Two authors, two versions of the same book in two exciting genres of fiction. Karen J Mossman and Karina Kantas present, Toxic.

 

 

Blurb

Lexi isn't your normal Malok. She craves adventure and freedom from the mundane life forced upon her. 100 years ago, the first drop of acid rain fell. Maloks fled to the mountains, building a new way of life—a desolate life—a life Lexi knows all too well. 

Lexi has a plan, her ticket out of this miserable existence, becoming a ranger. Aron, her partner, believes she’s not strong enough to fight alongside him. Lexi will stop at nothing, no matter what the danger, to achieve her independence, even if that means defying him.

Amidst everything, Marcus, Lexi’s childhood best friend makes a sudden return. Before she can rejoice in a reunion, her happiness is crushed when she sees Mae, the bully that had terrorized her in her teens. Marcus was aware of the mental abuse Lexi had suffered and yet the person she loved and the person she hated the most, stand before her, together.

“A powerful dystopian thriller that captures the heart and imagination”.

 

 

 

“I was fascinated by Stephanie Meyer’s book The Host, where people lived in mountains. This was a world I wanted to explore as a setting for Toxic. Living in a close environment as this, there has to be rules. Those rules don’t always have to be fair. This gave me scope to add intrigue and animosity between my characters.”

Karen J Mossman

 

 

 

Karen J Mossman.

 

Karen J Mossman comes from a family of journalists with her grandfather and uncle having been newspaper editors. Further back a 2x grandfather wrote for his local paper and also published a book based on those articles. Karen is the only one to go into fiction.

All Karen's books are in collections - The Decade Series, Electric Eclectic and Just Stories.' She is also a founder member of Electric Eclectic books and now has six in that collection.

Karen is also an avid blogger and book reviewer, "It's especially important to me to have feedback from my readers, so please leave a review when you have read one of my books."

Karen lives on the beautiful Isle of Anglesey off the North Wales coast with her husband and two dogs. She has two grown-up children, who were both born on the same day, two years apart.

https://www.facebook.com/karensmagicofstories/

https://www.amazon.com/Karen-J-Mossman/e/B00JJY69OO

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9814921.Karen_J_Mossman

https://twitter.com/KarenJMoss
https://magicofstories.net/
http://www.instagram.com/kazz_magic_of_stories

 

 

Karina Kantas

 

Karina Kantas is the author of the popular MC thriller series, OUTLAW and the loved romantic fantasy duology, Illusional Reality.

She also writes short stories and when her imagination is working overtime, she writes thought-provoking dark flash fiction.
There are many layers to Karina's writing style and voice, as you will see in her flash fiction collection, Heads & Tales and in UNDRESSED she opens up more to her fans, giving them another glimpse into her warped mind.

When Karina isn't busy working on her next bestseller, she's a publicist, author manager and VA. She's also the host of the popular radio show, Author Assist on the Artist First Radio Network.

 

http://bit.ly/FBFPKK - FB fan page
http://bit.ly/INSTKK - Instagram
http://bit.ly/TwittKK - Twitter
http://bit.ly/BLOGKK - Website
http://bit.ly/KKGRE - Goodreads

 

 

 

 

 

“A sensual, erotic read…Karina dares to figure out the nature of passion…thoughtful and thought-provoking.”

“It was a pleasure to read an erotic story that had an actual plot.  The genre itself is probably the most misunderstood.  The plot drives an erotic story and the sex just adds to the enticing nature of it.  You've done a great job building a world for your reader. “

 

 

 

 

“Toxic is based in a future world where acid rain forces the people, the Maloks to build their cities inside mountains for protection. What is also amazing is this book has two versions, the romantic and the erotic. In both books the story focuses on a female Malok called Lexi, who is determined to become a Ranger and help society guard against the Outcasts. Only Lexi has little support, even from her own boyfriend, Aron. Mix in a childhood sweetheart, in the shape of Marcus, and the unexpected arrival of Mae, Lexi's childhood bully and things begin to get interesting. Toxic is the story of Lexi's determination to satisfy her ambitions, both professionally and personally. The Erotic Toxic tells the same story but delves deeper into Lexi's sexuality and passions. Whichever Toxic you chose, you find yourself living the fantasy.”

 

 

Download Toxic Adult Edition here

 

Download Toxic here

 

 

 

 Excerpt

 

“Lexi,” greeted the young medic.

“Hey, Sha.” Lexi smiled.

She walked past Sha and sat down on a stool, took a sterile cloth, and wiped away the dead skin, causing her to take an intake of breath. No matter how many times she had been burnt there was no way to get used to that kind of pain.

As she reached for a jar of Dozax paste, Sha spoke. “You’ve been outside again, haven’t you?”

Lexi didn’t answer at first, as she felt the wonderful relief as the paste went to work, taking away the pain and healing the burn. The skin immediately started to regenerate and within moments all that was left on her hand was a green coloured dye, which would eventually fade. Still, Lexi needed to wear a patch that had a tiny spot of Dozax cream to complete the treatment. It was dangerous for any Malok to use Dozax in its pure form. Everything had to be diluted.

“You are such a strange Malok,” Sha said, shaking her head.

Lexi smiled. “I can’t help it. I’d go crazy if I was cooped up here forever.”

“Has your ranger training started?” Sha asked.

Lexi’s grin was wide. “Not yet. At the end of the week,” she answered, still not believing she had been accepted into the academy. “Okay, I’m done," she said and then jumped off the stool. “See you tomorrow.”

“Oh wait. You have four inoculations to do tomorrow.”

“Four?” Lexi questioned.

“Yes, some Maloks arrived last night with the new commander.”

“Oh, yes I forgot about Jow. So sad. He was nice as a commander, and so approachable and happy all the time, you know?”

“Yeah,” Sha agreed and then giggled. “Remember when he came and said he wanted to learn basic aid? Oh my, he was so funny.”

Lexi laughed as she remembered that day and how he always made her smile. “See even now, just thinking of the late commander makes us happy. He left a great legacy behind.”

“He sure did. Let’s just hope the new one can live up to that.”

“Okay, I’m off. See you tomorrow, Sha.”

“I will have the Dozax jabs ready for you in the incubator," Sha called.

“Super! Thanks,” Lexi mumbled.

Lexi still couldn’t get that sad day out of her mind. She even had to visit the Charmer to talk and get closure. The loss of Commander Jow was hard for everyone. A party of fifteen went out that day and only two returned. Lexi wished for peace every day, but the only way that would happen was if the Outcasts and the Maloks agreed to share.

She shook her head. Of course, that would never happen, she was kidding herself. Outcasts needed the Terra leaves to feed their addiction. Never mind that this amazing plant could cure pain, protect the body from germs, Illness and normal medical problems that come from age and a weary body. She couldn’t imagine how life used to be when young people would die, because they didn’t know the secret of the plant and the properties it possessed. So, sad, she thought, as she quickly made her way back to the residence she shared with Aron.

Everyone assumed that Lexi and Aron would marry and settle down. Her friends certainly thought so, and at the start, so did Lexi. Only now she had woken up, and the adventurous Lexi wanted so much more from life and becoming a ranger was a step in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

Karina and Karen and proud to associate Toxic with Electric, Eclectic books.

Electric Eclectic is a global marketing brand

 

Tour Hosted by Author Assist

 

 

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

A dark YA thriller about friendship, obsession and jealousy taken over the top and everything going horribly wrong. Sasha and Xavier have been best friends for years. Sasha is not the most likeable character in the world, she’s cold, blunt and frankly, kind of a bitch. The only person who gets her moods and can handle her is her BFF Xavier. Who this reader found kind of dull and rather bland. But he and Sasha connect pretty well, they hang out, have their own sense of humour and inner jokes. They get each other.

 

It’s worked for years, they live in a small town, are outcasts at school and pretty much just have each other. Until Xavier got a girlfriend, Ivy. Ivy was even more of a brat than Sasha. Ivy came from a very wealthy family, she has an outgoing personality, but she’s also the type of manipulative bitch who knows how to push people’s buttons and wrap them around her finger and make them think everything she does is okay, no matter how wrong it actually is. She plays with Xavier pretty much breaks his heart.

 

At the start of the novel what Sasha doesn’t know is that Xavier has started seeing Ivy again. What Xavier doesn’t know is Sasha has fallen for him and has no idea how to tell him. Naturally she’s worried that if he doesn’t feel the same way their friendship would be ruined. And it doesn’t help that Ivy is now back on the screen.

 

Sasha and Ivy can’t stand each other. Not surprising really, their personalities clash and they are both epically jealous of the other’s relationship with Xavier which in a way is kind of understandable as both girls get different sides of him. Only made worse by Sasha’s feelings now boarding on obsession as she worries over what Ivy’s going to do to him this time.

 

So Sasha comes up with a plan. She invents an online profile of a guy to trap Ivy and convince Xavier finally that she is a cheater and no good for him. Which is sort of cringe-worthy to read and with the feeling of malice and foreboding in the story, it’s clearly all going to go wrong at some point. The novel is told in three different viewpoints – Sasha’s, Xavier’s and Ivy’s. Then when a plot twist happens another mysterious view point appears with no name, someone else who knows something has gone wrong and is doing their own investigation.

 

The psychological mind sent of the three different characters was quite interesting over how Xavier, and Sasha both displayed obsessive behaviour, while Ivy was obsessing over the fake profile guy she was getting to know and revealing sides of herself she usually keeps hidden.

 

Of course everything goes hideously wrong and Sasha finds herself in a very bad situation she doesn’t know how to handle at first. It all gets a bit ridiculous here. Xavier ends up tagging along without realising what’s really going on, Sasha’s got another secret she knows she’s never going to be able to keep for long without giving some sort of explanation and that it could potentially ruin her friendship with Xavier. To make things worse someone else has figured out Sasha is up to something and is on their trail.

 

The drama is a bit over the top but there is a definite rise in tension in this bit. Nerves are stretched to breaking point and it comes through clear in the writing and makes things very uncomfortable. I was quite impressed with the ending. Didn’t see it coming, and the way it concluded was actually quite believable.

 

It’s definitely a page turner, and while a little silly in some of the plot twists, there’s a compelling element about it that makes you have to keep going to know what’s going to happen. It’s a great example of a good book about unlikeable characters. The characters are well fleshed out and well written even though they are mostly horrible people.

 

I wasn’t overly impressed with the first book I read by this author, but I really liked this one. I bought a finished copy from iBooks.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Electric Monkey/Egmont Publishing for approving my request to view the title.

 

 

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

I initially requested this one because I liked the previous book I’d read by the same author. I had no idea it was actually a companion novel to Burning until I was half way through and looking up something else on Goodreads.

 

This was an interesting book, after reading the first two or three chapters slowly, I read the rest in a couple of hours one evening. I just couldn’t put it down. I wasn’t completely blown away with the book, I can’t even say I really liked all the characters that much. There was just something about the story and the way the plot unwound that made me want to keep reading and just had to know what was going on and how it all wound up together.

 

Trigger Warnings: Suicide.

 

The novel tells the story of teenager Charlotte, starting off when she’s a very young child, her mother who is some sort of doctor giving her genius tests (which Charlotte is not very good at) her mother has certain expectations of what sort of girl Charlotte should be.  You get the impression that Charlotte doesn’t really care about her mother’s expectations, even at a very young age. Skip ahead to a teenager in a posh prep school. Charlotte is in the principal’s office one of her best friends Devon, has recently committed suicide in a very short time since her other best friend Ariel also committed suicide. Both were bright, smart and popular.

 

Charlotte doesn’t seem to fit the bill with the other smart kids in the school. The kids in the school are all very smart to genius. She’s struggling in her classes and not making the grade. Her mom is a very prestigious (and very rich) alumni. She’s about to pull Charlotte from the school on the principal’s advice, failing grades and the sudden deaths of her two best friends very close together and Charlotte’s attitude seems to be very blasé about everything.

 

Whilst packing her stuff Charlotte finds a package left by one of her deceased friends containing a strange note and a tiny bottle saying “Drink me”. Charlotte realises there must be something more going on, she can’t stop thinking about the note. She realises she wants to find out what it means and will have to be at the school to do that. When almost overnight her physical appearance improves and her (really bitchy) mom notices too. She uses this and manages to convince her mom to let her stay at the school for the rest of the semester contingent on her grades rapidly improving.

 

 

 

 

Charlotte notices quickly that her grades are improving as well, she’s answering questions in class without studying, acing essays and vastly better at her fencing class than she’s ever been. And she’s not the only one who noticed. Her BFF Ariel’s former boyfriend Jack for one, when they start talking again over what happened it turns into more than talking and flirting. And a rival in Charlotte’s fencing class, Zoe, who is not happy at all when Charlotte kicks her ass in fencing.

(spoiler show)

 

The plot is fairly fast paced and there’s enough intrigue that kept me interested when Charlotte finds more notes and more clues left by Ariel and realises at one point that she found the notes and clues left for her in the wrong order. The mystery deepens, Charlotte’s relationship with Jack is getting more and more intense and she’s got the added irritation of fending off Zoe who seems determined to make things difficult for her.

 

The characters were kind of flat, I couldn’t really identify with Charlotte much, she was cold and aloof and had a sort of above it all vibe about her. There was an interesting morality grey area to the plot as it developed as well. It definitely takes a darker twist towards the end, and that’s where it ties in with the previous novel Burning. It can be read as a standalone, there’s very little that gives away anything to do with Burning’s actual plot but if you’ve read Burning there’s an “ahhh” moment when you realise the connection.

 

I also have issues with Charlotte and her two best friends, Ariel and Devon, the reader learns some pretty unsettling things about the two girls as Charlotte delves into the mystery as what caused them both to commit suicide within weeks of each other. These girls were supposed to have been the tight knit group that everyone wanted to be part of, yet there was a sense of underlying threat rather than close female friendship with Ariel as the ring leader and Devon following with Charlotte trailing behind. There was a sense of rivalry and tension that was supposed to be uncomfortable but more annoying than anything else.

 

There was an eye rolling side plot revolving around Ariel’s former boyfriend Jack who was close with Charlotte and Charlotte had always had a thing for but never did anything cause Ariel got there first even though it’s completely obvious Charlotte liked him. Jack is a typical nice guy, good looking with rich parents. His dad has an important job – senator or judge or something along those lines (can’t remember which) but Jack doesn’t seem interested in following those footsteps and like Charlotte doesn’t seem that interested in the classes at the prep school. He and Charlotte redevelop their friendship which of course develops into something more. She (of course) gets to see the side of him that no one else really gets to see.  Then Charlotte notices Jack starts rapidly improving in grades and stuff like she did. The romance angle was irritating.

 

It was a fairly quick read and definitely interesting, not something I would call a favourite but definitely worth a go if you like prep school mysteries and are intrigued by unlikeable characters.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for approving my request to view the title.

"I’m not sure there’s any way to fight an intelligent plague". Fun with DNA which, as usual, can do anything. Here it provides a good excuse for a couple of picked-up-and-abandoned narrative directions but also an at times bravura depiction of self-aware biomatter letting rip.

Schlubby (but strangely computer literate; he’s in the wrong job) biotechnologist Vergil Ulam earns the derison of the reader by gene therap-ing some lymphocytes, falling out with his bosses, then doing a runner with the assets shoved down his blood stream. There's the high concept right there and this reader spent the first 100 pages of “Blood Music” desiring Mr Ulam be kicked from here to kingdom come. Virgil does the whole hideous transformation thing and info-dumps in a condominium while gormless chum Edward goes "no way!". The USP of the novel - and what probably won Bear the Hugo back in the day - is that chromosome introns are actually a sort of distributed computer program which, when transcribed (Bear riffs some molecular biology to sell this) merrily starts dismantling, then rebuilding human biomatter and allowing Bear to let rip with depictions of conscious cellular and sub-cellular material. So if you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to be an erythrocyte bobbing along a capillary here’s your chance. Bear obviously thinks it would be "awesome" whereas this pallid Brit felt it would be a quick way to say sayonara to sanity so the rhapsodies didn't quite work on me. I wanted more horror. Bear isn’t Woody Allen either so there’s no amusing dialogue from a neurotic spermatazoa, worse luck. It’s also a pity that any British schoolboy who’d seen the Doctor Who story “The Invisible Enemy” in the seventies would already have seen a sentient virus doing the rounds and even more of a pity that decades later the end result of Bear’s ruminations on the perils of fiddling with DNA would be some universally reviled Star Trek episodes, the Red Dwarf curry monster and Prince Charles getting the heebie-jeebies. Once the cells go fully sentient - and, um, conversant - it goes a bit silly on the hive-mind voiceover front (“Contact has been made…”) and Bear’s not one for providing toothsome characters to buoy us through the weirder bits but there are some fancy word pictures.

I enjoyed Bear's end of the world novels Forge Of God and Anvil Of Stars but I suspect what “Blood Music” needed was a more avant garde novelist at the wheel, someone with real literary heft to take this out of the quotidian and into the artsy. Then again this is exactly the sort of SF premise that Ian McEwan or Kazuo Ishiguro would get the horn for these days and end up larding it with high-seriousness, sentimentality and silting up the Booker Prize list so maybe we dodged a bullet. Christopher Priest might have made an interesting fist of it though, although maybe skewing more towards the memory and identity end of things. Angela "The Bloody Chamber"/"Doctor Hoffman" Carter would have done something really interesting, obviously. Unfortunately, despite the poetry of the title, Bear provides the meat and potatoes but no flourishes. Grey goo indeed.

 

Cristin Harber's THE TITAN SERIES boxset is on sale for just 99c for a very limited time! Get your hands on eleven books for this low price now!

 

   

 

ABOUT THE TITAN SERIES

 

"If you love military/romantic suspense, if you love Lori Foster or Maya Banks, read this series." -Straight Shootin' Book Reviews

 

"Action, suspense, danger. It's all there and you never know when or where it will pop up." - Lost in a Book

 

Books 1-11 in the Titan series by New York Times bestselling author Cristin Harber is now available in one place, plus read a teaser from the next-in-series Titan novel.

 

Titles included:

Winters Heat

Sweet Girl

Garrison’s Creed

Westin’s Chase

Gambled

Chased

Savage Secrets

Hart Attack
Sweet One
Black Dawn

Live Wire
Bishop’s Queen: Teaser

 

 

 

Get your hands on THE TITAN SERIES for just .99c for a limited time - only on iBooks!

 

 

 ABOUT CRISTIN HARBER

 

Cristin Harber is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author. She writes sexy, steamy romantic suspense and military romance. Readers voted her onto Amazon’s Top Picks for Debut Romance Authors in 2013, and her debut Titan series was both a #1 romantic suspense and #1 military romance bestseller.

 

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