Book Blitz + #Giveaway: Sunset Rising Trilogy by S.M. McEachern @smmceachern @XpressoReads @XpressoTours #XpressoBookTour

Sunset Rising Trilogy
S.M. McEachern
(Sunset Rising #1-3)
Publication date: December 25th 2015
Genres: Dystopia, Young Adult

Limited Time Preorder price of just $4.99! Have it delivered December 25th!

Special edition of the ebook set of the Sunset Rising Trilogy, which includes: Sunset Rising, Worlds Collide, New World Order, and-available in ebook format for the first time-all seven satellite stories!

Sunset Rising: Born a slave inside a government biodome, seventeen-year-old Sunny O'Donnell becomes a pawn in a political plot that sparks a rebellion. Accused of treason and facing execution, she escapes with a man she considers an enemy and discovers she not only has to work with him to survive, but also lead the revolution.

A Readers Favorite 2015 Book Award Gold Medal winner!

Worlds Collide: Sunny and Jack must continue a life of subterfuge in order to stay alive and find a way to free the Pit. But in their attempt to save the urchins, they uncover the horrifying truth about President Holt and the evil he could unleash on the world.

New World Order: While Sunny and Jack struggle to find each other in the lawless post-apocalyptic world, tensions between the Pit and the Dome escalate. In the action-packed conclusion of the Sunset Rising Trilogy, friends will become enemies and enemies will become friends on a journey that will lead to a new world order.

Satellite Stories: For the first time in ebook format, the seven satellite stories are included with the trilogy. Find out what's happening in the Pit between books one and two, and get a closer look at some of the other people in Sunny's life.

Goodreads / Amazon

The Sunset Rising Trilogy ebook boxed set is up for the special pre-order price of $4.99 and includes seven satellite stories.

EXCERPT BOOK 1 - Sunset Rising:

(Sunny O'Donnell and Jack Kenner on starting a rebellion)

I went at him as fast as I could, and when I saw the nose of the gun come up, I pushed it down and used it to give me balance. I raised my leg and kicked him in his side. His grip on the gun loosened for a second, and I grabbed it with both hands while swinging my leg in a backward arc that brought me behind him. I brought the gun up under his throat and held it there. I heard people clapping and looked up to see them staring at me.

"You do catch on quickly," Jack said, smiling.

I loosened my grip on the rifle, and he lowered it. "Am I scaring you, Jack?"

Suddenly Jack's hands were on me, and he threw me over his hip. I hit the floor with an ungraceful flop.

"A little bit." He stepped away and left me to pick myself up. "It's going to be lights out soon, so we should wrap it up," he said to the room.

"Can we try again tomorrow?" Raine asked.

Jack looked around the room to see if anyone else was interested. Most people wanted to come back. Jack asked the guards, and they agreed as well.

"You were amazing tonight," Jack said once we were alone. "You blew me away."

"I guess it went well."

"You were great, but we only had maybe fifty people in that room, not nearly enough to take on the few hundred guards that patrol down here. I told you before, power comes with numbers, and we don't have numbers."

"I don't think we stand much of a chance anyway. I expect someone in that room will gladly turn us in for the four hundred credits Holt is offering."

When we arrived at our apartment, I scanned my hand across the lock and went in.

"I know. I think that too." Jack shut the door behind him. Then he picked up one of the chairs and put it under the doorknob. I gave him an inquisitive look. "At least it will give us a little notice if someone comes."

"I've always known we'll be caught eventually, but now that it might be real, I'm scared."

I didn't want to die now that I had found a reason to live. I wanted to see this rebellion through and free Summer from Holt; have the chance to find my father if he was still alive; help liberate the Pit from centuries of slavery. I wanted time to finish what we started.

"You're scared?" he asked in surprise. "I can't believe the girl who stood up on a chair and convinced an entire room to start a rebellion is scared."

"And you're not?"

"Terrified. Hey, what was wrong with Raine's wife? She seemed a little out of it."

"Women get that way after they're sterilized."

"After they're what?"

"Sterilized." He had an odd look on his face. "You must know about the Sterilization Program. Your government came up with it ten years ago. If a couple doesn't qualify to have a child, the woman is sterilized, and whatever they inject her with makes her go… blank. The injection changes a woman.

She's not as full of life as she used to be."

Jack was staring at me with a horrified look on his face when the lights went out, leaving us in darkness. Maybe he didn't know about that program.

"We should get some sleep," I said.

"I'll take the chair."

"No. We shared last night, we can do it again tonight." Considering the way I responded to his kiss this morning, it probably wasn't a good idea. But we both needed a decent sleep. Jack was exhausted from sleeping in the chair, and I couldn't afford to be tired and sloppy with Madi as my supervisor.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just stay on your on side of the bed." But I didn't really mean it. I walked toward the bedroom.

"That bed isn't big enough to have sides." He stumbled after me, knocking a chair over.

"You really can't see, can you?"

"And you're surprised? It's pitch black in here."

I took him by the hand and guided him toward the bedroom. He took off his t-shirt and flopped down on the bed. Since he was blind in the dark, I stripped off my vest and put my t-shirt back on before I climbed in.

"It's not pitch black in here. The guards use nightlights, and it leaks into the apartment."

He opened his eyes as wide as he could and looked around the room. "I guess you have to born in the Pit to find light where there isn't any."

I rolled that thought over in my mind and realized just how true it was.

EXCERPT BOOK 2 - Worlds Collide:

(Sunny O'Donnell on learning the impact the Dome will have on the outside world)

Bile rose in my throat. An image of my people-my mother-being herded into a garbage chute that doubled as a gas chamber played out like a horror movie in my head.

"Sunny?" Dena said.

I hadn't realized that I was actually gagging. Choking back the bile, I faked a cough to conceal my nausea. Jack's hand sought mine under the table and I reached for him, finding strength in the contact.
I'm not sure why I felt a twinge of shame. It's not as if the Cull was my fault. My people were the victims of an unjust treaty. But still, I didn't know how to explain that to Dena. I didn't know how to tell her that we were consenting participants.

Jack gave my hand a gentle squeeze. "I can see how a pile of bones gives credibility to the legend of Yugo, the giant cannibal."

"Only now we know it's not a giant cannibal from the scorched lands living in the mountain."

"No, it isn't." The corners of Jack's mouth turned down for an instant. "The real monster living inside that mountain is a whole lot scarier."

"How scary?"

Jack looked down at our clasped hands and bit his lower lip. "Nuclear-weapons kind of scary."

Dena blew out a long breath, as if she had been holding it.

"They would never use the warheads as a first line of defense," Jack said quickly. "Their first strike will be with conventional weapons."

"Conventional weapons?"

"Guns, maybe grenades…a drone."

"What's a drone?"

"A remotely operated aircraft equipped with surveillance and weapons."

Dena let out a short, sarcastic laugh. "Lucky for us they won't be using the nuclear weapons." She sobered. "We've had some clashes with recruiters and a few run-ins with hunters, but never an enemy this strong."

"Recruiters?" asked Jack. I remembered Jin mentioning recruiters and hunters.

"Ryder's men," she said. She stared back at our blank expressions. "Forgive me. I forget that even though you're from around here, you're not from around here. Thomas Ryder is the self-proclaimed leader of the biggest settlement in the south. He's power hungry and wants to control the territory. He demands rent payments from anyone setting up a home or a farm on what he's declared to be his lands. Payment must be made in the form of food, fuel, pieces of technology, or whatever they happen to have-although most have nothing. Our nation has grown a lot in the past few years because of him."

"Why does he need recruits?" Jack asked.

"About fifteen years ago, northerners came south during the winter months in search of food. Some of the farmers that pay Ryder rent complained, so Ryder sent his men to chase them back north. It caused bad blood and they've been fighting ever since."

"Let me guess," Jack said. "He's not exactly asking people to join his army."

"No. He recruits by force," Dena said.

"What about the north? Do they recruit too?" I asked.

"Daemon leads the north and from what we hear, he's worse than Ryder. It's rumored he sends children into battle-that he hides behind them."

Every word she spoke was like a boulder being dropped on to my childhood fantasies, smashing them to little bits. Summer and I had always imagined that once we were released from the bonds of the treaty, we would live a peaceful, free life on a sun-drenched Earth. The world Dena was describing was anything but peaceful. It was more like the war was still being fought.

"Three hundred years later, and we're still fighting," I said.

"We were always taught that, with the exception of us, humanity had been wiped from the planet,"

Jack said. "It's hard for me to comprehend that the population is already large enough to be fighting over territory."

"It's not about territory," Dena said. "Thousands of kilometers of uninhabited land separate the south from the north. Their fight is over dominance and it's fuelled by hatred."

EXCERPT BOOK 3 - New World Order:

(Sunny O'Donnell, travelling through a landscape 300 years after the apocalypse)

I opened my eyes and looked around, wondering how long I had been asleep. My neck was stiff from the way I'd slept propped up against the rail. When I'd crawled into the back of the wagon this morning, I figured the stench alone would keep me awake. It smelled exactly as I imagined the sewer in the Pit probably smelled. So I used my blanket as a barrier between the stained boards and me, balling Jack's t-shirt against my nose to block the stench. Hayley raised an eyebrow when she saw the shirt, but I ignored her. She was still behaving sheepishly over letting her tough-girl exterior slip when she had almost been eaten by a tiger, so I figured she couldn't say much about my attachment to a piece of cloth.

The sun was warm today, even in its late afternoon position, and insects buzzed around the bears and us. In the wagon with me, Reyes was sprawled out flat in the middle with Summer tucked against him and using his shoulder as a pillow, and a still-unconscious Zach was at the back, closest to the rumps of the beasts pulling us. From my position against the side rail, Hayley rode her bike across from me, and Jin-Sook and Eli were behind me, also riding bikes.

I kind of smiled when I remembered how mad Hayley had been when she'd found out the
"heathens" (she'd whispered to me in a low tone) knew how to operate Dome vehicles. I was forced to confess that Jack and I had borrowed a few from inventory and permanently loaned them to Dena's barangay so they could have a little fun. That explanation hadn't helped her mood any more than being forced to spend the day escorting our bear-drawn wagon with two heathens for comrades.
From behind my sunglasses, I studied Hayley. She had taken off her jacket and cap under the warm sun and she looked a lot smaller without the added bulk. Her t-shirt hugged her lean, sculpted physique, making me wonder how much time she spent in the gym. Yet despite the tough image, her big brown eyes and the soft brown curls framing her face gave her a very vulnerable, feminine quality. She carried herself with a superior arrogance not uncommon among bourge upper crust, but after watching her yesterday I wondered how much of that was an act.

I was still a little in shock that Reyes had comforted her after the tiger incident. He hated the bourge; she despised urchins. Water and oil, yet they somehow came together-if only for a few moments-even though awkwardness had set in when they parted. The thing was that those few moments were affectionate. Not that I personally cared if they decided to start something with each other. But on a greater scale, I figured if those two haters could overcome their prejudices enough to be friends, then there was hope for everyone else.

Hayley cast a sidelong glance at Reyes' and Summer's sleeping figures, and I quickly closed my eyes so she wouldn't catch me staring at her. Then I remembered I had my sunglasses on and she couldn't see my eyes anyway. I opened them again, but her focus was back on the trail in front of her.
I knew there was no romance between my best friend and my ex. A few months after we had been liberated from the Pit, I gave Summer a little push toward Reyes. During my engagement to him, she had never been shy about telling me what a catch he was, so I let her know that I wouldn't mind if they started a relationship. She laughed and assured me that Reyes was like her brother. The thought of ever kissing him "that way" was gross.

My neck really was stiff, and I finally moved, stretching it one way and then the other. A distant whirring, like that of a motor, made me sit up straight. I strained to make it out.

"You hear it too?" Hayley asked.

I nodded. "What is it?"

"I don't know. It's the second time today we've heard it."

"Maybe we're getting close to the city," Eli said. "Ryder has quite a setup for recycling plastic."

That perked me up. Was I close to Jack? I turned around to look at Eli. "How much farther, do you think?"

"I don't know," he said. "We haven't come to the old city yet."

"The old city?"

"I'll know it when I see it," Eli said.

I noticed sweat rolling down Jin-Sook's face. She looked to be in a lot of pain. I stood and stretched my stiff joints. "I need to move. Mind if I ride for a while, Jin?"

She didn't hesitate. "Sure."

Before I left the back of the wagon, I dug into my backpack, took a painkiller out of my first aid kit, and gave it to Jin as we switched places. We fell a little behind, but Eli stayed back with us to keep a lookout for cats. We caught up to the wagon, and Jin-Sook hopped in the back. I pulled my bike alongside Hayley.

"You doing okay?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes at me. "Yeah, I know I lost my cool. Rub it in, Sunshine."

I blew out a sigh. Did she ever switch off the tough-girl act? "I didn't mean anything by it, Hayley. I would've been terrified by that cat too."

"It's just-" She stopped and closed her mouth tight for a moment. "I sent my men away. It was stupid of me."

It took me a second, but then the implication of what she'd said dawned on me. She had sent three of her soldiers to escort Wilcox back to the Dome, keeping only Zach and Jonas with her. Zach was unconscious, and Jonas had deserted her, leaving her alone to rely on a group of urchins and heathens when faced with death.

"Hopefully you know that you can trust us now," I said.

Her expression was contrite. "At least until we get home, right? Then we're back on opposite sides of the fight."

It wasn't unexpected that war was on her mind. Ever since Reyes' confession, I had been worried about the same thing. But it was surprising that she was bringing it up to me. At first I wasn't sure how to respond. I didn't agree with violence as the way to resolve our issues, but I understood why the Pit would choose that route.

"Are you blaming the Pit for the fighting?" I asked.

She turned a sharp look on me, but within a few seconds her features relaxed. "I don't know anymore. Alex, Jack, and I have been friends since we were kids. I knew something was-"

She stopped talking and shook her head. "But Alex?"

My eyes shifted between looking at Hayley and navigating the path in front of me. "You know something, don't you?"

She heaved a sigh. "Just rumors. And I never act on rumors."

I didn't push her for more information. The thread of trust that was growing between us was too weak to support rumors. Better to deal in truths.

We drove in silence for a while, and I allowed myself the indulgence of appreciating my surroundings. The trees were a little different from the ones I was used to seeing in the mountains, and their branches were thick with buds. There seemed to be more birds flitting through them and more animal burrows by their roots too.

Then we rounded a bend, and the sight that greeted us was so startling that I almost fell off my bike.

"What the-" Hayley breathed. At least she could form words. My mouth was too busy hanging open.

"There it is," Eli said. He smiled broadly at our expressions. "The old city."

It stretched as far as the eye could see. Tall, crumbling spires rising out of the forest like monolithic giants, their iron skeletons broken and rusted to a bloody brown. I had never seen anything like it. The old city Jack and I had explored seemed like nothing more than a village compared to the sprawling expanse of this kingdom. How many people must have lived there? Millions? More? Stark against the intense blue of the sky, the disintegrating spires were an ominous headstone for a civilization that had once ruled the earth.

Author Bio:
S.M. McEachern (also known as Susan) comes from the rocky shores of Canada's East Coast. As a resident of Halifax during her early adult years, she attended Dalhousie University and earned an Honors Degree in International Development Studies with a focus on ocean development. Throughout her academic studies and early career, Susan had the privilege to study and work with Elizabeth Mann Borgese (daughter of nobel prize winner, Thomas Mann). An author in her own right and a political activist for world peace, Mrs. Mann Borgese played a significant influence on Susan's view of the political world stage.

Sunset Rising is Susan's debut novel, which was published in November 2012. The second novel of the series, Worlds Collide was released in March 2014 and she is currently working on the third book of the series titled, New World Order, due to be released January 2015. For writing inspiration, Susan likes to go on long walks with her iPod (Keane and Moby are among her favorites). A few fun facts about Susan: she loves lattes, red wine, snorkelling, hiking and talking about herself in the third person.