Promotional Event: Ted Saves the World (Book #1)

Ted Saves the World (Book #1) by Bryan Cohen
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Release Date: July 17, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Ted Finley was your typical, wise-cracking teenager… …until an otherworldly force gave him abilities beyond his wildest dreams. After an unintended public display of his powers, Ted has become an instant celebrity and the target of a gang of undead thugs.

Sixteen-year-old Erica LaPlante was six-feet-under when a blast of blue light brought her body back to life. Armed with the consciousness of a fierce warrior, Erica must keep her teenage urges at bay to protect the newfound hero.

When sparks fly between Ted and Erica, Erica wants nothing more than to hide who she really is and the dangerous mission they must face. But when their school comes under attack, Ted and Erica must use everything at their disposal to save their friends, the town and... well, the world.

Ted Saves the World is a YA sci-fi/fantasy novel that features fast-paced action, terrifying horror, side-splitting comedy and a touch of romance. Author Bryan Cohen has watched every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it shows in the first book of his new series.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

"Get your hands off her," a voice cracked from across the room.

Stucky could barely see who made the remark. He moved to the far end of the kitchen to get a better look at him. It was a teenage boy. He was a lanky thing with a voice that didn't strike much fear into anybody. The kid walked away from his booth and moved closer to Yarrick and the waitress. He piped up again.

"Let her go."

This time the boy was more confident. He almost made Stucky nervous.

"Maybe you should wait till your voice drops before you go saving the day, kid," Tank said from the front door.

Book Blitz: Still Me (20Something #3)

Still Me (20Something #3) by Amy Patrick
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 10, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Fall in love like a 20 Something….

23 year old Kenley Moran is going through a mid-life crisis… WAY early. Pushed since childhood by a nightmare stage-mom to use her looks to “land a rich man”, she’s reeling from a broken engagement and regretting the day she gave up her career in TV news for a guy.

Now Kenley’s determined to change her life, shunning makeup and fashion and fighting her way back into the highly competitive career she loves, off-camera this time. When she lands a producing job at Worldwide News Network in Atlanta, she plans to keep her head down, work hard, and prove she’s not just another pretty face. And vows NO ONE is EVER going to make her compromise herself again.

WNN anchor Larson Overstreet has it all—old money, good looks, a prestigious job, and more women than he can count throwing themselves at him. Problem is… none of it is real. He’s known his whole life that people are only interested in him for his fortune and his famous family name, in that order. Except for Kenley. The shy news producer isn’t interested in him at all.

Working closely with the anchor of her new show, Kenley’s dismayed to feel an instant spark. Larson’s everything she doesn’t want. He’s too good looking, too charming, and worst of all, too rich. She’s not looking for another big money honey. In fact, she’d prefer a nice little guy from the mailroom, maybe a guy who lives at home like she’s been forced to do.

But when they must travel together for a special report, Kenley realizes Larson’s not the spoiled pretty rich boy she pegged him as, and she’s not as immune to him as she’s pretended to be.

Now, even at the network level, what happens behind the scenes is the real story.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

After killing as much time as possible in the bathtub, I got out and dried off and stood looking at my two clothing options. In this corner—Larson’s clean, fire-warmed t-shirt. In this corner, my repulsive two-day-old clothing. I slipped on the t-shirt and opened the door. Larson’s back was to me. He sat in a chair, facing the wood stove, listening to sports talk at a low volume.

I scrambled up the ladder and called out from the concealment of the dark loft. “Okay—done in there. It’s all yours. I’m really tired—just going to go to sleep—try not to wake me when you come to bed, okay?” There. I’d acknowledged the shared-bed necessity and laid the don’t-talk-to-me ground rule.

“Goodnight,” Larson said without looking up. Rising from the chair, he lifted the third pot of boiling water from the stove and carried it across the room toward the bathroom beneath the loft.

I lay in the bed, pulled the quilt over me, and stared up at the ceiling. The stove cast a dim, orangey light on the wooden planks above me. The grain of the wood seemed to dance and change as the firelight flickered from below.

Promotional Event: Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams' Death

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams' Death by Nicole Skuba
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: September 10th, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

In mid-September 2001, recent college graduate and writer, Nicole Skuba, found herself strapped to a hospital bed after a deliberate overdose of Prozac. The previous five years of therapy and antidepressants did nothing to ease the bipolar disorder, clinical depression, or other diagnoses du jour.

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams’ Death is part suicide prevention self-help guide, part darkly humorous memoir. After Nicole’s release in five days from the mental ward, she was determined to come up with her own route to happiness.

This memoir shares the excessive drinking, casual sex, manic joy, counseling, yoga, and goal-setting that ultimately led to healing and the beginning of a life worth living. It also illustrates the power that mindfulness-based stress reduction—even when done accidentally—can have in reducing depression and finding balance.

After thirteen years, Nicole is finally sharing her holistic methods of overcoming depression and addiction long-term with the hope of preventing at least one person from taking his or her life. This is especially important in the wake of Robin Williams’ death. The charismatic actor gave us laughter, inspiration, and the ability to embrace the absurd. With his suicide, he also left an unintended legacy: permission to end anguish with the same permanent decision he made.

Another Kind of Free: Suicide Prevention in the Wake of Robin Williams’ Death is a quick read aiming to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness and to provide an alternate, doable method of becoming “free” from mental illness. Sufferers and their family members will find Nicole’s memoir to be an entertaining chronicle of valuable, attainable information.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“How many pills did you swallow?”

The room fuzzed in and out, little black smudges blurring my vision. Smudges… schmudges… That officer’s name really was Officer Schmick. What a weird name. He had a bit of a limp, but he was nice as far as cops from my hometown went. His partner was a bit on edge though.

Put down the cat, ma’am, his partner had warned. I hadn’t realized a cat was viewed as a weapon to some people. Why had my mother called the cops anyway? That was a little extreme - and dangerous as well. Just outside the most dangerous quadrant of Washington, D.C., Prince Georges County cops were known for their excessive force. They were worse since the terrorist attacks a week ago. But, in truth, the cops had always had been jumpy. Just a month or a year ago, they’d shot some confused guy who had barricaded himself in his own bedroom. He wasn’t hurting anyone, but his family was worried. So, the cops shot him. Kind of like shooting a cat to get him out of a tree.

Cats. Right. So, Officer Schmick’s partner had wanted me to put down the cat. I put Polka down before I got myself killed. My mother was talking. Really, she seemed unable to stop talking and talking and talking. Could she drive me? Should she call my therapist? Did they need the empty pill bottle? Then they put me in the front seat of the police car beside Officer Schmick and I ended up here.

Review: "Bad Taste in Men"

Bad Taste in Men by Lana Cooper
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Humor
Release Date: December 18, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

Have you ever felt like even Mother Theresa has got more game than you?
If you have, you'd be in the same boat as geeky, awkward metalhead Nova Porter.

Bad Taste In Men follows Nova from her prepubescent years through young adulthood and her attempts at getting dudes to dig her.

Juggling self-esteem issues, small town outsider status, and questionable taste in guys, Nova is looking for love in all the wrong places - like the food court at the mall. Nova's circle of friends and her strange(ly) endearing family more than make up for what her love life lacks.

Along the way, Nova alternately plays the roles of hero and villain, mastermind and stooge; picking up far more valuable life lessons than numbers for her little black book.

One part chick lit for tomboys and one part Freaks and Geeks for kids who came of age in the mid-'90s, Bad Taste In Men is loaded (like a freight train) with pop cultural references and crude humor.

From getting laughed at by your crush to being stood up (twice!) by a guy with one eye, Bad Taste In Men showcases the humor and humiliation that accompanies the search for love (or at least "like") as a small-town teenage outcast, managing to wring heart-warming sweetness from angsty adolescent memories - and jokes about barf and poop.

♥ ♥ ♥

"Bad Taste in Men" by Lana Cooper can best be described as a "fictional memoir". It's a work of fiction that follows Cooper's main character, Nova, from her preteen years through adulthood and her journey to find love. Unfortunately for Nova, the journey is far from a smooth one and the reader goes along with the character and all of her mishaps and heartbreaks.

Nova is an interesting character. She lives in small town America, but is a complete metal head that's not afraid to be loud and make dirty jokes at every opportunity. These qualities make her a bit of an outcast in town as well as school, and that's one more challenge that she has to overcome on her way to finally finding a boyfriend.

Another difficulty of Nova's is that she's looking for love in all of the wrong places. More than once she tries to turn a friend relationship into something more, and ends up ruining the friendship from trying to force something that's not there. Also "Bad Taste in Men" really isn't just a title. Nova's taste is HORRIBLE. The poor girl can't help but to fall for deadbeats and guys who treat her poorly. At times as a reader I felt bad for her, and there were other times when her taste was just so wrong that it was humorous.

Book Blitz: Summer Alone (Summer Alone #1)

Summer Alone (Summer Alone #1) by Amy Sparling
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

From the best selling author of Summer Unplugged, comes a new series set in the same world. Becca's senior year of high school is approaching and she's tired of being the dorky best friend. 

Determined to reinvent herself with help from Bayleigh, she plans to spend the summer breaking out of her shell. When Bayleigh gets grounded and sent away for three months, Becca's plans come crashing down before they've even started.

Now Becca is alone and can't even talk to Bayleigh on the phone. Not wanting to miss out on the summer before senior year, she takes a job at the local indoor BMX track. The job is fun, her boss is laid back, and the place is packed with hot guys. 

One of them just might have a crush on her. This may be a summer without her best friend, but it doesn't mean she'll have to spend the summer alone.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“Damn, Ollie, you got hot.”

I look up from my phone, confused, wondering where Ollie is since I thought he had left. Then I realize the guy who just spoke was looking at me. Talking to me. Making a stupid joke about me. Praise the gods of BMX—I wore a face full of make up today so hopefully the bright red I feel pooling in my cheeks doesn’t show as much as if I were bare-faced. “Hi,” I say, swallowing back my nerves. My right hand gestures toward the facility behind me. “Welcome to C&C BMX Park?”

Is that what I’m supposed to say? Who knows? I suck at this. “Thank you!” the guy says, stepping forward, wearing that smile like it’s permanently stuck on his face. He’s kind of cute, I guess. For a college-age guy. He has super short cropped hair and a neck tattoo that’s some kind of quote. He’s thin and lean. The bike he pushed in with him is all beat up and not shiny like the girl’s bike from yesterday.

He turns his attention toward the keypad on the counter, typing in a numerical code and then pressing his index finger to the glass window above the keys. My computer lights up with a message that Dustin Moore just signed in.

Book Blitz: The Truth About Air & Water (Truth in Lies #2)

The Truth About Air & Water (Truth in Lies #2) by Katherine Owen
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 25, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

The Truth In Lies Series. READ This Much Is True, book 1 first, although it's been written as a standalone. Readers say, don't do that.

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” -Ernest Hemingway ~ A Farewell To Arms

They share an epic love but one moment changes everything. A life together that seemed certain is shattered. One learns you never love the same way twice; the other learns what it means to come home. You only think you know how this love story goes, but do you really know how an epic love can end?

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.” -F. Scott Fitzgerald

She is living color, and I’ve been in a black-and-white world for far too long without her.
Powerful stuff. It surrounds me. I’ve felt it since I first arrived. The forcefield of her. The magnetism of her. The power she wields over me.
I’m alive again because of her, like a dying plant that finally gets some water. I’ve got it bad for this girl.
Reality dawns.
The light comes through the darkness and shines on me.
She’s my water.
-Lincoln Presley

The truth is I breathe with him. He is my air. Raison d’etre. -Tally Landon

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

“She’s got the story,” I say to Linc hours later as we lie next to each other taking up only half of the king-sized bed because our bodies remain intertwined at an all but intimate level. The money shot photograph session took twice as long as the interview. After another three hours, we finally told Candy we had to go. I had to pick up Cara from preschool and Linc had a late practice.

We left Candy and her photographer while they were still packing up their gear. By this time, the reporter had given up on asking us any more questions. She had the money shot. She had the story. We weren’t going to like it. The unsettled feeling nagged at me, but Linc didn’t seem to care. “She’s got the story.” Apparently, my fears need repeating.

“So?” He asks with a laugh. “Come here.” He pulls me closer and trails his hands down between my legs knowing full well this is my ultimate weakness for him. I cannot not respond. His touch right there gets me to do just about anything for him. I moan. He laughs again as he starts to make his move.