Title: Beautiful
Experiment (Book One of Island of
Defiance Trilogy)
Author: January Valentine
Genre: Teen Paranormal Fantasy
Release date: June 1, 2013
Synopsis:
Six unruly teens are abducted on their way to a juvie home.
Dumped onto an uncharted island. Could things get any worse? Hell, yeah.
Hostility and envy run rampant. Throw in some alphas, divas and demons, and
what do you have? Beautiful Experiment. Book One of the Island of Defiance
Trilogy.
The
teens are referred to as waywards, informed their parents have sent them to the
island for rehabilitation. While they struggle with their predicament, and each
other, they come to a shocking realization ... for once in their lives, they
have to follow rules.
Brook has lived on the Island of Defiance his entire
life, with no choice but to believe everything he has been taught. As he
approaches eighteen, the secret of who he is, and the ultimate fate he must
face, begins to unfold. To complicate matters even more, Brook grows to
experience something he has never known ... love.
How do you convince a stranger a
dreadful mistake has been made? Gabriella Winslow is an honors student who has
always helped others, but now has to fight for herself. Something unimaginable
wants her as much as the beautiful island boy with whom she is falling in love.
Beautiful
Experiment is Book One of The Island Of Defiance Trilogy (paranormal - fantasy
- romance - for teens and adults) Mature 16+ for adult language, drugs &
alcohol, mild sexual situations & mild violence.
Buy links:
Kobo:
Excerpt
(Brook and Father are waiting on the beach for the skiff to
arrive with a new delivery of wayward teens. This is Brook's first encounter
with the supernatural force that will intensify until he eventually learns
exactly what is attempting to overtake him, and why.)
The surging tide is tempting. I'm concentrating on the foam
that is quickly erasing my footsteps. It's not the caw of gulls that alerts me,
because the winged creatures have vanished. In their place, the air is filled
with my name. I lift my face to something startling, and my heart begins to
pound.
The sky has burst into flame. Red and gold, it's raging. The
sun is the sky. Scorching. Shooting stars, like flaming spears, are dropping
all around me. If I don't shut my eyes, I'll be blinded. If I do, I'll be
nothing but a solid target. The wind wails like a mother who has lost her
child. "When the third moon falls, the beast will devour the sky."
As suddenly as it started, it ends. I'm standing beside Father,
totally disoriented. Am I standing? I look down at my feet, because I feel
legless. I'm floating. Struggling to regain control of my mind, my body, the
shock.
I grip the clipboard and pen with my knees, so that I can draw
my palms across my twitching eyelids, astonished that I'm actually still
holding onto anything.
"Did you see that flash? Did you hear that creepy
voice?" I'm breathless, massaging my pounding temples with burning
fingertips. "My head feels like it's about to split open." I rattle
each eardrum with a pinky, then plug my ears to listen intently. Was the urgent
whisper that turned me to stone inside my head? Phantom sounds? I've never
experienced this kind of phenomenon before. "My eyes pain."
Father regards me with a mix of surprise and concern. "You
have a migraine?"
"Migraine?" I scoff. What the fuck, loops through my
head. I'm freaked out, left with a strange feeling this is not going to be like
other days. I try to shake it off, like I shake him off.
The sky is now clear and so perfectly blue, it looks as though
it's been painted by deliberate strokes of an artist's brush. It is a seamless
dome of beauty. If we were not receiving today, I might be lying on the
pristine beach, permitting my thoughts to wander far beyond my own boundaries.
Maybe I'd be lounging on my bluff, or climb my watchtower tree, burrow into its
welcoming arms where I collect my years, watch over all that is mine.
"Feeling better?" His voice is buffered, but coarse
enough to jar me from thought.
Skimming Father, my gaze snaps back to the waves, the skiff
that is almost upon us. "I'm fine." I don’t mention how bad my body
aches, and feels like it’s being torn apart. I stretch my arms, then my neck,
trying to pin down what I did to cause these muscle spasms. The bomb that’s
about to explode in my head.
When the ocean is calm it's translucent, sparkling with
sunlight as though it's coated with billions of precious gemstones. Today it's
not much more than rolling waves and seaweed.
"I've never seen it this rough." Between wind and
thunderous surf, I have to face him or my voice will be useless.
"Storms." His reply is blunt.
"You wouldn't know it by the sky." I bring my gaze to
a more pleasant sight.
"There's one brewing out there. You'd feel it if you had
my knees." Staring gravely at the ocean, his body is rigid.
"Are you in pain?"
"Nothing I can't handle."
"Let's hope the weather holds off until we've settled
them."
"Rain or shine, we've got our work cut out for us,
Brook."
"As always." My stomach rises to my throat as I watch
their approach. I wonder if I'll ever get used to this way of life. Do I want
to? Of course not. There are so many other things I'd rather be doing right
now, like hopping onto that boat, and for starters, checking out the other side
of this island.
Beyond the boat, a floating veil of mist rolls in like billows
of steam from a tremendous boiling kettle. I am no longer able to see the large
vessel from which the skiff was launched.
The atmosphere of the island is as such, inviting one moment,
rejecting the next. Father calls it a gentle beast, with characteristics and
charm like the women he has known. My glance shifts, falling upon the shoreline
curve where a jetty, composed of rocks chiseled and stacked by nature, projects
like the nose of a dolphin and the forest begins. This is as far as my eyes
pan.
"Thank you for cutting your hair." For a moment his
eyes wash over me, then his gaze refocuses on the others who are struggling
against the relentless current. "I know it pains you."
"Don't you mean shearing?" I huff. "I don't
understand why I can't grow it long. I have awesome hair, or so I've been
told." I smirk.
He shoots me a phony glare. "You've been told, huh? No
cozying up to any of these girls. I don't want another batch begging to
stay."
"I'm not a womanizer. Just good company." I shrug.
"No nighttime jaunts to the lagoon, either. And I mean it
this time." Now his glare is authentic.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Stay out of the lagoon. Out of the
forest. Out of the lockers. Pretend to like my boring life."
He almost looks sympathetic. "One of these days you'll
understand."
"What? Why I can't swim at night?"
"You're impossible sometimes, and the reason I ask you to
cut your hair is to set a good example."
I let out a tired sigh. My hand runs over my smooth scalp, the
shadow of bristles so short and sun-bleached, my reflection in a mirror looks
hairless. If not for my deeply tanned skin, I would look anemic.
"Seems a waste. Six or more inches of attractive dark hair
again and again swept into the trash." My jaw sets as our discussion
continues. "I like my hair long. It makes me feel ..."
"Like a rock star?" He chuckles, scrubbing my head
playfully. "In so many ways you remain such a child, yet you desire to be worldly.
Do you admire them?"
"Not as you might be thinking." My eyes lower,
landing upon my anxious toes digging through a mound of sand.
I swing my gaze across the vast horizon which is now shaded
with purples and blues, fantasizing about the places beyond. The order of the
world not contained within this globe of existence called Defiance Island. I
know the temperament of the waywards, but wonder what others are like. Are they
beautiful? Intelligent? Kindhearted? Do they possess the nature that can make a
man want to tear another to shreds?
About the Author
January Valentine is the pen name of Victoria Valentine, New
York writer and indie book publisher. See Victoria's Author pages: http://www.amazon.com/January-Valentine/e/B007Q28DFE
I chose to use a pen name because some of my writing is steamy,
and I wanted to separate Victoria, who writes contemporary fiction and
children's storybooks. Since my birth month is January, January Valentine
seemed an appropriate pseudonym.
I also host a blogtalkradio show: Away With Words, every
Wednesday evening at 6 PM EST where I interview other writers and poets and
discuss writing in general: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aww1
In June, I released my first paranormal romance, Beautiful
Experiment, book one of Island of Defiance Trilogy. Wheel Wolf was released on
August 20th, and instantly became an Amazon bestseller in Horror/Suspense/Paranormal.
I've written three other novels: Love Dreams contemporary
romance, Sweet Dreams in the Mind of a Serial Killer, and Head Over Wheels New
Adult romance. All are available on Amazon and other booksellers, or will be
shortly in ebook and paperback.
I publish books for other authors through Water Forest Press,
which I founded some years ago. In the past I have written poetry and song
lyrics, but now I focus on fiction. I've created multiple websites and blogs
that I don't have time to manage very well.
My desire to be in a rock band brought me into a recording
studio ... where my lyrics sprang to life with the help of a local alternative
rock band. Together, we produced a CD.
I enjoy designing book covers and YouTube videos, and outdoor
activities such as hiking and swimming. I love all kinds of music. Watching
horror flicks and Tyler Perry movies are my escape from reality.
I have an addiction to engraved pens that I buy to accompany
each of my books. My office is filled with paperbacks, t-shirts, silver
bullets, wolf head necklaces, crystals, and all kinds of swag.
My
sites and pages.
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