{Blog Tour} Excerpt + Giveaway: The Polaris Uprising - Jennifer Ibarra

Title: The Polaris Uprising (Polaris #1)

Author: Jennifer Ibarra

Release Date: October 20th 2013

Publisher: Tiwala Books

Age Group: Young Adult

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Smashwords

No citizen shall be left behind.

Life in Neress is simple. For nearly four decades, people have known exactly what’s expected of them. Obey the rules, follow the path that’s been laid out, and everything will be provided for: food, shelter, education, safety. No need goes unmet.

But the cost is steep: you lose all rights to make your own choices in life.

In seven years, eighteen-year-old Ryla Jensen will come of age and take over for her father as president of this idyllic nation. Groomed since childhood to take on a role she’s not even sure she wants, Ryla’s only escape from the pressures of duty is her sister, Alanna. But when her eyes are finally opened to the oppressive regime her father built, she begins to question everything she’s set to inherit—and finds herself at odds with her sister’s blind allegiance to their father.

Torn between loyalty to her family and the fight for freedom, Ryla must decide just how far she’s willing to go to make a stand and risk losing the person she loves most in the world: Alanna.

Here's an excerpt!

{Blog Tour} Excerpt + Giveaway: Royally Lost - Angie Stanton

Title: Royally Lost

Author: Angie Stanton

Release Date: May 6th 2014

Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Dragged on a family trip to Europe’s ancient cities, Becca wants nothing more than to go home. Trapped with her emotionally distant father, over-eager stepmother, and a brother who only wants to hook up with European hotties, Becca is miserable. That is until she meets Nikolai, a guy as mysterious as he is handsome. And she unknowingly finds herself with a runaway prince.

Nikolai has everything a guy could ask for - he's crown prince, heir to the throne, and girls adore him. But the one thing he doesn't have... is freedom. Staging a coup, he flees his kingdom and goes undercover on his own European tour.

When Nikolai and Becca meet, it’s their differences that draw them together. Sparks fly as they share a whirlwind of adventures, all the while dodging his royal guard. But Becca's family vacation ends in a matter of days. Will Nikolai and Becca be forced to say goodbye forever, will his destiny catch up to him, or will they change history forever?

Click here for an excerpt! ;D

About the author:
Angie Stanton never planned on writing books; she wanted to be a Rockette. However, growing up in rural Wisconsin, with her brothers' 4-H pigs as pets, dance didn't work out. Instead she became an avid daydreamer. After years of perfecting stories in her head, she began to write them down, and the rest is history. Angie is the author of six books including Royally Lost, Rock and a Hard Place, and Snapshot.

She graduated with a Journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin, and is a proud double finalist of the National Readers Choice Awards for Love 'em or Leave 'em.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway!

{Blog Tour} Excerpt + Giveaway: Plus One - Elizabeth Fama

Title: Plus One

Author: Elizabeth Fama

Release Date: April 8th 2014

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Age Group: Young Adult

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Divided by day and night and on the run from authorities, star-crossed young lovers unearth a sinister conspiracy in this compelling romantic thriller.

Seventeen-year-old Soleil Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller prohibited by law from going out during the day. When she fakes an injury in order to get access to and kidnap her newborn niece—a day dweller, or Ray—she sets in motion a fast-paced adventure that will bring her into conflict with the powerful lawmakers who order her world, and draw her together with the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but who is also a Ray.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story.

And now for the excerpt!

{Blog Tour} Excerpt + Giveaway: Rewrite Redemption - J.H. Walker

Title: Rewrite Redemption

Author: J.H. Walker

Release Date: January 25th 2013

Publisher: Self-published

Age Group: Young Adult

Goodreads | Amazon

She’s sixteen. He’s seventeen. They don’t know each other…at least not yet.

She has a secret and her whole life revolves around keeping it. Every few months and with little warning, she simply disappears, pulled into the past for hours or even days. She’s terrified it will happen in front of someone, changing her life forever. So far, the only witnesses have been her parents, and that didn’t end well. She has no control over it and no idea why it happens to her.

She wants answers.

He has answers—at least he understands what’s going on. He has a secret, too. He’s part of an organization that goes back in time to rewrite reality. But he also has a problem. He broke the organization’s number-one rule by altering his own timeline. As punishment, he’s been blocked from time travel, which is most unfortunate. Because the changes he made to his timeline, accidentally resulted in disaster for his family. A disaster he’s now prevented from repairing. No one can travel beneath the organization’s radar except a Shadow. But they’re rare, so rare he’s never even met one.

Then he moves to her town.

About the author:

J.H. grew up in Central America. She now lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies with her photographer husband and many, many books. In addition to her never-ending study of human behavior, she’s a political junkie and a certified tree hugger. Rewrite Redemption is her debut novel.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway!

Enter to win an ebook copy of Rewrite Redemption! Open INT'L.

{Blog Tour} Excerpt + Giveaway: Nocturne - Andrea Randall & Charles Sheehan-Miles

Welcome to my stop for the Nocturne blog tour! You can view the full tour schedule here.

Title: Nocturne

Authors: Andrea Randall & Charles Sheehan-Miles

Release Date: August 24th 2013

Publisher: Self-published

Age Group: New Adult

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Savannah Marshall is a gifted flutist and daughter of musical royalty when she enrolls in the elite New England Conservatory of Music. Brilliant, eclectic and passionate, she lives music, but struggles with her plans for the future.

Gregory Fitzgerald is one of the most renowned cellists of his generation. A member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and professor at the Conservatory, he is laser focused on his career to the exclusion of friends, family and especially romance.

When Gregory and Savannah’s paths cross in the classroom, it threatens to challenge more than their wildly differing beliefs on music. Friendships, ethics, and careers are put on the line as Gregory and Savannah play a symphony of passion and heartbreak.

In the final movement, Gregory and Savannah are handed their greatest challenge, as the loss of absolutely everything they’ve held as truths hangs in the balance.

About the authors:

I started writing poetry long before writing fiction. I firmly believe Poetry is a solid foundation for all other forms of writing. It taught me that a single word can make or break the world.

I write fiction because my characters have a story and they want me to tell it.

I hope you enjoy the pieces of my soul that I share with you.

Website | Facebook

Sheehan-Miles has been a soldier, computer programmer, short-order cook and non-profit executive, and is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, including the indie bestsellers Just Remember to Breathe and Republic: A Novel of America's Future.

Website | Facebook

Now for the excerpt!

Release Day Event + Giveaway: When You Were Here - Daisy Whitney

Title: When You Were Here

Author: Daisy Whitney

Release Date: June 4th 2013

Publisher: Little, Brown

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity.

Danny's mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn't know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom's property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother's memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.

Here's an excerpt from the book!

When You Were Here Excerpt

About the author:
By day, Daisy Whitney is a reporter and ghostwriter. At night, she writes novels for teens and is the author of THE MOCKINGBIRDS and its sequel THE RIVALS (Little, Brown). Her third novel WHEN YOU WERE HERE releases in June 2013 (Little, Brown), and her fourth novel STARRY NIGHTS (Bloomsbury) hits shelves in September 2013. When Daisy's not inventing fictional high school worlds, she can be found somewhere north of San Francisco walking her adorable dog, watching online TV with her fabulous husband or playing with her fantastic kids. A graduate of Brown University, she believes in shoes, chocolate chip cookies and karma. You can follow her writing blog and new media adventures at DaisyWhitney.com.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Giveaway!

{Blog Tour} Excerpt: Finding Out - Sheryn MacMunn

 

Thanks for dropping by my stop for the Finding Out tour! You can follow the tour here.

Title: Finding Out

Author: Sheryn MacMunn

Release Date: April 7th 2012

Publisher: Self-published

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Getting dumped on the sidewalk by her live-in boyfriend of seven years and finding he nearly emptied their savings account is the first of Sheila Davenport's problems. At thirty-six, Sheila had thought her life was on track.

Now she's saddled with a mortgage that is about to skyrocket, a psychotic boss, and she has to train someone who is unqualified and just doesn't care about the rules. Life no longer makes sense.

Her friends advise her to date immediately, preferably someone rich and successful, or risk being old and alone. But Sheila's trying to figure out what went wrong and how she got to this place. Since Prince Charming has ruined Sheila's life, who can save her now?

Help comes unexpectedly from her elderly neighbor, Ruth Grey, who has had her own share of life's ups and downs. As their friendship grows, Ruth reveals a mesmerizing story of life in WWII Germany mixed with a tale of powerful love and revenge. Ruth's story provides the perspective that Sheila needs to put the pieces of her own life together.

Will Sheila succeed at work or walk away? Can she save her home? And why do her friends think their lives are any better?

A story of love found and lost, true friendship, and how the human spirit endures, Finding Out is a gripping page-turner that pays homage to the greatest generation of our time.

About the author:
Sheryn MacMunn self-published her debut novel, Finding Out, in April 2012. It became an Amazon best-seller in two months, hitting the Contemporary Women and Contemporary Fiction list. FINDING OUT then hit best-seller status in the Single Women, Friendship, Romance, and Love & Romance categories as well. In addition to being a self-published author, Sheryn works full-time in Mobile ad sales. Sheryn attended University of Massachusetts, Lowell and received her MBA from Simmons College School of Management. She now lives in Connecticut with her family.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Excerpt!

{Blog Tour} Book Review + Excerpt: Persistence of Vision - Liesel K. Hill

Today, as part of Liesel K. Hill's blog tour for her book, Persistence of Vision, I'll be sharing with you guys a book review and an exciting excerpt!

Title: Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1)

Author: Liesel K. Hill

Release Date: January 29th 2013

Publisher: Tate Publishing

Goodreads | Amazon

In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...

I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi novels. Give me lengthy descriptions and I'll get bored; don't explain anything at all and I'll be left confused and irritated. Thankfully, Persistence of Vision ended up becoming one of the few sci-fi novels that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The story had been quite slow to take off, but once it did, I simply couldn't stop reading. I was thrust into a world of time travelers and prophecies and underground - literally - movements that made this book really exciting. I pitied the main character, Maggie, because even though she knew little about the truth, she was being attacked by assassins with weird tattoos on their faces. Lucky for her, she had a savior in Marcus.

Aside from Maggie, I loved all the other characters in here. Each one of them had their own colorful stories to tell, making them relatable and feel like real people. They all had their own personal tragedies thanks to the collectives who were trying to pursue them, but it was in those tragedies where they drew strength to keep their humanity. They were all truly admirable.

The research made to support the plot was obviously extensive. The science was amazing. I know most of it to be true in real life, and the others I'm not sure about don't seem so far-fetched, either, adding to the haunting factor of this book. This book not only taught me new things, but also reminded me of the stuff I'd already learned. Reading it was like sitting through my Science classes from before, which I really enjoyed.

Persistence of Vision was a joy to read. It had all the elements that I love in a story: adventure, action, romance, and high stakes, and already I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.

MY FAVORITE PART was when Maggie was re-learning her forgotten relationships.

RATING:

 

About the author:
Liesel K. Hill graduated from Weber State University with a degree in Creative Writing. She writes across three genres: scifi/fantasy, historical fiction, and crime drama. She comes from a close-knit family of fourteen and has very traditional views and values. She loves story-telling in all its forms, playing with her nieces and nephews, talking movies with her siblings, and any recipe with ‘dark’ and ‘chocolate’ in the title.

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

Excerpt

{Blog Tour} Spotlight + Excerpt: Talisman of El - Alecia Stone

Tour Schedule

Title: Talisman of El (Talisman of El #1)

Author: Alecia Stone

Release Date: May 20th 2012 

Publisher: Centrinian Publishing

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE WAS A LIE?

One Planet.

Two Worlds.

Population: Human ... 7 billion.

Others ... unknown.

When 14-year-old Char­lie Blake wakes up sweat­ing and gasp­ing for air in the mid­dle of the night, he knows it is hap­pen­ing again. This time he wit­nesses a bru­tal mur­der. He's afraid to tell any­one. No one would believe him ... because it was a dream. Just like the one he had four years ago - the day before his dad died.

Char­lie doesn't know why this is hap­pen­ing. He would give any­thing to have an ordi­nary life. The prob­lem: he doesn't belong in the world he knows as home.

He belongs with the others.

About the author:
Alecia Stone is the author of Talisman Of El (Centrinian, 2012), the first book in the Talisman Of El trilogy. She graduated with a BA in Film & TV and has worked in television for a short period of time before branching out into storytelling. Alecia loves anything and everything paranormal. Her fascination with all things supernatural sparked her obsession with books, particularly young adult fantasy fiction, which she has never grown out of. She was inspired to become an author after reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen at the age of fourteen.

In 2008, Alecia started working on Talisman Of El, a contemporary young adult fantasy fiction inspired by people who disappeared mysteriously, including, but not limited to, Amelia Earhart and Percy Harrison Fawcett, who went on an expedition in search of an ancient lost city. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys going to the movies, listening to music, and travelling.

Talisman Of El is her first novel. At present, Alecia lives in England, United Kingdom with her family.

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Book Website

Excerpt

Book Trailer

  Blog Tour Giveaway
3 Print copies of Talisman of El
Open Internationally
Ends 2/18/13
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Release Day Book Blast + Excerpt +Trailer: Ashes & Ice - Rochelle Maya Callen

Title: Ashes & Ice (Ashes & Ice #1)

Author: Rochelle Maya Callen
Release Date: February 4th 2013

Genre: Young Adult
Blitz Host: Lady Amber's Tours

Goodreads | Amazon

She is desperate to remember.
He is aching to forget.
Together, they are not broken.
But together, one may not survive. 

Jade wakes up with no memory of her past and blood on her hands. 

Plagued by wicked thoughts, she searches for answers. Instead, she finds a boy who doesn't offer her answers, but hope. But sometimes, when nightmares turn into reality and death follows you everywhere, hope is not enough. 

LUST. LOVE. LOSS. Sometimes, all that is left are Ashes and Ice.

About the author:

Rochelle grew up dreaming up stories. When she entered high school, she tucked away her creative side and jumped head-first into academics, work, and service projects. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Political Science and Communication when she was twenty years old. After years away from her writing, Rochelle picked up a pen and started fleshing out a character sketch that she outlined when she was twelve. That sketch was the start of the Ashes and Ice story. Rochelle lives in the DC metro area with her husband and daughter. By day she works as a behavioral therapist. By night, she is a dreamer and is busy tapping out new stories on her keyboard.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

{Blog Tour} Book Review + Excerpt + Giveaway: Uses for Boys - Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Follow the tour here!

Title: Uses for Boys

Author: Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Release Date: January 15th 2013

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Goodreads | Amazon

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical,  Uses for Boys  is a story of breaking down and growing up.

It has been almost an hour since I finished reading Uses for Boys but I still have mixed feelings about it, and you might be thinking that's not a good sign at all—let me tell you: it's good and bad.

At first, I thought Anna was strong, being able to cope with an absentee mother and one stepfather after another with just the memory of what she called the "tell-me-again times" with her mom. Well, that was until she discovered that if she let boys use her for their satisfaction, she can use them to forget about everything that she didn't have, too. Her personality and decision-making just went downhill from there.

I'm sure I'm not alone in hating whiners, and that's what, I think, will break this book for most people. Thank heavens Anna's complaining wasn't make-a-scene "I hate my life!" but more like whisper-in-a-corner "I want someone else's life". Even then, I believe she could've not let her need for love ruin her future; she disappointed me greatly while making me pity her, as well.

With boys who didn't really care about her and a questionable friendship with Toy, a girl she met while shopping, she knew well enough not to expect anything when she met Sam, but he soon proved her wrong because he does care. He teaches her what it's like to love and be loved, and even introduces her to the thing she knows least of: family. Their romance, although presented pretty late into the story, was as real as it could get with Anna's situation, and I really liked them together.

With a gratifying ending added to the sometimes confusing but constantly lyrical writing, Uses for Boys turned out to be very different from what I thought it would be. It may not be for everyone, but I can assure you that it's worth the try.

MY FAVORITE PART was when Sam introduced Anna to his family on their first date. 

RATING:

(cover from Goodreads.com)

About the author:
When Erica was a kid all she did was write. She dropped out of high school and attended the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where she was surrounded by writers and artists.

But then, in Erica's early twenties, she got a job. She worked hard at that job for 15 years and didn't write a word.

Then this happened: Erica walked into a bookstore and bought two books by Francesca Lia Block. No particular reason, she just liked their covers. Then Erica read everything Francesca wrote. She read all the YA she could. She still does. Erica think's the world that happens between 13 and 17 is everything.

She quit her job. Studied writing. And then spent three and a half years writing Uses for Boys. Now she's working on a new novel and it's like falling down a hole. Writing her first novel taught her nothing about writing the next one.

Website | Twitter