Friday, November 29, 2013

Release Day Blitz: Perfectly Able by Suzannah Daniels


SYNOPSIS:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TAKE A GUY WHO IS AFRAID OF FAILURE...

Ridge Sutherland has his life planned to a tee. Now that he's graduated from college and gotten a job as an engineer, he plans to escape to a week of blissful solitude in the Tennessee mountains to train for his next goal: complete a triathlon...but that was before he realized that his meddling, little sister and her matchmaking friend had other ideas.

...AND A GIRL WHO IS STRUGGLING TO FIND HERSELF...

Ava Nottingham knows all about challenges. Life has thrown her an unexpected one. If she’s learned anything in the last five years, it’s to live every moment to its fullest. But that was before life knocked her to her knees once again. Now, she just needs some time to pull herself together. When she finds herself sharing a cabin with a handsome stranger, she must choose between facing her insecurities and admitting defeat.

...AND TEACH THEM THAT SOMETIMES THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.

Ridge has no time in his schedule for a serious relationship, and the last thing Ava needs is a man who will break her heart. Will their growing attraction demand more than they can give, or are they both perfectly able?

Keep an eye on her page for the release link!

Author Bio:
Suzannah Daniels has had an affinity for words for as long as she can remember. She grew up in North Georgia with four brothers, so she learned at an early age to admire snakes and motorcycles. When she wasn't pestering her brothers, she could usually be found reading or writing.

She has an Associates Degree in Electrical Engineering, but her passion is writing.

She is the author of Viking's Embrace, a historical romance, and Ghostly Encounter, Book One of her Ghostly series (young adult paranormal romance).

Currently, she lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband and her teenage daughter. Her son lives nearby. The family pets include a Lab mix, a Basset Hound, a Shih Tzu, and a sweet, little kitty.

She loves to hear from her readers. Her email address is SuzannahDaniels@epbfi.com.

Giveaway:

Link to Rafflecopter:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/NTAzMzNiMDBlNGU0YmMxY2Y3NDg2NmQyMDE1YTAxOjM4/

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Release Day Blitz: Hard As It Gets (A Hard Ink Novel) by Laura Kaye



Title: Hard As It Gets (A Hard Ink Novel)
Author: Laura Kaye
Publisher: Avon (HarperCollins)
Release Date: November 26, 2013
Rating: 5/5 Bottles

Tall, dark, and lethal...Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome--pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex-commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too.

With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much. As their investigation turns into all-out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her. And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.

Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge...

                             

REVIEW: Becca Merritt, a nurse with a girl next door personality, has lost her mother, father, and her brother, Scott. Now her only remaining family, her brother Charlie has gone missing. 

Leaving a note Charlie has directed Becca to Hard Ink tattoo parlor and more importantly to Nick Rixey.

Nick Rixey, an Iraq war vet has his scars and demons that plaque him since he's returned from the battlefield. The one thing he never imagined was that Becca, the daughter of the man who betrayed him and his unit, who ever walk through the doors of Hard Ink. Now she's here and she's desperate for help finding her missing brother. As much as he would love to turn her away, there's just something about Becca that he just can't say no to.

Hard As It Gets is adventurous, sexy, and passionate. Becca, although a girl next door type, is also strong, resilient, and a fighter. Never giving up, Becca is determined to find her brother and bring him home alive. Nick is irresistable, darl, and brooding. His confidence is sexy and his strength just completes the package that is Nick Rixey. 

Besides Nick and Becca, I enjoyed the rest of the characters, all whom had there own special qualities and signature traits that made them great characters. I especially love the naughty humor in Jeremy's t-shirt and Shane's southern boy charm.

I can honestly say that Hard As It Gets is one of my favorite books of 2013. I loved everything from the characters to the plot and setting. I am anxiously awaiting Hard As You Can, the second book in the Hard Ink series. I can't wait for more Hard Ink!

Q&A WITH LAURA KAYE

HARD AS IT GETS is one steamy read! How did you first get into writing?

Thanks so much! And thanks for having me here! I’ve been a writer all my life. I’m a historian by training, so writing non-fiction was a part of my job for the fifteen years I worked as a college professor. But I started writing fiction in 2008 in kind of an unusual way. I hit my head on July 4, 2008. I didn’t think much of it that day, but soon after I realized I’d really hurt myself, and it turned out I had a minor traumatic brain injury. As I recovered, I was filled with an amazing urge to be creative, so I started taking guitar lessons (still not very good at that!) and wrote my first novel in 12 weeks (fortunately, I’m better at that LOL!). The experience of writing that first book was truly transformative. It was what I was supposed to be doing, so I revised that book until it sold and kept writing new ones. And I haven’t looked back since!

Why did you choose to write romance? 

I had been an avid reader of paranormal romance for years at that point, so I wrote what I loved. But I also picked romance—unconsciously, I think—because to me it’s an incredibly hopeful genre. Romance stories are inherently stories about people who can’t find love or think they don’t deserve it who overcome the odds and find it in the end. In the years leading up to starting writing, I experienced a number of very hard personal losses, so writing in this genre was one way I worked through those issues.

What does “Hard Ink” refer to? What importance do tattoos play in your story?

Hard Ink is the name of the Rixey brothers’ tattoo shop in the Hard Ink series. Nick and Jeremy Rixey are co-owners, though Nick (the hero of book one, Hard As It Gets) prefers to be more of a silent partner, despite Jeremy’s efforts to put Nick’s artistic talents to work. In this series, tattoos are a way people remember, pay penance, or highlight what’s important to them. The act of creating permanent marks on skin has deep meaning to them. And the shop creates a gritty setting where diverse kinds of people meet and interact in the series. I really love it!

Describe Becca—what do you love most about her? And Nick?

I’d love to! Because I really loved writing these characters!

Becca Merritt is smart and strong and honest and protective. I really loved the way she was willing to stand up for those she loves, even against people and forces who might be stronger and even a little scary. There’s a scene in particular when she dresses down Nick’s Special Forces teammates after a fist fight where I was particularly cheering for her! LOL

Nick Rixey is, omg, so freaking hot, you guys! He’s brooding and tortured and honorable and when he falls he falls  so hard. I especially loved Nick’s mix of hard, alpha edges with his artistic side. When Nick shows Becca what her idea for a tattoo might look like on her skin, it’s just scorching!

What significance does the military play in the book?
Military themes are central to the whole Hard Ink series. The military isn’t just sexy window dressing nor is it just there to provide an intriguing backstory. The prior SF guys are this series are entirely defined by their military experience good and bad. It informs their identity, their sense of honor and duty, their view of the world, and of course gives them the skill set required to fight the battles they face in the series. The overall series mystery the characters are working to solve revolves around a military conspiracy in Afghanistan, so even though they’re out of the Army, the military themes are central.

If you could describe your book in a 140 character tweet, what would it be?

In #HardAsItGets, an ex-soldier joins forces w/his dead commander's daughter to regain his tarnished honor & save her brother from a gang

Is there a particular author or book that has influenced your writing?

There are a number of authors that have influenced me, but if I had to pick one it would be J.R. Ward. A lot of what I know about how to write sexy, authentic male point of view comes from reading her books. And I definitely learned the importance of a good bromance to a romance novel from her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, too. Given my ginormous fangirling, you can only imagine how flipping excited I was when this happened:

“Edgy, sexy, and full of suspense! A great read from a great new author!”
~J.R. Ward on Hard As It Gets

You guys, I bawled like a baby in the middle of a huge workshop put on by my publisher. For real. LOL

What advice would you give aspiring writers looking to get into the publishing industry?

Here’s my advice:
1) Write, write, write. You can’t revise what you haven’t written and you can’t sell what you haven’t written. And the psychological and emotional boost you’ll get from writing “The End” for the first time cannot be overestimated.
2) Revise, revise, revise. That first time you type “The End”? Yeah, you’re nowhere near done. Your book will need to be edited, by you, several times before you ever put it in front of an agent or editor. You get one shot with them, so don’t waste it by not showing them your very best and most polished work.
3) Find critique partners. And your mom, siblings, and best friend do not count (unless you’re really lucky, like me, and your best friend happens t also be a professional author). You need other aspiring writers in your genre who will give you honest but constructive feedback about how to improve your manuscript. Let them catch all the embarrassing goofs and plot holes you thought you caught before it gets to an agent or editor.
4) Want to be a professional, then act it. And by that I mean join the professional organization(s) of the genre in which you write. Through them you will find classes to help hone your craft, critique partner match-ups, networking opportunities, calls for submission, and other opportunities invaluable to breaking into publishing.
5) Don’t give up. You will hear way more no’s than yeses, particularly early in your writing career. Stick with it. Believe in yourself. Give yourself one day to wallow in the rejection and eat a bunch of chocolate and then get right back on the horse. If your first book doesn’t sell, chalk that up to learning and write a second.

What can fans of HARD AS IT GETS look forward to next?


I’m currently writing four series: two contemporary (Hard Ink, Heroes) and two paranormal (Hearts of the Anemoi, Vampire Warrior Kings). I’ll have books from all four of those releasing in 2014. My next release is Hard As You Can (Hard Ink #2) coming 2/25/14!

     
About Laura Kaye:

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over a dozen books in contemporary and paranormal romance. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.



Blog Tour + Review & Giveaway: The Seraphina Parrish Trilogy by Michelle Warren


Title- Wander Dust
Series- Seraphina Parrish Trilogy # 1
By- Michelle Warren
Publication Date- November 30, 2013
Genre- YA/Fantasy/Time Travel/Romance

Ever since her sixteenth birthday, strange things keep happening to Seraphina Parrish. Unexplainable premonitions catapult her to faraway cities. A street gang wants to kill her, and a beautiful, mysterious boy stalks her.
But when Sera moves to Chicago, and her aunt reveals their family connection to a centuries old, secret society, she’s immediately thrust into an unbelievable fantasy world, leading her on a quest to unravel the mysteries that plague her. In the end, their meanings crash into an epic struggle of loyalty and betrayal, and she’ll be forced to choose between the boy who has stolen her heart and the thing she desires most.
Wander Dust is the breathtaking fantasy that will catapult you through a story of time, adventure, and love.

Book Trailer-  http://youtu.be/3TkxZ_Gth-4



REVIEW: Shortly after celebrating her sixteenth birthday Seraphina is sent to live with her aunt. Another new town, another new school and yet nothing could prepare her for what is to come.

Seraphina, the daughter of a normal and a wanderer, has inherited her mother's gift of wandering. What is a wanderer? A wanderer has the ability to travel back in time with the help of her team: Bishop, her protector and Samantha, her seer.

Now in a school for the children of a gifted secret society Seraphina has to learn how to control her powers while fighting off her attraction to her team mate, Bishop, and unraveling the secrets of her mother's death while figuring out a way to bring her back to life.

Wanderdust has an amazing storyline with fantastic characters. The plot is original unlike some other time traveling books I have read before and the characters are well defined, likeable and can be related to in different ways.

Seraphina's character was perfect for the book and I felt as if Seraphina grew up a lot in the book and although there were difficult decisions that she needed to make, she made the right choices each time. Bishop was another character I enjoyed right from the beginning, but I wish there would have been more background to his character and more about him.

I'm interested to see how the team grows together in the future and how Seraphina's relationship with Bishop ends up playing out.

Overall, Wanderdust is a great book full of action and mystery with a dash of suspense and romance.
5/5 BOTTLES







Title: Protecting Truth                                  
Series: Seraphina Parrish Trilogy # 2
By: Michelle Warren
Publication Date: September 19th, 2012
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Time Travel/Romance 

Seraphina’s keeping a secret from her Wandering team: she’s perfecting her fighting skills. But telling Sam and Bishop the truth would only alert them to her plan: to go back in time, save her mom, and finish what she started. With the help of Turner, Bishop’s handsome twin, she progresses toward her goal but plummets deeper into dangerous territory where the lines of friendship and romance are blurred. One passionate kiss changes everything, leading Sera to unravel a shocking web of family secrets, heartbreaking ulterior motives, and sinister agendas. Love and lies collide in a haunting climax, where the truest souls may not survive.





Title- Seeing Light
Series- Seraphina Parrish Trilogy # 3
By- Michelle Warren
Publication Date- October 10th, 2013
Genre-YA/Fantasy/Time Travel/Romance

As the corruption of the Society intensifies and the questions surrounding her mother mount, Seraphina Parrish embarks on a journey to find Terease in the terrifying Wandering city of Nocturna. But the information she learns there only sends her team on a dangerous mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Delving deep into the disturbing secrets of their world, the revelations quickly unravel, revealing shocking truths about the Society and Sera’s life. In the end, power and courage clash in a mission for freedom that may shatter the Wandering world completely.



About the Author-

Michelle Warren is the author of the Seraphina Parrish Trilogy. She didn't travel the road to writer immediately. She spent over a decade as professional Illustrator and designer. Her artistic creativity combined with her love of science fiction, paranormal and fantasy led her to write her first YA novel, Wander Dust. Michelle loves reading and traveling to places that inspire her to create. She resides in downtown Chicago, not far from her imaginary Wandering world.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Book Blitz: PSS Chronicles by Ripley Patton

PSS Chronicles book blitz banner2

Today is my post during the book blitz for the PSS Chronicles series by Ripley Patton.This blog tour is organized by Lola's Blog Tours .

The PSS Chronicles consist of 2 books so far: Ghost Hand (PSS Chronicles #1) and Ghost Hold (PSS Chronicles #2). To celebrate the one year anniversary of Ghost Hand, Ghost Hand will be free during this book blitz and Ghost Hold will be for sale for $0.99. Also don't forget to stop by the Facebook anniversary event

ghost hand
Ghost Hand (PSS Chronicles #1)  

by Ripley Patton
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Age Category: Young Adult
Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Black has a rare birth defect known as Psyche Sans Soma, or PSS. Instead of a right hand made of flesh and blood, she was born with a hand made of ethereal energy.

How does Olivia handle being the girl with the ghost hand? Well, she's a little bit morbid and a whole lot snarky.

Her mother thinks her obsession with death, black clothing, and the local cemetery is a bid for attention. But when Marcus, the new guy in Olivia's calculus class, stares at her like she's a freak, Olivia doesn't like it. And when her hand goes rogue, doing things she never imagined possible, Olivia finds herself running for her life with Marcus from a group of men bent on taking the power of her hand for their own nefarious purposes.
You can find Ghost Hand on Goodreads

You can download Ghost Hand for free here:
- Kobo
 
ghost hold
Ghost Hold (PSS Chronicles #2) 

by Ripley Patton
Genre: Paranormal Thriller
Age Category: Young Adult

Blurb:Olivia Black is back.

Only this time she's not the one in need of rescue.

Samantha James, rich, popular, and an award-winning composer at age seventeen, is the next target on the CAMFers' list. In order to convince Samantha to come with them, Olivia and Passion must pose as cousins, blend into the most affluent high school in Indianapolis, and infiltrate a mysterious cult known as The Hold.

Olivia doesn't expect it to be easy, even with the PSS guys backing them up. But what she discovers over the course of the mission will call into question everything she ever believed about herself, her family, and especially about Marcus, the guy she is undoubtedly falling in love with.

You can find Ghost Hold on Goodreads

You can buy Ghost Hold here:
- Amazon
 
About the Author:
Ripley
Ripley Patton lives in Portland, Oregon with one cat, two teenagers, and a man who wants to live on a boat. She is an award-winning short story writer and author of The PSS Chronicles, a young adult paranormal thriller series.

Ripley doesn't smoke, or drink, or cuss as much as her characters. Her only real vices are writing, eating M&Ms, and watching reality television.

You can find Ripley here:

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Book Review: Alexandra Fry, Private Eye: The Curse of the Lion's Heart by Angella Graff

Title: Alexandra Fry, Private Eye: The Curse of the Lion's Heart
Author: Angella Graff
Published: June 2013
Amazon | Goodreads 


SYNOPSIS: Alexandra Fry is just your average seventh-grader. Or is she? Starting a new school, Alexandra hopes to leave her old life, and old reputation of “Loopy Lexi” behind. But it’s not so easy when Alexandra is the kind of girl who sees ghosts. And not just any ghosts, but history’s most famous. They come to her to solve mysteries, when things from their past life fall into the wrong hands.

Desperate to be normal and make some friends, Alexandra is devastated to be visited by none other than Queen Elizabeth the First during a lesson in school. But Queen Elizabeth doesn’t just have your average, run of the mill problem. The thing that was stolen was a locket– a cursed locket, and if it’s not returned to the museum, the entire world will be in danger. It’s up to Alexandra and her new friends Penelope and Jack, to find out who took the locket and why. Ducking security guards, breaking and entering, and finding out someone isn’t who they said they were is just your average day for this seventh grade girl.

REVIEW: Alexandria Frye see ghosts. Neat, right? Not so much when they are visiting you in the shower or in the middle of class. Middle school is hard enough without the other students thinking that you are a completely freak who talks to herself.

Between making friends and trying to survive a new school, Alexandria manages to get on the case of Queen Elizabeth's missing locket. Finding it will be no easy task, but for Alexandria, the ghostly private eye, she has no other choice but to solve the case and end the start of the locket's curse.

Alexandria Frye, Private Eye: The Curse of the Lion's Heart is a great book for young adult readers. Situations that a lot of teens face on a daily basis - making friends, new schools, popularity - help teens to relate to the book. Solving cases and ghostly ones at that hold a young reader's interest. 

I recommend this book for all YA readers and will be recommending the book to my local library.
**This book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Nursery Rhyme Delights - Illustrated by Kristi Abbott


Title: Nursery Rhyme Delights
Illustrated By: Kristi Abbott
Kristi's Website
5/5 Bottles

SYNOPSIS: Nursery Rhyme Delights is an artistic children’s book designed to help children learn six well-known nursery rhymes in a fun and interactive way. It combines original hand collaged illustrations, playful typography and an interactive memory game.

REVIEW: My ten month old loves books. Always active, the only time he seems to be still is when he has a book. He goes to Babytime classes at our local library every week where he participates in finger plays, listens to stories being read, dances to songs, and learns nursery rhymes. 

An important focus of every class is nursery rhymes. I was shocked when his teacher, the children's librarian, told us parents that most children do not know any nursery rhymes due to the fact that their parents or teachers do not take the time to teach them to their children. 

I grew up with Mother Goose nursery rhymes and think they are important to every young child's education. That is why I think this illustrated book, Nursery Rhyme Delights, is great for young children - or just the young at heart. 

With beautiful, captivating illustrations, Nursery Rhyme Delights captures the whimsical and magical feel of nursery rhymes. The rhymes in this book are a few of my favorites and a piece of my childhood that I can pass on to my son.

Nursery Rhyme Delights is a book that I would love to add to my son's ever growing "library" and I hope to be able to one day donate a copy to our children's section of the library to thank all the librarians that work with my son and believe in the wonder of nursery rhymes still. 

**This book was received from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.