YA Sci-fi Fantasy Shackles of Guilt By Kris Ruhler
YA Sci-fi Fantasy
Shackles of Guilt
By Kris Ruhler$2.99 – FREE
He’s the boy next door. She’s a princess. But when blood and war reach their doorstep, will they unite or be forever pushed apart?
Tag: young adult
YA / NA Romance – Date Me By Jillian Dodd
YA / NA Romance
Date Me
By Jillian Dodd$2.99 – $.99
Keatyn’s not scripting her life anymore. She’s living it.
Young Adult – Neptune’s Window: First Glance by LL Lewin
Young Adult
Publisher: Triple L Press
ON SALE FOR $0.99!
Neptune’s Window, First Glance, is the first novel in a Young Adult trilogy that combines mystery, astrology, and psychic medium abilities. According to the zodiac, the planet Neptune represents illusions, mystery, and the unconscious mind. Aries Dade is a teenage medium who has the ability to look inside those illusions, penetrate the unconscious mind, and speak to spirits in the afterworld. But, for some reason, she can’t communicate with her recently deceased mother. With the help of a few spirits, she tries to discover the truth behind her mother’s death.
Aries and her father move to Newport Beach, California to start over. Little do they know they are unlocking a world of lies, betrayals, and deception. And everyone they come in contact with is somehow intertwined with her mother’s death.
When the star quarterback and a bad-boy senior vie for her attention, Aries senses something isn’t right. Meanwhile, the rich, popular girls make her life a living hell to keep her from finding out the truth.
Other books in the Neptune’s Window series:
Neptune’s Window: Deep Stare
Publisher: Triple L Press
Caught up in the lies, illusions, and mystery of Newport Beach, teenage medium Aries Dade delves deeper into the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death. Still unable to communicate with her mother, she relies on the aid of several spirits, discovering the identities of two of them, and how they relate to her.
As the second novel in the Neptune’s Window trilogy, Deep Stare thrusts Aries further into the scandal of Newport Beach High School, where everyone has their own secret, including the death of the school’s most popular and beloved friend. But Aries has a secret of her own. She can communicate with their dead friend.
Are you ready to take a deep stare into Neptune’s Window?
Excerpt
Demanding spirits barged their way into her mind, each voice trying to outdo the other.
“Please stop,” Aries said through clenched teeth, and for a moment they went away, and she basked in the silence. But as soon as she took a step toward the school, their clamor started back up.
She ran behind a row of palm trees, shielding herself from streams of cars and pedestrians, as the high-pitched aggravation attacked her senses. “Not today, please not today,” she begged no one in particular.
Out of sight, she dropped to her knees and began picking at the grass as the noise escalated. “Dammit. I said stop.”
Giving in, she put her hands in her lap. With her index finger she started to write the alphabet on her leg. She needed deep concentration to make the connection. She waited for a clear voice to come through, dreading, yet at the same time accepting, communication with the dead.
After tracing a Z on her leg, she started over with A, as a faint whisper formed. Unable to make out any words, she slowed her pace and drew the letter B. She kept repeating this action, taking deeper breaths each time, trying to match the frequency of the spirit. She had almost given up when a clear voice said, “You need to find out the truth, Aries.”
About the Author
A native of Southern California, LL Lewin was born in Los Angeles County and grew up in Orange County. She graduated from the University California, Irvine with a degree in psychology and social behavior. After teaching for several years and interacting with the youth almost daily, she was inspired to write a young adult mystery novel, which morphed into a little bit more. Since things happen in threes for her (her initials, triple Sagittarius, the third born) the novel turned into a trilogy and reaffirmed her belief that three’s a charm.
She loves all things astrological, metaphysical, and spiritual. With her sun, moon, and rising all in the sign of Sagittarius, she’s as Sagittarius as they come, optimistic, freedom-loving, and ever so tactless.
Her three passions in life are writing, traveling, and soccer. You’ll either find her writing at the beach, on an island somewhere, or on a soccer field. And her three vices are chocolate, pizza, and champagne, and not necessarily in that order.
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Young Adult – The Autumn of Andie by John Madormo
Young Adult
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Which is stronger–the courage to right a wrong, or the fear of revenge?
High school junior Paulie Passero considers himself a social misfit. He is sixteen years old and has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date. He thinks he’s a poor excuse for the average male…until he experiences something far worse. Paulie witnesses an unspeakable act by a member of the football team under the bleachers one afternoon. The star linebacker threatens him with physical harm if he tells anyone what he has seen. Paulie is at a crossroads. Should he protect a girl’s reputation? Or defer to the oversize bully intimidating him? Dating has suddenly taken a back seat to this new dilemma.
Also by John V. Madormo
The Summer of Guinevere
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
If you’re a fan of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” you’ll want to read…”The Summer of Guinevere.”
The story of a shy, misunderstood teen who has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date, and who longs for a lasting relationship.
It was the summer of 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been cut down by a sniper’s bullet. Senator Bobby Kennedy, on the campaign trail in California, had been assassinated. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago had left a black eye on the city. And 16-year-old Paulie Passero was oblivious to it all.
In a coming-of-age story, an underachieving high school junior, who has never had the courage to ask a girl out on a date, is about to experience The Summer of Guinevere. When his father learns that his mother, the woman who disowned him years earlier, is lying on her deathbed, he decides to return to rural Leroy, Pennsylvania after more than two decades, to say goodbye. He takes Paulie along to meet the grandmother he has never known.
Paulie is unprepared for and unaccustomed to Smalltown USA. He busies himself with mundane activities until he notices a girl riding in the back of a pickup truck one day. He is immediately enamored with her. When the two finally meet, she wants nothing to do with him, but Paulie is determined to win her over. In what soon becomes the first meaningful relationship of his life, Paulie learns that this is a troubled girl with a shameful past who yearns to escape the clutches of an abusive father.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Mickey grabbed me by the shoulders. “Paulie Passero, I want the truth,” he said.
“Will you please stop? I’ve been telling you the truth. I don’t know what else I can say to make you believe me.”
“I want you to admit you made up this Andie Walker business. Come clean, buddy. You’ll feel better getting it off your chest. This is your best friend talking.”
I laughed and plopped down on the bed. This was just another typical day for me and my best bud, Mickey Hannigan. I’d lost count how many times we had had these kinds of conversations in my room. Neither of us could believe the other guy could actually get a date with a real girl. We weren’t what you would call experienced.
We were entering our junior year of high school with the hopes of erasing a bleak—no, make that pathetic—history with the opposite sex. Mickey had gone on two dates in his whole life. One of them you couldn’t count since it was with his cousin. And the other was a disaster. He ended up puking on his date following a spin on the Tilt-a-Whirl at Kiddieland. So, I guess I could see why he didn’t want to believe I had a date with Andie Walker. I’d be catching up to him, and he didn’t want to hear that.
“Eat your heart out, Mick,” I said.
“All right, how about if I just show up at the tennis courts tomorrow and see for myself? How’d you like that?” He smirked.
I shrugged. “I could care less.” I knew that would make him crazy.
“Give me a break. You don’t care if I’m there? Really?”
“Just do whatever you want.” I got up off the bed. “I can’t believe you think I made this whole thing up. You think I’d lie just to impress you.”
Mickey’s sneer soon melted into a smile. “You had me going there for a minute, partner. I almost believed this whole thing.”
I stomped my foot. “Damn it, Mick. Come with me tomorrow. You’ll see. But then make some excuse why you have to leave. I don’t need anyone critiquing my moves.”
He nodded. “It’s a deal.” He glanced at his watch. “Hey, I gotta get out of here. I’ll see you tomorrow. What time are you supposedly meeting her?”
I shook my head. The Mick killed me. “Noon.”
“Perfect. I’ll get here about eleven. The buses don’t run as often on the weekends. We’ll need the extra time.”
“Fine. Eleven it is.”
He winked. He was toying with me now. “I’ll let myself out.”
“You do that.” I waited at the top of the stairs until I heard the front door close. Then I fell back onto my bed and put my hands behind my head. I couldn’t stop thinking of Andie. This was going to be great. I was actually going to be spending some one-on-one time with the girl of my dreams. And if I played my cards right, this could be the first of many.
I thought back to how all of this had come about. It all started with Guennie. If it hadn’t been for her, I would never have had the courage to talk to Andie. Let me back up. Guennie—Guinevere Thompson—was what you might call my summer fling. All that came about when my dad asked me to accompany him to Leroy, Pennsylvania to visit his dying mother. This was the same woman who hadn’t spoken word one to him for the last twenty years. You see, she disowned him when he moved from Leroy to Chicago after he and my mom got married. When he learned my grandmother had only days to live, he decided to return to his boyhood home to say goodbye. He asked me to come along to help with the six-hundred-mile drive.
While there I met the most amazing girl. She was gorgeous. And she taught me how to act around girls. We even hugged and kissed. It was heaven—until Grandma died, and it was time to head home. For a while there I was trying to figure out a way to get back to Leroy to visit her, but when she wrote a letter telling me she was going to a dance with a boy she met at school, I knew it was time to move on. It took me a few days to get over her. But the minute I saw Andie—Andrea Walker—in the hallway at school one day, I started to forget about Guennie.
My first reaction was to do nothing. I knew I’d never build up the courage to actually talk to her. That was how it had been for two years. I’d see her. I’d stare at her. I’d follow her home—not in a creepy stalker kind of way—more like an inquisitive way. I’d watch her from a distance on the tennis courts. I even sat across from her at lunch but never managed to start up a conversation. So, when I saw her in the hallway the other day, I never expected anything to happen. But something did happen. I began to think about the time I had spent with Guennie and how we had talked endlessly when we were together. All at once, I realized I could do this. I could actually talk to girls.
And that was just what I did. We made small talk for a couple of minutes. Then I told her how I had watched her play tennis a few times. I think she was flattered I was a fan. I explained I had always wanted to learn the sport but I was kind of a klutz. That was when she made this amazing offer to meet me on the tennis courts on Saturday at noon after practice to give me a few pointers.
As I lay in bed, I kept going over what I’d say to her when we met up tomorrow. I guessed I could comment on how she looked at practice. Talk about the weather a little bit. No, that was lame. Maybe I just needed to rely on my ad-libbing abilities and go with that. Even though that strategy had failed me a million times before. But this was a new me. I could talk to girls, right? Sure. I had done it with Guennie. So, before long, I hoped, I’d be talking to Andie the same way.
Then I started thinking about how I could turn one casual meeting into a string of meaningful dates. I would have to see how tomorrow went before I planned my next move. Then again, I wondered if I should try to schedule another time together. Should I ask her if she wanted to get something to eat? Yeah, that was an idea. I hopped off my bed and grabbed my wallet off the dresser. Seventeen dollars. That was plenty for lunch. Okay, now I had a plan. I thought I could do this—as long as the Mick got lost after seeing what he came for, and realizing it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.
I jumped off the bed, changed into pajamas, washed up and brushed my teeth. I laid out a clean T-shirt, socks, underwear, and a pair of jeans. I wondered if I should shower in the morning. The last thing I wanted to do was turn her off with an attack of B.O. Before long I drifted off. This was going to be so sweet. I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
About the Author
John Madormo, a Chicago area screenwriter, author, and college professor, has created a body of work that has attracted the attention of motion picture producers and publishers. John has sold a family comedy screenplay to a Los Angeles production company, is the author of a mystery series with a major New York publisher, and was recently named the Grand Prize winner of a national writing competition.
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YA Sci-fi Fantasy – The Walls of Orion
Young Adult, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Date Published: April 13, 2021
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Orion City has been on lockdown for ten years. Courtney Spencer, a disillusioned barista doomed to live a “normal” life in a quarantined fishbowl, is certain she’ll never see over the Wall again. Until one rainy evening, Courtney unintentionally befriends W, an eccentric customer who leaves a switchblade in the tip jar. The unexpected acquaintance soon opens the door to a frightening string of questions that flips everything she knows upside down. Stumbling into a world of secrets, lies, and disturbing truths, Courtney grapples with a burning temptation to look again at the Wall. Surrounded by citizens trained to ignore its looming shadow, Courtney no longer can. Intrigued and terrified to expand her world, Courtney finds herself toeing a knife’s edge between the law and justice, learning quickly that the two are not always compatible. She wants to cling to her morals. She also wants to stay alive. But most of all, she wants to see a certain customer again, despite everything in her whispering W is dangerous. In a gritty urban clash of hope and fear, passion and survival, The Walls of Orion explores the edges of light, dark, and the gray in between.
About the Author
A world-romper from the Pacific Northwest who quite enjoys the label “crazy,” T.D. Fox supplements a hyperactive imagination with real life shenanigans to add pizzazz to her storytelling endeavors.
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies, her favorite stories to write usually involve a clash of worldviews, an unflinching reevaluation of one’s own internal compass, and an embrace of the compelling unease that arises when vastly different worlds collide.
When not recklessly exploring inner-city alleyways during midnight thunderstorms in the States, she can be found exploring rainforests without enough bug spray somewhere along the equator.
Contact Links
Facebook: T.D. Fox
Twitter: @TDFoxAuthor
Instagram: @TDFoxAuthor
Purchase Links
YA Coming of Age – Chokecherry Girl
Young Adult, Coming of Age, Multi-Cultural Fiction
Date Published: 2/16/21
Publisher Acorn Publishing
It’s 1958. Racial tension and class disparities have everyone on edge in a small Montana town. Despite their differences, three women of the community become the unlikeliest of friends.
BOBBI VERNON is a quirky teen, who will do whatever it takes to drive her teacher’s new Chevy convertible. Adding to the already volatile mix, she meets Pretty Weasel, an Indian basketball player, who calls her Chokecherry Girl. She dreams of dating him and wearing his class ring.
PATSY OLSON, after two failed marriages, is desperate to get her life back. After opening a beauty shop with a shaky bank loan, she watches Coach Vernon, Bobbi’s father, arriving for school each day. Attracted yet wary, she needs the business of the town ladies, including the Coach’s wife, Lois.
MARY AGNES LONE HILL, an alcoholic Crow Indian who was sent far away to a brutal Indian school as a child, now cleans houses for the town ladies and longs to end her estrangement with her son, Pretty Weasel.
These three women are drawn together through an illicit love affair, a stolen car, and a shooting that changes their lives forever.
About The Author
Award-winning California author and poet, Barbara Meyer Link, has had three stories aired on KVPR, a National Public Radio Affiliate. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous literary magazines and small presses. She also received the Sacramento State University Bazzanella Prize for fiction. Her memoir, Blue Shy, was published in 2010 and awarded first prize in the Sacramento Friends of the Library First Chapter contest. She co-authored Coffee and Ink, a handbook for writing groups and was a past editor of Sacramento’s Poetry Now. In addition, she was a poet/teacher for California Poets in the Schools for over fourteen years. Most recently, she was awarded second prize for poetry at the Mendocino Coast Writer’s contest.
Partial list of publications. American River Review, Poetry Now, Mindprint Review, Anima, Missouri Review, Women’s Compendium, Hardpan, Earth’s Daughter’s, (2014-2016) Whitefish Review, Dead Snakes, Noyo Review, Piker Press (on Dec 5, Dec 12)
Blue Moon Literary & Art Review (2019, 2020)
Contact Links
Instagram: @Saclynk
Purchase Link
YA Sci-fi / Fantasy – The Walls of Orion
Young Adult, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy
Date Published: April 13, 2021
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Orion City has been on lockdown for ten years. Courtney Spencer, a disillusioned barista doomed to live a “normal” life in a quarantined fishbowl, is certain she’ll never see over the Wall again. Until one rainy evening, Courtney unintentionally befriends W, an eccentric customer who leaves a switchblade in the tip jar. The unexpected acquaintance soon opens the door to a frightening string of questions that flips everything she knows upside down. Stumbling into a world of secrets, lies, and disturbing truths, Courtney grapples with a burning temptation to look again at the Wall. Surrounded by citizens trained to ignore its looming shadow, Courtney no longer can. Intrigued and terrified to expand her world, Courtney finds herself toeing a knife’s edge between the law and justice, learning quickly that the two are not always compatible. She wants to cling to her morals. She also wants to stay alive. But most of all, she wants to see a certain customer again, despite everything in her whispering W is dangerous. In a gritty urban clash of hope and fear, passion and survival, The Walls of Orion explores the edges of light, dark, and the gray in between.
About The Author
A world-romper from the Pacific Northwest who quite enjoys the label “crazy,” T.D. Fox supplements a hyperactive imagination with real life shenanigans to add pizzazz to her storytelling endeavors.
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Intercultural Studies, her favorite stories to write usually involve a clash of worldviews, an unflinching reevaluation of one’s own internal compass, and an embrace of the compelling unease that arises when vastly different worlds collide.
When not recklessly exploring inner-city alleyways during midnight thunderstorms in the States, she can be found exploring rainforests without enough bug spray somewhere along the equator.
Contact Links
Facebook: T.D. Fox
Twitter: @TDFoxAuthor
Instagram: @TDFoxAuthor
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