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!

Connect with the Author

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

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Blog Tour organized by:

Glass Frost (Frost Series #2) by Liz DeJesus ~ Cover Reveal

Hey there! Today is the second of three cover reveals from Girls Heart Books Tours and author Liz DeJesus for her Frost Series! Check out today's cover reveal for Glass Frost and make sure to come back tomorrow when the third book's cover is revealed! :D

Glass Frost

The Frost Series Book # 2

By - Liz DeJesus

Publication Date - June 22nd, 2015

Synopsis

When joined together, Cinderella's slippers grant the wearer her heart's desire. But whose wish will be granted?

When Cinderella’s glass slipper is stolen, Queen Felicia sends her faithful steward Terrance to the real world to retrieve his love and witch-in-training, Bianca Frost. The power of the glass slipper, when paired with its mate, and in the wrong hands, could ruin the peace of Everafter. Bianca must gather every bit of magic she has learned in the past few weeks to find the slipper and protect her new love. 

Together, Bianca, Ming, Prince Ferdinand, and Terrance venture deep into the heart of Everafter to seek clues as to who has stolen the slipper and why. Along the way, they uncover what happened to the Seven Dwarves after Snow White married the prince, but also learn the awful risk of tampering with black magic and the high price that must be paid for magic, even when used for good.

Bianca and Terrance’s relationship is put to the test. Through the pain of suffering and loss, Bianca must determine if following her gallant boyfriend into his faraway world is in fact her heart's desire.

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).

Connect with the Author

Website | Facebook | Blog | Twitter

Cover Reveal organized by:

Zombie-saurus Rex by Mark Souza ~ Blog Tour: #Review & #Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Zombie-saurus Rex Blog Tour hosted by CBB Book Promotions! Click here to follow along with the full tour schedule which includes reviews, interviews, guest posts, and excerpts! :D  

Title - Zombie-saurus Rex 

Author - Mark Souza

Publication date - December 23rd 2014

Publisher - Wet Coast Media

Genres - Young Adult, Paranormal, Zombies

Source - Copy for review   

Purchase - Amazon 

Synopsis

Rex Morton, a seventeen-year-old zombie, has arrived in the small farming town of Plain View, Nebraska; just another stop in a long string of small towns left behind in their rear view mirror. Unlike the zombie stereotype, Rex is bright and friendly - as long as he doesn't get hungry. He hopes this time he can manage to stick around long enough to get his diploma. 

Rex's fiercely protective mother has strong armed yet another school district into accepting her son by threatening a discrimination lawsuit. At Plain View High, a dismal pattern of fear, prejudice, and bullying steers Rex down a familiar path toward expulsion. The difference this time is that Rex has fallen for a fiery Goth girl, Ariella Klopenstein, the daughter of the Police Chief, and decided he will make his stand in Plain View. 

As the Z-virus spreads west and the country panics, Rex and Ariella must find a way to overcome Rex's mother who wants to break them apart and flee town, a school principal who wants Rex expelled, Ariella's father, the Police Chief, who thinks Rex is dangerous, and a government zombie round-up aimed at solving the zombie problem once and for all.

Zombie-saurus Rex is a story about perserverance, overcoming prejudice, stereotypes and adversity. What it isn't is a story about dinosaurs. The title is inspired by a nickname a school bully hangs on Rex due to his size, posture, and slow plodding gate.  

Zombie-saurus Rex was a really cool zombie story. Full of originality and fun, I cared about Rex. A lot. And I really wanted him to get a happy ending. I know, I know. He's a zombie. But he isn't like any other zombie I know, except maybe R from Warm Bodies. But Zombie-saurus Rex is completely different from Warm Bodies - in this novel, zombies can still do things like speak and go to school, but humans are leery of them, to the point where some in the military want to put them in internment camps or just go ahead and kill them all. 

In a sense, I could understand people's trepidation, after all, what are zombies infamous for craving? But if Rex gets to eat his calf brain for lunch and has snacks here and there (snacks he's brought with him!) then there's no reason to panic about him coming after you. He just wants to graduate high school and maybe go to college. The problem is, Rex and his mother have had to move so many times he finds himself behind in school academically sometimes, plus it's difficult to learn when you have to deal with other kids harassing you. 

I love Ariella! And I love that Rex does end up making a male friend, Howie. Ariella wants to be different, so much so that she goes out of her way to try to stand out from everyone else. I had forgotten she's the daughter of the Chief of Police, and so I cracked up when he knocks on Rex's door looking for her. Poor Rex had no idea! The two of them were what I thought of as the dynamic duo. I don't think there was anything Rex could have done that would've phased Ariella or made her stop liking him. Nothing. And that's the kind of friend you need at any age. 

Zombie-saurus Rex does an excellent job of giving you an escape from the real world while at the same time giving you food for thought (pun intended) about dealing with the presence of discrimination and adversity. I highly, highly recommend this book no matter if you're a fan of zombies or not. If you aren't a fan of them, then you will be after meeting Rex. Promise.

  

About the Author

Author Mark Souza has always been a storyteller, whether explaining who filched the ice cream, or what happened to the cat's tail. He learned most of life's lessons from the business end of a wooden spoon, and the rest from public schools spanning the breadth of North America, all of which were overjoyed to be rid of him. He became an author of short stories and novels in the horror, mystery, thriller, and young adult genres later in life, after time and a desk job had softened his edges, transforming him into the round, doughy shape Big-&-Not-So-Tall shops crave. 

Mark was the proud recipient of the 2013 Indie Reader Award for Best Science Fiction for his debut novel Robyn's Egg. 

He now resides in Western Washington with his wife (also an author), two daughters, and their dog of questionable heritage, Tater. Visit his website; http://www.marksouza.com. There you'll find a multitude of ways to make contact. Mark enjoys cordial correspondence and will write back. He's always on the lookout for that next victim reader. 

Connect with the Author

Website | Twitter @souzawrites | Facebook  

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Blog Tour organized by:

Fading Away by Dannielle Wicks ~ Release Day Blitz

Hey! Check out this awesome sounding book! Definitely reading this - added to my TBR. :D

Fading Away

Hardest Mistakes Book 1

by Dannielle Wicks

Publisher - Limitless Publishing LLC

Release Day April 7th

Purchase Link: http://amzn.com/B00V5K132S

Paperback: Order Paperback HERE

One night.

One stupid mistake.

Changes everything.

SAMMY STEVENS was tragically orphaned at the age of nine and sent to live with a foster family in the town of Miakoda Falls. She’s constantly bullied at school by the arrogant, selfish, one and only… KAI JORDAN.

Kai is your typical entitled teen who’s on the verge of attending a university and having everything he ever wanted handed to him.

But all that changes when he is involved in a car accident after a night of partying…

He’s suddenly and painfully brought into the world of the supernatural.

Kai turns to the last person he ever would’ve expected, Sammy, as he struggles with his new identity and watches the people closest to him move on. And he is forgotten.

As Kai and Sammy grow closer, Kai must figure out a way to either fight to stay human or risk being stuck forever, as a prisoner of his own body…

Excerpt

My door swings open before I reach it and I smack into a naked chest.

“Oh. Sorry.” My face heats up in embarrassment. Kai smirks down at me and walks past. “Hey!

Where are you going?”

He doesn’t stop as he looks over his shoulder. “I heard Ashlee leave.”

“Kai! Come back here!” I yell and follow after him down the stairs and into the main hallway. “You can’t just walk around the house. What if Ashlee comes home? She’s not going to knock; she’s just going to walk in. This is her house. Besides, she said she would be right back.”

Kai stops so suddenly I nearly collide with him again. “You worry too much, Sammy.” I narrow my eyes. He’s started calling me by my nickname. I’m not sure if I’m okay with that.

“Aren’t you cold?” I challenge, referring to his naked top half. Not that I’m complaining, but I know for a fact he owns a t-shirt and it’s like minus a million in here.

A brilliant smile lights up his face. “Nope.”

As if on cue, the front door clicks open and Ashlee shuffles in, hands full of plastic bags. “Sam! I’m back with the Chinese! Get your butt down here!”

Kai turns to me, silver eyes wide. As soon as Ashlee rounds the corner from the front door she’ll see him. “I told you,” I whisper frantically as I drag him into the small hall closet.

“Sam?” Ashlee’s voice sounds so close, she must be just outside the door. I exhale a heavy breath as her footsteps echo up the stairs away from us. The light seeping under the door makes everything look dark grey. I realize then that my hands are pressed up against Kai’s bare chest and he has his arms wrapped tightly around me. We both let go at the same time and look away.

“I understand why I’m hiding in the closet,” Kai whispers, his breath tickling the hair on top of my head. “But why are you in here with me?” I glance up to see his quirked eyebrow, and scowl at him, pressing my lips together tightly.

“Shut up! I didn’t exactly have time to think this through, okay?” His quiet chuckle echoes through the small space, I narrow my eyes in annoyance and twist to stare at the gap under the door.

I can feel the heat radiating off Kai’s skin. I slowly lift my head to look back up at him. He’s gazing down at me with his mouth slightly open, his silver eyes glitter in the dim light. The atmosphere becomes heavy and tense, crackling with electricity; I’m caught in his gaze, slowly leaning closer to him. His hands come up and barely brush my arms. I inhale a shaky breath and take a half step back, biting my lip. My back hits the wall of the closet with a soft thump, breaking the spell. Kai’s eyes widen and he looks away quickly.

“I should get out there, before she sends a search party.”

He nods, still not looking at me and I move to open the door.

“I’ll save you some dim sum?” The corner of my mouth lifts in a small smile; I grasp the door knob and slip out of the closet. I shut the door behind me with a snick and lean back against it, shaking my head. What was that? Pushing off the door, I walk down the hall into the kitchen to find Ashlee… 

About the Author 

Dannielle Wicks currently lives in the town of Kingaroy, Queensland in Australia. She is a TV show nerd and lover of cars. She has always had a love for writing, even in school. She used to hide her writing notebook inside her textbooks just so the teacher wouldn’t notice what she was up to. She loves reading, especially paranormal romance. When she’s not writing or working, she competes in Speedway Sedan Racing across the state.

Connect with the Author

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Wattpad 
 Goodreads | Tumblr | Instagram

Release Day Blitz organized by:

First Frost (Frost Series #1) by Liz DeJesus ~ Cover Reveal

Hey there! Today is the first of three cover reveals coming at ya from Girls Heart Books Tours and author Liz DeJesus for her Frost Series! Check out today's cover reveal for First Frost and make sure to come back tomorrow when we will unleash the second book's cover! :D

First Frost

The Frost Series Book # 1

By - Liz DeJesus

Publication Date - June 22nd 2015

Published By - Indie Gypsy

Synopsis

Fairytales aren’t real…yeah…that’s exactly what Bianca thought. She was wrong.

For generations, the Frost family has run the Museum of Magical and Rare Artifacts, handing down guardianship from mother to daughter, always keeping their secrets to “family only.”

Gathered within museum’s walls is a collection dedicated to the Grimm fairy tales and to the rare items the family has acquired: Cinderella’s glass slipper, Snow White’s poisoned apple, the evil queen’s magic mirror, Sleeping Beauty’s enchanted spinning wheel…

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Frost wants none of it, dreaming instead of a career in art or photography or…well, anything except working in the family’s museum. She knows the items in the glass display cases are fakes because, of course, magic doesn’t really exist.

She’s about to find out how wrong she is.

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).

Connect with the Author

Website | Facebook | Blog | Twitter 

Cover Reveal organized by:

Engage: An Ignite Novella by Erica Crouch ~ #CoverReveal

The day is finally here! We are so thrilled to finally share the cover reveal of Erica Crouch's Engage, the next installment in the Ignite series. Engage follows Kala and Ana's story before the events that unfold in Incite. 

Engage comes out May 5th. You can pre-order the eBook now on Amazon so you can get it the moment it's out! 

Sign up to participate in the RELEASE DAY BLITZ! 

We're in love with the cover - the feathers! Kala! ANGELS FALLING FROM HEAVEN??? But we want to know what you think! Let us know in the comments! 

Engage: An Ignite Novella

by Erica Crouch

Series: Ignite #2.5

Published by Patchwork Press 

on May 5, 2015

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult

 

Synopsis

Kalaziel is a terrible guardian angel: her temper’s shorter than she is, she swears, she’s missing a wing, and she sees no problem with letting man make their own choices—no matter how questionable. That’s what free will is all about, right? Her overseers disagree.

After she mishandles an assignment, Heaven strips Kala of her title and throws her back into training, hoping to reinforce the covenant of vows she swore to uphold as a guardian. But the angels’ motives aren’t as pure as they appear: they want to eradicate any opinions that conflict with Heaven’s code.

With a mass cleansing on the horizon, Kala discovers she is not alone in her insubordination; there are other angels who are restless with the stasis of Heaven and ready for change. Progress doesn’t come easily, though, especially when it means uniting ancient enemies to fight for a common cause.

Engage is a novella that prequels Kala and Ana’s story in Incite.

ABOUT ERICA CROUCH 

Erica Crouch is a young adult and new adult author from Baltimore, Maryland. She has a strange blended aesthetic of cute and spooky, and her books reflect her ever changing mood. (You may find romance, you may find gore—sometimes both in the same book, but probably not at the same time. Probably.) 

Erica is the cofounder of Patchwork Press, an author-powered publisher of middle grade, young adult, and new adult titles. She is the head of editorial services and design, with nearly fifty projects to her name.

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