Deck The Halls With Heven and Hell: Guest Post + Giveaway with Cambria Hebert

Today I'm thrilled to be a stop on young adult author Cambria Hebert's Deck the Halls with Heven and Hell blog tour, a fabulous event that kicked off a few days ago and runs through this Friday. Each stop has a fun post from Cambria and a giveaway, so be sure and check out the full schedule and follow along for lots of book and swag goodies!

Cambria is doing all of us who wait until the last minute to do their holiday shopping a solid today by giving us a few tips on what to avoid buying for those special people in our lives. Thanks in advance Cambria ;-)

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited to be here today as part of the Deck the Halls with Heven and Hell event!

I know everyone is likely out trying to shop til they drop to get all their holiday shopping done. The crowds, the sales… the choices! It’s enough to make a grown woman cry (or is that just me?). So today I thought I would help you all out by telling you what NOT to buy. Believe me, this list will save you!

So without further delay allow me to tell you the Top 10 worst Christmas gifts to ever give:

10. Nose hair clippers – you are supposed to pretend you don’t see the hair that is making its way toward grandpa’s (or grandmas !) lips.

9. A vacuum cleaner – this is especially true for men. They won’t know what it’s for and women will think you are trying to make her do all the cleaning.

8. Fruit cake – unless the person wanted a door stopper.

7. Automotive parts – especially one tire instead of four :/

6. A framed picture of yourself – it’s just weird.

5. Toothbrush or other hygiene product – the person will think you are trying to tell them they smell.

4. Underwear – Just don’t do it. Every time you see them you will wonder if they are wearing those panties you bought them. It’s just wrong!

3. A “cupcake car” reportedly going for $25,000. No I am not kidding:

2. Re-gifted item – Yes, this is tempting because it requires less time shopping. But if you didn’t want it what makes you think someone else would???

1. A Snuggie – Just get the person a really great blanket and a book.

What is the worst gift you have ever gotten?

Happy Holiday’s everyone and remember to enter the giveaway!

*My grandma gave me a license plate once. It was not attached to a car. Just a license plate. When I stared at her in confusion after realizing she was not telling me something amazing was waiting in the garage for me, she told me she got it because I liked horses and the license plate had a picture of a horse on it. Awesome.

Cambria Hebert is the author of the young adult paranormal Heven and Hell series. She loves a caramel latte, hates math and is afraid of chickens (yes, chickens). In addition to her many writing credits she is also the co-host for JournalJabber, a blog talk radio show that focuses on writing and books. She currently lives in Pennsylvania where she is plotting her next book. More information on her and her books can be found here

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GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Cambria, I have a fabulous prize package to give away on the blog today. To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below! Giveaway is open to US residents only and will run through midnight EST on Saturday, December 15th after which time a winner will be chosen and emailed. Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Charade Blog Tour: Tour of Italy + Giveaway

I'm thrilled today to be a part of the blog tour for Cambria Hebert's Charade, the second installment of her young adult Heven and Hell series. Throughout the tour, Cambria has been taking everyone on a tour of Italy with Heven and Sam–sharing diary entries from Heven's journal as well as photos of her travels–and today I get to share with you Heven's stop at the Trevi Fountain. Cambria also has an amazing giveaway for those following the tour, so be sure and check the bottom of the post for details!

Can you believe this is the final day for the Tour of Italy for the Charade Blog tour? This week of the tour has been my favorite so far full of so much Italian Goodness! But not to worry the tour is still going on til the 14th but today is the final Tour of Italy Day so we are ending it with a fabulous prize pack and another page right from Heven’s Travel Journal!!

For anyone who might not know Charade is the second book in the Heven and Hell series and in this book the main characters travel to Italy on a school trip… and because Heven and Sam have a mission to complete.

Let’s get on with the fun! So sit back and relax and be transported to Italy!

Dear Diary,
 

We went to the Trevi district today in Rome. I was completely awed by the Trevi Fountain. It’s this huge baroque fountain and its really famous. It’s made of marble and Travertine  and I have never seen this much of those materials all in one place.
 

The statues on the fountain, the carving is so detailed and incredible. The main figure on the fountain is Neptune who is the God of the Sea. He is trying to control an unruly seahorse.
 

The tour guide told us that if you throw a coin into the fountain then it will guarantee a visitors return  to Rome. So, I tossed one in… okay I tossed in two coins. Then Sam tossed two in…
 

So I am pretty sure that means that we will be back and hopefully whenever that is it will be completely for vacation and there won’t be any drama with demons.
 

This fountain is so romantic I couldn’t resist the chance to have a picture taken:

       
And then I took a few snapshots:

 

This was by far the most romantic stop during our site seeing here in Italy!

Heven

And that is the final exclusive peak at one of the pages of Heven’s travel diary. I love the picture of her and Sam.

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

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  GIVEAWAY

In closing of the Tour of Italy Cambria is generously offering up a fantastic giveaway! The prize pack includes a tote bag with a cute Made in Italy stamp, a T-shirt that says “I went to Italy with Heven and Sam” (it also has a picture of Heven and Sam on it), an autographed note card a photo of Heven and Sam, 2 signed Bookmarks AND super exclusive swag: Heven’s Travel Diary. Complete with each journal entry and all the pictures of her and Sam! 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 through midnight EST on Friday, June 15th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Good luck everyone!

CHARADE

Dying at the hands of a psycho was a shock. Having my life returned to me by an angel was incredible. Being named a Supernatural Treasure and being given Sam as my guard was pretty darn awesome. Acquiring a debt for it all—well, I should have seen it coming.

Now here we are, fighting demons from Hell, caring for a boy that I just don’t trust, and traveling to faraway places to return a treasure to its rightful place. Nothing is as it seems. Everyone wears a mask; everyone puts on a charade. It’s up to us to separate the truth from the lies and reality from fiction. A hard task when my new reality involves fallen angels, witches and dragons… and did I mention Hell?

Anchoring me down through it all is Sam. Sam, who must face tragedies of his own and is put to the test again and again.

If we fail in our task, life as we know it—life as you know it—will end. Forever.

Mini Reviews + Giveaway: Masquerade and Friendship on Fire

MASQUERADE (Heven and Hell #1)
Cambria Hebert
Paranormal Young Adult
360 pages
Otherworld Publications
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Before. Everything was so much better Before. I wasn’t haunted by nightmares, my place at school was secure and my face was flawless. Now, I’m a freak and everything has changed. The worst part is that I can’t remember the night I was sentenced to the shadows. The memory has been stolen from me and I just can’t shake the feeling that someone, something is out there -watching.

Just when I think I have my life handled, Sam, with his intimidating golden stare and shiver inducing voice, makes me realize that I don’t know anything. He makes me see that my scars don’t matter. That they never mattered. I can’t help but fall for him, completely unknowing that he knows exactly how I got this way. Not knowing he was involved.

***

Heven has no idea how closely death stalks her. She has no idea what I have done to keep her alive. I fear the day she learns my secrets, finds out what I really am. But even then I cannot stop, I vow to make things right. Finally her hunter will be hunted, Heaven and Hell, faith and sin will battle, and we will be victorious. But first, Heven must learn to be what she never imagined. I know her strength is there – I feel it. If we are to overcome all odds, she must push past her flaws - her frailties - to become much more.

MY THOUGHTS
Brimming with darkness and passion, Masquerade provides us with a intriguing combination of normal and paranormal, providing us the opportunity to closely examine the emotional complexities of a disfigured young woman while also unfolding before our eyes a supernatural mystery featuring blissfully underutilized supernatural entities. Due to the relative newness of these beings, we have an intense desire to know as much about them as possible, but sadly, the mythology is left fairly incomplete in this first installment with only a snippet here and there mentioning their history and how they came to exist alongside human beings. We know little of their traits and abilities other than the bare necessities to understand a certain character’s physical transformations, so we can't help but spend much of our time wishing for a touch less of the sweet lightness of the romance and a bit more of the alluring darkness of the unknown.

While Masquerade is certainly well-written and weaves a complicated and layered tale, heroine Heven is a difficult young woman to really connect with though we certainly sympathize with her circumstances. She suffers from extremely low self-esteem as a result of the brutal scars marring her otherwise stunning face, and while Sam’s affections do build her confidence, she remains throughout a girl who needs a boy in her life and has trouble fully functioning without him. Both she and Sam enter into a mutually co-dependent relationship, constantly needing to be together at every turn in order to feel at peace to the extent that they become the sole focus of each other’s existence, defined by the other person rather than by themselves.

Overall, Ms. Hebert has created the foundation for a potentially fascinating world, and toward the end prepares us for a rather epic journey to begin in the sequel, but I'm hoping we get a little more independence from both Sam and Heven as they set forth on their quest.

Rating: 3/5


FRIENDSHIP ON FIRE
Danielle Weiler
Contemporary Young Adult
488 pages
Sid Harta Publishers
Available Now
Received from author for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)
The first few days of year 12 are disastrous for school captain Daisy Brooks. But Daisy’s life takes a sudden turn when she is dared by Skye, the leader of the Blonde Brigade, to meet the mysterious, drop-dead gorgeous stranger, Nate, from rival school Addison Grammar. Daisy’s instant attraction to him disrupts her world. But what about her best friend Roman? How will he respond to this intruder? Daisy is a vulnerable, yet fiery girl going through the chaotic phase between teenage and adulthood. She is about to discover the complexities of relationships, the etiquette of friendship and, most of all, her development as a woman. Is it too late for Daisy to realise that the choices she makes shapes who she is and who she will become?

MY THOUGHTS
Friendship on Fire is a bit of a meandering tale, forcing us to take a long and winding path to reach our final destination rather than a shorter, more direct route, and often losing our attention at times as a result. We can see fairly early on where the story is ultimately heading–a story of friendship and first love and the evolving nature of the two–and while we’re thoroughly excited to dive in and begin our journey with Daisy, that excitement quickly wanes in the face of pages and pages of her day-to-day activities and the general minutiae of her life. It’s almost like we readers are on a merry-go-round–we’re able to spot something of interest between Roman and Daisy quickly, but before we can reach out and grab it for closer study, we’re whipped around in yet another circle and and continue to rotate gradually until we complete the revolution and are granted the opportunity to try and reach out one more time.

After we make our way through the extremely slow buildup of Daisy’s relationship with Nate and find ourselves about halfway through, things start to pick up and the emotions begin to feel far more real than the short temper flare-ups expressed by Daisy up to that point. Suddenly in the final 150 pages there’s a new layer of tension not bogged down by or hidden behind superfluous school events or soccer matches, instead the connection we’ve been waiting for begins to take form and we find ourselves invested in Daisy’s life. Overall, Friendship on Fire is a story that could have easily been told in well under 500 pages, but when Ms. Weiler does finally get down to the emotionally gritty parts of the story, she has a fully captivated audience in us as readers.

Rating: 3/5

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Ms. Weiler, I have a signed paperback copy of Friendship on Fire up for grabs on the blog today! To enter, please just 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, March 25th after which time a winner will be chosen and emailed. Good luck everyone!