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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

VBT & Giveaway - Haven 6 (New Dawn #4) by Aubrie Dionne



Welcome to my stop on Aubrie Dionne's Virtual Book Tour for Haven 6 (New Dawn #4).  Please be sure to leave a comment or question below to let Aubrie know you stopped by.  You can fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter her giveaway.  


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Who is the big monster in Haven 6? Guest Post by Aubrie Dionne 

If you read any of the New Dawn series, you know every book had a “big monster” that gets in the way of the main protagonists:

The zombies in A Hero Rising
The sandworms and the desert cows in Paradise 21
The alien mammoths in Tundra 37

So the big question is: what’s the big monster in Haven 6!!!

Each monster is a product of their environments, so I wanted a hairy jungle monster able to live in the swampy environment on Haven 6- kind of like the same planet Yoda lived on in Star Wars. This monster had to humongous, dangerous, and hairy, while at the same time make sense with the planet so it wasn’t ridiculous. The monster I came up with is big and hairy all right! But, you’ll have to read Haven 6 to find out what it is!

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Haven 6
New Dawn Series Book #4
Aubrie Dionne

Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing

1937044858
978-1937044855

Number of pages: 326
Word Count: 85K
Cover Artist: Heather Howland


Book Description:

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. 

Excerpt:   

Chapter 7
Savior

Leaves swayed in the wind above the thin beam of bluish light, the only thing separating Eri from the wilderness. She stared into the darkness over the perimeter fence. The jungle stretched around her forever, more sinister than the vast vacuum of deep space. The dim lights of their transport ship only penetrated so far. Rustling raised the hairs on the back of her neck. A stray leaf wafted toward the beam. The electricity zapped it and it sizzled, a burning smell tainting the air. Eri hugged her arms around her chest. Would the beam work?
“Don’t worry, strawberry curls; we’ve got it covered.”

Startled, Eri whipped around. Mars smirked, and then returned to the fluorescent miniscreen in her lap. She ran her finger along the keypad and passed it to Tank. “Ha! Beat that, starship destroyer.”  Anger simmered in Eri’s throat. They weren’t reviewing base camp conditions like Litus had instructed. They weren’t even paying attention. Who knew when the aliens would find them?

Tank’s fingers grazed the screen as he hurtled comets the size of raisins at virtual spaceships. The faint triumphant, techno music of Galaxy Battlefield played in the background.  Stupid thugs. Grier had handpicked these people to meet a new intelligent species and represent humankind? 

Eri walked around the back of the scout ship and found a container wide enough to sit down.  At least they wouldn’t bother her there.  Her legs kicked in rhythm against the plastic. Thump, thump…thump, thump. Litus had instructed the team to rest tonight so they could get an early start when the sun came up. She didn’t think she’d sleep a wink. In fact, all she really wanted to do was get back on the ship and seal the hatch.

Branches snapped. Eri checked over her shoulder, expecting some gray humanoid to dart from the forest. Instead, Litus rounded the corner. He brought an extra packet of soybean wafers and a bottle of mineral water.

“Feeling okay?”

“As okay as I can in a strange jungle with unknown beasts surrounding us on all sides.” Eri took the bottle and the wafer.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Litus ignored her sarcasm and settled beside her.  He unwrapped his soybean wafer and held it in his hand without taking a bite. She tore open her wafer and the wrapper crinkled in the wind. A stray piece of foil flew into the darkness, making Eri shiver.  Would the jungle swallow the team just as easily?

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About the Author:

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.

Twitter: @authoraubrie



Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2964057.Aubrie_Dionne

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My Review: 

Two warring tribes, birdmen and a spaceship which has reached it's destination after a 500 year journey, are just part of the action taking place in Haven 6, the fourth and final book in Aubrie Dionne's New Dawn series.  With a likable heroine and hero, good dialogue and a well developed setting, Ms. Dionne's sci-fi romance captured my attention from the first page.  While it's been a while since we last visited the planet called "Refuge", last seen at the end of Paradise 21, it was nice to discover what's happened in the 300 plus years since we left it.

Linguist Eridani "Eri" Smith is the product of an illegal pairing and the only adult female aboard the spaceship Heritage, who's been denied a lifemate.  Feeling sorry for herself, and secretly contemplating hacking the computer system which chooses lifemates, she's pleased to be selected as part of the advance landing team on the planet they know as Haven 6 (which we know as Refuge).  Hoping a successful mission would force the captain to give her a lifemate, Eri is surprised to discover her new brother in law has been placed in charge of the mission.  With a warning from her sister, Eri is not exactly sure just what their mission is, are they to establish friendly communications or spy on the planets alien lifeforms in order to seize the planet for themselves?  

Young, strong and virile, Striver is the leader of his tribe.  Determined to keep his people safe from the "lawless" pirates who inhabit another part of their planet, he's also tasked with helping "The Guardians" keep what technology they have away from what's left of humanity.  He's also trying to keep his distance from one of his tribeswomen who wants to become his mate.  When a space shuttle arrives on his planet, he knows it's important to discover their plans and make sure their technology doesn't fall into the hands of the lawless.

The scenes between Eri and Striver are well written and their relationship develops at a very nice pace.  With so much at stake, it's important they get to know each other and discover who's worthy of trust.  Ms. Dionne did an excellent job developing their characters and introducing Eri to the descendants of a previously lost ship.  As they learn to trust each other, Eri will have to make a choice between doing what her captain wants or doing what is best for everyone involved.  At the same time, Striver will have to decide if he's made a mistake by giving Eri his trust.

The secondary characters are well developed and their actions help to move the story along, I especially liked Litus, Eri's brother in law, Eri's sister Aquaria and Phoenix, the lead "Guardian" (you'll have to read the book to find out just who they are).  The villains of the story are also well developed from Commander Greer, the human who's brain operates the space ship Heritage, to Jolt, the leader of the lawless.  We also get introduced to Weaver, Striver's younger brother, who leaves his brother and his tribe to join the lawless.

Will all of Eri's dreams come true and will Striver agree to be her lifemate?  Will the old and the new inhabitants of Haven learn to get along and learn from man's previous mistakes?  You'll have to read Haven 6 to find out.  I really enjoyed it and I think you will too.  

My Rating:  5 out of 5 Crowns 




FTC Disclosure: I was provided a complimentary copy of this book as the part of the book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.  



Don't forget to leave a comment or question below to let Aubrie know you were here. Use the Rafflecopter below to win one of the prizes below.




a Rafflecopter giveaway




To visit the remaining stops on Aubrie's Virtual Book Tour:

November 8 Review
Not Now...Mommy's Reading
http://www.mommysreading.com

November 9 Interview and review
Always a Booklover
http://alwaysabooklover.blogspot.com

Nov 10 Guest blog and review
Michelle's Paranormal Vault of Books
http://concisebookreviewsbymichelle.blogspot.com/

November 11 Guest blog
JeanzBookReadNReview
http://jeanzbookreadnreview.blogspot.co.uk/

November 11 Guest blog
Booked & Loaded
http://bookedandloaded.com


4 comments:

  1. Thank you for this wonderful review1 I'm so glad you liked it!

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  2. I'm getting into science fiction books, with and without romance, and this sounds great! Thanks for the review and for introducing me to a new author.

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  3. Nice review. Thanks! Science Fiction isn't my thing, but I'm happy you enjoyed it.

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  4. Aubrie, I've heard such good things about this series, and I love scifi! I'll definitely be adding this to my TBR! Thanks so much!

    ReplyDelete