Spotlight & Excerpt: Tangle of Choices + Giveaway

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Tangle of Choices

Neglected Merge Book 2

by Eve Koguce

Genre: Fantasy Drama

 

Tangle of Choices” is a futuristic fantasy drama novel.

The two different worlds have made the first diplomatic steps towards each other, but at the same time they keep aloof from closer emotional and personal involvement.

Tauria is the only person who is a part of both worlds now.

Harsh circumstances force Tauria to face difficult choices. They lead to personal drama which mercilessly pierces right through her established life. Tauria, guided by a sense of duty to people whose fate depends on her decision, risks her love and family life. Her husband Doron, despite being a person endowed with power as the future Ruler, cannot help his wife and share her burden.

Tauria, in pursuit of a noble purpose to keep their serene life style intact, hurts those who are important to her, testing her friendships, marriage and own sanity to the very core.

Will her choice turn out to be the right one? Will the fact that the sacrifice is justified be sufficient consolation when the whole extent of damage becomes evident?

As part of her crusade against hostility aimed to destroy the carefree lifestyle of both worlds, Tauria is forced to cooperate with an aggressor. Tauria faces the unknown, and the discoveries she makes change her view of the world.

Tangle of Choices” is the second book in Neglected Merge series, but it can be read as a standalone novel.

**Only .99 cents Nov 9th-16th on Amazon.com!!**

**Only .99 cents Nov 10th-17th on Amazon.co.uk!!**

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excerpt

Eve

Abelia was sitting on a hard bench in the bank of wings.

The most precious possessions of the Winged Ones were stored in this vast space, with its ceilings higher than the highest ceilings of the halls of the White Castle. Its walls were covered in a row after a row of startlingly white wings. These were virgin wings: grown from a cell. Most of these beautiful limbs would never find a master. They would stay on this wall, unmoving and untouchable, almost sacred, for centuries to come. For many generations, the bank of wings was a manifest, a statement the Winged Ones made to the world and themselves. Its practical value was vague.

Abelia’s gaze wandered across the rows of the purely white wings. It paused upon a pair of tiny wings.  Had there been a case in their history when an infant needed to have a transplantation? Abelia hadn’t heard of such.  She wondered why her people continued to keep the bank of wings so meticulously stocked. The only case there was an acute need for the transplantation of wings was when Tauria had needed it. No one lost their limbs these days.

Abelia was coming to the sanctuary since she was a child. She remembered her awe when she had entered this place for the first time. She had come with her class: her parents didn’t believe in separating themselves and their children from the crowd. Back then, she hadn’t expressed her admiration verbally. She hadn’t even thought about doing it. She had stayed reserved and dignified during the excursion, just as it was expected from a Ruler’s daughter.

The children – they were six to eight at that time – had walked in pairs solemnly. At the same time, Doctor Slythe explained the molecular method of growing wings and its significant differences from cloning. Abelia had listened carefully: science was her favourite subject. But in this case, she had also marvelled at what she had seen around her. Since that first visit, she came here regularly. The feeling she had experienced being among the rows of bodyless wings had been so overwhelming that she had used every opportunity to repeat it. She just sat there, in front of the walls covered with human-created wings – the achievement of her nation that had secured their survival – and thought about everything she couldn’t talk about with others.

Abelia had come here as a child, then as a teenager. She had come here after she got married when she realised that something was wrong with her, with Mael and the whole arrangement of their perfect from the outside matrimony. She came here now. It was the only place where she could confess privately that she was happy. She was happier now than she had been in years.

She loved the feeling of solitude when she returned to her quarters after a day of meaningful activities. She loved the feeling of doing something meaningful. She didn’t feel lonely when the empty rooms greeted her with silence. She didn’t feel abandoned when no one, often not even Sonrisa, was there to talk to her and ask her about her day. She hadn’t noticed that at first, but when she had, she was taken aback, ashamed even. She soon recovered, realising that it was the way she was. She had been like this before, and she wouldn’t change.


Neglected Merge

Neglected Merge Book 1

 

**Silver medal in the 2021 Global Book Awards in the Science Fiction / Fantasy category;** Finalist award in the 2021 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest in the Fantasy General category.

Award-winning novel “Neglected Merge” is an inspirational and thought-provoking futuristic fantasy romance.

The story of fated lovers developed against a backdrop of a new post-apocalyptic world painted in bright tones. A fortuitous meeting of Tauria, an independent woman living in one utopian-style world, and Doron from high society of the other world, is destined to be the new beginning for both worlds.

Tauria, aged 32, lives in the society that seems to believe that happiness is a universal concept. People, who had survived the near apocalyptic experience, have built a whole new world full of pleasure and easiness. It is designed to make everyone feel happy every minute of their lives. Work brings satisfaction, hobbies are encouraged, relationships are supposed to bring out only positive emotions. Does it matter that things that don’t fit into the general happy pattern get discarded and disappear? Things like friendship and commitment. Things like true love. It is supposed to be enough with lightness and never-ending joy.But there are two worlds now.

They are forced to exist side by side. Can they find a way to live together? The Chinese proverb says: “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” What will the people of two worlds, so utterly different and at the same time so similar, choose?Neglected Merge” won a silver medal in the 2021 Global Book Awards in the Science Fiction / Fantasy category. It also received a finalist award in the 2021 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest in the Fantasy General category.

**Only .99 cents Nov 6th-12th!!**

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Eve Koguce has been in love with books for as long as she remembers herself. The typewriter her first attempts at writing had been made at still sits proudly on its shelf in the basement. After fifteen years spent trying to fit into the office work pattern, Eve Koguce had decided to pursue her dreams and turned to writing.

Eve Koguce lives on the coast of the Baltic Sea with her husband, her son, and their exceedingly charming ginger cat. She loves nature, history, and literature. Her hobby – and a childhood dream that came true – is horse riding.

Eve’s debut novel “Neglected Merge” – book one in the Neglected Merge trilogy – has won a silver medal in the 2021 Global Book Awards in the Science Fiction / Fantasy category. It also won a finalist award in the 2021 Readers’ Favorite International Book Award Contest in the Fantasy General category.

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Book Blitz & Excerpt: The Dark Queen + Giveaway

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The Dark Queen
by M. Dalto
(The Empire Saga, #4)
Published by: Parliament House
Publication date: November 2nd 2021
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult

For fans of Elise Kova, Sarah J. Maas, and Holly Black.

For centuries, the Empire has been enslaved to an infallible, revered Prophecy—one that controlled every thought and action, banished those who questioned its integrity, and promised to bring peace and tranquility to those who followed blindly and believed unconditionally.

But the Prophecy is flawed.

Amid broken promises and mournful lamentations, fates are changed, and dreams are destroyed.

When an ancient force resurfaces and threatens to destroy all they know, new alliances are formed as the heirs to the Empire’s throne struggle to put aside personal differences for the good of their realm.

Before it’s too late.


The Empire Saga is best enjoyed in this order:

1. Two Thousand Years

2. Mark of the Empress

3. Beginning’s End

4. The Dark Queen

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the dark queen

EXCERPT:

Prologue

Welcome back, Empress.

Alexstrayna felt cold.

It wasn’t like when she had been outside for too long without an overcoat or a cape. Or as if she were caught out in the rain without an umbrella and the chill of the evening air had penetrated through her clothes until it reached her bones.

No, it was the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night after a nightmare, body slick with sweat and heart racing.

This was the chill of fear.

Wherever she was, it was dark. She sensed the cool smoothness of stone around her, yet when she cast her arms out she couldn’t feel any walls. From the smell of damp rock, however, she knew they were there.

And they were cold.

It was paralyzing. Instead of running, or trying to find a way out, she wrapped her arms around herself as if to retain whatever last bit of inner warmth she possessed. Huddled within those biting, stone confines, she tried to keep her teeth from chattering and her body from seizing.

Where was she? And how did she get there in the first place?

She had just watched the others pack and head off on their trek to the Borderlands. She and Jamison had stayed behind, and as they were returning to the palace…

Crystal.

She had approached them with no limp, no hobble, no sign of any outward injuries. In fact, the way she had snuck up on Alex in the palace gardens, catching her completely unaware, it was as though she hadn’t been in the infirmary just moments before, allegedly healing from wounds inflicted upon her by Lexan.

She remembered seeing Jamison in the distance, sprawled on the ground, immobile. And that man…

She had never met him before, but those eyes—they bore into her soul as if she should have recognized him.

A sob choked in her throat as her head throbbed with pain.

Mom!

Despite the ache, Alex’s head whipped upward, and she stared desperately into the gloom. Sarayna? What was she doing there?

She tried to gather her legs beneath her, but they felt like lead. The pounding in her head—it was getting worse. Alex had to warn her daughter and maybe Sarayna could at least escape whatever this was, could tell Reylor and Treyan…

“Alexstrayna.”

Her name echoed off the stones as if someone were there with her, watching her all along.

“Who’s there?” she rasped; her throat was raw as if she had been screaming. Had she? She couldn’t remember anything since her path crossed Crystal’s in the gardens.

A smooth, feminine chuckle resounded around her. “Oh, we are going to have a fine time together, you and I.”

“Who are you?” Alex demanded, her voice growing louder. She finally regained her footing and pushed herself up into a standing position.

The pain within Alex’s skull was almost unbearable, but her eyes began to adjust slowly, taking in what was, indeed, a room. The moss-covered walls confirmed the smell of dampness and the sound of trickling water could be heard. There was a brightening light above, shining through the darkness from a window. It was as if the suns were rising on a new day—like a dawning ray of hope that she was going to escape this hell. Wherever it was.

Although every muscle in her body was tense, as if the frigid air was eating away at her from the inside out, she started toward the light.

And that voice remained all around her.

Laughing.

“Until we meet again, Empress,” it said, just as that light exploded within the room.

For a moment, illuminated by the flash, Alex swore she saw a throne—a black marble chaise carved into the wall. Upon that throne was a female clad in black.

A woman wearing her face.

Before she could take a step closer to investigate, that light exploded not only in that dark room, but also inside her head. The brightness intermingled with the pain that had been building between her eyes, bursting like a million pins and needles through every pore of her body.

Everything went dark as Alex screamed.

Author Bio:

M. Dalto is a bestselling New Adult author of adventurous romantic fantasy stories, having won a Watty award for excellence in digital storytelling for her debut novel, Two Thousand Years, in 2016. She spends her days as a full-time residential real estate paralegal, using her evenings to pursue her literary agenda, and when she’s not writing, she enjoys reading fantasy novels, playing video games, and drinking coffee. She currently lives in Massachusetts with her husband, their daughter, and their corgi named Loki.

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Book Blitz: Deadlock, by C.E. Clayton

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Title: Deadlock
Author: C.E. Clayton
Publisher: Starfish Ink
Release Date: Nov 2, 2021
Genre: Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Cyberpunk
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook

“There are those willing to fight for you, if you fight for yourself.”

The plan was always to go to Amardeep, just not like this.

Ellinor Rask always planned to head for the Ashling’s island in order to hunt down those who had killed her husband, but now she’s going for something she didn’t expect: help. With Ellinor’s magic still beyond her reach, the only ones capable of removing her magical shackle are the sentient androids Ellinor has vowed to destroy. If only she can tolerate the Ashlings long enough to aid them in return, of course.

But getting the attention of those who could help proves difficult, and more dangerous than anticipated. Knowing whom to trust becomes a frantic dance as Ellinor and her friends traverse the toxic island in disguise, going from fight- club dance arenas to drug labs all in their search for assistance. Ellinor discovers, however, that hiding a dreeocht who is becoming more unstable by the second is increasingly deadly.

If hiding was all Ellinor had to worry about, she might have a chance at survival. But something waits beneath the glitter of Amardeep that Ellinor and her friends are not expecting… something they may be unprepared to face.

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Author Bio:

C. E. Clayton is an award-winning author born and raised in the greater Los Angeles area. After going the traditional career route and becoming restless, she went back to her first love–writing–and hasn’t stopped. She is the author of the young adult fantasy series “The Monster of Selkirk”, the creator of the cyberpunk Eerden Novels, and her horror short stories have appeared in anthologies across the country. When she’s not writing you can find her treating her fur-babies like humans, constantly drinking tea, and trying to convince her husband to go to more concerts. And reading. She does read quite a bit. More about C.E. Clayton, including her blog, book reviews, social media presence, and newsletter can be found on her website

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