Furious Rush Blog Tour! S.C. Stephens Top 5 List and Giveaway!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: FURIOUS RUSH

Author: S.C. Stephens

On Sale: August 23, 2016

Publisher: Forever

Format: Trade Paperback & eBook

Price: $12.99 USD (TP) / $4.99 USD (eBook)

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The first in an emotion-fueled, New Adult series from the #1 bestselling author of the Thoughtless novels!

Too fast, too furious—and way too hot to handle… 

Mackenzie Cox has a lot to prove. Daughter of a racing legend, she is eager to show the world that she has inherited her father's talent in the male-dominated sport of professional motorcycle racing. The last thing Kenzie needs is to be antagonized by her rival team's newest rider, Hayden Hayes. Plucked from the world of illegal street racing, Hayden immediately gets under Kenzie's skin. His insinuations that Kenzie is a spoiled princess who was handed her career fuels her desire to win, and much to her surprise, Kenzie soon learns she performs better when she's racing against Hayden.

As Kenzie and Hayden push each other on the track, the electric energy between them off the track shifts into an intense—and strictly forbidden—attraction. The only rule between their two ultra-competitive teams is zero contact. Kenzie always does her best to play by the rules, but when her team slips into a financial crisis, she has no choice but to turn to Hayden for help. The tension simmers during their secret, late-night rendezvous, but Kenzie has too much to lose to give in to her desires. Especially when she begins to doubt that Hayden has completely left his street life behind...

For today's stop on the tour we have author S.C. Stephens list of Top 5 Favorite Songs or Artists!

  1) Imagine Dragons. I love all their songs, but when I saw them in concert, I was blown away. The lead singer performs exactly how I picture Kellan performing. It was a surreal experience.

  2) Linkin Park. The sound of this band (on a lot of their songs) is exactly how I imagine the D-Bags sounding. LP will always hold a special place in my heart. Plus their concerts are amazing! They sound just as good live.

  3) OneRepublic. These guys were on constant repeat while I was writing the Thoughtless trilogy. I love them with all my heart. And I got to stand thisclose to Ryan Tedder during a meet and greet. Awe-some.

 4) Old Dominion.  My honey-boo has been slowly getting me into country music. I just picked up their album, and I love every song! I also love the fact that the scratch and sniff bacon sticker on the cover smells like cotton candy (the album is called Meat and Candy—haha!).

  5) Every Avenue. I cried the day this band broke up, and I did an all-day Twitter celebration on the day of their last concert. A fan turned me on to the band after Thoughtless was released, and I was amazed by how well their lyrics fit the story—its uncanny! These guys are also the only band I have gotten autographs from. Thanks to a reader, I was able to get a copy of Effortless signed by every single member. Best. Gift. Ever.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

S. C. Stephens is a #1 bestselling author who spends her every free moment creating stories that are packed with emotion and heavy on romance. In addition to writing, she enjoys spending lazy afternoons in the sun reading, listening to music, watching movies, and spending time with her friends and family. She and her two children reside in the Pacific Northwest.

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YOU’RE INVITED!

It's a virtual-party!!! Please join S.C. Stephens (and some pretty awesome authors) on Facebook for a pre-release celebration of Furious Rush on August 22^nd! There will be prizes! There will be fun!

RSVP Here!

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Revelations Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway!

Revelations is almost upon us and I, for one, am so excited for this next step in Evie's journey to be out in the world!

Title: REVELATIONS
Author: J.A. Souders
Pub. Date: November 5, 2013
Publisher: TOR Teen
Pages: 352
Find it: Amazon, Barnes& Noble, Goodreads

Six weeks after her arrival on the Surface, Evelyn Winters is no closer to unlocking the memories lost in her subconscious than she was when she first came. Isolated in a strange new society, Evie has only Gavin Hunter to remind her of who she once was.

But even with a clean slate, it’s easy to see that Evie doesn’t fit in on the Surface. And as her differences make her feel more and more alone, she can’t help but yearn for that place she doesn’t remember: the isolated city hidden in the depths of the ocean. Elysium. Home.

But she can’t exactly tell Gavin what she’s feeling. Not when he’s the one who helped her escape Elysium in the first place, and has the scars to prove it. Though the doctors say otherwise, Gavin believes that Evie just needs time. And if her memories don’t come back, well, maybe she’s better off not remembering her past.

But the decision may be out of their hands when Evie’s ever-elusive memories begin to collide with reality. People and images from her past appear in the most unlikely places, haunting her, provoking her…and making her seem not only strange but dangerous.

Evie and Gavin can’t wait around for her memories to return. They’ll have to journey across the Outlands of the Surface to find help, and in the end, their search may just lead them back to the place it all started…

I absolutely adored Renegade, it's a book that I've been fangirling over quite a bit since I read it last year, so I was incredibly excited to start in on Revelations. And to be honest, I was also a little bit nervous, because we all know the second book in a trilogy can sometimes be a little disappointing. And while the beginning of Revelations was a little slow to start for me, once it picked up it took off and went all kinds of places I never would have expected.

In the beginning we are with Evie and Gavin in his village, and while it was nice to get some background on Gavin and where he's from, other than Evie's "episodes" nothing really happens while we are there. Once Evie, Gavin, and his former best friend Asher hit the Outlands to get Evie to a better doctor, that's when things really start to get crazy.

I really liked the dynamic between the three of them once the started on their journey. Gavin does not like Asher because of something that happened in their past and he isn't afraid to be vocal about it, while Asher just kind of goes with the flow, never really instigating, he's mostly a happy, carefree guy. Evie is a little lost this time around, because things are happening to her that she can't explain, not to mention, she doesn't remember her life before she came to the Surface and Gavin isn't telling.

The characters stumble across some scary stuff while they are making their way to the city and not all of them are beasts. The way that J.A. Souders builds this new world, which is so different from the underwater confines of Elysium, is just as effective. This isn't the Earth that we are used to, wars have made sure of that, but it's enough like it that it becomes that much scarier.

There are so many secrets between all of the characters in this story and every time more are revealed it just gives you something else to gasp about. J.A. Souders has built an excellent framework of characters and two creepy worlds, where you never know what is around the next corner and you can never be sure anyone is quite who they are supposed to be. I really enjoyed this second book and I am eagerly awaiting book three. Especially considering what we find out near the end of Revelations! I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

About J.A:

 

 

J.A. SOUDERS is the author of the Elysium Chronicles and lives in the land of sunshine and palm trees with her husband and two children where she spends her time writing about the monsters under the bed, day dreaming about living in an underwater colony, and failing miserably at playing video games.

Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads/Pinterest

Revelations Giveaway (All US Only!)

Grand Prize- 1 Signed set of Renegade and Revelations, 1 scrabble tile pendant with covers of both books, and a $25 gift card to Amazon or B&N!

Second Place- 1 Signed set of Renegade and Revelations and 1 set of scrabble tile pendants with covers of both books.

Third Place- 1 set revelations themed swag

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Tour Schedule:

Week One:

10/28/2013- Magical Urban Fantasy Reads- Guest Post

10/29/2013- Katie's Book Blog- Interview

10/30/2013- The Book Life- Review

10/31/2013- Curling Up With A Good Book- Guest Post

11/1/2013- That Artsy Reader Girl- Review

Week Two:

11/4/2013- Bookish- Interview

11/5/2013- Two Chicks on Books- Guest Post

11/6/2013- Supernatural Snark- Interview

11/7/2013- Book Haven Extraordinaire- Review

11/8/2013- Jenna Does Books- Review

Blog Tour: The Rule of Thirds by Chantel Guertin!

Hey guys! Thanks for popping in to my stop on The Rule of Thirds blog tour! A story about a girl who loves photography, her best friend, and adorable boys :0)

 

The Rule Of Thirds

By: Chantel Guertin

Release date: October 1st, 2013

Publisher: ECW Press

Goodreads

Sixteen-year-old Pippa Greene never goes anywhere without her camera. She and her best friend/supermodel-in-training Dace long ago mapped out their life plan: Pippa will be the noted fashion photographer, and Dace the cover girl. But ever since last spring, things have changed for Pippa—and her junior year at Spalding High proves to have its own set of challenges. Not only is Vantage Point, the statewide photography competition, in three short weeks, but her mandatory volunteering placement lands her at St. Christopher’s Hospital, a place Pippa never wanted to set foot in again. With humor and pluck, she navigates her new role as a candy striper (watch out for Code Yellows), her changing relationship with her best friend (goodbye, Honesty Pact), and—perhaps most stressful of all—her new love interests (yes, love interests plural). Will Pippa make it to Vantage Point without having a panic attack? Will either one of the guys prove less sketchy than her last boyfriend? Can she and Dace figure out a way to dream big and be best friends? One thing is certain: real life is a lot more complicated than a photograph.

 

 

The Rule of Thirds is a story about Pippa Greene, she's really just a regular teenage girl with the regular teenage girl thoughts and worries. She's got a best friend who acts a little larger than life, but you just know underneath there are some major insecurities that make her behave the way she does. And of course there are adorable boys, two that have caught Pippa's eye in particular. There is Dylan, the boy that she's been crushing on forever, but she's pretty sure he doesn't really know she exists. And there's Ben, the new guy in school who shares her passion, but has something a little mysterious about him. Being somewhat of a photographer (or at least lover of taking photos) myself, I found a lot of common ground with Pippa. I didn't always agree with her decisions and I definitely wanted to shake her on occasion, but stumbling your way through life is kind of what being a teenager is all about.

 

Overall I enjoyed The Rule of Thirds, it was fun and entertaining, but also had some serious and sad moments. Chantel definitely did a good job of blending it altogether and for the most part I don't have any real gripes about the story, but there was one thing near the end that bugged me like no other. I won't go into it, because I don't want to spoil anything, but it was a pretty major thing that was left almost completely unresolved. Something that might be able to redeem it, though, is the fact that this book is now going to be part of a series. At the time that I read the book I didn't know that this was even a possibility, so the ending wasn't working for me. While I still wish there was a little more resolution, now that we'll get more of Pippa and her world, I'm confident it will addressed in a future book. And if another book does in fact come out, I will definitely be on board to read it :0)

 

Author Bio:

Chantel Guertin is an author, beauty expert and magazine editor. Her first novel (written as Chantel Simmons), Stuck in Downward Dog, came out in 2007, and was a Winnipeg Free Press bestseller, a Chatelaine Best Beach Book and Book of the Month, and a Vancouver Sun Editor’s Choice. Her second novel, Love Struck, came out in 2010, and was also a bestseller in Canada.

Chantel is currently the Editor-at-Large of TheKit.ca, a monthly digital fashion & beauty magazine & weekly print feature in the Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette & Vancouver Sun, a beauty expert on  The Marilyn Denis Show and faculty at Centennial College in the Book & Magazine publishing program, where she teaches magazine writing and editing courses.

Goodreads l Website l Twitter 

 

And check out the contest Chantel is running on her tumblr, in honor of Pippa Greene's debut into the world! Clickity-click!

 

Purchase Links:

Amazon l Barnes & Noble l Kobo l Chapters/Indigo

 

THE RULE OF THIRDS BLOG TOUR

 

October 1^st – BOOKING IT WITH HAYLEY G – Tour Kick-off, Review + Guest Post

October 2^nd – BOOK NERD CANADA – Review

October 3^rd – THE BOOK LIFE - Review

October 4^th – FICTIONATORS - Review

October 5^th – NICOLE ABOUT TOWN – Review

October 6^th – BOOK COVER JUSTICE – Review

October 7^th – READ MY BREATH AWAY – Review + Guest Post

October 8^th – CHAPTER BY CHAPTER – Spotlight + Guest Post

October 9^th - SEEING NIGHT REVIEWS – Review

October 10^th – MOOSUBI REVIEWS – Review

October 11^th – BOOKSHIPPER – Spotlight + Author Interview

October 12^th – NIGHTLY READING – Review

October 13^rd – THE BOOK BELLES – Review + Top Ten List

Two Lies and A Spy by Kat Carlton Blog Tour + Giveaway!

 

Author: Kat Carlton

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: September 3rd, 2013

 

When sixteen-year-old Kari’s dad sends her an unexpected text, she and her brother immediately go into hiding. Because when your parents are superspies and your dad declares a Code Black, it can only mean something bad. Very bad.

Kari soon discovers that her parents have been disavowed and declared traitors, and she’s determined to clear their names. Breaking into the Agency seems like a reasonable plan, especially with the help of a team that includes her longtime crush, Luke, as well as her two best friends—an expert hacker with attitude and a master martial artist—and Luke’s popular, vindictive twin sister. Oh, and a new guy, who’s as cute as he is complicated...

 

I love a good spy book and this one is no exception. Of course, it was not exactly what I was expecting, either. Kari knows all kinds of spy tricks and she definitely knows how to take care of herself, but Kari isn't the actual spy in this tale. Kari's parents are spies and she and her little brother have grown up knowing about their jobs and learning things along the way. When her parents go missing and get accused of being traitors, Kari knows something isn't right and she's determined to get to the bottom of it. She's just going to need a little help from her friends, and maybe a couple of people she's not too fond of.

 

This book was a lot of fun and was full of a great cast of characters. Kari's little brother was a trip and such a cool kid. Luke, Kari's crush, was such a sweet guy and willing to do some pretty crazy things to help her out, but I liked his sister Lacey so much more. Sure she was a bitch, and a total princess, but she constantly cracked me up. They would all be struggling over something, stressing about how they were going to solve this or that problem, and after they'd wracked their brains for a bit, she'd be all "oh, you're looking for such and such, I already know that." Made me LOL every time.

 

My favorite part about this book was how the story all wrapped up. It definitely wasn't exactly what I was expected, but that made it that much more awesome. From what I've been able to find, this is the only book, but I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to continue it into a series. And I will be first in line to read book two. This was a fast paced and fun spy read, I'd definitely recommend it for anyone whose looking for something action packed, but isn't interested in the paranormal!

 

Get in on the Action!

Leave a comment about what kind of spy skills you'd like to learn and you could win!

 

Two (2) winners receive:

A copy of Two Lies and a Spy

 Winners will be chosen on September 20th!

Giveaway open to U.S. addresses only.

Prizing & samples courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

 

Visit the Official Book Site

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Blog Tour: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

 

Release Date: September 3rd, 2013

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

 

"You have to kill him." Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside.

Marina has loved her best friend James since the day he moved next door when they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles apart, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Now someone is trying to kill him. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it. At least not as the girl she once was. 

 

This book was non-stop and had me guessing and second guessing on just about everything. This is the first book I've read by Cristin Terrill and she is a fantastic writer. This world she created, both timelines, and the characters that populate it are so vivid. Em and Marina live in two completely different worlds, and they also live 4 years apart. Em's job is to travel back 4 years to where Marina is and kill the man that is responsible for the horrible future that she currently inhabits. Sounds fairly cut and dry, but nothing is really as it seems in All Our Yesterdays.

 

Em and Marina are both such interesting characters. Em is darker, her motivations stem from a gruesome world and desperate need to make it all right. Marina, on the surface, is a fairly typical teenage girl. Incredibly self centered and only really concerned about her best friend James and her desperate hope that he loves her the way she loves him. You'd think having these two characters are the main narrators for the book would be jarring, back and forth between such polar opposite personalities. And while it did take me a bit to get used to it, once I got into the story it really gelled together well.

 

I had so many theories on what was really going on throughout the book. On one page I was certain it was one thing, but then by the next chapter I was convinced it was something completely different. This, to me, is the mark of fantastic storytelling. While I was reading, I was under the impression that this was a stand alone novel, and I was fairly satisfied with that. Although I didn't quite understand exactly what was going on at the very end of the book, I did feel like it fit in perfect with the rest of the story. Now I've learned that there is going to be a second book and I am definitely curious to see where Cristin Terrill is planning to take this.

 

This is an awesome book, something a little different from what I usually read, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for fantastic storylines and well drawn characters. This one's a keeper!

Rockstar Book Tours: Thornhill Blog Tour interview w/ Kathleen Peacock + Giveaway!!

Today I am so excited to be bringing you a stop on the Thornhill Blog Tour! We've got all kinds of info about the book and where to find it, an interview with Kathleen Peacock herself, and an awesome giveaway!!

Title: THORNHILL

Author: Kathleen Peacock

Pub. Date: September 10, 2013

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages:352

Find it: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads

Mac can’t lose another friend. Even if he doesn’t want to be found.

 

The ripple effect caused by Mac’s best friend Amy’s murder has driven Mac’s new love, Kyle, to leave Hemlock and disappear from her life forever. But Mac knows that Kyle plans to enroll in a rehabilitation camp, where he can live with other werewolves. She refuses to accept his decision, especially since the camps are rumored to be tortuous. So she sets out in search of Kyle with a barely sober Jason—and Amy’s all-seeing ghost—in tow.

 

Clues lead Mac to find Kyle in a werewolf den in Colorado—but their reunion is cut short by a Tracker raid. Now Mac and Kyle are trapped inside the electric fences of Thornhill, a camp for  young werewolves. As she devises an escape plan, Mac uncovers dangerous secrets buried within the walls of Thornhill—and realizes that the risk to the people she loves is greater than ever before.

 

About Kathleen:

Kathleen Peacock spent her teen years crushing on authors and writing short stories about vampires. She put her writing dreams on hold while attending college, but tripped over them when office life started leaving her with an allergy to cubicles. Her debut, HEMLOCK, is coming May 8th, 2012 from Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of Harper Collins, and will be published in the UK under the title DEADLY HEMLOCK from Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.

Website /Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads

 

How is writing a sequel different from writing the first book in a series?

 

In some ways, writing a middle book is much trickier—at least it felt that way with Thornhill. You need to provide a recap of what came in the first book without turning pages into info-dumps. Characters need to evolve while still leaving plenty of room for growth in the next volume. Some plot and relationship threads need to be tied off while others need to be carried over. It's a bit like walking a tightrope. Even just figuring out where to start seemed harder. I think I wrote about five or six different openings for Thornhill before feeling like I had one that finally worked. 

 

When you were first writing Hemlock, did you already have the whole series planned out in your head, or does it come to you as you are writing?

 

Even though I tried to write Hemlock so that it could stand on its own, I was really hoping an agent and publisher would be interested in a trilogy, and so I planned out chunks of the story for books two and three in my head. After Hemlock sold (as a trilogy—yay!), my editor suggested moving some of the subplots from book one to book two.  When I did that, other things had to shift and change. Also, when I actually began to write Thornhill, I realized that some of my initial ideas (like telling the book from Kyle's POV and certain subplots) just didn't work on the page. Changes I made to Thornhill, ended up rippling over into book three.

 

After everything that happened to her and the people around her in the first book, what kind of Mac can we expect to see in book two?

 

In some ways, Mac is a little more open in Thornhill. Admitting she had feelings for Kyle—actually saying she loved him—was a huge emotional step for her. In book two, Mac is also forced to stop outrunning her childhood and deal with her past. In order to save the people she cares about, she'll have to put old grudges aside—something she's not sure whether or not she can do.

 

Can you tell us anything about camp Thornhill? Since Mac and Kyle are trapped inside, will we get to see other character POV’s from outside of the camp?

 

As tempting as it was to break POV—and there were times when it was very tempting—book two is told entirely from Mac's perspective. 

 

Thornhill isn't like other werewolf rehabilitation camps. While the other camps have no actual intention of rehabilitating the infected, life at Thornhill is actually designed around trying to help the inmates learn to control their wolves through a series of behavior modifications, self-control classes and harsh punishments for anyone who falls out of line.

 

Here's Mac's first look at the camp:

 

Like cattle, we were forced off the truck  and counted before guards in blue uniforms took over and herded us across an expanse of pavement. They carried guns that looked every bit as dangerous as the ones the Trackers were toting and made sure no one made a run for it.

 

Not that there was any place to run to.

 

We were in a courtyard behind a massive gate. A thirty-foot-tall fence topped with razor wire stretched out from either side of the entrance and disappeared into the dark. It was easy to imagine that it went on forever.

 

Serena tilted her head to the side. "It's electric," she murmured.   

 

Giveaway Details:

For First Place (International):

• "Unlock the wolf within" Thornhill necklace (engraved stainless steel pendant on a silver-plated chain http://instagram.com/p/cIGkoowOJq/#)
• Signed copy of Thornhill
• Signed swag

Runners Up (International)

• 3 runners up will get swag packs (stickers, bookmarks, signed bookplates)

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