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Thursday, April 12, 2018

Blog Tour- SHADOW CALL by AdriAnne Strickland & Michael Miller An Except & Giveaway!



Hey everyone! I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the blog tour for SHADOW CALL by AdriAnne Strickland & Michael Miller! I adore Adri and Michael and this book is just as amazing as the first one!

I have an excerpt to share with you today! And make sure to enter the giveaway below!


Haven't heard of SHADOW CALL? Check it out!



Title: SHADOW CALL (Kaitan Chronicles #2)
Author: AdriAnne Strickland & Michael Miller
Pub. Date: April 17, 2018
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 432
Find it: AmazonB&NiBooksTBDGoodreads
His throne. Her rebellion. Their war.


Qole is the youngest starship captain in living memory on her homeworld of Alaxak and has spent her life hunting a dangerous energy source called Shadow. Alaxans distrust and evade the galaxy’s royalty as a rule, but Qole is now harboring the exiled Prince Nevarian Dracorte, along with some very conflicting feelings about it—and him.


Nev’s feelings are just as complicated, but not towards her. When it comes to Qole, he knows one thing: he’d do anything to stay with her. But when Alaxak is attacked and Nev finds himself framed for murder, he realizes the only way to help Qole and her people is to fight for the throne that should be his. To become the royal she might hate.


As for Qole, she would never have imagined herself as the leader of a rebellion. Despite that, she soon realizes that hiding from her power is no longer an option. It’s time to answer the call, even if it kills her.

Now on to the excerpt!

“It’s about your Rendering, and your Flight,” he said. “You need to complete these important rites of passage for anyone to truly take you seriously as heiress.”

That was almost enough to make both my feet and my smile slip. I hadn’t expected him to want me to pass the test of the Rendering at all, or complete a Flighta solo mission to bring something of value back to the familyquite so quickly. I had some thoughts on where I could go on my Flight to improve diplomatic ties with our family, but

“That wouldn’t be to Embra, would it?” Father said flatly, with a sardonic lift of one brow.

Embra was the Belarius homeworld. Heathran’s. Father thought I wanted to use an honored family tradition in order to go flirt. He was taking me as seriously as Marsius was.

I carried on, ignoring both him and my white-hot flash of rage. “But surely you don’t expect me to complete the Render­ing. Nev did that when he was eight!”

He spun me in a circle. “All the more reason you should be able to admirably undergo it at age eighteen.”

I laughed as I came back to him, though I wished I could scream. “You expect me, in these heels, to stand around with weights on my shoulders for an entire night in front of an au­dience just to prove I can?”

“It’s to prove your dedication to

“I know the symbolism,” I snapped, my cheerful façade breaking for just a moment. 

“And I know my dedication to my family and my subjects can be demonstrated in other ways.” I couldn’t help a smirk. “Have Marsius stand in for me. He’s young and resilient.”

No one else would have noticed, but Father missed a beat. “You can’t be serious. You would allow your little brother to accept your burden?”

 “It’s called a joke, Father dear,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Must every moment be serious unto death?”

Father’s face was a perfect mask for the dancers around us. “I’m disheartened to see that being made heiress has done nothing for your sense of responsibility or decorum.”

My hand clenched sharply in his. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do more, tear away or crush his fingers. Would that I could do either without causing a scene.

Father shot me a disapproving look at what he probably perceived as a childish show of emotion. “However, I can’t say as I’m surprised. Which is why I’ve just come from speaking with Gavros.”

Whatever they’d spoken of, then, it couldn’t be good. “Gavros . . .” I acted as though I couldn’t quite place the name. “Gavros Dracorte? The general? Some second cousin or an­other of yours?”

“He’s a royal of the finest breeding, and of the highest military distinction. Qualities which will make him an excel­lent match.”

Match. The word was like a punch to the stomach. “For whom?” I asked, even though I knew.

“For you, of course. Don’t be obtuse.”

It took everything I had not to come to a halt, to let him lead me in a few more steps. 
To follow like an animal to the slaughter. “But he’s old.” Gavros was younger than Father by a score of years, but he was still over twice my age.

“He is hale and in his prime, with an unparalleled grasp of strategy. You’ll find his intellectual prowess stimulating,” Fa­ther insisted in that tone of his, as if he could direct gravity to weigh more heavily upon me. “Anyway, you knew long ago that your eventual royal partner wouldn’t be someone you’ve flirted with at a party.” His eyes flicked in Heathran’s direction.

 “And you can never pollute the Dracorte name with another royal line. Not even one that some may see as superior to ours.”

I didn’t bother telling him that I agreed. I took a deep breath and murmured quietly, 
“That’s why I never intend to marry.”

Father paused for less than a beat this time, as if he was ready for combat. “You will put the stability of the entire sys­tem at risk for a childish whim?” Weighty or not, his voice was still calm. Rather, it was my hand that twitched in his again. Childish whim? Hadn’t Nev been the one to give up the throne over an infatuation, putting us all in this position in the first place? “Solara, we are talking about the fate of our family, not a game.”

True. The game was up.

“Perhaps you’re right.” My vision glossed in tears, and I lifted my lids enough so that only Father might see them, looking entirely vulnerable despite how he might hate it. I kept my voice low. “I’m not ready for this, especially not mar­riage. Nev had his whole life to prepare for rule, to accept the responsibility. I thought I would have more time to adjust.”

But Father hadn’t given me any time.

“We’re not talking about him,” Father growled under his breath, sending me into another spin that was a little too fast.

“Why aren’t we?” I’d promised Marsius, after all. It was just happening sooner than I’d expected. “Everyone thinks Nev should be here instead of me, only no one is saying it aloud.” I held Father’s eyes as he led me in a complex series of steps, and he blinked first. I’d watched him stare down my brothers more times than I could count, but he’d never managed the same with me. “If you believe I’m not cut out for ruling, then just say so.”

“Nevarian”he had a difficult time saying the nameis a traitor to the throne. Your throne, someday, even though you seem not to care much about it. I don’t want to hear his name again.” This lapse in Nev’s duty was a failure to be taken so seriously it couldn’t even be discussed, not childishness, as he saw my own shortcomings. Even as a disappointment, Nev had done better than I, in Father’s eyes. “He is no longer our concern.”

Father sounded like he meant it, but my older brother still had worth to many here, not the least of whom were Mother and Marsius. Many people still looked to him, idolized him, even in his absence, even after all the damage he’d done to our capital, 
Dracorva.

No one would take me seriously as his replacement. I cast a glance at the farthest planet in the model of our system, its sun a faint spark at the distant edge of the ceiling, nearly lost in darkness, where Nev was spending his exile with his com­mon girl.

“Erratic, irresponsible notions such as these are all the more reason for you to make haste in marrying,” Father continued. “Gavros will be able to support you, guide you in decisions

Rule for you, make you into a figurehead.

“I refuse to marry him, or anyone.” My voice turned to steel, slicing through the lecture and making Father blink and miss another step. “And you can’t make me.”
He stared for a long moment. I could see the flash of des­peration, as brief as the twitch of my hand, in his eyes. Our family was in peril, and yet he viewed me, a young woman as­suming the throne alone, as its greatest danger. In that moment, if there was a way he could have forced me to marry, I knew he would have.

And I hated him for it.

“You yourself just conceded that you aren’t ready for this responsibility,” Father said slowly, “and yet you refuse my solu­tion. What exactly are you proposing?”

“If I need help, there is one person who has trained for this from birthif no longer to rule, then to advise me as I rule, from behind the throne. His failures will be hidden in my shadow, and his strengths will become mine. We need to go to Alaxak.” My voice didn’t waver now. “That will be my Flight. And”I swallowedI promise Ill complete the Rendering afterward.”

Father only had to see Nev again and he would understand. No doubt he believed Nev to be an unforgivable traitor. But perhaps not before he would at least try to treat with him. Try to see him differently, despite his past behaviorthe same courtesy he refused to extend to me.

When he met Mother’s eyes across the ballroom, I knew then that he would do it. Mother missed Nev. Underneath all her layers of prim and proper, she was completely sentimental at heart. Father missed him too, but the difference was that she’d admit it.

The music swelled. Despite losing Heathran for the mo­ment, the night was indeed mine.


Want more? Go to Bookhounds YA on 4/18 for the next part!



About Adrianne & Michael:


ADRIANNE STRICKLAND and MICHAEL MILLER met in their hometown of Palmer, Alaska, where they agreed on 99% of book taste and thus decided to write together. Adri spends her summers as a commercial fisherwoman in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and the rest of the year writing. Michael grew up off the grid in a homestead in Alaska and now works in IT and tech. This is their second book together.

Find AdriAnne:

Find Michael:



Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of SHADOW CALL, US Only.


Ends on May 4th at Midnight EST!
a Rafflecopter giveaway




Tour Schedule:

Week One:
4/2/2018- Here's to Happy EndingsReview
4/3/2018- Wonder StruckReview
4/4/2018- Rhythmicbooktrovert - Review
4/5/2018- Jena Brown WritesReview
4/6/2018- YA ObsessedReview

Week Two:
4/9/2018- Emily Reads EverythingReview
4/10/2018- laura's bookish cornerReview
4/11/2018- Literary MeanderingsExcerpt
4/12/2018- Two Chicks on BooksExcerpt
4/13/2018- Good Choice ReadingReview

Week Three:
4/16/2018- Rachel's Book ReviewsReview
4/17/2018- Skye's ScribblingsReview
4/18/2018- BookHounds YAExcerpt
4/19/2018- The Desert BibliophileReview
4/20/2018- Seeing Double in NeverlandExcerpt

Week Four:
4/23/2018- Book-KeepingReview
4/24/2018- lori's little house of reviewsReview
4/25/2018- Books at DawnExcerpt
4/26/2018- Read. Eat. Love.Review
4/27/2018- MNBernard BooksExcerpt

Week Five:
4/30/2018- Smada's Book SmackReview

Grab book 1 now!

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