Release Day Blitz: The Last Protector by Stephanie Keyes

The Last Protector

by Stephanie Keyes

Publisher: Inkspell Publishing

Release Date: 12/15/14

Synopsis:

Gabriel Stewart helped his best friend Kellen St. James save the world from The Scourge in the Battle of Dublin. But before that? Gabe was just an ordinary guy who kept having dreams about a little boy with black hair and green eyes—a boy he hadn’t even met yet.

And even weirder? Gabe’s mind kept replaying these images on loop of things he’d never seen. He heard voices in his head when no one was around. And he actually blew off hot Valerie Gibbons to chase after the black-haired kid in the park. What was up with that?

As Gabe searches for the truth, fate continually puts him in Kellen’s path, but will he be able to stop the Children of Danu from stealing Kellen before the battle begins? What will it take for Gabe to become The Last Protector?

*The Last Protector is a companion novella--intended to be read after the other books in the series.

The Last Protector

by Stephanie Keyes

It was an ordinary Thursday, (or at least I thought it was going to be), when things got scary. As usual, I was flirting with Valerie Gibbons by the lockers.

"You coming over after school?" Val toyed with the front of her cheerleading skirt.

I shook my head. "Not today." This weird sense of urgency had thrummed in my veins all day, like a Heavy Metal bass line.

Go to the park, go to the park, go to the park...

Val pouted. "You aren't going to dump me, are you? I really like you, Gabe."

"Nah." I made sure no teachers were watching, and then gave her a quick kiss on the lips. My gut turned to jelly when my mouth brushed against hers.

"Where ya going?"

I wished I could tell her the truth. "Ah, you know. I have to do some stuff with the 'rents this afternoon. I'll call you later, okay?" I pushed down my guilt and smiled, trying to amp up my charm to the super mega-watt Gabe level.

"Maybe." Val sounded grumpy about it, but the corners of her mouth turned up when she spoke the word. "Bye." With a quick turn, she ran in the opposite direction, leaving me alone.

After waiting a few beats, I closed my locker with a click. Shouldering my backpack, I ran out the side door and hopped on to my red 10-speed and started to pedal.

Something pushed me, the same message on loop in my mind: Go to the park, go to the park, go to the park...I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. Maybe if I followed the voice, as freaky as that sounded, it would stop. The thoughts and dreams would end.

And I wanted them to.

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. Today, she's still doing the same thing, except now she gets to share those ideas with readers!

When she's not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she's best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.

Mrs. Keyes holds an undergraduate degree in Business and Management Information Systems from Robert Morris University and a M.Ed. from Duquesne University. She is a member of the Society For Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), as well as a featured author in the global group of writers, Love a Happy Ending.com.

Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child, After Faerie, The Fallen Stars, and the soon to-be-released finale, The Star Catcher (November 2013), all from by Inkspell Publishing. Mrs. Keyes is hard at work on a new YA Paranormal Romance.

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Pre-Release Event: Among Monsters (Red Hill Novella) by Jamie McGuire

Travel back to Red Hill on Halloween! AMONG MONSTERS will be here on October 31st!

Among Monsters (Red Hill Novella)
by Jamie McGuire
Release Date: October 31st 2014

Synopsis:

Being thirteen has pitfalls of its own, but growing up has never been this hard. 

Jenna had promised her mother that if the worst happened during her dad’s weekend, they would meet at Red Hill Ranch. When she finds seven words spray-painted on her dad’s wall the morning after a deadly outbreak, she makes a promise to herself: to get to the ranch with her seven-year-old sister, Halle, and to get them both there alive. 

Among Monsters is the companion novella to Red Hill, both exploring from different perspectives what many broken families experience every other weekend: What if your children aren't with you when the world ends? What would you do to get to them? What would they go through to get to you? 

For Jenna, seeing her mother again is worth everything. Determined to keep her promise, she is faced with experiences and decisions that force her to leave her childhood behind.

Among Monsters

by Jamie McGuire

The governor was elevated above the crowd on a make-shift stage in the center of the room, speaking comforting words into a microphone, as people yelled questions and concerns. 

“I hear what you’re saying. I’m not saying not to worry. With words like epidemic and now pandemic being thrown around…it’s a worrisome situation. But we’re safe here, and that’s what we need to focus on now. Panic won’t solve anything.”

“Is it the terrorists?” someone yelled.

“No,” the governor said, amused. “I’ve been told it’s a virus.”

“What kind of virus?” someone else asked.

“We’re not exactly sure yet,” Governor Bellmon said. 

He was being honest. I’d give him that.

“There are reports in Mississippi!” a man said, holding up his phone. 

The crowd erupted, and the governor leaned over to whisper something in a man’s ear. He was dressed in a suit, and he nodded before leaving the stage immediately. He walked over to Tom, the fire chief, just feet away from where we stood. Tom listened intently to the man in the suit and then waved to his men to come closer. 

“The governor has ordered we gather water and supplies. We’re going into disaster mode, guys. I know most of you came in for the photo op, but you’re getting called in. Let’s get going.”

The men gave a nod and turned for the back door. Dad looked around and caught Tom as he was making his way toward the police chief and the mayor. 

“Tom, I’ve got my little girls here,” Dad said. 

Tom looked down at Halle and me and then nodded, giving Dad an unspoken pass, before he continued on.

“Now what?” I asked.

“We wait for the guys to get back and help as best as we can.” He leaned in, whispering in my ear. “Do me a favor, Jenna. Stay off your phone. I don’t want any of the stuff on the news to scare your sister.”

I felt a small hand grip mine. I knelt down beside Halle. Her stringy blonde hair was a ratty mess as it always was after school. Her clothes were mismatched, and her heather-gray hoodie jacket was tied around her waist. She pushed up her black-rimmed glasses, her ice-blue eyes glistening. 

We couldn’t look more different—Halle with her light-blue eyes and tiny frame and me with my honey-brown irises and chestnut hair. I was always athletic, always pushing against boundaries, vying for independence, even when I was little. Halle just always seemed so fragile. 

As if she could hear my thoughts and personify them, she squeaked her next words, “I want Mom.”

“I bet she’ll head this way as soon as she gets off work. She’ll want to be here with us,” I said.

Halle shook her head. “She won’t come here, Jenna. She’ll go to our place.”

“Red Hill? That’s just if something bad happens, silly.”

Halle looked around at the roomful of frightened people. “This is bad, Jenna.”

I stood and squeezed her to my side.

New York Times best selling author Jamie McGuire has penned the Providence series and contemporary romance Beautiful Disaster. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three children. She is an RT(R), a graduate of Autry and Oklahoma Northern College, and a full time writer.

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The Unofficial Book Blitz: Control You by Jennifer Snyder

Control You

by Jennifer Snyder

Release Date: March 1st 2014

Synopsis:

Companion novel to Break You.

Kind hearted and naive, Paige Jacobs wants what every girl craves…to be loved. She uses this need to make excuses when her current boyfriend goes from being a tad jealous and slightly overprotective to stalker-ish. She isn’t that girl and Craig isn’t one of those guys. Things are fine. Perfectly fine. Until the moment a dark-haired, tattooed hottie with a snarky mouth walks into her life and tells her she deserves better.

Confident and boldly spoken, Cameron Green has always been the guy bad girls can’t get enough of and all the good girls want to tame. He’s lived a lavish lifestyle filled with drugs, women, and alcohol up until his destructive path finally caught up with him. Now Cameron isn’t sure what to do with himself or how to dampen the longing for something more festering inside of him since coming out of his drug-induced haze. But when he meets a doe-eyed girl who gets past his walls like no other, everything about him clicks into place.

Together the two learn there are emotions that hold within them all the power to control you…

Read my review for Break You

Control You

by Jennifer Snyder

Once outside, I pulled a cigarette from my pack and lit it. Inhaling the rich taste of nicotine and menthol into my lungs, I felt myself calm. Closing my eyes, I thought of the night I gained the scar on my right wrist. It had been a year ago.

“I’m such a fuck up.” My voice had cracked when the words came out.

“So change…”

Eva’s words echoed through my mind. I had changed. I’d taken her advice and checked into rehab. No one knew besides her and Scott; I’d kept it a secret. I’d even kept my failed attempt at suicide a secret. I’d been sober now for a year, and had been slowly working my way back to becoming someone my parents would have been proud of. Hearing Scott say those words to me today had meant more than he would ever know.

Taking a drag off my cigarette, I smiled.

After pulling out my cell, I dialed the one person I needed to be with tonight. She answered on the third ring.

“You know you shouldn’t call me at five o’clock unless you’re going to take me out to eat,” Eva muttered as a greeting when she answered.

I chuckled. “That’s exactly why I was calling. So, what’s your answer?”

“I get to pick the place and you can pay the bill.” I could hear the playful smirk in her voice as she spoke. We both knew she’d be paying for her portion of the meal. Eva never let me buy her anything, but it was fun to joke about it anyway. When I’d paid her rent for the year, she hadn’t even known until she attempted to make a payment a little late one month.

“Sounds fine by me.” I put my cigarette out and dug in my pocket for my keys. “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Eva said in a singsong voice before she hung up.

I grinned like a fool as I slid into my car. She was going to be so fucking surprised at dinner tonight when I pulled out the bracelet I’d bought her. Hell, I might walk away from dinner with a black eye after she beat the shit out of me for buying her something. Tonight was a celebration of when she’d saved my life though. Eva didn’t know it, but I was about to pamper her ass for the night whether she wanted it or not. She deserved it.

by Jennifer Snyder

You can interlace all the characters throughout the novels along the way, so essentially you never really have to let them go. Their personality still builds with the others and you can keep improving on their H.E.A. you left them with.

This is what I truly meant with my first answer…once you meet Cameron Green in Control You you’ll understand.

Maybe I should reword this one and say that it makes you wish the places were real. I would love to visit Shooters, the main bar in Norhurst, just because so many things have happened between those walls. Paige’s Closet in Control You would be the best place to shop for clothes too!

This is true. You get used to them being in your head and they feel like friends. By the way, I’m not as insane as that comment just made me sound…this is what we call “writer problems”.

The Coldcreek Series is actually my first attempt at a companion series. The majority of my novels are either continuation series’ or standalones. I’ve had a blast trying this out, though. While I won’t state whether I’ll be writing any more companion series in the future, I can tell you that there will be a total of FOUR novels in this particular companion series—Break You, Control You, and then two others that will release later this year.

Jennifer Snyder lives in North Carolina were she spends most of her time writing New Adult and Young Adult Fiction, reading, and struggling to stay on top of housework. She is a tea lover with an obsession for Post-it notes and smooth writing pens. Jennifer lives with her husband and two children, who endure listening to songs that spur inspiration on repeat and tolerate her love for all paranormal, teenage-targeted TV shows.

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