Book Blast: Henry Gallant and the Warrior (The Henry Gallant Saga #3)

Henry Gallant and the Warrior (The Henry Gallant Saga #3) by H. Peter Alesso
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction,
Release Date: May 20, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

In the 22th Century, the people of the Solar System have banded together against an alien invasion. Unfortunately, they’re losing—badly.

As the only Natural remaining in the genetically engineered officer corps of the United Planet’s fleet, Henry Gallant has unique mental abilities that have proven essential to the defense against the Titan invaders. Nevertheless his fellow officers lack faith in him, and worse, he has angered prominent men by speaking truth to power.

Despite this, Admiral Collingsworth has given him command of the Warrior, the most advanced stealth warship in the UP arsenal, and ordered him to the alien’s main base to spy, intrigue, and disrupt their war capacity.

Gallant’s mission leads to risky battles and painful choices, but no choice is more personal, or intimate, than the choice to face one’s own death. And for Henry Gallant—a flawed young man in a hopeless situation against overwhelming odds—a dreadful decision looms before him.

He has only one saving grace—he is unafraid.

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Excerpt:

Lieutenant Henry Gallant walked along the cobblestone streets of New Annapolis—head down, mind racing . . .

My orders say take command of the Warrior immediately . . . but no promotion . . . Why not?

He pondered the possibilities, but he already knew the answer. Though he had steely gray eyes, a square jaw, and was taller than nearly everyone around him, what distinguished him most was not visible to the naked eye—he was a Natural—born without genetic engineering.

By the time he reached the space elevator, the welcoming breeze of the clear brisk morning had brightened his mood and he fell into line behind the shipyard personnel without complaint.

Looking up, he marveled; that cable goes into the clouds like an Indian rope trick.

Book Blitz: Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1)

Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) by Tina Wainscott
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 16, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Fans of Jasinda Wilder and Colleen Hoover will adore this emotional new small-town romance—a smoldering tale of first love and long-awaited redemption from USA Today bestselling author Tina Wainscott.

Raleigh West works in an auto shop day and night, trying to put his broken past out of mind. It’s been seven years since the fiery crash that landed his teenage sweetheart in the hospital . . . and him in jail. In an instant, he lost everything: his passion for racing, his hope of escaping his father’s shameful legacy, and the only girl he ever loved. Raleigh hasn’t seen her since that awful night. Never got a chance to apologize. And never forgave himself, either.

When brave, beautiful Mia Wentworth returns to the Florida coast for the first time in what seems like forever, it’s not to see Raleigh. Even so, the moment she arrives she can feel his presence like a gust of wind that gives her goose bumps. Opening her heart to him again seems impossible. But staying away? That might be harder still. Lucky for them both, Mia’s never been the kind of woman to take the easy way out.

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Excerpt:

Seven years ago

Dear Journal,

Here I am again in this nothing little coastal town, not even a Starbucks or a decent Wi-Fi. We usually spend a week visiting Grandma, but this year it’s the whole summer while Dad consults on a dredging project.

If I were like normal seventeen-year-olds, I’d be missing my friends. Only it’s hard to have friends when you’ve spent half your life in and out of the hospital, having to explain why you’re bald and why you’ve been out of school for chunks of time. They either feel sorry for you or drift away because they don’t know how to relate to you anymore.

I understand, because I can’t relate to them, either. It’s hard to sympathize with someone over a bad hair day or getting grounded when you see how insignificant it is in the big scheme of life. Besides, who wants to be friends with someone who might die, right? I should know. I’ve lost a few friends I met at the hospital, and it’s heartbreaking.

So, yeah, I’m not normal. But I just passed the two-year mark after my last chemo, so I am officially cured!

Book Blitz: Zion's Call (Legacy Of Hope)

Zion's Call (Legacy Of Hope) by Jeremy Maughan
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date:
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

1830′s LDS Historical Fiction

Howard Egan has left his life at sea to try his hand at the new america. A dream of owning land and a better life for himself. 

More than anything he wants to find a woman to spend this new life together. To his surprise he finds her on his first day on shore. He just didn’t expect her to be so beautiful or to be so harsh.

Thrown into the middle of a political firestorm between a Mormon missionary and local business men. Tasked with being the Mormon’s Bodyguard Howard has to find a way to secure his love, fulfill his duty and keep himself and the Mormon alive.



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Excerpt:

Howard spoke up. “Ladies.”

The three turned to face him. The woman in the center gave him an exasperated look. “Pardon me?” she asked. “Did you speak to us?” She looked him up and down. She gave a little click of her tongue and looked on unapprovingly.

Howard was taken aback by her harsh tone. He struggled to get words out, “Yes. “He stammered, “I wanted to meet you.” he said slowly so he could be understood. He cursed his swollen tongue.

The girl on the left giggled a little, the one in the middle gave her a rueful glance before looking back at Howard. She frowned. “Do you always speak like you have a mouth full of marbles? Are boots a foreign concept from where you’re from?”

Howard started to turn red. He didn’t expect to be talked down to by this woman or any other. His anger started to rise. “I just wanted to meet you and get your name.”

“A little forward aren’t you sir? I don’t think you gave me yours, for starters.”

“My apologies ladies. I am Howard.” He said putting one hand to his breast.

Book Blitz: Bound by Spells (Bound #2)

Bound by Spells (Bound #2) by Stormy Smith
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Release Date: March 19, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Aidan Montgomery hadn’t been prepared for Amelia Bradbury to walk in and then out of his life. He also hadn’t expected to find the powerful magic hidden deep within him for the last nineteen years, but he’s embracing it — finding more control and more answers every day. 

Now, with the help of Amelia’s best friend, Bethany, Aidan is on a quest to understand his destiny and find Amelia.

Amelia decided to stand by her duty, which meant walking away from her first chance at love. Trapped in Cresthaven at the Queen’s mercy, she spends her days with Micah — an ally she still holds at arm’s length — struggling to manage her heartbreak while keeping her mind focused on the task at hand. As she continues to unlock the secrets of the Keeper power, Queen Julia’s true motives reveal themselves, forcing Amelia to decide, yet again, how much she’s willing to sacrifice.

Will Aidan get to Amelia before it’s too late, or will the very power that sustains them keep them apart?


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Today, we’re talking about the amazing urban fantasy, Bound by Spells.

Bound by Spells is book two in the Bound series and was endorsed by USA Today’s Happy Ever After Blog, where Serena Chase said, "Featuring a cast of mages and shapeshifters with unique magical abilities, one destiny-shaping prophecy, a genocidal megalomaniac, and a budding, heated romance (or two!), this book is paranormal gold! Read the first book in the series first, of course, but once you finish this one you're sure to be salivating for the next release in this not-to-be-missed romantic paranormal series."

The great news for you guys is BOTH books in the Bound series are on sale for 99 cents each (US and UK) from June 11 – 14!

Stormy Smith, author of the Bound series, shared an excerpt with us from Bound by Spells she thought you’d enjoy. So, take a read, and if it catches your fancy, go grab both books for just $2!

From Amelia – Bound by Spells

I stayed true to the promise I had made myself. Once Micah drove us away, I hadn't cried another tear. But as his SUV took me farther from Aidan, the madness within me spread, burrowing into every crevice and threatening to push me over the edge. I heard her voice, but couldn't make out the words. It was all emotion and sound and color, but nothing I could understand. It was a feral agony and it consumed me.

Book Blitz: The Heartbeat Thief

The Heartbeat Thief by A.J. Krafton
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: June 12, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Haunted by a crushing fear of death, a young Victorian woman discovers the secret of eternal youth—she must surrender her life to attain it, and steal heartbeats to keep it.

In 1860 Surrey, a young woman has only one occupation: to marry. Senza Fyne is beautiful, intelligent, and lacks neither wealth nor connections. Finding a husband shouldn’t be difficult, not when she has her entire life before her. But it’s not life that preoccupies her thoughts. It’s death—and that shadowy spectre haunts her every step.

So does Mr. Knell. Heart-thumpingly attractive, obviously eligible—he’d be her perfect match if only he wasn’t so macabre. All his talk about death, all that teasing about knowing how to avoid it…

When her mother arranges a courtship with another man, Senza is desperate for escape from a dull prescripted destiny. Impulsively, she takes Knell up on his offer. He casts a spell that frees her from the cruelty of time and the threat of death—but at a steep price. In order to maintain eternal youth, she must feed on the heartbeats of others.

It’s a little bit Jane Austen, a little bit Edgar Allen Poe, and a whole lot of stealing heartbeats in order to stay young and beautiful forever. From the posh London season to the back alleys of Whitechapel, across the Channel, across the Pond, across the seas of Time…

How far will Senza Fyne go to avoid Death?

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Structure: It’s How the Victorian Era Survived

Things were really different way back in the when.

The language, the dress, the entertainment—life for the average Victorian was drastically different than life as we know it in 2015. Take the ball gown, for instance—call to mind the hourglass waist and the puffy poof of the voluminous skirts. What you see is elegance of the enhanced feminine form.

But there’s something you don’t see.

What you don’t see is the structure beneath the dress—the corsets and hoops and cages that cinch the waist, elevate the bosom, and expand the skirts. One may look at a begowned debutante and remark upon her beauty, but what ensures she looks remarkable is actually the unseen structure beneath.

Like a young woman’s clothing, other aspects of Victorian life were also structured—in fact, structure was the prime element. The Victorian family unit was highly structured: the father was the figurehead, the mother ran the household, and children “knew their place”, usually out of sight of the parents, off in the nursery in the care of their nannies.

Social obligations and interactions followed strict protocol, from the permissible types of personal touch to the familiarity of the words spoken right down to the directness of a glance. Crime was abhorrent because it went against every social norm imaginable.

Review: Grey (The Romany Outcasts Series, Book 1)

Grey (The Romany Outcasts Series, Book 1) by Christi J. Whitney
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: April 30, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

Sebastian Grey always thought he was a fairly normal teenager – good friends, decent grades, and a pretty sweet job in his foster brother’s tattoo shop.

But when strangers arrive in town, Sebastian soon realizes that his world is nothing at all what it seemed. Secretive gypsies surround him, shadowy figures stalk him, and the girl he’s been dreaming about turns up at school.

  Now Sebastian must protect this girl at all costs, even if it means he will never be normal again.



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Grey by Christi J. Whitney was a different read than what's been out in the YA market so far. While most YA authors focus on high school girls and the vampires they fall in love with, Whitney makes her narrative character a high school boy who starts going through a lot more than puberty. There's also no vampires to be seen, but instead Whitney takes us into the colorful world of Gypsy culture (as well as some other elements, that you'll just have to read to find out about!). It's a breath of fresh air when everything seems so mass marketed right now in the YA aisles at book stores.

I enjoyed reading Grey. Sebastian was a likable character who didn't spend pages and pages whining about his star crossed love, or about the changes he was going through. Yes, he had questions (and lots of them), but he doesn't waste the reader's time by making his own problems the story's full focus. Instead Whitney makes sure there's a lot going on to keep the reader's interest peaked so that the pages keep turning with the need for more story, more answers.

In fact, Whitney doesn't even reveal the big secrets of what is happening in Sebastian's life until about halfway through the book (and I'm not going to reveal them either, so you'll just have to deal with a spoiler free review), while the first half is all about Sebastian and how is everyday life is becoming not so normal without him knowing what is exactly causing the changes.

Promotional Event: Drawn

Drawn by Chris Ledbetter
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: June 5, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon
Book Description:

Caught between the sweltering fall landscape of Wilmington, NC beaches and southern illusions and expectations, all sixteen year-old Cameron Shade thinks about is art. That, and for Farrah Spangled to view him as more than just a friend. Cameron longs to win her heart through art.

After several warm interactions with Farrah, including painting together at the beach, Cameron discovers just how complex Farrah’s life is with her boyfriend and her family. Following a tense run-in with Farrah’s father, she forbids Cameron to ever speak to her again, but Cameron’s convinced there’s more behind the request.

To impress Farrah with a last-ditch effort, Cameron sketches her portrait. But the sketchbook he uses hides a dark secret. Farrah’s now in grave danger because the sketch he drew of her siphons her real-life’s soul into the sketchbook. Cameron now has twenty days to extract Farrah. To save her, he must draw himself into the book.

If he fails… they both die.

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Diversity and Interracial Romance

Diversity is a topic near and dear to my heart. I realize I’m not alone in this but the traditional publishing industry as a whole hasn’t exactly caught up to demand. I certainly believe that everyone should be able to read stories about characters that are like they are. It’s not necessary, mind you. There’s nothing wrong with reading about characters that are unlike you. How else can you learn about other cultures and develop tolerance?

But accepting racially diverse stories is a subtle move that helps readers to know they matter. I applaud Evernight Teen for taking a chance on a young African-American protagonist and his artistic and romantic endeavors as they relate to a young Caucasian girl. After all, romance is romance. Emotions are universally the same for everyone, despite skin color, ethnicity, or nationality.

I attack this concept in the story within the pages of the cursed sketchbook, wherein the citizens are distinguished not by the color of their skin, but by how they were introduced to the world. Those who were sketched in from the outside have more heft, shall we say, than those that were created within the book itself. It’s a complicated concept that is fully explained in the story. But, there are people in Terra Sempre that are as multi-colored as the rainbow.