Release Day Blitz- DARKEST MATE by @AlexisCalder1 With An Excerpt & $10 Amazon GC Giveaway! @RockstarBkTours

I am so excited that DARKEST MATE by Alexis Calder is available now and that I get to share the news!

If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below.

This blitz also includes a giveaway for a $10 Amazon GC courtesy of Alexis, & Rockstar Book Tours. So if you’d like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.

 

About The Book:

Title: DARKEST MATE (Rejected Fate Book 1)

Author: Alexis Calder

Pub. Date: December 21, 2021

Publisher: Alexis Calder

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 346

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle

Weakness means death. Or worse.

After I was abandoned as a child, I was taken in by the Shadow Pack. A group of ruthless, lawless, shifters who have only one rule: never let anyone see your weakness.

In exchange for them keeping me alive, I owe them. The leader of the Shadows is as handsome as he is ruthless. And he’s offered to wipe my debt in exchange for marriage. He’d offer protection, but it would cost me my freedom.

Survival in the Shadows depends on back alley deals and shady alliances. It’s become a way of life that I stopped questioning years ago. When a routine burglary goes wrong, I find myself captured by the one family I never should have crossed.

The Umbra family owns this city. They make us Shadow wolves look like the good guys. They should have killed me for my crimes, but there’s a tiny problem… It turns out Madoc Umbra is my fated mate.

Instead of killing me, I’m a prisoner. The rest of the family doesn’t know of our bond and I intend to keep it that way. Madoc’s brothers want to end my life; he wants to break the bond. I just want to get the heck out.

As long as I don’t let them see any weakness, I might have a chance of making it out of here alive.

Darkest Mate is a full-length paranormal romance. 17+ for dark content, steamy scenes, and language. This is book one in a trilogy and is not a standalone. Mind the cliff.

Upcoming Release Dates:
Darkest Mate: December 9, 2021
Forbidden Sin: January 20, 2022
Feral Queen: March 3, 2022 

EXCERPT:

I glanced over at the ring, hoping to catch a glimpse of the undefeated Dark Wolf. He had removed his hoodie, revealing a muscular back, strong shoulders and short dark hair. I couldn’t even see his face, but I was frozen in place, looking at him wide eyed. There was something about him that pulled me in, forcing me to stare.

He rolled his shoulders, then tilted his head from side to side slowly. As I watched the muscles in his back ripple and his arms flex and relax, my breath hitched. Warmth radiated from my center, and the unmistakable sensation of longing rushed through me.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

I shook my head, trying to break the spell he had over me. Something was very wrong with me. I’d seen shirtless men more times than I could count. It was part of being a shifter. We didn’t get freaked out by nudity. But that man wasn’t just a normal shirtless male, he was a work of fucking art.

About Alexis:

Alexis Calder writes sassy heroines and sexy heroes with a sprinkle of sarcasm. She lives in the Rockies and drinks far too much coffee and just the right amount of wine.

Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 Winner will receive a $10 Amazon GC, International.

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Blog Tour- WIDER THAN THE SKY by @kath_rothschild With An Excerpt & #Giveaway! @soho_teen, & @RockstarBkTours

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WIDER THAN THE SKY by Katherine Rothschild Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: WIDER THAN THE SKY

Author: Katherine Rothschild

Paperback Pub. Date:  December 7, 2021

Publisher: Soho Teen

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 288

Find it:  Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

In the wake of sudden tragedy, twin sisters uncover a secret that rips open their world. Katherine Rothschild explores the pain and power of forgiveness in a stunning debut novel that will shatter your heart and piece it back together, one truth at a time.

Sixteen-year-old Sabine Braxton doesn’t have much in common with her identical twin, Blythe. When their father dies from an unexpected illness, each copes with the loss in her own way—Sabine by “poeting” (an uncontrollable quirk of bursting into poetry at inappropriate moments) and Blythe by obsessing over getting into MIT, their father’s alma mater. Neither can offer each other much support . . . at least not until their emotionally detached mother moves them into a ramshackle Bay Area mansion owned by a stranger named Charlie.

Soon, the sisters unite in a mission to figure out who Charlie is and why he seems to know everything about them. They make a life-changing discovery: their parents were hiding secrets about their sexual identities. The revelation unravels Sabine’s world, while practical Blythe seems to take everything in stride. Once again at odds with her sister, Sabine chooses to learn all she can about the father she never knew. Ultimately, she must decide if she can embrace his last wish for a family legacy--even if it means accepting a new idea of what it means to be a family.

 

Praise for Wider than the Sky

“Sabine’s struggle to reconcile her memory of her father with the man he really was—and to make room in her life for his hopes as well as her own—cuts to the heart of what it means to love someone unconditionally. Wider than the Sky skillfully weaves multiple character arcs together to examine the ideas of home, hope, and family in surprising new ways.”—Misa Sugiura, It's Not Like It's a Secret

"Lyrical and lovely, Wider than the Sky is one of those rare books that has everything—masterful storytelling, a great love story, important themes, razor-sharp wit, and memorable characters. It's a gorgeous debut that will capture your heart."—Corina Vacco, Delacorte Prize–winning author of My Chemical Mountain
 
“I haven’t stopped thinking about these sisters since I first read Wider than the Sky. Sabine and Blythe will leap off the page and live in your memories like old friends. There is so much heart and humor in Katherine’s writing; even as her characters grapple with serious concerns and issues, she captures how life can slice us open and yet give us the ability to laugh and love and hope through the deepest pain and loss.”—Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, New York Times bestselling author of Book Scavenger

“Rothschild’s story showcases how secrets impede a person’s ability to see the world clearly and that self-acceptance and honesty are the keys to a happy ending.”—School Library Journal

“Change comes suddenly to the lives of 16-year-old Sabine and her identical twin sister, Blythe, when their father dies unexpectedly, prompting their mother and a strange man named Charlie to move the girls to the small town of Thornewood . . . Rothschild’s first novel is accomplished and nicely plot-rich with some interesting quirks, chief among them being Sabine’s deep-rooted love for Emily Dickinson’s poetry and her compulsive need to recite it.”—Booklist

“Kath Rothschild’s Wider than the Sky is pitch perfect! Young adult readers will fall in love with her wonderfully quirky narrator Sabine and her swoony romance with Kai. Combine that with family secrets and a mysterious stranger and you have the ingredients for a compelling read. I cannot wait to put it in the hands of my young customers!”—Kathleen Caldwell, A Great Good Place for Books (Oakland, CA)

 

Excerpt: Wider than the Sky by Katherine Rothschild

 

Chapter One: Hope and Other Feathered Things

 

You know how you can read a poem, like, ten times and still not get it?

Teachers say: just read it again because something magic happens and suddenly you’ll get it. Well, the day my dad died I totally understood this Emily Dickinson poem called “‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers.” Not like the understanding helped. Poems can’t bring people back to life. But suddenly getting poetry was a weird little gift that got me through what happened next.

On that day, my sister, Blythe, and I stumbled into a windowless, overly air-conditioned room in Huntington Hospital. Inside we found a doctor, my cashmere-sweatered mom, and a cluster of silent machines. And my dad’s dead body. No one said he was dead—no one had to. The space his soul had taken up in the room had vanished.

The doctor unhooked one more monitor and put her hand way too casually on my dad’s dead leg. “Take as much time as you need.”

Like time was what we needed.

When the doctor was gone, my mom reached for us and we ran to her like we’d survived a plane crash or something. Which I guess we kind of had. We were surviving this empty room, weathering it the way our bikes did the ocean air, oxidizing and cracking—and crying. There were tears, teary questions, and more tears. When we finally stepped back to wipe our noses, the air filled with the silence only hospitals can achieve: a bustle and racket in the outside, but in here? No more beeping. I felt a stone in my heart, round and cold, sharp against my sternum.

Then someone cleared his throat. A man stood in the doorway. For a blink of mind-time I was sure it was my dad. He couldn’t be dead. He had barely even been sick. He was fine. He was right there.

 

 

About Katherine Rothschild:

Katherine Rothschild is a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, a former ballet and Arabic dance instructor, and an obsessive Twitter food truck-follower. Her first-person essays have been published on KQED/NPR, in The San Francisco Chronicle, and other Bay Area and California publications. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing, a PhD in Composition and Applied Linguistics, has received artist’s grants from Vermont Studio Center and Kindlings West, and is a longtime member of the SCBWI. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. Her debut novel is Wider Than the Sky from Soho Teen. Find her on Twitter @Kath_Rothschild.

Website  | Facebook  | Twitter  | Instagram | Pinterest | Goodreads

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win a hardcover copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.

3 winners will win a paperback copy of WIDER THAN THE SKY, US Only.

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Tour Schedule:

Week One: 

12/6/2021	BookHounds YA	Promo Post
12/7/2021	Kait Plus Books	Promo Post
12/8/2021	perusewithcoffee	Promo Post
12/9/2021	Mythical Books	Promo Post
12/10/2021	Phannie the ginger bookworm	Promo Post
12/11/2021	GivernyReads	Promo Post

Week Two:

12/12/2021	Lifestyle of Me	Promo Post
12/13/2021	Nonbinary Knight Reads	Promo Post
12/14/2021	Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog	Promo Post
12/15/2021	100 Pages A Day	Promo Post
12/16/2021	Two Chicks on Books	Promo Post
12/17/2021	Never Hollowed By The Stare	Promo Post
12/18/2021	@readingwordsmith	Review

Week Three:

12/19/2021	The Momma Spot	Promo Post
12/20/2021	Eli to the nth	Review
12/21/2021	Emelie's Books	Review
12/22/2021	Two points of interest	Review
12/23/2021	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
12/24/2021	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Promo Post
12/25/2021	Karen Dee's Book Reviews	Review

Week Four:

12/26/2021	@jypsylynn	Review
12/27/2021	@thebookishfoxwitch	Review
12/28/2021	brittreadsalattebooks	Review
12/29/2021	My Fictional Oasis	Review
12/30/2021	@coffeesipsandreads	Promo Post
12/31/2021	Lexijava	Review

Cover Reveal- SHADOW BOUND SOULS by @MysticPeddler With An Excerpt & $10 Amazon GC #Giveaway!

Today Steven Rudy and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover for SHADOW BOUND SOULS, the second book in his steampunk sci-fi/fantasy series which releases February 1, 2022! Check out the awesome cover and enter the giveaway!

 

On to the reveal! 

About the Book:

Title: SHADOW BOUND SOULS (The Luminance Saga Book 2)

Author: Steven Rudy

Pub. Date: February 1, 2022

Publisher: MysticHawk Press LLC

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: ?

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon

 

Shadow Bound Souls, blends Science Fiction and classic high fantasy in a steampunk world.

The frontier of alchemy, magic and machines nears a breaking point.

Book two of The Luminance Saga is an action-packed sci-fi fantasy adventure, charged with a tension inherited from the epic climax of book one. Shadow Bound Souls picks up where the first novel left off, with a band of heroes stranded in a world on the brink of war.

The Sagean Lord has emerged.
While the Wrythen's influence grows stronger, the Sagean and his power-hungry acolytes, the Court of Dragons, are intent on delivering the gem of souls to the Temple of Ama; where the Sintering Fountain can transform the acolytes into Luminaries.

Meanwhile, the band of heroes find themselves separated in a world starting to tear itself apart. Having suffered a huge loss, Ellaria and Elias must escape the Mainland with the Sagean’s agents pursuing them. When Elias becomes sick, Ellaria decides to hide amongst the Showman’s Traveling Show of Wonders. But their journey is shadowed by darkness and when troupe members turn up murdered, Ellaria struggles to find the killer amongst her company.

Far away in the Warhawk Mountains, the three young rogues are stranded with the Tempest Stone. Aimless about what to do, their paths take a turn when they discover the horrifying magnitude of the Sagean’s return to power, the Scree.

Shadow Bound Souls continues the steampunk saga with a sequel that takes the plot to greater depths, while expanding upon the immersive world; with a ending that hurtles the series toward the coming World War.

The Luminance Saga
Book 1 – The Binding Tempest
Book 2 – Shadow Bound Souls 

 

Haven’t started the series yet? Grab Book 1 THE BINDING TEMPEST in Hardcover, Paperback, or read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited membership!

 

Reviews for book 1, THE BINDING TEMPEST:

“This start of a saga is difficult to put down as the readers follow Ellaria Moonstone as she fights to protect all knowledge!”– Sara Anderson, Reedsy Discovery

 

“The Binding Tempest is highly recommended reading for steampunk fantasy and sci-fi fans interested in an epic work evolving on the scale of Lord of the Rings.”– D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

 

“Bolstered by vivid, brilliant descriptions, Rudy’s high-intensity storytelling shines, and the assured, intelligent prose allow readers to stay invested. The expert combination of immersive storytelling, strong characters, and well-woven mixture of speculative and steampunk elements makes for an unforgettable experience. A dazzling, powerhouse… Fans of intricately crafted, sophisticated high fantasy won’t want to miss this.” – The Prairies Book Review

 

 

Except from Shadow Bound Souls:

 

...

The three of them walked into town on foot and for the longest time, Learon didn't see anyone around. It was beginning to feel like a ghost town. A few shapes were seen inside houses, but Learon didn't stop until they reached the town center.

 

In the open green space, about fifty townspeople lingered aimlessly. Learon almost went past them to the Inn until the truth of what they were doing hit him. He realized they weren't moving. The sight of them standing still chilled him to his bones.

 

"What's wrong with them?" Tali whispered.

 

"I don't know. I tried talking to a few of them and none responded. Sometimes they'll look at you, but that's it," Wade said.

 

Learon surveyed the area and waved for the others to follow, "Come on, I need to find Rose."

 

He ran over to the Inn and up the porch steps. There were others inside all in the same static state, and a foul smell of mildew and excrement made it hard to breathe. In the kitchen, the smell was worse. There he found Jema, the cook. She was standing in the darkened room with a knife in her hand. The ghosted look in her eyes was frightening. They were glossy and yellowing.

 

"Jema. Jema, where's Rose?" Learon said, but there was no response. Jema blinked and seemed to be breathing, but she didn't answer. He stepped closer to her.

 

"Be careful, Learon," Tali cautioned.

 

Learon tried again, this time touching Jema on the arm, "Jema, are you . . ."

 

At his touch, she took a step forward. The sudden movement startled Tali, and she backed into some empty egg crates. Learon moved away to give Jema space. Jema slowly strode to the counter and began to chop some rotten meat on the board. Jema's movements were almost mechanical and she did it all without registering their presence in the room. 

 

 

About Steven Rudy:

After attending the University of Colorado at Boulder, where Steven studied architecture, philosophy and writing. He has worked in the field of architecture for 20 years designing houses, commercial buildings and working on historic preservation projects across Colorado. He is passionate about sci-fi, fantasy, the Denver Broncos, architecture, and Bob Dylan. The Binding Tempest was Steven’s first novel and he’s thrilled to bring book 2, Shadow Bound Souls into the world.

Sign up for Steven’s mailing list for exclusive news & updates!

 

Website | Facebook | Twitter  | Instagram | Goodreads | BookBub

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will win a $10 Amazon GC, International.

a Rafflecopter giveaway