Feature and Follow

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

If you would like to follow me, you can do so by GFC, Twitter or Linky .

I also make sure to go back and follow everyone that comments and I try to always follow twitter along with GFC/Linky. So if you have a twitter that is not on your page for some reason leave it in the comments and I will follow you that way too!

Q: Tell us about the most emotional scene you've ever read in a book - and how did you react?

I don't really cry for movie and books. There have only been a few that have done that and it was when I was younger so I can't remember exact scenes.
I can say though that I get really emotional if anything happens to children. It will upset me for days. 

 

Cover Reveal: Frigid by Jennifer L. Armentrout

For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

Frigid will be available in digital formats from Spencer Hill Press on July 30th 2013
Print release of Frigid will be November 5th 2012

About the Author:

J. Lynn, also known as Jennifer L. Armentrout, is a # 1 New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author. She lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russel Loki.

 

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

Author Links: Twitter * Facebook * Website

Blog Tour and Giveaway: Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter by Nikki Jefford

Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter by Nikki Jefford
Series: Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter #1
Publication: December 9th 2012
Genre: YA Paranormal
Purchase: Amazon * Barnes and Noble

Synopsis:

If there is one thing eighteen-year-old Aurora Sky wants, it’s to get off the iceberg she calls home. Being kissed before she graduates wouldn’t hurt either.

Then a near-fatal car wreck changes everything. Government agents step in and save Aurora’s life in exchange for her services as a vampire hunter. In Alaska. Basically she’s a glorified chew toy. All thanks to her rare blood type, which sends a vampire into temporary paralysis right before she has to finish the job… by hand.

Now Aurora’s only friends are groupies of the undead and the only boy she can think about may very well be a vampire. And if he’s a vampire, will she be forced to kill him?

Review:

Auora Sky: Vampire Hunter is a different twist of the traditional vampire story. The plot was pretty interesting, a secret world of Vampire Hunters that all have AB negative blood (like me!) that when combined with a virus can be toxic to a vampire. It’s a hidden government project, people might suspect things but it’s not something for public consumption. Even though vampires don’t burn up in the sunlight they seem to prefer the cold and dark climate of Alaska. I found myself speeding through the pages intoxicated with curiosity and did finish this one in a day.

Now normally in a YA book you have an MC that learns they have some superpower of sorts, whether it is moving things with their minds or turning out to be a different species altogether. Then usually the MC freaks out for maybe a day or two and the next thing you know they are up for the challenge taking life by storm. The thing that made Aurora herself so interesting was this was not the case for her. She wakes up to this new reality after a near death experience and is told she is now working for the government as a Vampire Hunter. She had been timid and just trying to make it through each day so that she can get the hell out of dodge and start her life over as far from Alaska as possible. Suddenly it’s all taken away from her and rather than embrace her new role she ends up on a downward spiral and I mean really downward. Aurora completely changes and does not give two cents about what anyone thinks of her. She skips school, she hangs with an interesting crowd, and she even takes on a new slutty persona. I couldn’t keep my eyes away from the pages. She makes a lot of bad decisions but those bad decisions kind of cover up the good changes that are happening. Aurora is no longer the easy going push over; she becomes more charismatic and daring. She finally evens out when she gets involved with Fane and even though the reason she gets involved with him is kind of bad. He turns out to be the grounding that she needs for her life. I just found it easy to imagine Aurora as someone actually going through the experience. I thought she was strong main character.

At first I didn’t like Fane; I was like oh geez please don’t tell me she gets involved with this guy. As I got to him in the book, I couldn’t help but find a soft spot for him. Although he might seem outwardly like a jerk it’s really only others perception that make him that way. You never really think about the fact that she doesn’t actually talk to him and he never really does anything really mean to her. Mostly she just thinks he’s kind of scuzzy. Really just the girl he chooses to associate with at first is scuzzy.

There are lot of different characters and personalities to keep you entertained. We are introduced to the world of Aurora before near life and death experience and then after. Which surprisingly gives the world a whole new look. Much like high school sometimes the people you think are your friends are really not the ones going to stick with you until the end.

The ending left me hanging and wanting more. I can’t wait to see where the story goes and what happens to Aurora. You can tell there is a lot more to the vampire society and the government agency that needs to be explored and I’m definitely curious to learn about it myself.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

AUTHOR BIO

Nikki Jefford is a third generation Alaskan who loves fictional bad boys and heroines who kick butt. She is the author of the Spellbound Trilogy and upcoming Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series. Nikki married Sebastien, the love of her life, while working as a teaching assistant in France. They now reside in the not-so-tropical San Juan Islands, 70 miles northeast of Forks, Washington.

Author Links:
Website * Goodreads * Facebook * Twitter

Trailer Reveal and Giveaway: The Fallen Stars by Stephanie Keyes

The Fallen Stars by Stephanie Keyes

Series: The Star Child #2

Publication date: April 12th 2013

by Inkspell Publishing

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

 

Synopsis:

Kellen St. James was just your average seventeen-year-old prodigy, until he eighty-sixed the Lord of Faerie and proposed to the Celtic Goddess, Calienta. But then everything in Kellen’s life gets turned upside-down when he and Cali end up on the run from a seriously irritated group of faeries. The worst part? They have zero idea why they’re being hunted.

Suddenly, Kellen is stuck in the middle of another prophecy that foresees him turning away from Calienta and embracing the dark. He’ll be forced to take sides in a struggle to claim his birthright, while discovering secrets about his father’s past. Meanwhile, his passion for Cali grows stronger, even as the prophecy threatens to tear them apart.

In the end, will Kellen and Cali survive the fates? When the ultimate power is within reach, which side will he choose?

Trailer

The Fallen Stars from Stephanie Keyes on Vimeo.

 

 

Giveaway

 

There is a great giveaway happening for this event! Check out what you can win.

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

AUTHOR BIO

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. Today, she's still doing the same thing, except now she gets to share those ideas with readers!

When she's not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she's best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.

Mrs. Keyes holds an undergraduate degree in Business and Management Information Systems from Robert Morris University and a M.Ed. from Duquesne University. She is a member of the Society For Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), as well as a featured author in the global group of writers, Love a Happy Ending.com.

Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child (September 2012) and The Fallen Stars (April 2013), both released by Inkspell Publishing. She is currently hard at work on the third book in the trilogy, The Star Catcher.

Author links:

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Feature and Follow

Feature and Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

If you would like to follow me, you can do so by GFC, Twitter or Linky .

I also make sure to go back and follow everyone that comments and I try to always follow twitter along with GFC/Linky. So if you have a twitter that is not on your page for some reason leave it in the comments and I will follow you that way too!

Q: What is your guilty pleasure as far as reading? Is it a genre, or is it a certain type of book?

I can't imagine feeling guilty about reading anything. I feel like things are more widely excepted nowadays too. If I tell someone I like to read Romance, which I do, I don't get the face like I'm weird like I used to.

So I don't know, sometimes I will reread my kids books like Cinderella or different fairy tales

YA Book Review: Gravity by Melissa West

Title: Gravity
Series: The Taking #1
Author: Melissa West
Author Info: Website / Twitter / Goodreads / Facebook
Pub Date: December 18 2012
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Format: Paperback
Pages: 284
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository

Summary:

In the future, only one rule will matter:

Don’t. Ever. Peek.

Seventeen-year-old Ari Alexander just broke that rule and saw the last person she expected hovering above her bed — arrogant Jackson Locke, the most popular boy in her school. She expects instant execution or some kind of freak alien punishment, but instead, Jackson issues a challenge: help him, or everyone on Earth will die.

Ari knows she should report him, but everything about Jackson makes her question what she’s been taught about his kind. And against her instincts, she’s falling for him. But Ari isn’t just any girl, and Jackson wants more than her attention. She’s a military legacy who’s been trained by her father and exposed to war strategies and societal information no one can know — especially an alien spy, like Jackson. Giving Jackson the information he needs will betray her father and her country, but keeping silent will start a war.

Review:

This is one of those books that I had looked at a few times, added it to my tbr both physically and on goodreads. I finally picked it up and it was one of those moments where I thought why didn’t read Gravity right when I got it. Melissa West had me sucked in at the epilogue when we first learn of the process of the Taking.

I loved the plot; the idea is that we have ravaged our planet with nuclear war. We are barely surviving when the Aliens come to offer us aide but in exchange they want to be able to co-exist with us at some point and in order for that to happen they need to do a process referred to as the Taking. Each night an alien crawls into your room once you reach the age of 10 and sucks up some of your nutrients. Not enough to kill you or even make you weak. Just enough for them to be able to acclimate their bodies to our world. Sounds creepy right? I’m not sure I wouldn’t be afraid of it myself. Of course this is where the fear originates. Who are these Ancients to come in and sort of feed off us, is their aid really worth it. It’s these questions I think that spur different trains of thought in the book and puts the planet Earth on the brink of war. The real question is whose side will you choose?

Ari is such a great character!! I loved her; she is strong and can most certainly take care of herself. She is trained fighter since birth since her role is someday to be the commander of the country (under the President, there is still one of those). Even though her dad has trained her to be hard and analytical she is still very empathetic. Where some see this as a weakness, this is definitely one of her greatest strengths. She is able to step back and look at a situation from multiple perspectives.
Jackson is the arrogant jerk that ends up being the Ancient assigned to Ari. He comes across as hard and difficult but it’s easy to see he has a softer side. I would definitely consider him someone you can swoon over. He has that silent strength that is really attractive. He protects Ari even when she doesn’t need or want it. He has is secrets though and they are revealed slowly throughout the book.
I liked the romance between Ari and Jackson. I think it developed naturally and did not feel forced at all. I wouldn’t really consider it a main focus of the book or at least there was so many interesting things going on I didn’t think of it that way.

Gretchen and Lawrence were great supporting characters. They are true friends to Ari and even though at times it seems like there is a love square there really isn’t. It’s handled nicely the way the characters interact with one another and their lives weave together. I really liked Gretchen toward the end of the book. Maybe because they remind me so much of my own friends.

Plus there were parents! Two of them at that and I loved the relationship Ari has with her mom. It’s nice to see the closeness in a family. Sometimes that seems to be missing in books and I understand that it gives the characters more reign to get away with stuff but it’s nice to see some family time.

The book really shows human nature and our need for power and control of situations. I’m not saying that every human is the same because that is not true but I think it takes history lessons of how wars start and incorporates it into the book. I think some of the main causes are often freedom of choices, need for power and of course fear. It kind of made think about the fact that if someone came and knocked on my door and said “hey would you mind if an alien was your neighbor, even though they have to power to annihilate you. It’s okay they are peaceful so don’t worry about it.”, what would I think or say to this. It was so interesting to see the different reactions of different sets of people.

I really enjoyed this book and I think if you are looking for a good YA Sci-Fi this is definitely would recommend. I can’t wait for Hover to be released!

Book Haul: Sunday Post

Hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer  
This has been a pretty crazy past couple of weeks for me at work. Plus my dad's whole cancer battle gets tiring, even though I'm not the one going through it. He had a blood transfusion this week which I think helped him with his energy a little bit. I find myself reading more to keep my mind off things but not on the computer itself as much. I actually though I lost my hard drive which has a ton of reviews I haven't posted yet. I don't know why posted them yet, I think it's because i have to format the post or something. So basically I need to sit and give myself time to just do that.

Things Happening on the Blog;

Cover Reveal and Giveaway: Stripped by Booklyn Skye
Blog Tour and Giveaway: The Crimson Hunt by Victoria H. Smith
Transcend Time Blitz and Giveaway


These are two books that I have from the library right now. Dark Triumph is an ARC obviously since it's not out yet. The reason that it's at the library (not for normal checkout) is because the authors are  coming to visit. So making sure to have all the books read before they come. It's kind of fun actually. C.C. Hunter and Alyson Noel are also coming but I have read their books. Well most of them, I have to catch up on the newest ones.

I also bought the newest Lauren Oliver book

and then Amanda from my book club Geeks who Read sent me Dualed

So I'm excited to read all these.