Showing posts with label book excerpt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book excerpt. Show all posts

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Blog Tour: A Season Of Transformation (Giveaway & Book Excerpt)

I would like to welcome author Jayne Fordham with her book, A Season Of Transformation! She has been so kind to share an excerpt of her book, and to give away one copy to a lucky reader of Nyx Book Reviews.

Chapter 3- Makenna’s Emerging Abilities

The morning approaches too quickly. I groan and slam my hand on the alarm clock. Is it just me or did the buzzer turn off a split second before I hit the off button? Okay no more crazy thinking Makenna! Today I am going to return to living a normal life. No more odd forces, old boxes or contemplating strange things happening in my room.
I can’t count how many times I have yawned by the time I enter the kitchen of the main house. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night. At least I only have to get through one more day of school, before the weekend starts. Oh how I love Fridays. I think about what I might do with myself over the weekend as I open the pantry doors in search of the cereal.
I scan the containers stacked side by side in matching Tupperware containers. Cornflakes, Weet-bix or Coco Pops? I think I’ll go with Cornflakes today- something reasonably healthy after the whole packet of fairy floss that I shared with Tamsin and Aliysha last night. Before I reach up to grab the container I stifle a yawn and rub my eyes and try to open them up real wide to help me feel more awake.
I scream and jump backwards when my eyes re-focus. The Cornflakes are hovering outside the cupboard… in mid air. My eyes widen.
How could this be happening? Am I that deliriously tired?
“What’s the matter hun?” My mother asks with concern as she enters the kitchen behind me.
My body tenses up as I am startled even more by my mother’s voice and the possibility of her witnessing this unnatural experience. I quickly reach up and grab the container out of the air before my mother can see.
I peer at my mother from around the pantry door; her eyebrows are furrowed down, her eyes peering at me curiously.
“Uhh. I thought I saw a spider,” I stammer.
“Oh. False alarm then huh,” she smiles.
“Yeah I guess so,” I smile back weakly.
My mother is dressed in her usual professional attire. She wears a black pin stripe pencil skirt with a matching vest. Underneath she is wearing a teal button up shirt which brings out her blue eyes and is a nice contrast against her honey blonde hair. Although she is in her early forties she could easily pass for a woman in her early thirties. She is often asked by strangers if she had me when she was a teenager. She politely explains to them that she is older than she looks. I secretly admire her and hope that I take as much pride in my looks when I get older as she does.
“Well how was the carnival last night?” She asks chirpily.
I try to avoid further eye contact with her as I pour the cereal into a bowl.
“It was fun.”.
“Oh that’s good hun.”
I nod, shovelling cereal into my mouth in an attempt to finish it as soon as possible so I can leave.
“So what are your plans for the weekend then?” Mum asks, trying her hardest to engage me in conversation.
“Um not sure yet mum. Might hang out with Tamsin and Aliysha tonight. Haven’t really thought about what I’m doing over the weekend yet.”
“Okay well just so you know I will be working tomorrow. Tonight I have a dinner on with the partners so I won’t be back until late.”
“Okay no problem.”
“Have a good day,” mum says as she plants a kiss on my forehead and leaves the kitchen.
A good day. Well it wasn’t quite starting off that way. I can only hope that once I get to class I can forget all about the cereal container floating in mid air in the centre of my mother’s kitchen.

Official Book Blurb

A Season of Transformation is a young adult fantasy/ romance novel set in the contemporary world. It is the story of five young people drawn together to complete a Quest, to protect their town from destruction. In order to defeat the story’s villain, Maxvale, the five virtual strangers must come together and not only forge a bond of trust but become proficient with the ‘abilities’ temporarily bestowed upon them.

In the midst of the lead up to the battle each of the young people has their own personal struggles they are trying to deal with. Lucas, an adopted and bitter teenager struggles to become the person he wants to be whilst developing feelings for Makenna, a rich kid who doesn’t like his attitude. Bonnie is a ‘gothic’ that is dealing with an alcoholic father, Ben the school nerd and Adam the class clown are trying to break free from their high school stereotypes. These five teens need to put aside their differences so they can defeat Maxvale and save their town.

Author Bio

Jayne Fordham is a psychologist, freelance writer and debut author of A Season of Transformation. She resides in South-West Sydney with her boyfriend and loveable cocker spaniel, Buddy.

Buy This Book

Giveaway of one ebook copy of A Season Of Transformation (International)

Fill in the form to enter!
This giveaway will run until June 16th.

Saturday, 28 May 2011

Blog Tour: Hedgeland by Ann Nyland (Book Excerpt & Giveaway!)

Today I would like to welcome Ann Nyland on my blog! Ann is the writer of the urban fantasy time travel book Hedgeland. She is sharing an excerpt of the book and has been so incredibly kind to give one of her books away for one lucky reader! This blog tour is part of The Bookish Snob Promotions. Click the banner to find more blogs participating in this tour!


Chapter 18. Caridwen.

A thousand thunderclaps all at once. That's what it sounded like, a deafening roar, a wild explosion. The noise was terrifying. I was flung out of bed onto the floor, hard. The wall to my garden fell down; I was at once covered with crystal dust. The floor buckled like a wave was going under it. The air was thick with the noise of people screaming. I struggled to my feet and ran out the door - or where the door had been. Perhaps I ran through the hole in the wall; it was all a blur.
Cian wasn't there. In public Cian and I studiously avoided contact, but every night, Cian did easily scale the wall from Dewi's garden to mine, and he was able to stay most nights. Dewi never said a word to me about Cian, but occasionally winked at me in a conspiratorial fashion. I don't know if the Hierophant ever found out or suspected. The Initiates certainly didn't.
As I ran I tried to reach Cian on my X-Comm. Dead. Adrenaline kicked in and I ran for the Anaktoron. People passed me running the other way. They were screaming and crying. It was early morning, but the sky was black. I coughed in the black ash; it was hard to catch my breath with the dust and the weirdly smelling fumes. Cracks, some narrow, some wider and deeper, opened up in the ground in front of me; I jumped over them all. Some parts of the pavement were higher than others. It was like running on a moving surface; I was running on a moving surface. The ground was buckling, and bucking like a wild horse. Water was bubbling up through the pavement making mini whirlpools. The earth felt alive beneath my feet.

Official Book Blurb

Hedgeland, an urban fantasy of time travel. Dr April Neuland, a Professor of Ancient Languages turned non-fiction writer, has been plagued by dreams all her life, dreams of her past life in the Otherworld. Meanwhile, in a parallel dimension of April's past and Caridwen's future, Worthing, a Future History Professor, has allied with the Military to access Future Internet communications and use new technology to influence April to write an ebook novel revealing where she, in her past life as Caridwen, hid the Kiste, a device to travel through time and space. Hedgeland weaves all three time/space frames: Caridwen, Worthing, and April. Hedgeland is the first in the Hedgecraft Sequence, but is a fully self contained novel with no cliff hangers.

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Author Bio

Author Dr Ann Nyland was on Faculty at the University of New England, Australia. She is a grammar pedant, ancient languages translator, and best selling non-fiction author of such books as The Complete Books of Enoch; Angels, Archangels and Angel Categories: What the Ancients Said; The Book of Jubilees; A Devil of a Job to Find Satan in the Bible, among others. Hedgeland is her first novel.




Ever wanted to be a character in a book? Don't forget to follow the Hedgeland Blog Tour and enter for your chance at Ann Nyland's site!


Giveaway of one ebook copy of Hedgeland
  • This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL
  • Being a follower of Nyx Book Reviews is not required but certainly appreciated
  • To enter, just leave a comment with a way to contact you
  • This giveaway runs until June 4th at midnight
  • The winner will be announced June 5th
  • Only one entry per person please

Visit the next stop: Ann Nyland's Author Site

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Blog Tour: The Demon Kiss by Lacey Weatherford (Book Excerpt)

Today I would like to welcome back Lacey Weatherford, author of the Witches and Warlocks series! She is sharing a part of her wonderful book, The Demon Kiss, today. This tour is part of The Bookish Snob Promotions. Click the banner to find more blogs participating in this tour!


Chapter 2

The emotions hit me all at once, and suddenly everything was spinning out of control. I took off running down a narrow hallway and into a large shipping area, looking frantically around the enormous room the second I entered it.
There he was, standing across the huge space in front of me, rifling through an old filing cabinet. His back was to me, but I knew his leather and jean clad physique anywhere.
My breath caught, and I could feel my pulse racing in my neck at my reaction to seeing him.
He straightened suddenly, stopping what he was doing. Slowly, he turned to face me with a puzzled look on his face.
Our eyes connected instantly across the room.
“Portia?” he breathed out softly, looking at me in confusion, as if he couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him.
“Hello, Vance,” I replied, trying to sound calm and collected, but I couldn’t keep the tiny tremor out that crept into my voice.
I couldn’t judge his reaction to tell whether or not he was happy to see me standing there in front of him.
He hesitated for a moment, before he started moving toward me, quickly then, and my heart began pounding hard in my chest.
I matched his pace then, crossing the room toward him, meeting him in the middle, with all sorts of thoughts tumbling in my mind, relief and anger being the foremost ones.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, stopping just short of me, as if he was afraid to touch me, and I saw the uncertainty flash over his face.
“I came to do this,” I said, my emotions threatening to boil over the surface in that very moment.
I swung back and punched him in the jaw as hard as I could.

Official Book Blurb

Can someone else's past come back to bite you?
After being drained of nearly all the blood in her body, novice witch, Portia Mullins, wakes up to find that her warlock boyfriend, Vance Mangum, has fled in search of his demon father. Determined to keep him from facing the evil alone Portia follows after him, unknowingly setting herself on the path of a new adventure that will take her, Vance, and their coven over international borders, into a foreign place where they will discover that the black magic which awaits them is far worse than they ever imagined. Portia finds herself tangled up in a web of lies and deceit in another's quest for demonic power in the excitingly romantic second paranormal novel in the Of Witches and Warlocks Series, The Demon Kiss.

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The Demon Kiss Tour Grand Prize
The Grand Prize winner will receive swag, signed copies of books 1, 2, 3, & 4, AND will be written into an interactive scene with VANCE in book four too! Want extra entries? You can get 1 more entry for every time you comment on the tour, and 5 more entries for every time you send a Tweet or Facebook the link to that day’s blog post. Make sure you keep track of those as you will be asked to submit verification links when you enter the giveaway.
Good Luck! May the “Vance” be with YOU!

Author Bio
Lacey Weatherford has always had a love of books. She wanted to become a writer after reading her first Nancy Drew novel at the age of eight.
When she is not reading, writing, blogging, or doing book tours for her current series, she can often be found out at sporting/musical events which her kids are in or texting like crazy with her best friend.
Lacey resides in the White Mountains of Arizona, where she lives with her husband, six children, one son-in-law, and the family dog Sophie.



Visit the next stop: Book Lover's Hideaway