GUESS WHO’S BACK! In this trifecta special, the Bibliomancers welcome back yours truly from the UK and send another off – Taylor has decided he’d rather be in Scotland for a semester than with us.
But anyhow. In this New Years special we’re kicking it off with The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It’s going to be a good one, I promise!
Hey everyone, and welcome to the blog tour for Daughter of Isis by Kelsey Ketch, hosted by YA Bound Book Tours. You might remember that a little while ago I helped reveal the cover of this book, and after that I just couldn’t NOT be a part of this tour! As always, I’m only one stop, so remember to check out the rest of the tour! Now, onto the real business!
Welcome to the My Ex from Hell blog tour hosted by Xpresso Reads! I’m super excited to tell you guys about this book and the giveaway, so let’s get started by introducing the author!
Welcome to the By Blood Blog Tour, hosted by Xpresso Book Tours! I know you’re excited to get to all the goodies I have in store for you, so let’s get started!
Welcome to the book blast for 15 Minutes by Jill Cooper, hosted by AToMR Tours. I’ve got a lot of goodies for you about this book, so let’s get started!
15 Minutes (The Rewind Series #1) by Jill Cooper
I have 15 minutes to save my mother’s life….
15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives you in the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough time to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago.
But that’s not how it happened. The story she’s been told all her life is a lie and when Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever.
The love of her life acts like a stranger. Her simple life is replaced with a giant house, glamorous clothes and a new boyfriend.
Except someone knows her secret. And he will try to stop her at every turn as she races against the clock to unravel a dangerous conspiracy.
15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller that can be described as Back to the Future meets Inception where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn’t understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family.
Welcome to my stop on the Broken Wings blog tour hosted by YA Bound. Click HERE to see the full blog tour schedule!
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Angel Eyes (Angel Eyes Trilogy #1)
Once you’ve seen, you can’t unsee. Everything changes when you’ve looked at the world through . . .
ANGEL EYES
Brielle’s a ballerina who went to the city to chase her dreams and found tragedy instead. She’s come home to shabby little Stratus, Oregon, to live with her grief and her guilt . . . and the incredible, numbing cold she can’t seem to shake.
Jake’s the new guy at school. The boy next door with burning hands and an unbelievable gift that targets him for corruption.
Something more than fate has brought them together. An evil bigger than both of them lurks in the shadows nearby, hiding in plain sight. Two angels stand guard, unsure what’s going to happen. And a beauty brighter than Jake or Brielle has ever seen is calling them to join the battle in a realm where all human choices start.
A realm that only angels and demons—and Brielle—can perceive.
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Broken Wings (Angel Eyes Trilogy #2)
Giant angels with metal wings and visible song. A blind demon restored from the pit of darkness. And a girl who has never felt more broken.
Brielle sees the world as it really is: a place where the Celestial exists side by side with human reality. But in the aftermath of a supernatural showdown, her life begins to crumble. Her boyfriend, Jake, is keeping something from her—something important. Her overprotective father has started drinking again. He’s dating a much younger woman who makes Brielle’s skin crawl, and he’s downright hostile toward Jake. Haunting nightmares keep Brielle from sleeping, and flashes of Celestial vision keep her off kilter.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s been targeted. The Prince of Darkness himself has heard of the boy with healing in his hands and of the girl who sees through the Terrestrial Veil. When he plucks the blind demon, Damien, from the fiery chasm and sends him back to Earth with new eyes, the stage is set for a cataclysmic battle of good versus evil.
Then Brielle unearths the truth about her mother’s death and she must question everything she ever thought was true.
Brielle has no choice. She knows evil forces are converging and will soon rain their terror down upon the town of Stratus. She must master the weapons she’s been given. She must fight.
But can she fly with broken wings?
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Shannon Dittemore has an overactive imagination and a passion for truth. Her lifelong journey to combine the two is responsible for a stint at Portland Bible College, performances with local theater companies, and a focus on youth and young adult ministry. The daughter of one preacher and the wife of another, she spends her days imagining things unseen and chasing her two children around their home in Northern California. Angel Eyes is her first novel.
Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook / Pinterest
***PROMO POST***
An excerpt from Broken Wings…
Silence consumes the assembly now, imposed on them by the sight of an icy white figure dropping into the hall from above. His wings, spread wide, are white save the tips, which retain a char he’s never rid of.
Black-tipped wings for the Prince of Darkness. Healthy wings. Strong wings. His skin shines like polished marble. His hair lies in curls of midnight around his face—still fresh, still bright, still retaining the beauty that seduced a third of the angels. Human eyes would have a hard time distinguishing the Prince from a Warrior like Michael. But the absence of light behind those pale blue eyes hints at the creature’s true nature. And they are pale, so pale the blue seems buried far below, glinting like coins at the bottom of a well.
He’s exquisite. Majestic.
And he’s afraid.
Celestial light has been banned from this place, but even here among the arctic shadows, fear cannot hide. Its blackness swirls in a controlled spin down his right arm, over his well-formed bicep, around his elbow, circling around his forearm and sliding from his palm down his middle finger where it puddles beneath his throne. Tendrils branch out across the stone floor seeking, seeking.
He cups his hand, allowing the fear to pool there. His fingers close around the sticky substance and he prods it, molds it like a human child playing with a handful of clay. All the while, his eyes rip into the demon before him.
After a slow descent, the Prince’s feet touch upon the seat of his throne—the graven dragon behind him. His legs and waist are wrapped in cords of white. His torso and arms are bare. Very little separates him from the other archangels. And yet so much.
Pearla watches the Prince. The Creator gave him beauty—a beauty unrivaled—and he’s taken great pains to preserve it. His time here in Abaddon has kept him from the damage his hordes have suffered in the light of the Celestial. Pearla’s heard stories of the Prince venturing above, but his untarnished appearance alone is proof that his time to heal greatly exceeds that of his minions.
“Sit.” His celestial lips are still, unable to vocalize anything but animalistic rages—like those assembled, like the demon chained to the floor, like every angel he led astray—but they all hear. They all obey. It’s sad, really. His song, like his face, was far superior to all others. Now his mouth is good for nothing.
Wings rustle and talons scratch as countless demons crawl and flap toward rough shelves cut into the cliffs surrounding the hall. The demon chained to the floor drops to his knees.
Humility, even false humility, is appreciated here.
The Prince doesn’t sit, though. No. He stands on his throne, his legs spread wide, looking down at the demon trembling on the floor.
“It’s unfortunate, brother, to see you in chains. Again.”
***GIVEAWAY***
(1) Print copies of Angel Eyes and Broken Wings (US Only)
(5) Print copies of Broken Wings (US only)
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!
Welcome to the Pieces Blog Tour, hosted by Xpresso Book Tours! Don’t forget to check out the full schedule of events HERE!
First, let’s get some background on this series!!
The Breakaway by Michelle Davidson Argyle
When Naomi Jensen is kidnapped, it takes her parents two days to realize she’s missing. Escape isn’t high on her list of priorities when all she has to return to is an abusive boyfriend and parents who never paid much attention to her. For the first time in her life she’s part of a family—even if it is a family of criminals. But she’s still a captive. In a desperate attempt to regain some control in her life, Naomi embarks on a dangerous plan to make one of her kidnappers think she’s falling in love with him. The plan works too well, and when faced with the chance to escape, Naomi isn’t sure she wants to take it.
Pieces by Michelle Davidson Argyle
Two years after watching her kidnappers go to prison, Naomi Jensen is still in love with one of them. Jesse will be released in a few years, and Naomi knows college is the perfect distraction while she waits. But when her new friend Finn makes her question what is right and what is wrong, she begins to wonder if Jesse is the one for her … until she discovers he’s out on parole. Naomi must sort through her confusion to figure out where love and freedom truly lie—in Finn, who has no connections to her past, or Jesse, who has just asked her to run away with him.
Pieces is a companion to The Breakaway and can be read independently, if desired.
And now, introducing author Michelle Davidson Argyle!
Michelle lives and writes in Utah, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. She loves the seasons, but late summer and early fall are her favorites. She adores chocolate, sushi, and lots of ethnic food, and loves to read and write books in whatever time she can grab between her sword-wielding husband and energetic daughter. She believes a simple life is the best life.
Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Facebook
For this guest post, I asked Michelle what it was like writing Pieces! Here’s what she had to say:
Since Pieces is a companion/sequel novel, The Breakaway inspired the main story. I have to say, however, that Pieces never would have made it onto paper if it hadn’t been for all the fans of The Breakaway who messaged me about wanting a sequel. I didn’t have a sequel planned when The Breakaway came out. In fact, I had sworn at the time that I would never write a sequel. Ever. I’m not a huge fan of sequels, so it wasn’t on my radar at all. It’s not that I didn’t know what happened after The Breakaway. I had always had the idea in my head, and when people would ask me what happened to Naomi after being kidnapped, I’d tell them in a vague sort of way, “She goes to college and meets someone else until Jesse is let out of prison.” Then people would ask me if she ends up with Jesse and I’d usually smile and shrug and say, “What do you want to happen?” I knew what might happen, but I never thought other people truly wanted to know. That story never sounded as exciting as the kidnapping story, so why write it?
When messages kept popping up on FB, Twitter, and in my inbox, I stopped and thought, hmmm, maybe people do want to hear this story. Excited, I planned a short story and asked my publisher if they’d be interested in publishing it. They said they were interested, so I started planning out the story. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and to my surprise, the story grew into a novel and than a full-length novel. Go figure!
I have to say thank you to all the fans of The Breakaway because Pieces has been an amazing experience for me. Naomi’s story is finally complete!
Thank YOU Michelle!
Hey there everybody! Welcome to the tour for Farsighted and Open Heart by Emlyn Chand! This is going to be part of a special two part post on My Life is a Notebook! For more goodies, check out the tour schedule HERE. Today, we’re giving you our review for Farsighted! There’s also a GREAT giveaway for a KINDLE or a NOOK. That’s right! You heard me! Let’s get this party started!
Farsighted by Emlyn Chand
*This review was written by guest reviewer Em from Easy Reading and Damn Hard Writing!*
Maturity Level: Recommended for 13+. Some gore, violence, and kissing, but little to no sexual content.
I’ve been reading a lot of self-pubs on my Kindle app recently, and I have to say that so far, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the selections that I’ve made. Sure, there were a couple of duds, books that I could only stand about a chapter of— the stereotypical “bad” self-pubs, complete with bad formatting, an apparent lack of any sort of editor, and a definite lack of any real sales potential.
Then, there are books like Angelfall and Farsighted—books that you could totally see showing up on a bookstore shelf and actually being better than 75% of their genre. These are books that have been self-published because that is part of the author’s artistic vision (see this post by Chand) rather than being self-pubbed because there is absolutely NO CHANCE of a major press EVER accepting them. The latter is what self publishing has become (and also, what people tend to think when they sit down to read an indie); the former is what self-publishing was to begin with and what it should continue to be.
That said, on with the review!
Alex Kosmitoras is an abnormal guy in a depressingly normal situation: his parents are struggling financially, and there’s a bully who seems to have it out for him no matter what. On top of that, he’s blind—and, apparently, able to “see” the future. Simmi is the new girl from India, who is not only the friendliest, most accepting person Alex has ever met, but also has powers of her own. Alex is starting to think that this is actually going to be okay—that he has a shot of being friends with Simmi (and maybe more)—when he starts having visions of Simmi dying in various terrible ways and vows to stop it.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It paints a lovely tableau of multiculturalism against a small-town background; as someone who lives in a truly tiny town, I can appreciate this. Chand also manages to twine the paranormal element neatly into Alex’s everyday issues with school, parents, etc while drawing on mythological elements that made the 13-year-old-me-who-read-Edith-Wharton’s-Mythology-obsessively-for-about-a-year incredibly happy. There were points where the pacing seemed a little slow, but there were also times when I literally couldn’t put it down. It’s definitely a book that I’d recommend to people who are tired of the vampire/werewolves/angels that tend to overpopulate YA paranormals.
Pros
Cons
Star Rating on Goodreads/Final Grade: 3.75 stars, rounded up for GR. A-. Would reread, will definitely read other books in series.
AND NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY! You could win a Kindle or a Nook HERE!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Welcome to my stop on the Interred Blog Tour hosted by YA Bound! Click HEREto check out the rest of the tour schedule!
Interred (Chronicles of the Interred #1)
Release Date: 01/22/13
Summary from Goodreads:
Time has never been an issue for Baxter Jacobs, but then she never knew she had the ability to Bend it.
As her sixteenth birthday approaches, Baxter inherits a pendant that will change her life. Connected to the pendant is a dark and mysterious young man named Declan Ashdown. Trapped in a Time loop for the past 122 years, Declan needs Baxter’s help to escape. The only problem is, she has no idea how to do it.
To acquire the power she needs to free him, she’ll become one of the Interred, those whose Magical abilities emerge as they come of age. When she does, she’ll discover that Declan isn’t the only one interested in the fact that she’s a Time Bender.
As the Interment arrives, Baxter knows this will be no Sweet Sixteen. A vengeful relative and ruthless Council are determined to control her. Declan’s powerful and charming descendant, Jack Ashdown, claims he can save her. She’ll soon have to decide who she can trust, and how to master her new abilities before Time runs out.
Goodreads link:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13450348-interred
About the Author:
Marilyn Almodóvar is the author of a series of YA paranormal novels. Born in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, Lyn is a lover of words whose reading tastes range from Victorian novels to the books of Stephen King. Her favorite past-times have always been reading and writing, two activities that let her escape to other worlds.
It was this love that propelled her to choose Theater and French as majors in University, with a minor in English Victorian Literature. Lyn lived for almost a decade in England followed by three years in France before returning home to the States. A self-confessed citizen of the world, she is fluent in English, French and Spanish, with basic knowledge of the Italian language. Lyn could happily exist breathing the clean air of Narnia, trapped in a cupboard under the stairs with Harry, fighting alongside Captain Jack Sparrow, doing an internship in Torchwood, or traveling around time and space with the Doctor…as long as she can have Mr. Spock, Captain Kirk and Captain Mal as companions.
Lyn currently lives in Central Florida with her French husband, English-born eldest son, and French-born youngest son. Her debut YA Novel, Interred, will be published by Iambe books on 01/22/2013.
Website/ Twitter / Goodreads/ Facebook
Excerpt from Interred by Marilyn Almodóvar
When we reach the front porch, I turn around and try to spot the car while Dickie continues around to the back of the house to check the fuse box. Through the heavy snow, the black sedan continues down the road at a snail’s pace. Something about the slow-moving vehicle inching through the storm strikes me as ominous. I shrug the feeling away, figuring the driver is just lost.
“It’ll be okay,” Dickie assures me as he returns to the front porch. “This is normal for Vermont this time of year.”
I swallow my response. Sure it’ll be okay…easy to say for people who grew up in the North. The only blizzards I’ve witnessed have been through the magic of television. This amount of snow should be illegal.
“Come inside before you really do freeze your butt off.” Dickie opens the door and I pull away from the view.
“Baxter, can you make some tea please?” Mom asks as I walk by the living room.
Nodding, I move to the kitchen where the lights flicker like mad. The storm must be wreaking havoc with the power. As I reach for the kettle, the lights turn off for a few seconds, then back on. It’s unnerving, especially with the wind outside roaring like a wounded animal.
Fighting my unease, I carry the kettle to the sink and glance out the window facing the front garden. My heart stops.
My brain has surely overdosed on scary movies. My hand presses against the window, leaving an imprint. It’s suddenly midnight black outside and I have to glance at the kitchen clock. Four minutes ‘til two in the afternoon, yet the only visible thing on the field is a boy who looks about my age with long black hair, a top hat and a coat. Around him shines a bright, eerie light, as though a permanent spotlight focuses on him. He walks toward the house.
I’m rooted to the spot, unable to move, my body shaking as if I’m under a spell. Even though I can’t see his eyes, I’m convinced he’s looking at me. I’m convinced he knows me.
GIVEAWAY
The giveaway includes:
– One signed paperback of Interred – One autographed Interred tote bag – One onyx pendant inspired by the book – One angel pin inspired by the book – Misc. book swag (magnet, wristband, postcard, phone skin)
Open Internationally!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This book trailer reveal is hosted by I’m a Reader, Not a Writer!
Have you never heard of this series before? Well, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Let’s learn about the first book, Katana, Senshi itself and author Cole Gibson!
KATANA
Kill Bill meets Buffy in this supernatural samurai taleRileigh Martin would love to believe that adrenaline gave her the uncanny courage and strength to fend off three muggers. But it doesn’t explain her dreams of fifteenth century Japan, the incredible fighting skills she suddenly possesses, or the strange voice giving her battle tips and danger warnings. While worrying that she’s going crazy (always a reputation ruiner), Rileigh gets a visit from Kim, a handsome martial arts instructor, who tells Rileigh she’s harboring the spirit of a five-hundred-year-old samurai warrior.Relentlessly attacked by ninjas, Rileigh has no choice but to master the katana–a deadly Japanese sword that’s also the key to her past. As the spirit grows stronger and her feelings for Kim intensify, Rileigh is torn between continuing as the girl she’s always been and embracing the warrior inside her.
“This action-packed novel has a unique and compelling plot…Fans of Carrie Asai’s Samurai Girl series will be particularly interested, but even readers who dislike supernatural story lines will enjoy this tale of modern samurais.”
~School Library Journal~
“An action packed page-turner tempered with slow-burning romance.”
~Booklist~
SENSHI
Is Rileigh’s only hope for salvation to team up with her sworn enemy?
Rileigh Martin just wants to do normal teenage things, like go on romantic dates with Kim, her boyfriend and past life soul mate. Although that seems impossible when she’s the reincarnation of Senshi, a fifteenth century samurai warrior. After a ninja ambush leaves her unable to control her ki powers, Rileigh vows to get them under control before her friends lose more than their eyebrows. But when Kim leaves her for his past life betrothed and the other samurai stop talking to her, Rileigh realizes she doesn’t have any friends left to worry about.
As the ninja attacks increase, Rileigh learns that the reincarnated kunoichi, a powerful female ninja, wants to kill her in order to reclaim her destructive powers. Alone and with increasingly unstable powers, Rileigh’s only offer of help comes from Whitley, her sworn past life enemy. Rileigh knows she doesn’t stand a chance against the kunoichi by herself, but Whitley’s sudden allegiance might be hiding a much deadlier agenda.
Author Cole Gibsen
When Cole Gibsen isn’t writing books for young adults, she can be found rocking out with her band, sewing crazy costumes for the fun of it, picking off her nail polish, or drinking milk straight from the jug — provided no one is looking.
Trailer Reveal
Senshi Book Trailer from ZFilm on Vimeo.
Giveaway Details
ARC of Senshi + Signed Katana
Signed Katana
3 Mystery Books
Open to US, Canada & Mexico
Ends 2/6/13
My Life is a Notebook 