#Giveaway and Book Tour : At First Touch by Mattie Dunman

At First Touch

by Mattie Dunman 

Published May 28th 2012

ISBN 9780615659

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Liz Hannigan has been on the run since she was twelve years old. Her mother is dead. Her father has lost his job. And thanks to an experimental procedure, Liz is now able to ‘download’ the contents of every brain around her with a simple touch. Forced to hide from both the federal government and a darkling group of morally deficient scientists known as the Coalition determined to exploit her abilities, she moves with her father to the bucolic coal town of Pound, West Virginia.  But the hunt for Liz and her abilities hasn’t ended, and her hopes for peace are shattered when she inadvertently downloads the enigmatic Carey Drake, whose unusual good looks and charm conceal a secret as shocking as her own. Stunned by the knowledge that she has found someone else who has extraordinary abilities, Liz finds herself drawn to Carey, discovering a deep attraction, and dares to hope for the first time she might find love.  But when an agent of the Coalition begins stalking her, Liz must find a way to work with the government agency she most mistrusts as she strives to build a longed-for normal life and take down the agent who has tracked her down. Caught up in a struggle to save herself and those she loves, the girl who sees all is blind to true danger until it is too late.

About this author

Mattie Dunman is a lifelong resident of "Wild & Wonderful" West Virginia, and has dreamed of being a writer since she first held a pen in hand.
Mattie has pursued several useless degrees to support this dream, and presently enjoys teaching (or tormenting, as the case may be) college students the dying art of public speaking. She spends most of her free time writing, but also indulges in reading and traveling.
She is the proud owner of an adorably insane American Eskimo named Finn, and a tyrant cat named Bella, who take up more of her attention than they probably should.
Mattie is currently working on the second book in the First Touch series, and is ecstatic about her new release, At First Touch.

Website | Goodreads Page

Excerpt

I was out on the main road and about twenty minutes into my run when I heard the sound of a motor gunning and the beep of a horn. I slowed my pace and turned around to see Preston’s truck chugging along about two hundred yards behind me. His head was out of the window and he was screaming at me; I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I felt pretty confident that  it wasn’t complimentary.

I came to a stop, wondering if I should do something. I wasn’t really concerned; it wasn’t as though he would run me over or anything, but the blind hatred on his face made me a little nervous. Finally, I decided to ignore him and let him get his fill of throwing abuse my way and then drive on past. Picking up the pace again, I resolutely faced forward, pretending that the continued screeching behind me was a trick of the wind. Suddenly the engine gave an almighty roar and I heard the unwelcome sound of squealing tires.

With only a second to register that I had vastly underestimated Preston’s anger and mental instability, I swirled around in time to see the grille of the truck just a few feet from my face. I made to jump out of the way, but all my knowledge and stolen tricks didn’t make me fly, or move faster, or be any less breakable than any other human being. I knew in that moment how useless my ability really was. In the face of the giant metal monster brimming with torque, my mind was of no matter, it just screamed out with the desire to live, to keep going. 
There was a blow like a train hitting me, but strangely there was no pain, and I was moving faster than I could have imagined away from the truck and into the field next to the road.  I was sure that the truck had hit me and I was just flying through the air to my death, by some fortunate stroke lucky enough to be spared the pain of impact. In another instant the movement had stopped and I realized I was being held in a pair of strong arms against a rock-hard chest. 

Carey looked down at me, his eyes frantic. “Are you alright? He didn’t hit you, did he?”
“N-no,” I stuttered. Having downloaded Carey I was aware of his incredible speed, but there’s something very different about knowing something theoretically and experiencing it firsthand.

He put me down gently in the grass and I just sat there, too dumbfounded to speak. Even as he anxiously surveyed me for damage, we heard the rending scream of out of control tires and the heavy metal sound of Preston’s truck crashing into something. “I’ll be right back,” Carey said and then I blinked and he was gone.

At First Touch Review

Wow, I really liked this book, a lot!

I am so shocked at the many awesome books I have been able to review lately. This is one of them. It was really well written, and the story amazing, and can’t wait for book 2.

Think how it would be to touch someone, and “download” their entire life, and your own brain works somewhat like a computer, it files it away, to be accessed later if you want, then after that first touch, there is a connection left that can be opened at will to read the current thoughts of the person touched. Well, this is what its like for Liz, after she awoke from a coma after a year in it. They had used some experimental methods and drugs trying to wake her, and she isn’t sure if any of that caused this “gift” or the fact she had originally been electrocuted in the accident that killed her mom, and put her in the coma.

This books whole story is very original, and fascinating. We come into Liz’s life after her and her dads have been on the run from the doctors who discovered what she could do. They wanted to lock her up and experiment on her, and use her. Not only them, who happen to be a part of the Coalition, but a part of the FBI also wanted her.

I won’t say what was done to her by these people; you can read that, as I want to keep this as spoiler free as I can.

So Liz and her dad end up in Pound, West Virginia, and for the first time, she makes some friends she really likes. Makes some enemies too, and lots of stuff happens, and meeting Carey was the best part. He is more than he seems too, and its quite the discovery.

Here is a sweet part with Liz and Carey:

“Carey, I don’t know how to thank you. You saved my life. No matter what, I won’t forget what you’ve done for me,” I said, my voice suddenly sober. Carey’s shocking blue eyes were soft with adoration as he looked down at me, his skin glowing palely in the muted light.“I’d do anything for you, Liz,” he said simply, making my stomach do a flip.

I am not sure on that name, Carey, never heard it before like that for a guy, lol, but love him.

I don’t want to say much more, but to say I really loved the book. I cared so much for what was happening, and I really was able to connect with Liz, and loved how she could kick some major butt. She had been sure to “download” info from people who knew stuff that would help her, like a black belt in karate, many doctors, and lawyers, all types that could help her. So she trains hard in self-defense and I admire that about her.

I only found one negative to this book, and it’s the cover. Its not very eye catching at all, and almost passed it up to review, but decided to read about it, then decide, and I am glad I did. I am one of the guilty people who do too much judging by the covers.

I highly recommend this book to many ages, not super young or anything, there is some disturbing things that happened to her, violent types stuff.

5 out of 5 stars for me.

I was provided a copy of this book for an honest review.

If you liked my review if would be great if you could mark it as helpful at Amazon. Link is Here.
Or you can Like it at Goodreads, Here. Thanks so much

Guest Post

The past year since first publishing AT FIRST TOUCH has been a fun one creatively. I’ve been working on the sequel and hope to have it ready to publish by May, but I’ve also been working on a few other projects, including a New Adult/Urban Fantasy titled DIS, about a not-so-human woman with an addiction to violence. She has spent half of her life underground, living in a community of disenfranchised creatures who have never been “up top.” I hope to have it ready to publish this summer as a stand-alone that might lead to a series. I’ve included a sample from the first chapter, so please enjoy!

By the end, it was impossible to ignore the madness in my father’s eyes. Despite his many denials, I could not help but notice the ever-present crimson streaks that stained the whites of his eyes, dilated pupils turning the once pale blue irises into pools of depthless black. But beyond the physical signs, there was another quality.

Something wild.

Inhuman.

Not that I saw him very much. By the winter of my eleventh year, he had withdrawn completely, immersed in his research, his obsession. Apart from the brief moments of lucidity I treasured, he barely remembered I existed by then, and then he left me forever.

“Daddy, please wake up,” I whispered, hovering over his too-still body wreathed in early morning fog. The familiar old bones of the home in which I had grown up loomed over me protectively, as though shielding me from the knowledge toward which I was hurtling.

The street was silent, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before the neighbors crept through their doors and slithered down tenement stairs to lap at the well of misery building around me, greasy fingers extended to take anything valuable left on his body. Including me.

“Don’t leave me alone,” I begged one last time, my face drenched with sweat and tears, hands trembling violently as I brushed clammy skin, knowing his last breath had come and gone long before I found him.

The one functioning streetlamp down the block flickered and guttered its greeting to dawn, reminding me I was almost out of time. Soon a train of battered, world-weary women would trudge around the corner, making their last stop at Trick’s to hand over the night’s hard-earned cash before retreating to the dubious solace of smoke-filled rooms and drug-induced oblivion. If I wasn’t out of there by the time Trick made his appearance to collect his tribute, it was likely he would take my father’s death as an invitation to add me to his inventory.

Drawing in a last shuddering sob, I locked down my grief, pushing it into a lead box in my mind and slamming the lid shut before the sheer terror of my situation could overwhelm me. I turned away from the stiff, unresponsive body of the man who had raised me on his own, protected me from the darker elements of his obsession, and had been my entire world.

Darting into the thin alley between the decrepit buildings crouching over the street, I slipped around back, descending the worn concrete stairs into the basement. I moved quickly and surely through pitch black, having made this trip in the dark countless times in the past few months when my father was feeling particularly paranoid. Without hesitation I moved to the far end of the dank cellar, ignoring the rising hair on my arms as rodent feet scuttled along the floor at my approach. Kneeling down when I reached the wall, I blindly struck out, feeling for the mold covered stretch, soft as moss, until my fingers found the loose section of mortar. Quietly, carefully, I removed brick after brick, until a sizeable hole greeted me.

Faint light trickled through cracked, blackened windows at the foundation and I knew dawn was fast approaching. Swallowing my squeamishness, I thrust my hand into the yawning gloom in front of me and pulled out the small leather satchel my father had promised me would be there if something happened to him, closing my fist around the handle with a desperation that frightened me. The bag and its contents were all I had in the world now, and I couldn’t open it until the day I turned eighteen. I had promised my father every day for the last three months I would do as he asked; that I would turn away from my home, from him, and make my way alone.

I didn’t even know why.

Clutching the satchel to me, I ran back up the stairs and through the alley, emerging onto the street again. I paused for a moment, glancing back at the only home I had ever known, thinking of my clothes, of the jar of petty cash in the kitchen, the scruffy teddy bear under my pillow. It wouldn’t take long to pack a bag, to take something with me so I wouldn’t have to start from scratch.

Voices drifted to me on the fog and I snapped around, catching the silhouette of a slouched figure turning the corner. Steeling myself for what I had to do, for what I had lost, I looked at my father’s lifeless body and bit off a choked sob.

“Goodbye, Daddy.”

Pulling the satchel close to my chest, I walked into the mist, never looking back.

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