Book Blitz and Giveaway: The Shadows We Make by Jo Allen Ash

Title: The Shadows We Make
Author: Jo Allen Ash

Publisher: Potter Street Books
Publication Date: July 14th 2022

Print Length: 358 pages

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

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Grace Irese, sixteen-year-old desert warrior with a chip on her shoulder, is gifted in ways she does not yet realize. Duncan Oaks, teenage member of the Grif-Drif Con-Artist Guild, is a boy who has made one bad choice too many. When they are both remanded to an off-world juvenile facility with lifetime sentences. Grace and Duncan plot an escape into the horrific environment beyond in order to save Duncan’s sister from Grace’s war-torn world. Will they and their unlikely companions survive unscathed or find themselves forever altered?

Set in dark alien words and told in the first person with three separate voices, The Shadows We Make is a young adult tale filled with bravery, magic and the binding power of friendship.

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EXCERPT:

Duncan

I liked the library. It seemed the one thing that might save me. I could pick and prod and poke through firewalls, mining for information. Finding it provided satisfaction. Imagining how to use the information exercised a brain threatening to dry up and blow away. Or explode. Neither option appealed.

I stared at the monitor, at my latest info acquisition. The Ser Irese were an impressive bunch. She’d been right, Grace had. Of course, she had. The culture was hers. Warriors protected, they didn’t avenge. Yet, I still expected she might kill me. I had no plans to stop her when she did. Instead, she avoided me, prolonging the suspense. Sometimes I felt tempted to provoke her.

Get it over with. But I didn’t really want to do that. I really, really didn’t want to do that. All this electron diving had a purpose. Resa was still out there somewhere. Unprotected. My fault. Mine and that deekta, Stone Tiran. Deekta was a desert word. Grace had used it. I’d looked it up. It fit.

She’d been talking about me, though, when she’d said it. I mentally shrugged. She could call me what she liked. I deserved it.

My fingers started a drumbeat on the metal table, a pattern on its own, unconscious rhythm vibrating into the air. Years ago I’d wanted to be a musician. I’d entered the world with a beat in my head. Life had chosen a different path for me. I had chosen a different path for me. Because, yeah, I could have said no.

I thought about Gran dealing cards at her table in the casino on Riley. I couldn’t lay the blame on her for setting my feet on those paving stones. She hadn’t pushed me in that direction. I’d walked right onto them on my own, eyes open. The currency called me, the good cash flow.

It was a way to make a decent living, sometimes glamorous, or at least exciting. I’d unearthed the catch in every job and, so sure I could beat it, I always did—until I didn’t.

My fingers stopped drumming. I flicked off the computer output, staring at my reflection in the blank, flat glass. I didn’t look heartless. But apparently, I was.

Shoving back the chair, I stood. I turned toward the door. A silhouette partially blocked the light from the corridor. Grace. I hadn’t realized I’d spoken her name aloud until she swore.

“Gods, you have a mouth on you,” I said. “But I like that one. I’ll make a note of it.”

She was on me in an instant, stopping at arm’s length, mine and hers. “Get out.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to joke.”

“Get out,” she repeated and stepped back to clear the way for me to leave.

“I was here first.”

“You’re not two years old, Duncan Oaks. And baiting me is not wise.”

“I know that.”

“Then why do it?”

To convince myself I’m not dead inside.

I didn’t say this to her. Where would it leave me, admitting such a truth?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I have been traditionally and self-published with books released by the former Warner Books, Kensington, and indie companies under my own name and pseudonyms. Once and Always (written as Alyssa Deane), was translated and sold in various European countries. I self-publish the Connor Falls Christmas series as Robin Maderich, but I have always wanted to return to writing for the young adult reader. Perhaps this is why The Shadows We Make, penned as Jo Allen Ash and my debut as a YA author, is the accomplishment about which I am most excited.

The Shadows We Make is a young adult tale of dystopian sci-fi/fantasy filled with complex and compelling characters. In The Shadows We Make, I burrow down into dark themes such as addiction, hopelessness and loss, countered by the strength and unexpected sweetness of forged friendships. The next book in the planned series, The Thrice-Gifted Child, continues where The Shadows We Make leaves off, with the same cast of characters and a few more besides.

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GIVEAWAY:
Win a $20 Amazon gift card!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries or the tour. Xpresso Book Tours assumes all responsibility over this giveaway.)

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