Juggernaut by Amelia C. Gormley Blog Tour Review

Hi, and welcome to the Juggernaut blog tour!

Almost before I was done writing Strain, my mind began trying to fill in the blanks of the world we saw in Strain, trying to piece together what had led up to that point. I decided I wanted to write a story chronicling the apocalyptic pandemic, both the events leading up to it and the immediate aftermath. The result, of course, was Juggernaut.

On the Juggernaut blog tour, I’ll be sharing my thoughts about the world of Juggernaut/Strain/Bane, including several cut scenes from Juggernaut which I felt contained important world-building details that in the end just didn’t fit the flow of the story. I’ll also be sharing a couple sneak previews of the third book in the Strain universe, Bane (coming September 21 from Riptide Publishing) as well as giving away three e-copies of Bane before it hits the shelves!

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post including a way to contact you (email, Twitter, or Facebook.) Each stop along the blog tour that you visit offers you another chance to enter. Be sure to check the Riptide blog tour schedule for a complete list of other stops. The contest will close Saturday, August 15th, 2015 and the winner will be contacted no later than Monday, August 17th. Any entries made without a way to contact the winner will be invalidated, so please don’t forget to provide your email, or your Twitter or Facebook address. Contest is NOT limited to US entries.

Good luck, and enjoy the tour!

*****

Blurb

They helped destroy the world. Now they have to survive the new one.

For rentboy Nico Fernández, it’s a simple job: seduce a presidential advisor to help cement approval to launch Project Juggernaut. He’s done similar work for General Logan McClosky before, and manipulating people for his favorite client beats the hell out of being trafficked for slave wages in some corporate brothel.

Zach Houtman feels called to work with the most vulnerable outcasts of society. But his father, the Reverend Maurice Houtman, insists that Zach work for him instead as he runs for Senate. Zach reluctantly agrees, but is horrified to see his father leave behind Christ’s mandate of love and mercy to preach malicious zealotry and violence instead. Zach even starts to suspect his father is working with fundamentalist terrorists.

When Project Juggernaut accidentally unleashes a deadly plague that claims billions of lives, Nico and Zach are thrown together, each bearing a burden of guilt. With only each other for safety and solace, they must make their way through a new world, one where the handful of people left alive are willing to do anything—and kill anyone—to survive.

*****

About the Author

Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else.

Blog: http://ameliacgormley.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ACGormley

Tumblr: http://ameliacgormley.tumblr.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ameliacgormley

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6445292.Amelia_C_Gormley

REVIEW

Juggernaut by Amelia C. Gormley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love zombie-ish tales. This one was awesome. It totally kept my full attention the entire time. Most zompoc stories that I've read seem to pick up after the world has went down the toilet leaving a few survivors fighting for their lives. This book is about the outbreak. It's an inside look at the government designed virus. The reader gets to witness how the world was shaped, how the top military official, the psychotic mark, the religious fanatic and the rent boy played their parts.

The storyline follows Nico. He is one of the top male sex workers of time. The reader learns what's going on as Nico learns. This book is filled with political, social, economical, racial, moral and spiritual issues as well as death and the fight for survival of the human race. Underlying everything is the star-crossed romance between two young men.

Juggernaut was my first read of this series, but it has me hooked. I recommend it for sure.

***copy given in exchange for an honest review***


toni

FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

View all my reviews

Beneath Blood and Bone by Madeline Sheehan and Claire C. Riley Blog Tour Review + Interview

SYNPOSIS

It is the end of the world.

They call him Eagle, like the grand and beautiful bird that symbolizes freedom. During these dark times, when humanity is experiencing nothing but suffering, a man with such a powerful name should be a beacon of hope, yet he is anything but.

Her name is Autumn, but she hasn’t said this name or much of anything else in the four years since the fall of civilization. A shell of her former self, living wild in a cave at the bottom of a ravine, Autumn is accustomed to being alone. She prefers it, actually, especially when her only options for company either try to kill her, or worse, to lock her up inside their walls.

Captured by Eagle’s people, Autumn is suddenly thrust back into the land of the living, but she would hardly call it living. The community of Purgatory is full of sinners, the most evil of whom seem to have set their sights on her.

In an act born of anger and defiance, Eagle becomes Autumn’s unexpected savior, forcing these two solitary people into each other’s broken worlds. Neither knows quite what to make of the other, but one thing is certain. To survive Purgatory, they must learn how to rely on each other, a feat that could possibly teach them both how to live again.

EXCERPT

"My wet reflection glared back at me—dark brown, nearly black eyes rimmed in red and encased in shadowed, hollowed circles sitting high on an angry, angular face that was framed in a heavy beard almost as black as my hair.

I was a fearful fucking sight. The people here were right to be afraid of me. The things I was capable of, the things I’d done . . . There were times I even feared myself."

- Beneath Blood and Bone

BUY LINKS

BENEATH BLOOD AND BONE 

AMZN US: http://bit.ly/BeneathBloodAndBoneUSA

AMZN UK: http://bit.ly/BeneathBloodAndBoneUk 

BN: http://bit.ly/1Pf9KPg 

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1OZLhwB 

SW: http://bit.ly/1hs6RPP 

THICKER THAN BLOOD 

AMZN US: http://amzn.to/1Mj52S4

Fantastical realm dweller Madeline Sheehan is the USA Today bestselling author of the Holy Trinity Trilogy and Undeniable Series.  

A Social Distortion enthusiast, lover of mud and anything deemed socially inappropriate, Madeline was homegrown in Buffalo, New York, where she can be found engaging in food fights and video game marathons with her husband and son.

A reader and writer of dark paranormal romances and zombie horror, plus a ton of other things to give you chills! 

She lives in the United Kingdom with her three young daughters, husband and one scruffy dog!

Claire C Riley’s work is best described as the modernization of classic, old-school horror. She fuses multi-genre elements to develop storylines that pay homage to cult-classics while still feeling fresh and cutting-edge. She writes characters that are realistic and kills them without mercy.

How was writing Beneath Blood and Bone different from Thicker Than Blood? You've now published 3 books together right? Can we expect many more?

Madeline - well, it was a little more difficult in the sense that sequels are always a bit more work than their predecessors and secondly the entire story has a vastly different meaning than Thicker Than Blood. Beneath Blood and Bone is ultimately a romance where as Thicker Than Blood was a love story of a different kind, one of friendship.

Yes, Claire and I have three books together now: Thicker Than Blood, Beneath Blood and Bone, and Shut Up and Kiss Me. And you can expect at least one or two more books from us.

Claire - this time was a lot more difficult. We both had our own projects to be working on and knew that they needed to be done, yet THIS book was the one that kept on calling us back to it.

Plus, as Madeline said, sequels are a lot more difficult to write for several reasons. The world building is way more intense for one, and this was a completely different storyline from book one.

As for more books, it's been an intense year for us, I'd like to think we had one or two more in us at some point.

Did you know how you wanted E's book to end before you started writing it?

Madeline - Yes and no. Claire and I had a good idea of where we wanted the story to ultimately go but there were some kinks that needed working out along the way in order to obtain our goal.

Claire - what she said ^^^ we had an idea but you never truly know until you start writing and the story progresses. There were times when we'd each send back our chapters to the other and then be like 'what now?' Because we also tried to go with the flow of things.

Which character from the series is most similar to how you would be in a zombie apocalypse? Explain.

Madeline - Ah, that's a hard one. I have no real way of knowing what kind of person I would be if I lost everything. I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that until -God forbid- it happens to them. Honestly, I can see a bit of myself in all of our characters and that's about all the answer I can give you until the zombie apocalypse actually occurs.

Claire - the person I'm likely to be is vastly different to who I'd like to think I'd be. I mean, I would want to be someone like Evelyn or Leisel (Thicker than Blood) but in reality, I'm more likely to be one-legged and covered in my own shit.

REVIEW

Beneath Blood and Bone by Claire C. Riley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are so many things I like about this series. The reader never knows what to expect. The storylines follow no patterns, and the books thus far are very different. Even though it's fiction, it's real. The decay and stench of life at it lowest are in vivid technicolor and jumping off the page at the reader's senses. At the same time, sparks of humanity that can't be snuffed out always shine through.

In the first book, E was not the hero, and he still isn't. He's the antihero. He's been through hell (the reader learns of this in flashbacks) and came out the other side. Life has no meaning for him anymore. Full of hate, he's only a shell surviving out of habit.

We don't really know anything about Autumn going into Beneath Blood and Bone. She pretty much appears to be cuckoo for cocoa puffs. Full of fear, she's regressed to a snarling animal surviving on instinct.

Most of the plot in this book takes place in the camp called Purgatory (so many things can be read into that name). It's a place without joy. Day to day survival is how it breaks down. The bold lord over the meek. Liv is the queen bitch. She wants to control everything with E being at the top of the list. It doesn't go over well when he takes an interest in Autumn.

I didn't hate E in the first book. He wasn't a good guy at all, but I still couldn't raise up feelings to hate level for him. Although E compares his likeness to Liv's more than once in this book, I was prepared to slit her throat myself.

Overall, it's a story about the human condition. When is enough, enough? What is the point of living? How far gone can someone come back from? I loved it, muy mucho, and I'm looking forward to more from these authors.

P.S. E did win me over. I don't excuse him for the bad things, but I still can't help loving him either. And that's the way love goes.

***copy given in exchange for an honest review***


toni

FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

View all my reviews

ODIUM II by Claire C. Riley Review

Fortune favours…the DEAD!

Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted.

Tortured, starved and on the run, Nina thinks she’s faced the worst that mankind has to offer, but she’s wrong. She may have survived this long, but she’s not come out of it unscathed, and there’s worse to come.

Nina’s trusty Doc Martins are showing signs of the zombie Apocalypse, and she isn’t faring much better. With her snarky attitude guaranteed to get her in trouble, Nina needs to forgive the past, and to live once more in the present, and learn that sometimes she needs to place her trust in other people.

Because when people are faced with the end of times, they’ll do anything to survive.

#‎Odium The Dead Saga available in ebook paperback & audiobook!

‪#‎zombies ‪#‎horror ‪#‎apocalypse

http://t.co/xKwFFC7XHM

http://t.co/BWLWW8mWhm

http://www.clairecriley.com/odium-trailer-and-audio-snippet-fear.html

Odium II Trailer

http://www.clairecriley.com/odium-iii--blurb--purchase-links.html

A reader and writer of dark paranormal romances and zombie horror, plus a ton of other things to give you chills! 

She lives in the United Kingdom with her three young daughters, husband and one scruffy dog!

Claire C Riley’s work is best described as the modernization of classic, old-school horror. She fuses multi-genre elements to develop storylines that pay homage to cult-classics while still feeling fresh and cutting-edge. She writes characters that are realistic and kills them without mercy.

Odium II by Claire C. Riley

Wow! That ending!

I've read a few zombie books, but Odium highlights some things that hadn't garnered my attention before and left me with plenty of questions. One survivor has a way of herding the undead by way of electric currents. Zombies don't have body functions so when they eat it has no place to go; thus, you get deaders with pieces of bodies inside them. The smells, the smells! How far are people willing to experiment in order to find a cure? What if it's not a virus but rather the next evolution?

Nina is relatable to most of us. She tries to be strong and help others. She's plagued by what is right morally versus strategically. At the end of the last book, Nina is at the mercy of the forgotten. Let's just say they aren't very merciful with her. And our girl Nina just can't keep her queries at bay. She has a habit of sticking her nose into things, out of one situation and into another.

Several new characters enter the story, some in passing and others in major ways. Hilary and Deacon are a couple that have a story running parallel with that of Nina and her crew. I definitely can't wait to find out more from them. Also, notice the blurb says "Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted." We've witnessed some of this already in the previous book but not like this. It's the apocalypse—people be crazy!

I loved this book, and I will definitely be continuing the series.

***copy given in exchange for an honest review***


toni

FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

View all my reviews