Book Blitz: The Bodyguard

The Bodyguard
Wende Dikec
(Legacies of the Amazons, #1)
Published by: Inkspell Publishing
Publication date: May 2nd 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Mythology, Young Adult

Descended from a secret race of Amazon Warriors, Ana Thermadosa is not like other girls. As a student at Artemis Academy, the training grounds for a mysterious company called Cerberus Enterprises, Ana has spent her life learning what is important. How to fight, how to win, how to kill, and, mostly importantly, how to follow orders and live up to the expectations of her powerful family.
Trained in the art of warfare since birth, now her skills are being put to the test. She’s been hired to defend Jordan Banks, the wealthy son of a nefarious businessman, from kidnappers.
She despises Jordan and all he stands for, but soon comes to realize that many things in the outside word aren’t as she’s been led to believe. She also discovers Jordan isn’t what she expected, and, against her better judgment, finds herself starting to care for him.
When disaster strikes, Ana is put in a difficult predicament. Keeping Jordan safe would mean betraying her own people and everything she believes in, but letting him die would mean betraying something even more important.
Her own heart.

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EXCERPT:

“If you’d like a demonstration, I am willing to provide it.”

“A demonstration?” Roman asked with a snort, but Ana could tell he was intrigued. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Philip suppress a grin.
“Me against them.” She looked at the three hulking bodyguards standing behind him. One of them actually had the nerve to giggle. She decided he would be the first to learn a lesson. Bodyguards should never giggle.
Melani had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. “You don’t have to do this, Ana.”
“Yes, I do.” She removed her black jacket, part of the standard issue uniform worn by everyone at the company, and placed it over the back of her chair. Beneath it, she wore a snug, black t-shirt, and comfortable pants. “There’s a sparring room next door.”
“Would you like them to come in one at a time?” Roman asked, trying to sound like a gentleman. Ana knew he thought she was going to get beat up, and she also knew he kind of looked forward to seeing it. He wouldn’t be so lucky today.
She studied the bodyguards, sizing them up from head to toe. All three of them grinned at her. She opened a door that connected to the sparring room ushered them in, leaving everyone else in the conference room.
“No. I can handle them all at once,” she said, shutting the door behind her.

Author Bio:
Wende Dikec has spent her life traveling the world, collecting stories wherever she visited. She majored in Japanese and International Economics in college and worked in import/export and as an ESL teacher before she committed herself full time to writing. She writes in several romance genres, and her books are quirky and fun. Wende is a Trekkie, a book hoarder, the master of the Nespresso machine, and the mother of three boys (probably the main reason for her caffeine addiction). A puppy named Capone is the most recent addition to her family, and she blogs about him as a way of maintaining what little sanity she has left. She is the author of TIGER LILY and STARR VALENTINE, and writes adult romance under the name Abigail Drake. She can be found on the web at www.wendedikec.com.

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Book Blitz: Court of Vampires

Court of Vampires
Megan Linski
(The Shifter Prophecy #1)
Publication date: January 31st 2017
Genres: Mythology, Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

Vampires and werewolves shouldn’t fall in love.
Lysandra was born for one reason; to kill shifters. Princess of vampires, the heir to Vlad Dracula’s throne and the last descendant of Princess Anastasia, Lysandra lives in a castle of witches and human slaves,engaged to a dark vampire prince and prophesied as the one who will end the war between vampires and werewolves forever.
Everything changes when Lysandra finds a dying werewolf. She takes him into her care and quickly falls in love, unable to explain the magical connection between them. If she’s discovered, she will be put to death. But how can she stop the war when her worst enemy is her true love?
A heart-stopping love story filled with shocking twists, Court of Vampires is a thrilling young adult fantasy that readers will devour over and over again. The legend of what really happened to the Romanov family is retold in Megan Linski’s newest haunting paranormal romance.

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Author Bio:
Megan Linski is the owner of Gryfyn Publishing and has had a passion for writing ever since she was a little girl. Her specializations are romance, fantasy, and contemporary fiction for teens and adults. When not writing, she enjoys ice skating, horse riding, and being outdoors. She is a passionate advocate for mental health awareness and suicide prevention, and is an active fighter against common variable immune deficiency disorder.
In December 2016, Megan signed a deal with Amazon's Kindle Press for her Kindle Scout Winner, Court of Vampires, due to be published 2017. You can find Megan at www.meganlinski.com, and receive a FREE book, The Witch's Curse, by signing up for her VIP List there.
Megan Linski also writes under the pen name of Natalie Erin for the Creatures of the Lands Series, co-authored with Krisen Lison.

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Book Blitz: Avenging Fate

Avenging Fate
Jennifer Derrick
(Threads of the Moirae #2)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: September 12th 2016
Genres: Mythology, Romance, Young Adult

Still reeling after killing the man she loved, Atropos turns her attention to the twin tasks of avenging his death and freeing humanity from the deadly grip of the Keres. When she sets out on a murderous mission to retrieve her shears, her only aide is her temperamental ex-boyfriend, Ares. He is fickle at best, traitorous at worst, and assistance from him may be worse than none at all.
Along the way, she allies with a group of powerful supernaturals and learns that the crimes of the gods are more twisted and far-reaching than she realized. What begins as a quest for vengeance becomes a journey through betrayal, loss, love, and hope. It ignites a war that will pit Atropos against the gods in a battle for the freedom of humanity.
Avenging Fate is the second book in The Threads of Moirae Series by Jennifer Derrick.

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Grab book 1 – Broken Fate – for FREE!
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EXCERPT:

When we reach Alex’s house, I’m not surprised to see that it’s been vandalized. With no residents to defend it, it was easy pickings. The front door’s been kicked in and the frame is splintered so it won’t close properly. A couple of the windows are broken, too. Once we’re inside, I’m relieved to see that most of the damage is limited to the kitchen. Whoever came here was looking for food and not much else. The presence of a rotting, stinking corpse on the kitchen floor probably made them hurry up and get out.

I leave Ares and Elaina to gather up any dog food and supplies they can find as I make my way down the hall to Alex’s room. Stopping in the doorframe, I grip it hard to keep myself upright. The memories and the grief come fast and hard, threatening to overwhelm me. The hospital bed is still in the room, as is most of the medical equipment that kept him alive those last few days. No one’s made the bed, so the sheets are still rumpled from Alex’s body.
The IV still hangs on the pole next to the bed, and the oxygen tank is on the floor under the bed. The needle and tubing for the IV and the cannula for the oxygen rest on the mattress where I dropped them the night I took Alex away from here to die in peace. The book we were reading together lies facedown on the mattress, open to the page where we left off. Everything is frozen in time, except the most important part. Alex is gone and he isn’t coming back.
Alex’s bookcases still droop alarmingly, although they aren’t as orderly as they once were. It appears the looters rifled through them, probably looking for stray cash tucked in the pages of the books. I force myself to cross the room and scan the shelves for anything that might indicate where Emily has gone. I also check the desk, but find nothing in either place.
I cross to the bed and can’t help myself. Picking up the pillow, I hug it to my chest, burying my nose in it. I catch the last whiff of Alex’s shampoo, the same fruity-spicy scent he always used. I’m aware this isn’t good for me and it’s not helping us with our mission, so I reluctantly put it down. But I can’t resist one other thing. Grabbing the book, I fold down the corner of the page we were on and tuck it in my waistband next to the gun. It’s sentimental and dumb, but I want to remember our reading time.
When I turn to leave, Ares is standing in the doorframe, watching me with an expression that is both pitying and concerned. I can stand the latter, but I don’t need his pity.
“Don’t say anything,” I warn as I push past him and head down the hall toward Emily’s room.
“I just came to see if you’re okay. I figured this would be hard for you.”
“Just getting up in the morning is hard for me, but I do it,” I say. “I’ll be okay.”

Author Bio:
Jennifer is a freelance writer and novelist. As a freelancer, she writes everything from technical manuals to articles on personal finance and European-style board games. Her interest in storytelling began when she was six and her parents gave her a typewriter for Christmas and agreed to pay her $.01 per page for any stories she churned out. Such a loose payment system naturally led to a lot of story padding. Broken Fate, her first novel, earned her $2.80 from her parents.
Jennifer lives in North Carolina and, when not writing, can often be found reading, trawling the shelves at the library, playing board games, watching sports, camping, running marathons, and playing with her dog. You can visit her at her official website:www.JenniferDerrick.com.

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Review: The Hidden Oracle

Title: The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle

Author: Rick Riordan

Released: May 3, 2016

Synopsis

How do you punish an immortal?
By making him human.
After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.
But Apollo has many enemies - gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.

Let me get this out of the way; I am 19 years old and a major Rick Riordan fan girl. I have been reading his books since I was in third grade. The Battle of the Labyrinth is the first book that I can remember being super excited about and buying when it was released. Of course, I was the coolest kid in school because reading was still cool in fourth grade and I had the latest book by the Amazing Rick Riordan. I haven’t read his other series, but all of his books involving the Greek and Roman Gods I have. I love them.

So fangirling time over.

Of course I picked up The Hidden Oracle whenever I found out that there was another Rick Riordan book coming out! I was so happy to be back in the Percy Jackson world and back at Camp Half-Blood that I couldn’t put the book down. My boyfriend got a 3-D Printer and instead of being interested in that, I was reading The Hidden Oracle.

The world is very much the same as it has been in other books in the Percy Jackson world. There was a lot of references to Greek myth and now some towards Roman after The Heroes of Olympus series that was recently released, but there is an index in the back of the book to help us out! I loved being back at Camp Half-Blood. Honestly, I am happiest when my books are based there!

The humor in this book is so well written. I am always amazed by how funny Rick Riordan’s books can be. I still love all the dam jokes that come up in the books. I was laughing hysterically at some points, especially the beginning of most chapters. With Apollo being the God of poetry and all, of course there was a bunch of poetry. Each chapter starts with a Haiku and they are so great. You can’t fit much in those 17 syllables of a Haiku, but they were still so great.

Now with all of this being said, I absolutely hated Apollo at the beginning of the book. He was an arrogant self-centered jerk that couldn’t get out of his own head. Yes, I realize he used to be a God, but that doesn’t mean he needs to be so self-absorbed and not understand why people care about other things than just the Sun God.

Though, like any Rick Riordan book and frankly YA book, there was major character development. I was proud of how well Apollo developed as the book progressed. Yes, he still annoyed the hell out of me at some points, but he was really growing and wasn’t as self-absorbed. Rick Riordan is so good at character development that it didn’t surprise me that I actually loved Apollo by the end of the book.

There was still a certain character (you’ll find out which one when you read the book) that I couldn’t hate no matter what. I just wanted to hug that character and smoosh their face to make the feel better. But I can’t. Sadly. And I am not a people person at all. I would rather smack sense into someone than comfort them. So Rick really made me feel for this character.

ALSO PERCY MADE A CAMEO AND I WAS SO HAPPY!!!! I LOVE PERCY. NOW ONLY IF ANNABETH WAS THERE TOO. THEN I WOULD’VE BEEN ECSTATIC.

If you couldn’t tell I was already excited about Percy being there and a few other cameo’s that happened, then I’ll just lay it all out there. I loved this book. I am so glad that I get to be back in the world of Greek Mythology and the world that Rick Riordan has created for his loved readers. Now guys, if you have ever liked one of Rick’s books, then go and read The Hidden Oracle. It is worth your time. After you read all of the other Percy Jackson and the Olympian books and The Heroes of Olympus books. Then you’ll be good.