Monday, December 8, 2014

Claudia Must Die and Happy Holidays

Today I'm excited to share the new release by TB Markinson, Claudia Must Die. Congratulations, TB! If you don't already know TB you should really check out her work. She is a prolific and talented writer and a super nice person to boot. 

One quick note before I get to the book. I don't think I'll be blogging the rest of the month so I want to say Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year now! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. I am getting back on track with writing and blogging and life in general and I'm looking forward to starting fresh on the blog in January.  

And now to the book!

Blurb:

Claudia doesn’t feel like herself anymore—she feels like prey. Her husband’s hired goons have stalked her all the way to Boston and will only stop their pursuit once she is dead.

Divorce is not an option. Instead, she has stolen a bunch of her man’s money to disappear into another life.

In order for Claudia to live, someone else must die. A lookalike college student becomes the target capable of freeing her from an awful marriage. 


The plan goes horribly awry. Instead of murdering Claudia’s double, the assassins shoot the woman’s lover who is the cousin of a powerful Irish mobster. Claudia becomes hunted by all involved. Can she survive? Should she? 

Excerpt:

At first, everything had been roses and wine. When others warned her about Dennis, Claudia laughed it off.
“Use your head,” Claudia’s mother had said. “How could a man in his early thirties make so much money owning a handful of run-down bars in two small towns in the West?”“What, you think he’s a drug dealer or something?” Claudia had broken into hysterics. “He hardly looks like a gangster, Mother. Dennis doesn’t wear any jewelry. Not even a wedding ring.”
In Claudia’s mind, a gangster would at least wear a gold necklace. And, he had excellent table manners. There was no way Dennis could be a thug. How many scrawny five-foot-six guys were?
         They had married after seven months. Neither had intended to marry so quickly, but they had visited Vegas for a long weekend, got drunk, and got hitched. It wasn’t until Claudia moved into Dennis’s house that she started to notice things. He wouldn’t come home for days, and when he did, he refused to tell her where he had been. He racked up a lot of mileage on her car, not his. When Claudia asked about it, his reply was a cold stare that made her legs feel like jelly. Granted, one of his bars was in Greeley, but that was only a twenty-minute drive from their home in Loveland. How did the miles add up so quickly?         After a year, they started to fight constantly. Verbal arguments. After another year, the fights turned violent. Claudia ended up in the hospital—still nothing serious enough for her to walk out. Not yet. Instead, she started hoarding cash. In the beginning, it was a little bit here and there. It was simple. Claudia would request cash back when she used her debit card at the grocery store. Dennis liked her cooking; he never questioned how much his wife spent on food. When she realized her embezzlement plan would take years, not months, The Hunted chose a more drastic solution. The next time her husband crossed the line … 
Purchase links:


About the author: 

T. B. Markinson is an American writer, living in England. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling around the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs in England, or taking the dog for a walk. Not necessarily in that order. T. B. has published A Woman Lost, Marionette, and Confessions From A Coffee Shop.   

Mailing List:
Sign up to TB’s New Release Mailing List here. Your email will never be shared and you will only be contacted when a new book is out.

Links:
Twitter        Facebook        Blog        Goodreads     Amazon Author Page


Best of luck to TB and Happy Holidays to all! See you in January. :)

Monday, December 1, 2014

Beacon by Angela Brown


My Untethered Realms buddy Angela Brown has an exciting new release with Evernight Teen called Beacon and I'm happy to host her today as she kicks off her blog tour. Please join me in saying congratulations and best wishes to Angela! Now I'm turning things over to her for an intriguing (and creepy!) look at Beacon. 

You are Colony Material


You should be glad you wake up to a world where murders, burglaries and sexual assaults are a thing of the past, only items you read about in your most recent digital historical texts, vagrancies of The Fold and the failed America of before. There are no physical books to weigh you down, no book bindings to stretch on your fourth read through of your favorite Colony-approved novel, no new book smell to bother your senses. All your basic needs and some of your wants are taken care of, all for one small price: a fresh bag of your blood, once every quarter, for the rest of your life. The rules in The Colony may seem a bit much, but they’re for your own good.

C: Execute command: Cancel Communication

Hi! You don’t know me, and as long as I do my job right, you never will. I’m just a Net pirate hacking The Colony’s comms server. They send little broadcasts like that crap above on the regular to the registered citizens. I can’t help wondering how many of the poor schmucks know they’re being brainwashed…or if any of them know, do they even care? I try to NOT let questions like that bring me down. I know some out there realize all this “Colony perfect” is too good to be true. Just as everything walking on two feet ain’t human or vampire (Frag calling them “vampeer”. I never liked their re-imaging campaign.)

There’s more you can learn about The Colony in this book, Beacon. It’s got one thing going for it from the jump: It’s NOT Colony-approved, so you know it’s good.

You can find out more about Beacon below. I better get back to deleting a few more of these brainwashing gimmicks from the communications queue before The Colony realizes I’m here.
Your friendly Net pirate.
Out.




Beacon - For seventeen-year-old Macie Breen, life in The Colony is a daily norm of being the odd girl out, that is, until everyday predictable slams to a screeching halt. Forced to the capital city of Bliss, Macie's life becomes a horrific unraveling as she confronts daunting truths about The Colony as well as who, or what, she really is.

Buy links: Evernight | Amazon

Excerpt:

            The corner of Thane’s lips curved in his infamous smirk. “I’m here to protect you from you, silly.” The elevator dinged our arrival to our floor. Thankfully, floors for the Attendees were guarded by other Surreption agents, to prevent citizens from accessing them by surprise––and to keep out the expected rebel against Bliss.
            I fell silent, thinking about Thane’s answer. Any other day, it would have been a joke. We’d ha, ha, ha, laugh it off as Thane being the smartass he was. I’d punch him in the shoulder. He’d feign pain and we’d move on. But now, what if he was right? Not just keeping me from taking my anger out on some pink-haired guy making fun of me. But from whomever—or whatever—I really am. What if it was the world that needed protection from me?

Author bio:


Born and raised in Little Rock, AR, Angela now calls Central Texas home. She's a lover of Wild Cherry Pepsi and chocolate/chocolate covered delicious-ness. Steampunk, fantasy and paranormal to contemporary - mostly young adult - fill her growing library of books. Mother to a rambunctious darling girl aptly nicknamed Chipmunk, life stays busy. Her favorite quote keeps her moving: "You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Contact links: