Hiya peeps! I'm sharing a new release today - a young adult urban fantasy, with quite the synopsis! Check it out, and feel free to peruse the character bios before you enter the giveaway at the end of the post!
Out of the Shadows
~Author: Ashlee Nicole Bye
~Released: April 2017
~Length: 337 Pages
~Genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
From the streets of Melbourne to the bowels of Westminster, the delicate balance between life and death that is so painstakingly maintained by the reapers of The Order of Dark and Light is being tested by the return of an ancient threat. Tensions are rising within the hidden world of The Shadowlands and if this threat is not contained war will be inevitable. And the destruction of the human world is bound to follow in its wake.
Amidst this tension, eighteen year-old Sachi Manning is struggling to cope with the grief and guilt that has plagued her ever since her best friend was murdered six months earlier—that is, until she spots him seemingly alive and well and being held at scythe point by a hooded figure who looks more like a GQ model than the Grim Reaper.
Sachi shouldn’t be able to see through the glamours that shield Shadowlanders from the human world, so the reaper in question wants some answers. And so begins the craziest couple of weeks of Sachi’s life as she is drawn into a world of mysteries, magic, monsters, and mayhem, encountering dragons, faeries, soul-sucking demons, not-so-grim reapers, and even the Horseman of Death.
With a mix of heart, humour and hair-raising action, Out of the Shadows is the adventure of an afterlifetime, perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare and Paula Weston.
Ashlee Nicole Bye is the author of the Shadowlands series, the first book of which--Out of the Shadows--was published in April 2017.
She was born and raised in the always amazing city of Melbourne, Australia. She's a total history geek, a book nerd (of course!), loves watching sport, and is just a little but obsessed with anything fantasy and science fiction related.
She's a doting auntie to three awesome little guys and the mum of a crazy fur baby, a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy named Sadie. She's also vision impaired and writes all her stories with the help of Apple's awesome zoom commands and super-sized fonts.
~ Connect with Ashlee Online ~
Praise for Out of the Shadows
"...it's flawlessly written. Ashlee Nicole Bye really knows how to write a story. She has her own voice, the kind that pulls you in and really makes the world come to life." - Bibliophile Ramblings
"...new authors can either be a smack bang hit or disappointing miss- Ashlee Nicole Bye is definitely a big old hit! Being her first novel, her writing is beyond amazing and I cannot wait to see what else she comes up with! The pacing flows, the writing is descriptive but not overly so, the world is unique and the characters are amazing." - Bookishfix
"I loved Out of the Shadows. Sachi's world is amazingly complex, full of supernatural creatures, competing factions and a complicated process for managing what happens to souls when they die." - Cassandra Page, author of Isla's Inheritance
"This book was fantastic and promises to be a brilliant series. It is a delightful read full of page-turning action and intriguing characters with a hefty dose of humour. A feisty heroine, hot guys, demons, reapers...Out of the Shadows has it all!" - Cheryl, Goodreads reviewer
"...the entire concept of this sic-fi/fantasy world is on point. The description and the writing style make for an enjoyable, hard to put down read. I can't wait to see just what is in store for these characters." - Jennifer Leigh, author of Incognito
"How come no one knows about this book? It would be a best-seller if they did!" - Malissa, Goodreads reviewer
SACHI
Name: Sachi Manning
Date of Birth: December 12, 1998 Melbourne, Australia
Date of Death: Which one?
Height: Fun-sized! Otherwise known as five foot nothing.
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Brown—booorrrriiinnngggg
Occupation: Waitress at the Riverside Tavern—you want the best coffee in Melbourne? That’s where you need to go!
Nicknames: Shorty, Short Stuff etcetera—all very original as you can see.
Best Friend: Gabe. I don’t care if he’s been turned into a soul-sucking monster, he’s still my best friend. I mean, would you abandon your best friend just because his favourite snack is no longer a McDonald’s Big Mac? I didn’t think so!
Favourite Quote: ‘Do or do not, there is no try’ – Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Theme song: Definitely Shake it Out by Florence and the Machine—it’s my ringtone.
*Author’s note: The Riverside Tavern doesn’t actually exist—don’t go there looking for coffee
JULIAN
Name: Julian Hawthorne
Date of Birth: January 24, 1856 Herefordshire, England
Date of Death: October 11, 1876 London, England
Height: 6’3”
Hair Colour: Dark blonde
Eye Colour: Grey
Occupation: Reaper for The Order of Dark and Light, Tracker Tier
Nicknames: Moss calls me Jules—presumably because he knows I don’t like it.
Best Friend: Moss, although he’s more like a brother than a friend.
Favourite Quote: ‘Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall’ – Measure for Measure
Theme song: Well, I prefer classical music but Ashlee assigned me Demons by Imagine Dragons. Moss played it for me and now I feel as though Ashlee doesn’t care for me all that much. Although, perhaps given the amount of physical abuse I was made to endure during the first book that should have been obvious.
GRIFFIN
Name: Thomas Griffin
Date of Birth: July 1, 1857 Manhattan, New York
Date of Death: October 12,1876 Manhattan, New York
Height: 5’10”
Hair Colour: Dark brown
Eye Colour: Green
Occupation: Praetor—the most elite of all The Order’s Reapers. Of course.
Nicknames: Tell me, do I look like the kind of person who would have a nickname?
Best Friend: Any kind of attachment, such as friendship is just another weakness for an enemy to exploit.
Favourite Quote: ‘Even Death has a heart’ – The Book Thief
Theme song: Apparently it is Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional. Read into that what you will.
MIRA
Name: Mirela Pankova
Date of Birth: May 5, 1742 Rural Russia
Date of Death: August 18, 1764 Paris, France
Height: 5’7”
Hair Colour: Chestnut brown
Eye Colour: Brown
Occupation: I suppose you could call me ‘self-employed’
Nicknames: Mira is a nickname of sorts.
Best Friend: I left all my friends behind when I ran from The Order. Everyone except Maxx…
Favourite Quote: ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’ – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Theme song: First by Cold War Kids
MOSS
Name: Moss. Yep, just the one name–like Cher. Or Jesus.
Date of Birth: February 4, 1973 Palm Beach, Florida
Date of Death: February 8, 1994 Lake Tahoe, California
Height: Right on six foot
Hair Colour: Got some kick-ass blonde dreads happenin’
Eye Colour: Blue
Occupation: One of the best Trackers in The Order
Nicknames: Moss is a nickname—I could tell you my real name but then I’d have to kill you. No, seriously—no one’s ever getting that outta me.
Best Friend: Jules
Favourite Quote: ‘You win or you die’ – Game of Thrones
Theme song: It’s All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers, which is totally awesome, just like me.
FLYNN
Name: Flynn Jacobsen
Date of Birth: May 4, 1995 Richmond, Virginia
Date of Death: Well, despite what they’ve said on the TV I’m not actually dead.
Height: A bit under six foot—not even an inch. A centimetre maybe. Let’s just say six foot, hmm?
Hair Colour: It’s kinda a sandy blondy brown
Eye Colour: Blue
Occupation: That’s classified
Nicknames: I can’t imagine any nicknames from my former life would be relevant now
Best Friend: All my friends think I’m dead. Thanks for bringing that up again
Favourite Quote: ‘Yippee ki yay, mother f***er’ – Die Hard. Wait…am I allowed to say f***?
Theme song: Who the hell has their own theme song?…
…O-kay, apparently I do. It’s Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. Is it just me or are all these theme songs ridiculously dramatic?
Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!
