Blog Tour: To See The Sun by Kelly Jensen ~ Guest Post #Excerpt #Giveaway

To See the Sun by Kelly Jensen

Publisher: Riptide Publishing

Release Date: August 13, 2018

Length: Print – 243 pages. Ebook – 295 pages.

Subgenre: Science fiction, western

Reader warnings: past and present violence, and references to past abuse.

For a full list of tags, visit: https://riptidepublishing.com/titles/to-see-the-sun and click on “Additional Details”

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Book Synopsis:

Survival is hard enough in the outer colonies—what chance does love have?

Life can be harsh and lonely in the outer colonies, but miner-turned-farmer Abraham Bauer is living his dream, cultivating crops that will one day turn the unforgiving world of Alkirak into paradise. He wants more, though. A companion—someone quiet like him. Someone to share his days, his bed, and his heart.

Gael Sonnen has never seen the sky, let alone the sun. He’s spent his whole life locked in the undercity beneath Zhemosen, running from one desperate situation to another. For a chance to get out, he’ll do just about anything—even travel to the far end of the galaxy as a mail-order husband. But no plan of Gael’s has ever gone smoothly, and his new start on Alkirak is no exception. Things go wrong from the moment he steps off the shuttle.

Although Gael arrives with unexpected complications, Abraham is prepared to make their relationship work—until Gael’s past catches up with them, threatening Abraham’s livelihood, the freedom Gael gave everything for, and the love neither man ever hoped to find.

Guest Post

Top Five Sci-Fi Romances

Being a fan of both science fiction and romance, I’m always on the lookout for really great combinations of the two. Here, in no particular order, are my top five!

Peripheral People by Reesa Heberth and Michelle Moore

Let me sum it up for you: psychic detectives in space. I know, right? If there is a genre I like more than science fiction romance, it’d be detectives in space. Toss in a love story, and I’m pretty much set. I mean, what else do you need besides a good reading snack? (I recommend Peanut M&Ms.)

What makes Peripheral People unique is the combination of science fiction and paranormal elements. The Ylendrian Empire is a world with a sense of scope and history, but though this is the fourth book in the series, new readers won’t be lost. The authors include enough detail for you to settle in without being overwhelmed. Besides, this is a character driven story. The setting is important and is woven seamlessly into their backstories, but it’s Westley Tavera and Corwin Menivie who will keep you reading. Their relationship begins as a reaction to the sexual escapades of their respective partners and develops into a war between West’s needs and Corwin’s discomfort with intimacy. Oh, so prickly!

The case they have to solve is as interesting and twisty as it gets. And then there’s the cover. It’s pretty and purple. I’m a sucker for a great cover.

Touched By an Alien by Gini Koch

I came across this book at my local library while looking for the next book in Sherilyn Kenyon’s endlessly fascinating Dark Hunter series. One shelf down stood a row of books with pretty covers and the word ALIEN on nearly all of them. What’s this, what’s this! I found the first one, read the back cover, and was sold.

Katherine "Kitty" Katt witnesses a fight between a couple that looks like it’s about to turn ugly. Then it does, when one of them transforms into an alien and goes on a killing spree. Panicking and running would make sense for most of us, but Kitty takes on the alien and kills it. Then a guy in an Armani suit appears beside her, introduces himself as Jeff Martini from The Agency, and takes her to meet his boss. Next day, Kitty has a new job fighting aliens.

List of favourite things:
1. Jeff Martini
2. Jeff Martini
3. Christopher
4. Reader
5. Kitty
6. Kitty's parents
7. Aliens
8. Sexy aliens
9. Guys who are sweet with their sexy
10. Jeff Martini

The Klockwerk Kraken by Aidee Ladnier

Most of my reading buddies know that I have a thing for tentacles. It’s not a super, um, sexy thing (though I’m totally here for the sexy things), it’s more a fascination. One of the ideas in my Big Book of Ideas is to write the book that doesn’t go there. To write a shy alien with tentacles who is actually horrified by the notion he might use them, um, sexily. (But, knowing me, his love interest will probably end up teaching him a few tricks. I mean, c’mon. Tentacles.)

In the meantime, I’m happy to read books like The Klockwerk Kraken. Aidee Ladnier has a wonderful sense of humor and writes really sweet characters. The story also combines my favorite elements: science fiction, a mystery, and romance. And tentacles. There’s great world building with lots of detail and believable settings. Teo is so sweet. Jimenez's past is explored with a compassionate show of restraint. And the love scenes are smokin'.

The Prince and the Program by Aldous Mercer 

The Prince and the Program is a very strange book. The strange is what turns every page, however, as you’re never quite sure what will happen next. Mordred ‘Mori’ Pendragon is exiled to Canada (oh, the horror!) for unspecified crimes. Broke and powerless, he interviews for a job as a software engineer and takes a position with a tech startup in Toronto. It’s pretty clear from the outset that his lack of programming experience isn’t the biggest issue the company has. There are gremlins in the network, another company is trying to steal their data, and the chief technical officer lives in a MacBook. He might be the ghost of Alan Turing or a bloody smart AI or one of the aforementioned gremlins.

Mori develops a thing for Alan. This thing, this crush, is an amusing, gentle, surprisingly emotional and riveting undercurrent to the story. While Alan and Mori debate questions of what makes a soul, and if a soul makes one capable of love, someone else at the company is experimenting with magic that could suck the souls out of everyone, thus ending the world as we know it.

The Prince and the Program is one of those books you need to get a fair way into before asking too many questions. Also, this book is definitely one for those who like to think, and like think about thinking. There is a lot of philosophy and poetry, computer language, geek speak, concepts, otherworldly landscapes, and humor. There is also a rousing good adventure story, including a trip through the realms of death where, luckily, Mori always knows a guy.

Paradox Series by Rachel Bach

A book that captures the reader on the first page is rare. Fortune’s Pawn, the first in the Paradox series by Rachel Bach, had me pretty much at the first sentence. The voice of Deviana Morris, Paradoxian mercenary, is personable and compelling. I fell immediately into her world and eagerly followed her adventures. Thankfully, a reader is only a bystander, because Devi gets beaten up a lot.

I didn’t start reading this series for the romance, and to be fair, some might call this science fiction first, romance second. That’s okay with me as the story here is bigger than three books. It extends before and after as Rachel Bach does what she does best—building a world that is so totally believable, she could return to it at any time to tell another story. Bach always introduces a hero with such a compelling arc, though, that the reader’s focus remains there, with them. And there is always a love story, which in this series, is actually more central than it appears.

Devi is going to sacrifice a lot for her lover, making the third book in the series, Heaven’s Queen a hugely emotional read.

Excerpt 

Bram pushed up from the table. “I’m going to make tea. Want some?”

“I can make it.”

“Sit. I didn’t ship you all the way out here to wait on me.”

“What did you ship me out here for?”

Bram didn’t answer, and the question burned the back of his neck as he performed the mundane task of making the tea. He selected an herbal blend, his favorite, and spooned desiccated leaves, fruit peel, and flower heads into the diffusing chamber at the center of a battered metal pot. He could program the beverage machine, but he preferred to make tea the old-fashioned way. Leaves and hot water. Sometimes the process of a thing was as important as the result.

He reached toward the shelf of mugs and stopped as a hand touched his shoulder. Warm breath ghosted across the cooling skin at the back of his neck, reigniting his blush. Bram let his fingers catch on the edge of the shelf and rest there, and tipped his head forward. Gael moved closer, the heat of his body evident now as he leaned in.

Lips met the back of his neck in a soft kiss. A small quake shifted the muscles beneath Bram’s skin, his body making ready to turn. He held still a moment longer before following another long-held urge, turning slowly—so slowly—until they were face to face. Well, until his mouth was level with Gael’s forehead. Bram pressed a kiss there, one as gentle as the touch of lips to the back of his neck.

“I didn’t bring you out here for this, either,” he murmured.

“Yes, you did.”

Bram took hold of Gael’s slim shoulders. “Not just this.” And not like this.

In answer, Gael lifted his face, offering up his mouth. Bram’s resolve lasted about a second longer than he thought it might before he bent to taste those lips. They’d been interrupted twice now. No longer.

Gael’s lips were so soft, melting beneath his, opening—though Bram didn’t take the invitation right away. He kissed both lips, together and separately. He tasted them, the scent of Gael mingling with the bitter tang of the outside air. Gael made a small sound: a whimper or a moan. Bram deepened the kiss, still resisting the temptation of Gael’s tongue. He didn’t want to fall all in, lose himself.

Then he was there, falling, his lips and hands operating independently of thought. He craved the warmth of Gael’s skin and wanted to compare it to the feel of his tongue. See if he moved the same way—gently, teasingly. Gael seemed as wrapped up in the kiss as Bram. He shifted, constantly, swaying into Bram, hooking his hands into the back pockets of Bram’s work pants.

Blood shot south to pulse in his cock, leaving Bram in that almost-forgotten state of arousal—somewhere between thought and thoughtlessness. He teetered there, reveling in the anticipation, and let his imagination roam. Oh, to touch Gael’s skin, to taste him. To hear the sounds he’d make when aroused, when brought to climax, when drifting in the aftermath. Would he be loud? Would he be shy and sweet?

A soft click sounded behind him. The tea. Blinking as though roused from a dream, Bram pulled back. Gael leaned in immediately, following him. He kissed Bram’s neck and ground his hips forward. Bram tugged Gael’s hands from his pockets, regret making his movements clumsy.

Gael tipped his head back. “What are you doing?”

“The tea is ready.”

One long, slow blink. “What?”

“The tea.” Bram was still holding Gael’s hands, and stupidly, he didn’t want to let go. But he did so he could turn and collect the mugs. Pick up the pot.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No.”

“Then why did we stop?”

Bram had to consider his answer because he didn’t really know, not in a way he could express in words. It would have been so easy to keep going. To have had something fast and dirty in the kitchen, or to have picked Gael up and carried him to the bedroom.

Gael followed him into the HV room and sat beside him on the couch. Waited quietly while Bram poured the tea and handed over one of the mugs. Picking up the other mug, Bram thought a little more. Wrapped his fingers around the warm composite of ceramic and plastic and searched for just the right words.

“We’ve got time.” Bram raised the mug to his lips, but decided the tea was still too hot to take a sip. “Doesn’t all have to happen in one night.”

About Kelly Jensen:

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories of the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, co-written with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

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Enter the Giveaway

Prize: Enter to win any back catalog Chaos Station ebook by Kelly Jensen and Jenn Burke or paperback of Always and Forever: A Chaos Station Collection by Kelly Jensen and Jenn Burke. Open internationally. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/88d45f0364/