We are thrilled to share thrilled to share The Leader of the Unborn duology with you this week! Both books will be released on September 6th! .
 Unborn Rising by Tracey Barski
They were created to end the decades-long war. But what happens when the war is over?
Victoria has only ever been one thing: a warrior. Scientifically designed to be perfect in every way, she was enhanced for optimal precision in war, the model Silver—a leader until the end.
But after the war, Vic and her people, the Unborn, return to a society that’s in shambles, and the last thing the worn-out population wants is more mouths to feed.
As tensions and prejudices mount, the effort to carve out a life for themselves becomes a fight for survival when Vic’s entire village is annihilated and she’s the only one to make it out.
She seeks shelter from an old war buddy, discovering that trust is hard-won among the group of Unborn and Organics she finds—for her and her new community. Especially with the safe haven’s enigmatic leader. Feelings surface despite their mutual suspicion, putting Vic’s staunch adherence to protocol on shaky ground.
When she learns a secret that changes everything about who she is and what is happening to her people, she and her new allies work to find the key to freeing her fellow Unborn before they become victims to their programming.
Corruption is revealed, lives are put in danger, and everything comes down to one question: what does it mean to be human?

War of the Unborn by C.H. Lyn
The war is over.
Decades of strife and ruin brought to a close through the use of Unborn—super soldiers created with more strength and stamina than the average man could fathom.
For Jamie, life after the war is mundane: fight nights in the evenings bloodying her knuckles against the jaws of fellow Unborn, and construction work during the day clearing out ruined sections of a once-great city.
There’s not much to complain about. She has a roof over her head, a sister by her side, and sometimes enough food to fill her belly.
So when Oliver, an old flame and a fellow Unborn, arrives with devastating news about their people, Jamie is reluctant to get involved. This darkness, this plague of horror affecting the engineered soldiers, has nothing to do with her.
Until it does.
Jamie has always known loss, but not like this.
With a shadow looming over her people, and her sister’s life on the line, she joins Oliver on a trek across a crumbling country that neither trusts them as people nor accepts them as citizens.
The clock is ticking, the secret behind the darkness is unfolding, and Jamie’s staunch refusal to care about Oliver again is put to the test.
This one ticks all the boxes for readers who love dystopian tales about cryogenics, killer viruses, and radical invaders! Check out Rise, Tomorrow Girl by Cara Martin!
Rise, Tomorrow Girl
Genre: Science Fiction/ Dystopian
Publication Date: June 21, 2024
In the near future seventeen-year-old Canadian Leanne Khoury watches a second twenty-first century global pandemic—this one highly fatal in young adults—steal the life of her best friend. When Leanne is stricken ill too her affluent parents have her cryogenically frozen in a facility performing experimental procedures. Reanimated and cured of virus years later, Leanne isn’t the same. Her awareness intermittently ‘disconnects’, stalling her body and mind. But it’s more than that. Snatches of memories from evolutionary ancestors bleed through her consciousness, leaving her feeling as unnatural as Frankenstein’s monster on the inside.
Over a billion people perished during the pandemic, decimating a generation, and when Leanne’s released from the cryo facility she struggles to integrate into a Canada and world that has technologically and socially moved on without her. Although the virus is no longer a threat, Leanne is far from safe. In the United States organized extremists threaten legitimate government, regularly committing attacks on U.S. soil. Then radical American expansionist soldiers invade parts of Canada and Leanne, along with others not accepted by the radical invaders, must fight for her survival.
Cara Martin is the author of several acclaimed novels for young people published under the name C. K. Kelly Martin, including a middle grade sci-fi, multiple contemporary YAs, a sci-fi duology set in 2063 and the 1980s, and an emotionally-charged ghost story. Four of these books received starred reviews and two were shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association’s Young Adult Book Award. Her young adult horror, Shantallow, published under the name Cara Martin, was long-listed for the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and was an Ottawa Book Awards fiction finalist. Booklist described Shantallow as “serious, literary and very scary” and Kirkus called it “gut-wrenching on various levels.”
A graduate of the Film Studies program at York University, Cara has lived in the Greater Toronto Area and Dublin, Ireland. Within the space of 3500 miles she’s worked a collection of quirky jobs at multiple pubs and video stores, an electricity company, a division of the Irish post office, a London toyshop, and an advertising analytics company. She’s also been an image editor for a dot-com startup that didn’t survive the 90s, and a credit note clerk for Canada’s largest national distributor of General Merchandise.
These days Cara’s busy writing fiction about malicious hauntings and the mysterious future, wondering what if . . . She currently resides in Ottawa with her husband and is still afraid of the Child Catcher from the film adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
We’re celebrating the release of Full Speed to a Crash Landing this week! Read on for more details!
Full Speed to a Crash Landing (Chaotic Orbits #1)
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Genre: Sci-Fi/Romance
A high octane sexy space heist from New York Times-bestselling author Beth Revis, the first in a novella trilogy
Ada Lamarr may have gotten to the spaceship wreck first, but looter’s rights won’t get her far when she’s got a hole in the side of her ship and her spacesuit is almost out of air. Fortunately for her, help arrives in the form of a government salvage crew—and while they reluctantly rescue her from certain death, they are not pleased to have an unexpected passenger along on their classified mission.
But Ada doesn’t care—all that matters to her is enjoying their fine food and sweet, sweet oxygen—until Rian White, the government agent in charge, starts to suspect that there’s more to Ada than meets the eye. He’s not wrong—but he’s so pretty that Ada is perfectly happy to keep him paying attention to her—at least until she can complete the job she was sent to pull off. But as quick as Ada is, Rian might be quicker—and she may not be entirely sure who’s manipulating who until it’s too late…
A phenomenally fun novella that kicks off a trilogy of sexy space heists and romantic tension, Full Speed to a Crash Landing is packed with great characters and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the end.
We’re thrilled to present the cover for Strangers in Our Hearts by Bri Eberhart! Make sure to add this one to Goodreads!
For Fans Of:
The Darkest Minds Cute Mutants The Young Elites X-Men Heroes
Strangers in Our Hearts
Release date: October 22, 2024
Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy/YA Science Fantasy
Audience: Upper YA 16+
Discovering special powers
Found family
Power and technology
Pre-dystopian setting
Social and political turmoil
Theo Goodwin is used to running, while Gemma Roberts wants nothing more than to find somewhere to call home—someplace to belong. With the threat of the Authorities looming, despite their strange connection and a shared desire to protect their family, a compromise between fight or flight is no easy feat. As they traverse a new shared life together, they must learn to understand one another for the survival of not only themselves but also those they hold dear.
When a new group swoops in with their own unique powers and motivations that threaten to ruin everything Theo and Gemma have worked toward, the invitation into their broader community has its appeals but equal drawbacks. Tension simmers within their crew, testing their bonds and questioning their unity. As they navigate this delicate balance, they’ll discover the world isn’t what it seems and finally put a word to what they are—mutants. More are found every day, with abilities far beyond what they thought possible. And the Authorities are doing more than hunting them down.
With mutants on the precipice of war with the government, will they decide to join the cause and fight or continue to run and hide?
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller – with a mind-blowing twist.
There’s a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .
The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.
But it’s the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.
Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.
His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identify a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm.
Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past . . . and a past that’s not her own . . . until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.
Lee Goldberg is an ex-Navy SEAL, nuclear physicist and a professional Daniel Craig impersonator.
Okay, that’s not true. But he wants this biography to be really exciting, so pay attention. If things bog down, I’ve been instructed to add a car chase or some explicit sex.
Here’s the real story. Lee Goldberg writes books and television shows.
His mother wanted him to be a doctor, and his grandfather wanted him to go into the family furniture business. Instead, he put himself through UCLA as a freelance journalist, writing for such publications as American Film, Starlog, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle (He also wrote erotic letters to the editor for Playgirl at twenty-five-dollars-a-letter, but he doesn’t tell people about that, he just likes to boast about those “tiffany” credits).
He published his first book “.357 Vigilante” (as “Ian Ludlow,” so he’d be on the shelf next to Robert Ludlum) while he was still a UCLA student. The West Coast Review of Books called his debut “as stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort,” singling the book out as “The Best New Paperback Series” of the year. Naturally, the publisher promptly went bankrupt and he never saw a dime in royalties. (But the books are available on the Kindle as “The Jury Series”)
Welcome to publishing, Lee.
His subsequent books include the non-fiction books “Successful Television Writing” and “Unsold Television Pilots” (“The Best Bathroom Reading Ever!” San Francisco Chronicle) as well as the novels “My Gun Has Bullets” (“It will make you cackle like a sitcom laugh track,” Entertainment Weekly), “Dead Space” (“Outrageously entertaining,” Kirkus Reviews), “Watch Me Die” (“as dark and twisted as anything Hammet or Chandler ever dreamed up,” Kirkus Reviews).
“Take me now,” she moaned, “you hot writer stud.”
She tore off her clothes and tackled him onto the floor, unable to control her raging lust. Nothing excited her more than being around a writer with a big list of books.
Got your attention again? Good. I don’t know about you, but I was starting to nod off. Where was I? Oh yes…
Goldberg broke into television with a freelance script sale to “Spenser: For Hire.” Since then, his TV writing & producing credits have covered a wide variety of genres, including sci-fi (SeaQuest), cop shows (Hunter, The Glades), martial arts (Martial Law), whodunits (Diagnosis Murder, Nero Wolfe), the occult (She-Wolf of London), kid’s shows (R.L. Stine’s The Nightmare Room), T&A (Baywatch), comedy (Monk) and utter crap (The Highwayman). His TV work has earned him two Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America.
His two careers, novelist and TV writer, merged when he began writing the “Diagnosis Murder” series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced, and later wrote the 15 bestselling novels based on “Monk,” another show that he worked on. He is co-creator of the hit Hallmark movie series “Mystery 101.” He also he teamed up with Janet Evanovich to write the #1 New York Times bestselling Fox & O’Hare novels (“The Heist,” “The Chase,” “The Job,” “The Scam,” “The Pursuit”). His most recent books include “Movieland” (the 4th novel in the Eve Roninseries), “Malibu Burning” (the first novel in the Sharpe & Walker series) and the genre-bending thriller “Calico.”
But perhaps he’s best known for his pioneering work mapping the human genome and negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Goldberg lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his daughter and still sleeps in “Man From UNCLE” pajamas.
My thoughts: this was a great genre bending crime novel, blending science fiction and time travel with the small town cop trying to solve the appearance of a man from the 1800s with the disappearance at almost exactly the same time of a man driving through the same town. There’s a mysterious explosion on a military base, that’s definitely not a bin fire and all sorts of other weirdness for Detective Beth McDade to sort through as she attempts to solve the case.
Clever, blackly comic and entertaining, this is a great and compelling read. I can’t decide which of the storylines and characters I liked more, the accidental time traveller or the world weary, cynical detective discovering that things are both stranger and yet more believable than she first thought. I’d love more peculiar crimes in the desert for Beth to solve, especially now she knows the X-Files aren’t entirely fiction. A really fun read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In the suburbs of near-future London, two childhood friends discuss the creation of a technology company that elevates awareness and well-being. What begins in a garage grows into a ubiquitous enterprise that changes what it means to be alive. The Consciousness Company is a funny, philosophical and prophetic story about companies without limits, and technology that can rewire minds.
On the way to a New York stock market listing, the company’s founders join forces with a sceptical investor, a venture capital fund impressed by their early success, and an ethics committee buckling under its godlike responsibility. As the company’s artificial intelligence reads, analyses and inserts thoughts into its members’ minds, the lines between individuals blur, and the company’s users wade through their own psyches, guided by devices that know them better than they know themselves.
A question lingers—in what form will humanity survive after all this? Step into The Consciousness Company and lose yourself in the substance of existence.
M. N. Rosen has worked for more than 20 years in the financial services industry, most recently for a foundation which invests in climate-focused technology businesses. In The Consciousness Company he draws on his experience working with early-stage technology and impact businesses, as well as for private equity andventure capital firms, and, at the beginning of his career, an investment bank.
M.N. Rosen is 44 years old and lives in North London with his wife and three young children. He graduated from New College, Oxford in 2001 with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
My thoughts: This was something different to my usual reading and it took me a while to get into it, the writing style is very distinctive and the decision not to use names, but instead the roles of the different characters takes getting used to. It’s a genre bending exploration of business, high finance and who has the right to your thoughts. The company itself contains, processes and manipulates the thoughts of its users – social media on steroids.
It’s a thought provoking read, and leaves the reader with a lot of questions about the role of technology in our lives. It’s certainly timely as AI becomes ever more prevalent and debates about the role of intelligent software grow more common. I found it very interesting and stimulating, as well as wryly entertaining.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The Light Between Us is a Southeast Asian historical romance that defies time and space as an archivist explores Singapore’s tumultuous past through a supernatural connection.
At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer.
Through a mysterious digital folder and photographic plates, a conversation is sparked, leading to a romance that spans lifetimes.
In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend, Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips.
Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei’s letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?
Inspired by her research into Singaporean historical archives, Elaine Chiew weaves Chinese mythology and early 20th century colonial Singapore into this speculative epic.
Elaine Chiew is a writer, editor, creative writing teacher/mentor, and visual arts researcher. Her debut novel The Light Between Us (Neem Tree Press), long listed for the inaugural Cheshire Novel Prize, will be out May 16, 2024.
Her short story collection The Heartsick Diaspora (Penguin SEA 2019 & Myriad Editions UK 2020) explores the Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese diaspora living primarily in London, New York, and Singapore; it has been mentioned as a recommended read in The Guardian, The Straits Times Singapore, BookRiot and Esquire SG, been featured in literary festivals in Singapore, Malaysia and Kerala, received a Special Mention in the UK Saboteur Awards, and reviewed favourably in Malaysia, Singapore, UK and US.
She is also the compiler/editor of Cooked Up: Food Fiction From Around the World (New Internationalist, 2015).
Twice winner of the Bridport Short Story Competition in the UK, she has had numerous stories published in Singapore, US and UK anthologies, most recently with BBC Radio Four.
Originally from Ipoh, Malaysia, she has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and was a corporate securities lawyer working in New York, Hong Kong and London. In 2017, she received an MA in Asian Art History from Goldsmiths, University of London. She is based in London. You can find her on X @ChiewElaine and IG @epchiew.
My thoughts: In the archives of a Singapore gallery, Charlie catalogues photographs, finding on her screen one day a strange letter, she can’t work out what it’s doing there, but intrigued she saves it for later. After another appears, she decides, despite the fact it seems to come from another age, to write back. And so begins a rather unusual love story.
Charlie and her new pen pal, a 1920s photographer called Tian Wei, share the details of their lives – Tian Wei is searching for a young Japanese woman he considers his sister, she’s vanished and no one seems bothered. In modern Singapore Charlie is struggling with her family relationships, her stepmother is something of a nightmare, her half brothers not kind and she’s closest to her adopted brother Sebastian.
Sebastian’s business and romantic relationship are on the outs, and he vanishes for a time. But Charlie and Tian Wei sustain each other through their crises via their letters.
It’s a beautiful quantum entanglement, their letters, and later photos, reaching back and forth in time. But when Charlie crosses a line, things change in her time, and political changes in Tian Wei’s put him in danger.
It’s hard to define this book, part romance, part science fiction, part mystery, and it took me a while to like Charlie – she keeps all of her emotions very tightly bound, letting no one in. Tian Wei is much more open, there’s a joy and lightness to him for much of the book, despite his worries about Aiko, despite the political turmoil.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for award-winning Of Friction by S.J. Lee. This is the first book in the Altered Earth series and the author’s debut!
Of Friction (Altered Earth Book 1)
Publication Date: February 20, 2024
Genre: Speculative Fiction/ Dystopian/ LGBTQ+
Decades of hostilities. A chance for peace. Caught between belligerent groups, will this operation be her last?
Sam “Valkyrie” Ryan is reeling. Struggling with her brother’s recent decision to make their next assignment his last, the recon specialist fights to change his mind. But she has no time to process her emotions when they’re tasked to protect a pivotal reconciliation summit between the Altered and Humans from human-supremacist terrorists.
Distracted by a charming female medic, the golden-haired marine struggles to stay focused as events quickly unravel. And with the conflict becoming dangerously unpredictable, secrets from the past catch Sam by surprise as she uncovers a plot to destroy all of humanity.
Can she stop a violent and oppressive history from spiraling into a catastrophic future?
Of Friction is the fast-paced first book in the Altered Earth dystopian military speculative fiction series. If you like strong women, tense action, and slow-burn LGBTQ+ romance, then you’ll love S.J. Lee’s gripping story.
Read Of Friction to launch a critical mission today!
S.J. Lee is a foreign service specialist by day, gamer, photographer, and writer by night. She has worked and lived in Iraq, Mexico, Chile, India, Brazil, and Guyana, and currently resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with her spouse and rescued street-dog. Of Friction is her debut novel and the first of the Altered Earth series.
Airus Lamar’s life seemed normal behind the walls in place by HAVEC – an organization in charge of the world, and their lives. Airus weaves his way through the cage of life alongside his best friend, Tarika. They must fight to survive among order where daily scans permeate their lives. Their survival is measured by tasks and the worth they hold, earning rations and avoiding the keen eyes and rules in place by the jurisdiction. They must work together to navigate a world where they know nothing beyond the walls around them.
But when Tarika is suddenly taken from Airus, everything he’s come to believe and taken for granted is brought into question. As he searches for answers, the life he once knew and the world around him begins to unravel. Where scans dictate not just the value of a life, but what’s beneath them that the organization hides. He comes to learn that not just their lives have been taken from them, but everything they’ve ever known.
In search for the truth and in hopes to be granted a glimpse of what life was like outside the facility, Airus joins a group called the Tithes alongside Dimitri and Gertrude. But when a member of the team suffers a tragedy that brings into question HAVEC’s methods, their hope for survival rests not just beyond the walls, but in the ruptured life that eludes them. In their race against time, they have no choice but to abandon the facility that once protected but enslaved them to face the cataclysm of a torn world that threatens to break their very selves.
With the help of his new friends and obscure acquaintances, will Airus be able to save Tarika and everyone he holds dear from the clutches of HAVEC?
CWs: Murder, graphic deaths, infant death, graphic violence, described blood, blood draining (off page), mutilation, decapitation, gore, rape (on page, mentions of and implied), profanity, brief mention of suicide, substance abuse (not my MCs), and sexual content.
We’re thrilled to announce that the first two novella’s in the Reese Daniels Smuggler Series are now available and the third will be released soon! To start, check out Smuggler’s Valor!
Smuggler’s Valor: A Sci-fi Action Adventure (Reese Daniels Smuggler Series Book 1)
Publication Date: June 2023
Smuggling precious cargo to a remote colony was supposed to be easy. I was dead wrong.
Smuggling is a dangerous business and Reese Daniels has the score of a lifetime within his grasp; however, getting shot down on one of Uranus’ moons wasn’t in his plan. Stranded and on the run in the middle of an alien invasion, Reese must work with a group of Marine cadets to escape a grisly fate.
T.D. Wilson was born in 1968 in Troy, Ohio and has been an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy from a very young age. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and has supported the systems and networks in several of the largest Supercomputing data centers in the world. His early thirst for adventure in reading began as he explored many of the great stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. As his reading scope expanded, Mr. Wilson was fascinated by strange new worlds from the magical of Middle Earth and Narnia to the far reaches of space in Star Trek and Babylon 5. As a science fiction author, he strives to integrate a realistic flavor to his worlds by providing his readers a feel for the real science in science fiction. A topic he loves to discuss with his friends and readers. Mr. Wilson still lives in Ohio with his wife and their two sons.
We are thrilled to share thrilled to share The Leader of the Unborn duology with you this week! Both books will be released on September 6th!
ramblingmads 