Hello readers and friends. Today I am starting things off with a preorder tour that eventually turn into a new release tour for author Ashley Mansour. Right now her book "Dark Ugly Places," is on preorder until September 15th. Check out the sneak peek below to find out why you should preorder your copy today to receive it on release day without having to remember to go to the online store to purchase. You won't want to miss out on this psychological thriller slash domestic suspense novel. It might make you fall in love with a new author you never read. I hope you enjoy this post. Happy reading everyone :).
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Some wounds don’t heal. They take over.
A Beverly Hills psychological thriller about grief, female rage, fractured identity, and revenge.
Dark Ugly Places
by: Ashley Mansour
Genre: Psychological Thriller, Domestic Suspense
PROLOGUE
No one likes to be kept in the dark.
In the dark, everything is murky, even the Los Angeles sky.
But the day of Nicola’s accident, I had a pretty clear view of things. It tends to be that way—clear—when Nicola isn’t.
Nicola, Ben, and their daughter, Emmy, were walking holding hands, something the three of them hadn’t done since Emmy was a little kid. I felt the itch in Nicola’s palm, like she didn’t want to hold hands. But Emmy insisted. She was between them, arms outstretched, making that little humming sound she sometimes made when she was nervous or lost in thought. Ben walked on slightly ahead, his head down, eyes focused on the phone in his hand. I could almost hear his teeth grinding.
Up ahead, the road was clear. The sun covered everything in butter-yellow light. Crows perched in the bare-barked trees and made long, scratchy cries like a group of smokers laughing. They rustled leaves and crossed the pavement before them. But the trees were still, like the air had been sucked out of the city. Up ahead, the road was clear.
The three of them approached the corner, Emmy and Nicola chatting aimlessly. Ben narrowed his eyes and squinted at the screen as if the sky was too bright. He stepped out into the road first. Emmy, next. She skipped slightly—braids flying—and pulled her mom’s arm.
Nicola looked up and saw one of the crows overhead, its beak open, making a dreadful sound. When she looked back at the road, her gut pinged with a horrible dread she couldn’t place.
Then she—we—saw it.
From the middle distance, something large and white hurtled into view, its body glinting in the sun. Emmy screamed. Nicola tried to pull her back, but one by one, her fingers slipped out of her grasp.
It was too late.
Nicola’s body collided with the big, white thing, and in the next moment, she was airborne, tumbling through the air as if she had been taken by a tornado. Her thoughts spiraled with her, spinning out of control.
I’m going to die.
I’m going to live.
Don’t let me die.
I’m going to die.
She kept spiraling, around and around, until I stopped her with a simple suggestion: Breathe, Nicola. Breathe. We have this power, those of us who live in the darkness.
The asphalt grated her spine. It must have hurt, but Nicola did not cry. Perhaps because the air was too full of Emmy’s screams.
She rolled to her left, her left arm pinned against her chest like a piece of limp fabric. Her left leg lay stretched out before her perfectly straight, but dead. Cold. Frozen in place. She rolled to her side and saw Emmy, blood coating half of her face as though she were wearing a mask. Five feet away, Ben lay in the road unmoving, his body contorted, his face turned away.
Overhead, the stretch of blue sky angled down Beverly Boulevard and went on forever. Cars passed, some honking, others slowing to stop and help or to get a better look. Nicola grunted and heaved herself along the ground, her jaw gritting with pain. She reached for Emmy, reached for Ben.
The white body of the car stirred. A door opened. A black polished shoe emerged onto the asphalt as the driver leaned out, then disappeared again as the door shut. I heard the engine as the car started and rolled backwards, slow at first, then picking up speed until it was gone.
BLURB:
Some wounds don’t heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.
In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn’t something you survive — it’s something that survives you.
Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin — awakening a hereditary darkness she’s spent her life trying to outrun.
That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.
As Nicola’s grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life — one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola’s suspicions ignite.
Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything — or the thing that destroys them both.
Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling — a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.
Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn’t the past. It’s inside your own head.
“A suspenseful and relentless tale of troubled Californians.”
– Kirkus Reviews
“A tense, viciously readable psychological thriller about the violence that lurks beneath polished surfaces.”
– BookLife Reviews
“With fast-paced thrills and gripping psychological drama, Ashley Mansour’s Dark Ugly Places serves up vengeance for morally complex characters.” - Indiereader
*** RELEASE SEPT. 15TH — PREORDER NOW! ***
Purchase your Copy Today!
Add to your TBR List!
Check out Reviews and Recommendations!
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Ashley Mansour writes dark, cinematic psychological suspense and domestic suspense about dangerous relationships, buried truths, and the chaos waiting beneath the surface of ordinary lives.
Learn more about Ashley...
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Enter to Win:
$100 Amazon or PayPal Gift Card
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Next Stop on the Tour:
Sept. 7th
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