PHOENIX TOUR - excerpt, giveaway & review

Publisher: Fire & Ice Imprint of Melange Books LLC

Release Date: May 27th, 2012

Genre: YA Paranormal/Fantasy Romance

Elora Rae Gannon believes her life is over. On her sixteenth birthday she receives news that she is a mythical monster of hellish proportions and if that's not bad enough, she receives this information in the form of a letter from her dead mother who also informs her that she must become part of an elite secret society of others like herself or die. Sucky birthday, huh? And just when she thinks she's got it all figured out, her new-found family in the Elite forces her to break ties with her human BFF shortly before her BFF just up and vanishes. With her world in utter upheaval, Elora makes the move to a new school- Marlind Prep, with full intentions of finding out exactly what is going on behind the scenes and why her best friend has vanished- all while trying to figure out how to successfully make out with her boyfriend without sucking the very life out of him! 

EXCERPT

The world through Elora Gannon's eyes...

A life for a life I vow...by embrace of fire and spirit, I conquer death.

High is the price of immortality, a life for a life I vow...

There’s just something about waking up on your sixteenth birthday to find that you are the equivalent to everything your worst nightmares are made of. And that’s exactly what happened to me. My name is Elora Rae Gannon. I’ve been raised in a home that has frequently been hosed down by testosterone since birth. My mother Avril died during childbirth, my childbirth leaving me to be raised by my single father Sam Gannon.

I believe I’m somewhat getting off the subject, so let me start again. I woke on November 17th to find that my mother had belonged to a unique club or society of people, if you will, known as the Phoenix Elite. No big deal, right? Wrong. As with any other secret society the Elite have their secrets. Secrets that would set me apart from my fellow students at Frederick High School and my best friend of nine years, Chloe Salas. Chloe despised the small group of Elite in our school and with good reason for the most part. Most of them were serious snots with the talent and looks to back it up. But what she despised the most was the secrets. Chloe had been doing research on the Elite for over three years and wanted to expose them in a newspaper article that she hoped would catapult her career into stardom before she ever set foot on college campus. But there was one little problem, I, her BFF, was the Elite’s new inductee.

I wish I could say I had a choice in the matter but the truth is…Phoenix is in my blood. You see- Phoenixes aren’t entirely human and humans for the most part don’t know it. Supposedly we came from an ancient Egyptian bloodline of Gods. The Ennead or something like that, sons and daughters of Amun Re and that wasn’t even the half of it.

I was pulled from school the Monday following my birthday by my crush and fellow Phoenix, Ezra Denton and taken to Elite headquarters where I was given the choice to join the Elite or die. Yeah, you heard right, D-I-E. I wish I’d chosen death over the monster I was becoming. Little did I know that in exactly one year’s time I would have to choose again between life and death and every year after. After taking the Oath which solidified me as a Phoenix the spirit of Amun Re matured in my body and with it I was given a thirst. An abhorred thirst which made me the monster I am today. Everything I’d ever read growing up of vampires, werewolves and the like made me feel like the devil in comparison. The Phoenixes steal lives. Like the mythological Phoenix which lived off of air alone, we live off of the air in humans’ lungs. Their very life force. And the real kicker is that our taking of life will only prolong our own for one more year.

The logical choice, you would think, would be to let our own life force die out. One by one rid the Earth of our kind, right? But it’s not that easy. When nearing the day when you must renew, it’s like drowning. Your lungs burn like molten fire and nothing but taking life can stifle that pain. Few have been strong enough to let themselves die and save the life of those we’re supposed to protect. See, we haven’t always been monsters. It started before the first Egyptian Dynasty when a half human half god named Set or Seth took his cousin Osiris’s wife, Aset, and impregnated her with his son whom he called Isaac. Isaac was the first of his kind, a creature called the Ruhk. The Ruhk had wings the color of coagulated blood and eyes so black they rivaled night itself.

Before Seth’s life was finally taken because of his betrayal, he spoke a curse into existence. His son Isaac would fall into a deep sleep upon his sixteenth birthday and would only awaken to avenge him when the strongest of Aset’s descendants was born into the Phoenix world. Then he would rule Aset and the Elite with the lowly humans planted firmly under his feet.

Apparently I am that descendant. And now my best friend is missing for sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, I’m moving to a new school specifically for Phoenix kind four hours from my father, the only family I’ve ever known and I can’t even make out with my new boyfriend for fear of sucking out his life!

My life is in utter upheaval and I’d do anything to get it back on track. Even face down a god- and I had a feeling that’s exactly what I was going to have to do. But not before my best friend would throw our relationship in the trash and emotionally handicap me before I could say apocalypse!

BUY LINKS

FIRE & ICE~ http://www.fireandiceya.com/authors/melissastarr/phoenix.html

AMAZON KINDLE~ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00870LW0C/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d3_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0ZYT4FY7RX1WMXGB8D03&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

BARNES & NOBLE~ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/phoenix-melissa-starr/1112125637?ean=9781612354101

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 THE AUTHOR

Melissa Starr is a small town, country gal from deep in southern Oklahoma. Born in Altus and raised in Frederick, it only seemed right to put down roots there with her own family; a husband, two sons and two daughters. She resides and writes from her home in Frederick where she spends her free time attending her children’s various sporting activities and just enjoying being a mom.

Melissa is also a freelance photographer who enjoys camping and riding ATV’s when the weather permits and snapping a million and one pictures of her family and friends against much protest. *Smiles*

Website: http://melissastarr.webstarts.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Melissa-Starr/451202625383

Follow me on Twitter~ https://twitter.com/#!/MelissaStarr13

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Word Press~ http://melissa13starr.wordpress.com/

Good Reads~ http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6151213.Melissa_Starr

REVIEW

I finished reading this book just yesterday so I might need a bit more time to think on it. But here´s my first thoughts about it!

The book was pretty easy to read and actually it did not take long to read the whole thing. I really like the idea in the story about the Phoenixes and where they come from. And what being one actually means.. I had varying feelings about the book and they kept changing. At times there were some things that annoyed me a little, which was the teen character and the language, at times felt a little too adolescent for my taste. What I like in this book that there is more to the Phoenixes than that there just are these people that aren´t completely human. But it has an explanation and they have this society that definitely has some eerie qualities to it! And they don´t just seem like that, they actually are. 

 I got quite excited right in the beginning about the whole thing and ended up liking the book. I think it has potential to be amazing, so I think I have yet another series to continue with!