Changed
by Vicki Stiefel
* (The Made Ones Saga, #2)
* Publication date: August 13th 2020
* Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
What if you could be young again? Would it be a dream come true or truly a nightmare?
That’s the startling reality retired circus trapeze artist Breena Balážová awakens to on the world of Eleutia in her own re-engineered younger body. For a woman whose death on Earth was inches away, it seems like a second chance at life. But in this parallel world, where horses fly and animals and humans are symbionts, Bree is intended as breeding stock to balance the plummeting female birthrate.
As she searches for her missing sisters, who were pulled to Eleutia with her, Bree also must survive assassination attempts, the growing threat of war, and her unexpected attraction to the arrogant animal Clan Alpha, Gato, a man with terrible burdens and secrets.
The animal Clans join forces to combat a dark conspiracy that will shake the foundations of their world, even as Bree’s search for her sisters grows more desperate and dangerous.
If Bree has any hope of finding her sisters and fulfilling her own destiny, she and Gato must carry out a perilous deception, their success or failure deciding not only their own fate, but that of all Eleutia.
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Here's an excerpt for your reading pleasure.
Fukkes, lead Alchemic (scientist and unacknowledged controller of Eleutia) always has demands for the Cat Alpha, Gato.
****
Fark! Gato was disgusted after his vidcon with Fukkes as he clicked off the Alchemic feed to his den’s vidscreen. The Made One Kitlyn had almost gotten herself killed by two traitors who illegally control-chipped two of their cats. Now that shoting Alchemic Fukkes said another Made One was in his territory, and Gato was to retrieve her.
Where? He had asked.
In your territory, Fukkes replied.
CatHome is millions of acres!
Find her, was all Fukkes’ said.
With the male-female birth ratios having reached eighty-to-twenty, Eleutia had grown desperate. The Made Ones helped stave off civilization’s demise with their predilection to birth females. Yet this missing one was not the first the Alchemics had lost, but the second. Something was seriously wrong with their scientists. Made Ones always arrived in luxurious surroundings, yet the Alchemics had pulled two Essences from the parallel world of Earth only to lose both—Kitlyn and now this Breena, her sister.
Gato would find the lost Made One. Naturally, he would, though the arrival of each new Made One only increased his feelings of the wrongness of stealing a woman from her home world, leaving the dead flesh, and pulling her Essence to Eleutia. The Alchemics never asked, they took, and even if those taken were near death or dying, few questioned the process. When had Eleutian ethics gone missing? When had his?
He knew, down to the exact minute, and it sickened him.
The Made One Kitlyn could not know that her sister was the “missing” Made One. As if he needed this, with The Challenge to win Kitlyn beginning in a few days. A Challenge he had to win, by orders of the Alchemics.
He’d find the lost Made One and hand her off to her makers, to Fukkes. Two Made Ones at CatHome were one too many.
Meet the Author
Vicki’s fantasy romantic suspense series, The Afterworld Chronicles, launched with Chest of Bone, followed by Chest of Stone and Chest of Time. She is currently pounding the keys on her series’ fourth novel, Chest of Fire, and the first in a new series, The Made Ones Sags: Altered.
Her mystery/thrillers include Body Parts, The Dead Stone, The Bone Man, and The Grief Shop, a Daphne du Maurier prize winner. All feature homicide counselor Tally Whyte. All are available as ebooks.
She co-wrote (with Lisa Souza) and photographed the 10 Secrets of the LaidBack Knitters. With her late husband, William G. Tapply, she ran The Writers Studio workshops in creative fiction.
Vicki taught fiction writing and modern media writing at Clark University.
She loves both a well-crafted sentence and unlocking the doors of a student’s imagination.
She grew up in professional theater and planned to become an actress, with a bent for song and dance. She didn’t. Instead, she’s been a professional photographer, a high-school teacher, a hamburger slinger, a scuba-shop manager, and an editor.
She’s Blake’s and Ben’s mom, her favorite role of all.
Her passions include scuba diving and fly fishing and knitting; photography and movies; vinho verde and bourbon (not together!); Maine lobster and chocolate (also not together!); and musical comedy scores, which she sing in the shower, unfortunately not an Equity venue; and a fascination with people in all walks of life.
Thanks so much for stopping by today. Would it be a dream come true for you if you could be young again or would you not want to go through all the issues of growing up again?
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Fantasy - very cool.
ReplyDeleteOne would be young but with all the wisdom of age and experience. Although it would be difficult not to look at the other young people around you and think of them as children...
That's a really interesting premise - what you might do if you could be young again. I think we all think about it in some way or another, and it's interesting to explore it this way. Thanks for sharing, Mason.
ReplyDeleteOoo - this sounds like a great read!
ReplyDeleteBeing young again and starting over would be exciting and strange. I would like to travel back to the same place and era though and relive it all over again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting today, Mason!
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting. Thanks for the spotlight
ReplyDeleteBrilliant cover! That light draws your eye t it.
ReplyDelete