I'm so happy to welcome Veronica Scott back to my blog, especially when she has a new release. I'm fascinated by this new series featuring genetically-engineered warriors. I read the first two and couldn't wait until Jadrian came out. Veronica's books are an automatic one-click for me. At the end of Veronica's post, see my review of Jadrian.
JADRIAN:
A BADARI WARRIORS SCIFI ROMANCE (SECTORS NEW ALLIES SERIES BOOK 3)
By
Veronica Scott
Thanks for having me as your guest today!
I’d never written an actual, sequential series with
an overarching plot arc before but late last year I decided to give it a try.
I’ve written any number of scifi romance novels that are loosely connected by
virtue of occurring within my Sectors civilization of the future, but this is
the first time I’ve deliberately set out to tell the bigger story as well as
individual romances in each book.
I’m enjoying the process and I hope the readers are
having fun along with me.
I’m not ordinarily a person who does outlines or any
detailed planning, which works fine for standalone books. I usually know who
the hero and heroine are, the opening scene, the final scene and one or two
major scenes along the way. The rest comes to me as I write the book. But if I
was going to write a series, I had to make sure each novel advanced the big arc
as well, so I had to do a certain amount of advanced planning. Not so much that
my Muse would rebel and quit! (I’m very superstitious about my Muse.)
I originally was a bit timid about the planning,
mostly in case my readers didn’t like the series as much as I hoped, and I
thought it might go three books. Ha! Once I got into telling stories about my
genetically engineered warriors, the alien scientists who created them, the
kidnapped human colonists and especially the human women who have the potential
to become mates for the Badari, I didn’t want to stop. Luckily I’m getting
great feedback and people seem to be enjoying the books and the Badari. So now
JADRIAN is book #3, I’m working on three more books (!) and none of them are
the final volume. And of course I have more ideas for novels. I do have the end
game in mind and know roughly how the last novel will go. Of course nothing but
Happy Ever After, because this is romance!
Even when I do write the last book in the basic
series, I can always write more books with my Badari warriors.
The
blurb: Taura Dancer
has been pushed to her limits by alien torturers known as the Khagrish and is
ready to die when suddenly the lab where she’s held as a prisoner is taken down
by an armed force of soldiers.
The man who rescues her from a burning cell block is
Jadrian of the Badari, a genetically engineered alien warrior with as many
reasons to hate the Khagrish as Taura has. This set of shared past experiences
and the circumstances of her rescue create an unusual bond between them.
Safe in the hidden base where Jadrian and his pack
take her, Taura struggles to regain her lost memories and overcome constant
flashbacks during which she lashes out at all who come near. Only Jadrian can
recall her from the abyss of her visions and hallucinations.
As the war against the Khagrish continues, it
becomes increasingly critical to find out who she really is and how she can
help in the fight. Until she can control her terrors and trust her own
impulses, Taura’s too afraid to pursue the promise of happiness a life with
Jadrian as her mate might offer.
When he’s captured by the dreaded enemy, will she
step forward to help save him, or will she remain a prisoner of her past?
This is the third book in a new scifi romance series
and each novel has a satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine,
not a cliffhanger. Some overarching issues do remain unresolved in each book
since this is an ongoing series but romance always wins the day in my novels!
The
excerpt, in which Jadrian gives Taura an explanation of the place she’s found
herself:
“The enemy doesn’t seem to suspect we might be
hiding out here (in the sanctuary valley). The Khagrish aren’t on the planet to
colonize, only to conduct their perverted version of ‘science’ on a location where their home world won’t be
polluted. So they’ve no reason to explore, fortunately. We patrol the
surrounding terrain as thoroughly as we can on foot with our small forces.”
“I can see I’ll have a ton of questions once I feel
better.” She sank into her chair gratefully. Her legs trembled, and her vertigo
was beginning to worsen. The implications of various things he’d said whirled
through her mind, as if she was trying to catalog the information according to
some taxonomy from her previous, unremembered life. Anxiety mounted inside her
as her pulse raced in time with her thoughts. “We’d better keep it simple for
now, soldier. Are all of the people here escapees from the Khagrish labs?”
“Yes, a hundred or more humans, and the members of
the two Badari packs. We find more people to rescue all the time.” He smiled at
her.
“And I’m grateful, believe me. Has anything been
heard from the Sectors?”
He shook his head. “We don’t know where we are in
relation to your Sectors, and we have no spaceship. For now the resistance
amounts to us, here on our own. Have you gotten any memories back? Are you from the Amarcae colony, like Dr.
Garrison was?”
She kept her gaze on the lake in the distance,
wishing he wouldn’t ask questions. Not knowing the answers unsettled her and
fear of learning things she wouldn’t like worried her even more. Tapping her
forehead with her index finger, she said, “A clean slate. I remember the basics
of life, reading, writing, how to use a fork, but nothing about myself or my
past. Just a big blank wall.”
“And the situation scares you?”
His gentle question was more perceptive than she’d
expected from this big buff warrior, and Taura looked at him more closely.
Jadrian put his hand over hers on the arm of the
chair. “Whatever’s there, locked in your mind, has no power to hurt you,” he
said. “I expect you’ll remember eventually; especially if you let it happen
naturally, don’t push yourself. In the meantime, start a new life here with
us.”
Reclining in the chair and tilting her head to catch
more of the sun’s gentle rays, she said, “You make it sound so simple.” A dark
cloud of depression hovered at the edge of her consciousness and Taura did her
best to shove the mood away. Concentrate
on the beautiful setting and the warmth of your companion, girl.
“I’m not trying to minimize your situation—I
apologize if I sounded callous.” He shrugged. “I’m in favor of continually
moving forward, not thinking too much about the past. You survived what was
done to you. If you’re from the colony, someone will recognize you.”
“No one has yet, according to Dr. Garrison. She
thinks I might have been a passenger on a hijacked ship brought to this world.”
“We do have a few people who fall into that
category. We don’t know how many humans the Khagrish have enslaved, actually.
At first we believed there were about two hundred, from the colony only, but in
recent raids we’ve found indications there might be more.”
“And more of you?”
He shook his head. “As far as we know, the Khagrish
only created Badari warriors in the one lab.
Which is a blessing from the Great Mother— no others were forced to
endure the living hell and tortures imposed on us. The Chimmer commissioned the
experiment in the first place and were prone to demanding terrible tests and
capricious changes. The Khagrish were always only too happy to implement new
protocols, the more grueling for us, the better in their eyes.”
Author
Bio and Links:
USA Today Best Selling Author
“SciFi Encounters” columnist for the USA Today Happy
Ever After blog
Veronica
Scott grew up in a house with a library as its heart. Dad loved science
fiction, Mom loved ancient history and Veronica thought there needed to be more
romance in everything. When she ran out of books to read, she started writing
her own stories.
Seven time winner of the SFR Galaxy Award, as well
as a National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, Veronica is also the proud
recipient of a NASA Exceptional Service Medal relating to her former day job,
not her romances!
She read the
part of Star Trek Crew Member in the audiobook production of Harlan Ellison’s
“The City On the Edge of Forever.”
Aydarr, first in the Sectors New Allies series, is on sale for 99 cents.
Diane's Review of Jadrian: A Badari Warrior
You've read the blurb, so you have a good idea of what the story is about. What you don't get from the blurb is the emotion you feel as you follow Taura on her journey. Although the story is named after the hero, it's more about Taura, a human who was captured and tortured then rescued from her prison. The terror she must have felt as the Khagrish did unspeakable things to her wrenched my heart. But that's not the worst. She can't remember who she is or anything about her past. Can you imagine the fear?
Her rescuer, Jadrian, is the only person she trusts. Though she's taken to a medical facility, it reminds too much of the lab where she was tortured. Will these people do the same? Flashbacks have her lashing out at anyone around her until, for their own safety, she's restrained. That is too much like what the Khagrish did to her. More terror. Only Jadrian can help.
In all of Veronica's books, her characters are well-drawn. Their strengths and their vulnerabilities make those characters believable and sympathetic. Taura may seem like a vulnerable character, but she has strengths she can't remember yet are revealed as she deals with her amnesia and the aftermath of torture. Jadrian is first and foremost a warrior. Fierce, strong. Yet, we get glimpses of his past that enable him to empathize with Taura. The reader sees his own vulnerability. As Veronica says above, the end is no surprise--definitely a Happy For Now. How Veronica gets Taura and Jadrian to that point tore my heart as I feared for their happiness. This is one powerful story.
