Showing posts with label aj locke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aj locke. Show all posts

Monday, January 25, 2016

The Ravaging in Between by AJ Locke w Giveaway!!

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Description:

Sometimes death is only the
beginning...

Selene Vanream died—for two
minutes. After being revived, she spends over a month in a coma before she
awakes, free from the Rot and the reanimation power that caused her so much
trouble. No one can explain how Selene survived killing Renton while he
possessed her reanimation power, and her reunion with Micah is marred by the
choices they each made to save her and stop Renton

But even though she’s Rot
free, she isn’t problem free. First, she no longer has a job at Affairs of the
Dead. And Ethan is missing and she can’t track him down. Not only that, ghosts
that were sent to the Afterlife with unfinished business have somehow crossed
back and are trying to settle the score in violent ways. If that wasn’t enough,
Selene discovers that dying briefly has more consequences than she realized,
because when she was revived, not all of her came back. Now she’s straddling
both the living world and the dead, and she will find out what it means to come
back to life but leave part of her soul behind.

Excerpt:

The Afterlife sucked.

Granted, I had just gotten here, but I would have expected
some sort of fanfare to be waiting to greet me. There should be angels throwing
confetti, and ghosts cheering as they welcomed me into eternity after my long,
hard life. I thought there’d be some clouds, lots of light, maybe a rainbow or
two arching above my head. But no, there was none of that. So far the Afterlife
was gray and dull.

How disappointing.

And I mean it was literally gray. I did a slow turn so I
could take in every direction. All I could see was gray beneath my feet, gray
above my head, and gray on every horizon. I put my hands on my hips and blew my
unruly ghost hair out of my face. This was what I got after sacrificing myself
to save humanity from a madman who wanted to slaughter people so he could feed
their ghosts to his creepily resurrected family? Seriously?

I wasn’t sure exactly how the Afterlife worked, despite
being a necromancer. Hard to know what death was like until you were dead. But
this couldn’t be all there was. I was at a loss here.

Then I thought about Micah and intense sadness washed over
me. I don’t know how much time had passed; was it only minutes? Was Micah
holding my dead body in his arms on the Brooklyn Bridge? Had days passed?
Weeks? Was my funeral already over? My incorporeal heart ached. I missed Micah.
I wished the whole mess with Renton didn’t have to culminate with my death.

I threw my hands up. Great, now I had eternity to miss Micah
and lament that I had to die because of a psycho. Why couldn’t death erase all
the bad stuff?

All right, time to put a positive spin on this. I couldn’t
start my Afterlife in a funk. Maybe this was just the starting point and I had
to get to where the good stuff was. They made it this dismal at the beginning
to show you that it couldn’t get any worse. That way you’d really appreciate
your slice of paradise, or maybe the Afterlife was more like communal, eternal
fun. I’d take anything over this. I started walking and hoped my theory would
be correct.

After walking for a while, the silence was broken by a
stomping sound in the distance. A low vibration thrummed through the ground.
Was this it? Hordes of angels were coming to greet me and they were running because
they were late? But the closer the sound got, the more it reminded me of horses’
hooves. When I turned in the direction of the galloping, I saw glowing, red
eyes coming at me.

If I had a beating heart, it would have seized up when I saw
what looked like a hulking, jet-black horse. The only color was those red fire
pits it had for eyes. Its body, which I could tell was equine, was surrounded
by roiling waves of darkness. It was as though shadows had wrapped around it
and were in constant motion. It looked twice as large as any horse I had ever
seen, and even though I was a ghost, I didn’t want to get trampled. I moved out
of the way, but the ghost didn’t seem as though it saw me. When it had run past
me a few feet it stopped, reared up and neighed, which was a beastly and
horrifying sound, then dropped down and continued running. I was left staring
after it with my mouth hanging open.

My Review

I love this series. Let me tell you my first reason- the main character is a black woman. Now now, I know I'm white, but seriously, why does every kick ass lady have to be white? Well not any more. And no it's not a race thing, before you jump down my throat.LOL I just like seing ALL WOMEN, of any shape, color, size, etc be awesome. So now to my next reason. Dude the whole series is kick ass. It's unique, and fresh, and fun, and sexy! We of course have a great adventure and some good mystery and suspense, all the while having a good plot line to follow! 

I also love the characters! We get to see our friends from the past, always- Micah, Etha, Selene, but now we are seeing some new people- HELLO KYO!! And sometimes, our old favorites make us crazy. And I keep forgetting that sometimes being swoonworthy does not make good boyfriend or friend material- no names LOL. I think the characters and their excellent growths are what make this series such a standout. 

And the surprises are just being thrown left an right. There are still secrets and past issues hanging about, and Selene is always last to know and then having to pick up the pieces for it. And I commend her so much more for her reasonings and choices. Nothing is ever what it appears to be on the surface. And after that sacrifice, nothing will ever be the same. I love the author's writing style and I seriously look forward to seeing where this book series will go in book 4! GIMME!! :) 5 PAWS!! 
 

Bio:
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A.J. Locke
is originally from Trinidad and Tobago but has resided in New York City for
over fifteen years. She knew early on that she wanted to be a writer, penned
her first novel at fourteen, and hasn’t stopped since. Creating is her passion,
and other than writing she enjoys keeping up with her active toddler and finding
time for her other creative whims such as drawing, painting, and graphic
design.

Author Links:


 Buy Links:

Check out the other books in the Reanimation Files Series:


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Thursday, June 18, 2015

Requiem for the Living by AJ Locke w Giveaway!

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Description:



Selene is slowly dying...too
bad that’s the least of her problems.

You could say that Selene
Vanream has a lot of problems. First there’s the Rot that’s slowly killing her,
despite everything Ilyse and Micah are doing to find a way to save her. 

Then there’s Andrew, the
ghost of her boss who is anchored to the living world. Selene would like to
ignore him, but anchored ghosts with unsettled business turn into anchored
beasties, so she can’t write him off. The government has sent a team to post up
at Affairs of the Dead and keep an eye on her, which includes making sure she
plays up to Andrew to keep him from turning. 

On top of that, someone is
using Selene’s new power to create anchored ghosts for their loved ones to keep
around. Not good since the culprit doesn’t have a clue about that whole
anchored beastie angle. Now Selene has a criminal to catch while trying to stay
out of the hands of government goons who have stripping her reanimation power
on their agenda. 

When Micah and Ilyse finally
find a way to save her, Selene thinks she can cross one bad thing off her
list--until she learns the terrible price that must be paid to keep her alive.
Full plate doesn’t cover it. Overflowing plate doesn’t cover it. Selene’s plate
has damn near exploded.

Excerpt:

There were
a few things that made me feel like my day was not off to the best start. For
starters, I had overslept by an hour and a half so I was monstrously late for
work. Then there was the scent of smoke creeping into my bedroom accompanied by
loud swearing, which meant my ghost roommate had made a disaster of whatever he
was trying to procure for breakfast. The sky was overcast so it’d probably be a
rainy day. I had a slight headache…and oh yeah, I was looking into my backyard
at my Yorkie, Luna, digging furiously in the dirt. I was almost certain what
she was trying to unearth wasn’t one of her toys.

I stood
there for a few moments more, trying to decipher what it was that Luna was
pawing at, then shook my head and ran out of my bedroom. I almost collided with
Ethan, who was on his way to my room with a frying pan in his gloved hand and
the charred remnants of what he’d come to dub the wake-up bacon.

“It’s
burnt, but I figured waving it under your nose would still get you out of bed
any—Hey, what’s wrong?”

I brushed
past Ethan and ran into the yard where I snatched up Luna, then had a good,
hard look at what she’d been wrestling with. I’d been hoping that it was some
oddly shaped root or five fingered toy I didn’t remember buying for her, but
no, it just had to be the worst possible thing.

A human
hand.


My review
I love this series! It's so unique and so full of twists and turns. Selene is back full force, though her force is dying because of a little Rot problem. Literally. And on top of that, someone buried a body in her yard to use her power to keep spirits anchored here. And we have to keep in mind that spirits can turn to "beasties" as she calls them, means monstrous. And Selene is past the point of bad luck, and I for one, want to hug her. She has awesome friends/coworkers in Micah and Ilyse, and her boss Andrew is... Something. And Ethan is the ghost who is anchored to her. See, she has a lot of cray cray. 

With Selene trying to keep herself alive and herself and powers in tact, she's struggling to figure out who is criminally getting dead people's spirits anchored around her. And the twist on that will knock your socks off. Then theirs her rot problem. She's dying from the inside. Her friends are doing everything, and I mean everything, to try to help her. I have so many things I want to say about Andrew and Micah: I will not give spoilers, so I can't talk about them. Lol Ethan however, I love him! He cracked me up, with his strangle dorky ways and beautiful big heart! Selene is a great lead character. She is strong, and though she's dying, she's trying to help everyone else. It's amazing how well all of these characters are written. 

The entire story is very well written but my heart lies in the character depth. The world building is fantastic. And the twists- well they blew my mind. I'm still a little speechless. This one has it all too, mystery, suspense, paranormal, action, and a little romance. And I really couldn't put this one down. Well done!! I absolutely cannot wait for the next book!! Well done!! 5 PAWS!! 





Bio:
Image and video hosting by TinyPic




A.J. Locke
is originally from Trinidad and Tobago but has resided in New York City for
over ten years. She knew early on that she wanted to be a writer, penned her
first novel at fourteen, and hasn’t stopped since. Creating is her passion, and
other than writing she enjoys drawing, painting, graphic design, and any other
creative whim that may take her.

Author Links:


Requiem for the Living (The Reanimation Files Book 2) Buy Links:




Affairs of the Dead (The Reanimation Files Book 1) Buy Links:

iTunes



 To go along with the tour I am having a GIVEAWAY! The Grand Prize winner will receive: A Yorkie Plush (in the novels, Selene has a pet Yorkie named Luna), a Rune necklace, a signed paperback copy of Affairs of the Dead an e-book copy of Black Widow Witch, and a $10 Amazon gift card.

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Note: In order to win the grand prize you must complete (and show proof) ALL the items on the Rafflecopter! The giveaway will run from June 8th - June 30th. 



If more than one person becomes eligible for the Grand Prize, I will use a random number selector to pick the overall winner.


You also have a chance to win great books from Etopia Press, Rune Necklaces, and Amazon Gift Cards. Those prizes do not require total completion of the items on the Rafflecopter.