Saturday, April 25, 2015

Nowhere Train by Allie Burke: A New Adult Paranormal Romance / Dystopian


About the Book

Title: Nowhere Train
Author: Allie Burke
Genre: New Adult, Paranormal Romance, Dystopian
Two-years post end-of-the-world, all Jetilyn Fournier wants to do is learn to navigate a world that is no longer her own. Surviving zombies feels easy, though, compared to dealing with her rocky relationship with her best friend, the death of her mother, her sister’s faux happiness, and her father’s sudden desire to speak, after decades of silence. Saving herself is not even something she can fit in at the moment. Enter Devlin Shea: for all intents and purposes, a mortal enemy. Though she should hate him instantly upon contact, she doesn’t, and before she knows it, Jett has another life to save. Told in the surreal prose that Allie Burke has come to be known for, Nowhere Train is the first zombie novel of its kind. At two parts hippie and one part magic, it is as deadly as it is beautiful; as dark as it is hopeful, baring the question in mind: who–and what–are Jett and her family really fighting for?


EXCERPT FROM NOWHERE TRAIN BY ALLIE BURKE

Hands entwined, Chris and Jett weaved through the trees of Malibu Creek, following the unmasked trail of serenity that Grayson’s peaceful energy left behind. Chris allowed himself to think of the Gunner as they walked. He realized it more than likely appeared to Devlin that Jett was Chris’s girlfriend. Their tendency to embrace human contact—her hand in his, his fingertips on her lower back—would give the wrong impression to someone who wasn’t a Holie.
That was not Chris’s intention. In fact, he had no intention at all. Chris and Jett had done what they had done for so long, that his behavior with her was so natural. And even if they weren’t—if he were with Dama or Carmen—the outcome would be the same. There was no harm in human contact in their world. No shame in it. Unlike those in Prius that masked it. People like the Gunners.
He did feel shame, though, that he may have inadvertently messed that up for her. There was…something between them, obviously.
“Stop,” Jett spoke unexpectedly, and her voice vibrated loudly in his ears.
She pressed her lips together like she regretted it, like she didn’t mean to open her mouth. It was like once she’d spoken with Devlin, after months of silence, she couldn’t stop.
“Stop being so negative,” she said so quietly that he barely heard her. “I don’t want to block you out right now.”
Chris didn’t reply.
They halted as Grayson came into view. He had his head tilted up to the sky. On a tree branch before him perched an owl, its feathers vibrant against the grayish sky. Blues and greens and reds, a contrast against its wide white eyes, like Devlin’s. It stared into the distance.
Jett was not a fan of owls. She said they were creatures of the underworld, and if you saw one, someone close to you would die. This belief was, of course, contrary to all the myths surrounding owls that had existed in Prius.

Grayson sighed and slowly turned around. His reaction to the creature was as if he shared his eldest daughter’s insights. Grayson looked like Hemingway, just less… drunk. His beard surrounded his smile like the snow would a pale cottage in the middle of a winter wonderland. His vibrant green eyes invited them to show him why they were there. Jett had once told Chris that Grayson’s eyes hadn’t always been like that. That when he created the Holie way of life, his eyes had changed color from dull to luminous. This was what happened when you embraced the energy that most humans refuse to believe exists.
Chris released Jett’s hand, but as he stepped back to let them communicate, Grayson spoke in a deep drawl that Chris had never heard before that moment.
“I saw him,” Grayson said quietly. “The Gunner. I saw him take down the Ender.”
“Where?” Jett asked frantically.
“Not far from here.”
“What do you want us to do, Dad?”
Nothing else was spoken. And, per Grayson’s explicit, wordless instructions, that’s exactly what they would do. Nothing. Because Grayson didn’t want to scare the shit out of everyone for one Ender.
Which was fine. Jett liked the beach. Even if it did have zombies running across it every so often.

INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS REED
NOWHERE TRAIN by Allie Burke

Chris, are you a Holie?
No. Not really.
But you run with them, right? The Holies?
<laughs> Run with them? You can’t run with Holies. Holies don’t run. They walk carelessly and wistfully. They don’t even walk, really. They glide or like, float.
Miss Fournier told me that you are a member of their family. Is that incorrect?
Not exactly. Jett—Jetilyn—and her family took me in when I was orphaned as a teenager. They taught me their ways of life—energetic communication, seeing auras, living minimally—until The Enders (your kind knows them as zombies) showed up. After living with them for so long, it was kind of a no-brainer to run with them, as you say.
Your parents gave you up for adoption?
If you define adoption as turning into a zombie, then yes.
So they were turned? Your father and mother?
Correct. My mother would never give me up for adoption willingly. My grandmother was an orphan and it was very hard on her for her entire life until she was killed by her own family. 
That’s awful. I’m so sorry.
Thanks. I was very young.
And you and Miss Fournier? Are you a couple?
Sometimes? What day is it today? <laughs>
Is that a yes?
If you want a straight answer on that one, you’re going to have to ask Jett. She’ll tell you like it is. She always does.
I see. Now that you’re back in Jasmyn, what is next for the two of you?
Devlin. Devlin is next.
The Gunner?
Devlin is not a Gunner.

Author Bio
A Bestselling Author, publishing imprint Manager, and Psychology Today Blogger from Burbank, California, Allie Burke writes books she can’t find in the bookstore. Having been recognized as writing a “kickass book that defies the genre it’s in”, Allie writes with a prose that has been labeled poetic and ethereal.
Her life is a beautiful disaster, flowered with the harrowing existence of inherited eccentricity, a murderous family history, a faithful literature addiction, and the intricate darkness of true love. These are the enchanting experiences that inspire Allie’s fairytales.
From some coffee shop in Los Angeles, she is working on her next novel.

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