Sadie's Spotlight

Dawn of Vengeance
(The Droseran Saga #2)
By Ronie Kendig
Sci-Fi, Space Opera
Hardcover & ebook, 416 Pages
December 8, 2020 by Enclave Publishing

A haunting prophecy upended his identity. Now it demands his life.

Once a formidable bounty hunter, Marco Dusan is plagued by insecurity as he tours the realm he now rules. This quiet, backwater planet is not as untouched as he’d once thought. Evidence of collusion between Droseran factions and the powerful Symmachians with their forbidden technology litters his encounters. Worse, all signs indicate Xisya, the alien who tortured him, is still snatching Kynigos Brethren–but to what end?

Lance Corporal Eija Zacdari works hard to win a coveted place on the Symmachian hyperjump program, but instinct tells her their intel is flawed. Despite nearly failing the tests, she is assigned to the team-and lands in the middle of a bewildering conspiracy.

Haunted by a prophecy that promises pain and war, Marco forges alliances to protect the primitive world against Symmachia’s devastating influence. But one truth becomes painfully clear: the biggest threat to their world may be much, much closer to home.

Excerpt

“Zacdari! What in Void’s Embrace are you waiting for?”

Claxons rang in her helmet, a grating noise that made it hard to think. Her heads-up gave a visual on the target station, and another on the left displayed the corvette’s actual trajectory. The dots were not aligned.

Lance Corporal Eija Zacdari could handle it. She might be a mere candidate for the Tertian Intergalactic Hyperjump Program for Exploration. She might be a Tryssinian orphan with more scars than fingers. But she wasn’t a quitter. Getting onto the Prevenire, the first HyPE ship to access the hyperaccelerated slipstream to Kuru System, was her last hope.

She nudged the controls, bringing the corvette into alignment with the great metal flower that was her target.

A wave of heat speared her mind, and with it came a strange visual. A realization. The vectors were wrong. Her angle of approach wrong.

It was all djelling wrong.

And you know that how? Nobody knew Kuru System because nobody had been there. How did Command know this was right? How did anyone? Even her? That alone made her hesitate. Throw this away and she threw away a gift.

“Nobody can know, Eija. Do you understand?”

She glanced up, wide-eyed, at the one offering her the world—a whole new world and life.

The woman wore slacks and a blouse. Nothing fancy. But a lot nicer than anything Eija’s orphaned self ever wore. “If they find out, this all goes away. And there will be nothing here to return to. Am I clear?”

“Why me?”

“Look around you, Eija. The others—they’re hurting, too. That’s what we are supposed to change. They are the ones we need to protect; the ones who can’t do anything for themselves.” Her bright eyes seemed less blue just then. “So, tell me. Are you the warrior I think you to be?”

“But nobody from Tryss—”

“No. Never mention that place again. Do, and your dream of escape dies as soon as the name falls from your lips. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Patron.”

“So, what are you, then?”

“Napian,” she replied obediently.

Napian. By record only. But Eija had grown up on Tryssinia, where everyone was taught from birth to distrust the government, and the Academy was as close to government as one could get out in the black.

“Nice and easy, Z. Guide her in,” came the calm, unaffected tone of her flight training instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Sevart “Rhinn” Crafter. “That’s right.”

His words pushed her attention back to the panels. The simulation said it was right. So just shut up and do it. Pass the stupid test. If she failed, she wouldn’t get assigned to the Prevenire.

Eija’s vision blurred, and a thrum of heat against her palms warned her of a fatal mistake. Something beeped. She glanced down. Her thumb slid across the rounded surface of the control instruments. A small but significant gesture that shifted her trajectory.

Beep-beep-beep!

“Zacdari! What’re you scuzzing doing?”

Her gaze snapped to the blue ring gliding farther from the white blip of her craft on the screen. No. She couldn’t scuz this. Breathing a little harder, she jerked right.

Too hard! Too hard!

The sim ship decelerated sharply, and she could feel it itching for a spin.

Exiting slipstream at Kuru Station One in five . . . four . . .

“C’mon,” Eija muttered as she hit thrusters to compensate for the variance in distance. If she didn’t get it corrected soon, she’d fling into the atmosphere or collide with the station rings, which guided ships safely through Kuru to the anchor point station, where she’d dock.

According to the intelligence.

Which was slagged.

“Just . . . pass the . . . djelling test,” she murmured to herself.

The hard deceleration flipped her couch and pressed hard against her body, fluids snaking into her system to keep her from being crushed alive. The fast-attack craft finished its deceleration. But like everything in her life, it wasn’t enough. The first ring was barreling toward her. She tensed. Her sweaty hands slipped off the control. A whimper lashed out, fogging the helmet. “No no no,” she muttered.

Warnings glared in red block letters: Impact imminent. Alter course.

Eija tried to comply, but the ship shuddered as if it, too, were appalled by her insanity. The screen flashed searing white. Her fluids went cold, a painful punishment for failing the sim.

Like her own deflating hopes, the couch sagged and lowered her to the deck. Snakes retracted, sucking away her last vestige of self-respect. Growling, Eija pounded her console. With a huff, she extricated herself from the simulator.

“What the slag was that?” barked Gunny as the walls drew up.

A swarm of nerves invaded Eija at the sight of the forbidding former Eidolon charging across the simdeck. “It messed up—”

“No, that’s what you did!” Gunny growled. “You just blew up everyone on your ship, Corporal!”

Other Books in the Series

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About the Author

Ronie Kendig is an award-winning, bestselling author of over twenty-five titles. She grew up an Army brat, and now she and her Army-veteran husband live a short train ride from New York City with their twin sons and their fur-sons, VVolt N629 (retired military working dog) and Benning the Stealth Golden. Ronie’s degree in psychology has helped her pen novels of intense, raw characters.

Tour Schedule
(Posts go live on the day they’re scheduled.)

November 29th: Launch
November 30th: R.J. Anderson – Swift
December 1st: Ralene Burke – Armor of Aletheia
December 2nd: Michelle Diener – Breakaway
December 3rd: Sandra Fernandez Rhoads – Mortal Sight
December 4th: J.M. Hackman – Burn
December 5th: Sharon Hinck – Forsaken Island
December 6th: Ronie Kendig – Dawn of Vengeance
December 7th: Carla Laureano – Oath of the Brotherhood
December 8th: Belle Malory – Deviant Descendants
December 9th: Sara Schaller – The Genesis of Seven
December 10th: Jennifer Silverwood – Stay
December 11th: Anne Wheeler – Treason’s Crown
December 12th: Melissa Wright – Between Ink and Shadows
December 13th: Morgan Wylie – Silent Orchids
December 14th: Kristen Young – Apprentice
December 15th: Grand Finale

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a $75 (USD) Amazon eGift Card

Open internationally
Ends December 19, 2020

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On tour with Prism Book Tours

Breakaway
(The Verdant String #1)
By Michelle Diener
Sci-Fi Romance, Space Opera
Paperback & ebook, 282 Pages
October 8, 2018 by Eclipse

The planets of the Verdant String, the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems, comprise the Verdant String Coalition. This is the setting for a new science fiction romance series from award-winning science fiction romance novelist Michelle Diener. While the people of the Verdant String know they have a common ancestor, a group of explorers who colonised the planets at the same time a thousand or more years ago, the mysteries of who they were, and where they came from, persist.

Dee had been fighting one war, only to find herself caught up in another . . .

When circumstances leave Dee stranded on the Breakaway planet of Lassa, she has to choose–take the easy way out, or stand and fight an enemy much like the one she left behind on her home world of Garmen.

For Sebastian, leading the Lassian resistance has come at a heavy price. Forced to gamble the last of his resources on a risky ploy to get some leverage over the Core Companies that run Lassa, he stares defeat in the face when it fails. There’s no backup plan left. Nothing more to work with. And all around him, people are starving, and it looks as if the Cores have entered a deal with a hostile alien force, to enrich themselves even more.

But Dee inspires him. Even though it’s his fault she’s on Lassa to begin with, her courage and steady calm are the assets he needs, and unbeknownst to both of them, she has with her the key to bringing the Cores to their knees.

Now they just have to turn the lock in time.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

Leo Gaudier walked a dangerous path.

Sofie didn’t pretend that wasn’t part of what attracted her to him in the first place. She was all for sticking it to the Core Corporations. All for it with bells on.

And it didn’t hurt that she’d really liked the look of him since they’d met.

There’d been a little catch in her heart, a little hitch in her breath. A trembling, like fear or excitement. She’d never been affected like that before.

And it didn’t hurt that he’d been interested right back.

Well, generally men all seemed interested, all did a little chasing, but she wasn’t into hooking up with some guy in an Upper Reaches bar.

That wasn’t in her plan. She’d just been there to eavesdrop on loose-lipped Cores employees.

Until Leo.

Leo Gaudier was the first one she hadn’t actively run from too fast for him to catch her.

She’d run a little, but it was more out of habit.

He’d been just tenacious enough, but not obnoxious with it.

If she’d said no, it would have been no.

No matter how fast he made her heart beat, she’d never have taken the next step with him if it had been any other way.

Now she sat watching him on their third dinner out together with almost embarrassing stars in her eyes, even though the dangerous stuff he was into had just reared its head and interrupted their evening.

Because it was part of the package, and she’d already acknowledged she liked everything she saw when it came to Leo, she didn’t show so much as a flicker of displeasure when his comm sounded and he’d stood and excused himself from the table.

It wasn’t as if she was all that unencumbered herself. He just didn’t know it yet.

They were halfway through an excellent dinner at the best restaurant on Felicitos, the ground-tethered way station on the planet Garmen, otherwise known as Breakaway 1.

The views were spectacular.

From where she sat, up against the window, Sofie could see the curve of Garmen below, the blue of the ocean glimmering far in the distance as the last of the evening light touched it.

Higher up, in the levels of Felicitos that edged out beyond Garmen’s atmosphere, it was harder to see the details of the green, blue and rose planet.

Other Books in the Series

(Linked to Amazon affiliate links.)

About the Author

Michelle Diener is the bestselling, award-winning author of historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction. Her Class 5 science fiction romance series has won multiple awards, and her novel SKY RAIDERS won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Futuristic Romance. Michelle was born in London and currently lives in Australia with her husband and children.

Tour Schedule
(Posts go live on the day they’re scheduled.)

Tour Giveaway

One winner will receive a $75 (USD) Amazon eGift Card

Open internationally
Ends December 19, 2020

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On tour with Prism Book Tours

Tag: Space Opera

Spotlight & Excerpt: Dawn of Vengeance + Giveaway

Spotlight & Excerpt: Breakaway + Giveaway