Earth Blog Tour and Giveaway with Jessica Frances

Earth (The Invasion Trilogy #1)

By Jessica Frances

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Published: June 18, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499634365

Amazon Synopsis:

Earth is being invaded. There was no warning and no time to stage any kind of defense. Instead countries started to go silent. They were no longer reachable and no one knew what was happening.
So when Canada went dark; everyone knew America would be next. 

My name is Matilda, but everyone calls me Mattie. I was at college in Oregon when the attack began. By the time Canada went quiet, we’d had enough. So two of my friends and I decided to join the fight in Vancouver and find out what was really happening.

That is when everything changed. What we found was death, destruction and machines that were slaughtering humans. There would be no escape for us; no place to go where the machines couldn't reach us.

I had no future, but then I met him.

My name is Marduke and I’m part of the reason Earth is being invaded. I’m from a different planet and even though I look human, I’m not. But when Earth was invaded, I began running from my family and running for my life. 

Then she saved me. 

She made me feel something I’d never felt before. She saved my life and opened my heart to the possibility of love, she changed me forever. 

What are the chances of finding your true love right when the world is ending? What kind of cruel fate places them together under those circumstances? 
What is she supposed to do when he tells her he is not from Earth?
When she finds out that he is one of the invaders?
What does she do when she finds out everything she thought she knew was wrong?
What does he do when he has to make a choice between protecting her and saving himself?
How can they overcome everything standing in their way?

Book Links

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Excerpt from EARTH by Jessica Frances

The truck moves again and this time we do topple over. Neither of us have put seatbelts on, so we both crash to the ceiling, my head taking most of the impact as my legs fall into the steering wheel.

I scream in shock, and as my mind catches up, I realise there is no way Hank and Lisa would be okay after being crushed into the road.

“Hank!” I scream out again, panicking as the truck is hit once more and we slide along the road. “Lisa!” I screech when we finally stop and hands grab hold of me, dragging me through the windshield which broke long ago.

It’s Hank, and as he drags me free, he quickly moves back to take hold of Marduke. Blood pours down from my forehead, but I don’t bother checking myself any further. My eyes first find the machine as it leers over us then I see Lisa off to the side, hiding by some bushes.

“We need to get out of here, now!” Hank has Marduke up and on his feet. The truck shakes as the machine shoots at it, and I’m half expecting a fireball to burst out at us.

“Take this!” I thrust the grenade into Hank’s hand and then wrap Marduke’s arm over my shoulder.

Hank begins shooting with the handgun, heading around the truck and jogging in the opposite direction to Lisa.

I stumble her way with Marduke, hoping Hank can keep the attention on him while we get away.

Marduke grunts in pain as he has to put heavy pressure on his knee, and I cry in shock when I feel his body jolt forward from the impact of a bullet hitting his back. He pushes me off him and I lose my balance, falling to the ground.

“Run!” he yells at me. But before I can even consider moving at all, an explosion erupts and everything goes black.

My Thoughts:

Marduke is an alien. He and his brother Ival are on Earth doing reconnaissance before the people from his planet Oden invade and take over Earth. Marduke spends most of their time in their apartment. On one of his rare outings, he spots Mattie, a University student who is out jogging and finds himself unexpectedly mesmerized by her, so much so that he spends days surreptitiously observing her.  Just when he decides he should contact his father and call off the take-over and change it to something more cooperative, he discovers his brother has moved the invasion date up and the invasion has already begun!

Earth is written from two points of view – Marduke’s and Mattie’s, generally alternating by chapter. Each writes from the first person point of view. I liked this as it gave the reader the alien’s outlook on life and the invasion on earth as well as the human outlook on the invasion.

Mattie and Marduke find themselves together running from the machines that are destroying and killing everything in sight. Mattie has no idea that Marduke is an alien. He looks just like any other human. They are together with a couple of Mattie’s friends Hank and Lisa. They think that Marduke’s difficulty with the English language is because he is from France.

Marduke struggles with strange new feelings he’s never experienced before, that humans would consider normal. As he struggles through these, they cause him to struggle with loyalty to his home world and his people.

When Ival gives Marduke some strange news and the hinema or invasion machines don’t behave as they should, Marduke knows he’s in for the fight of his life. If he and Mattie are to survive, it will be up to him.

Earth was an exciting adventure/suspense novel full of action and out-of-the-box thinking. There was never a dull moment.

There is some profanity in this novel and some moderately graphic sexual content as well. Readers who screen their books for these things should take note.

I liked the contrast of the points of view between alien and human. It was a good reminder of how different they really were. I liked that Marduke was so attracted to Mattie and that he couldn’t understand it given that is was not something that was ever experienced among his own people. I’d like to know why it happened. Perhaps we’ll find out in subsequent books.

I liked the changes in plot brought about the challenges that Marduke and Mattie faced. They kept the book flowing smoothly and kept the interest of the reader. The book was well-paced throughout.

It was easy to see the growth in some of the characters during the span of the novel. I think that would be normal in such a tense and life-threatening situation. The most growth can be seen in Marduke. He starts out as such a timid, almost mousy character, but by the end of the novel is nothing like that. Either the change in his character is unrealistic, or he is finally growing up and discovering who he really is. You’ll have to read the book and decide for yourself.

I thought that Earth was an excellent read. I would recommend it to all science fiction fans. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

Born and raised in South Australia, Jessica spends her days working in a bakery, afternoons catching up on lost sleep, and nights reading and writing. After having the Taken Trilogy taking up space in her head for years, she was relieved to have a break and her mind clear. But apparently the free rent was spoken to Mattie and her friends, because now she is hearing new voices and a whole new story. The Invasion Trilogy was then born.

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