one I save for special occasions. I usually eat some kind of fortified cereal. Ooh, fried egg and avocado on toast is good. It’s breakfast time as I’m answering these. Can you tell? 

Night owl, or early bird? 
Night owl usually. 

One food you would never eat? 
Snails.

Skittles or M&Ms? 
M&Ms. No, Skittles. No, M&Ms. I like candy. 

When you were little, what did you want to be when you "grew up"? 
A reporter. I knew I wanted to write and thought it sounded like a fun job. Then I realized I’m not rude, nosy or pushy enough. Plus, I like fiction so much better. 

You have won one million dollars what is the first thing that you would buy? 
After I paid off all debts, a car. (And a house for my parents!) But all the car troubles the triplets have in my Sisters of Fate books? That is fiction from real life. (No crashing in water, but holding onto vehicles has been interesting with teenagers.) Only there isn’t a Jeep like Kat’s yet. Oh man! Hope I haven’t cursed my future Jeep. 

Print or Ebook? 
Ebook. I suffer from one click purchasing syndrome something fierce.

What movie are you looking forward to this year? 
This is sad, but I’m sort of out of touch with what’s coming out. I took on seven deadlines in a year and a half and got behind. And…I deliberately didn’t let myself watch the last Thor movie because I didn’t want to inadvertently use any of it while writing the Sisters of Fate books. So, I’m REALLY looking forward to catching up on that one. Oh, and that new Dracula movie looks good! But that already came out, too, didn’t it? Clueless here. LOL.

Finish the sentence- one book I wish I had written is.... 
To Kill a Mockingbird

What is next on your to read list? 
House Immortal by Devon Monk and Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach. I’ve also got some romantic suspense books I want to work on, so I just bought some category romances from Harlequin. 

Any other books in the works? 
Always. The third in my Beri O’Dell urban fantasy series is in the works along with a southern Gothic trilogy and some fun romantic suspense books about ex-thieves. I do have another YA that I’ve written, so I may have my agent market it as soon as I go through and make it darker. It needs to be darker. ;) 

Thanks so much for the interest in my Norse YA trilogy and for inviting me to be on your blog. 

Rinda Elliott
http://relliott4.wordpress.com
http://www.deadlinedames.com 

Follow the FFBC The Unhappening of Genesis Lee and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

I love unusual stories and credit growing up in a family of curious life-lovers who moved all over the country. Books and movies full of fantasy, science fiction and romance kept us amused, especially in some of the stranger places. For years, I tried to separate my darker side with my humorous and romantic one. I published short fiction, but things really started happening when I gave in and mixed it up. When not lost in fiction, I love making wine, collecting music, gaming and spending time with my husband and two children.

I’m represented by Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Agency.

You can find me at http://relliott4.wordpress.com & http://www.deadlinedames.com

Win all 3 ebooks in the Sisters Of Fate series (INT)

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SUPER BOOK BLAST [Excerpt + Giveaway] Thief By C.L. Stone

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly drawn commenter will run a $25 Amazon/BN gift card via Rafflecopter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Kayli Winchester is a dirt-poor girl living out of a hotel, forced to be the parent for a drunken father and teenage brother who she’s desperate to keep in school. The only way she scrapes by is to utilize her one skill: pickpocketing. But even though she’s a thief she has a moral code: no kids or old ladies, only targets who can defend themselves. Not that they see her coming…

Thinking she’s been working under the radar, Kayli has no idea The Academy has been watching and taking notice. Now a team that needs her skill has offered her a way out of her predicament and it’s her last chance: work with them, or face jail time. Kayli resists at first, but slowly the boys reveal they can be trusted. With Marc, the straight man, Raven, the bad-boy Russian, Corey and Brandon the twins as different as night and day, and Axel their stoic leader, there’s a lot Kayli can learn from these Academy guys about living on the edge of the law. If only she can stay on the good side instead of the bad.

Especially when the job they offer her is more than any of them bargained for. After it’s done, the hunters have become the hunted and their target is now after Kayli. The Academy boys do their best to keep her hidden, but a thief like Kayli will never sit still for long.

Meet an all-new Academy team in Thief, the beginning of the Scarab Beetle series.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Men are brilliantly stupid.

For one thing, guys carry the most cash with them anywhere. Didn’t anyone ever tell them cash was dead?

I nestled myself in one of the side branches of Citadel Mall. I picked my way through a Claire’s but the lights were too bright reflecting off the sparkling plastic and crystals of the teeny bopper jewelry and handbags. I ducked into a shoe store where the lighting was dimmer and the window wasn’t as obstructed. Waiting was the hardest part.

My favorite place to find dumb guys with lots of cash was the mall. Always fairly crowded on a weekend; I could count on at least a couple of twenties for every wallet I temporarily borrowed.

I never kept all of it. Forty to sixty dollars at the most. Not enough to bother reporting to the cops. I didn’t mess with credit cards, or bother with selling ID cards. That’s the kind of crazy stuff that gets you sent to prison. I always left the wallets and the rest of the leftovers tucked away in the food court and on benches where management would see it and find the owner. That way, the people wouldn’t have to get new ID, which is a huge hassle.

And they never suspected a thing. All they saw when I accidentally bumped into them was batting eyelashes and as much cleavage as I could muster the absurdity to expose without dry heaving.

About the Author: C. L. Stone once lived in Charleston, SC, and currently lives among Cajuns. She writes about cute boys and uncomfortable situations, usually mixed together. You can email her at clstone@arcatopublishing.com. Sign up for email updates, get exclusive info on upcoming release dates, get notified when freebies are offered, and sometimes sneak peeks!

http://clstonebooks.com/
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https://twitter.com/CLStoneX

Buy the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, Google, or All Romance eBooks.

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SUPER BOOK BLAST!! Christine Manzari's DEVIATION

This post is part of a cover reveal for the re-release of Christine Manzari's DEVIATION. One randomly drawn winner will be awarded a $25 Amazon/BN gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Being a Sophisticate of the Program seems like it’d be a pretty sweet deal: a little genetic alteration and anyone can be smarter, faster, and stronger. It’s a dream come true. All you have to give up is your freedom.

Cleo is a Sophisticate and she has a bright future in the Program. But she has a secret. When she gets upset, bad things happen. Explosive things. Things she can’t control.

When her secret is discovered, she’s sent to the Academy to train in the military branch of the Program. She’s destined to be a human weapon in the war that’s been going on since Wormwood occurred nearly 30 years ago. She soon learns that although her ability is unique, there are others like her — other Sophisticates with lethal skills and odd code names like Archerfish and Mimic Octopus.

Immersed in a dangerous game of supernatural powers and dubious motives, Cleo doesn’t know who to trust. Ozzy, the annoyingly attractive cadet who has perfect aim in weapons class and deviant lips behind closed doors, begs her not to use her powers. He’s the golden boy of the Program, but can she trust him? Or will she find herself a target, caught in his crosshairs?

Enjoy an excerpt:

“Late on your first day?”

I turned to find the dark haired boy still leaning against the wall. The top button of his shirt was undone and his tie was slung over his shoulder. He wasn’t wearing his jacket and his shirt sleeves were rolled up, revealing his tan, muscular forearms. His tousled hair hung across his forehead, nearly falling into his eyes, and it appeared he hadn’t bothered to shave this morning.

“You’re late, too,” I pointed out. I also wanted to point out that his uniform was far from uniform or acceptable according to St. Ignatius policy.

The boy shook his head and then ran his hand back through his messy curls, trying to tame them into submission. “Not late. Sick.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said, because I couldn’t think of any better response. It was obvious the boy wasn’t sick, he was skipping class. “Look, I really have to go. It was nice meeting you.”

“But we haven’t met,” he responded.

“What?” I asked, confused.

“We haven’t actually met yet,” he explained, pushing away from the wall. “Name’s Ozzy,” he said, holding out his hand.

I looked at his hand. “Is it contagious?”

He tilted his head causing the unruly curls to tumble back across his forehead. “I don’t follow.”

“Your sickness, I don’t want to catch anything.”

“Right,” he said, a wide grin dimpling across his face as he pulled his hand back and returned it to his pocket. “Well then, I should let you get to class I suppose.” He turned and walked down the hallway, the opposite direction from my classroom. “It was nice meeting you, Clementine,” he called back over his shoulder.

“I never told you my name,” I said calmly, even though I was a little unnerved that he knew my name.

“You didn’t have to.”

“Apparently, I do,” I retorted. “I don’t answer to Clementine.”

Ozzy chuckled without turning around. “See you around, Cleo.”

About the Author:

The first thing Christine does when she's getting ready to read a book is to crack the spine in at least five places. She wholeheartedly believes there is no place as comfy as the pages of a well-worn book. She's addicted to buying books, reading books, and writing books. Books, books, books. She also has a weakness for adventure, inappropriate humor, and coke (the caffeine-laden bubbly kind). Christine is from Forest Hill, Maryland where she lives with her husband, three kids, and her library of ugly spine books.

Website: www.christinemanzari.com
Email: christine@christinemanzari.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChristineManzari
Twitter: twitter.com/Xenatine
Instagram: instagram.com/xenatine
Pinterest: pinterest.com/xenatine/
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/Christine_Manzari

Buy the book at Amazon, Smashwords, or Smashwords.

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GUEST POST + Giveaway: Flury: Journey of the Snowman (Claus #3) by Tony Bertauski

This is my stop during the blog tour for Flury: Journey of the Snowman by Tony Bertauski. This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 14 till 27 November, you can view the complete tour schedule here.

So far this series contains 3 books, all books can be read as standalones.

Flury: Journey of the Snowman (Claus #3)
by Tony Bertauski
Genre: Science Fiction
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: November 15, 2014

Blurb:
Life hasn’t been kind to Oliver Toye.

As if juvenile diabetes isn’t enough, he’s forced to live with his tyrannical grandmother in a snow-bound house. He spends his days doing chores and the nights listening to the forest rumble.
But when he discovers the first leather-bound journal, the family secrets begin to surface. The mystery of his great-grandfather’s voyage to the North Pole is revealed. That’s when the snowman appears.
Flury.

Magical and mysterious, the snowman will save Oliver more than once. But when the time comes for Oliver to discover the truth, will he have the courage? When he Flury needs him, will he have the strength? When believing isn’t enough, will he save the snowman from melting away?

Because sometimes even magic needs a little help.

You can find Flury on Goodreads

You can buy Flury here:

- Amazon

Earlier books in this series:
Claus: Legend of the Fat Man (Claus #1)
by Tony Bertauski
Genre: Science Fiction
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: June 19, 2012

Blurb:
Santa is not just about the presents. See something deeper in this mythological figure. A story that’s meaningful. Find a cast of gritty, compassionate and courageous characters that make the journey to mythological fame despite their shortcomings and frailties. Pull away the veil of magic, reveal the difficulties of love and loss and struggle with life.

Because Santa Claus is much more than presents.

In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient.

Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions -- time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.

Until now.

An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold
One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven
known as… Claus.

You can find Claus on Goodreads

You can buy Claus here:

- Amazon

- Barnes & Noble

- Kobo

Jack: The Tale of Frost (Claus #2)
by Tony Bertauski
Genre: Science Fiction
Age category: Young Adult
Release Date: October 17, 2013

Blurb:
Sura is sixteen years old when she meets Mr. Frost. He’s very short and very fat and he likes his room very, very cold. Some might say inhumanly cold. His first name isn’t Jack, she’s told. And that’s all she needed to know.

Mr. Frost’s love for Christmas is over-the-top and slightly psychotic. And why not? He’s made billions of dollars off the holiday he invented. Or so he claims. Rumor is he’s an elven, but that’s silly. Elven aren’t real. And if they were, they wouldn’t live in South Carolina. They wouldn’t hide in a tower and go to the basement to make…things.

Nonetheless, Sura will work for this odd little recluse. Frost Plantation is where she’ll meet the love of her life. It’s where she’ll finally feel like she belongs somewhere. And it’s where she’ll meet someone fatter, balder and stranger than Mr. Frost. It’s where she’ll meet Jack.

Jack hates Christmas.

You can find Jack on Goodreads

You can buy Jack here:

- Amazon

- Barnes & Noble

- Kobo

Things I Love to Hear My Readers Say

I cried. That's a good one.

Recently, I received a heartfelt email from a reader that said my stories brought her relief in an otherwise hard and dark life (you can read my reaction to it here.) It was a lovely message, and yet heartbreaking. I don't know her or her life, but the fact that my stories connected with her in a meaningful way is the reason I write.

I started writing fiction because I enjoyed the experience. For me, it's similar to reading a good book, except when I'm the writer of the story instead of the reader, it's much more intimate. The characters come to life in a much more personable way. I strive for stories that are entertaining, but also have some deeper meaning, something that will cause the reader to think of things (their life, the world around them) a little differently. And the emotional connection, yes. 

I recently worked an event in Charleston, SC called YAllfest. It's a book festival that includes most of today's most famous YA authors (James Dashner, Veronica Roth, etc). The lines were long and anxious, filling the sidewalks for hours. I watched reader after reader come up to Michelle Hodkin and Sarah Dessen with their books clutched to their chests, sometimes their hands shaking, each one in awe of the author that takes them on unforgettable journeys. And all the authors get it, too. They know how special their stories are to these readers. They take the time to recognize their impact on their readers. 

My wife asked me if I wanted that to be me one day. I said no, at first. I didn't want that kind of fame. But I did want to share my stories with people on that level. So I guess yes, because writing stories, in my experience, in a vacuum is lonely. The element of sharing them, to put them out there to be loved, to be hated, to be criticized and hailed is as much as part of the experience as sitting at the computer and letting the story unfold.

And if someone says they cried, I say hooray. 

 

About the Author:
During the day, I'm a horticulturist. While I've spent much of my career designing landscapes or diagnosing dying plants, I've always been a storyteller. My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I've always fancied fiction.

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I'm a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I'd rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That's the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.

Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it's only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer's Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult's struggle with his place in the world.

After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.

And I'm a big fan of plot twists.

You can find and contact Tony here:

- Website

- Blog

- Facebook

- Twitter

- Goodreads

- Google +

- Mailing List

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Flury. One winner wins e-copies of all 3 books in the Claus series so far: Claus, Jack and Flury. Each individual blogger also can hold a giveaway for an e-copy of the winner’s choice from Tony Bertauski’s books.

For a chance to win enter the rafflecopter below:
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BOOK BLITZ [Excerpt + Giveaway] Anomaly (Schrodinger's Consortium #1) by Tonya Kuper

Anomaly (Schrodinger's Consortium #1)

by Tonya Kuper

Release Date: 11/25/14

Entangled Teen

Summary from Goodreads:

Reality is only an illusion.
Except for those who can control it…

Worst. Birthday. Ever.
My first boyfriend dumped me – happy birthday, Josie!- my dad is who knows where, I have some weird virus that makes me want to hurl, and now my ex is licking another girl’s tonsils. Oh, and I’m officially the same age as my brother was when he died. Yeah, today is about as fun-filled as the swamps of Dagobah. But then weird things start happening…

Like I make something materialize just by thinking about it.
When hot badass Reid Wentworth shows up on a motorcycle, everything changes. Like, everything. Who I am. My family. What really happened to my brother. Existence. I am Oculi, and I have the ability to change reality with my thoughts. Now Reid, in all his hotness, is charged with guiding and protecting me as I begin learning how to bend reality. And he’s the only thing standing between me and the secret organization that wants me dead…

Buy Links:

Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Kobo Books│The Book Depository│iBooks

Another bell rang. I spun wildly, searching for the source, and my foot slipped out from under me. My left foot joined my right, sliding down a rocky surface.

            A scream tore past my lips.

My brain fought to figure out what was happening as my hands gripped for something—anything—because I was falling. My head swiveled.

            I couldn’t comprehend the giant, gaping crack I’d fallen into. A fissure in the ground at least eight feet wide. My fingers sunk into the cracked concrete, barely holding on. Sliding.

            Then I looked down.

            No end in sight. An abyss.

            Everything around me blurred, and all I could see was black. And in that blackness was the one thing I was terrified of: death. My stomach pitched and my chest heaved, but no air moved in or out of my lungs. I was suffocating.

            Ripping my eyes away from the darkness, I focused on my hands, still grasping at the gravely terrain crumbling beneath them. My right foot slipped, and my fingers dug deeper into the ground. It was a mixture of rock, and mud, and I didn’t know what. It felt like glass shards were being shoved under my fingernails.

I dug in with my toes, using the muscles in my legs to slow my descent. I slid to a halt, but the rocks and substrate continued to crumble beneath me. I searched blindly for a sturdy foothold. My foot found a rocky lip, but as soon as I thought it was safe, it gave way. My right silver flip-flop plummeted into the darkness so eager to swallow me.

Attempting to force my gaze upward, I focused on the contrast of the dark surrounding me and the bright light above, the line where they met. Technically, I’d die in broad daylight.

“Think, Josie.” The voice was strong, demanding. It took a second for it to register. “Josie, look at me.”

Reid. Reid was here. That’s where I was. I was at Reid’s place. I’d come here to train. I’m an Oculi. It all became clear as I broke free from the terror.

I wrenched my head toward his voice, my gaze meeting his. He crouched above me at the surface, his eyes my lifeline because he didn’t offer a hand. He wasn’t about to coddle me. That wasn’t his style. He said, “Breathe. Think.”

Dragging in an uneven breath, looking into his clear eyes, something clicked in the far reaches of my mind.

Stairs.

I Pushed with no effort. No headache, no nausea. I blinked, and stairs carved themselves into the side of the chasm, jutted out as if they’d always been there. With great hesitancy, I climbed the stairs on all fours, close to the wall. I could see the surface, right within my reach.

Whoosh.

The stairs were gone.

I felt myself tumbling, falling. Flailing along the wall of the abyss with nothing to stop my descent.

“React, Josie!”

Think.

I focused on the surface, on the light growing dimmer the farther I skidded. Earth. Ground beneath my feet. I Pushed. And Pushed.

Pain. Nausea. Dizziness.

Thunder sounded below, like the darkness of the chasm was rising up to swallow me whole. Something hit my feet so hard that it tossed me in the air.

Up. Up. Into the light.

My thoughts didn’t coalesce clearly, but I felt myself rising. The pain behind my eyes made my vision waver. I shot to the warehouse floor. Reid reached for me as I collapsed.

My lungs rebelled, and tears burned trails down my cheeks. Dirt covered my hands and caked beneath my fingertips. One fingernail had broken to the quick. It bled sullenly. I wasn’t about to look weak in front of him, though, so I held out my arm to ward off his offer of help. I stood tall on trembling legs.

Reid closed the gap between us, his arms extended like he would embrace me. “Josie—”

The light streaming through the warehouse windows dimmed and flickered. Darkness edged my periphery. I balled my trembling fist and slammed my knuckles into his cheek. White heat shot through my hand before everything went black.

About the Author

Tonya Kuper's debut, ANOMALY, the first in the Schrodinger's Consortium young adult scifi trilogy, releases November 2014 by Entangled Teen. She lives in Omaha, NE with her two rad boys and husband, is a music junkie, and a chocolate addict. Star Wars & Sherlock fan.

Author Links:

   

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RELEASE DAY BLITZ: (Un) Bidden by Melissa Haag

(Un) Bidden by Melissa Haag

Release Day Blitz

November 24, 2014

I left home because I didn’t want to end up in a cage like a lab rat. Hitching rides, begging for cash, and sleeping on the ground got old fast. That was the only reason I braved an overgrown path to a group of buildings. I’d hoped to find a bed and a decent night’s sleep. However, what I found was a place overrun by werewolves.

While on the run, Charlene finds herself surrounded by werewolves, creatures she can’t control with her mind like she can humans. Their existence has her believing she’s found a safe place to stay, a place where secrets are okay. However, she soon discovers she’s anything but safe. Charlene must learn how to use her abilities to influence the strange new species because if she can’t, the next bite she suffers might just kill her.

Read how the cycle begins, and have no doubt. Charlene’s past will shape the future of the Judgements.

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Have you read the first book, Hope(less), in the series? It’s currently FREE!

Gabby's brain is like a human fish finder. It comes in handy when she wants to avoid people. Mostly men. They seem to like her a bit too much. It's lonely being different, but she's adapted to it. Really. She just wishes she knew why she is different, though.

In her search for answers, she discovers a hidden community of werewolves. She immerses herself in their culture, learning about their world until she meets Clay. He's unkempt, prone to mood swings, intense without saying a word, and he thinks Gabby is his.

It's going to take every trick she knows to convince Clay to go away, and every bit of willpower not to fall for him when she discovers the man beneath the rough exterior.

Delve into a riveting world of werewolves and young women with unexplained abilities, in Hope(less).

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Amazon:  http://bit.ly/HopelessAm

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~*~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~*~

Melissa Haag currently resides in Wisconsin with her husband and three children. Touch is her first published novel. She is currently working on book five of a separate six book series. To learn more about her upcoming projects, visit her at: http://melissahaag.com , and you can connect with her on: https://twitter.com/imagine2live  & https://www.facebook.com/author.MelissaHaag