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Title: Quanta
Series: The Shadow Ravens
Vol or Book #: 2
Author: Lola Dodge
Audience: YA
Genre: Sci-Fi
Format: E-book and Paperback
Publisher:Ink Monster, LLC
Cover by: Art by Ana Cruz, Graphics by Paddy Donnelly
Editor: Ink Monster, LLC
Pages: 250
ISBN: 9780996086479
ASIN: B00NQAD0TE
Date Published:10-13-15
Just because Quanta can see the future doesn’t mean she can change it. She’s spent most of her life imprisoned, feeding her captors information to keep herself alive, but she’s finally reached the endgame and her death creeps closer by the moment.
The son of two senators, Altair Orpheus leads a life of privilege that provides the perfect cover for his side job: working with the rebel Shadow Ravens to undermine the ruling Seligo government. Everything is running like clockwork until he crosses paths with Quanta. As he watches her deftly maneuver through life in a perverse prison, his plastic heart melts. A jailbreak would be suicide, but Tair is willing to sacrifice everything to give her a chance at happiness.
Now Quanta senses a terrifying new future brewing. She and Tair are bound together, but every image of them kissing, snuggling, and acting knee-weakeningly happy is balanced by a much darker possibility. They’ll be picture perfect together, but only until time rips them apart. How can she follow her heart when she’s seen how their love plays out?
Altair's POV
Mother
smiled like a cat, full of ambition and smugness. "Someone wants to meet you."
Someone?
Suddenly, I knew where this was going.
"Mother—"
"There
are the Astors." Mother gave a
demure wave and started gliding toward a trio standing near an ice
sculpture. Her fingers clamped my arm,
dragging me along. Father walked on my
other side, sandwiching me in place.
No
way to run without making a scene.
Senator Astor and her husband stood waiting with their daughter.
A
set-up.
My
free hand bunched into a fish, but I tucked it into my pocket. I couldn’t make a mistake in front of this
audience.
Mother
exchanged greetings, then made a sweeping gesture. "This is my son, Altair. Altair, this is Layla Astor."
Layla's
blonde hair tumbled in artful curls and braids.
She wore tasteful neutral makeup that emphasized her full lips and
emerald green eyes, but a hint of darker eyeliner smudged like a leftover from
some previous night's debauchery; that was half of what I needed to know to
escape the conversation.
And
I would escape. I had no interest in
these shallow romances meant to gain my family position.
"It's
nice to meet you, Altair. I knew your
sister at academy." And that was why
Cass had been invited. Some common bond
to me to a potential future mate.
Good
thing Cass had stayed home. She'd hate
the situation as much as I did.
The
girl extended her arm, flashing her Green Helix and I couldn’t avoid the
handshake. "Likewise." Layla's rough fingertips gave me the last
clue I needed. Calluses from playing an
instrument. Between that and the
eyeliner, I had an excellent guess at how to get rid of her. Rather than sell her out in front of her
parents, I offered her an arm. "I
was just about to admire the ice sculptures.
Would you care to join me?"
"I'd
love to." She smiled and placed
delicate fingertips on my arm.
Our
parents grinned conspiratorial smiles as we strolled away. No doubt they'd already picked a wedding
date. I waited until we were out of
modified earshot to speak. "How
upset would your family be if I mentioned that you plan in a band?"
"Very." Layla tenses, and her expression and tone
shifted from vapid politeness to shrewd consideration. "Not that you should know."
I
shrugged. "I won't say a thing as
long as you don't press and engagement."
"Thank
God." Layla shuddered. "Our mothers schemed this one. I thought you were in on it."
I
grinned. I didn't often stumble onto
others faking their way through Helix life, but every so often an ally dropped
in my lap. "Should we small talk
for a few minutes and then pretend to offend each other?"
Layla
pressed her lips together, eyes me up and down.
"If you're up to it, I have a better suggestion."
"Oh?" I handed her a drink taken from a passing
tray. our parents still watched from
across the room.
"Let's
meet for coffee. We could draw this out
for months."
"A
faux courtship?" It had promise,
although there were certainly risks.
"You're
the first guy they've set me up with who's not a self centered ass." Layla's mischievous smile made her eyes
sparkle. "My girlfriend would love
you."
Her
voice was clear of subterfuge and I found myself smiling back. "Next
week? I'm sure our parents already
exchanged our contact information."
And faking a relationship would save me getting blindsided at every
event.
"Call
me." She finger-waved and then
headed for a crowd of friends who proceeded to glance my way, slipping a few
quickly smothered cackles. I nodded
before heading off to work the crowd.
Despite
my parents' efforts, the night was going better than expected.
Lola is a compulsive traveler, baker, and procrastinator. She earned her BA in English from Stonehill College and MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University—and hasn’t stopped moving since. When she’s not on the road, Lola spends her time indoors where the sunlight can’t melt her, writing or bingeing on anime and cherry soda. She can be summoned in a ritual involving curry, Hello Kitty idols, and a solid chocolate pentagram.
Hi! I'm so
happy right now. I'm getting to do
interviews with all three of you lovely ladies at Ink Monster on three series I
am just in love with so sort of fangirl heaven!
Okay let's get started!
Why did you become a writer/author?
Because
Jurassic Park isn’t real yet. I’m
switching to a brontosaurus wrangler as soon as that’s a legit career
option. Also because I answer question
like that and there’s no other job I can do without getting fired.
How do you come up with the names for your
characters?
I
get a lot from my travels. Thane (one of
the minor characters) was an elevator inspector in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Although oddly enough, I didn’t name Quanta. She came pre-named when I signed onto the series
with Aileen and Christina. I changed literally everything else about her
(at least three times but the name stuck!
What books are you currently reading?
I
just finished Throne of Glass by S. J. Maas and started The Mark of Noba by G.L.
Thomas. I’ve been in a YA mood lately.
Haven’t we all!
With two POV's, Quanta and Altair, what were your favorite parts of
writing each?
It’s
nice to have two very different voices.
Quanta’s fun to find verbs for (and she and I share a serious sweet
tooth) and then I like switching from her quirky tone to Altair’s tighter,
almost more academic style.
Quanta sees many different possibilities for the
future that change by the choice? How
does she cope with this and not go crazy?
Can she be surprised?
The
future is always changing, so she’s never really certain what people will do
until right before they do it. It gets
hard for her to figure things out when there are a lot of possibilities, and it
makes her a little disconnected from reality at times. She can definitely be surprised, though! Especially when something big’s on the way
that’s going to change her path…Wonder what that could be?! ;)
Altair seems to have it all, on the path for
everything her was designed for in their world but he became a Shadow Raven
fighting against the system he would excel in.
What makes Altair different from the rest of the Seligo?
He
had a bad experience that seriously changed his way of thinking (you’ll
see…!). He also got tired of watching
the Seligo treat his sister like a loser because she didn’t get a Helix. You don’t mess with Cassiopeia Orpheus if you
want to stay on Altair’s good side!
If you could have immortality, would you take
it? I admit I might like the idea, that
way I might have a real chance at finishing my TBR ;)
Sure! And for the same reason. I’m going to need a lot of years to write all
the books I have planned.
I know there is a lot of team work at Ink Monster,
but The Shadow Ravens seems like a real group project with Aileen Erin writing
the first book featuring Cipher, you working on Quanta, and rumor has it
Christina Bauer working on the third book and character. How is it working on the project? Are there any difficulties not being the only
voice?
We
really have to cooperate. It’s all a bit
of an experiment and we keep changing the plan and learning what works and
doesn’t in a collaborative world like this.
Right now, we’re planning two more Quanta books (a full trilogy of
Quanta!) and then the baton will pass back to either Cipher or Christina’s
character. Luckily we’ve all been
writing together for a few years, so we know what everyone needs to be
effective. It’s definitely not for every
writer, but we’re all still speaking to each other, so we much be doing okay
with it J
Now for a little fun. Book boyfriends. We all love them. Who is your book boyfriend?
My
first book boyfriend ever was Numair SalmalÃn from Tamora Pierce’s Immortals
series and I still have a soft spot for him.
The scene where he and Daine finally kiss still gives me
butterflies! Wizards are really
underrated as book boyfriends.
Do you have any new projects coming up?
Quanta: Reset will come out next October, or possibly
sooner depending on scheduling and how much people are clamoring for more
Shadow Ravens J
We’re also planning for more to write an Alpha Girl spin-off one of these
days. Aileen’s been letting me slowly
take over one of the characters…Can you guess which one??
I’m hopping on Meredith! How can your readers get in touch?
I’m
on all the social medias. Instagram and Twitter are
my favorites, but I love a good e-mail, too!
Website/Blog
Okay
so you may have noticed how excited I've been for this book for a multitude of
reasons if you've been following my blog long.
I was beyond excited to receive and ARC for review, already had it
pre-ordered but getting it early just means I can enjoy it that much
sooner. And enjoy it I did.
Rating: 5 Cupcakes
Quanta
is the second book in The Shadow Ravens series, this book is written by Lola
Dodge. Now you can read it alone, the
story holds it's own but it will have some spoilers of things mentioned that
happened in book one, Cipher. So be
warned there. That's it. Same world but this time we follow the path
of another red, Quanta. She is a
captive. She has a very rare and unique
red power, the power to see into the past and different possible futures. It's dual prospective, so we also see things
from Altair, a Shadow Raven himself but one that is on the fast track to
becoming Seligo, the immortal elite, born to be perfect but a prisoner in his
own life as well. When they meet it hits
the fan and things start moving.
There
isn't a dull moment in this book. I couldn’t
put it down. I got so mad when people interrupted
me from reading, having to remind myself I was at work so I couldn’t ignore
them or yell at them, but still. It was
amazing. I loved Quanta from the first
moment. What she is living with, a test
subject trying to use her gift to protect those she can while also trying to
protect herself from losing what little control she has of her life. She is a lab rat and never seeing a positive
future for yourself only ones with less pain would drive anyone insane. And Altair, he is somewhat of a know it all,
but one you like. He kind of reminded me
of Sherlock and House in a way, knowing everyone is out for something and
noticing things others wouldn’t catch to use to his advantage. He is also completely focused on is
work. He doesn't like the way things are
and only plays along to keep up appearances for a bigger purpose. Constantly being watched and told how to
behave to advance while others plan out your life, he has only slightly more
control over his life than Quanta.
These
two meeting was priceless. Her visions
of him, of them, would distract the most strong willed person. Quanta has some hilarious lines that made me
snort while reading. Priceless. I was stuck between understanding her reasons
and wanting to strangle her when she made some decisions, as is par for most books. Images of them happy and in love kissing and
snuggling, hopeful followed up by images of pain and loss and death are hard to
sort. The happiness is so easy to want
given her life but when the happiness seems tainted with blood, pain, and
heartache is it worth it? Altair knows they
are bound and he has to free her, not just because he feels it is right but
somehow they have found a way to use her skills to hurt the shadow ravens. Neither of them will stand for that.
This book has a great story and characters you want to know every single thing about but it's also full of action. You have
corporate espionage type thing going on, all 007 like working for shadow ravens
and gun fights, chases, and more. There
was always something happening be it action or with the characters that you
wanted to keep going. Also it's hard to
have covert conversations when your every move is monitored. I highly recommend this book! If that wasn't clear enough already. Quanta is out on the 13th so pick up your own copy
and give it a go. Share any thoughts and
questions down below in the comments as usual!
Sugar Spells (The Spellwork Syndicate #2) by Lola Dodge
