The Gender Game 5 by Bella Forrest (uplifting novels .txt) 📕

I stayed in that position for five seconds, not trusting the sudden return of gravity.

And then I lashed out with my elbow, twisting and trying to get a good angle on Owen’s head. “Get off me,” I shouted, panic giving my tone a brittle, frantic edge. Ducking, he missed my jab and let me go. I scrambled away from him on the floor as he stood over me, his features hidden by the room’s darkness.

“Violet, please! I’m not going to hurt you!” Owen’s voice had its own panicked tone to it, something that gave me pause, egging the voice in my brain to continue its reminders that I had always been able to trust Owen.

The bitter seed in my heart formed words that I spat out as I awkwardly flipped over to my backside and sat up. “You… You brought Desmond here!” I eyed the distance between us, gauging how much I needed to kick out his knee.

“I did,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “And I’m sorry for not telling you, but this is our chance, Violet. This is our chance to kill her!”

I froze. “You’re setting me up so you can kill her,” I breathed, horrified.

“I’m setting her up so we can kill her. Please, Violet—I’m your friend. I would never betray you. Not really.”

“Do you have her?” came a muffled shout from somewhere above, and my heart palpitated in response to Desmond’s voice.

Owen turned back to me and knelt down, his hands reaching through the darkness to seize my shoulders. “Please,” he whispered, his voice thick with desperation. “Please help me kill her. I promise I will get you out of this alive.”

The end is near…

Ready for the PENULTIMATE book of Violet and Viggo’s story?

Dear Reader,

Thank you for reading—I hope you enjoyed this book. :)

Book 6, THE GENDER PLAN, is the explosive penultimate book in The Gender Game series — as we move toward the grand finale in Book 7 (The Gender End)!

THE GENDER PLAN releases May 10th, 2017.

Pre-order your copy now and have it delivered automatically to your reading device on release day:

If you’re in the US, tap here to order.

If you’re in the UK, tap here.

Australia: tap here.

For any other country, tap here.

And here’s a preview of the cover:

I’ll see you back in Matrus and Patrus on May 10th, 2017…

Until then,

Love,

Bella x

P.S. At the end of this ebook I have included bonus chapters of my new fantasy novel — The Secret of Spellshadow Manor. If you enjoyed Harry Potter, it might be up your street—and something to keep you going until The Gender Plan releases :) Keep turning the pages for the free chapters…

P.P.S. Sign up to my VIP email list and I’ll send you an email alert when my next book releases - tap here: www.morebellaforrest.com

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Bonus Chapter 1: The Secret of Spellshadow Manor

Book description:

A spine-tingling new fantasy, perfect for adults or teens who enjoyed Harry Potter...

What would you do if you spotted a man following a young woman, but no-one else could see him?

Like most sane people, student Alex Webber thought he was hallucinating - perhaps he'd consumed something bad at the party he'd been attending that night, or he was severely overtired. But when he sees the mysterious man following Natalie again the very next day, he can no longer disbelieve his eyes.

Although Natalie denies the man's existence, Alex sees her walking with him down a road in his neighborhood he's never seen before - and can't help but follow. After a bizarre, but strangely short journey, he finds himself standing before a towering iron gate wreathed in gray ivy, behind which looms a decrepit old house named Spellshadow Manor.

Spellshadow, with its beautiful yet sinisterly decorated hallways, ever-changing outdoor scenery and very unusual residents... Alex will quickly learn it is a place that is as wondrous as it is deadly.

Especially for a normal person like him.

What if you found yourself recruited to an institute of magic, only to discover you really couldn't do magic?

What if your enrollment there was all one big, terrible mistake?

If you were at Spellshadow, you'd keep it a secret. A deep, dark, deadly secret...

Because Spellshadow's elusive Head is hiding a secret of his own, one that Alex soon realizes he and Natalie must uncover at all costs if either of them wishes to leave the Manor alive - and before it's too late.

Mystery, suspense, and plenty of twists and turns; an unforgettable experience awaits you in Spellshadow Manor... Welcome in.

Keep turning…

Chapter 1

A hard knot formed in Alex’s stomach as he stared at his laptop screen. He’d hoped this would be the month he finally earned enough to provide a meaningful contribution toward his mother’s bills—that all the sleep he’d sacrificed to hone his coding skills would pay off and he’d begin earning a real income.

Scrolling through his latest earnings report, disappointment swelled in him. He was on track to earn less this month than the last. Barely three hundred dollars. Most seventeen-year-olds in the sleepy town of Middledale, Iowa, would have been happy with that kind of side income, but most seventeen-year-olds in Middledale didn’t have a mother with a serious heart ailment.

Alex ran a hand over his face, tracing the lines in his furrowed brow. Then he dimmed the screen and pushed back in his chair. He was being unreasonable. He’d started looking for a way to earn money from home only five months ago, after his mother had returned from a two-week stay in the hospital barely able to walk. Coding websites had seemed like a natural fit for him because of its linear and analytical nature, but he needed to get a lot better at monetizing them. Still, five months wasn’t long in the grand scheme of things. He just