Book Blitz & Excerpt: Flame & Shadow + Giveaway

Flame And Shadow Blitz Banner

Flame & Shadow
by AK Nevermore
(The Dae Diaries, #1)
Published by: The Wild Rose Press
Publication date: November 13th 2023
Genres: Adult, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Half-daemon Envy Starr is destined to die on Midsummer’s Eve, still a virgin, on some crappy cult’s live-stream feed. With thirty days left to live, the chance to escape her fate and get some action compels her into her absentee father’s world of beautifully cultured cruelty.

Once there, she’s the object of a deadly game, slated to alter the Fae realm’s power structure. Worse, the rules keep changing, and everyone has an ulterior motive, including her dae-licious guide, Brennan. Under a geas he’s desperate to break, she can’t trust him, or herself.

Stupid Stockholm syndrome.

But unless she can come to terms with what lies in her heart, her unlikely survival will be a fate worse than death. For her, and the rest of Fae.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks


EXCERPT:

I stabbed a stupid crepe, trying not to think about Kyle and Berk back in Vel. I was sure they were okay. I just wasn’t sure I’d ever see them again. Who was I kidding? They, and everyone else in the pub, would’ve written me off, and they’d be right to. I told you, getting snagged by a fae had a survival rate of zero. At least, nobody I’d ever heard of had come back to tell the tale.

Despite my cheery thoughts, I won’t lie, the crepes were just about the best thing I’d ever eaten. I figured I could die happy with them in my stomach. The imp seemed pleased when I said so and asked for seconds. As soon as I’d finished, the daemon tucked away his paper and lit a long, gold-filtered cigarette. The imp came back with espresso. I was feeling fancy and had mine with a twist.

“Thanks for that with the golem… I mean, it was a golem…?”

He blew out a long stream of smoke. It was a gross habit, but he made it look worth taking up. “Yes, and you’re welcome.”

“Uh, any idea why it was there?”

“For you, otherwise it wouldn’t have revealed itself.”

He didn’t seem particularly concerned, but my mouth went dry. Had he been watching me? Did he have anything to do with the dae Calista had been screwing? And more importantly:

“Are you going to eat me?”

He took another drag and raised a gorgeous eyebrow at me. “Would you like me to?”

Yeah, I just about died. That totally wasn’t what I meant.

 

Author Bio:

AK Nevermore enjoys operating heavy machinery, freebases coffee, and gives up sarcasm for Lent every year. A Jane-of-all-trades, she’s a certified chef, restores antiques, and dabbles in beekeeping when she’s not reading voraciously or running down the dream in her beat-up camo Chucks.

Unable to ignore the voices in her head, and unwilling to become medicated, she writes Science Fiction and Fantasy full time.

She pays the bills editing, wielding a wicked hot pink pen and writing a column on SFF. She also belongs to the Authors Guild, is a chapter treasurer for the RWA, teaches creative writing, and on the rare occasion, sleeps.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / TikTok


GIVEAWAY!
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Book Blitz & Excerpt: Wicked Coven + Giveaway

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Wicked Coven
by A.S. Green
(Cursed Descendants, #1)
Publication date: September 5th 2023
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Urban Fantasy

Stella Aldren, a talented witch from Salem, has been chosen by her coven to fulfill a seventeenth-century curse that can only end in death.

If Stella doesn’t want to get herself killed, she needs to find Ethan Mather—the infamous witch hunter’s descendant who’s running for governor—pluck a hair from his head, make a poppet of his sexy-as-sin self, and…strike him dead.

No muss. No fuss. But when Stella stalks her prey at a political gala, sparks fly. And it’s more than their combustible sexual attraction. There’s an unforeseen and unknown magic swirling around the mysterious and devastatingly handsome candidate, and Stella can’t bring herself to kill him.

At least not until she discovers who Ethan Mather really is.

Unfortunately, Stella isn’t the only curious witch in town. A second coven from Boston’s underbelly has Ethan in their sights, putting Stella in the middle of a war between covens. One that wants him dead. And one that wants his power for their own dark deeds.

Now Stella is faced with an impossible choice: kill the enemy she’s falling for…or betray her coven by letting him live, putting herself in their crosshairs instead.

Fans of K.F. Breene, Kim Richardson, and Charissa Weaks will soon become obsessed with this enemies-to-lovers, steamy paranormal romance.

Goodreads / Amazon


On sale for 99¢ for a limited time!

**ALSO! There are 12 pop culture witches hidden in the book. Find all 12 (or as many as you can) and be entered to win prizes. Contest ends on Halloween. Details are inside the book cover!**


EXCERPT:

Ethan Mather spun Stella toward a corner of the dance floor, then suddenly stopped and pulled her so close she straddled his leg.

“The way you dance,” she said. “It should be criminal.”

Ethan’s eyes sparked with humor. “I’m surprised you think so.”

“I could surprise you in more ways than that,” Stella said, wishing she could think of a spell that would put him in his place without calling her out as a witch.

“Do you feel that?” he asked. His gaze bore into hers.

“People staring at us? Yeah, I feel it.” Not that she blamed anyone. Ethan in his tux. Her O.T.T. dress. The fact that they’d been holding this highly provocative pose for way too long… Who wouldn’t want to watch to see what happened next?

“No,” he said. “This. Do you feel this?”

He tightened his arm around her waist, and Stella’s magic surged, heating her chest and sizzling through her veins.

Oh, yeah. She felt it all right. The pulsing sense of power was impossible to ignore. She only wished she knew what it meant.

 

Author Bio:

USA Today bestselling author A.S. Green lives in chilly Minnesota and spends the all-too-short summers on Lake Superior, which is the muse for her paranormal and contemporary romances. She writes complex characters, action-packed plots, and snarky in-your-face banter. And, of course, loads of steamy love scenes.

When she’s not writing romance, she’s probably watching Outlander or pleading (unsuccessfully) with her husband to don the kilt she bought him last summer.

You can find her on most social platforms at @asgreenbooks. For the latest news – and to get your hands on exclusive content – subscribe to A.S. Green’s newsletter today (asgreenbooks.com)!

Goodreads / Bookbub / Twitter / Instagram


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Spotlight & Excerpt: The Rise of the Raidin + Giveaway

THE RISE OF THE RAIDIN

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE RISE OF THE RAIDIN by Susan L. Markloff Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

Title: THE RISE OF THE RAIDIN
(The Human-Born Era #1)

Author: Susan L. Markloff

Pub. Date: November 1, 2021

Publisher: Susan L. Markloff

Formats:  Paperback, eBook

Pages: 367

Find it: Goodreads, books2read

Read for FREE with a Kindle Unlimited membership!

 

2022 Readers’ Favorite Winner for YA Urban Fantasy.

Jennifer Monroe is an average eighteen-year-old girl, and she knows it.

Which is precisely why no one—least of all herself—would suspect anything extraordinary from the quiet, boring girl who only has a few good friends to call her own. But that all got flipped on its head about a year ago, when two imposing men, a complete goofball, a werewolf, and two large four-legged creatures barged into her life.

Now over a year later, Jen leads a double life. Mild mannered, quiet, high schooler by day; dragon slayer and raw-energy-wielding-warrior (in training) by night. Juggling SAT scores, papers, and mastering the art of flying, she’s managed to keep her friends and family oblivious of her hybrid abilities and continue on a track for college. Everything was going swimmingly.

Until one normal, foggy, November morning, when a dragon crashed through the clouds, heralding a small army to descend on her high school.

All for little, forgettable her.

Making her realize that maybe there’s a whole lot more going on than she originally thought.


Reviews:

“A must-read, action-packed adventure that combines the real-life challenges of high school with that of an epic, otherworldly armageddon. I highly suggest The Rise of the Raidin for YA fantasy fans—you won’t be disappointed!” – Reedsy Discovery, ★★★★★

“Susan L Markloff has pulled off a fantastic story here, with depth of plot and characters that leave you wanting to read more. Young Adult Fantasy readers will find a whole world to love in The Rise of Raidin, and the premise fits nicely within the genre. Superbly written, with great humor and attention paid to each character that makes the whole read thoroughly enjoyable.” – ManyBooks

“A highly original YA urban fantasy, The Rise of the Raidin is an engaging mixture of everyday high school pressures, and the pressure of confronting mythical beasts. The well-choreographed action scenes and snappy dialogue result in a work of YA fantasy that will satisfy traditional YA readers and fantasy readers alike.” – Self-Publishing Review, ★★★★

The Rise of the Raidin delivers an original take on dragons and dragon slayers with a secret world, a double life, coming-of-age discovery, and action-packed fight scenes.” – Reader’s Favorite, ★★★★★

The Rise of the Raidin is an exceptional science fiction/high fantasy novel that will appeal to fans of those genres, as well as readers who enjoy high school drama.”-  BookLife, ★★★★


Excerpt:

Training in the Dark 

Ar’on smacked her shoulder with his wooden practice sword, and  she let out a yelp, hopping a little toward the side to avoid any further hits. He frowned and rolled his eyes with a small shake of his  head. An exasperated sigh left him as he let his arms fall, the sword  rocking back and forth in his loose grip.

“You’re still not guarding properly,” Tyron said from the corner  of the room, his arms crossed as he surveyed his charge’s progress.  He resisted the urge to remind her, again, that she was supposed to  focus on her opponent’s movements.

Rolling her eyes, Jennifer Monroe rubbed her wounded shoulder  as she looked over at Tyron. “You’re having me train with a wooden  sword; what could this possibly teach me about fighting with energy?”  She was only eighteen, still young in any hybrid’s eyes, but picked  up fighting tactics faster than he would have anticipated, especially  considering she had only been aware of her abilities as a Human Born for a little over a year.

She was short and athletically built, but never would he consider  her tiny. Her medium-length brown hair framed her face, sometimes  obscuring her hazel eyes when her bangs got too long. She usually  had her hair hidden under a baseball cap when she trained to keep  the locks from flying into her face.

Tyron’s gaze hardened as he pushed himself off the wall and  made his way to the middle of the room where they stood. “It’s not  about the weapon.” He took the practice sword from Ar’on, and the  elder warrior stepped aside as the Team Leader took his place. “It’s  about how you wield it. Your energy is a part of you, and any good  swordsman will tell you that a blade is an extension of themselves.  The great ones learn to treat it like a part of their bodies. You need  to learn to do the same in order to keep your power in check.”

“In check of what?” She shrugged. “I thought I was wielding  it pretty well.” To accentuate her point, she held her left hand out  and twinged her fingers a bit as smokey blue tendrils flew around  her digits.

Flicking the tip of his sword at her hand, Tyron smacked her  and the energy dissipated.

“Hey—”

“You don’t have full control of it yet. Being so lackadaisical  about it will only lull you into a false sense of confidence. That’s the  worst thing you could do.”

Jen let out a disgruntled sigh. “What harm could it possibly do?” “That’s a loaded question.”

“It wasn’t a question.”

“It sounded like one,” Tyron said as he lifted his sword. Mirroring his stance, she was quiet for a few seconds before  she said, “I really do want to know.”

“You might hurt yourself, or someone else, or you could blow  something up for all we know,” he said as he jabbed forward. With a  clack, clack, clack, the wood met in succession as he gently pushed her backward. Jen hopped with each movement fluidly, just as she had  seen on shows and in movies. A simple movement. He was testing  her on something, but she didn’t know what.

“I can’t blow things up,” she said sarcastically. When Tyron didn’t  respond or move, she jutted her sword forward. He countered, and  she pushed forward again, trying to force him backward. He kept  his feet grounded, and despite her efforts to move him, he blocked  each of her blows effortlessly and sent her stumbling back.

“We don’t know that,” he said as the wood clanked with each hit. “You don’t know anything about my energy,” she retorted,  getting ever angrier as he calmly and easily deflected her attacks. He wasn’t breaking a sweat, but she could feel her pulse beginning to speed up, trying to get some movement out of him. Every  now and then, she might cause him to lean back slightly, but his  feet never moved. She could swear not a single hair on his head  shifted. Jen felt like she was dancing around, trying to find his  vulnerable spot.

A smile tugged at his lips as he watched her struggle. “We know  that it’s just like ours, but stronger. That being said, you should learn  the basics. No one’s above the basics.”

Her frustration bubbling, Jen jabbed forward and let out a small  yell. Tyron side-stepped and brought his blade around, smacking  her in the back with little effort. He didn’t hold back on the power  behind his hit, though.

He wasn’t going easy on her. He never did. Clearly, he had never  learned to not hit girls when he was growing up.

As Jen fell to her knees and let out a hiss, he said, “No one here  would doubt for a second that you’re powerful, Jen. But all that  means is that your energy needs to be treated with even more care  than a normal hybrid.”

She glared at him from over her shoulder. “Was that necessary?” “You’re not thinking through your attacks.” He placed the tip of the sword on the ground and leaned against the hilt. “You’re just… flailing the weapon at your enemy, hoping it’ll connect. You’re not  actually taking in their advantages or disadvantages. It’s like your  mentality is that you’ll wear them down.”

“Maybe that method works,” she said, gritting her teeth as she  stood. Gently touching her back, she felt the muscles flinch at her  soft inspection. It was going to bruise, and badly. She hated that he  never held back. He never treated her like a fragile human.

Sure, fine, she wasn’t a fragile human, but it still hurt to be  whacked with the full strength of a Chief Master of the Agerian  Defense.

Tyron tilted his head slightly and scrunched his face. “Mm,  that’s not likely.”

“Look, it works in video games,” she said, deadpan. He sniggered. “Right, because that’s the best argument for why  things should work in reality.” He closed the distance between them  and snatched the sword from her. Turning around, he walked to the  far wall and put the swords back on the racks.

“Did you have to hit me so hard?” she whined.

“A little bruising never killed anyone,” Ar’on said from his spot  in the corner.

“Easy for you to say.”

The elder hybrid grinned, an action that showcased his wrinkles  most prominently, and said, “Trust me when I say that I’ve had my  fair share of sore mornings.”

“Sure you have.”

“We’re going to keep working on this,” Tyron proclaimed,  walking back toward her. “These methods will help you learn how  to focus what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You can’t just  go shooting your energy around like a leaf in the wind.”

Jen let out a short breath before she said, “Hypothetical question.”

“Okay…”

“Let’s say there are enemies around, and only enemies. And,  like, you’re not there. And no one’s there. And it’s just me.” “Jen,” Tyron said with a slightly bored look.

“Let’s just say I’m alone, and I get attacked. And there’s no one  around that could get hurt.” She shrugged. “What’s to say I can’t  just unleash some energy then?”

Tyron glanced at Ar’on before returning his gaze to her. “I’m  not saying never use your energy. I’m saying you need to learn how  to properly wield it so you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else.”

She glanced at the swords hanging on the wall and asked as she  pointed at them, “And those will help with that?”

With a nod, he said, “Yes.” As she opened her mouth to say  something, he held up a finger and added, “With time and practice.” As though he were asking her to do a dance recital in front of  the whole school, she grumbled, “Fine.”

“You’ll thank me for this, eventually.” Glancing at his watch,  he continued, “All right, it’s almost two. You’d better get home and  get some sleep before—”

“Tyron!”

All three of them turned toward the doorway where a five-foot  tall, tan grovix, named Archer, skidded to a stop just past the thresh old. Archer had a more canine structure to his face, with big ears  that sat erect on his head, and large feet. Jen had never asked, but  she thought it was fair to guess that Archer’s weight rivaled a lion’s. “There’s a Ferveos loose,” Archer said.

“What?” Tyron asked, pulling his brow together.

There was a swirl of silver dust, and a lean man appeared in  front of the grovix, lackadaisically holding a tablet. Called a Jumper,  he had the ability to shift into and out of the third and fifth dimensions. He used it in a cavalier manner, frequently choosing to close  the distance between floors rather than towns. Krelien easily could be called the most fashionable of the group and, without a doubt,  the shortest.

“Hey, there’s a Ferveos out in a cow field.”

“Hey, dingus, I said I would get them,” Archer barked. “Obviously, not fast enough,” Krelien said with a smirk. He  turned back toward the others. “It’s like fifteen miles from here.” The Alpha Team Leader flitted his eyes around the room for a  moment before he turned to Jen, who stared at him apprehensively.  A little uneasily, Tyron asked her, “You up for slaying a dragon?”


 

About Susan L. Markloff:

2022 Readers’ Favorite Award Winner.

Susan Markloff spent a majority of her childhood pretending to live in other worlds. Coupled with her admiration for fantastical stories, she crafted one of her own. Studying writing at Houghton College, she learned how to hone her skills as an author, writing first drafts of five books during her college career. The Rise of the Raidin is her debut novel and the first in the Human-Born Era series. Susan resides in her hometown of Sellersville, PA with her faithful dog, Pinkerton.

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


Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive signed finished copies of THE HUMAN-BORN ERA series, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ends July 4th, midnight EST.


Tour Schedule:

Week One:

6/19/2023

#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog

Excerpt/IG Post

6/19/2023

YA Books Central

Interview/IG Post

6/20/2023

A Dream Within A Dream

Guest Post

6/20/2023

Kim’s Book Reviews and Writing Aha’s

Review/IG Post

6/21/2023

Two Chicks on Books

Excerpt/IG Post

6/21/2023

Cara North

Excerpt/IG Post

6/22/2023

the original B00K nerd

Review/IG Post

6/22/2023

Sadie’s Spotlight

Excerpt/IG Post

6/23/2023

A Blue Box Full of Books

Review/IG Post

6/23/2023

Locks, Hooks and Books

Review

Week Two:

6/26/2023

Thealylifestyle

Excerpt/IG Post

6/26/2023

@paperback.princess22

Review/IG Post

6/27/2023

Nerdophiles

Review

6/27/2023

Jaime_of_gryffindor

IG Review

6/28/2023

OneMoreExclamation

Review/IG Post

6/28/2023

@jlreadstoperpetuity

IG Review/TikTok Post

6/29/2023

Country Mamas With Kids

Review/IG Post

6/29/2023

@froggyreadteach

IG Review

6/30/2023

The Momma Spot

Review

6/30/2023

Confessions of the Perfect Mom

Review/IG Post

 

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