Book Blitz & Excerpt: Through the Veneer of Time + Giveaway

THROUGH THE VENEER OF TIME RDB

I am so excited that THROUGH THE VENEER OF TIME by Vera Bell is available now and that I get to share the news!

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.

Title: THROUGH THE VENEER OF TIME

Author: Vera Bell

Pub. Date: April 3, 2023

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

Formats: Paperback, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 470

Find it: Goodreads, books2read

 

How far would you go to fulfill your terrifying ancient vow?

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo meets Outlander in this “hauntingly beautiful debut” (Julie McElwain, A Murder in Time). Take a plunge into this mind-blowing, genre-bending world of historical fantasy, suspense, romance, and time travel.

If not for “The Ghost”—her FBI husband’s gruesome case—Siena Forte’s life would have been perfect. But not when the D.C. serial killer is hunting women like her, and when her husband is so unsettled by this case, he refuses to discuss it. It’s a miracle her art career is thriving at all. And not only her career.

When Siena lands a medieval mural commission at the National Gallery of Art, she discovers a bizarre knack for astral projecting to her past life. In a lucky strike, her visions of love and prominence in medieval Ireland are just the creative inspiration she seeks.

What Siena doesn’t know is her vivid depiction of the past exposes her to someone she has met before—the serial killer, reborn in this century just like her. But when a vicious attack from the past reverberates into the present, Siena’s life unravels in a chilling parallel.

Silenced and alone, she discovers the true reason for her visions. They’re not the creative inspiration they seemed, but a harbinger of her centuries-old revenge vow, and the killer cannot be stopped until she fulfills it. But there is another person from the past with unfinished business—her husband. And another unwelcome déjà vu—their crumbling marriage, once again precipitated by the serial killer’s crime.


EXCERPT ONE 

His words were a blast that made something inside me snap.
Why couldn’t I unlock my  eyes from his? Unclench my knees despite an unbearable compulsion to run? I dug my fingernails  into my sweaty palms to break the paralysis, drove the graphite shards into my flesh. 

“Do you ever wonder what becomes of your characters?” His vacuous smile didn’t reach  his eyes. “What comes after your painstaking freeze-frame? Your warrior—” He pointed his chin  at the mural. “He’s cocky, but he doesn’t know what he’s riding into. Yet hours from now, he could be lying in some field, stripped of his weapons, bleeding out into the ground as the vultures  peck at his baby blues.” His eyes widened.
“Leaving his beautiful young widow all alone.”  

His impossibly soft voice was a ringing blow in my ears. A tremor braced my throat. I drew  a frantic breath against it.  

“I’m sorry,” I squeezed out, “I’m not sure I follow.” 

“I’m sure you do.” He chuckled. “But don’t look so stricken,
Siena Forte. It’s only a  painting, a fantasy. Nothing more.” 

“Excuse me…” I edged past him, cold all over. 

I rushed into the nearest restroom, tossed the broken graphite into the trash can, and  locked myself in a stall. I hugged myself. Tight. Tighter. Gasped for air, not drawing any. My vision  swam at the edges. Flickering. Fading. My heart thudded, and breath came faster in my chest,  choking me. 

Fragments of his words whirred around me, and I grasped my head to stop the awful  cacophony. But it wouldn’t stop. The image he drew cut like a knife, piercing through something  soft and vulnerable inside.
Something I’d buried deep down and wished to keep that way. But  he’d driven it to the surface and laid it out in the open, raw and exposed. 

Someone entered the restroom, and I froze at the squeak of the adjoining stall door. But  it was only a pair of black pumps through the divider gap. Heartbeat in my ears, I dropped the  toilet lid and sat down. 

Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat. 

Worgen was a narcissistic egomaniac, pissed off at not getting his way. Certainly, he could  neither read my mind nor know anything about my visions. He was messing with me. Of course,  he was!
Pygmalion was a mythical sculptor, whose ivory creation came to life after he’d fallen in  love with her. And here I was, a female artist, painting a man.
As for the widow, it wasn’t a big  leap to imagine a handsome warrior leaving a young wife at home. Worgen didn’t have to know  about me to understand this mental image would upset me.  

I couldn’t tell how long I stayed in the restroom, but I emerged more determined than  ever to continue with my project. I only needed to go outside and get some fresh air first. But  Worgen was still there, talking to a visitor, and the only way out was past him. I clenched my jaw and went toward them.

All content subject to copyright © Vera Bell 2023. All rights reserved. 


About Vera Bell:

Vera Bell is the author of the time-travel romance trilogy Always & Forever, set in sixteenth-century  Ireland and present-day United States. Book One, Through the Veneer of Time, is her debut novel.  Besides being a writer, she is a wife to her high-school sweetheart, a mother to two teenagers and  one fur baby, a former commercial artist and boutique owner, and a member of the Historical Novel  Society, Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and Romance Writers of America. Her favorite place  to write is on her porch, overlooking a pond lined with river birches and magnolias. The topics she  never tires of are Ireland, past lives, and love that transcends time and space.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Pinterest | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub


 Giveaway Details:

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

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ends May 2nd, midnight EST.

Book Blitz & Excerpt: The Acadian Secret + Giveaway

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The Acadian Secret
by Tammy Lowe
(The Acadian Secret, #1)
Published by: The Wild Rose Press
Publication date: August 10th 2022
Genres: Action, Adventure, Time-Travel, Young Adult

Nova Scotia has kept an incredible secret for centuries. In 1795, sixteen-year-old John Smith, convinced he’s found buried treasure, digs down into a mysterious pit on a small island.

​In present day Nova Scotia, twelve-year-old Elisabeth London knows there’s no such thing as magic, but when she finds herself in 17th century Scotland, she no longer knows what to think. While under the guardianship of a kind-hearted Highlander, Elisabeth discovers his ancestral home holds a mystery of its own.

​As John continues to dig the strange pit, he inadvertently begins the longest running, most expensive, and deadliest treasure hunt in history. Now, Elisabeth London and John Smith each try to unravel the secrets consuming them, unaware that a tormented young man holds the string weaving all of their lives together.

​For Elisabeth, the adventure is just beginning. Unless her parents discover she’s time-travelling. Then…she is so grounded.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo


EXCERPT:

As the evening sun wandered behind the mountains, it cast an emerald glow across a glen. The valley was dotted with boulders, rocks, and drifts of bright yellow flowering bushes that blanketed the rolling hills, perfuming the air with a coconut scent. A small river twisted its way toward a distant forest. Overhead, a hawk screeched while soaring across an endless blue sky, declaring its vast territory to other hawks.

A dog yelped, over and over and over again.

Awakened by the barking, Elisabeth’s eyes narrowed in confusion. Her chest tightened as she sat up. “What the—?”

A huge, hairy boar, with razor-sharp tusks, lunged into the nearby brambles.

With a gasp, Elisabeth scrambled behind a large rock. Her breath hitched as her mind raced to make sense of the surrounding scenery.

That’s when a hunter, with a short beard and wild black hair that gave him a crazed look, came galloping over the crest of a hill on horseback. “Good boy, Talbot,” he yelled when the dog lunged into the brambles after the wild pig. The angry grunts of the boar filtered through the thick shrub.

Elisabeth leaped back, ducking low to hide behind the boulder. One hand pressed tight across her mouth.

The clip-clop stomping of the horse’s hooves sounded closer. Then, the hunter’s voice rose in pitch as his piercing blue-green eyes stared down at her, crouched in the heather. “What the devil…?”

A cold chill ran up her spine when he dismounted. His head cocked slightly to the side, and she realized his hearing focused on the dog and the boar as he drew closer.

Bending to peer at her, the hunter scratched his cheek. “You all right, lass?”

Elisabeth’s muscles tightened and she drew her head back sharply. “Yep. Fine.”

“Then…what are ye doing out here?” he asked in an uncertain tone while helping her to her feet. “Dressed in naught but…that?”

Elisabeth’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.

“Well, you’re lucky I found you before—” The silence in the valley now broken, Talbot howled, the boar squealed, and Elisabeth backed away with quick, jerky steps.

“Dinnae move, lass,” he ordered in a steady, low-pitched voice while reaching for his dagger.

Elisabeth gasped for air, watching the enraged boar desert its hiding spot in the brambles and charge toward the dog, its lethal tusks ready to kill.

Talbot seemed well-trained so, instead of turning tail and running, he danced backward, facing the pig, luring it away from his master. With the boar now in pursuit of the dog, the hunter ran at the beast as if he were a wild animal himself. Jumping on the boar from behind, he grabbed its ear, yanked its head up, and slashed its throat.

Elisabeth’s heart pounded, and she gripped the sides of her head.

The hunter jumped off the boar as it fell limp at his feet and cleaned the blade on the carcass before putting it away. He then walked toward Elisabeth, his bloody hands held in front of him.

“You’ve got a knife.” Elisabeth whimpered as her gaze darted from the enormous man dressed in a skirt to the ragtag group of hunters who came cantering over the crest of the hill.

“Aye, and a sword.” He smirked while pointing at it. “I’m not going to harm you, though. I’m hunting.”

“Hunting what? Little girls?” Not waiting for an answer, she bolted, heading for the distant forest.

The hunter took a step back and chuckled as Elisabeth made her great escape in slow motion, hindered terribly by bare feet.

“You’re completely mad!” he shouted while mounting his horse, motioning to the arriving men to deal with the boar carcass.

The black warhorse was as large and intimidating as the hunter and the animal’s powerful legs kicked up tall grass and thistles as it galloped along. The sound of its hooves seemed amplified as it neared Elisabeth.

Without needing to slow his horse, he reached down, scooped Elisabeth into his arms, and placed her in the saddle in front of him. She let out a sharp scream.

“There. Now be a good lass. I promise I’m not going to hurt you. You’re on my land so I know you’re not from these parts. I cannot leave you alone out here. It’s not safe and will soon be dark.”

A wave of coldness caused Elisabeth to tremble. She had no idea where she was and no recollection of arriving. When the hunter wrapped her in his plaid and nudged his horse on, Elisabeth’s shoulders tightened. She remained silent, bringing a shaky hand to her forehead while trying to figure out what the heck was going on. This definitely wasn’t Mahone Bay anymore.



Author Bio:

An adventurer at heart, Tammy has explored ruins in Rome, Pompeii, and Istanbul (Constantinople) with historians and archaeologists.

She’s slept in the tower of a 15th century castle in Scotland, climbed down the cramped tunnels of Egyptian pyramids, scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, sailed on a tiny raft down the Yulong River in rural China, dined at a Bedouin camp in the Arabian Desert, and escaped from head-hunters in the South Pacific.

I suppose one could say her own childhood wish of time traveling adventures came true…in a roundabout way.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Pinterest


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Book Blitz & Excerpt: Keys of Fate, by Georgiana Kent

BANNER Keys of Fate by Georgiana Kent
Welcome to Magic Pen Book Tours‘ organized release blitz for Keys of Fate by Georgiana Kent taking place July 18-22, 2022! The second book in the YA urban fantasy time traveling series of Soul Dominion. Perfect for readers who like a heady mix of adventure, fantasy, mystery and romance.
Georgiana Kent ebook
Title: Keys of Fate
Series: Soul Dominion #2
Author: Georgiana Kent
Genre/Tropes: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Romance / Time Travel
Release Date: July 18, 2022
BLURB

Fate can be cruel

Left devastated by the attack, Erica is thrown ever deeper into the shadows of Limbo society. And she is in danger. Someone is hunting GateKeepers like her, hunting and killing them. But why?

And then there’s her family past – the one her mother’s kept hidden all her life. The one that impacts not only Erica’s future but Guy’s too. Are they ready to face their Fate?

Though, these are the least of her problems. The army of Lost Souls, led by their mysterious commander, is preparing to strike…

Welcome to Keys of Fate, Book Two in Georgiana Kent’s Soul Dominion series, where KeyMasters, quondams, and Færies collide in mankind’s fight for survival. Perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices.

This is the second part of a trilogy – one story over three books – and not a standalone book.

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PURCHASE LINKS
Free in Kindle Unlimited
GET BOOK 1, KEYS OF TIME on AMAZON
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EXCERPT

He reached for her face and she trembled at his touch as he wiped away a tear.

Since when had she started crying?

“I know. Everything’s changing and you’re not sure what to believe anymore. But I won’t let anything happen to you, Erica. I promise. Whatever the truth is, we’ll discover it together.” His voice was thick with emotion.

He tilted up her chin and leant down and, after a moment’s hesitation, his lips were on hers.

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AUTHOR BIO
Georgiana Kent Profile pic
Georgiana Kent has always been creative and loves telling stories of fantasy worlds filled with magic, mystic and more. She is currently writing two young adult series set in her KeyMaster Chronicles universe: KeyMaster Origins and Soul Dominion are urban fantasies on an epic scale. Filled with a host of strong, diverse characters waiting for you to fall in love with.
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