Title: Don't Look Now (PERSEF0NE #2)
Author: Michelle Gagnon
Publisher: HarperCollins, 335 Pages (August 27th, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK
Check out my review of: Don't Turn Round (PERSEF0NE #1)

Synopsis: The jaw-dropping sequel to breakout YA thriller Don't Turn Around, which Kirkus Reviews named a Best Book of the Year, calling it "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for teens, a surefire hit"

Noa Torsen is on the run. Having outsmarted the sinister corporation Pike & Dolan, Noa and her friend Zeke now move stealthily across the country, protecting runaways before they become test subjects for P&D's horrific experiments. Noa knows all too well what that feels like: Whatever they did to her has left her exhausted and scared.

Back in Boston, Peter anxiously follows Noa's movements from his computer, using his hacker skills to feed her the information she needs to stay alive. But he's desperate to do something more, especially when he learns what P&D has done to his ex-girlfriend Amanda.

Then, in an explosive confrontation, Noa and her team are trapped in the one place they thought was safe. It will take everything Noa and Peter have to bring down the corporation before it gets them first. And with no one to trust and enemies hiding at every turn, they may be the only people alive who can.

This stunning second book in the critically acclaimed Don't Turn Around trilogy raises the stakes to their absolute limit and will leave readers begging for the exciting conclusion, Don't Let Go.

Interview:

Hi Michelle! I’m SO excited to have you here visiting today! I’ve read and LOVED both Don’t Turn Around and Don’t Look Now and I can’t WAIT to read the third book in the trilogy – Don’t Let Go.

That makes two of us!!! I’m thrilled to hear that you’re enjoying the trilogy.

How about we talk a bit about the PERSEFoNE trilogy? How did you come up with the idea and start writing such an action packed story filled with twists and turns?

Honestly, at the outset all I knew was that a teenage girl was going to wake up on an operating table in a warehouse with a scar, and no memory of how she got there. I also wanted her to be on the run for most of the book, so she never really gets a chance to catch her breath. And then every time I got an idea, I’d add it in. What was most important to me was that Peter and Noa be real teenagers; aside from their hacking skills, they don’t have other ways to fight back. I didn’t want them to be black belts/superheros, and I wanted them to have some of the same awkward moments that I remember from that age.

What was the hardest part in writing this amazing trilogy? 

Definitely avoiding information dumps. By book 3, it was really hard to straddle the line between reminding people of major plot points from the first two books, and telling so much that it distracted from the action. Even though I’ve written a series before, those books were more self-contained. A trilogy is much more challenging!

What was the easiest part in writing the trilogy?

I love these characters, so sitting back down with them each time was really fun. The first book just flew out of me, too—I wrote the rough draft in about eight weeks!

What are 3 things we don’t know about: Noa, Peter & Zeke?

Let’s see:
Noa only wears grey or black—mostly black. And she taught herself to play guitar, although she doesn’t get a chance to do that in the books.

Peter was a pretty amazing soccer player, although he ended up dropping off the team after his brother died. So he’s still a fast runner.

 Zeke never knew his parents at all, he was placed in foster care when he was still a baby.

When starting to write a new book, how do you begin? Do you start with an outline? What’s your process?

I honestly just have a sense of how the book will kick off, and I run with it. Each day, I (hopefully) know which scene I’ll be working on. But I never outline. I’m always surprised by the endings! :)

Without giving too much away, in your own words, what would you tell readers to expect in the first two books?

Both Noa and Peter go through a lot—and I mean a lot—that changes them. They face really terrifying circumstances and long odds, and they lose a lot of the people they care about along the way. But they come out of the experience so much stronger.

And lastly, for those of us who have been lucky enough to reach BOTH books, can you tell us what we can expect in the third book? Any hints? 

Hmmm, let’s see...without giving too much away, Noa and Peter will have much more quality time in book 3. The band is back together!

Michelle, thanks for taking the time out to visit with us today. It’s a pleasure to host you here as part of the Blogger Dark Days Tour. I can’t wait to read Don’t Let Go! And now the long wait begins until I can get my hands on it. Feel free to stop and visit anytime!

I’ll send you an ARC as soon as I get one myself!

And I'll totally be taking you up on that offer! Thanks Michelle, so awesome of you!!

About Michelle:


Michelle Gagnon is a former modern dancer, bartender, dog walker, model, personal trainer, and Russian supper club performer. Her bestselling adult thrillers THE TUNNELS, BONEYARD, THE GATEKEEPER, and KIDNAP & RANSOM have been published in North America, France, Denmark, Spain, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Australia. BONEYARD was a finalist for a 2009 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense.

The first book in her Young Adult PERSEFONE trilogy, DON'T TURN AROUND, was selected as one of the best books of 2012 by the American Library Association, Entertainment Weekly Magazine, and Kirkus. It was nominated for an ITW Thriller award, and was a Junior Library Guild and Indienext pick. The second book, DON'T LOOK NOW, will be released in August 2013.

Michelle lives in San Francisco.

Find Michelle Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads

Be sure to check out all the blogs and their featured author during the Dark Days Blogger Tour:

8/19: ASYLUM at Icey Books

8/26: THE BITTER KINGDOM at Good Books and Good Wine

9/02: DON’T LOOK NOW at A Life Bound by Books

9/08: NOT A DROP TO DRINK at The Broke and the Bookish

9/16: THE BURNING SKY at A Book and a Latte

10/7: THE BROKENHEARTED at Tales of the Ravenous Reader

Tour Dates:

Part One: Featuring Madeleine Roux, Rae Carson, Sherry Thomas, Michelle Gagnon, and Mindy McGinnis

Wednesday, September 25th @ 7:00 PM - Barnes & Noble, Las Vegas, NV
* Guest Appearance by TERA LYNN CHILDS-- SWEET LEGACY

Thursday, September 26th @ 7:00 PM - Tattered Cover Book Store-Highlands Ranch, Highlands Ranch, CO

Friday, September 27th @ 7:00 PM - Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

Saturday, September 28th @ 8:30 AM-5:00 PM - Austin Teen Book Festival, Austin, TX

*“Team Dark Days” will compete against Macmillan’s “Team Fierce Reads” in a friendly game show style format, in addition to a Dark Days Panel!

Part Two: Featuring Rae Carson, Amelia Kahaney, and Mindy McGinnis

Tuesday, October 8th @ 7:00 PM - Books & Company, Dayton, OH

Wednesday, October 9th @ 7:00 PM - Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH

GIVEAWAY!!!

Enter to win a copy of Don't Look Now!

Rules and how to enter:

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Giveaway ends: September 18th, 2013 (12:00AM EST)

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 HAPPY BOOK BIRTHDAY TO CLAUDIA & BALTHAZAR!!

Today, I'm happy to welcome Dark Days author Claudia Gray! And to help her celebrate the release day for her new book, BALTHAZAR! Balthazar is a companion novel to her Evernight Series.

As a blogger for the Dark Days tour, today I'm sharing with you the "Biggest" interview

I had a chance to do with Claudia.

Biggest candy craving? If it's chocolate, I want it.

Biggest author moment? Not sure what this means! But I guess nothing quite tops finding out you've sold your first book. I was so shocked I had to sit down on the floor.

Biggest feat you’d like to accomplish? Eventually to have set foot on all seven continents.

Biggest breakthrough when writing a book? Probably it came when I was writing the character of Mateo in the very, very early stages of SPELLCASTER (coming in early 2013); it took his character longer to take shape in my mind, but when he did, he turned out to have an amazing back story. The second-biggest would be while I was writing BALTHAZAR; I'd always found Charity a very difficult character to write in the EVERNIGHT series ... which was all from Bianca's POV. As soon as I was writing about her in a book about Balthazar, though, she suddenly became very easy to write -- I think because he knew her better.

Biggest childhood memory? Probably any happy memory of my pug, Isaac.

Biggest fictional crush? Right now? Professor X! At least as played by James McAvoy. Or as played by Patrick Stewart. Or in comics. Yeah, Professor X.

Biggest wish for one of your characters? I hope Alec and Tess outwitted the Brotherhood for once and for all after FATEFUL was over. I feel pretty sure they did.

Biggest, most scariest moment? There was a airplane trip from Philadelphia to NYC in a teeny prop plane during a storm that was 45 minutes or pure terror. Lightning, thunder, high winds, turbulence, several sharp dives through the air and all 30 people on board taking turns vomiting or screaming. SO FUN.

Biggest moment of 2011? Probably buying my first house!

Biggest dream trip? That would have to be whatever crazy voyage will finally take me to Antarctica someday.

Biggest challenge ahead of you? I have this crazy idea that I'm going to be able to do my US tour, my Australian tour and the subsequent trip all in two carry-on suitcases. So, packing.

Biggest wish for your fans/readers? That they always love reading as much as they do right now.

It was such a FUN interview Claudia! I'm thrilled to have had another chance to work with you and host you here on my blog. You are more than welcome back anytime. 

Published: AVAILABLE TODAY, from HarperTeen

Synopsis: Haunted by memories from his first days as a vampire, Balthazar has spent hundreds of years alone—without allies, without love. When he emerges from his isolation to help Skye Tierney, a human girl who once attended Evernight Academy, Balthazar has no idea how dangerous it will be. Skye’s psychic powers have caught the attention of Redgrave, the cruel master vampire responsible for murdering Balthazar and his family four centuries ago. Having learned of Skye’s powers and the remarkable effect her blood has on vampires, he plans to use her for his own evil purposes. As they stand together to fight the evil vampire, Balthazar realizes his lonely world could finally be changed by Skye...just as Redgrave realizes that he can destroy Balthazar once and for all by taking her for his own.

In a story filled with forbidden love and dark suspense, one of the most beloved characters in Claudia Gray’s New York Times bestselling Evernight series will captivate readers with his battle to overcome his past and follow his heart.

Excerpt:

For a chance to read an excerpt of Balthazar - >>>CLICK HERE<<<

Find Claudia Online:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Add to Goodreads

Order Online:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Read my review of Balthazar - >>>HERE<<<

For more information on Dark Days, be sure to check out these links:

Dark Days Website | Twitter | Facebook |  Note: When tweeting be sure to use the hash tag #pitchdarkdays

Check out the book trailer for Balthazar:

*I am not compensated at all for any of the links within this post.

Some really exciting news for all of us Lauren Oliver Fans out there! On March 11th, Lauren Oliver, Claudia Gray, and Dan Wells' Los Angeles Dark Days event will be livestreamed on http://www.livestream.com/epicreads via Tiffany of http://www.abouttoread.com/. Now, Harper know that's a long time to wait to hear Lauren talk about the DELIRIUM trilogy, so in the meantime, they have this amazing video of an event Lauren did yesterday at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC >>>CLICK HERE<<< to check it out.

Watch Lauren now, and prepare yourselves for Lauren, Claudia, and Dan on Sunday!

Dark Days Leg 3

2/21    Lauren Oliver at All Things Urban Fantasy

2/22    Claudia Gray HERE! Check out my review of Balthazar!

2/23    Alex Flinn at Mundie Moms

2/28    Dan Wells at Bookalicious

3/1      Lauren Oliver at All Things Urban Fantasy

3/6      Claudia Gray HERE!!! Tomorrow!!! Can't wait to share this post with everyone!

3/7       Alex Flinn at Mundie Moms

3/8       Dan Wells at Bookalicious

And see her in person here:

 

Lauren Oliver (PANDEMONIUM), Claudia Gray (BALTHAZAR), and Dan Wells (PARTIALS)

March 9th @ 6:30pm | Books & Books | Coral Gables, FL | Harmony's Radiant Reads

March 10th @ 2pm | Barnes & Noble | Alpharetta, GA | One Page at a Time

March 11th @ 4pm | Vroman’s | Los Angeles, CA | For Those About to Read *LIVESTREAM event

Title: Balthazar
Author: Claudia Gray
Publisher: HarperTeen, 374 Pages (March 6th, 2012)
From: the Publisher
Format: ARC

Synopsis: Vampire heartthrob Balthazar More, first introduced to readers in the New York Times bestselling Evernight series, fights for true love in this electrifying stand-alone novel.

Haunted by memories from his first days as a vampire, Balthazar has spent hundreds of years alone—without allies, without love. When he emerges from his isolation to help Skye Tierney, a human girl who once attended Evernight Academy, Balthazar has no idea how dangerous it will be. Skye’s psychic powers have caught the attention of Redgrave, the cruel master vampire responsible for murdering Balthazar and his family four centuries ago. Having learned of Skye’s powers and the remarkable effect her blood has on vampires, he plans to use her for his own evil purposes. As they stand together to fight the evil vampire, Balthazar realizes his lonely world could finally be changed by Skye...just as Redgrave realizes that he can destroy Balthazar once and for all by taking her for his own.

Review: 4 Stars - Balthazar, is a fantastic companion novel to the Evernight series by Claudia Gray. Many fans, including myself were excited and eager to have a book devoted to a beloved character and we weren’t let down in this thrilling, action packed whirlwind of a story.

Balthazar has always been a huge fan favorite, even being the mystery that he is to readers; you just couldn’t help have this character capture a piece of your heart. He’s quiet, reserved and with a heart of gold and I seriously couldn’t read this title fast enough. Balthazar’s story had a bit of everything – strong characters, amazing background story, action from beginning to end and so much more.

When Skye runs into some trouble, Balthazar comes to her aid in trying to work out why she’s being hunted. Skye is a pretty strong character and can give as good as she gets but at the end of the day she is  just a normal teen girl, who finds out that there was so much more out there than originally thought.  I mean it would be hard to not end up knowing there are Vampires, when you used to attend a private boarding school full of them!

The two together were extremely entertaining, they danced around their emotions and feelings for each other but at the same time they had some pretty heavy issues to deal with from their pasts, not to mention the present danger looming over them. One of the main parts to the story that I loved was how amazingly well Gray incorporated Balthazar’s past with the present day. Unique and clever are two words that come to mind.

I’m one who loves, loves, loves alternating points of view for the simple reason that I get a more rounded telling of the story. When I get a chance to see things from more than one characters point of view it always adds tons of depth. So Gray did an amazing job in telling this story from both Balthazar and Skye’s views. The flash backs of Balthazars life when he was first turned into a vampire were fascinating, emotional and even heart breaking. These moments in the story really gave me such a better idea into who he was and why he felt the way he does.

All in all, Gray has taken so many of the things I love in a great story and whisked them together to bring history and more life to such a beloved character. While this book is different from the Evernight series, set in a different place and focuses on different characters, fans will be sure to gobble this one up and be ready for more! For me, as I turned that last page, I had to wonder if this will be the last we’ll see of Balthazar and Skye. I hope Gray has more up her sleeve and we’ll get a chance to read their continuing story in the future soon.

FTC Disclaimer: I did NOT pay for this book, nor have I been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this HONEST review.