Ink by Jobie Baldwin + #Excerpt

Ink (Tribe Book 1) by Jobie Baldwin
Published in America on the 6th October 2018.

A Book with Vegan Characters and included in my Vegan Bookshop

Buy this book at

Amazon UK / Amazon.com

A powerful god, a magical tattoo and a rebellious teenager. What could possibly go wrong?

Christian, an unruly English teenager, stumbles onto a mysterious tattoo parlor. Possessed by the Rune God, Hagalaz, he becomes immortal, gifted with magical powers which allow him to harness the forces of nature. Only problem? Hagalaz God of Disruption, is intent on making Christian's life a living hell. Oh, and did I mention the Settlers, a mysterious group with a dark and devastating secret?

It is up to Christian and his new Tribe of four, each gifted with their own celestial passenger, to uncover that secret. But nothing is what it seems, and it will take much more than the powers of a few long-forgotten gods to stop the impending global disaster that threatens to destroy everyone and everything in its path.  

Excerpt

“Oh hell!”

My hands were glowing blue-white, and sparks were shooting out of my fingers. I moved them away from my sides, which turned out to be a bad idea, because forks of lightning shot out of them hitting the street below.

‘Stop!’ yelled Ben and I turned to look at him. He’d climbed off the ledge and was clinging to a drain pipe attached to the side of the building. The wind whipped at his shirt and almost tore it off his body.

‘I’m trying!’ I shouted back as more lightning flared out of my fingertips and crashed to the street below, tearing up pavement like paper. So far I hadn’t hit anyone, but it was just a matter of time as lightning was firing off left and right. 

Hagalaz was really getting into his stride. I had to do something, but what?

My Review

I first discovered Ink through taking part in an Xpresso Reads spotlight blog tour a couple of years ago. I loved the tattoo art cover design, but wasn't sure how much I would enjoy the book's fantasy genre so didn't read more than the excerpt above. When recently trawling my past Literary Flits posts for novels with which to stock my virtual Vegan Bookshop, I spotted that Jobie Baldwin is herself vegan and this prompted me to give Ink a try. I'm so glad I did! The story is a fun adventure story where an incongruous band of young peope are brought together to save Earth from Settler aliens who have their own ideas on how the planet should best be saved. Individually selected by ancient Rune Gods, each of our intrepid heroes learns how to meld and focus their powers - except for our narrator, Christian, who just can't seem to stop blowing things up!

Ink is a very funny read and I enjoyed spending time in Christian's company as he tries to understand exactly what is going on and the role he is destined to play. I could have done with a bit more in the way of world building as I was intrigued by the overall premise, but still had questions that weren't answered. Perhaps they will be addressed in the sequel, Flak, which I'm looking forward to picking up soon. If you're in the mood for a light-hearted yet violent escapist fantasy, Ink could be well worth a read.

Meet the Author 

JOBIE BALDWIN is the author of the Young-Adult Fantasy novels, Ink (2018) and Flak (2018). In 2008 Jobie joined a writers' collective, Cafe Three Zero and contributed short stories to their published anthologies Tales from the Cafe and Red. She is currently working on a couple of prequel novellas to her Tribe series and is planning on starting to write the next instalment of the Tribe series this Summer.

Jobie lives near London with her husband and their two rescue dogs Lori (the Greyhound) and Monty (the Podenco). She says, "I'm vegan, I'm a biker, but the thing I love most of all is writing down the stories my characters whisper to me while I'm asleep."

Author links:
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

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