Tag: Excerpt

Book Blitz: Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien

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The spotlight today is on Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien, an exciting novel inspired by the true story of a teenage girl’s involvement in several Mexican gangs in San Jose and Los Angeles. You can read an extract from the book below.

WinPlus there’s a giveaway (INTL) with a chance to win one of the following prizes:

  • 5 prize bundles of 10 books each (ebooks and at least 1 paperback per bundle)
  • Signed Hardcover of Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien
  • Signed Hardcover of Oppression (Children of the Gods #1) by Jessica Therrien

To enter the giveaway, click here.

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CarryMeHomeEbookCoverAbout the Book

Lucy and Ruth are country girls from a broken home. When they move to the city with their mother, leaving behind their family ranch and dead-beat father, Lucy unravels. They run to their grandparents’ place, a trailer park mobile home in the barrio of San Jose. Lucy’s barrio friends have changed since her last visit. They’ve joined a gang called VC. They teach her to fight, to shank, to beat a person unconscious and play with guns. When things get too heavy, and lives are at stake, the three girls head for LA seeking a better life. But trouble always follows Lucy. She befriends the wrong people, members of another gang, and every bad choice she makes drags the family into her dangerous world. Told from three points of view, the story follows Lucy down the rabbit hole, along with her mother and sister as they sacrifice dreams and happiness, friendships and futures. Love is waiting for all of them in LA, but pursuing a life without Lucy could mean losing her forever. Ultimately it’s their bond with each other that holds them together, in a true test of love, loss and survival.

Praise for Carry Me Home

‘A riveting page-turner…Jessica Therrien broke my heart into a million pieces – and then put it back together again. This book will haunt and uplift readers long after they turn the last page.’ (Kat Ross, best-selling author of The Midnight Sea)

Format: ebook (356 pp.)                           Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Published: 26th September 2017             Genre: YA, Contemporary, Thriller

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Carry Me Home on Goodreads

 

Extract: Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien

“You ready for this, Guera?” he asks.

It’s a test, Guera. Only thing I can say is you’re allowed to fight back. Take ‘em out with everything you got.

I’d heard of people being jumped into a gang before, maybe it was Rosa who told me about it. As the girls start to descend from their spots around the room, slowly closing in like encircling wolves, I know what’s about to happen.

The realization takes hold in my chest, a quick plunge of the heart into an icy lake of fear. I back away slowly out of instinct, ready to run, but there’s nowhere to go. The sound of their skittering feet is the first thing I hear before they come at me. Me against all of them. Me against Rose Tattoo and Cigarette Twins. Me against the jealous novias. Ten sets of eyes glinting with the thrill of a fight. I flinch and turn my back to avoid the fists, but they’re all around me. One of them catches me by the shoulders, holding me in place as the other girls hit the back of my skull. My head flies forward, chin to chest.

At first I don’t know whether to swing or cover. I reach up to protect myself, but there are too many points of contact. The rush of adrenaline is intense. It blocks the pain, but there is a fiery need in me to get away. I try and kick or punch, feeling one or two connect, but the girls are everywhere. An elbow slams against my temple. My head splits and my ears ring. I go down.

Every infinite minute of being the enemy feels like it’ll never end.

Someone’s shoe stomps my thigh. Others strike my ribs. I heave and gag until I can’t breathe. But that kind of terror turns me into a resilient kind of crazy. The kind of rabid mad that is born of desperation. I scrape and flail until I’m on my feet, pulling hair and swinging my fists, making contact with whatever I can. I don’t realize I’m screaming until Toño calls them to a stop.

It ceases the moment the girls hear his voice, and I’m left there shaking and crazed, my breath dragging in and out of my lungs in a feverish effort to return to its normal rhythm. I pant and cry, as softly as I can, but it’s hard to deny my body the relief of all-out sobbing. My head hurts. My brain smashes against my skull with the pulse of too much pressure. I taste blood in my mouth, though no one has touched my face. Now that it’s over, the pain of it all rushes to the surface and makes me want to vomit. I feel like I could die.

Why am I here? Why am I doing this?

“She’s in,” Toño says, and the cheers of the group shock my senses and make me tense up.

They all rush me, and at first I’m terrified it’s about to start again, but instead they hug me and pat me on the shoulder all at once. Each hand on my back or squeeze around the shoulders rocks me with pain, but they’re so happy. Their laughter and cheering is contagious, it flows into me, filling me with a strange sense of pride and belonging. I can’t help my smile when I see their encouraging faces. I even start to laugh.

JessicaTherrienAbout the Author

Jessica Therrien is the author of the young adult series Children of the Gods. Book one in the series, Oppression, became a Barnes & Noble best-seller shortly after its release. Her trilogy has been translated and sold through major publishers around the world, such as Editions AdA (Canada), EditionsMilan (France), and SharpPoint Press (China). Aside from her Children of the Gods series, Jessica is the author of a kid’s picture book called The Loneliest Whale. Her award-winning stories can also be found in a published anthology of flash fiction.  Jessica currently lives in Irvine with her husband and two young sons. She is working on a YA suspense thriller series and a middle grade fantasy series.

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Blog Tour: Emperor by Andrew Frediani

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As regular followers of What Cathy Read Next will be only too aware by now, I love my historical fiction. One of my favourite time periods for historical fiction novels is Ancient Rome. Throw in a bit of political intrigue and I’m a happy reader. So I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Emperor, the latest in Andrew Frediani’s Rome’s Invincibles series.

I have a wonderful extract below to give you a taste of this thrilling third instalment in the story of Octavian and his rise to power.

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EmperorAbout the Book

The battle for control of Rome continues. Will Octavian succeed in defeating the dangerous pirate Sextus Pompeius?

Octavian has defeated and killed Caesar’s assassins, but the road to absolute power is still long and treacherous. Threat now comes from Sextus Pompeius – a cunning pirate active along the Italian coasts, who terrorises Perugia’s citizens with his constant attacks. Octavian and his associates don’t have time to celebrate their victory in the final battle in the civil war before another even more bloody threat arises: the one presented by Sextus Pompeius at sea. The long campaign against the pirates proves frustrating, and often sees Octavian close to defeat and even death. Everything seems to conspire against him: his enemy appears to be receiving divine assistance, public opinion is against him, the soldiers lack confidence in their commander, and rebellion is just around the corner…

Format: ebook (398 pp.)                 Publisher: Aria
Published: 1st September 2017     Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Kobo ǀ iBooks ǀ Google Play
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Purchase the previous books in the series from Amazon

Find Emperor on Goodreads

Extract from Emperor by Andrew Frediani

I

It was better not to get too close to the two severed heads that hung from the rostrum in the middle of the Forum.

By now, they were no more than lumps of decomposed, rotten flesh peeling from skulls, the orbs of the eyes empty, the remaining tufts of matted hair plastered to the cranium and the lips stretched out in a grim rictus of death.

A shiver of disgust went through Gaius Cilnius Maecenas as he contemplated the awful things.

He was surprised by the small crowd that had gathered around what was left of Brutus and Cassius, two assassins of Julius Caesar who had been killed at Philippi just over a month ago. It was extraordinary that people continued to go to the forum to watch them rot after they had already been there for a week.

He turned to Octavian. ““Why do you think they are attracted to these two disgusting trophies?” he asked. As he spoke, he felt a throb of pain in his side: it happened every time he spoke since he had been injured in Macedonia – and by a friend, not by the enemy.

“I was just wondering myself whether they come here on a pilgrimage out of some kind of veneration for the murderers of Caesar or whether they do it to express their contempt…” replied Octavian, who was also unwell and still weakened by the disease that had prevented him fighting in the first battle of Philippi. Yet, he had more than made up for that in the second, fighting on the front line despite not yet having fully recovered, but the effort of it had cost him dearly over the following weeks, and he had been taken ill while they were aboard the ship returning to Italy.

“Probably both, I would imagine,” remarked Agrippa, pointing to the heap of rubbish at the base of the Rostra beneath the two heads. “This stench isn’t the smell of decomposition. They come here to throw stuff at them…”

“Especially when they see that there are members of the triumvirate present,” added Salvidienus Quintus Rufus, the fourth member of the brotherhood that the young heir of Caesar had been assembling for the last two years with the aim of avenging his adoptive father and succeeding him in power. Rufus indicated a plebeian who threw a stone at the two heads, then looked round at them for approval. Soon afterwards a woman with a basket of vegetables hanging from her arm copied him, then smiled at the four men who, surrounded by their bodyguards, stood off to one side observing the scene. Not content, she then began to insult what remained of Brutus and Cassius and those nearby hastened to imitate her.

“It’s no coincidence that there are no senators about, then…” commented Maecenas. “These two are martyrs to freedom, as far as many of them are concerned and they would rather not compromise themselves by coming here. Quite apart from the fact that it would be beneath their dignity to shout insults or throw fruit – if there are actually any of them who hated Brutus and Cassius enough to do so, which I doubt.”

“Yes. If any of them have been here, then they’ve done so in disguise – perhaps dressed as commoners,” mused Agrippa. “And certainly not to insult them – to honour them, perhaps…”

“It remains to be seen just how strong this opposition in the Senate actually is. And what measures we will have to take in that regard,” said Rufus, who, as always, went straight to the point.

Maecenas was beginning to find it hard to tolerate the man. Just before the Battle of Philippi, the sect of Mars Ultor, which Octavian led with their assistance, had been on the verge of falling apart: rivalries, suspicions, failures and murders had compromised the mission that was the reason for the group’s very existence. And then at Philippi things had gone well, mainly, it had to be admitted – in private, at least – thanks to Mark Antony, the unwitting ally of the sect who had led Caesar’s armies to victory. It was thanks to that success that Octavian had been able to consolidate the group and resume his role as triumvir. There was still much to do, both in order to build the society that he and the other members of the sect desired and to finish avenging Julius Caesar and the other fallen members of his family.

Frediani_Andrew_400pxhAbout the Author

Andrew (Andrea) Frediani is an Italian author and academic. He has published several non-fiction books as well as historical novels including the INVINCIBLE series and the DICTATOR trilogy. His works have been translated into five languages.

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