Book Blitz + Giveaway: Wings of Flesh and Bones by Cathrina Constantine

Book Blitz + Giveaway: Bound by Birthright by Janeal Falor

Book Blitz + Giveaway: Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen

Book Blitz + Giveaway: Aurelious Forty by Dianna Beirne

Aurelious Forty; Volume One

by Dianna Beirne 

Release Date: 12/20/14

252 pages

Aurelious Forty has led a lonely, troubled life. He stays disconnected from the world around him with no family and no friends. He lives merely to exist…to survive.

Aurelious’ life changes in an instant when an impulsive decision forces him to abandon everything he has ever known. Choosing to follow strangers into a new world, he discovers he was born with a gift so strong, so unique; it could give him the power to change humanity.

But the shadows of his childhood are long and dark and run through every fiber of his soul. Can Aurelious break the chains of his past and use his gift for good? Or will the nightmare of his tormentors set him on a path of revenge so fierce it could destroy us all?

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Playlist inspired by Aurelious Forty; Volume One

I think the thing that stands out for me most with Aurelious Forty is how emotional it is. The characters and, as a result, the readers go on an emotional journey that can be pretty extreme at times. Much like our own lives, there are highs and lows for each person that we meet on the pages. 

I listen to music all the time. I mean all the time. Driving, cooking, doing laundry, taking a walk, daydreaming, you name it and I’ll have music on while I’m doing it…even if I’m doing nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I love silence, I think best when there is no noise at all and I can’t write with music on but I often use music to get into the mind or soul of a character. 


When I was writing the last two chapters of Aurelious Forty; Volume One I listened to It Will Rain by Bruno Mars about a million times simply because, to me, it sounded like the intensely emotional scene that I was writing. So anytime that I wasn’t actively writing that scene on the day I wrote it, I was playing that song so I could stay in the mindset of my characters. I’m pretty sure my son thought I was nuts, but the process worked for me, it’s an intense scene to say the least!


So, that song is on my playlist inspired by Aurelious Forty; Volume One along with a whole host of others. The songs are either representative of a particular character or situation they are in and they all evoke some emotion, well for me they do and maybe they will for you too. And in case you were wondering, I listened to a lot of Mumford and Sons while writing Volume Two!


A Simple Man by Shinedown
If I Tremble by Front Porch Step
Too Close by Alex Clare
Sail by Awolnation
Drowning by Banks
Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked by Cage the Elephant
Pompeii by Bastille
It Will Rain by Bruno Mars
Now and Forever by Drake
Jar of Hearts by Christina Perry
More Than Words by Extreme
Round Here by Counting Crows
Centuries by Fall Out Boy
Handlebars by Flobot
Lightning Crashes by Live
The Wolf by Mumford and Sons
Where Are You Now by Mumford and Sons
Timshel by Mumford and Sons
Plain Sailing Weather by Frank Turner
Say Something by A Great Big World
Stay by Rhianna ft. Mikky Ekko
Headstrong by Trapt
Outside by Staind
Just Breathe by Pearl Jam
Uprising by Muse 

About the Author

Dianna Beirne lives in a fantasy world. Okay not really, but part of her wishes she did and, since that’s technically impossible, she writes about fantasy worlds instead. Her first Young Adult novel entitled Aurelious Forty; Volume One quickly turned into her first Young Adult series with the addition of Aurelious Forty; Volume Two and, Aurelious Forty; Volume Three.

When not writing, she’s generally daydreaming which morphs into wondering if that last daydream could turn into a book. She has also recently discovered podcasts but doesn’t exactly understand what they are or why they’re different from regular radio shows. So it’s safe to assume that her next book won’t be about a podcast. Instead she’ll just keep listening to the ones that she finds that hilarious because laughing is one of her favorite pastimes and she finds way too many things funny!

Prior to dedicating her time to writing, Dianna taught undergraduate and graduate courses about using literacy in the elementary, middle, and high school classroom. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, a Master’s degree in Literacy and a Doctorate in Education specializing in Curriculum and Teaching.

Dianna lives in New York and is the grateful mother of a son whom she misses terribly when he is away at college.

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Book Blitz: Queen of Tomorrow by Sherry D. Ficklin

Queen of Tomorrow (Stolen Empire #2)

by Sherry D. Ficklin

Release Date: 07/14/15

Clean Teen Publishing

280 pages

Sophie—now Catherine, Grand Duchess of Russia—had a tough first year at Imperial Court. Married at sixteen to Grand Duke Peter, heir to the throne, and settled in their own palace, things are finally looking up. As a new day dawns, she thinks only of securing her future, and the future of their country, during one of the greatest political upheavals of her time. Fighting desperately against forces trying to depose the Empress Elizabeth and put the young Prince Ivan on her throne, Sophie soon finds herself in the middle of a war brewing between her beloved Prussia, and her new empire. But even as she navigates the fragile political landscape, she quickly realizes that she has only begun to discover the tangled web of deceit and infidelity woven over the lavish court of Oranienbaum Palace.

When a strange and delicate alliance forms between the young couple, she glimpses a future of happiness, only to see it lost in a moment at the hands of those who still seek to end her life—and prevent her reign. Out of favor with the empress and running out of options, Sophie will have to sacrifice her own innocence on the altar of Russia if she is to save the nation, and herself. To survive, she will have to do the unthinkable, betray those closest to her and become something greater and more dangerous than she ever imagined she could be… a queen.

Buy Links

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Book One:

Queen of Someday (Stolen Empire #1) Links:

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About the Author

Sherry D. Ficklin is a full time writer from Colorado where she lives with her husband, four kids, two dogs, and a fluctuating number of chickens and house guests. A former military brat, she loves to travel and meet new people. She can often be found browsing her local bookstore with a large white hot chocolate in one hand and a towering stack of books in the other. That is, unless she’s on deadline at which time she, like the Loch Ness monster, is only seen in blurry photographs.

She is the author of several YA novels and in her spare time she co-hosts Curvy Writer Radio.

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Book Blitz: Love In The Gilded Age by Saruuh Kelsey

Love In The Gilded Age (Fissure Chronicles, #1)

by Saruuh Kelsey 

Release Date: 10/28/14

Once in a hidden queendom…

There is an ocean: In the infinite distance, between one hidden world and the next, is an unmeasurable expanse of twenty seas. One sprawling edge of the world to another is filled with waters as beautiful as they are deadly, as miraculous as they are fraught. Treasure and treachery litter their ocean beds, sleeping side by side with adventurers whose travels ended abruptly, lives caught and held under a wave until all breaths fled. 

There is a land: Tucked into a corner where four oceans fold together, land rises up illustrious in a jagged slash of mountains and forests, with secrets and wonders as plentiful as any water. 

There are chronicles: Not of the twenty savage seas but of the fissure of land and the people who sigh life into it.

In an original epic fantasy world, Love In The Gilded Age reimagines the heroes and heroines of Grimm fairy tales as ethnically diverse, LGBT, disabled, and gender flipped. 

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EXCERPT:

Xanna drove herself forward, leaning into the run to propel them along. Her mother was trailing behind her but didn’t have an option except to follow as Xanna leapt from the last bit of land and crashed into the pond. She heard Koal’s strangled shout as she broke the surface, gasping and paddling wildly. She fought every bit of tiredness in her muscles as she dragged her mother from the depths of the water; she emerged spluttering and angry. “He will kill you for that,” her mother said without emotion. No fear for her daughter’s life, no regret, no anger, just a blank statement of facts.

“No,” Xanna hissed. “I won’t be the one dying today.”

“Three souls will pass in this last fight.” Her mother dissolved into the senseless chanting of before, only repeated the ominous three souls will pass in this last fight. At least she had the good sense to pump her legs and move her arms to stay afloat.

Xanna had to get the rope off them if her plan was going to work. She pulled at their bound wrists, fearful and frustrated, and the vine uncoiled as if in response to her wish at the same moment the Wolf reached the edge of the pool and leapt in. It loves my mother, Xanna thought, but found she didn’t care. She gripped the rope in a fist as she put three lengths between her mother, watching the Wolf wade sloppily through the water to the woman it loved.

She didn’t have long. Xanna had to act, and she had to be both quick and quiet about it—a impossibility now that her every movement made a splash. Still, she had to try. Koal was shouting at her from the clearing but she blocked out his warnings.

The Wolf only noticed her presence when she wrapped the vine around its neck and pulled it taut. Growling, it fought to face her but couldn’t spin and remain afloat at the same time. Xanna kicked her legs faster, unable to use her arms to keep her from a drowned death as she strangled the animal. She was slipping, on the verge of sinking. Without warning, the Wolf dipped underwater, testing her grip on the vine. She lost the rope.

Xanna looked around for it desperately. It was her only weapon.

The vine didn’t resurface but the Wolf did.

About the Author
Saruuh Kelsey is the author of several novels for young adults, including the free Lux Guardians series and The Legend Mirror series. Her latest releases include THE BEAST OF CALLAIRE, the first novel of a new YA fantasy series, and a collection of diverse fairy tales in LOVE IN THE GILDED AGE. Find her online at saruuhkelsey.co.uk.

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Book Blitz + Giveaway: Naked by Stacey Trombley

Naked

by Stacey Trombley

Release Date: 07/07/15

Entangled Teen

305 pages

The best place to hide is in a lie…

I could never fit in to the life my parents demanded. By the time I was thirteen, it was too much. I ran away to New York City…and found a nightmare that lasted three years. A nightmare that began and ended with a pimp named Luis. Now I am Dirty Anna. Broken, like everything inside me has gone bad.

Except that for the first time, I have a chance to start over. Not just with my parents but at school. Still, the rumors follow me everywhere. Down the hall. In classes. And the only hope I can see is in the wide, brightly lit smile of Jackson, the boy next door. So I lie to him. I lie to protect him from my past. I lie so that I don’t have to be The Girl Who Went Bad.

The only problem is that someone in my school knows about New York.

Someone knows who I really am.

And it’s just a matter of time before the real Anna is exposed…

Buy Links:
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Playlist:
Naked Playlist 


The day Taylor Swift pulled her songs from Spotify was the day my book playlist went to die. Good thing I was already finished writing and almost all the edits were done at that point. I remember having one edit left and I had to make a youtube playlist because without Taylor Swift, the playlist is seriously lacking. 


I had four major songs that set the tone for this book (only one of them isn’t a Taylor Swift song). Songs that fit different aspects so perfectly they felt like they were made for it, made to help me along (one of which, I swear, could be the theme song). Here is a list of my most important playlist songs and some of the lyrics that struck me the most (because, let’s face it, it’s the lyrics that makes these songs so great for Anna’s story) 



1) Dear John by Taylor Swift 

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone. 
Don't you think I was too young 
To be messed with? 
The girl in the dress 
Cried the whole way home 
I should've known. 


2) Begin Again by Taylor Swift 

I've been spending the last eight months 
Thinking all love ever does is break and burn and end 
But on a Wednesday in a cafe I watched it begin again 



3) Whore by In This Moment  

You probably thought I wouldn't get this far 
You thought I'd end up in the back of a car 
You probably thought that I'd never escape 
I'd be a rat in a cage, I'd be a slave to this place 
You don't know how hard I fought to survive, 
Waking up alone when I was left to die 
You don't know about this life I've lived, 
All these roads I've walked 
All these tears I've bled 


4) Innocent by Taylor Swift 
 (I could quote this whole song but I’ll stick to just a tid bit;) ) 

Did some things you can't speak of 
But at night you live it all again 
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now 
If only you had seen what you know now then 
... 
It's alright, just wait and see 
Your string of lights is still bright to me 
Oh, who you are is not what you've been 
You're still an innocent 




Some other songs on the play list: 

Rise by Shawn Mcdonald 
Runaway by Linkin Park 
Torn to Pieces by Pop Evil 
Somewhere Inbetween by Lifehouse 
Lean On Me by DC Talk 
Through Glass by Stone Sour 
Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars 
Never Too Late by Three Days Grace 
Psycho by Puddle Of Mud 
Fearless by DC Talk  

About the Author

Stacey Trombley lives in Ohio with her husband and the sweetest Rottweiler you’ll ever meet. She thinks people are fascinating and any chance she has, she’s off doing or learning something new. She went on her first mission trip to Haiti at age twelve and is still dying to go back. Her “places to travel” list is almost as long as her “books to read” list. 

She wants to bring something new to the world through her writing, but just giving a little piece of herself is more than enough.

Keep a look out for her debut novel NAKED, coming from Entangled Teen in 2015

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Book Blitz + Giveaway: Drawn by Chris Ledbetter

Drawn

by Chris Ledbetter 

Release Date: 06/08/15

Evernight Teen

Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Jays Book Covers By Design

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.

Buy Links:
Amazon│Evernight Teen

About the Author
Chris Ledbetter grew up in Durham, NC before moving to Charlottesville, VA in 11th grade. After high school, he attended Hampton University where he promptly "walked-on" to the best drum line in the CIAA. And, without any prior percussion experience. He carried the bass drum for four years, something his back is not very happy about now.

After a change of heart and major, he enrolled in Old Dominion University and earned his degree in Business Administration. He's worked in various managerial and marketing capacities throughout his life. While teaching high school for six years in Culpeper, VA, he taught business management, business law, marketing, and sports marketing, and also coached football.

He has walked the streets of Los Angeles and New York City, waded in the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and climbed Diamond Head crater on Hawaii and rang in the New Year in Tokyo, Japan. But he dreams of one day visiting Greece and Italy.

He's a proud member of SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) and a strong supporter of the Need for Diverse Books. As a self-described, young reluctant reader, he writes young adult stories specifically to reach other reluctant readers. As a participant in the prestigious Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program, he was blessed to be mentored by Suzanne Morgan Williams, 2012 SCBWI member of the year.

He now lives in Wilmington, NC with his family, including three cats.

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Book Blitz: Schism by Laura Maisano

Schism (Illirin #1)

by Laura Maisano 

Release Date: 04/28/15

Muse It Up Publishing

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.

Buy Links:

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Goodreads  *  MuseItUp Publishing

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.

“We’re only between buildings. It’s not the end of the world.” Lea checked her phone again to make sure they were headed in the right direction.

He glanced over his shoulder. “I still don’t like it. It’s night, people do get mugged, you know.”

“The statistics of that are so low. We’re really not in any danger, considering the population and how many times that sorta thing happens.”

He shifted uneasily behind her. “Whatever, we’re raising the chances by being out here at night.”

Lea rolled her eyes. “I’m not missing this opportunity.”

“I know that. Neither am I.”

“Good.”

They came to a cross section behind two major offices where the loading docks and dumpsters sat for both of them. A stream of water trickled down the concave cement into the large sewer grate. Old garbage left a fume hanging around, and the humidity only made it worse.

Lea double- and triple-checked her coordinates, cross-checking with her notes. “This is it. Within I’d say, a fifteen foot diameter, low to the ground.” She shoved the phone in her cargo pocket. “Perfect.”

“How long?”

“Roughly ten minutes.”

Ten minutes may as well have been six hours. She paced back and forth, her sneakers scuffing the gritty pavement.

Gabe continued to keep a watchful eye out for muggers or vagrants. What a dork.

She snickered quietly. For someone who didn’t know his own experiences, he sure seemed paranoid. She watched him standing straight, darting his eyes to the entrance and even up to the windows above them. Watch out bad guys, Gabe’s on to you. She smiled and turned to see what looked like heat waves rising from the cold cement. Crap. The interaction had already started.

“Gabe…” She waved him over next to the loading dock.

This interaction provided no shining lights or obvious movement. Not much stood out visually, except maybe the air glistening like summer heat waves if she squinted hard enough, but her digital thermometer found the coldest point.

“Here,” she whispered, not wanting anyone or anything on the other side to hear. She stretched her arms forward, and Gabe did likewise.

“On the count of three.” She waited for him to nod. “One…two…three.”

They both reached through the interaction point and grabbed at the thicker air. Nothing. They tried again, pulling, grasping, and making any sort of motion to trigger a rip. Finally, Gabe leaned in and pulled out at just the right angle, because the light tore across like a jagged line. Lea grabbed the edge of it and tugged, opening the tear wider until they both fell through.

About the Author

Laura has an MA in Technical writing and is a Senior Editor at Anaiah Press for their YA/NA Christian Fiction. She’s excited to release her debut YA Urban Fantasy SCHISM April 28, 2015, and during the wait, she’s working on the sequel UNITY.

Her gamer husband and amazing daughter give support and inspiration every day. Their cats, Talyn and Moya, provide entertainment through living room battles and phantom-dust-mote hunting. Somehow, they all manage to survive living in Texas where it is hotter than any human being should have to endure. Check out her blog at LauraMaisano.blogspot.com.

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