Seaspoken Book Blitz!

Hey I’m back again. I might actually get the hang of this posting regularly thing.

Today I am part of a book blitz. It’s like a blog tour but instead of being really organized and spread out, a bunch of book influencers just blast about the book all over the internet. This whole week is a blitz for Seaspoken by Sarah Delena White.

If the name Sarah Delena White sounds familiar, it’s because I’ve featured her on the blog before for her Star-fae trilogy. You can read an interview with her here.

I am crunched for time and feeling lazy so this is the post copy as provided. No affiliate links this time. Scroll all the way down for an excerpt and a giveaway.

Seaspoken
Sarah Delena White
Publication date: July 19th 2022
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Romance, Young Adult

An ocean consumed by rage. A challenge that demands blood. A love that defies everything.

Battle-hardened warrior Evya Atathari longs for a truce between her sea-dwelling tribe and the elven invaders. But her mother, the powerful and vengeful Seamother, will stop at nothing to see the elves destroyed.

Then the Seamother enacts a brutal rite of challenge for Evya’s hand to gain a powerful ally in the war. But even as the greatest warriors of the sea vie for her favor, her heart is captured by a man who should be her mortal enemy.

Keliveth Dalzana is a failed prophet of the elven king’s court—until a vision leads him to Evya and a chance at ending the war. Drawn to Keliveth’s idealism, Evya agrees to help him win the deadly contest for her hand and establish a peace treaty through their marriage. Together, they dare to dream of a better future.

But when their own peoples turn against them, Keliveth and Evya must find the courage to embrace their true destinies—and decide how great a price they can pay for their love.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

Only 99c for a limited time!

EXCERPT:

“Do you really believe we’re doomed to fight each other?”

“Yes.” A tear trickles down my cheek as I force the word out. Anything to keep him from taking one more step into the angry sea.

The singer’s laugh rolls through the mist. “I don’t believe that. Our peoples used to be friends. Tell me from your heart—do you believe the One Who Is has destined us only for war?”

The waves dance higher as his voice passes over them, and I shudder. The ocean is listening.

The Seamother is listening.

Depths take him, he’s going to get both of us killed if he doesn’t stop talking. I slip into the water, shifting back into my sea-dwelling form as I do. With a few flicks of my lithe tail, I speed through the shallows until I reach another large rock, this one only a few yards from the singer. I crouch behind it and speak in a whisper. “Please, leave before the Seamother hears you!”

“My name is Keliveth. Keliveth Dalzana.”

The singer’s simple words send ice through my veins. A Dalzana. A prophet of the elves, too powerful and dangerous to trust. And yet … this makes his claims about the Creator plausible. My head spins as I try to sort out what I dare believe about this man, and I say the first thing that comes to mind.

“I didn’t want to know that.” I would rather have gone on thinking of him as the dream-singer. As someone who didn’t have to be my enemy.

“Why not?” His voice is so earnest, so sincere, that it makes my next words all the more bitter.

“Because someday soon I will meet you on the battlefield.” My voice quavers. “And when that happens, either you’ll die with my spear through your chest, or I’ll be turned to ash by your magic.” I pause, gulping back sudden tears. “It’s worse when you know the names of the ones you kill.”

“Well, then, I guess you shouldn’t kill me.” I can almost hear a smile in his voice, and I clench my fists. Does he think I’m joking?

“I’m leaving,” I snap. “Don’t follow. My people will spear you and shred you to pieces.” I push away from the rock, ready to swim back down to the palace and leave this absurd dream world behind.

His voice cuts through the darkness again.

“Tell me your name. Then I won’t be able to kill you either.”

A pang shoots through my heart. If only it were that simple.

A wave swells before me, rising so much higher than the rest of the breakers that the stone outcroppings that dot the shallows are buried. I grip the rock I hide behind as the water rushes over my head. All thoughts are chased away by the sight of the wave as it arcs above me and crests in glittering white foam.

The Seamother has found me.

Author Bio:

Sarah Delena White writes eclectic speculative fiction that weaves world folklore and ancient concepts into vibrant, original story worlds, with a fine balance of poetry and snark. When she’s not writing, she can be found exploring nature, creating art, and seeking to make the perfect cup of coffee.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest


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Discernment: Dive-in Review

A couple weeks ago I hosted a cover reveal for Discernment, the newest book in the Legacy Chronicles by Lauren H. Salisbury. The book is out now and I can’t wait to share my review with you. But first a reminder about the book.

Also this is an official stop on the Discernment blog tour so stay until the end for your secret word to use as entry into the grand prize drawing.

A misfit, a fugitive, and a sacred destiny. Everything changes when all three collide.

In Jiya’s world, the only choice a woman has is who she will marry. When she meets a mysterious off-worlder, she must decide how far she is willing to push the boundaries of Teraburan culture to gain her freedom, and whether that is truly what she wants.

Mahsan has never been accepted for who he is. The sole human raised on an Esarelian cruiser, his attempts to belong led only to disaster and him becoming a fugitive. When he is invited into the home of a Teraburan clan leader, he finds a place where he could finally put down roots. But his past haunts him, and he will need to make peace with it if he wants any kind of future in his new home.

Not everyone approves of Jiya and Mahsan’s friendship, and some will stop at nothing to keep them apart. As the unlikely pair discover their true calling, they will have to confront everything they thought they knew and learn to see themselves as they never have before.

Purchase links:

Discernment – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093WWJ5HY 

Universal link – mybook.to/Discernment 

Check out the first two books in the series at the link below:

Series page (US) – https://www.amazon.com/gp/kindle/series/B07QGK7TZY

My Dive-in Review:

Discernment is the third book in Lauren H. Salisbury’s The Legacy Chronicles. This series is a science fiction reimagining of the life of Moses from the Bible.

Discernment specifically focuses on the period of Moses’s story where he flees Egypt and goes to live with the Midianites. This is his wife’s story; here renamed Jiya.

I really loved this new character. Jiya is a strong independent woman stuck living in a patriarchal society that doesn’t value her as a person. Time and again, people try to put her in a box, and she continually thinks her way out of it. She is the perfect match to Mahsan (the Moses stand in) as she can relate to his feelings of not belonging.

Discernment reads very much like a romance. Very clean, with very interesting sci-fi elements, and a Biblical twist, but still romance. For this reason I feel like this book stands very well on it’s own.

As book three of a four book saga, I was afraid that it would suffer from middle book syndrome. Thankfully, it does not. You should of course start at the beginning with book one, Courage, but if you somehow, found yourself starting here, with book three, then rest assured, there is enough backstory that you won’t be lost. The ending is also pretty nicely tied off, with a gentle, slope rather than a sudden drop off a long cliff.

The aesthetic of this particular instalment is what I would call space western. Think Firefly where old ideas meet high tech. For the most part it takes place on a cattle ranch on the planet Terabu, there is quite a bit of mechanical tech as well as space craft, but for every microchip there are just as many low tech scenes.

An all around solid instalment in an interesting series and a great book in it’s own right. I’m looking forward to this fourth book to see how Salisbury handles the ten plagues.

*I was given an advanced copy of this book to review. The opinions provided here are my own honest evaluation of the provided work.*

Word 12. what

For those of you with screen readers. The above graphic has your word for the blog tour.

Word 12. what.

Follow the blog tour to get all the words in the secret sentence:

All the links to the posts can be found here: https://www.laurenhsalisbury.com/

Giveaway:

Discernment Swag Bag

  • Necklace
  • Character art (Jiya, Reemah, Gilla)
  • Recipe cards
  • Quote fridge magnet
  • Handmade greeting card(s)
  • Note from the author
  • Signed bookplate
  • (digital) companion story

Digital Swag Packs

  • Companion story 
  • Character art with notes from the characters
  • Recipe cards
  • Note from the author

Enter the Giveaway Here: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ebe7708e2/

Or see if I embedded this widget right (I probably didn’t):

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About the Author:

Lauren H Salisbury is a lover of all things science fiction/fantasy, creative, and edible, but not always in that order. An English teacher for sixteen years, she now tutors part-time while trying to figure out how to use an MA in Education as an author. She lives in Yorkshire with her husband and a room full of books but likes to winter abroad, following the sunshine. Her favourite stories include faith, hope, and courage.

Website – https://www.laurenhsalisbury.com

@gillascourage on Facebook and Twitter

@laurenhsalisbury on Instagram

Realm Makers 2019: Recap

Part of being a Writer means socalizing with other writers. Even though we can do so much of that online, it is still important to go to writing conferences, for learning and fellowship.

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My Name tag, note the 7 marking my attendance streak.

Last month I was at Realm Maker’s seventh writers conference for Christian speculative fiction authors. (Curious about year one? Click here.)

Why has it taken me so long to  get a post up about it? Recovery. It is hard for me to be around so many people for so long. It is also hard to put an event like realm Makers into words. (I’ve tried in past years)

For me the highlight this year was meeting bestselling authors Brent Weeks and Terry Brooks.

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For bestselling authors they were both very down to earth. Terry Brooks even stopped to chat with a group of us sitting in the lobby on Sunday evening, after the official conference was over.

Once again I did not have a novel to sell or to pitch to an agent or publisher. But this year I resolve to fix that.

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WTB teaching about balance. 

I learned from Wayne Thomas Batson on how to balance my life and writing. I think it helped. I have been making slow but steady progress which is better than no progress at all. He mostly just drilled into me that books don’t write themselves and if you want to do it you need to make time for it.

Then of course there was the costume banquet. It’s the best reason to go to Realm Makers over any other writers conference. That and Friends.

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Steampunk DC villains!

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I found a doctor!

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And fought a TARDIS

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Steampunk Justice league. I was Batman.

After the conference I went with a group to the City Museum in St. Louis. It is crazy amazing there. It’s like a giant art installation, and it’s never finished they are always adding to it. If you are ever in St. Louis you must go.

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The last great thing about Realm Makers are the book hauls. So many great books and so many great authors, ready to sign them. I had to take an empty suit case just to pack all my books in to take home. 

 

 

Giveaway:

I won some books this year that I already owned. So I got them signed and now I’m giving you a chance to win them.

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Just tell me how many books I have in my suitcase and if you are the closest then I will send you one of the two books pictured above.

Mark of the Raven by Morgan Busse or Breakwater by Catherine Jones Payne.

The first right answer gets to pick and the second right answer gets the left over.

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If it helps the suitcase is 13″ X 21″ X 8″

Email your guess to dolphin18cb@aim.com by August 18. Please put, Realm Makers Suitcase guess, in the subject line so I know it’s an entry.

Legal disclaimer: This giveaway is solely on me and is not sponsored by Realm Makers, WordPress or any of the authors pictured.

 

 

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