Monday, April 15, 2013

Promo Event: Volition by Lee Strauss


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VOLITION (Perception Series)  by Lee Strauss
Expected Pub:  April 16, 2013


Book Blurb:

What doesn't kill you...  

Zoe Vanderveen is on the run with her captor turned rescuer, Noah Brody.  

They're in love.  

Or at least that’s what he tells her. Her memories have returned but her feelings are dreamlike thin and fleeting. Her heart can’t be trusted. Just look at what happened with Taylor Blake.  

Senator Vanderveen’s new team of cyborg agents are in hot pursuit, and a reward for their capture is broadcast nationwide. Record breaking cold and snow hinder their escape. Someone dies helping them.  

And their fight for survival has only begun.

 PERCEPTION (Perception #1) is FREE on Amazon!


Author Bio:

Lee Strauss
I write YA time travel and merfolk chic-lit. I'm a married mom of four, and live in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, famous for beaches and vineyards. I'm fond of Lindt's sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather.I write mature historical and sci-fi YA under the name LEE Strauss.

Author Links:


Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/elle_strauss

Buy Links:

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

ARC Review: The Collector by Victoria Scott



The Collector by Victoria Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Blurb: 
He makes good girls...bad. 

Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag.

Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment:

Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days.

Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.


An e-ARC of this book has been provided to me by the publisher.

Review: Dante Walker, I'm totally, irrevocably in love with you. Marry me!!

description

No, seriously. If there's one protagonist that can make girls swoon over him, regardless of his obnoxious attitude, it's Dante Walker. He's hot, smart, bad-ass and a completely self-absorbed guy. The world revolves around his fingers and he knows it and makes sure everybody else knows it too. That is, until he meets Charlie Cooper...

description

Yeah, believe it or not, my version of Charlie was freakier than this. My imagination tends to run a little too wild at times. Anywho, the minute he sees Charlie, he....he....he......is repelled. By her. Can't say I blame him though. Bright pink room, pimples, fuzzy-buzzy hair, crooked teeth and with a limp, Charlie wasn't exactly someone whom a stranger or even a non-stranger would call "pretty". Especially if it's our gorgeous, bad boy Dante.

Regardless of the fact that he was enchanting from the start, it was still annoying to see him so...focused and cold over his mission. His over-confident, egoistical nature was meant to get on your nerves, I think. His thoughts about Charlie were crude and downright awful at times. He was awful most of the time.
Despite that, the way Ms. Scott showed us little glimpses of his good side were enough to make your heart beat faster.

When he actually started to fall for Charlie, not caring about what was outside and after full-well knowing the HUGE risk he was taking, all I could do was....

description

The story's execution was done in a way where you might not like either Dante or Charlie in the beginning. If one was horrible from outside, the other was god-awful from inside.
And yet, as the story unfolded, it was like watching them both bloom out of their negative traits. What one lacked, the other completed.

Together, they felt like two puzzle pieces perfectly fitting with one another. That..metamorphosis of both their characters was amazing and at the same time intriguing to watch-or rather read-and I felt enchanted, compelled to turn the page to see what's gonna happen next.

Charlie's character was strong and wonderful. Even though, honestly, I was a little disappointed to see her not the way I expected. I thought this girl was gonna be drop-dead gorgeous, snappy and capable of bringing Dante to his knees. One thing I did not expect was her being the one doing that. Yes, she faced-off Dante pretty well but there were also times when I thought, WHY CAN'T YOU SEE HE'S PLAYING YOU? in the beginning.

Her compassion and selflessness made up for her too-trusting-to-be-smart nature. Her circumstances should have made her bitter like Dante but they didn't faze her. They taught her to be a better person and my love for meaningful stories which actually make you believe that the world is more than Bellas and Evers and Noras stands actually just below chocolates, which, I guess says alot for itself.

Overall, this story is absolutely ah-mazing. It makes you swoon, cry, love, hate, swoon some more and in the end sigh for everything turning perfect in the end. Well, almost perfect. The Collector is a book worth reading at least once.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

ARC Review: The Rules by Stacey Kade


The Rules by Stacey Kade
Expected publication: April 23rd, 2013 by Disney-Hyperion

 My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Blurb: 1. Never trust anyone.

2. Remember they are always searching.

3. Don’t get involved.

4. Keep your head down.

5. Don’t fall in love.Five simple rules. 


Ariane Tucker has followed them since the night she escaped from the genetics lab where she was created, the result of combining human and extraterrestrial DNA. Ariane’s survival—and that of her adoptive father—depends on her ability to blend in among the full-blooded humans in a small Wisconsin town, to hide in plain sight at her high school from those who seek to recover their lost (and expensive) “project.”

But when a cruel prank at school goes awry, it puts her in the path of Zane Bradshaw, the police chief’s son and someone who sees too much. Someone who really sees her. After years of trying to be invisible, Ariane finds the attention frightening—and utterly intoxicating. Suddenly, nothing is simple anymore, especially not the rules…

 An e-ARC of this book has been provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Okay,I'll be honest. I had some major expectations from this book, and maybe that's why I didn't find it as awesome as I hoped I would. However, I loved the concept. The Roswell incident has always been something I've been curious and intrigued about, so imagine my surprise when this book turned out to be based on that only. That was one reason I got immediately attracted to this book.

The concept was compelling and the way the story started off was awesome. I could feel myself connecting with the female protagonist, Ariane and it broke my heart to see her leading such a sad and lonely life to protect herself. Her character was sweet, helpful and protective of people she cared about and I really liked her for that. However, somewhere in the middle, it was like she suddenly started jumping into explosive situations. The risk that she was taking was always on her mind, no doubt but nonetheless, it made the story a little less believable when she spent more than half of her life hiding so carefully and suddenly becoming so....daring. I get the fact that paranormal fiction isn't exactly written for being believable but still.

The middle part of the book became boring after a while. There was too much mental banter from Ariane and the story just wasn't moving forward. And then, when Ariane started with her I-will-put-Rachel-in-her-place mode, it was clear this wasn't gonna go well and I just wanted to scream and throttle her for being so stupid. Some of the things she did just didn't match up with her initial personality and that made my interest waver a bit from the story.

The last part of the book, however, made my breath hitch. Ms. Kade executed the final part brilliantly and flawlessly. It was a total OMG moment because I seriously didn't expect that THIS was how she was gonna go down. I actually cried after reading the betrayal. It was too damn sad. Just for that awesome ending, I'm giving an extra star to this book.

Zane's POV was always interesting to read. For some reason, I found him more captivating than Ariane as he spent less time thinking of the past and actually seemed to live in the present more. Ariane, on the other hand, kept going back to her past and sometimes it was super annoying to read her continuous mental banter. Not that I blame her. Someone going through that kind of torture and actually coming back with their humanity intact is something to be admired.
Still, I think Zane was my favourite character in the story. He was non-judgmental and accepted Ariane like she was from the beginning. He was totally adorable throughout the story and very, very charming.

Overall, the concept was intriguing and the story was good but I can't say the same about the execution. It kept fluctuating between interesting and boring. But the good thing is, the interesting parts were amazing. Like, can't-stop-reading amazing. I'm pretty sure I would've liked this book more if I already didn't have so many expectations from it, but oh, well. I'm still gonna continue with the series because I'm super curious about what happens next!






Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Promo event+Giveaway: Bitter Angel by Megan Hand



Title: Bitter Angel
Author: Megan Hand
Release date: April 1, 2013
Genre: Contemporary/Thriller
Age Group: New Adult
Event organized by:AToMR Tours


Book Description:


Torn between two realities.

A choice that will mean life or death.

She won’t know anything… until she wakes up.


College sophomore, Lila Spencer lived Friday night twice. She doesn’t know how or why, just that she did. As if she split in half and went in two different directions.


Out clubbing with her friends, Heather and Nilah, the girls rock it out and party hard. What begins as an innocent night will lead to a deadly fight for their lives, and Lila might be their only chance for survival.

In bed with her boyfriend, Jay, Lila is safe and warm as she drifts to sleep in the arms of the man she loves. Until she is sucked into a horrifying nightmare of her friends’ deaths.

As the sunlight warms her face on Saturday morning, the two scenarios collide. But there can be only one outcome. Will she wake up in her warm bed with Jay by her side, devastated and grieving for her friends? Or was she there to save them?

The answer is just the beginning.




Giveaway: (1) eBook copy of BITTER ANGEL. Books will be gifted from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Open International.


 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 
About the Author

At twelve, Megan decided to write a novel. A month later, she quit. A reading junkie by nature, she started writing again in her twenties as a way to get the voices out, because who wouldn't want to create a Real Living Person out of thin air? Megan also plays the piano and sings. She teaches little kids and takes pictures of pretty butterflies. She eats way too much chocolate, is sort of a mad scientist with her blender, and spends an unhealthy amount of time LOLing on Facebook and Twitter. She lives in Ohio with her husband and very smiley son. Bitter Angel is her first published novel.

Author social media links:

Twitter: @MeganHandWrites



Excerpt-

As Nilah hooted and woohooed, it took less than a minute for her Infiniti G35 to reach illegal speeds. Her hollering was a painful side effect of her birthday high. If she weren’t driving, she’d have probably stuck her head out the window and let her ears flap in the wind. From the front passenger seat, Heather was blowing on her French manicure, even though her nails were way past dry.
I leaned forward from the back, an elbow on each of their seats. “Where is this place again?”
“We went there once,” Nilah reminded me. “It’s near that Fourth Street Park place we went to last time, but we’re going to dinner as soon as we get into town. I made reservations at the most expensive seafood place I could find.”
Grimacing, I sank back into the plush, heated leather. I’d never been a very big seafood fan, but it was Nilah’s birthday. Her day, her rules. We’d always had that tradition for our birthdays—we got to pick where we ate, what we did, and go wherever we wanted on our special day.
I sighed, already missing Jay. At that moment, I began to daydream that I was clawing my way out of the car, curling into a ball, and rolling to a stop on the concrete. Then, magically uninjured of course, I’d race back to him.
When I came to my senses, however, I was overcome with a very strange sensation. Like I didn’t have to imagine it.
Because I was still with him.