Excerpt from Carve the Mark

Have you picked up a copy of my latest release, Muffins Masks Murder yet? It was just released on Friday. It is #10 in the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series, but can be read as a standalone.

And Zachary Goldman Mysteries 1-4 are on sale for $0.99 right now. If you don’t already have them, it’s a great time to pick them up.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme. Read the rules and more teasers at The Purple Booker. Anyone can play along.

It’s been a long time since I read anything by Veronica Roth (author of the Divergent series). Carve the Mark is an engaging sci fi set in a galaxy with magical gifts, various kinds of planets, warring nations, and families fated to conflict with each other. Nice deep characterization, vibrant worlds, and plenty of conflict will keep you turning the pages.

Everyone had a future, but not everyone had a fate—at least, that was what their mom liked to say. Only parts of certain “favored” families got fates, witnessed at the moment of their births by every oracle on every planet. In unison.”

Veronica Roth, Carve the Mark

Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth have grown up in enemy countries locked in a long-standing fight for dominance over their shared planet. When Akos and his brother are kidnapped by the ruling Noavek family, Akos is forced to serve Cyra, the sister of a dictator who governs with violence and fear. Cyra is known for her deadly power of transferring extraordinary pain unto others with simple touch, and her tyrant brother uses her as a weapon against those who challenge him. But as Akos fights for his own survival, he recognizes that Cyra is also fighting for hers, and that her true gift—resilience—might be what saves them both.

When Akos and Cyra are caught in the middle of a raging rebellion, everything they’ve been led to believe about their world and themselves must be called into question. But fighting for what’s right might mean betraying their countries, their families, and each other.