RELEASE EVENT: Spirit (Elemental Series #5) by Shauna Granger

RELEASE WEEK EVENT:

Spirit (Elemental series #5) by Shauna Granger

Title: Spirit

Author: Shauna Granger

Series: Elemental Series #5

Publication Date: April 30th 2013

Publisher: Self-Published

Genre: Young Adult/New Adult

Not even a guardian angel is more powerful than Death.
Always careful to watch out for others, Shayna put too much trust her abilities to keep herself safe and has been cut down by crazed man. Now she is trapped in the land of the dead, watching as her two best friends suffer the consequences of her death; their powers are fading and soon they will too. Shayna is desperate to return to the land of the living to save them from a similar, cold fate. To save her friends Shayna must turn away from the Light and, in doing so, sacrifice her wings.
But the longer Shayna stays among the dead, the further she slips from sanity. If Shayna cannot find her way back she will be condemned and lost forever among the restless souls of the dead. With nothing left to lose, she will do whatever it takes to fight her way back, with or without her wings.

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EXCERPT from Spirit:

   On the night I died, when Liam had walked me away from my friends and the wreckage of the house, the tips of my wings had dragged along the ground. I thought maybe that, though dead, I was still an earthbound angel. I thought I would get to stay, and I just had to wait for someone, like my guardian angel, to show up and tell me what I was supposed to do.
   But that’s not exactly what happened. My guardian angel did show, in a burst of blinding light, glorious in his power with his wings spread behind him as he floated. I felt warmth radiating from him and the tunnel of light, trust and some form of relief rushing through me, making me believe I hadn’t been abandoned while falling through the crumbling house. He held out a hand for me as he came close to the ground, his feet landing silently. I started to lift my hand to take his, I always took his hand when he reached for me, but the closer he came, the closer the Light came. I felt the pull of the Light somewhere in my center. I suddenly knew if I touched him, took his hand, let that Light envelope me, I would leave this world and my friends behind.
   “Wait,” I said, snatching my hand back and taking a number of steps backward, nearly tripping over my wings.
   “Shayna, what are you doing?” he asked.
   “What happens now?” I curled my hands into fists and kept them close to my chest.
   “What happens now?” he repeated. By the look on his face, it was obvious no one had thought to question him before. “We go into the Light, you join our ranks, and you become the guardian angel you were meant to be.”
   “And Jodi and Steven?” I asked. “What happens to them?”
   “They are alive and well.” He shook his head and started to take a few steps toward me. For every step he took forward, I took one backward, keeping my distance.
   “No,” I said, “what’s going to happen to them? Are they going to be all right?”
   “Shayna, that’s not our concern,” my angel said, making the bottom of my stomach drop out. I felt as if the world had turned on its side, and I thought I was going to fall over. “You were my charge; they are not your charges, so you cannot concern yourself with their fates.”
   “But something is going to happen, isn’t it?” I pressed. “My dying, that is going to do something to them, isn’t it?”
   “Shayna, just come with me.”
   “Why won’t you answer me?”
   “Shayna!” He rushed forward, his hands outstretched. I dodged, hitting the ground and rolling in a mass of limbs and wings. He tumbled forward, losing his balance when I suddenly wasn’t there.
   Getting to my feet was difficult, but when I finally did, I ran, flexing my wings behind me, working them desperately, lifting and bobbing awkwardly in the air. I heard him yelling for me, still tangled where he had fallen since he didn’t have the same desperate need fueling him. The Light sliced through the air and trees easily. My back warmed as it touched me, and the sensation to turn toward it pulled at me.
   “No!” I screamed, willing myself to go faster, farther, just get the hell away from it. That’s when the burning began.

About The Author

Like so many other writers, Shauna grew up as an avid reader, but it was in high school that she realized she wanted to be a writer. Five years ago, Shauna started work on her Elemental Series. She released the first installment, Earth, on May 1, 2011 and has since released four sequels, with the series coming to an end with Spirit. She is currently hard at work on a new Urban Fantasy series, staring a spunky witch with a smush-faced cat named Artemis. 

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GIVEAWAY: 5 Autographed Hardbacks

Over at A Reading Nurse there is an EPIC giveaway!!

She's holding a huge giveaway for you guys to win 5 AUTOGRAPHED hardbacks of 5 books.

The books are:

So head over there NOW and grab a chance to win these AWESOME books!!

And did I mention, they are SIGNED!!!

Go on!!!

BOOK BLITZ: Come Back To Me by Coleen Patrick

Come Back To Me by Coleen Patrick

Title: Come Back To Me

Author: Coleen Patrick

Publication Date: March 2013

Genre: YA Contemporary

Synopsis:

Whitney Denison can’t wait to start over.
She thought she had everything under control, that her future would always include her best friend Katie… Until everything changed.
 Now her life in Bloom is one big morning after hangover, filled with regret, grief, and tiny pinpricks of reminders that she was once happy. A happy she ruined. A happy she can’t fix.
 So, she is counting down the days until she leaves home for Colson University, cramming her summer with busywork she didn’t finish her senior year, and taking on new hobbies that involve glue and glitter, and dodging anyone who reminds her of her old life.
When she runs into the stranger who drove her home on graduation night, after she’d passed out next to a ditch, she feels herself sinking again. The key to surviving the summer in Bloom is unraveling whatever good memories she can from that night.
But in searching for answers, she’ll have to ask for help and that means turning to Evan, the stranger, and Kyle, Katie’s ex-boyfriend. Suddenly, life flips again, and Whitney finds herself on not only the precipice of happy but love, too, causing her to question whether she can trust her feelings, or if she is falling into her old patterns of extremes.
As she uncovers the truth about her memories, Whitney sees that life isn’t all or nothing, and that happy isn’t something to wait for, that instead, happy might just be a choice.

EXCERPT from Come Back To Me

I went to the rec center.

The front desk pointed me down a checkerboard-tiled hallway.  Halfway down, I heard guitar strumming and a mish mosh of clanging tambourines.  I transferred the paper bag with the last muffin to my other hand and swiped my damp palm against my shorts.  I moved toward the music, my gaze darting from one closed door to the next, until I found the right classroom.  There, I peeked into the square window on the door.

Evan.

He stood in the middle of the room, chairs pushed to the edges, orchestrating a dozen or so kids holding tambourines, triangles, and recorders.  The sound they made was loud, shy of any sort of regular rhythm, much like my heart suddenly, but they were all smiling, including Evan.  He clapped his hands over his head, while the guitar strapped around him swayed.  His shirt was blue—another button down, sleeves rolled to his forearm and shirttail hanging over his shorts as they played to their finale.  The tallest boy crashed his cymbals together while the kids with tambourines shook them wildly in the air.  

The butterflies in my stomach joined the ruckus, and I pressed a palm to my stomach.   It was just nerves thinking about our forthcoming conversation.  It wasn’t going to be easy to ask him about that night.

A girl in braids, the one holding the triangle, pointed at me and, in the moment, before Evan turned, I felt the muscles in my legs tense, but I stayed still.  I wasn’t going to run the other way anymore, not when I wanted answers.  Instead, I waved, and Evan raised his hand before heading in my direction.

“All right guys.” He opened the door wide.  “I’ll see you Friday.”  

One by one, the kids streamed past me, chattering to one another. I focused on the tops of their heads, unsure of how I would start my conversation with Evan.

“Hi.” I said, when the last kid was halfway down the hallway.  Then I got tongue-tied.  I smiled at him, but my lips trembled, drawn up by sudden nerves.  

Evan put out his hand for me to shake. I smiled, scrunching up my nose.  

“Hi,” he said.  “I’m Evan Foster.”

I laughed.  A slow smile spread on his face, and I felt the butterfly orchestra in my gut move into crescendo mode.  I held out my own hand.  His hand closed over mine.  It was warm, strong.     

“Whitney Denison,” I said, feeling a little bit silly.  That turned out to be good though, because as I took a deep breath, my nerves evened out.  “Whitney Elizabeth Morgan Denison.”

Evan raised an eyebrow.  “Oh, well in that case, I’m Evan Sebastian Foster.”

“Sebastian?”  

“Yes, my mom was really into The Little Mermaid.”

Again I laughed, but then stopped.  “What?  Wait, you’re serious?”

“Yeah.  She named me after Sebastian the crab.”

“And you tell everyone this story?”

“Not really.”  He watched me in a way that sent my heart on a faster pace.  “So, girl-with-two-middle-names…”

“I don’t think I’m ready for you to be calling me by my Native American name.”

He grinned and glanced down at the floor for a moment.  Then, he reached a hand in his jeans, pulling out his car keys.  Immediately, I was disappointed.  I didn’t want to be done talking with him.  I was just getting started.

I remembered the bag in my hand and held it up to him.  “Are you hungry?”

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About The Author

Coleen Patrick grew up in New Jersey, Virginia, Michigan, Louisiana, and Indiana. Always being the new kid, she learned that books and friends are precious—and dessert. She never met a dessert she didn’t like (except for flan).

When she’s not writing, reading (or avoiding flan), she enjoys TV, arts and crafts, quoting movies, and trying to take cool photos.

She lives in Virginia with her husband and two kids.

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BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY: Siege by Rhiannon Frater

Siege by Rhiannon Frater

Title: Siege

Author: Rhiannon Frater

Series: As The World Dies #3

Publication Date: April 30th 2013

Publisher: Tor Books

Genre: Adult Horror

Synopsis: 

 

Siege is the conclusion to Rhiannon Frater’s As the World Dies trilogy, which should appeal to fans of The Walking Dead. Both The First Days and Fighting to Survive won the Dead Letter Award from Mail Order Zombie. The First Days was named one of the Best Zombie Books of the Decade by the Harrisburg Book Examiner.
   The zombie illness has shattered civilization. The survivors who have found tenuous safety in Texas defend their fort against the walking dead and living bandits.
   Katie has made peace with the death of her wife and is pregnant and married to Travis, who has been elected Mayor. Jenni, her stepson, Jason; and Juan—Travis’s righthand man—are a happy family, though Jenni suffers from PTSD. Both women are deadly zombie killers. In Siege, the people of Ashley Oaks are stunned to discover that the vice president of the United States is alive and commanding the remnants of the US military. What’s left of the US government has plans for this group of determined survivors.

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Interview with Rhiannon Frater

•         What was your inspiration for Nerit’s character and do you know anyone with similar military background?

   I was inspired by three women I met at various points in my life. One was a young Israeli woman that inspired Nerit’s name, the other two were older Israeli women who were beautiful, intelligent, kind, and former Israeli snipers.  While speaking to one, she explained that women made better snipers than the men because they are better shots and she shrugged off her talent as if it was nothing really unusual.  She alluded to having taken lives, but didn’t seem particularly ruffled by this fact because she was doing her job. I marveled that someone so normal could have done something so extraordinary.

Nerit was born in a split second when I was writing the book and saw her standing on top of the old hunting store. I instantly understood the character and what she was all about.  I think she is such a popular and fascinating character because she is the person who does what no one else can do. She is the master of doing the monstrous and terrible, yet retains her dignity.  I love the fact that she’s 62, a woman, and yet a complete bad ass.

•         Did you do any research on psychopathology to write about the after effects on your character’s psyche?

   

    A ton of research.  Both by reading and speaking to people who have gone through terrible calamities.  I was able to talk to survivors of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and it gave me enormous insight into the mind of someone going through a life-altering experience like a national disaster.

   Also, I read up on historical events that adversely affected humanity and how we survived. I remember one article that really struck me was how humans survive through community. That was just a profound realization. Most of the time zombie fans are in love with the lone survivor, or the groups of people fighting and destroying each other, but the reality of our history is that in the end we survive because of community.

   As for the personal struggles, I did a lot of research on battered women for Jenni.  The real challenge was Calhoun. Since Calhoun is schizophrenic, I had to understand how the illness affects his perceptions. I watched several videos where they depicted how someone who has schizophrenia and is unmedicated sees the world. It was extremely eye opening.

   I’m a firm believer in creating realistic characters.

•         You could have chosen any place in the world for your characters to hole up in during the end of days, yet you chose to keep your setting close to home. What were the perks & drawbacks to writing about a setting familiar to you, as opposed to choosing one you must research or create?

   Actually, the characters are in a setting that is not familiar to me. I live in a big city.  I’ve not experienced the small town community that exists in the book. I observed how these small towns operate during my former job and was exposed to the reality of a small town. I remember marveling at how a city secretary knew the name of every person in her town and where they lived.  I was amazed.  During my travels, I absorbed the whole energy of these small towns and the people who lived in them and transferred that into Ashley Oaks.  It was a great experience.

I think the only book I have written so far where I didn’t have to do research on the location was PRETTY WHEN SHE DIES because it takes place mostly in Austin, Texas where I live.  That made writing a whole lot simpler!

•         If you were stranded on a desert island (with electricity?) what 3 things could you not live without?

   My computer, my husband, my pets.

•         What book would you absolutely have to have with you, and why?

   My novel THE TALE OF THE VAMPIRE BRIDE.  It is the one book I definitely wrote just because I wanted to read it.  

•         What 5 words would you use to describe yourself?

   Texan, author, Goth, goofy, boring.

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

Rhiannon was so generous that she will hold a giveaway especially for you guys.

The PRIZE is the whole series in paperback!!

BUT it's US/Canada only :(

a Rafflecopter giveaway

BOOK BLITZ & GIVEAWAY: Debt Collector by Susan Kaye Quinn

Title: The Debt Collector
Author: Susan Kaye Quinn
Series: Debt Collector, Serial 1-3
Publication Date: 2013
Genre: YA Future-Noir

EPISODES 1-3 (Delirium, Agony, Ecstasy) of the Debt Collector serial. Contains mature content and themes. For young-adult-appropriate thrills, see Susan's bestselling Mindjack series.
What's your life worth on the open market?
A debt collector can tell you precisely.
Lirium plays the part of the grim reaper well, with his dark trenchcoat, jackboots, and the black marks on his soul that every debt collector carries. He's just in it for his cut, the ten percent of the life energy he collects before he transfers it on to the high potentials, the people who will make the world a better place with their brains, their work, and their lives. That hit of life energy, a bottle of vodka, and a visit from one of Madam Anastazja's sex workers keep him alive, stable, and mostly sane... until he collects again. But when his recovery ritual is disrupted by a sex worker who isn't what she seems, he has to choose between doing an illegal hit for a girl whose story has more holes than his soul or facing the bottle alone--a dark pit he's not sure he'll be able to climb out of again.

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Excerpt from Delirium (Debt Collector 1) by Susan Kaye Quinn:

   My jackboots are new, the latest ultra-light material out of Hong Kong’s synthetics district, and they make a strange squeaking sound against the hospital floor. It’s the kind of sound that might gather snickers or a raised eyebrow, but no one looks at me, at least not on purpose. I stroll past the ICU desk, taking my time, breathing in the antiseptic smell that masks the odor of death held back by machines and drugs and round-the-clock care. The nurses duck their heads and study their charts, ignoring me. As if catching my eye might mean I’m coming to collect their debt, rather than Mr. Henry’s in Room 301.
   The floor is so highly polished that I see the reflection of my trenchcoat running ahead of me, black as a midnight grave, a spook that lives on the surface of the oft-scrubbed tiles. It reaches the door to 301 before me and disappears in the dim, flickering light coming from the room. The spook has gone back where he belongs, into the dark recesses of my soul, assuming I still have one. If I was a betting man, I would say the odds of having a soul keep getting longer with every transfer I do. The older debt collectors, the ones who are still alive, don’t have anything shining out of their dull-glass eyes, even when they’re hyped up on a transfer. There’s no telling what my eyes look like.
   I stopped looking in the mirror a long time ago.
   Mr. Henry’s hooked up in all the usual places—tubes in his arms and monitor patches hovering over his temples and the blue-veined skin of his chest. His knobbed knees and shriveled legs stick out the end of the blanket. I don’t know if he’s tossed the blanket aside or the nurses just forgot to cover him up again after his sponge bath or whatever they do to prepare patients for a debt transfer. Goosebumps raise the hair on what’s left of his legs into a small forest of gray fur. I tug the thin, white-weave blanket over his exposed legs, and Mr. Henry opens his eyes.
   They’re pale green and watery—washed out and used up like the rest of him.
   “You’ve come for me,” he says.

GIVEAWAY!

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About The Author

Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.

Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.

She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.

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COVER REVEAL: You Are Mine by Janeal Falor

Title: You Are Mine

Author: Janeal Falor

Series: Mine #1

Publication Date: May 6th 2013

Genre: YA Fantasy

Serena knows a few simple things. She will always be owned by a warlock. She will never have freedom. She will always do what her warlock wishes, regardless of how inane, frivolous, or cruel it is. And if she doesn’t follow the rules, she will be tarnished. Spelled to be bald, inked, and barren for the rest of her life– worth less than the shadow she casts.
Then her ownership is won by a barbarian from another country. With the uncertainty that comes from belonging to a new warlock, Serena questions if being tarnished is really worse than being owned by a barbarian, and tempts fate by breaking the rules. When he looks the other way instead of punishing her, she discovers a new world. The more she ventures into the forbidden, the more she learns of love and a freedom just out of reach. Serena longs for both. But in a society where women are only ever property, hoping for more could be deadly.

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About The Author

Janeal Falor lives in Utah where she’s finally managed to live in the same house for more than five years without moving. In her spare time she reads books like they’re nuts covered in caramel and chocolate, cooks whatever strikes her fancy, and enjoys the outdoors. Her husband and three children try to keep up with her overactive imagination. Usually they settle for having dinner on the table, even if she’s still going on about the voices in her head.