Nerd Blast and Giveaway: It Takes Death to Reach a Star by Stu Jones & Gareth Worthington

Series: It Takes Death To Reach A Star Duology (Book 1)
Hardcover: 324 pages
Publisher: Vesuvian Books; (March 3, 2020)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1645480127
ISBN-13: 978-1645480129

Praise for IT TAKES DEATH TO REACH A STAR

"...merging the best of apocalyptic fiction and sci-fi ... compelling." —Library Journal

"Cinematic, thought-provoking, immersive ... in the manner of the novels of Philip K. Dick." —Booklist

"[I] cannot fathom how Stu Jones and Gareth Worthington created this masterpiece." - Reader's Favorite.
"This was one of the most original books I have read in a long time. I was completely transfixed from beginning to end.- This book gets a perfect score (which is rare!) - editing, format, layout, etc., all well done" —Feathered Quill Award Judges

WE ALL HAVE DEMONS. SOME DEMONS HAVE YOU.

The world you know is dead. We did this to ourselves.

The epidemic struck at the end of the Third World War. Fighting over oil, power, and religion, governments ignored the rise of an antibacterial-resistant plague. In just five years, the Earth was annihilated. Only one city survived—Etyom—a frozen hellhole in northern Siberia, engulfed in endless conflict.

The year is 2251.

Two groups emerged from the ashes of the old world. Within the walled city of Lower Etyom dwell the Robusts—descendants of the poor who were immune to the New Black Death. Above them, in a metropolis of pristine platforms called lillipads, live the Graciles—the progeny of the superrich, bio-engineered to resist the plague.

Mila Solokoff is a Robust who trades information in a world where knowing too much can get you killed. Caught in a deal gone bad, she's forced to take a high-risk job for a clandestine organization hell-bent on revolution.

Demitri Stasevich is a Gracile with a dark secret—a sickness that, if discovered, will get him Ax'd. His only relief is an illegal narcotic produced by the Robusts, and his only means of obtaining it is a journey to the arctic hell far below New Etyom.

Thrust together in the midst of a sinister plot that threatens all life above and below the cloud line, Mila and Demitri must master their demons and make a choice—one that will either salvage what's left of the human race or doom it to extinction …

You can purchase It Takes Death to Reach a Star at the following Retailers:

 

Photo Content from both Stu Jones and Gareth Worthington.

A veteran law enforcement officer, Stu Jones has worked as a beat cop, an investigator, an instructor of firearms and police defensive tactics and as a member and team leader of a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. He is trained and qualified as a law enforcement SWAT sniper, as well as in hostage rescue and high-risk entry tactics. Most recently, Stu served for three years with a U.S. Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force - hunting the worst of the worst.

Stu’s passion for writing developed during his years in college while obtaining his bachelor’s degree in history. In the years that followed, Stu published three faith-based post-apocalyptic novels – the Action of Purpose trilogy.

Stu's most recent published work is the award-winning futuristic thriller, It Takes Death To Reach A Star, written with co-author Gareth Worthington(Children of the Fifth Sun). It was published by Vesuvian books in May of 2018. He is currently working with Gareth Worthington on the follow-up to "Star" as well as other joint and solo projects.

Known for his character-driven stories and blistering action sequences, Stu strives to create thought-provoking reading experiences that challenge the status quo. When he’s not chasing bad guys or writing epic stories, he can be found planning his next adventure to some remote or exotic place.

Stu is represented by Italia Gandolfo of Gandolfo-Helin-Fountain literary. He lives in Alabama with his wife, two children, and a golden-doodle who thinks he's human.
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE | GOODREADS

Gareth Worthington is a trained marine biologist and also holds a doctorate in comparative endocrinology. Currently, Gareth works full time for the Pharmaceutical industry helping to educate the World's doctors on new cancer therapies. In his spare time Gareth has a number of passions, including: martial arts - he trained in Muay Thai at the prestigious EVOLVE MMA gym in Singapore and currently trains in MMA at Phoenix Sportkampf, Switzerland; playing acoustic guitar; studying ancient history; drawing; and most of all writing fiction.

An award winning author, he hopes to one day hang up the pharma hat and write full time.

You can visit his author page and blog at www.garethworthington.com
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE | GOODREADS

*JBN is not responsible for Lost or Damaged Books in your Nerdy Mail Box*

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News

Readers,

So for those of you who have followed me or just stopped by to check out what I had to offer might have noticed that this last year, my postings slowed down near the end of the year. I had a lot happening this year, and I still do. So it may look like I am re-inventing my blog, but the changes that were made are because I am longer running my blog solo, and may eventually give it completely to the new blogger that will be writing and posting with me. It may take some time before anything else really changes, but expect by April or May to see the blog because active with at least 2-3 posts per week while we both adjust to this.

To give you an idea of what each of us will be reviewing. I will mostly be doing MG and YA, while she will cover YA, NA, and Adult novels.

Thanks,

Chelsea and now Nicole.

Hocus Pocus Read-a-Thon (October 1st - 13th) TBR

This is the first year that I have heard about the Hocus Pocus Read-a-thon. Basically, there are three teams with different reading challenges they must complete between the 1st of October to the 13th of October. You can read more in the original post on twitter here. You can find this post on my YA Blog here.

I am on the Team Sanderson Sisters. And my challenges are below:

Read a Book with a Witchy Main Character

For this challenge, I have picked the Bone Witch because Tea is a Bone Witch, and I have been dying to read this book for awhile now. I am listening to the audiobook version to fill in at times when I can't physically read.

Read a Book with a Female Protagonist

For this challenge, I picked Lonely Dead because it's a mystery with a paranormal twist, perfect for this challenge. It is my shortest book that I picked up for this challenge, being only 240 pages, so hopefully, I can read it in a day.

Read a Book that is Spellbindingly Atmospheric

For this challenge, I am reading Witchtown. I happened to stumble across this book randomly, and I decided to pick it up since it's a town full of witches... I mean what could be more of a spellbinding atmosphere.

Read a Book that Frightens You

So this challenge was kind of hard to pick a book for because I don't really get scared when reading. So I took it a different route, and decided for this challenge, I am going to read a nonfiction book with events that are scary. I am planning on reading Most Dangerous Animal of All, but I'm basically looking to read a True Crime novel for this challenge if I don't get to that book.

Read a Book with a Powerful Villain

For this challenge, I currently have Vicious picked out because I heard that the main character is a villain if I remember correctly. This one is the one that is most likely to change if I do change any book that I read for this challenge.

Read the Group Book

For this challenge, there are two group books: Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel and Serpent & Dove. I want to read Serpent & Dove for this challenge, but I don't currently have it, so if it comes down to it, I will be reading Hocus Pocus.

Watch Hocus Pocus

Spookathon (October 14th-20th) TBR

Last year, I had planned to participate, and I can't recall if I did or not, but this year, I am definitely planning to get around to it. Here is the link to the Spookathon. You can find this post on my YA Blog here.

The prompts for this readathon and my planned TBR is as follows:

Read a Thriller

I have a lot of options for this prompt, but the one I picked up is Mother-In-Law. I plan to listen to the audiobook version.

Read a Book with a Spooky Setting

The book I have chosen for this prompt is In a Cottage In a Wood, because that would be a spooky location. If for whatever reason while reading, this book ends up not fitting the setting, I have a few other books that could fit.

Read a Book with a Spooky Word in the Title

The Spooky word I chose for this prompt is Ghost, so my book is Gap Year in Ghost Town. I randomly stumbled upon this book at the library, so I hope that I end up liking it.

Read a Book with Red on the Cover

Another prompt that I have many options for, but what I ended up going with is Doll House.

Read a Book that I Normally Wouldn't Read

I don't have a book picked out for this challenge.

May, June, July, August, and September Wrap-Up and October TBR

During May through September, I read a total of 

Across the months, I read some short stories and novellas, listened to some audiobooks, and read some other books. 

For my shorter novellas that I read, there were eight of them. One of which was my first story by Stephen King. Out of all of the short stories, my favorite was Murders of Molly Southbourne.



I read one graphic novel, which was part of Wicked & Divine.



I also read four nonfiction novels. One was a science, another was poetry, one was true crime, and the final was a graphic novel.



And then I read a total of five full-length novels, which caught me up with my Lady Darby and Ruth Ware novels (mostly). I still have one final Ruth Ware novel to read at this point I believe. The sad part about this is that I no longer have any more Lady Darby novels until April of next year (and then according to Anna Lee Huber's website, there will be three more - which is exciting and saddening because I want more but I have to wait for so long).

In the month of October, I am doing two readathons so I have some books planned for both of those which I would read probably anyway because they are mostly thrillers/mysteries/horror novels, with one or two exceptions.