Blog Tour: Iniquity by Melody Winter || Book Spotlight (Excerpt) + Giveaway!

Hello everyone and welcome to the blog tour for 

Iniquity by Melody Winter!

Today is my stop on the tour and I am here to share with you all about the book, an excerpt, and a wonderful giveaway where you can win some amazing prizes!! 

Enjoy!

Iniquity by Melody Winter
Series: Ascent #1
Publication date: October 25th 2016
Genres: Fantasy, New Adult, Romance

Athena Harrow is about to turn twenty-one, but there will be no celebration. What is there to celebrate when the world is ruled by demons?

She hates the darkness the demons brought with them and longs for the light to return to the world—a world she only vaguely remembers. The people in her forest village blindly accept the life the demons forced upon them, even tolerating the yearly ascension ceremony where all the girls who have turned twenty-one are either sent away to serve the Master Demon or left in the village and forced to procreate.

But Paymon, the assigned village demon, selects a different role for Athena, a role that pits her against the village. While she adapts to her new life, Erebus, a younger, more powerful demon, arrives, and Athena must play a dangerous game with his emotions in return for information about the demon’s reign of darkness.

As Athena’s dreams of restoring the light begin to fade, her life with Erebus takes an unexpected turn, and this time it’s her life being put to the test.

Set in the forest around Buttercrambe in North Yorkshire, England, INIQUITY explores the frightening, darker side of romance and the uncontrolled emotions it can unleash.

Purchase at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

My first month living as Erebus’s wife was full of surprises. Whereas I’d fit into an easy routine with Paymon, with Erebus, I never knew what he’d do or say next. He’d kept his word about not torturing the villagers, or so he said. Sometimes I’d watch from my bedroom window, squinting through the darkness to try and see if there were any familiar sparks lighting the sky. There never was. But other times, I used his absence to visit Samael.

Erebus often left me alone for the day, pursuing his obsession with catching and killing vampires, and I began to be able to read his mood when he returned. If he’d killed even one vampire, his mood was light, almost carefree, and he was quite pleasant to be around. They were the times when I questioned him, allowed myself to relax a little in his company. They were the times it was easy to forget he was a demon. We often found ourselves laughing at the same things, but one of us was always quick to change the subject and halt the merriment. Neither of us could forget the situation we were in. Neither of us wanted to be here.

By contrast, when he’d had an unsuccessful day, found no vampires to kill, he’d be moody and sarcastic. He’d throw things around, sometime shooting his power at them so they exploded in the air, before settling at the desk and writing. I’d learnt not to question him when he came home on these days. But I couldn’t escape to my room. He wanted me in the room with him, ready to taunt and belittle me if the mood so took him. At those times I didn’t need to be reminded that he was a demon. And at those times my hate for him grew.

Whenever he was out riding Samael, I took the opportunity to translate the diary and search through the library for books that could tell me anything about the Master and the darkness. But I never found anything of any use, and the translation of the diary, one line at a time, still with lots of guesswork, was a long drawn out task. When Erebus was in a good mood, he promised to help me with the diary, and when he was in a bad mood, he threatened to burn it. And so now I kept it hidden in my room, under the deep mattress on my bed, the same hiding place as when I lived in the village.

The end of the first month of living with Erebus also marked the night of the village feast. But I couldn’t settle. I’d read the same page of my book several times. I fiddled with my hair, drawing out the long strands between my fingers. I smoothed and rearranged my dress, fidgeting on the sofa to get comfy. Erebus ignored me, he was too busy chuntering and swearing as he wrote notes.

“It’s the village feast tonight,” I said, looking up from my book.

“And?”

“You should be there.”

“Why? So one of them can poison me?” He carried on writing, not showing any interest in moving.

“It’s their chance to thank you for providing the light over the fields and protecting them from the beasts in the forest.” I shuddered, my nostrils flaring as I remembered the vile heated breath of the creature I’d faced. I lifted a trembling hand to cover my nose, and squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the terror induced scent and memory of when I’d faced one of them.

“I don’t need to go every month, surely? Wasn’t that something Paymon did? He set the monthly occasion. Strange really, I never viewed him as a demon who liked to party.”

I fixed him with a withering gaze, angry for so many reasons. “They’ll have killed a pig, cooked all day. All of it’s for you.”

“Athena.” Erebus laid his pen on the desk and swung around in his chair to face me. “They can still enjoy all their hard work. They can eat the food they’ve prepared. I actually think they’ll enjoy themselves a lot more with me not there.”

“You should still go.”

He chuckled before turning back to his desk. “I’m beginning to think you want them to poison me. You go if you want. I’ll not stop you.”

I curled my legs up underneath me. “I don’t want to go by myself.” It would feel weird going back to village when I’d not been there for over four weeks, never mind traipsing out into the cold that seemed to have grown in intensity over the last couple of days.

“Then you’ll have to stay here, with me.” He shot me an amused smile and then continued writing.

“I’d go if I could see the moon,” I said, risking an attempt at small talk.

“The moon? Why the moon? It doesn’t protect you from anything, regardless of what the old hag in the village says.”

“Myrtle,” I corrected him.

“Whatever.”

“I’d just like to see its white glow through the darkness that the Master put there. Do you like the darkness?”

“Not particularly.” He placed his pen on the desk and stood up, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So get rid of it.”

He laughed, the sound loud to my ears. “I don’t know how to.

Growing up, Melody showed a natural ability in art, a head for maths, and a tendency to write too long English essays. Difficult to place in the world when she graduated, she pursued a career in teaching, but ended up working in finance. Melody is convinced the methodical times she spends working with numbers fuel her desire to drift into dream worlds and write about the illusory characters in her head.

Melody Winter lives in York, North Yorkshire, England with her husband and two sons. When not dealing with football, rugby, and a whole plethora of ‘boy’ activities, she will be found scribbling notes for her stories, or preparing for another trip to the nearby beaches at Scarborough and Whitby. With an obsession for anything mythical, Melody revels in reading and writing about such creatures.

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Tour-wide giveaway (US/CAN) - Ends Nov 24th

Signed paperback of Iniquity + Iniquity swag, (Handmade bracelet, bookmarks, and chocolates) + eBook copies of:

• Melody Winter - Sachael Dreams
• Melody Winter - Sachael Desires
• Carly Drake - Words Once Spoken
• Carly Drake - Curses Once Spoken
• Carrie Elks - Box set of 'Love in London@ featuring: Coming Down, Broken Chords, Canada Square
• Emma L Adams - Faerie Blood
• C L Denault - Gambit
• Julie Hutchings - Running Home
• Julie Hutchings - Running Away
• Katie M John - When Sorrow Comes
• Tammy Farrell - The Darkness of Light
• Tammy Farrell - The Embers of Light
• Valentina Cano - The Rose Master

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