Spotlight & Giveaway: Breakout by A.M. Rose

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author A.M. Rose to HJ!

Hi A.M. Rose and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Breakout!

 
Hello, thanks for having me.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

When a group of teens are forced to work together to escape an AI enforced prison, who do you trust when everyone is guilty?

Or that’s the basic gist of what Breakout is about. If you like lots of action with twists and turns along the way, and kissing this would probably be a great book for you.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

Asking for a favorite line is like asking a mom who her favorite child is. Impossible. But since this is Harlequin Junkie I think your readers would most enjoy a line or two about the relationship between Lezah and Seph.
“Seph’s baggy sweatpants and wrinkled shirt look comfortable. Nothing more, nothing less. He’s the guy most girls overlook. Not me though. I know what he’s capable of.”
And:
“He cups the back of my neck, holding on like kissing me is the most important thing right now.”
Are two of my personal favorites.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

When people talk about books being like a seed and as authors we are there to cultivate a watch a story grow, nothing could be more true for Breakout. It’s origin started as this little idea. A few sentences that crashed into my head one day, and I had to write them down. “My number is twenty-two. That’s how they tell all forty-nine of us that are left apart.” And while in the final version these sentences were altered a little this is really where the entire idea of this story came from.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

Lezah expects Seph to be a certain way and finds herself pleasantly surprised when he’s nothing like she expects.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

I find I did all of these things while writing Breakout; even holding my breath at times too since I’m a discovery writer. Which brings me to this blushy moment with Seph and Lezah:

“Even though I’m sure Seph isn’t looking, I pull the shirt over my head before I slip my arms out of the jumpsuit. “Ouch.” With everything, I’ve forgotten about whatever’s stuck in the back of my triceps, until it snags as I try to take my arm out of the sleeve.
“What’s wrong?” Seph asks, but he stays turned away.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine.” I have one arm out of the jumpsuit and through the sleeve of the shirt, and the other caught somewhere in the middle. “When that game system busted, something hit me. It’s not a big deal.” I attempt to tug my arm out again, with the same result. Burning pain all the way up to my neck. Oh God, Mother Mary. I take a deep breath as I stretch around and try to find whatever it is back there, but I’m too tangled, and I can’t reach.
“Do you need some help?” Seph asks.
I grit my teeth and try one last time before admitting defeat. “Okay.”
He spins around. “Let me see.” He comes closer but doesn’t touch me.
My face is hot. This is beyond embarrassing. The guy who was basically my arch nemesis—okay maybe not that bad, but it’s not like we’re friends now—is about to see the ratty bra I’ve been wearing for the past month, and getting so close that there’s no way he won’t be able to smell how ripe I am. But this is something I can’t do on my own, so I pull up the edge of the shirt and extend my arm back so he can get a look.
He takes my elbow and lifts it gently. Something warm flutters around in my chest. “I’m gonna tear this, okay?”
I nod and flinch as there’s an audible rip, cool air engulfing my triceps.
“Sorry,” he mumbles. Then there’s more tearing, but it isn’t my jumpsuit. As I glance back, I watch as Seph pulls a long piece of fabric from the bottom of his shirt.
“Now this might hurt,” he says, then yanks at whatever’s stuck inside me without giving me a second to prepare myself. I don’t even have time to scream, but I suck in a breath so deep my lungs ache. He presses my arm between his hands, holding it so tight it starts to tingle and stars float in my vision.
When he loosens his grip an odd sort of emptiness settles inside me. A moment later the piece of fabric he tore from his shirt is wrapped and tied around my arm, and he’s helping me slide it through the sleeve of the new shirt.
His hand grazes the back of my neck as he sweeps my hair to the side. My whole body is tingling now. His warm fingers run over the lump I’d noticed earlier.
I spin around and away from his touch, tying the sleeves of the jumpsuit around my waist so they aren’t dangling. “Thanks.” He doesn’t need to see all my flaws at once. Actually I’m surprised he hasn’t mentioned anything about my missing pinky yet. It’s not always the first thing people notice when they see me, but when they do, they always have something to say.
“No sweat,” he says, and our eyes lock. His aren’t just gray; they look like the clouds, with swirls of blue around the middle. That weird feeling in my stomach is back, and I’m warm, maybe a little hot even with the chill in the air. He’s so close. Closer than he’s ever been, and for a second I allow myself to forget about the past and look at the boy who was willing to risk everything for us today.

Readers should read this book….

If they like lots of action that hopefully keeps them on their toes. It’s a YA novel so nothing super steamy, but Lezah and Seph’s romance is sweet and hopefully has you cheering for them to get together.
If you like books by Marisa Meyer, Adrienne Young, James Dashner, Veronica Roth, or Rick Yancey – this book should be your jam.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Currently, I’m working on a quirky YA with a ghost MC. There are no set publication dates for this book, but it’s just been fun to get back to writing something new.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: eBook copy of Breakout by A.M. Rose.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: If you went to prison what would it be for? (Like for me, it would be for drinking way too much coffee with coconut creamer and eating all the Dove dark chocolate I can get my hands on.)

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Breakout:

Heavy footsteps echo through the hall. From the corner of my eye, two AIRS appear, bigger than the humans they were built to resemble. Artificial Intelligent Roaming Security marching our way means only one thing. Someone’s time is up, and I just pray it isn’t mine. They’re all hard steel where a soft mesh “skin” should be, with inhuman faces that are cold and unforgiving. As if it couldn’t get any worse, these two are larger than any I’ve seen. Something about their mechanical forms appears more menacing than ever. AIRS are the only model of WALTER I’ve ever been afraid of. A drop of sweat slides down my temple, but I know better than to brush it away.
My chin trembles with the rumble in the floor from their heavy frames. They stop at my right, in front of Twelve and Thirty-three, the girls who share the room next to mine. Twelve’s knees shake so hard her bright red hair vibrates. A puddle forms around Thirty-three’s feet.
No one moves.
Or blinks.
Or breathes.
An eternity later, they grab Twelve and spin her around. With a loud crack, her cheek slams into cold concrete; red swells against her pale skin. Tears pour from her blue eyes and slide down her freckled cheeks. She looks as scared as I feel, but I have no right to. She’s the one with blood pooling at the corner of her mouth, with big, scary AIRS assaulting her.
“No!” someone down the line yells.
“Don’t. Stop. You’re hurting me,” Twelve begs, but the AIRS don’t respond. One digs their hand into her pocket and yanks out a fork.
Someone gasps and jerks back, then pays the price for it with an electrical shock from their metal wristband.
“That’s not mine. I swear. I didn’t take it.” Twelve’s voice cuts through me like broken glass. That’s basically what she is now. That’s what they’ll do to her—break her into a thousand shards. She’s already as good as dead. It doesn’t matter what number is on her bracelet, or however many days of her sentence she had left, her expiration date is now.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 

Book Info:

Six days.

That’s the amount of time until Lezah’s execution.

She’ll die never knowing what got her locked up in this godforsaken prison in the first place. Her only chance of survival is to escape. Except the monitoring bracelet that digs into her wrist, the roaming AI, and the implant in her neck make freedom close to impossible.

Her best chance is to team up with the four other inmates who are determined to break out, even if one of them is beyond (gorgeous) annoying—oh, and in for murder. But he has a secret of his own. One that could break Lezah if she finds out, but could also set him free.

Figuring out how to work with him and the rest of this mismatched group of criminals is the only way Lezah will survive to see the outside world again.

But nothing in this prison is as it seems. And no one.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo |
 
 

Meet the Author:

A.M. Rose is the author of Road to Eugenica and is the writer of young adult novels of all genres as long as there’s a hint of romance (and kissing, there has to be kissing). She prefers walking to running, coffee to tea (although she does enjoy a nice Earl Grey with a touch of milk and sugar), and believes cheese should be its own food group.

A.M. graduated from San Diego State University with a BA in Communication and a minor in Magical Creature Studies. (If you see a unicorn with purple spots, proceed with caution.)

For more shenanigans; visit her online at www.amroseauthor.com
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