July releases.

Out of curiosity I was looking at YA books that shared The Forgotten's release date, and I realised that some amazing novels from my to-read list come out on the same day. So I thought I'd compile them here in case anyone is looking for July releases.

July 30th (TF's paperback release date)

The Twixt: Indelible | Dawn Metcalf

from Harlequin Teen

Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT

Mythos Academy: Midnight Frost | Jennifer Estep

from K-Teen

Here we go again …

Just when it seems life at Mythos Academy can’t get any more dangerous, the Reapers of Chaos manage to prove me wrong. It was just a typical night at the Library of Antiquities — until a Reaper tried to poison me. The good news is I’m still alive and kicking. The bad news is the Reaper poisoned someone else instead.

As Nike’s Champion, everyone expects me to lead the charge against the Reapers, even though I’m still hurting over what happened with Spartan warrior Logan Quinn. I’ve got to get my hands on the antidote fast — otherwise, an innocent person will die. But the only known cure is hidden in some creepy ruins — and the Reapers are sure to be waiting for me there …

Earth Bound | Aprilynne Pike

from Razorbill

Love, fate, and power collide in this new series by #1 New York Timesbestselling author Aprilynne Pike!

Tavia Michaels is the sole survivor of the plane crash that killed her parents. When she starts to see strange visions of a boy she’s never spoken with in real life, she begins to suspect that there’s much about her past that she isn’t being told. Tavia will soon discover that she’s an Earthbound—someone with the ability to create matter out of nothing—and that she alone holds the key to stopping the Reduciata, an evil society that manipulates global events for its own shadowy purposes. Tavia will ultimately have to make a choice: to come into her powers and save the world from the evil Reduciata or to choose free will and a love of her own.

The Lux Guardians: The Forgotten | Saruuh Kelsey

Good and goodness will prevail.

Honour and Horatia Frie are twins living in a world of wreck and ruin.

Branwell and Bennet Ravel are twins living in a world of danger and secrecy.

Each tasked with an impossible quest, and faced with unimaginable struggles, they must work together to halt the utter devastation intended for both of their worlds

The Forgotten, book one in The Lux Guardians series, is a Young Adult Dystopian novel set both in a future wreck of London and London in the Victorian era.

Looking forward to all three of these, and my own book obviously! July is looking to be a good month.

The Lux Guardians

So this post is all about that banner up there. The one above this post. The free book one. Yeah, that's the one.

You may or may not know (if you read the header ... you probably will) that I write young adult books. I write fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction. My debut, the first book in the Lux Guardians series, THE FORGOTTEN, is a young adult dystopian.

I'll put the blurb at the end of this post, but I wanted to talk about the other important thing about The Lux Guardians. The fact that it's free. I've always wanted to release a book for free. Reading is a form of escape, and a very common one. So many people turn to books to get away from their problems, to escape from real life, to immerse themselves in a world where they do not need to face or acknowledge anything from the 'real world'. 

I am one of those people, and though I have always been surrounded by books and the worlds tucked away inside their pages, sometimes I need a new world to run to. Sometimes, though familiarity is comforting, books you know by heart are not enough. Sometimes you need to read something unknown, to be caught up in the mystery, in not knowing what will happen next, and in a completely new setting with new characters.

But new books cost money. And young adults don't always have money. Hell - even adults don't always have money. But then there is no new book to turn to, no sanctuary to fall into. And that is why The Lux Guardians is free.

Also it's kind of going back to how stories were passed on through word of mouth, through family member after family member after family member. Stories were free then. My stories are free now. I'm sure eventually I'll need to publish my books through a publisher, that I'll need money to support and sustain myself, but for now my words are free. That being said, I do accept donations. So if you want to support me ... that's how!

Anyway, enough of that, here's the summary of The Forgotten:

Good and goodness will prevail.

Honour and Horatia Frie are twins living in a world of wreck and ruin. Forgotten London is a dismal place of containment, rationing, and a four-family-per-house regulation. 

Twenty five years ago the world was set ablaze when solar flares obliterated three quarters of the Earth’s population and wiped out whole continents in one blow. The flares brought with them The Sixteen Strains: agonizing and fatal diseases that plague each of the forty one zones of Forgotten London and the rest of the world. The only places that escaped fatal damage were two countries now known as The Cities – States and Bharat. The rest of the world – The Forgotten Lands – is contained within borders for the people’s protection against even deadlier Strains outside the barrier. But fifteen year old Honour thinks differently. He thinks that they’re kept inside the fence for other, more menacing reasons. He thinks that States are planning to kill them. 

Branwell and Bennet Ravel are twins living in a world of danger and secrecy.

In Victorian London, years before the solar flares hit, the Ravels’ world has just been turned upside down. Their father, poisoned by something even genius Branwell can’t determine, has passed away. His dying words were unnerving orders to keep each other safe no matter the cost, and to hide everything he has ever invented. When one of his creations goes missing – a device named The Lux that can generate unlimited energy – the twins are shocked to discover that their very own government has stolen it and, according to their father’s journals, are planning to use it to create unfathomable explosions to destroy their world.

The Ravel twins will have to find and reclaim The Lux if they are to stop their world’s planned destruction, but when they’re transported to an unfamiliar, derelict world, the search for the device will become harder than ever. Honour and Horatia, against all odds, will have to find a way to stop States before the remainder of Earth is eradicated and their world is lost for good, or somehow get every single citizen of Forgotten London outside of the fence.

The Forgotten will be released 20.06.13 in eBook, and 30.07.13 in paperback. For a paperback copy sign up to the waiting list.

If you made it to the end of this post, and read the entire thing, you should be knighted. Thank you.