Book Blitz: Home by Eleni McKnight – Excerpt and Giveaway
Hello Readers! Welcome to the Book Blitz for
Home by Eleni McKnight!
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Happy Release Week, Eleni!
Knowledge is a dangerous commodity in the Home commune, the last beacon of civilization against the fallen outside world. As Suzannah Commons begins to secretly read forbidden books, she jeopardizes her future for the forbidden love of the boy who supplies her new, dangerous habit, Silas Maars, and his family. Will her new-found knowledge be her destruction?
Suzannah is in training with the rest of the unmarried teenage girls in the Handmaiden House and Home’s laundry to become a bride when she accidentally comes upon a naked boy in one of the family quarters, Silas Maars. To see a naked man before marriage is an unforgivable sin in Home and a challenge to her precious status as a virgin, her only aspect of worth. This compromise to her purity would earn her an automatic exile in the Hard Labor Camp, a death sentence until the commune leader, Parson, sentences her to the punishment of serving Silas and his unusual family as a housekeeper. As she works for the Maars family and is isolated from the rest of the commune’s population, she discovers the frightening, threatening outside world is not as dangerous as she has been led to believe. The Maars family reveals to her that Deacon controls the population of Home by keeping them all ignorant, denying them education and books so he can teach his own twisted, corrupt, self-serving version of religion from the pulpit. As she learns the truth and begins to fall into a star-crossed love with Silas, her fate as a childbride to one of the lecherous Elders or a worker in the hard labor camp is drawing nigh.
Published: WordCrafts Press, LLC.
Publication Date: November 22, 2016
Available for Purchase:
The next night after dinner, I went to the Maars’ quarters to clean Silas’s room. “I got it,” Silas said.
“You got what-“ I saw a book in his lap. It was a giant book, covered in pictures. I had seen pictures before, but
they were in school. They were rare, we didn’t have the technology to make photographs anymore. The book
said LIFE in large white letters. “Silas!” I cried. “What are you doing with that? You know you’ll get in trouble if
they find out you have it!”
“No, I won’t,” he said. “They don’t even notice if we keep it hidden.”
“Books are rare!”
“No, they’re not,” he chuckled. “They’ve got a whole room full of books in the Elder’s wing. On shelves and
stacked on top of each other in giant piles.”
“A whole room?” I repeated, trying to imagine it. “Is that where you got these?”
“Yeah,” he said, flipping through the book. “There’s thousands of books. Tens of thousands. Maybe even a
hundred thousand!”
“You’re making that up,” I said.
“Here.”
He showed me a beautiful printed page. It had yellowed a bit, the edges were dog-eared. I felt a chill; I never
was allowed to handle something as precious as a book before. I had learned to read by a chalkboard and it
helped when there were directions painted on the walls of the laundry and the directions on the cooking cards.
This was special and sacred, and Silas was letting me handle it like the bag of laundry I picked up every night. I
looked at the page on the book: in the middle, a picture was in black and white of a group of women dressed in
pantsuits, like the mechanics in our commune, standing by some large metal thing. They were grinning, proud,
brandishing tools, not ashamed to be forced into wearing pants like the hard labor whores were forced to, their
hair under colorful red patterned bandanas.
Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs)
I blinked. “Real women in the militia?” I asked.
“Yeah. They used to have a militia with an entire department where they flew airplanes.”
“Airplanes are made-up.”
“They used to drop bombs on the enemies during wars. They’d blow up entire cities. And shoot each other down
in air fights.”
“Men can’t fly,” I snorted.
“I’ve flown.”
“You’re making that up, you have not. It’s impossible!”
“They used to know how,” he said. “Papa says that there are people that still know. People go to places to get
onto planes called aeroports. And the pilots would drive them across the world. You’ve never read a book, have
you?”
Eleni McKnight is a Murfreesboro, Tennessee native and graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a degree in Theatre with an emphasis in Literature. This left her with a wild passion for creating costumes and doing make-up in her freetime, along with her intense passion for reading from her childhood. She started writing at age eight when she had read all the Baby-Sitter’s Club books she had brought along for a road trip at age nine, and wanted something new to read. It’s never quite left her over the years.
These days, you can usually find her working backstage or costuming in local community theatres, reading a book, walking/exercising, at a concert, drinking a craft beer with friends, knitting, embroidering, or taking a dance class.
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Shadow Fall by Audrey Grey blitz with giveaway
Shadow Fall
Audrey Grey
(Shadow Fall, #1)
Published by: Blaze Publishing
Publication date: November 22nd 2016
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
The asteroid hurtling toward the earth will kill billions.
The Emperor and his Gold Court will be safe in their space station, watching from the stars. The Silvers will be protected underground. But the Bronzes must fight it out at the Shadow Trials for the few remaining spots left on the space station.
When an enigmatic benefactor hands Maia Graystone a spot in the Trials, she won’t just get a chance at salvation for her and her baby brother, Max: She gets to confront the mother who abandoned her in prison, the mad Emperor who murdered her father, and the Gold prince who once loved her. But it’s the dark bastard prince she’s partnered with that will make her question everything, including her own heart. With the asteroid racing closer every day, Maia must trust someone to survive.
The question is who?
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—
EXCERPT:
My legs wobble as I step into the now lukewarm water. I sink to the bottom. Tiny bubbles escape my nose as I watch all the ugly remnants from the last seven years leave my body.
Lungs burning, I rise and come face-to-face with Pit Boy.
I glare at him. “You really have to work on the knocking thing.”
Despite the fact that I’m indecent, his attention never falls from my face. I almost wish it would, just to give me a break from the intensity of his focus.
“I only get a few more hours to be the ‘one-eyed freak’ from the pit. Might as well take advantage.” He doesn’t dare crack a smile, so it’s hard to tell if he’s joking or serious.
“Don’t worry. In my heart, that’s exactly who you’ll always be.”
His words remind me that soon we’ll be reconstructed using forbidden nanotech. But it won’t just be our flesh they’ll reengineer. It will be our brains, too.
I don’t foresee my rewiring being too complicated, but Riser needs to upload almost twenty years of false memories. That will be tricky and time-consuming.
And time is the one thing we don’t have.
Riser flicks his gaze to the mirror. He lifts a hand, touches the patch of mottled flesh where his eye should be.
“How did it happen?” I ask.
“Careful, my lady.” His gaze settles on my face. “You’re beginning to sound like you care.”
I roll my eyes. “And I thought I was lacking in conversational skills.”
He focuses his attention on the graffiti sprayed across the mirror.
“It’s written language,” I blurt, even though all I want to do is end the conversation so Pit Boy can leave. His presence unnerves me more than the other Pit Leeches ever could. “It’s how we communicate.”
“I know what it is.” He examines his jagged thumbnail. “I just . . . can’t read it.”
“It’s just stuff about the Chosen. You know, insults.” The populace is finicky. As much as they love watching the Chosen with their petty intrigues and court life, they would be just as happy to see their heads on a pike.
“Chosen?”
Time to explain what you are, Everly, Nicolai’s voice grates inside my head. Riser’s eyes flutter just enough that I know he’s heard Nicolai’s voice too.
You do it, I think, watching Riser’s reaction. But his face remains emotionless; either he’s a good actor or only Nicolai can hear my response.
“The Royalist astronomers discovered the asteroid twenty-one years ago,” I begin. “It’s actually a slow moving planet called an earth-crosser, meaning its orbit and ours intersect every twenty-thousand years. Usually it’s too far away to affect us, but this time it will pass close enough to wreak havoc and make the earth uninhabitable for years.” I stir the water with my big toe. “Before I was born, the Emperor decided that creating a population of genetically superior humans would be a great idea, you know, just in case the Caskets don’t work or the asteroid does more damage than predicted.”
Riser’s hyper-focused gaze bores through me. “You’re one of them?”
“Yes.” I run my hand through the filthy water. “But my father’s a Bronze, so even though my mother comes from a Gold House, the Emperor only allowed them one Chosen instead of the customary twins. So it’s just me . . . not Max.”
“What makes being Chosen so special?”
“I don’t know . . .” I bite my lip, trying to remember everything my parents told me. “My genes are perfect, I guess.”
For some reason, talking about my body makes me remember that I am naked in a room with a boy. As if reading my mind, Riser slowly lets his gaze fall, his expression both curious and unapologetic as he takes me all in, his thoughts cryptic.
“What are you staring at?” I blurt, smashing my breasts beneath my hands. Not like there’s much there to cover. “Haven’t you seen a naked girl before?”
A smile twitches his lips. “Not one that’s genetically flawless.”
“It doesn’t work that way! You can’t just look at us and tell. We look like everyone else—”
“No.” Riser shakes his head, a dark swath of hair covering his damaged eye. “You don’t. Whatever you are.”
“You must be happy . . . about our reconstruction, I mean,” I mumble, trying desperately to change the subject. “They’ll fix your eye . . . and . . . and all those horrible scars.”
I freeze as he slides off the counter, unable to look away as he hooks one finger beneath his shirt and lifts.
Scars ravage his anemic body in varying shades of red and silver and white. Some deep and pitted like the craters of a far-away planet, others smooth and neat. One particular nasty scar carves down his shoulder, tunneling across his chest and stomach. A fresh red wound nestles just below his throat.
He carefully touches the long ugly one. “I’m not ashamed for surviving.”
Author Bio:
Audrey Grey lives in the charming state of Oklahoma, with her husband, two little people, and four mischievous dogs. You can usually find her hiding out in her office from said little people and dogs, surrounded by books and sipping kombucha while dreaming up wondrous worlds for her characters to live in.
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The Alpha’s Hunger by Renee Rose blitz with giveaway
The Alpha’s Hunger
Renee Rose
(The Alpha’s Hunger #1)
Publication date: May 7th 2015
Genres: Erotica, Paranormal, Romance
Her Millionaire Boss. The Human he can’t resist.
Lying on the floor of her cubicle to stave off a migraine, the last thing Ashley Bell expected was to find the company’s notoriously hard-assed CEO, Ben Stone, standing over her. The offer of a ride home is a bigger surprise, but the biggest shock of all comes when Ben asks her to work for him as his personal assistant.
Despite misgivings about his intentions, Ashley accepts the position. She has barely started the job when she learns her twin sister has been kidnapped, and the price for her life is Ashley’s help in a plot to destroy Ben’s company. But she soon discovers that Ben has a far more terrifying secret of his own.
From the moment he first crossed paths with Ashley, the beautiful young human from marketing, Ben has been consumed by her. When her life is threatened by his enemies, he casts aside caution and fights with the rage of a beast defending his mate. Not sure he can trust her yet determined to protect her, Ben kidnaps Ashley, planning to keep her under his watch for as long as necessary.
Ashley is none too happy with the situation, but a hard bare-bottom spanking changes her attitude…and leaves her begging for more. Though Ben knows a human girl is no match for the fearsome lusts of an alpha wolf, she ignites in him a hunger he can barely contain. Can he resist the urge to mark her as his own and take her harder than she can imagine?
Don’t miss this sizzling paranormal from USA Today Bestselling Author, Renee Rose!
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Grab yours for only 99¢!
Also check out Book 2 in The Alpha Dom series:
—
EXCERPT:
She flushed and looked down at her paper to compose herself. “I do,” she said quietly. “I appreciate your faith in me.” When he said nothing, she amended, “Or maybe this is a test, in which case, I plan to pass it.” She lifted her chin.
A smile flashed around both corners of his mouth but it disappeared as quickly as it had come. “Go,” he said, with his characteristic curtness.
She stood and walked to the door. Grasping the knob, she screwed up her courage and turned around. “Mr. Stone?”
He turned from his computer screen and raised an eyebrow.
“Did you hire me for this job because you actually think I show promise or is it because—” she stopped.
He didn’t help, gazing at her with both eyebrows raised now.
She swallowed. “Because you like the way I look in a skirt?”
The smile flitted across his face and his eyes dropped to her skirt and down her legs.
She flushed, wishing she hadn’t said it.
“Get out, Ashley.”
She actually laughed. Well, it was more a gasp for breath, or a sob. But it came out like a bubble of laughter. He’d called her by her first name, which felt like a success. And she loved the way it sounded in his deep, rich tones, evoking intimacy and…heat. She pushed the door open and stumbled out, relieved to be out of his intense presence. But the moment she shut the door, she missed it.
How would she survive working for this man? He stole her breath with every glance.
Author Bio:
USA Today Bestselling Author Renee Rose is a naughty wordsmith who writes kinky BDSM and spanking romance novels. Named Eroticon USA’s Next Top Erotic Author in 2013, she has also won The Romance Reviews Best Historical, Sci-Fi and BDSM awards, Spanking Romance Reviews‘ Best Historical, Erotic, Ageplay and favorite author, and was a finalist for The BDSM Writer’s Con Golden Flogger award. She’s hit #1 on Amazon in
multiple categories in the U.S. and U.K., is often found on the list of Amazon’s Top 100 Erotic Authors and has been a regular columnist for Write Sex Right. She also pens BDSM stories under the name Darling Adams. To receive four free books from Renee, sign up for her mailing list here.
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J.C. and the Bijoux Jolis by Katy Regnery blitz with giveaway
J.C. and the Bijoux Jolis
Katy Regnery
(The Rousseaus, #3)
Publication date: November 21st 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Did you fall in love with The English Brothers? Were you hot for the Winslows? Katy Regnery’s New York Times bestselling Blueberry Lane series continues with The Rousseau siblings in 2016!
If the best man and maid of honor are both single, it’s practically an unwritten rule that they should pork.
…so begins a rocky acquaintance between Jean-Christian “J.C.” Rousseau and Libitz Feingold at the wedding of J.C.’s brother and Lib’s best friend. While manslut best man J.C. is surprised when maid of honor Libitz soundly spurns his advances, his curiosity is piqued. The girl he couldn’t have becomes the only one he wants.
So, when he finds a seventy-year-old portrait in the attic of his sister’s mansion that bears an uncanny resemblance to the prickly gallery owner, he enlists her help in solving a mystery seven decades in the making. Traveling from Philadelphia to New York to Marseille, a couple who started off as enemies will discover that even cynics can find true love…and mortal man is no match for destiny.
*All books in The Blueberry Lane Series can be enjoyed as standalone novels.*
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—
EXCERPT:
“You must be the famous Libitz,” he’d opened, taking his assigned seat beside her, and flashing his sexiest grin.
After all, if she was his chosen conquest for the weekend, there was no time like the present to work his wiles. Wearing a simple black sheath dress with aqua circles, 70s-style mod make-up and oversized silver and crystal chandelier earrings that almost brushed her thin shoulders, she’d turned to him and blinked those wide, all-seeing eyes.
“And you…must be kidding.”
Taken aback, he’d stared at her for a second before chuckling. “Wha—I mean, how’s that?”
“Let’s start over,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “Here’s your line, Romeo: “Hi, I’m Étienne’s brother, Jean-Christian. It’s nice to meet you.” Want to give it a try?”
He cleared his throat, his smile fading. “Hi, I’m Étienne’s brother, Jean-Christian. It’s nice to meet you.”
She locked eyes with his, her lips neutral, neither tilted up nor down. “Hi. I’m Libitz Feingold, Kate’s best friend…and it’s not cold enough.”
“What?” asked J.C., feeling completely turned around.
“It’s not cold enough in hell for me to fall for someone like you,” she said, then shifted back around to talk to the person on her other side.
Well, fuck me, thought J.C., taking another gulp of beer as he tried to figure out if he was insulted or impressed. After a moment, he nudged her in the side with his elbow and she looked at him over her shoulder, her expression annoyed.
“Yes?”
“I hear the temperature’s dropping there,” he said casually, then added, “because they’re expecting a visit from you.”
“Ha!” she chortled, a genuine grin brightening her eyes for a moment before she quickly reigned it back in to practiced ennui. “Is that right?”
He shrugged, tipping his bottle of beer back as he held her eyes, challenging her to come back at him with something clever. “So I heard.”
“From all the friends you’ve got there?”
He almost spit his beer out. Damn, but she was quick.
“Truce?’ he asked, placing his beer on the table and holding out his hand.
She stared at his hand for a moment, then looked away, leaning forward to pick up her champagne glass and bringing it slowly to her lips. “No, thanks. Mama didn’t raise no fool.”
“You’re unreal.” She shook her head, that bored look still in place.
“Nope. I’m real. I’m just not a good target for charming scamps looking for trouble.”
“A target? Shit. Who got to you?” he asked, feeling a little abused by her insta-judgement of him without actually getting a chance to know him in person. Not that she was wrong exactly. But getting into trouble with the right person could be a hell of a lot of fun.
“The list is long and distinguished,” she shot back.
His eyes widened and his lips wobbled.
“Oh, God,” she said, shaking her head as her cheeks bloomed an appealing pink under her make-up. “I walked right into that one didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” said J.C. with what he hoped was a disarming grin. “All together, now…”
“So’s my Johnson,” they said at the same time, quoting the rebuttal line from Top Gun.
“Hey, look at that,” he said, still smiling at her. “You do know how to have fun. I was beginning to worry.”
Her smile instantly faded. “You’re not as cute as you think you are.”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding as he finished the last of his beer. “I am.”
Author Bio:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.
Twenty-five books later, Katy claims authorship of the multi-titled, New York Times and USA Today Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other standalone novels and novellas.
Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1-4, became a New York Times E-book bestseller.
In 2016, Katy signed a print-only agreement with Spencerhill Press. As a result, her Blueberry Lane paperback books will now be distributed to brick and mortar bookstores all over the United States.
Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.
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The Breakup Support Group by Cheyanne Young blitz with giveaway
The Breakup Support Group
Cheyanne Young
Published by: Swoon Romance
Publication date: November 22nd 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
After four years of first love bliss, Isla Rush just got dumped.
Any hope she has of winning her ex-boyfriend back is shattered when the town rezones her neighborhood, forcing her to spend senior year at a wealthy high school in the next town over.
With a broken heart consuming her soul, Isla can’t focus on anything, except maybe Emory Underwood—a ridiculously hot guy who dates a new girl almost every day. She can’t help but crush on him, even though it’s wrong.
When memories of her ex make her cry in second period, the school counselor sends Isla to a club that meets during lunch. The Break-Up Support Group is a collection of broken-hearted misfits who are all helping each other heal.
Just when Isla’s heart is finally on the mend, Emory shows up, forced to atone for all the broken hearts he’s caused over the years. While hiding her massive crush, she helps him understand the seriousness of breaking a heart.
In turn, Emory offers to help Isla get back on the dating scene by agreeing to be her fake date for the homecoming dance. Isla gladly accepts the ruse, because if anyone can make her into a desirable girlfriend, Emory can! There’s just one small problem.
Isla’s little crush on Emory might be exactly full blown. And a homecoming fake date with him could push her over the edge to possibly uttering the “L Word!”
Isla can’t afford another heartbreak so soon after the last one. She will have to resist his charms, refuse to look into those dreamy eyes, and above all else, not make the mistake of letting him kiss her.
If only she hadn’t let her guard down at the end of the night, under the light of her porch in a toe-curling kiss moment of weakness. And now, after months of Break-Up Support Group therapy, and with a heart fully on the mend, Isla has just handed it over to a guy who knows full well just how to break it.
—
EXCERPT:
The first time Nate and I went to the movies was during eighth grade. His dad had picked me up and dropped us off since we weren’t old enough to drive, and I still remember how hard my heart pounded from the backseat of Mr. Mile’s Tahoe. Even over the country music his dad blasted everywhere he went, I feared Nate would hear my heartbeat doing jumping jacks and know I was freaking out. This was an official date after all. My first.
It was the start of December, and it was freezing cold outside. I wore a denim skirt and leggings in an effort to be cute, but the cold had me shivering like a maniac while we waited in line to buy tickets. And then thirteen-year-old Nate took off his jacket, a junior high letterman, and draped it over my shoulders. It didn’t do anything to stop the cold from crawling up my legs, but I was warm all the same. A boy had given me his jacket. I still have that jacket to this day, hanging somewhere in the back of my closet. It officially became mine on that first Christmas we spent together.
We weave our way into the theater, which is oddly packed. Even on a Friday night, this place is usually dead. The theater survives on grant money and Mr. Hasting’s massive trust fund.
The concession stand is whimsically lit up with an old-fashioned marquee hanging overhead. All of the items and prices are meticulously labeled with black plastic letters, and a strand of clear lightbulbs light up the border of the menu, the lights chasing each other around the rectangle. Nate stops at the back of the line, and I take his hand again, glad that we’re finally alone.
The smell of popcorn makes my mouth water. “Large popcorn with butter,” Nate says, taking his VIP member card out of his back pocket. It’s what gets us free concessions. “And two drinks.”
“Two?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow. The large popcorn makes sense—we usually get a medium, but I’d said I was starving. But one drink with two straws is how we’ve always done date nights.
Nate shrugs. “I want my own drink tonight.”
I don’t know why that stings, but it does.
“Is everything okay with you?” The words are out of my mouth, all nagging and whining at the same time. I instantly regret that I even asked. Especially when his reaction is anything but ideal.
He shrugs again and leads the way toward the theater on the left, popcorn in one hand and his own personal drink in the other. “I’m fine.”
My brows draw together as we walk. “You seem weird.”
“Well, I’m not.” He doesn’t even look at me. And when the movie starts playing, we eat our popcorn and we drink our separate drinks. And we don’t kiss, not even once.
Author Bio:
Cheyanne Young is a native Texan with a fear of cold weather and a coffee addiction that probably needs an intervention. She loves books, sarcasm, and collecting nail polish. After nearly a decade of working in engineering, Cheyanne now writes books for young adults and is the author of the City of Legends Trilogy. She doesn’t miss a cubicle one bit.
Cheyanne lives near the beach with her daughter and husband, one spoiled rotten puppy, and a cat that is most likely plotting to take over the world.
Be the first to know when Cheyanne has a new book out & get access to exclusive giveaways. Sign up for her newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bO3qgb
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