Tag Archives | Elle Strauss

9 fantastic books at 99 cents and a huge giveaway!

The temperatures are dropping, and it’s a great time to cuddle up with a new book!So for One Week Only, we’ve dropped the price on NINE HOT New Releases and Bestselling Titles, and combined them with a chance to WIN Amazon gift cards, ebooks, and more!

Check it out and spread the word~

 

ALL for only 99 cents this week!

**The Only One by Magan Vernon — “Sweet and sexy!! Loved it! This is the type of story you read again and again.” –#1 New York Times best selling author Rachel Van Dyken
**Dominus by Christine Fonesca — “A thrilling end to a fantastic supernatural series!” –Leigh Talbert Moore, bestselling author of The Truth About Faking
**Dragonfly by Leigh Talbert Moore — “The characters were intriguing, the mystery and story were interesting and definitely have ME WANTING MORE!!!!!!!” –Mandy, The Romance Bookie
**Crossing by Stacey Wallace Benefiel — “Beautiful. Heart wrenching. A true tale of love. It’ll make you laugh, cry, and have you running out to buy a tube of red lipstick.” –RaShelle Workman, bestselling author of the Blood and Snow series
**Clockwise by Elle Strauss — “First-person perspective done right makes a protagonist seem more accessible, and Strauss certainly does it right with Casey…  Readers who “trip” back in time with Casey will wish they could stay longer in her strangely relatable pace.”  –Kirkus Review
**Protected by Cindy Hogan — “This anticipated sequel sizzles with equal parts thriller, suspense and romance. A spine tingling story I could not put down.” – C.K.Bryant, author of Bound
**A Spy Like Me by Laura Pauling — “Move over Gallagher Girls, there’s a new spy in town! A Spy Like Me is a fast paced, high energy ride through Paris that left me almost as breathless as Pauling’s hot hero. Super fun beginning, great story, and an ending that won’t disappoint!” –Gemma Halliday, NYT best selling author of Spying in High Heels
**The Pack – Retribution by L.M. Preston — “The action in this book was phenomenal! There was never a dull moment. Shamira and the group were always fighting off the bad guys and with style too.” –P. Bradish, Amazon Reviewer
**Untraceable by S.R. Johannes — “This thrilling story is a dramatic entanglement of mystery, deception and teen romance.  The action flows like a brisk mountain stream interspersed with rapids, holding suspense to last page.” — Kirkus Review 

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Lee Strauss and PERCEPTION cover reveal!

Lee Strauss has a new cover!

Seventeen year old Zoe Vanderveen is a GAP—a genetically altered person. She lives in the security of a walled city on prime water-front property along side other equally beautiful people with extended life spans.
Her brother Liam is missing.
Noah Brody is a natural who lives on the outside. He leads protests against the GAPs and detests the widening chasm they’ve created between those who have and those who don’t. He doesn’t like girls like Zoe and he has good reason not to like her specifically.
Zoe’s carefree life takes a traumatic turn. She’s in trouble and it turns out that Noah, the last guy on earth she should trust, is the only one who can help her.

PERCEPTION is a ( SF/mystery/romance) Young Adult novel that takes place in the not too distant future in a world changed by climate extremes, natural disasters and impending wars, and where scientific breakthroughs cause class divisions—both financially and philosophically. It explores the clash between faith and science and how differences can separate us as enemies or alliance us together. And in some cases, even in the midst of betrayal and personal crisis, there’s room to fall in love.
This is the first book in a planned three book series.

You can “like” Lee Strauss on facebook and mark Perception to read on goodreads.

Lee Strauss is also known as Elle Strauss (for her lighter, lower YA titles) You can find her at www.ellestraussbooks.com

PERCEPTION will be for sale on Amazon and at other e-retailer stores SEPTEMBER 12!

 

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Catch a look at Clockwiser by Elle Strauss!

Welcome if you’ve come over from the Indelibles blog and my post about Johnny Depp…and chocolate chip cookies! In the comments, mention you’d like to win an ebook of A Spy Like Me to win!

For some reason my comments aren’t working! Tweet: I want to win A Spy Like Me by @laurapauling – if you’d like to win a copy!

I wanted to welcome Elle Strauss to the blog today with information about the second book in her Clockwise series! Love the new covers!

CLOCKWISER

The last year has been smooth sailing for Casey Donovan. She and her boyfriend Nate are doing better than ever, and things at home are good, too. Everything’s been so calm, she hasn’t “tripped” back to the nineteenth century in ages.
Then the unthinkable happens and she accidentally takes her rebellious brother Tim back in time. It’s 1862 with the Civil War brewing, and for Tim this spells adventure and excitement. Finding himself stuck in the past, he enlists in the Union army, but it doesn’t take long before he discovers real life war is no fun and games.
Casey and Nate race against the clock to find Tim, but the strain wears on their relationship. It doesn’t help that the intriguing new boy next door has his sights on Casey, and isn’t shy to let her know it.
Can Nate and Casey find Tim in time to save him? And is it too late to save their love?
Sales links:
Smashwords

Sample Chapter

Chapter One
CASEY
Beginning of Summer Holidays
Sometimes I wished I were an only child. But then I’d be walking or taking transit instead of getting a lift from my brother Tim in his Cavalier beater. He didn’t have air conditioning either, and the wind blowing in from our open windows was hot and moist. The humidity made me feel like I was wearing a warm, wet washcloth for a shirt.
“Can’t you drop me off first?” I said, fanning myself with my hand. I was meeting my best friend Lucinda at the mall, and she only had a thirty minute break from her job at Forever21. Plus, the mall was air conditioned. Bonus.
“I gotta get some cash first. Besides, I’m not your personal taxi service, Casey.” Tim snarled, turning the volume up on his stereo. The bass beat was so loud it rattled the trunk. “Get off your lazy butt and get your license already.”
I gave him a dirty look and reached over to turn the music down. I had a very good reason for not getting my license, but I could never tell Tim or any member of my family what it was. There were only three people currently living who knew the reason. One of them was my boyfriend Nate Mackenzie.
My heart still fluttered a bit when I thought of him in those terms. My boyfriend. Not just some out-of-reach guy I crushed hard on my whole sophomore year, but my boyfriend.
We’d already been an official couple for an entire year, totally blowing all the doomsday predictions that we’d never make it. No one thought a college boy would stick it out with a junior in high school–especially Nate’s evil former girlfriend!
But he did, and we were still going strong. I’d be starting my senior year in a few weeks and then I’d join him at Boston University, too.
“If you dropped me off first, you wouldn’t have to deal with me,” I tried to reason.
“If I didn’t shuttle you around at all I wouldn’t have to deal with you.”
The only reason he did was because my parents were putting the screws in. Tim’s bad attitude, questionable choice of friends and poor grades put him in their bad books. Driving me around was penance.
He pulled into the parking lot of the bank and hopped out, leaving the car running. I reached over and turned it off. Idling the car was bad for the environment for one, and a waste of Tim’s hard-earned minimum-wage job gas money for another. You’d think he’d know better.
I checked the time on my phone and grew anxious as Lucinda’s break time grew nearer. Tim had his back to me as he stood in line at the ATM window. I looked at my reflection in the visor mirror. Since I’d grown out of my skinny awkwardness last year (and snagged a hot boyfriend), I was more mindful of my looks. Instead of trying to hide behind a bush of dark, curly hair, I used better hair products and found a great stylist, and I liked the way my curls framed my face now. I took a tube of lip gloss out of my purse and rolled it onto my lips.
I tugged on my shorts and rubbed my bare legs. They were so long, my knees almost touched the glove compartment. Height had its advantages, but getting comfortable in a small car wasn’t one of them.
I turned the radio on and hummed along. I daydreamed about me and Nate and how we could relax for the rest of the summer, hopefully stretching the lazy days out as long as possible.
I checked the time on my phone again and immediately started stressing about being late to meet Lucinda. C’mon, Tim! He was second in line now. I texted Lucinda to let her know I might be a little late.
I heard sirens and I perked up. This wasn’t the best neighborhood. The bank wasn’t huge, just tucked into a strip mall along with a nail place, a dollar store, and a thrift shop. Litter overflowed from the bin and a good amount had been blown up against the cement foundation.
I checked on Tim. He’d finally made it to the front, the last one in line. If I’d known it was going to take him this long, I would’ve run into the dollar store and picked up cheap nail polish.
The siren noise grew increasingly louder and suddenly three cop cars pulled into the parking lot beside me. My heart jumped, and I thought fleetingly that maybe Tim was in trouble with the law again. Only, he was getting money out of the ATM, not robbing the bank.
But someone was.
Everything happened so fast.
A guy with a ski mask pushed past Tim as he ran out the bank doors. A cop shouted, “Stop or I’ll shoot,” and another masked man followed. Guns went off. Tim stood there, stunned and frozen.
I heard myself shout, “Tim!” He was right in the middle of the cross-fire!
A police officer ran to him, pushing him to the ground just as the second armed man shot in their direction. The officer fell to the ground, taking the bullet instead of Tim.
The robbers ran around the corner and out of sight, chased by police officers on foot and a cruiser down the back ally.
I sprinted to Tim where he was on the ground by the fallen cop.
“Are you okay?” I asked, my voice tight.
His face was white, and he motioned to the woman beside him. “Yeah, but I don’t think she is.”
The officer moaned, holding her hand on her chest.
“Oh, ma’am, are you okay?” I searched for blood but couldn’t see any.
“I will be,” she said gasping for breath. “I have a vest on.”
Another officer kneeled beside her. “Ambulance is on its way.”
The woman had dark hair pulled back in a low bun. Her eyes stayed pinched together and her pale face glistened with sweat. The impact of the bullet was enough to do some damage. I picked up her police hat that had fallen off her head and handed it to her.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Just doing my duty.”
The ambulance arrived. The paramedics pushed us aside and lifted the woman onto a gurney.
The cop who’d checked her pulse stepped forward from his open door cruiser. Radio dispatch noises leaked out.
I watched the ambulance pull away, siren blasting, and realized I didn’t know her name. I asked the officer standing beside me.
“That’s Officer Clarice Porter,” he said. “Now, would you two mind coming with me to the station to file a report?”
We agreed, and I took my first ride in a police car. It was Tim’s second, but his first was not for noble reasons. He still claimed it was his friend Alex, and not him, who’d stolen the cigarettes from the convenience store.
A thought like a loud banner ran through my mind as the doors of the police cruiser slammed shut and we drove away.
Clarice Porter saved my brother’s life.

  Thanks for sharing Elle! Best of luck with Clockwiser!
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It’s a Little Haywire by Elle Strauss – the story behind the story!

Elle Stauss, the author of YA time travel Clockwise, brings us her first middle grade, It’s a Little Haywire. I loved it and immediately thought of Because of Winn-Dixie as a comparison title. It’s that good.

Owen True is eleven and eleven twelfths and has been “exiled” to the small crazy town of Hayward, WA, aka, Haywire, while his mother is on her honeymoon. All he has to whittle away the time is the company of Gramps, his black lab Daisy, and his Haywire friends, Mason and Mikala Sweet. They don’t look so hot this year, in fact, the whole town has gone to pot since the mill shut down.

Owen has his first encounter with a real life homeless man who ends up needing Owen’s help in more ways than one. But how does a rich city kid help the small town’s suffering citizens?

And what is Owen to make of the fog train and its scary, otherworldy occupants that appears out of thin air on the old tracks behind Gramps’ house? Do they have the answer Owen is looking for?

And now I’ll hand over the blog to Elle!

The Story Behind the Story

It’s a Little Haywire is actually a major re-write of one of the first stories I’d ever written, way back in the day when I thought I’d like to try my hand at writing. The execution of the story was terrible, but the main idea had potential.

It came to me one night as I was falling asleep. I’d heard a train whistle, much like I had when I was child visiting the small town where my grandparents lived. I must’ve dipped into a slight dream state, because we didn’t live near train tracks at that time.

But that was the seed of the idea for the mystery train.

My oldest son was ten when our family spent some time in Germany and he wrote my parents emails about his adventures. I came across the letters last year and discovered the voice of my main character, Owen, in the voice of my son. My parents were visiting during this time, and my dad’s the guy who has a song for every situation. Suddenly, I had the two main characters and the story just clicked together. (So, yeah, that part at the beginning where I say characters resembling real people is just a coincidence–not really true in this case J.)

Both sets of my grandparents came from the same small town in Saskatchewan, Canada. I visited there every summer and clearly remember how long and stretched out the days felt and I spent a lot of time helping out in massive gardens.

You never know what life experiences will trigger creativity!

Of course, people having to deal with hardship due to tough economical times is something many people can relate to right now. I imagined how a recession situation would effect a small town like my fictional Hayward, WA, and combined with the above, turned it into IT’S A LITTLE HAYWIRE.

And right now it’s FREE on Amazon. Just for today and tomorrow!

Links:

www.ellestraussbookscom

Twitter: @elle_strauss

Facebook : Elle Strauss – Author

Thanks Elle for stopping by with It’s A Little Haywire!

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What does a tween angel and a fog train have in common?

Both are supernatural and both appear in two new terrific middle grade books by fellow Indelible authors!

If you enjoyed Kate DiCamillo’s, BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE, then you’ll enjoy IT’S A LITTLE HAYWIRE by Elle Strauss. Owen True is stuck with his Grandpa but everything has changed since the mill closed. But if the mill closed why does Owen hear train whistles?  And what’s that chuggin’ down the tracks? Fog? A ghost train? And what does it mean for Owen?

Buy it Amazon (And did I mention this one is free today? That’s right! FREE!)

If you are a bit tired of the whole angel/demon thing in YA and want something a bit on the brighter, I mean, lighter side, then read ON THE BRIGHT SIDE by S.R. Johannes. You’ll find an angel who must protect her frenemy but not everything is at it seems and Gabby has some hard lessons to learn.

Buy it Amazon (Only 99 cents!)

Buy it Barnes and Noble

Enjoy them both!

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