Title: Consent
Author: Nancy Ohlin
Publisher: Simon Pulse, (November 10th 2015)
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: Bea has a secret.

Actually, she has more than one. There’s her dreams for the future that she can’t tell anyone—not her father and not even her best friend, Plum.

And now there’s Dane Rossi. Dane is hot, he shares Bea’s love of piano, and he believes in her.

He’s also Bea’s teacher.

When their passion for music crosses into passion for each other, Bea finds herself falling completely for Dane. She’s never felt so wanted, so understood, so known to her core. But the risk of discovery carries unexpected surprises that could shake Bea entirely. Bea must piece together what is and isn’t true about Dane, herself, and the most intense relationship she’s ever experienced, in this absorbing novel from Nancy Ohlin.

Author Guest Post:

          I knew I was taking a major risk writing a novel about a teacher-student romance.  Many people are uncomfortable with this subject, and for good reason; do a search for “teacher,” “student,” and “sex” on the Internet, and the result is way too many disturbing links about teachers being arrested for preying on their students.

          So this happened to me in high school.  It was not a romantic or sexy experience.  Years later, I decided that I wanted to write a novel about the topic so that I could warn and enlightenreaders.  That’s how Consent was born.

          But Consent changed radically along the way.  While writing, I realized that the issue of sexual consent was way more complicated than I was making it out to be, at least with regards to age.  Laws exist that dictate how old a person has to be to legally consent to sex, and they differ from state to state.   These laws are intended to protect; they can also be perceived as being arbitrary and overly restrictive.  Is it fair for a seventeen-year-old boy to be arrested for having sex with his fifteen-year-old girlfriend?  Shouldn’t it be okay if the parties involved are in love?

          Consent is about all this.  It’s about a teacher who should know better than to have a relationship with his student.  It’s about a damaged girl who needs a mentor so she can move forward in life.  It’s about two people in love.  It’s about laws being broken.  It’s about consequences and finding the truth.

I want to be clear.  In no universe do I think that teachers should have relationships with their students.  Consent laws are vitally important—not just the so-called “age of consent” laws but the laws that spell out when “no means no” and “yes means yes.”

But.  Real life is not so black and white, and I wanted to explore all the grayness, the nuances, through the lens of a teenager—a fictional teenager—who is in love with a man she thinks of as her hero andsoulmate.

          Consent may unleash a maelstrom of public outrage.  In a way, I hope it does.  We need to keep talking about the issue of consent:  what it means, how to regulate it, and how to bind it inexorably to the very idea of sex.  Consent is my humble contribution to that conversation.

About the Author:

I am the author of BEAUTY, a YA retelling of the Snow White tale, and ALWAYS, FOREVER, a YA retelling of Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA. ALWAYS, FOREVER was originally published in hardcover as THORN ABBEY.

I've also contributed to several celebrity novels, including a New York Times-bestselling YA trilogy.

I'm currently hard at work on my next YA novel, which will be as mind-bending as ALWAYS, FOREVER (I hope!).

My favorite cures for writers' block are long walks, long showers, popcorn, chocolate, and really expensive coffee. I talk to myself a lot while I write (you know, to make sure the dialogue zings).

Find Nancy Online:

Website | Twitter| Facebook | Goodreads

Organised by Kerry Drewery (Author of A Dream of Lights and A Brighter Fear) and Emma Pass (Author of Acid and The Fearless) UKMG and YA extravaganza aim to complete the following mission whilst bringing readers, bloggers and authors together. 

"Author events are great fun. But often, the authors taking part are 'behind the velvet rope ' –  on a stage or behind tables – where they do their event and are then whisked away.

We want to change all that.

Our mission with the UKYA Extravaganzas is to bring UKYA in all its guises to readers all over the country (UK), by organizing regional events which bring readers and authors together. We have a huge wealth of YA writing talent here in the UK, and we think it's time to shout about it!

There will never be a 'star author' at the UKYA Extravaganzas – each and every author who takes part is the star of the show. The Extravaganzas are fun, informal and most importantly of all, egalitarian, allowing everyone to mingle and chat without barriers.

And there will always, but always, be cake. Caaaake…

Here's to a revolution in author events!"

Title: The Crowham Martyrs
Author: Jane McLoughlin
Publisher: Catnip (June 2015)
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: Ghosts don’t frighten Maddy Deeprose.

She’s seen them all her life.

So when her mum sends her to creepy old boarding school Crowham Martyrs, Maddy isn’t worried. But then her friends start disappearing, and Maddy knows it’s time to be scared.

Something is lurking at Crowham Martyrs.

Something evil.

Is the place that is supposed to keep Maddy safe

About to become the hunting ground?

Author Guest Post: UK Middle Grade Extravaganza Blog tour post by Jane McLoughlin 

Thanks to the organisers of the UK Middle Grade Extravaganza for organising this blog tour and to Jenny and Lisa for letting me guest on A Life Bound B y Books.

Judging by the wonderfully fit young men gracing the covers of some of the books reviewed on A Life Bound by Books, my book definitely doesn’t fit the usual YA/NA genre that this blog caters for, but please bear with me!

One of the characters in The Crowham Martyrs, Caleb, is as hot as any NA cover boy. (Seriously!)  However, as a MG character, he has to stay fully dressed at all times and remain “just friends” with the main female protagonists. It’s a shame really—he’s such a lovely young man!

But that’s how it is in middle grade: there are things that can happen, and things that can’t.  I’m not complaining—Caleb has the rest of his life to become a brooding YA hero or a buff and bulked up NA heart throb.  Similarly, my main female characters, Hannah and Maddy, have it in them to grow into awkward or graceful or sexy or sweet or geeky or kick-ass teen heroines.  Their later years may never be written about, but I hope they can be imagined!

One of the most rewarding things about the Harry Potter series (both for millions of readers and for one very clever author!) is that JK Rowling allowed her characters to get older. Readers saw Harry, Hermione and Ron grow from capable-if-confused middle graders to brave, resourceful and heroic young adults.  Readers like my daughter were able to grow up with these characters in real time, because the books came out when she was the same age as the Potter kids.  As the years passed and she got older, the world of Harry Potter became darker and deeper, more reflective of her own teenage years.

The point I’m trying to make is that middle grade characters—whether they are in series like Harry Potter, or in stand-alone books like The Crowham Martyrs—are more engaging if readers (and their creators) can see them  outside and beyond their own “age grouping.”

The same goes for readers.  It’s important that we authors think of middle grade readers not as children preserved in aspic, but as young people who are moving forward with life and are constantly in flux.  Candy Gourlay, in her UKMG Extravaganza post, wisely called them “readers in the middle” who are “growing the readers they are going to be.”

That means that one day soon.  Our middle grade readers will drift into YA territory, and possibly NA. In no time at all, they’ll be adults who will, hopefully, have developed an unquenchable life-long love of reading.  It’s up to us to keep them company on this journey to their reading futures, to make sure that our writing—our stories and characters and plots and words--helps their reading grow.

Thanks again for having me!

Link to Candy Gourlay’s blog contribution: Click Here

About the Author:

Jane McLoughlin is an American who has lived in the UK for over 25 years. She has had short stories published in various literary magazines and her debut novel for teenagers, At Yellow Lake, was published in 2012 by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books in the UK, the USA and Australia/New Zealand. It was nominated for the 2013 Carnegie Medal, and longlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Branford Boase Award for debut writers.

A former teacher, Jane regularly gives talks and delivers writing workshops in schools and at events, including Booklinks in London and the 2012 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Find Jane Online:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Title: Into the Dangerous World
Author: Julie Chibbaro, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak (Illustrations)
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 352 Pages (August 18th, 2015)
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: 17-year old Ror comes from the boonies and is tough as nails and all she really cares about is drawing and painting and making art. She ends up in the ghetto that was Manhattan in 1984, where she discovers that the walls, the subways, the bridges are covered with art. Before long, she runs into trouble with Trey, the ultimate bad boy and president of Noise Ink, a graffiti crew she desperately wants to join at all costs.

When Ror falls in love with Trey, she realizes she’ll do just about anything to get up in the scene. She has some decisions to make: she wants to be a street artist but she doesn’t want get shot by the cops; she wants her stuff in the museum but she doesn’t want to die waiting to become famous; she wants to makes money selling her work in a gallery but she doesn’t want to be a puppet at the mercy of a dealer. The book follows her descent into a dangerous world, where her drawings are her only salvation.

Ror’s journey is a seamless blend of words and pictures, cinematic in its scope - a sharp-edged, indelible creation that will live inside your head.

"[T]his striking combination of story and illustration creates a powerful portrait of a budding artist." Publishers Weekly starred review 

Guest Post:

Visual Art vs. the Art of the Written Word – Julie Chibbaro

When Lisa suggested that I write about Visual Art vs. the Art of the Written Word, I jumped at the chance, mostly because that “vs.” in the title implies a fight – one thing against another, Mayweather vs. Pacquiao – and most writers love a good wrangle.
The idea appealed, also, because my book, no, our book, is a mix of art and writing. I say ours because JM, the artist who created the drawings and paintings for Into the Dangerous World, is my husband, and, well, let’s just say one can’t easily work with their husband without a fight, or two, or three. I won’t get into details, but if you’ve ever disagreed with someone you love about the merits of something you’ve produced, you will understand how our passions sometimes ran high.
But let’s go back to the original topic. While writing this book, these two forms of art were on my mind often. This was because our main character, Ror, communicates largely through drawings. She’s not a talker; in fact, she thinks in a very visual way, witha certain “synethesia,”a mental perception of the world wherein colors taste like flavors, or sound like music, to her. For instance, when she first enters her art classroom, this is how she sees it: “There were jars and jars of paints—red like strawberries, blue like lollipops that leave a stain on your mouth, green as a field of mint, yellow like lemons, purple as grapes broken off the vine, spheres fresh and wet in your hand.”
          Every day that I sat down to think about Ror, often, visions entered my head: I could see what she saw – the city, and the art on the walls, in a new and beautiful way. I could feel her, but unlike my other characters, I had a much harder time translating her thoughts, because of that intense way she visualized the world.
After a while, I realized that I needed to capture and interpret her visions by communicating them as best I could to JM. I wrote notes, and together, we worked on fleshing out what she saw. When I began to understand how she worked as an artist, I could then write scenes with her – how she felt when she met Trey and saw his artwork, what they talked about. How she looked at him: “I drew the way his tight curls burst out from under the brim of his hat, his rounded features—that curved nose—was he part Cherokee? His lips were square at the top, so full at the bottom.”
In general, I think that art and writing hit us in different senses. Visual art goes through the eyes and is immediate – it can change your life in an instant. Andy Warhol, with his colorful imprints of movie stars, transformed our whole culture. The effect of writing is a bit slower. You have to process, to think about the words, to let them simmer inside you to sense the change. But something like Fifty Shades of Grey, for example, can open up a whole world of feelings no one knew existed, those secret desires so many kept hidden out of shame.
To be fair, I don’t think there is a fight between art and words. They are, after all, both expressions of the inner self. That is the truest gauge of good art – does it articulate and communicate what the artist is thinking and feeling? If it touches you, the viewer or reader, on some level, then the artist, or writer,has done their job successfully. That, ultimately, was our guiding force.

Check out the book trailer:

Read An Excerpt:

Click on the Image to Read!

About the Authors:

Julie Chibbaro and Jean-Marc Superville Sovak are the husband and wife duo behind Into the Dangerous World (Viking 2015).

Julie Chibbaro was born into a family of artists, and also married one. She grew up in NYC during the explosion of graffiti art. She has written two historical novels, Redemption, which won the American Book Award, and Deadly, which won the National Jewish Book Award. JM Superville Sovak is half-Trini, half-Czech, half-Canadian. His fourth half is spent making art, for which he earned his M.F.A. from Bard College in NY.

They both live in Beacon, NY.

Find Julie & JM Online:

Website | Julies Website | JM's Website | Twitter | Julie's Facebook | JM's Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr

Title: The Novice (Summoner #1)
Author: Taran Matharu
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends, 398 Pages (May 5th, 2015)
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Synopsis: When blacksmith apprentice Fletcher discovers that he has the ability to summon demons from another world, he travels to Adept Military Academy. There the gifted are trained in the art of summoning. Fletcher is put through grueling training as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire’s war against orcs. He must tread carefully while training alongside children of powerful nobles. The power hungry, those seeking alliances, and the fear of betrayal surround him. Fletcher finds himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with only his demon Ignatius for help.

As the pieces on the board maneuver for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands. The Novice is the first in a trilogy about Fletcher, his demon Ignatius, and the war against the Orcs.

Guest Post

The Lore of the Summoner Series

When A Life Bound By Books kindly offered me the opportunity to write a blog post on my book’s lore, I was very happy. Most fantasy authors have an encyclopaedic knowledge of their world, but never get to write it all down at once. So here goes, the lore of the Summoner Series.

The Hominum Empire and its History

Two thousand years before the events in The Novice, dwarves inhabit the land that is to become the Hominum Empire. To the north, the elven clans live in the great woods, while the tribal orcs live in the southern jungles.

An albino orc is born; a symbolic leader who’s coming was prophesised. He marshals his tribes into a brutal and bloody war with the north, threatening the elves while the dwarves take shelter below ground. At the same time, a great exodus of humans crosses the Akhad Desert to the east and settles in the dwarven lands.

The elves are losing the war, preferring to hide in the trees than fight. To save themselves, they hire the newly arrived humans as mercenaries. After many years of fighting, the albino orc is killed and his warriors are driven back into the jungles. In exchange, the elves teach the humans the art of summoning. The first king of Hominum foundsVocans Academy, a military school that trains human summoners as battlemages.

A thousand years later, the Hominum Empire is fully formed, after a great sickness sweeps through the dwarven population. The human king and his nobility, aided by their exclusive ability to summon demons, take control and subjugate the dwarves, resulting in many rebellions.

A great animosity begins between the two races. Dwarves are forced to live in ghettos and have their population strictly controlled. They are also subjected to police brutality and constant discrimination.

The elves lose their ability to summon demons thanks to the proliferation of duelling and new laws put in place to prevent the practice. At the same time, the Hominum Empire is constantly at odds with the orcs, suffering from raids and even another war a few hundreds years later, which they win.

Fast forward to the twenty-odd years before The Novice. The nobility, who were once the only ones able to summon demons other than a few orc shamans, discover that a small number of commoners also have the gift. Some are the illegitimate offspring of nobles, while others manifest the ability independently. For the first time, commoners are able to attend Vocans Academy.

Present day. The third orc war has been going on for eight years, lead by a new albino orc. Orc shamans are working together, while the various tribes unite under one banner. The humans begin to lose the war.

Meanwhile, the elves have also declared war against the Hominum Empire themselves, refusing to pay the heavy taxes levied against them. However, this benefits nobody and peace talks are already underway. An elven princess is sent to Vocans Academy as a sign of goodwill. She becomes the first elven summoner in a thousand years.

The dwarves have developed a new weapon, the musket, but guard the secret jealously. In exchange for arming Hominum’s military, the king supports their bid for equal rights and peace between their peoples. Despite this, hatred still lingers and the threat of another rebellion remains. A dwarven youth is also sent to Vocans, to be trained as a leader for dwarven recruits, who will also be joining the war effort.

Fletcher Wulf is born in the midst of all this, living a secluded life in the village of Pelt near the elven border. But when he comes across a summoning scroll and accidentally summons a demon, his life is changed irrevocably. Vocans Academy beckons.

The Magic System

TheNovice’s magic system, though it is never actually referred to as magic, was inspired by videogames, with rules, power levels and limitations.

Although I do love witches, wizards, mages and their ilk, it does often frustrate me when Deus Ex Machina style magical events act as solutions to otherwise unsolvable problems. Very often, it becomes a “get out of jail free card” of sorts. I prefer my magic to have rules, so that this doesn’t happen.

In the world of Summoner, the ability to summon is passed down in the blood. The first-bornchild always inherits the gift, while their younger siblings have a much smaller chance.

Every summoner must at first be gifted a demon through the reading aloud of a summoning scroll, usually through a parent or sponsor. Once summoned, the demons act as familiars and share a mental and emotional connection with their human counterparts. Without a demon, a summoner would be almost indistinguishable from a normal person, although some exhibit the early ability to produce small sparks or flames. The source of their true power is the channelling of mana from their demons.

Demons can be infused within theirsummoner when they are not needed, allowing them to recover their mana and rest. While within, the demon can see all that the summoner does. In order to be summoned or infused, the demon must be standing upon a pentacle, which must be inscribed or made of organic material.

Demonic species come in all shapes and sizes, from small beetle-demons known as Mites to larger ones, such as Griffins and Wendigos. The demons will also have a fixed amount of mana and a level, depending on their species. Summoners also have levels, which improve as time goes by and they become more experienced. The more powerful a summoner, the higher the level of demon they are capable of summoning. For example, a level ten summoner could own ten Mites, which are level one, or one Minotaur, which is level ten.

Demons are captured from a disk-shaped world called the ether. Around the edge of this world is an abyss, where warped, tentacleddemons known as Ceteans live. The outer rim is made of a mars-like desert called the Deadlands, followed by jungles, seas, mountains and volcanoes as you come closer to the centre, where most of the demons can be found.

The ether is accessed by a keyed pentacle, differing from the pentacle needed from summoning in that it has symbols on each point of the star, acting as coordinates for an approximate location in the ether. This portal must be fuelled with mana at all times to keep it open. Summoners are unable to enter the ether unless wearing a suit, not unlike a deep-sea diver’s, as the air is poisonous. They will usually use their demons to hunt for others in the ether, dragging them back through the portal so their summoner can infuse them.Summoners are able to use scrying crystals to see and hear what their demons do while they are in the ether, rather like a small television screen.

Finally, there are the spells. To perform a spell, a summoner must etch a symbol in the air with a glowing finger, leaving a blue glyph that once fixed will follow their fingertip as if attached by an invisible frame. Only when the mana is channelled through this glyph, does it become a spell.

The five main battle spells are fire, lightning, telekinesis, shield and healing, though there are many others. If mana is channelled through the finger without etching a spell, it produces wyrdlight, an insubstantial glowing ball that dissolves upon impact but is an excellent light source.

I think that’s pretty much it, without going in to too much detail! It this sounds like the kind of world you would like to read about, feel free to check out Summoner: The Novice, officially out on 5thMay 2015.

About the Author:

Taran was born in London in 1990 and found a passion for reading at a very early age. His love for stories developed into a desire to create his own during early adolescence, beginning his first book at 9 years old.
Straight after graduating with a First Class degree in Business Administration, Taran was keen to explore a new avenue and get inside the publishing world, landing an internship in Digital Sales at Penguin Random House, from June to September 2013.

Thereafter, while taking time off to travel, Taran began to write ‘Summoner’ in November 2013 at the age of 22, taking part in ‘Nanowrimo 2013’.

Thanks to Wattpad.com and updating daily, its popularity dramatically increased, reaching over 3 million reads in less than six months.

After being featured by NBC News, Taran decided to launch his professional writing career and has never looked back.

His SUMMONER trilogy will be published in Spring 2015 by Hodder Children’s in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and British Commonwealth, Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan) in the US and Canada, Heyne in Germany, Crown in Taiwan, Planeta in the Spanish speaking world and Record in Brazil. Book 1 will be published by EKSMO in Russia, Ecliptic in Bulgaria and Alpress in the Czech Republic.

Find Taran Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Title: Stupid Boy (Stupid in Love #2)
Author: Cindy Miles
Publisher: TKA Distribution, 332 Pages (February 17th, 2015)
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Check out my review of: Stupid Girl (Stupid in Love #1) & Stupid Boy (Stupid in Love #2)

NOTE: This is a "New Adult" novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+

Synopsis: From Cindy Miles, bestselling new adult author of STUPID GIRL, comes the next installment of her blockbuster Stupid in Love series – STUPID BOY.

Brax Jenkins and Olivia Beaumont are the most envied couple at Winston University—but the so-called “virginity dare,” orchestrated by Brax’s old fraternity, almost tore them apart. Now, a new dare is taking shape, and it’s sure to set emotions ablaze--more than ever before.

Winston’s “It Girl” Harper Belle isn’t just president of the Deltas--she’s also a master at keeping her ugly past a secret. So, when the Kappas’ dare hits closer to home for her more than anyone realizes, she devises a competition of her own as payback. Three sorority sisters will seek out a notorious womanizer on campus and--unbeknownst their “mark”--secretly train him to be the perfect boyfriend. Always up for a challenge, Harper targets the biggest player she can find: Brax’s wickedly handsome foster brother Kane McCarthy.

But, Harper discovers there’s much more to Kane than girls, games, and partying. His easy smile belies the quiet, old soul reflected in his deep brown eyes. All it takes is one night, one secret laid bare, and one kiss from Kane to shift Harper’s world on its axis. Suddenly, the girl who’s always walked a straight and narrow path can’t think of anything else except losing control.

Guest Post

What’s Your Reading/Writing Nook Say About YOU?

As a reader, I, like most other readers, have various favorite places to kick back and devour a book. Depending on the kind of day it is (rainy is my favorite), it can be anywhere from my sofa, with a few candles lit, or my bed, if it’s at nighttime. As long as it’s quiet, cozy, I can get lost in a book.

As a writer, though, I’m a little more picky. I have a favorite writing “nook”, I guess you’d call it. It’s my front porch. Which, when you look at it, it doesn’t seem all that glam. It’s really not. My imagination halts at storytelling. My decorative skills are ZERO. I have a double rocker. In summer, I have a few Boston ferns. That’s it. A plain old double rocker that I have to put a seat cushion on or else my booty gets tired faster than my brain. But it’s all good. Because the inspirational part? The part that makes THIS my ultimate writing nook? Check out the view.

To me, since I work out of my home, it’s perfect. (Although a little croft in the Highlands of Scotland, or a cottage in the Outer Banks, or an old 1900’s seaside Maine mansion from the Gold Coast, or even a cottage on one of Georgia’s small barrier islands would be great, too!) But I work at home. And I live here, in south Georgia. And this is my view.

One would think I’d get tired of it, but I don’t. It’s constantly changing. From summer storms and green, green grass to a field of white fluffy cotton or tall stalks of corn, to my duel pear trees changing with the seasons—it always fascinates and inspires me. I’ve one memory in particular that always gets me going. My son was about ten, my daughter six. Corn was planted in the field in my VIEW and was probably about five feet tall. It was summertime, and we’d been getting a lot of late afternoon showers. It began to rain and my two kids ran out into the corn field, and were popping up, then ducking down, running and hiding and trying to catch one another. I know from where they were it looked completely different than my position on the PORCH. It was hilarious. It looked like a live game of WACK-A-MOLE. They finally came in (no worries folks, it was only a shower-no lightning involved!) soaked to the bone and laughing like hyenas. Every once in a while we bring it up and we all laugh. Sometimes I think of that day as I’m sitting on the porch writing, and it always makes me smile. Or laugh out loud. And that sort of joy inspires my writing.

The VIEW itself? Now that can inspire many aspects of a story for me. I love stormy scenes, or rainy scenes, because I love storms and rain myself. As you can see from the pics, a storm can roll in from the coast and be quite dramatic. I love to sit and watch, and write. That feeling of contentment inspires me. Many of my favorite romantic scenes between Stupid Boy’s Kane McCarthy and Harper Belle came to me while watching a storm roll in from my front porch.  The changing views make the synapses in my brain fire and before I know it, I have new scenes. New characters sometimes. And a book is soon finished.

Do you have a favorite nook to read or write? Is there a place where the pages, whether in a book your reading or a story you’re creating, come to life? Let’s hear it!

About the Author:

Cindy Miles is the best-selling author of twelve novels, one anthology and three short stories. She also writes as Elle Jasper, and grew up on the salt marshes of the Vernon River in Savannah, Georgia.

Find Cindy Online:

Website/Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest

GIVEAWAY!!!

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Title: Entity (Divinity #2)
Author: Patricia Leever
Publisher: Omnific Publishing (November 11th, 2014)
Genre: Supernatural Romance
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

NOTE: This is a "New Adult"/Adult novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+

Synopsis: Sometimes I liked to imagine, just for a second, that I was plain old Evelyn with nothing better to do in the morning than lie here with her man.

But that’s not how it was. That’s not who we were...

Evelyn Brighton and Daniel Summers are demon hunters, and they wouldn’t have it any other way. Or would they, given the choice again?

Los Angeles is crawling with demons in disguise, and Evelyn and Daniel are a dynamic and fearless demon-slaying duo. Under the authority of Lebriga Corporation and protection of their Divinity blades, this duo has never felt more ass-kicking against evil or more in love with each other.

But something is rotten in the state of home demonstration parties—and it’s not because a seal’s broken in the Tupperware. Beautiful Illuminations is the latest rage in home-consulting cosmetics, founded by Annabelle Simmons. But beneath the layers of makeup and human flesh lurks Anabael, a disembodied Spectoral demon that inhabits people and steals their physical form. To a spirit like that, an ageless demon hunter has a body to die for.

And Evelyn just might.

As Lebriga battles Anabael mind, body, and soul, Evelyn and Daniel must draw on the strength of their relationship to win the war against the Spectoral menace. But what if winning the war means losing their love?

Excerpt:

          “I can smell a hunter, even through all those silly charms and potions you try to cover yourself with. You all have a distinct stench about you that normally isn’t very pleasant, but you, Evelyn, do you know what you smell like to me, right now, trembling in my arms?”
          “No,” I whispered.

          “Ambrosia,” he hummed as he took a deep breath.

          “Ahhh, I don’t know how you smell this way. Part of me wants to keep you with me just so I can breathe in your decadent aroma every day. But the other part of me cannot wait to sink into your mouth and lose myself in what is sure to be the most divine meal I will ever have.”

           He spun me to face him and looked me up and down. His tongue peeked from between his lips as he breathed heavily out of his open mouth. He looked like he was about to jizz right there, and I tried not to recoil at the thought—not to mention his rancid demon breath was seriously foul.
          “Ask me to kiss you,” he said, panting.
          Fighting the bile rising in my throat, I leaned in toward his ear and whispered, “Isiel, kiss…mmmy ass.”
          “What?” His voice cracked and his head jerked back, complete and utter shock written all over his face. “I-I don’t understand.”
          “Aw c’mon, dude, seriously? You just told me that you knew I was a hunter. What else did you expect? I’ve been watching you for the better part of a week. You’re not that dumb.”
          His nostrils flared and his head tilted unnaturally as he took a few steps back, I assumed, to make a run for it.
          But everyone knows what happens when you assume things.
          “Are you mocking me?” His lip twitched. “That’s not very ladylike.”
          “Yeah, that whole ‘lady’ thing was never my strong suit. I’ve always been more of a fuck-it-and-see-what-happens kind of gal.”

About the Author:

Patricia Leever is a wife, stay­at­home mom of four and owner of one dog and one really old cat. On the average school day she runs about town like a lunatic picking up and dropping off kids and trying to find a moment of quiet to write down a word or two. She's a sci­fi geek that loves to dress up like a zombie and participate in the local zombie march down Main St. and laugh as much as possible; laughter frees the mind and heals the soul.
Live. Breathe. Write.

Find Patricia Online:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

GIVEAWAY!!!

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Title: Earth & Sky (Earth & Sky #1)
Author: Megan Crewe
Publisher: Amazon Skyscape, 306 Pages (October 28, 2014)
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK, Powells

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Skylar has been haunted for as long as she can remember by fleeting yet powerful sensations that something is horribly wrong. But despite the panic attacks tormenting her, nothing ever happens, and Sky’s beginning to think she’s crazy. Then she meets a mysterious, otherworldly boy named Win and discovers the shocking truth her premonitions have tapped into: our world no longer belongs to us. For thousands of years, Earth has been at the mercy of alien scientists who care nothing for its inhabitants and are using us as the unwitting subjects of their time-manipulating experiments. Win belongs to a rebel faction seeking to put a stop to it, and he needs Skylar’s help--but with each shift in the past, the very fabric of reality is unraveling, and soon there may be no Earth left to save.

-Advance praise for EARTH & SKY: 

"Earth & Sky will sweep you away on an unputdownable adventure." —Morgan Rhodes, New York Times bestselling author of Falling Kingdoms


Author Guest Post

Megan's Top Five Time Travel Stories

Time travel is tricky to pull off, as I learned firsthand while writing EARTH & SKY. Thankfully I had some excellent sources of inspiration to help guide my way!

-THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger - There probably aren't many people who haven't read (or at very least heard) of this book, and there's a good reason for that. Ultimately a love story between an accidental time traveler and a woman who's met him before he meets her (it makes sense once you've read it), the time travel element is well-integrated into the story with enough scientific explanation to allow suspension of disbelief, the characters are relatable and their relationship touching, and the author doesn't shy away from the sometimes brutal outcomes of their tenuous situation.

-NIGHT WATCH by Terry Pratchett - My favorite Discworld book, in which police commander Sam Vimes is sent back in time and must take on the role of mentoring his own younger self while keeping up a false pretense and trying to tame a rebellion. Pratchett's work is always humorous and smart, but NIGHT WATCH has a lot of heart, too, delving into Vimes' growth as a character and the history of his city.

-SINGULARITY by William Sleator - A different, very creative sort of time traveling. The teenaged main character has always felt in the shadow of his more outgoing and assertive twin, so when he discovers a shed in which time moves differently from the world outside, he uses it to age himself ahead of his brother while confronting an otherworldly presence within. The conflict between the brothers is vividly drawn and the mechanics of the shed follow a speculative but plausible line of physics.

-WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead - A wonderful science fiction mystery about a sixth grader dealing with sudden odd behavior from her best friend, the appearance of a strange homeless man in her neighborhood, and anonymous notes that start appearing in her possessions that reveal more than anyone should know. The best things about this book are the well-drawn character relationships and the slow reveal of the answers to the mystery, which fit together perfectly.

-The Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis (including the short story "Fire Watch" and the novels DOOMSDAY BOOK and TO SAY NOTHING TO THE DOG, all of which are excellent, as well as BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR, which I haven't read yet to recommend but are probably quite good also :) ) - Connie Willis's stories about university time travel researchers cover a wide range of territory, and they do it incredibly well. DOOMSDAY BOOK is as heart-wrenching as TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG is wryly amusing, the former dealing with historical and future pandemics (and proving inspiration for my Fallen World trilogy) and the latter a romantic comedy of errors involving Victorian times.

Bonus mention: If you want to check out some time travel-y movies too, I recommend 12 MONKEYS, BACK TO THE FUTURE, TIME BANDITS, and TIMECRIMES.

What are your favorite time travel stories?

Read the First Chapter of Earth &n Sky: HERE

Check out the Book Trailer:

About the Author:
Like many authors, Megan Crewe finds writing about herself much more difficult than making things up. A few definite facts: she lives with her husband, son, and three cats in Toronto, Canada (and does on occasion say "eh"), she tutors children and teens with special needs, and she can't look at the night sky without speculating about who else might be out there.

Find Megan Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr | Trilogy Website

GIVEAWAY!!!

-the giveaway: One grand prize winner will receive a Kindle Paperwhite with custom EARTH & SKY cover and preloaded with the ebook, and nine others will receive a signed paperback copy of the book. All winners will also receive an EARTH & SKY swag pack including star candies in Win's favorite Earth flavors, signed bookmark, magnet, and sticker. (Open internationally)

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Check out the rest of the Blog Tour Stops:

Nov 4 - Book Hounds YA
Nov 5 - Books and Bark
Nov 6 - Curling Up With A Good Book
Nov 7 - A Life Bound By Books
Nov 10 - Fic Fare
Nov 11 - Katie's Book Blog
Nov 12 - A Dream Within A Dream
Nov 13 - The Book Smugglers
Nov 14 - Wondrous Reads

Title: Love Me Later (Second Chances, #1)
Author: Libby Rice
Publisher: Gateway Publishing Ltd., 224 Pages (September 15th, 2014)
Add to: Goodreads
Order here: Amazon, All Romance,  Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK


NOTE: This is a Adult novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+

Synopsis: Scarlet Leore enjoys a glittering existence amongst society’s elite. Ethan Blake is a prizefighter knocking his way through school, counting on his winnings to bankroll the dreams that won’t fit in a boxing ring. When the two meet, neither can deny the instant attraction that wells between the hulking fighter and the heiress who is miles and millions out of his league. But a vicious attack leaves Scarlet physically and emotionally battered, and for Ethan, her allure crumbles along with the rest of his life after she accuses him of wielding the knife.

Years later, Scarlet has abandoned the high life for that of a hard-working lawyer, while Ethan has clawed his way to the pinnacle of a business empire. Drawn into his world of high-stakes tech mergers, they dance to a tune of revenge, desire, and finally, redemption. But their world won’t tolerate an attorney falling for her client. They’ll need more than lust and forgiveness. They must bridge the chasm of a tormented past to understand who they are today. Only then can they forge a future in the face of the resurging enemy who once tore them apart. 

Author Guest Post

          So, Libby, why hot romance?
          Readers and non-readers alike often land on the same question when they hear I’m releasing my first novel, and that the book is a contemporary romance. A spicy one, no less.
          “Why sexy romance?” they ask.
          I’ve been asked this question in droves. At first, my instincts urged me to respond with a big, fat, “Of course romance! Why not romance?! What are you smoking?!” Then I realized this was, at least in reference to me, a pretty legitimate question.
          People ask because my background is not particularly sexy—first an engineer, then a patent lawyer. If there are two career paths the general population doesn’t equate with sexy and romance, it’s pretty much engineer and patent lawyer. With a history in both, people tend to think, “Why not legal thrillers? Why not techy sci-fi?”
          The answer? I write romance because I believe in all kinds of love between all kinds of people, and I believe that everyone deserves a piece of the sweet life. Now, if love-until-death-do-us-part is a real thing, even in this complicated day and age, and if everyone deserves to find that kind of love, then why doesn’t everyone have it, and why is the general population increasingly cynical toward the very idea?
          Now that’s a question the analytical mind can embrace.
          It’s also the conundrum that leads me to romance, and what makes me write stories about people with pasts, the ones with good reasons to give up on finding happily ever after. Sometimes these people are torn and jagged, even unlikable before some hard-earned growth, and they travel dark roads before finding their match. Like many real people, my characters don't believe they deserve all the beauty the world has to offer, and I enjoy the challenge of bringing it to them. If love is indeed a chemical reaction, then writing the path for two people to find it is my formula.
          And when those two people do find happiness, well, I figure they deserve to have a damn sexy time together.
          One page, one kiss, one scorching interlude at a time.
          In Love Me Later, Ethan and Scarlet have to pay their dues at the door. Two people with such capacity for love naturally have an equal and opposite capacity for pain, but they reach their bliss, and by the time they do, they’ve earned every blistering minute of their present and their future.

About the Author:

Before becoming a writer, Libby was first a mechanical engineer in the data acquisition industry (voltmeter anyone?). Preferring writing to technical design, Libby headed to law school and eventually practiced patent law for several enterprising years (patent application covering a voltmeter anyone?). Finally realizing that technology just wasn’t her bag, she traded the voltmeters for alpha heroes and the women who love them.

Today, Libby writes contemporary romances from the foot of the Rocky Mountains, where she lives with her husband, a bona fide rocket scientist (he stuck with the voltmeters!). When not writing, Libby loves good food, even better wine, and traveling the world in search of the next great story.

Libby loves hearing from readers! Join the fun at www.libbyrice.com, where you can sign up for Libby’s new-release e-newsletter, or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram. 

Find Libby Online:

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Author Goodreads | Instagram

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Title: Adrenaline Crush
Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 192 Pages (September 23rd 2014)
Add to: Goodreads
Order a copy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository, Amazon UK

Check out my review: Adrenaline Crush

Synopsis: When a daredevil teen pushes herself too far, she must choose between two boys: the one who wants to keep her safe, and the one who dares her to return to her old self.

Seventeen-year-old Dyna comes from a family of risk takers and is an avid thrill-seeker herself, until the day she splinters her ankle in a terrible fall. Her whole life goes from mountain biking and rock climbing to sitting at home and attending group sessions at the bizarre alternative healing center that her hippie mother found. The boy who witnessed Dyna’s accident believes her injury is a wakeup call and he encourages her mild new lifestyle, but a young Afghanistan War veteran she meets at the healing center pushes her to start taking chances again. Forced to face the consequences of her daredevil impulses, Dyna finds herself in danger of risking the one thing she’s always treated with caution—her heart.

Author Guest Post

ADRENALINE JUNKIE FRIENDS: Gunks, Jumps and Research Humps

I love the outdoors and enjoy doing all sorts of mountain biking and hiking, but when I decided I was going to write a book featuring a daredevil main character I knew I was going to need to do some research. I am no daredevil. In fact, I’m a bit risk-averse when it comes to physical activities. But Adrenaline Crush is told from Dyna’s point of view and Dyna is extremely confident in ways that I can only dream of. I knew it would take a lot of work to get into her head so I could write her story from a place of truth.

My family has a trailer in New Paltz where we spend summers and weekends and when Dyna first came to mind I immediately knew New Paltz was where she would live. Mohonk Preserve is known for its rock climbing cliffs and every time I hike in “The Gunks” I meet climbers coming off the mountain who are bursting with happiness. There’s an obvious euphoria that comes from rock climbing and I wanted to know more about that. I have a friend who is a confirmed adrenaline junkie who loves talking about his adventures while climbing and he helped me tremendously in my research.

Hearing about the rush of climbing was helpful, but I felt like I needed to actually get my hands on those rocks in order to fully understand Dyna’s love. When Mohonk celebrated the preserve’s 50-year anniversary, they provided gear and an instructor for anyone ready to attempt their first climb. There were three top-roped courses and I leapt at the opportunity for first-hand research. There were a distressing number of releases to sign and once I was climbing I felt horribly awkward and indecisive about holds, but I actually ended up having an amazing time! There’s a picture of me climbing on my website that makes me look a bit more hardcore than I was. Beside that one should be one of me lying belly-side-down on top of a flat rock with my butt in the air while I scrape my feet helplessly on the rock below. Or maybe sliding on my butt to a lower rock so I wouldn’t need to repel back down so far. I noticed I was the only climber brushing dirt off the back of my shorts at the end. But that experience did help me understand the appeal. You hug the rock like it’s keeping you alive because it is. Your life is literally hanging by a rope. The risk makes everything seem more intense and the rush is undeniable even without going to crazy heights.

I also have a girlfriend who I’ve always admired a lot who loves skydiving. In fact, she’s a bit of a zealot who believes everybody should love skydiving. In Adrenaline Crush, Dyna’s big brother skydives at a place called The Ranch which is a real place near New Paltz where my friend spends her time jumping out of planes. She loves it so much that when I visited The Ranch I considered skydiving myself just so I could see what all the raving was about. Once I was there I had this realization that just standing on the ground, watching the other jumpers while imagining myself stepping out of a plane was thrilling enough. I guess skydiving is pretty much where I draw the line on research.

Instead, I went into nerd girl mode and researched books written about and by adrenaline junkies. I read books by John Krakauer like Into The Wild and Into Thin Air. I read Aron Ralston’s book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, which Danny Boyle made into the movie 127 Hours in 2010. Like most fiction writers, I have a rather vivid imagination and fully enjoyed the process of getting into Dyna’s head. I loved rock climbing through her without any of my own natural awkwardness. As Dyna I could scramble up rock face with strength and confidence and go much higher than I dared in real life. Being in Dyna’s head through her big fall was especially exhilarating. I guess you could say some people climb mountains and jump out of planes for their thrills, and some of us simply push our characters off of cliffs.

About the Author:

Laurie Boyle Crompton is the YA author of BLAZE (or Love in the Time of Supervillains) and THE REAL PROM QUEENS OF WESTFIELD HIGH (Sourcebooks, 2013 & 2014) as well as the upcoming ADRENALINE CRUSH from Farrar Straus Giroux. Laurie graduated first in her class from St. John’s University with a major in English and minor in Journalism. She’s written for national magazines like ALLURE as well as numerous trade publications and has appeared on Good Day New York several times as a Toy Expert. Yes, that is an actual thing that people sometimes get to be.

When she’s not writing Laurie enjoys hiking, cycling, reading, cross-country skiing, running, going to the movies and drinking tea by the gallon. She lives near NYC, but loves to escape to the mountains in New Paltz, NY where she and her family can often be found climbing over rocks or tromping through the forest.  She is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Agency.

Find Laurie Online:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

GIVEAWAY!!!

Enter to win a FINISHED copy of Adrenaline Crush

ONE winner will receive a copy of this title

Rules and how to enter:

Please fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter this giveaway.
Easy Entry for all! (Clicking this provides name and email which is the only requirement when entering. This is for the sole purpose of contacting the winner.)
You must be at least 13 years old to enter.
This giveaway is open to US mailing addresses only.
Giveaway ends: November 3rd, 2014 (12:00AM EST)

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I'd like to thank the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing a copy of Adrenaline Crush for this giveaway. The winner will receive their copy from the publisher.

If you have any questions please check my policy page or feel free to contact me via email.

Good luck to everyone who enters!