Average Ratings: Four Stars For THE DARK PLACES [Originally released by Evernight 4/15]
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Nominee in a Readers' Choice Awards for Best in Category: Futuristic
Fate seemed intent on making her wed a stranger really fast….
ISBN: : 9798387361166
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Scifi Romance, Passion, and Mystery
A Scifi+mystery+romance that's almost like Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca---but in the future---and in space
When you love someone, you’re agreeing to accept their hidden past, and the mystery-cloaked shadows in their souls…. And sometimes love will lead you to the brink of No-Return....
Kailiri Summers narrowly escaped an arranged marriage by fleeing to another planet. She has artistic ambitions, but life isn’t cooperating. Bartending seemed like a good option to stay afloat. She thought her future bleak until Matt Lorins walked into her bar.
One dinner with the charming and wealthy space trader binds her into a passionate marriage bargain. But he’s a man surrounded by mysteries that she can’t unravel. It's while she's traveling alone with him on his star ship, isolated far beyond all help, that he reveals a terrifying secret. She must choose between battling the darkness—or losing Matt forever.
Book Excerpt:
“You know, I really hate Harnaru,” I said, thinking about the scorned canvasses stacked against a wall in my studio room’s tiny closet. “I never should have tried painting something I hated,” I muttered to myself. I’d half-forgotten Matt’s presence.
His silence lasted a long minute, as if he was immersed in deep thought. Then he captured my hand in a firm grasp. “Why did you come to Harnaru?”
I glared. “It was a far as my savings would take me in this system, third class,” I snapped. I resented these questions. On the frontier planets, no one so much as poked into anyone else’s past. Everyone took it for granted that you wouldn’t be crazed enough to stray out here if you weren’t trying to outrun bad memories or grim situations. It was common courtesy not to ask about anyone’s past, like I was trying not to do to Matt Lorins. What demon is he escaping out here on the frontier? Mine? A manipulative family.
Matt’s strange dark eyes steadily absorbed my mutinous look. “Would you like to leave Harnaru?” he asked, keeping his intense gaze fixed on me.
“As soon as I save up enough for a ticket somewhere else,” I vowed through clenched teeth.
“Would you like to leave sooner than that?”
“What do you mean?” My tone came out brittle, and I was sorry to be acting hostile to Matt, who had just treated me to a wonderful—up to that point—evening.
Was that green haze clouding over his eyes? Was there something wrong with the torch lights? I blinked, and they’d regained their unusual dark aspect with their central fireworks. Maybe that Sauran cordial deserved more respect. I filed away a mental note not to touch another drop that night.
“What I mean, Kailiri, is that I have enjoyed this evening with you and I’ve no desire to see it end,” he said quietly. He drew a deep breath and tightened his arm about my waist. “But it’s your decision as to how we shall go on from here.”
My eyes widened. He was an attractive, intelligent man with beautiful manners—and he hadn’t asked me to split the tab. If he was alluding to spending the rest of the night together, I might be persuaded—if he got me in the mood…. But that other thing he’d mentioned about leaving the planet raised my alarms. The media had inundated the public with stories about off-world abductors and slavers snaring unwary females.
Conscious of the close-by crowd, I lowered my voice. “What does leaving Harnaru have to do with this evening?” I sounded belligerent to my own ears and winced.
Matt gave me a lazy, charming smile before he lowered his head and covered my lips with his. My breathing must have stopped, because my head felt giddy. Spontaneous tingling shot through me under the spell of his warm, questing lips.
He raised his head, and a puzzled frown drew his dark brows together over his compelling eyes. Then he captured my dazed look in his unblinking stare. Gazing into his eyes this close, with his desirable lips poised a mere finger’s length away, felt like drowning in a dark pool lit with green-and-golden fire sparks. An insidious chill crept through my body and surrounded my heart, and I couldn’t suppress the quiver that seized me.
At first I thought the shiver response sprang from a creeping chill caused by cooled-down desert air borne into Marnu upon a sly night breeze. But when Matt’s arms encircled me and drew me closer, as if the diners didn’t exist on the balcony, I knew the chill’s source sprouted from a deep uneasiness. Would harm befall me with this man?
I couldn’t think. One kiss had toppled me into turmoil, and the shivering continued. It was like standing unprotected out in a blinding, wind-driven snowstorm on Dearleth.
Matt rose from the balcony wall, drawing me with him. He guided me from the noisy crowd to a less brightly lit, unoccupied balcony area. He studied me with unsettling intensity before he stepped close and covered my quivering lips with his.
Was there urgent need in his kiss? In mine? With the numbing cold enveloping me, I couldn’t tell.
He moved back, searching my eyes. “Are you afraid of me, Kailiri?” he whispered.
I wasn’t certain if I nodded or shook my head because the tremors had intensified and rocked my body.
He gently grasped my chin, effectively capturing my fear-distracted attention. “You should be,” he said softly….
End of Excerpt
Buy Links:
2023 EDITION 2
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"A fair portion of the ship appeared intact where it rested not too far away. A gold-plated metal tail section rose high, defying the flat, frozen plains...." From The Dark Places
scene from The Dark Places-by D. Martin
When I wrote this particular scene, it kept haunting me and insisted that I give it a visual, pictorial life too. It took many hours to compose this scene. I have a very deep appreciation of what my cover artist went through to evolve the most excellent book cover for The Dark Places.
D. Martin (courtesy of Pixabay)
Shared April 2015 in: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SciFiHorrorEnoftheworldscenarioTruestory/
What was the inspiration for The Dark Places by D. Martin from Evernight Publishing?
A trip several years ago to Las Vegas inspired the novella. I was staring out my hotel window across the desert wilderness that surrounded the brilliantly illuminated city. The glowing city underscored the manic undercurrents of excitement that rippled through it and seemed to pulsate like a live wire within the atmosphere, itself. Then it hit me that this was precisely what a colonized boom-planet might look like. I fantasized that the planes zipping in overhead to the airport to McCarran Airport to unload and retrieve passengers could well be starships. That sealed the deal--I had to write THE DARK PLACES--a story of mystery, passion, and taking chances in the gamble on love.
LAS VEGAS- Courtesy of Pixabay
BOOK Reviews and Ratings Average Ratings: Four Stars
At Goodreads:
Aug 14, 2015 Amy Bowens rated The Dark Places at 4 of 5 stars
The book is definitely different. I did love Kailiri she is an amazing character and kept me guessing the whole time. Matt is another mystery that I enjoying peeling the layers back to figure him out and the story unfolding between the two
May 09, 2015, TKristufek rated The Dark Places at 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon and Goodreads
Her Amazon review on the same date:
I would recommend it to anyone who likes sci-fi, mysterious characters, other worldly beings, and strong female leads.
May 06, 2015 Lindsey rated it 3 of 5 stars on Goodreads and Amazon
Hmmm
It wasn't bad, but it felt a little rough. Matt's character development was very sloppy and at times confusing. The pacing of the relationship felt off. It was supposed to be whirlwind, but didn't feel that way. The editing was pretty good; only a few grammar issues, but didn't detract from the story. What gets me, and why I can't find a better adjective to describe the story, is that it feels very rushed and unfinished. It reads almost like an early draft of a story. I think I will check out the writer's work when they've had more experience, but this rendition isn't of a quality to spend much money on. I finished it, but will delete it now.
Other Ratings:
The TBR Pile *Book rated The Dark Places on Goodreads at 2 out of 5 stars on July 26, 2015
Riley Sinclair (Goodreads Author of Return to Me) rated The Dark Places on Goodreads at 5 of 5 stars on May 19, 2015