A.G. Chambers

Excerpt and guest post by A.G. Chambers. Review by Cloey.

The Jaded Youth Tour

Every once in a while I find a book that causes me to pause and take a closer look. Jaded Rein was one of them. I was looking for a paranormal romance and when I came across it - I thought "Dopplegangers and assassins  hmm, this is different for me and it's a paranormal romance - I have got to read this one. And I am glad I did. Now A.G. Chambers has another book in the series... yaaaay! Jaded Youth and I am happy to have it featured on my blog so please join me in welcoming A.G. Chambers to Cloey's. Check out her sites and let us know what you think of Dopplegangers with with a twist of romance.

First off, I’d just like to say thank you for having me here on your blog!!

Usually the first question I get asked is why I was inspired to write about Doppelgangers, so I’m going to give you a bit more of a back story as to how that came about. My general answer is that my mother used to get Dakota Fanning and I confused when we were younger, which is true. I once presented her with a photo of Dakota that I’d found on the internet and she proceeded to tell me ‘I remember taking that photo of you.’

From then on I’ve developed this knack for finding other people’s ‘twins’. I constantly point out to my friends who they look like and they find it quite eerie to be honest!

But as a reader I was never into sci-fi. I didn’t enjoy the concept of stories set in space so that was Stark Trek and Star Wars out of the question, Twilight put me off vampires for life and werewolves always seemed to come hand to hand with vampires. But one day I read a book based on shape shifters and Psy beings (people with multiple mental skills such as telepathic or telekinetic) by a fellow Kiwi author, Nalini Singh, and I found that I fell in love with paranormal romance. So I decided to write my own novel using a concept that had very rarely been explored (i.e. Doppelgangers) in a bid to make readers, such as myself, begin to enjoy science fiction again.

My best piece of advice to fellow writers in this sense is to make the characters realistic. You can be as detailed with you like with your setting imagery, as complicated as you wish with your plot but if your readers can’t connect with your characters then you have no chance of roping them in and connecting them to the story, especially when you use a very ‘outlandish’ concept such as Doppelgangers.

I hope this little excerpt below gives you some sense of how my characters in the ‘Jaded’ series interact with one another and you as the reader  :)

‘Urgh, he was such a pig. No he wasn’t a pig, he was…a slug. Yes that was much better, a slug that just crawled around after everyone.’ She knew why he was acting this way of course, it was because he was in line for a big promotion. What with his Orb’s anchoring, and being so bloody perfect in all his tasks ever since the battle with DINM, the whole team knew it was coming. And he deserved it, truly he did. After all he had even been there for her when she was on her deathbed. But she knew what his promotion really meant for her. She’d be stuck as the baby newcomer, alone, forced to do the mundane tasks that the team, namely Jade and Rein, managed to scrape up for her. 

‘Damn him, just damn him, for everything.’ And just like that, he was there in front of her. ‘Oh double damn, shit, fuckety fuck.’ 

“Hey Jo-jo, penny for those thoughts?” He grinned in an attempt to melt the scowl off her face. She stared thunderously back which only widened his grin further. 

“Leave me alone Adrian. I’m not in the mood.” 

“The mood for what?”

“You.”

Adrian’s expression morphed into surprised shock. “What is it about me that bugs you so much huh?”

“Everything!” She tried to shake him off by picking up her pace as she hiked up the dirt track that led to the higher ground that surrounded the team’s base. 

“Oh, no, no, no, don’t think you’re getting off that easy honey.” Within a few strides he stood ahead of her. 

“If I was a bee, I would sting you,” she threatened, Adrian’s endearment in no way appreciated. 

“And in death you would know I was the last person you touched.”

“Urgh, you disgust me.” Joanna unwillingly conceded defeat. 

“Aw, don’t be like that Jo-jo, come on, what’s wrong?” His voice softened slightly as he wrapped a warm arm snug against her waist, tempting Joanna to reveal all. She thought better of it and shrugged him off. 

“I said, leave me alone.” 

Adrian fell out of line with Jo as she stormed further up the track. His grin fell into a grimace that mimicked Jo’s own expression. So much for that going well. He hadn’t even told her the plan that Jade and Rein had come up with, so now it looked like she was going to get jumped with that information too. Great, another thing he would probably be blamed for in Joanna’s eyes.

Wanting to punch the nearest tree but knowing Daria would kill him for any injury, Adrian settled for stripping off his shirt with a growl and setting off for a run at a punishing pace.

Kindle

Amazon UK

Amazon USA

Lulu

Book Description:

DINM’s destruction has made Jade’s team invincible in the eyes of every other Doppelganger, giving Adrian and Joanna the chance to finally prove themselves, explore the terms of their new contracts and the tempestuous relationship brewing between them.

Both have secrets, nightmares, memories that would be better off buried in the past and people they wish they could forget. Joining together might just give them the redemption they both so badly crave. But with an overprotective brother and a newly found Fettle DP that has sent Joanna’s emotional control into turmoil, it’s unclear whether they even stand a fighting chance.

Then there’s the trouble boiling within the government’s own four walls as the treasury continues to be drained with a never ending list of unaccounted expenses, disappearing without a trace. Adrian is enlisted to ghost the perpetrator with his Orb, and Joanna’s help.

Their progress is stunted before it can even begin, their contracts ripped away from them as the team realise that the aftermath of DINM reaps more problems than rewards. When the minister they’ve been shadowing inadvertently introduces them to a man both Adrian and Joanna recognise, their dark pasts become entangled in a twist of fate none of the team saw coming.

About the Author:

Funnily enough, she almost failed her second year of English and spent a considerable amount of time debating whether or not she wanted to be a chemist before taking a publishing assistant job for The University of Law in London.

As well as her full time job and writing the Jaded Series, Ali was a feature film writer for Lotus Magma 'Off the Cuff' magazine and has received two Editor's Choice Awards for her work as well as an Honours Diploma in Media Law & a Distinction Diploma in Sub-editing and Design from The London School of Journalism.

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GwynethLesley

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AG_Chambers

Jade's little brother Adrian and Rein's litter sister Johanna has many obstacles to overcome before they can realize their role on the team and their feelings for each other in A. G. Chambers' second book about a team of assassins who also have doppelgangers. Ms. Chambers keeps us turning the page with mystery, deceit, and suspense - you really never know who the team should trust because everyone has their own agenda. But I do like the way this team of assassins think – you will be smiling and cheering them on throughout the story. This young adult story is worth a read but I would read Jaded Rein first for the back story. The story is good, the characters are likeable, and it's a quick read... just the way I like it!