Welcome to my stop on J.A. Huss's Online Book Tour for Clutch: I Am Junco Dot Com. Please make sure to leave a comment or question below for J.A. to let her know you were here. You can enter her tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.
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Clutch: I Am Just Junco Dot Com Book 1
by J.A. Huss
Publisher: Science Future Press
Release Date: September 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-936413-11-9
Blurb:
In 2152 the avian race is on Earth looking for something stolen from them decades ago – their genetics. At the center of the search lies the Rural Republic; a small backwards farming country with high hopes of military domination and a penchant for illegal bioengineering.
19 year old Junco Coot is the daughter of the Rural Republic’s ranking commander. She’s the most foul-mouthed, wildly unpredictable and ruthless sniper the Rural Republic has ever trained. But when her father’s death sparks a trip into forbidden places, she triggers events that will change everything she knows to be true.
As an elite avian military officer, Tier’s mission is to destroy the bioengineering projects, kill Commander Coot’s daughter, and return home immediately. There’s just one problem. Junco isn’t who she claims to be.
With no one to trust, not even herself, Junco must confront the secrets of her past and accept her place in the future, or risk losing herself completely.
CONTENT WARNING - The I Am Just Junco series is NOT young adult and contains A LOT of bad language and violence.
Excerpt:
"I think we should stick together, Junco. In fact I was thinking I can help get ya back to safety. Ya know, help ya get the Goat back up on the road. Even though yer healed, yer still pretty–" He hesitates.
"I’m pretty?" I ask.
He laughs a little and shakes his head, which pisses me off for some reason. "No, I was going to say pretty weak, ya know. From yesterday’s crash. But then I wondered if ya would take that as an insult as well."
I roll my eyes and try to push past him to get the winch hooked up to a tree, but he leans his hands on either side of the Goat, essentially boxing me in. I shoot him a nasty look and he drops his hands to let me through.
"Thanks for all your help," I call back to him, "but I’m going to take it from here. And I won’t report you, so don’t worry about that. Just get hell out of the RR before anyone else sees you." I turn to see how he’s taking the news but he’s not there. When I turn back he’s in front of me again.
He shakes his head at me.
I shake mine back and raise my eyebrows.
"You’ll refuse my help?"
"Look," I huff, "you have those people tracking you and neither of us is supposed to be out here in the first place, so let’s just cut our losses and move on. Separately."
He looks down to the tech that is still in his hand. "They can’t see anything here. Some sort of shield."
"Right. That’s called a defense system. The deeper you go into the Stag, the thicker the shields. So why don’t you just fly over to the Mountain Republic where they probably can track you?"
He lifts the device to illustrate his point. "In case ya haven’t figured it out yet, these people aren’t my ride home."
"So why are they tracking you?"
His eyes twinkle and I know what’s coming and push past him at a full run. He’s on me before I can take more than half a dozen strides and pulls on my shirt until I slip in the mud and go down hard on my back.
"Stop!" I scream, but instead of stopping he pins my arms down and sits on top of me as I wriggle and kick to try and get him off. His legs twine around mine, essentially cutting off any thoughts of getting him off me that way. Then his eyes are glowing again and his lips are touching my cheek, whispering for me to settle and be calm.
To my surprise, I do settle. I can’t help it. I realize too late that the soft words brushing past the sensitive skin on my cheek are controlling me. I can feel the sound waves trickling into my ear canal, making their way to the nerve pathways that control my muscles, and I bring my shoulders up to try and push his face away. His lips remain next to my ear and I am just about to fully give in when the tech device, forgotten and left on the ground during our struggle, sounds off an alarm. He loses his concentration and the words stop for half a moment, but that’s all I need.
I take my opportunity and flip myself over so that I’m on my belly. This takes him by surprise and for a split-second he is off balance. I flip back around and use my right arm to knock him in the windpipe as my body turns. He goes reeling off of me and I’m up and running down into the little creek.
A boot goes flying just past my head, but I don’t stop and wonder at this weird turn of events. I run as hard as I can, over the opposite bank, out of the small grove of cottonwoods, and into the tall flowing prairie grass. I’m short, so the leftover husks slap me in the face as I run, blurring my vision.
The wings descend and he’s swooping down upon me. I look up to see talons where his boots were just a few minutes ago and they latch onto my shoulders, puncturing my skin and making me scream. His grip tightens and clutches onto my shoulders making me fall. I roll as I land and pop back up, booking it again without missing a beat.
One second I’m hauling ass towards the open prairie, the next he’s on the ground in front of me and we’re on a collision path. I plan my move and let him get to within a few strides of me and then I flip into the air and land on the other side of him. He misses a step and I take advantage of it, turn and deliver a hook kick to his jaw. His head snaps to the side and he stumbles over sideways a little.
I run hard for a few seconds and don’t look back. Off in the distance I hear the roar of a hovercopter and a few seconds later I feel the effects of the prairie grass wind tunnel it creates from the blades, but still I push my way through the now wildly swaying wheat until I come upon the alien again.
His lip is bleeding and his jaw is slightly red from my kick. I stop in my tracks, bent over and panting hard.
He’s not even out of breath.
"I’m not the enemy, Junco," he screams above the roar, "and if you know what’s good for ya, you’ll run like hell because if those guys from the Mountain Republic get you, you’ll end up in the same messed-up place as your father."
He flies off, disappearing in the tallgrass before I can even string together a sentence.
But his words stay with me. Dead like my father is not something I want to be so I follow his advice. I run until the MR soldiers in the hovercopter blast me with a plasma bolt and I fall to the ground unconscious.
"I’m pretty?" I ask.
He laughs a little and shakes his head, which pisses me off for some reason. "No, I was going to say pretty weak, ya know. From yesterday’s crash. But then I wondered if ya would take that as an insult as well."
I roll my eyes and try to push past him to get the winch hooked up to a tree, but he leans his hands on either side of the Goat, essentially boxing me in. I shoot him a nasty look and he drops his hands to let me through.
"Thanks for all your help," I call back to him, "but I’m going to take it from here. And I won’t report you, so don’t worry about that. Just get hell out of the RR before anyone else sees you." I turn to see how he’s taking the news but he’s not there. When I turn back he’s in front of me again.
He shakes his head at me.
I shake mine back and raise my eyebrows.
"You’ll refuse my help?"
"Look," I huff, "you have those people tracking you and neither of us is supposed to be out here in the first place, so let’s just cut our losses and move on. Separately."
He looks down to the tech that is still in his hand. "They can’t see anything here. Some sort of shield."
"Right. That’s called a defense system. The deeper you go into the Stag, the thicker the shields. So why don’t you just fly over to the Mountain Republic where they probably can track you?"
He lifts the device to illustrate his point. "In case ya haven’t figured it out yet, these people aren’t my ride home."
"So why are they tracking you?"
His eyes twinkle and I know what’s coming and push past him at a full run. He’s on me before I can take more than half a dozen strides and pulls on my shirt until I slip in the mud and go down hard on my back.
"Stop!" I scream, but instead of stopping he pins my arms down and sits on top of me as I wriggle and kick to try and get him off. His legs twine around mine, essentially cutting off any thoughts of getting him off me that way. Then his eyes are glowing again and his lips are touching my cheek, whispering for me to settle and be calm.
To my surprise, I do settle. I can’t help it. I realize too late that the soft words brushing past the sensitive skin on my cheek are controlling me. I can feel the sound waves trickling into my ear canal, making their way to the nerve pathways that control my muscles, and I bring my shoulders up to try and push his face away. His lips remain next to my ear and I am just about to fully give in when the tech device, forgotten and left on the ground during our struggle, sounds off an alarm. He loses his concentration and the words stop for half a moment, but that’s all I need.
I take my opportunity and flip myself over so that I’m on my belly. This takes him by surprise and for a split-second he is off balance. I flip back around and use my right arm to knock him in the windpipe as my body turns. He goes reeling off of me and I’m up and running down into the little creek.
A boot goes flying just past my head, but I don’t stop and wonder at this weird turn of events. I run as hard as I can, over the opposite bank, out of the small grove of cottonwoods, and into the tall flowing prairie grass. I’m short, so the leftover husks slap me in the face as I run, blurring my vision.
The wings descend and he’s swooping down upon me. I look up to see talons where his boots were just a few minutes ago and they latch onto my shoulders, puncturing my skin and making me scream. His grip tightens and clutches onto my shoulders making me fall. I roll as I land and pop back up, booking it again without missing a beat.
One second I’m hauling ass towards the open prairie, the next he’s on the ground in front of me and we’re on a collision path. I plan my move and let him get to within a few strides of me and then I flip into the air and land on the other side of him. He misses a step and I take advantage of it, turn and deliver a hook kick to his jaw. His head snaps to the side and he stumbles over sideways a little.
I run hard for a few seconds and don’t look back. Off in the distance I hear the roar of a hovercopter and a few seconds later I feel the effects of the prairie grass wind tunnel it creates from the blades, but still I push my way through the now wildly swaying wheat until I come upon the alien again.
His lip is bleeding and his jaw is slightly red from my kick. I stop in my tracks, bent over and panting hard.
He’s not even out of breath.
"I’m not the enemy, Junco," he screams above the roar, "and if you know what’s good for ya, you’ll run like hell because if those guys from the Mountain Republic get you, you’ll end up in the same messed-up place as your father."
He flies off, disappearing in the tallgrass before I can even string together a sentence.
But his words stay with me. Dead like my father is not something I want to be so I follow his advice. I run until the MR soldiers in the hovercopter blast me with a plasma bolt and I fall to the ground unconscious.
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BIO:
J. A. Huss never took a creative writing class in her life. Some would say it shows. Others might cut her some slack. She did however, get educated and graduated from Colorado State University with a B.S. in Equine Science. She had grand dreams of getting a Ph.D. but while she loves science, she hated academia and settled for a M.S. in Forensic Toxicology from the University of Florida.
She went on to write science curriculum for homeschoolers and now runs a successful home business that creates and offers online science unit studies. When she’s not writing science curriculum or fiction, she works as a farm inspector, traveling the Eastern Plains of Colorado in variety of environmentally friendly vehicles that never have four-wheel drive, so when she gets stuck in the mud in said vehicles, she has to beg for assistance from anyone who will help her. She is not bitter about that at all.
She’s always packing heat and she is owned by two donkeys, five dogs, more chickens and ducks than she can count, and of course, the real filthy animals, her kids. The I Am Just Junco series was born after falling in love with the ugliest part of Colorado and the Rural Republic is based on the area of the state she currently resides in, minus the mutants, of course.
Weblinks
Website: http://www.iamjustjunco.com/
Blog: http://jahuss.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Junco-Coot/258034560979553
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6446815.J_A_Huss
YouTube Trailer - CLUTCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0PWDGoTJY
YouTube Trailer - FLEDGE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_LYS0N1OAY
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My Review:
With nonstop action, J.A. Huss takes you into a futuristic world where the United States we know no longer exists and where alien life forms are engaged in a battle to keep humanity from stealing their DNA. A hybrid of science fiction and fast action fantasy, Clutch grabbed my attention and never let go. With a heroine who prefers to smoke a cigar, kick butt and ask questions later, this book is not to be missed.
Set in 2125, the world as we know it no longer exists. Newly orphaned Junco Coot, the 19 year old daughter of the commander of the Rural Republic, is determined to leave the life she knows behind and head into the STAG, a barren section of the country where secret military actions take place. Wrecking her vehicle within hours of going AWOL was not a part of her plan, neither was meeting an Avian named Tier.
Tier, a member of the alien race known as Avians, is determined to befriend Junco no matter the cost. Assigned to bring her back to his planet, he believes she's a lost member of his race. A lost member who is an important part of a prophecy about the future of his people. While Tier mostly looks human, his wings and talon like feet enable him to travel much faster than any human and armed with the technology of his people, he's a formidable enemy.
As Junco and Tier begin to get to know each other, they are interrupted by soldiers from a different faction of the country. While Tier gets away, Junco becomes a prisoner and meets up with a man she once considered a friend. Trying to escape, Junco once again runs into Tier who again is determined to get her to his planet.
Will Junco ever discover who was behind her father's death? Will she discover whether or not she's a member of the Avian race? You'll have to read Clutch to find out. While it's been a while since I read a science fiction novel of this kind, I found Ms. Huss's writing addictive and can't wait to read what happens to Junco next.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Crowns
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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