Review Tour: Alliance by Aubrie Dionne

Hey guys! Welcome to today's blog tour! Sorry its late, it really slipped my mind:(

Alliance

First Published: 31 Jan 2014
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing
Pages: 236

Synopsis:
“Saving him meant saving her colony…”

Lyra Bryan has been saving people her whole life from a chick in the ventilation pipes to her mentally ill brother when his mind drifts back to Old Earth. She meets her match when she finds a gorgeous alien man aboard the arachnid ship. Captured after a failed attempt to save his people, his spirit is broken, craving only vengeance. To save her colony, Lyra must save his body and soul.

Lyra’s lifemate, Tauren, is jealous of her obsession with the alien man and will do anything in his power to break them apart. While they travel to the arachnid’s home world to defeat the mother brain once and for all, they must set aside their differences and work as a team. But, can Tauren be trusted?

Check it out at Goodreads

Aubrie Dionne

Aubrie Dionne is an author and flutist in New England. Her books have received the highest ratings from Romance Times Magazine, as well as Night Owl Reviews and Two Lips Reviews. She has guest blogged on the USA Today Happily Ever After Blog and the Dear Teen Me blog and signed books at the Boston Book Festival, Barnes and Noble, and the Romance Writers of America conference. Her writings have appeared in numerous publications including Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Inkspell Publishing, Astraea Press, Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she's not writing, Aubrie teaches flute and plays in orchestras.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

And now, check out my review of this book!

Finished Date: 16 Jan 2014

My Rating

My Review

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed are mine alone.

Alliance was a rather good book. I did enjoy it. I really liked the whole Paradise Reclaimed series actually, there is a real sense of continuity and each book literally picks up where the last left off. This made for a good read as it gave me better insight into the world that was Paradise 21.

In this book, we are reintroduced to Lara. Remember her? She was present in Colonization, albeit a really tiny part and again in Reconnaissance, where she had a slightly bigger part, yet not a major one. The thing is, what we saw of her in these 2 books made me feel like she was a bimbo, and simply put, not a very likeable character.

Yet, what happened in this book is that the character development was really good. Aubrie Dionne seems to do this really well. From a not very likeable character, she develops the character into someone worth respecting and someone you begin to admire. She did that with Andromeda in Colonization, who really matured over the book. She did that with Nova in Reconnaissance, who managed to put aside her prejudice to save the colony. She did that again here, with Lara, where we see Lara grow into a strong girl who is willing to fight for what she wants.

The plot of the book was really good too and provided an excellent continuation of the series. The action was exciting and kept me turning pages. It was interspersed with rather good dialogue which made for a very engaging story.

All in all, I really did like this whole series. It was really well structured and I liked seeing how everyone had an important part to play, and that a problem wasn’t just so easily solved after all. Paradise Reclaimed is a really good series, and I hope that there will be more books! After all, we are told at the end of Haven 6 that eventually they left Paradise 21 for Paradise 18. So yep, after it seems like the threats have been neutralized here, I’m curious to know what other things can play out in the future!

So yep, that's about it for today! Thanks for visiting!

Blog Tour Colonization by Aubrie Dionne - Guest Post + Excerpt + Giveaway

Colonization

Andromeda has spent all seventeen years of her life aboard a deep space transport vessel destined for a paradise planet. Her safe cocoon is about to break open as Paradise 21 looms only one month away, and she must take the aptitude tests to determine her role on the new world and her computer assigned lifemate. As a great-granddaughter of the Commander of the ship, she wants to live up to her family name. But, her forbidden love for her childhood friend, Sirius, distracts her and she fails the tests. The results place her in a menial role in the new colony and pair her with Corvus, “the oaf”.

But when Andromeda steps foot on Paradise 21, her predestined future is the least of her worries. Alien ghosts from a failed colonization warn her of a deadly threat to her colony. And when Sirius’s ship crashes on the far ridge in an attempt to investigate, she journeys to rescue him with Corvus.

Andromeda now must convince the authorities of the imminent danger to keep her protect her new home. What she didn’t expect was a battle of her own feelings for Sirius and Corvus.

Can she save the colony and discover her true love?

Buy it from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance Ebooks

Aubrie Dionne

Aubrie grew up watching the original Star Wars movies over and over until she could recite and reenact every single scene in her backyard. She also loved The Goonies, Star Trek the Next Generation--favorite character was Data by far--and Indiana Jones. But, her all time favorite movie was The Last Unicorn. She still wonders why the unicorn decided to change back to a unicorn in the end.

Aubrie wrote in her junior high yearbook that she wanted to be “a concert flutist” when she grew up. She majored in flute performance at the University of New Hampshire on a full scholarship, then secured two teaching jobs at a University and a local community music school. While playing in orchestras and teaching, stories popped into her head, and she used them to make the music come alive for her flute students. Her students said they were so good, she had to write them down! Maybe they were right, who knows? Two careers seems to keep her busy. For now.

She is represented by Dawn Dowdle and writes sweet and adventurous fantasy, science fiction, and contemporary romance.

Website | Blog | Twitter | Goodreads

Time for a short excerpt!

We were the only people in the corridor, and the air thickened with static friction. He dropped his head next to mine, our foreheads almost touching. “What a great adventure, Annie.”

He glanced down at my quivering lips. Was he going to kiss me?

We hung suspended for a small eternity. So many emotions swirled through me at once, I couldn’t process all of them: excitement, elation, fear. My conscience murmured one word. Forbidden.

I pulled my head back before it was too late, feeling my heart tear. “You could have gotten us into trouble.”

He took a deep breath, as if he tried to repress his own feelings as well. “Just wait until we reach Paradise 21.”

Our destiny slapped me in the face. The truth was a wall between us. Our assignments loomed in our future and soon there’d be no more adventures. Not for the two of us, anyway. A hundred teens made up our graduating class and the possibility we’d be matched together was slim, especially after they computed my miserable test results.

And now, let's welcome Aubrie to the blog!

Why I wrote about benevolent aliens instead of crazy/scary/evil ones.

Crazy/scary/evil aliens are so much more fun to write about, aren’t they? They could take over people’s bodies, exterminate entire populations, read their minds, suck their brains….ah all the options….it makes me excited just thinking about it. So, why did I opt for the world peace version in Colonization?
Well, these aliens first appear in Paradise 21, the first book in my new adult space opera series. They’re meant to contrast with humans, who have made Earth unlivable through wars, overpopulation, greed, and over extending their resources. These aliens had created a perfect society of peace, understanding, and living in harmony. They outlasted their own sun, while humans destroyed the Earth long before its time should have been up. That’s the message in Paradise 21, and you finally get a glimpse of who they were in Colonization: Paradise Reclaimed.
Andromeda, the main character, gets to meet one of them. Not alive, of course, because their population has been wiped out by something threatening her own colony, but readers of Paradise 21 will get a further glimpse into the aliens’ world and how they’d interact with humans. The threat on Paradise 21 isn’t crazy/scary/evil aliens, it’s something much more subtle and insidious.
See for yourself in Colonization: Paradise Reclaimed.

Enter the giveaway here! The prizes are 2 custom “Colonization” Key Chains. Contest is tour-wide, open internationally and ends Feb 14.

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So yep, that's about it for today! Go here to check out the other tour stops! You'll find loads of awesome stuff on the other tour sites too! :D

Blog Tour: Haven 6 by Aubrie Dionne - Character Interview + Giveaway

Hey guys! Welcome to today's blog tour! Haven 6 by Aubrie Dionne is the 4th book in the New Dawn Series. It is published by Entangled Publishing and is a science fiction romance. It is 326 pages long, or 85k words approximately. So yep, let's get started!

Haven 6

A product of an illegal pairing, Eridani is the only woman without a lifemate aboard the colonization ship, the Heritage, and she is determined her less than perfect DNA will not get in the way of finding love. As the ship nears it's final destination of Haven 6 after five hundred years of travel, images of the surface show evidence of intelligent life on a planet that's supposed to be uninhabited. Commander Grier assigns Eri to the exploratory team to spy on the alien society and return with information on how to defeat them.

When Eri's team lands, tribes of humans attack and Eri is saved by Striver, the descendant of a colonist and a pirate from Old Earth's colonization efforts in other parts of the galaxy. Striver helps Eri rescue her team and they are drawn to each other despite their different allegiances. While Striver battles with trusting Eri, Eri must decide whether to warn him and his people about the commander's intentions, or follow orders and complete her mission.

Amazon | Goodreads

Aubrie Dionne

Aubrie grew up watching the original Star Wars movies over and over again until she could recite and reenact every single scene in her backyard. She also loved The Goonies, Star Trek the Next Generation-favorite character was Data by far-, and Indiana Jones. But, her all time favorite movie was The Last Unicorn. She still wonders why the unicorn decided to change back to a unicorn in the end.

Aubrie wrote in her junior high yearbook that she wanted to be "A concert flutist" when she grew up. When she made that happen, she decided one career was not enough and embarked as a fantasy, sci fi author. Two careers seem to keep her busy. For now.

Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Entangled Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She recently signed her YA sci fi novel with Inkspell Publishing titled: Colonization: Paradise Reclaimed, which will release in October 2012.

Blog | Website | Twitter | Goodreads

And now, let's welcome Commander Grier, a character in the book to the blog!

Commander Grier, thank you for joining me!

Thank you for the interview. This is a very exciting time for us on the Heritage. We are about to colonize the planet we’ve been heading toward for the last half a century. I remember when this ship first took off during the Armageddon on Old Earth. It was a rough time for me, but I got through it, all for this purpose.

Describe a day in your life on the Heritage.

You know I can’t physically walk anywhere, because my body was deemed useless hundreds of years ago, and I exist in a glass box in amoebic liquid? But, I’m everywhere and anywhere at the same time, because I live through the ship. I can monitor every movement, every conversation through the main frame computer. I keep track of the status of our mission, the status of our supplies, the workers on the ship, and how close we are to our goals.

Can you tell us about your life on Old Earth?

This subject is something I don’t usually talk about because it is very painful to me. But, I can say I ran for political office back on Old Earth, and I became very rich: rich enough to build my own colony ship when the time came. You see, I knew things were going down for years. We’d run out of resources, and the resources on the moon were- how should I say it?- tainted. It was only a matter of time before wars broke out.

What do you think of the pairing system on the Heritage?

It’s much like the pairing system on any other colony ship. I put it in place to ensure there would be no inbreeding, and that our genes would still be strong when we reached our destination a half century later.

Do you ever feel tired? Living over five hundred years must be hard.

It is. Everyone I’ve known from my past is long gone. But, I couldn’t have prevented it. Besides, this is not a life I wanted for them. My sole purpose now is to see that they people I have kept alive around me reach their planet and colonize it successfully with as little hardship as possible.

What do you expect to find once you reach Haven 6?

Just that: a haven. A place where we can establish a home. I won’t be able to walk on it myself, but I’ll see it through the computer’s main sight panels. I’ll be able to monitor all colonization efforts.

Thanks again for joining me, Commander Grier!  This has been a real treat!

Thank you for having me. Make sure you read our colonization log called Haven 6 to see what happens once we get there!

Enter the giveaway here! Stand a chance to win

• 1 necklace
• 2 ebook sets of the New Dawn Series
• 5 ecopies of Haven 6

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So yep, that's about it for today! Thanks for visiting! Sorry for the late post by the way, I was out the whole day!