BooksChatter: ☀ Dancing In The Athenian Rain

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Dancing In The Athenian Rain, a stand alone New Adult Time Travel Romance by Katie Hamstead (9 September 2015, Soul Mate Publishing, 293 pages).

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below, and our interview with author Katie Hamstead.
Read the first four chapters with Amazon Look Inside.
Dancing In The Athenian Rain is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

Author Katie Hamstead will be awarding an ecopy of Dancing in the Athenian Rain and Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh, + a $5 Amazon gift card. to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Please do take part: comment on our post and follow the tour where you will be able to read other excerpts (☀), interviews (ℚ), reviews (✍) and guest blog posts (✉).

Synopsis | Teaser | Author Q&A | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

Synopsis

When Donna is sent back in time to Classical Athens, she’s furious at Dr. Stephens for sending her against her wishes. Then a Greek soldier purchases her to be his wife.

She’s forced to learn a new language and culture and faces her fears of never returning to her own time. The society hates her, especially because they think she’s an Amazon, which forces her to confront her issues—being compared to her genius brother, borderline abusive friends, and a cheating boyfriend.

But her husband, Peleus, is kind and patient. He counters all the negative voices from her past, but those voices drive a wedge between them. She must let go of her fears, her inhibitions, and insecurities, and admit her feelings, or she could lose him and the life they’ve built.

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter 1

      In the western Sydney heat, my jeans chafe against my inner thighs as I dash across the street. Belinda power-walks ahead, her mini skirt riding up until I can see her butt cheeks, then she tugs it down. “Hurry up, Donna.”
      “I’m coming,” I answer breathlessly, racing to catch up with her.
      “You’re so fat. Listen to you huffing and puffing.”
      “I had to pay for your train tick―”
      “Blah, blah. Shut up.”
      I jog up beside her. “What movie are we seeing?”
      She glances at me out of the corner of her eye. “Why does it matter?”
      “I was just wondering.” She scowls. “You’re so needy, you know that?”
      I lower my head and stare at the footpath ahead of us. I can’t respond. Scott said the same thing when I asked him if he loved me.
      “I can’t believe you asked him if he loved you,” Belinda says with a snarl, as if reading my thoughts.
      “I didn’t . . . He told you?” My cheeks flush, and not from the early December summer heat.
      She raises an eyebrow. “Yeah. You totally freaked him out. Seriously, what the hell? We’ve barely graduated and you turned eighteen like a week ago. Love, Donna?”
      I duck my head. “He wanted to . . . but I wanted to make sure . . .”
      “Sex isn’t about love, you bimbo.” She forehead slaps me.
      “Ouch!”
      “You don’t want to be a thirty-year-old virgin, do you?”
      I hesitate. To me, sex is lovemaking. “If I can’t find someone who―”
      She slaps me again. “You’re such an idiot. Just keep your mouth shut, okay? If you wanna keep your boyfriend, learn to just shut up.”
      I purse my lips, accustomed to her way of treating me. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I could find better friends, but no one ever seems interested in me or what I have to say . . . except Dr. Stephens.
      She shoves my shoulder. “Hello?”
      “Sorry.” She rolls her eyes and climbs the stairs to the cinemas, me trailing behind.
      We enter the gloriously air conditioned building, where the smell of popcorn wafts over me. I love movies. My favorites are the historical epics. The cinema is actually doing a special marathon of Troy, Gladiator, and Clash of the Titans. I hope that’s what we came to see.
      Belinda tugs down her skirt again, and adjusts her top to expose maximum cleavage. “You stink.”
      I sniff myself. The walk from the train station made me sweat. “I’ll be back.”
      I dart into the bathroom, snatch up some paper towels, and soak them. I rush into a stall to clean up. Once I’ve wiped down, I whip out Dr. Stephens’ specially made deodorizer. He designed it just for me, using my body chemistry to create a balance and remove body odors naturally. The guy’s a genius. Well, most of the time. I’m the only one who appreciates it though.
      With my B.O. neutralized, I spritz on some perfume, just in case. I don’t want Scott smelling my B.O. on my clothing. I’m hoping we’ll make up and everything will be okay. We’ve been dating for nine months, and despite a few temper tantrums on his part, we usually get along.
      Sniffing myself to check I smell like flowers, I head back out.
      I see Scott as I leave the bathroom. His back faces me as he talks to Belinda and another girl with them. She’s from the local girls’ school, and friends with some of my friends, so I don’t think much of it. Until she stretches up, flicks back her dark hair, and kisses him.
      I freeze dead in my tracks.
      She wraps her arms around his waist and smiles up at him.
      He smiles back, and kisses her again.
      What’s happening? I look to Belinda for her reaction. She doesn’t even care! What should I do? Should I fight for him or run away?
      He grabs the girl’s boob and squeezes.
      I’m going to be sick. I do the only thing I can I turn away, my eyes full of tears. “Donna!”
      Scott’s voice vibrates through my whole body. Its cheery sound makes all my muscles tense.
      “Donna.” He grabs my shoulder, turning me to face him. The girl stands beside him, smiling as if nothing’s wrong. “Let’s see the movie.”
      I can’t speak. I just shake my head.
      He raises an eyebrow. “What’s wrong?”
      I take a deep breath, my whole body screaming to just run.
      He smirks. “Let’s talk.”
      He wraps his arm around my shoulders and leads me to a corner. “Donna,” he says softly. “This is good. I worked out our problem. This way we’re both happy. I get what I want, and you get what you want.”
      “What do you mean?” I ask breathlessly.
      “I know you love me.” His smirk returns, a sinister smirk that fills me with dread. “This way we can be together.” He laughs. “Come on, you didn’t think I was in this to get married or anything did you?”
      I slowly shake my head.
      “There’s a good girl. Now, you get your boyfriend, and I get my fu―”
      I slap him across the face, horrified.
      He touches his cheek, his eyes ablaze. I know what that means. My gaze falls to his hand as his fist curls.
      I run.
      “Come on, Donna!” he yells after me. “You can’t seriously expect me to love you.”
      The way he said it makes me sob, and I almost tumble down the stairs. I catch the rail, and force myself to my feet, before bounding down and sprinting to the station.
      I slip my ticket through the gate and slump onto a chair at the far end of the station. The sun beats down on me, scalding my skin. But I welcome it. Sunburn won’t hurt as much as the pain Scott inflicted on me.
      The train pulls in and I scramble inside, flopping onto the first available seat. I press my forehead against the window, staring out, wondering what to do next. I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to be ignored like always when Johnny comes home. The perfect child.
      The only place I want to go, the only place that would distract me from my pain, is to Dr. Stephens.
      I sink lower in my seat as the train pulls into my hometown station. I feel like a thief, having not paid for a fare beyond that point, so I keep my head low for the next two stations. When we pull up at the empty mountain station, I run, hoping I won’t be noticed.
      I jog on and off down the long winding street, my mind whirring with the thoughts and feelings I’d had thrust upon me. Scott cheated on me! After more than nine months he just threw it all back in my face. Or maybe, he’d been cheating all along.
      I cry again as I reach Dr. Stephen’s house. A two story home, situated right at the edge of town, with the nearest neighbors about five hundred meters away, it’s more like home to me than my real home. My heart lifts as I hurry across the front yard. Since tenth grade, when he was barred from teaching, I’ve visited him secretly, his eccentricities and bizarre inventions igniting my curiosity.
      I march up the gravel driveway and knock on his shed door. It flies open, and the silver haired man grins back at me. “Donna!”
      I force a smile. “Can I come in?”
      “Of course!”
      He moves aside to allow me to enter.
      I step through and inhale the familiar scent of something unidentifiable. I never know what he’s cooking up, but I’ve been the test subject of a few of his experiments. One time he broke my arm and rushed me to the emergency room. My parents first found out then that I was sneaking around to visit him. That was a very heated discussion, and they threatened to press charges against him if I didn’t stop seeing him.
      I kept visiting him in secret, but he took more care to avoid injuring me. He always felt more fatherly than my real dad anyway, so his heightened caution against my father’s scorn provided a safer emotional blanket.
      “What are you making?” I ask.
      “Something wondrous!”
      “Oh.” I scan a shelf of liquids. Sleeping medicine, hair growth, hair removal . . .
      “Doc?”
      “Yes?”
      “Do you have something that could say . . . wipe a memory?”
      He chuckles as he steps over to a pot on the stovetop. “Why would I make something like that? Memories are precious. They define who we are.”
      “Mmm.” I turn away from the shelf, disappointed. If I can’t forget permanently, then I can for an hour or so. “So what is that?”
      “Ah!” A wide smile splits his face open. “My latest experiment.”
      “And that is...?” I step up beside him.
      “Something dreams are made of.” He lifts the bowl of goldish liquid and holds it in front of me so the metallic smell fills my nostrils. “Time travel.”
      I’m sufficiently distracted. “Seriously?”
      He nods and gently sets the bowl on the countertop. He clips a device onto the rim, with what appears to be a clock attached to a thin rod that dips in the liquid.
      “And it works?” I ask.

Dancing In The Athenian Rain
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About the Author

Born and raised in Australia, Katie’s early years of day dreaming in the “bush”, and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.

After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughter and their dog.

She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing.

When her debut novel, Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh, climbed into bestselling status, she believed she was onto something, and now has a slew of novels now available, and is published through Curiosity Quills Press, Soul Mate Publishing, and REUTS Publishing.

Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports, and be a good wife and mother. She now works as an Acquisitions Editor to help support her family. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.

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