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April 24, 2015

Stupid Boy by Cindy Miles ~ Blog Tour: #Review & #Giveaway



 Welcome to my stop on the Stupid Boy Blog Tour hosted by Xpresso Book Tours. Click here to follow along with the tour schedule.


 

Title - Stupid Boy
Series - Stupid in Love #2
Author - Cindy Miles
Publication date - February 17th 2015
Genres - New Adult, Romance

Source - Copy for review

Purchase - Amazon | B&N 






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. 



After loving Stupid Girl, I was excited to read Stupid Boy. With different characters as the focus, Stupid Boy can be read as a standalone, although I think reading Stupid Girl first will enhance your experience since the stories are connected. 

This is probably going to sound morbid, but I do like reading realistic fiction where the characters are broken and need to work through their dark past in order to truly live. Stupid Boy makes me think about the saying, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle." Kane sees that right away about Harper despite the outer image she's trying to project, and I think it's because he comes from a painful background, too. 

Kane's experiences have given him the ability to see it in someone else, even someone he's just met. When both people have that in their past, they can understand each other in a way without words that other people may not be able to do. I think Harper was trying much harder and more desperately to repress the experiences she had been through, and that was why she didn't see past Kane's exterior shell right away. She wants to pack her pain in a suitcase and keep it in the back of a closet, away from her sight. 

I wanted to know what had happened to both of these characters, and through bits and pieces here and there, you come to know what they went through. It's horrifying, and no one should have had to go through that. 

I was happy to see Olivia and Brax from the first book in Stupid Boy. I really liked them and was hoping they'd be connected to the characters in this book, which they are. 

The only thing that kept me from giving the book five stars was the story lulled in places. It might have been just me and my frame of mind at the time, but a few places were slow for me. Other than that, I really loved reading about Kane and Harper's story, and I'm looking forward to reading about new characters in the next installment. 





About the Author




National bestselling author Cindy Miles writes edgy romance, ranging from contemporary love stories to sexy paranormals. A native of southern coastal Georgia, she loves reading (naturally), baking swoon-worthy desserts, traveling abroad, yoga, and classic rock. The cover for her debut New Adult romance, STUPID GIRL, was featured on USA Today's Happily Ever After blog. In the novel, a volatile mix of bad boys, sassy smart girls, dark secrets, and red-hot romance add up to one wild ride through college. The second book in her Stupid in Love series, STUPID BOY, features a wickedly handsome law-breaker who falls for a beautiful, straight-A college student with an ugly past of her own.  

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April 10, 2015

The Beast of Callaire by Saruuh Kelsey ~ Blog Tour: 10 Random Things About the Book & Excerpt



Welcome to my stop on The Beast of Callaire Blog Tour hosted by Diverse Book Tours! Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule! 


Title - The Beast of Callaire
Series - The Legend Mirror #1 
Author - Saruuh Kelsey
Publisher - Smashwords
Pages - 190
Genre - Fantasy, Adventure, YA, LGBTQIA, Myth
ISBN - 978-1291790603/1291790608 

Purchase Amazon | B&N | Book Depository 





Synopsis


Yasmin is a descendant of the Manticore. A creature of Persian mythology. 

A Legendary.

But she doesn't want to be. Unlike the Legendaries in The Red, Yasmin wants nothing more than an ordinary life. She tries to fool herself into believing that she doesn't change into a beast every full moon and savagely kill innocent people. 

But when Yasmin starts hearing a voice in her head and is drawn into dreams that aren't her own, she is led to Fray - a girl who once saved Yasmin from hunters, who has shadowy memories that hint at her having Legendary magic - and Yasmin is catapulted into a life of Majick and malevolence. 

Despite the danger around her and Fray, Yasmin might finally have a chance at being a normal girl with a normal girlfriend. But with Legendaries being killed, a war between the Gods brewing, and the beast inside Yasmin becoming stronger each moon, her mundane life is little more than a dream. 


Guest Post by Author Saruuh Kelsey 

10 Random Things About The Beast of Callaire


  1. The group of Legendaries in The Beast of Callaire are called The Red. Their leader named the group for his ancestor, Mars.
  2. The first draft of The Beast of Callaire began with the tiny sentence, "Seven hours." It was a terrible way to start and I'm glad it changed.
  3. The characters who are descended from Gods have different kinds of Majick. The main character Yasmin has Earth Majick and Psychic Majick, through which she can communicate telepathically.
  4. Vic, one of Yasmin's friends, is transgender and has a blind girlfriend named Alice. Alice saves the day with common sense more than once throughout the series.   
  5. The Beast of Callaire will have five sequels. 
  6. Two of those sequels will be published this year!
  7. The Goddess Juno visits Yasmin in a dream and brings an unhelpful and daunting warning. 
  8. One of Yasmin's friends has betrayed the Red. 
  9. The first draft of The Beast of Callaire began with the Thomas Hardy quote, "Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened." At some point between the first draft and the finished book, I decided it was much too pretentious. Good call, past me. 
  10. The Beast of Callaire ends on a cliff-hanger.  

Excerpt

Symbols have been smeared in red on the wall over my bed - the same language as the words I saw lit up on the building across the alley. the words the original Phoenix confirmed to be the language of Gods. 

Without really thinking about it, I start running through my apartment looking for anything else out of place, avoiding what's in front of me. I feel my breathing quicken and I know I need to calm down but right now calm is elusive. 

"It's a warning," Guy says, his voice edged in ice.

"How do you know?" I plead with my legs to hold me up as I dizzily return to my room. The liquid used to write the symbols is definitely blood - my Crea nose can smell the tang from here. Thankfully, it's not human. 

"Mavers has been teaching me to read Numina," Guy tells me. "Do you want to know what it says?"

"No."

"It says to stay away from the Halfling or more Legendaries will die." 

Air rushes from my lungs all at once. "Fray." 

I disobey the warning without a second thought, rushing outside and tearing across the road, uncaring of traffic. When I reach the wood's edge, I rip off my talisman and reach out for Fray. Guy catches up just as I'm screaming for her. 

The muscles in my thighs strain with how hard I'm pushing myself. I don't want to admit the truth to myself - that something is irreversibly wrong. I hear no static from Fray's mind and there isn't a single scared thought from her. 

I unleash the monster I fight so hard to repress and scream a hostile growl into the woods. Guy flinches beside me. 

Talons unfurl from my fingers. My vision sharpens all at once and I know I look beastly, that my eyes are the most golden they've ever been. 

None of that matters. 

My link to Fray is gone. 



About the Author


Saruuh Kelsey is the author of several novels for young adults, including the free Lux Guardians series and The Legend Mirror series. Her latest releases include THE BEAST OF CALLAIRE, the first novel of a new YA fantasy series, and a collection of diverse fairy tales in LOVE IN THE GILDED AGE. Find her online at saruuhkelsey.co.uk

Author Links



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Stolen Art by Ruth Silver ~ #CoverReveal


Hey there! I'm excited to share with you the cover reveal for Ruth Silver's upcoming novel, Stolen Art via Girls Heart Books Tours. I'll be reading and reviewing it also, so keep an eye out for that. :D 


Stolen Art
By- Ruth Silver
Genre- YA Sci Fi Adventure
Expected Publication Date- May 4th, 2015
Published By- Lazy Day Publishing




Synopsis


Sixteen-year-old Madeline has been living on the streets, biding her time until she's eighteen. With little to no money, she takes on a heist in hopes of making ends meet. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything.

Getting caught is just the beginning of Madeline's adventure as she meets Weston and discovers the secret of where she came from.




Author Bio-
Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of the Aberrant trilogy. With a passion for writing and a love of story-telling, Ruth is actively writing two series: Royal Reaper and Orenda. She also writes The Federal Agent Chronicles, an adult romance series under the name Ravyn Rayne for Blushing Books. Her interests include traveling, reading, and photography. Her favorite vacation destination is Australia. Ruth currently resides in Plainfield, Illinois.
Follow Ruth here-
Looking for a steamier read? Check her out here-
Twitter- http://twitter.com/blushingravyn


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April 9, 2015

The Blast by Sarah Perlmutter ~ Blog Tour: #Review & #Giveaway @saperlmutter #theblast


Welcome to my stop on the Blast Book Tour hosted by YA Bound Book Tours! Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule. 



Title: The Blast
Author: Sarah Perlmutter
Release Date: 12/15/14
Pages: 200 
Source: Copy for review 

Purchase: Amazon 







Summary 


After a series of blasts force Beatrice Hicks and her family into their prepper bunker, they emerge to discover they are among the survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. Fighting against rogue groups and coping with deaths are just some of the adjustments Beatrice must make to survive, but how will she maintain her humanity after the blast?


Praise for THE BLAST: 


"This is the most impressive and heartfelt apocalypse story I've ever read in my life!"

"A real tour de force... [It's] refreshing to have a YA book which focuses on the important things in a person's life - family, love and death." 

"What a beautiful story. A wonderful look at the human ability to survive, rebuild, and grow through survival."

"One of the best post-apocalypse stories I have read."

"This book easily stacks up against my favourites and has an originality that many books seem to lack these days. [The] writing style is impeccable and this book is utterly breathtaking!"



The Blast is a fast-paced, post-apocalyptic young adult novel with a very young heroine, Beatrice, at the core of the story. After the blasts force Beatrice, her younger brother Henry, and their parents into their bunker, things are never going to be the same for them again. Lucky for Beatrice, her parents prepared for an emergency such as this and had made and stocked the bunker with all kinds of supplies. 

The Blast had some major surprises in store. The grittiness of the world after it goes to crap is so realistic, it feels like it could really happen. In a situation like this, where your life changes forever, bad things are bound to happen, and Perlmutter doesn't shy away from from those kind of things happening. I knew life wasn't going to be pretty for this family, but I had no idea they were going to go through so much grief. What really helped them out was the preparation Beatrice's parents had done in case something like this happened. 

The nuclear winter was really freaky. The description of what it was like when the family went out scavenging for supplies with ash surrounding them and completely frigid temperatures making it impossible to venture far from home was so realistic. It was just like I imagined a nuclear winter to be like, and it gave me chills!  

As I mentioned before, The Blast was very fast paced, taking place over five years, but I wished the pace was slower, taking its time a little more. The story is so rich with so much potential it felt a bit rushed at times. I wanted more!  

Beatrice is literally just a kid at eleven-years-old, yet she's had to kill people to protect her family. She isn't even a teen at the beginning of the novel. The things she's had to do for herself and her family to survive keep haunting her, and are things no kid her age should have to see let alone do. Though it was necessary, it changes her forever. There's no going back. She's forced to grow up quickly.  

There's foreshadowing here and there of things to come, but the way those events unfold is what will keep you riveted. I couldn't put this book down! The Blast is the kind of story I read in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. I was pulled in right away, and the suspense and grittiness of this new world post-apocalypse had me enthralled.   




About the Author


Sarah Perlmutter is the Wattpad featured author of THE BLAST, a young adult post-apocalypse novel. 

Outside of the young adult genre, Sarah has published poems and flash fiction through Mash Stories, Millennial Garbage, the Pittsburgh History and Landmark Foundation, and the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project.

When she is not writing, Sarah enjoys spending time with her husband and cat, cooking food that is far too spicy, making arts and crafts, and teaching high school English. 

For more information about Sarah and her writing, check out her website

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Shattered Frost (Frost Series #3) by Liz DeJesus ~ Cover Reveal


Hey there! Welcome to Day Three of the cover reveals for Liz DeJesus's Frost Series brought to you by Girls Heart Books Tours! The last two days you got to see the first two covers, and today you get to check out the reveal for the third book, Shattered Frost! Let me know what you think in the comments! :D


Shattered Frost
Frost Series # 3
By - Liz DeJesus
Publication Date - August 15th 2015





Synopsis


Bianca Frost and her BFF Ming Lee return to Everafter to attend the Winter Ball with their boyfriends, Terrance and Prince Ferdinand. They were looking forward to a short vacation, especially Bianca, who is being bullied at school. She is looking forward to the day when she can finally graduate from high school. But all is not cute hair and fancy shoes as a mysterious count sets his sights on Bianca at the ball. 

When Count Jonathan Bleu kidnaps Bianca and Ming, the pair must do everything in their power to escape his clutches. In this amazing adventure, Bianca and Ming find themselves traveling down a rabbit hole, where they have to survive the madness of Wonderland in order to make it back home to the men they love.

Bianca and Ming must travel to the Queen of Hearts’ labyrinth, find Bluebeard’s key and save Jack of Hearts before Bianca loses everything she holds dear.

About the Author

Liz DeJesus was born on the tiny island of Puerto Rico.  She is a novelist and a poet. She has been writing for as long as she was capable of holding a pen. 

She is the author of the novel Nina (Blu Phi'er Publishing, October 2007), The Jackets (Arte Publico Press, March 2011) First Frost (Re-realeased through Indie Gypsy Summer 2015), Glass Frost (Re-released through Indie Gypsy Summer 2015), Shattered Frost (Indie Gypsy, Summer 2015) and Morgan (Indie Gypsy, July 2014). 

Her work has also appeared in Night Gypsy: Journey Into Darkness (Indie Gypsy, October 2012), Twice Upon a Time (Bearded Scribe Press, Winter 2015) and Someone Wicked (Smart Rhino Publications, Winter 2013).
Liz is currently working on a new novel and a comic book series titled Zombie Ever After (Emerald Star Comics, Fall 2014).


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April 8, 2015

Incarcerated by Inger Iversen ~ Blog Tour: #AudiobookReview



Welcome to my stop on the Incarcerated Audio Book Blog Tour hosted by Girls Heart Books Tours! Click here to follow along with the tour schedule. 


Title: Incarcerated
Series: Love and War Standalone
Author: Inger Iversen
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: September 29th 2014

Source: Copy for review

Narrated by: Olivia Peppersmith  

Purchase: Audible | Kindle | iTunes | Paperback






Synopsis


One of the few white kids in a rural Kentucky town, Logan Whyte always kept to his own kind out of self-preservation. He never considered himself racist, but that didn't stop him from falling in with the wrong crowd that celebrated hate as much as he fought it - or from ending up in prison for eight years on an armed robbery charge. 

A successful and educated black woman, Katie Andreassen is tired of being accused of betraying her own race. Her lonely isolation, coupled with her grief over losing her mother, inspire her to create a new pen pal program at Capshaw State Penitentiary, where her father is a warden. 

The program brings together the unlikely pair, but Logan and Katie soon find themselves forced to overcome past fears and prejudices. Their friendship doesn't come easily - threatened by a crooked lawyer with a grudge and a best friend who betrays her promise to help. 

When faced with a world that forces them apart, Logan and Katie must show everyone else what they have discovered: that love is, in fact, colorblind.  




I've heard great things about author Inger Iversen, and her books have been on my must-read list for a while now. I've been getting into audio books lately and really love them. Depending on the narrator, just by listening, you can lose yourself in the story in a different way than if you were reading it yourself. 

Olivia Peppersmith does an excellent job narrating Incarcerated and has a pleasant voice to listen to. She gives each character his or her own distinctive voice, and I'd listen to any audio book she narrates. 

Incarcerated gives you insight into what some of the men in prison could be like. Maybe there are guys like Logan in there who don't deny what they've done and who want to finish serving their time so they can get out and make a life for themselves. I didn't hate him, but I didn't quite like him either. I didn't know what to think about his racism. It didn't seem he had learned it from his parents, so it wasn't something that seemed to be deeply entrenched in his belief system. But I wanted to scream at him, you didn't know what Katie looked like or what her ethnicity was but you fell in love with her anyway!! So what does he think that tells him?? 

I think Katie was a weak heroine, but I think she was supposed to be shown as vulnerable. If she hadn't been, she probably wouldn't have started the pen pal program to begin with. She's dealing with a lot - the death of her mother, her overbearing father, pressure from work deadlines, her former boyfriend abandoning her right after her mother's death, and agoraphobia. I just wish she had grown and become stronger by the end, but to me, that never happened.  

I didn't think Katie's friend, Teal, was much of a friend. I know she wanted Katie to break out of her self-imposed exile, but forcing her to go to parties is not the way to go. To me it was the equivalent of telling a depressed person to "snap out of it!" or "get over it!" The only time I liked Teal was when she tried talking sense into Katie when she found out about Katie falling in love with an inmate from the pen pal program. Everything Teal said to Katie at that time was true.  

Incarcerated kept me riveted. I wanted to know how everything was going to turn out in the end. Would Katie and Logan be able to make a romance happen? Truth be told, I wasn't totally rooting for them but wasn't completely against them either. I thought Katie could do a lot better, especially when it's apparent Logan is racist, but also thought she was a better woman than I for not judging Logan solely based on his prison sentence, before she knew he was racist. 

Realistically, they have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to make it as a couple. I don't know if I would want to make it work with someone like Logan who judges me based on my skin color even after getting to know me, but Incarcerated gave me a lot of food for thought, and for that, I'm grateful.  




About the Author 


Inger Iversen lives in Virginia Beach with her tree-hugging boyfriend, Joshua and her overweight lap cat, Max. When not reading or writing she spends her time watching reruns of True Blood, Walking Dead or killing zombies in Call of Duty. Of course, if the world were to change into some World War Z type situation, she'd probably be the only chick running around searching for a Ray Gun!

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Stalk her... No peeking through her window at night. (Unless you call first!)

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