DISTANT THUNDER : Mid Season Episode 2 (Rising Storm) by Larissa Ione-Review and Book Tour

DISTANT THUNDER
Rising Storm
Mid Season Episode #2
by Larissa Ione
Genre: adult, contemporary,
Release Date: April 5, 2016

ABOUT THE SERIES:

*Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy…*

Nestled among rolling hills and painted with vibrant wildflowers, the bucolic town of Storm, Texas, seems like nothing short of perfection. But there are secrets beneath the facade. Dark secrets. Powerful secrets. The kind that can destroy lives and tear families apart. The kind that can cut through a town like a tempest, leaving jealousy and destruction in its wake, along with shattered hopes and broken dreams. All it takes is one little thing to shatter that polish.

Reading like an on-going drama in the tradition of classic day and night-time soap operas like Dallas, Dynasty, and All My Children, *Rising Storm* is full of scandal, deceit, romance, passion, and secrets.

With 1001 Dark Nights as the “producer,” Julie Kenner and Dee Davis use a television model with each week building on the last to create a storyline that fulfills the promise of a drama-filled soap opera. Joining Kenner and Davis in the “writer’s room” for the Midseason Episodes of this serial opera are bestselling authors Lexi Blake and Larissa Ione who have brought their vision of Storm to life.

*So get ready. The storm is coming.*

Distant Thunder

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 5, 2016

Secrets, Sex and Scandals …

Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.

As Sebastian and Marylee plot to cover up Sebastian’s sexual escapade, Ginny and Dakota continue to reel from the fallout of Dakota’s announcement. But it is the Rush family that’s left to pick up the pieces as Payton, Brittany and Jeffry each cope with Sebastian’s betrayal in their own way…

••••••••••

REVIEW: DISTANT THUNDER by Larissa Ione is the second installment in the multi-authored Mid Season RISING STORM serialized novella series focusing on the men and women of Storm, Texas. DISTANT THUNDER should not be read as a stand alone as it is part of a continuing series where each installment builds upon the previous installment.

DISTANT THUNDER focuses on the Rush family -Senator Sebastian Rush, his long-suffering wife Payton, and his powerful and controlling mother-the matriarch of the Rush family-Marylee, and the ensuing disaster following the very public reveal of the Senator’s sexual behavior and the possibility of fathering another child. What ensues are Marylee’s attempts to control the fall-out of her son’s numerous affairs, and place a spin on the media attention such that her son looks the victim in the eyes of the world. While Marylee undertakes to manage everyone involved, the threats against the people of Storm, continue to grow.

The reader is pulled into the dysfunctional family dynamics of a powerful, political family- a family controlled by power and wealth, and the drive to remain at the top of the heap. While Marylee scours for damaging information and people from the past, Sebastian places his own spin on the events while his wife and children bear the pain of their husband (and father’s) illicit affairs. Not only have the lives of the Rush family been destroyed, but so too, have the lives of everyone involved.

DISTANT THUNDER and Larissa Ione will captivate your attention, and keep you reading on the edge of your seat.

Episode 1: AFTER THE STORM: Rising Storm (Mid Season)

Copy supplied by the promoter

Reviewed by Sandy

stunning sensual young couple in love posing in summer field, happy lifestyle concept

Excerpt

It had only been three days since the Great Founders’ Day Disaster, but it felt like a month. For the first twenty-four hours after Dakota’s revelation, the town had been mostly shell-shocked. Then the story started spreading through social media, and last night after Marcus dropped Brittany off after dinner at Murphy’s, she discovered that someone posted the Founders’ Day Disaster on YouTube. The media had descended on Storm like locusts this morning, and her father, whom she’d only seen in passing since Founders’ Day, had adopted a shelter-in-place stance. Brittany had given him suggestions on where he could shelter in places that were much, much hotter than Texas, and then she’d run out the front door toward her car, only to be swarmed by reporters. *“Ms. Rush, is it true that your best friend is pregnant with your father’s baby?”* *“Ms. Rush, how do you think this scandal will affect your father’s reelection campaign?”* *“Ms. Rush, did you know about the affairs your father was having with your friends?”* Ugh. She and her mother shouldn’t have left Francine’s cabin so soon, and Jeffry certainly should have remained with one of his buddies. But when Marylee snapped her fingers and went into crisis mode, everyone came running and fell in line like good little minions. “This blows,” Jeffry said, looking up from where he was lounging on the couch with his iPad. “What blows?” She sank onto the love seat across from her brother. “The game you’re playing? Or the fact that we’re trapped like animals? Or maybe the fact that our father is a lying, cheating bastard who slept with our friends? Or the fact that my best friend is going to give birth to our little brother or sister?” Yep, she might be a little bitter. And it was *ex*-best friend. He tucked his feet under him on the couch and sighed. “Yeah.” “I can’t believe Mom thinks we need to be here for him—” She broke off as their mother, Payton, came around the corner with a tray of finger sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade. They hadn’t spoken much about any of this, and Brittany wasn’t sure how to go about it. As far as she could tell, her mother hadn’t so much as shed a tear over the fact that her husband had knocked up a girl young enough to be his daughter and had probably slept with a dozen more. “I brought you something to eat,” Payton said, and if she’d heard Brittany talking, she was choosing to ignore it. “Your father and grandmother are finished with their meeting with Mr. Stayton, and they’re on their way up to talk to you.” “This should be good.” Jeffry reached for a sandwich as their mother put them on the coffee table. “I was wondering how long it would be before we got the circle-the-wagons lecture. Five bucks says he tries to convince us that everything Dakota said was a lie.” “I know you two are angry and confused and you have a lot of questions,” Payton said as she took a seat next to Brittany, looking all prim and proper in a subdued green dress and gray scarf. “But we’ll get through this. I promise.”

About the author

Larissa Ione is a *New York Times* and *USA Today* bestselling author. An Air Force veteran, she traded in a career as a meteorologist to pursue her passion of writing. She now spends her days in pajamas with her computer, strong coffee, and supernatural worlds. She believes in celebrating everything, and would never be caught without a bottle of Champagne chilling in the fridge…just in case. She currently lives in Wisconsin with her U.S. Coast Guard husband, her teenage son, a rescue cat named Vegas, and her very own hellhound, a King Shepherd named Hexe.