Cheating Time by T.R. Graves ~ Blog Tour: #Review & #Giveaway

Hey guys welcome to my stop for the Cheating Time Blog Tour hosted by IFB Tours! Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule! 

Title: Cheating Time

Series: Longevity #1 

Author: T.R. Graves

Publication date: December 1st 2014

Genre: Science Fiction

Source: Copy for review

Purchase: Amazon | B&N | Smashwords  

Carles "Carlie" Enoche's world is one that can barely be imagined. In it, babies have micropharmeceutical devices inserted in their hearts within hours of birth. The MicroPharm implant holds code that secretly counts down until the date of that baby's death (as determined by its genetic analysis) and contains drugs that are released in such a way that chemicals and hormones are in perfect balance at all times, making illness almost unheard of. 

Theoretically, the known but unexposed date of the babies' deaths and the maintenance drugs geared toward giving the baby a long life have benign consequences. It is the unknown and unbelievable and unexpected way President John Barone gathers data about every child and the way he releases contraceptives from the device in order to control the population and terminate pregnancies when embryos are identified as weak or mutated that makes the device and its technology as dangerous as any malignancy.

For President Barone, seventeen-year-old Carlie isn't just a MicroPharm first generation; she is the great-granddaughter of the man who discovered the ability to determine life expectancy down to the day and the daughter of the woman who invented the MicroPharm chip. Carlie and her family are important to President Barone's political career and the plans he has of creating a nation of strong, healthy, and superior people, who give more to their country than they take.

Jayden St. Romaine, one of the Facet's most loyal Surrogate Soldiers, is ordered by President Barone himself to find the Enoche family and kidnap Carlie. Through blackmail, he plans to leverage control over the Enoche's scientific research and the ability to develop even more tools that can be used to genetically engineer a superior race. 

When President Barone sends Jayden on his mission, he never expected his perfect soldier to develop a conscience...betray his trust...fall in love with Carlie, but he's dispatched a backup Surrogate Soldier just in case. With the ticking of the clock and the second Surrogate chasing them, Jayden's chances at redemption and Carlie's chances of living a life where she is free to make choices about her life and her body are in jeopardy. 

If you want a glimpse into what life might be like if a government had the ability to control population with a chip, then Cheating Time will give you that glimpse, and it's a scary one. For all of the good the MicroPharm chip can do, it also has dire consequences in the hands of the wrong people - people like President Barone who wants to use it to make the population younger, leaner, stronger, and smarter. Sound familiar? 

Unlike Hitler, Barone is not concerned with race or religion, but he doesn't have a problem with terminating life if the fetus isn't genetically strong enough to suit his requirements. He's determined to use the MicroPharm chip to create a genetically enhanced population of people who give more to their government than they take. He's all about cutting costs at the expense of people's freedom.   

In many ways the MicroPharm chip is positive and was designed by Carlie's mom to give people a longer, healthier, and happier life. I can see why it was created, and it would be great to have higher quality of life. But then of course there are also downsides to this chip, especially with the way President Barone is using it as forced population control without people's consent. 

When something like this chip comes along, sometimes the bad outweighs the good. As much of a genius as Carlie's mother is, she didn't think too far ahead when she chose to have her own daughter implanted with her MicroPharm chip. By implanting the chip into her own daughter, she's given the President what he needs to blackmail her into doing whatever he wants. 

My only issue with Cheating Time is that it takes a good first chunk of the book for Carlie to get to the barn after her mom wakes her up and tells her to go there. There's a lot of time spent where Carlie thinks about the multitude of feelings she has for Jayden - sometimes she hates him yet other times she's crushing on him. I wanted more action, but I also realize since this is the first book in a series, it's setting up for more action later. 

Cheating Time illustrates how sometimes technology outpaces what we as a society are able to deal in terms of ethics and morality. I think this MicroPharm chip sounds like a good idea, but there are a lot of issues surrounding it as Graves as so eloquently woven into this novel. 

My Rating:

T.R. Graves is the author of several new adult series. She lives in Texas with her husband and two children. Besides being blessed with a supportive family, T.R. counts her career as an administrator and registered nurse in not-for-profit hospitals among her most fulfilling accomplishments. 

http://thewarriorseries.blogspot.com | Facebook | Twitter 

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Following Zippy by C.B. Burdette ~ Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Following Zippy Blog Tour hosted by IFB Tours. Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule. 

Title: Following Zippy

Author: C.B. Burdette

Publication date: July 2014

Publisher: Flower Child Publishing

Genre: Contemporary Young Adult 

Source: Copy for review

Purchase: Amazon | B&N

At fifteen most kids only have to worry about their homework or the style of their shoes. Gabe Perkins isn't most kids. When diagnosed with a terminal illness, he begins to make friends with a girl so ethereal, he starts to question his own sanity.

"Look at those fish," she said, diverting her attention towards the creek. 

"What about them?" 

"They're just swimming along. Living and breathing. I wonder," she said as she nudged her shoulder against mine, "if they know what purpose they serve."

"Well, they probably don't." 

"Why's that?"

"Because, they're fish?"

"Don't think so low of the marine species."

"Zippy, they're little minnows. They're so little they probably only live a few months. Why worry about their place in life?"

"I don't know. Something of the simplicity of them is nice, though, you must admit." She gleamed ear to ear. "Imagine, if you were a little minnow, swimming down the creek." 

"Oh, crap."

"What?"

"Do you really think there's something out there that really cares about those little fish? Or even, you know, if something out there is looking down at us, talking about us like we're little fish? As if we're just tiny little minnows swimming down a stream, unsure of what fate lies ahead of us?"

"I do." 

Most likely the shortest synopsis I've seen for a novel, Following Zippy only intrigued me even more because so little is given away. I didn't know what to expect, and it was exciting to walk into the unknown. I sensed the book's theme was life and death, and stories with that kind of theme always draw me into them.    

At only fifteen years old, Gabe finds out he has a terminal illness, and his reactions are realistic and heartbreaking. I can only imagine I'd deal with the diagnosis the same way he dealt with it. His wit and candor made me laugh at times and other times I wanted to slap him for hurting his mom's feelings. Around the same time he's diagnosed, he begins seeing a girl with wavy golden hair named Zippy and is the only one who can see her. People think he's hallucinating, and even he begins to think that himself due to the nature of his illness. 

It's hard to have hope while things look so bleak, but Zippy gives Gabe something no one else has - the insight that he could be spending what he has left of his life in a way that gives meaning to him and those around him. My favorite scene between the two of them is when they're talking about whether fish know what purpose they serve, and the conversation turns to whether human beings know their purpose. I thought it was a clever comparison - aren't we like those fish? Couldn't we be like them with someone we might not even be able to see wondering if we know our purpose?      

For me, Following Zippy is really easy to talk about and review, but I struggled with rating it. There are a lot of mistakes editing can fix - such as punctuation errors, you're versus your, and incorrect grammar - but the story was so compelling to me, I flew through the pages. I would have easily been able to give Following Zippy five stars had there not been the mistakes either missed by editing or if the book was edited at all. I wanted, no, I needed to know if Zippy was a hallucination and what was going to happen to Gabe. Just looking at the cover makes me happy knowing what story lies within its pages, and for that, I'm giving Following Zippy four stars.   

My Rating: 

I grew up a gypsy at my parents hands. With a dad in the Air Force, I got to experience life on the road, soaking up culture. After spending 6 years working as a model, I realized that the industry wasn't much of what I was looking for in life. More often than not I felt like Jo Stockton in Funny Face and escaped into the world of film, where your job is based on something more than beauty. Though I do love 12 hour days on set, there's nothing like snuggling up with a warm laptop and letting my fingers dance away to create a whole new world.

http://facebook.com/CBBurdetteWrites  

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Confessions of a Teenage Rape Survivor by Holly Dae ~ Blitz: Excerpt & Giveaway

Welcome to the promo event for Holly Dae's realistic YA fiction, hosted by IFB Tours! This book sounds intense, but I'm planning on reading it. I'm not afraid of intensity. I imagine the subject may not be for everyone as it could possibly be a trigger. This story, I believe, will bring up many of the issues we face in the society we live in. 

Check out the excerpt and giveaway below:

Release date: October 16th 2014

Purchase: Amazon | B&N | IBooks | Kobo

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Before she was raped, almost sixteen-year-old Allison Sommer knew exactly what she wanted and was in total control of her life. Get through high school, go to college to appease her dad, somehow stay fit, lithe, and athletic through all the stress and become a professional cheerleader. Normal teenage stuff. Simple. At least it was simple before she was raped. 

Now Allison's whole life is out of her control. She can't trust in her own choices, can't rationalize anything anymore, so she just goes through the motions, hoping that eventually she'll go back to normal, can stop pretending. That doesn't happen, especially when she's forced to reveal what happened to her family and closest friends.

On the MTV commercials and reality shows that emphasize that she has nothing to be ashamed of and guide viewers to some website like don't-be-a-victim.comand a support hotline, no one warns her that the aftermath is more difficult than the rape itself, that her family's efforts to be supportive make her feel more alone and confused. 

And being raped has more devastating consequences than Allison ever imagined, forcing her to make one of the most difficult decisions she's ever had to make. It should be a no-brainer, everyone says, but being raped makes Allison question everything and everyone she thought she could trust.

Either way, Allison won't let anyone force her to do anything again, not like her rapists did, even if it makes her already difficult enough circumstance more difficult. Uncensored and unflinchingly honest, these are the confessions of a teenage rape survivor.

EXCERPT

"Are those your brother's sleeping pills?" Gene asked.
Allison nodded. No use denying that.

Gene looked at her again, then at the pills, and then at Allison again. His eyes widened.

"Were you going to take all of those?" Gene asked in an incredulous tone. He didn't wait for an answer, already having assumed the worst. "How many have you taken already?"

Allison opened her mouth to reply, forgetting that one of the pills was sitting under her tongue. Gene saw it as she started to try to explain.

"Oh shit! Spit that out!"

Gene reached across the counter to squeeze her cheeks and force the pill out her mouth causing Allison to have two instantaneous reactions. First, she spit out the pill. Second, she punched Gene straight in the jaw, which caused Gene to let go of her and grab his face.

"What the—"

Allison gasped as she shook her hand out. She shouldn't have done that. She didn't mean to do that. Gene wasn't a rapist. Well, she hoped he wasn't. The guy who asked her for directions to distract her didn't look like a rapist either. Either way when Gene grabbed her so suddenly, she couldn't help it.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly.

"Are you insane? What is wrong with you?"

"I didn't mean to punch you. It was an accident. I swear."

Gene rolled his eyes, stilling rubbing his jaw. "Not the punch. I probably deserved that for scaring the hell out of you, grabbing you like that. I'm talking about those sleeping pills. That many of those things at once can kill you."

Allison blinked. He thought…

"I wasn't trying to commit suicide!"

"Could have fooled me," Gene said sliding the pills off the counter and into his hand. He threw them down the garbage disposer.

"But I wasn't," Allison said, heart racing in panic. If Gene thought she was trying to kill herself, he'd tell her brother, and her brother would tell their dad, and she'd never be left alone, and she'd have to tell the truth. Then they'd make a big deal out of it and want her to report it to the police, and the police would want a description and account of what happened, and then she'd never be able to forget. "I just wasn't thinking."

"The hell you weren't," Gene snapped as he snatched the bottle with the remaining pills off the counter and put them in his pocket.

"I was just so tired and the bottle said one pill was mild and good for four hours of sleep, so I decided to take enough to knock me out for a day," Allison tried to explain.

"Six pills would have knocked you out all right," Gene said as he began to dial a number into his phone.

"What are you doing?" she asked apprehensively.

"Calling your brother," Gene said and then cursed. "Damn it. I have his phone in my pocket. Do I have your dad's number in my phone?"

Allison lunged for the phone. In all likelihood, he probably didn't have her dad's number, but she didn't want to chance it.

"You can't call tell them," Allison said grabbing onto the phone.

Gene tried to pull it out her grasp as he said, "Sure. Not telling your brother and father that you're suicidal is a great idea."

"I'm not suicidal."

"Says the girl who was about to take six sleeping pills," Gene said getting the phone out of Allison's grip and holding it out of her reach.

Allison all but tackled him into the counter.

"I told you!" Allison screamed, exploding in anger. "I'm tired! I just wanted to go to sleep without the nightmares! You can't… You can't tell them," Allison finished, all her anger dissolving as a sob escaped her throat. She hadn't even noticed she started crying.

She stopped trying to get the phone then, falling onto the floor as her body shook with sobs of fear at what Gene would do and anger at herself. When did she get so weak?

About the Author

Holly Dae is a recent college grad with a B.A. in English who, instead of putting on a suit to work at a desk 9-5 for five figures and a lifetime of misery and crushed dreams, decided to write YA novels about the taboos concerning contemporary issues like rape, abortion, drugs, teen pregnancy, and sometimes sex with the hopes that someone will pat her on the back and say she touched their life.

www.hollydae.com | @Holly_Dae_

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Phobic by Cortney Pearson ~ Blitz: Teaser & Giveaway!

Just in time for Halloween, the creepiest time of year, comes Cortney Pearson's YA Horror release, Phobic, A Forbidden Doors Novel. Check out the teaser and giveaway below!

I'm DYING to read this (haha, pun intended). Just look at that cover! So creepy! 0.o

Click here if you'd like to visit the other blogs participating! :D 

Series: The Forbidden Doors #1
Release date: September 8th 2014
Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Fifteen-year-old Piper Crenshaw knows her house is strange. It’s never needed repairs since it was built in the 1800s, and the lights flicker in response to things she says. As if those things aren’t creepy enough, it’s also the place where her mother committed murder.

To prove she’s not afraid of where she lives, Piper opens a forbidden door, which hides a staircase that leads to the ceiling. That’s when the flashbacks of the original residents from 1875 start, including a love affair between two young servants. Each vision pulls Piper deeper into not only their story, but also her house. Piper confides in her best friend, Todd, whom she's gradually falling for, but even he doesn't believe her. At least, not until her house gets axed during a prank, and the act injures Piper instead, cutting a gash the size of Texas into her stomach.

Piper realizes her house isn’t haunted—it’s alive. To sever her link to it, she must unravel the clues in the flashbacks and uncover the truth about her mother’s crime, before she becomes part of her house for good.

About the Author

Cortney Pearson is a book nerd who studied literature at BYU-Idaho, a music nerd who plays clarinet in her local community orchestra, and a writing nerd who creates books for young adults. She lives with her husband and three sons in a small Idaho farm town.

www.cortneypearson.com

twitter.com/cor2ney

facebook.com/cor2ney

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Torn (Fire Born #2) by Laney McMann ~ Blitz: Playlist & Giveaway!

Welcome to the Blitz for Laney McMann's Torn, the second book in the Fire Born Series! Continue below for the author's playlist and an awesome giveaway! Click here to check out the other blogs participating! 

Title: Torn
Series: Fire Born #2
Release date: September 2014
Publisher: J. Taylor Publishing
Purchase: Amazon 

Synopsis via Goodreads:

Find Max. 

That's all Layla cares about. Not healing from the Fomore attack. Not finding answers to how she survived a fall that nearly killed her. Nothing will stop her. She will find him. She'll even pair up with an overbearing Fallen Angel who's hell bent on making everything harder than it needs to be if she has to. 

Protect Layla. 

For Max, nothing else matters. Not the bruises covering his body. Not the pain radiating from his broken bones. Not even his hands tied behind his back. He will find a way to save Layla, and the Fomore will pay if they've hurt her. 

Every. Single. One of them. 

In the second installment of The Fire Born trilogy, a new breed of villain looms - one Layla and Max will never suspect, and this killer has nothing to lose. Better yet, with Max and Layla's deaths, victory is in the grip of the enemy. 

Will Max and Layla find each other in time, or is it already too late for them both?    

About the Author

With a passion for the supernatural and all things magical, Laney developed a voracious appetite for reading fantasy at a young age. A vivid imagination helped set the stage for creating her own worlds and placed her onto the writing path.

By the time she reached her teens, she'd accumulated notebooks full of poems, which led to short stories and finally novels. Young adult dark fantasy, paranormal romance, and mythology are among her favorite genres. 

A former classical dancer and chef, she grew up in sultry Florida where she still resides with her family.

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

TORN PLAYLIST

=======================

Hide & Seek ~ Imogen Heap

Ivy ~ Active Child 

Wizard Motor ~ Mogwai 

No Air ~ Jordan Sparks

All I Want Is You ~ U2

The End ~ Kings of Leon

After The Storm ~ Mumford and Sons

Running Up That Hill ~ Placebo

All That We Had Is Lost ~ Postiljonen

The Devil's Tears ~ Angus & Julia Stone

EXCERPT

=================

Layla

Sunlight seared my face, and my fingers dug into hot sand before a cool shade fell over me.

“Teine?” A soft voice called my name. Someone pulled on my arm.

My head lolled to the side, but my neck caught on a crick and refused to move further than a couple of inches.

“Teine? Can you hear me?” Soft wisps tickled my face, even as my head pounded above my left ear.

My eyelids opened and closed, scratching against the corneas like sandpaper—my mouth dry, like paste. Though blurry, a figure loomed over me.

“We have to go. Hold on to me.” A gentle squeeze of my hand made my fingers flex.

“Max …” My voice cracked, word slurred; my tongue seemed too large for my mouth. I raised my arm, but it thumped to the ground at my side with the weight of a lead pipe.

“Shh. Do not let go.”

My heavy arms swung up on their own. I attempted to clasp my hands, to entwine my fingers, but they slipped back down to my sides with a dead thud. Vision refusing to cooperate, my eyes slipped in and out of focus. “What … happened?”

“You will be all right.”

“Max?”

“Shh. Save your strength.”

Oh, god.

Max.

I fell … We fell. It was so hot. Too hot, and …

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Dead Girl Walking by Ruth Silver ~ Book Blitz: Guest Post & Giveaway!

Welcome to the Blitz for Ruth Silver's Dead Girl Walking, the first book in the Royal Reaper series hosted by IFB Tours! Click here to visit the other blogs participating for author interviews, excerpts, and guest posts plus the giveaway! 

I've signed up to host a blog tour stop for this book on September 20th, so keep an eye out for that. :) I've been in love with this cover since I first saw it, and I can't wait to read it!! 

Title: Dead Girl Walking

Series: Royal Reaper #1

Release date: April 25th 2014

Publisher: Patchwork Press

Genre: YA Paranormal

Purchase: Amazon | B&N   

Princess Ophelia Dacre sneaks out of the castle to visit her boyfriend in secret. A perfect night cut short when she's brutally murdered. 

Ophelia is given the rare chance to become a grim reaper. She must become Leila Bele, cut ties with her old life, and follow the rules of the reapers. Her greatest adventure begins with death.

Secrets

by Ruth Silver

We all have them, secrets. In Dead Girl Walking, Princess Ophelia has a secret and it gets her killed. In her new life as a grim reaper, she has another secret, what she is. The reapers know, but the people from her past can't ever find out. She's sworn to secrecy. 

Here's a secret of mine. When I was a sophomore in college I stayed in the dorms on campus. The school had a strict no pets policy (except for fish). I was living with 3 other girls in a suite and we all wanted a pet. So, I got a rabbit and smuggled him into the dorm. For three years he lived with me and only a handful of friends knew about my pet. 

On weekends when I'd go home, I'd put him into a black pet travel bag and sneak him in and out of the dorm. It wasn't easy, riding down the elevator with a rabbit hopping in the bag. I'd try and shift my weight and move around in the elevator, I'm sure people were wondering what was going on!   

Here's a photo of Audrey Avery at 4 months old! He was super cute and friendly. Oh how I miss him!

Ruth Silver is the best-selling author of Aberrant, the Young Adult/New Adult Romantic Dystopian Adventure. Aberrant is the first in a trilogy, released April 17th 2013. Silver first began writing poetry as a teenager and reading heaps of fan fiction in her free time. 

She attended Northern Illinois University in 2001 and graduated with a Bachelor's in Communication. While in college she spent much of her free time writing with friends she met online and penning her first novel, Deuces Are Wild, which she self-published in 2004. Her favorite class was Creative Writing senior year where she often handed in assignments longer than the professor required because she loved to write and always wanted to finish her stories. 

Her love of writing led her on an adventure in 2007 to Melbourne, Australia. Silver enjoys reading YA/NA novels and sharing her favorite books with other readers. She also enjoys photography, traveling and most of all, writing.  

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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