Release Announcement: The Code of Magic

Magic has risen from ancient Babylon all the way to Chicago as Curiosity Quills Press announces the publication of David D. Hammons’ third novel, a Middle-Grade Fantasy full of monster-hunting adventure. The book will be released February 29, 2016 in the US.

There's a monster in Alex's backyard. He doesn't know how it got there, but with his parents refusing to help, Alex must capture it on his own. When he does, a monster hunting Keeper comes to claim it. Alex follows the Keeper to the world of Edin, a preserve for monsters run by magic-wielders. Aboard the Keeper's airship, and with his giant socket wrench-wielding monster companion, Alex must learn the art of magic if he hopes to stay in this wondrous world. But as he trains with the other children in the fortress of Babili, rumors begin that the Heretic Pharaoh has returned, and Alex's new home is in danger.

THE CODE OF MAGIC will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, Smashwords, and local retailers. You can find Hammons’ earlier books, ALICE TAKES BACK WONDERLAND and DON’T EAT THE GLOWING BANANAS at these retailers as well.

David D. Hammons has started working as a full-time author and editor after traveling the world learning about ancient cultures and modern myths. He is an adjunct professor of Logistics at Missouri State University and lives in his hometown of Springfield, Missouri.

Release Day Party: Darkly, Deeply, Beautifully

Darkly, Deeply, Beautifully Release Day Party: 16 February

 

Blurb

DARKNESS HAS FALLEN, AND SHE ALONE WILL SEE THE LIGHT.

With her mother’s life hanging in the balance, Scarlett is devastated – and done with being in the dark. She wants answers, all of them.

But when was her pursuit of the truth ever straightforward?

Pulling a single thread impels a great unravelling. And each revelation will force Scarlett to rethink what she thought she knew about the Ceruleans, the Fallen, her family – herself.

All that came before was a mere prelude to this, the last journey. From London to Twycombe to Hollythwaite to Cerulea, Scarlett will be stalked by the ghosts of what has been, what may have been and what may come to pass. Until she reaches the place where it all began, and it all must end.

But in the final reckoning, none will survive unscathed. And some will not survive at all.

In this explosive conclusion to The Ceruleans series, all must be defined by their actions: sinner, saint… or something more beautiful entirely? 

Excerpt

I kissed Luke then. I kissed him. Like I hadn’t kissed him in more than a week – since before London, since before Hollythwaite, since Barcelona: when we’d been just a regular couple on a city break, wrapped up in each other. Through the kiss I heard his sigh, the release of emotion. And then he pulled me to him, onto his lap, and I kissed his lips, his jaw, his collarbone, his shoulder, and he kissed my lips, my earlobe, my neck, my –

‘No!’

My robe had slipped, exposing my back, and I struggled off him and wrestled with the fabric entangled at my waist.

He stood up. Put his hands on my shoulders. Said my name with so much tenderness that I had to stop. Had to look at him. The room was steamy, the glass doors occluded. No one could see. Only him.

‘Trust me,’ he said.

I did.

Slowly, he turned me. I steeled myself as he took it in, the brand I now wore. Non Serviam. I will not serve. Emblazoned on my back in the form of angry, jagged scar tissue.

When I felt his lips on the nape of my neck, I jerked in shock. But his hands on my hips held me still as he traced the path of the scar, one kiss at a time, from its very top to its termination just above my bikini bottoms.

‘Beautiful,’ he said.

I turned to him. He smiled up at me.

Sinking down so that we were both kneeling, I said, ‘How could you…?’

‘How could I not?’ was his answer. ‘I was there, Scarlett. I saw what you did for your mother. That scar: it’s beautiful.’

‘But it’s a punishment, Luke. Because I sinned. That’s not beautiful. It’s dark. Wrong.’

‘No! Don’t you say that. Trying to save your mother – that could never be wrong. If I’d had the chance, I’d have done it. My mum, my dad, Cara… I’d have saved them all. And you. I would always save you.’

His eyes were glistening, and I lunged for him and hugged him hard.

‘So stop hiding it from me,’ he finished, his voice muffled in my hair. ‘Please. Because I love that scar on you so goddam much.’

I nodded into his shoulder and he squeezed me.

It was calm in our little haven. Still. Warm. Nothing existed but Luke and me. We held each other for a long time, drifting in the haze.

And then Luke sat back and said, ‘So, you and me. We’re good?’

‘We’re good,’ I told him. Then I frowned and added: ‘For now. You know, Gabe, the Fallen: I have no idea what we’re getting into.’

‘Me either.’ He reached out a finger and drew, in the condensation on the glass door, a little lightbulb. ‘But whatever lies ahead,’ he said, ‘it has to be better than living in the dark.

Buy links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkly-Deeply-Beautifully-Ceruleans-Book-ebook/dp/B0183XAE2O

http://www.amazon.com/Darkly-Deeply-Beautifully-The-Ceruleans-ebook/dp/B0183XAE2O

Megan Tayte Bio

Once upon a time a little girl told her grandmother that when she grew up she wanted to be a writer. Or a lollipop lady. Or a fairy princess fireman. ‘Write, Megan,’ her grandmother advised. So that’s what she did.

Thirty-odd years later, Megan is a professional writer and published author by day, and an indie novelist by night. Her fiction – young adult romance with soul – recently earned her the SPR’s Independent Woman Author of the Year award.

Megan grew up in the Royal County, a hop, skip and a (very long) jump from Windsor Castle, but these days she makes her home in a village of Greater Manchester. She lives with her husband, a proud Scot who occasionally kicks back in a kilt; her son, a budding artist with the soul of a palaeontologist; and her baby daughter, a keen pan-and-spoon drummer who sings in her sleep. When she's not writing, you'll find her walking someplace green, reading by the fire, or creating carnage in the kitchen as she pursues her impossible dream: of baking something edible.

You can find Megan online at:
http://megantayte.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478850.Megan_Tayte
https://www.facebook.com/megantayte
https://twitter.com/megantayte
https://www.instagram.com/megantayte/

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February Fiesta Blog Tour: Hannah Fielding

Introducing… Hannah Fielding

Hannah Fielding is an incurable romantic. The seeds for her writing career were sown in early childhood, spent in Egypt, when she came to an agreement with her governess Zula: for each fairy story Zula told, Hannah would invent and relate one of her own. Years later – following a degree in French literature, several years of travelling in Europe, falling in love with an Englishman, the arrival of two beautiful children and a career in property development – Hannah decided after so many years of yearning to write that the time was now. Today, she lives the dream: writing full time at her homes in Kent, England, and the South of France, where she dreams up romances overlooking breath-taking views of the Mediterranean.

To date, Hannah has published four passionate, evocative novels: Burning Embers, a ‘romance like Hollywood used to make’, set in Kenya; the award-winning Echoes of Love, ‘an epic love story that is beautifully told’, set in Italy; and books 1 and 2 of the Andalusian Nights trilogy, set in sultry Spain, entitled Indiscretion and Masquerade. She is currently working on her fifth book, Legacy, which will publish this spring.

Hannah Fielding

A glimpse of The Echoes of Love

He held out his hand to help her aboard and as she prepared to step down into the launch, Venetia let go of the big black-and-white striped mooring pole. The boat rocked and she faltered, losing her balance. She would have been sent reeling down into the slimy water had not Paolo, with remarkable deftness, caught her, and she fell against his chest, the breath smashed from her breast. 

The hands on her upper arms were iron-hard. The length of his body was so close to hers that she was unable to stop her own body’s response as once again a heat darted down inside her. Paolo murmured something into her hair which she did not grasp, and she looked up, what seemed an infinite distance, into blue irises so bright that they appeared almost like sapphires. Her mind emptied.

For a long moment they stared at each other, oblivious of everything else. Paolo pulled Venetia a little tighter against him and her hand slipped down to his chest. She could feel the steady thump of his heart under her fingers and sensed the warmth of his skin radiating through his clothes. His muscular body was lean and hard, and the spicy fragrance of his aftershave tinged with tobacco went straight to her head. His face was so close now that she could see the deep creases at the side of his eyes and his mouth, and other faint lines, a little lighter, which stood out on his parchment-tanned skin. Up this close, he looked older, with a few stray threads of grey in his thick black hair. Despite the noise and the pandemonium surrounding them, they stood clasped together as though alone in the world.

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Review: Sunrise Meets the Star

Title: Sunrise Meets the Star
Author: Victoria Bastedo
Page Count:
My Rating:
*This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review
Amazon

Description:
Verone’s life as a peasant was a lonely one until the strangers showed up at his door. They demanded he must come with them, to unravel a tangled Will and Testament that inexplicably bound him to the side of the stubborn, dark-headed young man, Antaries. 
Submitting to their demands gave him a quest, although he wasn’t certain what the end result would be. As well as Antaries, the two hired guards, and the lawyer sent to oversee the complicated Will and Testament, he had to travel with another man that despised all peasants and was ready to sneer at him at every turn. 
On the road they were threatened by thieves, attacked and arrested, struck by poisoners and a pretty young pickpocket. 
But inside Verone was changing, for with the surprises of travel his heart contracted with an emotion he hadn’t allowed himself to feel for a long time. Hope. Was he destined to be a lonely peasant with nothing to look forward to but scraping his next meal into his stomach with calloused hands? Or would Antaries prove to be the friend he never expected to come his way? Would he even extend himself to save Verone’s life?

Review:

Sunrise Meets the Star is an adventurous coming-of-age story. Verone is whisked away from his small remote village to help a group of strangers complete a mysterious quest.  On the road he goes from boy to man and discovers things about himself he never imagined possible.

I really enjoyed seeing Verone’s character development. Starting as an educated but very poor young man, but treated as a lord as soon as he joins his travelling companions, it was very interesting to see how he dealt with his sudden change of circumstance. He grapples with how to adjust while staying the man he was before and this definitely added a depth to his character. I also thought how the culmination of the quest panned out was very clever. (I know I’m being vague, but I’d hate to spoil anything.)

One thing that was a bit tricky for me starting the book is there was not quite enough world-building. I knew that Verone started out living in a farming village in a fantasy world, but I was not sure whether to picture something like the English countryside with rolling hills or farmland near a forest or someplace more arid. The world building definitely developed more as the story went on, but at the beginning it was a bit hard for me to orient myself. Another thing that kept me from fully enjoying the story was one of the characters, Berlin. For over half of the book Berlin keeps insulting Verone, calling him peasant and saying things like Verone doesn’t deserve the nice clothes Anteries, the leader of the group, bought him. He continues to do this despite the fact that everyone repeatedly tells him to stop and at one point they even threaten to send him home. It really grated on my nerves, and even though Berlin does change, the change is so gradual that it comes down to him being a whiny brat most of the time.

I would recommend this book to fans of quest books. It follows the Heroic Journey to a T, making it full of gripping trials and an intense culmination. Although the characters are all adults, I’d say this book would be appropriate for the older end of Middle Grade and up.



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