BooksChatter: ☀ The Retreat: The After Trilogy [1]

Thank you for joining us on the Virtual Book Tour for The Retreat, a Young Adult Science Fiction novel by Kelly St. Clare (15 July 2016, Kelly St. Clare, 282 pages).

This is the first book in the The After Trilogy series.

Don't miss our interview with author Kelly St. Clare.

PREVIEW: Check out the book's synopsis and excerpt below. Read the first three chapters with Amazon Look Inside. The Retreat is FREE on Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

Author Kelly St. Clare will be awarding a three (3) month Owlcrate Subscription and a The Retreat Swag Pack (INT) 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

Earth is ruined. Humankind destroyed. And it’s old news.

Romy’s life is simple—for a genetically enhanced space soldier; pick up space junk with her four friends, and stave off the invaders fixated on stealing Planet Earth.

It isn’t much. But it’s temporary—only another 850 years to go, give or take.

When her crew tangles with a gulp-worthy alien mothership, Romy’s return to Earth is brought forwards at hurtling pace.

Strength comes from the unlikeliest of quarters.

As does leadership. …As does betrayal.

Teaser: Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

      “We’re on Debris.”
      Romy looked up from her nano to meet the ever-cheerful face of Thrym, one of her knot mates. His finger was pointing, a bit unnecessarily, out the window, at outer space.
      Unobtainable Earth was a bright beacon of blues and greens in the distance. That wasn’t what Thrym was talking about, however. He was referring to the debris littering the area where their space station coasted in Earth’s orbit.
      “Really. Again? We were on it two days ago.” Elara threw herself back onto the narrow white bunk, one of five beds in the bare white unit.
      Five bunks for the five members of their team. The room possessed all essentials, few inessentials, and was identical to the hundred other units on board which housed the other teams.
      “Yes, really,” he replied. “Last night’s battle left a whole heap of junk. It’s clean or collide.”
      Romy knew about the small skirmish with the Critamal that Thrym spoke of. Unfortunately, it only took one exploding spacecraft to provide Knot 27 with days of clean-up. And because all space stations sat right where the debris liked to gather, four hundred kilometres above Earth’s sea level, Thrym was right: it was clean or collide.
      Elara sat up, slouching dramatically. Her brown hair was short and choppy, and a few adorable freckles dotted her nose. Soft hazel eyes blazed from her delicately featured face. “I know, but can’t someone else do it?” She snapped . . . the delicate part was misleading.
      The pixie-like girl was the laziest person Romy knew. Elara must be what humans were like 150 years ago. Ironic, considering the space soldier’s genetic engineering was supposed to eliminate faults such as fear, idleness, and curiosity. Somehow the scientists must have screwed it up in Elara’s case because she possessed laziness in copious amounts.
      Thrym glanced Romy’s way, his blue eyes dancing from beneath his professional mask. If Romy didn’t know to look, his amusement would’ve passed unseen.
      “ETA for the first of it to arrive is thirty-four minutes. We need to move,” he said.
      “I’ll alert Deimos and Phobos,” Romy replied.
      She lifted her wristwatch and pushed the square button on the side three times. Scrolling through the locations stored on the device, Romy selected “Earth Dock” to send an urgent alert to the entire team to gather there. Elara and Thrym silenced their own beeping devices without looking.
      Wordlessly, the three began preparations.
      Romy tied back her chin-length white-blonde hair as best as she could—could— though it was almost certain the fine strands would escape within minutes. She reached for her spandex suit next. Each space soldier was trained to get the orange spandex ventilation garments on in sixty-five seconds. Elara took three minutes on average. According to Deimos, her fastest time was 153 seconds.
      The entrance to their tight quarters swept upwards at their approach and the trio began to move at a fast clip down the clinical white, pressurised hallways of their home: Orbito One.

The Retreat
Available NOW!

About the Author

When Kelly St Clare is not reading or writing, she is lost in her latest reverie. She can, quite literally, drift past a car accident while in the midst of her day dreams, despite the various police sirens and chaos.

Books have always been magical and mysterious to her. One day she decided to start unravelling this mystery and began writing. Her aim: To write stories she would want to read. As it turns out, this failed miserably. Do you know what it is like to read something you've written? Impossible, that's what. Not to mention, the ending is ruined before you've begun. Never-the-less, Kelly loves it and wishes she had more time to squeeze it in between her day job as a physiotherapist.

Fantasy of Frost, the first title in The Tainted Accords, is her debut novel. It's sequel, Fantasy of Flight released May 2015. Fantasy of Fire is now available!

A New Zealander in origin and in heart, Kelly currently resides in Australia with her soon-to-be husband, a great group of friends, and some huntsman spiders who love to come inside when it rains. Their love is not returned.

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