NBtM Virtual Tour and Giveaway: Daughter of Belial by Jennifer Juvenelle

Welcome to my stop on the NBtM virtual tour for Daughter of Belial by Jennifer Juvenelle. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt from the book as well as an interesting guest post from the author about which character was the most fun to write. There's also the tour wide giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to visit the other stops on the tour for more content. Enjoy!

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Title: Daughter of Belial

Author: Jennifer Juvenelle

Publisher: By the Pure Sea Books

Publication Date: October 10th 2022

Print Length: 544 pages

Genre: Psychological Thriller

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Some Family Trees Should Be Burned. . .

Greer Girls are special. Greer Girls are rare. Greer Girls are central to the secret Order of Belial.

Sophie Greer knows none of this. All she knows is that her now ex-boyfriend cheated on her, she’s alone working in Paris, and her mysterious billionaire boss, Edward Hughes, is way too interested in her life.

But when Sophie is kidnapped in Moscow while on a business trip, she’s plunged into the dark underbelly of the global elite and a sinister secret society with deep ties to her family; ties that lead to revelations darker than anything Sophie could have imagined.

Betrayed by the man who raised her, and targeted by the illustrious Hughes family, only one thing is certain—family history can be deadly. If Sophie is to survive, she must decide who to trust and what to believe, or risk being crushed beneath the weight of the all-powerful secret Order of Belial.

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EXCERPT:

The front door slams behind me with a clamorous thud. I jump, frightened. Marcella Belleville’s ominous laughter sails through the air while the cloaked beings descend the steps to encircle me. Turning to and fro, I try to slip through an opening in their ranks, but they close in so that not even a hairpin could find a fissure for escape. A low chanting starts up, like a rumble from some vile private inferno.

Testor ad sanguinem. Respondendum est in sanguinem.

The primal beating of the drums grows louder, drowning out Marcella’s maniacal laughter. Blood rushes to my face. I hear a whirring in my ears.

Testor ad sanguinem. Respondendum est in sanguinem.

All I see is darkness. My heartbeat keeps time with the pulsing of the drums.

Suddenly I feel another presence. Ephemeral. Sinister. It also laughs. Its guttural wails blend with Marcella’s tinny falsetto as it, too, encircles and envelops me. No one is touching me. I know that. And yet…

It feels like hundreds of hands are caressing my body. Sliding up and down the sides of my torso. Untucking my shirt. Unfastening my trousers. Cupping my breasts. Pulling my hair. Wrapping icy, tentacled fingers around my throat…

It feels awful—delectable—disgusting—delicious, all at once. I hate it. The chanting grows louder.

Testor ad sanguinem. Respondendum est in sanguinem.

Testor ad sanguinem. Respondendum est in sanguinem.

“Stop!” I cry out, finding my voice at last. “Please. Stop!”

But it’s too late. Wispy black smoke fills my nostrils. My mouth freezes into a silent scream as the smoke fills every orifice in my head—eyes, nose, ears, mouth. The sound of babies crying mixed with horrific images of children laughing and playing in blood assault my senses. I know it can’t be real, must be a trick of some sort, an illusion, but I’m powerless to stop it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

JENNIFER JUVENELLE is a Native American/French author born in Hollywood, raised in Detroit, and fashioned in France.

Formerly an actress and model, Jennifer now splits her time between crafting psychological thrillers and the magic of motherhood.

A survivor of childhood sexual abuse, Jennifer made healing from trauma a priority when her life became untenable. Daughter of Belial is the unexpected product of her journey from trauma to triumph.

An eager explorer, she currently lives in a remote Mexican seaside-jungle village with her debonair Aussie author husband and their young son.

Website * Amazon *

Facebook * Goodreads * Instagram

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GUEST POST:

The Daughter of Belial Character
I Had the Most Fun Writing
by Jennifer Juvenelle

I loved writing all of the characters in Daughter of Belial. Even the arch villain was enjoyable to write in that I relished the challenge of writing from a completely different perspective than my own. The protagonist, Sophie Greer, is the character I resemble the most. I loosely based her off a younger version of myself, and then let her take the lead and become her own woman.

But I would have to say that the character I had the most fun writing was Wyatt McGregor, the half-brother of Sophie’s love interest, Edward Hughes.

Edward is this really suave British billionaire. Think Christian Gray from Fifty Shades. He’s the heir to the Hughes dynasty and fortune, and Wyatt is the bastard son of a fallen member from their secret society, “charitably taken in” by Edward’s father when he married his mother.

Whereas Edward is polished and well-mannered, Wyatt is this rough, tough, and rugged type of guy. Edward is a posh Brit with an Eastern European gravitas, while Wyatt swings more Scottish Highlander with overtones of wild country American, because he spent his formative years in a U.S. boarding school.

Wyatt is the rebel, the renegade, the stick of dynamite that has the potential to blow up Edward’s plans. He’s the thorn in Edward’s side that won’t go away. He is the kind of character you get to have fun with because he says the one thing that’s on everyone’s mind but no one is saying. He’s sexy in a “you might be a dangerous rogue” sort of way.

As an intuitive writer, I go where the story leads me without much plotting beforehand. So I had no idea Wyatt existed until he first appeared toward the middle of Part I. As I write, the storyline tends to come in pictures like in a movie, and my job is to describe what I’m seeing as eloquently and enticingly as possible so that those reading it will be immersed in the vision as well.

When I first saw Wyatt, he reminded me of my ex-boyfriend’s cousin who’d been in the military and was heavily decorated with medals, a purple star among them. My ex’s cousin had a lot of swagger. He was very good looking in a rough-around-the-edges kind of way, with that spark of danger about him—lots of tattoos, long hair, huge confidence. He was troubled, too. The ghosts of the past haunted him until his untimely demise within a year or two of my starting the book.

I haven’t thought of it this way until now, but it’s almost like a piece of this young man came back to life in the form of the brash and brazen Wyatt McGregor. Like the man who inspired him, Wyatt is a paradox. We don’t know if he's friend or foe. Even after we think we’ve figured him out, Wyatt remains a wild card. I like to think if the two men got together, they’d sit down to a stiff whisky or three and a good laugh on me.

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GIVEAWAY:

Jennifer Juvenelle will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter. Enjoy!

(All the Ups and Downs is not responsible for this giveaway, its entries, or the prize. Goddess Fish Promotions and the author assume all responsibility over this giveaway.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway