Straight Browsing from the Library: Awake by Melanie Surani

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Melanie Surani will be awarding a $30 Starbuck Gift Certificate to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

READ THE BLURB

In author Melanie Surani’s edgy thriller novel, opera singer Joshua Gray wakes in an eerie art museum exhibit. He comes to believe he’s been kidnapped and abandoned. And he isn’t the only one…

As Josh and four others struggle to piece together their new reality, they discover the museum’s main building has been razed and the place is boarded with no obvious exit. Who left them in the museum and why? How can they escape? The only link that binds them together is a mysterious woman named Blair, who they each encountered before blacking out. Josh unexpectedly finds himself drawn to one of the other captives, a long-time fan named Sophia. Their attraction plunges the group into a dark pool of suspicion. When allegiances shift and pieces connect, the strangers are forced to reassess their situation. Is the real danger inside or outside of the museum?

Suspenseful, romantic and filled with drama, Awake will keep you up all night.

READ AN EXCERPT

When he'd been through the exhibit the first time, he'd realized quickly she wasn't following him. The last thing she might have heard was "I can destroy what you love too."

"Shit," Josh whispered, keeping his eye on the door she went through. "Bang bang. She shot me down," he sang under his breath. As usual, music was the first thing to come to mind. When he couldn't play, he still had his voice. Of course, his broken instrument and their current location wasn't her fault. If he hadn't been an asshole, she wouldn't have needed to get away. Since he could talk himself into a hole like no one else, the best thing to do was find his way outside, call a cab, then come back and get her.

A few steps took him to an area where the music wasn't distorted. Tribal drumbeats accompanied shelves of fashion pieces, too impractical and disturbing to wear. A tiara made of straight pins. Corsets pulled so tight the fabric met at the waist. Hats constructed of cages and thorns. Scarves of razor blades.

Drums swelled, stopped. Somewhere in the distance, someone panted.

Josh stopped and crept backward, keeping his eyes on a corseted mannequin's face. Paint had dried in a torrent, as though someone poured a bucket over the head and flash-frozen it. Its facial features looked alive, despite the covering's suffocating quality.

The wheezing breath continued.

From the mannequin?

It wasn't from the recording.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Melanie Surani is a blogger, hair stylist, and author with a heart for international travel. When she isn't cutting hair, Melanie is thinking about ways to kill people (for mystery novels). She lives with her husband and cat in New York City, where she is hard at work on her next book with Booktrope Publishing. Melanie is a member of the International Thriller Writers society.

Blog: http://melsurani.tumblr.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelSurani
Twitter: https://twitter.com/melsurani
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/melsurani/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/melsurani/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/115191699057372867697
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5404505.Melanie_Surani
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Melanie-Surani/e/B0077442QK

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway