Guest Post: My Rebellion Checklist

My Rebellion Checklist by Susan Soares
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: March 10, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Victoria Matherson's summer to-do list looked something like this:

1. Get organized for college
2. Complete summer job at Dad’s office
3. Spend a romantic summer with Adam

During the first week of her summer vacation, Victoria’s super planned life suddenly swerves completely off track. Her boyfriend breaks up with her unexpectedly, she gets in a near-fatal car wreck, and her parents announce the end of their twenty-year. 

 Victoria decides to live life messily, to take chances, and finally to rebel. Taking on the new name of “Tori,” she creates a checklist of rebellion:

#3 Get an extreme haircut
#6 Pierce something

which she’ll use to show everyone around her that all the changes to her perfectly organized life haven’t affected her in the least. Even though they have.

With the help of her quirky and cute co-worker Zack, Tori will check off the crazy items on her list and learn what it means to give up control and be free. But just how far will she go?

♥ ♥ ♥

Character Inspiration

This book and its character was totally inspired by my stepdaughter, Victoria. She was hanging out one day just sitting on the couch staring off into space as she looked deep in thought. Then she just started talking about things she wanted to do.

Like things she needed to do as soon as possible. Things like, dye her hair, pierce something, get a tattoo. I laughed because these things were pretty out of character for her. She kept listing things in similar fashion and I jokingly said, “It sounds like you’re making a rebellion checklist.” That was it.

Book Blitz: They Call Me Alexandra Gastone

They Call Me Alexandra Gastone by T.A. Maclagan
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: May 20, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

When your life is a lie, how do you know what’s real?

Alexandra Gastone has a simple plan: graduate high school, get into Princeton, work for the CIA, and serve her great nation.

She was told the plan back when her name was Milena Rokva, back before the real Alexandra and her family were killed in a car crash.

Milena was trained to be a sleeper agent by Perun, a clandestine organization from her true homeland of Olissa. There, Milena learned everything she needed to infiltrate the life of CIA analyst Albert Gastone, Alexandra’s grandfather, and the ranks of America’s top intelligence agency.

For seven years, “Alexandra” has been on standby and life’s been good. Grandpa Albert loves her, and her strategically chosen boyfriend, Grant, is amazing.

But things are about to change. Perun no longer needs her at the CIA in five years’ time. They need her active now.

Between her cover as a high school girl—juggling a homecoming dance, history reports, and an increasingly suspicious boyfriend—and her mission in this high-stakes spy game, the boundaries of her two lives are beginning to blur.

Will she stay true to the country she barely remembers, or has her loyalty shattered along with her identity?

♥ ♥ ♥
Praise:
"An intricate, debut spy thriller...readers will keep turning pages, and the surprise ending will have them anxiously awaiting a sequel." —Booklist

Book Blitz: Coming Back

Coming Back by Emma South
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: July 2, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Once, Christabelle Jayne defied death. Learning to live and love again is going to be so much harder.

After being abducted and vanishing without a trace, she was presumed dead. But Christie isn’t the kind of girl that goes down without a fight. When she crawls out of the forest almost two years later, bruised and bleeding, she is confronted by a world that seems to have moved on and left her behind.

Dean Hawking returned to Warfields after a terrible tragedy on the job shook his faith in humanity. The cop’s transfer home wasn’t the cure-all he hoped for until the best thing about it, the girl he loved since high school, Christie Jayne, turns up alive.

Their worlds are thrust together again for the first time in years. Though still reeling from her ordeal, in Dean she finds a fathomless love that reminds her there are still beautiful things in the world. In Christie, he sees his chance at redemption…

Then Dean uncovers some startling information about Christie’s case, revealing that she might be in imminent danger, and their second chance at love will be put to the test when the full story of her escape is revealed. Can there be any coming back from what she’s had to do?

♥ ♥ ♥

Excerpt:

“Hey Christie, I really need your help, King’s getting fat.”

The German Shepherd wagged his tail at the mention of his name, and Christie looked down at him with whatever fondness she could muster, given her energy levels. She brought her eyes back up to me and seemed to be searching for the right way to decline, but then gave up and shrugged.

“OK. Why not? Mom? Dad?” she called out and waited for the response. “I’m going out, I’ll be back in…” she turned back to me.

“Couple hours, tops,” I said.

“A couple hours,” she finished.

Book Blitz: Schism (Illirin #1)

Schism (Illirin #1) by Laura Maisano
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Art therapy hasn’t done squat for Gabe Jones. A thousand sketches of his fiancée can’t bring his memory, or her, back to him. Nothing on Earth can. His past lies in another dimension, a world just out of sight.

Another student on campus, Lea Huckley, unknowingly shares Gabe’s obsession with the fourth dimension. The monsters from the other side attacked her parents and fled, getting her folks locked up in the loony bin. Proving this other world exists is the only way to free them. Lea and Gabe strike a deal to help each other, and together they manage to open a door to the world of Gabe’s true origin. She’d use him for proof—if she didn’t already care too much.

While Gabe tries to reconcile his feelings for Lea and his rediscovered memories of his fiancée, a much more sinister plot unravels. He uncovers his history just in time to become the unwilling lynchpin in a conspiracy to start a war. His memory holds the secret to the final riddle the would-be conqueror needs to get the upper hand. Gabe must protect the riddle at all costs, even if that means leaving Earth, and Lea, behind forever.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Lea packed light. Other than her phone’s GPS and a flashlight, she kept a small notepad, her lucky pencil, and the thermometer in her cargo pocket. She didn’t need to find data, now she needed proof.

She led the way down the alley where skyscrapers blocked the glowing moon and the lamps from the highway. Yellowed fixtures above each back entrance threw faint cones of light onto the cement, like holes in Swiss cheese.

Lea checked the coordinates on her phone while she walked, and the little red arrow crept closer to the flag icon she placed to mark the interaction point.

Gabe spent his time surveying the area for anything that might be a danger. He kept fidgeting behind her and turning around every few seconds, a twitchy meerkat on patrol.

Book Blitz: Neighbors with Benefits (Anderson Brothers #2)

Neighbors with Benefits (Anderson Brothers #2) by Marissa Clarke
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 30, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Love thy sexy jerk of a neighbor…

CEO Michael Anderson might be something of a “control freak.” Still, he’s not quite sure why his therapist thinks dogsitting will fix anything—especially since he and the canine share a kind of mutual loathing. And to make matters worse, a house sitter moves in next door disrupting his peace—and his dates—with the worst possible music at the worst possible time… every time.

Free-spirited artist Mia Argaropolis has settled into the perfect gig—housesitting in NYC’s Upper West Side while working as an art therapist. Too bad she’s stuck living next door to a bossy control freak with a penchant for calling building security when she blasts music to drown out the noises coming through his bedroom wall.

Post-apocalyptic dinner rolls that nearly take her kitchen with them, a douchebag ex, and a Shih Tzu with the personality of Godzilla attack Mia in one day, and her unlikely neighbor comes to the rescue. Like it was her fault. And now, somehow, they find themselves engaged? Both agree, this neighborly feud just got taken to a whole new level.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Mia felt Michael before she saw him. Like the ripples across the lake below, the air seemed to vibrate with his energy. And then he was close enough to see clearly. Not mad, thank goodness, but intense. Eyes narrowed, gaze never leaving her face, his intent was clear. She had no doubt in her mind what he was going to do. And while her ever-elusive shred of common sense squealed, “No,” every thing else in her shouted, “Bring it on.”

Book Blitz: Pixelated

Pixelated by L.S. Murphy
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date:
Buy Links: June 30, 2015

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Senior Year.

Middle of nowhere.

What's the new girl to do?

For Piper Marks, the answer is simple. She’s determined to have her photography rock the cover of National Geographic someday, and moving to Clarkton, Iowa for her last year of high school is not going to stop her. Even if her usual subjects have changed from bright lights and skyscrapers to fields, cows…and more fields.

But when photographer at the local paper quits in a huff, she steps into his spot. Her new job keeps Piper busy capturing tackles, and zooming in on first downs and end zone dances, not to mention putting her directly in the path of varsity football star Les Williams IV. Her new friends warn her off, but she can’t resist the pull she feels toward this mysterious country boy. But this small town is keeping a secret, and it’s one that could destroy any chance they have to be together.

It’s up to Piper to decide what to do with the distorted truth. Can she risk exposing her heart? It might be worth it, 'cause Les is about to change her world from black and white to fully saturated color.

♥ ♥ ♥
Praise

"In Pixelated, L.S. Murphy weaves a complex web of secrets and lies with a ‘will they or won’t they’ romance that kept me turning pages and holding my breath!" ~ Julie Reece, author of The Artisans and Crux