Tuesday, July 24, 2012

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Connie Wilson

NORTHERN LIGHTS: Natural Order
From the outside, Carrington Levesque looks like she's got it all. She just got back from a dream vacation, her boyfriend is the All American Boy Next Door and she got a hot new car to start out her senior year in. It does look like things just might go her way for once What people don't know is, looks really can be deceiving.

When the new guy in town Eli Warren keeps popping up everywhere she turns around, she hears that he's bad news and tries to stay away from him. But the harder she tries, it seems the more they're thrown together. Little does she know, he may become her only way to finding out the truth about a past that's been evading her.







Learning The Hard Way

Aeryn Davis was a good girl. A good girl that made the wrong choice. And now, she was a single mother at the age of seventeen. With her ex boyfriend off living life like he didn't have responsibilities, she was stuck.

Until she met D'Angelo Sterling. A handsome older football player that offered her a way to forget about her problems. When they get a little closer than they originally intended, things get complicated. Unfortunately, they have to learn how to grow up and they choose to do it the hard way.



AUTHOR BIO: (Taken from Connie's website)
I really don't like writing these "about me" things. I feel like I'm trying to sell myself to a room full of lustful people. And I have to resist the urge to say "I like candle light dinners and long walks on the beach". That and I don't want to bore people with "I'm a 34 year old Michigan woman that lives with her 17 year old calico cat". Whereas all of this is true; I really don't think people care. 
I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Stories, plays, poems; I've tried my hand at it all. I got serious about writing when I was 19. I've always wrote romance storbecause it's different. There's not a lot of it out there and I strive to be different. And I want to change the stereotypes that seem to be still be plaguing society. 
I'm more than just a writer. I love my friends, my family. I love to scrap book and go to movies and concerts. I've got my social work degree and plan to go back to school to higher my education soon. ies. It started out with fan fiction, before fan fiction had a name. Then it morphed into trying my hand at doing Sweet Valley High type series with friends. And then finally, in the last couple of years, I've settled on interracial romance.
I write interracial romance because it's different. There's not a lot of it out there and I strive to be different. And I want to change the stereotypes that seem to be still be plaguing society. 
I'm more than just a writer. I love my friends, my family. I love to scrap book and go to movies and concerts. I've got my social work degree and plan to go back to school to higher my education soon. 


Find NORTHERN LIGHTS on Amazon l Barnes & Noble
Find Learning The Hard Way on Amazon l Barnes & Noble l Smashwords Goodreads


BOOK OF THE DAY: Enshadowed (Nevermore #2) by Kelly Creagh



Varen Nethers is trapped in a perilous dream world -- a treacherous and desolate realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life. Isobel Lanley, plagued by strange visions and haunted by the nightmares of Varen's creation, is the only one who can save him.
Isobel knows that her only hope lies within a Baltimore cemetery. There, in the early morning hours of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, a mysterious stranger known as the "Poe Toaster" will make his annual homage at the legendary poet's grave.
Only the Poe Tosater holds the key to the way between worlds. But even greater dangers lie ahead for Isobel. An ancient evil, draped in veils of white, is watching, challenging her for Varen's affections. When Isobel finally finds Varen, he is no longer the quiet and brooding boy who once captivated her, but a dark force, powerful and malevolent.


Expected publication: August 28th 2012
Add to Goodreads
Find on Amazon l Barnes & Noble

I loved book one in this series and can't wait for the release of this one!! Have you read Book one? Is Enshadowed on your TBR list?

Monday, July 23, 2012

COVER REVEAL: The Unloved by Jennifer Snyder

A huge thank you to AToMR for the opportunity to particpate in the cover reveal  for The Unloved by Jennifer Snyder!



Sometimes the love our heart needs to heal can be found in the familiar eyes of a childhood friend...

Julie Porter learned the hard way that trust is something which must be earned and not something to be given out lightly, those who say they love you are those who hold the power to hurt you most, and best friends can help you survive anything—until they move away.
Nick Owen knows a thing or two about a hard life. At a young age Nick learned how to take a hit and to make lemonade out of the lemons life tossed his way. Returning home after nearly two years of being away, all Nick cares about now is protecting his mom from the abusive hands of his father and catching up with his best friend—the girl who lived across the street, the girl he can’t seem to stop thinking about.
Finally reunited after two years apart, Nick and Julie are about to learn that age does nothing to protect you from life’s trials and tribulations, heartache and loss, but maybe together they’ll find a way to survive.
(Mature Young Adult, contains violence, language, and sexual situations.
To be released July 30th 2012
Add The Unloved to Goodreads
Find Jennifer Snyder Blog l Twitter 


The cover was designed by Stephanie Mooney from Mooney Designs

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Friday, July 20, 2012

COVER REVEAL: Hollowed by Kelley York

I'm so excited to be taking part in the cover reveal for Kelley York's Hollowed. A huge thank you to Kelley for including me!!



All 18-year-old Briar Greyson wanted was to figure out this whole living-away-from-your-parents thing. Apartment, steady job, cool roommate? Check. Noah, her adorable (albeit elusive) boyfriend? Check. Everything in the life of Briar was pretty good.



Then she and her roommate are attacked on their way home one night. Briar wasn't supposed to survive.

Instead, according to the two guys who saved her, she's turning into the things that attacked her: a vampire. Totally crazy and Not Okay. Now Noah's secrets are coming to light, and he wants Briar dead. Then there are the vampires who attacked Briar to lure out her sister.

Her sister...who died years ago. 

(Didn't she?)

The city's body count is rising, and Briar wants to help put a stop to it. But first, she has to figure out who the real enemy is: the vampires, the boy she loves, or the sister she thought she'd lost. 


To Be Released: August 15th 2012


Add Hollowed to Goodreads
Find Kelley York: Twitter Blog

Isn't that cover gorgeous! I can't wait to read it!! 

FIVE QUESTIONS WITH... Michelle Muto plus GIVEAWAY


AUTHOR BIO:

Writer of urban fantasy, the paranormal, and all things eerie and curious.
Michelle has always loved storytelling. When she was a child, her favorite stories were of monsters and things that lurked in the dark. Telling stories often frightened her classmates and got her into a lot of trouble with her teachers. They had no sense of humor.
As an adult, Michelle traded her love of writing for the corporate life where she was an IT professional. Today, she’s doing what she loves best – writing and storytelling.
Michelle grew up in Chicago, but currently lives in NE Georgia with her husband and their two dogs, one of which is a Beezlepup. She loves scary books, funny movies, sports cars, dogs, chocolate, old cemeteries, and changes of season. Michelle even loves photography. One day, maybe she’ll upload a better photo – one that wasn’t taken in late afternoon with Photobooth. Or, maybe not.
Michelle writes on a Mac and is a true geek at heart. She agrees with her dogs who think cheese and bacon should be in their own food group. But most of all, she believes everyone should trust their imagination, have a kind heart, and should definitely have a sense of humor.
CONNECT WITH MICHELLE: Blog l Twitter l Facebook

Don't Fear the Reaper (Netherworld #1)

Book 1 of the Netherworld series

Grief-stricken by the murder of her twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her ticket to eternal peace and a chance to reunite with her sister. When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected. Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister’s murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine who she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity. 

The Book of Lost Souls (Ivy MacTavish #1)

When teen witch Ivy MacTavish changes a lizard into her date for a Halloween dance, everything turns to chaos. And when no one is powerful enough to transform him back except Ivy, it sparks the rumor: Like father, like daughter. Ivy has heard it all before - that her father, who left when she was seven - was involved with the darkest of magic.

Making the rumors worse, someone uses an evil spell book to bring back two of history's most nefarious killers. Ivy's got a simple plan to set things right: find the real dark spell caster, steal the book, and reverse the spell. No problem! But she'll have to deal with something more dangerous than murderous spirits that want her and her friends dead: the school's resident bad boy and hotter-than-brimstone demon, Nick Marcelli. Nick's offering Ivy more than his help with recovering the missing book - he's offering her a way to ditch her scaly reputation as a lizard-lover. Demons are about as hard to handle as black magic, and as Ivy soon discovers, it's going to take more than a lot of luck and a little charm if she wants to survive long enough to clear her status as a dark witch, get a warm-blooded boyfriend, and have her former date back to eating meal worms before the week's end. 
CHECK OUT MICHELLE'S BOOKS HERE: Goodreads l Amazon l Barnes & Noble Smashwords

FIVE QUESTIONS:
1. Why did you choose to write a book in the Young Adult genre?

I love to read Young Adult. I think the stories just go in directions that are so different from my adult life.

2. Who is your favourite character you have written and why?

His name is Declan, and you haven’t read about him... yet. But you will. I usually know all about my characters. Except him. He’s the only one who’s been able to keep secrets from me & I don’t know if he’ll ever reveal them all. He debuts in a book later this fall.

3. Describe a typical writing day for you?

After grumbling something incoherent to the dogs as I feed them and let them out and hubby is at work, I read emails, check stats, do a little social media time. Then, I spend time either plotting or writing until lunch, often followed by more writing or rewriting after lunch. I try not to write when I’m spending time with hubby and the dogs, but a writer is always writing, even in their heads.

4. What are you reading at the moment? 

Sarra Cannon’s Beautiful Demons.

5. If you turned your ipod on now, what would be the song that is currently playing?

Actually, I just checked: Home by Daughtry.





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REVIEW: Towering Pines Volume One: Room 509 (Towering Pines #1) by Bruce A. Sarte


BOOK DESCRIPTION:
When high school superstar basketball player Liam Rider is sentenced to military school to serve out an aggravated assault charge, he thought his life was over. But when Lisbeth Harrington comes into his life she sparks feelings in him he didn't know he had. Suddenly pulled into the past of the historic school by nightmares of his own suicide, Liam and Lisbeth are catapulted forward into thehidden history of ghosts, suicide and murder. 

Can they solve the mysteries of the military school before Liam becomes the next victim of the paranormal murderer?



REVIEW: 

Towering Pines is the story of Liam Rider. Hotshot basketball star.  After commiting an assualt he finds himself enrolled in Military school. It's here that he meets Lisbeth Harrington and a friendship is formed. But it's also the beginning of Liam's mysterious dreams and his encounters with the ghosts from room 509's past.

I have to say that when I first started reading this book, I didn't like the characters. None of them!! I thought they were quite the group of angry young men. I felt no Sympathy or compassion for Liam after the attack on his rival team member that lands him in Jail. Yes it was retaliation, but in my eyes that just doesn't make it right!! He is quite conceited and full of himself. And then we have the way that Liam treats his girlfriend Ashleigh. He is just downright rude and nasty to her!!

But as the story goes on we get glimpses into why Liam is the way that he is and slowly we begin to see little changes in him and by the end of the book he was a character that I could say that I liked!! Lisbeth was also a character that had to grow on me. She was fairly brash and cold but then I suppose she is one of the few females in a male dominated military environment. But throughout the book she comes out of her shell and we learn some things about her that I wasn't expecting.

I was completely shocked by some of the things revealed near the end of the book. I hadn't picked that as being the way that things would go!!

I'm really not one for mentioning errors in books and for the most part I can overlook some grammatical errors, but there were some incidents in this book, which had me going back and rereading previous pages to see if I had possibly read something wrong. One thing that comes to mind, is that Liam smashes his mobile phone against a wall, but then a few pages later he is using that phone to call someone. Something like that should really have been picked up in the editing process before the books release. 

All in all, I really enjoyed the concept of this story. The author's writing style was really easy to read and the story moved along at a pace that kept me interested in the story. The growth of the main charcters throughout the book was good. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a read that contains paranormal aspects without a lot of romance.

3.75 Stars

Find Towering Pines on Goodreads l Amazon l Barnes & Noble

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Charlotte Blackwell Blog Tour



Immortal Embrace Excerpt

So, Sophia, the winter formal is only a few weeks away, and I was hoping you would allow me the privilege of escorting you,” Nathanial asks with complete confidence.
“I would be honored,” I agree.
 “Perfect.” He smiles, and we both let out a little chuckle. He excitedly moves closer and hugs me.
At this moment, time seems to slow. We gaze into each other’s eyes. As we move slowly toward each other, I can feel his breath and hear his heart racing. I begin to feel weak. I have to be careful, and every instinct I have tells me to turn away, but whatever piece of a heart I have left wants to hold him and never let go. As we move closer, our lips touch ever so softly. Nathanial’s arm slowly tightens around my waist, pulling me even closer. This is the most amazing feeling, like millions of fireworks exploding inside my body. The kiss continues with his left hand cupping the back of my head, moving around to my cheek, and stroking along my cheekbone. His right hand is still wrapped around my waist. This kiss is so soft, gentle, but utterly passionate. A crowd starts to form, and everyone is in shock. Nathanial has never been interested in anyone, let alone kissed anyone before. At least that’s what I’ve been hearing from the gossip.
We don’t even notice until Alexander taps Nathanial’s shoulder. “Hey, get a room, bro, or else we should start charging admission for this,” he jokes.
 We part and realize we are in the school courtyard with an audience. As is par for the course for his usual class clown antics, Nathanial turns to the crowd and shouts, “Thank you, thank you! Hope you all enjoyed Act 1. Please tune in next week.”
I bury my head in his chest and giggle a little. 

Forbidden Embrace Synopsis from Chapter 11

“DANIKA! Where the hell are you?” I holler.
Alexander comes running out of his room, “Sophia, calm down. Killing her is not going to solve anything.”
“Alex for once mind your own business, this is between me and that little bitch. I knew she was trouble from day one” I yell with such anger and passion.
Nathanial is hot on my heels trying to calm, however unsuccessful he may be. The rest of the family comes to see what the racket is all about.
“What on earth is going on here?” Isaac asks rhetorically. Finally I see Danika laying on the sofa in the family room, watching TV and obviously pretending not to hear me. She does a little stretch and glances over her shoulder at me only to turn back to her program. With one swift motion, I grab her by her neck yanking her to her feet.
With attitude she yells, “What the heck is up your butt Sophia?”  Breaking free from my grasp she steady’s herself.
“Like you don’t know; would you care to explain why you seem to feel entitled to kiss my boyfriend?”
“I…I…I’m sorry,” she stutters, slowly inching further away from me.
“Sorry? It never should have happened. Do you see why I can’t trust you? You have zero respect for anyone, not me, not Nate, not even this family.”
“Oh Sophia get over it, it was no big deal. Honestly just let me explain.”
“There is nothing to explain, you crossed a line here and I’m so done with you.” I feel my features begin to change as rage takes over, first the burning in my eyes and the ache in my jaw. I can’t restrain myself any longer. I’m going to kill this girl. At the same moment Alexander reaches for me, I lunge at Danika tossing her to the ground. One fist after another I punch her square in the face, each hit bringing satisfaction. Blood spatters from one side of the room to the next. With one fist tangled in her short mess of fire red hair, I slam her head to the ground. Lifting my arm and tightening my fist I prepare to strike her again.  Elijah, Alexander and Isaac pull me from the beaten young vampire, and restrain me. Florence and Constance move in to help Danika. 
“Will you let me go? I want to deal with this once and for all.” I pull and push, but even my strength is no match for the two older male vampires. Through my peripheral vision I notice Nathanial and I can see the terror and what I perceive as disgust on his face. Immediately I begin to calm down, feeling the features of my face retracting, embarrassed and ashamed that he saw me in all my primal rage. “I’m fine, just keep her away from me for tonight; we can deal with this in the morning. I do hope that someone will discuss the issue of her behavior with her, I can’t promise I’ll stop next time.” I push the boys off of me and race back to my room.

Excerpt Mystic Embrace - Chapter 4 

Crawling into bed next to me, Matt pulls up the blankets and wraps his arms around me in a loving embrace. I've been so lucky to have him in my life. He’s supported me since day one even when I tried to push him away after finding out I was witch. He's always been so understanding and supportive of my friendship with vampires and was even open and honest enough with me about his guardian training. I bury my head deeper into his chest, realizing how lucky I truly am to have him in my life. Matt leans down and kisses my forehead. With a slight smile, I look up at him slowly moving towards him for a soft gentle kiss.

“I love you Matt. Thank you for being here for me,” I whisper with a soft sincere tone.
“Ebony, I couldn't love anyone more than you.”
He lightly runs his hands through my hair and places them on either side of my face with a passionate look, he kisses me again. Pulling myself closer to him and moving up slightly, leaning on one elbow, I place one hand on his cheek, rubbing his ear lobe between my thumb and index finger. We begin kissing each other, more passionately than ever. He slowly runs his hands down my back. I get up onto my knees in front of him. He pulls himself up to the sitting position, and I climb on his lap. He begins to kiss my neck and moves his hands up the back of my shirt on my bare skin. I reach down, grabbing his shirt and pull it up over his head. With a slight push back, I kiss his lips then taking my time and move with gentle passion to his neck. Running my hands over his bare chest I kiss my way down to his navel.
“Ebony, I want this more than anything, but are you sure this is the right time?” He says as he pulls me up towards him.


Excerpt from Everlasting Embrace chapter 5

Walking into the learning annex with Nathanial and my family at my side, I feel a sense of pride at what we’ve accomplished. We walk down the stairs to the front of the class. Looking up, I see the many rows of chairs all equipped with fold down tables. The students begin to get settled in their seats and pull of various types of note books.
Isaac steps forward. “Thank you everyone. Please settle down. I would like to explain how things are going to work here. We’ve ordered homeschooling assignments, tailored to each of
your educational backgrounds. We’ll be set up in the main corridor, and first each of you will see someone at table one and will be issued a school ID. Then you will proceed to the next table and get your books and assignments. The following table will issue you a locker and combination; then you may go and put your books in your locker. If you didn’t notice, the lockers are located just down the hall from here, in between the classrooms. When you return, go to table four, where you will receive a Mac-book and your Internet pass code. This will be very important, as most of your assignments are online through a site called Moodle. We also use Rosetta Stone for languages; you will be required to learn at least French, Spanish and Latin. If you wish, you may take on extra language courses as well. The mornings will be allotted for educational training, and there will be instructors at your disposal for any help needed. We’ll be able to contact a certified teacher through the homeschooling department if the help we have to offer does not suffice. Your physical and power training will be in the afternoons. All your fight training equipment is already located in your rooms. If you have not found it yet, I suggest you look in the drawer under your bed. Fight training will consist of learning of other supernatural entities, magickal powers and other training tailored to your unique needs and abilities. We will be taking you in smaller groups after lunch, and you will each receive a proper tour. Anything that you need is located here, and if it isn’t, we can get it for you. You are not prisoners here and will have outdoor time, as well as free time. Does anyone have any questions?”
We search the wide-eyed students, but everyone is quiet. “Alright then, we will meet you in the front in ten minutes. Thank you for your attention,” Constance adds. Then we proceed back up the stairs and out to the main entrance, where Alexander, Nathanial and Dakota set everything up this morning. Skah and his wife will be here later as they will be helping to run the school. His new wife, Waniyya, majored in mythology in college. Although she is mortal, her knowledge and understanding will be much needed. I think they will both be great assets to the school.

Find The Embrace Series: Goodreads l Amazon l Smashwords l  Barnes & Noble


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