Dare to Trust

Dare to Trust

by J.L. Bowen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Thirteen-year-old Armond Costa heals in three days, no matter what abuse his uncle and aunt inflict upon him. On his fourteenth birthday, he sprouts wings and discovers his aunt and uncle had lied to him. He's the lost Golden Demon's Healer. His father, King of the Golden Demons, insists he return with him and save his people from being persecuted by their mortal enemies, the Dark Demons. Now, Armond must choose between the Ellis brothers and seventeen-year-old Rusty Owens -- the only family he's ever known -- or condemn the Golden Demons to extinction.

EXCERPT:

I grabbed the wobbly banister and climbed the stairs two at time, my pounding heart threatening to jump out of my rib cage. Bulky footsteps trailed me, thundering louder and louder. A small stampede trailed after me.

“Going somewhere, boy?” Uncle Peter yelled. “You’ll never get a chance to heal. Not...after...I...get...through...with...you.”

 His heavy panting echoed in the cramped stairwell. He was getting closer and closer.

“Not in three days, you won’t,” Aunt Janet said. “I promise you that.”

Her voice was shrill, a sure sign I was in real trouble. She was right behind him.

Great, more pain. They could at least tell me what I’d done. I hadn’t done anything bad at the baseball game. I even hit a home run—something that usually made them happy. 

My hand shaking, I whipped open the door. I charged toward the window. My speeding heart sent blood rushing between my ears. Freedom was only six feet away.  Out of the corner of my eye, an elephant-size blur barreled right for me. I shrank, but Uncle Peter seized my arm, digging fat fingers into my flesh.

He threw me. The room swirled. Pain slammed into my back. I had crashed into a wall, knocking the wind out of me.

Sweet Aunt Janet stormed over to me and backed me against the wall. “This. Is. Your. Fault.”

With each word, she slapped me across the face and slammed my head like a ping-pong ball into the hardwood paneling. Metallic swirled around in my mouth. Blood.

She wheezed and stopped. “Since it’s your damn fourteenth birthday tomorrow, they’re hunting you, putting us all in danger.”

Aunt Janet ran her hand through her Sonic The Hedgehog-cut ™ blond hair and paced around the room. Her high heels clicked on the hardwood floor. “What will we do?”

“Keep him locked in the cellar,” Uncle Peter said. “If he’s beat down...”

She stopped and clapped her hands together. “You mean they can’t find him if he’s in pain?”

Uncle Peter stretched out his flabby arms and nodded. “Yup.”

I knew that look. My stomach dropped to my toes. Nausea gripped me. Damn, my right arm just healed.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

J.L. Bowen writes both contemporary and paranormal young adult books, and she lives at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Denver, Colorado.  She loves to take her cocker spaniel, Raven, walks on the trails behind her house or up at her family cabin in Frisco, CO.  She is a member of the Colorado Romance Writers of America, Young Adult Romance Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.  She has won awards for her CRW newsletter articles. She loves to go on ghost tours and her favorite ghost tour was the Jack the Ripper Tour in London.

J.L. Bowen can be contacted through her website:

www.jlbowen.com,

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jl.bowen,

Twitter@jlbowen2

Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/J.L.-Bowen/e/B007W969IE

J.L. Bowen will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Use the link below to enter. You can find her other tour stops at 

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/06/blurb-blitz-dare-to-trust-by-jl-bowen.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Elf Hills

Elf Hills

by S.S. Dudley

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Something strange, something magical, is going on in the dusty hills behind the small town of Villaloma. Yet each time Linda Peters puts on her running shoes and sets out to find the enchanted kingdom she imagines—full of dancing elves, unicorns, and more—something stops her. And with school starting soon, she only has a few more chances to really search the hills.

While Linda’s frustration and doubt grow, her cousin, Nugu, looks for answers in his books and wonders if maybe, just maybe, Linda’s stories are for real.

The day finally arrives when Linda can run far, the day she is sure she will find her magic city. But when she and Nugu feel their goal must lie just beyond the next hill, they only find more hill.

Is it all a figment of an over-active imagination; a wistful fantasy?

Or is there truly something magical in those hills that only the strong of heart—and leg—can discover?

EXCERPT:

From the Prologue:

This fairy tale, as you might have guessed already, takes place on a hill. Or, rather, on many hills and a mountain or two in Northern California, near what people call the Great Valley. One hill in particular stands out, though, because that is where everything started. It was a nice hill; well rounded, not too high, not too low. It was distinctly a hill, snuggled up against a mountain like a nursing cub to its resting mother. For the most part this hill was well-dressed with dark green oak trees and tall grasses, usually yellowed and dry except for the four or five wet months of the year. Along one side, a seasonal creek slipped out and down into the plain. Here the vegetation—red-stemmed manzanita, prickly blackberry bushes, and other shrubs—was thick and difficult to move through.

From afar, the hill was not remarkable; it had many siblings stretching to the north and south as far as the eye could see. This hill was special, though. For one, a strange—some said magical—copse of trees stood near the base of the hill where the creek emerged. These trees were short, had long, dark-green leaves, and bore bright yellow fruit that, if eaten, were said to imbue a person with the strength of ten men. For another, the hill was haunted. On certain nights of the year a white light would shine from the very top of the hill. It was brighter than the brightest star; brighter even than a full moon, perhaps, and it cast long shadows across the plain. The first people that lived in the area told many stories about that hill, the light, and the spirits that lived there.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

S. S. Dudley grew up in Wyoming, USA, an avid reader and lover of the outdoors. He studied at the University of Wyoming and the University of Illinois. He started his first book (an epic fantasy hand-written in with a blue fountain pen…) when he was 13, but never finished it. At some point (as his mother recently reminded him), he decided that he needed to go do something (like get a job) for a while before he could, or should, write. He did, and spent time in Colombia, Panamá, Antarctica and the dark recesses of large science buildings on college campuses. That done, he now writes, lives and runs in Northern California with his wife and two children. He can be found at:

http://www.ssdudley.com 

http://www.facebook.com/author.ssdudley

twitter at @SS_dudley.

http://amzn.to/160KY4j

 The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Use the rafflecopter link below to enter. You can find his schedule at
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-blast-elf-hills-by-ss-dudley.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway