Book Blitz: Dream Boy

Dream Boy by Mary Crockett and Madelyn Rosenberg
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: July 1, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Annabelle Manning feels like she’s doing time at her high school in Chilton, Virginia. She has her friends at her lunchtime table of nobodies. What she doesn’t have are possibilities. 

Or a date for Homecoming. Things get more interesting at night, when she spends time with the boy of her dreams. But the blue-eyed boy with the fairytale smile is just that—a dream. Until the Friday afternoon he walks into her chemistry class.

One of friends suspects he’s an alien. Another is pretty sure it’s all one big case of deja vu. While Annabelle doesn’t know what to think, she’s willing to believe that the charming Martin Zirkle may just be her dream come true. 

But as Annabelle discovers the truth behind dreams—where they come from and what they mean—she is forced to face a dark reality she had not expected. More than just Martin has arrived in Chilton. As Annabelle learns, if dreams can come true, so can nightmares.

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Excerpt:
I’ve always been a dreamer. Daydreams. Night dreams. Dreams of grandeur and dreams of escape. If I were an onion and you peeled back the papery outside, you’d find layer after layer of eye-watering dreams. And in the center, where there’s that little curlicue of onion heart? There’d be a puff of smoke from the dreams that burned away.

Book Blitz: Redeeming Lainey

Redeeming Lainey by Kaitlyn Hoyt
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Release Date: July 18, 2014
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Book Description:

When Lainey left the little farming town in Iowa on her eighteenth birthday, she thought she was finally free. She didn’t have to live in fear anymore wondering which day was going to be her last. For those two years, she was able to live in peace. She’d made a new friend, was going to a school she loved, and was setting the path for her future career.

That all changed with one phone call from her mother.

With the push of her best friend, Randi, Lainey goes back into the town she once promised was forever in her rear-view mirror. The dark memories of her past loom around every corner, and Lainey can’t seem to conquer the demons inside of her in order to fully move on.

Bryce, on the other hand, had moved on. During middle school and high school, Lainey was his best friend, and it tore him apart when she left with only a note. A simple note saying good-bye and have a great life.

Without his best friend around, Bryce’s life quickly spiraled out of control. He got into drugs, had some trouble with the law, and found himself partying a little too hard. Sweet Annabeth brought him out of that stage in his life, and ultimately saved his life.

With Lainey back in town, Bryce is at a loss at what do. She wants nothing to do with him or the town, but he is the only person who knows her full history and may be able to help her. Knowing that Lainey’s a flight risk, and with one wrong move, she’d pack everything up and leave again, Bryce steps out to help her find the one thing she doesn’t know she needs.

Redemption.

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Excerpt:

“Bryce, I’m not here to relive any memories. If you weren’t holding me here and threatening to chase after me if I left, I would be gone, and you know that.”

“Lainey, you need to move on,” he says. “You’re spiraling downward and spiraling very fast.”

“I have a parachute. I’m doing just fine on my own,” I tell him. “I don’t need any of your help, Bryce, so let me go.”

“Not ‘til you tell me what is going through that mind of yours and get some of that baggage off your chest.”

“Stop trying to save me,” I whisper to him.

“Lainey,” Bryce starts, “I’m not trying to save you. I just want to help you.”

Review: Freakshow (Episode One: The Nighshade Cases)

Freakshow (Episode One: The Nightshade Cases) by Patti Larsen
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Release Date: June 13, 2014
Buy Links:

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Book Description:

When transsexual starlet Aisling is murdered, Detective Geraldine Meyers is assigned the case. With help from medical examiner Dr. Rachel Hunter, Gerri realizes this is no ordinary killing. 

While she might not want to call in over-eager anthropologist Dr. Kinsey DanAllart, the detective is forced to trust her friend’s expertise in symbology, even though doing so means admitting “weird” things might be happening in Silver City. 

As the three friends unravel the mystery of the dancer’s death, one thing is made absolutely apparent—something isn’t right in their new hometown. And someone is doing everything they can to make sure the truth doesn’t come out

In Silver City, sometimes friendship can be murder. Welcome to the first Nightshade Case, a series of twenty-one episodes in twenty-one weeks. Please note: this episodic series is based on the television show model, with screenwriting notations and shorter formats. There will be a complete mystery each week, with cliffhangers only occurring in the full season story line.

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"Freak Show" by Patti Larsen is the first ‘episode’ in the series, "The Nightshade Cases". I say ‘episode’, because Larsen has done something a little different with this series. Instead of modeling it like a normal book series, "The Nightshade Cases" is more like a TV show on the page.

"Freak Show" is the first of 21 episodes that are going to be released over 21 weeks, and each one will deal with a new mystery for the characters to solve, but there's also room for an overall arc that will span for the ‘season’. There are even notations like you would see in a screenplay, like the settings and if they're interior or exterior.

I was interested to read this story, because the whole TV show angle isn't something that I've seen in a book series before and I wanted to see how it would pan out. Thankfully, Larsen was able to make it all work. For the most part, "Freak Show" read just like any other book, except instead of being split up by chapter numbers or titles, it was split by the notations for where the scene was set.

Book Blitz: Handpicked

Handpicked by Dani Oden
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 5, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

College freshman Jill Holloway takes one look at the stuck-up girls going through sorority rush and nearly returns her borrowed dress and heels. Against her best judgment, she ends up falling for the prestige and parties, and snagging a bid from a top house. After moving in, she quickly grows skeptical of her too-perfect sorority sisters. She tries to ask questions, though no one will take time from their busy social calendar to give her any real answers.

Jill wastes no time digging for everything she’s not supposed to find, and soon comes face-to-face with a big and bloody secret hidden in her sorority’s basement. She knows she’s in over her head, but taking off so soon would raise the perfectly-plucked eyebrows of her suspicious new sisters. She’s stuck until she can make a smooth exit.

But the closer she gets to leaving, the more it becomes clear that it won’t be as simple as she hoped. A tempting fraternity guy, a best friend who needs her, and new details about what has really been happening in the basement have her questioning what her next move should be, and whether or not it’ll be worth the risks.

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Excerpt:
The commotion in the center of the room seemed to grow, and I leaned my head back against the barrel behind us. "How are we going to keep up with these girls?" I asked.

"What?" Lindy leaned toward me, nearly tipping over.

"These girls! They drink hard!" I shouted.

"Yes," she said, and I wondered if she heard me.

"What's happening?" Hannah interjected, staring at the mob of colorful dresses directly in front of us.

Book Blitz: A Midsummer Night’s Fling (Stage Kiss Series, #1)

A Midsummer Night’s Fling (Stage Kiss Series, #1) by Beth Matthews
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

After dating her childhood sweetheart Max on and off for years, aspiring actress Nicola Charles is finally ready to move on. It’s time for her to focus on her stage career and stay away from Max–before he can break her heart again.

Max regrets hurting Nicola, but he wants another chance. So when his play loses its leading lady, giving Nicola the part seems like the perfect opportunity to win back his old flame.

But the course of true love—and a theater production—never do run smooth. As Max fights to reignite Nicola’s love, the onstage antics can’t rival the bedlam backstage: a neurotic cast, a prickly crew, and an evil diva of a director who’s got designs on Max.

As Nicola and Max battle to keep the drama onstage, Max can’t help wondering if their romance will end with the last performance. Or have the two of them finally captured what they’ve dreamed of all their lives? True Love.

A contemporary romance that should appeal to fans of the wry humor and playful sexiness in the works of Julie James and Victoria Dahl.

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Top 5 Reunited Lovers

Since my book A Midsummer Night's Fling is about a pair of reunited lovers (they were sweethearts in high school and college), I thought it would be fun to talk about my Top 5 Reunited Lovers of All Time.

5. Fred and Lily from Kiss Me Kate

"Deceive me, desert me, I'm yours 'til I die…so in love with you am I." My favorite musical and my favorite feuding lovers. I grew up watching the 1950s version with Howard Keel. These two are immature, tempestuous, spoiled, and perfect for each other. You certainly wouldn't wish them on anyone else.

4. Navarre and Isabeau from Ladyhawke

"Do you know that hawks and wolves mate for life? The Bishop didn't even leave us that... not even that." One of my favorite movies as a teenager. The curse on these two is so poignant: "always together, eternally apart." She's cursed to be a hawk during the day; he's cursed to be a wolf during the night. When they're finally together again as humans in the end it makes me cry. Every. Time.

Book Blitz: Anthem's Fall

Anthem's Fall by S.L. Dunn
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Release Date: July 31, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Above a horrified New York City, genetics and ethics collide as the fallen emperor and a banished exile of the same herculean race ignite into battle over the city’s rooftops. 

In the streets below, a brilliant young scientist has discovered a technology that can defeat them both, yet might be more terrible than either.

Set both in modern New York City and in the technologically sophisticated yet politically savage world of Anthem, Anthem’s Fall unfurls into a plot where larger than life characters born with the prowess of gods are pitted against the shrewd brilliance of a familiar and unlikely heroine.


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Giveaway: