Monday, March 22, 2021

Death Kiss by Naomi E. Lloyd

 

Release date: March 23, 2021
Subgenre: Dark Fantasy, Dystopian
 

 About Death Kiss:

 

Will it be your turn to die today? 

Set in a dark vision of the near future, the world lives under the control of a violent group of mercenaries called ‘scrapers’ who are culling the population like animals to ‘save’ the planet.

Innocent people are being murdered every day at random, and each attack is more brutal and more unpredictable than the next.

There is nothing anybody can do to stop them.

Except…

The girl with the death kiss. 

One kiss from Silver and you are shown exactly when, where and how you will die.

But her gift is her curse as she is held captive by three identical triplet brothers who abuse her gift to survive.

Silver believes slavery is preferable to death and as long as she’s saving people with her kiss, she can endure, but little does she know her kiss holds a much darker agenda.

Death Kiss is an adult, dark fantasy, romance novel which draws you into a world of magic, deception, seductive twists, and desire.

 

Excerpt:

 

Introduction

 

The first boy I ever kissed died three days later.

I saw how it would happen. I smelt it on his breath. The blood that would spill from where they would cut his throat. 

It wasn’t the perfect first kiss experience I had dreamed of. That saccharine Disney promise that all little girls are bombarded with. Not my first kiss. There’s nothing sweet about being able to hear someone’s death on your lips. I’m not sure I can even describe it. Perhaps if I tell you that it was like a whispering ghostly wind that you have to suck into your mouth? Would that make sense? 

That’s all it took and then I saw, heard, and felt the moment when he would take his last gasps before his body succumbed to its ultimate destination. 

Wherever that may be.

This was before we knew how much control they had. Or, I should say, how little control society had. When life was still quite normal. Back when my days were filled with text messages, selfies, schoolbooks, shopping dates and cosy movie nights curled on a sofa with my family.

This was before the Scrapers terrorised our world. The population controllers who kill every tenth person they see. 

Harry, the boy I kissed. He was one of the unfortunate ten a Scraper saw on his final day. A young life cut so short. And for what? Why? Just because he was there at the wrong time? The wrong number.

He was quite cute for sixteen. My friends teased me he was geeky, too serious, too into me. But I liked him. He had a head full of dreams and ambitions. And one of those ambitions had been me. 

But did I warn Harry of this doomed fate? Did I pull away from his lips and beg him to hide from them? Scream at him that under no circumstances must he leave his house that coming Monday, the day I had already seen it would happen?

No, I did not.

Why? I will never know. This is something I will always regret. 

Perhaps I could plead youth, innocence, or even fear? A reluctance to expose myself as the freak that I knew, even back then, that I am. 

Don’t worry. Karma got me back. She made sure I would be found and captured as I am now. Taken from my home and my family to be used as the perfect shield to protect three young men from the horrors of this new world. 

This is me now. 

Twenty, trapped and taunted. 

Every. Single. Day.

I know I do not deserve to complain. It is my penance for Harry. For my parents. For my sister. For all those that I did not save.

My death kiss. My gift. My blessing. My curse.

My name is Ava. Although you may also hear me called Silver. 

A witch. A freak. A gifted. Or, perhaps, something in between?

I will let you decide.

This is my story. It’s not always pretty. In many parts it is as dark as night.

But wait, there is light too. 

And his name is…well, I’ll let you decide which one he is.

 

First, though, I must take you back a bit. To my first captor. To General Sterling: the one who first gave me the name, Silver. After the precious metal that is not only unharmed when tried by fire but becomes refined and pure. 

Like me, apparently?

At least, that’s how he justified what he did to me…

 

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About Naomi E. Lloyd:

Naomi E Lloyd is a writer who loves exploring both the dark and lighter sides of fantasy stories.

Where her debut series, Tandro, takes readers on a coming-of-age fantasy romance across another time and realm, her more recent series, Death Kiss, delves into a dark, supernatural world, full of deception, magic, and seductive twists.

But whether finding the light or delving into the dark with her fantasy stories, there is a common thread that weaves the dark-light themes of her storytelling together: connection—the journeys that shape rather than break us. For whilst her characters face tumultuous challenges, and sometimes traumatic experiences in her books, it is their resilience and determination that makes their journeys so transformative.

Formerly a law student at Warwick University, she started writing her debut series, Tandro, after the story concept kept popping up in her recurring dream. This was a multi-faceted story she couldn’t let go of and one that sent her on a research journey across the world, to bring the story to fruition and finally realise her real-life dream of holding a book she had written in her hands.

Three books later, it was via another vivid dream that her next series, Death Kiss, was born. A dark fantasy story she felt so compelled to bring to life she wrote down the blurb within moments of waking up.

As a believer in listening to your dreams, Naomi’s stories transport you into other worlds and times, give you characters you either root for or love to hate, and treat you to endings with unexpected twists and turns.

Find out more about Naomi E Lloyd at www.naomielloyd.com  where you can sign up to join her reader community and gain access to her exclusive Diamond Energy Cave on her website, where fun quizzes, character profiles, and treasure hunts are waiting to be explored.

 

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