Monday, November 23, 2015

SPACE CADETS, by Laurence Maroney



From Goddess Fish Promotions today's Book Blast is a YA/MG SciFi from author Laurence Moroney.  Please enjoy the blast and follow along with the tour here, the more you comment the better your chances to win... .http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/10/book-blast-space-cadets-by-laurence.html

The author is hosting a giveaway with a signed copy of Space Cadets…seems the perfect thing for the up coming holidays and a young one in your life.  Happy reading from TBSP!



Space Cadets
by Laurence Moroney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: YA Sci-Fi
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:

After conflicts in Korea, Pakistan and the Middle East turned nuclear, the world stood on the eve of destruction. Realizing that we only have this one precious planet containing all of humanity, the United Nations pulled us back from the brink, and started a new, multinational effort to conquer space. Many years later, the peak of achievement for any young person is to be admitted to the Space Academy. Previously available only to a precious few, it has recently opened enrollment to anybody who can meet their strenuous entry criteria. Space Cadets is the story of the first African-American girl, Aisha Parks, to enter into the academy, where she learns that the more some things change, the more they stay the same, and despite the honorable intentions of the academy, there are some dark secrets being kept – secrets that could be the end of us all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Training

It never failed to give her a thrill when she saw the moonscape rush by underneath her ship, and the blue curve of Earth rise above it. Aisha smiled at its beauty. 
Down there, girls her age were wondering about homecoming dances, and what dress they’d wear, or which boy would ask them out. She was much happier here, piloting her ship, zipping at breakneck speeds across the Moon, and getting ready to break into deep space.

“I think I see them,” said David, her navigator and co-pilot, sitting in one of the wing pods to her right. “Two-seven-zero karem one-nine-eight.”
“Confirmed,” came the clipped voice of Soo-Kyung, her gunner. Aisha glanced to the pod on her left and her eyes met Soo-Kyung’s. The Korean girl smiled and nodded.
Aisha always wanted a visual confirmation. Comm lines could be hacked and voices faked. Soo-Kyung knew this instinctively. That’s what made them a great team.
“Okay,” said Aisha. “Weapons hot. Let’s check them out.”

She punched in the coordinates, and the ship turned towards their target.

“Visual range in five seconds,” said David.
“I see them,” Aisha replied. Her heads up display started to light up with targets. Squares projected on her canopy, wrapping tiny dots that could easily be mistaken for stars to the naked eye. 
“That’s a lot of ships,” she said, awe sneaking into her voice. 
“That’s a bloody awful lot of ships,” said David. 
Soo-Kyung was business as always. “Orders?”
“Can you confirm ship type?”
“They are mostly type-three fighters. About eighty of them.”
“What else?”
“A single mothership. That’s the target.”
“No other fighters?”
“A couple of type-ones, but hard to tell with all the movement.”

The fighters were moving around the mothership, following what looked like random patterns, making it hard to get a radar lock.

“Are they moving to intercept?”
“No, sir.”
“David, probe the edge of their defense shield.”
His gentle voice sounded in her earpiece. “Yes, Sir.”

David took the ship forward slowly, while Soo-Kyung watched the behavior of the enemy fighters. They knew from experience that these ships could turn from defense to offense in the blink of an eye. If they didn’t react, they could find themselves surrounded and destroyed in seconds.

“We are at the edge of previous attack ranges,” said Soo-Kyung. “Recommend that we hold at this position.”
“Do it.”

The ship halted, and they floated in space, watching the enemy.

“Any update on ship types, David?”
“The best I got is maybe two or three type-ones, the rest are definitely type-three.”
She wished she had read the spec books more closely, but was glad David was there. “Turning radius of type-threes?”
“Two hundred degrees,” he answered, almost in reflex.
“Distance of fighters from the mothership?”
“Average about three hundred clicks.”
Soo-Kyung raised an eyebrow. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” 
“Yes,” said Aisha. “Full frontal assault, all shields on front.”
“If we leave our back exposed--”
“Hopefully they won’t get a chance. Maximum throttle, straight at the mothership, direct all energy to front shields.”
“Including lasers?”
“Including lasers. We’re on bullets and torpedoes. Can you do it?”
She heard the smile in Soo-Kyung’s voice. “Done.”
“Good. And fire at will.”
“Roger.”
“David. Punch course in.”
“Course, aye.”
“Manual control to me.”
“Roger.”
“Here goes nothing!”

Aisha punched the program, and she felt the craft lurch as they accelerated forward. She continued its burn, getting faster and faster as they approached the enemy ships. 

“Ships turning to intercept.”
“Acknowledged.”

She saw the enemy ships swarming to intercept. Suddenly their random patterns stopped, and they turned, almost as one, bearing down on her. They opened fire, but the forward shields held.

“Intercept in five seconds,” said Soo-Kyung. Aisha marveled at her ability to stay calm, and it seemed the more stressful the situation, the calmer she was. 

And just like that they flew through the squadrons of enemy fighters, on a course straight for the mothership. 

“They’re turning to intercept.”

Time seemed to slow down in her mind. The mothership approached weapons range at a painful crawl. The enemy fighters, now behind her, were slowly turning to follow them, with a clear shot at Aisha’s tail. She’d turned off their lasers, directing their energy to the shields, so they’d need to be close for ballistic weapons to be effective.
It was going to be tight. Once the enemy fighters had turned around, the back of Aisha’s fighter was exposed. The lead ones had almost turned, and were ready to open fire.
But then Soo-Kyung had her target locked and opened up with everything she had on the mothership. Direct hits, but the ship stayed intact.
A hit on their right wing made the ship lurch.

“Now would be a good time, Soo-Kyung.”

Aisha looked to her left, seeing her friends’ face deep in concentration. Another torpedo launched, hitting a module to the rear of the mothership's bridge. A small explosion was followed by several large ones, but before the ship was destroyed, Aisha’s ship was hit again. This time right in the engines.
Aisha felt her ship lurch. Red lights all over her console. The reactor had taken a direct hit. It was about to go critical. Her heart was beating hard. She reached for the eject buttons, hesitating long enough to see the mothership go up in a ball of flame.
The moment’s hesitation was enough.She felt the ship lurch as the reactor gave out. Her mind slowed as the white flash enveloped them. She had enough time to realize, with resignation, that she was dead. Both co-pilots too.
The simulator door opened, and Captain Simms’ craggy face looked in at her.

“You’re dead. All of you. Again,” he said. Disapproval in his voice. “I thought you guys were better than that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Laurence Moroney is the author of more books than he’s prepared to admit. After several best selling programming books, his first Young Adult novel “The Fourth World” became a #1 book on Amazon Kindle, spawned two sequels “The Million Year Journey” and “The Legend of the Locust”, and is currently being shopped around studios for a potential movie. “Space Cadets” is his latest, a cutting edge science fiction novel, based on real science that starts a new series charting out humanity’s course to the stars. He’s presently working on the sequel “The Quiet World”, which he hopes to finish in 2015. For his day job, Laurence works as a Developer Advocate for Google, where he is constantly counting his blessings for being part of the best workplace in the world…

Find him here:
Space Cadets Blog:  http://join-the-cadets.blogspot.com/
Space Cadets Website: http://www.join-the-cadets.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lmoroney
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Laurence-Moroney/e/B001ILFKMS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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Thursday, November 12, 2015

DYSTOPIAN AUTHORS EVENT, hosted by Novel Publicity

Dystopian Authors Collide!

Whether you love or dread thoughts of the end of the world, there's no denying, this is one hot genre! I have brought together some of the best of the best for fun, prizes, and best of all, books! Some of these authors may be familiar, some may be new, but they are all amazingly talented and ready to party! So what are we doing?

A Facebook Party!

Join Ellery from 5:30-10PM EST on November 13th to celebrate our favorite genre with some of our favorite authors.  There will be games, giveaways, and great discussions so don't miss out. Join the Dystopian Authors Collide Facebook Event

Book Sales and Spotlights!

Check out the books of our authors below!  Some are free, some $0.99, but they are all spectacular.  Click of the book cover to purchase. Authors Include: Sara Furlong Burr, Christine Redding Manzari, Cameo Renae, Chrystalla Thoma, David Litwack, Kim Wells, SJ Pajonas, Angela Cavanaugh, Grace Hudson
Coming Soon

And the Giveaway!

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Monday, November 9, 2015

INTO A MILLION PIECES, REVIEW

Into a Million Pieces, a YA paranormal, thriller,  from author Angela Cook.  I was contacted by Angela through the Book Blogger Review List (where I'm listed), to do a review.  At first I wasn't interested because the main theme of the story is teenage succubi.  This couldn't be further from anything that I would enjoy to read.  However, she made her plea to give it a chance, saying that the succubus idea is really not what drives this story, there was so much more…it wasn't overtly erotic in the least.  So after checking out some reviews and looking things over I decided to go ahead (expecting I wouldn't really enjoy it), and read the book.
And much to my surprise….well, I'll let the review speak for itself.   Thx for stopping by today.  Leave us a comment so we know you were here..enjoy!


Allison McKready is a succubus. So is her twin sister. But while Allison spends her summer break hiding in the library behind her Goth makeup, Jade fools around as often as she can. Allison can’t believe Jade would ignore their mother’s fatal example so recklessly, but concealing a cursed bloodline and its dangerous effects is far from Allison’s only problem. Mean girl Julie’s snob mob is determined to ruin her summer, and Aunt Sarah’s Bible thumping is getting louder. Only her new friend, Ren Fisher, offers safe haven from the chaos of her life.

When one of Jade’s risky dates leads to humiliation and sudden tragedy, Allison reels, and Ren catches her. But as her feelings for him grow, so does her fear that she’ll hurt him—or worse—in an unguarded moment. The choice is coming—love him or save him—but Allison might not live to make it. One way or another, the curse will have its due.  

My Review

I was approached by the author to do a review, so I looked the book over.  In as much as there was something intriguing about the story, the idea of teenage succubi did not appeal to me in any way, and I would never have picked up this book if I had not been approached and given the book.  I’m not into the idea of demon females who suck the life out of sleeping men...at least that’s the dictionary meaning of the word succubus.
However, the author sent a compelling email and her reviews looked promising, so I thought, alright, let’s dive in and see what happens.  

Again, at first I thought, no...twin teenage girls, one who is “loose” with her sexuality and one who hides herself in a goth look because of their family history with the succubus thing.  You know, if they kiss a man he gets more than weak in the knees...eventually he will die if they keep going at it.  It almost read too stereotypical in the first few chapters.  However, there was something deeper in Allison, the narrator and POV of the story....the dark gothic sister who kept covered up and away from guys.  She had a captivating voice and thought process.   So I continued reading because I was interested to see where she would end up.

Okay, so this book definitely took me by surprise.  

The author knows how to write and feel, so this made for an emotional read.  The characters do become more pronounced and well rounded.  They act like sisters.  They become believable.  The love interest is well written, it’s not sloppy or over the top...it’s not a romance, but there is romance in the story that really works.

And then the story makes a complete 180 turn.

Now we have a suspenseful thriller, a who done it kind of theme enters...wow!  So this turned up the whole book a giant notch for me.  At this point I found it a challenge to put the book down.  At one point the author masterfully dumps the possibility of three suspects on us.  You’ll find yourself thinking, oh it’s so and so, no wait, it’s going to be this person, no, I’m wrong, it’s that one.  I have to admit I was able to figure it out before we got to the answer...but that’s just me...I’m like that.  Either way, it did not diminish the outcome in anyway.  It was perfect.  I really enjoyed the whole idea of the book in the end.

So, don’t let the succubus, twin sister, stereotypical good girl, loner girl, stop you from venturing further Into a Million Pieces...it’s beyond worth the read!  Well done Angela Cook!
About the Author

Angela V. Cook lives a very unexciting, but never boring, life with her husband and two children just outside of Detroit. Like most writers, she’s been making up stories for as long as she can remember and can’t imagine a life that doesn’t involve creating worlds.

Angela loves to write novels for teens because it’s the best outlet for her sarcastic personality, immature sense of humor, and love of romantic firsts. Her idea of the perfect day involves a quiet house, a good book, and a piece of cheesecake. Or two.

 Goodreads

Amazon

Blog

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Sunday, November 8, 2015

BLOOD MOON, COVER REVEAL


From Girls Heart Book Tours…today's cover reveal...

 Blood Moon
Secrets of the Moon Saga #3.5
By- Kristy Centeno
Genre- YA Paranormal
Published By- Inkspell Publishing
Publication Date- December 10th, 2015
Cover Designer- Najla Qamber
The mystery deepens…but the truth slowly begins to unravel.
In the midst of an impending war, comradeships will be forged, relationships mended, and bonds strengthened.
We’re closer to dismantling the alpha’s plan now than ever before, but when tragedy strikes, our commitment to a cause kept alive for the memory of our loved ones will be tested. Our ties tried. Our sanity preyed upon.
Darkness will shadow our lives. A common goal, however, can help us move forward.

Can we pick up the pieces long enough to ensure a future for Marjorie? Or will another loss be the evil that breaks me?




About the Author-
Kristy Centeno is the author of the Secrets of the Moon saga and Keeper Witches series.
She has always had a passion for books and after years of being an avid reader, she decided to transform her desire to write into a reality and thus, her first novel was born. When she’s not busy taking care of her five children or holding down the fort, she finds time to sit and do what she loves the most: writing.

Links-
Website
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