BLAST, BLITZ, PROMOS, REVEALS, & TOURS . . . : RELEASE WEEK BLITZ - YA FANTASY

THE STARS FORGOT US
by R.J. Garcia
Publication Date: March 30th 2022
Publisher: Midnight Tide Publishing
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: 296

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle

BLURB

Sometimes missing children become the night

Fifteen-year-old Jacob Kelly would love to go back to simpler times. Before his parents’ divorce and the onset of his older brother’s schizophrenia. But when he returns to his hometown, things feel off. After a series of strange occurrences in his new house, Jacob fears the house is haunted, or even worse, he is losing his mind.

To his surprise, Jacob discovers a mysterious teenage runaway, Sanctuary Daniels, living in the house. She reveals she has been kept by a figure known only as Mother, in a place where downstairs children are languishing prisoners, and upstairs children do Mother’s bidding.

Both Jacob’s investigation into Sanctuary’s allegations and their budding romance are cut short when she is reclaimed by evil beings. Beings who unleash terror upon Jacob and his family. Now he must journey to a real haunted house to save his first love and fight for his life.

Excerpt:

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

My eyes snapped open as three words surfaced in my sleepy brain. You’re not alone. A cold settled into my flesh, making the fine hairs on my arm stand up. I sat up in bed, sucking in a deep breath, and stared into the darkness, unsure what had woken me. My lights were off. It was pitch black. Then the distinct pitter-patter of footsteps sounded down the hall.

“Mom?” When I got no answer, I jumped out of bed and scrambled for the light switch. The overhead fluorescent light blinked on, and I immediately noticed the closet door was partway opened again. I was sure I’d closed it this time, so I started off with slow, measured steps to investigate. I yanked the door open the rest of the way and hit the closet light. I scoured the walls to discover more writing. The single word, HELP, was written in the same marker on the wall. My pulse skyrocketed. It freaked me out.

I crept over to the bed and grabbed the blanket, swinging it around my shoulders like a cape, settling down on the drafty hardwood floor. With a shiver of anticipation, I kept my eyes pinned to the door, straining to hear the slightest noise. It was eerily quiet. Even the wind had died down.

Unexpectedly, I heard a girl’s voice, so soft it was hardly audible, as it drifted up from the floor. It was only the word, “I’m.”

I scooted over to the vent and whispered, “Um…hello?” There was no reply. It could have been a ringing or humming in my ear. Yeah, I’d only imagined it was a voice. Yet, I hadn’t imagined the writing on the wall. I mean, what the hell? I got up and decided to have a look around. If someone was in the house, I had to know. I exited my room and began my search.

I stood face to face with a long and quiet hallway—doors on the left and right. My mind was a hot blank space as a thread of fear tugged me along.

Author Info

R.J. Garcia is a bestselling author of YA suspense. She is a wallflower, and mom of two smart kids. She earned her MSW and has worked with foster children. Writing has been her other great love.

Yet growing up with dyslexia, she had a love/hate relationship with books. She loved the covers and the idea of escaping into them. Learning to read didn’t come easy. A lot of her classmates bullied her. Nevertheless, she wanted it enough and eventually became a proud bookworm.

For as long as she could remember, she thought up stories, scribbling them down on cheap notebook paper. She has come along way since then, publishing her first two novels: Nocturnal Meetings and The Call of Death with The Parliament House. Her upcoming novel, The Star Forgot is coming from Midnight Tide Publishing.