Wednesday 31 August 2016

SERIES PROMOTION - POTION SERIES BY AMY ALWARD

Title: The Potion Diaries
Series: Potion
Author: Amy Alward
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Magic
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date: 2nd July 2015

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When the Princess of Nova accidentally poisons herself with a love potion meant for her crush, she falls crown-over-heels in love with her own reflection. Oops. A nationwide hunt is called to find the cure, with competitors travelling the world for the rarest ingredients, deep in magical forests and frozen tundras, facing death at every turn.

Enter Samantha Kemi - an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent. Sam's family were once the most respected alchemists in the kingdom, but they've fallen on hard times, and winning the hunt would save their reputation. But can Sam really compete with the dazzling powers of the ZoroAster megapharma company? Just how close is Sam willing to get to Zain Aster, her dashing former classmate and enemy, in the meantime?

And just to add to the pressure, this quest is ALL OVER social media. And the world news. 

No big deal, then.


PURCHASE LINKS

Title: Royal Tour
Series: Potion
Author: Amy Alward
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance, Magic
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date: 11th August 2016

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Stolen memories, a lost diary and a race against time...

Having saved Princess Evelyn (and become her new BFF) Sam must accompany Evelyn on a world tour, so she can keep the princess (and everyone around her) safe with a power-binding potion. But Sam also has another reason to scour the globe. Someone has tampered with her grandad's mind, and Sam is the only one who can unlock his memories to save him and the family business. And that's not all that's at stake. The stolen memories contain the recipe to a potion which many would kill to get hold of. With the post powerful people in the world desperate for the recipe, Sam must save her grandad in order to save everyone else...


Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Alward is a Canadian author and freelance editor who divides her time between the UK and Canada. In 2013, she was listed as one of The Bookseller's Rising Stars. Her debut fantasy adventure novel, The Oathbreaker's Shadow, was published in 2013 under the name Amy McCulloch and was longlisted for the 2014 Branford Boase Award for best UK debut children's book. Her first book written as Amy Alward, The Potion Diaries, was an international success and the second novel in the series, The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour will be published in August 2016. She is currently travelling the world, researching more extraordinary settings and intriguing potions for the third book in the series. As always, she continues to be addicted to adventure, coffee and really great books.

AUTHOR LINKS

Tuesday 30 August 2016

PROMOTION - SKEEN'S LEAP - SKEEN BY JO CLAYTON

Title: Skeen's Leap
Series: Skeen
Author: Jo Clayton
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Publisher: Open Road Media
Release Date: 9th August 2016

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Skeen is a bandit and a rogue, a master thief wanted throughout myriad solar systems for plundering the rare antiquities of countless alien civilizations while always keeping one rocket ship–length ahead of the intergalactic law. A “rooner” with a dark past, she now finds herself penniless and abandoned on a miserable backwater planet, at the tail end of a string of very bad luck, with no option except to follow unreliable rumors to a supposed fortune in gems hidden among ancient ruins. What she finds instead is a gateway into another world—and a universe of trouble.
 
Now, trapped in a strange new reality with no way out, Skeen must find the key to reopening the portal, and that will entail making contact with the mysterious aliens who created the interdimensional passageway. But the enigmatic Ykx vanished eons ago, and finding representatives of a highly advanced and possibly extinct extraterrestrial race is not going to be easy for the silver-tongued lone wolf outlaw. It doesn’t help that Skeen’s entourage keeps expanding by leaps and bounds with unwanted hangers-on whose interference could end up damning her to an eternity in nowhere.


PURCHASE LINK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jo Clayton, whose parents named her after Jo in Little Women, was born and raised in Modesto, California. She and her three sisters shared a room and took turns telling each other bedtime stories. One of her sisters noted that Jo's stories were the best, and often contained science fiction and fantasy elements.

Clayton graduated from the University of California in 1963, Summa Cum Laude, and started teaching near Los Angeles.

In 1969, after a religious experience, she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, joining the teaching order Sisters of Mount Carmel as a novice. She left three years later, before taking final orders.

During her time in New Orleans, Clayton sold sketches and paintings in Pioneer Square to supplement her income. 

After being robbed several times, Clayton moved to Portland, Oregon in 1983. She remained there for the rest of her life.

Clayton was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1996. Jo continued to write during her year and a half in the hospital. She finished Drum Calls, the second book of the Drums of Chaos series, and was halfway through the third and final book when she lost her struggle with multiple myeloma in February, 1998.

Literary executor Katherine Kerr made arrangements with established author Kevin Andrew Murphy to finish the third book of the Drums of Chaos series. It is now completed.

OTHER SERIES BY JO CLAYTON

Diadem from the Stars
Lamarchos
Irsud
Maeve
Star Hunters
The Nowhere Hunt
Ghosthunt

Drinker Of Souls
Blue Magic
A Gathering Of Stones

Skeen's Leap
Skeen's Return
Skeen's Search

Moongather
Moonscatter
Changer's Moon

Shadowplay
Shadowspeer
Shadowkill

Wild Magic
Wildfire
The Magic Wars

Fire In The Sky
The Burning Ground
Crystal Heat

Dancer's rise
Serpent's Waltz
Dance Down the Stars

Drum Warning
Drum Calls
Drum Into Silence

Monday 29 August 2016

PROMOTION - UNKNOWN BY WENDY HIGGINS

Title: Unknown
Series: Unknown
Author: Wendy Higgins
Genre: NA, Romance, Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Post Apocalyptic
Release Date: 16th August 2016

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Amber Tate believes the worst thing she’ll suffer in life is dealing with the unrequited love she feels for her brother’s best friend, Rylen Fite. She also believes war is something unfortunate that happens places far, far away from her rural Nevada town. She’s wrong on both counts.

When an unknown organization meticulously bombs major cities in the United States and across the globe, a trickle-down effect spreads to remaining towns at an alarming speed—everything from food and water sources to technology and communications are compromised. Without leadership, the nation is split between paralysis and panic, but Amber isn’t one to hide or watch helplessly. She’s determined to put her nursing skills to use, despite the danger, even if it means working alongside the man she can never have.

In this first installment of NY Times bestselling author, Wendy Higgins’s debut New Adult series, a frighteningly realistic apocalyptic America is brought to life, entwined with searing romantic tension that will leave you eager for more.
 


PURCHASE LINKS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy Higgins is the USA Today and NY Times bestselling author of the SWEET EVIL series from HarperTeen, the high fantasy duology THE GREAT HUNT, and her independently published Irish Fantasy SEE ME.
After earning a Creative Writing degree from George Mason University and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from Radford, Wendy taught high school English until achieving her dream job as a full-time writer.
Wend lives on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with her husband, daughter, son, and little doggie Rue.

AUTHOR LINKS

OTHER TITLES BY WENDY HIGGINS

Sweet Evil
Sweet Peril
Sweet Reckoning
Sweet Temptation

See Me
Remember Me

The Great Hunt
The Great Pursuit

Sunday 28 August 2016

PROMOTION - WAKE THE HOLLOW BY GABY TRIANA

Title: Wake The Hollow
Author: Gaby Triana
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: 2nd August 2016

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Forget the ghosts, Mica. It’s real, live people you should fear.

Tragedy has brought Micaela Burgos back to her hometown of Sleepy Hollow. It’s been six years since she chose to live with her father in Miami instead of her eccentric mother. And now her mother is dead.

This town will suck you in and not let go.

Sleepy Hollow may be famous for its fabled headless horseman, but the town is real. So are its prejudices and hatred, targeting Mica’s family as outsiders. But ghostly voices carry on the wind, whispering that her mother’s death was based on hate…not an accident at all. With the help of two very different guys—who pull at her heart in very different ways—Micaela must awaken the hidden secret of Sleepy Hollow…before she meets her mother’s fate.

Find the answers.

Unless, of course, the answers find you first.
 


PURCHASE LINKS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GABY TRIANA is the award-winning author of six YA novels—Wake the Hollow (Aug. 2016, Entangled), Summer of Yesterday, Riding the Universe, The Temptress Four, Cubanita, and Backstage Pass, as well as thirteen ghostwritten novels for best-selling authors. Originally a 4th grade teacher with a Master of Science in Elementary Education and ten years teaching experience, Gaby earned Teacher of the Year in 2000, wrote her first novel, Freddie and the Biltmore Ghost, then left teaching to launch a full-time writing career. She went on to publish young adult novels with HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, win an IRA Teen Choice Award, ALA Best Paperback Award, and Hispanic Magazine’s Good Reads of 2008. She spends her time obsessing about Halloween, Christmas, and Disney World, as well as hosting parties, designing mugs, making whimsical cakes, and winning costume contests. When she’s not writing, she might also be watching Jurassic Park movies with her boys, posting excessive food pics on social media, or helping run the Florida region of the SCBWI. Gaby lives in Miami with her three sons, Michael, Noah, and Murphy. She has one dog, Chloe, and two cats—Miss Daisy, and the reformed thug, shooting survivor, Bowie. 

AUTHOR LINKS

Saturday 27 August 2016

SERIES PROMOTION - THE HEALING EDGE BY ANISE EDEN

Title: All The Broken Places
Series: The Healing Edge
Author: Anise Eden
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Diversion Books
Release Date: 16th February 2016

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All of Cate's problems are in her head. That may be her greatest strength. 

Cate Duncan is a promising young therapist, dedicated to her work. But after her mother's suicide, she is seized by a paralyzing depression. To save her job, Cate agrees to enter a program with Dr. Angeline MacGregor, run by her stern son, Ben, and housed in a repurposed church. Cate doesn't quite understand what the program entails, but she soon learns that the skills she will develop there may not only help her learn how to cope with her own problems, but will also lead her to a much greater purpose. 

The MacGregor Group is a collection of alternative healers whose unconventional approaches include crystals, aura reading and psychics. They know that their life's work invites skepticism, and welcome the chance to prove naysayers wrong. But they need the unique abilities that Cate can bring, and as she slides ever closer to her own abyss, they will do everything in their power to protect Cate from those who wish her harm -- including herself. 


PURCHASE LINKS
Title: All The Wounds In Shadow
Series: The Healing Edge
Author: Anise Eden
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy
Publisher: Diversion Books 
Release Date: 23rd August 2016

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Cate's enemies aren't just surrounding her―they're inside her head.

Therapist Cate Duncan has just accepted a job with the MacGregor Group, a unique collective of alternative healers. She's excited by the prospect of honing her empathic healing techniques among others like herself -- aura readers, telepaths, crystal healers, and more. The fact that Cate just started dating Ben, her magnetic new boss, is an added bonus. 

Before Cate can settle into her new routine, the poisoning of a prominent neuroscientist draws the entire MacGregor Group into both a federal investigation and an even more insidious threat. Protected by Ben's former Marine Corps unit, Cate and her colleagues must use their alternative healing methods to solve the crime as their patient clings to life. 

The responsibility of discovering crucial information falls to Cate and her parapsychological powers. But for Cate, unraveling the mystery means reopening wounds that 
had just begun to heal -- and in the environment of the Marine Corps unit, differences between Cate and Ben become clearer, straining their budding romance. When a new crisis looms, Cate must trust in her colleagues' gifts and the strength of Ben's love, finding the courage to confront her deepest and most terrifying demons -- or her own life will be at risk.

Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Author Anise Eden spends most of her time tucked away in her writing nook imagining things that aren’t there. On those rare occasions when she emerges from seclusion, Anise may be spotted in coffee shops, staring at her laptop screen and silently moving her lips as she reviews bits of dialogue. Although Anise claims that she’s the one in charge, the characters in her head do sometimes make her laugh out loud at inappropriate moments. 

AUTHOR LINKS

Friday 26 August 2016

PROMOTION & COVER COMMENTS - LABYRINTH LOST - BROOKLYN BRUJA'S BY ZORAIDA CORDOVA

Title: Labyrinth Lost
Series: Brooklyn Bruja's
Author: Zoraida Cordova
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Expected Release Date: 6th September 2016

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Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…


COVER COMMENTS
It seems an absolute age since I last did a "Cover Comments" post, although I always talk about my opinion on a book cover in all my book reviews. The following opinion is based on the cover alone as I haven't read this book, in fact I have yet to read a book by this author.

So this cover has quite an ornate background but the most prominent part of the cover for me is the female face, which is both out of the ordinary and noticeable. I'd go so far as to describe it as flamboyant , yet it is also beautiful at the same time. The females face is painted in such an elaborate way, that it certainly catches your attention. The other eye catching element on this cover is the orange ribbon/adornment in the female characters hair. I also want to add that I adore the font used for the title it adds to the already luxurious feel of the cover! Then the authors name is at the top part of the cover in white and a complimentary font. The female with her face paint/make up on the cover reminds me of the facial decoration of a depiction of the Baron Samedi from a TV program I watched recently. Though the female's facial decoration on this book cover is much more colourful.
So now the question I ask in every review & cover comments post . . .. 

Would this cover make me pick up this book from a bookstore shelf? Yes, I think it's a striking cover and would definitely draw my eye to it on a shelf. I know I would then pick it up to read the blurb and more than likely buy it too. The cover image certainly encourages me to want to learn more about the female on it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zoraida Córdova was born in Ecuador and raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of The Vicious Deep trilogy, the On the Verge series, and Labyrinth Lost. She loves black coffee, snark, and still believes in magic. 

AUTHOR LINKS

OTHER TITLES 

YA TITLES

The Vicious Deep Series
The Vicious Deep
The Savage Blue
The Vast and Brutal Sea

NEW ADULT

On The Verge Series
Luck On The Line
Love On The Ledge
Life On The Level


Thursday 25 August 2016

SERIES PROMOTION - ALIENATED SERIES BY MELISSA LANDERS

Title: Alienated
Series: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: 4th February 2014

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Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. 

Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.

Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking.

But when Cara's classmates get swept up by anti-L'eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn't safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara's locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class. 

Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she's fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.


PURCHASE LINKS

Title: Until Midnight
Series: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: 23rd December 2014

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Cara and Aelyx only have one day to spend together before he returns to earth and she travels to Aelyx's home planet, L'eihr. Homesick and worried about the upcoming year apart, Cara is desperate to make these final hours count. Worst of all, Cara is missing Christmas, stuck on board an alien spaceship. When Aelyx learns that Cara is forgoing her favorite holiday, he tries to recreate Christmas in space by researching traditional earth customs…but a few things get lost in translation.

Goodreads Link


Title: Invaded
Series: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: 3rd February 2015

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The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe...until a threat to both their worlds reunites them. 

Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.

Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have the technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.

The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?


Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK


Title: United
Series: Alienated
Author: Melissa Landers
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy
Publisher: Ever After
Release Date: 3rd February 2015

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After thwarting a deadly coup and saving the alliance between their worlds, Cara and Aelyx have finally earned a break. Their tiny island colony is everything they dreamed it would be―days spent gathering shells on the beach and nights in each other’s arms.

But the vacation is short-lived.

The treaty between Earth and L’eihr has awakened an ancient force that threatens to destroy them all. The Aribol, mysterious guardians charged with maintaining interstellar peace, deem the alliance a threat to the galaxy. They order a separation of the races, decreeing humans and L’eihrs must return to their own planets within the month or face extinction. In fact, they already have agents in place on Earth, ready to begin.

With the clock ticking, Aelyx and Cara assemble a team of colonists and race back to Earth, where they unite with old friends to solve the mystery of who the Aribol are, what they want, and the real reason the alliance has provoked them. As tensions build to a full-scale war, Aelyx and Cara must fight harder than ever―not just for their future, but for the survival of both their worlds.
 


Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melissa Landers writes romantic sci-fi & fantasy for teens and the young at heart. The Alienated trilogy (ALIENATED, INVADED, and UNITED) is now complete! STARFLIGHT is available, and its companion novel STARFALL releases in February. Look for THE HALF KING, first in a new fantasy duology, in 2018. 

AUTHOR LINKS