Aurora Blazing

Aurora Blazing ARC Giveaway!

Aurora Blazing comes out on October 1, which means we’re just about a month and a half away from release! Ahhh!!! Where did this year go?

If you want to read it even sooner, I’m giving you a chance to get your hands on an early copy! I have three ARCs (advance reader copies) to give away. See below for details. And if you haven’t preordered yet, now is an excellent time. :)

And don’t forget, for US readers, my publisher is running a Goodreads giveaway, too!

Aurora Blazing Cover

To save her brother and protect her family’s future, a powerful princess must join forces with a dashing man from her past in this thrilling space adventure, the second novel in the Consortium Rebellion trilogy.

As the dutiful daughter of High House von Hasenberg, Bianca set aside her personal feelings and agreed to a political match arranged by her family, only to end up trapped in a loveless, miserable marriage. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Bianca vows never to wed again. Newly independent, she secretly uses her wealth and influence to save other women stuck in dire circumstances. Information is power and Bianca has a network of allies and spies that would be the envy of the ’verse—if anyone knew about it.

When her family’s House is mysteriously attacked, Bianca’s oldest brother, the heir to House von Hasenberg, disappears. Fearful for her brother’s life, the headstrong Bianca defies her father and leaves Earth to save him. Ian Bishop, the director of House von Hasenberg security—and Bianca’s first love—is ordered to find and retrieve the rebellious woman.

Ian is the last man Bianca wants to see. To evade capture, she leads him on a merry chase across the universe. But when their paths finally collide, she knows she must persuade him to help her. Bianca will do anything to save her sibling, even if it means spending time alone on a small ship with the handsome, infuriating man who once broke her heart.

As the search takes them deep into rival House Rockhurst territory, Bianca must decide if she can trust Ian with the one piece of information that could destroy her completely . . .

Preorder now:

  • Amazon
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Apple Books
  • Kobo
  • Google Play
  • IndieBound

EDIT: Entries are now closed, winners will be announced soon. Check for the new blog post in a day or two. :)

To enter to win an ARC, here are the rules. Please read them all! Incomplete entries will be ignored.

  1. The entry period starts now and ends on August 30, 2019 at 12:00PM (noon) CST. You must be eighteen or older. Open to US and international readers.
  2. Leave ONE top-level comment (i.e., not a reply) below and tell me about something fun you’ve done this summer. It could be reading a new book, a vacation, enjoying a break from school, etc. Let’s celebrate summer fun! (EDIT: Okay, I forgot about the southern hemisphere. D’oh! If you live south, tell me something fun you’ve done this winter.) Duplicate top-level comments will be deleted. You are welcome to reply to other comments, though, because those won’t count as entries.
  3. Comments must be on the blog post on my site (www.jessiemihalik.com). Comments on Facebook, Goodreads, etc. won’t count.
  4. Come back after August 30 and see if you’ve won! Winners will be picked by random number and must claim their book. Instructions will be included in the winning post.

I will start! Not only did I finish writing Chaos Reigning (and you might want to peek over there for a teeny snippet!), I also have time to read again! In the past couple weeks, I’ve read Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean and The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare, and both were fantastic!

Book Update and Goodreads Giveaways

I finished the rough draft of book three! 🎉 I expected to be writing right up to the deadline, but some super productive alien took over my brain last week and I ended up writing over 17k words in four days, which still kind of amazes me. I’m not sure what happened, but I wouldn’t mind if it happened every week. :)

The first draft clocked in around 103k and since then has grown to almost 105k as I go back and edit. It’s out with my alpha readers right now and I’m letting it rest a bit, then I’ll do another editing pass before I send it off to my editor next week.

Finishing a book is always a little bittersweet, especially this book which gave me such trouble during drafting (the last four days notwithstanding). During edits, I read it end-to-end, which you don’t really do when writing, and it’s not as bad as I expected.

It might even be good.

I don’t know, I’m too close to it, but that’s why I have early readers. None of them have stopped answering my calls yet, so maybe it’s okay. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten to the bad parts yet. 😅

In other news, my publisher is running two giveaways on Goodreads right now. Both of them are US only (sorry, international folks!). The first is for a chance to win one of 100 copies of Polaris Rising. It ends August 10, so get cracking.

The second, which might be more interesting to you all, is a chance to win one of 50 early copies of Aurora Blazing. It ends August 30.

Good luck!

Aurora Blazing is on Edelweiss+

Today was the day for lots of Aurora Blazing news, as it turns out. Page proofs landed this afternoon and reviewers, bloggers, librarians, etc can now request a review copy on Edelweiss+.

Want a sneak peek at the formatted book? Of course you do! 😉 Here’s the title page and the first page of chapter one. Reminder: you can read all of chapter one over on the book page.

Preorder!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo
Google Play | IndieBound

It’s always a bit scary, launching a new book into the unknown, but I hope you love Bianca as much as I do. And as much as Bree does. She’s half of NYT bestselling author Kit Rocha and incredibly, incredibly kind. Here’s what she said on Twitter:

Aurora Blazing Chapter One

TL;DR: The first chapter of Aurora Blazing. Happy reading! :)

This weekend was a busy one. We saw Endgame on Saturday and it was awesome. I highly recommend it. We’ll have to chat about it in a few weeks after everyone has a chance to see it, so DO NOT SPOILER IT.

If you drop spoilers in the comments, I’ll remove them and put you in moderation until you prove you can be trusted. I managed to see it spoiler-free and everyone should have that chance. If you want spoilers, I’m sure you can find them elsewhere. :)

Aurora Blazing Cover

I also made it through the first pass on my copyedits for Aurora Blazing this weekend. Yesterday was a marathon of over twenty chapters. My brain is mush.

If you mosey over to the book page, you’ll find the first chapter and preorder links. It comes out in October, and I would love for you to preorder it if you are able. Preorder numbers are super helpful!

It always surprises me just how many mistakes are in my manuscripts. I feel like I turn out fairly clean drafts, but there’s nothing like a copyeditor to take your ego down a peg or seventy.

Last night we watched Game of Thrones, and this season has decided to bring it. I can’t believe it’s going to be wrapped up in just three more episodes. I’m still waiting for the Red-Wedding-esque other shoe to drop. If anything, this show has taught me not to care for anyone too deeply, but I did cheer when [SPOILER] [SPOILERED]. :)

This week, I have edits for The Queen’s Advantage on deck. I also need to be adding words to book three at a high velocity. Once book three is done, I’m taking a month off to binge books, play video games, and lie on the sofa. Or so I tell myself. :)

Aurora Blazing Cover Reveal and Snippet!

The cover for Aurora Blazing is here, and I love it so, so much! Behold:

Aurora Blazing Cover

The back cover copy:

To save her brother and protect her family’s future, a powerful princess must join forces with a dashing man from her past in this thrilling space adventure, the second novel in the Consortium Rebellion trilogy.

As the dutiful daughter of High House von Hasenberg, Bianca set aside her personal feelings and agreed to a political match arranged by her family, only to end up trapped in a loveless, miserable marriage. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Bianca vows never to wed again. Newly independent, she secretly uses her wealth and influence to save other women stuck in dire circumstances. Information is power and Bianca has a network of allies and spies that would be the envy of the ’verse—if anyone knew about it.

When her family’s House is mysteriously attacked, Bianca’s oldest brother, the heir to House von Hasenberg, disappears. Fearful for her brother’s life, the headstrong Bianca defies her father and leaves Earth to save him. Ian Bishop, the director of House von Hasenberg security—and Bianca’s first love—is ordered to find and retrieve the rebellious woman.

Ian is the last man Bianca wants to see. To evade capture, she leads him on a merry chase across the universe. But when their paths finally collide, she knows she must persuade him to help her. Bianca will do anything to save her sibling, even if it means spending time alone on a small ship with the handsome, infuriating man who once broke her heart.

As the search takes them deep into rival House Rockhurst territory, Bianca must decide if she can trust Ian with the one piece of information that could destroy her completely . . .

Preorder:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo
Google Play | IndieBound


I’m currently working on AB edits. Luckily, my editor liked it overall (woohoo!), so there were only some minor-ish changes needed, mostly around deepening the backstory. Ada was my first love, but after rereading large chunks of AB, I love Bianca just as much. I can’t wait for you to meet her!

Here’s a little snippet for you. This book is far more of a slow burn than PR, so this happens a little later in the book, but it’s spoiler-free. :) This is still rough draft, subject to change, etc, etc. Happy reading!


My alarm tried to drag me from sleep but I fought the pull. I’d slept hard, but I could use another hour or two. The heavy drapes were closed, leaving the room dim. Putting my com on the dresser had seemed like a good idea at the time, but it meant that now I had to drag myself from bed to turn off the cursed beeping.