Spotlight & Giveaway: Formula Zero by Meredith Lanzen

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Meredith Lanzen to HJ!

Hi Meredith and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Formula Zero!

 
Hello! I’m so happy to be here.
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

It’s F1 in outer space, and also they fall in love!

Formula Zero follows Clarke, our heroine, who is struggling through her second season as a pilot in the most elite zero-gravity racing league in the solar system. Her performance is a mess, her ship is a nightmare, and she’s got the sneaking suspicion she can’t trust her team principal. To make matters worse, her ex-best-friend, Julian, is on an opposing team and doing well enough that he might be the next league champion. Circumstances keep pushing them together, and we watch the sparks fly as they compete on and off the track.
 

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

“You’re next to me in half the memories from my life, Clarke, how am I—” Julian cuts himself off and takes a hard breath. “How am I supposed to put that in front of a camera and act like losing you wasn’t one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me?”
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“I’m not scared of you,” Clarke says. “And this team might not give a crap about me, but they’re still my team, and I’m not going to let you shit all over them just because you are incapable of processing your inadequacy like an adult.”
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There are reasons having sex with Julian is a bad idea. A lot of reasons. She’s having trouble remembering any of them.
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How much trouble would someone get in for strangling a fellow pilot while half the press corps is still packing up one room away? Clarke’s asking for a friend.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I ended up buying a poster of the topographical surface of Mars from NASA while writing this book, because I was repeatedly looking up what craters and other landmarks were where. I can rattle them off now like it’s a party trick.
• I wrote the entire first draft in 42 days flat, and I wasn’t supposed to write it at all! I was supposed to be turning a completely different project in to my agent, but I watched a few episodes of Drive to Survive while taking a break from that idea and this idea just gripped me by the throat. Luckily, my agent saw the vision and supported my insane pivot!

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

Julian is initially attracted to Clarke’s skill as a racer, and her determination on and off the track. Clarke is first attracted to Julian’s quiet strength, as well as his competence (the tattoos don’t hurt, either).

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

There’s a scene where Clarke confronts Julian over something he said that hurt her, and it was painful to write. There’s so much heart and history between these two, and they communicate so well (which was really important to me), so when things go wrong, they go REALLY wrong. They spend a good chunk of the book trying to get back on good terms, and this scene–and the thing Julian said–threaten to tear that all down.

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They have to pick each step carefully. The ground is carpeted in rough crystal matting, and chunky patches of it grow as high as their waists. Everything shimmers in the sunset.

Clarke’s a few steps behind Julian, slower because she’s keeping her dress from snagging. When he stops and turns back to her, the beauty of him is staggering. He’s crafted in neutrals—black hair, golden skin, white shirt, caramel pants—and dusted with a thousand iridescent crystal refractions. Melancholy sweeps over her in a drowning wave.

She’s going to lose him. They’re going to fight, and it’s going to be brutal, and it’s going to tear down every slat they’ve added to the bridge they’ve been building. She doesn’t want that. But if he doesn’t respect her, what choice does she have? It’s self-preservation at this point.

Something Clarke apparently needs to keep learning over and over again: sometimes, self-preservation really, really fucking hurts.

Readers should read this book….

Readers should read this book for the drama, the romance, and the space racing! It was really important to me that Formula Zero be an equal balance of all three. The plot and the cool sci-fi locations are just as essential as the relationship between Clarke and Julian (which is all heart).

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

I’m editing book 2 in the Formula Zero universe, an interconnected standalone that takes place the following season with a new cast of characters (and some cameos from our book 1 faves). I’ve also started working on something completely different, a fantasy adventure about what happens when the Chosen One dies in the first chapter.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: One finished copy of FORMULA ZERO by Meredith Lanzen 

To enter Giveaway, please share this post on your Socials and Leave a comment below to this Q: What is it about racing athletes that makes them all so attractive?? Seriously, it seems unfair.

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✨ Giveaway closes 3 days from the date this post is published.
  

Excerpt from Formula Zero:

She turns back to the hall, steeling herself, and recoils when there’s suddenly a person standing half a step away. Their hands shoot out to steady her, one gripping above her right elbow and the other ghosting over her sling before landing on her hip.

“Saints, Julian, make a sound when you move,” Clarke gasps, heart thundering in her ears at the surprise and his sudden proximity.

Julian releases her the instant she’s stable but stays close, like he doesn’t trust her to keep her balance. “What happened out there?”

“I already answered that question from Silver Sight.”

“Silver Sight?”

“The reporter. With the eyeballs.” Clarke tries to wave at her own eyes, but accidentally uses her bad arm and ends up doubled over with pain.

“You’re hurt.”

“No kidding,” Clarke deadpans. It comes out on a hitched wheeze.

“No, I mean—you’re in pain.”

“I’m fine.” Clarke forces herself upright, suppressing a wince.

“Sure you are,” Julian says, and silence falls between them. It feels precarious, as silence between them so often does these days. They only spend time together when it’s mandated by their jobs, and every second of that time needs to be filled and scripted, otherwise they end up at each other’s throats.

A rude “So did you need something, or…?” is on the tip of Clarke’s tongue, but Julian did pretty much save her life earlier. “Thank you. For what you did on the track, after I crashed. I already confirmed that Yves isn’t going to push for you to be fined for touching another team’s ship, so—”

“What’s going on with you?” he interrupts, low and intense. Everything about Julian is intense. He does things fully or not at all. It makes him a great racer, a loyal friend, and a pain in the ass.

She misses him so much that she feels physically ill, sometimes. Especially when she’s standing right in front of him, looking across the chasm between them, and has to take a step back from the edge so she doesn’t fall in.

She summons a bland smile. “Just some bad luck. Strategy decisions that didn’t pan out the way we’d hoped. I’m working on it.”

His brow creases. “I’m not a reporter. You don’t have to give me the company line.”

“You’re worse than a reporter. You’re the enemy.”

“Elemental’s not good enough for us to be enemies.”

He’s right, and they both know it. It still stings. And where Julian’s concerned, Clarke’s never been capable of not retaliating when provoked, so she gets right up into his face and snaps, “Then what are we? Because you’ve made it really clear that we’re not friends.”

Julian’s eyes darken to a brown so deep it’s like looking into the void. “I’ve made it clear? You’re putting this on me? If you would just—”

“If I would just what?” Clarke demands, threading her words with indignation to hide the underlying pain of having this dredged up again. “We’ve had this conversation eight thousand times, and nothing has changed, and nothing is going to change. Thank you for saving my life. Goodnight.”

She takes a step. Julian’s blocking her path to the exit, but he moves to the side and lets her leave. He always lets her leave. It’s what’s defined their entire relationship. Clarke always pulls back, and Julian always lets her, and somewhere along the way the line they wouldn’t cross turned into a chasm that can’t be bridged.

She’s familiar with the weight of his eyes on her back as she walks away. It doesn’t make it any easier to bear.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Romantic tension between ex–best friends rockets to new heights in this dazzling sports romance debut set in the fast-paced, interplanetary world of Formula Zero racing.

Madeline Clarke didn’t think her life would be all fun and trophies after earning her spot in the solar system’s most elite zero-gravity racing circuit, but she definitely thought it’d be better than this. Aside from being a female pilot in a male-dominated sport, her boss is a controlling jerk, her estranged father is a beloved figure from her team’s past glory days (and an absolute ass), and she’s performing so poorly she risks losing her contract. And worst of all, there’s Julian Casperi.

Julian was Clarke’s childhood best friend and is a rising star in the league. The dance between them has always been complicated, but when Clarke walked away from her feelings years ago and Julian didn’t stop her they became nothing more than competitors—until Clarke gets into a near-fatal accident on the track and Julian comes to her rescue.

Now back in each other’s orbits, the tension between them is at an all-time high. But navigating their relationship might be the least of Clarke’s problems. Things keep going wrong on the track, and she suspects there’s something shady at play. If she wants to come out on top, she needs to move fast and make bold choices—about her team, her future, and her heart.
Book Links:  Amazon | B&N | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

Meredith Lanzen is an adult sci-fi and fantasy author. When she’s not charting out intergalactic adventures on her kitchen window, she’s playing D&D, braving her fear of spiders to spend time outside, and singing show tunes loudly enough to have acquired a neighborhood nickname. She lives in Michigan with her husband, two chaos goblins cleverly disguised as human children, and a 65-pound lapdog.
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