Supernatural Snark

Review: Bad Blood

2012-02-17T00:00:00.003-05:00

BAD BLOOD
(House of Comarre #3)
Kristen Painter
Urban Fantasy
352 pages
Orbit
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Samhain approaches, bringing with it the final melding of the mortal and othernatural worlds. No one knows just how much power the night holds...

Violent murders occur in Paradise City as counterfeit comarré are systematically hunted. The police and the Kubai Mata have more than enough trouble to keep themselves occupied. As war erupts at home, Malkolm and Chrysabelle head to New Orleans to recover the Ring of Sorrows. Chrysabelle is forced to make a life and death decision and will realize that her relationship to Malkolm may have fatal consequences.

The clock is ticking . . .

MY THOUGHTS
The third installment in the House of Comarre series, Bad Blood continues to breathtakingly depict the range of shades between light and dark, walking us through denser and darker grays than we’ve experienced before but also ensuring that our eyes adjust quickly and easily with well placed moments of light between Mal and Chrysabelle that make the shadows feel far less menacing. There is always danger, always the potential for pain and suffering, and always the possibility that the next threat will be far worse than the current one, but through it all we have characters who are trying to take the prevalent darkness infecting their world and transform it no matter the cost to themselves, molding it into something better for the future than it is in the present.

Chrysabelle and Malkom are an extraordinarily intriguing couple, their relationship one that’s slowly and painstakingly evolving as they both attempt to come to terms with the nature of their feelings for one another. As at times sweet and caring as Malkom can be, the blackness of his past clings to him, a shroud of pain and death he can never shed no matter how much light Chrysabelle shines on it and a constant reminder to us just what he is capable of should his rigid control slip for even a moment. He is not simply a tortured soul on the now smooth path toward redemption through the love of a woman however, instead he continually makes mistakes and stumbles along the way, often hurting her and himself when his moments of selfishness stemming from years of being his only priority make an appearance. It is these slips that make them such a perfectly flawed pair though, their steps forward often accompanied by steps backward as well, and together all of us trudge forward together to face what challenges Ms. Painter has in store.

The progression of Malkom and Chrysabelle’s relationship is a highlight of this tale, and because we have such an intense desire to follow them and their tenuous connection, the addition of several more independent-but-linked plotlines becomes a bit tedious to wade through. We have always followed several different characters in the books in this series, bouncing from one to the next to give us a broader perspective and feel for this supernatural world, but it seems as though with each new book the number of side stories increases, and we find ourselves getting to spend less and less time with the characters who have come to mean the most to us. Ms. Painter of course does a meticulous job of tying all the separate pieces of the puzzle together, though we can’t help but hope some of our character hopping decreases moving forward, allowing our focus to zero in on the core group of people we love so much.

Overall, Bad Blood is an enjoyable addition to the series if for no other reason than the growing romantic feelings and sexual tension between Malkom and Chrysabelle, two individuals who have more layers than we could ever hope to explore in a single book and who have us eagerly anticipating the next installment.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Perception

2012-02-16T00:00:00.003-05:00

PERCEPTION (Clarity #2)
Kim Harrington
Young Adult
288 pages
Scholastic Point
Available March 1st
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When you can see things others can't, what do you do when someone's watching you?

Everybody knows about Clarity "Clare" Fern. She's the psychic girl in school, the one who can place her hands on something and see hidden visions from the past.

Only Clare would rather not be a celebrity. She prefers hanging back, observing. Her gift is not a game to her.

But then someone starts playing with her head . . . and heart. Messages and gifts from a secret admirer crop up everywhere Clare turns. Could they be from Gabriel, the gorgeous boy who gets Clare's pulse racing? Or from Justin, Clare's hopeful ex-boyfriend who'd do anything to win her back?

One thing is certain. Clare needs to solve this mystery, and soon. Because the messages are becoming sinister, and a girl in town has suddenly disappeared.

MY THOUGHTS
Perception returns us to the life of Clare Fern, a young woman with an extrasensory gift who, despite having such, does not allow her life to revolve around or be dominated by the paranormal. Instead, we get a very real and down-to-earth girl plagued by insecurities, family troubles, and boy drama who holds us as spellbound as any of her supernatural contemporaries. The mystery element (in this installment a stalker) is nothing new or overly surprising, with a couple red herrings appropriately placed to keep us guessing and a gradual build up of tension that erupts in an action packed conclusion, but it's well executed and highly entertaining nonetheless, woven seamlessly into the trials and tribulations of Clare’s love and home life. Ms. Harrington writes with a fluid grace, characters and events combining and conflicting with an ease that most likely defies the amount of time spent carefully crafting each sentence, and we find ourselves laughing, sighing, and holding our breath as we sit back and thoroughly enjoy the telling of a good story.

Clare is a young woman who feels utterly genuine, her snark and humor prevalent enough to keep us snorting at her one-liners but not so overdone to the point where nothing sincere spills from her mouth, and whose mature handling of various situations turns us into adoring fans for sparing us copious amounts of teenage angst. Her romantic situation with Gabriel and Justin certainly could play out in melodramatic fashion, but both Clare and the boys deal with their love triangle in a way that makes it seem like such a thing may not be as far fetched as other scenarios have made us believe. She is understandably torn between the two, but she doesn’t spend all day every day worrying over making a decision, instead she often stops, catalogs her reactions to both young men, and then realizes she has no idea what she’s feeling or what to do about it; a realization that makes us smile because we know she’s never going to resort to playing romantic games in order to more clearly define those feelings.

On the boys’ side, Justin and Gabriel both make solid cases for themselves, never giving Clare an ultimatum or set amount of time in which she needs to come up with an answer for them, and both continue their pursuit of her without ever pushing her too far. They drop hints and playfully flirt, making us laugh while they continue to confuse us as though we’re the ones caught between them, but never once does their behavior have us rolling our eyes or shaking our heads in dismay. Though the relationship between the three of them is a main element, it’s not the sole focus, and Ms. Harrington proceeds to paint us a picture with more than a single color, bringing in both superficial and more complex issues with regard to both Clare’s mom and brother Perry to give us a complete image rich in tonality that holds us transfixed.

Overall, Perception is a quick and fun read with a spectacularly tangible cast of characters who would have us lining up to move to their small summer-tourist town if it weren’t for the somewhat alarming number of dead bodies that seem to pop up there. With Clare’s romantic decision seemingly made at the end of this story, the coming months for us will be all the more difficult to bear as we wait to see both how the ensuing ripples said decision will cause in her life will play out as well as what trouble will possibly find it’s way to her doorstop next.

Rating: 4/5

Mini Reviews: The Calling + Crossroads

2012-02-15T00:00:00.003-05:00

THE CALLING
Ashley Lynn Willis
Adult Paranormal Romance (sort of)
360 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Mandy Hardy lost more than a breast to cancer; she lost her fiancé when he dumped her a week before her mastectomy. Her ego bruised and her self-esteem battered, Mandy’s sure she’ll never fall in love again.

Justin Seward is a headstrong Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer with a heart of gold and the supernatural ability to command the seas. He had to hide his feelings while Mandy was engaged to his best friend. Now that she’s free, he’s vowed to make her his.

Together, they may hold the key to each other’s salvation. But when Justin’s past catches up with him, and Mandy’s ex-fiancé wants vengeance, they realize they might not live long enough for happily ever after.

MY THOUGHTS
The Calling is a story difficult to adequately categorize, strong romantic elements accompanied by an interesting paranormal twist to give us something that should feel like a paranormal romance, yet something about that definition doesn’t quite seem to fit either, and we are left a bit adrift as we try to determine our overall reaction to this tale. Part of the issue lies with the world building, mainly the fact that there’s very little at all to help support and foster believability in the supernatural element. The world of The Calling is identical to our own in every conceivable way save the addition of Justin’s ability to manipulate and control water (a result of his being a descendant of Triton), and so his relationship to the sea feels a bit random in an otherwise contemporary and realistic world. If descendents of Triton exist, shouldn’t there be descendents of other gods as well? Where are all the other people who also have to heed the Calling? What are their lives like? We never learn much of the history surrounding this paranormal ability, and meet no other characters other than Justin’s father who share his gifts or similar ones, so we’re left with quite a few questions that if answered would have added a richness and tangibility to the reading experience.

Ms. Willis is a talented storyteller however, and her characters have little trouble carving out places for themselves in our hearts as we tangle ourselves in their lives and their trials. The relationship between Justin and Mandy feels genuine and is one we can easily root for knowing everything they’ve gone through on their journey to the warmth of one another's embrace, and we can’t help but have the almost irresistible urge to flip to the end just to ensure they find the happiness they both so clearly deserve. With the exception of one fairly large overreaction on Mandy’s part, both she and Justin are thoroughly enjoyable protagonists, and Ms. Willis is an author I will look forward to reading more of as her career progresses.

Rating 3.5/5

CROSSROADS (Crossroads Academy #1)
J.J. Bonds
Paranormal Young Adult
310 pages
Self-published
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When Katia enrolled at Crossroads Academy she knew things weren’t exactly going to be easy. The sole heir to the worlds’ most powerful vampire, her presence was bound to cause a stir. But nothing could have prepared her for this. Whispers follow everywhere she goes. So does trouble.

But Katia will do her time at Crossroads. After all, she’s only enrolled at the prestigious school for pure blood vampires to fulfill a promise to her Great Uncle Aldo. Tucked away in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Katia hopes to shed the demons of her past and focus on her education. Raised blissfully unaware of the entire vamp world, she’s got a lot of catching up to do.

As Katia learns more about this dark society and her own legacy, protecting her past becomes increasingly difficult. Bodies start turning up in nearby Rutland and Katia is sucked into a twisted web of danger and deceit. Haunted by nightmares she can’t explain and a thirst for blood that is never sated, Katia will do whatever it takes to keep her past buried. What choice does she have? Exposure will shake the Elder’s Council to its core and likely result in a death sentence at the hands of the Linkuri.

Nothing at Crossroads is what it seems and Katia’s secrets may be the darkest of them all.

MY THOUGHTS
Nicely paced and entertaining, Crossroads yanks us into the halls of its title’s academy and thrusts us quickly forward through Katia’s tale, not necessarily blowing us away with the uniqueness of the vampire lore or the complexity of the characters themselves, but keeping us interested the entire way through nonetheless. More strongly plot-driven than character-driven, Ms. Bonds builds an interesting mystery as we go, flashes from Katia’s violent past causing our eyebrows to raise in question as to their relevance to her present, and though those eyebrows stay raised for quite some time, all the seemingly disparate elements are beautifully strung together to create a powerful and action-packed conclusion.

While the story is well executed and has us closing the back cover thoroughly satisfied with the way the all the individual pieces were crafted, the characterization leaves us longing for the same depth and care as is dedicated to the detailing of specific events. Katia is a bit sour and generally moody for majority of the book, and though she often recognizes her own negativity, she does little to improve her attitude and therefore repeatedly thwarts our attempts to reach out and connect with her. We know little of the reasons behind her despondency other than she simply doesn’t want to be at Crossroads, and that reason alone is not strong enough to have us fighting to claw our way through her melancholy to uncover the woman beneath.

Rating: 3.5/5

Interview: Amy Lignor + Until Next Time

2012-02-14T00:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm excited to welcome young adult author Amy Lignor to the blog to answer a few questions about the first book in her new paranormal series, Until Next Time. I've been reading a lot of angel stories lately and always enjoy the different mythologies the author creates for this paranormal entity, so while I haven't read Until Next Time yet, I'm very much looking forward to seeing how Amy writes her angels!

If both Matt and Emily had to summarize their experiences with the events that take place in Until Next Time in only one word, what word would each use?

Emily: Learned
Matt: Emancipation

Would you rather be the warrior or the angel half of a team?

I wish I could say the angel, but I don’t think I have the strength to be that calm for that long without sparking, or demanding to know what the heck is going on around me, so I would have to say the warrior. This is a job of defense, protection, strength and the ability to save the ones you care about. It’s a job written in stone.

What aspect of the angel mythology you’ve created is your favorite or the most interesting to write?

How an innocent has to deal with human emotions. Unless you’re an infant, you’re not innocent. We learn with our eyes, and ears, and the everyday situations we get stuck in as we grow up. So writing Emily and Matt is almost like a new, mysterious path for me to walk down, being able to get inside the minds of completely unhindered and unaffected souls and see how they deal with running face-first into things we take for granted, like battle, love, romance, fear, anger - all of it. With Emily and Matt they were created, taught and trained as each other’s soul mate, so they went down knowing only one thing - that they were by each other’s side and protected. Hence, when they were split apart, keeping that faith in each other in a chaotic world was a very cool experience.

Let’s say your part of the world of Until Next Time and one half of an angel/warrior pairing with a new “life” to which you’ve been assigned. What single human emotion do you think would be most difficult for you to understand in general or most difficult for you to deal with when faced with it directly?

The most difficult to deal with would be love. There are so many facets that you need to know and understand. All of those ‘mental’ and communication skills are in your head, but that overwhelming emotion comes directly from your heart and you end up racing into that ‘dream.’ The great things that come from it are absolute heaven, but the downsides that can come with it are nightmarish.

Which really leads to the one human emotion that I don’t understand, which is hatred. I mean, Contact was a movie that had this incredible line where a ‘being’ was speaking to a human and said that he was absolutely amazed by our species, because we could have the most incredible dreams and the most horrific nightmares all at the same time. That really struck home. Hatred can come from everything - envy, a battle for superiority, a bad mood, a word that shouldn’t have been said, and then that’s it - we just hate automatically - and I think that’s the one thing that could bring us all down for good.

What would Matt say is his favorite part of spending time in the lives he’s assigned? Is there one life/assignment in particular that stands out most in his memory?

Actually, Matt loves everything about his job. Being the warrior he longed for his ability to be free. The passion he had for saving and fighting was strong, and he kept it. I think what he didn’t expect was having to vie for the girl who was already his. I think his absolute favorite ‘assignment’ comes when he’s in a world on the cusp of change and living in New York City. He goes into a life that’s beyond interesting and, with Emily, has a truly amazing experience. In the beginning, Matt was still that young, fresh soul who had the world at his feet. He made all those human mistakes and dealt with all of that pain we have, but in this particular life he was more grown-up. He was already wearing his battle scars outside AND in, which changed him.

When you think about release day, what's the first word that pops into your head?

Hope

Have you ever cheated and read the end of a book first? Do you ever think you might write the end of a book first and work your way back to the beginning?

LOL. Actually, no. I’ve never understood the point of reading a story if you already know the end. I’m one of those ‘wide-eyed kids’ who still likes to go through the story right beside the characters and have a ball. But since we’re being completely honest, there have been some where I got ten or fifteen chapters into the novel and they were just not my cup of tea, or so slow moving that I HAD to flip to the back of the book to see the end because I just couldn’t take it anymore.

When writing, the end of the book is already in my head - even the end of the whole series. But when I sit down to type, I always begin on page one because you never know when and where those twists and turns will happen when you’re creating the story, and I wouldn’t want to miss one.

If you could give your pre-Until Next Time self one piece of advice about the characters, story, writing process, or marketing process, what would you tell her?

There will be lots of sleepless nights, but if you can create a story that’s unique and touches someone else’s heart out there than keep going, drink a lot of coffee, and stop whining (because the dog is the only one listening anyway and he just wants you to be quiet and give him another treat. LOL)

Thanks so much for stopping by Amy! More information on Amy and her books can be found here:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads

UNTIL NEXT TIME

How does a girl choose between the one who steals her heart and the one who owns her soul?

Matt and Emily were created for a specific job. Raised and trained as the ultimate angel/warrior team, they are sent down to save, defend, judge and forgive, depending on the 'life' they've been assigned. What they don't realize is that the power of human emotions, such as love, anger, passion and fear can take over even the best of souls, causing them to make mistakes and follow paths that lead to confusion and heartache.

When the reason for their training is finally revealed, the angel/warrior team find themselves thrust into a world they know nothing about. Matt takes over the life of Daniel, a young man with a great deal of baggage. Emily becomes Liz, a girl living in a remote village who relies on nothing more than her own strength to survive. A violent storm erupts one night, and framed in the window of Liz's establishment is a frightening face. Let in by the soul of a Good Samaritan, the two visitors bring with them a past full of secrets that could literally change an angel's path and a warrior's plans.

From murder to redemption, this angel/warrior team must find a way to keep the faith they have in each other in a world that's ripping them apart.

Review: Scarlet

2012-02-12T23:56:00.005-05:00

SCARLET
A.C. Gaughen
Young Adult
304 pages
Walker Children's Books
Available February 14th
Received through NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.

Posing as one of Robin Hood’s thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.

It’s only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.

MY THOUGHTS
Scarlet is a story that despite the use of familiar characters and a familiar premise feels fresh and new, the world of Robin Hood looking very different through the eyes of a female Will Scarlet–a young woman who steals and swears better than the boys in their band of misfits but who can’t quite hide the flush in her cheeks and the beating of her heart at the sight of Robin behind her boyish façade. Never before has the concept of thievery been quite so appealing, and while we know intellectually that stealing is not an act to be admired or glorified, our own fingers can’t help but twitch with the desire to be as sticky as Scarlet’s so that we might contribute to the fight against a tyrannical prince and sheriff no matter how illegal our choice of weapons. Into a classic tale Ms. Gaughen weaves a complicated and dark past for our young heroine, making her more than simple words on a page, more than a girl in boy’s clothing, and more than someone relegated to the shadows cast by the great Robin of Locksley.

It takes a couple chapters to really settle in with Scarlet as a narrator, the dialect wherein she often uses the word “were” in place of “was” (ie “I were looking right at him”) taking some getting used to before it simply becomes a part of who she is and therefore something we can’t help but love because we adore her so thoroughly. She wields her knives with unerring precision, pulling more than her weight in their band of four and proving again and again that she’s a force to be reckoned with. When the boys attempt to remind her that she’s a girl and could possibly need looking after, she’s quick to prove otherwise, repeatedly being the first into danger to save an innocent life and back out again before Robin, Little John, and Much even know she’s gone.

Perhaps most memorable and intriguing in this tale is the relationship between Scarlet and Rob, the two of them so frighteningly similar and so obliviously blind to their own similarities that they repeatedly clash, butting heads again and again without ever thinking to truly open their eyes and see what’s standing in front of them. Both are struggling to atone for past sins, using self-inflicted emotional pain as currency to pay the debt they both feel they owe to God and country for the blood they’ve spilled, never once allowing the health and safety they now provide to those around them to balance the perceived taint on their souls. They hurt one another both intentionally and unintentionally, but it’s abundantly clear to us that their actions and sharp words are never intended the way they seem, and we wait with breath held for the moment when they'll allow their hearts to communicate what body language and mouths cannot.

Overall, Scarlet is a wonderfully well-rounded debut from Ms. Gaughen; a layered tale where light attempts to fight the encroaching darkness through shades of gray, and where a young woman fights for a home and a family she doesn’t feel she deserves even though the opposite is true. Ms. Gaughen is an author I will be watching from now on, and I cannot wait to see what she will delight us with next.

Rating: 4.5/5

Guest Post + Giveaway: Resa Nelson + The Dragonslayer Series

2012-02-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm handing the reins of Supernatural Snark over to author Resa Nelson who's going to give us an inside look into how she researches material for her Dragonslayer fantasy series. She's also offering up a giveaway of books one and two, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for details. Thanks so much for being here today Resa!

RESEARCH ON THE FLY

When writing my 4-book Dragonslayer series, I did most of my research before I wrote Book 1 (The Dragonslayer's Sword) or while I was writing it. All of the research I had done – and which I've described during my blog tour so far – gave me a wealth of information that I kept drawing upon while writing Books 2 and 3. It wasn't until deep in Book 3 that I felt the need to delve into research again. Today I'm writing about how doing plenty of research in advance makes it easier to do research on the fly when you get into the depths of a series of books.

The earliest stages of my research took place about 11 years ago. What is now a 4-book series began as one short story that was published in a magazine. I never had any intent of writing more Dragonslayer stories, much less a novel, much less an entire series! Fortunately, all of my readers are smarter than I am. There was such a strong response from readers to that one little Dragonslayer short story that I decided to write a second short story set in the same world with the same characters, and it was published in the same magazine, Science Fiction Age. In addition to reader response, both short stories were nominated for the Nebula Award. But my policy is this: I won't write a novel unless I come up with an idea that excites me so much that I can't stop thinking about it. I won't write a novel unless I have an idea that I love with my whole heart. Writing a novel that I'm not wildly excited about would be a waste of my time, my publisher's time, and most importantly my readers’ time.

So it took about 8 years or so for me to come up with an idea I loved for the first Dragonslayer novel (The Dragonslayer’s Sword). My theory about the Dragonslayer world is that it takes place in a world parallel to ours during a medieval-type era. I've always loved Viking culture, so I decided to model my world on the beginning of the Viking era. That's when my research began in earnest. Luckily, because I've been a lifelong fans of Vikings, I already had a big shelf full of books. I kept collecting more books as I sank into research mode.

Fast forward several years to a point where Book 1 had not only been published but also nominated for the Nebula Award and named a Finalist for the EPPIE Award, which thrilled me. I had decided to wait to see how people responded to Book 1 and had written a standalone novel (Our Lady of the Absolute, a fantasy/mystery/thriller inspired by ancient Egypt but set in our modern day). After all, if readers didn't like Book 1, it would be foolish to keep writing the series – my time would be better spent writing other books. But a combination of award nominations and very positive (and often enthusiastic) reader response convinced me to write the entire series.

Now fast forward again. Book 1 is in print, Book 2 (The Iron Maiden) has been accepted for publication, and I'm getting close to writing the end of Book 3 (which is currently scheduled for publication in 2012). All of a sudden, my main character Astrid encounters a group of characters who become critical to her journey. The problem is that I didn't know they were going to show up. Now what was I going to do?

The solution turned out to be a lot easier than I would have guessed. I went to the bookcase in my living room and started sorting through the books about women in the Viking age that I'd bought years ago. I sat down and flipped through them. One book especially appealed to me and seemed to be a good match with what was happening in Book 3 at that time. I skimmed through some sections of my research book and read other sections very carefully. These new characters that had showed up in Book 3 began to take shape and form in my head.

It took maybe an afternoon or two to do the research for that particular part of Book 3. I didn't have to go to the library or request interlibrary loan, which I'd spent many months doing when I first started the series. I didn't have to do an Internet search. I had everything I needed at my fingertips because I'd already done a lot of research and had gathered a collection of books that genuinely interest me. And that allowed me to do research on the fly in a very quick and efficient way when something unexpected popped up in my own novel that I wanted to understand and develop before committing words to paper. For me, that’s a great way to do research on the fly.

GIVEAWAY

Resa is generously offering up signed paperback copies of both The Dragonslayer's Sword and The Iron Maiden to those people following the promotional tour. To enter, just send an email to
ResaBonusGifts@aol.com (email addresses will be used only for giveaway purposes) with "Dragonslayer Giveaway" as the subject. This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL and will run through the end of the tour on February 14th. For those who want to double their chances of winning, there is also a Goodreads giveaway (which can be found HERE) for The Dragonslayer's Sword, though this particular giveaway it is open to US residents only.

If you'd like to try a sample of the series, you can download a free "mini" ebook (in PDF form) titled Dragonslayer Stories HERE.

Additional information, including other stops on the promotional tour, can be found on these sites:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Iron Maiden Trailer

THE DRAGONSLAYER'S SWORD

For Astrid, a blacksmith who makes swords for dragonslayers, the emergence of a strange gemstone from her body sets in motion a chain of events that threaten to destroy her life. Her happiness is shattered when her lover-the dragonslayer-disappears without a trace, and the life that she knows and loves implodes without warning.

Astrid lives in a world of shapeshifters whose thoughts have the power to change not only themselves but others. Everything Astrid knows to be true is called into question when she learns the truth about her past and the mysterious family from which she was separated as a child.

Reality turns inside out as Astrid gradually learns the truth about the people she loves as well as those she disdains. With the fate of dragons, ghosts, and slaves in foreign lands resting on her shoulders, Astrid faces the challenge of deciding who she is and how she will stand up inside her own skin. Will she withdraw and hide from the world that has disappointed her so much...or will she rise to lead others to freedom and peace?

Interview: Julianna Baggott and Pure

2012-02-09T00:00:00.002-05:00

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming author Julianna Baggott to the blog to answer a few questions about her young adult novel Pure which just released this week. Pure features a beautifully strange, dark, and disturbing world that's truly the stuff of dreams and nightmares, staying burned in my memory long after reading:) Hope you enjoy the interview!

Let’s say that right this minute the same detonations that decimated Pressia’s world and changed it forever hit us. What, at this exact moment, would you fuse with? Can you describe your post-detonation self?

Well, as I read it, my hand was curved to the mouse – so that would embed. To my right, there’s a glass lantern, and the blue light of the printer, and a 1950s-era desk fan – the brand is called Eskimo. That aged fan could get blown into me, and I’d have a shoulder of caged fan blades.

Everyone who dies inside the dome (and some family members outside of it) have a small box of mementos kept in storage that survivors can visit. If you could choose what went in your box, what couple of items would you put in to share with your loved ones?

This is hard. I’m not an object person, per se. I’d include photographs – ones that mean something – ones that say: this is who you come from. I have one of my great grandmother who ran a house of prostitution during the Great Depression. Most photos of the era are tidy and stern, but she’s wearing a paper-dress she made herself, her kinky hair is loose down her back, and she’s glaring at the camera – she’s maybe 15. I have one of my grandfather (not my biological grandfather but the man I knew as my grandfather) – a double amputee and WWII vet. He’s in a wheelchair, holding my grandmother in his arms and she’s kicking up her legs. That. That’s what I’d keep in a box to hand down.

What aspect of Pressia—either physically or personality-wise—first popped into your head when you were conceptualizing Pure?

The doll-head fist existed in a failed story. Once Pressia was there – in the ashen cabinet – the doll appeared and words came – They will come for you if … a litany. And so it began.

If you were to play “I Remember” with the people in Pressia’s world, what memory would you most want to share with them?

You’re SO damn good at this!

Okay. I remember checking on my children asleep in their beds. The humidifier kicking out puffs of steam. Their legs kicking the covers. Their purring snores. Their heads a little damp with sweat. I remember walking downstairs after and telling my husband that they’re all fine and fast asleep, and patting the dogs curled on their pillows. Night. Calm night.

Pure has a hugely imaginative and awe-inspiring world. Is there a specific world from another piece of fiction that you’ve been completely absorbed by when reading?

I literally read parts of Cider House Rules while in early labor. (I tend to labor for days. There’s time to read, sadly.) That’s a very strange and engrossing read – I mean, if you can read while in labor, that’s a real testament to the writer. John Irving is that good.

If you could spend a day with one of your characters and they could ask you one question about how you created them or how you wrote their story, who would it be and what might they ask?

I think of El Capitan. He turned on me, you know. He was supposed to be so hardened and really he’s got this endless tenderness. He’d want to know what he’s supposed to do, how he’s supposed to exist in this world – being both of those things, hard and tender. His father left him. His mother’s gone. Both before the Detonations. He was alone in charge of his little brother. In some ways, he’s the one who needs the most mothering. I don’t know how to answer the question though. I don’t know how to be both hard and tender in our own world, yet alone theirs.

How do you think you’d fair against one of the Beasts or Dusts?

While shooting the film Norma Rae, the actress Sally Field was going to be hauled off by two cops and put into the back of a cop car. The director told her to fight with everything she had, everything. Sally Field has to be just a little over five feet if that and thin. She fought so hard, she broke the ribs of one of the actors in the role of a cop.

I’d fight. I don’t think I’d win in the end, but I’d break some ribs along the way.

If pre-detonation Pressia could leave post-detonation Pressia a note in one of the memento boxes in the dome, what would she tell her future self?

Beauty endures. Faith endures. Love endures.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions Julianna! More information on Julianna and her books can be found here:

Website
Blog
Twitter
Amazon

PURE

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Review: Bittersweet

2012-02-08T00:00:00.002-05:00

BITTERSWEET
Sarah Ockler
Contemporary Young Adult
378 pages
Simon Pulse
Available Now
Received through Teen Book Scene for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances… a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.

So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life…and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.

It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last…

MY THOUGHTS
Cute and endearing, Bittersweet is a highly entertaining light read that retains just enough of an edge to keep it from being overly fluffy, proceeding to serve up just the right combination of humor, romance, and family drama. Instead of focusing on a single relationship between Hudson and one of the hockey boys she’s helping to train, we get to thoroughly entangle ourselves in her connection to her precious and precocious younger brother, her strained relationship to her mother, and her evolving friendship with a girl from whom she’s been inseparable for years. As a result, we get so much more than a sweet-but-angst-ridden tale, with Ms. Ockler granting us the opportunity as we read to dig our fingers through the surface layer and into the dirty and messy but richly engaging layers underneath.

Hudson is absolutely hilarious and adorable, often finding herself in an embarrassing sprawl of limbs on the ice in front of those she most wants to impress with her grace and skating prowess, causing us to roar with laughter at the same time we pat her on the fictional back for how well she handles the mortification. Her inner dialogue feels genuine, the things running through her mind seeming as though they could have been plucked straight from our own rapidly flowing stream of consciousness, allowing us to feel as though little pieces of us have found their way into her and pieces of her into us. She’s written so well that at times it’s so easy to get entirely wrapped up in her little world–her problems becoming ours and her stresses taking up residence on our shoulders–that we almost find ourselves as clueless as to how her actions are affecting those around her as she is.

Part of the fun of reading Hudson’s story is the fact that we can so easily slide back and forth between two roles while reading: that of intimate participant, gliding seamlessly into Hudson’s shoes which seem match our own perfectly; and that of outside observer, able to take a step back and make note of the subtle changes in friends and family that Hudson is too close to to see clearly. We can feel the tension vibrating through her with every added pressure exerted on her both externally and internally, noticing the fine fissures in her tough exterior forming long before she does, however we can so clearly relate to her that we find ourselves ignoring the warning signs that might give us a little distance from the action, choosing instead to experience the ups and downs of life, love, and responsibility right along with her.

Bittersweet is definitely recommended for those who love contemporary fiction, a witty and refreshing protagonist supported by a well-developed and varied cast of secondary characters just two of the many reasons to pick this story up. This is the first of Ms. Ockler’s books that I’ve read, and I will certainly be devouring her backlist until I’ve read them all.

Rating: 4/5

HarperTeen Is Spreading The Love

2012-02-07T11:14:00.006-05:00

Hey Everyone!

With Valentine's Day coming up, I just wanted to let you know about some fun promotions the amazing people over at HarperTeen are doing in February.

MONTH OF LOVE

Visit the Epic Reads Facebook Page each day in February to find a new giveaway, poll, or quote as well as other surprises!

STORY CRUSH CALCULATOR

Just for those who are curious, day one of the Month of Love features a story crush calculator, something that made me ignore the list of "to do" items for my work day in favor of exploring what it was all about. As you can see in the above graphic, the crush calculator is a quiz to help you determine which "crushable story" most suits you based on a few short questions. Win. Since I have numerous and varied fictional YA crushes, I immediately took this quiz. Work can be done later right? Right.

Jenny's story crush according to the calculator: EPIC FAIL.

No seriously. That's what came up when I finished. At first I was like hmmmmm. Epic fail. That's kind of fitting for me really, so I called to tell my husband that my crush calculator told me I was an epic fail. He didn't care. Then I realized Epic Fail is actually a book, hence the STORY part of the story crush calculator. I never fail to impress myself with my brilliance.

Go find your story crush! And then come back and tell me if you got Epic Fail so I'll know I'm not alone:)

Follower Love Giveaway Hop

2012-02-06T23:12:00.010-05:00

Welcome to the Follower Love Giveaway Hop!

This giveaway hop is hosted by Rachael Renee Anderson and I Am A Reader, Not A Writer, so check out either of their sites for details on the hop itself!

One winner will be selected and they will have their choice of one of the above titles. The books shown and listed are either some of my favorites or ones that I'm greatly looking forward to when they release. There are books from all my favorite genres: Paranormal Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance, so hopefully there's a little something for everyone!

Since this is a blog hop and you'll all likely be entering numerous giveaways, I'm going to keep things really simple. No complicated extra entries, just follow the blog and fill out the form with your name and email address so I can contact you if you win. If for some reason the form doesn't work, feel free to email me at supernaturalsnark@gmail.com with FOLLOWER LOVE GIVEAWAY in the subject line and I'll make sure you're entered. This giveaway will end at 12:01am (EST) on Wednesday, February 15th after which time a winner will be chosen, emailed, and announced on the blog.

This giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY as long as The Book Depository delivers to your country. You can check the list of countries here.

Book prizes:
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Scarlet by AC Gaughen
By a Thread by Jennifer Estep
Angel's Flight by Nalini Singh
Oracle's Moon by Thea Harrison
The Darkest Seduction by Gena Showalter

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There are over 300 blogs participating in this event, so be sure to check out the other giveaways! All participating blogs are listed below, good luck everyone!

Review: Graffiti Moon

2012-02-06T00:00:00.002-05:00

GRAFFITI MOON
Cath Crowley
Contemporary Young Adult
264 Pages
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Available February 14th
Received through NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.

His work is all over the city, but he is nowhere.

Ed, the last guy she wants to see at the moment, says he knows where to find him. He takes Lucy on an all-night search to places where Shadow’s thoughts about heartbreak and escape echo around the city walls.

But the one thing Lucy can’t see is the one thing that’s right before her eyes.

MY THOUGHTS
Like stepping from the soft, muted whites and grays of winter into the bright, vibrant colors of spring, Graffiti Moon surprises us with a rich beauty we weren’t necessarily expecting, forcing us to see temporarily through the eyes of two unique individuals for whom the world is both canvas and muse for their art. Reading from the points of view of both Ed and Lucy has us longing for the ability to see as they do; to find levels of meaning in the seemingly mundane and be able to express and interpret our emotions (as well as the emotions of others) through the use of bold colors and images that speak louder and truer than words ever could. For a short time reds, blues, and greens are not simply colors, instead they represent levels of feeling in a completely foreign yet distinctly understandable way thanks to Ms. Crowley's careful crafting of two people who help guide us through their Technicolor world where life is depicted through graphics, glass, and poetry.

Lucy is a young woman easy to love, full of fire and sass with a penchant for breaking boys’ noses when they attempt to grab any part of her anatomy she’s not given them permission to touch. She speaks her mind but not in an abrasive or overly opinionated way, instead simply preferring to live out loud and tell the world her own beautifully unique view of it. She doesn’t see things through only rose-tinted glasses, but rather the glasses she filters her friends, family, and surroundings through are gloriously multi-hued, and she chooses to stop and interpret things in a way others might not take the added time to do. Her relationship with Ed is brimming with tension given their past history and the secrets he’s keeping from her, and watching the two of them relate to one another as they haven’t been able to with another person is a joy we are thankful we have the opportunity to witness.

Ed is a young man who exists in dualities, baring his soul to the world through his graffiti work yet hiding not only his identity, but also the parts of himself he doesn’t feel other people would understand, in the empty spaces surrounding the bright tones of his artwork. He is as much a shadow as his graffiti persona suggests, keeping himself very much in the dark and allowing his perceived shortcomings to keep the colorful intensity expressed in his paintings locked up tight in the guise of a ghost artist. Little by little over the course of his night with Lucy we see that color start to leak through–attracted to the light she emits so brightly–as she slowly starts to draw the fear out of some of his secrets and makes them seem not quite as threatening as they once were.

Graffiti Moon is an extremely quick read, full of humorous interactions between Ed and Lucy who both have quick wits and sharp minds, and rich with details that illustrate just how well art can help people communicate with others and understand themselves. The romance between our two protagonists and narrators exists not in the physical—touches between them being few and far between—but rather in possibilities, giving us glimpses of how they could be together without ever showing us the full picture. We get to interpret what we will about them and their future, just as they interpret the world around them so fascinatingly, and therefore for the duration of the time we spend reading we find ourselves a little more like Lucy and Ed than we were before picking their story up.

Rating 4/5

Giveaway: The Iron Witch + The Wood Queen

2012-02-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the wonderful people over at Flux I have copies of both The Iron Witch and The Wood Queen to give away on the blog today! The Wood Queen releases February 8th, so don't forget to mark your calendars. To enter, just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. The giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Friday, February 10th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone and a huge thank you again to Flux!

THE IRON WITCH

Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma.

When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect.

Warning: synopsis for book 2 contains spoilers for book 1

THE WOOD QUEEN

To keep her best friend, Navin, from being killed at the hands of vicious wood elves, Donna Underwood stole the elixir of life. Now she’s facing an alchemist tribunal while her mother lies dying, succumbing to the elven curse that shattered her mind. In desperation, Donna seeks an audience with Aliette, the fierce and manipulative Wood Queen, who offers a deal: if Donna can use her strange and burgeoning powers to help the wood elves, Aliette will free her mother from the curse. Along with Navin and Xan, the half-fey guy she’s falling for, Donna struggles to unlock the secrets of her iron tattoos in time to save her mother’s life. But some secrets are better left untold.

More information on Karen Mahoney and The Iron Witch series can be found here:

Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads

Review: New Girl

2012-02-02T00:00:00.005-05:00

NEW GIRL
Paige Harbison
Young Adult
304 Pages
Harlequin Teen
Available Now
Received via NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
They call me 'New Girl'...

Ever since I arrived at exclusive, prestigious Manderly Academy, that’s who I am. New girl. Unknown. But not unnoticed—because of her.

Becca Normandy—that’s the name on everyone’s lips. The girl whose picture I see everywhere. The girl I can’t compare to. I mean, her going missing is the only reason a spot opened up for me at the academy. And everyone stares at me like it’s my fault.

Except for Max Holloway—the boy whose name shouldn’t be spoken. At least, not by me. Everyone thinks of him as Becca’s boyfriend but she’s gone, and here I am, replacing her. I wish it were that easy. Sometimes, when I think of Max, I can imagine how Becca’s life was so much better than mine could ever be.

And maybe she’s still out there, waiting to take it back.

MY THOUGHTS
New Girl is an intensely dramatic story, teenage relationship angst pairing with the mysterious disappearance of a beloved former student to create a tale a bit soap-opera like in nature, though it's thankfully missing the wooden dialogue. We want desperately to carve a path through all the turmoil and find the beating heart of the characters around whom it swirls so violently, however as we try to do so, we find our way is blocked with thorn-decorated bushes, and we're left alone with nothing but our bare hands to try and claw our way through. As a result, we get tangled up in–and tormented by–the at times over the top behavior of Becca’s friends and classmates as well as the hardly admirable behavior of the girl everyone sees as the epitome of everything desirable, leaving us stranded in a story we find ourselves fighting every step of the way.

A highlight of this tale is in the New Girl herself, a young woman thrown into a situation where she’s suddenly on the receiving end of a pulsing, tangible hatred that radiates from the heated stares and disdainful smirks of those who know her not at all. Despite her icy cold reception, she stands tall and strong against an emotional onslaught we’re not sure we ourselves would be able to weather, finding her voice quickly and defending herself to those who wield their words as precisely as any weapon. We don’t learn her name until the very end (her lack of identity initially throwing us off thinking we’ve missed her introduction somehow), but eventually her somewhat strange anonymity is replaced with deeds and actions that help define her for us more clearly than a simple moniker ever could. She does have a tendency to cave to Max’s repeated “I want to talk to you” lines, setting herself up for pain again and again as he leads her a few steps forward only to throw up a barrier that halts her progress before starting the entire process again, but all in all she’s a girl who helps shelter us as the thorns of teenage cruelty and heartbreak stab at us over and over again.

Interspersed with New Girl’s first person narrative are third person chapters recounting Becca’s months leading up to her disappearance, and while the switch from present to past is successful in augmenting the tension and heightening our sense of anticipation, her chapters paint a picture of a young woman who is extraordinarily difficult to like. Using her beauty and charm to manipulate those around her into doing her bidding, she crafts a queenly crown out of insidious deeds, wearing it with a haughtiness that has our lips curling in distaste as she uses and abuses everyone with whom she comes in contact. Because her actions are repeatedly and increasingly vile, we often dread the time we're forced to spend with her, wondering when we can escape the claustrophobic unhappiness she masks with lies, flirtation, and sex appeal to return to the girl who’s fighting Becca’s dark shadow tooth and claw.

Overall, New Girl is a challenging read with its largely unlikeable (though I believe intentionally unlikeable) cast of characters and its abundance of drama, but it’s certainly well written, and while Becca and several others make it difficult to want to read their story, they undoubtedly evoke a strong emotional response. This book is recommended for older readers of young adult fiction though, as alcohol and sex are prevalent and prominent elements and there is a recounting of a rape that–while not graphic or inappropriate–is detailed enough to merit a warning for younger readers.

Rating: 2.5/5

Review: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight

2012-02-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Jennifer E. Smith
Contemporary Young Adult
236 Pages
Poppy
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18C. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

MY THOUGHTS
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is one of those surprising stories that packs an emotional punch where one wasn’t really expected, and the depth of our involvement has us flipping the pages with an unforeseen rapidity as we spend a short 24 hours in Hadley’s life. Told primarily in third person and present tense, Hadley’s journey to London and the wedding she wants no part of is a touch difficult to get into, the present tense throwing us off just a bit as we struggle to figure out just what about the way the words are flowing is causing us to stop and take notice. Once we get used to the present tense however, we find ourselves fully immersed in Hadley’s conflicted feelings toward her father, her sweet romantic interest in Oliver, and her attempt to come to terms with how her life is changing.

Hadley is a young woman it would have been so easy to disregard as a teenager who’s lashing out in anger are the injustice of her life; someone who works herself into a dramatic frenzy and forces all the focus to her while the other characters simply rotate around her trying to appease her and heal her wounds. Luckily for us however, Hadley is written with beautiful maturity, wanting so badly to hate her father and his soon-to-be new wife and keep them at a distance the same way she feels they’ve so easily distanced themselves from her and her mother, but ultimately she acknowledges that those feelings will only leave her with a sense of regret when they grant her the break from her father she thinks she wants. She says what’s on her mind to her father without screaming and ranting (though she certainly deserves to do a bit of that), and is able to address her hurt and her fears for their future together with far more grace than most would be able given the circumstances.

Hadley’s relationship with Oliver is adorably realistic and sweet, with no instant love or even instant smoldering attraction, but rather just an innocent connection to someone working through his own family issues as they both fly to meet those issues face to face. Their interactions are filled with humor and wit, and when they lose one another in Heathrow airport, our hearts pound double time in our chests, the extra beats working to help fill the void we feel at their separation despite the fact they’ve only known one another for hours. There’s nothing fantastical about the two of them; no special gifts or unique powers, and no tragic darkness or brutal pasts, just the lovely normalcy of lives filled with joys and pains to which we can so easily relate.

Overall, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight takes a minute or two to adjust to, but quickly becomes a read we cannot bear to put down, our need to see how events unfold for Hadley and her family as well as Oliver and his more important than the duties and responsibilities awaiting us in our own reality.

Rating: 4/5

Tempting Tuesdays: Special Guest Post by Chloe Neill

2012-01-31T00:00:00.003-05:00

Today I'm ridiculously excited to welcome author Chloe Neill to the blog to help us wrap up the read-along for Some Girls Bite. She's here to give us a little insight into her writing journey and the eventual development of Merit and Ethan, so welcome Chloe and thank you for being a part of the read-along!

Dear Reader:

Is it surprising to learn that I used to get panicky about writing assignments? That my only English class in college was "African Novel"? that I promised myself I would never, ever get a job that required me to write?

And yet, here we are. :)

In high school and my first year of college, I thought I was headed for a career in the visual arts. A "starving artist" of the New York variety, or maybe an illustrator. (I didn't know much about commercial graphic design back then, or surely it would have topped the list, too.) I did not like to write; hated it, in fact. I wasn't good at constructing sentences, and the act of doing it made me nervous and fretful to the point of distraction.

It was probably a fateful decision, then, that I attended a liberal arts college that prized writing over multiple choice exams . . . and that led me away from studio art in my second year. I wrote a paper as a sophomore, a short essay intended to examine the women's rights movement. Instead of jumping into a discussion of the history, I started by writing the story of a fictitious woman named Hillary.

In other words, instead of simply writing a summary, I wrote a story. It got a good review from my professor, I recall, but that didn't change my mind one iota. Writing was not for me.

The song didn't change after grad school, or in a summer job as I watched my employers lock themselves in their offices to finish drafts. The proposition of having to write for a living, on a deadline, horrified me.

But then, after a string of random occurrences, I got a job as a kind of pseudo-reporter. I watched things happen; I wrote about them. I wrote about them every day for months on end. And in that process, I got more comfortable constructing sentences, putting clauses together and shaping paragraphs.

I learned, in the most basic sense, how to write.

Still, that was it. I read--had always loved to read--but I was quite content to leave the fiction writing to others. It didn't even occur to me to write fiction. After all, I only barely liked writing at my job. Why do it for fun?

Unfortunately, one sad day around that time, an important relationship ended. I healed by reading. And then reading more. And more and more and more. I devoured 8 or 10 paperbacks a week, usually romance, usually in a series of some type because I loved recurring characters and inside jokes.

Eventually, I ran out of things to read. I couldn't find a series I enjoyed or a romance with enough sparkle to hook me.

I thought, at first, I'd try my hand at fan fiction. I loved Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series. Since I read faster than she published, I decided to imagine myself into the books to fill time until the next episode was released.

After about 2,000 words of Dark Hunter fan fiction, I felt silly. These weren't my characters; they were hers. It felt weird to play the game using someone else's cards.

So, on Labor Day in 2005, I opened a Word file and I started to write.

When I wasn't in class (grad school, at the time), I was writing. Weekends, I was writing. I wrote the same way I'd read--voraciously. I created a family of characters and a bevy of sarcastic inside jokes. I plotted seven books in a paranormal romance series, one romance per book, and I plastered a wall in my apartment with sticky notes--ideas and quips for later books.

I finished the manuscript on New Year's Day. It wasn't very good--and I have a rejection letter to prove it. But I'd done it, and it hadn't been nearly as bad as I'd imagined.

A few months later, I started my second manuscript, which I called THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER. (Seriously. Isn't that terrible?) It took six months to write and six months to edit. When I was reasonably confident I was done, I sent it to one publisher--Penguin.

A few months later, we mutually decided that SOME GIRLS BITE was a much better title. :)

Today, I have a day job (in which I write) and a writing career (in which I write). I write a LOT, and there are still times when the words don't come and the fear rises up. But I'venow written ten novels, and each seems to reinforce one central idea: A book is crafted one sentence at a time. Don't worry about the last sentence in the manuscript--worry about the next sentence in the manuscript. You can deal with everything else later.

Thanks for listening. And reading.

Love,

Chloe

Thank you for stopping by Chloe! And a huge thank you again to Missie, Tina, and Rummanah for being such fabulous co-hosts and to everyone who participated each week and made this read-along such a blast.

For more information on Chloe and all her wonderful books, you can find her here:

Website
Cadogan House
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
Amazon

WINNERS!

Below are the three Tempting Tuesdays winners, congratulations ladies, you've all been emailed!

GRAND PRIZE

Winner:
Christy @ Love of Books

CHARMFALL

Winners:
Heidi @ Rainy Day Ramblings
Chantaal @ The Wandering Fangirl

Review: On The Fringe

2012-01-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

ON THE FRINGE
Courtney King Walker
Paranormal Young Adult
272 Pages
Lands Atlantic Publishing
Available Now
Received through Teen Book Scene for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Claire is struggling to overcome the murder of her childhood friend and secret crush, Daniel. Everyone else seems to be moving on with their lives, but she's still trying to cope. The fact that she finds herself alone and drowning on her 16th birthday isn't helping.

Neither is thinking she sees Daniel's face in murky water as she mysteriously resurfaces. But something happened during those four and a half minutes that will make her realize it was not just her imagination.

As Claire and Daniel try to grasp a possible reconnection, other grudge-holding beings have plans of their own. Now, the two of them have to decide if their fleeting relationship is worth the possibility of Claire being trapped on the fringe forever.

MY THOUGHTS
On the Fringe wastes little time tying us up in emotional knots, dropping us immediately into the palpable tension that exists between Daniel and Claire as each starts to realize their feelings for the other extend beyond their roles as best friend and baby sister respectively. We find ourselves a little giddy instantaneously, though with that addictive buoyancy comes the weighty understanding that this sweet hesitancy is only going to be fleeting and temporary, soon to be replaced with darkness, pain, and loss. We almost wish this tale could be an adorable short story, taking us quickly through the developing romance and then leaving us breathless and content at the happy conclusion, but instead Ms. Walker plunges us under the light-infused surface and into depths that have us fully invested in Claire and Daniel’s lives (or deaths as the case may be), ultimately extremely thankful for the gift of extra page time.

Claire is a young woman who’s easy to like right off the bat, all twisted up with nerves as a result of her crush on someone who’s been in her life for as long as she can remember, struggling to find a way to escape the classification of Matthew’s Little Sister in the hope their relationship to one another can be redefined with more romantic–and less familial–feelings. When Daniel returns to her in less-than corporeal form, we don’t get pages and pages of denial or repeated hows and whys from her, instead she accepts his new presence in her life with relative ease, crossing us over into the world of the supernatural in a seamless way that makes everything she’s experiencing that much more believable.

Splitting the point of view equally between Claire and Daniel gives an interesting dual exposure to a ghostly world, Claire’s limited understanding of it making us feel more comfortable as her reactions mirror our own, but at the same time, we also get a deeper look at spectral happenings as Daniel explores his afterlife and his unusual connection to Claire. As a result, we feel fully surrounded by the events taking place as opposed to simply viewing them as an outsider from a single fixed direction. In addition to learning the ins and outs of Daniel’s non-life, we additionally get the return of a little of the giddiness we felt at the beginning, death having freed Claire and Daniel’s mouths from the nerves that kept them closed until it was almost too late, and we finally get to see them communicate all the things that went unsaid previously.

Ms. Walker has written an enthralling ghost story, one with equal parts light and dark where we find ourselves both on the edge of our seats, while also blissfully warm and content as we watch two people robbed of their time together get a chance to reconnect. We are left with a bittersweet ending, one that feels right and wrong at the same time, leaving us with the wish that Ms. Walker would write an alternate ending just to satisfy the part of us that would see the supernatural element kicked up a notch to perhaps stretch the limits of believability for the sake of what our hearts want most. Then we could have both the practical and impractical at our fingertips–able to choose an ending based on our mood—but ultimately we can concede that events wrap up as they should, with Ms. Walker playing our emotions with a consummate skill we can’t wait to experience again.

Rating: 4/5

Vampire Empire Special Giveaway + Other Fun Things

2012-01-28T23:15:00.010-05:00

Today I have some very fun news to share with all of you. Clay and Susan Griffith, authors of the fantastic Vampire Empire urban fantasy series, are celebrating Valentine's Day with a very special giveaway on their blog. The Vampire Empire series (a particular favorite of mine, I can't recommend it enough), while by no means a romance, does feature a beautiful relationship between Adele and vampire hunter The Greyfriar, and so the Griffiths are offering up a replica of Adele's geomancy talisman in honor of the upcoming holiday.

To enter, just leave a comment and valid email address on their blog post HERE (do not leave an entry on my post, it will not count toward the giveaway). A random winner will be chosen on February 7th. Good luck everyone!

Next, there have been some new cover reveals this week for upcoming Spencer Hill Press titles and I thought I'd share them with all of you in case you hadn't had a chance to see them yet!

TOUCH OF DEATH (January 2013)

Jodi Marshall isn't sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she's in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she's being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he's not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she's part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi's deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn't difficult enough, Jodi discovers she's the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can't figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

PODs (June 2013)

Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul.

After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters.

Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

Lastly, I've had a few giveaways the past couple weeks, the winners have been emailed and are listed below. As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and to JL Bryan and Big Honcho Media for their generous prizes!

THE WAY WE FALL

Winners:

Teril
Savannah from Books With Bite

FAIRY METAL THUNDER

Winner:

Vivien

DEEP SKY and THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX (audiobook)

Winner:
Sariah

Cover Critique: Cloth-Covered Goods

2012-01-27T00:00:00.003-05:00

Let me preface this post by saying that my critiques of these covers are in no way, shape or form a reflection on the author, the content or the publisher. I know the authors have very little, if any, control over the design. These are strictly my thoughts meant simply to be humorous and not insulting.

I've started noticing a trend lately as I've searched for covers for these critiques. Would you like to know what this trend is? Based on some of the covers I've posted in the past, this question probably has some of you grimacing and others of you checking over your shoulders at work to make sure no one can see your screen, and I have to tell you friends that reaction just makes me happy. I feel like I've done my job well and have scarred many of you for life. No need to thank me. When I see something that makes me want to tear the eyeballs from my head and wash them vigorously in an effort to scrub the image off, I can't help but say to myself "Self, you should share this experience with others". Kind of like when something smells terrible and the first thing you want to do after smelling it is hand it to someone else and make them smell it too so you can suffer together. And so here we are. Today, I bring you the gloriousness of cloth-covered goods.

THE COWBOY NEXT DOOR

Um. Well, he's very naked isn't he? Yes, yes he is. And also very hairless. I have just a couple things I want to discuss about what we're seeing here. First, the title is The Cowboy Next Door, yet I see no evidence of this headless nude fellow being a cowboy at all. Shouldn't he be wearing boots? Or nothing but a belt with an enormous buckle? Is the cowboy next door a nudist? I have to say I think it would be rather uncomfortable to be a nudist cowboy. Having ridden many a horse, I can say with some certainty that being naked while doing so would be unbelievably painful. Especially for a man. Not only would there be epic chafing, but I imagine there would be some rather intense pinching and squishing of delicate parts that then would most likely not be up for the sexy time after a day of bouncing around on the back of a horse. Probably wouldn't make for a very interesting romance novel then would it?

Chapter 1 - Rides horse naked.
Chapter 2 - Comes home in pain.
Chapter 3 - Parts don't want to work right.

Disappointing all the way around really. And I would like everyone to notice how I avoided the obvious "ridden hard, put away wet" commentary. It's because I'm classy. And mature. And clean-minded. (Is that laughing I hear from some of you? I think maybe it is...)

Second, is it me, or is he clutching that white towel just a little too strongly? Most covers with cloth-covered goods have the offending fabric wrapped rather precariously around the model's middle, teasing us with the promise of a peep show given how loosely the cloth hangs, as though the slightest breeze will cause it to drop those last vital inches. Such is not the case with our cowboy. Oh no. He seems to have a death grip on that towel which makes me wonder what he's hiding. Is it embarrassingly tiny? Will his hands look large in comparison? Is it oddly shaped? Kinked? Curved? Are there two heads? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR JUNK NAKED COWBOY!!!!

You're all staring at his crotch trying to make out the shape of his dangly bits to see if there's something off about them now aren't you? It can't be helped, his white-knuckle grip on that towel just raises too many questions.

Moving on.

WOVEN DREAMS

Anyone else just do a double take on this cover? I know I did. At first glance I thought he was holding some sort of green squash, which of course led my mind down an uncomfortable path lined with questions about what a naked man would be doing with a green groin squash, but then I leaned closer to my computer screen and realized my error. Penis squash crisis averted. *wipes sweat off brow*

After the squash debacle, I next thought maybe his junk was tattooed. Like a sleeve. Only on his goods. Yikes. I just want to quickly say however that even though I have absolutely no training in the art of tattooing, I would be more than willing to offer up my services in this one unique case should this naked man of woven dreams actually want his nether regions inked. It would be a strictly professional situation. Obviously.

Eventually, my mind clawed it's way out of a squash and tattoo-laced gutter and I finally realized that we are simply dealing with some phallic shaped patterned fabric, though I'm not entirely convinced this realization improves the cover situation. It's clear a great deal of trouble went into this model's pose to ensure no woman could mistake what he's holding in his hands to be anything other than what the good Lord blessed him with at birth, and that just makes me giggle. Can you imagine being on this photo shoot? I'm sure it was someone's job to help shape that fabric and make sure the light hit it just right to create the illusion of perhaps the largest phallus ever. Here's how I imagine a conversation between the stylist for this shoot and a friend might go:

Friend: How was your day today?

Stylist: Oh, you know. Went to the shoot. Stood in front of a naked male model for hours molding a giant penis out of patterned fabric, all the while making sure his hands cupped the base and the head just so to make it look extra authentic and sexy.

Friend: The usual then.

Stylist: Yep. Same thing tomorrow, only this fabric is flesh colored instead of green. (see below image on far left)

Good times. Just in case these two aren't enough to satisfy your need to see more cloth-covered goods, I present to you the below for your viewing enjoyment. You're welcome. Happy Friday!

Click to enlarge
(there's a joke in there somewhere, but since I ooze class and maturity today, I shall refrain from making it)

* A special thank you to Jen from In The Closet with a Bibliophile and Amanda from On a Book Bender for bringing some of these covers to my attention.

Review: Arcadia Awakens

2012-01-26T00:00:00.003-05:00

ARCADIA AWAKENS (Arkadien #1)
Kai Meyer
Paranormal Young Adult
464 pages
Balzer + Bray
Available February 14th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
To Rosa Alcantara, the exotic world of Sicily, with its network of Mafia families and its reputation for murder and intrigue, is just that—exotic and wholly unknown. But when her life in Brooklyn begins to fall apart, she must travel there, to her family’s ancestral home, where centuries of family secrets await her.

Once there, Rosa falls head over heels for Alessandro Carnevare, the son of a Sicilian Mafia family, whose handsome looks and savage grace both fascinate and unsettle her. But their families are sworn enemies, and her aunt and sister believe Alessandro is only using Rosa to infiltrate the Alcantara clan. And when Rosa encounters a tiger one night—a tiger with very familiar eyes—she can no longer deny that neither the Carnevares nor the Alcantaras are what they seem.

Hidden caves, dangerous beasts roaming the hills, and a history of familial bloodlust mean that Rosa can’t trust anyone. Torn between loyalty to her family and love for their mortal enemy, Rosa must make the hardest decision of her life: stay in Sicily with her new love…or run as far and as fast as she can.

MY THOUGHTS
Arcadia Awakens is an unusual story, one where the strangeness of it is both a positive in that it stands out amidst the masses of paranormal young adult fiction, and a negative in that it leaves us a bit unsure as to exactly how we feel about what we’ve read. On the plus side we have the richly atmospheric setting of Sicily, a place where light and dark exist in equal measures and where the beauty of the landscape is in contrast with the nefarious deeds committed by the Cosa Nostra as they defend to the death their political and financial empires. We are also given a fascinating paranormal entity to pique our curiosity, however, there are so many branches to overall plot tree that it’s difficult for us to focus–our bodies so close to the trunk that we’re unable to look up and take in the entire tree as a whole, instead we're left with eyes darting side to side and up and down trying to decipher the tangle of limbs.

Rosa is a hard young woman, events of her recent past fundamentally altering the girl she used to be and transforming her into someone who relies on small acts of rebellion–whether it’s stealing small items or using her bad attitude as a defense mechanism–to win back some of the control over her life that was stripped from her the year before. Even understanding the pain and loss she experienced doesn’t entirely warm us to her, and her cold treatment of Alessandro makes it difficult for us to believe in their budding forbidden attraction. Without even the slight warmth from a romantic spark, the other prevalent dangers and family secrets are a bit overwhelming, and we find ourselves floundering alone in a world where honor has a rather dubious definition and loyalty is as much an item for sale as any product in one of the many Sicilian markets.

Though the synopsis suggests that Alessandro and Rosa’s love (though this term is used loosely when applied to their relationship) is of the epic Romeo and Juliet variety, it actually proves to be somewhat of a non-issue given that neither family seems overly bothered at the idea of them together. We then spend a good deal of our time trying to figure out if one of the other multiple conflicts is going to become the center around which the other elements revolve, but our search for one predominant issue is in vain. No single conflict is given more attention than the others to help direct our gaze, instead we’re simply readers with poor eyesight denied our prescription glasses to bring us clarity, awash in a blur of images we want so badly to blink into focus.

By the time we reach the end of this story of not inconsiderable length, a few of the aforementioned plot tree branches have been shorn, leading us to believe that perhaps the next installment might be more streamlined than this first one. Due to certain events in the concluding pages, the forbidden aspect of Rosa and Alessandro’s relationship is elevated to a whole new level, serving as the piece of flint we’ve been waiting for to help ignite this story’s tinder; the only problem is it seems we’ll have to wait to see if that spark takes hold in the second book or if it’s smothered again by an overabundance of other elements.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mini Reviews + Giveaways: Deep Sky + The Adoration of Jenna Fox

2012-01-25T00:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm very excited to welcome my mother-in-law Cathy to the blog, she's a fellow book lover (and someone I've gotten addicted to many a book series) who's going to be helping me out every now and then with reviews when I get a little overwhelmed. She took over the reviews for Deep Sky and listened to the audiobook for The Adoration of Jenna Fox as I was unable to fit them into my schedule, so I just want to extend a sincere thank you to her for her help and look forward to her contributing more in the future!

DEEP SKY (Travis Chase #3)
Patrick Lee
Mystery/Thriller
400 pages
HarperCollins
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Barnes and Noble)
The anomaly called the Breach is the government’s most carefully guarded secret.

But there is another secret even less known . . . and far more terrifying.

As the U.S. President addresses the nation from the Oval Office, a missile screams toward the White House. In a lightning flash, the Chief Executive is dead, his mansion in ruins, and two cryptic words are the only clue to the assassins’ motives: “See Scalar.”

Now Travis Chase of the covert agency Tangent—caretakers of the Breach and all its grim wonders—along with partner and lover Paige Campbell and technology expert Bethany Stewart, have only twenty-four hours to unearth a decades-old mystery once spoken of in terrified whispers by the long since silenced. But their breakneck race cross-country—and back through time and malleable memory—is calling the total destructive might of a shadow government down upon them. For Travis Chase has a dark destiny he cannot be allowed to fulfill . . .

CATHY'S THOUGHTS
Deep Sky is the last book in a trilogy. It begins with the assassination of the President and the only clue is a cryptic message–See Scalar. This leads to our hero, Travis Chase and his partner Paige Campbell. Both work at Tangent, a secret facility that oversees alien entities that come through the Breach. They know this message has something to do with them but have to look for clues and use some of the alien entities to figure out what is happening. One in particular is an entity that lets them travel into a memory and seek out more than just what is remembered in that memory. They do all this while being pursued by the new President and members of his regime. There are lots of twists, turns, and surprises which I won't mention because I don't want to spoil the story. The ultimate theme of the story is–If you could alter history, would you and at what cost?

Mr. Lee writes a twisting and intriguing mystery. He gives lots of clues and quickly eliminates the possibilities which makes you want to find out what will happen next. He does a great job of making us feel like we're methodically putting a puzzle together, and the book moves at a good pace. I have not read the first two books in the series and felt I might have missed some background history on characters and events that might have made the ending a little clearer (and there was additionally an underlying science fiction theme that was not overly prominent until the conclusion of the book), but on the whole the story held its own.

Rating: 4/5

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX (audiobook)
Mary E. Pearson
Paranormal Young Adult
Audiobook
Macmillan Young Listeners
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?

This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity. Mary Pearson's vividly drawn characters and masterful writing soar to a new level of sophistication.

CATHY'S THOUGHTS
This is my first audiobook and I found it a bit of a challenge. I love to read, feel the book, see the words on a page and go at my own pace. Because of this I found the audio version to be a little slow for me and found myself easily distracted. I will say that the narrator, a young woman, had an age-appropriate sounding voice. She mostly read from the main character’s point of view, which was Jenna, but also tried to vary her tone when reading other character parts. She read at an even and steady pace. Though audiobooks may not be for me, I can see a real purpose in them for those who have the time or need to use them.

The story is of 17 year-old Jenna Fox, struggling to find out who she is both figuratively and literally. It's set in the future with Jenna waking up from a coma and needing to rediscover who she is. As her memory returns, she finds out things about her past and her parents that she doesn’t understand or like. Because it's set in an age of biomedical engineering, Jenna is faced with some ethical questions and choices. It was a very interesting premise and does raise some questions about how far a parent would go to save a child.

I would give it a 3 as an audio book and a 3.5 as a book.

GIVEAWAY

Today I'm offering up both a paperback copy of Deep Sky and the audiobook version of The Adoration of Jenna Fox to one lucky winner. To enter, please just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Friday, January 27th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

Tempting Tuesdays: Chapters 13-15 + Epilogue

2012-01-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week four of the Some Girls Bite Read-Along! For those of you who don't know, the wonderful ladies behind Tina's Book Reviews, Books in the Spotlight, The Unread Reader and myself are hosting a read-along of book one of Chloe Neill's outstanding Chicagoland Vampires urban fantasy series. Each week we'll pose and answer five questions about the book and then hop around to the other blogs who have signed up to check out everyone's answers! For all the details about the event and our grand prize giveaway, be sure and check out the introductory post HERE.

Missie is the host this week, so be sure and visit her site to link up your posts! This is the last week for discussion posts, but be sure and check back next week for Chloe's special guest post as well as the announcement of our grand prize winner. Thank you so much to everyone who participated and to my fellow hosts, this has been a blast!

January 3rd - Chapters 1-4 (Jenny at Supernatural Snark)
January 10th - Chapters 5-8 (Tina at Tina's Book Reviews)
January 17th - Chapters 9-12 (Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight)
January 24th - Chapters 13-15 + epilogue (Missie at The Unread Reader)
January 31st - Special guest post by Chloe Neill and our grand prize giveaway!

CHAPTERS 13-15 + EPILOGUE

Chapter 13 opens with Merit describing her new job routine as House Sentinel. Considering that every job Cadogan House is important in helping to make the house run efficiently, which job do you think you'd like to have (guard, cook, social director, gardener, etc.) and why?

Well, I most certainly would never be the cook. I'm miserable in the kitchen. Correction. Epically miserable. That's a far more accurate description. You don't want to eat at my table unless you like all of your food with a nice black char on it ;-) I think I would probably want to be a guard like Lindsey, as that way I would be forced to workout and stay in shape (something I neglect to do now) and I would keep plenty busy. Should there be a lull in my guard duties and I find myself bored, I'd at least have Luc in the operations room with me so I could occupy myself ogling him. Dream job accomplished.

In the supernatural world of Chicagoland Vampires, politics seem to play an important role in the way the Houses are run. Now that you've been introduced to the Rogues, do you think it's better for vampires to be a part of a House or to live outside of one?

While I don't always agree with the strict rules and regulations governing the House system and would most likely push against its rigid structure as Merit does, I still think I would prefer it to the unknown. We know so little of the Rogues in this first book, and while living with them could be the greatest life ever, it could also have more rules than the House system and could easily be more violent without the protection of the very politics that make the Houses so frustratingly complicated. At this point, better the evil I know than the one I don't.

After Morgan openly asks to court Merit, she feels betrayed when Ethan commands her to accept for the show of alliance it could bring to Cadogan House. Do you think her reaction was warranted?

I do. While Merit may buck Ethan's authority and take offense (as she should) to his less-than-flattering offer of being his mistress, there's clearly a spark between them and the potential for something interesting. He spends 99% of the book aggressively campaigning for her loyalty and her trust, and the moment he has it, he dangles her out there like some Cadogan prize available for the taking as long as the bid is high enough. He proves to her in that moment that she's not just a person and not just a Cadogan vampire, she's a chess piece on his sprawling and ever-changing board, and what woman wouldn't feel that slight from someone she's attracted to?

When Ethan meets with the perpetrator of the murders, were you surprised to discover who it was? If you suspected someone, were your suspensions correct? What did you think of the perpetrator's motive?

This is another one of those questions that's hard for me to answer knowing everything I do from the remaining books in the series, so I'll just say this: That woman can't get her comeuppance soon enough.

What was your favorite/least favorite parts of Some Girls Bite?

For me the relationship between Merit and Mallory is one of the highlights. Their banter keeps things light when the weight of all the drama Ethan brings settles in and starts pushing down, and I can't help but love their mutual appreciation for snark. It makes me think we would be friends if they were real :-) I also really love the tension between Ethan and Merit, there's something beautifully painful about them together, and theirs is a relationship where you know each book is going to add a new layer to their connection, and I love starting a book with the promise of increased tension and electricity sparking right there at my fingertips.

What do you think is coming up next for Merit, Sentinel of Cadogan House? Will you continue reading this series, and if so, what do you hope to see happen in the next book?

This is one of my favorite urban fantasy series, so I've already read them all and am now not-so patiently waiting for Biting Cold which I believe comes out in August. To those who have read this book and have questions regarding Ethan and his motives, all I can say is keep reading!

Review: Incarnate

2012-01-23T00:00:00.001-05:00

INCARNATE (New Soul #1)
Jodi Meadows
Young Adult/Dystopian
384 pages
HarperTeen
Available January 31st
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

MY THOUGHTS
Deeply intriguing and beautifully told, Incarnate brings to life a world of fantasy that–for all its differences and its paranormal qualities–manages to highlight an inherent flaw we often don’t like to recognize in ourselves or others when confronted directly with it. Ana, being the only newsoul in a place where the same one million souls have been born again and again for five thousand years, is the epitome of an outcast, and through her eyes we see the disdain, the fear, and the distrust someone who’s different elicits in those who believe they possess the one and only indisputable view of how things should be. Seeing such blatant prejudice portrayed in a way that’s so different from our reality but also so horrifyingly familiar strikes a poignant cord in us as we wish for nothing more than the ability to leap into the pages and assume a supportive position behind, in front of, or beside Ana with the few others who see her as human not anathema.

Ana is a young woman who has our support from page one, her loneliness as visible and as palpable as if she wore it as a cloak about her shoulders and stood in front of us with every vulnerability spelled out on her sleeve, allowing us instant access to the depths of her character with no holds barred. Despite her fear of the unknown, she sets out for Heart with purpose and hope, the horrors of her childhood with an emotionally and physically abusive parent not fully corrupting her faith that not everyone will see her as Li does. At times her suspicions of Sam’s motives and her uncanny ability to read too much into what is said start to irk us, but just as they do we remember that for the past eighteen years her only social contact has been with a woman whose interactions with her have dripped with derision–sharp words wielded as weapons meant to inflict wounds deep enough to scar but shallow enough to ensure she would survive them to endure the torture another day.

Ana’s relationship with Sam is both sorrowful and indescribably wistful at the same time, beginning as a fragile friendship that slowly grows into something greater as trust becomes more than a simple word tossed out to force a tenuous bond, and then quietly transforming into a tangible thing that has been earned with limitless patience and increasing desire. Their actions are never hurried, Ana’s understandable hesitancy to believe the reality of what’s happening between them and Sam’s fear that she’ll continue to misinterpret his feelings for her creating a chasm of space between them emotionally despite there only ever being feet between them physically. Ever-present while reading is an incessant tug in our bellies, a slow twisting that by the end has us thoroughly tangled in knots as tension between the two of them ebbs and flows at the perfect pace to keep us on edge the entire way through.

The only mild complaint is a common one for first books in a series, a great deal of questions and wide open musings plaguing us as we reach the last page, but we are blissfully left without a gut-punching cliffhanger. We definitely want to know more about the few revelations we’re given in the concluding chapters, however, we look forward to the next books with a sense of optimistic curiosity instead of wild desperation, something that will surely make the wait in between books far more bearable.

Rating: 4/5

Guest Post + Giveaway: JL Bryan, Fairy Blues and Fairy Metal Thunder

2012-01-21T23:15:00.009-05:00

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming young adult author JL Bryan back to the blog to help celebrate his newest release in the Songs of Magic series! While I haven't started this series of yet, his Paranormals series is a favorite of mine for his ability to write beautifully layered and complex characters, and I've no doubt this series will be as equally impressive in that regard. Welcome back to Supernatural Snark JL!

ROCK & ROLL & FAIRIES

Many thanks to Jenny for having me on her blog to launch Fairy Blues, the second book in the Songs of Magic series! Here’s some background on these books...

In folklore, there has long been a deep association between fairies and music. Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, a collection edited by W. B. Yeats, includes a number of these stories.

“The Legend of Knockgrafton” tells of a gentle man named Lunsmore who is a social outcast because of a huge hump on his back. Walking home one night, Lunsmore hears fairy music and sings along. The fairies are so impressed by his singing that they remove his hump and give him a fine suit of clothes. Later, another man tries to get a free suit of clothes by singing along with the fairies, but he’s not such a good singer, and they punish him by putting Lunsmore’s hump on his back! Clearly, fairies take their music very seriously. John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity has nothing on the Folk.

Yeats has this to say about fairy music: “Many a poor girl has heard them, and pined away and died, for love of that singing. Plenty of the old beautiful tunes of Ireland are only their music, caught up by eavesdroppers...Carolan, the last of the Irish bards, slept on a rath, and ever after the fairy tunes ran in his head, and made him the great man he was.” (A rath is an old fort mound, the sort of place where fairies live.)

In The Folk-Lore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore, gives more stories about fairy music:

“Any one straying near these (fairy mounds) on a fine summer's evening would probably hear delightful music; but he must take care, especially if he is a musician, not to linger lest he should be entrapped.”

He tells of a man crossing a river on a horse: “As he was in the middle of it he heard, or imagined he heard, the finest symphony, he would not say in the world, for nothing human ever came up to it. The horse was no less sensible of the harmony than himself, and kept in an immoveable posture all the time it lasted; which, he said could not, be less than three-quarters of an hour.”

Moore also writes: “I have heard many Manxmen protest they have been carried insensibly great distances from home, and without knowing how they came there, found themselves on the top of a mountain. One man had been led by invisible musicians for several miles together, and not being able to resist the harmony, followed, till it conducted him into a large common, where were a great number of little people sitting round a table, and eating and drinking in a very jovial manner.” The fairies try to trap the man by getting him to drink their wine – anyone who eats or drinks among fairies is trapped, like Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds in the realm of Hades.

These kinds of stories led me to create the Songs of Magic series, about a teenage garage band (the Assorted Zebras) who swipe steal instruments from fairies and become huge stars as their music enchants the crowds.

For this series, I’ve read dozens of rock biographies, which makes for fun research. There are countless stories of stars being mobbed by crazed fans, riots at music shows, swarms of groupies intent on getting close to their idols. A number of bands, like Nirvana, left a wake of destruction everywhere they went, as if the energy generated by the group couldn’t be contained as they passed through concert venues and hotels all over the world.

In Life, Keith Richards describes the strange relationship between rock music and politicians, as local politicians would either try to arrest the Rolling Stones or get a photo op with them. Politicians usually picked the latter, because arresting the musicians could lead to a huge riot at the concert venue and/or the local jail. Rock musicians would get arrested for hard drugs but released the same day to avoid potential riots. In the 1960s and 70s, rock groups were closely monitored by the US and UK governments. The Nixon administration considered them threats to national security.

In the Songs of Magic series, enchanting fairy music and volatile rock music are combined into something powerful, music that can enscorcel people but also unleash mass destruction. The band don’t really understand the powers in their instruments...but they have to learn fast, because stealing the instruments has made them some powerful enemies among the fae, including Queen Mab herself. They will have to grapple with the Queen’s bounty hunters and supernatural minions, as well as tricky record executives, mobs of crazed fans, and all the problems of sudden fame and fortune.

Thanks again to Jenny for having me on Supernatural Snark today! I like this place.

GIVEAWAY

JL is generously offering up a copy of Fairy Metal Thunder, book one in the series, to one lucky winner today! This giveaway is international (US residents will receive a paperback copy, international winners will receive an e-book) and will run through midnight EST on Friday, January 27th after which time a winner will be chosen by Random.org and announced on the blog. To enter, please just name a rock song that you'd like to hear the Assorted Zebras play over their enchanted fairy gear and be sure to leave a valid email address or Twitter name so JL and I can contact you if you win. Good luck everyone!

J.L. Bryan is the author of The Paranormals series (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, Alexander Death) and other books. Fairy Metal Thunder is the first book in his new Songs of Magic series. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, his baby son John, and some dogs and cats.

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Buy Fairy Metal Thunder (just $.99)
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FAIRY METAL THUNDER (Songs of Magic #1)

The Assorted Zebras are a teenage garage band in Wisconsin with no fans and no gigs, until they steal four enchanted instruments from the fairy world. The new instruments make the band a huge overnight success, but they aren’t exactly ready for fame, fortune, or the supernatural creatures sent by the fairies to track them down.

Interview: Brodi Ashton + Everneath

2012-01-20T15:10:00.001-05:00

Today I'm beyond thrilled to welcome young adult author Brodi Ashton to the blog! Her debut novel, Everneath, releases from Balzer + Bray on January 24th and I cannot adequately express in words how much I loved this book. My review took me 2385729834 hours to write (that may be a touch exaggerated) because the sentences I typed seemed to pale in comparison with how I actually felt so I kept deleting them. Needless to say, it's one I highly recommend and I hope everyone adds it to their lists if it's not already on there!

If you were facing the same fate as Nikki and only had a short amount of time left on the Surface, what are the top 3 things you would make sure to do before you had to go back?

Oooh. That's a good question. Hmmmm. I would eat my mother's meatloaf. As much as I wanted! Okay, I'm just now realizing that I should've said "hug my children and my hubby" first. So that's two... Number three would be to take my entire family to a beach house. Ugh, I'm so boring. :)

Given the experiences Nikki has when she returns–seeing the pain her disappearance caused friends and family–do you think she would make the same choice again after waking up from the Feed if she had to do it over?

Wow. Another good question! I don't know for sure, but deep down I think Nikki already knew how difficult it would be, but she didn't want to face it. I think ultimately her love for Jack would've overwhelmed any other feelings. But I'm not sure. What do you think?

*I honestly have no idea! If I were in her shoes I would want so badly to Return to say goodbye to my family, but at the same time, seeing how much pain it caused her loved ones makes me reconsider. SO HARD*

There are two very intriguing boys in this story, both of whom know Nikki in their own unique way. If they were both asked to describe her, what might each of them say?

Jack would say she's smart and sexy and everything he wants for forever. She's someone he could say anything to, but she's also powerful because she has a way of making him feel more vulnerable than he ever has.

Cole would describe her as bewildering, self-sacrificial and stubborn. But those are also the same qualities that make her so bewitching. He's not sure if what he feels is love, but he's never felt it before.

Were there any other names for Cole’s world you went through before finally deciding Everneath fit it best?

Originally I called it the Underneath. But I realized I wanted a name that would encompass what exactly this place is, so my critique partner Bree Despain and I came up with a mixture of the words "Forever" and "Beneath". I think it really brings up the right picture, even though readers might not see it right away.

Is there anything about your characters or world that surprised you when it got on paper? Perhaps something about their personalities or pasts? Or details with regard to the Everneath that existed one way in your head but changed as soon as your fingers hit the keys?

Oh, so many things were unplanned for in this book. I don't want to give away many details, but I will say that the ending I envisioned was drastically different than the one that came out. But as I was writing it, I realized it couldn't end any other way. Oh, and I always thought Jules would be meaner to Nikki than she actually is, but she turned out to be a true friend who was facing her own pain because of Nikki's decisions.

Okay, that last one was totally a run-on sentence. Sorry. Thanks for having me!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions Brodi! More information on Brodi and the Everneath trilogy can be found here:

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Review + Giveaway: The Way We Fall

2012-01-19T00:00:00.006-05:00

THE WAY WE FALL
Megan Crewe
Young Adult
304 pages
Disney-Hyperion
Available January 24th
Received through Big Honcho Media for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn't?

Megan Crewe crafts a powerful and gripping exploration of self-preservation, first love, and hope. Poignant and dizzying, this heart-wrenching story of one girl’s bravery and unbeatable spirit will leave readers fervently awaiting the next book in this standout new series.

MY THOUGHTS
The Way We Fall is a story that creeps along, symptoms of a new and deadly virus presenting themselves slowly to give our fear plenty of time to grow and expand as the virus itself does until our mind can focus on nothing else but the questions of who is going to survive it and who is going to succumb. As we read, we find ourselves victims of one psychosomatic symptom after another, convinced every tiny itch and every sneeze is indicative of something far worse–as though the sickness can spread from the world of fiction to our reality and claim us as the first casualty of an epidemic that's history in the making. We have no choice but to watch through Kaelyn’s eyes as she records every detail of her changing world in her journal, our utter helplessness to stop the spread of infection combining with our fear for the day to day survival of those about whom we're reading to settle like a lead weight in our guts that refuses to budge.

Kaelyn is a fairly unremarkable young woman, a quality that makes her feel all the more tangible and allows us to easily transfer pieces of ourselves to the somewhat blank canvas she represents, giving us a beautifully normal starting point from which we can begin this traumatic journey together. She’s strong and courageous without being overly so, her fear of the unknown a character unto itself and one with which both she and we as readers walk hand in hand throughout this entire first installment. Our response to her isn’t an overly visceral one though, instead we react more to the situation itself than to Kaelyn in particular, making her feel more like a conduit through which we experience the action rather than a vital part of the action in her own right.

Readers who are looking for a fast paced read will likely lose patience a bit with this story, events progressing slowly but inexorably as the island is quarantined and the population culled body by body, friend by friend, and neighbor by neighbor. That being said, this pace is a perfect way to build tension as we watch symptoms progress in the ill and the ethical and mental status deteriorate in the healthy, though at times we can’t help but want something big to happen to grab us by the heart and yank us kicking and screaming into the story.

Overall, The Way We Fall has a fascinating premise that makes our skin crawl with phantom itches and our throats cough away imaginary tickles with each new case of the virus, but the pacing does add significant weight to the story, making us feel as though we’re trudging through thick mud as opposed to sprinting weightlessly over clear ground. Interesting developments at the end definitely cause our curiosity to spike in the last few pages, and the promise of perhaps some increased emotional intensity shines brightly enough to have us jotting down a reminder to look up the release date for the second book

Rating: 3.5/5

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the fabulous people at Big Honcho Media and Disney-Hyperion, I have 2 copies of The Way We Fall to give away on the blog today! To enter, please just leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. Giveaway is open to US residents only and will run though midnight EST on Friday, January 27th after which time the winners will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

Tempting Tuesdays: Chapters 9-12

2012-01-17T00:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to week two of the Some Girls Bite Read-Along! For those of you who don't know, the wonderful ladies behind Tina's Book Reviews, Books in the Spotlight, The Unread Reader and myself are hosting a read-along of book one of Chloe Neill's outstanding Chicagoland Vampires urban fantasy series. Each week we'll pose and answer five questions about the book and then hop around to the other blogs who have signed up to check out everyone's answers! For all the details about the event and our grand prize giveaway, be sure and check out the introductory post HERE.

Rummanah is the host this week, so be sure and visit her site to link up your posts! Missie is the host next week and has the discussion questions posted on her blog today.

January 3rd - Chapters 1-4 (Jenny at Supernatural Snark)
January 10th - Chapters 5-8 (Tina at Tina's Book Reviews)
January 17th - Chapters 9-12 (Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight)
January 24th - Chapters 13-15 + epilogue (Missie at The Unread Reader)
January 31st - Special guest post by Chloe Neill and our grand prize giveaway!

CHAPTERS 9-12

Catcher and Ethan share some personality traits. What makes Mallory, Merit, and even us readers attracted to these guys? Would you date/mate with someone like these guys in real life?

Honestly, I think most of their appeal for me is in the fact that they're fictional and pure fantasy material. While the thought of curling up to my idea of Ethan (I LOVE YOU GABRIEL AUBRY) each night is hugely appealing, I know I would grow tired of his brooding nature and his games if I had to contend with them on a daily basis. I find him infuriatingly sexy because I only spend time with him while reading and don't have to deal with his attitude on days when the laundry is piling up and I haven't washed even so much as a sock, when I've completely ruined dinner, or when the dogs have thrown up on the carpet. Multiple times. Instead I have my husband who can laugh with me over all of those things and then run to get us McDonald's since what I've made is inedible. I don't have interact with Ethan, I just have to picture him looking pretty. And naked. And that's enough for me ;-)

In Chapter 9 we learn of another murder. Do you see any patterns with the previous murder and Merit's attack? Do you have any guesses as to who is responsible and the motive behind the murders?

This is me completely avoiding this question because I'm a cheater and know who's behind everything. I'm one of those people who reads the back of the book first, so even though this is a reread for me and I know the answer by default of that fact, I still knew whodunnit even the first time around because I'm that girl.

The commendation is my favorite moment in the book and a significant event in Merit's life. She has finally come to terms that she is a Cadogan vampire. Were you surprised at all that Merit resisted Ethan's call and that he made her a Sentinel? Do you think she'll do well in this position? Why or why not?

I'm not surprised she resisted his call in the least. She's exhibited unusual gifts for a new vampire from the beginning, so I think the fact that he's not omnipotent when it comes to her isn't a huge shock. I also think it adds a necessary dynamic to their relationship on both sides–for Merit, now she knows that any time she obeys a direct order from Ethan she's choosing to do so of her own free will and because she believes in what he's asking, and for Ethan, he now knows her following an order is because he's earned her loyalty instead of forced obedience on her. It levels the playing field a bit.

And yes, I think Merit will rock as Sentinel.

Loyalty is a reoccurring theme throughout the book and much of this series. Why is it so important to Ethan that he needs Merit's allegiance? Is it solely a Master and Sentinel thing or does it imply something else?

I think so much of why Ethan demands more from Merit than he does his other vampires has to do with the way she was changed. For most initiates, they choose to be part of Cadogan House and are one of a limited few who are selected to be added to their ranks, and as such, their loyalty is automatic and unwavering given it's something they requested and were granted. Merit has no such automatic loyalty because her choice was taken from her, and so Ethan I think fears that she poses a threat to Cadogan given her questionable transition and therefore is more intense in his pursuit of her allegiance.

If you had the opportunity to sit down with Ethan, Merit, Mallory, and Catcher for a bite to eat like in the beginning of Chapter 12, what questions would you ask them at this point of the story?

First, I would ask Merit, Mallory, and Catcher to please excuse us so I could be alone with Ethan. Then I would leap from my seat and catapult myself into his lap while proceeding to give him a kiss the likes of which he's never seen before and which may not be appropriate for public viewing. After I finished copping a feel, I would return to my seat and order more food than any one person should be allowed to eat because all of this talk about Olive Garden over the past week has made me ravenous. I need breadsticks immediately.

Review: Everneath

2012-01-16T00:00:00.002-05:00

EVERNEATH (Everneath #1)
Brodi Ashton
Paranormal Young Adult
384 Pages
HarperTeen
Available January 24th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

MY THOUGHTS
Eerily beautiful and haunting, Everneath is a story that wraps around us like the folds of a blanket, providing us something tangible to which we can hold on tight, but at times we find the edges of what should be comforting pulled so tight it causes our chests to constrict in vicarious pain and our breath to catch, and we are left swaddled in a cocoon formed of love, loss, and sacrifice. Each page turned brings us a little closer to the end of Nikki’s time on the Surface, the soft whisper of paper on paper echoing loudly in our ears as though trumpets were blaring to announce the imminent arrival of her dark fate in the Everneath. The countdown of days left in the present combined with flashes from before the Feed keep us intrigued and on edge, trying to sort through the pieces of a broken life granted a brief period of time in which to repair all damage caused by her abrupt departure. Our trust is fragile in this story, made so by a gloriously muddled before with both Jack and Cole and an exquisitely executed after where everything between the three of them changes, and we hurtle forward at a devastating speed toward an end where past and present meet to create a future never anticipated.

Nikki has been stripped of her emotions thanks to Cole when we first meet her, a shell of a girl driven to drastic actions by the influx of more pain than she’s able to bear. Her decision to Return seems like an obvious and simple one until we see the destruction left in the wake of her unexpected absence, and suddenly we find ourselves wondering as Nikki does if staying in the Everneath might have been more of a gift to those around her than her temporary reappearance to say goodbye. She tries so hard to make things easier for those she loves, but as so often is the case, succeeds in making them more difficult instead. Her story resonates through every fiber of our being, the inexorable ticking of the clock a spectral presence always felt though never seen, and our hearts shatter a little more each page as we draw closer to the moment she’ll disappear forever.

Though the synopsis for this book gives the impression we'll find ourselves in the middle of an all-too familiar love triangle, the reality is a far different, far richer experience that floods us with more emotional intensity than just an attraction to two young men. We understand so little of either Jack or Cole initially, knowing only that Nikki chose a century with Cole willingly after something with Jack drove her to make the decision to do so, and so we read feeling like we are standing outside in a world that’s uncomfortably quiet–ears straining to pick up even the slightest rustle to help us gather information, but the harder we try, the quicker the wind carries those sounds away. Slowly, bit by bit, those whispers find their way back to us though, and the truth of one character is revealed in all its agonizing glory, while the other remains a bit in shadow with only select facets of himself illuminated for our gaze. Both men captivate and intrigue, but one leaves us with a piece of our hearts missing, washed away in a deluge of tears and heartache.

Everneath is a truly outstanding debut, a memorable tale that earns itself a place on that special shelf for books that are destined to have pages crinkled and worn from having been read so many times.

Rating: 5/5

Rock God: A Musical Event and Signing

2012-01-14T23:34:00.007-05:00

I'm really excited to share with you today some information about an upcoming event and author signing to promote the release of Rock God by Barnabas Miller! Mr. Miller, in addition to being a young adult author, also happens to produce music for film and television and is the drummer for a band by the name of Tiger Beat which features fellow young adult authors Libba Bray, Natalie Standiford, and Dan Ehrenhaft as well. Cool right?

To celebrate, he and his band mates are going to be performing a single he produced in addition to other music, and they will all be signing their books as an added bonus! For anyone in the New York City or surrounding areas, I hope you'll pop in for the event, it sounds like it's going to be a blast! I'll be here. In Ohio. With the snow. And the lack of fun author jam sessions and signings. *dramatic sigh*

ROCK GOD EVENT
Barnes & Noble at East 86th
150 East 86th Street
New York City, NY
Thursday, January 19th
7pm
In attendance: Barnabas Miller, Libba Bray, Natalie Standiford and Dan Ehrenhaft

One of the songs they will be performing is "written and performed" by the protagonist of Rock God, B.J Levine, and you can find the song, "Three Notes", on the Facebook Fan Page! You can also follow Mr. Miller tweeting as B.J. here.

ROCK GOD (from Goodreads)

B.J. Levine, a mild-mannered, 13-year-old boy voted most likely to become a tax accountant, moves to New York City and discovers his true purpose: he must transform himself into the most almighty rocker since Jon Bon Jovi. B.J. battles his father's disappointment, his mother's disapproval, his lack of apparent talent, and a secret society of middle-aged bikers as he gathers a ragtag band and embarks on a real life rock Odyssey.

On a side note, I've been horrible lately about announcing giveaway winners, I'm so sorry! The winners are always chosen and emailed right away but I'm bad about posting them here on the blog. Thanks so much for everyone who takes the time to enter and to Teen Book Scene and Kismet Book Touring for organizing such amazing tours and giveaways!

DRAGONSWOOD

Winner:
Tayte H.

MY TATTERED BONDS

Winner:
Linda

Review: What Boys Really Want

2012-01-13T00:00:00.001-05:00

WHAT BOYS REALLY WANT
Pete Hautman
Contemporary Young Adult
304 Pages
Scholastic
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Lita is the writer. Adam is the entrepreneur. They are JUST FRIENDS.

So Adam would never sell copies of a self-help book before he'd even written it. And Lita would never try to break up Adam's relationship with Blair, the skankiest girl at school. They'd never sabotage their friends Emily and Dennis. Lita would never date a guy related to a girl she can't stand. They'd never steal each other's blog posts. And Adam would never end up in a fist fight with Lita's boyfriend. Nope, never.

Adam and Lita might never agree on what happened, but in this hilarious story from Pete Hautman, they manage to give the world a little more insight into what boys and girls are really looking for.

MY THOUGHTS
What Boys Really Want is a cute story that superficially illustrates a few of the fundamental differences in the way men and women think in a light, humorous way using two teenagers as the token representatives for their gender. There are no groundbreaking or overly astute observations and analyses of gender relations, but nor are there meant to be, instead we get to enjoy a quick romp through a world of misunderstandings and drama created by the lack of effective communication from one person to the next. We’ve all surely experienced such situations, and probably have made the quick judgments of character quality based on appearance and rumor as Lita does, so it’s an easy story to fall into despite the fact that once we’re in we really don’t wade in more than ankle deep.

Lita and Adam are more than opposites in just sex, their personalities placing them on opposite ends of the spectrum from one another and resulting in rather hilarious interactions that seem to be taken directly from our own lives as we’ve tried to communicate with members of the other gender. Lita is a meddler, constantly insinuating herself into the lives and happenings of others whether invited or not, dispensing snarky advice and generally focusing outward instead of dwelling on her own life. Adam, on the other hand, is distinctively more internal, often in his own little world and slightly oblivious to the thoughts and actions of those around him which causes him no shortage of trouble with both best friend Lita and with life in general. We don’t necessarily feel a strong connection to either character, but our time spent with them is enjoyable in a more shallow way, allowing us to walk away amused yet not inclined to sprint to our computers or phones to find someone with whom to share our reaction.

What Boys Really Want is the perfect read for those looking for a book that’s not overly emotional, dark, or intense, but who instead want to briefly escape into a relatable and familiar world that brings a quick laugh and then lets them go easily to move on to something perhaps more poignant or profound. This book is akin to an episode of Seinfeld: we’re not sure exactly what it’s about other than a brief snippet of time in the lives of others, but it’s enjoyable just the same. Mr. Hautman has a wonderful sense of humor, one that’s the perfect appetizer to get us in the mood for perhaps something slightly richer and more layered where the emotions are truly visceral and the reading experience a bit more powerful.

Rating: 3/5

Interview and Artwork Reveal: Sara Wilson Etienne + Harbinger

2012-01-12T00:00:00.003-05:00

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming young adult author Sara Wilson Etienne to the blog to answer a few questions about her upcoming release Harbinger! She's also granted me the opportunity to share a very cool piece of artwork pertaining to the novel, so be sure and check the bottom of the post to take a look at it. You'll also find details about the other beautiful pieces of art that have been revealed thus far along with a peek at the trailer.

If Faye had to share with us the first thought to pop into her mind upon seeing Holbrook Academy for the first time, what would she say?

They can leave me here, but they can’t make me stay. No one can.

Of course, Faye would never say this out loud, but she has a quiet and fierce determination. And everything about Holbrook seems wrong to her. All the trees blocking out the light, Dr. Mordoch’s plastic smile, and, most of all, the off-kilter Compass Rose–the building at the heart of campus.

Let’s say you‘ve suddenly found yourself a student at Holbrook. Which would be worse for you: spending time in the “meditation center” or spending time with your Aunts and Uncles sharing your problems with your new Family?

Definitely spending time with the Aunts and Uncles. Unlike Faye, I think I could deal with being locked up, even in the dark. But I think all the pretending would be awful…pretending I cared, pretending I was normal, pretending to cooperate.

Do you think you’d be a rebel like Faye, Kel and their Family if you were in their shoes–bucking Dr. Mordoch’s authority and fighting her brand of “help”–or would you try to toe the line?

I’d like to say that I’d rebel like Family Five, but unfortunately I tend to be a chicken around authority figures. It’s definitely one of the reasons I wrote Faye and love her as a character. Thinking about her makes me braver!

If Kel could relive that first day with Faye in their separate cells in the Meditation Center knowing how events would play out from that point forward, do you think he would do anything differently, tell her something else about himself, or ask her a specific question?

Wow. What an interesting question…honestly it’s hard to imagine. It’s their strangeness in the dark that gives them such a sense of intimacy. I’m sure if he could relive the moment having that knowledge, their meeting would fall flat.

What would the first line of Faye’s letter home to her parents say after she’s been at Holbrook for a few days were she allowed to send one?

You sent me here to get better. But things are only getting worse.

ARTWORK REVEAL

As mentioned above, in the weeks leading up to the release of Harbinger, Sara has been periodically revealing spectacular pieces of artwork from a myriad of artists, and I have the honor of sharing one such piece with you today. Here's a brief snippet from Sara's site to explain what you're seeing:

Twenty-four incredible illustrators and artists have picked their favorite scenes and characters from HARBINGER to give you a taste of Faye’s life at Holbrook Academy. Each Thursday leading up to the release of the book, a new illustration will be unlocked...

Here's today's scene:

(click to see larger)

Walk the Path! Explore the whole gallery of HARBINGER-inspired artwork HERE. More information on Sara, Harbinger, and Holbrook Academy can be found below.

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Holbrook Academy

HARBINGER (from Goodreads):

When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn't expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she's going crazy. Fast.

But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she's come home. She's even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.

Faye knows she's the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can't trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her - and the rest of the world too.

Dark Days Tour: Interview with Veronica Rossi

2012-01-11T00:00:00.003-05:00

I'm beyond excited to welcome young adult author Veronica Rossi to the blog today to answer a few questions about her amazing novel, Under the Never Sky, as part of HarperTeen's The Dark Days of Supernatural tour. This book just blew me away, and I couldn't be any more in love with Aria and Perry if I tried (you can read my full review here). For those of you who don't know about all the events planned for this tour and the fabulous authors scheduled to appear on it, I've got links and details at the bottom of this post. Thanks so much for stopping by Veronica!

If Aria could choose one thing about the world outside of Reverie that’s more beautiful, interesting, or just plain different from the same thing as represented in the Realms, what would it be and why?

The Realms are larger than life, and full of splash and fanfare, so the smaller things are what she would appreciate in real life for their intricacy and uniqueness, such as a rock, a sliver of bark, the sound of the wind.

There are so many quietly stunning moments between Aria and Perry as their relationship grows and changes; is there one moment, conversation, or interaction in particular that brought the biggest smile to your face or gave you a sense of supreme satisfaction?

Thank you! And yes, one of my favorite scenes between them occurs on a rooftop, in which Aria and Perry are talking, and then she sings to him. It’s a quiet scene, but I feel like it’s completely theirs. When I wrote it, I felt like I’d found the heart of the book.

Let’s say you’re cast out of Reverie as Aria is and are left alone in a completely unfamiliar environment. What’s the very first thing you would do?

Try to recall all the survival research I did for this book :-) Seriously, though. I’d try to stay calm and then cover the basic survival necessities: shelter, water and food.

Aria is musically gifted and has a breathtaking voice; do you have any musical talents yourself? I find I often send my dogs running from the room when I attempt to open my mouth to sing, it’s almost as though they sense it coming and take off as a preemptive measure to spare themselves the pain :-)

I’m so sorry your dogs do that, although it’s rather hysterical. I don’t have any musical talent whatsoever, but I do love music.

Both Perry and Aria seem to adapt really well to new situations and environments, taking things in stride and learning how to survive quickly. If they could choose to explore the world of another young adult novel, which one might they most like to experience?

I think Aria might like Prague, as seen in Laini Taylor’s DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. And I could picture Perry falling in easily into C.S. Lewis’ Narnia, though it’s a not a YA Novel.

The relationship between Aria and Perry is a joy to read, and one that is exceedingly memorable long after we’ve put the book down. Is there one romantic moment from either a book or movie that stands out in your mind as completely unforgettable?

One of my favorite romantic scenes is from the classic movie, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. It’s between Paul Newman’s character, Butch, and his best friend’s girlfriend, Etta, played by Katherine Ross. There’s a where they take off on a bicycle and spend an afternoon together, joking and having fun. It’s obvious they adore each other, but they’re both utterly loyal to Sundance, who is the common link between them. It’s such an honest and nuanced relationship. I absolutely love that scene.

What were the first words that popped into your head when the final finished copies of Under The Never Sky showed up at your door?

This is really happening.

Looking forward to the next two books in the series and the continuation of Aria and Perry’s journey, what color do you think best represents the emotions and events in store for us?

:-) I like this question. There’s going to be searing red anger, icy blue fear, and everything in between!

RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS
Since this Dark Days of Supernatural Tour is HarperTeen's biggest one yet,
I've asked Veronica a few quick-response "biggest" questions!

Biggest guilty pleasure?

Pasta. Cheese. Chocolate… Wait. Did you say one?

Biggest fear when first starting to write Under The Never Sky?

That I couldn’t effectively portray two distinctive separate worlds.

Biggest clothing/food/entertainment addiction?

Shoes!

Biggest writing-related dream?

To write purely, that is, solely for myself. And to improve. Always to improve!

Biggest author crush?

MT Anderson

Thank you so much for having me!

THE DARK DAY OF SUPERNATURAL

This tour is going to be an absolute blast, so in addition to following the blog tour (see below schedule), you'll also want to stay connected to all things Dark Days on the Pitch Dark Facebook page, including exclusive content features every Wednesday! You can also get tons of information, including a schedule, excerpts and fun quizzes and polls, on the Dark Days Central page.

There's currently a fun survival quiz for Under The Never Sky up HERE, be sure and hop over to see how you'd fair!

DARK DAYS LEG ONE BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

January 4th and 9th - Melina of Reading Vacation will be posting on Tahereh Mafi
January 5th and 10th - Jen of I Read Banned Books will be posting on Ellen Schreiber
January 6th and 11th - I will be posting on Veronica Rossi

DARK DAYS FACEBOOK SCHEDULE

Jan 4th - Veronica Rossi, Under the Never Sky
Jan 17th - Ellen Schreiber, Magic of the Moonlight
Jan 25th - Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Feb 1st - Cynitha Hand, Hallowed
Feb 8th - Jodi Meadows, Incarnate
Feb 22nd - Courtney Allison Moulton, Wings of the Wicked
Feb 29th - Brodi Ashton, Everneath

March14th - Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium
March 21st - Claudia Gray, Balthazar
March 28th - Alex Flinn, Bewitching

April 4th - Jill Hathaway, Slide
April 11th - Kimberly Derting, The Last Echo

Tempting Tuesdays: Chapters 5-8

2012-01-10T00:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome to week two of the Some Girls Bite Read-Along! For those of you who don't know, the wonderful ladies behind Tina's Book Reviews, Books in the Spotlight, The Unread Reader and myself are hosting a read-along of book one of Chloe Neill's outstanding Chicagoland Vampires urban fantasy series. Each week we'll pose and answer five questions about the book and then hop around to the other blogs who have signed up to check out everyone's answers! For all the details about the event and our grand prize giveaway, be sure and check out the introductory post HERE.

Tina is the host this week, so be sure and visit her site to link up your posts! Rummanah is the host next week and has the discussion questions posted on her blog today.

January 3rd - Chapters 1-4 (Jenny at Supernatural Snark)
January 10th - Chapters 5-8 (Tina at Tina's Book Reviews)
January 17th - Chapters 9-12 (Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight)
January 24th - Chapters 13-15 + epilogue (Missie at The Unread Reader)
January 31st - Special guest post by Chloe Neill and our grand prize giveaway!

CHAPTERS 5-8

In what is a make you blush, steamy scene in the book- Chapter 5 has Ethan and Merit sharing a few hot moments after Merit's hunger strikes...that is until Ethan becomes a total cad! What do you think of him so far? Strong, masterful vampire, conceited playboy.....lover boy in disguise?

This question is a little hard for me to answer since I've read all the books in the series so far and I think my opinion is therefore a bit biased based on everything I know about him both as a man and as Master of Cadogan House. Suffice to say though, I find him a delicious combination of infuriating and appealing, and I spend most of my time alternating between wanting to kiss him on the lips and wanting to knee him in the groin. Some chapters my lips tingle with the desire to fly off my face and onto Merit's to get to just a little taste of him, and other chapters my knee just bounces, waiting in vain for him to materialize so it can introduce itself to his manhood. Love it.

Merit and Mallory begin some major training in these next few chapters, resulting in cool Katana Sword facts and Ninja moves. What is the most physically challenging or adrenaline fueled event/activity you have participated in?

Riding horses! I started when my aunts and uncles splurged to get me riding lessons for I think my 7th birthday (it may have been Christmas, I can't remember), and my dad, bless him, enthusiastically encouraged me thinking I would lose interest after the pre-purchased number of lessons was up. Wrong. That first day at the barn triggered the start of my rather epic campaign for a horse of my own, a dream my amazing, wonderful parents made happen when I was 12. My first horse was named Sleepy and I had him for a couple years before I bought my beloved Alibi who I had until I left for college. I've been kicked, bitten, bucked off, knocked off by tree branches, and jumped many a jump all by my lonesome when Alibi decided he didn't want to jump with me and let me face plant in the dirt on the other side more times than I can count, but riding is the most fun I've ever had in my life :-)

I posted a picture of me and Alibi a little while back, but I thought I'd include another one just because I adore him and miss him still even after all these years:

Mallory and Catcher have sparks so intense they almost fly off the page.....what do you think of this cozy couple? Did you like the insta-love between them? Do they add to the story?

For me, the insta-love with them doesn't bother me as much as it usually does. I think part of it's because they're secondary characters and their romance is not the main focus, so I'm more accepting of their decisions/behaviors since Ethan and Merit consume so much more of my attention. I definitely think they add to the story though, I love when there's a strong cast of characters and not just a strong hero and heroine, the story is all the richer for it in my opinion.

Lets talk Bff's....Mallory is hands down a terrific friend to Merit, the girls relationship is real, down to earth and fun....not to mention hysterical. What is your favorite memory or favorite thing to do with your bff? Feel free to share pics!

Okay, before I answer this, I just need to prepare everyone for the lameness what you're about to read. It's such a small and simple and silly thing, but sometimes those are the things that wind up being the most memorable right? My best friend is a wedding planner, so given that I design wedding stationery, we have a lot of common ground. Every now and then the wedding industry (and life in general) can get a bit crazy and we both just need to take a breather. So we go to Olive Garden. Or as we call it, The Garden. Yes, you read that right. I love Olive Garden! We eat salad. And breadsticks. And swap funny client or family stories until we're snorting and spitting said breadsticks across the table in a way that probably scars fellow Garden patrons for life. Complete win.

Things are starting to heat up in the mystery department...the set up at Red, Morgan's flirty appearance.... Catchers vague answers......as correlation day gets closer for Merit do you think someone is out to get her...or maybe recruit her to another house? Or PS- feed her some more food...because goodnight this girl likes to eat!!!

I'm going to avoid answering the main part of this question since I won't be able to do so without sharing spoilers, and am instead going to focus on the eating remark since my answer to the previous question has now made me hungry. What I wouldn't give for a vampire metabolism! Think how many Garden breadsticks I could eat. I could even do the never ending pasta bowl! *dreamy sigh*

Interview: Kristen Painter + The House of Comarré Series

2012-01-09T00:00:00.002-05:00

Today I'm extremely excited to welcome author Kristen Painter to the blog to answer a few questions for me about her wonderful House of Comarré urban fantasy series! I thoroughly enjoyed the first three books (reviews for books one and two can be found here and here, with my review for Bad Blood going up on January 20th), and love the dark nature of the world as well as its inhabitants. I'm partial to a tortured and damaged hero, so Malkolm pushed all the right buttons for me and I can't wait for the next book in the series!

How did the idea for Chrysabelle’s gold filigree tattoos come about?

I had an idea – kind of a fleeting vision if you will - of her when I was in college. This woman in a white dress that dipped low enough in the back to reveal a small gold tattoo. And I knew that there was significance to that tattoo. It meant she was both desired and somehow dangerous. But I never knew what to do with that idea of her until Blood Rights was born.

If Chrysabelle could ask Malkolm one question about his past with the guarantee he would answer truthfully, what would she most like to know?

I’m not sure she’d ask him about his past. I think she’d like to know if he’s truly capable of loving her, but I also think the reason she doubts that is because she doubts her own ability. Those two…so many issues!

What aspect of the world you’ve created fascinates you most or gives you the most difficulty when writing?

I’d have to say the general mythology of the comarré. I love that there is so much of it as yet unmined, but at the same time, I want to be careful in how much and what I reveal so that I don’t tangle a storyline into something that can’t be undone or solved.

Mal and Chrysabelle have a very complicated and often tense relationship comprised of mutual need and desire–a combination that makes these books all the more addicting. Is there another literary couple that really stands out in your mind as a pairing you’ll always remember?

There are two:

Othello and Desdemona – I’m a huge Shakespeare fan and these two are about as tragic a love story as there is. Talk about your big misunderstanding! I’d pick them over Romeo and Juliet any day.

Cloak and Dagger – Also a huge comic book geek and this series is one of my all time favorites. In fact, Mal and Chrysabelle are in part an homage to these two who so greatly entertained me when I was a teenager. Google them. You’ll see what I mean. Cloak is everything dark, Dagger is everything light and there is a great deal of push/pull between them. Awesome stuff.

What might Malkolm say has been the biggest change in his life since Chrysabelle found her way into it?

Feeling human again. In more ways than one.

When looking at the three already released installments, is there anything about the characters or events that surprised you? Something that changed in the transition from your mind to the page?

Lots of stuff! But that’s the fun of the process. I love those discoveries and surprises. There’s a big secret about Maris in the first book that I didn’t know until the scene started to take place, but once I figured it out I was like, of course!

Does the fact that the word “blood” is in each of the book titles make it easier or harder to come up with them?

Probably harder. I like the titles to actually mean something for each story, so finding titles that fit and incorporate the word blood hasn’t always been easy. Not terribly difficult, but getting just the right one takes a little doing sometimes.

The first three books released a month apart (which works out brilliantly for us as readers); can you share with us any of the reasoning behind this marketing method and why it was chosen as opposed to the more typical 6 month or one year apart release dates?

I didn’t have anything to do with that – that was strictly up to my fabulous editor at Orbit Books. I do understand that it helps build an author and considering I was basically a debut author coming out in a tough genre (how many times have you heard people say they’re over the vampire thing?), I think it was such a smart way to get people into the series.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions Kristen! More information on her and the House of Comarré books can be found here:

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BLOOD RIGHTS: House of Comarre Book One (from Goodreads):

Born into a life of secrets and service, Chrysabelle’s body bears the telltale marks of a comarré—a special race of humans bred to feed vampire nobility. When her patron is murdered, she becomes the prime suspect, which sends her running into the mortal world…and into the arms of Malkolm, an outcast vampire cursed to kill every being from whom he drinks.

Now Chrysabelle and Malkolm must work together to stop a plot to merge the mortal and supernatural worlds. If they fail, a chaos unlike anything anyone has ever seen will threaten to reign.

Guest Post: Samantha Rendle + House of Vampires

2012-01-08T00:00:00.002-05:00

I'm joined on the blog today by young adult author Samantha Rendle who's going to share with us some of her experience with creating the characters and story for her novel, House of Vampires. Take it away Samantha!

I grew up familiar with stories about secret worlds – Narnia, The Secret Garden and Harry Potter being a few – and they fascinated me. I was also into vampires from an early age – I’ll always remember sitting in front of the television every week as a child, eager to catch up on the latest Buffy episode. So, when I decided I wanted to write stories I had an idea in my head, of a vampire and a key that unlocked the door to a secret world.

I knew what I wanted both my vampire and my key to look like. At the time, I was around fourteen and obsessed with a rock band called Fall Out Boy, particularly their video for A Little Less Sixteen Candles, which featured vampires. The main character in the video was Fall Out Boy’s bassist, who was playing a vampire. He was dark, brooding and good-looking, and I knew I wanted to base a character on him. I gave my main character similar looks and named him after the band’s bassist: Peter. As for the key, I wanted it to stand out. I got a lot of inspiration from tattoos for the key. I could picture it in my head clearly – a long cylinder with a skull on the top, surrounded by tiny golden vines – but I did not yet know what door it would open, and what would be behind the door.

I wrote draft after draft, none of them really going anywhere, and gave up time and time again. I decided to plan more thoroughly and came up with more characters: Annabel, Frank and Stella, the main character’s allies, and Lilith, Michael and Will, the main character’s enemies. The main character had a very strong, defined look, and I wanted his enemy to have the same qualities. I pictured Lilith to look like a rebellious schoolgirl, with luring violet eyes and silver hair. I got the idea from several things – fairies, pixies and other mythical creatures, mainly. I wanted her to be enchanting.

Once I came up with more characters, I had to come up with a solid idea. What were Peter’s enemies after? What would his adventure be? That was where the key fit in. His enemies would be after a key that lead to another dimension, that would free their evil allies, and Peter’s adventure would be defending the key. I created a world that the key would unlock, and a door to sever it from their home dimension.

Finally, I wanted to give the ‘good side’ a name. There were the evil vampires, including Lilith, Michael and Will, who lived in a luxurious mansion. There were the few who stood against them, including Annabel, Frank, Stella and Peter, who traveled from place to place. Then there were the humans, who had no idea about the war that would go on around them. Those who stood against the vampires spent their time hunting and silencing their enemies, so I thought it would be fitting to call them ‘The Hunters.’

And finally I had a story to write. Peter, a young vampire of fourteen (the age I was when I made him up) wakes up in the mansion with no idea who he is, and the only thing in his possession is a key. He soon learns that the key opens a door, which leads to a world filled with demons and vampires who would tear his world apart if the door was ever opened. He escapes the house and finds the Hunters, who, although they don’t trust him at first, take him in and let him join their fight against the other vampires. Now all he has to do is keep the key from the vampires...

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by Supernatural Snark today Samantha! More information on Samantha and House of Vampires can be found here:

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HOUSE OF VAMPIRES

Pete is a 14 year-old vampire who wakes up in a mansion with no idea who he is and no memories. He soon discovers that he's the keeper of a skeleton key, which opens the door leading to another realm: the realm containing vampires, demons and other fearsome creatures. Realising that he needs to keep the key away from the door and the vampires who want the door open, he flees and joins the fight against them making three new friends in the process. When one of them is kidnapped he has no choice but to go back to the house of vampires. Back to the danger he ran away from...

Dark Days Tour: Review of Under the Never Sky

2012-01-06T09:46:00.012-05:00

I'm absolutely thrilled today to be a part of HarperTeen's Dark Days of Supernatural Tour which kicked off earlier in the week and will be continuing through April. There are some AMAZING authors touring with this event and I've got all the details for you at the bottom of this post. I'm on leg one of this tour along with Melina of Reading Vacation and Jen of I Read Banned Books and today I'm bringing you my review of Under The Never Sky!

UNDER THE NEVER SKY
Veronica Rossi
Paranormal Young Adult/Dystopian
400 Pages
HarperTeen
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Aria is a teenager in the enclosed city of Reverie. Like all Dwellers, she spends her time with friends in virtual environments, called Realms, accessed through an eyepiece called a Smarteye. Aria enjoys the Realms and the easy life in Reverie. When she is forced out of the pod for a crime she did not commit, she believes her death is imminent. The outside world is known as The Death Shop, with danger in every direction.

As an Outsider, Perry has always known hunger, vicious predators, and violent energy storms from the swirling electrified atmosphere called the Aether. A bit of an outcast even among his hunting tribe, Perry withstands these daily tests with his exceptional abilities, as he is gifted with powerful senses that enable him to scent danger, food and even human emotions.

They come together reluctantly, for Aria must depend on Perry, whom she considers a barbarian, to help her get back to Reverie, while Perry needs Aria to help unravel the mystery of his beloved nephew’s abduction by the Dwellers. Together they embark on a journey challenged as much by their prejudices as by encounters with cannibals and wolves. But to their surprise, Aria and Perry forge an unlikely love - one that will forever change the fate of all who live UNDER THE NEVER SKY.

MY THOUGHTS

A beautiful debut, Under the Never Sky is one of those stories that sneaks up on us and takes us a bit by surprise in terms of our reaction to it, the strength of our attachment to the world and characters something that is built slowly and carefully with the resulting bond all the stronger for it. Our emotions are never pushed or tested in an obvious way where a visceral reaction is demanded from us immediately, instead everything starts out tenuous and fragile before being reinforced page after page with strands of corded rope built of the quietly evolving relationship between Aria and Perry until finally it turns into an unbreakable connection. The beginning of Aria and Perry’s journey is a bit tedious though as the world and its problems are so new to us, and so we start out fumbling through the dark with a plug in our hands trying to find an outlet in the blackness, but once Aria and Perry find their way to one another for the second time it’s as though we’ve finally found what we’re looking for and everything is awash in a light we simply cannot tear our eyes from.

Aria is a truly stunning heroine, a girl who is not overly strong or self-sufficient but neither is she completely vulnerable and in need of protection, rather she is an intriguing combination of the gray areas existing between those two extremes. She starts out a bit left of center, hovering closer to the weaker end of the emotional and physical scale when she’s cast out of Reverie and left in a world that can kill her in more ways than she can fathom, but even with her lack of knowledge when it comes to survival tactics she refuses to fall apart and rely solely on Perry for assistance. She is a master at adapting; at first learning the physical ins and outs of a world she’s only encountered previously in virtual form in the Realms, and then finding herself navigating the far more difficult and rewarding experience of true human interaction as her feelings for Perry become more complex.

Her relationship with Perry is exquisitely executed, antagonistic and reluctant allies growing into something rich and sumptuous before our eyes as angry tension eases into a weighted hesitancy and then into fervent desire. At no point do either of these two resort to angst, petty jealousies, or ridiculous mooning over the other, instead their time together is defined by a quiet effervescent joy that seems waft from the pages to settle on our skin, leaving behind a tingling sensation wherever it lands. Joy is so very often accompanied by pain though, and as much as we revel in their happiness it's clear to us once we learn some of the specifics about Perry that their attraction to one another, no matter how deep it grows and could continue to grow, may not be enough to bridge the gap between Marked Outsider and outcast Dweller. It is then with heavy hearts we continue reading, hoping for a revelation that will magically solve their problems but knowing Ms. Rossi would never rob us of the blissful agony of Perry and Aria’s full story of love and loss by granting us all such an easy way out.

One small but particularly interesting aspect of this story is the characters’ names, each one clearly thought out in detail when assigned to each individual; a little added touch that makes the reading of this tale all the more special. Aria, named for her mother’s love of opera and for the radiance of her own striking voice; Peregrine, named for the falcon he seems to emulate with his unmatched hunting skills; Roar with his exceptional hearing who never needs anyone to raise their voices above a mere whisper, and then young Cinder, who wields the fiery destructive power of the aether and leaves nothing but ash in his wake. Their names all seem to suit them so perfectly but not in an overt way, augmenting our ability to understand them on a more profound level without physically spelling out all their defining personality traits. This way we are able to fill in the blanks about them ourselves, thereby creating our own unique relationship to each of them that has us realizing book two will never release fast enough to suit our desire for more.

Rating: 4.5/5

THE DARK DAY OF SUPERNATURAL

DARK DAYS LEG ONE BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE

DARK DAYS FACEBOOK SCHEDULE

Dragonswood Blog Tour: This or That List + Giveaway

2012-01-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

I'm joined on the blog today by Janet Lee Carey, author of the paranormal young adult novel Dragonswood, for a quick and fun this or that list! As part of the tour through Teen Book Scene, I also have a very cool giveaway to offer readers, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for all the details!

If only one paranormal entity could be real, would you choose dragons or faeries?

Faeries though they’re arguably more dangerous.

Do you prefer writing in a linear progression or out of order?

I spiral forward then loop back a little before moving ahead. (Picture a stretched slinky).

Which comes first: character traits and personality or their name?

Personality.

If you could time travel, would you go back to the past or jump forward to the future?

I’d leap ahead.

On your dream vacation, are you lounging on the beach or hopping from city to city seeing as much of the world as you possibly can?

Give me a beach. I love to snorkel.

Is it harder to write the first chapter of a book or the acknowledgements section?

The first chapter’s a killer every time.

Would meeting a favorite actor or favorite author turn you into more of a fangirl?

Favorite author. I’ve been lucky enough to meet two of my favorites already. I met Ursula K. LeGuin at a book signing and Michael Ondaatje (Author of The English Patient) in a little grocery store in Mill Valley CA. I grew up in Mill Valley. I was in CA visiting my brother a few years ago and was reading one of Michael Ondaatje’s books at the time. I walked down the aisle of the Mill Valley Market and there he was pushing a grocery cart. I whispered, “Michael Ondaatje?” He turned and said, “Yes?”

Which would be easier: giving up a favorite food or favorite article of clothing/accessory?

Clothing.

Are you an outdoors or indoors person?

Outdoors! But my friends would guffaw at this answer because I spend every day at my desk writing.

Your television only has one channel. Do you prefer it show sitcoms or police/law dramas?

Gotta have my Seinfeld. Otherwise I’m a masterpiece theatre buff.

Thanks so much for stopping by Janet! You can find more information on Janet and Dragonswood here:

Website
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GIVEAWAY

Janet and the ladies at Teen Book Scene have generously offered up a signed copy of Dragonswood for me to give away on the blog today! And that's not all. One lucky winner will also receive a signed paperback copy of Dragon's Keep (to which Dragonswood is a companion novel I believe) as well. To enter, please leave a comment with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This Giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Sunday, January 8th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

DRAGONSWOOD

Wilde Island is in an uproar after the recent death of its king. The uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is fraying, and a bloodthirsty witch hunter with a hidden agenda whips villages into frenzies with wild accusations. Tess, a blacksmith’s daughter from a tiny hamlet near the mysterious Dragonswood, finds herself caught in the crosshairs of fate when she is accused of witchery and has to flee for her life along with her two best friends.

Not even Tess’s power to see the future can help the girls as they set off on their desperate journey, but she keeps having visions of a man wielding a sword. And when she finally meets him, Tess has no idea how to handle the magnetic attraction she feels for him, or the elusive call she hears from the heart of the Dragonswood.

In this epic romance, an ancient prophecy comes true in a way neither dragon, fairy, nor human would have predicted.

Character Interview: Hudson from Bittersweet

2012-01-05T00:00:00.001-05:00

As part of the promotional tour through Teen Book Scene, I'm extremely excited today to welcome former figure skater and cupcake baker extraordinaire Hudson to the blog to answer a few questions! Hudson is the adorable and absolutely hilarious protagonist of Sarah Ockler's newest young adult release Bittersweet, and if you have yet to pick it up (it just released this week), please add it to your lists immediately! I adored Hudson and the entire cast of characters, and will certainly be buying a copy of this one so I can re-read it in the near future.

Is there one particular memory from your days as a competitive figure skater that stands out most for you as one that embodies everything you loved about the sport?

I have lots of great memories from the actual competitions–trophies and medals earned, new moves perfected, challenges set and overcome. But the memory that embodies everything I love about skating is the one I always go back to–my first time on the ice. I was really little and my dad surprised me with a pair of skates after I’d become obsessed with the winter Olympics. He took me out to this old pond in the country and pulled me around and around… I fell in love with the ice then. And even though things with my dad are strained now, and I’ve screwed up my competitive skating chances, I hold on to that memory. In competition, it’s easy to forget what we truly love about a sport, focusing instead on winning, on beating the other person, on earning that next medal or title. Whenever I start to feel that way now, I close my eyes and go back to that day on the old pond, the icy wind on my cheeks, the feel of my father’s hands warm around mine… that’s what ice skating is for me. That’s what I love.

When you literally crashed into Josh that day on the ice, what was the first thing that went through your mind when you realized who was on the ice with you?

Oh god. I totally smell like bacon. I hope Josh likes bacon. Oh god.

If you, your mom, and Bug all had one day off from working at the diner, what would you most like to do as a family?

That’s a tough one. Mom never takes days off, so if she did, our plans would have to be close to the diner in case of an emergency. Honestly, we’d probably end up eating at the diner. Or building a snowman in the parking lot of the diner. Good times! Okay, I kind of love snowmen, so that part would be kind of cool.

What is the most interesting tidbit or piece of trivia you learned about hockey during all your web research to help the boys?

That the father of modern ice hockey, James Creighton, was also a figure skating judge. And also that you really can’t get tired of watching hockey boy training videos. ;-)

What’s the strangest combination of cupcake flavors you’ve come up with that has been a surprising success? A surprising failure?

Success: Thanksgiving Dinner Cupcake, featuring a vanilla cupcake with roast turkey and sweet potato filling and a brown sugar and marshmallow cream frosting. Everyone loved the hominess and the way the sweet and savory flavors combined.

Failure: Black Melon Cupcakes, which were about as appealing as they sound. I don’t know–I was experimenting! I guess I thought if I picked too awful flavors, they’d combine into something delish. That whole 2 wrongs make a right thing. Blech!

Can you give us the name of a cupcake that would summarize your feelings on life before you started skating again and working with the hockey team? The name of a cupcake that summarizes your thoughts on your future after all that’s happened?

Before: Bursting at the Seams: White cupcake stuffed with cherries, white and dark chocolate chunks, almonds, and coconut, topped with whipped cherry buttercream frosting and drizzled with fudge.

Future: Golden Possibilities: Golden vanilla cupcakes topped with banana cream cheese frosting, chopped pineapple, glittery brown sugar, and a cherry on top.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by Hudson! More information on Hudson, Bittersweet, and Sarah can be found here:

Website
Blog
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Goodreads

BITTERSWEET (from Goodreads)

Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances… a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.

So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life…and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.

It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last…

Review: Cinder

2012-01-04T00:00:00.004-05:00

CINDER (Lunar Chronicles #1)
Marissa Meyer
Paranormal Young Adult
387 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

MY THOUGHTS
A beautifully reimagined fairytale, Cinder proves to us how certain core fictional elements never fail to engross and enchant while also intriguing us with the intricacies of a completely new world ripe with new technologies and new problems. Much like she does with our cyborg protagonist, Ms. Meyer takes certain familiar aspects of the Cinderella tale and adds pieces and parts to it to create a fascinating hybrid, a blending of recognizable and foreign plot elements that keeps us glued to the pages despite our basic knowledge of how things will play out. There are so many additional layers to the rags-to-riches storyline of the original fairytale–the tension between Prince Kai and Cinder so much more palpable, the threat of discovery and the subsequent repercussions so much greater, and Cinder’s past so much darker and murkier—that our memories of everything we loved about the version that came before this are overshadowed by a potent desire to see where this new version will take us.

Though Cinder has had a rough past and exists as a servant in a home where she should be an equal, she never elicits a sympathetic response from us, instead earning our outright respect for the way she handles herself against those who seek to tear her down. She never whines over her predicament nor does she meekly accept her circumstances as law, always dealing with what fate hands her in a way that makes us sit up a little straighter and hold our chins up in her honor, infinitely proud and envious of her strength. The formation of a bond with Cinder is smooth and easy, our emotional attachment to her growing with each page even as the weight of all the secrets she’s keeping both from Prince Kai and her family sits heavier and heavier on our chests, dread for the moment when all her perceived undesirable differences are made public wrapping around our hearts with ice cold fingers as we find ourselves pulled fully into her story.

The relationship between Cinder and Kai is refreshingly sweet and slow-moving, sparks crackling back and forth between them on more than just a romantic level as secrets from Cinder’s previously muddled past are revealed, ratcheting up the forbidden nature of merely a royal/commoner pairing and turning it into something else—something darker and more intense—entirely. Though some of the discoveries regarding Cinder’s identity and her history before being adopted at age eleven are easily predictable, it doesn’t diminish our enjoyment in the least, instead our early deduction only gives us more time to think of what it means for her in general as well as for her and Kai specifically, thus adding a whole new level of tension that would have been noticeably absent had the big reveal toward the end been more startling.

Overall, Cinder is a strong start to the Lunar Chronicles series, Ms. Meyer creating a very memorable version of Cinderella with her own unique stamp evident on each and every page. The only minor nitpick would be it starts just a touch slow, the introduction of New Beijing, the plague crippling it, and Cinder’s relationship to her difficult family taking a while to unfold to the point where we can settle in, pull the parameters of this new world around us and let ourselves experience Cinder’s increasingly complicated life. The ending is neither cliffhanger nor neatly-wrapped package, instead leaving us with a lot to think about and anticipate without driving us to the brink of madness, and we close the back cover with a smile and a reminder to locate the release date of the next book at our earliest opportunity.

Rating: 4/5

Tempting Tuesdays: Chapters 1-4

2012-01-03T00:00:00.005-05:00

Welcome to week one of the Some Girls Bite Read-Along! For those of you who don't know, the wonderful ladies behind Tina's Book Reviews, Books in the Spotlight, The Unread Reader and myself are hosting a read-along of book one of Chloe Neill's outstanding Chicagoland Vampires urban fantasy series. Each week we'll pose and answer five questions about the book and then hop around to the other blogs who have signed up to check out everyone's answers! For all the details about the event and our grand prize giveaway, be sure and check out the introductory post HERE.

I'm the lucky host this week, so if you're participating, please be sure to link up your discussion post for the first 4 chapters in the linky below and don't forget to check out Tina's blog for next week's questions for chapters 5-8.

January 3rd - Chapters 1-4 (Jenny at Supernatural Snark)
January 10th - Chapters 5-8 (Tina at Tina's Book Reviews)
January 17th - Chapters 9-12 (Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight)
January 24th - Chapters 13-15 + epilogue (Missie at The Unread Reader)
January 31st - Special guest post by Chloe Neill and our grand prize giveaway!

CHAPTERS 1-4

Let’s say tomorrow a “vampire manifesto” as Merit calls it runs in newspapers across the country announcing their existence. How do you think you would react? If you were hesitant to believe initially, what would it take to convince you they were real?

Based on my undying (ha! I amuse myself) love for all things vampire, I would probably be pretty quick to believe that vampires were real. Who wouldn't want to believe hotness like Ethan, Bones, and the entire Black Dagger Brotherhood were out there just waiting for us to discover them? And then pounce on them. And then make them fall in love with us so we can spend the rest of our days, er nights, with them. Okay, perhaps I just went off on a tangent that led into slightly obsessive territory, but seeing as we've all met Ethan now at this point, it's understandable right? ;-)

Since being turned into a vampire means complete removal from your former life and a new job serving your House in some capacity, what do you think you would miss most about the life you live now?

I'd really miss my dogs. Oh! And also my husband. Probably should have started with that one. Aside from my dogs and my husband though, I'd also really miss my job. I love being able to run a business from home, and like Merit, I'd have a hard time giving up on that dream and accepting that my life had to take a different direction when the circumstances surrounding that change were a result of an event I had no control of and no say in.

What are your first impressions of Merit and how she’s handling all the changes in her life?

I love Merit! She's got a fabulous sense of humor, a great deal of snark–which I certainly appreciate–and while she's understandably upset about being turned without permission, she works the anger out of her system pretty quickly and gears up for a whole new life with probably far more grace and maturity than I would be able to muster.

When you first read the description of Ethan, what actor/model/person you know pops into your head as the perfect embodiment of him? Feel free to include pictures ;-)

I gave away my pick for Ethan back in the introductory post, but since Mr. Gabriel Aubry is just so darn pretty to look at, I'll go ahead and post his picture again. Yum.

I just love that little smirk on his face in this picture, it seems very Ethan-esque. That kind of "I know I'm pretty. You know I'm pretty. I know you know I'm pretty, so let's just admit you want me out loud so we can move on to more than just looking at one another" type of smirk. So infuriatingly sexy.

Do you think Merit’s anger at Ethan himself, not the situation, is justified?

I don't think she's truly angry at him, I just think he's just something tangible and real for her to focus her feelings on as she transitions from mortal grad student to woman with an unknown immortal future. If I were in her shoes, he would most likely bear the brunt of my anger and hurt too, and I think he shoulders it well, allowing her to work out her aggression on him without simply shutting her down as he certainly could as her new Master.

Please link up your discussion posts below so we can all visit!

Character Interview + Giveaway: Macy from The Bloodstone Saga

2012-01-02T08:00:00.004-05:00

Today I'm joined on the blog by Macy (aka Harmonia), the protagonist in Courtney Cole's fabulous young adult Bloodstone Saga series. Macy was nice enough to take some time out of her extraordinarily busy and complicated life of love, loss, and reincarnation to answer a few questions for me! I read the first book in this series, Every Last Kiss, and thoroughly enjoyed it, you can read my mini review here. Thanks for being here Macy!

Your memories are normally wiped clean after each life and you are born again having to relearn your purpose in your current incarnation. Do you ever wonder how your current life compares to the ones before? Things like whether or not this life is easier or harder than the last, or whether you’ve learned anything from those past experiences even though you don’t remember them?

Hi Jenny. Thanks for having me here today. Ah, my memories. I have so many now. If I remember correctly, you’re caught up through the first book of my adventures, yes? Much has happened since then- so much has changed. I don’t wish to spoil it for your readers because I will just admit it, my life has taken many twists and turns and I suppose, from a reader’s vantage point, those twists are interesting. So I won’t spoil it for them.

To answer your question, though...yes, there were times when, as a Keeper, I did wonder how my current life compared to previous ones. My lives were always difficult- so it would have been impossible not to wonder.

If you were given the opportunity to stay in a single life and not return again once you lived that life in its entirety, do you think you would grab on to that chance?

My current life is the one that I will hold on to forever. It’s my true purpose and I have fought very hard to be here. My previous lives? No. I wouldn’t wish to stay in any of them. They each taught me something valuable, but they were rough, usually heart-wrenching. I wouldn’t want to re-live them or linger.

Let’s say you were granted an audience with the Fates themselves and could ask one question that they would answer truthfully and without any riddles. What would you ask?

Jenny, there are times in life when someone disappoints you so greatly that you really don’t want to hear their explanations. This is one of those times.

Now that your memories of ancient Egypt and Cleopatra have been unlocked and you remember your life as Charmian, do you have any desire to return to present day Egypt and see how things have changed?

Egypt… I have to say that Egypt is a place that will always hold a special place in my heart. The beautiful sea in Alexandria that sparkles just so in the sunlight, the smell of the jasmine in Cleopatra’s garden… but part of the reason that I love Egypt so much is because of my memories from that life- the people there. Marc Antony, Cleopatra, Iras… they are gone. Cleopatra’s palace is at the bottom of the Alexandrian bay. I think that revisiting that area would only serve to make me sad. I think I’ll just preserve my memories the way that they are.

Name one event in the world’s history that you would love the opportunity to go back in time and change if you didn’t need to worry about the repercussions.

Ah, Jenny. If there is one thing that I have learned through all of my troubles, it is that there are always repercussions to any action. Because of that, no matter how much I would like to change some things (world wars, the Titanic’s sinking, the Holocaust)… I wouldn’t.

Can you tell us one thing about Cleopatra (the woman, the mother, or the ruler) that the history books have left out or haven’t captured accurately?

I know many things about Cleopatra and she would kill me (maybe literally) if I shared them. But here is something: She believed that she was the daughter of the Egyptian goddess Isis and that the bite of an asp would take her to the gods. She was wrong about that… and when you read further into my adventures, you will see why.

What one memory of your time as Charmian do you treasure most?

The relationships that I cultivated. That time period was so passionate and moving because of the events surrounding us… which made our relationships all the more crucial and important. But that is true in any life, I think. The relationships that you create and maintain are always the most important thing.

Thank you so much for hosting me today, Jenny. It has been a pleasure!

Happy to have you on any time Macy! You can find more information on Macy, Courtney, and the Bloodstone Saga here:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

MY TATTERED BONDS

It is always darkest before the dawn. Harmonia has certainly found this to be true. She has faced more than any one person, goddess or mortal, should ever have to.

She has lost her soul mate time after time, lies and deceit have surrounded her and in fact, she has even been misled about her very identity. Yet she has always emerged with strength and grace. But now she will face the unthinkable. Her daughter has been taken and Harmonia will risk everything to get her back.

In this epic series finale, all will be revealed. The only question remaining is…Who will be left standing?

TOUR STOP GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the wonderful ladies over at Kismet Book Touring and Courtney herself, I have two very cool giveaway opportunities for you today! The first is a signed copy of My Tattered Bonds, the finale of the Bloodstone Saga. To enter please leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (see full contest rules for both giveaways here) and will run through midnight EST on Sunday, January 8th after which time a winner will be chosen on the blog.

GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY

In addition to the daily giveaways at each tour stop, there is also a grand prize giveaway which includes a KINDLE TOUCH! Not only is it a Kindle Touch, but it comes skinned with the stunning cover art from My Tattered Bonds. Yay! To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter form below and don't forget to read the full contest rules here. Giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out the other stops this week:

Monday, January 2nd - Jenny, Supernatural Snark
Tuesday, January 3rd - Ana, The Book Hookup
Wednesday, January 4th - Lisa, A Casual Reader's Blog
Thursday, January 5th - Dani, Refracted Light Reviews
Friday, January 6th - Sarah, That Bookish Girl

Cover Reveal: Toxic by Jus Accardo + Reminder

2012-01-02T00:00:00.002-05:00

I'm really excited today to be a part of the reveal for Jus Accardo's second book in her paranormal young adult series Toxic (scheduled to release May 1st from Entangled Publishing)! Toxic is the sequel to Touch, and while I haven't had a chance to read Touch yet, I've heard AMAZING things about it from fellow bloggers and can't wait to get my hands on it.

When a Six saved Kale’s life the night of Sumrun, she warned there would be consequences. A trade-off. Something taken for the life they gained. But Dez never imagined she’d lose the one thing she’d give anything to keep… And as if it’s not enough Dez finds her immunity to Kale fading, the Six brought in to help Kale learn to control his killer touch starts drooling on him the moment they meet. Worse than that? Jade can touch Kale. But bimbo Barbie is the least of Dez's problems.

After Dez and Kale got away at Sumrun, her father lost not only his most powerful weapon but an important piece of the Supremacy project. Forced by Denazen to remedy the situation, he poisons Dez and offers her a choice—surrender to Denazen for the cure…or die. Determined to find a solution that doesn’t involve being bagged and tagged—or losing someone she loves—Dez keeps the poison a secret. But when a rash of Denazen attacks hit a little too close to home, Dez is convinced there’s a traitor among them. Jade.

Sacrifices, broken promises, and secrets. Dez will have to lay it all on the line if there’s any hope of proving Jade’s guilt before they all end up Residents of Denazen. Or worse, dead...

Also, I just wanted to post a quick reminder for those of you who signed up for the Some Girls Bite read-along that the first Tempting Tuesdays discussion post goes live tomorrow! I've re-posted the discussion questions below, and you can find the full introductory post and sign up HERE. Yay Ethan and Merit!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTERS 1-4

1. Let’s say tomorrow a “vampire manifesto” as Merit calls it runs in newspapers across the country announcing their existence. How do you think you would react? If you were hesitant to believe initially, what would it take to convince you they were real?

2. Since being turned into a vampire means complete removal from your former life and a new job serving your House in some capacity, what do you think you would miss most about the life you live now?

3. What are your first impressions of Merit and how she’s handling all the changes in her life?

4. When you first read the description of Ethan, what actor/model/person you know pops into your head as the perfect embodiment of him? Feel free to include pictures ;-)

5. Do you think Merit’s anger at Ethan himself, not the situation, is justified?

Cover Critique: Best Afternoon Ever

2011-12-30T00:00:00.002-05:00

So. Much. To. Talk. About. I don't even know where to start. Oh wait, yes I do. Let's start with that hairless, shirtless delicious treat digitally added to our picnic landscape, because really, he's entirely and fabulously ridiculous isn't he? I think we should all take a minute to do some visualization exercises to help us truly appreciate Blue Apples (we'll address this title later) for everything it is. Here we go.

Let's imagine we're walking through the park on a glorious spring day, enjoying the fresh air and reveling in the feel of the warm sun on our faces. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and we're outside instead of cooped up in the house or at work. Then, as we round a corner on our walking path the above sight greets us. BAM! Naked chest. WHAP! Weirdly slick (sweaty? overly moisturized?) skin. POW! Complete lack of facial expression so we have no idea what's going on inside that head. Is he happy to see us? Are we the ones he's planned this bizarre tableau for? With that bland look and the fact that the picnic basket is blocking our other indicator, it's kind of hard to tell just where he's going with this. Who's traumatized? No one yet? Well, that's perhaps because we have yet to focus our attention on that strip of black fabric at his crotch. I see that and this image pops in my mind:

And I just went blind for a second. Awesome. I can say with one hundred percent certainty that I don't want black spandex-covered junk anywhere near my food Mr. Apples, so let's come more appropriately dressed for dining next time please. Nothing like eating fruit and drinking champagne .5 inches away from a one-eyed snake testing the limits of stretchiness and making a valid attempt to come out and visit. Horrible mental image. *shudders* We clearly need to move on.

I think my favorite part of this cover is the strange combination of mismatched elements and the rather alarming proportional issues present in this photoshop collage o' brilliance. Look at that picnic basket! It's the size of his entire upper body. It's probably a good thing he has so many muscles and can heft it around because I'm not sure my puny arms could manage. Also, the grass surrounding the fruit doesn't at all match the grass behind our bare chested picnic-lover, so it seems he's managed to find himself a place to dine on some sort of dividing line between turf species. Well done, Apples! He deserves a pat on the back for finding such an environmental anomaly, though I feel like if we touched his skin we might stick to it, so probably best to wait until we've finished eating before attempting contact.

Lastly, I don't think I can end this post without mentioning the title. Blue Apples. Really? Is this a blue balls reference? I know my mind is frequently deeper in the gutter than most, but I don't see another way to interpret it. Also, is "succulent" part of the title do you think? If so, that skyrockets its placement on the sexual innuendo scale, and therefore makes me love it all the more. I, of course, looked up the blurb in an effort to become more informed. Thank me later.

Gala is an elite Captain of Dianndra's guard and a proud owner of a male harem. When she volunteers to go on a treacherous mission into enemy territory to steal aphrodisiac fruit and defy an ancient foe, she has no idea what this act of trespass will cost her.

Lord Veren and his lover, Markeen, are gorgeous swords for hire and warriors supreme. Like all Vertanians they are bigger, stronger, braver, and brighter, but they spawn only male children and face a culture in decline. They need female companions. How fortunate for them when they discover a beautiful lust-intoxicated Dianndran wandering in their orchard.

The warriors capture Gala and carry her into their fortress for a night of shared lust that may change two ancient cultures forever.

Huh. That's quite the scenario isn't it? One question: How do I become the proud owner of a male harem? Wait. That's not relevant to this discussion is it? (But seriously, is there like an application process or something? I have references.) No. So I'll move on to my next question. If she knew the blue apples (*giggles*) were aphrodisiacs ahead of time, why did she eat them while wandering through enemy territory? That doesn't seem terribly bright to me. Nothing like being all lusty when you need to be on your game to escape foes and return to your no-doubt spectacularly slutty man harem (and just how many gentlemen does it take to qualify as a harem?). Also, I think the term "companion" might be stretching the truth a bit given they capture Miss Gala whilst in her fog of lust. Companion seems to imply a willing participant, though I guess if she's hopped up on sexy-time fruit her willingness to have at it with two male-spawn-only enemy warriors might reach a new high.

I discovered while researching this cover that it's not the only one of its kind. Oh no. There are more. Like a whole series. *claps hands and laughs maniacally* I'll leave you with Georgia Peach and his sex-tastic necklace and earring. Happy Friday everyone!

Review: Dragonswood

2011-12-29T00:00:00.003-05:00

DRAGONSWOOD
Janet Lee Carey
Paranormal Young Adult
416 pages
Penguin
Available January 5th
Received for review through Teen Book Scene

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Wilde Island is in an uproar after the recent death of its king. The uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is fraying, and a bloodthirsty witch hunter with a hidden agenda whips villages into frenzies with wild accusations. Tess, a blacksmith’s daughter from a tiny hamlet near the mysterious Dragonswood, finds herself caught in the crosshairs of fate when she is accused of witchery and has to flee for her life along with her two best friends.

Not even Tess’s power to see the future can help the girls as they set off on their desperate journey, but she keeps having visions of a man wielding a sword. And when she finally meets him, Tess has no idea how to handle the magnetic attraction she feels for him, or the elusive call she hears from the heart of the Dragonswood.

In this epic romance, an ancient prophecy comes true in a way neither dragon, fairy, nor human would have predicted.

MY THOUGHTS
Beautifully crafted and atmospheric, Dragonswood is one of those stories we can see and feel clearly without a great deal of detailed description, the small town in which Tess resides and the mystical surrounding forest appearing easily in our minds as each word seems to have a corresponding frame for the moving picture taking place in our heads. Though we aren’t given much history with regard to the rather tenuous truce between dragon, human, and fairy, it doesn’t detract from our overall enjoyment of this tale, with the action taking place at present enough to capture our attention and hold it throughout. While fantasy elements dance across the pages in all their magical glory, we are truly anchored to the story through Tess—her pain, her desires, and her need to discover a place in the world she can call her own helping us connect on an emotional level that provides us with the comfort we require to open up our imaginations and let ourselves experience what Ms. Carey has written.

Tess has us in her corner from the first few paragraphs in the prologue, the unfortunate circumstances of her reality presented to us in blunt and raw fashion—facts only, with little drama or emotion to be found lurking beneath the black ink—and we find our hearts pounding in anticipation and hope that the concluding pages will paint us a happier picture than the opening ones. While Tess has intimate knowledge of the back of a man’s hand and the sound of his anger, she never loses hope that a better man than her father exists, and despite the recoil she occasionally experiences when Garth raises his arm or moves too suddenly, she never allows herself to be consumed by what was beaten into her. She is fiercely loyal and protective of those around her, constantly striving to help them find their happiness even at the cost of her own.

There are several things about Garth and Tess–as well as the dragons and fairies–that become obvious to us far before Tess even begins to entertain the possibility, however the story is interesting enough we still find ourselves enthralled. Events move rapidly at times and then slow back down to give us time to catch our breath before the next daring rescue, narrow escape, or emotional revelation, not drowning us in action nor boring us with too many quite moments but rather keeping a nice pace to guarantee our involvement every page and chapter. Sometimes the ease with which Tess and company achieve their goals tests the limits of believability, but ultimately our loyalty to the characters has us rooting for them strongly enough we don’t find it worth the effort to object to things working out in their favor.

Overall, Dragonswood will delight and entertain most readers, though fans of romance might find themselves wishing for just a bit more pay off between Garth and Tess after all the tantalizing tension sparking between them. That being said however, their relationship is one of sweet innocence and vulnerability as Tess opens herself up to Garth in a way she thought had been knocked out of her by violent touches where there should have only been loving ones, leaving us with a smile on our faces even though we long for more between the two of them. Readers who love adventure and light fantasy will no doubt relish the tangibility of this tale, finishing the last pages with an intense desire to read more of this world.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Hallowed

2011-12-28T00:00:00.001-05:00

HALLOWED (Unearthly #2)
Cynthia Hand
Paranormal Young Adult
416 pages
HarperTeen
Available January 17th
Received from NetGalley for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn’t prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought.

Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning.

MY THOUGHTS
Hallowed is the type of book we can't wait to start reading, yet our hands remain frozen at our sides and we find we're unable to force them to break the spine knowing that what awaits us will not be a lighthearted jaunt full of whimsy and achingly adorable romance. Instead, we know darkness and pain will most likely be waiting to greet us when we finally work up the courage to open the front cover, delving us deeper into the complex world of the angel-bloods and challenging both us and our beloved characters in ways that are uncomfortable but so very poignant and moving at the same time. Ms. Hand certainly has no interest in leading us along the path of least resistance, throwing down the gauntlet in this second installment and waiting to see if we’ll be strong enough to pick it up and walk alongside Clara, Tucker, and Christian as times get tougher.

A joy to read about, Clara reminds us in this tale of all the reasons why we fell in love with her in Unearthly, continuing to show us her ability to create her own light amidst the stifling darkness of the unknown world she is an intrinsic part of when no one else, not even her own mother, will help her find her way. Her love for Tucker consists of both sweetness and shadows, her seemingly unshakeable confidence that who she is going to be with is going to be her choice–and hers alone–paired in this tale with a nagging doubt that her purpose and her role as an angel-blood might prove to be the blade that slices her free will to ribbons. While she hates the idea that her life isn’t entirely of her own making, she never rages against it or lashes out at those around her at the injustice of it all, instead she quietly mourns the life she might have had were circumstances a bit different, and puts on her game face before she tackles what’s thrown her way with verve.

The love triangle is crafted in a painfully stunning way, the case for both Christian and Tucker hauntingly laid out for us as we feel Clara’s confusion and distress when she looks at them both. What sets this love triangle apart from some of its more frustrating counterparts is that Clara is not one to waffle, never sitting back and studying her feelings for both young men or weighing the pros and cons of each to help her reach a decision. Instead, she’s already chosen, and her choice is Tucker. She chooses to love him with everything she has despite Christian’s presence in her life, so her struggle then becomes not one of dual attraction, but one of choice versus duty, want versus greater purpose, and personal will versus divine will. She wants a life with Tucker, but her angel-blood draw to Christian is too powerful to simply ignore, and as a result we all find ourselves in a twisting, churning emotional maelstrom from which there’s no way to walk away unscathed.

Despite this being the second book in the series, we are not simply sucked into the story in the middle of events and made into pack mules forced to bear the weight of numerous unanswered questions carried over from book one even as new ones are sprung on us, but rather we are given many of the answers we seek by the end to help ease our mental burden even as the heavy presence of our emotional one settles down on our shoulders. Ms. Hand knows just how to appease us enough that we don’t end this installment with a sense of emptiness at having merely been prepped for the following book, but she keeps enough out of reach to have us salivating for book three now that we’ve had a little taste of enlightenment.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Dreaming of the Wolf

2011-12-27T00:00:00.002-05:00

DREAMING OF THE WOLF
Heart of the Wolf #8
Terry Spear
Adult Paranormal Romance
Sourcebooks
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)

A FIERCE HUNTER...

Alicia Greiston is a no-nonsense bounty hunter determined to bring a ring of mobsters to justice. Her dogged pursuit of the crime family has forced her to avoid relationships— any man would only become a target for retribution. Luckily, Jake Silver is more than a man, and his instincts are telling him to stop at nothing to protect her.

AN ANIMAL PASSION...

However, the mob isn't entirely human either, and soon Alicia must flee for her life. When Alicia and Jake's passion begins to spill over into their dreams, Jake learns he will have to do more than defend her— he'll have to show his mate the way of the wolf.

MY THOUGHTS
Though Dreaming of the Wolf is the eighth book in Terry Spear’s werewolf series, the romance between Jake and Alicia does stand on its own, introducing those of us who haven’t read the previous books to the world as Alicia finds herself drawn deeper in, and we are able to latch on to the comforting familiarity of sexual tension and desire to keep us grounded. The relationship between our hero and heroine progresses physically with surprising rapidity however, and despite our ability to recognize that instant physical attraction is more than possible, the speed with which the two of them moves denies us the chance to know them individually before we see them as a romantic pair. As a result, Jake and Alicia never quite fully take shape for us as readers, existing more in words and phrases than in crystal clear mental images and memorable emotional cords.

Alicia is a woman who creates a myriad of conflicting feelings, her determination to see the men who killed her mother behind bars admirable and her ability to take what’s thrown at her in stride a trait we can’t help but appreciate, but at the same time her nonchalance with regard to some fairly alarming situations is also a bit troublesome. At one point she is knocked unconscious and abducted, awaking to find herself naked in a strange bedroom knowing there was a man with whom she was vaguely familiar there at some point, and it takes her quite a long time to get to the place where she questions whether or not she could have been raped. Even when she recognizes the possibility of such an intimate violation, she really doesn’t seem all that bothered by it, instead moving on to the other, presumably bigger, problems in her life with what appears to be ease. Everyone of course reacts to traumatic events differently, but Alicia shows so little emotion throughout the entire story that it’s difficult to feel a connection to the problems and events taking place in her life.

Jake is much the same as Alicia in terms of exhibiting any sort of range of feeling outside possessiveness and lust/love, and so we read this story with a more superficial appreciation for a paranormal romance rather than a deep and meaningful reaction to our protagonists. Ms. Spear does create an intriguing family history for Alicia, and the cast of secondary characters–particularly Jake’s brother Tom–add a bit of personality that seems to be missing from both the hero and heroine, so while this particular romance may not have blown us away, there is plenty to indicate that some of the other installments may do just that. I look forward to going back and reading a few of the earlier stories, hoping all the while that maybe a story for Tom may be on it’s way at some point.

Rating: 3/5

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-22T00:00:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone!

The blog will be quiet for the next few days as I'll be taking a little time off to celebrate the holidays with my family. Regular posting will resume on December 27th and I will have a new cover critique up on the 30th. I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season and I'll catch up with you in a few days!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Interview: Jane Kindred + The Fallen Queen

2011-12-21T00:00:00.003-05:00

I'm joined on the blog today by author Jane Kindred whose latest release The Fallen Queen–the first in a new romantic fantasy trilogy–released earlier in December from Entangled Publishing. She was nice enough to answer a few questions for me, and I hope you all enjoy the interview!

All the characters have unusual names; are there any interesting stories about how you came to choose each of them?

Many of them are obscure names from classical angelology and demonology. I wanted to use as many actual angelic/demonic names as I could, but I didn’t want the typical “Michael” or “Gabriel” so I did a lot of research using various sources. I came across Anazakia and it sounded so much like the Russian pronunciation of Anastasia that I thought it would be perfect for my heroine. Belphagor is also a classical fallen angel or demon name, while I gave Vasily a Russian name because he grew up an orphan on the streets of Raqia and was given his name by other street demons who spoke the language of the world of Man (or perhaps named himself; he hasn’t told me yet). Aeval is a fairy queen from Irish folklore, whom I particularly liked because of Brian Merriman’s 18th century poem The Midnight Court. And Kae is the little boy stolen away by the Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen’s story. I could go on, but suffice it to say, yes there are many interesting stories behind the names. :)

Is there one thing about either the fantasy world you created or your characters that you can remember being the first piece of The Fallen Queen puzzle to pop into your head and get your wheels turning?

The first thing that came to me was a demon gambler and conman with a name that started with a “B.” My story ideas usually start with a character, and the characters usually come with a name. In Belphagor’s case, I just knew the first letter, which is why I started looking up demon names that started with “B.” As soon as I saw “Belphagor,” I knew it was him.

Are any of the details of the setting of St. Petersburg, Russia based on observations you’ve made in person or did they come strictly from online/library research?

All of them came from personal observation. I traveled to St. Petersburg a few years ago with a summer language immersion program and lived with a Russian family. Every location and detail of St. Petersburg and Novgorod in the book are actual places I visited. (The Lesnoy District flat is the flat I stayed in; I feel kind of bad about “destroying” it, because it was lovely, as was my hostess.) I’ve since spent a lot of time pouring over floor plans of the Winter Palace—including virtually crawling around on the roof via the Hermitage’s webcam—and even studying train schedules, because I wanted everything to be as real as it could.

If The Fallen Queen were made into a movie, what would the tagline on the promotional poster say?

Well, honestly, if I were any good at coming up with taglines, there would be one on the book cover. ;) But maybe part of the first sentence would work: Heaven is not the paradise you’ve been told.

Is there one particular aspect of writing fantasy that you find the most challenging or the most rewarding?

I love writing fantasy for the same reason I love reading it: I love to get so caught up in the details of another world that it seems real, and especially a world full of magic. The most rewarding part of creating a world like that is when readers feel they’ve been there themselves and feel the same affection for my characters that I do.

Do we get to meet other types of demons other than air and fire in this book or in future installments?

Every angel and demon has a dominant element, so yes, there are some of each in every book (although now that I think about it, the only waterspirits in the books are full-blooded angels), and there are different characteristics and powers depending on their angelic order.

If we asked Anazakia to sum up her feelings on the events of The Fallen Queen in one word, what would it be?

I think she might sum it up with a tarot card: Bashnya (The Tower).

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions Jane! You can find more information on Jane and her books here:

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THE FALLEN QUEEN

Heaven can go to hell.

Until her cousin slaughtered the supernal family, Anazakia’s father ruled the Heavens, governing noble Host and Fallen peasants alike. Now Anazakia is the last grand duchess of the House of Arkhangel’sk, and all she wants is to stay alive.

Hunted by Seraph assassins, Anazakia flees Heaven with two Fallen thieves—fire demon Vasily and air demon Belphagor, each with their own nefarious agenda—who hide her in the world of Man. The line between vice and virtue soon blurs, and when Belphagor is imprisoned, the unexpected passion of Vasily warms her through the Russian winter.

Heaven seems a distant dream, but when Anazakia learns the truth behind the celestial coup, she will have to return to fight for the throne—even if it means saving the man who murdered everyone she loved.

Guest Post + Giveaway: Tahlia Newland

2011-12-19T23:50:00.008-05:00

Today I'm pleased to welcome author Tahlia Newland to the blog to talk to us a little bit about her books and short stories in general. She writes young adult/adult urban fantasy with a touch or more of romance in it and a focus on challenging readers’ perception of reality. Tahlia is also providing a give away to accompany today's post, so be sure and scroll down for more information!

THE RESURGENCE OF SHORT STORIES

You have probably realised by now that the event of ereaders is revolutionizing the publishing industry, but not only is it giving authors new opportunities, it is doing the same for readers.

A paper book costs as much to print if it is 20,000 words as if its 100,000 words, hence publishers generally don’t want a book over 100,000 words, unless it’s by an author that they can guarantee will sell enough books to cover the extra cost. Also they won’t publish novellas because people don’t want to pay the same amount of money for a little book as they do for a larger book.

But ebooks can be small and charge less – enter the 99c ebook and the common price for novellas of $2.99. I’m talking about independently published works here, not the higher priced books from traditional publishers who are still only publishing longer words and who have yet to work out a competitive price for their ebooks (they’d have to give their authors a lot more and take less themselves to compete with the indie authors.) You’ll also find serialized novels coming out in larger numbers as time goes by.

What’s so special about short stories?

Short stories are a genre of their own. They were popular in the past when many great writers like Edgar Allen Po and George Bernard Shaw wrote them for publication in magazines. The beauty of them is that because of their length, the story is straight to the point, snappy and without frills. A good short story is highly engaging and has a powerful ending, often with a twist or a moral point. Creative authors play with ideas in the short story form, so they can be unusual and imaginative.

They are perfect for today’s world, especially for young people with little money and many demands on their time, because they are low price and time commitment. No one is asking you to get caught up in someone else’s world for days. You can read a short story in the half hour while you wait for your date to pick you up and you can read a novella in the time it takes to watch a movie and for a fraction of the cost.

A good anthology of short stories has a linking theme that provides a sense of continuity and unity for the reader. Each story, though unique and in some ways vastly different to the others should add to an overall flavour that makes the book a satisfying whole.

One reader said of my short story collection, A Matter of Perception, “These kept me engaged from start to finish. A very pleasurable read, and what makes it such an interesting collection is that it provides such a variety in tone and supernatural elements yet is held together, yes, by that common supernatural denominator but also such thought-provoking philosophies of life.”

I didn’t use to read short stories, but I’ve been enjoying reading the short works that a lot of indie authors are offering these days. Apart from the pleasures of a short snappy read, it gives you a chance to sample a new author without a big financial commitment. Have you read any short stories recently? Are you planning to?

Thanks so much for stopping by Tahlia! If you'd like more information on Tahlia and her books, you can find it here:

Website
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Twitter
Goodreads
A Matter of Perception
The Drorgon Slayer's Choice

GIVEAWAY

Tahlia is generously offering up 3 e-copies of A Matter of Perception to blog readers today! To enter, please just leave a comment on this post answering Tahlia's questions regarding short stories and include a valid email address so I can contact you if you win. Since these are e-copies, this giveaway is international and will run through Friday, December 30th after which time winners will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

A MATTER OF PERCEPTION

Do you see what I see? Take a bunch of supernatural beings, a battle of magical light, a mysterious hole in the pavement, a dream of a future past and a pair of rose-coloured glasses, mix them with a little romance and a smidgen of philosophy and you might be left wondering if it isn’t all just a matter of perception.

This entertaining, heart-warming and thought-provoking collection includes the humorous, ‘A Hole in the Pavement’; the poignant, ‘Not Me, It can’t Be’; the intriguing, ‘Drorgon Slayer’s Choice’, and the eerie semi finalist in the Aussiecon 4 Make Ready fantasy/scfi competition of 2010, ‘The Boneyard.’

Review: Shut Out

2011-12-19T00:00:00.002-05:00

SHUT OUT
Kody Keplinger
Contemporary Young Adult
273 pages
Poppy
Available Now
Received at BEA

THE STORY
Lissa really enjoys spending time with her quarterback boyfriend. That is until they're continually interrupted by pranks conducted by members of the soccer team, a ridiculous perpetuation of a long time feud at their high school. When Lissa finds herself abandoned yet again in favor of payback against the soccer players, she comes up with a plan.

Along with the girlfriends of the other football players and some of the soccer players as well, Lissa institutes a sex strike set to last until the boys can resolve their differences and end the rivalry not one of them can even remember the reason for starting. Everything seems to be going according to plan until Cash.

Cash who was there for her when she and her boyfriend broke up the first time. Cash who took the time to make her feel wanted. Cash who then never called her again when he knew she wanted him to. He takes over as the leader for the guys, and soon Lissa finds herself caught up more drama than she anticipated, learning what was supposed to be simple is anything but.

MY THOUGHTS
Shut Out is a highly entertaining second novel from Ms. Keplinger, one that illustrates yet again her talent for being frank and straightforward when dealing with teens and sex without ever glorifying it or protectively covering our eyes as though we can’t handle the reality she’s presenting. Her approach is upfront yet never shoved in our faces, and we can’t help but appreciate that she doesn’t feel it necessary to tiptoe around the issue simply because the target audience is teenagers. In the same vein, she refuses to use the excuse of “being honest” to portray the relationships in a crass or graphic manner, keeping things real while still being appropriate. With Shut Out, we see a variety of reactions to sex and intimacy, both physical and emotional, and at no point is one character’s thoughts on the subject touted as the “ideal” one. Each young woman who takes part in the strike has a different reaction to and level of comfort with sex, and we have the pleasure of reading as all of them learn their individual feelings are neither right nor wrong, but are simply perfect for them and who they are.

Lissa is an enjoyable protagonist, someone who doesn’t stand out in our minds as spectacularly memorable but who has equal parts strength and vulnerability which makes her more than black type on a page. She finds herself the unintentional leader of a group of teenage girls, and just when her behavior with regard to the strike starts to become worrisome, she shakes herself loose and manages to escape the dramatic frenzy she’s worked herself into to return to the more adorably reluctant figurehead we met initially. She walks right up to the line between drama and melodrama and hovers precariously, but ultimately she never completely crosses it, allowing us to see her flaws as realistic as opposed to annoying.

Perhaps the most interesting character is best friend and resident “slut” Chloe, a young woman who neither apologizes nor makes excuses for who she is, but rather owns all the pieces of herself with pride despite the ridicule and negativity directed her way as a result. She’s honest with everyone around her (bluntly so), but more importantly she’s honest with herself in a way that makes us take a moment of introspection as we evaluate the way we see ourselves. It’s her confidence that–while inspiring petty jealousies and snide remarks in the beginning–gives the other girls the strength to admit things they never before would have, thus paving the way for all the girls to take positive steps forward. The reasons Chloe gives for engaging in more casual sexual relationships may be frowned upon by many a reader, but her self-acceptance is something admirable, especially her ability to let the rumors and nastiness roll off her while maintaining a positive opinion of the woman she sees in the mirror.

Though not quite as emotionally intense or raw as The DUFF, Shut Out is a fun addition to Ms. Keplinger’s resume, and ultimately has us greatly looking forward to whatever she’ll come up with next.

Rating: 4/5

Introducing Miss Holly + Winners

2011-12-17T21:01:00.008-05:00

A couple of you may have seen my Tweets last week regarding a new addition to the family, and I thought I would share some pictures with you because, well, she's kind of cute ;-) My husband and I rescued her last Friday from a local shelter where she was on the kill list. The rescue organization we found her through just happened to be at the shelter to rescue another dog when they walked into euthanasia room and saw that she was next up on the list for the evening. Apparently, whoever dropped her off at the shelter said she was a pit bull and, unfortunately, that guaranteed her automatic placement on the kill list. Luckily though, the rescue organization was able to grab her and my husband and I agreed to foster her until we could find her a permanent home.

So, here she is, 11-week old Holly! She may have some pit bull in her, but I also think she has some boxer and maybe some mastiff too based on her coloring. We've received a bunch of adoption applications for her, so we should have a permanent home for her soon which makes me both very happy and very, very sad as I'm kind of attached to her. After this experience though, my husband and I are both hoping to foster again in the future to help save more pit bulls and other "bully breeds" who find themselves with a very short amount of time to find new homes before getting put down.

(Holly with big brothers Gatsby and Griffin)

To be completely random, I also thought I would announce the winners of my Love Potions e-book giveaway! Thank you so much to all those who entered, and to Michelle for so generously offering up three copies. All the winners have been emailed!

Winners:
Felicia @ Geeky Blogger's Book Blog
Ashley @ The Bookish Brunette
Jen M

Coming Soon: Tempting Tuesdays, A Some Girls Bite Read-Along

2011-12-16T00:00:00.000-05:00

TEMPTING TUESDAYS

If you take a twenty-seven year-old grad-student-turned-vampire with a penchant for sarcasm, add it to the drama of being turned without permission, then factor in an arrogant but absurdly attractive Master vampire who's unused to having his buttons pushed, what do you get? Well, I'll tell you. You get Chloe Neill's Some Girls Bite, the first book in her hugely entertaining Chicagoland Vampires series!

The lovely Tina at Tina's Book Reviews, Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight, Missie at The Unread Reader, and I are going to be hosting a read-along for Some Girls Bite starting January 3rd and running every Tuesday through January 31st, and we cannot tell you how excited we would be if you guys would join us! For those of you who are unfamiliar with how a read-along works, fear not, it's really easy. Sign up using the below linky (we'd love it if you could grab a button and do a short post announcing your participation to help spread the word), buy or borrow a copy of Some Girls Bite, and take a look at the questions for chapters 1-4 listed at the bottom of this post. Those five questions will be discussed here on Supernatural Snark to kick off the event on January 3rd. Simply put a post together wherein you answer the questions and then come here to link up your answers so that everyone participating can hop around, read, and comment like a giant virtual book club. Fun right? Right ;-)

Below is the schedule for the event so you can follow along. The second five discussion questions will be posted on Tina's blog on the 3rd so you'll have plenty of time to answer the questions before we all post again on the 10th.

January 3rd - Chapters 1-4 (Jenny at Supernatural Snark)
January 10th - Chapters 5-8 (Tina at Tina's Book Reviews)
January 17th - Chapters 9-12 (Rummanah at Books in the Spotlight)
January 24th - Chapters 13-15 + epilogue (Missie at The Unread Reader)
January 31st - Special guest post by Chloe Neill and our grand prize giveaway!

Everyone who signs up for the read-along and participates each week will be entered in our grand prize giveaway, with the winner announced on each of our blogs on the 31st. The prize pack (pictured below) includes a Sentinel 04 t-shirt, a copy of the second book in the series Friday Night Bites, and a copy of Chloe's newest release in her young adult series Charmfall. In addition to the grand prize winner, two additional winners will also receive copies of Charmfall.

International participants: The giveaway is open to you as well (as long as The Book Depository delivers to your country), though we will be substituting the t-shirt and Charmfall for the next 2 books in the Chicagoland Vampires series after Friday Night Bites, so you will receive Friday Night Bites, Twice Bitten, and Hard Bitten.

If you're not familiar with this series, it's an adult urban fantasy series, but I beg all of you wonderful readers who typically stick to young adult fiction exclusively not to write this one off. It's ripe with romantic tension (think Rose and Dimitri in Vampire Academy) and has loads of humor, and I honestly cannot recommend it enough! Have I convinced you yet? No? You need more? Well, it just so happens that Ethan Sullivan (Master of Cadogan House) has been one of my past book boyfriends, so I leave you with the below image as my final attempt to get you on board (you can see the full post and read some snippets HERE):

SOME GIRLS BITE

Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was Merit's. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker-and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

Turns out her savior was the Master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she's traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan "Lord o' the Manor" Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred- year-old vampire, he has centuries' worth of charm, but unfortunately he expects her gratitude- and servitude. But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan's attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone's still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago's nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war-and there will be blood.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTERS 1-4

1. Let’s say tomorrow a “vampire manifesto” as Merit calls it runs in newspapers across the country announcing their existence. How do you think you would react? If you were hesitant to believe initially, what would it take to convince you they were real?

2. Since being turned into a vampire means complete removal from your former life and a new job serving your House in some capacity, what do you think you would miss most about the life you live now?

3. What are your first impressions of Merit and how she’s handling all the changes in her life?

4. When you first read the description of Ethan, what actor/model/person you know pops into your head as the perfect embodiment of him? Feel free to include pictures ;-)

5. Do you think Merit’s anger at Ethan himself, not the situation, is justified?

GRAB THE BUTTONS:

Please feel free to grab a button for the event and we look forward to having you join us in January!

Review: Water Wars

2011-12-15T00:00:00.001-05:00

THE WATER WARS
Cameron Stracher
Young Adult/Dystopian
240 pages
Sourcebooks Fire
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY
The world is shaped differently now. New borders exist between new countries made up of previously independent states, and new rules exist to regulate and control what's left of the world's almost non-existent drinkable water supply.

For Vera, this is simply life as she knows it, but when she meets Kai her entire world view shifts. He claims there's fresh water left and he can find it. And then just like that he's gone, leaving behind a ransacked apartment and little else for Vera and her brother Will to help them understand what happened to him.

Convinced he's been kidnapped for his water knowledge, Vera and Will set out in search of him but instead find themselves in the middle of a battle for power, struggling to live long enough to find their friend and the boy who just might be capable of saving them all.

MY THOUGHTS
Water Wars presents us with a rather bleak future, one we can’t really say we’re overly shocked to see laid out before us given the predictions of many a current environmentalist, and one where guilt is a tangible entity on our shoulders as we read, pointing things out as we go to show us just how responsible we as a whole are for the state of this fictional world. Water is the currency for Vera and the rest of the inhabitants of this vast dry and cracked empire–worth more than gold, more than morality and ethics, and more than life itself—as it is dammed and hoarded, stolen and polluted, and then rationed to the very last drop. All we can do is lick our lips to wipe away the dust and dryness that isn’t there while swearing the paper gets more brittle with every flip of the page as though the story is sucking the very life out of them just as our characters are being so brutally robbed of it themselves.

Though the premise certainly brings to light a future scenario that has every possibility of truly coming to pass–carrying with it a message of weight and importance–it remains simply a story; black and white letters on pages that progress in ascending numerical order. Vera and Will never feel quite real, instead reading of them is a bit like standing outside in the pouring rain where there is infinite potential to absorb what’s falling all around us, but instead of wearing short sleeves we are outfitted in waterproof jackets, forcing all the conflicts and emotions of this world to bead up and slide right off instead of seeping into the skin on contact. We want to care and we want to be horrified at the damage caused by humanity’s abuse of natural resources, but without that thriving connection to our main characters the intensity of their circumstances is significantly muted.

In addition to a bit of character detachment, there’s also a small believability issue when it comes to some of the events experienced by Will and Vera on their search for Kai. Granted, a great deal of the fun with reading comes from the temporary suspension of belief for the duration of the story, but the extraordinary nature of the crashes, floods, escapes, and general trouble Will and Vera find themselves in and manage to survive stretches our willingness to believe almost to its breaking point. Both Will and Vera live through a multitude of life-threatening situations, and while they don’t come away unscathed, their fairly severe injuries don’t appear to hinder them all that much, and they (along with the people they befriend) carry on with few side effects despite the loss of blood or the broken bones. In a world that is for the most part reality-based with no paranormal or supernatural happenings, the fantastical nature of the continuous cycle of peril and survival creates additional distance between the story and us as readers.

Overall, Water Wars is well written and forces us to have a new appreciation for the availability of precious H2O in our homes and lives, we just can’t help but wish we could unzip and remove our weather-resistant coverings so that we feel every nuance of the story without a barrier in between.

Rating: 3/5

Character Interview + Giveaway: Mike Woods and Catching Jordan

2011-12-14T00:00:00.004-05:00

Today I'm hugely excited to welcome Jordan's brother, Mike Woods, to the blog as part of the promotional tour through Teen Book Scene. Mike was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about growing up with Jordan as well as playing football, and it's possible I unintentionally got him to share a bit of personal information as well (go me!). If you have yet to read Catching Jordan, I hope you make time in the near future as it was one of my favorite books of the year (you can read my full review here)!

If you could sit your dad down and talk to him about Jordan knowing he would actually listen to you, what would you most like to say?

She’s as strong as me and has just as much heart. Jordan and I aren’t that different.

What was the very first thing to come out of the mouth of Jake Reynolds when you introduced him to Jordan?

“I know you’re from Tennessee because you’re the only ten I see.” And yes, then I punched Jake in the face. But that’s par for the course with Jake. People are always slapping him.

*Jenny falls down dead laughing* I think I love Jake a little bit ;-)

Do you have a favorite family football moment between you and Jordan, or between you, your dad, and Jordan?

One year when I was nine and Jordan was six, when Dad was still playing for the Cowboys, his team didn’t make it to the Super Bowl and he decided to stay home with us and watch it in front of the TV. Our TV was tiny then, only like 32 inches, and Dad kept complaining about how small the screen was and maybe we should’ve gone to the game in Los Angeles, and Mom kept smacking his hand and telling him to shush. During the halftime show, there was a performance by Bon Jovi that was also broadcast in 3D. Mom had picked up the special 3D glasses for us at the grocery store, and we all put them on, even Dad. He looked damned ridiculous. And Jordan and I laughed and made fun of him for hours and he kept wrestling us to the floor. Yes, he was still wearing those 3D glasses when he put me in the headlock.

You excel at talking to people and chatting them up. Who would you say you’ve had the most fun schmoozing in recent history?

Most people only think of me as the quarterback of the Tennessee Vols. Sometimes I wonder if people even know I have a life beyond football. I’m majoring in business (bet you didn’t know that!), and well, at the beginning of the school year, the university had the gall to put me in an 8:00 a.m. class. I just don’t do 8:00 a.m. And that means I certainly don’t do class at 8:00 a.m. I’m not like my sister, Jordan – she’s a morning person. So I was desperate to get out of this class (International Econ), so I went to see my advisor. I had never been to see her before, as the school had never made such an egregious error with my schedule. Turns out my advisor, Jackie, is insanely attractive, and she was having none of my “8:00 a.m. and I just don’t get along!” talk. I told her that I needed my beauty sleep. She just stared at me and crossed her mile-long legs and my heart flew up into my throat. After twenty minutes of me pleading, Jackie yawned and told me to grow up and get out of bed like everyone else. Needless to say, my schmoozing didn’t work and I’m reminded of that three times a week at 8:00 a.m. during International Econ.

I am going to ask Jackie on a date as soon as I get the nerve. Would I get in trouble for dating my college advisor? I should ask Dad’s lawyer.

Do you still worry about whether or not people will compare your football career to your dad’s or have you been playing long enough that you no longer feel you’re in his shadow?

I worry about that every day. Every time I fumble or throw an interception. But regardless, I love the game, and that’s what matters, not me trying to live up to something I could never compete with. Besides, if I don’t make it in the NFL, I’ll try to buy a franchise one day. (As soon as I save up the money and have the credit to get the loans.)

How much do we love Mike? I believe there are two scheduled companion novels for Catching Jordan scheduled for 2012 and 2013 (cannot wait!), so you can find more information on those, Miranda, and Catching Jordan here:

Website
Twitter

GIVEAWAY

Kari over at A Good Addiction is hosting a giveaway for a very cool marked up, one of a kind copy of Catching Jordan with additional entries for all of you who are following the tour. You can find the form and all the information including a list of the tour stops HERE. Commenting on this post will grant you one extra entry.

CATCHING JORDAN

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though - she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team... and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.

Review: Flesh and Blood

2011-12-13T00:00:00.003-05:00

FLESH AND BLOOD
(House of Comarre #2)
Kristen Painter
Adult Urban Fantasy
416 pages
Orbit/Hachette Book Group
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Those born into the comarré life produced blood in rich, pure, powerful abundance...

With the Ring of Sorrows still missing, and the covenant between othernaturals and mortals broken, Chrysabelle and Malkolm’s problems are just beginning. Chrysabelle still owes Malkolm for his help, but fulfilling that debt means returning to Corvinestri, the hidden vampire city where neither is welcome.

MY THOUGHTS
This second installment in the House of Comarre series builds beautifully on the events of the first book, returning us to a blindingly gorgeous pair of opposites who, for all their differences, are both struggling to escape the confines of a life not of their choosing. Ms. Painter is extraordinarily aptly named–an artist exquisitely capable of crafting characters who are carefully rendered studies in contrasts–wielding black type on a white page as opposed to brushstrokes on a canvas but creating a work of art just the same. In this tale we begin to see some interesting shading take place, where Chrysabelle and Malkolm were pretty clearly delineated light and dark in book one we now begin to see them blend, highlights and lowlights combining to create a picture with more depth and detail than we saw previously, and we stand back appreciatively to search each new shade of gray for meaning we know is there waiting.

For all that Chrysabelle is glittering gold filigree to Malkolm’s tortured blackness, we get the pleasure of watching them tentatively step away from their opposite ends of the spectrum and hesitantly move toward middle ground and perhaps the comfort and sanctuary for which they’ve both long been searching. They are such stunning contradictions: the purity of the comarre versus the perceived stain of a cursed vampiric soul, with Chrysabelle's air of royalty and desired rank versus Malkom's displaced nobility making their pairing all the more fascinating to read as they slowly try to shed the roles that have defined them previously and find a new beginning. Watching as Chrysabelle flounders a bit trying to figure out who she is if not wholly and completely comarre and as Malkolm dares to put his faith in someone else when all the hands that received his love and loyalty previously have spread their fingers wide to let those gifts sift through is both exhilarating and painful, but their difficult journey ensures our unwavering interest through to the very end.

The introduction of a new possible romantic interest is initially a bit of a detraction to the overall story, our love for Malkolm based the time spent with him already as well as our knowledge of the brutal betrayals that make up his past forcing our hackles up as though he and Chrysabelle are ours to protect from any unwanted influence. Vampire slayer Creek is nearly impossible to dislike however, and Ms. Painter does an admirable job of not turning this story into a competition for Chrysabelle’s affections, but rather she works him into events in a way where his importance extends far beyond that of mere romantic foil character for the main couple. We know some things about him but certainly not all, and there is enough about him left in the unknown category to keep us on our guard and suspicious of his motives despite his status as an ally to both Malkolm and Chrysabelle.

As with Blood Rights, Flesh and Blood is teeming with interesting twists and turns, alliances made and dissolved quickly and easily to keep our minds churning as to exactly who we can trust, who could be playing us and those we care about, and who is the biggest bad of them all. Ms. Painter has a gift for writing characters who epitomize both good and evil but who also prove there are varying degrees to such categorization, making each classification far broader in scale than we might think before reading. We are left with not a cliffhanger per se, but definitely with events left unresolved and some very large questions looming so that our need to pick up the next book and start it is one that will not be ignored.

Rating: 4/5

Author Interview: Sharde Richardson + Watched

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

As part of the promotional tour through Teen Book Scene, I have the pleasure of welcoming author Sharde Richardson to the blog today to answer a few questions about her paranormal young adult release Watched. Watched is available now and you can read my full review here!

If you suddenly found yourself with the ability to see demons, what is the first thing you would do?

I’d probably hide, pray for my Sentry to show up and hope that he/she would know what to do.

Is there some aspect of Mikayla as a character you are most proud of?

She’s brave. As you can tell from my answer above, I lack that quality.

Watched has an absolutely stunning cover; what is the last book that caught your eye simply from cover design alone?

Thanks! I’ll be sure to tell Claudia, the artist, that you said that. I guess the one book I’ve seen recently that caught my eye from cover design alone would be Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. There are different covers for this book, but if you find the one that makes you say, “Oh, I get it!” then you’re looking at the right one. It’s not particularly stunning, as it is clever.

(For those interested, here it is on Goodreads with its various covers)

What has been the single most rewarding part of writing your first novel?

People actually want to read it. I think I could live without being paid, just knowing there’s someone out there enjoying something I wrote. It kind of makes me immortal.

Let’s say there are demons after you and you have nothing on you but the clothes on your body and a pocket full of Q-tips. You can’t use a car as a getaway option because you have a record number of speeding tickets to your name and can’t risk one more ;-) What is your escape strategy?

I DO have a record number of speeding tickets to my name. How nice of you to bring that up! I guess I’d have to invoke the powers of the tooth fairy and fly away. No, seriously, the answer is obvious, Jenny. I’d just do as most Hunters and fade.

Thanks for having me, Jenny.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Sharde! You can find more information on Sharde and Watched here:

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WATCHED

Mikayla doesn't want much: just to rock out to her favorite band, become the next Kwiki Stop video gaming champion, and keep her Q-tip habit under control. What she does want is the sight of the sudden inexplicable dark auras around everyone to stop. Problem is, those auras are demons and Mikayla is the last trait holder with the power to ban them. Which is a total buzz kill.

To make matters worse, the town folk of Sulphur Springs don't look the same, and her classmates are a little dark in the eyes. There are murders, suicides, reckless skinny-dipping, gratuitous use of Q-tips, and newfound powers that Mikayla must learn to control.

Her past becomes present when a shape-shifter tells her what her true identity is, and how to keep the demons of Hell from nipping at her Converse. Through him she'll discover who to trust, who to kiss, and how valuable her abilities are to the right beings. Because the evils of Hell aren't staying down without a fight...

Or without her soul.