Friday, May 4, 2018

Exclusive Excerpt Everything Under the Sun by Jessica Redmerski




Everything Under the Sun
Jessica Redmerski

Genre: Dystopian YA/NA Crossover

Date of Publication: August 28, 2017

ISBN: 1546413081
ASIN: B074W372G6

Number of pages: 657
Word Count: 203K

Cover Image by Perrywinkle Photography
Cover Design by Okay Creations

Tagline: Can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?

Book Description:

Thais Fenwick was eleven-years-old when civilization fell, devastated by a virus that killed off the majority of the world’s population. For seven years, Thais and her family lived in a community of survivors deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. But when her town is attacked by raiders, she and her blind sister are taken away to the East-Central Territory where she is destined to live the cruel and unjust kind of life her late mother warned her about.

Atticus Hunt is a troubled soldier in Lexington City who has spent the past seven years trying to conform to the vicious nature of men in a post-apocalyptic society. He knows that in order to survive, he must abandon his morals and his conscience and become like those he is surrounded by. But when he meets Thais, morals and conscience win out over conformity, and he risks his rank and his life to help her. They escape the city and set out together on a long and perilous journey to find safety in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Struggling to survive in a world without electricity, food, shelter, and clean water, Atticus and Thais shed their fear of growing too close, and they fall hopelessly in love. But can love survive in such dark times, or is it fated to die with them?


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  “A PRISON WITHOUT BARS”

I took the dress, walked past the body of the green-eyed soldier, and followed Atticus into his room across the hall. I felt my heart in the tips of my fingers; the moisture had evaporated from my mouth, and all I wanted to do was run for my life. Away from all the violence, and the dark souls who lived in this place; away from the girl who I knew would want revenge on me even though I had nothing to do with Petra being taken; and away from this man, Atticus, who I would be alone with, in his room, for no telling how long.
I stood motionless and silent with my dress draped over my arm. After many days of wanting the chance to talk to Atticus, to find out anything about my sister, here was my chance, but I couldn’t look at him, much less speak to him.
Atticus set my books on the floor beside a wall and walked past me. He left the room and came back seconds later dragging my small mattress with him. After setting his gun on the end of his bed amid the messy sheets, he kicked away a small pile of clothes next to a wicker hamper, clearing a place by the wall near the window. After placing the mattress on the floor, he went to his bed and grabbed one of his own pillows, beat it gently with the palm of his hand to puff it up, and then tossed it on my cot.
“It’s late. I’m tired. And I have to be up early.” He walked over to the door and locked it from the inside.
I still couldn’t move. I was surrounded by rapists and murderers; I wanted to stand there and keep my eyes open all night even if it meant with needles.
Atticus went over to his bed and fitted his fingers on the waist of his pants. But then just before he slid them down over his hips, presumably his ritual every night, he stopped. His shoulders rose and fell with a heavy breath, and then he zipped and buttoned them up instead.
“Please,” he urged, pointing at my cot, “get some sleep—I can’t if you’re standing there like that.”
I nodded once, though I didn’t think it was enough he saw it, and then I crawled onto the cot. His pillow felt lumpy under the back of my head, but it was soft and smelled faintly of cigars and man, neither an inviting nor an unpleasant smell.
I lay against my cot in the heat, gazing up at the strange shadows moving along the ceiling above me. Why is he being so kind? Why am I not more afraid? But I was no fool, nor would I allow myself to be by falling under the spell of a man who only pretended to be kind—that’s what he was doing, I was sure of it. But I would be the one pretending, the way I had been with Naomi and everyone else.
I rolled onto my side with my back facing the wall, and took in what I could of my new surroundings. There were many things at my disposal I could use as a weapon, even if just something hard to hit him over the head with. And I thought of the door, locked by a single slide-over lock from the inside. Why would Atticus go to sleep knowing I might try escape in the night? Because he was probably one step ahead of me, and to attempt escape with him in the room would be nothing short of stupid.
And so I did nothing.
I was a prisoner without bars.


About the Author:

Jessica Redmerski is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, international bestseller, and award winner, who juggles several different genres. She began self-publishing in 2012, and later with the success of THE EDGE OF NEVER, signed on with Grand Central Publishing/Forever Romance. Her works have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Jessica is a hybrid author who, in addition to working with a traditional publisher, also continues to self-publish. Her popular crime and suspense series, In the Company of Killers, has been optioned for television in the United States by actor and model William Levy, and a film exclusive to the Dominican Republic.

She also writes as J.A. Redmerski.



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3 comments:

Betul E. said...

Love this book so much! Thank you for the giveaway!

Daniel M said...

sounds like a fun one

J.A. Redmerski said...

Thank you for participating in my tour. :-) I really appreciate the support!