BookBlitz: Excerpt & Giveaway! The Apollo Academy, Apollo Academy #1 by Kimberly P. Chease

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Take off with this dynamic, thrill-seeking, sexy New Adult Science Fiction series debut. Welcome to the exclusive Apollo Academy, where Aurora is about to discover that achieving her dream is only the first step towards her future.

As the heiress to Titon Technologies, eighteen-year-old Aurora Titon can have whatever she wants—clothes, expensive gadgets, anything money can buy. But all she really wants is to escape her pampered, paparazzi-infested life for the stars. Becoming the first female pilot to train as an astronaut for the exclusive Apollo Academy is exactly the chance for which she has been waiting.

Flying is everything she ever dreamed, her best friend also got into the Academy, and the paparazzi is banned from campus. Everything would be perfect, but for her unreciprocated crush on a fellow student, the sexy astronaut bent on making her life hell, and the fact that someone keeps trying to kill her.

The most important education doesn’t happen in the classroom…

Whoop, whoop. ‘Thrust warning, loss of main engine one.’ Whoop, whoop.

The shrill warning bell caused the hair on the back of Aurora’s neck to stand on end. She thrust the throttles on the remaining two engines full forward. She knew Sky stood behind her simulation panel, probably smiling as she struggled to recover from the engine failure he’d just caused with the flick of a switch.

He'd been overseeing everyone’s progress and of course decided now to come over, waiting until she was at an extremely critical altitude before creating this failure for her to handle.

Whoop, whoop. ‘Stall imminent.’ Whoop, whoop.

Aurora knew she was approaching the aircraft’s stall speed, but the loss of a single engine made it extremely difficult to control the overly large shuttle. Her yoke shook, another warning that a stall was close.

Aurora had to resist the urge to pull the nose of the aircraft up.

"Aurora, you’re going to stall if you don’t increase your airspeed," he whispered right next to her ear. She jumped, accidentally pressing her foot down on the rudder pedal. She still felt his breath on her cheek. Sky’s constant hissing in her ear was more distracting than being yelled at.

“Shit!" She didn’t even have a chance to alter the course of events because she was at too low of an altitude to recover from the spin she'd just entered.

‘Terrain, terrain.’ Whoop, whoop. ‘Pull up, pull up.’

She wasn’t going to make it. It was like her last simulation flight all over again.

The screen cracked and blacked out when the shuttle hit the ground, killing everyone on board. This was followed by flashing red lights and a loud siren that alerted her and everyone else around her of the failure.

She slammed her finger down on the automatic warning system. The red warning lights swarmed around her, making her cringe in on herself. She already knew she had messed up; she didn’t need the incessant light show. If Sky hadn’t scared her half to death, she wouldn’t have stomped down on the rudder so hard at such a low speed. Okay, so maybe scared wasn’t the right word, but his breath on her face definitely distracted her.

"Damn it, Sky!" she said taking her frustration out on the one who was really responsible for her crash.

Now sitting down beside her, his large frame towered over her. He whispered in her ear, "Tell me why you crashed."

He was still too close. "Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you scared me half to death by hissing at me." She touched her ear. "Who does that? It made me stomp down on the rudder."

Sky grinned, showing off his dimples. "Are you saying you were distracted by my very presence?" He had the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.

Heat ran to Aurora’s face, but instead of backing down like she normally would, she decided to wipe that grin off of his face. She'd had it with everyone treating her differently. It might not have been the best idea, but she flirtatiously leaned toward Sky anyway. His eyes widened in surprise.

Now that he was distracted, she discreetly pulled a piece of gum from her bag on the seat next to her. "Here, maybe next time your breath won’t cause so much trouble."

His mouth opened in shock, and Aurora took the opportunity to place the gum into his mouth. The instant she did it, she felt horrible. What was wrong with her? That was the most immature thing she’d ever done.

Sky calmly shut his mouth and popped a bubble, but the grin on his face was definitely gone. 

Oh stars, he was going to make her regret that . . .

Kimberly P. Chase holds a Bachelor's Degree in Aeronautical Science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, which basically means she's kind of a geek and loves flying airplanes. Naturally, her books tend to include aviation, hot flight instructors, aviator glasses, and—let's not forget—kissing! When Kimberly's not writing or reading, she's hanging out with her husband, five-year-old son, and two dogs in Charleston, SC.

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Cover Reveal! Relativity, Proximity #2 by M.A. George

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No matter the planet, Palta Capal is an alien. 

She’s lived a lifetime where she never belonged…but relocating to the “home world” she’s never seen has her feeling more like an outsider than ever.

Teetering between the thrill of newfound love and the despair of family loss—not to mention the looming threat of global war—Palta doesn’t need any more excitement in her life. 

But what she needs and what she gets are two entirely different things.

M. A. George is part proud mother of two adorable children, part super top secret agent…Oops, probably just lost that job. 

Writing is what keeps her up into the wee hours of the night. Fortunately, she has a lot of energy (Read: caffeine is her friend). She has a bit of an obsession with music (It does a fantastic job of tuning out rambunctious children while she attempts to focus). 

She sincerely hopes people out there enjoy reading her work as much as she enjoys writing it. And if anyone hears of work for a super top secret agent, she’s now available (Discretion guaranteed…).

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Book Blitz and Giveaway! False Finder by Mia Hoddell

Amazon | Amazon UK

Cora has been able to detect lies since she was born, she’s…a False Finder.

However when blackmail, betrayal, and lying are all the population has to protect themselves, it makes her dangerous. It also makes her a target.

Because of Cora’s ability, Rogan Carvelli—London’s biggest criminal leader—has been trying to acquire her for years.

Cora has learned to survive and remain undetected—at least until one careless mistake causes her friends to betray her.

Sold to Carvelli, Cora is only left with the help of a secret organisation to escape. She knows nothing about them, but they have saved her too many times to ignore.

However, the closer she gets, the clearer it becomes…

Their motives are far from innocent.

“Not my fight? How did you come to that conclusion? You made it my fight when you sold me, Cora. This is your fault not mine, and you only have yourself to blame!” Nick roared, his grip tightening to a new painful intensity.

“I did not sell you. I cut a deal with Rogan and you were collateral damage. I couldn’t help it.” 

Even Cora flinched at her words. What she had done to Nick was awful, but it was a necessity if she was going to survive.

“You signed my life away. You ruined my life by forcing me into a god-damned contract that has no loop holes. Not only that, but then you had the audacity to attack me when you escaped Rogan’s mansion last time. That is not collateral damage!”

He didn’t realise he was shaking her fragile body until she let out another low groan. 

“You weren’t meant to be a part of the deal. I couldn’t help it. I tried to get you out of it, but there was no way. It was me or you.”

“Don’t bullshit me. You know there was a way out. I did nothing to you but be there and you sold me out, just like your friends have done to you.” His words cut Cora like a knife, slitting her deep.

“You knew too much…you knew my secret…you weren’t meant to survive.” Cora muttered the last line, her jaw tight with anger as she finally admitted the truth she had kept bottled up. He wasn’t meant to hear it, but he did.

“What did you just say?” He was shaking her once more, anger flowing out of him as he was finally enlightened as to why Cora had betrayed him.

“You weren’t meant to survive. You shouldn’t have passed the first test Rogan puts his men through. You weren’t meant to come back. I was meant to be safe.”

“Well unluckily for you I manned up. Not only did I pass every test Rogan threw at me but I worked my way up. I’m now his second in command. How’s that for irony?”

“Screw you,” Cora spat, tired of the conversation.

“You wish. For now though, I think I’ll return the favour you so kindly granted me all those years ago.” 

“Let me go, Nick, for old time’s sake. I thought we were friends?” It was a lousy defence and Cora knew it, but it was all she had left.

“We stopped being friends years ago when you shafted me, Cora. I couldn’t care less what happens to you anymore. Now shut up and move.”

Mia Hoddell lives in the UK with her family and two cats. She spends most of her time writing or reading, loves anything paranormal or romantic, and has an overactive imagination that keeps her up until the early hours of the morning. 

By the age of nineteen, Mia had published nine books, including the Elemental Killers series and the Seasons of Change series. Since then, her books have charted on numerous Amazon Bestseller Lists, and she has also had poems published in a many anthologies. With an ever growing list of ideas, Mia continues to create fictional worlds through her writing, and is trying to keep up with the speed at which her imagination generates them.

She also designs book covers and banners on her website M Designs

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Spotlight and Giveaway! Broken Skies, Broken Skies #1 by

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Thirty years ago, civilization collapsed. Few survived.

Ten years ago, the aliens arrived…and stayed. 

One year ago, I killed two men and went a little crazy. 

Today, the aliens took my brother and I will do anything to get him back. 

In seventeen-year-old Jax Mitchell's world, humans are nearly extinct and alien settlers have arrived. 

Until recently, the E’rikon have remained segregated in their city and ignored the few humans who have tried to engage them… but now they have taken Jax’s brother. To rescue him, she forms an uneasy alliance with a teenage E’rikon left stranded in the woods. She agrees to guide him to the city if he sneaks her past the human-proof barrier. Too bad it’s not that simple. 

Jax, who cannot stand to be touched, finds that she’s drawn to the alien boy with bright green hair and jewel-like scales on his back. And he’s equally affected by her, the courageous redhead with haunted eyes. But she doesn’t know the alien’s true motives and he has no idea that she is much more than she seems. 

With the alien and the human at odds, the connection forming between the two teens has consequences. What started off as a rescue mission sets a chain of events in motion which threatens not only the remaining humans and the growing alien society, but Earth itself. 

The only person she knows who had a subscription to Writer's Digest at eleven and was always excited to write research papers, Theresa has been putting words to paper since a young age. Living in the mountains of central Virginia with her husband and two kids, she works as a paralegal by day, binges on Netflix at night and finds bits of time in between reading almost everything she can get her hands on and laundry to craft stories that tend to feature broken characters in sci-fi or paranormal worlds, with a touch of romance thrown in for good measure. She's constantly lost in one fictional universe or another and is a self-proclaimed “fangirl” who loves being sucked in to new books or TV shows. Theresa originally wanted to write horror novels as an ode to her childhood passion for Stephen King, but between her internal Muse’s ramblings and the constant praise for her sci-fi pieces from her writer’s group – The Rebel Writers – she knew she should stick with what was working.

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Book Excerpt! Unnatural Selection by Victoria Escobar

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I had no name. My assignment was M001/A5. Marpesia Project Test One, Fifth Embryo. I wasn’t considered human. I was a thing to be owned. 

I just wanted freedom. I wanted out of the lab and away from being the guinea pig for hundreds of scientists. I wanted to see the world with my eyes not through a computer monitor. 

Instead I took two bullets, fell from twenty stories and ran to save my life. From who and what I had no idea and that wasn’t important at the time. Life was important. 

I had my freedom but no idea what to do with it. There’s no way to out run the past, and I had to face it. There were too many strings loose and too many people that would be more than happy to lock me in a cage again. 

Life was an evolution of natural selection but thanks to human intervention I was Unnatural. I would be deciding who to allow living, and who needed to die.

I was what I would deem as book smart. I finished all the high school lessons when I was fifteen and had continued an independent study since Dr. Hiroto said there wasn’t any funding to give me a tertiary level education. I was certainly not stupid–but I didn’t know how to live in this world. After watching the bored people around me, I wasn’t sure I would ever be comfortable out here.

I would learn. I would have to learn if I wanted to stay out here. To jump start that education, I began people watching in earnest. Primarily those that seemed about my age. I didn’t want to talk to them, I doubt I had the social skills needed to talk to them, but I wanted to see how they interacted with the world. With any luck, I could mimic them.

I was relieved to see that even though I was the only natural red head in the station that there were other kids that dyed their hair in rainbows of color. I supposed it was a way to shout individuality since the Genetic Alteration Act had passed. I understood the red, orange, and blond hair colors but the pinks, greens, blues, even the purples, were weird to me. They caught me staring and I pushed a smile to my lips as I nodded to them. My palms sweated a little and I hoped they didn’t invite me to join them.

They whispered among themselves a moment, still watching me. The largest of the boys with a hideous green to his hair rolled his shoulders, nodded to the girl talking animatedly with her hands and then turned and walked my way.

This could be an interaction lesson, I reminded myself. I swallowed my suddenly dry throat and studied the way he walked in a sort of ‘I’ve got muscles’ way. I would have to study other guys and see if this maneuver was commonplace.

“You got a problem?” he asked when he reached the bench I sat on. His voice was deep, like the rumbles of the subway train when one stood above ground, not below.

I knew enough from his stance that he was on offense, which meant I should be on defense. His six foot frame easily towered nearly two feet above me when I stood. He stepped back, his brows lifted and his mouth no longer flat-lined, then he studied me closer as his mouth moved in a fishlike fashion.

“Do you?” I asked quietly. I didn’t like fighting. I had five black belts out of necessity, not because I wanted them, but I rarely used them. I could use a gun as easily as I could break a neck and had no taste for that either. However, all that aside, if the towering boy struck at me I would drop him to the ground and show him first hand just how mighty David can be to Goliath.

“Kaia doesn’t like being stared at,” he grumbled but still didn’t swing at me.

“I like to watch,” I answered without actually looking at him.

He glanced back at the girl and crew across the platform–they thumbs upped him–and then back at me. “Just don’t stare anymore at Kaia anymore.”

I shrugged and sat back down pretending to fiddle with the music on my phone. “Whatever.” I wasn’t sure that was the right word to use, but in all the books I’ve read about teenagers they used it often as a way to dismiss or end a conversation. It worked in this situation too and he nodded, grunted, and then walked away. I exhaled slowly and focused on the music in my ears instead of the people.

  

Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but with the ability to claim eight states as home; Victoria Escobar writes fiction from her current home in New York. She writes whatever comes to mind and because of such has a variety of genres written including Young Adult, New Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, and Contemporary Fiction. 

In spare time if not with family, and friends Victoria enjoys curling up with a book from a favorite author with music playing. If not reading or writing she spends time drawing, sketching, crocheting, or some other random art project. She enjoys staying busy, but most of all enjoys staying creative. 

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