Born at Dawn by Christina Davis - Book Tour + Giveaway

Born At Dawn

Da'Valia Trilogy Book 1

by Christina Davis

Genre: YA Fantasy Adventure

When a heist goes terribly wrong and the binding spell holding 17-year-old Neva’s powers at bay is shattered, the half-human thief knows she’s in trouble.

Neva has always hidden her Da’Valian heritage while working risky jobs to make a name for herself and serving at her family’s tavern, but she won’t be able to hide much longer. She can either risk the safety of those she cares about or seek out her mother’s people to gain control over her emerging powers.

The Da’Valia are beautiful, brutal creatures created by the god of war, and the austere Da’Valian soldier Astiand reluctantly agrees to take Neva to his clan under his protection. She makes unexpected friends, including the handsome fighter Emiliand, and a new enemy in the clan’s ruthless leader.

Spying on her guardian, the sly heroine quickly discovers just how deep she has stumbled into a dangerous, developing clan feud.

Will she be able to embrace who she is in time to keep her loved ones safe?

⚠ This book is about a race of warriors and contains violent scenes, which may not be suitable for all audiences.

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Here's what early readers of BORN AT DAWN had to say...

• "It's so good!!! I'm slightly obsessed ♥ ...I need more Astiand and Neva moments" ★★★★★

• "I always wanted to read more and struggled to put the book down" ★★★★★

• "I adored the book. It's unique, and the characters are incredible." ★★★★★

• "The pacing of the plot was one of the things that impressed me when reading this book: from the high-tension beginning, to the way world-building details were strung seamlessly ... every chapter left me eager to read more without making me feel as if I was being constantly strung along by cliffhangers." ★★★★

**On Sale until Nov 22^nd!**

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Can you, for those who don't know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
I grew up in a rural community in a small logging town in the California mountains called Boulder Creek. Population: 6,000. I had a rare bleeding disorder, so I was often in the hospital, and books became a vital escape. No one was really self-publishing back then, and I had to rely on the local library to supply my voracious reading habit. I was the kid who would stay up until 2 AM with a flashlight under my covers, reading even though my parents told me to go to sleep. So, eventually, I ran out of the kinds of books I wanted to read.

 This is probably self-incriminating, but I remember using my step-sister’s address in a neighboring county so I could get access to their library system. That’s how desperate I was for books, and that’s why I started writing. I ran out of options, so I had no choice but to write my own.

 I started writing my first “chapter” book by hand in a spiral-bound notebook when I was about 12 years old. I never finished that one, but I completed four other books and many more stories as a teenager. I took a break when I went to college, where I studied Journalism, but as soon as I graduated, I knew I wanted to write a novel. Pretty soon after that I decided I wanted to turn it into a trilogy, and then I spent the next decade making it the best that I could.

 I’m what the writing community calls a “pantser,” so I built these books entirely based on a gut feeling of what the characters would do. But, eventually, I realized that wasn’t going to cut it. So I studied, I read books about writing, and I put my imagination to work. I invested a lot of time into developing the Da’Valian world until it was ready to be put out into the real world. And here we are!

 

What is something unique/quirky about you?
Haha. I love singing along to country songs, but I almost never know all the words. I’m the person who will make up their own words or start humming, or vocalize the guitar solo because I get really into it.

 

Tell us something really interesting that's happened to you!
OK, I’m convinced my mom’s house is haunted. I lived there for awhile and house-sat occasionally, and I’ve had some very strange experiences. Lights turning on in empty rooms, doors and drawers opening and closing, and once a strange voice. All these things would happen when it rained and I was there alone. It never felt malicious, but it was certainly creepy. Probably the creepiest experience was when a friend slept over and had a horrific, thrashing nightmare. That really put me on edge. Plus, there were crosses burned into the paint over a couple windows, which added to the mystique, and rumors about local ancient burial grounds that may have been constructed over.

 

What are some of your pet peeves?
Guys who leave the toilet seat up.

 
Where were you born/grew up at?
I was born in beautiful Santa Cruz, California, and grew up alongside Big Basin State Park. The park suffered some severe fires this summer and, sadly, my childhood home burned down, so I’m still mourning the loss of that. I had always thought it would be nice to go back and visit it one day. The park suffered a lot of loss, too, so I know I’ll be too sad to go back and see it for some time.

 

If you knew you'd die tomorrow, how would you spend your last day?
I would spend it with my family, write my daughter a letter telling her how much I love her, take my husband on a hike, and eat all the food I’m not supposed to eat. Especially chocolate gelato.

 

How to find time to write as a parent?
Oh my gosh. The struggle is real. If anyone knows a trick, please tell me. Normally, I would set aside time to meet up with my writing partners, because we’re great at holding each other accountable, or I would call my parents to come give me a little time off “moming.” But with the pandemic and being a new parent, it’s much more difficult.

 I don’t want to be the one to accidentally pass along Covid germs to our friends or parents, so I really rely on my husband, Brian. Most days after he’s done with work, my daughter hangs out with him while I “go book” as we say. I tried getting up early a couple times to write before my daughter wakes up, but she has a spider-sense and wakes up right with me, so evenings and weekends it is!

 

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
The first time I saw my byline in the paper. I was freelancing for the sports section of the Register-Pajaronian, a newspaper in Watsonville, California. I was still in college and figuring out what I wanted to do, but there was a shift in my way of thinking when I realized that thousands of people were going to see this article -- about a local basketball coach who dedicated his life to coaching local kids -- that I wrote! What a thrill.

 

Do you have a favorite movie?
I love Back to the Future! And the second and third movies in the Back to the Future trilogy, but I love the first one the most. I have a little quote graphic with a Delorian on my desk that a friend gave me. It says, “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

 

Which of your novels can you imagine made into a movie?
Isn’t that the dream! I would love the Da’Valia Trilogy to be made into a movie. A lot of my visuals play on black and white, you have adventure, fights, passionate romance… I mean, let the dream casting begin! I’ll be waiting by the phone, Hollywood!

 

What literary pilgrimages have you gone on?
The closest I got was the Anne Frank House in the Netherlands, but our timing was off and we were not able to go inside. My family history involves the Holocaust, and reading her diary when I was younger helped me imagine what they must have gone through.

 
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
OK, don’t laugh, but for a long time, the grasshopper has been my spirit animal. I moved around a lot, and grasshoppers would always show up in strange places - my bed, in my purse at work… It struck me that maybe moving so frequently - 7 times in 7 years - was part of who I was on some spiritual level at that moment in time.

 I thought they left me for awhile, when I settled down and got married, but I saw a grasshopper again just the other day. Maybe, together, we embody the spirit of jumping from one thing to the next. For a long time, that was jumping from one geographic location to another for me, but more recently, I think it pertains to major life changes and the willingness to take chances of a personal and professional nature. For instance, settling down with my husband, becoming a mother, and leaving behind a career that just wasn’t right for me anymore.

Christina Davis was raised in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and she spent much of her childhood in and out of hospitals, embracing reading as an escape. After being home-schooled through high school, she graduated summa cum laude from San Jose State University and attended NYU's Summer Publishing Institute before embarking on a decade-long career in journalism. She enjoys chocolate, cosplay, coffee, and board games, but not necessarily in that order. She now lives in beautiful Monterey County with her husband and daughter.

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