L.K.
Below
Genre: Dystopian Romance
Publisher: Kensington Publishing
Corp.,
Lyrical Press Imprint
Date of Publication: November 17,
2014
ISBN: 9781616506254
ASIN: B00NJ0VL6A
Number of pages: 72
Word Count: 33,718
Cover Artist: Renee Rocco
Book Description:
Two lives. Two realities. But
only one truth.
The Senator reigns all-powerful
in a manifested picture-perfect world. No worries. No wars. Only the unspoken
threat of oblivion if you step a toe out of line. On the other side of the
divide, the rebels face a debilitating war against an invulnerable robotic
army. Every day is a struggle to earn back their freedoms. Freedom to feel.
Freedom of speech. Freedom of thought.
Sergeant Grant Baker is pivotal
to the war effort. But ever since his wife’s abduction, he’s been walking
around in as much of a daze as the Senator’s brainwashed citizens. Then Eva
reappears—without memories of him or their son. And he’s willing to do anything
to keep her. Even if it means jeopardizing the war.
Eva doesn’t know which side to
believe. Her predictable life as a single nurse, or the man claiming to be her
husband. All she knows is she needs to discover how to end the war, quickly. If
she doesn’t choose sides soon, she may lose the man—and the life—she never knew
she wanted.
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Excerpt
Acting as
vanguard for the injured squad, Grant turned a corner and froze. A hulky man
carried a limp woman over his shoulder.
Grant
automatically reached for his gun. Even if they weren’t yet across the divide,
he couldn’t stand idle as a man accosted a woman. Or worse. He aimed the rifle
at the criminal. “Set her down nice and easy.”
The man froze.
He glanced over one meaty shoulder, his unshaven mouth set in a scowl.
“Set her down,
or I’ll shoot.”
A gold tooth
flashed as the criminal grinned. He hurled the small woman at Grant and dashed
for the slim space between two buildings.
Grant moved
without thinking. His gun clattered to the ground as he lunged forward to catch
the woman before she split her head open on the sidewalk. He grunted as he
caught her with her weight against his bruised forearms. He shot a flickering
glance her way. A riot of brown curls obscured her face. He set her gently on
the ground.
He dashed for
the opening the shady figure had disappeared into, but saw no sight of the man.
The delinquent was long gone.
Ashland panted
as he jogged to Grant’s side. “What happened?”
If Grant never
heard that question again, it would be too soon. He shook his head wearily.
“Mugging, I guess.”
“Mugging, I guess.”
“They still have
those here? I thought the Senator brought an end to violence.” Ashland drew
sarcastic quotes in the air as he spoke.
Grant didn’t
bother to answer. He turned to the woman and where his squad was now gathered.
A horrified private glanced from the woman to Grant and back again. “What do
you want us to do with her…sir?”
If they left
her, the Senator’s people might find her and stick her back in the pen with the
rest of their brainwashed sheep. Then again, that same goon might double back
to continue what he started.
He crossed to
the woman and crouched to lift her into his arms. Her tangled hair fell away
from her face. He nearly dropped her. “Eva?”
Frantically, he
pressed his ear to her chest. Her breathing was shallow, but her heartbeat
steady and strong. He clutched her tighter. He couldn’t believe it.
He’d found his
wife.
The Power of Women in Romance
We readers of romance know a
secret that readers of other genres are only beginning to figure out. We know
the true power of women. Think about it. Girls portrayed in fiction for young
readers fall apart when rejected by their love interest. Mystery all too often
victimizes women or paints them as helpless. Fantasy and science fiction use
women as background noise, caricatures and stereotypes rather than people. This
is changing, as woman-empowered literature is invading the mainstream. These
other genres are learning what we romance readers already know:
Women are powerful.
Women in romance fiction take
charge of their lives. They take risks. They put their lives -- and their
hearts -- in danger. They are assertive, confident women…more or less the kind
of woman I aspire to be. The kind of woman who pursues something she wants, be
it a man, a job promotion, or even a much-needed day of relaxation.
That’s not to say the women we
like to read about don’t have insecurities. Take, for example, my heroine from Beauty
in His Bed, Amy, who is self-conscious about her weight. Or my heroine from Stone
Cold Kiss, Kelsey, who would rather fly halfway across the world than give a
public speech to earn the promotion she deserves. Both of these women, through
the course of their stories, overcome those insecurities. They learn to embrace
who they are, and that they have something important to say. They learn to
trust in themselves.
The heroine of my newest book, Hellish
Haven, is different from the other heroines I’ve written. Eva is thrust into a
world she doesn’t understand, and struggles to reconcile what she knows with
what other people (notably the man who proclaims himself her husband) present
as history. But even while confused, she is no less powerful than other women
in romance. In fact, I might say she is even stronger. Instead of accepting
what she is told as fact, she digs deeper. She wants to find the truth. And
when that truth endangers her young son, she is willing to put everything on
the line in order to defy the government threatening to turn her son into a
homeless orphan. She knows she must survive in order to reunite with her son.
So, simply put, she does.
When I read a romance novel, I
find myself feeling like I can be superwoman, just like those heroines. They
overcome obstacles we also face as women. Obstacles that sometimes tempt us to
give up. Their example in the books I read inspires me to keep going. Romance
novel heroines might be sassy, they might be reckless or insecure, but they
always prove themselves to be the equal of any man, including the man who earns
a place in their lives and in their hearts. The women portrayed in romance
novels aren’t secondary characters, thrust out of the spotlight. They are women
who refuse to be taken for granted, who give as good as they get, and achieve
the goals they set their sights on. They are women like you and I, women who
teach us that assertiveness and perseverance will win the day. Like the
heroines we love and admire, we can do anything we set our minds to.
Why? Because women are powerful.
L.K. Below wrote Hellish Haven to
bring her love of Orwell’s classic 1984 into the modern day…or near future, as
it turns out.
She reads as obsessively as she
writes and likes to Tweet about both at @LBelowtheauthor.
November 20
Twitter Party
1-2pm
EST #hellishhaven
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Thank you for having me here today!
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