BooksChatter: ☀ Dead by Morning: Rituals of the Night [1]

Thursday, 11 August 2016

☀ Dead by Morning: Rituals of the Night [1] - Kayla Krantz

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for Dead by Morning, a New Adult Psychological Thriller by Kayla Krantz (first published 15 May 2015; this edition 11 May 2016, Rambunctious Ramblings Publishing Inc., 426 pages).

This is the first book in the Rituals of the Night series.

Don't miss our interview with author Kayla Krantz.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first six chapters with Amazon Look Inside.

Author Kayla Krantz will be awarding a paperback copy of Dead by Morning OR an ebook copy of Dead by Morning and a second RRPI ebook 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

Obsession is deadly. No one learns that better than Luna Ketz, a pessimistic high school senior. She wishes more than anything to graduate but things don’t always go as planned. Luna quickly finds herself trapped in a web of lies and murders, spun by the least suspected person in her hometown. It’s not long before she realizes she’s being targeted by the person she despises most in the world. When Luna figures out who is behind the killings, things make a turn for the bizarre when she is contacted by a friend she has not heard from in years. It is then Luna realizes she is very much in danger, but although she can avoid the killer in reality, she cannot avoid him in her dreams.

Teaser: Excerpt

from Chapter One

***

VIOLET WALKED THROUGH the halls, leaving Luna behind. She had to admit…she was jealous of her. Chance was interested in her, yet all Luna could do was crawl further into her shell. The frown on Violet’s face deepened; she would do anything, anything, to talk to Chance. He had never said two words to her even though she and Luna had attended the same elementary school.
      She had been Luna’s shadow as long as she could remember. Would he listen to her if she brought up her best friend? She wanted to finally be able to talk to Shawnee’s infamous king; she wanted him to notice her too. He had made it obvious he wanted Luna as a date, but would it be possible to set them up? She knew it was incredibly selfish of her to use her best friend as a pawn, but a small part of her thought it might be good for Luna to actually go to a dance—to socialize. She was too young to be as stressed as she was.
      Violet was sure she’d be able to get Chance to ask her friend to the dance in a heartbeat—all it would take was a shove in the right direction. Luna had pride, and Violet knew that. Luna was vibrant when it came to defending what she believed in—the root of most of her arguments with Chance.
      Violet stopped walking and turned back to look where she had last left Luna, but there was no sign of her tiny best friend. She guessed that Luna was well on her way to class and wouldn’t notice her sneaking back through the halls. She took the hall Chance had disappeared down, hoping to find him. She saw him instantly. He was leaning against the lockers as casual as ever. A few girls from the cheerleading team surrounded him, but Violet wasn’t intimidated.
      He looked at her momentarily before returning his attention to the cheerleaders without another glance.
      “I need to talk to you about Luna,” Violet said, stridently breaking into their conversation.
      The girls turned to her through judging eyes. Violet was pleased to see, however, that Chance’s face didn’t mirror theirs; it shone with interest. He shooed the girls away almost at once and they walked off with their shoulders slumped in defeat. Chance looked Violet full in the face—it was the first time he ever had—and she didn’t care how those girls felt as her knees went weak.
      “What about her?” he asked.
      “Well, she’ll be mad at me for telling you this”—that part was true, she knew—“but she has a crush on you and was hoping you’d ask her to Homecoming. She’s too shy to ask you.” Chance’s forehead crinkled in thought. “Are you sure? We are talking about the same Luna, right?”
      “Yeah, my best friend, Luna Ketz,” she said. “And I’m positive she likes you. I mean, she gives you a hard time because she absolutely adores you. It’s difficult for her, showing emotion. Her mother’s a strict business woman, after all.” Violet knew if Luna had ever heard her say that, she would’ve murdered her on the spot.
      Chance smiled and Violet felt as though she would pass out, but she had to focus and remember her mission.
      “I knew it,” he said, almost to himself, and Violet hated that she felt invisible to him again. “She’s just hard to get.” He laughed and turned his attention back to Violet. “Well, I will certainly handle the matter. Thanks for letting me know, Violet. It’s information I’ll put to good use, I promise.”
      The sound of him saying her name was almost as sweet as honey, and it took all of her effort to not tell him that she liked him herself. This is for Luna, she told herself, but inside she wasn’t feeling convinced.
      “No problem—and if she asks, I wasn’t here,” Violet said.
      He laughed again and the sound was better than any music Violet had ever heard. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.” He winked at her, and with that he walked down the hall toward his next class without looking back once.
      Violet watched him go, feeling giddier than ever. In the back of her mind, she knew if Chance did act on what she had told him, Luna would be nothing but angry.

Dead by Morning
Available NOW!

About the Author

22-year-old Kayla Krantz was raised in Michigan but moved to Texas and has experienced the best and worst of both.

Since a young age she has be spinning tales. Kayla has interests in the dark and macabre. She enjoys '80's music and movies.

When she has the chance, she loves to read books by Stephen King who inspired her to write. She was always interested in horror as they held a certain realism that fairytales lacked. While writing, she found herself drifting more toward Thriller which surprised her.

Kayla describes the day she discovered that she would become a published author like so: “It's hard to describe. I spent so many years climbing toward my goal, and when it finally happened, it was like all the burdens of stress and agony and uncertainty were just gone. I felt light, like I could run for the rest of my life off of the energy it gave me.”

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Giveaway and Tour Stops

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