Metaltown Blog Tour: Guest Post + Giveaway

Today I have the very special honor of welcoming an author I get to call friend to the blog to celebrate the release of her newest YA book, Metaltown. I couldn't be more excited for this book or for Kristen as she is one of the most adorable people you'll ever meet, and I hope you guys all have this book on your lists! Since the world of Metaltown and its factories is a brutal one where the days are long and so very hard, I asked Kristen to help us put on protagonist Ty's shoes for a few minutes and walk her mile. 

Be sure and check out the bottom of the post for a complete list of the participating blogs so you can follow along, as well as all the details on a fantastic giveaway!

WHAT ARE 5 THINGS TY WOULD WANT US TO KNOW ABOUT LIVING LIFE AS A FACTORY WORKER?

1. Don’t be a baby. You think your life’s tough? Try waking up before dawn every morning to get a bowl of mash at St. Mary’s, or working a double in a hot factory just to not get paid. First rule of factory life? Keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. You want a free ride you can go cross the beltway to Bakerstown.

2. Find someone who’s got your back. You look out for them, they look out for you. It’s that simple.

3. Don’t eat anything that hasn’t been tested. What are you, crazy? The stuff they sell on the streets in the factory district is flat out deadly. If you want the corn flu, by all means, give it a shot. Otherwise, stick to stuff you know is clean.

4. Don’t fight someone smaller than you. Don’t steal from your own people. I share my food with you, tomorrow you share yours with me. Those are street rules, got it?

5. Colin’s mine. Keep your hands off.

Noted, Ty. ;-)

Thanks so much Kristen!

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METALTOWN

Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She’s been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She’s no longer alone; it’s the two of them against the world. That’s something even a town this brutal can’t take away from her. Until it does.

Lena’s future depends on her family’s factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she’ll risk everything to do what’s right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

An enthralling story of friendship and rebellion, Metaltown will have you believing in the power of hope.

Amazon | B&N 

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KRISTEN SIMMONS

Kristen Simmons is the author of the ARTICLE 5 series, THE GLASS ARROW, and the upcoming METALTOWN (Tor Teen). She loves her family, Jazzercise, and chocolate cupcakes. She currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Website | Twitter | Facebook 

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GIVEAWAY

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WEEK ONE

9/12: Mundie Moms - Q&A

9/13: Fiction Fare - Review

9/14: Eater of Books - Review

9/15: Two Chicks on Books - Q&A

9/16: Krista's Dust Jacket - Review

WEEK TWO

9/19: No BS Book Reviews - Makeup Inspirations

9/20: Quite the Novel Idea - Review

9/21: Supernatural Snark - Guest Post

9/22: The Petite Book Blogger - Review

9/23: The Irish Banana Review - Top 10

Waiting on Wednesday: Metaltown

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!

METALTOWN

Kristen Simmons

Young Adult/Dystopian-ish

Releases September 20th from Tor Teen

From Goodreads:

Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She’s been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She’s no longer alone; it’s the two of them against the world. That’s something even a town this brutal can’t take away from her. Until it does.

Lena’s future depends on her family’s factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she’ll risk everything to do what’s right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

First, that cover! It's all gritty and gorgeous and metal-y, and I need it in my hands immediately. Second, Kristen Simmons. I adored her Article 5 series, though I have to admit to being a tiny bit nervous because she does brutal really well and is skilled in the art of ripping out readers' hearts and stomping on them before making things better in the end. *stocks up on chocolate* I'm curious as to the dynamic between Ty, Colin and Lena as well, it sounds like it's going to be far more complicated than a triangle between two girls and one guy (if there's a triangle at all), and I can't wait to see how everything unfolds between them!

Goodreads • Amazon

The Big Love Letter Event 2015: Kristen Simmons

Welcome to day one of The Big Love Letter Event! For those of you who missed the introductory post a couple weeks ago, this event will run every Friday through March 13th and will consist of love letters written by some truly amazing authors. Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and I will each be hosting different letters every week (hop over there today for a little something special from Heather Demetrios!), so be sure and check out both blogs for a bigger and better celebration of all things swoon-worthy. We'll also be hosting a fantastic giveaway, so don't forget to check the bottom of the post for all the details!

I have the pleasure of kicking this event off today with Kristen Simmons, author of the Article 5 series and, more recently, The Glass Arrow which is set to release next week. I read the Article 5 series a while back and fell madly in love with it, and then last year was able to meet Kristen at a group signing in Cincinnati. She is, and I say this with absolutely no exaggeration, one of the sweetest and funniest people I've been lucky enough to cross paths with, and I feel privileged to call her friend.

If you haven't added The Glass Arrow to your must-have lists yet, I hope this letter has you remedying that immediately :-)

(Found in the barn behind The Garden)

Aya,

It’s night in the city, though it hardly looks or sounds it. The sky’s gray as muddy water, and the trash machine behind the barn is grinding something fierce. It’s one of two things that’s kept me awake since I came here.

The other is this lumpy bedroll. (That’s a joke, Aya.)

I can see you from the slatted window in the loft, curled up on the hard ground with your wolf as a pillow. You look like all the things I want to feel. Calm and steady. Still and unburdened. The daylight will change you – but this heavy air doesn’t drag you down. It makes you taller. It makes me taller, watching you.

There are things about me you don’t know. Things I can’t tell you. If you ever found them out, you’d probably beat on me for a good while for lying to you. At least, you’d try. (That’s not an invitation to try.)

There are things I want to tell you, though. More things than there are stars in the sky outside this dirty city. Things like, you’re not as good at throwing a ball as you’d like to think. And that I’m safe, and you and me, we aren’t so different.

There are other things, too. Crazy things I’m only writing now because I know you can’t read them. I know what you sing for. Your voice stays in my head, even in the daytime. You are stronger than iron. I like your ankles, and your wild black hair, and the way you say Kiran.

And if I could talk, Aya, I’d talk to you.

Don’t give up. I won’t give up either.
Kiran

*Jenny dies a little inside*

I love you, Kiran :-)

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THE GLASS ARROW

(releases February 10th from Tor Teen)

Once there was a time when men and women lived as equals, when girl babies were valued, and women could belong only to themselves. But that was ten generations ago. Now women are property, to be sold and owned and bred, while a strict census keeps their numbers manageable and under control. The best any girl can hope for is to end up as some man’s forever wife, but most are simply sold and resold until they’re all used up.

Only in the wilderness, away from the city, can true freedom be found. Aya has spent her whole life in the mountains, looking out for her family and hiding from the world, until the day the Trackers finally catch her.

Stolen from her home, and being groomed for auction, Aya is desperate to escape her fate and return to her family, but her only allies are a loyal wolf she’s raised from a pup and a strange mute boy who may be her best hope for freedom . . . if she can truly trust him.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N

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KRISTEN SIMMONS

Kristen Simmons writes young adult fiction - the kind that's dark and scary but generally involves some kissing. She's the author of ARTICLE 5 (2012), BREAKING POINT (2013), and THREE (2014), as well as THE GLASS ARROW (2015), and METALTOWN (2016). Words cannot describe how happy all this makes her.

Website • Facebook • Twitter 

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GIVEAWAY

Danny and I have (what we think) is a pretty fabulous giveaway that will run for the entirety of this event with 5 winners in total when all is said and done:

• Winners 1-4: Each will get a book of your choice from one of the participating authors. (Open internationally as long as Book Depository ships to you! )
• Winner 5  : Hardcover copy of LAILAH by Nikki Kelley plus some awesomely cute swag (international ). Prize is provided by author - thank you so much!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check back both here and at Bewitched Bookworms every Friday in February for more letters and a whole lot more love from these fantastic authors:

• Kristen Simmons (The Glass Arrow)
• Mindee Arnett (Polaris, The Nightmare Dilemma)
• Melissa Landers (Invaded)
• Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes)
• Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
• Liza Palmer (Girl Before a Mirror)
• Laura Lee Guhrke (Catch a Falling Heiress)
• Anna Banks (Joyride)
• Heather Demetrios (I'll Meet You There)
• Nikki Kelly (The Styclar Saga)
• Paula Stokes (Liars, Inc.)
• & More!

The Big Love Letter Event 2015

Last year the wonderful Danny from Bewitched Bookworms and I hosted an event that ran the month of February wherein we celebrated our obsession with all things romance, and I'm beyond excited to announce that we're once again hosting the event this year! I think I summed the event up pretty well in last year's introductory post, so instead of reinventing the wheel, I'm just going paste that intro below. Laziness, thy name is Jenny.

In celebration of Valentine's Day (but really, more in celebration of how much Danny and I love to swoon over sexy bad boys and adorable good guys), we've asked some of our very favorite authors to write love letters that will appear on our blogs every Friday during the month of February. We proposed letters written from one character to another, from author to character, character to readers, or anything else the authors might be inspired to write that would help us honor our love of love, and the result is something truly fantastic.

Be sure and check both here and Bewitched Bookworms every Friday as we'll be featuring letters from different authors on each blog, and throughout the event we'll also be hosting a fabulous giveaway, so I hope you guys are as excited about this as we are!

The response we received last year was so enthusiastic that we decided to extend the event from 4 weeks to 6, so every Friday from February 6th to March 13th both Danny and I will be posting various types of love letters on our blogs. We have a truly outstanding lineup this year, so we can't wait to kick things off in a couple weeks! You can expect to see letters from the following:

• Kristen Simmons (The Glass Arrow)
• Mindee Arnett (Polaris, The Nightmare Dilemma)
• Melissa Landers (Invaded)
• Sara Raasch (Snow Like Ashes)
• Emery Lord (The Start of Me and You)
• Liza Palmer (Girl Before a Mirror)
• Laura Lee Guhrke (Catch a Falling Heiress)
• Anna Banks (Joyride)
• Heather Demetrios (I'll Meet You There)
• Nikki Kelly (The Styclar Saga)
• & More!

Kristen Simmons will get things rolling here at Supernatural Snark on the 6th, so I hope you'll all stop by to see what she has in store! You don't want to miss it:)

Review: Breaking Point

BREAKING POINT
Article 5 #2
Kristen Simmons
Young Adult/Dystopian
400 pages
Tor Teen
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
After faking their deaths to escape from prison, Ember Miller and Chase Jennings have only one goal: to lay low until the Federal Bureau of Reformation forgets they ever existed.

Near-celebrities now for the increasingly sensationalized tales of their struggles with the government, Ember and Chase are recognized and taken in by the Resistance—an underground organization working to systematically take down the government. At headquarters, all eyes are on the sniper, an anonymous assassin taking out FBR soldiers one by one. Rumors are flying about the sniper’s true identity, and Ember and Chase welcome the diversion….

Until the government posts its most-wanted list, and their number one suspect is Ember herself.

Orders are shoot to kill, and soldiers are cleared to fire on suspicion alone. Suddenly Ember can’t even step onto the street without fear of being recognized, and “laying low” is a joke. Even members of the Resistance are starting to look at her sideways.

With Chase urging her to run, Ember must decide: Go into hiding…or fight back?

MY THOUGHTS
Breaking Point is a thrilling sequel, every page vibrating with tension on both physical and emotional levels as Chase and Ember take up the fight of the Resistance. This is a story we close the back cover on with our guts roiling and clashing due to the myriad of conflicting emotions, refusing to settle even though we’ve exited Ember’s brutal world of chaos and compliance and returned to the safety of our reality. Ms. Simmons makes the most of every single page in this lengthy tale, perfectly balancing the quiet moments with the action-packed ones to ensure our hearts slowly migrate from the safety and protection of the center of our chests to our sleeves, where they sit vulnerable and exposed to a continued emotional onslaught.

Ember shows a great deal of growth in this second installment, her lingering anger at Chase for his initial enlistment as well as the role he played in her mother’s death slowly fading, allowing her to see Chase more clearly without the red haze of pain clouding her vision. Her progress is of course gradual–her impulsiveness and quick temper still present and accounted for in the first half of the book–but she slowly comes to realize the effect her behavior has on those around her, especially Chase, and she proceeds to make a concerted effort to listen when it’s asked of her, act when she’s needed, and provide support when her pillars of strength start to crumble.

Chase and Ember’s romance is a beacon of light amidst the grit and violence of a terrifying possible future, their relationship perhaps even more tense in this book than in book one as weighted silences and meaningless conversations mask the anxiety and pain churning beneath the surface. Where their initial lack of communication would normally be frustrating, we know in this case the poisonous quiet between them is borne of fear rather than the anger we saw from both in book one, and we simply cannot begrudge them the survival instinct to curl in on themselves in preparation for warding off whatever blow is headed their way next. Ms. Simmons beautifully stuns us with one all-too brief scene though; a fleeting moment between Chase and Ember that suddenly rights scales that had been steadily slipping farther and farther off balance, lifting a weight from our chests and allowing us to suck in a deep breathe for the first time since we started reading.

Overall, Breaking Point is a magnificent follow up to Article 5, captivating us from the very first page and never once losing our rapt attention. Some may still be disappointed by the lack of detailed explanation as to how this post-apocalyptic world came to be, but in my opinion, what we do know is enough to be able to fill in the blanks ourselves, well aware of how easily a shift in power can occur when the world is suddenly thrown into anarchy. We’re left with things very much unresolved, but we are given the satisfaction of one of Ember and Chase’s main goals in this second book being achieved, thereby making the wait for book three more bearable as we revel in one success even as we despair of a separate massive failure.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Article 5

ARTICLE 5 (Article 5 #1)

Kristen Simmons
Young Adult/Dystopian
364 pages
Tor Teen
Available Now
Source: Bought

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

MY THOUGHTS

Dark and bleak, Article 5 presents us with a vision of a future we would do anything to prevent from coming to pass, depicting in detail a world without freedom – one that likely isn’t all that different from what exists in other parts of today’s world, but still one unfamiliar and absolutely terrifying for most of us. The idea of mandatory compliance to government-regulated statutes creates an automatic sense of claustrophobia from the very first page, our breath coming in shorter pants despite the available air around us, and we can almost physically feel the walls of Ember’s life start to close in on her as she finds herself a target by association in an Article violation. As a result, we immediately throw ourselves mentally and emotionally into the story, thrusting our arms out vicariously as though we can stop the walls from moving another inch by sheer determination and will, standing resolutely behind Ember as pillars of strength supporting her as those around her try to tear her down.

Ember starts out a young woman who in the first few pages seems to take her life a bit for granted, a little naïve to the bigger picture of the world around her as she focuses only on what and who is closest to her. That quickly changes however when she’s brutally forced to face the realities of post-War life with no preparation or warning, and we can help but be proud of the way she bravely looks adversity in the eye and refuses to blink when others tuck chin and turn away. She adapts to new situations beautifully, never clinging desperately to the only things she knew from her previous life, but rather observing and studying what’s around her so she can formulate a plan to survive and reach her mother.

While Ember is remarkably strong of mind and extraordinarily level-headed in dangerous situations (most of the time), she is also extremely vulnerable when it comes to Chase, his presence often bringing her flaws into sharp relief as they both battle with shared history, lingering romantic feelings, and betrayal. Initially we fully support the fury she directs at him for the role he plays in her and her mother’s detainment, but as we get short flashbacks to their time together prior to his draft into the FBR, we begin to see how the sense of betrayal is not simply one-sided, and the web of conflicting emotions is far more tangled than we could have imagined. There are times when we begin to get frustrated with the way Ember and Chase treat one another–their communications often terse and tinged with palpable longing, pain, and misplaced anger–but before that irritation fully settles in, we’re able recall that in times of emotional distress we’ve all been guilty of spewing hurtful words in the mistaken hope that our own pain will be expelled with them as they tumble from our mouths, a desperate attempt at self-preservation by verbally siphoning the poison infecting our systems into someone else.

Overall, Article 5 is an outstanding beginning to this dystopian trilogy, a story that has us seeing red at what the world has become, our disappointment in the way humanity responds to the War a heavy burden to bear as we follow Ember and Chase. Luckily for us though, Ms. Simmons lightens our load periodically on our journey with little slivers of hope—a small gesture, kindness, or sign of resistance continually reminding us that amidst the ruins and rubble of a once great nation beauty still exists and compliance is only voluntary.

Rating: 4/5