What is she running to? #BookBlitz #Giveaway #SciFi @edhoornaert

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Check out my review of this book here.

Blurb

When her abusive lover tries to take custody of her baby, Audra flees where even he can’t follow: the aliens’ forbidden cities underneath Kwadra Island.

But can the safety she wants for her daughter survive a search party, violent alien criminals—and the love of an emotionally damaged Kwadran?

Excerpt

The Kwadran let out a sigh before plopping to the damp ground beside her. She cringed away from him.

“Frightened, lost little cheechako. Look up there. Go ahead, look.”

No matter how she stared, though, she didn’t see an eight-foot oval ventilation shaft into the hillside. No illicit backdoor into a safe haven in the now-abandoned underworld where Kwadrans had holed up when the environment of their alternate Earth went bad.

“What do you see?” he asked.

She had no reason to play his game. Also no reason not to. “Okay, okay. I see an overgrown granite cliff. A bunch of trees, half of them dying—your forest isn’t adapting well to this Earth. Some bright red berries. A bunch of bushes. And a guy I don’t trust.”

His eyes twinkled. She was hard-pressed not to smile.

“Notice anything about the bushes?” he asked.

“They’re, you know…bushes, okay?” Stroking the downy blond hair atop Roxie’s head, Audra looked again. “I have no idea what kind they are, if that’s what you’re after.”

He waited. Though this conversation was weird, it didn’t feel threatening, so she looked uphill again.

And after several seconds, she saw something.

Something invisible.

A hundred feet uphill, shrubs were bending to and fro as though in a stiff breeze—yet she felt no wind. Feeling like Lewis and Clark exploring the wilderness, she licked her forefinger and held it up in all directions. No breeze.

“It’s wind from the ventilation shaft’s fans!” She was inordinately pleased with herself, even though she didn’t care what this guy thought. Obviously.

The twinkle spread from his eyes to his whole face, revealing a different man underneath his impassive, unresponsive exterior. He was the opposite of Kwadra Island. Its buried cities were old and abandoned, but his buried features were young and full of life. For a second—maybe two—she was so startled by the change that she yearned to trust him.

About the Author

Edward Hoornaert is not only an author of science fiction, romance, and non-fiction, he's also a certifiable Harlequin Hero; he inspired N.Y. Times bestselling author Vicki Lewis Thompson to write her favorite Harlequin Desire, Mr. Valentine, which was dedicated to him. In the past, he wrote contemporary romances for Silhouette Books, but these days he writes science fiction adventures—usually with elements of romance. In addition to novelist, he has been a teacher, technical writer, salesman, janitor, and symphonic oboist.

After having 30 different addresses in his first 28 years, his rolling stone slowed in the mountains of British Columbia and stopped in Tucson, Arizona. His high school sweetheart has been his wife for more years than he has fingers and toes to count. Ed and Judi have three sons, a daughter, a mutt, and the Milky Way Galaxy's most adorable grandsons.

Contact info

email: edhoornaert [at] yahoo [dot] com

Website: https://eahoornaert.com/

Join Ed’s World newsletter: http://eepurl.com/Psqmn

Twitter: https://twitter.com/edhoornaert

Buy links

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FRRMPCG/

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/881160

Barnes and Noble (Nook) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/alien-contact-for-runaway-moms-edward-hoornaert/1129141675?ean=2940155343998

Apple (iBooks) https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/alien-contact-for-runaway-moms/id1415551883?mt=11

Kobo Books https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/alien-contact-for-runaway-moms

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Review Tuesday: Alien Contact for Runaway Moms by Edward Hoornaert - #scifi #romance #ReviewTuesday

Alien Contact for Runaway Moms by Edward Hoornaert

Amazon Digital Services, 2018

Audra has known some tough times, growing up in foster homes and dealing with the insecurity of never having a real family. Now she’s facing the biggest challenge of her life, trying save herself and her infant daughter Roxie from Roxie’s controlling and psychologically abusive father, Tom Verhailey. But where can she go to escape the long reach of her wealthy, well-connected lawyer boyfriend? With the assistance of her adoptive mom, Audra flees to Kwadra, the alien island that had appeared off the west coast of the US a few years previously. According to rumor, the island is riddled with tunnels and underground cities the Kwadrans built to protect themselves from the devastated environment on their alternative Earth. It seems the perfect place to hide.

A rough-looking, taciturn Kwadran man, Talopas Pelletier, finds Audra puzzling over her map and offers to lead her to a ventilation shaft she can use to enter. She is understandably suspicious of Tal’s intentions, but he proves to be a trustworthy, resourceful ally in her escape efforts. He also suffers from his own sorrows. As she and the alien get to know one another, her gratitude transforms itself to attraction and love.

Meanwhile, Matt Verhailey, Tom’s father and Audra’s adoptive uncle, sets out on a quest to find his missing niece. Out of necessity, he enlists the assistance of the formidable Duchess Opsie Beaverclaw, former chief of the Kwadran gendarmerie. Opsie agrees to help Matt at least partially because she likes his looks. It’s been a while since she’s had a lover. Her power, her bossiness and her horribly scarred face combine to ensure that not many men, human or Kwadran, would consider bedding her.

Accompanied by several Kwadran youths whom Opsie is considering for promotion, they enter the buried city of Nuxalt to search for Audra. The runaway mom isn’t the only one hiding out underground, though. Kwadran rebels haunt the meltrock passages and dwellings, desperate men who hate Opsie and her clan and will do anything to destroy them.

Alien Contact for Runaway Moms is the third book I’ve read in Ed Hoornaert’s series; I thought it was the best so far. Although Audra’s and Tal’s developing relationship is enjoyable to watch, I personally fell in love with Opsie. She’s a brilliant character, snarky and smart on the surface, but deeply wounded underneath. Mr. Hoornaert does an excellent job balancing the two subplots and couples, bringing them together in a rousing climax. I don’t want to reveal too many details, but the final battle between the good guys and the bad is both heart-stopping and hilarious.

Alien Contact for Runaway Moms includes a lot more fun Kwadran technology than the previous books. Tiny drones with holographic lenses, food synthesizing cafeterias, robots large and small, exotic weapons—this book will delight lovers of classic science fiction. What I liked most, though, were the insights into Kwadran culture and language. Tal and Audra have very different assumptions and expectations—not all that surprising considering they come from two different universes.

I have only two minor criticisms of the book. First, it seemed that baby Roxie grew up incredibly quickly. The book is a bit vague about how long Audra was supposed to have been in Kwadra, but it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks at most. During that time Roxie progressed from rolling over, to crawling, to saying her first words. Quite a prodigy! (Or perhaps this was due to alien influences?)

Second, Audra’s boyfriend Tom was simply too icky to be believable. I couldn’t imagine how Audra had ended up with such a wimpy bozo in the first place. I would have expected Tom to be less comical and pathetic and more threatening.

Fortunately, he makes only a brief appearance in the tale.

Mr. Hoornaert has a lively, free-flowing style that carries the reader along. I breezed through the novel in a few hours, enjoying every minute. Alien Contact for Runaway Moms offers action, pathos, romance, sex (though not explicitly described) and quite a bit of humor. In short, I loved it.

[I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book from the author.]