I’ve enjoyed posting promos for newly released novels, but this one is especially exciting, because the book is mine! I am proud to introduce Enhanced, my first novel.

Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Michelle was born into the Institute’s eugenics program, where doctors breed people like livestock. One powerful man decides which children grow up, and which disappear. Culls are dumped in the slum outside Institute walls, and those kids never come back. Michelle has survived every purge, and she’s about to win a luxurious life as a breeder. When her brother and her boyfriend are both mysteriously culled, despite their high scores, she goes over the wall to find them. Alone in the ghetto, she’s in trouble until handsome, streetwise Dillon stakes a claim to her. She’s mortified because the Enhanced see Norms as little more than animals. But the doctor is using the missing boys in a twisted experiment, and she needs Dillon’s help to stop him. Michelle must rescue the boys, but a plague is spreading, the doctor is after her, and Dillon isn’t thrilled to help her find her lost boyfriend.

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Enhanced-Courtney-Farrell/dp/1939173396/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378998335&sr=1-11&keywords=Courtney+Farrell

Excerpt 1:

A creaking sound came from outside, and Michelle realized that was the noise that woke her. She lay still, listening. Another creak raised goose bumps that tingled their way down her spine, and then a man’s heavy boots thudded slowly across the balcony. A shadow ghosted past the draperies. It’s a robbery. Some crazy Norm snuck over the wall, looking for valuables. Or worse, girls.

Michelle pushed off the covers and got out of bed as quietly as she could, suddenly aware of the ridiculously low cut neckline on her sheer thigh-length nightgown. Buying her first sexy nightie had seemed fun at the time. Now it was just another stupid thing to add to the list. Terror made her heart thud, but she forced her feet to carry her across her bedroom to the double doors that opened onto her private balcony.

A spark of anger caught fire in her chest and burned there. Filthy Norm. How dare you? In the dark, her hands balled into fists. Three steps to the door. Two. The night breeze toyed with the hem of her gown, but she ignored it. One. Michelle reached for the latch, her body tense, ready to run or fight. The door suddenly flew open in her face and the intruder’s huge shoulders filled the doorway, blocking the faint moonlight. In her shock, Michelle forgot to scream.

“Michelle,” a deep voice hissed.

It took a heartbeat for her to recognize him. “Brian! What are you doing here?”

“Shhh.” In a stride he closed the distance between them and placed a finger softly on her lips. His arm slid around her waist and pulled her to him. She felt tiny beside him. His big hand wrapped halfway around her waist.

“Sorry I scared you. I…I just needed to talk to someone.”

“Someone.” Michelle repeated frostily. “At two in the morning.”

“You, I mean. You.” Brian’s voice was hoarse with pain. “Things have been so awful lately…”

His agonized tone melted Michelle’s heart, so she reached up with both hands to touch his face. The stubble under her fingers made him feel like a stranger. Even his scent smelled musky and foreign, but it sent heat down her body to the core.

“Okay, but we have to be quiet so we don’t wake my father.” Michelle took Brian’s hand and pulled him outside onto the balcony, where two chairs and a little round table stood beside her cushioned recliner. Brian surprised her by taking her in his arms and lifting her a few inches off her toes. When he sat down on the recliner, he brought her with him, so she ended up straddling his lap in her white lace panties. Michelle flushed, completely distracted by the feeling of his body beneath her. With an effort, she put both hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eye. “So, you came here to talk?”

“Yeah, but you look amazing,” Brian rumbled, pulling her into a kiss.

A moment later, he stood up, still holding her, and turned around to set her down lightly on the cushion. When he turned his back to stare into the darkened grounds of the estate, Michelle leaned back with a sigh. Damn. He really did come here to talk.

“What’s wrong, Brian?”

He flopped face down on the recliner beside her, nuzzling her neck lightly with his lips. “Nothing. Everything.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Michelle whispered.

Brian rolled over onto his back and pulled her head onto his shoulder. One of his hands twined with hers. “I wish we could connect like we did before.”

Michelle smiled. “I think you have to be born with the gene for that to work.”

Brian squeezed her hand a little harder before he gave up and ran his fingers down her bare arm instead. Michelle gasped a little when he pulled up the white nightgown to stroke her sleek flank.

“Sorry,” Brian murmured, taking his hand away. “I forget how young you are.”

“Don’t. I mean do, forget it, please.”

He kissed her again, but then stopped and stared into space. “You know, I fought so hard just to survive here.”

“Survive?” Michelle repeated apprehensively.

“You know. Beat the tests,” Brian said bitterly. His great chest heaved under her hand as he took a deep breath. “I made it, Michelle, and nothing changed. They didn’t even mark the event. You’d think they’d be like, hey, Brian, you made it to eighteen without getting culled, you can relax now. But we’re all still here, still being tested, still trying to hang on.” He buried his face in her curls. “When does it end?”

“I don’t know, Brian. I don’t know.”

Michelle held him in her arms and stroked his back until he left her in the gray light of dawn.

Excerpt 2:

“The game is every man for himself,” Salomon announced. “Your objective is to be the first to push the large black button on the south wall of the gym. You will be timed. Certain, eh-hmm, difficulties may impede your progress. That is all. You may begin.”

Younger boys surged forward, but stopped when they saw that none of the older ones were rushing in. “Difficulties!” Brian reminded them, putting a hand on Nick’s chest to keep him from charging in there like an idiot. “That means a trap. There’s always a trap.”

“More than one, usually,” Seth added grimly. “These tests aren’t all physical, they test your problem-solving capacity too.”

The boys fidgeted uncertainly at the boundary, peering in but carefully staying outside the white painted line on the floor. The smallest ones looked sick with apprehension. Tests turned nasty once kids turned thirteen, and this would be their first hard one. Deaths during tests were rare, but they did happen, especially among the youngsters.

“Who wants to run in there and spring it for us?” Brian grinned. No one did. He bent to yank his shoes off, muttering to himself, “He had his off.” A few other kids followed suit.

“Where’s the big black button?” Nick demanded, hopping up and down to get a better look. “I don’t see it!”

“Neither do we.” Brian grabbed the wiry kid and hoisted him up for a better view. Nick grabbed a wad of Brian’s hair and nimbly stood up on the bigger boy’s shoulders. He hadn’t taken off his shoes.

“Ow, Nick, that hurts.”

“I see the button!” Nick shouted, leaning dangerously to one side to look between poles. “It’s way up high! Too high, and too far from the next pole.” The kid swayed and deftly hopped down before falling. “I don’t see how anyone’s going to reach it.”

The doctor touched a finger to his glowing bracelet and his platform rose, carrying him up and away. His high laugh echoed back from somewhere near the ceiling. “Bonus points to Nicholas Arnold, for being the first person to pose the right question. And the clock is ticking.”

“Go!” Guys in the back began to push. “We’re being timed!”

“Fine, go.” Brian stepped aside and let an eager eighteen-year-old shove his way in. The muscular black boy put one tennis shoe over the line and the green lights on his bracelet began to move in a swirling pattern around and around his wrist.

“Look!” The boy held up his arm.

“Dhorian, you’re on!” Seth bellowed. “Go!”

Dhorian hesitated for a moment, and then grabbed the line that hung off the nearest pole. He began to climb. Boys held their breath, leaning in to see what would happen. Nothing did. For a long moment everything was still, and then a shout came from above. “I made it! I’m up!”

A stampede began as boys surged across the line. Some became entangled in the foam bushes. Those turned out to be horribly sticky, and getting through them was nearly impossible. A few guys made it to poles and began to climb. Seth, Brian, and Todd waited behind the white line. “Let ‘em trigger it for us,” Todd breathed, but nothing happened.

Simultaneously, their three bracelets made warning beeps and the lights turned orange. “Aw, hell, we’re out of time!” Brian exclaimed, and waded into the foam forest with his friends. Behind them, the wall slid shut, leaving the room in sudden darkness.

Author Information:

Courtney Farrell was once a molecular biologist, but her daydreaming habit destroyed a lot of experiments. Writing down the movies behind her eyes was more fun than lab work. Courtney is the author of fourteen nonfiction books for young people, mostly on social and environmental topics. She lives with her family on a Colorado ranch where they support a barn full of freeloading animals, including a fat draft horse and a bunch of crazy chickens. Enhanced is her first novel.

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Enhanced-Courtney-Farrell/dp/1939173396/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378998335&sr=1-11&keywords=Courtney+Farrell