Dude, so I sort of dropped off the planet last fall. I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to meet deadlines for my western romances (which you can check out here, if you want!) and I sort of forgot that I also released two YA sci-fi novels.
I wrote RIFT a very long time ago. I got an agent with it. She couldn't sell it. I submitted it to publishers, and it got a deal. Then the deal went bad. Then I tried Kindle Scout. It got rejected. I'd already written the sequel and conclusion, MEND, so I decided to self-publish them both.
And I did!
They are my April Featured Books of the Month. If you haven't read either of them yet, they are both 99 cents until APril 30, so you can give them a try for a very low investment!
RIFT: In this dangerous game with time, someone's bound to lose.
Seventeen-year-old Saige Phillips can’t help holding on to the hope that she’ll find Chloe, her twin who went missing five years ago. After all, Saige sees echoes of Chloe sitting in the window and skipping down the stairs. Though there’s never been any sound associated with Saige’s “hallucinations,” she’s freaked out by the breathing she hears in her bedroom.
The breathing is definitely real, and it’s definitely not coming from Saige. It’s echoing through a time rift that originates in Saige’s bedroom. Then a grayed-out guy shows up, saying his name is Price and he’s from the future. He has the same blue film clinging to him that Saige has seen on Chloe, and she seizes onto the idea that her twin went through the rift.
As Saige searches for answers in her time, she’s met with secret after secret, all coming back to one source: her physicist mother.
Price lives in the year 2073 with his Time Keeper father and a whole slew of global initiatives that regulate time travel. He knows time shouldn’t be played with. What he doesn’t know is why the rift opened now, or how he can stop it.
The deeper Price digs, the harder the truth is to swallow. His father willfully violating the global time travel initiative is one thing. Stealing the rift site from Saige’s mother is quite another. And kidnapping—or worse—to cover everything up takes things too far.
When the rift begins to show signs of overuse and instability, Price is desperate to close it before it explodes while Saige will do anything to keep it open long enough to find Chloe.
In this dangerous game with time, someone’s bound to lose.
Get a copy for only 99 cents! RIFT is also part of the Kindle Unlimited library.
MEND: With Cascade gone through the rift, Price is determined to fix everything and find her. It doesn't matter if there's somebody that could become him--steal his life--on the other side of the rift. What does matter is that he figure out how to mend it.
But he doesn't even have access to it anymore. When he wakes up to a new, different existence than what he's used to, he realizes that everything about time is fluid. And anyone with the power to walk through time can change his entire future.
Cascade knows this all too well, having lived in dozens of realities over the years. And the one she lives in now, she doesn't want. Because it still harbors secrets about her father, who her sister Saige is determined to find.
Find him they do, but no one--not Price, not Saige, not Cascade--is prepared for what they'll find on the other side of the rift...
Get a copy for only 99 cents! MEND is also part of the Kindle Unlimited library.
I hope you'll give these YA time travel books a try!
Okay, so I have been reading more, and not just to prove I can! I am enjoying the things that I've been reading, and I have so many books on my Kindle, it's a little overwhelming.
But I was asked to read a book for a friend of mine. I agreed, because I love Jo, and I knew her book would be fantastic. I wasn't disappointed!
About AGAINST HER WILL: My name is Cassidy Connor and my parents hate me. Well, they can go to hell. After yet another fight with my manipulative lawyer father and bible thumping mother, I disappear onto Hollywood Blvd among the other street kids. Or so I thought. The cops pick me up for a BS crime I didn't commit, and Dad announces the only way I can avoid charges is to voluntarily admit myself into Oak Dale, a psych ward for crazy teens. I don't belong there -- my parents are the real nutjobs --but it's not like I have a choice.
At Oak Dale, everyone is going on about the kid who just killed himself trying to escape. How could they dump me in a place like this? I'm thrown in with my anorexic roommate, Erin; foster care system victim, Gina; and pyromaniac Tony. Guess he likes to light 'em up. All of us are unwanted baggage, here against our will.
I quickly learn only the strong survive Oak Dale -- and some of us won't make it out alive.
----
I absolutely loved this book in a sort of love-hate way. I couldn't stop reading it, and I wanted to yell at the characters. Things like, "No! Don't do that!" Or "Please eat something." Or "This is a bad idea..." Or "Tell someone! Tell someone!"
AGAINST HER WILL is an emotionally powerful book -- I called it a train wreck I couldn't look away from. It stuck with me long after I finished it, and I find myself still thinking about it from time to time.
I think the reason it impacted me so much is because it is the polar opposite of my experiences as a teenager. Cassidy's story opened my eyes to things I knew about, but didn't really KNOW about, if that makes sense. It is a fantastic read for anyone -- if you relate to Cassidy's story, if you don't, and anywhere in between.
AGAINST HER WILL doesn't come out until March 30, but you should pre-order it now so you can devour it then.
Have you ever read a book that you just can't shake? Which one?
Okay, so I'm about to confess to something... Are you ready?
I don't read very much. And by "very much," I mean "hardly at all." Like I maybe read 5 books last year.
I know that's not good enough, and I've really been thinking about the advice I got several years ago when I first started writing. Someone said that they advised all authors to take a year off and just read.
I remember being very hesitant to do that, because, well, I couldn't really see the value of reading as related to writing. I think I've fallen back into that same hole.
I think I have time. I'd have to take it from some other things, but I could do it. Another thing that's jaded me is sometimes I don't like the books I've spent money on. And I want to feel like my money is well-spent. I know there's not much I can do about that, but it's been a factor in how much I read.
Every book I buy goes to four different kindles, including my husband's and my ten-year-old daughter's. So I need to be somewhat selective in what I decide to purchase and put on the kindles. They can choose not to read it, but they can't choose not to see the cover if I buy it.
So it's been a bit of a dilemma. I've considered getting my own amazon account so that won't be an issue, but I haven't yet. And honestly, I don't even know what's "hot" or "popular" or "good" right now. Yes, I've heard of the big names and big titles. I don't need the same 10 books/authors recommended to me.
But what would you tell me to read if I wanted to get "caught up" with the books that have come out in the last couple of years? I probably haven't read it.
