Queen of All She Reads: Spotlight & #Giveaway for Whereafter by Terri Bruce

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Bewitching Book Tours, for Whereafter by Terri Bruce. Please leave a comment or question for Terri to let her know you stopped by. You may enter her tour wide giveaway, where two (2) randomly chosen commenters will be awarded a $25 Amazon GC, by filling out the Rafflecopter form below. You may follow all of the stops on the tour by following the tour schedule below, the more stops you visit, the better your chances of winning. Good Luck!

Whereafter

By Terri Bruce

Afterlife, Book 3

Publisher: Mictlan Press

Date of Publication: March 15, 2016

Genre: Contemporary fantasy/paranormal

ISBN: 9780991303649

Number of pages: 345

Word Count: 100,000

Formats available: Paperback and all ebook formats

Cover Artist: Shelby Robinson – artwork

Jennifer Stolzer – layout and design

Buy Link: Amazon

About the book:

How Far Would You Go To Get Your Life Back?

Stuck in the afterlife on an island encircled by fire and hunted by shadows bent on trapping them there forever, Irene and Andras struggle to hold onto the last vestiges of their physical selves, without which they can never return to the land of the living. But it’s not just external forces they’ll have to fight as the pair grow to realize they have different goals. Irene still clings to the hope that she can somehow return to her old life—the one she had before she died—while Andras would be only too glad to embrace oblivion.

Meanwhile, Jonah desperately searches for a way to cross over to the other side, even if doing so means his death. His crossing over, however, is the one thing that could destroy Irene’s chances of returning home.

Too many obstacles, too many people to save, and the thing Irene most desperately wants—to return to her old life—seems farther away than ever. Only one thing is clear: moving on will require making a terrible sacrifice.

EXCERPT

They crossed into the previous room, navigating carefully between the jostling throng. Jonah barely paid attention as his mind worked furiously.

“What do you mean, someplace else? Where else do the dead go when they cross over if not here?”

Jonah’s scowl deepened. As usual, Char wasn’t getting the hint that he didn’t really want to talk anymore. “Lots of places.”

“Like where?”

A pang went through him as the ever-present image of a burning lake of fire burned in the forefront of his mind. “In one of her letters, Irene said she was in a city and then in a forest—a dark, creepy forest. Based on the description, I think she was in the place where the Restless Dead go.”

“Sounds charming.”

Grimly, he said, “Exactly.”

And then she took a boat to Hell.

“Look, I’m sure she’s fine,” Char said hurriedly, in an obvious, though fruitless, attempt to reassure him.

He stared straight ahead as they wove through the crowd, trying to block out the nagging worry growing inside of him.

They crossed back into the Norse room and then into one of the gardens and then into an unfamiliar room. Jonah paused for a second, trying to get his bearings. “Did we come through here before?” he asked.

Char shook her head. “I think you took a wrong turn out of the garden.”

There had been only one way out of the garden—Jonah was sure of it. A feeling of unease started to take hold of him as he turned around and headed back through the doorway they had just come through. He stopped short the second they stepped across the threshold. Instead of passing back into the garden where they had just been, they now stood in the white room with the harps.

“What the…” Jonah looked around, his unease growing. “Wasn’t this just Tlalocan?”

Char stared at him, her eyes wide, and nodded.

“Come on,” Jonah grabbed her hand, a sinking feeling spreading upwards from the pit of his stomach, and headed for the far end of the hall. In all the stories, getting into the Underworld was easy; it was getting out that was hard. He recalled Persephone’s warning, and his stomach lurched. He sped up and they passed through the doorway into another unfamiliar room.

“Wasn’t this where Valhalla was?” Char asked, but Jonah didn’t pause—he just strode resolutely forward, his jaw set, dragging Char with him. They passed straight through the room and in the next instant found themselves back in the blue ballroom.

“I don’t understand,” Char said. “How could we possibly be here again?”

The sinking feeling was getting worse, giving way to an uneasy sense of inevitability. However, he refused to admit defeat just yet.

“Maybe it’s a different room that just looks like the room we were in before?” Char said, clearly grasping at straws.

They turned around and headed back through the doorway they had just come through. It should have led to the room they were just in—the white room—but instead, they found themselves back in the blue ballroom.

“But… but… this is impossible!” Char cried, stopping dead in her tracks. Jonah tried to tug her forward, but she yanked her hand from his grasp. “What the hell is going on?”

Jonah tried to keep his face and voice perfectly neutral as he spoke—to keep both Char and himself from panicking. Panic wouldn’t do either of them any good. “The rooms move. Nothing’s fixed.”

Char stared at him, the color draining from her face. “You say that like it’s no big deal.”

Jonah bit his lip and didn’t meet her eyes, hoping that she couldn’t hear the hammering of his heart. “It’s a big deal,” he said, his voice tight.

“How are we going to get out of here if we can’t find our way back to the entrance?”

He didn’t answer—couldn’t answer; he didn’t know.

More forcefully, Char said, “Jonah?”

But he didn’t have to say anything—he knew she could see it in his face.

They were stuck.

About the Author:

Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember and won her first writing award when she was twelve. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats. She is the author of the Afterlife Series, which includes Hereafter (Afterlife #1) and Thereafter (Afterlife #2) and several short stories including “Welcome to OASIS” (“Dear Robot” anthology, Kelly Jacobson publisher) and “The Well” (“Scratching the Surface” anthology, Third Flatiron Press).

Website/Blog: www.terribruce.net

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/TerriBruce

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorterribruce

Twitter: @_TerriBruce

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