The Long Fall Of Night by AJ Rose~ Character Interview #Review #Giveaway

In a flash, everything changes.

When NYU student Asher Caine’s uncle calls to warn him something big is coming, he has no idea it will be so devastating. Not even years of training can prepare him for what he's about to face. The only plan he has is to get his sister and nephew across country to safety, whatever it takes.

The darkness is full of potential. For good or evil, only time will tell.

Elliot Davenport isn’t about to let his Chemistry lab partner leave him behind, though he’s never done a spontaneous thing in his life. Ash is mysterious, aloof, and so damned sexy, Elliot can’t get the guy out of his head. But his crush takes a backseat as the gravity of the situation becomes clear: the eastern two-thirds of the United States has gone dark.

What happens when all the rules change in a split second?

200 million people are without access to sustainable food and water, let alone coffee and the Internet. Facing the worst humanitarian crisis the western world has ever seen, the government calls the military to step in. The entire military.

The soldiers of Team Shockwave are tasked with evacuating civilians to the safety of refugee camps, and then patrolling the new border between the East and West. Shockwave are on the front lines and the fate of an entire nation rests on them.

Welcome to the long fall of night…

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My Review

Where do I start with this book? I don't even know...It consumes you. I found myself daydreaming about it. Long after I closed it, it was there. Every song, commercials, even food shopping made me think of it. That's some serious writing power. AJ Rose has started a series with one hell of an explosion of literary genius. She's not a bestselling author for nothing. I will say Elliot was my favorite character. I was drawn to his thinking, his doing, his existing. Ash was his beacon and together they were safe. That's saying something too. This world AJ created is terrifying and sadly it can absolutely happen. If the other books in this series are as great as book 1 this will likely be one of, if not, the best series out there.

Now, you may wonder if this is hyperbole. But, it's not! I gravitate toward apocalypse movies and shows. The Walking Dead, Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon. I love shows built on pillars of unique creativity like Game of Thrones and Sons of Anarchy. I LOVE when anything can happen, when my heart is in my throat, my pulse pounds, and I'm about ready to jump out of my skin. AJ has managed to do this epically with this book. I know what I'm talking about here.

This book will stay with you. It will literally change how you live your life. It will make you appreciate the luxuries. You'll be hooked!

Interview

I have a wonderful and exciting interview for all of you today! I have Ash and Elliot here to chit chat.  If you aren’t familiar with these names, they are the main characters in AJ Rose’s new book The Long Fall of Night. Book one in what will be an epic apocalypse series.

I’m going to talk with these two guys for a bit. Ask them some fun and possibly dark questions and see what transpires.

Thank you both for being here today.

Ash: Thanks for having us.
Elliot: [smiles nervously and nods]

I’m going to start out with a question for you both to answer. Clearly, the fantasy of an apocalyptic world and the reality are very different. Growing up and having everyone talking about the end of the world. What did you think it would be like? The Walking Dead, Armageddon? 

Ash: [chuckling] I thought it would be in someone else’s lifetime. My Uncle Marvin had all kinds of end-of-the-world scenarios in his head while my sister and I were growing up, so for a while, it was fun to talk about those with him. The older I got, the more I realized his ideas were actually possible, and that sort of flipped me out. It wasn’t so fun anymore to play what if.

Elliot: With my family, there was one catastrophic scenario discussed all the time. You don’t grow up the son of an oil tycoon without considering what happens when we’d run out of fossil fuels. So I always thought it would be a shortage of oil that would happen first. I was optimistic, however, that by the time it happened, we’d have created alternative clean energy, both vastly superior to what we had, more cost effective, with less of an impact on the environment.

Ash: You’re such a dreamer.

Elliot: [shrugging] You’ve got enough cynicism for an army. One of us has to think positive.

Ash: [taking Elliot’s hand] Idealist.

Elliot: Pessimist.

Ash: I’m a survivalist.

Elliot: [sobers, speaking quietly] Good thing you are.

Elliot, the very first time you met Ash, what were your thoughts? I ask because when we little people come into play you’ve both known each other. Tell us about the first time you met?

Elliot: Ash and I had an applied physics class together last year, but I don’t know if he remembers that.

Ash: [shakes head] I remember the class, but not who was in it.

Elliot: [bemused] I was just a freshman, so if I registered as anything, it was as that lanky nerd in the middle center desk. I think we actually spoke for the first time in environmental science the next semester. I may have said excuse me after bumping into him [fake coughs] deliberately accidentally. We got paired as partners in chemistry my second semester sophomore year, so that’s when he had to talk to me, but I’d known who he was for a long time.

Ash: I knew who Elliot was before being lab partners, too. He is—was—the only sophomore in junior level classes for a combination bachelor’s/master’s degree in a highly technical field. Everybody knew of him, at least. Well, [waving hand in a ‘sort of’ gesture] as much as he’d let them know. I think me and one other girl knew he was one of those Davenports. But I’d never seen him use that to his advantage, so I figured he wanted to be as inconspicuous as I did. We didn’t really have one of those lightning struck introductions followed by a relationship. And I know that wasn’t my question, but he’s too hard on himself about my first impressions, which I admit to hiding from him if only because they were hard for me to admit, even to myself.

Ash, clearly you were busy trying to survive and keep your group safe. But, did your mind ever drift to what others were struggling with? Did you think about the people stuck in elevators and such?

Ash: Of course. On the drive out of New York, I wondered how the people in the subways were faring, and I remember thinking thank god it wasn’t full on summer yet or those people would have cooked for hours before being rescued. But every time I thought of people trapped in an elevator or blocked in bad traffic, I couldn’t help feeling just a tad grateful for the head start that afforded us. Maybe that’s callous, but it was the single most important advantage we had. If we’d delayed getting out of the city even a few hours, from what Brian told us—

Elliot: Brian is the Vice President of IT and Security for Davenport Oil Company, and he promised my father he’d find me when the blackout started because my parents were out of the country.
Ash: [nodding] Brian told us the looting started shortly after midnight on the first day. Those few hours’ jumpstart gave us time to get out of the hot zone, so to speak. As much as I felt bad for people in worse situations than ours, I couldn’t think too hard about it because I had five other people to consider.

Elliot, I have to ask before we go any further. How’s Ghost?

Elliot: He’s good. The Army is helping me train him further as a seizure dog since I’d have no idea how to do that on my own, and I can’t exactly google it anymore. I believe if we hadn’t found him, though, things would be pretty bleak for me. The seizures… aren’t exactly slowing down.

Have either of you bonded much with Shockwave, and any one more than another?

Ash: Shockwave has been awesome, and considering our proximity to them now, it’d be odd if we didn’t get to know them better. Chris and Donnie are hilarious even if they’re a little bit bitchy to each other, but that’s kind of how they function best. Ness is a badass and to be truthful, she kind of scares me. She could crack my skull like a walnut in one fist, I bet. The rest of them are good people, and Riley has taken quite the shine to Matt.

Elliot: We’ve learned a lot from Shockwave, even if they’re still on border duty half the time. I’d say we’ve come to appreciate them all for their help in the blackout. Even if we ended up sidetracked from the original plan.

Elliot, what sort of things do you find yourself doing that you never even thought to do before this entire mess happened?

Elliot: Hunting, for one thing. I’d never shot a rifle or an arrow before, and it’s kind of growing on me. Don’t think I’ll mess with handguns again, though. [shudders] But I didn’t have as much trouble with camping and living off the land as people seemed to expect me to. It was an adventure, up until halfway through Nebraska. I doubt my family would have ever allowed me such experiences if the country had kept on as it had for the last hundred years. I can read the stars better now, too. No light pollution to blot them out.

Ash, if there was one movie you could watch right now, what would you choose?

Ash: Oh man, that’s a good question. So many to pick from, I don’t know that I can.

Elliot: Careful, he cheats at stuff like this. He’ll say a movie series or TV show to get out of picking just one.

Ash: [wrinkles nose at Elliot] That’s not a bad idea, but she said one movie. [considers for a long moment] I don’t really go for war movies or horror, and comedy right now, while probably more welcome than anything else, feels kind of disrespectful. I’d have to go for an adventure, but not an apocalypse. [grins at Elliot] That’s a little too close to home. I’d say either The Goonies or Inception, depending on my mood.

For both of you, if you could go back in time to any year, which would you choose and would you stay there?

Elliot: I wouldn’t go back. Yeah, the past has its creature comforts, but this year has been not only my most enlightening in terms of challenges faced, it’s been my most promising. I’m terrified, but I’m on my own two feet.

Ash: [staring at his hands in his lap] The year 2000. I was only 6, but it was before 9/11, before my dad left for Afghanistan, and before I understood mortality. That was probably the last idyllic year of my childhood. And both my parents were alive.

Elliot: [takes Ash’s hand but says nothing]

At this moment, what do you both fear the most and what are you most grateful for?

Elliot: [clears throat] I’m most afraid of getting separated. Our whole group has had each other’s backs through some rough things. I trust them like I trust no one else. As for being grateful, I’m glad Ash was there for me to tag along with, even if I thought he was crazy at first. I have no doubt he’s saved my life.

Ash: Um, I think my biggest fear already came true, that the careful life I planned isn’t going to happen and there’s nothing I can do about it. At this point, all I can do is go with the flow and try and keep us alive. That’s easier now, and I hope it will be for a while, but who knows what’s going to happen? As for gratitude, I’m pretty grateful to even be here right now.

Ash, how is Riley holding up with all this New World stuff?

Ash: He seems okay, though he has nightmares sometimes. Hell, we all do, though, so that’s not weird.

Elliot, this situation has changed you. Elliot’s Evolution! What do you think is the biggest personal change you’ve discovered?

Elliot: [speaking at the same time as Ash] My spine.

Ash: His balls.

Elliot: [smacks Ash’s thigh] I’m a pretty quiet guy, but that doesn’t mean I have to be a pushover. If I can survive these last few months, I can survive anything. I think.

Ash: [smiling serenely] He can.

This is a very important question…. Coffee, in the apocalypse, how is it?

Ash: I never got hooked on coffee, so I don’t really drink it now either. I leave it for the others to fight over. Not a frenzy I want in on.

Elliot: It’s not gourmet, that’s for sure, but it’s available. I miss ice cream.

What does the future hold for the 2 of you?

[both look at each other]
Ash: Who knows?

Elliot: Yeah, we have no idea. Things are too unstable right now to make definitive plans. I don’t want to go where Ash isn’t. That’s about the extent of my plans.

Ash: Keeping Elliot and my people safe. That’s all I can worry about. Getting Elliot somewhere better for his seizures. The camp isn’t as equipped for his condition as I’d have hoped.

I really want to thank you both so very much. Please give Ghost squishy hugs for me. I wish the best for both of you. After all, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.

Ash: [deadpan] Gee, thanks.
Elliot: Thank you for having us.

Giveaway

AJ Rose is gifting one person a ebook copy of The Long Fall of Night. Simply enter through the rafflecopter below. Contest will run until  July 19th. Winner will be contacted via email so be sure to check your spam!

I want to thank AJ, Ash, and Elliot for their time today! 

Remember: Review what you read, it matters!

 

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