Cold Sleep - Spotlight and #Giveaway

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will award a $20 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

It’s the perfect score—stealing valuable data from a VIP in cryo-freeze midway through a decades-long interstellar crossing. If it works, Kara will have enough money to buy what she’s always wanted—a Captaincy.

But with the rest of the crew and the cargo of one hundred thousand colonists still frozen, Kara and her accomplice, Zed, realize they’re not the only ones awake. The murdered woman they find is only the first victim of whoever or whatever has woken from Cold Sleep.

Read an Excerpt

Blood streaks the VIP casket’s pristine white ceramic shell. Crimson handprints mark the controls and edges of the casket’s lid. Bright red spray mars the shining surface of the nearest casket and trickles down across its viewport. The deckplate’s smeared here and there, but the marks aren’t clear enough to make out any footprints.

“No one else in here,” Zed says.

While I’ve been gawping at the corpse, he’s secured the room.

There’s more to him than being a reliable bit of rough. It’s become too easy to dismiss him—the man is capable enough.

“I don’t understand. How could one of the passengers get out of storage?” I ask.

“Look at the casket,” Zed says. “Why’s it still registering an occupant?”

Being careful not to step in any blood, I get closer to her. What strikes me is the way the arcs of blood paint the VIP bay looks like something out of an anti-Ares Cult propaganda piece. The sacrifice of innocent beauty to sate the spirit of Mars. Kind of thing we’d only caught rumors of my first time shipping out. Then the newsfeeds had become more and more clogged with hysteria with every return to Earth. That and the usual.

War. War threatening everywhere.

Makes me think of my brother and hope he isn’t—wait, decades have passed—wasn’t on the frontline.

I drag my mind back from the futureshock and my eyes from the corpse. Getting lost in the past is a sure-fire way to get killed in the here and now.

About the Author:

A Brit now living in the Scandinavian wilds of Denmark with his wife and half-Viking kids, Luke worked as a Criminal Barrister in and around London for over a decade dealing with everything from minor theft cases to a real life axe murder and everything in between. Thanks to parents in the military he grew up being dragged around the world--while living in the Far East he picked up a love for the martial arts which continues to this day, as he passes on what he’s learned to a select dojo of students. Cold Sleep is his third novel. His first was Amazon cyberpunk bestseller Mercury’s Son, his second a UK set supernatural suspense novel 3:33 AM.

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Launch day for The Awakening by Dana Claire

Hello dear readers and Star Crew followers.

I'm sorry I'm still not posting very regularly. It's been a very difficult few months after the loss of my husband - but reading has kept me sane even if my own writing has been put on hold for a while. One of the books I've had the pleasure of being an Arc reader for is The Awakening, Book 2 of the Blood-light Trilogy. Read on for more information and my review.

The government called her a weapon. Her mother called her a gift. She called it a forced fate.

Beatrice Walker is no stranger to surprises and after the year she’s had, finding out she is responsible for billions of lives is a drop in the bucket. Until she learns there may be more to the prophetic plan to prevent the extinction of two planets—both Earth and Ferro, and that she isn’t the only Blood-Light they will need to fight the imminent threat of an asteroid hurtling toward the planets. 

 

 

 

He grew up a loyal heir. He trained to be a soldier. He found purpose with the Rebellion.

Cash Kingston didn’t think falling for a Blood-Light—part human, part Ferroean—was possible. But when he met Beatrice Walker, all of that changed. What didn’t waver was his quest to save his beloved planet Ferro and his new home, Earth. Not only from the oncoming asteroid but from leaders of both planets with more sinister agendas.

Together, Beatrice and Cash, plus their team, must uncover who they can trust, how they can stop their enemies, and what superpower matters most, or they will lose everything they are fighting for.

  

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This is the second book in the Blood-light trilogy by Dana Claire, but there is enough back story skilfully sprinkled through that it's easy to follow the story without having read the first book, although it's certainly worth reading 'The Connection' first, if only because it's a really good read in its own right.

Dana Claire has the gift of placing her reader right in the setting, the descriptions are so vivid, it's almost like watching a movie, as each scene comes to life on the page. The characters themselves are complex and compelling, and each has their role to play in the story and is easy to like and relate to. Of course the main love interest is the connection between Cash and Bea, but Ashton is a fascinating character too, and while it's not exactly a love triangle in the usual sense, the relationship between the three of them is unique and fascinating.

I'm not going to give away anything about the plot, except to say that some of the concepts are highly original, and I haven't come across them in a science fiction story before. There are many twists and turns, culminating in a brilliant and breathtaking climax. The ending is a surprising cliffhanger, and although I'm not usually too keen on cliffhangers, this is a trilogy, so it's acceptable, and there is certainly so much depth and complexity in the plot it would have resulted in an extremely long volume if it had not ended where it did. As it is, the ending leaves the reader wanting more, and I'm sure the third book will be well worth the wait. Highly recommended and five comets from me!

 

 

 

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Astraeus by Haley Cavanagh - Spotlight and #Giveaway

Astraeus

by
Haley Cavanagh

Genre: SF Romance

One pre-apocalyptic Earth. One desperate space mission to find a solution. One unexpected alien. 

When Dr. Sakota Thorell signed onto the mission to scout out a new, habitable planet,
she knew discovering extraterrestrial life was always a possibility. But she never expected to find an alien adrift in space, nor for that
alien to be so intriguing. Sakota feels an instant and undeniable attraction to Astraeus, but he represents a million possibilities, and just as many threats.

There are others hunting Astraeus, and his rescue may cost Earth its last hope. 

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“What are you called? What’s your name?”

He opened his mouth, and she moved closer, eager for his first words. Instead, he focused on her lips with obvious fascination. His intriguing eyes caught the light. Despite her disappointment that he couldn’t speak, a rush went through her. Alien or not, he was the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on, with the kind of ethereal elegance some upper-class, privileged men on Earth spent fortunes on plastic surgery trying to achieve.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk, or if you can’t. We’ll get there. Now, I’m going to check you.” She kept her voice gentle, as she might use with a child. She pressed the button to disengage the protective bubble over the med bed and shone the retinal scanner in her own eye to demonstrate. “I just need to look at your eyes with this.” She motioned with the scope to him. “It won’t hurt. I promise.”

Warm puffs of his breath blew on her neck as she leaned in. She paused, noting the remarkable eight-pointed star-shape of his pupils. The mutation was his one physical difference, and only if one looked closely. The pupils dilated when hit by the scope’s light. She’d never seen eyes as remarkable.

“You’re doing great,” she soothed. Her head burst with countless uestions.Where are you from? How did you get here? What do you want? He appeared to like the cadence of her voice. His posture relaxed, and his breath against her was steady. How long had she been staring into his eyes? Should she push her luck and try to examine his mouth?

Before she could try, his finger stroked her inner arm. He was still restrained at the wrists, but he could reach her.

She allowed it. He stroked a featherlight finger along her forearm. As he did so, his gaze never left hers. She offered a kind smile. “That’s right. Friend. Sakota. Sa-ko-ta.”

He opened his mouth and let out a chicken-like squawk. “-Ota,” he said in a throaty, deep voice.

She raised her eyebrows. “Good. Very good.”

He tilted his head, watching her lips. “Gooood.”

Excited, she lowered the retinal light. “Can you understand me?”

He looked confused. “Me…”

“Okay. That’s a no. Then let me take this opportunity to say, in no uncertain terms, you, my friend, are the stuff of dreams and legends. I’ve waited my whole life for this. Are you getting this, Alistair?” she called out.

He came in over the speakers. “I am. Amazing. I’ll get to work on a linguistics program. Our friend seems to want to communicate.”

She moved to pull away, but the man’s fingers closed over her wrist.

“Let me go.” She jerked her arm, but he wouldn’t release his grip. She gave him a cautionary look, and he loosened his fingers, though he still held her. Warning bells went off.What if he’s not here in peace?But his eyes sparkled impishly. He seemed to enjoy her skin pressed against his. Maybe he hadn’t been touched in a while. Or maybe he had a crush. Who knew.

Before she could extricate herself, the intercom chimed. “Sakota, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. He’s just being friendly—”

The man’s forefinger trailed along her arm again. She sucked in a breath and shut her eyes as a series of images flashed through her mind.A high wall made of stacked stones. A hand spread out to touch the tips of tall, golden wheat of a field. Multihued buildings in the distance under a purple sky. Children’s laughter and then screams. She jerked when the images changed.Strange rain, like metal. Black ships attacking from the sky, horrible screams which rent the air, death.A gentle brush against her hand again. She inhaled and opened her eyes. The man searched her, calm and patient. She struggled to see straight, but her mind spun.

“W-was that your—”

The isolation walls shot up. Rutledge burst into the room and advanced like an angry bear, brutish, immaculate, and combat ready in his black Oceanstone fatigues. “Let her go,” he snarled.

Rutledge yanked the man’s hand off her and pushed her aside. She fell to the floor on her back in a dizzy haze, reeling from the vision. She turned her head. The man bellowed and tore loose from his restraints. His and Rutledge’s images faded into one as they collided and fought. Rutledge’s weapon whirred as he strained to activate it. The rifle propelled over her head and hit the wall.

“Stop.” Her pleas fell on deaf ears. She closed her eyes.

The men barged into the room with heavy footfalls and angry shouts. She opened her eyes, but her vision swirled. The blurred image of the alien lifted Rutledge’s lieutenant like a kitchen chair and catapulted him in the same direction as the weapon. “Stop,” she hollered to the men. “Don’t shoot him. He wasn’t attacking me.”

Another soldier fell to the floor with a sick thud, holding his stomach. “Yeah? Well, he’s attacking me.”

The alien pounced over her, crouching low. He caged her with his body and made a guttural rumble in his throat, a warning to the men. She turned her head to the marines, who zeroed their weapons in on them.

Haley Cavanagh is a military veteran, wife, and mother. She is an alumna of Columbia College, a musical theater nut, and she loves to dive into any book that crosses her path. Haley resides with her family in the United States and enjoys spending time with her husband and children when she's not writing. She loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media. She also writes under the name Roxanne D. Howard.

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Life's Defeat - Life's series

Life's
Defeat

Life's
Series Book 1

by
Rebekah Raymond

Genre:
Romantic Suspense, Futuristic

Tragedy places the soldier in StPatrick’s complex, determination 

to be someone of use keeps her within its walls. When she finally takes her first breaths of freedom, the soldier is sucked back into military servitude. Her long, violent capture and imprisonment by Rochester sets her path of physical and psychological terror.

Under his rule she learns the depth of her own depravity, and how far she can go before she threatens to lose herself. But when Tomlin and his team rescues her, she discovers a new threat in the life she chooses to lead.

As the pages of her genetically-altered history are revealed, the

solider finds the key to achieving her new goal: revenge. 

It’s

unfortunate it might just kill her in the end.

Perma-free
at .99!!!

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Life's
Hope

Life's
Series Book 2

With the resolve of a child who had grown too much to return home, Seleah
stayed away from StPatrick's complex for twelve years after her
devastating abduction and rescue from criminal mastermind Rochester’s
clutches. When her former lover and friend, Tomlin, calls with the
news of her beloved mentor's demise, however, she decides to come
back to the school and her course is altered dramatically.

Tomlin can’t stand being away from Seleah any longer. He wants her, needs
her to return for good. His stupidity was almost his downfall. Now,
life has given him a second chance.

But with their reunion comes jealousy and hatred from an outside source,

threatening to kill them both and the new life they are seeking.

The pair must learn to accept each other once more; to heal wounds and
scars alike, and decide if their paths can really exist together
forever. Passion, sadness, violence, and the resiliency of love await
in Life’s Hope.

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By day Rebekah Raymond is simply Becca -- Medical Claims Adjudicator, Academic Strategist, wife and mother of two. By night, she is Rebekah Raymond, Calgary writer of thriller/horror, romance, science fiction and fantasy.

Raymond is the author of the thriller Life’s Defeat (Oct

2015) and Life’s Hope (May 2016) with the third and fourth installments coming out in 2017.

Raymond is a proficient writer, working at her writing for 1-3 hours nightly. She attributes her wildly disconnected plots and vivid characters to automatic and dissociative writing.

She is a member of NaNoWriMo and the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society.

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the tour HERE
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For insider news and subscriber-only info, subscribe to my occasional Newsletter. I promise not to spam and your in-box will only see an email from me every 3 or 4 months or so - unless of course I have something really Newsworthy to share! http://madmimi.com/signups/196357/join

Beloved Enemy lives!

Starquest was the 'book of my heart' to use a cliche. I was thrilled when it was published by The Wild Rose Press, and in the meantime I wrote the sequel, 'Children Of The Mist, which was also published by The Wild Rose Press.

One of the characters from Starquest, Kerry Marchant, kept nagging me to write a story about him.  It's been a very long time coming, but I eventually finished writing and revising it this  year, and having sent it out to a couple of  trusted crit partners who were also authors themselves, and after some final polishing, I sent it off to the Wild Rose Press and tried not to think about it too much.

On Saturday I received a Contract from one of the lovely editors of the Fantasy Rose line, and am thrilled beyond words that the third book will finally see the light of day.  I can't wait to start work on the edits and of course what my cover will be like (watch this space.)

Of  course it's early days yet, but I thought I'd give you a little taste   of Beloved Enemy to hopefully whet your appetite.

BELOVED ENEMY
UNEDITED SNIPPET

To her amazement he smiled, the most devastating smile she had ever seen, and made more amazing because he didn’t look as if he did it very often.

“My own philosophy as it happens.” His eyes narrowed. “It seems almost a pity we are on opposite sides.”

“Opposite sides?” How much did he guess?

   “I have no love for the Union. That puts us on opposite sides, even if you are a pirate.”

She gave him her most withering look. “Fine. And just because I decided to save your neck, don’t get any ideas. We don’t have to like each other.”