“NOVA grabbed me from the first chapter, and never let go. What a ride! Unforgettable, fast-paced and original, this book kept me guessing to the end.”
—Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of These Broken Stairs
I mean, you’re never going to read a ‘bad cover blurb’ are you? But that’s a lot of nice words and positivity in just a few sentences. Upon reading the Press Release I got in touch with the publishers of NOVA, written by Margaret Fortune, and asked if they could give me some more details on what it is about. Not only did they reply with an extended synopsis on the novel, but they also offered me the exclusive cover reveal – which you will find below.
Here’s the publisher’s blurb:
*36:00:00*
The clock activates so suddenly in my mind, my head involuntarily jerks a bit to the side. The fog vanishes, dissipated in an instant as though it never was. Memories come slotting into place, their edges sharp enough to leave furrows, and suddenly I know. I know exactly who I am.
My name is Lia Johansen, and I was named for a prisoner of war. She lived in the Tiersten Internment Colony for two years, and when they negotiated the return of the prisoners, I was given her memories and sent back in her place.
And I am a genetically engineered human bomb.
Lia Johansen was created for only one purpose: to slip onto the strategically placed New Sol Space Station and explode. But her mission goes to hell when her clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go. With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia has no idea what to do next. Her life gets even more complicated when she meets Michael Sorenson, the real Lia’s childhood best friend.
Drawn to Michael and his family against her better judgment, Lia starts learning what it means to live and love, and to be human. It is only when her countdown clock begins sporadically losing time that she realizes even duds can still blow up. If she wants any chance at a future, she must find a way to unlock the secrets of her past and stop her clock. But as Lia digs into her origins, she begins to suspect there’s far more to her mission and to this war, than meets the eye. With the fate of not just a space station but an entire empire hanging in the balance, Lia races to find the truth before her time—literally—runs out.
And here’s that cover we promised you:
It’s pretty subtle, right? I guess it is designed to act as the calm before the storm, whilst at the same time foreshadowing the possible explosion. Additionally, despite its simplicity, the ‘nova’ hovering in the centre of the cover suggests something quite epic. In my eyes it just works – it is the kind of cover that asks more questions than it gives answers and will have you picking it up to see what it is all about.
What excites me most about this book is that it seems to share a lot of similarities in plot with Red Rising, which was one of my favourite books of 2014: an individual heading into enemy territory in order to bring about their downfall and then begins to sympathise with them. I guess this would be true in the vast majority of conflicts – if the other side took the time to get to know the people on the other side of the argument as people and understand their problems they’d find a level of understanding and sympathy with them.
Nova will be the author’s first book, however Margaret Fortune began writing in the first grade. Her story titled “The Numbers’ Birthday Party” got the attention of everyone in her elementary school. She began writing seriously after she graduated college in 2003. Fortune has written numerous short stories that have appeared in Nth Degree, Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, and Space and Time. Her short story Breaking Bread won the Tillie Olsen Women’s Studies Award in 2007. She is an avid reader on YA, science fiction, romance, and historical fiction. Nova is her first novel. You can find more information about Margaret at her website, http://margaretfortune.wordpress.com/about/
Jennie Ivins
Richard Marpole
[…] If you’ve ever wondered what the cover for Nova is going to look like, wonder no longer! Today Fantasy Faction is doing an exclusive cover reveal for my debut novel, Nova. It’s pretty awesome, so when you have a minute, why don’t you go take a look here! […]