⁣⁣ Through the Veneer of Time by Vera Bell Book Blitz! #VeraBell #ThroughtheVeneerofTime ⁣⁣ #XpressoTours @XpressoTours⁣

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Through the Veneer of Time
Vera Bell

Publication date: April 10th 2023
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense, Time-Travel

If not for “The Ghost”—her FBI husband’s gruesome case—Siena Forte’s life would have been perfect. But not when the D.C. serial killer is hunting women like her, and when her husband is so unsettled by this case, he refuses to discuss it. It’s a miracle her art career is thriving at all. And not only her career. When Siena lands a medieval mural commission at the National Gallery of Art, she discovers a bizarre knack for astral projecting to her past life. In a lucky strike, her visions of love and prominence in medieval Ireland are just the creative inspiration she seeks.

What Siena doesn’t know is her vivid depiction of the past exposes her to someone she has met before—the serial killer, reborn in this century just like her. But when a vicious attack from the past reverberates into the present, Siena’s life unravels in a chilling parallel. Silenced and alone, she discovers the true reason for her visions. They’re not the creative inspiration they seemed, but a harbinger of her centuries-old revenge vow, and the killer cannot be stopped until she fulfills it. But there is another person from the past with unfinished business—her husband. And another unwelcome déjà vu—their crumbling marriage, once again precipitated by the serial killer’s crime.

Does Siena have what it takes to carry out her ancient vow?

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His words were a blast that made something inside me snap. Why couldn’t I unlock my eyes from his? Unclench my knees despite an unbearable compulsion to run? I dug my fingernails into my sweaty palms to break the paralysis, drove the graphite shards into my flesh.

“Do you ever wonder what becomes of your characters?” His vacuous smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What comes after your painstaking freeze-frame? Your warrior—” He pointed his chin at the mural. “He’s cocky, but he doesn’t know what he’s riding into. Yet hours from now, he could be lying in some field, stripped of his weapons, bleeding out into the ground as the vultures peck at his baby blues.” His eyes widened. “Leaving his beautiful young widow all alone.”

His impossibly soft voice was a ringing blow in my ears. A tremor braced my throat. I drew a frantic breath against it.

“I’m sorry,” I squeezed out, “I’m not sure I follow.”

“I’m sure you do.” He chuckled. “But don’t look so stricken, Siena Forte. It’s only a painting, a fantasy. Nothing more.”

“Excuse me…” I edged past him, cold all over.

I rushed into the nearest restroom, tossed the broken graphite into the trash can, and locked myself in a stall. I hugged myself. Tight. Tighter. Gasped for air, not drawing any. My vision swam at the edges. Flickering. Fading. My heart thudded, and breath came faster in my chest, choking me.

Fragments of his words whirred around me, and I grasped my head to stop the awful cacophony. But it wouldn’t stop. The image he drew cut like a knife, piercing through something soft and vulnerable inside. Something I’d buried deep down and wished to keep that way. But he’d driven it to the surface and laid it out in the open, raw and exposed.

Someone entered the restroom, and I froze at the squeak of the adjoining stall door. But it was only a pair of black pumps through the divider gap. Heartbeat in my ears, I dropped the toilet lid and sat down.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.

Worgen was a narcissistic egomaniac, pissed off at not getting his way. Certainly, he could neither read my mind nor know anything about my visions. He was messing with me. Of course, he was! Pygmalion was a mythical sculptor, whose ivory creation came to life after he’d fallen in love with her. And here I was, a female artist, painting a man. As for the widow, it wasn’t a big leap to imagine a handsome warrior leaving a young wife at home. Worgen didn’t have to know about me to understand this mental image would upset me.

I couldn’t tell how long I stayed in the restroom, but I emerged more determined than ever to continue with my project. I only needed to go outside and get some fresh air first. But Worgen was still there, talking to a visitor, and the only way out was past him.

I clenched my jaw and went toward them.

Vera Bell is the author of the time-travel romance trilogy Always & Forever, set in sixteenth-century Ireland and present-day United States. Book One, "Through the Veneer of Time," is her debut novel. Besides being a writer, she is a wife to her high-school sweetheart, a mother to two teenagers and one fur baby, a former commercial artist and boutique owner, and a member of the Historical Novel Society, Women's Fiction Writers Association, and Romance Writers of America. Her favorite place to write is on her porch, overlooking a pond lined with river birches and magnolias. The topics she never tires of are Ireland, past lives, and love that transcends time and space.

Contact: VeraBellAuthor@gmail.com 

Website: https://www.verabellauthor.com 

Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/G05MBqATtj8 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReadingBells 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/verabellauthor 

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/VeraBellAuthor 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@verabellauthor 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/authorverabell 

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/verabell [going live soon] 

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/vera-bell

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The Last Wife by JA Baker Review!

 

Don't miss the brand-new thriller by J.A. Baker! Perfect for fans of Sue Watson, Valerie Keogh and K.L. Slater.

What people are saying about J.A. Baker...

'Superbly written with a cast of crazy characters who will make you look differently at your co-workers from now on.’ Bestselling author Valerie Keogh

'Fast-paced, riveting thriller. Gripped until the last page!' Bestselling author Diana Wilkinson

'A twisty, creepy story expertly told. Perfect for reading on dark winter evenings…with the doors double-locked and bolted. Highly recommended!' Bestselling author Amanda James

Welcome to Winters End...

Winters End should have been the perfect place for me and my husband Neil to start again. To leave the terrible secrets and guilt of our past far behind us.

But from the moment we arrived in the small, isolated community, it becomes clear to me that we are not welcome here. That someone wants us to leave…

I’m certain that everyone knows our secrets – knows who we really are. But how can that be?

Perhaps it’s my mind playing tricks on me. Just like before.

I know Neil thinks I'm paranoid. My thoughts spiralling. Again.

If only I had someone else to talk to. Another woman to confide in.

And that’s when I realize something far more terrifying.

I am the only wife at Winters End…and I could be the last…

J. A. Baker was born and brought up in the North East of England and Undercurrent was her debut novel, making it into the Top 100 on Amazon.

When she's not writing and thinking up new and inventive ways of killing off her fictional characters or looking after her young grandchildren, she can be found pottering around her garden with her madcap dog, Theo or in a coffee shop eating cake with her long-suffering husband.

My Thoughts

This is the second book that I have read by J.A. Baker, the first was Local Girl Missing, if you have not read it you need to. In The Last Wife, takes place on an island in the Northern Sea. Fiona and Neil moved to the small island of Winter's End. The move to the island was a chance for the two to start over. There had been some legal issues that got taken care of but it had ostracized Fiona's family.

A beautiful place, a nice cottage, and they can both work from home, but Fiona starts to feel uncomfortable on the island, the residents are not very friendly and there is only one elderly woman on the island, she finds that in the cemetery, all the headstones have a woman's name and the deaths are recent. The people in the town have started to make Fiona suspicious and she is being told by a few people to leave the island, they are not wanted there. Even going to the local pub is not safe. Things start to get creepy when another woman goes missing. What happens after that is a whirlwind. Will Fiona and Neil survive? Who is doing the killing?

I really liked this book and will be reading more by J. A. Baker.

I give the book 5 stars!

I received a copy of the book for review

I Am Germany by Michael Witt Review!

 

Three years before the Holocaust came the first holocaust, the one that nobody hears about. It stole the lives of thousands of children.

In 1930s Germany, before the war, Anna Himmel was Henry Schultz's secret first love and a child-prodigy violinist lauded as the embodiment of German high art and culture. But when the issue of reunification draws a grieving, widowed Henry back to Germany in 1989, decades after his family fled the growing Nazi threat, she is a shell of who she once was. As Anna reluctantly shares her story of trying to save a disabled little girl at Hartheim Castle, a covert Nazi euthanasia site, Henry starts to realize the insidiousness of the evils he left behind and the consequences of trying to forget.

But she cannot bear to give voice to the end of the story. To answer once and for all the question of how normal people slip piecemeal into evil and whether Anna can ever reunify with who she once was, Henry sets out to Hartheim to find the ending himself. What he discovers there will change them both forever.

Michael Witt

I am a former attorney (please don't hold it against me) who took an audacious plunge and quit the law, deciding to become an unpublished novelist. My first novel, I AM GERMANY, won the "Highly Recommended" award two months after publication. I never try to impose my views on the reader but rather make her come to her own conclusions. I love to write and manipulate words.

My Thoughts

I Am Germany by Michael Witt is a poignant story about Heinrich Schultheiss, who changed his name after coming to America, Henry Schultz, half-Jewish, his early years, and his years as an older man. Anna Himmel, Henry's secret love, before his marriage years. When Henry lived in Germany as a child and Anna lived next door. She was a child prodigy, a violinist.

Henry returns to Germany to find Anna, he does but after 50 years, she is not who he thought he would find. She has a secret. He had left Germany with his parents in 1936 just 16 years old. They moved to Iowa and started a life there away from what was going on in Germany.

The secret she has has torn her life apart, and she reluctantly tells Henry about Hartheim Castle, The building became notorious as one of the centers for the Nazi killing program known as Action T4, in which German citizens deemed mentally or physically unfit were systematically killed with poison gas. Henry goes there to find out for himself about what atrocities were exacted on the Jewish people in Germany.

To me, this was a sad story, the horrible things that happened before, during, and after the war, the building of the wall, and the wall being taken down. A very poignant story, a story of a young woman with a talent that surpassed other people, who turned into a broken cynical elderly woman who suffered unspeakable things. In the telling of her story, I think that she was able to come to terms with her younger life.

I think that this is an important book to read about Hartheim Castle, 30.000 people (18.000 people with handicaps and mentally ill people, about 12.000 concentration camp prisoners, and forced laborers) were killed in Hartheim until the end of the year 1944. A book that should be read by everyone interested in the war.

I give this book 5 stars, if I could I would give more.

I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

From the Ashes by Melissa Addey Blog Tour!

 

From the Ashes

They called it the Flavian Amphitheatre. We call it the Colosseum. Let the Games begin. 

Rome, 80AD. A gigantic new amphitheatre is being built. The Emperor has plans for gladiatorial Games on a scale no-one has ever seen before. But the Games don’t just happen by themselves. They must be made. And Marcus, the man in charge of creating them, has just lost everything he held dear when Pompeii disappeared under the searing wrath of Vesuvius.

Now it will fall to Althea, the slave woman who serves as his scribe, to ensure the Colosseum is inaugurated on time – and that Marcus makes his way out of the darkness that calls to him.

Can a motley crew comprising a retired centurion, slaves, a prostitute and an ex Vestal Virgin pull off the greatest gladiatorial Games ever seen? Or will they fail and find themselves in the arena as punishment? Time is running out to deliver an unforgettable spectacle.

From the Ashes is the first, fast-paced novel in the gripping new Colosseum series. Follow the quick-witted and fiercely loyal backstage team of the Colosseum through the devastation of Pompeii, plague and fire. This is historical fiction at its most captivating: both action-packed and tender.

Take a front row seat at the Colosseum’s inaugural gladiatorial Games. Buy From the Ashes today.

Trailer Link - https://youtu.be/CbM54gjiT20 

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Melissa Addey writes historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, medieval Morocco and 18th century China. She is a fulltime self-published author and runs workshops for authors wanting to be entrepreneurial. Her books have been selected for Editor’s Choice by the Historical Novel Society and won the inaugural Novel London award. She has been the Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library, has a PhD in Creative Writing and works with the Alliance of Independent Authors on their campaigns. 

If you’d like to try her writing, visit www.melissaaddey.com to pick up a free novella, The Cup.

www.melissaaddey.com where readers can get a free novella that starts another series (medieval Morocco).

https://www.facebook.com/MelissaAddeyAuthor

https://twitter.com/MelissaAddey

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/melissaaddey/ 

Purchase link (universal) http://getbook.at/Colosseum

An Unexpected Guest by Hannah Ellis Blog Tour!

 

An Unexpected Guest

A family reunion takes everyone by surprise…

Jago Treneary hasn’t been home since his father’s funeral three years ago. Now, he’s returning to the Isles of Scilly for his brother’s wedding and is intent on building bridges with his family.

When a last-minute guest arrives to stay at his mum’s house, the trip takes an unexpected turn.

Soon, he’s playing tour guide for Sylvie and rediscovering the beautiful islands he grew up on.

He never expected to feel so at home.

But with his attention on Sylvie he neglects his family.

Before long he’s faced with a choice: follow his heart and see where things lead with Sylvie, or put the work into making things right with his family.

One thing seems certain: he can’t have it all.

With his time on Scilly coming to end, he needs to make some big decisions… fast.

Purchase Link - https://geni.us/ScillyBook5

Hannah Ellis spent many years working in childcare before deciding she'd like to write books. When she's not busy writing she likes to read, drink tea and eat chocolate. She also enjoys yoga and jogging. 

FB: https://www.facebook.com/authorhannahellis

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BooksEllis

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Grudge by Doreen McMillan Book Blitz! #DoreenMcMillan⁣⁣ #Grudge #XpressoTours @XpressoTours⁣

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Grudge
Doreen McMillan

Publication date: April 7th 2023
Genres: Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Young Adult

How far would you be willing to go to get an A on a test?

That question plagues seventeen-year-old Laurel Anderson when she is confronted about the possibility of not graduating from high school towards the end of her senior year.

A plan was made with friends at a sleepover. But everything goes horribly wrong, and they all vow to keep what happened that night a secret.

Then Laurel meets Jace Messina whose hot and cold attraction toward her becomes intriguing when she takes a chance on an offer from him that she can’t refuse.

But as soon as she starts to have a glimmer of hope, everything falls apart. Bad decisions are not forgotten–especially by someone who has their eye on her for vengeance.

Goodreads / Amazon

Laurel sat there quietly eyeing him. “Is that so?” she said after a moment.

Something tugged inside her. The way he stood there looking at her with his autumn green eyes stirred up a tingling feeling. She had to look away from him.

“I just got in,” she said. “I didn’t want to get out yet, you know. I was trying to relax.”

Without thinking about it, she rubbed the side of her neck.

Jace grinned at her and nodded. “I guess that explains why you were twisting your shoulders. I thought you might have been dancing but you had a pained look on your face.”

“Pained?”

“Am I wrong?”

Laurel rolled her eyes and then slid down further into the hot tub. “I’m sorry you wasted your time. You could have called or sent me a text…unless you deleted me from your contacts.”

He chuckled, not moving his gaze from her face. “You’re like a flower with thorns,” he said.

Laurel cracked a smile. “That sounded like a compliment.”

“It was meant to be.”

Jace couldn’t take his eyes off her.

Laurel held his gaze. The way he looked at her made her heart beat faster. There was an intensity in his eyes that made her catch her breath. As she glanced away, she noticed the tattoo on his wrist. She became more aware of his strong-looking arms, and how they would feel massaging her shoulders.

It was as if her eyes had spoken when he came close until he was standing directly behind her. Then without saying a word, he put his hands on her bare shoulders.

She didn’t flinch or move. Every muscle in her body welcomed his touch. There was no resistance. He moved his fingers with a deftness that made her feel she was melting inside. His thumbs gently rubbed over her aching muscles. The moisture from the water made his hands feel soft and slick on her skin.

She was enjoying the sensation of his hands on her as the aches in her muscles lessened as he continued to rub the sides of her neck and onto her shoulders. She closed her eyes when she felt him lower his face close enough, so the tip of his nose gently pressed against her skin. She was intoxicated by the warmth of his skin touching the side of her neck…

Doreen McMillan is a wife, a mom and an educator who likes to spend her spare time writing mysteries for older teens.

She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband and son.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Newsletter / Bookbub

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—

For My Sins by S C Cunningham Blog Tour!

For My Sins 

An addictive mix of 'Lock Stock', 'RocknRolla', 'Killing Eve', and 'Line of Duty'.  

Knowing his days are numbered, a seasoned criminal finds his life calling, to expose and cull the sordid underbelly of the world's elite. Delicious, charming, cunning, avenging, David Howard escapes prison and agrees to an MI6 deal, to close down a high-profile trafficking ring in exchange for his freedom - setting a thief to catch a thief. 

 

With a target on his back, he's helped by a rogue police unit, working behind the scenes to right cases that fall through the courts' fingers. In an unlikely coupling, they share a goal... and will risk everything to attain it. 

 

A page-turning, cheeky, thought-provoking, at times laugh-out-loud, contemporary psycho-thriller, that comes with a warning. 

 

CAUTION 

Adult language, sex, violence, triggers. 

Amazon US

Amazon UK

FOR MY SINS by SCCunningham 

Escaped convict David Howard has joined an undercover MI6 agent, Moira, to help bring down the evil Lord Knute Bates MP, the boss of a trafficking ring. David has forced a gang of friends to help him. Two tattooed hackers, on loan from prison, have just arrived at their makeshift HQ, footballer Franco’s penthouse flat, to work with them in sourcing the intel the bring the Lord down through a social media campaign. The two, Elvis and Jimmy, are setting up computer equipment and explaining how they will work together.

‘Do you know how to use a computer?’ Elvis asked, nervously.

The gang nodded.

‘That’s good,’ he smiled, relieved. ‘We don’t need to waste time teaching you the basics. These pieces of kit are like any other except that they can link into some pretty powerful secret squirrel databases that will help us raise intelligence, follow someone’s whereabouts, give all ports information, airline travel, passport control, previous criminal history, the prison database, the police national database, Interpol, the benefits agency, vehicle licensing, police custody, forensics, DNA, fingerprinting, doctors surgeries, hospitals, street cameras, train, bus and emergency services cameras, companies house, trading standards, press, media, coroner’s office, you name it, we have access to it,’ he sipped his tea. 

‘Is that legal?’ asked Seb.

‘Yes, mainly, ish,’ Elvis scrunched his nose, deliberating. He couldn’t lie. ‘Well, actually no, if we get caught, we could go down for all manner of things,’ he gave an apologetic shrug. ‘Sorry.’

Jimmy quickly intervened. 

‘But don’t worry, you won’t be working on this shit, we will. We’ll teach you what kind of information can be dug up. Your job is to work out what’s useful, and what you need, and we’ll gather it for you.’

The gang looked nervous; this was well outside their comfort zone.

‘It’s easy,’ blurted Elvis, trying to keep them on side. ‘You’re sort of already digging dirt on stuff in your everyday life. Whether you’re googling a company and looking at its reviews before you work with it, or searching for the best price on a car, or holiday, or social media spying on someone you’ve met on a dating site or checking out what next to watch on Netflix. You’re intel sourcing all the time. We just have the goods to mine a little deeper. No big deal.’ 

‘What are you guys doing time for exactly?’ Seb asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer. 

‘Hacking, mainly,’ offered Jimmy, giving Elvis a look of ‘I’ll answer this one’. Elvis missed it.

‘Attempt murder,’ answered Elvis.

Anton squealed. The gang leaned back from the table.

‘And hacking,’ Jimmy corrected.

‘And fraud, and perverting the course of justice,’ added Elvis.

‘Elvis, shut up!’ sighed Jimmy. ‘You’re frightening them.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, it’s the corrupt perverting, not the sexual kind. But we now know how to get away with it, so we don’t aim at getting caught again any time soon,’ Elvis smiled, proudly.

‘You tried to murder someone?’ asked Tara, looking at the meek geek in a new light, he didn’t look like he could cope well with violence. 

‘Not really, I’m a vegan, I can’t kill anything, I’m even beginning to wonder if plants have feelings.’

‘Oh, me too,’ offered Anton, finding a fellow soul mate. ‘I can barely beat an egg,’ the two men smiled at each other, having a private moment of kindhearted hippiedom.

‘But you were charged with attempt murder,’ Josie pushed.

‘Oh that, well it was silly really, someone was trying to steal my knapsack, so I gave him a push. My laptop is my livelihood, he can go earn some money and get his own laptop, damned cheek.’

‘So, it was self-defense, you were being robbed,’ Josie tilted her head, trying to understand.

‘It started out as self-defense, but we were standing on a train platform at the time, and the seven forty-five for waterloo was just arriving. It turned into attempt murder. It was a very messy affair.’ 

‘Is he okay?’ asked Tara.

‘Oh yes, he’s fi…’

‘Can we get on with it please,’ interrupted Franco. ‘I’ve got meetings to get to, I’ve already missed training this morning.’ He gave Jimmy a nod to continue.

‘Right,’ said Jimmy. ‘We’ll meet here every day until the job’s done, it could take a few days or a few weeks.  You can go home each night, but you’re prohibited to take anything with you, or talk to anyone else about the project. Think of it as jury service. If we get caught, Moira and her boys will disown us, so we’re on our own.’

Michael put his hand up. ‘I’m not happy releasing information to the media, we may be in breach of an official secrets act or something, with no legal support from Moira’s office to bail us out. He works with the government, for fucks sake, we don’t know what we might find.’

‘Understood,’ nodded Elvis. ‘We always protect any state secrets relating to the security of the country. And anyway, with the methods we use nothing is traceable, that’s our job. We step in and out, clean as a whistle, uncovering the truth and protecting others. Simples.’

‘It may be simples to you, but to us it’s a minefield, we don’t have a clue what we’re doing,’ sighed Tara.

‘I didn’t go to school,’ said Jimmy. ‘And I can do it. Don’t worry, we do all the tricky, risky, stuff, you do all the plotting, maneuvering, creating a media buzz stuff.’

‘There’s one good thing about the internet,’ interrupted Elvis. ‘Okay, so crime can hide behind it to a certain extent, and it does, mountains of it. But when the truth comes out, it goes viral and beats the hell out of evil every time, everything, everyone is exposed. Think of yourselves as superheroes surfing the world wide web saving lives, think of us as your guides.’

‘Oh my,’ gushed Anton, loving the idea of being a superhero. ‘We’re going to have to give ourselves superhero names.’

He trotted around the room with his arms stretched out, singing the superman theme. The gang giggled.

‘Make no mistake,’ interrupted Michael. ‘It may sound like fun, but we’re going to have to be careful, we’re small fry to the likes of Knute and his cronies, life is cheap to them, they’ll have no qualms in silencing us,’ he dragged a finger across his neck.

Anton sat down with a plop beside Franco, looking nervously over his shoulder.

‘Yeah, but we have David and Moira,’ countered Jimmy. ‘I don’t know much about David, but Moira is a hard-arsed bitch, I’ve never met anyone like her. She can get you anything you want, with the click of her fingers, and can take a life without flinching. You’ll want her on your side in a war.’

‘If she’s such a hot shot, then why doesn’t she just click her fingers and get Knute sorted by one of her sniper boys?’ asked Tara.

‘Because David wants it done differently. They have history. Maybe she’s an old romantic, I don’t know, but she listens to him, and will do it his way… until she doesn’t.’

Having worked in the worlds of sport, music, celebrity management, and law enforcement (CID Crime Investigator, Major Crime Team Intel Analyst, Wanted & Absconder Unit), Cunningham creates psychological thrillers with a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humor, and pulsating passion, offering a fresh level of sincerity and authority, rare in fiction.   

THE DAVID TRILOGY 

The Penance List 

Unfinished Business 

For My Sins 

https://linktr.ee/AuthorSCCunningham  Trailer - https://youtu.be/Wh0OkT8DfzQ

Mid Flight by @travelisa1984 Book Blitz! ⁣⁣#MidFlight #LisaWilkes #XpressoTours @XpressoTours⁣

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Mid Flight
Lisa Wilkes

Publication date: March 31st 2023
Genres: Adult, Romance, Science Fiction

2037 was a really bad year.

Lexi Brennan’s best friend was killed in a plane crash. Two weeks later, an intergalactic crisis threatened the fate of humanity. Authorities responded by launching a genocide.

Lexi opposed this vicious attack. Then again, what could she do? An eccentric flight attendant drawn to glamorous trysts, she felt powerless to incite change.

Until tragedy struck close to home. Suddenly, Lexi was forced to acknowledge the widespread atrocities. She uncovered a network of lies along with an opportunity to restore basic human rights. To protect others, Lexi would have to launch a movement that could destroy everything important to her, including her promising new romance.

Goodreads / Amazon

Wordlessly, Lexi grabbed her purse and darted for the exit. She needed to see it. She had to know for sure.

The midnight sky was pierced by jagged red veins. A thousand burgundy fingers tore through the stratosphere like lightning etched in the wrong color. Puffs of smoke dotted the horizon, mushroom clouds rising toward the ominous red ether. From the descriptions and images in Lexi’s VirtuAlarms, it appeared Santa Fe had gotten off easy. Other cities looked like they’d been struck by an atomic bomb.

The world was blazing. The sky was breaking apart in pieces.

AutoScan—Jorge Rodrigues, I didn’t see your texts ‘til just now. They’re grounding all planes immediately? Scary stuff. Wish I was there with you. Where’s your plane landing?

With a rapid-fire double blink, Lexi sent the message.

Jorge’s response flitted across Lexi’s cornea. His words felt frantic. Can’t get down. Capitol Hill is burning. Dense population, nowhere to land. 80 miles from Dulles Airport. I don’t think we’ll make it.

Lexi read the last sentence and crumbled. She fell to her knees on the hot New Mexico concrete, sirens blaring in the distance and meteors crashing to the ground with a fiery scarlet vengeance.

“No,” she begged the universe. “Please, no.” Her vision blurred. Lexi ached to rip her skin off her body, inch by inch, melting into a heap of exposed veins. It was so enticing. She wanted it so badly. It was what she deserved, truly.

She should’ve been on that airplane with Jorge. Self-reproval flitted through her mind on an endless loop. Should have, should have, should have, you worthless idiot.

She gasped for air.

AutoScan—Colin Brennan, dial right now, she instructed, calling her brother via electrical impulses connected to her cranium. Five beeps sounded in her ear, then the line went dead.

Tears rolled down Lexi’s cheeks as she mentally composed another note to her best friend at SkyLine. AutoScan—Jorge Rodrigues, don’t talk that way. You will land safely. Reagan International probably has space for diverted aircraft. You’ll be fine. I promise.

As she waited for Jorge’s reply, she dug her nails into her leg, reopening the wound on her thigh. She picked at it, forcing the gash to widen. It was the size of a dime, then a quarter. She kept pulling, peeling, exposing her insides. She wanted her entire soul to leak out.

“Don’t leave me, Jorge,” she whispered. “Don’t you dare leave me.”

Colin tried to leave all the time. Lexi couldn’t handle another loss. She needed Jorge. He was her partner in crime, her other half. He was the best thing about being a flight attendant.

Words appeared in front of Lexi’s eyeball. Her chest tightened.

I don’t think we— Jorge began.

“What?” Lexi murmured aloud. Her hands fell to her sides, limp. “What is it, J.R.?”

Lexi craned her neck toward the red-streaked sky. She shouted, pleaded, implored her buddy bidder to write back. She wanted to hear details about his safe landing, after the pilots found an open runway someplace in Maryland.

Arms clasped around Lexi’s waist, dragging her back into the restaurant. She kicked and screamed, fighting to stay outside. She wanted the sky to collapse on her and drag her into the deep black unknown. She didn’t deserve the safety of four solid walls and a roof. She didn’t deserve to be in a city that had received minimal damage from the celestial hellfire.

Lexi began to chuckle as she was forced back inside the restaurant. She could barely breathe from laughing so hard. Through narrowed eyelids, Lexi saw customers and staff staring at her in disbelief. She continued flailing her limbs. She laughed with all her might, a deep guttural guffaw that echoed through the bar.

When a VirtuAlarm informed Lexi that two planes in the Northeast had been struck down, she was convinced she’d dreamt the whole thing. The aircraft she was supposed to be on that night had not burst into flames. No way, no how. Jorge was not dead. Lexi would wake up soon, she knew. She would call him. They’d talk about her silly nightmare, her tendency to imagine the worst possible scenario, her bizarre fear of erupting into laughter during a moment of crisis.

Lexi would wake up and chat with Jorge for hours. And she would not swap out of their next scheduled airline trip.

Lisa Wilkes has spent 13 years as a flight attendant, jetting across the globe and collecting inspiration for her writings. Her debut novel, Flight Path, is a fast-paced romance laced with serendipitous encounters. This book follows a daydreaming stewardess as she learns to navigate a new terrain: unconditional love.

In her second novel, Mid-Flight, Lisa transports readers to the year 2038. A flight attendant begins to unravel after her best friend is killed in a plane crash. In the throes of unspeakable grief, she uncovers a political ploy to decimate one-fifth of the population. To combat this sinister plan, she must risk everything. Including her breathtaking new romance.

Lisa’s writing is provocative and timely, with a focus on societal issues and powerful internal conflict. Flight Path’s readers will appreciate Mid-Flight's emphasis on hope and redemption, while newcomers to Lisa’s work will be drawn to the power of her storytelling.

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