Stitch By Samantha Durante

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa’s body screams at her to run… but yet she’s powerless to move.
 
Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence.  

In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees – and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell – Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless.  But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn’t figured out yet is that she’s not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university’s idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface…

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.

Read a Chapter Sample of Stitch by Samantha Durante 

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.
 

 
Release Date: August 12 2012

Series / Stand Alone: Book #1 In the Stitch Trilogy: Series

Genre: A Paranormal Romance and Dystopian Sci-Fi

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Alessa held her hand up. “Just save it, Janie. My mind is made up, and nothing you say is going to change it. I’m going to warn Isaac, and I don’t care about the consequences. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try.”

Janie looked like she was about to argue, but she let it go. “Okay, fine. I have to go to the library now, but we can talk later. Just… don’t do anything rash,” she pleaded.

Alessa just gave Janie a stony glare. She could see the hurt on Janie’s face and felt a pang of remorse, but she just couldn’t seem to let the anger go.

Janie turned and left, closing the door cautiously behind her, and Alessa dropped into her desk chair. She was shaking with rage from head to toe.

Well, color me surprised - I did not expect this story. I really liked it. The preface hooks you immediately and you just want to know what's going on.

It's smart, it kind of fools you into thinking it's a ghost/time travel story. There are these little twists along the way that keep you interested and it's an easy book to pick up after you take a break  (which isn't necessarily a good thing, but more about that later).

I liked Alessa because she was just so normal. Dealing with her parents' death, adjusting to college life, hating on the pretty sorority sister, having a best friend that is a kindred spirit, etc, etc. There is a sadness to her thoughts that really got to me, which was understandable considering... everything. She constantly feels like she is off-course, that she doesn't have any control over what's going on in her life.

I must say that the book lacks in the romance department, but there is still enough of it to keep a romance reader happy. I thought the romance was actually really sweet under the circumstances, and kind of unexpected, what with Joe and everything. I liked it.

When the story opens up you find out that Alessa is seeing a ghost of a young man from time to time, and you are just as curious as she is about who the ghost is. You learn his name is Isaac and he lived in the same house in the past, where his whole family met a horrible death, and it's up to Alessa to figure it out and warn him.

And then you learn it's all been a lie.

Unfortunately, you only get enough of Isaac's POV to learn that he's always felt out of place, feels responsible for his family's well-being but at the same time he just wants to get out there where there are bigger things waiting for him. Still, I liked him from what little glimpses I got of him.

I loved the way this was written, the characters felt real and the story line is very interesting.  The author throws you all these little clues that should have told you something was off, but only after it's revealed do you realize they were there all along. The dream sequences tell you that there's definitely more going on than you're picking up on. The whole time I kept wondering what is going on and tried (successfully) to keep myself from reading one of those spoilerish reviews.

That being said, it's incredibly slow, especially the first half of the book. I fought myself wanting to skim endless unimportant bits like what she wore, what she ate, what she drank, what she read and things like those. Yes, some of it was very important, but not all of it. This made the book really easy to leave and pick up later because there's no that sense of urgency that you just have to know what happens next and you can't put it down. 

It doesn't end on a cliffhanger, for which I'm thankful. You get that feeling that there's more to come, but you're not left unsatisfied with it.

For my clean-romance readers, this is very clean, no graphic sex scenes or even implications of it. Barely a kiss or two. Which was fine by me, I thought it suited the story.

So, will I be reading the sequel? Yep. There are way too many questions left and I want answers. I won't get into detail what these questions are because they're all spoilers, but you'll see that you don't really get the full picture of what's really going on - I think because the protagonists don't know either, so it's understandable.

I definitely recommend this book.

My Rating For This Book : 4 Stars

 

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Samantha Durante lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, Sudeep, and her cat, Gio. Formerly an engineer at Microsoft, Samantha left the world of software in 2010 to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams and a lifelong love of writing. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, Samantha is currently working full time for her company Medley Media Associates as a freelance business writer and communications consultant. Stitch is her first novel. 

Top 5 Things I Love About Being an (Indie) Author by Samantha Durante:

I recently published my first novel, Stitch, and though I’m still new at this whole “author” thing, it’s really been a dream come true!  To celebrate, here are the top five things I LOVE about being an author (so far!), in no particular order:

1. Total empowerment.

There were a lot of reasons I decided to go the indie route when publishing Stitch, but by far the main one is that I’m a bit of a control freak and I really liked the idea of having final say over every little detail of my book.  I worked with an artist to design the cover, devoted painstaking hours to formatting the e-book versions, and made the final decision about every word, every punctuation mark, and every plot twist.  While this is a little scary (after all, I know there are people out there who can do all of these things far better than me!), it also means that the success of my book lies solely on my shoulders…  And therefore, as long as I’m willing to put in the work (which I am!), I know my book will do well!

2. My book IS me.

Following with #1, since I didn’t have to get sign-off from a publisher, I could write about whatever I wanted, even a genre-bending thriller that combined paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi in one (yes, one!) book.  I pulled in ghost lore, super-geeky spacetime physics, post-apocalyptic scenarios, a biological pandemic, and of course, a kick-ass female protagonist and sexy-but-sensitive male lead.  And yes, the fact that my book does not fit squarely into one genre makes it kind of difficult to market (which is why the traditional publishing industry would be wary of it), but it is full of the things I love.  And since – as an independent author – I have the exclusive right to decide what gets published under my name, the fact that I was excited about my book and believed in it was all that mattered.

3. Quick delivery to readers.

The other big factor that drove me to go indie was the ability to get my book to market QUICKLY.  It can take months – even years – for a first time author (going the traditional route) to find an agent and a publisher and go through the editing and revision and publication process.  Even though part of me wanted the validation of having credible industry professionals sign-off on my work before it went to the public, a bigger part of me just REALLY wanted to share my book with readers NOW (and the thought of waiting that long to get my book out was like a knife to the gut!).  By publishing the book myself, I was able to get it to readers only weeks after it was done, instead of months/years (and now that readers are clamoring for part two of the trilogy, I’m really glad that I’ll be able to get it to them as soon as I can!).

4. Bloggers, bloggers, bloggers.

WOW.  I have never met a more supportive and encouraging community of people than the world of book bloggers.  Since I am doing all my marketing myself (notice a theme here? I’ve been in personal contact with literally hundreds of bloggers since my book and blog tour launched a few months ago, and each and every one of them has absolutely blown me away.  There’s just been an incredible outpouring of assistance and enthusiasm from the blogging community, and I feel SO grateful to have made contact with all of these amazing people.  Thank you SO MUCH to all of the bloggers who have helped me promote Stitch!  You guys are amazing!!

5. Reader commentary!

Last but CERTAINLY not least are the readers themselves!  It has been just INCREDIBLE to share Stitch with so many people and to hear their feedback and see them getting excited about the story the same way I am.  Stitch is definitely a different sort of book, and I have to say, even though I knew I loved the story, I didn’t know if most readers would feel the same.  So when 4- and 5-star reviews started popping up all over the internet, you can only imagine how gratifying that felt!  I’ve read every review that’s been posted online and it always makes my day to hear that someone enjoyed the book.  I’m SO indebted to every reader who’s taken the time to read and talk about Stitch!  Nothing is more motivating than passionate fans who are itching for the next installment – I can’t WAIT to get started on the next one for you guys!

Learn more about Samantha on her website

Find Samantha Durante All Across The Web:

Facebook Page For Stitch •Facebook Author Profile •  Stitch on Goodreads • Samantha on Goodreads • Twitter • Librarything • Shelfari

This book tour was organized by:

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