Egypt Rising by Stan Schatt

Some ancient secrets should remain buried.


An American teenager in Cairo finds herself in the middle of the Egyptian revolution fleeing militant Islamic extremists. She leads her worst enemy and the boy she thinks about much too often on the adventure of a lifetime. When she discovers an ancient artifact that was buried for thousands of years, she learns that very powerful people will stop at nothing, including murder, to learn the secrets of a long-dead civilization.  

Amazon

Excerpt!

One man dressed in the uniform of Mubarak’s goon squad turned towards us. He swung his baton at my head. Instinct took over, or I should say instinct and all the self-defense lessons Dad made me take with Mister Tanaka. I ducked and then landed a rabbit punch on his neck and saw him collapse.

I pointed to a slight opening in the crowd and grabbed Aasuma’s hand, but it was too late.

“You two, stop right there!” A police officer’s gruff command in Arabic caused both of us to freeze. The man pushed us towards some of his fellow officers who used plastic handcuffs to cuff our hands together. They pushed us towards a large black van and then shoved us inside. We stumbled and fell on our stomachs.

“My father will kill me!”

Aasuma’s face turned white as she spoke. I thought I needed to be brave for my friend.

“They won’t keep us, especially when they learn I’m a khawa- ga,” I said.

I used the Arabic word for Westerners who settled in Egypt. The truth was that I really wasn’t sure that anything I said would make much difference.

Praise for Egypt Rising 

From the first page, and quite possibly the first sentence, I was hooked on this refreshingly different YA read that is suitable and enjoyable for all ages! ~Dii 

Just This Once by Diana X. Dunn

FREE at Amazon >> Today to Aug. 10th!!!

Adopted by an international multi-governmental agency that doesn't officially exist, her only genuine identity is "F6" - the sixth female baby adopted into the program. Now she changes identities as often as other women change their shoes, moving through the world completing top-secret missions and keeping her distance.


A chance meeting with a handsome stranger tempts her to lower her guard. A second encounter turns up the heat until he finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation being conducted by one of F6's former lovers. Now F6 finds herself using her skills, training and multiple identities to help a friend in trouble. Something she has never done before; something she's prepared to do just this once.

Amazon

Excerpt!
___________________________

April 2120

Spring in the rebuilt city of New York felt just as magical as spring in New York should feel.  Older residents often grumbled about the city; many argued that the city had still not yet recovered properly from the fall of the Twin Towers that marked the very earliest stirrings of the Wars that would eventually follow.  But most modern day New Yorkers loved the city just the way it was.

The skyline had been forever altered by the Wars and the years of terrorist activity.  For a while most of the city had been too dangerous for all but the very bravest or desperate to venture into.  As the skyscrapers had tumbled or been abandoned, jobs and people had deserted the city and left most of it empty and forsaken.

Now the city was experiencing a rebirth as people and companies flooded back.  Property prices were suddenly racing upwards and abandoned buildings were being converted into luxury apartments at an astonishing rate.  For older residents, those that had chosen to make the city their home even during the worst times, the rebirth was a mixed blessing.

But today, as the birds sang in the replanted and newly budding trees and the traffic flowed smoothly with no hint of the jams that were sure to be a problem in the very near future, the city looked amazing.  The sidewalks teemed with young, healthy looking men and women in business suits, carrying MPPCs and briefcases presumably bulging with important papers.  Everyone seemed to be striding purposefully through the city.

As day turned to dusk, clothes designed for other pursuits replaced the business suits.   The beautiful people of the city were out in force once more, this time in short skirts and tight jeans, hair and makeup as extreme as they dared, now looking for love or romance rather than the next deal.

Of course a reborn and growing city also has to deal with growing pains, and New York was no exception.  Strictly enforced rules on identity cards, registered addresses, and required employment had cut down on the problems of homelessness and petty crime, but any big city would always have some level of street crime, no matter how hard the police and the government worked to prevent it.

At eight o’clock on a Friday evening a high-security door opened at a large apartment complex in the heart of the rebuilt city.  Three people stepped out from the door and made their way down the sidewalk.  They were clearly dressed for clubbing and it seemed likely, from their staggering walks and hysterical laughter that they had already started drinking or drug taking before they left home.

The two girls and one boy laughed and teased and flirted with one another as they made their way towards the bright lights of the club district.  Anyone watching would assume that they had all worked hard during the week and were determined to enjoy their weekend.  They wouldn’t have been far wrong.  The trio drew nearly everyone’s eyes as they made their way towards their favorite establishment.

All three were strikingly beautiful, but in very different ways.  They seemed to radiate youthful energy and an abundance of enthusiasm for living life to the fullest.