Waiting on Wednesday: Empire of Dust

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

EMPIRE OF DUST

Blood of Gods & Royals #2

Eleanor Herman

YA Historical/Fantasy

Releases June 28th from Harlequin Teen

From Goodreads:

In Macedon, war rises like smoke, forbidden romance blooms and ancient magic tempered with rage threatens to turn an empire to dust

After winning his first battle, Prince Alexander fights to become the ruler his kingdom demands—but the line between leader and tyrant blurs with each new threat.

Meanwhile, Hephaestion, cast aside by Alexander for killing the wrong man, must conceal the devastating secret of a divine prophecy from Katerina even as the two of them are thrust together on a dangerous mission to Egypt.

The warrior, Jacob, determined to forget his first love, vows to eradicate the ancient Blood Magics and believes that royal prisoner Cynane holds the key to Macedon's undoing.

And in chains, the Persian princess Zofia still longs to find the Spirit Eaters, but first must grapple with the secrets of her handsome—and deadly—captor.

New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman entwines the real scandals of history with epic fantasy to reimagine the world's most brilliant ruler, Alexander the Great, in the second book of the Blood of Gods and Royals series.

I have a feeling this series is one that's best experienced in binge-reading fashion, so while I haven't yet read the first book, I'm still really looking forward to diving into this series as a whole. With the various POV's and the rich historical and fantasy elements, I know I'm going to want as little time as possible in between books to help me keep track of everything, so as soon as this bad boy is out in June I'm going to get my grabby hands on the first one and read them back to back.

Also, though I haven't met Zofia yet, I have to admit to being most intrigued by her plotline and the mention of this handsome and deadly captor. I feel either an antagonistic and/or forbidden romance coming on and I'm all for either of those!

Goodreads • Amazon      

Guest Post: Kady Cross + Sisters of Salt and Iron

Today I'm so pleased to have author Kady Cross to the blog to talk a little bit about Sisters of Salt and Iron, the sequel to last year's Sisters of Blood and Spirit. As you guys already know, I thoroughly enjoy this series and the relationship between sisters Lark and Wren, and I highly recommend it to those who love a good YA paranormal read.

Wren is an extraordinarily fascinating character, so when I had the chance to ask her a single question, I made sure to be a little nosy when it comes to her:) Welcome to Supernatural Snark, Kady!

Wren doesn't know what it's like to be alive other than what she's experienced through her sister. If she could be fully alive and in her own body for a single day, what are three things she'd be sure to do?

1. She would eat as much as she could from as many types of food as she could get her hands on. And she would stop to smell each dish as well.

2. She would probably kiss Kevin. Probably a lot, even though he hurt her.

3. She would simply enjoy being able to be with her sister and her friends on the same plane of existence.

Thanks so much for stopping by Kady!

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

SISTERS OF SALT AND IRON

Lark Noble is finally happy. She’s trying to move on and put the events of the past behind her: the people who avoided her because she talked to the ghost of her dead twin sister, the parents who couldn’t be around her anymore and even the attempt she made on her own life. She finally has friends—people who know her secrets and still care about her—and she has Ben, the cute guy she never saw coming.

Wren Noble is lonely. Unable to interact with the living, she wants to be happy for her sister’s newfound happiness, but she feels like she’s losing her. It doesn’t help that Kevin, the very not-dead guy she was starting to fall for, seems to be moving on.

Then Wren meets Noah, the spirit of a young man who died a century ago. Noah is cute, he’s charming and he makes Wren feel something she’s never felt before. But Noah has a dark influence on Wren, and Lark’s distrust of him drives the sisters apart for the first time in their lives. As Halloween approaches and the veil between the worlds thins, bringing the dead closer to the world of the living, Lark must find a way to stop whatever deadly act Noah is planning, even if it means going through her sister to do so.

Find Kady:

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Review: Sisters of Salt and Iron

SISTERS OF SALT AND IRON
Sisters of Blood and Spirit #2
Kady Cross
Paranormal Young Adult
352 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Lark Noble is finally happy. She’s trying to move on and put the events of the past behind her: the people who avoided her because she talked to the ghost of her dead twin sister, the parents who couldn’t be around her anymore and even the attempt she made on her own life. She finally has friends—people who know her secrets and still care about her—and she has Ben, the cute guy she never saw coming.

Wren Noble is lonely. Unable to interact with the living, she wants to be happy for her sister’s newfound happiness, but she feels like she’s losing her. It doesn’t help that Kevin, the very not-dead guy she was starting to fall for, seems to be moving on.

Then Wren meets Noah, the spirit of a young man who died a century ago. Noah is cute, he’s charming and he makes Wren feel something she’s never felt before. But Noah has a dark influence on Wren, and Lark’s distrust of him drives the sisters apart for the first time in their lives. As Halloween approaches and the veil between the worlds thins, bringing the dead closer to the world of the living, Lark must find a way to stop whatever deadly act Noah is planning, even if it means going through her sister to do so.

MY THOUGHTS
The setup for Sisters of Salt and Iron is a common one (especially for second books in a series) that can be tricky, wherein a new character enters the picture and effectively drives a wedge between a previously established relationship. In this particular case that relationship exists between twin sisters Lark and Wren, but the same kind of anxiety exists as we're able to do nothing but watch helplessly as said character delivers one resounding thwack to that wedge after another, driving us closer to the moment the crack created between sisters becomes a full break.

What makes this familiar trope successful in Sisters of Salt and Iron is not only the fact that Wren and Lark are sisters and we therefore don't have to deal with an interloper threatening any kind of romantic relationship, but also that Ms. Cross keeps the drama between the girls to a minimum as Noah whispers his dark untruths in Wren's ear. Wren does fall for him quickly and grow distrustful of her sister's motives at every turn, but the moment things come to a head is relatively low key (in a good way), and the bond between sisters quickly proves to be far stronger than the charms of a ghostly boy.

A truly fascinating aspect of this second installment is the way Ms. Cross continues to highlight Wren's otherness, giving us small reminders here and there that she's not simply a young woman who just happens to be a ghost, but rather that she's in no way human given she's never lived. Born dead, Wren doesn't experience human emotion in the same way as her sister, and every now and then as we spend time with her (the narrative alternates between both sisters) we're smacked in the face with unexpected proof that Wren is delightfully and gruesomely different from us "breathers".

Overall, Sisters of Salt and Iron is a quick read that ensures we consider sleeping with the lights on for a night or two after we close the back cover just in case one of the residents of Haven Crest decides to pay us a visit.

Rating: 4/5

Find Kady:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Firstlife

FIRSTLIFE
Everlife #1
Gena Showalter
Paranormal Young Adult
480 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
ONE CHOICE.
TWO REALMS.
NO SECOND CHANCE.

Tenley “Ten” Lockwood is an average seventeen-year-old girl…who has spent the past thirteen months locked inside the Prynne Asylum. The reason? Not her obsession with numbers, but her refusal to let her parents choose where she’ll live—after she dies.

There is an eternal truth most of the world has come to accept: Firstlife is merely a dress rehearsal, and real life begins after death.

In the Everlife, two realms are in power: Troika and Myriad, longtime enemies and deadly rivals. Both will do anything to recruit Ten, including sending their top Laborers to lure her to their side. Soon, Ten finds herself on the run, caught in a wild tug-of-war between the two realms who will do anything to win the right to her soul. Who can she trust? And what if the realm she’s drawn to isn’t home to the boy she’s falling for? She just has to stay alive long enough to make a decision…

MY THOUGHTS
Firstlife is a dark start to this new series, introducing us to Ten in the asylum of which she's a temporary resident, and we're quickly submerged in the horrors of her day to day life. Ms. Showalter doesn't pull many punches in the opening third of this tale, the physical and emotional torture (as her parents are the one ordering her "treatment") ensuring we grow attached to Ten quickly and easily if for no other reason than to be a silent support system and witness to her abuse. Ms. Showalter doesn't leave us in complete darkness however, her trademark sense of humor providing much needed moments of levity in the form of two new inmates to Prynne Asylum, and we grab hold of those fleeting moments with all our strength before Ten's capacity for pain endurance is tested once again.

The aforementioned inmates turn out to be two young men, one from Troika and one from Myriad, sent to convince Ten to sign her Everlife (or life after human death) over to their realm, and while the mention of two guys in Ten's life might send many a reader running for the hills, no love triangle forms. Archer, the representative from Troika, initially comes to Ten in the form of her female roommate in the asylum, and their bond, even when he returns to his naturally glorious male form, remains firmly in the friendship zone until it gradually deepens and becomes one that exists between family. Her romantic feelings are for Killian exclusively, though the romance between them remains in the background of the epic battle between Troika and Myriad to recruit Ten, and is deliciously slow in forming due to her understandable trust issues.

Firstlife is a thrill ride from beginning to end, the callousness with which one of the realms in particular treats a person's human life something that makes our blood boil and our loyalty shift to its enemy with far less deliberation than Ten undertakes. Her inability to pick a side is completely understandable within the context of her circumstances however, and before it becomes a source of frustration she makes it clear to us as readers who she favors, but she must continue to avoid a firm decision in order to play the political game she's unwillingly drawn into.

Overall, this first installment is a fast, enthralling read despite its length, Ten's story both brutal and uplifting as she's forced to learn what family and friendship truly mean in the most painful way possible.

Rating: 4/5

Find Gena:

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This book was sent to me by the publisher  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Heir to the Sky

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

HEIR TO THE SKY

Amanda Sun

Young Adult/Fantasy

Available April 26th from Harlequin Teen

From Goodreads:

As heir to a kingdom of floating continents, Kali has spent her life bound by limits—by her duties as a member of the royal family; by a forced betrothal to the son of a nobleman; and by the edge of the only world she’s ever known—a small island hovering above a monster-ridden earth, long since uninhabited by humans. She is the Eternal Flame of Hope for what’s left of mankind, the wick and the wax burning in service for her people, and for their revered Phoenix, whose magic keeps them aloft.

When Kali falls off the edge of her kingdom and miraculously survives, she is shocked to discover there are still humans on the earth. Determined to get home, Kali entrusts a rugged monster-hunter named Griffin to guide her across a world overrun by chimera, storm dragons, basilisks, and other terrifying beasts. But the more time she spends on earth, the more dark truths she begins to uncover about her home in the sky, and the more resolute she is to start burning for herself.

I have to admit I passed this book over the first couple times I saw it because the cover didn't feel very YA fantasy to me, but when I read the blurb and saw talk of floating continents, chimeras and storm dragons I did a spastic flail and started obsessing immediately. I love books that feature lesser known paranormal creatures, so I can't wait to read about all the fun (and also terrifying) beasties that have overrun this world. Also, I love a good dark truth or two, so I'm looking forward to what's revealed about Kali's sky kingdom. *attempts to wait patiently for April*

Goodreads • Amazon

Hop Into the New Year: White Rabbit Chronicles Giveaway

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you've all had a warm, happy and healthy holiday season! I wanted to kick the new year off right (well the day after the new year anyway, I was too lazy to post yesterday), and I figured what could be more right than Cole Holland? Answer? Absolutely nothing. For those of your who have yet to meet Cole, you're missing out, Gena Showalter knows how to write some very, very sexy men. Even when when those men exist YA books and are therefore way too young for me. I just go to that place in my head that ages them by a decade and all my fantasies then resume ;-)

But I digress. Cole has that effect on me, forcing me to profess my undying love for him to the internet whenever the opportunity arises.

Thanks to the amazingly generous team at HarlequinTEEN, I have a very fun giveaway to share with you today. Up for grabs are 5 adorable white stuffed bunnies initialed by Gena Showalter, and one grand prize winner will also receive the White Rabbit Chronicles book of their choice. Want to meet (or be reunited with) Cole? Here's your chance!

To enter, fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US addresses only.

Find the White Rabbit Chronicles:

Alice in Zombieland

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

Through the Zombie Glass

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

 

The Queen of Zombie Hearts 

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: White Hot Kiss

WHITE HOT KISS
The Dark Elements #1
Jennifer L. Armentrout
Paranormal Young Adult
304 pages
HarlequinTEEN
Available February 25th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
One kiss could be the last.

Seventeen-year-old Layla just wants to be normal. But with a kiss that kills anything with a soul, she's anything but normal. Half demon, half gargoyle, Layla has abilities no one else possesses.

Raised among the Wardens—a race of gargoyles tasked with hunting demons and keeping humanity safe—Layla tries to fit in, but that means hiding her own dark side from those she loves the most. Especially Zayne, the swoon-worthy, incredibly gorgeous and completely off-limits Warden she's crushed on since forever.

Then she meets Roth—a tattooed, sinfully hot demon who claims to know all her secrets. Layla knows she should stay away, but she's not sure she wants to—especially when that whole no-kissing thing isn't an issue, considering Roth has no soul.

But when Layla discovers she's the reason for the violent demon uprising, trusting Roth could not only ruin her chances with Zayne…it could brand her a traitor to her family. Worse yet, it could become a one-way ticket to the end of the world.

MY THOUGHTS
White Hot Kiss is a book we both want to tear through as quickly as possible to discover how things play out and yet at the same time walk away from repeatedly, unready for our time with Layla to be over and also more than a little worried about reaching the last chapter as Ms. Armentrout is known for her gut-wrenching cliffhangers. There is no shortage of emotional pain in this first installment, Layla's status as a Warden/demon hybrid creating in her a palpable loneliness that practically suffocates us with its intensity from the beginning—a feeling only magnified by her heartbreaking love for full-blooded Warden Zayne—and we find ourselves laid low by our visceral need to protect and bolster her despite the barrier of fiction. She so beautifully takes everything in stride however, and though the persistent ache in our chests becomes our constant companion while reading, Layla's shining personality and strength of character serve to seal the cracks her situation causes in our hearts as soon as they're made.

Though the synopsis fully prepares us for a love triangle situation with the mention of both Zayne and Roth, what we find when we delve deeper into this story is the careful and stunning execution of the various feelings and relationships that can exist between three people without any type of geometrical shape defining them. The rawness of Layla's longtime love for Zayne hits us like a sucker punch to the gut from the very first chapter, and our desire to see her every romantic wish fulfilled with regard to him is strong and unwavering in the beginning. While Zayne seems to genuinely care for her however, the feelings between them appear to be weighed more heavily in Layla's direction, a fact that smooths Roth's entry into the picture as we want nothing more than for her to have someone in her life who appreciates every aspect of who she is.

Because the simple knowledge that Layla's love for Zayne has spanned years automatically has us hoping for a magical solution in which the two of them can live happily ever after, it takes us a little while to warm to Roth despite his undeniable charm and tattooed bad-boy glory; much needed time that gives us the opportunity to step back and see the relationship between Zayne and Layla for both what it is and what it isn't. As mentioned previously, there's clearly affection on Zayne's side, and as the story progresses the stirrings of something more, but Roth's arrival highlights for us all the reasons Zayne and Layla's romantic pieces have never fallen into place in the time they've known one another. There's no whining, pining, or waffling on anyone's part, instead we're left only with the painfully gorgeous tumble of emotions that accompanies the formation of new relationships and the progression of old ones.

While the romance is a focal point of this story to be sure, Layla is a highlight all on her own, strong enough to withstand the constant reminders from those she calls family that she is less-than—a taint on the purity of Wardens in general—and to physically battle those who want her dead. She goes toe to toe with Roth in a battle of wills and sexual innuendo, never letting on that his purposefully suggestive (and dammit, amusing) comments and ego strokes are working far better than she'd like, instead calling him out on them and hurling an insult back at him for good measure. She knows when to hold strong and when to back down, when to apologize to someone and when to demand an apology in return, and when to question or when to simply take a leap of faith. She's everything we could want in a young adult heroine, full of strength and vulnerability, merits and faults, and her growth throughout the series will undoubtedly be something special.

We're left a bit battered, a familiar state for those who are longtime fans of Ms. Armentrout, but accompanying our war wounds is the complete faith that we'll end up exactly where we want and need to be when all is said and done.

Rating: 4.5/5 

Find Jennifer:

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads • Amazon

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Run To You: Second Glance + Third Charm

RUN TO YOU
Part Two: Second Glance
Clara Kensie
Paranormal Young Adult
Ebook, serial novel
HarlequinTEEN
Available Now
Source: e-ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Part Two in the riveting romantic thriller about a family on the run from a deadly past and a first love that will transcend secrets, lies and danger…

Tessa Carson has unlocked her heart and her secrets to Tristan Walker—but Tristan has secrets of his own, and his might just mean the end of Tessa’s family. Unaware, Tessa embraces falling in love and being herself for the first time since she was attacked when she was only eight years old. But secrets can’t be run from forever, and sometimes love is too good to be true…

MY THOUGHTS
Part two of Run to You builds beautifully on the first, finally revealing in full exactly what happened to Tessa and her family to send them running for their lives, and while the reason why their family was targeted seems like a bit of an extreme reaction to an investigative journalist’s articles, we can’t help but be grateful some of the confusion resulting from book one is cleared up. What’s so fascinating about reading this story in sections is the way various pieces of information are tied together, forcing our brains to work just a little bit harder to recall expertly placed clues; ones that seemed small or insignificant in our initial pass only to have a later event trigger their importance and relevance to the story as we know it thus far. In the same vein, given part two is still but a piece of the whole even when combined with part one, we are left to gleefully wonder what events the concluding third might offer that will make things we may have unknowingly glossed over in Second Glance slide perfectly into place.

Though largely an improvement upon First Sight, Second Glance is still predominantly plot-driven, so those readers who revel in character subtleties and complexities will likely be a touch disappointed on that front. Tessa, her family, and Tristan remain fairly superficial for us, our time with them always seeming to move quickly; their story a river full of rapids rather than a smoothly flowing stream. The romance between Tessa and Tristan continues to remain shallower than we might like, declarations of love cast about with an ease that has us questioning the sincerity of their sentiments, but despite those niggles, there’s a highly addictive quality to this second installment that has us flipping the pages with impressive speed.

The concluding chapters of Second Glance absolutely fly by, our hearts pounding out an erratic rhythm as we try and make sense of the deliciously unexpected. We’re left with one of those revelations that, should it prove to be true in part three, will make us completely reevaluate everything we’ve read, the desire to return to the beginning and sift through each chapter with a fine-tooth comb on the hunt for previously-missed foreshadowing suddenly one we’re not sure we can refuse.

Rating: 4/5

RUN TO YOU
Part Three: Third Charm
Clara Kensie
Paranormal Young Adult
Ebook, serial novel
HarlequinTEEN
Available Now
Source: e-ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Part Three in the riveting romantic thriller about a family on the run from a deadly past and a first love that will transcend secrets, lies and danger…

Betrayed, heartbroken, and determined to save her family, Tessa Carson refuses to give in to Tristan Walker’s pleas for forgiveness. But her own awakening psychic gift won’t let her rest until she uncovers the truth about her family and her past. And Tristan is the only one who can help her sift through the secrets to find the truth hidden in all the lies…

MY THOUGHTS
The third installment of the Run to You serial brings with it a very different type of confusion than we experienced in part one; this the type borne of two seemingly opposing truths that require a great deal of questioning and soul-searching in order to sniff out which is actually an impressively constructed lie. We find ourselves in much the same state as Tessa after the shocking parting line of Second Glance, trying to sort through what we thought we knew about everyone and everything in her life up until that point, though where she despairs of all she’s learned, we can’t help but be perversely gleeful over the fact that Ms. Kensie threw us a curveball that promptly flew right by us and struck us out.

Tessa has been someone we’ve enjoyed spending time with throughout, her story drawing us in deeper and deeper with each installment until we’re eschewing all real-world responsibilities in favor of reading, but she remains someone we can’t help but wish was a bit stronger. Part of her apparent meekness stems from her entire family handling her with kid gloves given she’s the only one of them without a paranormal ability, and it's clear she's learned to view herself through the skewed filter of their eyes rather than her own. She has moments of fire in this last installment though, flashes of strong will and determination that let us know so much more lurks beneath the girl whose entire life has been ruled by fear.

There are still a few small drawbacks to the relationship between Tessa and Tristan that prevent us from fully embracing their love, but things between them are at their most interesting in this third installment, and Third Charm proves to be the strongest of the three parts in terms of their romantic development. We’re left with many of our questions answered and the main conflict with regard to who’s been terrorizing Tessa’s family wrapped up nicely, but there’s one main aspect of Tessa’s life left wide open for us to explore when Ms. Kensie’s next three part serial releases. Overall, Tessa and Tristan’s story is definitely one I look forward to continuing, especially now that Tessa has shown she’s got more than a little fight in her.

Rating: 4/5

Find Run To You:

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Find Clara:

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Review: Run To You: First Sight

RUN TO YOU
Part One: First Sight
Clara Kensie
Paranormal Young Adult
Ebook, serial novel
HarlequinTEEN
Available Now
Source: e-ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Part One in the riveting romantic thriller about a family on the run from a deadly past and a first love that will transcend secrets, lies and danger…

Sarah Spencer has a secret: her real name is Tessa Carson, and to stay alive, she can tell no one the truth about her psychically gifted family and the danger they are running from. As the new girl in the latest of countless schools, she also runs from her attraction to Tristan Walker—after all, she can’t even tell him her real name. But Tristan won’t be put off by a few secrets. Not even dangerous ones that might rip Tessa from his arms before they even kiss…

MY THOUGHTS
Run to You is a serial novel consisting of three parts released a week apart, each one delving us deeper into the life of Tessa and her family as they try to stay one step ahead of a hired assassin. A serial novel is somewhat of a unique and different reading experience, forcing us to examine the story in sections rather than as a whole, something that can be a bit tricky given an element or two that may bother us in the first installment could very well be remedied in the second–therefore becoming an irrelevant complaint overall–but because we approach each piece of this puzzle individually we’re left with our emotions a bit more in flux.

That being said, Run to You has us quite literally hitting the ground running, immediately caught up in Tessa’s terror over being discovered yet again. We as readers are the eye of a turbulent storm as it roars around us, Tessa and her family a whirl of movement of emotion as we sit quietly and try to make sense of the various pieces as they blow by us. Ms. Kensie teases us with fleeting glimpses of how Tessa and her family came to be in their current situation, showing us just enough to ensure our she has our attention and then quickly redirecting us before we can ask more questions than she’s prepared to answer in this first part.

Though we more than sympathize with Tessa and can’t fathom the fear she and her family live with day in and day out, as of this first installment the story seems to be more heavily plot-driven than character-driven, our emotional ties to them overshadowed by our immense curiosity as to what exactly happened that day eight years ago that started it all. There’s a romance between Tessa and a young man from her new school, and while a declaration of love seems to come far too early in their relationship, the fact that Tessa is keeping so much from him holds us captivated, wondering when the impressive dam holding her secrets back is going to crack and allow a few to slip through.

All in all, Run to You gets off to an intriguing start, light just barely beginning to shine on the complexities–personal and familial as well as normal and paranormal–to make a sometimes painful tangle of Tessa’s life, but there is clearly many a shadowed corner that remains as of yet untouched in this first installment, and I for one can’t wait to see how things develop.

Rating: 3.5/5

*Note: It was really difficult to rate this first installment individually since it's intentionally incomplete and leaves off mid-story, but I thoroughly enjoyed this serial it in its entirety (reviews of parts 2 and 3 posting tomorrow), and would give it a 4/5 when all three parts are read together!

Find Run To You:

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Find Clara:

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Interview and Giveaway: Katie McGarry + Crash Into You

It's an interview kind of week on the blog, and today I'm honored to have one of my very favorite authors stopping by to chat about her newest release. I've adored Katie McGarry since the first moment I met Noah and Echo in Pushing the Limits, and my love for her and her stories has only grown with each book she's written. I've been waiting patiently (sort of) for Isaiah's story since the first book, and Crash Into You is the best yet in my opinion, tugging away on my heartstrings with every page until it reduced me to a puddle of emotional goo. Awesome.

Given how much I loved this book, it's with no small amount of excitement that I welcome Katie McGarry back to the blog!

Your books are always written from the dual first-person perspectives of both the male and female protagonists, giving us a much-appreciated peek inside both of their heads. What's one book you've read that you wish had dual points of view so you could more closely examine another character's train of thought or their motivations?

I definitely would have loved to have been inside Edward’s head in the Twilight series. I’m definitely not the person to pull it off, but I think it would be great if someone did a retelling of Anne of Green Gables from Gilbert’s point of view.

Rachel is (understandably) a big fan of Isaiah's many and varied tattoos. If she were to get one for herself to represent the events of Crash Into You, what would it look like and how sexy would Isaiah find it?

I think Rachel would get a single flame. It’s something special to both her and Isaiah and I definitely believe that Isaiah would find it unbelievably sexy!

You clearly did a great deal of research on cars and racing for this book, what is one fun tidbit or piece of trivia you learned over the course of writing Rachel and Isaiah's story?

One day while I was researching Crash Into You, my car wouldn’t start. The good news: I was with guys who knew everything about cars. This one guy had me pop open the hood and he was trying a variety of things to figure out what was the problem. After a few minutes, he decided it was the battery.

He maneuvered his car around to jump the battery, but before he jumped it, he asked for a Coke. It was a hot day and I thought he was thirsty. When he was handed one, he opened it then poured it over my battery.

I was all freaking out and like, “What are you doing?”

“It’s acid,” he said. “Takes the grime off the battery which is keeping it from taking the spark.”

Me, “Oh.”

Guess what—it worked!

Let's say you are invited to conduct an exclusive interview with one character from any piece of young adult fiction. Who would sit atop your list and what's the first question you would ask them?

Definitely Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders. He’s one of my favorites!

Are you still close with your brothers and the guys you grew up with?

Just for fun: What are Isaiah and Rachel's thoughts on The Fast and the Furious films?

They absolutely love the first Fast and the Furious movie! In fact, they can watch the scene where Dom says, “Smoke him,” over and over again.

• • • • • • • • • • 

KATIE MCGARRY

Katie was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan.

Katie is the author of the full-length Young Adult novels PUSHING THE LIMITS and DARE YOU TO, and the e-novella CROSSING THE LINE. Her debut novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS, is a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and an RT Book Reviews 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel.

Writing has given Katie an excuse to pursue her passions. Research for her books has provided her with the amazing opportunity to train with baseball players, ride along in a drag car at ninety-six miles per hour and experience boxing and mixed martial arts. The most memorable moments for Katie are when she speaks to groups of teenagers about her research, writing and the truth that no dream is out of reach. Katie would love to hear from her readers.

Website • Goodreads • Facebook • Twitter

• • • • • • • • • • 

CRASH INTO YOU

The girl with straight As, designer clothes and the perfect life-that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private-school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy parents and overbearing brothers...and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker-a guy she has no business even talking to. But when the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

Isaiah has secrets, too. About where he lives, and how he really feels about Rachel. The last thing he needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks-no matter how angelic she might look.

But when their shared love of street racing puts both their lives in jeopardy, they have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other

Releases November 26th from HarlequinTEEN

Goodreads • Amazon • HarlequinTEEN

• • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to the amazing Katie McGarry, I have one ARC of Crash Into You to give away on the blog today. To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US residents only.

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Review: Indelible

INDELIBLE
The Twixt #1
Dawn Metcalf
Paranormal Young Adult
384 pages
HarlequinTEEN
Available July 30th
Source: eARC from publisher through NetGalley

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Some things are permanent.

Indelible.

And they cannot be changed back.

Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.

Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.

Somewhere between reality and myth lies…

THE TWIXT.

MY THOUGHTS
Indelible is a story packed with potential, a strange world of monsters and men yanking Joy into their midst with sharp claws and hissing threats, and we quickly find ourselves wrapped up in the cloak of darkness now sitting heavily on her young shoulders, waiting for both literal and figurative illumination to help us navigate through the unfamiliar. There are times when this story truly shines, small moments seeming to reflect and scatter light and thus chase away some of our shadowed confusion, but just as we try to make our way toward those moments to grab hold–moths to the flame of promised answers–we find ourselves returned the muddy grays of a world we don’t really understand.

Joy is someone who, much like the story itself, has brief moments where we see the type of character she could be–strong, loyal and extraordinarily accepting of the paranormal twist her life has taken–but before she reaches the line that would burn her into our memories, she always takes a step back, retreating into a sea of average young women who while likable, never become anything more for us. She can be hypocritical at times, criticizing her father, brother, and absent mother for keeping secrets when she does the exact same with them in the form of Ink, and while the nature of her secret is a bit different from those of her family’s, it’s completely lost on her that her own fear with regard to telling the truth might just be mirrored by her parents and older sibling.

Part of our frustration with Joy’s secret keeping in regard to Ink stems from the fact that we’re left very much on the outside of this world trying desperately to peer in, a bit clear as mud on Ink’s job as a Scribe and why his claiming of Joy has sent so many ripples through the world of the Folk. We’re given small tidbits as to what a Scribe does, but the correlation between Ink’s job and how it actually affects Joy and the human world is not drawn for us until the very end. In the final 20% of this story our questions are answered nearly in full, a near blinding light obliterating every shadow that’s dogged our every step as we’ve struggled through this tale with Joy, and a crashing sense of relief overtakes us as the many and varied threads of this story meet their match and tie themselves off.

With clarity finally granted to us in the concluding chapters, our overall reaction to Joy and Ink’s story shifts to something more positive than we’d been feeling up until that point, and we find ourselves looking forward to the next installment now that our understanding of the parameters of this world is more concrete. Joy and Ink both still have a ways to go before our hearts bear their mark, but there’s a great deal of promise in each of them, and the lack of angst in this first book has us hopeful their relationship will continue to be one of strength and growth moving forward.

Rating: 3.5/5
 

Find Dawn

Website • Blog • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon • Goodreads

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Review: Indigo Awakening

INDIGO AWAKENING
The Hunted #1
Jordan Dane
Paranormal Young Adult
HarlequinTEEN
Available now
Source: eBook from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Because of what you are, the Believers will hunt you down.

Voices told Lucas Darby to run. Voices no one else can hear. He’s warned his sister not to look for him, but Rayne refuses to let her troubled brother vanish on the streets of LA. In her desperate search, she meets Gabriel Stewart, a runaway with mysterious powers and far too many secrets. Rayne can’t explain her crazy need to trust the strange yet compelling boy—to touch him—to protect him even though he scares her.

A fanatical church secretly hunts psychic kids—gifted “Indigo” teens feared to be the next evolution of mankind—for reasons only “the Believers” know. Now Rayne’s only hope is Gabe, who is haunted by an awakening power—a force darker than either of them imagine—that could doom them all.

MY THOUGHTS
With an intriguing premise, Indigo Awakening pulls us quickly into a world nearly identical to our own save for one key element, bypassing a slow build up and thrusting us directly into the action as young Lucas escapes the confines of a mental health facility. Though the plot is not an altogether unique one, the concept of evolutionary advancement in the form of supernatural abilities in young kids is certainly fascinating, our minds unable to help wondering if perhaps somewhere in the world, behind closed doors or hidden away so as to not be exposed, such people and gifts exist, biding their time before they change the world as we know it.

Though conceptually an engrossing tale, we find ourselves a touch less enthused with regard to the myriad of characters, the large cast constantly jostling one another for our attention as we bounce back and forth between seven or eight of them. We get a tiny piece of each of their stories before moving on to the next person, asking ourselves all the while if that last brief interlude was truly necessary to the overall plot. Reading Indigo Awakening is a bit like standing just a few inches from a large stained glass window–the characters an indistinct blur of color, light, and shadow that has us aching to take a few step backs so we can see how everything fits together to create a unified image. Instead we remain pressed up close, feeling like we have little pieces of each person, but no real context to help us figure out who they are individually or how they relate to the larger whole.

Our time spent with secondary and tertiary characters limits our time with protagonists Rayne and Gabriel, and as a result, our investment in their romance is equally limited, their time together lacking the desired tension because we simply aren’t granted access to the moments where the relationship can truly build and develop in complexity. Perhaps the most poignant relationship is not Rayne and Gabriel at all, but rather that of Raphael and a little boy named Benny, the brotherly bond between them the one connection that truly tugs at our heartstrings and ensures an emotional link to the story itself.

Overall, Indigo Awakening presents a setup that never fails to pique our curiosity, our interest in the various young people and their gifts in particular enough to keep us turning the pages, however, the repeated short jumps between one character’s story and the next keeps us from really settling in. We’re constantly on the move, and for those readers like me who love to spend time getting to know the characters on whose journeys I’m piggybacking, this is a bit of a trying tale.

Rating: 3/5
 

Find Jordan:

Website • Blog • Facebook • Twitter • Amazon • Goodreads

This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.

Ink Blog Tour: Author Interview + Giveaways

Today I'm hugely excited to be a part of the promotional blog tour for Amanda Sun's paranormal young adult novel Ink, which releases June 25th from HarlequinTEEN. Amanda was nice enough to take the time to answer a few questions for me, so I hope you all enjoy the interview:) Be sure and check the bottom of the post for a pair of unbelievable givaways as well as a full list of participating blogs so you can following along as the tour continues!

Drawings sometimes come to life in Ink when Katie and Tomohiro are in close proximity to one another. What one piece of artwork would you most like to see come to life if it were possible?

Great question! One of my favorite painters is Michael Whelan. I’ve always loved the vast fantasy landscapes he paints, and how creative they are, so I think I’d choose one of his paintings to come alive so I could visit. In particular I love “Sentinels,” “Landing,” and “Destiny’s Road.”

Is there a particular piece of information or a small tidbit about Japan’s history or culture that most surprised or fascinated you as you were researching?

I was actually really lucky with my research, because the myths and history keep lining up perfectly with the stories I want to portray in INK. For example, Katie makes a visit to Itsukushima Shrine for a variety of plot and author reasons—it’s an important shrine to the storyline, but I also wanted to feature it in The Paper Gods because it made such an impact on me when I visited it. I looked for a historical figure associated with the shrine, and found Taira no Kiyomori, who features in SHADOW and is mentioned in INK. The most interesting part? He was plagued by nightmares like Tomo’s, and all the signs lined up to them having the ink in common. I keep finding these figures that I can twist just a little to place my own Paper Gods mythology there without altering too much, and that’s what I love. It keeps you guessing—how much is real? :D

What country other than Japan would you love to use as a setting for a future story? Why?

There are a few I’m really interested in writing about. One is the Cook Islands. I think Polynesian mythology is so fascinating, and it’s such a beautiful, almost unknown place. So I would love to set something there. Another is Egypt, since I majored in Archaeology. ^_^ And the UK, where I’ll be doing some research this fall.

I love epic Fantasy too, though, so I have a couple Fantasy worlds in my head that I’m pretty convinced are real. ^_^ I love YA set in other countries because it’s such a different experience to read. But of course, I want what I write to be authentic, so it would involve a lot of research to get it just right!

If Katie and Tomohiro could only describe each other using colors, what three colors might they say most suit the other person?

Interesting! Tomohiro would be dark blue, black, and plum. I guess he’d look like the cover of SHADOW. Those colors come up a lot when the ink is coming to life. They’re beautiful colors, but a little ominous.

Katie would be pink for the more gentle side of her, red for her defiant streak, and yellow for optimism. Even though she’s been through a lot in SHADOW and INK, I feel like she’s always trying to reach for more in life, so I see her as someone who doesn’t give up.

If Tomohiro were to give you a lesson in kendo, what’s the very first thing he would teach you?

First would be stances, I think. How to move properly, how to hold the shinai so you don’t pull (too many) muscles in your arm, and the etiquette surrounding kendo. There’s a lot of weight in martial arts put on respect, how you enter the practice area, how to treat your gear, and how to show respect to your fellow competitors. So I’m pretty sure he’d go over all that stuff first.

The cover for Ink is absolutely stunning and makes me want to blow it up huge so I can hang it on my wall. What’s one other YA cover that makes your jaw drop when you see it?

First of all, thank you! I’m so glad the covers have been well received. I love them too and think the team did an incredible job capturing the feeling of the books.

There are two YA covers I just love. One is SOME QUIET PLACE by Kelsey Sutton. That cover is a work of art. It’s so eerie and beautiful at the same time, and I just love it. The other cover I love, which is also eerie and beautiful, is A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness. It fits well with the feel of INK, too, so it just gives me shivers. Actually all the art in that book is stunning, not just the cover.

Let’s say Ink is going to be made into a movie and you’re put in charge of writing a tagline for the movie’s promotional poster. What would the tagline read?

You know, I’m going to cheat here and use the tagline my editor came up with for the series, because it’s brilliant and I think it’s the best one there is. “Ink is in their blood.” It gets everything in one go—a little sinister, a little literal, and a lot ominous. ^_^

Of course, I came up with a silly tagline a while ago which is fun too. I like to think of INK as a mini-vacation, making Japan accessible for those who may want to visit but be unable to at the moment. Which produced the tagline “INK—it’s cheaper than airfare!”

Thank you so much for having me on the blog! :)

• • • • • • • • • •

INK

I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.

Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.

A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.

And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets.

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

Find Ink

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Indiebound • Books-A-Million

Find Shadow (novella prequel to Ink)

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • Books-A-Million 

• • • • • • • • • • 

AMANDA SUN

I’m a YA author and proud Nerdfighter. I was born in Deep River, Canada, a very small town without traffic lights or buses, and where stranger safety is comprised of what to do if you see a bear—or skunk. I started reading fantasy novels at 4 and writing as soon as I could hold a pencil. Hopefully my work’s improved since then.

In university I took English, Linguistics, and Asian History, before settling into Archaeology, because I loved learning about the cultures and stories of ancient people. Of course, I didn’t actually become an archaeologist—I have an intense fear of spiders. I prefer unearthing fascinating stories in the safety of my living room.

The Paper Gods is inspired by my time living in Osaka and travelling throughout Japan. That and watching far too many J-Dramas. I currently live in Toronto with my husband and daughter. When I’m not writing, I’m devouring YA books, knitting nerdy things like Companion Cubes and Triforce mitts, and making elaborate cosplays for anime cons.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

• • • • • • • • • • 

GIVEAWAYS

Thanks to Kismet Book Touring and HarlequinTEEN, I have two spectacular giveaways to share with you guys today. The first is a chance to win one of 9 copies of Ink, and the second is a one-of-a-kind authentic Japanese Yukata (see above picture). Isn't it gorgeous? Filling out the Rafflecopter form below enters you to win both giveaways, good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to follow along with the remainder of the tour for more interviews, reviews, and chances to win!

Tuesday, May 28th – Supernatural Snark 
Wednesday, May 29th – Page Turners
Friday, May 31st – Reading Angel

Monday, June 3rd – Alice Marvels
Wednesday, June 5th – Chapter by Chapter
Friday, June 7th – YA’s the Word by Katja

Monday, June 10th – Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, June 12th – Oh Chrys!
Friday, June 14th – Melissa Watercolors