Tuesday, July 1, 2014

MAJOR RELEASE--THE GIRL THEY SOLD TO THE MOON

Well, It finally happened:

The Girl They Sold to the Moon is finally here in e-book format on Amazon for $2.99! Don’t miss this award-winner—it’s fast and furious—a dark and edgy Burlesque in space.
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Girl-They-Sold-Moon-ebook/dp/B00LDFLR0S/ref=s...

Eighteen-year-old Tilly Breedlove's father has just pawned his daughter for a huge cash advance to escape a penitentiary sentence. She’s whisked away to Luna-the Tranquility Harbor Mining Company, 240,000 miles from home. Family Trade and Loan, an unscrupulous company, is more than willing to take her on and exploit her talent. Forced to be an exotic dancer, she performs risqué shows for the filthy, but filthy rich ore miners--a far cry from her classical and modern dance training. If she isn't resisting obscene advances from bearded "Prairie Dogs", she's fending off jealous head-liner acts who view her as a threat to their status-and when those jealous showgirls say "break a leg", they aim to cause it.

The only reprieve she finds in this shop of horrors is a few close ward friends, a sympathetic dance coach/choreographer, and Buddy Gunner Bell, who just might become the love of her life. It's just enough to stem her psychological meltdown. A tragedy on the Moon base lands Tilly back on Earth. Tilly plots a daring escape plan with her friends. Their plan requires split-second timing and a daring dash. If she can just get past the corporation's airtight security.


REVIEWS: 

5.0 out of 5 stars Great soft Science Fiction for those who like it easy over, June 19, 2014

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Kindle Customer (okemos, mi United States) - See all my reviews

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The Girl They Sold to the Moon by Chris Stevenson

I wanted the ARC to this book but they never got back to me; so I had to buy a copy and wait patiently for it to arrive in the mail, which was all well and good because I had other things to do anyway. Finding myself with an extra day, where I wanted to read something just a bit on the light side, I picked it up and read the boldfaced type all the way from the front right through to the finish. This book reminded me some of the old science fiction I read some thirty years ago. Some of the Robert Heinlein juvenile Science Fiction series. I enjoyed reading it and I want to give it high marks, but I'm going to be brutally honest about a few things.

Chris Stevenson has created a sort of sassy character in Tilly Breedlove who is sold into a sort of slavery in order to keep her father out of prison. Her mother has some few years earlier passed away and without her influence her father has fallen prey to all his vices and she has no delusions, going into this whole arrangement, that he will change his ways. In this dystopic future that sounds like a throwback to the times Charles Dickens wrote of; we have a society that allows parents to sell their children into some sort of work camp slavery while parents try to pay off their debts to stay out of prison through a loan which they must then pay off before their children can be released.

That whole arraignment lends itself toward some real potential for failure.

The Girl They Sold to the Moon bears some strong resemblance to the one other book I have read by this author: The War Gate. By this I mean that it has several threads running through it that make up a whole bunch of mini plots that revolve around the main plot that seems to be a soft science fiction light weight which is why I call this light reading. It is a good Young Adult novel and it almost seems like a twisted merging of Dickens' David Copperfield and Oliver Twist and Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars staged in the environment of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. But the whole thing diverges into it's own world because of that potential for the slave workers to become permanent property of the company when someone defaults on the loan.

Of The Girl They Sold to the Moon and The War Gate similarities there is that striking male character that is a magician. And both books delve into the world of entertainment while striking off in slightly divergent directions of Science Fiction in the one and Magic in the other. If I have any complaints at all it's that there sometime is a difficulty for me to zero in on which plot is the prime plot of the novel.

The most likely candidate is the dystopic society's inhumane treatment of these young family members who are traded off and sometimes left to pay their own way out of a system that seems to have the cards stacked against them. But I get confused about this very plot when the potential evil motives of the company are often glossed over too quickly in favor of the sub plot of the infighting between the chatteled entertainers vying for the top position; a position that only serves to make the company richer through their success. Then there is the moon-crossed love story hindered by the presence of rules prohibiting the girls from fraternizing with anyone in any close manner on or off work. Along with all of this we have a thread about Tilly's desire to be in the very work she is now in and the frustration in the knowledge that her unexpected success is all going to someone else benefit until she gets released.

This is a great light read of soft SFF with some romance and a couple of good cat-fights.

J.L. Dobias

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Unique idea!, June 12, 2014
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This is a well written, very unique book. I have never come across and idea like this in all my reading and I very much enjoyed it. The writer has given his heroine everything she needs to make it through the rough times in her life. You have great empathy for her and her friends.The writer also brings to life the places he takes his readers to, so you feel as if you are right at those locations.I would certainly recommend this book. It is a fast read and very enjoyable!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Girl They Sold To The Moon ARC copy review, June 10, 2014



The Girl They Sold To The Moon Review
Review by: Naila Gutierrez
Author: Chris Stevenson
Publisher: Intrigue Publishing
Rating: 5 Stars
*SPOILERS!!!!*
*This book was given to me as an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review*
This book is basically about an 18 year old girl named Tilly Breedlove, her father sells her into a form of slavery on the Tranquility Harbor Mining Company located on the Moon. She is forced to be an exotic dancer for filthy rich ore miners. After a disastrous explosion on the Moon, they send her back to Earth, imprisoned to the Las Vegas-Henderson Gambling Complex. Her father fails to pay the loan and goes into hiding, exiling Tilly to be temporary property of FTAL. Tilly plots a rebellious escape plan with friend Fia, and also with the help of blossoming love Buddy Gunner Bell, to break out of FTAL.

To me this dystopian read was exuberant, imaginative and creative. From start to finish this book grabbed me in for one wild ride and didn’t let go, for such a short book it was certainly delightful and whimsical. The plot in this was very well put together and it flowed with the story quite nicely, from when her journey began in FTAL, to the meteor shower that hit the Moon base at Tranquility Harbor , to the very ending where she escaped and finally got to fulfill her friend’s wish as well as hers. From the beginning when her father turned her in for FTAL I could feel how scared Tilly’s character was towards the situation of leaving her home to work in an entertainment division for 6 consecutive months. But then you can really notice the change in her character as the story progresses, she becomes more confident in going through all these obstacles, I really admire her character. Although I really did feel connected to Tilly’s character the most I did however appreciate Buddy’s and Dorothy’s characters. I did quite enjoy the growing romance and feelings between Tilly and Buddy growing feelings and a relationship from friends to lovers, their romance was just right as to not be sappy and come off as a desperate and rushed romance, like you see in so many books. Their growing relationship blossomed in just the right way, starting off when they met in the book and started talking I could feel chemistry between them, and it left me wanting more of their romance.

In a way, I have to say there was a bit of suspense sprinkled within the many wonders of this book, for example; when you found out that Fia Bluestone, supposed friend of Tilly’s was actually her long lost birth mother. Also when Tilly stood there and had to witness the suicide of her best friend, Dorothy, I have to say that scene was so wickedly crafted that it got to me. Then there are those well thought out action scenes of Tilly and fellow refugees scrambling about to find shelter from the meteor shower, and also when Tilly, Buddy, and Fia were escaping the Vegas Gambling Complex in search of freedom from the so well manipulated form of slavery.

Overall, I gave this book 5 stars because I like the well written, professional use of vocabulary, well thought out and procedure that was this lovely book. I personally am a HUGE fan of dystopian and post-apocalyptic worlds and this was one of the best I have read so far. I’m not going to say it’s the best I have read because I still have a lot more to read, but I can safely say that this was an extraordinary book, it was refreshing, action-packed, suspenful, and not bad in the romance department either. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a short yet giving book that hooks you in once you indulge in it and who enjoys books in the dystopian and apocalyptic category.
*thanks so much to the author for sending me an ARC*

 


2 comments:

  1. Ya got some nice reviews there, Chris.
    Well done.
    DB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, DB. I've been in the hospital for the fast 19 days with a serious condition. I'm trying to keep up with the promotion, but I'm very weak and on oxygen at the present. I just hope the word spreads. You know what they say: if you don't have your health you have nothing. I'm facing this thing head on at the moment.

    ReplyDelete