Giveaway – The Dark in Between by Elizabeth Hrib @ElizabethHrib @XpressoTours

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The Dark In-Between
Elizabeth Hrib
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: May 5th 2020
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Action-packed and emotionally powerful like big- and small-screen hits such as The Sixth Sense and Supernatural, The Dark In-Between by Elizabeth Hrib is sure to stay with you long after the lights go out.

Something lurks in the shadows between life and death.

A terrible accident brings sixteen-year-old Casey Everett’s life to a halt—literally. Pulled from the water, Casey is rushed to the hospital and miraculously revived. But her sudden return to the living is shadowed by the drowning of her best friend, Liddy.

Overcome with grief, Casey returns home for the summer only to find the memories of the accident won’t let her go. Shadow-drenched nightmares. Whispers in the back of her mind. Her friend’s screams. Casey thinks she’s losing it… until she watches a boy fall from the sky.

Red—an angel fallen to earth to regain his wings—takes her to Limbo, a place that exists somewhere between the living and the dead. Now, in order to save her best friend, Casey must learn to walk these mysterious and dangerous paths or else risk losing Liddy’s trapped soul to something worse than death.

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EXCERPT

Casey paces the length of the hall, studying the pictures on the floating mantels on the wall. Most of them are of Evan. There’s some of her too, standing with a younger Evan, their faces wind- kissed, freckled, and crazy- eyed due to copious amounts of sun and sugar.

Casey touches the photo. Her parents had still been alive then.

She follows the tarnished silver frames through a scrapbook of her youth. There’s her and Evan as babies, sharing teething rings. As toddlers, sharing chicken pox. As cubby neighbors in elementary school when they swapped lunches almost every day. Liddy had moved to town in the third grade, got assigned the coat hook directly between her and Evan, and the three of them had been inseparable ever since.

Until now.

The door pops open and Evan kneels, lacing up a shiny black shoe. When he straightens up, she gets a proper look at him. He’s wearing a black dress shirt tucked into gray pants. There’s no tie but he looks . . . good. All sleek lines and sharp points and soft blue eyes.

“You can say it,” Evan says.
She snaps back to reality. “Say what?”
“That I clean up nice.” He tugs on his pant leg. “Even my socks match.”
Casey huffs and turns away as warmth floods her cheeks.

She’s been flirting with this line for a while now. These feelings. That space between friendship and more than. It’s not the right time to cross it. She knows that. Not while they’re both missing Liddy. Honestly, she’s not really sure if there ever will be a right time. Maybe the history between them is better left this way.

“You look nice, too,” he offers. “I meant to say it before.”

Then he goes and says things like that, and Casey’s unsure of everything all over again.

“These are my funeral clothes,” she says, trying to dismiss his comment. She picks at the hem of her dress, crumpling it in her fist and then pressing it back into smooth lines against her thighs.

Evan sighs, hands in his pockets as he sways into the hall. “You can still look nice.”

“Come on,” she says, turning down the stairs. “You’re making us late.”

He follows her to the car and climbs into the passenger seat.

Beside him, she fumbles with her buckle, the nerves start- ing to return. It feels weird being in the car without Liddy calling dibs on control over the radio.

If I have to hear any more of Evan’s easy country listening, she’d say. I’m gonna lose it. He’s like a little old man in the body of a teenager.

The memory almost makes her laugh, but she catches her- self. Casey stares at the radio, then looks away, struggling under the weight of such heavy silence.

Evan reaches over, his hand nudging her shoulder. When he pulls away, he twirls a feather between his fingers and flicks it out the window.

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Hrib was born and raised in London, Ontario where she studied nursing at Western University. She now calls the East Coast home, where she works as a nurse in Halifax. When she’s not working or writing, she can be found at the piano, planning her next Netflix binge, or attempting to keep her small, windowsill garden alive.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Twitter


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Books From The Backlog – Rick Chesler, Angela Scott, Elena Aitken #booksfromthebacklog

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Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread.  If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.

If you would like to join in, swing by Carole’s Random Life in Books.

I have three I am going to share today. Hope you find something that looks good to you.

Kidnapped (Tara Shores, #2)

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

GOODREADS BLURB

A priceless biotechnology, an FBI agent, and an unspeakable act of familial betrayal collide in a tropical kidnapping more twisted than a DNA double helix. When a renowned scientist with a solution for global warming is kidnapped at sea, FBI Special Agent Tara Shores must unravel a high-tech trail of S.O.S. messages encoded into the DNA of living cells. As each decoded message brings Tara nearer to the missing genius, it also takes her farther from help than she ever thought possible.

Rating: 4.00  ·  71 ratings  ·  26 reviews

I added Kidnapped by Rick Chesler on 9.29.12. There is more than one cover, but I love this one. Just looking at it makes me want to read it. I think there will be plenty of thrills and chills, which I thrive on. How about you? What’s your favorite genre?

Desert Rice (Desert, #1)

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

GOODREADS BLURB

Samantha Jean Haggert is a beautiful twelve-year-old girl—but no one knows it. All they see is an awkward boy in a baseball cap and baggy pants. Sam’s not thrilled with the idea of hiding her identity, but it’s all part of her older brother’s plan to keep Sam safe from male attention and hidden from the law. Fifteen-year-old Jacob will stop at nothing to protect his sister, including concealing the death of the one person who should have protected them in the first place—their mother.

Sam and Jacob try to outrun their past by stealing the family car and traveling from West Virginia to Arizona, but the adult world proves mighty difficult to navigate, especially for two kids on their own. Trusting adults has never been an option; no adult has ever given them a good reason. But when Sam meets “Jesus”—who smells an awful lot like a horse—in the park, life takes a different turn. He saved her once, and may be willing to save Sam and her brother again, if only they admit what took place that fateful day in West Virginia. The problem? Sam doesn’t remember, and Jacob isn’t talking.

Ratings: 4.32  ·  164 ratings  ·  68 reviews

I added this to Goodreads on 9.30.12 and picked it up on an Amazon free day on 12.5.15. I have read her Zombie West series and LOVED IT, so to see a free book of hers and grabbing it was a no brainer.

Hidden Gifts (Castle Mountain Lodge, #2)

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

GOODREADS BLURB

Bo’s always known that to be a successful hiking guide at the beautiful Castle Mountain Lodge, you have to flirt with the ladies-but never get too close; have a penchant for wild adventures-but know when to pull away; and never have any ties holding you back.

And his plan was working fine…until Ella, the child he didn’t know he had appears in his life.

Morgan’s always known what she wanted out of life but when the doctor’s crippling diagnosis changes everything, she knows she needs a fresh start. Maybe changing her career and throwing herself into a totally new lifestyle at the Lodge is exactly what she needs?

And it might have worked too…

Bo knows he needs Morgan’s help to reach Ella, but will she be willing to give up the new life she thought she wanted? And can either of them let down their guard long enough to recognize that all they really need is right in front of them, in Ella…and each other.

Rating: 3.93  ·  641 ratings  ·  50 reviews

I have seen Elena Aitken’s name around and sometimes an easy reading romance hits the spot. I won this book back on 10.1.12.

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Giveaway – An Outcast and An Ally by Caitlin Lochner @CaiLochner @XpressoTours

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An Outcast and an Ally
Caitlin Lochner
(A Soldier and a Liar #2)
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: April 21st 2020
Genres: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Dark secrets and conflicting loyalties abound as four superpowered teens are torn apart by war in Caitlin Lochner’s An Outcast and an Ally, the epic YA sequel to A Soldier and a Liar.

Lai, Jay, Al, and Erik are on the run after the military accuses them of being traitors. Tensions between everyone are high, but they have to stick together if they want to survive. And somehow stop the war that’s now in full swing.

But when Erik returns to the rebels to find answers about his past, Lai, Al, and Jay have no choice but to go to the Order―a peace coalition bent on stopping the rebels and dissolving the enmity between gifted and ungifted. However, the longer the war drags on, the more Lai’s long-kept secrets threaten to destroy everything she’s ever worked for. Sparks fly as the team constantly questions whether they can trust one another and everyone tries to navigate a war that will change everything.

Filled with the same high-stakes superpowered action and complex relationships as A Soldier and A Liar, Caitlin’s first book, An Outcast and an Ally brings this story to a dramatic and satisfying close.

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EXCERPT

LAI 

Of the three rebels coming to meet us, Al dispatches the first easily with her halberd and keeps running to take care of those in front. She makes it look so effortless, so graceful, I’m almost jealous. She doesn’t even need her flames to dominate a battle. Jay and I tag-team the second rebel while the third goes for Peter.

Our opponent is thick with muscle and armed with a spear. She swings low, trying to trip up our footwork, but Jay throws one of his knives at her chest and she has to sidestep quickly to dodge it. I come in from her other side. She swings again, this time aiming for my stomach, and I fall back. Jay throws another knife, and she deflects it with her spear shaft. But he’d already started running at her as soon as he’d thrown it. He gets in close and thrusts one of his knives just under her rib cage. When she lifts her spear to try to plunge it into his back, I run my spear through her heart. She chokes and falls to her knees with a muffled sob.

I hope her death was as painless as possible. My stomach still turns every time I kill someone, especially after hearing so much about the rebels from Erik. But I can’t afford to hesitate. It could cost my friends’ lives. At least there’s no one Erik is close with on this raid.

I turn back to make sure Peter’s okay—just in time to see the third rebel’s sword narrowly miss his chest. Peter fumbles with his daggers. The rebel thrusts again. This time, he hits Peter’s arm. Deep. Blood immediately falls as Peter drops one of his daggers with a gasp.

I’m behind the rebel before he can attack again. He spins around to block my spear, but I caught him off guard. He doesn’t put enough strength behind it. My spear twists around his blade and sends it flying out of his grip before one of Jay’s knives finds its mark in his throat.

“Jay, give Al some backup,” I say. The words snap off my tongue. “I’ll stay with Peter.”

Author Bio:

I’m a nerd, traveler, and architecture enthusiast who worked as an assistant English teacher in Tokyo for three years before pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida. I love reading and writing anything with magic, adventure, and complex found-family relationships. I can typically be found absorbed in books, games, or manga, or else obsessing over said books, games, and manga.

Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Instagram


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  • You can see my Giveaways HERE.
  • You can see my Reviews HERE.
  • If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
  • Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.
  • Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
  • I am an Amazon affiliate/product images are linked.
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