BooksChatter: ☀☄ Eclipse the Flame: Ignite the Shadows [2]

Thank you for joining us on the Release Day Celebrations for Eclipse the Flame, a Young Adult Dystopian Fantasy by Ingrid Seymour (11 August 2016, Harper Voyager, 400 pages).

This is the second book in the Ignite the Shadows series.

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

Author Ingrid Seymour will be awarding a copy of Ignite by Ingrid Seymour and a $10 Amazon GC (INT) to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

Synopsis | Teaser | The Series | About the Author | Giveaway

Synopsis

The sequel to the epic IGNITE THE SHADOWS

In the new world of The Takeover nothing and no one is safe. Marci must choose: love or vengeance.

One night she secretly follows her lover to a club. To her horror she discovers those closest to her, mingling freely with parasitic creatures which have secretly possessed human minds. A bloody ambush follows, leaving Marci a shadow of her former self.

Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious attacks. Ignite, the only resistance group, is disintegrating. As the world catches fire, Marci struggles to control the buzzing spectres in her own head.

Her hardest battle is between the forces of good and evil within herself. For Marci must fight. She was meant to burn.

Teaser: Excerpt

Chapter 1

The heavy bag swings gently from side to side under the dim lights of the empty dojo. Sweat drips down my forehead and into my eyebrows. My chest pumps in and out with the exertion.
      Again.
      I tighten my black belt, then hit the bag with a combination of jabs and kicks, my bare feet swishing against the rubber tatami floor. My white uniform jacket and ankle-length canvas pants snap. The slap of my bare hands and feet striking the leather reverberates through the rectangular room. I end the attack with an elbow strike and a loud kiai.
      My side hurts. My throat bobs up and down. The floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the back wall reflect my hunched over shape. Several karate masters watch me with still eyes from wall-affixed posters. I look toward the unopened water bottle on the floor. I’m so thirsty I could guzzle the whole thing in one big gulp, but I’m not even close to the required level of pain.
      Again.
      I hit and hit the bag. Twenty minutes pass. My uniform is soaked, my extremities red and burning from smacking the leather bag. I bend over, holding my side and panting. After a moment, I straighten and stare at the now-still bag with near hatred.
      No doubt I’m hurting, now. Time to try this crazy scheme.
      The punching bag hangs from a wooden beam in the ceiling. I stare at it and reach with my mind, willing it to swing. I narrow my eyes, narrow my attention to the chain that holds it in place.The tendons in my neck pop, ready to snap.
      Move. Move!
      Nothing happens.
      “Damn it!”
      The bag mocks me by just hanging there all shiny-black and sturdy. I concentrate, gather all my pain and project it forward, trying to nudge the bag just a bit. The veins at my temples throb with the effort. Just two weeks ago, I pushed a multi-ton van full of half-crocodiles into an abyss and saved the entire IgNiTe crew after blowing up Elliot Whitehouse’s fertility clinic, all while laying half-dead on the frozen ground. Now, I’m as alive as a freakin’ newborn and anything heavier than a box of bonbons gives me problems.
      “Screw this!”
      Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe pain isn’t the key to spur my telekinesis into action. It’s time I try something else. Imminent peril, perhaps?
      Hmm, I guess one hundred pounds of sand can be categorized as imminent peril when combined with velocity. I stare at the heavy bag.
      “All right, then.” I press my open palms against the bag’s cool leather and push it as hard as I can. The bag swings like a pendulum. I push again and again. Momentum builds. The bag goes higher with every oscillation. The supporting chain groans. Damage to my kisser should qualify as imminent peril, right? When the bag reaches its apex, I take a deep breath and lower my face into the path of the advancing wrecking ball.
      My eyes grow wide.
      Oh shit! A heavy-ass heavy bag is headed straight for my nose.
      Stop, I command, my mind stretching, taking the shape of a pacifying hand, but the black, limbless monster ignores me and keeps coming my way. It’s not even slowing. Not one bit.
      Stop! Stop …
      Next thing I know, I’m groaning on the floor, its rubbery smell twisting my stomach further. My eyes blur, then blur some more. I blink and hold my head. The right side of my face throbs. I turned away in the last instant, so my cheekbone got the smackdown.
      Well, that was stupid and useless. The back of my head pounds. I sit and look up at my leather-clad attacker.
      “Who’s the punching bag now, bitch?”
      I can almost hear Sensei ’Moto shaming me from his favorite spot in front of the Japanese flag I helped him pin to the wall.
      Pain and imminent peril both fail with a giant “F”.
      What do I have to do to jump-start my skills?
      God, I give up.
      [...]

Eclipse the Flame
Available NOW!

The Series: Ignite the Shadows

Click on the book cover to Look Inside the book on Amazon and read an excerpt.

Ignite the Shadows [1]

Sixteen-year-old Marci Guerrero is one of the best teen hackers in Seattle. However, she’d give up all her talents to know she isn’t crazy.

Marci feels possessed by what she perceives as shadowy spectres that take control of her body and make her do crazy things. While spying on the clandestine group known as IgNiTe, she’s confronted by the leader, James McCray. His presence stirs the spectres inside her brain into a maddening frenzy. Her symptoms and ability to control them don’t go unnoticed by James, who soon recruits her and shows her the awful truth.

Half of the world’s population is infected by sentient parasites. They bind themselves to the human brain and replace the pathways for all thoughts and actions. The creatures then morph their hosts into grotesque monsters with extraordinary strengths. Winged, clawed, fanged half-humans become living nightmares. Now Marci wishes she was crazy, because the truth is worse.

She’s infected.[Published 23 April 2015, 400 pages]

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About the Author

Ingrid Seymour is the author of IGNITE THE SHADOWS (Harper Voyager). When she’s not writing books, she spends her time working as a software engineer, cooking exotic recipes, hanging out with her family and working out. She writes young adult and new adult fiction in a variety of genres, including Sci-Fi, urban fantasy, romance, paranormal and horror.

Her favorite outings involve a trip to the library or bookstore where she immediately gravitates toward the YA section. She’s an avid reader and fangirl of many amazing books. She is a dreamer and a fighter who believes perseverance and hard work can make dreams come true.

She lives in Birmingham, AL with her husband, two kids and a cat named Mimi.

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