Beautiful Experiment
Book One of Island of Defiance Trilogy
By January Valentine
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Pages: 330
Isbn: 978-0615828596
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Blurb
Six unruly teens are abducted on their way to a juvie home. Dumped onto an uncharted island. Could things get any worse? Hell, yeah. Hostility and envy run rampant. Throw in some alphas, divas and demons, and what do you have? Beautiful Experiment. Book One of the Island of Defiance Trilogy.
The teens are referred to as waywards, informed their parents have sent them to the island for rehabilitation. While they struggle with their predicament, and each other, they come to a shocking realization ... for once in their lives, they have to follow rules.
Brook has lived on the Island of Defiance his entire life, with no choice but to believe everything he has been taught. As he approaches eighteen, the secret of who he is, and the ultimate fate he must face, begins to unfold. To complicate matters even more, Brook grows to experience something he has never known ... love.
How do you convince a stranger a dreadful mistake has been made? Gabriella Winslow is an honors student who has always helped others, but now has to fight for herself. Something unimaginable wants her as much as the beautiful island boy with whom she is falling in love.
Beautiful Experiment is Book One of The Island Of Defiance Trilogy (paranormal - fantasy - romance - for teens and adults) Mature 17+ for adult language, drugs & alcohol, mild sexual situations & violence.
Excerpt
The surging tide is tempting. I'm concentrating on the foam that is quickly erasing my footsteps. It's not the caw of gulls that alerts me, because the winged creatures have vanished. In their place, the air is filled with my name. I lift my face to something startling, and my heart begins to pound.
The sky has burst into flame. Red and gold, it's raging. The sun is the sky. Scorching. Shooting stars, like flaming spears, are dropping all around me. If I don't shut my eyes, I'll be blinded. If I do, I'll be nothing but a solid target. The wind wails like a mother who has lost her child. "When the third moon falls, the beast will devour the sky."
As suddenly as it started, it ends. I'm standing beside Father, totally disoriented. Am I standing? I look down at my feet, because I feel legless. I'm floating. Struggling to regain control of my mind, my body, the shock.
I grip the clipboard and pen with my knees, so that I can draw my palms across my twitching eyelids, astonished that I'm actually still holding onto anything.
"Did you see that flash? Did you hear that creepy voice?" I'm breathless, massaging my pounding temples with burning fingertips. "My head feels like it's about to split open." I rattle each eardrum with a pinky, then plug my ears to listen intently. Was the urgent whisper that turned me to stone inside my head? Phantom sounds? I've never experienced this kind of phenomenon before. "My eyes pain."
Father regards me with a mix of surprise and concern. "You have a migraine?"
"Migraine?" I scoff. What the fuck, loops through my head. I'm freaked out, left with a strange feeling this is not going to be like other days. I try to shake it off, like I shake him off.
The sky is now clear and so perfectly blue, it looks as though it's been painted by deliberate strokes of an artist's brush. It is a seamless dome of beauty. If we were not receiving today, I might be lying on the pristine beach, permitting my thoughts to wander far beyond my own boundaries. Maybe I'd be lounging on my bluff, or climb my watchtower tree, burrow into its welcoming arms where I collect my years, watch over all that is mine.
"Feeling better?" His voice is buffered, but coarse enough to jar me from thought.
Skimming Father, my gaze snaps back to the waves, the skiff that is almost upon us. "I'm fine." I don't mention how bad my body aches, and feels like it's being torn apart. I stretch my arms, then my neck, trying to pin down what I did to cause these muscle spasms. The bomb that's about to explode in my head.
When the ocean is calm it's translucent, sparkling with sunlight as though it's coated with billions of precious gemstones. Today it's not much more than rolling waves and seaweed.
"I've never seen it this rough." Between wind and thunderous surf, I have to face him or my voice will be useless.
"Storms." His reply is blunt.
"You wouldn't know it by the sky." I bring my gaze to a more pleasant sight.
"There's one brewing out there. You'd feel it if you had my knees." Staring gravely at the ocean, his body is rigid.
"Are you in pain?"
"Nothing I can't handle."
"Let's hope the weather holds off until we've settled them."
"Rain or shine, we've got our work cut out for us, Brook."
"As always." My stomach rises to my throat as I watch their approach. I wonder if I'll ever get used to this way of life. Do I want to? Of course not. There are so many other things I'd rather be doing right now, like hopping onto that boat, and for starters, checking out the other side of this island.
Beyond the boat, a floating veil of mist rolls in like billows of steam from a tremendous boiling kettle. I am no longer able to see the large vessel from which the skiff was launched.
The atmosphere of the island is as such, inviting one moment, rejecting the next. Father calls it a gentle beast, with characteristics and charm like the women he has known. My glance shifts, falling upon the shoreline curve where a jetty, composed of rocks chiseled and stacked by nature, projects like the nose of a dolphin and the forest begins. This is as far as my eyes pan.
"Thank you for cutting your hair." For a moment his eyes wash over me, then his gaze refocuses on the others who are struggling against the relentless current. "I know it pains you."
"Don't you mean shearing?" I huff. "I don't understand why I can't grow it long. I have awesome hair, or so I've been told." I smirk.
He shoots me a phony glare. "You've been told, huh? No cozying up to any of these girls. I don't want another batch begging to stay."
"I'm not a womanizer. Just good company." I shrug.
"No nighttime jaunts to the lagoon, either. And I mean it this time." Now his glare is authentic.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Stay out of the lagoon. Out of the forest. Out of the lockers. Pretend to like my boring life."
He almost looks sympathetic. "One of these days you'll understand."
"What? Why I can't swim at night?"
"You're impossible sometimes, and the reason I ask you to cut your hair is to set a good example."
I let out a tired sigh. My hand runs over my smooth scalp, the shadow of bristles so short and sun-bleached, my reflection in a mirror looks hairless. If not for my deeply tanned skin, I would look anemic.
"Seems a waste. Six or more inches of attractive dark hair again and again swept into the trash." My jaw sets as our discussion continues. "I like my hair long. It makes me feel ..."
"Like a rock star?" He chuckles, scrubbing my head playfully. "In so many ways you remain such a child, yet you desire to be worldly. Do you admire them?"
"Not as you might be thinking." My eyes lower, landing upon my anxious toes digging through a mound of sand.
I swing my gaze across the vast horizon which is now shaded with purples and blues, fantasizing about the places beyond. The order of the world not contained within this globe of existence called Defiance Island. I know the temperament of the waywards, but wonder what others are like. Are they beautiful? Intelligent? Kindhearted? Do they possess the nature that can make a man want to tear another to shreds?
My Review:
I received a free copy of the book from the author for my honest opinion.
Brook has lived on Defiance Island all of his life helping his Father with the waywards. Every year a different set of teenagers are sent to the island for rehabilitation. But this year his Father has put him in charge of the new group of kids. Brook is almost eighteen years old and he has never been off the island. He has never been to the other side of the island either. Brook has no idea what is beyond the wall. All he knows is what his Father has told him and now as Brook is almost an adult he is starting to question his life and who he really is. Is his Father being honest with him? Brook has no idea and no way of finding out. He tries to talk to his Father but all his Father will tell him is that he will have to figure out all the secrets of the island and who he is all on his own. He tells him that everything will be revealed to him in its due time.
This year's group of waywards is are different than any of the other teenagers that have been on the island before. They all claim that they shouldn't be there that they were all on their way to a juvie home. None of the waywards can remember how they got on the island. Brook starts to question everything that he has been taught by his Father after hearing all of the waywards discussing their situation and how they came to be on the island. Some of the waywards are starting to get their memory back little by little.
Brook meets Gabriella one of the waywards whom he starts to experience feelings for; feelings that he has never felt before. Brook is experiencing love for the first time is his life and when it hits him, it hits hard. Gabriella is a good person and student with all A's and tells Brook that she is there by mistake. Gabriella is also having feelings for Brook as well. They start spending as much time together as possible. Gabriella is finding out who and what Brook is almost at the same rate as he is. But Gabriella is not afraid of Brook she knows that he would never hurt her in anyway. The island is changing or is it? Something is after Brook, Gabriella and .the rest of the group that needs them to survive. Can Brook save them all before it is too late? Or will the island take them all?
Beautiful Experiment is one experience you won't want to miss. I felt as if I got to know all of the characters and I really and truly loved them all one and the same. Although you do get a lot of info on whom Brook is you are still left with a lot of unanswered questions. Like what is Brook, who is he? What was is it really like growing up an island and never leaving it? What is on the other side of the island? What do they do on the other side of the island?
If you like a good mystery with a lot of twist and turns that will leave you hanging then Beautiful Experiment is the book for you. I can't wait to read the next book of Island of Defiance Trilogy.
About The Author:
January Valentine is the pen name of Victoria Valentine, New York writer and indie book publisher. See Victoria's Author page: amazon.com/author/victoriavalentine
I chose to use a pen name because Love Dreams was originally going to be a red hot erotic story, and I wanted to separate Victoria, who writes contemporary fiction and children's storybooks. Since my birth month is January, January Valentine seemed an appropriate pseudonym.
I also host a blogtalkradio show: Away With Words, every Wednesday evening at 7 PM EST where my co host Jill and I interview other writers and poets and discuss writing in general: blogtalkradio
I just released my first paranormal romance, Beautiful Experiment, book one of Island of Defiance Trilogy. I'm so not good about talking about myself, but I'll give it a shot.
I publish books for other authors through Water Forest Press, which I founded some years ago. In the past, I have written poetry and song lyrics, but now I focus on fiction. I've created multiple websites and blogs that I don't have time to manage very well.
My desire to be in a rock band brought me into a recording studio ... where my lyrics sprang to life with the help of a local alternative rock band. Together, we produced a CD.
I enjoy designing book covers and youtube videos. In summer, I enjoy hiking and swimming. I love all kinds of music. Watching horror flicks and Tyler Perry movies are my escape from reality.
I have an addiction to engraved pens that I buy to accompany each of my books. My office is filled with paperbacks and swag.
My sites and pages.
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A bit about my books:
Love Dreams (Romantic Drama) is a story about a handicapped young man who secretly falls hopelessly (and helplessly) in love with a young woman who hides herself, and her past, beneath a grim but beautiful exterior. This gentle romance builds into a powerful "reality".
Sweet Dreams is a novel about a serial killer who is on the loose, working his way up the east coast. Readers get a glimpse into the killer's mind, as well as the hero's.
Head Over Wheels, (New Adult Romance/Drama) focuses on Jewelia, whose lifelong dream of becoming part of the NYPD is derailed by hot medical student, Indigo.
Beautiful Experiment details above.
All book covers, videos, information and buy links can be found on my website.
I also have an online store.
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Giveaway:
One signed copy of Beautiful Experiment and Swag (USA)
Two Kindle versions USA & Other
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