Book Review of Vanquished: A Hell Kat Novel, book 1
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Vanquished
A Hell Kat Novel Book One
A Hell Kat Novel Book One
Vivi Anna
Genre:
futuristic with romantic elements
ASIN:
B009Z05Y7U
Number
of pages: 300 pgs
Word
Count: 60K
Cover Artist: Frauke Spanuth, Croco
Designs
Blurb
:
Smart,
sexy, and kick-ass brave, Kat has the fighting skills of a warrior and a
determination few men can match. She’s caught in a post-apocalyptic world where
only the rich live well and Kat is determined to be one of them. To make her
dream come true and reunite with her daughter up North, the fearless treasure
hunter has to get her hands on a lot of money, and that’s going to take every
bit of talent she’s got.
With
her devoted partner Damian by her side, Kat sets out to make one last big score
in a city rumored to be the nesting place of vicious mutated people. The stakes
are high and they get even higher when she discovers her rival, Hades, is after
the same thing. Big, mean, and sexy as hell, he’s just the sort of man Kat
loves to take to tangle with and will if he can help her in her quest.
WARNING: contains scorching hot love scenes
WARNING: contains scorching hot love scenes
About the
Author:
Vivi
Anna is an award winning, Canadian multi-published author in paranormal
romance, urban fantasy, and scifi with close to 19 books and novellas for
Harlequin and others.
Vivi is the current president of CARWA
and also a co-founder of the popular #TVwriterchat on twitter. She’s also an aspiring screen/TV writer.
Contacts:
You
can find her at http://www.vivianna.net,
or procrastinating on twitter at https://twitter.com/authorViviAnna
Author Interview:
I
appreciate your taking the time to visit with us at Books, Books, and
More Books today.
Thank
you for hosting me today!!
1.
What inspired this particular novel/book?
A
title, Hell Kat. That was the basis for
the character and the plot.
2.
What character was your favorite to write for in this story? Why?
I loved
writing all the characters, but I do have a soft spot for the villain
Baruch. I love villains especially ones
that are charming and have no real moral compass. Makes it liberating to write a character like
that. You get to have some fun.
3.
Which was your favorite scene to write?
The
tornado on steroids scene. It was both
full of action and very heart-wrenching. For me and for the characters.
4.
What was the hardest thing about writing this story?
The sex
scenes. I always have trouble with
them. I usually leave them until the
last. I want to get them just right.
5.
What Are Your Writing Quirks & Must-Haves To Write?
Well
lately, I’ve been writing everything long hand with a certain type of ball
point pen. I can’t use any other
pen. It has to be fairly quiet, I can’t
write with noise around me, or other people.
And I used to only be able to write if I had a can of Pepsi beside me,
but I’ve recently gone through some medical problems and can’t drink soda any
more. So I’m in the process of trying to find a replacement. J
6. Do
you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what
do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
Yes, I
do write full time. A typical day for me
would be: get up at 8, work out, get teen up, homeschool work with her until 1,
then do little stuff, then some domestic stuff, then get writing at about 3,
then I will write until 5, make and eat supper with the teen, then back to work
until 8 or 9. Every other Friday though, the teen and I go out and do
something, like a movie, or go to a concert or a museum, or chill and play
video games.
7. As
a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I first
wanted to be a vet, then that evolved into a marine biologist, I LOVE whales. I
used to have a recording of a humpback whale song and I used to listen to it
almost every night. Then when I graduated I took a year off, and ended up NOT
going back to school. Ended up working
in the car industry? Go figure.
8. When
did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I think
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, but didn’t realize I could actually do that
as a career, so it wasn’t until a big change in my life at 29 that I made the
decision to become an author no matter what.
9. Where
do you find your Inspirations?
All
around. Music, movies, TV, news
articles. I can find a germ of an idea
in almost anything.
10. What
do you like to read? Who is your favorite author?
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I read
mostly YA books, paranormal or horror. I
don’t have one favorite author, not sure how anyone can have just one. I love Suzanne Collins, Moira Young, Patrick
Ness, Michael Grand, Simon Holt, Stacia Kane, Kim Harrison, Kelley Armstrong,
Rachel Caine and always Stephen King.
11. Please
let readers know where they can connect with you and purchase your books...
I am
always on twitter. You can find me at https://twitter.com/authorViviAnna
also find me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/authorViviAnna
a person can buy all my books on Amazon, B&N, Apple or Sony. I’m everywhere! J
Thank
you so much for chatting with us today.
Excerpt:
Chapter One
LOWER BC PLAINS,
THE YEAR 2275
Dust devils whirled viciously around
the broken remains of civilization.
Buildings that once stood proud and strong were now only jagged cement
shards protruding from infertile dirt and rock.
The sun was a big glaring ball of light in the sky. Where it had once produced growth and warmth,
it now scorched what was left of the Earth with its brutal rays.
Kat looked up into the blistering
sun and wondered for the second time today what in the hell she was doing out
on the Outer Rim. The fierce, arid wind
whipped at her cloak and tried to tear it from her body. Sand peppered her face like a tiny barrage of
bullets. Pulling her hood forward, she
adjusted her tinted goggles over her eyes and continued to search the rubble
for her treasure. No small feat,
considering her right eye was covered by a black leather eye-patch.
She kicked at
the dirt and crumbled concrete with her steel-toed jackboots. Nothing.
They’d been searching for nearly two hours now. She glanced over at her partner.
“Damian! See anything?”
Damian stood from where he squatted,
raising his head toward Kat, his blue eyes glinting in the sun. He held up his hand, something encased in his
glove.
“Just this cute little dolly.” He waved it at her, grinning mischievously.
The doll, headless and encrusted in
filth, rattled in his hand.
“Quit fucking around. And put on your goggles.” Kat shook her head. The kid knew better. An hour under the unprotected sun produced
cataracts. Cataracts usually led to
blindness. She’d seen it happen more and
more. Her sister had succumbed to
blindness before she had died from the flu.
Damian was lucky he had his hood pulled over his head.
“Yes, momsie.” Damian reached around to his pack and
unzipped a compartment. He came away
with his tinted goggles.
Kat watched him put them on.
“Better?” He flashed a grin.
She shook her head but smiled. He always managed to make her smile. That was one of the reasons she had bartered
for his life two years ago.
He had been an employee of a local
junk dealer named Jones. Whipping boy,
more like. He did errands for Jones,
cleaned up the shop and, once-in-a-while, loaned out to friends. Loaned, as in pimped out for sexual
favors. Men or women, it didn’t matter
to Jones. He was an equal
opportunist. If the price was high
enough, Damian could be bought.
When Kat first saw Damian, he was
hanging from the ceiling by his hands, his wrists shackled in metal claps.
Naked, except for a thin strip of cloth hanging over his crotch, Kat couldn’t
help but notice his long, lean body.
Muscles rippled as he twisted side to side, struggling against his
restraint. When he managed to turn all the way around, Kat could see the long
red welts on his back. She looked down
at his dangling feet and saw the instrument of choice lying on the dirt floor:
a horsewhip.
Two days later, she returned with
more electronics and bartered for Damian’s release. Jones didn’t even question her. It was just another transaction to him. They had made a deal, sealed it with a
handshake, and she had left the store with Damian in tow.
“I think Russell gave us a bum
lead.” Damian’s voice broke into her
thoughts.
She looked over at him as he kicked
an old metal can her way. It landed at
the toe of her boot.
“Yeah, maybe.”
Eyeing the dirt and debris on the
ground, Kat went over what she knew about the area. It had once been home to a school of some
sort. The exact nature of it eluded her,
but she knew that young children had attended.
She also knew that children of old were taught by electronic means. They had access to all sorts of gadgets. It wasn’t clear even if they had a teacher. Maybe they had all been plugged into some
electronic thingy by wires coming out of their heads.
School. Kat had no concept of what that would have
been like. The word and idea were as
foreign to her as clean air and fresh water.
The little bit of reading and writing she had learned was from her
mother before she had died. Everything
else she needed to know, she learned by doing it out on the streets. Not a pleasant education for a young svelte
girl with midnight black hair and big green eyes.
Russell, another
junk dealer, had told her that she could find those old learning devices out
here. At least a couple of steps above
the shit ladder than what Jones had been, Kat didn’t mind doing business with
him. So far, he had been honest with her
in their dealings. He never tried to skimp
on her payment. In fact, he had been
feeding her tips as to where certain treasures were located. A win-win situation for them both, she got
her money and he got his prize. As far
as Kat knew, she was the only hunter that he tolerated.
Something glinted in the sun just
under a rock-pile a few feet away.
Moving to it, she bent down and pushed over one of the stones to brush
away the earth. A small circle of metal,
the size of a coin, lay imbedded in the dirt.
“Bring me the pack.”
Damian rushed over to where she
knelt, placing the bag down at her side.
She opened it up and took out a large, long-handled tool, somewhat like
a paintbrush. With care, she swept at
the area around the shiny metal. More
metal appeared under the dirt. She took
out a small chisel and hammer and chipped around the earth that imprisoned the
artifact. She did it gently and
expertly, careful not to damage her treasure.
“Is that it?” Damian’s velvety voice broke into her
concentration.
“Shut up, will you?” But Kat wasn’t asking.
She dug around the metal and under
it and then set aside the tools and lifted the treasure out of the ground. A flat silver disc with tiny buttons on one
side lay encrusted in the earth. She
rubbed at the metal, clearing away the stubborn clinging sand. The word play was etched under one
button. Kat grinned.
“Is it the music maker?”
“Money maker you mean.”
Laughing, Damian wrapped his arms
around Kat. He picked her up and swung
her around.
“I can just taste the thick juicy
steak I’m going to have. I can almost
see the blood on my plate.”
“Put me down, or you’ll see the
blood on your face.”
Book Review:
So yummy book with lots of post-dystopia,
hot men and hotter sex. The heroine gets
to be bad ass and noble, so a win both ways.
Love the contrast. And the
nuclear fall-out is realistic yet has fantastical elements. My son would love it, if it wasn’t for the
sex (he’s 13 and still things girls are just friends anything remotely sexual
is gross and I’m encouraging that to last as long as possible). But what he would love it how things mutate
and change due to the radiation and the long-term effects. Right now he is trying to figure out how
humans or other things can be genetically fused with other things (people with
chameleon skin or bird DNA etc).
I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 and
a chili pepper rating of 8, seriously hot and explicit.
This
product or book may have been distributed for review; this in no way affects my
opinions or reviews.
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