Jun 25, 2013

8

Hidden Promo: Excerpt & GIVEAWAY!!!



Because I have the weirdest selective memory ever (thank goodness for Google Calender!), I remembered that I was writing about this book, and I had the cover committed to memory, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember any specifics of what it was about. So, I went onto Goodreads, read the synopsis, and was really intrigued! Then I see this little button under the cover that says "read excerpt." I was already pretty interested, so I clicked the button and read the first chapter of the novel. To say that I was impressed does not give this book enough credit.



Hidden by M. Lathan

Sixteen-year-old Leah Grant has given up on being normal. She’d settle for stopping the voices in her head, intrusive visions of the future, and better odds of making it to her seventeenth birthday.

That’s the thing about pretending to be human in a world where magic used to exist – at any moment, her cover could be blown and she’ll be burned to death like the rest of the witches.

Everything changes when she loses control of her powers and flees the orphanage she grew up in. She desperately wants to be invisible but finds her face plastered on every news channel as humans panic over the possible resurgence of her kind. And now the hunters won’t give up until they find her.

Making friends for the first time in her life and falling in love with one of them drives her to discover why she is unlike any being she’s ever met – human or otherwise. The dangerous powers inside of her that would repel Nathan, her new, handsome reason for living, are priceless to some. The locked up forever kind of priceless. And to others, they are too dangerous to allow her to live.

Let’s hope she can stay hidden.


Amazon



 

M. Lathan lives in San Antonio with her husband and mini-schnauzer. She enjoys writing and has a B.S. in Psych and a Masters in Counseling. Her passion is a blend of her two interests – creating new worlds and stocking them with crazy people. She enjoys reading anything with interesting characters and writing in front of a window while asking rhetorical questions … like her idol Carrie Bradshaw. 

Website          Goodreads          Twitter          Pintrest





Sienna snatched last week’s Chemistry test from my desk. I hadn’t turned it over. I knew it was a D minus.

She cackled and passed it around.

“Leah, you would think someone who spends most of her time alone would have better grades,” she said. Her birds laughed on cue. “What do you do all day? Obviously not study.” She gasped slowly like she’d gotten a revelation in that blonde head of hers. “You fantasize about us, don’t you? You probably sleep in Whit’s old bed to feel close to her.”

Laughter spread around the room like an airborne disease. Disease. I shivered. That was an intriguing thought; I could almost hear the sound their bodies would make against the floor when it hit.

“Leah, come on. Say something. Scream at me, it’s been a while. At least cry,” Sienna said, laughing and leaning into my desk, closer to danger.

I didn’t cry. I never cry. And if I were going to, it wouldn’t be because of Sienna. I had bigger problems. I’d just broken a promise I’d made to God to not think about hurting His people, His children. And today was not the day to piss Him off.

My old roommate, Whitney Nguyen, graciously returned my test as she cackled with the rest of the birds. She liked the idea of me pining over her, but she knew I didn’t spend my free time thinking about her or sleeping in her old bed. After fourteen years of hard labor as my roommate, she’d given up on being friends or me being remotely normal. The current theory to explain my oddness was that I was in love with all of the girls and consumed by lust.

As long as they didn’t know it was magic.




A $50 gift card, courtesy of the author, will be awarded to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour!

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Jun 24, 2013

0

NOMAD Cover Reveal




LOOK AT THOSE SHOES. Wow. That model must have some kind of crazy balance to be able to walk in those without tipping over, let alone be able to balance on one foot. I'm pretty sure if I ever tried that it would only take roughly half a step for me to wipe out on my face. Respect.



NOMAD by JL Bryan

They took everything: her family, her home, her childhood.

By the age of nineteen, Raven has spent most of her life in the sprawling slums of America, fighting as a rebel against the dictatorship. When the rebellion steals an experimental time-travel device, she travels back five decades to the year 2013. Her plan: assassinate the future dictator when he is still young and vulnerable, long before he comes to power. She must move fast to reshape history, because agents from her own time are on her trail, ready to execute her on sight.


NOMAD releases July 26th!




 

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on English Renaissance and Romantic literature. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, dogs Violet and Tiger Lily, and cats Shadow and Sue.

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Jun 21, 2013

2

By Blood Cover Reveal Blitz: Guest Post & GIVEAWAY!!!




Look at how pretty that is!!! Regina from MaelDesign did an incredible job with this one, and I'm so glad that I get to share it over here. For those of you who haven't heard of this book, here's a little bit about it:



By Blood by Tracy E. Banghart

For 17-year-old Emma Wong, spending a summer in England should be a dream come true. Gorgeous scenery? Check. Lots of hot guys with accents? Yes, please.

Throw in an estranged mom, annoying new stepdad, and drooling baby half-brother, and it’s a disaster even her favorite cherry red leather jacket can’t fix. Even worse, there’s (hot) live-in research assistant Josh to contend with. The only thing more embarrassing than drunk-kissing him hours after they meet? Knowing he’ll be witness to her family’s dysfunction all. summer. long.

But when Emma meets a mysterious girl who happens to be a Druid, her vacation suddenly promises to be far more intriguing than she anticipated. Powerful rituals, new friends, an intoxicating sense of freedom... and Simon, the sexy foreign stranger she was hoping for. It’s all a perfect distraction from dirty diapers and awkward family dinners.

Trouble is, intriguing doesn’t often mean simple. And Emma is about to discover just how not simple her life really is.

By Blood is a novel about the ways that blood can bind us to others – or tear us apart.


Amazon




Tracy E. Banghart is a cheesy movie–loving, fantasy football–playing (go Ravens!), globe-trotting Army wife who began “practicing” her craft at the age of five, when she wrote her first story. She loves visiting the international friends she met while pursuing her MA in Publishing and spends a portion of every summer at her family’s cabin in Canada, where she finds inspiration and lots of time to relax on the dock. She lives with her husband, son, two lazy dogs and one ornery cat. When not writing or spending time with her family, she is on a mission to bake the perfect cupcake.

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Guest Post

One of my biggest role models when I was in high school was Buffy Summers, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Growing up, I constantly felt like I had to prove I was just as strong/smart/brave as the boys. And here was Buffy, a short, dainty blond chick who was constantly underestimated…and then totally kicked people’s butts.

The truth is, being a girl can be awfully scary sometimes. It’s just a fact of nature that we’re often shorter or weaker than our male counterparts, and that can lead to moments where we feel powerless or out of control.

Emma, the main character in By Blood, is a short, curvaceous chick, but it was really important to me that she also be strong enough to take care of herself. Not with special powers, but with knowledge and a little skill. Her dad’s a cop and she helps him teach self-defense classes, so she has the tools to defend herself (which, yes, she has occasion to use in By Blood! ;-)). Here’s a little peek at one of these classes:

Dad moved to stand behind me, then simulated a slow-motion attack so I could demonstrate as I explained the best techniques to evade or incapacitate an assailant. I walked the girls through “SING” – solar plexus, instep, nose, groin – and they laughed at the funny face Dad made when I pretended to hit him in the crotch.

“Remember,” I said, “it doesn’t matter how tall or short you are, or whether you’re in shape.” I made a grand gesture that started at my black sneakers and swept up purple leg warmers, black leggings, to the loose gray tunic that clung to my curves. “I’m not exactly intimidating, right? I’m shorter than most of you for one thing. But that doesn’t mean I can’t protect myself.” I shifted my position, ready for the next move. “The more we practice, the more muscle memory we build, so our instincts when in danger will be the right instincts.”

Now came the best part—the part that got the oohs and aahs. Dad reached over my shoulders and before you could say “speeding ticket” I had him on the floor, belly up on the mat. The girls started clapping and a couple laughed in surprise. Dad grinned up at me. I loved that he let me lead the class, and that he was okay with me throwing him around in front of a bunch of girls. Not all cops were cool like that. Not all Dads either.

There are lots of places to take self-defense classes, and resources online and elsewhere that can give you tips on how to protect yourself. As Emma says, you don’t have to be in great shape or a black belt to save yourself in a scary moment. All you need is knowledge – and maybe a little practice!

Here’s an example of some good self-defense tips! http://lifehacker.com/5825528/basic-self+defense-moves-anyone-can-do-and-everyone-should-know




Giveaway Prize Pack #1 (US only)
Signed paperback copy of By Blood plus (all hardcover):
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
The Body Finder,by Kimberly Derting
Jane,by April Lindner
By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters
Sean Griswold’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Slide by Jill Hathaway
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma
 
Giveaway Prize Pack #2 (International)
Signed paperback copy of By Blood + $50 Amazon Gift Card 

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Jun 19, 2013

0

Aberrant Blitz: Excerpt & GIVEAWAY!!!



Dystopians seem to be getting a lot of negative attention lately, but I don't understand why so many people are criticizing authors for writing them! Sometimes things are popular because they're just that good! I've always thought that dytopians where perfect for those times when you want a book that actually makes you think, but don't want to make any sacrifices when it comes to the storyline. After a while, yeah, I can see how it may start to seem like you're reading the the same story over and over with different character names, but until I reach that point, I'm going to continue enjoying them!



Aberrant by Ruth Silver

In the future Dystopian society of Cabal, the government instills equality for all and offers its citizens the perfect system. There is food, shelter and jobs for everyone. The one requirement is to follow the rules without question, including the government's match in marriage and "The Day of the Chosen", a lottery that randomly selects families to conceive children as natural means hasn't existed in generations. Following her eighteenth birthday, Olivia Parker accepts her requirement to marry her childhood best friend, Joshua Warren, and is eager to start her work assignment and new life when it all comes abruptly to an end as she's arrested and thrown in prison. The only crime committed, her existence. Olivia is unlike the rest of the world born not from "The Day of the Chosen." The truth haunts the government and puts her life in grave danger as one simple fact would destroy the perfect system.

With Joshua's help, Olivia breaks free of prison and is forced on the run. Together they set out to find the promised rebel town in search of a new home and new life together. Their situation seems less than promising as they reach the town of Haven. New rules and customs must be adhered to in order to stay. Leaving would mean most certain death in the large expanse of the Gravelands. Time is running out as the government mounts an attack to destroy Olivia and bury her secret with her. Thrown into a world unlike their own, they must quickly adapt to survive.

Amazon          B&N          The Book Depository





Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of Aberrant. The Young Adult/New Adult Romantic Dystopian Adventure, Aberrant is the first in a trilogy,  released April 17th, 2013. Silver first began writing poetry as a teenager and reading heaps of fan fiction in her free time. She attended Northern Illinois University in 2001 and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Communication. While in college she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. Her love of writing, led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading YA/NA  novels and sharing her favorite books with other readers. She also enjoys photography, traveling and of most of all writing.

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I sighed softly and did something I'd only read about in forbidden novels. I leant in, brushing my lips against his. The kiss was soft and chaste. It lasted no more than a mere second before I pulled back.

"What was that, Olive?" He gave me a horrified look and all I could feel was my stomach somersault. I knew romance and love weren't ever spoken of in Genesis. There was no need when the government knew who was perfect for one another, and children were won by lottery and conceived in a lab. Intimate acts were considered unnecessary.

"I read about it in a book," I whispered, afraid I'd done it all wrong. "It was a kiss," I breathed, chewing on my bottom lip nervously. I’d never kissed anyone before and worried he thought it was terrible. I’d never seen two people share a kiss, I didn’t quite know what it was supposed to look like, but I thought I’d done it right after reading about it. My hand reached out, grabbing his arm. "Please don't be mad at me." I breathed. "You have to swear you won't tell anyone!" Joshua hesitated for only an instant before he leaned in, taking another taste from my lips trying again. The second kiss was softer and satisfied both of our curiosities. My heart raced and my skin warmed to his touch. "I thought today was going to turn out so much worse," I confessed. Joshua laughed as he pulled back slightly, staring at me. His eyes had darkened a deeper richer shade of blue. I'd never seen his eyes change colors before. His fingers moved to tickle my stomach with a grin. "Worse? Really? You're not happy you married me? You're just relieved it wasn't someone worse?"

"No!" I shrieked, "That's not what I meant!" I tried to catch my breath, but he hardly gave me a second more than necessary. I pulled from his ticklish grasp, jumped from the couch and ran across the room in a fit of laughter. He quickly followed, jumping over the sofa as he was just inches from me. He was close now, smiling and trailing behind me as I ran toward the bedroom. It was probably the worst place I could go, trapped between Joshua and a mattress. I felt him tackle me down onto the plush bed, his hands skimmed my stomach but he was no longer tickling me. The laughter still hadn't subsided.

"Breathe," Joshua said, staring intently at me.

"Trying," I gasped between fits of laughter. Lying down helped settle the feeling of my racing heart, and after a moment I shifted along the mattress, reaching out to him. "I want to tell you a story," I insisted as my fingers found his cheek. "One I read in a book." I wanted him to learn the things I had about love and romance. I couldn't help but feel my body stir with a strange fire and warmth as he loomed just above me. Staring up at him I froze on the mattress hearing the latch click on the front door. I knew it had been locked.




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Jun 18, 2013

0

HEIST Cover Reveal



I really like time travel books, even if they do make me really nervous. It's just that there are so many loose ends that have to be dealt with. If they're all taken care of well, you end up with an absolutely incredible book. And if you don't.... well, let's just say that does not make for a happy Taylor. I'm have pretty high hopes for this book, so I'm really excited to see how it turns out!



HEIST by Laura Pauling

Can one decision change the past?

Jack Brodie has a sixth sense that someone has been watching him. Following him.

One night he travels back in time to one of the world’s largest art thefts, known as the Gardner Heist. Why that one moment in time? And what does it mean for Jack?

When he returns, his world is different. His best friend is rougher, meaner. His dad hasn’t been around in years. And then there’s Jetta. The girl who took over his heart the moment she stepped into his life. No one is safe.

Each time Jack goes back to the heist to fix his mistakes, he returns to face the fallout. Disaster strikes in the present until Jack must make a choice. His family and his own happiness. Or the girl he loves. Except, he learns that his sixth sense was right.

Someone has been watching him and wants him dead.

Heist releases in the summer of 2013!





Laura Pauling writes young adult fiction. She lives the cover of suburban mom/author perfectly, from the minivan to the home-baked snickerdoodles, while hiding her secret missions and covert operations. But shh. Don't tell anyone!

Her YA Circle of Spies Series includes A SPY LIKE ME and HEART OF AN ASSASSIN. Book three, TWIST OF FATE will be released in the fall of 2013.

HEIST, a young adult, psychological thriller, will be released the summer of 2013.

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Jun 11, 2013

2

Play With Me & Ryan Hunter Blog Tour: Review & Excerpt



I feel like I ought to start out by saying that you guys have no idea how much fun I had reading these books. I love dual POVs so much in general, and it's even more fun for me when I just get to hear a story that I already love being told by another character that I'm really excited to hear from. So my point is that you guys should really read these books if you ever get the chance.

Oh, and if you do end up reading them, I do suggest reading Play With Me first. I know that they technically take place at the same time, it's just that Ryan (the narrator from Ryan Hunter, go figure) has a little more information on everything that goes down than the other narrator (Liza) does. It just makes more sense to read them in order.



Play With My by Piper Shelly

Ryan Hunter's parties are legend. And tonight she's going to be there.

Liza Matthews anticipates the return of her best friend and only love since kindergarten from soccer camp. But when Tony finally shows up, his mind is more focused on another girl. And worse, she's a soccer player. Fighting for the attention Liza craves, she's just a hairbreadth away from making a very stupid decision. But when extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, she's prepared to play ball to get her man.

The tryouts are hell, the first match ends bloody, and the morning after the selection party she wakes up in the worst place possible—in the arms of the captain of the soccer team. The hottest guy in school. Ryan Hunter.


Amazon          Kobo


You can read the first half of Play With Me for free here!




Ryan Hunter by Piper Shelly

Ryan Hunter kissed more girls than he cares to remember. But the only one he ever wanted is in love with his best friend.

Watching Liza Matthews’ obsession with Tony Mitchell is a torture Ryan conceals from everyone. Until after a five-week soccer camp, where Tony gets involved with someone else, things suddenly take a different turn. Ryan knows if he doesn’t make a move now and grab his chance, he might never get another.

Asked by Tony to distract Liza, Ryan is only too happy. He subtly seduces her first into his soccer team and later on to his party. He does all in his power to make her see that he’s not just an insufferable playboy but a guy who really cares about her.

Some one-on-one soccer training, a passionate kiss — things seem to be going the way he wants. Except Ryan didn’t reckon on his best friend showing up at the worst possible moment and destroying everything...


Amazon          Kobo


 You can read the first half of Ryan Hunter for free here!




Wow, this is always the hardest part for me to write…don’t know why. You would think talking about my life should be easier.

I was born and raised in Austria. Half my life I spent in Vienna, but I didn’t like the city. I much prefer the beautiful countryside, with its many meadows and the breathtaking Alps. That’s why I moved to Upper Austria right after graduation. There are trees now in front of my window instead of just another ugly gray building, and I love to be woken by the cacophony of birds every morning.

At seventeen, I met the love of my life, but it took another four years until we finally got together. It was the best decision I could have made. I’m now married to this man, and I count myself lucky for someone like him. Even I will admit it can be hard at times to live with me. I’m moody and tend to lapse into my fantasy world at any given minute—well in my defense, I’m a writer. :-)

We have a ten-year-old son, and together we travel a lot…although I sometimes wish the trips were shorter because I can’t wait to get back to my laptop and WIP. Yeah, that’s just me. I built my world around my passion, and I like it that way.

So, you see, I’m leading a pretty normal life.

Of course it will all change the day my book follows the act of Harry Potter, and I’ll become richer than the Queen. I swear I’ll never again clean my windows myself then. Yeah, one day, LOL…

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I really debated on whether or not I should write two reviews, one for each of these books. It kind of made sense for a little bit because they really are separate entities, but I eventually decided that because they were essentially the same general story, it would be more helpful if I just compared them together instead of separately.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I want to tell you all that these are both novellas. I mean, they're still pretty long for novellas (around a hundred pages each), but I wouldn't exactly consider them full length novels either. I probably should have been able to figure that out, but apparently I missed that fact before I started reading. Not that I think that there's anything wrong with that; these books were the perfect length for this type of story. It's just that I wasn't expecting it.

In general I felt that both of these books were very light, and I really liked that. Yeah, sometimes you may want to read something a little deeper, but not every book needs to make you question the universe with some sort of philosophical mumbo jumbo. Sometimes you just want those short and sweet novels that make you smile and laugh, and you can just leave it at that.

Normally, I'm not a huge fan of summery, contemporary romance novels, but this one really worked for me. I thought that it was really funny, and it actually stayed true to how normal teenagers think and act without being cheesy or annoying. Sometimes I'm wary of reading anything from your typical "young adult's" perspective because as a young adult myself, I can personally vouch for the fact that we are capable of thinking past our hormones. As hard as it may be to believe, there is a brain in there somewhere.

Gratefully, I actually saw those brains in each (or at least most) of these characters. Yeah, their judgement may have gotten a little clouded at times due to other influences, but that's normal for everybody! And even allowing that, they wouldn't just excuse betrayal or anything along those lines with the excuse, "Oh, but he/she really loves me!" They were actually rational, but believably so.

Still, this is a story where the main characters are pretty young. They don't know everything about the world yet (even though they may like to think that they do), and they're going to make mistakes. I feel like above all else, Piper Shelly's greatest accomplishment here was capturing that. While she did allow her characters to actually seem intelligent, they were still as vulnerable and relatively inexperienced as they should be.

Now for my comparison of the two. If I had to choose, I would say that I liked Ryan Hunter just a little bit more for a few reasons. First of all, this is the longer one (by about thirty pages) and it made me laugh more often. Secondly, it was sooooooo sweet to read about how much Ryan really cared about Liza. I couldn't care less about his so called "player" reputation; he really did love her, and he wasn't afraid to show it. And honestly, I have to admit that his scheming to get her to like him was pretty fantastic.

My Rating:




From Play With Me


Ryan rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, then took my hand, and pulled me toward the bumping mass. “C’mon, let’s dance.”

Heck, I wasn’t a dancer. Protest was useless, because he wouldn’t hear me shout in this club unless I plastered myself against him and yelled in his ear. I followed. He didn’t stop until we stood in the middle of the dancing crowd.

My hand was captured in his, maybe because he knew I would have fled otherwise. Ryan moved closer, his free hand planted in the small of my back. “Loosen up, Matthews. You’re supposed to have fun.” He pressed his lips to my ear to speak. “Or at least look like you do.”

He gave me a soft push and made me twirl under his arm. Ryan did things so nonchalantly. The lightness of his demeanor, his unconcern, rubbed off on me at this moment. I laughed as he caught me again in an easy hug and swayed with me to the music. The dry smoke troubled my breathing a little, but this close to Ryan, all I smelled was him. And he smelled fantastic. Just like the other morning when I woke up next to him.

I didn’t know what brought him to my house tonight. Could be he just felt pity for me for what had happened with Tony, and as the captain of our team he made it his duty to cheer me up. Or he simply liked me. Whichever, I was thankful he didn’t give up when I told him no in the text message. Because he was a wonderful lift for my mood. He made me forget. He made me smile.

And right now he made me a little nervous.

I felt this tingle in my stomach every time I was close to him. Especially as he twirled me around and caught my back against his chest. His hand splayed on my belly, he pushed me against him, performing a body wave with me.

I laughed out loud, maybe to cover my shyness. “What are you doing?” I shouted over my shoulder and found his face very close to mine.

“Distracting you.” He rolled again, and I felt each of his hard muscles grinding against my back. “Does it work?”

Unbelievably so. I didn’t reply but let Ryan move me. With all the dancing, my tee got a mess, and the hem traveled a few inches up. Half of Ryan’s hand lay on my naked stomach. It sent a shiver down my spine. One of the good ones.

As the song ended, he released me and shouted next to my ear, “Phil has just come in. Let’s say hello.”

I smoothed my clothes out on the way to the oblong bar. The music wasn’t as loud back there. Leaning over the metal top, Ryan introduced me to a man with shoulder length hair and black muscle shirt. He looked mid-thirty, maybe a bit younger. Phil set two cans of Coke in front of us.

After the hot dance with Ryan, this was more than welcome.

Perched on a bar stool, I listened while the two talked about Ryan’s last year in High School and the new soccer team. Phil asked me if I liked it.

I lied. “Yeah, it’s great. Love the training.”

The slanted look from Ryan promised he didn’t buy one word of it.

“What?” I mouthed at him with a half smile.

He leaned in closer and brushed my hair behind my ear. “I still have the text where you say you’re done with soccer, Liza.”

The taunt in his voice as he said my name prickled my skin. I leaned back an inch so I could gaze at his face. “Did you really not know my name before I sent you that message?”

He laughed and shrugged one shoulder. “Why, Matthews? You were devoted to Mitchell. What would I care?”

From the way he averted his eyes for a second, and the sly grin that remained on his lips, I wasn’t sure if I should believe him.

“You’re such an ass, you know.” I shoved his shoulder, grinning at him.

The roguish gleam in his eyes captured me. “I’ve been told girls go for that.” He winked then drank from his Coke, but his gaze held mine all that time.

Heat rushed to my cheeks, because, hands down, he was right. It was all too easy to fall for him. Not only because he looked illegally good in a white shirt, or because of his amazing smell. It was the attention he gave me that made me feel good around him. Special. Desired, even.

And for the weirdest moment, I wanted him to desire me.

Letting my gaze slide to a few kids who’d started singing karaoke on a small stage across the room, I hoped I could flush that idea with a long drink from my soda, deeming it a side effect of the pain Tony caused me today. I wanted to stay faithful to my love for him, even if he made it clear that he’d rather kiss the Barbie Clone than me. But with Hunter standing between my legs, his hand placed casually just above my right knee, it was no use denying the attraction. His charm had worked on me for days now, and it was different to anything I had experienced so far. Fresh, exciting, dangerous. Nothing compared to good old safe Tony.

I wouldn’t want them to switch places right now. And that was the scariest thought of all.

A tall, dark-haired beauty came up behind Ryan and dragged me out of my musing. She wrapped one arm around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. “Hi, little brother.”

“Hey, Rach.” He let her come around and introduced us.

As he called me Matthews and the friend of a friend, my heart sank. I reached out to shake Rachel’s hand. “My name is Liza.”

“Don’t mind him. The oaf was never comfortable with first names.” The tall girl laughed and shoved her brother playfully. “I’m lucky—I’m his sister.”

“That doesn’t mean a thing, Carter,” he teased her and popped another soda then clinked cans with Philip.

“So, the friend of a friend, huh?” Rachel’s tone was light but curious. “Where is that friend?”

“Not here.” Ryan grinned at her. It was hard to miss the certain glint of mischief in his eyes. The glint that didn’t fail to make me nervous again as his gaze met mine.

Rachel sighed with a roll of her eyes. “Just when will you grow up and settle for one?”

“He’s young, baby.” Phil leaned over the counter to kiss his wife. “He has time.”

“I know.” She pulled away and snorted as she cast her brother a grin. “I’m just waiting for the day that a girl sees through you…and decides to like you anyway.”

Ryan laughed. “Yep, me too.”

After hiding from his mom in his parents’ beach house yesterday, it was odd to see him banter with his family like that. Free, uncomplicated. Funny.

“That calls for a drink.” Philip fetched two small glasses from behind the bar, placed one in front of himself and the other in front of Ryan, and started filling them with Tequila.

“You can have your drink with Rach. I’ll skip tonight.” Ryan shoved the glass toward his sister, his lips suddenly getting a little too tight.

“You pass? With that beautiful drinking partner?” Philip’s beam my way confused me. I didn’t intend to drink a teeny tiny drop of that shit, but he hadn’t given me a glass anyway, so what did he mean?

“I’m not having this drink with her.”

Okay, now Ryan’s implications hurt. He would drink with other girls, but not with me?

“Why? Is she shy?” Phil demanded.

“She’s too nice.”

“Ah, she’s a prude then.”

What bullcrap was that? “I’m not a prude! And I’m standing right beside you, so I would appreciate it if you told me what the hell you’re talking about.”

Ryan turned a sheepish grin on me. He brushed his knuckle across my cheek. “She’s decent,” he told Phil.

“Yeah, and decent is a shit word for prude,” I muttered. “So why don’t you want to do with me whatever you are used to doing with others when you come here?” Somehow I felt that my hurt pride would land me in trouble. Still, I couldn’t let them get away with calling me a prude. After all I slipped out of my room twice for this guy while being grounded. And currently I sat on a barstool in a club that opened its doors only for people age twenty-one and over.

“You don’t know what you’re asking for, Matthews.”

“Well, it won’t kill me to find out, right?” God, I should bite off my tongue.

“Okay,” Ryan drawled. “Remember, I gave you fair warning.”

Lips pressed together, I gave Hunter a determined stare, but with his last words he had me practically wetting my pants.

Philip seemed pleased with the situation as he filled the two glasses; Ryan’s only half full on his sister’s demand. He placed one half of a lime-slice on either glass.

Ryan grinned at me. “You still game?”

“I don’t have to drink this, do I?” Shit. My voice almost cracked with my rising unease.

“No, you don’t. That’s for me. You only assist with the lime.”

Assist with the lime…meant to do what? Feed it to him? Okay. I could do that. “Game on.”

Ryan cast me a smirk that made me wonder if I was in the right place at the right time. But it was too late to cop out. He took the lime off the Tequila and clinked his glass to Philip’s. At the same time he held the slice out to me. “Bite.”

“What?”

Bite,” he repeated.

He dragged the brim of his cap around to the back of his head then knocked the shot down. I leaned forward and bit into the fruit he held out, my eyes trained on his face. Yuck, the sour taste made me grimace. I pulled back. Ryan tossed the slice away and cupped my neck, yanking me toward him. Everything happened so fast, I couldn’t even lick the lime juice from my lips.

But he did. And my heart stopped beating.




June 10 - Reading Addiction Blog Tours - Meet and Greet
June 11 - Marked By Books - Review
June 12 - The Book Cafe - Review
June 13 - Berds Fly - Review
June 14 - Once Upon a YA Book - Review
June 15 - Starlight Book Reviews- Review/Interview
June 17 - Shut up and Read Reviews - Review/Interview
June 18 - Tanya's Book Nook - Review/Interview
June 19 - Addicted to Books - Review
June 20 - Gimme the Scoop Reviews - Review
June 21 - Total Book Geek - Review/Interview
June 22 - My Bookmark Blog - Review
June 24 - Please, Another Book - Review
June 25 - Book Freak - Review
June 27 - Getting Your Read On - Review
June 28 - Cruising Susan Reviews - Review/Interview
June 28 - Zili in the Sky - Review
June 29 - The Bookish Owl - Review/Interview
June 30 - Books and Needlepoint - Review/Interview
July 1 - Buffy Kennedy - Review
July 1 - Just a Booklover - Review
July 2 - The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Review/Interview
July 2  - The Muse Unleashed -Review
July 3 - Read Books and Live Green - Review
July 4 - Reviewing in Chaos - Review
July 5 - RABT Reviews - Review



Copies of the novels were provided for us in exchange for an honest review.


Jun 10, 2013

4

Eversea Blitz: Excerpt & TWO GIVEAWAYS!!!


Have you guys ever heard of the Winter Rose Contest for Unpublished Authors? Yeah me neither, until today. In preparation for setting up this post, I figured that I might as well check it out, especially considering that this book is a finalist. Guess what? It's really cool! It does a great job of connecting authors to agents who are looking for people just like them, and it's a great way to get your book out there. This one should obviously be an example.


Eversea by Natasha Boyd

An orphaned small-town southern girl, burdened by responsibility and stuck in time.
A Hollywood A-list mega-star, on the run from his latest scandal and with everything to lose.
A chance encounter that leads to an unlikely arrangement and epic love affair that will change them both forever.

When his co-star and real-life girlfriend is caught cheating on him with her married and much older director, A-list hottie, Jack Eversea, finds himself in sleepy Butler Cove, South Carolina. Jack hopes the sultry southern heat in this tiny coastal Lowcountry town will hide him not only from the tabloids and his cheating girlfriend, but his increasingly vapid life and the people who run it.  He doesn’t count on meeting Keri Ann Butler. 

Keri Ann has relied on herself so long, dealing with her family’s death and the responsibilities of keeping up her family’s historic mansion, that boys and certainly the meager offering of eligible boys in Butler Cove, have never figured into her equation.  But fate has other plans.  Suddenly face to face with the man who played the movie role of her favorite fictional character, Jack has Keri Ann yearning for everything she has previously avoided ... and Jack must decide whether this funny, sassy girl is worth changing his life for, before his mistakes catch up to him.

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Natasha Boyd is a writer with a background in marketing and public relations. She lives in the coastal Carolina Lowcountry, complete with Spanish moss, alligators and mosquitoes the size of tiny birds.  She has a husband, two sons and a cat named Tuna.  Eversea is her first full-length novel.

Website          Goodreads          Facebook          Twitter





Jazz grabbed a poker from the fireplace, and we both skidded on sock feet to the front door. I looked out of the peephole, but with no lights on I couldn’t really see a thing.

“I can’t see anything,” I whispered, and then jumped back as another round of banging started.

“Keri Ann?” Jack’s voice shouted over the wind and rain.

“Oh my God.” I mouthed to Jazz.

Her eyes were wide.

“Do you think he got my message?”

“Shit, I don’t know,” she whispered back, her shoulders hunching up.

“Keri Ann? Please ... please open the door. I really need to talk to you.”

What the heck was he doing out there in the rain? Obviously, I was going to have to let him in. I could feel mortification and its crimson tide crawling up my chest to my neck.

Jazz shrugged with an apologetic ‘this is your mess, I have no clue how to help you here’ look on her face.

“Thanks!” I hissed at her.

“Keri Ann! Open the Goddamn door ... please?” Jack’s voice broke over the last word and my shoulders slumped.

Jazz rolled her eyes.

I opened the door as a huge gust of wind blew in and wrenched it out of my hands. It swung back hard banging against the wall. And there stood the tall looming shadow of Jack, hands on either side of the doorframe, in jeans and a dark wet t-shirt that clung to his body. Water streamed down his beautiful face.

“For the love of shrimp n’ grits, girl,” I heard Jazz murmur next to me as we both took in the archangel standing on the threshold. “Good luck.”

I shivered.


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Jun 7, 2013

0

Disassemble & Disrupt Cover Reveals




These interesting covers are the next two books in Imran Siddiq's Divided Worlds series. I haven't read book one yet, but based on this description, I should probably get on that.


Book #1


Disconnect by Imran Siddiq

Zachary, a 16-year old Underworlder digs in waste to find anything worth bartering. That is the rule of scavenging.

When he discovers footage of an Overworld girl, Rosa, he’s intrigued by her sorrow and breaks the rule.

That decision changes his life, and he will suffer for it.

Zachary must overcome worthlessness, prejudice, and not let a twisted lie devour the new reason that he survives; Rosa.

In space, love had boundaries.

Amazon          Kobo



Book #2


Disassemble by Imran Siddiq

Zachary is a scavenger, and he’ll do anything to survive. With Rosa by his side, nothing will break him.

After the Galilei Research Base is plunged into darkness, an unexpected threat emerges.

Where Zachary was the hero before, he will become the enemy.

It’s not just about surviving anymore. It’s about saving everyone before they destroy one another, especially Rosa.


Disassemble releases July 2013!



Book #3


Disrupt by Imran Siddiq

Everything that Zachary lived for has changed. There are no rewards to come from scavenging. Just memories. But even they are not enough to remove thoughts of a worthless life. 

In the midst of death, a purpose to live appears.

It wills Zachary to break the divide that has destroyed many.

This fight will be on his terms.


Disassemble releases July 2013!






Imran Siddiq is a Law Graduate employed as a Senior Manager in the NHS. After an operation to remove a brain tumour, he decided to make his dreams real. Now, he sacrifices time to write and serve his two cats.

He’s a veteran of writing festivals, a constant on Twitter, and gobbles up all forms of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Living in Leicester, he is passionate about creating images in digital art.

Young Adult Science Fiction is his preferred genre, and he will throw a droid into every novel – literally throw.

Website          Facebook          Twitter





Jun 6, 2013

5

Bait Blog Tour: Review, Excerpt, & GIVEAWAY!!!



https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17858622-bait?ac=1
Bait by K.C. Blake

Ghosts, a reaper, and a rock star.

At sixteen Bay-Lee is not your typical girl. She doesn't even try to fit in at school. What's the point when she'll be moving to a new place within a few months?
She's lived her whole life on the run, hiding from monsters.

Then a reaper uses her closet to cross over from the Spirit Realm. It has a message for her. Just when she's about to join her father at his school for hunters she finds out they are dying on their birthdays. Something is killing them, slipping past locked doors, never leaving a trace of evidence, and her birthday is only two months away.

Becoming a hunter isn't exactly her dream come true. She's doing it for her mother, for revenge, for justice. Nothing is going to get in her way, least of all love. Then she looks up into a pair of jungle green eyes and everything changes.


Amazon          B&N          Kobo




Born and raised in California, I fell in love with writing while reading The Outsiders. Then I fell in love with Stephen King's writing style. I enjoy reading many types of books, but YA Paranormal is my favorite. I used to write for Harlequin under a different name. So that's my background. Exciting, no?

Website          Goodreads





The knowledge she was no longer alone in bed should have scared the crap out of Bay-Lee and normally it would have, but she was still floating on the fragments of a blissful dream. The soft whisper of a lover’s hands surfaced with her consciousness. She’d been dreaming about being in love, the kind that inspired people to die for each other, the Romeo and Juliet sort of love. Beyond that nothing seemed real to her.

An odd smell pierced the veil of sleep, and she wrinkled her nose. Jack Daniels?

The next thing to grab her attention was the feel of a hard body crowding her on the narrow mattress.

Warm breath lightly blew a trail down her face from forehead to mouth like the soft wings of a butterfly brushing against her skin. Fingers slid up one arm to curve around her shoulder. Her eyelids fluttered, and she smiled up at the gorgeous stranger. Fantasy wove a complicated tapestry with reality, and she decided she was still dreaming. The dark-haired boy’s gaze settled on her lips. She could practically read his mind. He wanted to kiss her until neither of them could breathe. Still living on the leftover residue of an imagined love, she was going to allow it. A tingling sense of anticipation had her nearly breathless already.

She closed her eyes again, mentally preparing for the kiss.

She waited.

The bed creaked as he leaned in to give her what she desired most. His hot breath teased her lips, and the smell of whiskey intoxicated her. She clenched her hands into tight fists, grabbing and holding bunched up bedding, silently willing him to hurry before she came to her senses. Outside of this moment nothing existed, not school, not her boyfriend, not the troubling circumstances that forced her to constantly move from state to state, nothing.

When her lips remained cool and untouched, she opened her eyes to find the boy staring down at her with pure contempt. A menacing light emanated from his eyes. He parted his lips on a soft growl, reminding her of a werewolf, and her blood turned to ice.

“You ruined my life,” he whispered in a semi-harsh tone, accusing.

Wide awake now, facts hit her like an avalanche. A stranger was in her bed, her gun was in the dresser, and he was big enough to overpower her. Feeling vulnerable made her sick to her stomach. It also filled her with unquenchable anger. How dare this stupid boy invade her bedroom, her bed, and threaten her!

Speaking in a firm tone without the slightest quiver, she asked, “How did you get in here?” He rolled off the mattress, no hurry, while she pulled the sheet higher to hide the bunny pajamas. They were ridiculous, sky blue with fluffy scampering white rabbits. Knowing her hair was a mess, she automatically reached up to smooth it down. At the last second she stayed her hand. Why should she care if he thought she was pretty? “Did Connor let you in?”

Her uncle wasn’t known for having the greatest judgment in the world.

The intruder grinned and took a two steps back until beams of moonlight exposed the left side of his body. Tall and muscular, the guy was built better than any of the boys at school. If she had to guess, she would say he was between eighteen and twenty-two. Utterly masculine, he also had a lot of features girls would be envious of, long lashes, thick hair, and beautiful eyes. They were the most amazing shade of green, like a place deep in the forest after a violent thunderstorm.

He grinned as if hearing her thoughts. “I thought it was every teen girl’s secret fantasy to have me in her bedroom. Was I wrong?”

It was then she recognized him, Tyler Beck, lead singer for the notorious band Bad-Rock. There was a celebrity in her bedroom. Gulp! For a moment she forgot to breathe. How was it even possible? Why would a rock star come to her home in the middle of the night? She had to be dreaming.

He picked the CD collection off the edge of the white wicker dresser and carelessly leafed through them, lips twisted in disgust. A few of the CDs wound up on the floor.

She blinked. “Am I... dreaming?”

“No.” The grin changed to a smirk. “I break into the homes of random girls all the time... just to talk. Being a rock star doesn’t keep me busy enough.” He raised an eyebrow and held up the next CD in the shortening stack. “Seriously? I wouldn’t listen to this if someone had a gun to my head.” He flicked it to the floor. “Your taste in music sucks.”

Although the CDs in his hands were a mixture of Country and Jazz, she loved Classic Rock like her dad. The discs didn’t belong to her. Nothing in the ridiculous girlie neon orange and pink room did with the exception of a few sentimental items she dragged from place to place, but she wasn’t going to explain her way of life to this intruder. If she wanted to bare her soul, she’d see a psychiatrist. Knowing it was a dream didn’t make her feel any better about him going through what he thought were her personal belongings.

“Why did you kill those people?” she asked out of curiosity. An image of dead bodies on a night club floor surfaced in her mind. It took effort not to shudder. “What did they ever do to you?”

He laughed, throaty and deep, sexy. The sound dried the inside of her mouth and she clenched her teeth, feeling betrayed by her own body. What was wrong with her? She hadn’t felt this way about a guy before. Why now? Why this murderer?

“What did they do to me?” he repeated her question. “Nothing.” Then he pointed a finger at her. “You, on the other hand, ruined my life.”

“Stop saying that. I don’t even know you. Before you killed those people I wasn’t aware we were on the same planet.”

“Ouch.” He placed a hand over his heart as if she’d wounded him. “So you aren’t one of my many adoring fans, huh?”

He put what was left of her CD collection on the dresser and reached for the tiny television, flipping it on without seeking permission. An old sit-com with a noisy family brought the square screen to life.

“No, I am not a fan. I don’t follow you on Twitter or turn the volume up when one of your dumb songs comes on the radio. I never think about you. Why are you in my head now?”

“You tell me. It’s your—”

“Dream. I know. You don’t have to keep saying it. I get it already.”

“Until this dream ends, what do you want to do?” His hungry gaze locked on her face, and he bit his lower lip as if he was once again thinking about kissing her.

Close to panicking now, she froze. The kisses she shared with Gavin were brief and passionless and always for the benefit of those watching. What would it feel like to kiss someone she actually wanted? Her skin burned from just looking at the guy. The chemistry between them had the potential to blow the roof off the house. If he touched her, she’d probably spontaneously combust.

Tyler Beck, the hottest rock singer on the planet, the boy every girl fantasized about stared at her with desire in his eyes. He planted a knee on the bed near her foot. His hand landed next to her upper thigh. The other knee and hand joined them on the mattress. Slowly he crawled up her body, careful not to touch her until he was once again hovering over her mouth. In a husky whisper he repeated, “What do you want to do? Talk? Fight? Make out?”

The challenging tone sent a chill through her, a bad sort of chill. Doubts surfaced. What if this wasn’t a dream? Maybe a monster had crossed over from the Spirit Realm in a Tyler Beck disguise to kill her. She needed to do something quick. If she died, it would be her own fault for being so stupid.

Her hand slid under the pink pillow behind her head to grab the ancient dagger she slept on. Gripping it hard, she prepared to attack. Something in her eyes tipped him off. Before she could bury the blade deep in his chest, he leaped off the bed without warning, flying backwards. He stumbled and hit the wall near the dresser. A picture of a girl sitting in a garden rocked sideways before falling off the nail.

“Another time then,” he mumbled before disappearing.

Bay-Lee blinked at the empty space where his body had been. A shaky laugh escaped her open mouth. She was dreaming. There wasn’t a monster out there that could vanish into thin air. Relaxed now, she collapsed on the mattress, breathing through her mouth. Something was seriously wrong with her, having a hot dream about a psycho rock star.

Maybe she should seek therapy.



I debated very thoroughly with myself about how I was going to rate this book. There were some parts that I was just a little iffy about, and I wasn't so sure how my first impressions would relate to the rest of the book. Sometimes things felt a little out of place or just not developed enough, but then on practically the very next page I would read something that completely set me off laughing. This book and I have a very complicated relationship.

For one thing, I really liked the whole issue of Bay-Lee having to "find herself." Yeah, I know that sounds really cheesy, and normally I would think that it was too, but here it actually worked. You see, in Bay-Lee's situation, she has to move around a lot. Her main goal is to never attract any sort of attention and be nothing but average in order to prevent anyone from digging deeper into her story. In every new area that she moves to, an entire identity is set up for her. Her clothes, her house, her personality, and even the people she talks to are all predetermined without her having any say.

So when all of that finally goes away, she really doesn't know what to do. She's spent her whole life being told by others how her various aliases would act, so she really doesn't know who Bay-Lee is. The author has a great quote to symbolize that:


"This was new to her, starting school without a script. Connor would tell her to be herself, but she didn't know what that meant. Who was the real Bay-Lee Bishop? Somehow she'd lost herself in other identities over the years."


To me, that was really cool and probably one of my favorite parts of the books. It tended to get more interesting as it went along because in the beginning, Bay-Lee was just as confused as I was. That got better as the story went along, but at times, her flip flopping personality just didn't do it for me.

I'd say that one of the worst examples was when she was in the library for the first time with a certain somebody and decided to.... experiment.... Her sudden change in attitude really surprised me because it was nothing like her. She even admitted it herself!

That whole scene itself just kind of felt weird to me. A little later, another somebody walked in and caught the tail end of said experiment, and was thankfully just as disturbed as I was. They Bay-Lee tried to brush it off, and suddenly everything is all butterflies and rainbows. I don't get it! People aren't that flippant, especially people as smart as they are.

In all, though there were a few places that I had to read back over and still couldn't make sense of, I liked the book in general. And now to leave you, I will share my favorite quote of all, which actually came pretty early in the book.


"'Bertram used a spell to conceal it from the outside world.'
'You mean it's like Hogwarts?'
Van frowned in confusion. 'What does a hog's wart have to do with anything?'"

My Rating:




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A copy of the novel was provided for us in exchange for an honest review.