Cover Reveal: Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings

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Title: Zenith
Authors: Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings
Series: The Androma Saga, #1
Publication Date: June 21 2016

Synopsis: Most know her as the Bloody Baroness, the captain of a fearsome glass starship called The Marauder. Androma and her crew strike terror in the hearts of those who cross them amongst the many corners of the Mirabel Galaxy.

When a routine mission goes rogue, the all-female crew is captured by a bounty hunter from Andi’s past and forced into a job that could, quite literally, start a war that will devour worlds.

Meanwhile, on the far side of the galaxy, the ruthless ruler Nor waits in the shadows of the planet Xen Ptera, biding her time. The final pieces are about to fall into place, liberating a plan that will tear Mirabel in two.

As the Marauder hurtles toward the unknown, there is one lesson that proves to be true: No one can be trusted in a galaxy that runs on lies and illusion. 

From internet sensation Sasha Alsberg and multi-genre author Lindsay Cummings comes a new serialized space opera, full of action, intrigue, and steamy star-crossed romance.

ZENITH: THE ANDROMA SAGA will be released in small sections at a time.

About the Authors: Sasha Alsberg is currently attending Emerson College as a Writing, Literature & Publishing major. When she is not writing short stories for class or obsessing over Scotland she is making YouTube videos on her channel Abookutopia. Sasha is represented on YouTube by Collective Digital Studios. For her writing, she is represented by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary.


Lindsay Cummings is the 24-year-old author of THE MURDER COMPLEX duology and THE BALANCE KEEPERS trilogy for HarperCollins. She lives in North Texas, where she writes full time.





AND NOW, for the beautiful cover....


-Kristen ♥

Blog Tour: No One Dies in the Garden of Syn by Michael Seidelman (Excerpt + Giveaway)

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Title: No One Dies in the Garden of Syn
Author: Michael Seidelman
Series: The Garden of Syn, #1
Publisher: Chewed Pencil Press
Publication Date: April 26, 2016

Synopsis: Synthia (Syn) Wade is a teenage girl who struggles with cystic fibrosis, an incurable life-threatening disease. One day she is pushed into a pond by an unseen figure and wakes up in a new world – a mysterious garden where illness and death don’t exist.

Welcomed by the garden’s residents and now free of her symptoms, Syn decides to stay. But, before long, she realizes that this apparent utopia holds many dangers and dark secrets.

Surrounding the garden is a fog that Syn is warned never to enter. She encounters bizarre creatures that defy reason. And always lurking in the shadows is a masked woman - a woman who may have a connection to the disappearance of Syn’s parents many years ago. A woman whom no one will speak of, but whom everyone fears.

While No One Dies in the Garden of Syn, Syn will soon discover that some fates are worse than death.

About the Author: When Michael Seidelman was growing up, his passions were reading, watching movies, enjoying nature and creative writing. Not much has changed since then. Working in Online Marketing for over ten years, Michael felt it was time to pursue his passion as a career and wrote the first book in The Garden of Syn trilogy. He is currently writing the second book in The Garden of Syn series and, beyond the trilogy, has many ideas plotted out that he looks forward to sharing with the world! Michael was born in Vancouver, BC Canada where he continues to reside.


Excerpt:

As the cold surface of the water strikes my face, my mind is scrambled with confusion, dread, and fear. Water floods through my nose and mouth and into my lungs. I flay my arms and legs yet can’t get my head above water.

I instinctively cough, which brings more water into my lungs. That’s an absolute disaster for someone with CF. Panic sets in. Unable to turn around, and sinking deeper, far deeper than I would have believed. This pond had always seemed shallow.

My limited sight worsens. Unless someone pulls me out, I’m going to die. My life expectancy was already short but I never thought I’d go this young. I can feel my consciousness—my life—fading away. I’ll never see Janna again. Or Aunt Ruth. Though it might have been naïve to have believed otherwise, I’ll never see my parents again either. Or even find out what happened to them. The end is near. No, far worse. The end is here!

I see only black as my life begins to seep from my body. Nothing but black. And…and…the outline of something. A light. A glow. And then.…

Giveaway:

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-Kristen ♥

Blog Tour: Anomalies by Sadie Turner & Colette Freedman (Praise + Giveaway)

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Title: Anomalies
Authors: Sadie Turner & Colette Freedman
Publisher: Select Books
Publication Date: February 9, 2016

Synopsis: In the future there is no disease. There is no war. There is no discontent. All citizens are complacent members of the Global Governance. But one summer is about to change everything. 

Keeva Tee just turned fifteen. All of her dreams are about to come true. She's about to make the trip to Monarch Camp to be imprinted with her intended life partner. One day they'll have perfect kids and a perfect life. But in her happy, carefree life in the Ocean Community, something weighs on her mind. She hears whispers about anomalies citizens who can't be imprinted. No one knows what happens to them, but they never seem to come back.

When Keeva arrives at Monarch Camp, her worst nightmare becomes a reality she is an anomaly. After imprinting, the people she loves change, and she starts to doubt everything she's ever believed. What if freedom and individuality have been sacrificed for security? And what if the man who solves all the problems is the very man who's created them and what if he isn't a man at all?

When Keeva finds a warning carved under a bunk bed she begins to understand: nonconformity will be punished, dissent is not an option, insurgents will be destroyed.

About the Authors: Sadie Turner is a Los Angeles-based producer and writer originally from Brighton, England, who works in business development with several Hollywood entrepreneurs. She has various projects in development, and also teaches yoga.


Colette Freedman is an internationally produced playwright, screenwriter, and novelist who was recently named one of the Dramatist Guild’s “50 to Watch”. Her play Sister Cities was the hit of the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe and earned five star reviews: It has been produced around the country and internationally, including Paris and Rome. She has authored fifteen produced plays including Serial Killer Barbie, First to the Egg, Bridesmaid # 3, and Ellipses…, as well as a modern adaptation of Iphigenia in Aulis written in iambic pentameter. She was commissioned to write a modern adaptation of Uncle Vanya which is in preproduction and has co-written, with International bestselling novelist Jackie Collins, the play Jackie Collins Hollywood Lies, which is gearing up for National Tour. In collaboration with The New York Times best selling author Michael Scott, she has just sold the thriller The Thirteen Hallows, to Tor/Macmillan, which comes out Dec 6, 2011. She has just sold the novel The Affair to Kensington and is getting ready to shop her YA series The A+ Girls.




Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Unicorn Tracks by Julia Ember (Excerpt + Giveaway)

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Title: Unicorn Tracks
Author: Julia Ember
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Publication Date: April 21, 2016

Synopsis: After a savage attack drives her from her home, sixteen-year-old Mnemba finds a place in her cousin Tumelo’s successful safari business, where she quickly excels as a guide. Surrounding herself with nature and the mystical animals inhabiting the savannah not only allows Mnemba’s tracking skills to shine, it helps her to hide from the terrible memories that haunt her.

Mnemba is employed to guide Mr. Harving and his daughter, Kara, through the wilderness as they study unicorns. The young women are drawn to each other, despite that fact that Kara is betrothed. During their research, they discover a conspiracy by a group of poachers to capture the Unicorns and exploit their supernatural strength to build a railway. Together, they must find a way to protect the creatures Kara adores while resisting the love they know they can never indulge.



About the Author: Originally from Chicago, Julia Ember now resides in Sunny Scotland where she learned to enjoy both haggis and black pudding. She spends her days working as a professional Book Nerd for a large book wholesaler, and her nights writing YA Romantic Fantasy novels.  She also spends an inordinate amount of time managing her growing city-based menagerie of pets with Harry Potter themed names. A world traveller since childhood, Julia has now visited over 60 countries. Her travels inspire the fictional worlds she writes about and she populates those worlds with magic and monsters.



Excerpt: 

I scanned the earth, looking for snapped branches and flattened grass. Once off the path, the plants grew too thick for me to see the chimera’s tracks from horseback, but I didn’t dare dismount again. If we stumbled upon the creature, the last place I wanted to be was on the ground. Elikia trudged through the thick foliage, shaking her head as mosquitos buzzed around her nostrils. Behind me, the Dyers swatted at insects on each other’s backs. 

A deep rumble shook the ground beneath our horses’ hooves. My heart froze, and I turned in my saddle to face a moss-covered outcrop. Staring down at us from above, the chimera licked her front paws and stretched out in the sun, enormous belly bulging with meat. Her snake-headed tail continued to feed as she rested, gulping down dark strips of red and gray flesh from the tattered elephant carcass lying beside her. 

A few hundred feet away, the elephant’s herd milled about in the trees, sadly waiting to venerate their friend’s skeleton once the huge cat had finished her meal. 

“Where’s my sketchbook?” Suzette whispered to her husband. “Can you get it out of your saddlebag?” 

I shook my head at Paul before he could climb down. As much as I would have loved to shove a drawing of the chimera in Oswe’s smug face, the last thing we needed was to pique the creature’s interest by dismounting. 

Paul’s horse stamped at the ground, trying to shake the bugs off his legs. 

The chimera’s purple eyes snapped open. Her pupils dilated with interest, and she sniffed at the air. The snake tail hissed and a low, rocky growl formed in the great cat’s throat. Her lips parted, revealing yellow, stained canines each the length of my index finger.

Giveaway:

-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Broken Fate by Jennifer Derrick (Excerpt + Giveaway)

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Title: Broken Fate
Author: Jennifer Derrick
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication Date: April 18, 2016

Synopsis: Zeus gave her one simple job: Kill every human. Atropos—daughter of Zeus and the third goddess of Fate from Greek mythology —spends her eternal life snipping human lifelines when their mortal lives are over. As if being a killer doesn’t make life miserable enough, she and her Fate-wielding sisters must live amongst the humans on Earth thanks to a long-running feud between their mother and Zeus. Living on Earth means they must mingle with the mortals, attend the local high school, and attempt to fit in—or at least not stand out too much.

Killing and mingling don’t mix, which is why Atropos’ number-one rule is to avoid all relationships with the humans. Caring for the people she has to kill is a fast track to insanity. However, when Alex Morgan walks into her first-period English class, she knows she’s in for trouble. He’s the worst kind of human for her to like—one with a rapidly approaching expiration date. And he makes Atropos want to break all the rules.

About the Author: Jennifer is a freelance writer and novelist. As a freelancer, she writes everything from technical manuals to articles on personal finance and European-style board games. Her interest in storytelling began when she was six and her parents gave her a typewriter for Christmas and agreed to pay her $.01 per page for any stories she churned out. Such a loose payment system naturally led to a lot of story padding. Broken Fate, her first novel, earned her $2.80 from her parents. Jennifer lives in North Carolina and, when not writing, can often be found reading, trawling the shelves at the library, playing board games, watching sports, camping, running marathons, and playing with her dog. 



Excerpt:

I turn off my desk lamp and computer, starting to get up, but then sit back down. My curiosity about Alex has been building all day. I’ve tried to tamp it down, to forget him, but I can’t. Even Chloe’s chatter couldn’t take him out of my thoughts. I boot the computer back up and give in to temptation.
I search for Alex’s record in our database. What I’m doing isn’t forbidden, but I rarely bother to check on the humans once I assign their manner of death. I forget them until I see them again on their date of death. However, tonight, I want to see what kind of fate Lacey devised for him and refresh my memory about how and when he’ll die.

I find his file but just as I’m about to double click and open it, I pull back. Do I really want to know what Lacey has planned for him? He’s already faced grief and loss. What if his fate gets worse than that? Do I want that knowledge?

I think for a few moments and decide it doesn’t really matter either way. He and I aren’t going to become friends. I enjoyed our afternoon together, but that has to be the end of it. If his fate is bad, I can live with it. He is, after all, just another human. Easy come, easy go.

I double click on the file. His entire past and future lies before me. I scroll down to the end of the document, looking for the relevant part, the date of death. I don’t have to scroll far.

May fifteenth of this year.

I read the page again. The date doesn’t change. May fifteenth is a little less than two months from now. I quickly scroll back up, looking for the details on how he will die. I’m furious when I find them.



-Kristen ♥

Blog Tour: The Ending Element: Calista by Lorraine Koh (Giveaway)

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Title: The Ending Element: Calista
Author: Lorraine Koh
Publication Date: February 8, 2016

Synopsis: Calista Bloom never wanted to fight in the war and it has been five years since war waged over Kosmotopia. All because of a sword. Fair enough, the Astronblade is supposed to hold infinite power, that is, once it finds its one true owner. But every 18-year-old will need to join the military and Calista soon finds herself trying to awaken the Astronblade. Will this batch hold the Blade Bearer? Or will finding the Blade Bearer trigger the chain of events that will bring about the end of the world?

Add to Goodreads

About the Author: Lorraine Koh, who also goes by the pen name, Raine Koh lives in sunny Singapore. She has written Munchy Isn't Everything and Pop Rock Love and is currently working on a new novel. Her hobbies include chasing stars, photographing them and travelling to see them.


 by Jeff Mahadi

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Under My Skin by Laura Diamond (Excerpt + Giveaway)

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Title: Under My Skin
Author: Laura Diamond
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Publication Date: April 12, 2016

Synopsis: Bookish Brit Adam Gibson is one wonky heartbeat away from a fatal arrhythmia. But staying alive requires Adam to become keenly focused on both his pulse and the many different daily medications he must take in exactly the right dosages. Adam’s torn between wanting to live and knowing that someone else must die in order for him to do so. He needs a new heart.

The pressure is getting to him. Adam stops talking to his friends back home, refuses to meet kids at his new school, and shuts his parents out entirely. His days are spent wondering if can cope with having a dead man’s heart beating inside his chest, or if he should surrender to the thoughts of suicide swirling around in his head.

And then a donor is found…

Outspoken artist Darby Fox rarely lets anything stand in her way of achieving her goals . Whether it’s painting, ignoring her homework (dyslexia makes a mess out of words anyway), kissing a hot boy she doesn’t even know, or taking the head cheerleader down a peg , no one has ever accused Darby of being a shy. She also happens to be the twin sister to a perfect brother with good looks, good grades, manners, and the approval of their parents – something Darby has never had.

Darby’s always had bad timing . She picks the worst time to argue with her brother Daniel. In a car with bald tires, on an icy road in the freezing cold, the unthinkable happens. In a split-second, everything changes forever.

About the Author: Laura Diamond is a board certified psychiatrist currently specializing in emergency psychiatry. She is also an author of all things young adult—both contemporary and paranormal. An avid fan of sci-fi, fantasy, and anything magical, she thrives on quirk, her lucid dreams, and coffee. When she’s not working or writing, she can be found sniffing books and drinking a latte at the bookstore or at home pondering renovations on her 225 year old fixer upper, all while obeying her feline overlords, of course.

Excerpt:

ADAM:

Best to get it over with now. I type: I had the thought today.

I click send.

For a few seconds, I watch the screen, waiting for her to reply. I can’t expect Dr. Shaw to be right there to answer me. She’s probably in session with someone.

A group of students pass by, chattering and laughing, light at bubbles. They halt at the curb to wait for the light to change. They’re all wearing NYU sweatshirts and carrying messenger bags or laptops with silkscreen logos about “being green” and “tolerant of diversity.” Adventurers embarking on the quest known as Life. What it must be like to have a whole lifetime to look forward to, no dead end staring back at you.

My mobile buzzes.

It’s Dr. Shaw. Tell me the exact thought and context.

I had a flutter. After, I saw Mum and Dad. Their backs were turned to me and I thought: They’d be happier without me. They’ll be fine after I’m dead. I click send and try to ignore the gnawing pit in my stomach. My message seems dramatic now that I’ve sent it off for her to scrutinize. It was better left unsaid.

A bubble with three dots surfaces at the bottom of my screen. She’s typing right now. I suck in a dry, exhaust laden breath.

She replies: What evidence do you have that they’ll be happy?

That was simple. They were laughing.

Your death will be devastating to them.

My heart twinges a bit. Will be? Does she somehow know I won’t make it until I find a donor? Maybe the surgeon told her I’m not a candidate. I blink and re-read her statement. No, I’m over-reacting. She’s just countering my argument with logic. It’s her style to challenge me with the opposite idea so I’ll find the reality somewhere between. Still, I’m not ready to admit she’s right. Mum and Dad don’t need me dragging them down. I text, Yes, but they’ll be alright. 

Of course they will. Life goes on.

Dr. Shaw is unrelenting in her approach. So different from Mum who tries to comfort me with delusional happy thoughts.

Right. And I’m such a burden on them now.

Whatever you think they’re sacrificing is nothing compared to how much you mean to them.
I’m tired of waiting for my heart to stop.

Do you want it to stop? You won’t suffer anymore.



-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Dark & Twisted Games by Heidi Acosta (Giveaway)

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Title: Dark & Twisted Games
Author: Heidi Acosta
Series: Hearts of Faeylon, #1
Publication Date: April 1, 2016

Synopsis: Nothing ever happens in the small town of Copake Falls, and no one knows that better than sixteen-year-old Eden Day. Her life is a mundane carousal, rotating between caring for her alien obsessed aunt and dealing with her freak status at school. Until two brothers move into town and turn her life completely upside down. 

Golden boy, Cardelian Foster is the talk of the town, and it seems his sights set on Eden. However, she finds herself drawn to the dark and elusive Jaxson instead. Caught between her fear of what he might be and her attraction to him, Eden makes it her mission to find out exactly who or what Jaxson Foster is. 

Eden begins to dig for the truth, but the deeper she looks, the more her life seems to be in danger. Everyone around her thinks she’s going crazy, and Eden begins to agree until she finds herself pulled into Faeylon—a world that nightmares are made of. Caught in the center of a dark game, Eden realizes there can only be one winner, and she is the prize.



About the Author: Heidi Acosta was born on Long Island, New York. Moving around a lot when she was younger, she has lived in New York, Arizona, New York (again), Washington, Georgia, and Florida, in that order. Each place offered her something special, but she will always consider New York her home. Heidi started writing as soon as she could spell. When she was three, Heidi’s mother gave her a copy of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods; thus beginning her lifelong love affair with literature. Writing soon also became a form of therapy for Heidi, when she realized that no matter what was happening in her life, she could find emotional escape while writing. Some of her earliest stories featured her as a princess who explored new worlds with her horse Buttercup. If it sounds romantic, it wasn’t, there was no prince charming in those fairy lands (boys where yucky). Heidi now resides in Florida with her husband, very active daughter, one hyper Chihuahua, two sweet cats, and one very fat moody cat. Barbie Girl is the first Novel of Heidi’s new, four-book, Baby Doll Series: Barbie Girl, Barbie World, Doll Face, and Southern Sugar.


-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Under the Trees by Ashley Maker (Excerpt + Giveaway)

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Title: Under the Trees
Author: Ashley Maker
Publication Date: March 20, 2016

Synopsis: Desperate to prevent an abusive arranged marriage, Princess Araya flees to a neighboring kingdom, only to land at the mercy of the impulsive Crown Prince Thoredmund, who provides refuge in a secluded forest and teaches her survival skills. Her surprise at the unexpected hold the prince has on her heart mirrors his shock at falling for the one girl he can’t have.

As the young couple’s feelings for each other grow, the fragile alliance between the two kingdoms threatens to break apart. With a vengeful duke and an enraged king fast on their trail, Thor and Araya must decide how much they’re willing to risk for love.

Even if staying together means starting a war. 



About the Author: Under the Trees is Ashley Maker’s debut novel. When she’s not working on her next book, Ashley spends much of her time procrastinating on social media, relaxing with her husband and two daughters, and writing companion songs on her acoustic guitar. She has a bachelor’s degree in English, worked a short stint as a book editor, and lives in a small town in Oklahoma. "Sway" --the first companion song to UNDER THE TREES--is available to listen to and download for free at: ashleymaker.com


Excerpt:

The dark horse tore through the underbrush, bringing her close enough I could make out a pale face and a tangle of long hair. A black cloak billowed behind her. Men on horseback gave chase, darting through the trees, clearly in pursuit. All those men after one girl? Who could she be? My instincts screamed against them catching her. She could be a decoy, and they could all be spies—but what if she was in real danger?

It wouldn’t be so difficult to apprehend her, only one rider, later …

“Let her pass,” I ordered, staring my men down until they stepped aside.

The girl raced past, glancing over her shoulder for a brief moment—her eyes flashing emerald in the light of the fire—before looking ahead and leaning low on her horse’s neck.

My men gaped at me, gripping weapons with white-knuckled hands. With a jerk of my head in the direction of the riders almost upon us, I raised the bow and nocked an arrow.

“Hold the line,” I commanded. “These men stop here.”

--Prince Thoredmund from UNDER THE TREES

Sway – Companion song to Under the Trees! 

  

-Kristen ♥

Book Blitz: Artificial by Jadah McCoy (Giveaway)

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Title: Artificial
Author: Jadah McCoy
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: April 4, 2016

Synopsis: She struggles to feel human.

In 2256, the only remnants of civilization on Earth’s first colonized planet, Kepler, are the plant-covered buildings and the nocturnal, genetically spliced bug-people nesting within them: the Cull. During the day, Syl leaves her home in the sewers beneath Elite City to scavenge for food, but at night the Cull come looking for a meal of their own. Syl thought gene splicing died with the Android War a century ago. She thought the bugs could be exterminated, Elite city rebuilt, and the population replenished. She’s wrong.

Whoever engineered the Cull isn’t done playing God. Syl is abducted and tortured in horrific experiments which result in her own DNA being spliced, slowly turning her into one of the bugs. Now she must find a cure and stop the person responsible before every remaining man, woman, and child on Kepler is transformed into the abomination they fear.

He struggles not to.

For Bastion, being an android in the sex industry isn’t so bad. Clubbing beneath the streets of New Elite by day and seducing the rich by night isn’t an altogether undesirable occupation. But every day a new android cadaver appears in the slum gutters, and each caved in metal skull and heap of mangled wires whittles away at him.

Glitches—androids with empathy—are being murdered, their models discontinued and strung up as a warning. Show emotion, you die. Good thing Bastion can keep a secret, or he would be the next body lining the street.

He can almost live with hiding his emotions. That is, until a girl shows up in the slums—a human girl, who claims she was an experiment. And in New Elite, being a human is even worse than being a Glitch. Now Bastion must help the girl escape before he becomes victim to his too-human emotions, one way or another.


About the Author: I currently live in Nashville and babysit attorneys for a living. My debut NA sci-fi, Artificial, is forthcoming from Curiosity Quills Press.



-Kristen ♥