Fiery Edge of Steel blog tour: spotlight, excerpt & giveaway

Hello and welcome to our stop on the Fiery Edge of Steel Blog Tour hosted by Bewitching Book Tours. We are spotlighting this YA urban fantasy series by Jill Archer and have an excerpt from the First Chapter and a giveaway to enter. To see all of the blogs participating in this month-long tour, find the list here. I'm reading this series now and will share my reviews when I can. Thanks for stopping by.

Fiery Edge of Steel (Noon Onyx Book Two) by Jill Archer

Urban fantasy*Paperback/eBook, 336 pages

Publisher: Ace (May 28, 2013)

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound

Lucifer and his army triumphed at Armageddon, leaving humans and demons living in uncertain peace based on sacrifice and strict laws. It is up to those with mixed demon and human blood, the Host, to prevent society from falling into anarchy.

Noon Onyx is the first female Host in memory to wield the destructive waning magic that is used to maintain order among the demons. Her unique abilities, along with a lack of control and a reluctance to kill, have branded her as an outsider among her peers. Only her powerful lover, Ari Carmine, and a roguish and mysterious Angel, Rafe Sinclair, support her unconventional ways.

When Noon is shipped off to a remote outpost to investigate several unusual disappearances, a task that will most likely involve trying and killing the patron demon of that area, it seems Luck is not on her side. But when the outpost settlers claim that an ancient and evil foe has stepped out of legend to commit the crimes, Noon realizes that she could be facing something much worse than she ever imagined.…

Excerpt:

In pre-Apocalyptic times humans stoned their criminals to death by throwing rocks, sharp pieces of metal, and other debris at the wrongdoer until they were so bloody and beaten, death was inevitable. It was said that, until jaws were broken or skulls were smashed, all wrongdoers cried for it to end.

Everyone got their wish.

Stoning demons is impossible, of course. Trying to kill a demon by throwing rocks at it would be like trying to take down an alligator by blowing soap bubbles at it. So, in modern times, public executions call for a Carne Vale—a “farewell to the flesh” ceremony where waning magic is thrown instead of stones. The practice is even more brutal than its ancient counterpart, but just as cowardly.

Ari Carmine and I stood elbow to elbow in Timothy’s Square, waiting for the awful thing to begin. Beside me, Ari squeezed my hand. He likely meant the gesture to be reassuring, but it made me feel trapped and I pulled my hand free. I glanced up at him, quirking my mouth in a half smile meant as an apology. He looked down at me, expressionless, but I could feel his signature, that wispy magical aurora that allowed uncloaked waning magic users to sense one another’s presence. Ari’s signature was warm, as always, but today it was laced with blistery bits, as if the glowing embers of a dying fire had been kicked at me. It made standing next to him uncomfortable.

Around us, the crowd of Hyrkes—humans with no magic—continued to build as students from both St. Lucifer’s and the Joshua School gathered. The heat from the unrelenting overhead sun was oppressive. Since there were no trees in Timothy’s Square, there was no shade. There was no cover. Nowhere to hide from what was to come.

Peering over my shoulder to check for possible unobserved routes of escape, I made the mistake of catching Sasha de Rocca’s gaze. Sasha was a distant cousin of mine, but that didn’t mean we were close.

He sneered openly at me.

“Dressed for a funeral, Noon? Do you really think mourning is appropriate for a Carne Vale?”

Automatically, I glanced down at my indigo sheath. In Halja, midnight blue—the color of the sky when Lucifer was struck with the lance that killed him over two millennia ago—was the color of mourning.

“The thing deserves to die,” Sasha said, his low voice burbling up out of his thick barrel chest. Suddenly his cold, crinkly eyes and dirty blond beard seemed far too close. I stepped back.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of Sasha. My power was far greater than his. But, unlike Sasha, I hated using mine, and he knew it. I hadn’t thrown magic since last semester when my demon client had almost killed me. The St. Lucifer’s faculty had given me leave to table my magic use over the semester break, but now that classes were back on, my “recovery” was officially over. I was expected to come out of my self-imposed dormancy today, and I was expected to come out of it so that I could participate in the one thing I abhorred.

Killing.

And here's the first book in the series:

Dark Light of Day (Noon Onyx Book One) by Jill Archer

Urban Fantasy*Paperback/eBook, 384 pages

Publisher: Ace (September 25, 2012)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble Amazon

Armageddon is over. The demons won. And yet somehow…the world has continued. Survivors worship patron demons under a draconian system of tributes and rules. These laws keep the demons from warring among themselves, the world from slipping back into chaos.

Noon Onyx grew up on the banks of the river Lethe, daughter of a prominent politician, and a descendant of Lucifer’s warlords. Noon has a secret—she was born with waning magic, the dark, destructive, fiery power that is used to control demons and maintain the delicate peace among them. But a woman with waning magic is unheard of and some will consider her an abomination.

Noon is summoned to attend St. Lucifer’s, a school of demon law. She must decide whether to declare her powers there…or attempt to continue hiding them, knowing the price for doing so may be death. And once she meets the forbiddingly powerful Ari Carmine—who suspects Noon is harboring magic as deadly as his own—Noon realizes there may be more at stake than just her life.

About the Author:

Jill Archer

website/blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Jill Archer is the author of Dark Light of Day, the first book in the Noon Onyx series. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jill now lives in rural Maryland with her two children and her husband, who is a recreational pilot. She blogs about books, movies, interesting people, and various weekend adventures.

Tour Wide Giveaway

There are 2 prize packages which include: copies of both Dark Light of Day and Fiery Edge of Steel and $10eGC (open to international so long as Book Depository ships to the winner's address, but US residents can elect to have signed print copies sent to them).

a Rafflecopter giveaway