Hi, and welcome to the Juggernaut blog tour! Almost before I was done writing Strain, my mind began trying to fill in the blanks of the world we saw in Strain, trying to piece together what had led up to that point. I decided I wanted to write a story chronicling the apocalyptic pandemic, both the events leading up to it and the immediate aftermath. The result, of course, was Juggernaut.
On the Juggernaut blog tour, I’ll be sharing my thoughts about the world of Juggernaut/Strain/Bane, including several cut scenes from Juggernaut which I felt contained important world-building details that in the end just didn’t fit the flow of the story. I’ll also be sharing a couple sneak previews of the third book in the Strain universe, Bane (coming September 21 from Riptide Publishing) as well as giving away three e-copies of Bane before it hits the shelves!
To enter to win, leave a comment on this post including a way to contact you (email, Twitter, or
Facebook.) Each stop along the blog tour that you visit offers you another chance to enter. Be sure to check the Riptide blog tour schedule for a complete list of other stops. The contest will close Saturday, August 15th, 2015 and the winner will be contacted no later than Monday, August 17th. Any entries made without a way to contact the winner will be invalidated, so please don’t forget to provide your email, or your Twitter or Facebook address. Contest is NOT limited to US entries.
Good luck, and enjoy the tour!

For rentboy Nico Fernández, it’s a simple job: seduce a presidential advisor to help cement approval to launch Project Juggernaut. He’s done similar work for General Logan McClosky before, and manipulating people for his favorite client beats the hell out of being trafficked for slave wages in some corporate brothel.
Zach Houtman feels called to work with the most vulnerable outcasts of society. But his father, the Reverend Maurice Houtman, insists that Zach work for him instead as he runs for Senate. Zach reluctantly agrees, but is horrified to see his father leave behind Christ’s mandate of love and mercy to preach malicious zealotry and violence instead. Zach even starts to suspect his father is working with fundamentalist terrorists.
When Project Juggernaut accidentally unleashes a deadly plague that claims billions of lives, Nico and Zach are thrown together, each bearing a burden of guilt. With only each other for safety and solace, they must make their way through a new world, one where the handful of people left alive are willing to do anything—and kill anyone—to survive.
Reader advisories - Drug use, dubious consent, non-consent and violence
Grab your copy today from Riptide Publishing!
Tams 4 Star review ****
Nico Fernandez is the son of the most powerful
Sanctioned Madam; he is also her most valued employee. Nico sees how the people
that don’t have the opportunities he has suffer and he truly wants to help any
way he can. Poverty is prolific and Nico is spared that type of life, until he
unwittingly helps a family friend, also a sometimes lover, unleash the virus
that now plagues humanity.
Zach Houtman is the son of the most powerful Zealot
in this post-apocalyptic world. As a former minister turned politician, his
father spouts nothing but hate and venom at anyone that doesn’t conform to his
ideals and beliefs, including his own son. Zach turns a blind eye for years,
until his father pushes him too far. Zach and Nico become companions due to
circumstance. They become lovers by choice. But the society and the unholy
virus that is slowly wiping out humanity has other plans for these two, that
is, if they survive.
Juggernaut shows us how the plague in the story
Strain started. Gormley paints a vivid picture of a society on the verge of
breaking down, even before the virus takes hold. War, poverty, lust, greed and
a thirst for power pale in comparison to the Juggernaut virus that turns man
against each other. Society is already on the verge of breaking down, even before
the virus. When you have a base reality of people that are hell bent on
destroying each other, playing God usually backfires, and that’s exactly what
happens here.
I thoroughly enjoyed this look back into the history
of the Jugs. How they came to be the super soldiers and protectors they are.
You’ll not only learn how the Strain started but you get to see a little bit of
the reasoning behind certain aspects of Strain that you may have questioned or
misunderstood. The relationship between Nico and Zach was a little too simple
for my taste, especially if you’ve read Darius and Rhys’s story prior to this
one. But I’m very excited to see what Gormley brings to the table with Bane,
the next book in this series.
If you like dystopian stories then this is a must
read for you. It’s one of my favorite genres, so when new books release in the
genre I’m usually standing on top of the buy now button waiting for them. The
story itself, the world this is set in is very post-apocalyptic and though it’s
not as prevalent in this book, it has a zombie edge to it as well. If you
haven’t read Strain yet, you won’t be lost. But if you think that was a cliff
hanger, go straight to Strain to answer some of your questions.
Excerpt from Juggernaut
(Warning, this book is intended for mature audiences 18+ only)
LATE MARCH
The rains had abated to a persistent but bearable patter that rapped against the car’s windows as it wound up into the Blue Ridge Mountains. The winds had died down enough that it was once again safe to venture out of doors, but the damage Hurricane Lilith had wrought on Virginia was readily apparent in the downed power lines and fallen tree branches lining the road. The Commonwealth was still tabulating the toll in both lives and dollars, but whatever it ended up being, it would be too damned much.
Of course, federal relief for the disaster would be considerably easier to get out here. The debris and damaged utilities would inconvenience politicians fleeing DC’s sweltering heat in the summer to come. Other areas smashed by the catastrophic storm would be shit out of luck.
“We’ve got about a half hour until we reach the cabin, Mr. Costas,” the driver informed Nico over his shoulder. “If you wanted some time to watch the news, you might do it now.”
Nico smiled with genuine warmth. General McClosky’s people were always friendly beyond mere professional courtesy, which wasn’t something he could say for the staff employed by some of his clients. He never got that cold, I’m looking down my nose at you but it’s not my place to say anything vibe from anyone when he had a contract with the general. And there was no question that the driver knew exactly what services “Octavio Costas” performed for McClosky; he was, after all, the one who had to clean the upholstery and air out the car whenever their contracts involved travel.
“Thank you, Darrin.”
“How’s your thesis going?” Darrin asked as Nico tucked his memory cards and projection glasses into his bag and tidied up the back of the car, where he’d been working for several hours.
“Slowly. How’s yours?”
He caught Darrin’s grimace in the rearview mirror. “Public course servers and connections were damaged in the storm,” he answered. “Everything has been offline for weeks. The only students getting any work done are the ones who can pay first-tier tuition. Apparently their servers are up and running just fine.”
Nico sighed and shook his head. Due to setbacks like this, Darrin had been working on his degree for as long as Nico had been seeing the general as a client—some six years now. Each delay meant his degree took longer, and he was paying for more terms than should have been necessary to finish it.
“I’m sorry,” Nico murmured.
Darrin shrugged. “Not your doing. It’s not like I plan to stop working for the general, anyway. Finishing it is mostly a point of pride at this point.”
Reading between the lines, it sounded to Nico like Darrin was giving up, or at least contemplating it. There was nothing he could say to that. The fact was, Nico could afford first-tier, private university tuition and all the preferential treatment it entailed, and both he and Darrin knew it.
“Anyway,” Darrin continued, “if you want to watch the news, go ahead.”
“Thanks,” he said again, and Nico raised the privacy partition. “Display,” he called. A heads-up display appeared on the partition. “Video. News. Politics,” he instructed. An image quickly came into focus on the HUD, revealing the familiar face of one of the ubiquitous Sunday-morning pundits, Daniel McNary.
“Here with us now is the Reverend Maurice Houtman, communications director for the Righteous Word Party. Reverend, with this latest wave of attacks, accusations are once again being leveled at the RWP, claiming the Righteous Action League is the terrorist arm of your party, operating with the RWP’s knowledge and cooperation. How does the RWP respond to this?”
“The same as we always have, Mr. McNary.” Even through the video screen, Houtman’s eyes burned with a zealot’s fire and the smile on his gaunt face stopped just short of smug. “The Righteous Word Party is dedicated to—”
Houtman’s diatribe—which had all the earmarks of becoming the same sort of sermon that was broadcast to millions of people every Sunday morning from Houtman Ministries mega-cathedral in Indianapolis—was overridden by the chime of a call coming in on Nico’s tablet. He pulled it from his bag and redirected the signal to the left half of the HUD, compressing Houtman’s creepy mug on the right.
To read the entire excerpt and for more info on this book and series, visit Riptide Publishing.
Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot M/M erotic romance while her five-year-old is in kindergarten.
When she’s not writing, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else.
Connect with Amelia:
- Website: ameliacgormley.com
- Twitter: @ACGormley
- Goodreads: goodreads.com/ameliacgormley
Leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway for a chance to win one of three e-book copies of Bane, the second book in the Strain series.
* Remember to leave your email in the comments so the Author can contact you if you win *
Wow, thanks for the chance to win. It is the second book. I will need to read book one first. Ahh a quest.
ReplyDeletedebby236@gmail.com
book sounds great ..congrats
ReplyDeletejmarinich33@aol.com
Thanks so much for the review!
ReplyDelete--Trix, vitajex(at)aol(Dot)com
Thank you for the review! The book sounds interesting.
ReplyDeletehumhumbum AT yahoo DOT com
Hi! Thank you for hosting me today, and thanks to everyone who's commented! I've got your names down for the giveaway and I'll be checking in to take down anyone else who comments before the deadline. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI read the first book a couple of years ago and always wondered what came next so.... I am looking forward to read this.
ReplyDeleteree.dee.2014@gmail.com
sounds interesting
ReplyDeletebn100candg at hotmail dot com
Just finished the book and I absolutely LOVED it! Cannot wait to get my hands on Bane! :D
ReplyDeleterbuoy20(at)gmail(dot)com
Congratulations on the new release! Great review!
ReplyDeletejuliesmall2016(at)gmail(dot)com