Blog Tour. Come the Dark by Rebecca Hamilton

Hi all:

Today I couldn’t resist taking part in this blog tour. As you know I’m working on a YA/NA series myself and I’m trying to submerge myself in the ins and outs of this world, and the setting of this novel made it irresistible for me. Salem…Yes, that Salem. I include my own review, don’t miss the giveaway, and also the playlist. I was intrigued by having a playlist added so…

Enjoy Happy Geek Media’s debut tour of Come, the Dark, Book 2, in the Forever Girl series.

Come, the Dark, Book 2 of the Forever Girl Series

Come, the Dark by:

Rebecca Hamilton

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical, New Adult, Paranormal, Romance

361 pages

Release Date: January 6, 2015

Rose desperately wants to escape the abuse of the father who impregnated her and the dark spirits that haunt her life. Being thrust from Georgia 1961 into the era of Salem’s infamous witch trials isn’t what she had in mind, and now her daughter is left hopelessly out of reach.

The only way to return to her daughter is by facing certain death to banish the dark spirits that plague Salem. If she doesn’t eliminate these dark spirits in time, they will destroy civilization and trap her in this strange new place, ages away from her daughter.

Even if she can complete the task in time to return home to save her daughter, there’s still one problem: she’s falling in love with a man who can’t return with her. Achieving her goals will force her to choose between the only man who has never betrayed her and a daughter she can’t quite remember but will never forget.

A heart-wrenching tale of a mother’s love for her daughter, this romantic paranormal fantasy underlines the depravity of both historical and modern society while capturing the essence of sacrifice and devotion.

TRIGGER WARNING: This book deals with the sensitive subject of sexual abuse. There is a thread in the Come, the Dark forum at the bottom of this page discussing the issue and how it is handled within the book.

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FOLLOW THE TOUR SCHEDULE HERE

Author Rebecca Hamilton

Rebecca Hamilton is a USA Today Bestselling Paranormal Fantasy author who also dabbles in Horror and Literary Fiction. She lives in Florida with her husband and four kids. She enjoys dancing with her kids to television show theme songs and would love the beach if it weren’t for the sand. Having a child diagnosed with autism has inspired her to illuminate the world through the eyes of characters who see things differently. She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA and has been published internationally, in three languages.

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

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Now my review:

Come, the Dark. (Forever Girl, Book 2)  Rebecca Hamilton. A reluctant heroine that eventually kicks ass

I must confess I haven’t read the first book in the Forever Girl series but decided to take part in the blog tour and review the book because at the moment I’m particularly interested in Young Adult/New Adult Books, I was intrigued by the background to the story (with the setting in Salem at the time of the witch hunts), and the premise of the book sounded intriguing.

The book begins with a bang. Rose’s family situation is terrible and the events that take place in the first chapter show her as a girl who’s suffered greatly and who seems to have some paranormal abilities (she sees things, or rather creatures, that others don’t). When she’s suddenly transported to a different historical period and wakes up as a different person, one of the advantages of the book being narrated in first person is that you experience her confusion and puzzlement with her.

Abigail (the person she is now) lives in Salem in difficult times. I felt the setting of the story could have been used to more advantage as the main character seems to come and go (and at some point is locked up) there, but has very limited interactions with the town and the trials. When she comes into contact with some true horrors, the paranormal background and underlying plot of the story seems to reinterpret the actual events and only a comment at the end puts this to rights. There are situations where reality puts fiction to shame.

Rose/Abigail/Cordovae is one of the most reluctant heroes (heroines) I’ve met. She struggles with her new role and powers/obligations bestowed upon her, insisting she wants to go back to the person she was because her daughter, Anna, needs her. William and Tess, who act as guides and try and bring her up to speed with the universe she lives in (not only the human one, but mostly the paranormal and the variety of creatures and the cosmogony that explains them) try to convince her, but she resists. Although the explanations are a useful way of introducing readers who are new to the series, I felt they slowed the action somewhat and I was not sure I could really grasp the differences between all the supernatural races. (But then, neither does the protagonist, who learns as she goes along.)

It took me a while to connect with the main character and I grew somewhat impatient of her reluctance to engage. Also at times the first person narration meant we spent a long time reading about her doubts, her memories, and her determination to leave. However, although it is somewhat long in the coming, eventually Cord becomes a true heroine, selfless, brave, intuitive, and a great fighter, and you can’t help but root for her. As I mention in the title, she does kick ass indeed. The battle scenes, although not described in gore detail are imaginative and vivid, with some very visual and beautiful touches. They would be very spectacular if adapted to the screen.

The twist at the end is satisfying and to me it is a fairly happy ending, given the circumstances. Although I haven’t mentioned it until now, there’s a love story too (both protagonists try and resist for very good reasons) and all loose ends are tied up for the current story, whilst leaving open the possibility of further explorations into the world of the forever girls.

Overall I felt the book has some ups and downs, but it gains pace in the second half when it becomes a very good read. The premise of the series is intriguing and I suspect there are a few more to come.  If you like YA paranormal series with strong heroines and some very dark elements, you’d do well checking out this novel.

The mini book trailer:

Come the Dark Music Playlist:
Playlist: http://grooveshark.com/widget.swf

Thanks to Rebecca and Happy Geek Media for organising the tour and inviting me, thanks to all of you for reading, watching and listening, and remember to visit other stops of the tour, like, share, comment and CLICK!

‘Twin Evils?’ Revisiting old friends

Hi all:

I’ve been in a somewhat nostalgic mood and have been looking back at some of my early posts and writings. Although more recently I’ve been publishing books that I have written not so long ago, to begin with I started by publishing books that I’d written over the years but had been ‘for my eyes only’ until then. I still have some that I haven’t decided what to do with and a pile of unfinished stories that I must go over again, but…

In exchange for the translation of one of her novels (and I’m enjoying the job enormously, but I’ll tell you more when all is finished), Paloma Caral has revised two of my early works in Spanish ‘The Man Who Never Was’ and ‘Twin Evils?’. She’s still hard at work with ‘The Man…’ but finished ‘Twin Evils?’ (that I’ve called ‘Gemela Maldad’ in Spanish) and now I have a new sparkling version of the novel in Spanish. As I also created new covers to go with it, I thought just in case some of my more recent readers don’t know anything about the novella, I could tell you a bit about it.

Twin Evils? by Olga Núñez Miret

Once upon a time there was a pair of twins, a girl and boy. Ruth was blonde, blue eyes, very fair and really good. Max was dark haired, grey eyes, broody and bad. Their next door neighbour and pal, Hilda, tried to be friends with both but it was not an easy task. They didn’t like each other and she found herself in the middle trying to keep the peace. Max found his sister impossibly perfect and tiresome, and Ruth could not stand her brother’s bad boy attitude and his horrible behaviour. She was scared of him. Ruth was too perfect and child-like for the real world and Hilda suspected something was wrong but didn’t know what. Was she the angel everybody took her for? Was she ill?  When both twins started talking about fate and said that “something” would happen she worried. What could she do? ‘Twin Evils?’ is a New Adult novella (under 60 pages) that begins like a fairy tale, talks about friendship against all odds, tragedy, romance, and has a touch of the paranormal. Fast paced and entertaining with intriguing, mysterious and ultimately lovable characters it will make you feel good but leave you wondering. If you have plenty of imagination and love a compact and fulfilling read, try it out!

And as a sample, I leave you the beginning of the novella:

Hilda’s friend, Ruth, was the prettiest and loveliest girl in town. Her blond hair was fine and silky, her eyes blue like sapphires, her mouth red like coral. She would have been chanted by the poets of old if she’d lived in a different time. Ruth was the pride and darling of Yorktown. And she was clever enough, and generous and kind. She had it all.

Ruth had a brother too. Max was her twin, but hardly anybody would have guessed that they were related. He was very tall and thin, his hair was thick, curly and black like coal, his eyes grey like slate, and his mouth had thin lips that hardly ever smiled. He was the black sheep of the family, and Ruth and him were known as ‘the angel and the devil’ by the population.

Hilda had known them both all her life. They were the same age, and, in fact, their families were friendly before they were even born. Their parents used to go out on double dates and they got married on a double wedding. They lived in contiguous houses and it was as if they were all members of the same family. Hilda had always felt that it was her duty to befriend Ruth and Max. The task had been very easy with Ruth, she was friendly with everybody, but Max wasn’t an easy boy. As a child, when they played together, he used to torture animals, insects, fight with other children…Ruth always shied away from him, she couldn’t bear any type of violence, but Hilda wasn’t squeamish, and Max had always assumed that Hilda approved of what he did. She told him many times that she didn’t like his behaviour but he insisted that her words were only a pose. Max was always as nasty as he could be towards his sister. He put dead animals in her bed, maggots in her food, ruined her dresses…Once Hilda stopped him when he was about to set his sleeping sister’s hair on fire. Ruth woke up with the discussion and slapped him when she heard what he was about to do, but he only laughed. No threats from Ruth, no warnings from his parents, no punishment from his teachers made any difference to him.

The summer of the twins’ seventeenth birthday, Max had given everybody a break by deciding to go camping with some other youngsters. They had had two weeks of peace, and the two families had been preparing the twins’ birthday party at ease, in perfect tranquillity.

“Hilda! Hilda!”

“Oh no, he’s back” Hilda’s father, Steph, mumbled under his breath.

“Hilda!”

“Go to see what he wants, before we all end up deaf or mad.” Mandy, Hilda’s mother, ordered.

“All right, all right. I’ll go.”

“Hilda!”

Hilda marched into the garden feeling like a martyr. The sacrifices she had to make to keep the peace! Max was restlessly running up and down his garden. He opened his mouth and began:

“Hi…Oh, you are here.”

“Yes, Max. Here I am. Do you always have to be so noisy?”

“Shut up! I must show you something.” He grabbed Hilda by the arm and dragged her over the fence.

“Be careful, will you?”

“Sorry. Come, quick.”

Hilda and Max entered the house through the back door of the lounge, opening into the garden. Hilda said hello in passing to Max’s mother, Eleanor, and his father, Patrick. Ruth was sitting in her room, with the door open.

“Oh Ruth, how…?”

Max pushed Hilda into his room.

“Don’t talk to her. You aren’t here to talk to her. You’ve come to see something.”

“When will you grow up, Max? I’m your sister’s friend too, and…”

“Stop it, please. Look…”

Max switched the lights on. His room was painted in black, walls and ceiling, with strange cabalistic inscriptions and devilish drawings. It was always dark inside. Once he made light, he took his T-shirt off and showed Hilda his back.

“What do you think?”

Hilda was speechless. It was an incredible tattoo. A black eagle, with spread wings, attacking a white dove. The eagle’s beak was dripping blood, and the red colour of the tattoo was very intense, quasi pulsating. The dove had blue eyes and was carrying a branch of wheat. The eagle’s eyes were grey and the wings looked shiny and iridescent. It was an extremely vivid tattoo. And the meaning was too clear for Hilda to be able to ignore it. Max always called Ruth ‘the white dove’. It was horrible.

“Why did you do that, Max?”

“There was a guy incredibly good with tattoos nearby. It’s my own design.”

“I’ve noticed that.”

“Why don’t you like it? Isn’t it good?”

“It’s good. Real good. But, what does it mean?”

“Mean?…Nothing. It’s only a tattoo.”

Max tried his most innocent expression, but it didn’t come natural to him. Not convincing at all.

“I don’t like the imagery.” Ruth said.

“Imagery. Lovely word. I love how you talk, like a book.”

“Bye Max.”

Ruth turned her back on Max and stepped toward the door.

“Wait, wait! I have another tattoo!”

“If it’s like this one I’d rather not see it, thank you.”

“Oh no, it’s very different. Guess where it is.”

Ruth had stopped and turned to look at Max, but shook her head and carried walking.

“I’m not interested in games, Max. I have things to do.”

Max ran to the door to prevent Hilda from leaving.

“Come on…I’ve been away for two weeks and you haven’t even asked me how it was or how I am, or nothing. I’ve missed you, you know? And you don’t even care enough to ask.” He whined.

“You haven’t asked me either. You only came shouting…”

“OK, I’m sorry. I just had to show it to someone or I would have exploded. I haven’t showed it to anybody.”

“Is it a surprise then?”

“Yes, yes. You won’t tell, will you?”

Max and his secrets. Hilda had been selected as his official confidant many years back and she had never managed to get rid of the privilege. Although, Max never quite confessed everything. He always kept something to himself. That made things slightly easier for Hilda. Sometimes. Sometimes it made them worse.

“You’ll have to show your parents. They’ll find out.”

“I will, soon…But keep it quiet in the meantime, OK?”

“Fine.”

“Now, guess where I have the other tattoo.”

Here the link in Amazon. At the moment is available in Unlimited too but that might changes shortly…

http://bit.ly/1xSh8tU

Thanks for reading, and if you’ve enjoyed it, like, share, comment and CLICK!