Guest Post: Jessica Shirvington + Embrace

I'm extremely excited to share the blog today with young adult author Jessica Shirvington who's going to share with us her experience in creating a setting for Embrace, the first book in her new paranormal series. Take it away Jessica!

WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

In my first draft of EMBRACE (there were eight!), I didn’t set the city. I was in two minds the entire time. I suppose I was drawing on all the places I have been around the world. Although I now live in Sydney, when I started to write EMBRACE, my family and I had just moved back from six years living in London. And prior to that, I’d spent quite a lot of time travelling to many cities around the world – so much so, that when I was writing scenes in EMBRACE, I found myself thinking of different cities around the world and never being able to truly decided which one most suited Violet’s world.

In my second and third and fourth drafts, I chose different cities (I’ll never tell) from around the world and set Violet’s story there. But each time, it felt forced.

I wanted her to live in a city, as opposed to some small town where all these major apocalyptic events just miraculously found her. To be believable she had to be in a metropolitan environment, but which one?

In the end, the answer was … any of them, and none of them. It wasn’t that the cities I chose didn’t work; it was that in my mind I’d amalgamated them into what I needed for her story to work for me. So I made the decision to give that option to all of my readers and simply called her city, the City.

It isn’t the ‘done thing’ usually, but I believe for this story, it works. I want readers to be able to put this story where they know. If they live in a city, it can be there, if they live in a rural area, then it isn’t a stretch for them to imagine a city nearby. It is an element of control that I wanted to give to the reader.

That said, I like a little control myself … and I discovered that by giving this open setting for Violet’s hometown, it also opened up the possibility to use other locations around the world that would really pop off the page.

In ENTICED (the sequel, out in September!), Violet and her friends find themselves travelling to Jordan – on a quest to the place of Moses’ death – Mount Nebo. In EMBLAZE (book 3, out March 2013) they travel to the island of Santorini in Greece, which is small and stunning, and holds terrors that none of them are prepared for.

Each book I take the characters somewhere new and as I write the series, I have discovered how very important this is to me. I want my characters to go to the world, to find the problems and be part of the solution, rather than the fight always, and too conveniently, finding them.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Supernatural Snark Jessica! More information on Jessica and her books can be found here:

Website
Blog
Embrace official website
Facebook
Goodreads

EMBRACE

It starts with a whisper: “It’s time for you to know who you are…”

Violet Eden dreads her seventeenth birthday. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. As if that wasn’t enough, disturbing dreams haunt her sleep and leave her with very real injuries. There’s a dark tattoo weaving its way up her arms that wasn’t there before.

Violet is determined to get some answers, but nothing could have prepared her for the truth. The guy she thought she could fall in love with has been keeping his identity a secret: he’s only half-human—oh, and same goes for her.

A centuries-old battle between fallen angels and the protectors of humanity has chosen its new warrior. It’s a fight Violet doesn’t want, but she lives her life by two rules: don’t run and don’t quit. When angels seek vengeance and humans are the warriors, you could do a lot worse than betting on Violet Eden…

Guest Post: T.P. Boje + The Afterlife Series

Today I have author T.P. Boje taking over the blog briefly to make us all consider a very interesting question addressed by her young adult paranormal romance Afterlife series. Welcome to Supernatural Snark T.P.!

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHERE YOU GO WHEN YOU DIE?

Haven’t we all at some point? I used to do it a lot as a kid. Is heaven for real and what is it going to be like once I get there? What kind of a body will I have? What will I look like? Will all of my family come with me? Will I meet my grandmother there?

When I was a child I remember reading Astrid Lindgren’s “The Brothers Lionheart”. To those who don’t know it, it is a book about two brothers that both die and go to the country Nangijala, a land in "the campfires and storytelling days". Here the brothers experience great adventures. Together with a resistance group they lead the struggle against the evil Tengil, who rules with the aid of the fearsome fire-breathing dragon Katla. It is really a very beautiful book and I remember how it made me look upon death in a totally different way. Like it could actually be a new adventure.

As I grew up I never thought much about life after death and if there really was one or not. I was busy living my life and thinking about my life here on earth. But then one day not many months ago a thought just popped into my head. What if we have to go to school when we die?

As it so often happens, the thought wouldn’t go away again once it had come into my head, and I started playing with the idea. If it is true that we leave our bodies here on earth, then we must have some new body on the other side, right? And it would probably take some time to get used to that new body. And how about going through walls and doors and stuff? I mean if we become spirits then we would have to learn how to do all those things, right? And what about flying? That is not something that comes to us easily. We would have to practice first, right? And someone would have to teach us. So eventually I started imagining this school that we all had to graduate from in order to be let into heaven, and soon Meghan popped into my head and started walking around in that school - that just had to be run by angels. She soon made some friends and fell in love (as it often happens when you are sixteen). And that was when the problems began. Because the boy was still human, living on earth, so how could they ever be together?

That was when I realized that a book-series was born. And just like the book “The Brothers Lionheart” from my childhood, it was about how dying is only the beginning of the next great adventure.

Thanks so much for taking the time to be here today T.P.! More information on T.P. and the Afterlife series can be found here:

Website
Goodreads
Amazon

BEYOND (Afterlife #1)

(Beyond is currently free as a Kindle ebook on Amazon for Prime members, and just $.99 for everyone else, get it HERE)

Have you ever wondered where you go when you die?

Meghan is 16 when it happens to her. She wakes up on a flying steamboat on her way to a school run by Angels in a white marble castle. She meets Mick who helps her through a difficult time in a different world filled with heavenly magic. One day she finds a mirror in the cellar of the school and goes through it. She ends up back on earth where she meets Jason. But Jason is in danger and Meghan knows something important.

Soon she will have to choose between the two worlds.

The one she belongs to now, and the one she left.

Review + Giveaway: Demons at Deadnight

DEMONS AT DEADNIGHT
(Divinicus Nex Chronicles #1)
A&E Kirk
Paranormal Young Adult
404 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from authors for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
For seventeen-year-old Aurora Lahey, survival is a lifestyle.

DEMONIC DESTINY
Aurora has the crappiest superpower on the planet. And it’s just unleashed a hit squad from hell. Demons are on the hunt, salivating to carve her carcass into confetti.

CHARISMATIC KILLERS
The Hex Boys—mysterious, hunky, and notorious for their trails of destruction—have the answers Aurora needs to survive. But their overload of deadly secrets and suspicious motives makes trusting them a potentially fatal move.

LETHAL ALLIES
The battle to save her family, herself, and stop demonic domination may cost Aurora everything worth living for, and force her to reveal her own dark secrets. But no worries. She needs the Hex Boys to pull this off, and, chances are, teaming up with these guys will get her killed anyway.

MY THOUGHTS
Demons at Deadnight is a tale brimming with humor and wit, but underneath the smart mouths lies a bit of a sinister edge, the very real threat of death-by-demon preventing us from getting too caught up in the banter and the romance by keeping us cautiously turning each page to see what might pop out at us and make itself known next. The ladies Kirk exhibit a strong talent for characterization, Aurora and the six Hex Boys beautifully developed and more than a little intriguing, charming us with their various distinct personalities while proving to us as we progress that there's more to all of them than just pretty faces and penchants for sarcasm. The demon-populated world, while not entirely clear to us in this first installment, piques our curiosity, driving us to at times want to knock Aurora aside so that we might interrogate those who clearly are privy to information we aren’t so we can satisfy our overwhelming desire to know more.

Aurora is cute and often very funny, her snappy comebacks keeping one particular Hex Boy on his toes, however, as we move forward with her in the story some of her other behaviors begin to eclipse her rapier wit, leaving us a bit frustrated with her in general. Her continued refusal to be upfront with the Hex Boys is certainly understandable in the beginning as she’s used to dealing with her demon-related abilities all on her own, but when her unwillingness to disclose even the smallest detail of what she knows about herself and her link to the demons persists through nearly three hundred pages, we find ourselves with an exhausted reservoir of patience. She claims her refusal to trust the Hex Boys is a result of their refusal to trust her in kind, but at some point, someone needs to take those first hesitant steps and lay the foundation on which said trust can be built, and in this first book it takes just a touch too long for those initial bricks to be laid.

The Hex Boys themselves are an extremely entertaining bunch however, their brotherly interactions making us snort with laughter as they bait and taunt one another with such enthusiasm that we wish one (or possibly all six) of them could move in next door and proceed to darken our doorsteps at every possible opportunity. While being introduced to all of them very quickly in the beginning is slightly intimidating, once we settle into the story each takes on his own unique personality and sets himself apart from the others, causing our hearts to beat abnormally fast as we fall in love six times over. The romance between Aurora and Ayden is very well executed, their physical attraction instant but thankfully no all-consuming love immediately follows, instead theirs is a relationship of heated antagonism and passionate dislike that flares hot initially and then cools down before building again at a slow, deliciously tense pace.

There are a few flaws with Demons at Deadnight, namely Aurora’s innate stubbornness and her habit of running into danger when she’s told to stay put, but overall it’s a story that feels far shorter than its four hundred pages due to the fact that we can't devour the chapters fast enough to discover what happens. The ending is a touch abrupt, leaving us wondering just who this person is that’s introduced on the final page, however, it’s easy to overlook that small issue and take comfort in how much we enjoyed ourselves reading the 399 pages that came before it.

Rating: 3.5/5

GIVEAWAYS

As part of the promotional tour for Demons at Deadnight, A&E Kirk are generously offering up either a paperback copy or an ebook to one lucky winner! Woo hoo! To enter, just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and will run through midnight EST on March 2nd after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog.

But wait! I have another giveaway opportunity for you:

A KINDLE FIRE WITH CUSTOM SKIN!

To enter to win the Kindle Fire you need to know the secret phrase given out one word at a time by each blog tour host. Put the words together in sequential order and you'll eventually have the secret phrase! Right now you can Tweet and Follow on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page to get points but starting March 9 (at the end of the tour) you can enter the complete phrase on the AEKIRK Blog Tour Page and earn BIG entry points! Your Kindle Fire will also include your choice of a DEMONS AT DEADNIGHT Skin. Either from the cover, or a Hex Boy group shot or individual "Team" skin of your favorite Hex Hunk!

WORD FOR THIS TOUR STOP:
"By"

Before you go, one last quick announcement! The oh-so sexy Hex Boys are planning a Twitter party on Wednesday, February 29th between 9pm and 10pm EST. I like to think they're all getting together in honor of my birthday which just happens to be the following day, but that's most likely not the case. A girl can dream though right? Right. Anyway, I will be online throwing questions their way and most likely hitting on them (it's also possible I will threaten bodily harm to all those who attempt to claim them for their own or lure them away from me. Just want to be upfront about that ;-), so it should be fun. I hope some of you will be able to join us!

Review: Pandemonium

PANDEMONIUM (Delirium #2)
Lauren Oliver
Young Adult/Dystopian
375 pages
HarperTeen
Available February 28th
Received from publisher for review

Warning: review contains spoilers from Delirium, but no spoilers from Pandemonium.

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
The old Lena is dead. The old Lena remains with Alex in Portland, Maine, behind a wall of smoke and flame, but the new Lena was born in the Wilds, transformed by hardship, deprivation, and loss.

Now an active member of the resistance, Lena fights for a world in which love will no longer be considered a dangerous disease. Her inner life is as turbulent as the world around her. . . . Although consumed with grief for Alex, might she be falling in love with someone else?

MY THOUGHTS
While Delirium introduced us to a world where the pursuit of perfection resulted in the elimination of the very emotions that make life worth living, Pandemonium takes us back to a place where the rawness of pain, love and loss is a tangible thing–the memory of what was within Lena's grasp and then ripped away a companion dogging our every step as we follow her through her life after Alex. Delirium gave us shells of human beings, individuals bottled up tight and sealed with a cure lest a modicum of independent thought or feeling slip through, but with Pandemonium we get a new cast of characters not hindered by the regulations governing those inside the fences. More interestingly however, we get a new Lena. A Lena who used to subscribe to the deceptively appealing poison spouted by proponents of the cure but who now survives with memories of the boy she loved piercing her skin every time her mind drifts back to him, turning her into a sieve through which pour all the tragically beautiful droplets of Alex and his sacrifice.

Ms. Oliver does a stunning job of crafting an Alex-free story, showing us just how strong-willed Lena is without him there to help her navigate a world where touch is encouraged instead of forbidden, and where love leaves scars that are not to be feared but cherished instead. While we may have physically cringed upon reading the synopsis and learning of a possible new love interest for Lena, we quickly realize there is going to be no quick fix for the destruction left in the wake of Alex’s demise, and we take a sort of comfort in her obvious pain knowing she’s clearly no more ready to move on than we are. Chapters split into two time periods in Lena’s life—the time immediately following Lena’s escape over the fence and a few months into the future as she’s on assignment for the resistance—give us action-packed glimpses of a transformed young woman, and it’s easy to find ourselves supporting her in her mourning, her resolve to take advantage of Alex’s gift, and her attempts to build a new life from the literal ashes of her previous one.

New potential love interest Julian is in much the same place Lena was in Delirium, a parrot repeating the ideals and doctrines of a grossly confused society while harboring secret thoughts of what life might be like if things were different. He’s perfectly likeable and his relationship with Lena builds at a slow enough pace to give us time to adjust to him, allowing our damaged and love-shy hearts to warm at an acceptable speed so we don’t feel like our fledgling attraction to Julian is a betrayal of Alex. Though he doesn’t completely win us over in this second installment, he does a multitude of small things that go a long way to helping Lena heal, and for that alone we begin to let him through our Alex-plated defenses.

Though Pandemonium definitely has the feel of a book building us up for what are sure to be epic events in the next installment, Ms. Oliver gives us plenty of new information and creates enough new strong and intriguing relationships to ensure this story isn’t simply filler. We do end with yet another emotional cliffhanger, one we sense coming but one that still hits us like a fist to the gut nonetheless. The final three words spoken are a painful mockery of the words "I love you" that were such a vital part of Delirium, each word tumbling from the speaker’s lips in a way that causes us to erupt in a full body shudder as the venom in them leaves us cold and broken with no other course of action but to wait and see what kind of response they will receive in book three.

Rating: 4.5/5

Interview: Julie Chibbaro + Deadly

As part of the promotional tour through Teen Book Scene, I'm very excited today to welcome author Julie Chibbaro to the blog to answer a few questions about her young adult medical mystery Deadly.

What is one of the most interesting tidbits or pieces of trivia you learned while researching the time period? One of the most interesting facts about typhoid?

I was amazed to find out that as late as 1906, people still believed that disease was spread by miasmas, which are clouds of filth. This was called the “Filth Theory” as opposed to what we believe now, which is the “Germ Theory.” Back then, the public didn’t know there was this little invisible thing called a germ that could kill you. I find that fascinating – it really makes me wish I could live a hundred years in the future just to learn what sort of foolishness we believe in now. The most interesting fact about typhoid is its name, which is salmonella typhi. If you follow the news, you’ll see that we still do battle with this salmonella food poisoning. It still makes us very sick to our stomach, and causes thousands of deaths a year.

Prudence pushes gender roles in her time by pursuing a field typically reserved only for men. If you lived in Prudence's New York City and had to secure a job for yourself, what type of work would you go in search of? Do you think you would push boundaries as Prudence does?

I know I had trouble being a brave woman even 20 years ago. Young women are still worried about going into certain fields because they’re not seen as “feminine.” Science, engineering, technology, math; girls don’t want to be seen as nerds. Is it possible to make science more lovely? Maybe girls need to take more control – paint the microscopes pink! If I lived a hundred years ago, I think I might have wanted to be a newspaper reporter – it was a time of yellow journalism, and sensational stories sold papers. I’d like to write some good juicy stories for the papers of the time. I’d push boundaries if my job was fascinating enough, I think. If I were compelled enough.

Whenever I read books that feature a virus or disease, by the time I’m finished I’m completely convinced I have whatever it is I’ve just read about and psychosomatic symptoms emerge in full force. Did you experience any such symptoms while writing or researching?

Um, yes, totally. Because I researched the history of medicine for the book, I had that experience over and over. Mostly because typhoid is a kind of food contamination or poisoning – if I had a stomachache after eating, I thought surely I had salmonella. Luckily, these paranoias don’t last very long!

If Prudence could jump forward in time to the present, what advancements in medical care and research do you think would most impress her?

Antibiotics! An amazing discovery. I wish we had something like antibiotics for every illness. It’s too bad they only work against bacteria. The polio vaccine, also, would impress her. The flu shot. I could go on and on.

Is there one other virus/disease/medical ailment either historically or more recently that you think would particularly fascinate Prudence?

I’ve been thinking of what might be a sequel for her – what sort of case would she become involved in next – and about ten years after the book ends, in 1918, was the influenza pandemic. I could see her finishing medical school, and getting involved with tracking down causes of that disease.

If you could only promote Deadly using a single line from the book (no blurb, no book cover, no other marketing tools whatsoever), which would you choose to most grab a reader’s attention?

That’s a tough question! Deadly is about so many things. But if I had to pick one line that would describe the essence of Prudence, it would be: “I always feel outside, the observer who writes what is happening, and I don’t know whether I will ever get inside, whether I will truly understand the workings of the field of science.” That’s sort of how she feels about everything.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Julie! To learn more about Julie and her books, you can find additional information here:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

DEADLY

If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for a young lady. But Prudence isn’t like the other girls. She is fascinated by how the human body works and why it fails.

With a stroke of luck, she lands a position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history. Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life. Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery?

Prudence is determined to find out. In a time when science is for men, she’ll have to prove to the city, and to herself, that she can help solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century.

Review: By A Thread

BY A THREAD
(Elemental Assassin #6)
Jennifer Estep
Urban Fantasy
384 Pages
Pocket
Available February 28th
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When killing people is your job, there’s no such thing as a vacation.

Then again, how often does an assassin live long enough to enjoy her retirement? In this line of work, you either get lucky or you get dead. And since I destroyed my nemesis Mab Monroe a few weeks ago, all of Ashland’s lowlifes are gunning to make a name for themselves by taking out the lethal Spider—me, Gin Blanco. So I’m leaving behind my beloved barbecue joint and heading south with my baby sister, Bria, to cool my heels in a swanky beach town. Call it a weekend of fun in the sun.

But when a powerful vampire with deadly elemental magic threatens an old friend of Bria’s, it looks like I’ll have to dig my silverstone knives out of my suitcase after all. Complicating matters further is the reappearance of Detective Donovan Caine, my old lover. But Donovan is the least of my problems. Because this time, the danger is hot on my trail, and not even my elemental Ice and Stone magic may be enough to save me from getting buried in the sand—permanently.

MY THOUGHTS
As hugely entertaining as ever, By A Thread makes it crystal clear yet again how wonderful a storyteller Ms. Estep truly is, delighting us with humor and charm while at the same time pushing every single one of our emotional buttons as Gin continues to grow as a person, an assassin, a sister, and a lover. It’s easy to start this latest story wondering where things can possibly go after the epic showdown and fiery conclusion to the Mab Monroe storyline, questioning whether or not this installment will feel somehow empty without her dark and sinister presence. Our musings and our hesitancy are for naught however, as Ms. Estep ratchets up the emotional intensity to an all time high and gives us a new villain who easily rivals Mab in evil deeds done to others, raising the fine hairs on our arms with his sick games and his certainty that he's untouchable.

Gin has always been the highlight of these books, her strength as a killer-for-hire-turned-pro-bono-defender-of-the-weak always beautifully combined with an innate vulnerability when it comes to those she cares for. In By A Thread, that vulnerability is particularly acute, and like the silverstone embedded in her palms and the blades she brandishes she absorbs everything thrown her way, taking every callous word, disdainful look, and snide comment from those she would easily give her life for into herself and storing it there without so much as a word to her own defense. She gladly hides her own pain, sliding her cold assassin mask in place to spare those around her any guilt or hurt as a result of what she does in the dark of night, and we can’t help but want to scream out loud so that all may hear the virtues we see in her, voicing our opinion of the woman she is and silencing those who judge her for the reputation she carries.

Back to torment both us and Gin is Donovan Caine, his righteousness in full force despite the time that’s passed since he left Ashland and Gin behind without so much as a kind word of parting. He’s as demeaning as ever, verbally berating her for everything he thinks she is or isn’t, but things have changed for Gin in the time since his departure, and it’s beyond satisfying to read Donovan side by side with Owen as Owen proves to us again and again just how clearly he sees Gin when everyone else is blind to anything other than her role as The Spider. He’s never fooled by the mask she wears or the defenses she puts up, and she allows him to see her emotionally bare knowing she’ll never see a look of disgust in those violet eyes at what’s revealed.

In additional to the turmoil surrounding Donovan’s sudden reappearance, we also have a spectacular new villain who challenges Gin physically and mentally at every turn, constantly keeping us on our toes as we are reminded that Gin is not infallible and that her mistakes are often bloody ones. Though we ultimately know Gin will come out on top, Ms. Estep ensures that the journey to victory is not one easily walked, hearts as bruised and broken as Gin's body is before The Spider shows everyone once again what she’s really made of. The closing pages are perhaps the most rewarding of all as Gin confronts past and present demons both physical and emotional, finally refusing to absorb any more rancor in silence and letting the wounds inflicted by words wielded with unprecedented expertise be seen by those who have done the most damage with them.

Rating: 4.5/5