A Blaze of Sun by Bella Forrest (A Shade of Blood #5)

About the Author

I guess my life as a writer started when I was five;  I’d sit under the kitchen table with my box of multi-colored wax crayons (I miss those) and create picture books.

Creative writing was always my favorite subject and I used any free time I had to sit down with a notepad.

Not much has changed, except that now I have developed vampirish habits: my  writing "day" typically starts at 1am.
I’m an avid reader, a big fan of cookie ice cream and I’m often travelling.

When working I have to disconnect the internet for fear of being endlessly distracted by websites such as www.icanhas.cheezburger.com.

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Synopsis

Welcome back to The Shade…

"Of course you know who I am. I’m a daughter of the darkness just as surely as you are his son…"

Ever since his brief encounter with Emilia at The Shade, Derek’s thoughts and dreams have been haunted with images of the mysterious, beautiful brunette. Plagued with guilt, he struggles to understand why he is so drawn to this dark stranger from his past.

When Emilia suddenly appears again on the island, Derek is both terrified and intrigued. But this time, he is determined to involve Sofia and discover who this woman is.

If only Derek and Sofia knew, Emilia is a mystery that should be left undiscovered…

Review

A Blaze of Sun transports the reader back to The Shade, back to Sofia and Derek, back to a love that defies all…

This series captivated me right from the beginning. With each new installment I fall deeper under its spell. Derek and Sofia’s love has been challenged at every turn, but they beat back the darkness and battle their enemies with a fierceness that only true love can create.

With so much upheaval at the shade between the humans and the vampires, Sofia and Derek barely see each other. There is space in their relationship that was not there before. Sofia is determined to find the cure, to bring true sanctuary to The Shade. With war beating at their gates, time is short. Sofia will be tested more than she ever has. Will her love for Derek, her courage and bravery for those she cares about, and her inner light burn through the darkness engulfing them and free them all?

Alliances will be made, sides chosen, and destiny fulfilled. Which side will you choose?

This story will grab ahold of you heart, seize your soul, and conquer your love. Derek and Sofia are heroes who will leave you breathless…

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15 Minutes by Jill Cooper (Rewind #1) + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

I could write this in the third person. I could tell you what I like, where I was born, and what my favorite things are.

\But instead, I’ll say I don’t want to write like everyone else. I don’t want to craft stories you’ve read a thousand times before. I want my novels to be a cinematic experience, blending themes, genres, and situations unlike any you’ve ever read.
I want to break the rules. I want you to break out in a cold sweat as you read my books out of fear, love, and excitement. I want my books to be an experience. When you finish, I want you to feel something. Good or bad.

If you do, then I’ll have succeeded. If not, I’ll keep trying.

Links

 

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Synopsis

I have 15 minutes to save my mother’s life….

15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives you in the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough time to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago.

But that’s not how it happened. The story she’s been told all her life is a lie and when Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever.

The love of her life acts like a stranger. Her simple life is replaced with a giant house, glamorous clothes and a new boyfriend.

Except someone knows her secret. And he will try to stop her at every turn as she races against the clock to unravel a dangerous conspiracy.

15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller that can be described as Back to the Future meets Inception where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn’t understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family.

Review

15 Minutes is a thrilling and suspenseful ride that takes the reader back in time and to an alternate future. Lara was told when she “jumped” that she would not be able to interact. She would appear almost as if she was a ghost. Boy were they wrong. Not only can she interact, but she has changed the past and remolded the future. She does not know who is who and if she can trust the new people in her life. Lara must find a way to set things right before it is too late.

Lara is an independent and fierce character. She is young and is still learning, but she is not afraid to get things done. From the first page until the last my eyes were glued to the pages. I just could not put it down. The stress of not knowing what was going to happening had me burning the midnight oil to reach the end…..then I realize, I need book 2!!!! This is a must  read that will thrill you, confound you, and make you ask questions that may not have answers!

Giveaway

• (3) eBooks (emailed in mobi or epub formats) – International
• (2) Prints – US/Canada
• (1) $25 Amazon Gift Card – Countries able to accept Amazon Gift Cards

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/4a5012254/

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Exorcising Aaron Nguyen by Lauren Harris (Millroad Academy Exorcists #1) + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

Lauren is a fantasy writer, voice actress, and the co-creator of 2012 Parsec Finalist, Pendragon Variety Podcast for aspiring writers of genre fiction, where she is known as "Scribe."

Her voice acting can be heard on Audible.com as well as fiction podcasts such as EscapePod, The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and The Drabblecast B-Sides.

Though she spent three years living in Tokyo, she currently resides in a renovated tobacco shed in rural North Carolina, where she is pleased to have running water, wifi, and all her teeth.

Links

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Podcast
• Goodreads

Synopsis

The murder of Millroad Catholic Academy’s resident genius, Aaron Nguyen, shuts down student life at the boarding school in rural North Carolina…for about a week. With the resilience of youth, the student body bounces back, and the memory of murder is nothing but a streamer of caution tape fluttering in the breeze.

Unfortunately for them, Aaron’s spirit has some resilience as well. Despite the priest’s attempted exorcism, Aaron’s ghost is soon breathing chills down the students’ necks and hurling bunsen burners at nuns.

Georgia Collins doesn’t give a shit about ghosts. All she wants is a story to prove her underground school news blog is more than a gossip column, closure on her one-sided relationship with her best friend Hiroki, and a vanilla latte. She wasn’t expecting Aaron Nguyen’s death to be anything more than a cold spot in the science hall, but since Hiroki has the curse of Spectral Sight, he is the only person who can see and speak to Aaron.

As the ghost’s demands for attention become increasingly violent, Hiroki enlists Georgia to help him investigate the crime, claiming that Aaron isn’t likely to move on until his killers are caught. Still hoping for spontaneous romantic combustion, she agrees to help bring Aaron’s murderers to justice and set the vengeful spirit free…but it’s not quite the close encounter she’s hoping for.

Review

Exorcising Aaron Nguyen is a fast paced paranormal adventure that takes the reader on quite a ride. Georgia is a strong character that is independent, hard headed, stubborn, and a bit snarky at times. When the smartest kid in school is murdered his ghost decides to haunt the school until his killers are brought to justice.

Georgia has had a crush on her bestfriend Hiroki for as long as she can remember, but as far as she can tell it is one sided. Hiroki is the only one who can see Aaron’s ghost, so he enlists Georgia help to find the killers so Aaron’s ghost can move one.

The connection between Georgia an Hiroki is comfortable with an edge of something else. They are both attracted to each other, but neither wants to make the first move or ruin their friendship. Being thrown together in suspenseful situations hunting for a ghost killers brings them together like never before.

From the very beginning this story grabs your attention. The inner workings of a Catholic school, exorcism rights, and budding romance make this a must read that will have you looking over your shoulder when you fill a chill!

Excerpt

What’s a Little Murder Between Friends?

Exactly one week after Aaron Nguyen’s body appeared on the soccer field with his head smashed in, I found my best friend, Hiroki Satou, leafing through an exorcism manual behind the chapel. The 9 a.m. sun punched the silhouette of our school’s new steeple into the brick courtyard, as if to remind students in the shadow of that looming crucifix that Jesus was always watching, even if the teachers usually weren’t. The acrid scent of cigarette smoke cut through the air, which was already dense with the grass and magnolia perfume of a late North Carolina summer.

As usual, Hiroki was smoking, posed in a languid slump against the brick wall. The manual, though—he usually didn’t bring that sort of thing out of his room. I slid into the shade next to him, and he shook the book at me without looking up.

"Ghosts are bad enough," he said around his cigarette, careless of ash falling on the lapel of his school blazer. "Asian ghosts are fucking terrifying."

I rolled my eyes. Hiroki had spoken English of some variety since he was a kid, but he’d only been in the states for six years. There were a few things he still didn’t get right all the time—prepositions, articles, idioms like "you can’t have your cake and eat it too" (which, if I thought too hard about it, didn’t make any goddamn sense to me either)—but I took personal pride in the fact that, by the end of sophomore year, he’d perfected the vast and varied usage of the word "fuck". Sure, he’d done all the memorizing and mistake-making, but I wiped a lot of spit off our desks teaching him how to pronounce the "f".

He flipped the page in a book filled with low-res “paranormal” crime scene photographs, and blew a stream of smoke away from me. The brick courtyard separating us from the soccer field still trailed the remains of last week’s flimsy caution tape, like morbid party streamers no one had bothered to take down. Half the nuns clustered at the edge of the grass, clutching their rosaries and shaking their heads. Sister Joseph Ann wept quietly into her wrinkled hands. I glanced past them to the field, waving away smoke that drifted toward me despite Hiroki’s efforts.

School activities had been cancelled for the past week, allowing the students extra time to deal with the trauma of a murder no one understood. There’d been lots of loud crying by people who’d never spoken to Aaron, and I guess I couldn’t blame them. Maybe they were distressed at the thought of murder so close, or maybe they saw it as an opportunity to get attention. Personally, I wanted to blog about it, but it seemed disrespectful to report hearsay and my blog wasn’t a gossip rag, no matter what people said – I never report anything I can’t back up. To be honest, I didn’t feel qualified to talk about murder.

Aaron’s ghost showing up, though, was a twist I might have an inside scoop on. Hiroki was saddled with the unfortunate talent of spectral sight, which made him something of an expert on ghosts. Just before morning Mass, he’d spotted Aaron’s spirit sulking translucently at the top of the stairwell to the science lab and alerted one of the nuns.

“Did you talk to the police already?” I asked.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. “An officer came by, but I haven’t talked to Aaron’s spirit. I just saw him. I don’t have anything they can use to look for evidence.” He tapped his heel against the brick, avoiding my gaze. Though the ghost hadn’t caused any trouble beyond a couple floating beakers and a spontaneously-lit bunsen burner, Hiroki was jumpy, and his unease made me nervous. He wasn’t usually afraid of them.

"So what’s Aaron Nguyen’s vengeful spirit going to do?” I asked. “Strangle students with computer cables? Program a continuous loop of Justin Beiber into the PA system?"

Hiroki smirked, glancing up. I tried not to notice the cutwork pattern of light stealing through the courtyard trees and lighting his irises to eerie amber. I’d given up on him in sophomore year, when I realized personality would never matter as much as the fact that I was three inches taller and about seventy pounds heavier. But he was too goddamn pretty for his own good sometimes.

I’d been in love with him since sixth grade, when he’d transferred from his school in Arashiyama, Japan to Millroad Catholic Academy—a grades 6-10 boarding school built in bumfuck middle-of-nowhere North Carolina. It was like one of those schools you read about in old British novels, except there was no lake for Clandestine Rowboats of Boy-on-Boy Snuggling (unfortunately) and the field across from our winding front drive sported twenty seven rusting cars and a deer stand.

He flipped a few more pages in the book and leaned away from the chapel’s brick wall, peering around my shoulder at the be-habited faculty. “They’re going to drench the place in holy water, say some Our Fathers, and expect Aaron to pack up and go like a good little Catholic ghost.”

I raised my eyebrow. “I don’t think that’s how exorcisms work. Omnis immunde spiritus and all that shit.”

“Yeah, well, I can tell you one thing—a Catholic exorcism isn’t going to work on a Buddhist ghost.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear Aaron had been Buddhist. A number of kids at our school weren’t Catholic, including Hiroki and me, but we attended because it was the only school around with a decent college acceptance rate. Parents who wanted their kids to go to university bought uniforms, made checks out to Jesus, and packed their bewildered kids off to Mass.

“I didn’t realize it mattered what religion the ghost was. Is. Whatever.”

“It does if it’s the kind of ghost that can be exorcised.”

Hiroki avoided my gaze as he took another long drag of his cigarette and watched the nuns file somberly back into the school for assembly. There was something in that statement he didn’t want me dwelling on.

He exhaled smoke through his nose in a long sigh. “We might as well poke around.” He shoved the book into his messenger bag and slung it around behind him.

“What does that mean?” I asked, glancing at the door to the chapel. The cool stone interior beckoned me, promising a nap-length assembly followed by an iced vanilla latte, and I really didn’t want to play the Watson to his Sherlock unless he was willing to reenact some pretty specific fanfiction. “I am not going to the morgue to touch his body.”

“Ew,” Hiroki said, a little skipping-shudder in his step. “No. I mean his murder. I’m not going near a dead body—gross.”

I guess there was Seeing Dead People, and there was seeing dead people. I wasn’t in a hurry to do either.

“How are you planning to just ‘poke around’ his murder case? The police are all up in here twice a day.”

“No idea yet. I’ll have a plan by lunchtime.”

I power walked after him. “You know I’m all for investigative journalism,” I said, “but don’t you think snooping through crime scenes and threatening possible witnesses is sort of a bad idea?”

He shrugged, reaching for the door to the chapel and heaving it open. A gust of cool air reached out, snagging us both. “Probably.” He stepped into the relative darkness of the hallway and glanced back at me. “When has that ever stopped you?”

Giveaway

• Grand prize winner will win the rosary pictured on the cover of the book, which was hand made by Sarah Moore, the cover model and inspiration for the character of Georgia. The rosary is made from two different sizes of tiger’s eye beads and is valued at roughly $50.
• 2 copies of the mp3 “Looking Eyes, Holding Hearts” by The Ethnographers, a local North Carolina band (the song will appear in the audiobook scheduled for release in late November)
• 10 copies of the ebook

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112f362/

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Fallen by Stacy Claflin Cover Reveal

Author Spotlight

Stacy loves writing, reading, and watching Young and New Adult Paranormal and Paranormal Romance. Her favorite TV shows include the Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Fringe, Pretty Little Liars, and the Lying Game.

STACY’S BOOKS

• The Transformed Series:
• Deception
• Betrayal
• Forgotten
• Chasing Mercy

You can learn more about her current and upcoming books, and connect with her at StacyClaflin.com.

Links

• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Goodreads

Synopsis

Samantha Erikson is a vampire with one mission: to rule the world. She’s spent decades winning over the world’s most feared vampire, Vince Moretti. Just when everything is going according to plan, he sidetracks her with the assignment of pretending to be a high school student in a small town.

It’s humiliating enough going from stilettos to sneakers, but Samantha must also follow the most boring person alive: the teenage girl who stands between her and the throne. When she has had all she can take, she finds a fun distraction: an attractive football player who isn’t scared of vampires. There’s one problem. Against her better judgment, she falls in love with him. Now she must decide between the mortal she adores and a place of power in the vampire world. If she tries to have both, she could lose everything.

Rogue by Gina Damico (Croak #3) Blog Tour + Photo Hunt + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

I grew up under four feet of snow in Syracuse, New York. I received a degree in theater and sociology from Boston College, where I was active with the Committee for Creative Enactments, a murder mystery improv comedy troupe that may or may not have sparked my interest in wildly improbably bloodshed. I have since worked as a tour guide, transcriptionist, theater house manager, scenic artist, movie extra, office troll, retail monkey, yarn hawker, and breadmonger. I live in Boston with my husband, two cats, and a closet full of black hoodies.

Links

• Website
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• Barnes and Noble
• IndieBound

Rogue (Croak #3)

Synopsis

Teenage Grim Reaper Lex’s power to Damn souls is getting out of control. She’s a fugitive, on the run from the maniacal new mayor of Croak and the townspeople who want to see her pay the price for her misdeeds. Uncle Mort rounds up the Junior Grims to flee Croak once again, but this time they’re joined by Grotton, the most powerful Grim of all time. Their new mission is clear: fix his mistakes, or the Afterlife will cease to exist, along with all the souls in it.

The gang heads for Necropolis, the labyrinth-like capital city of the Grimsphere. There, they discover that the Grimsphere needs a reboot. To do that, the portals to the Afterlife must be destroyed…but even that may not be enough to fix the damage. Things go from bad to worse, and when at last the fate of the Afterlife and all the souls of the Damned hang in the balance, it falls to Lex and her friends to make one final, impossible choice.

Guest Post

For all of you Croak fans out there the last book in the trilogy, Rogue, is going to be released on September 10th! So now on to the best part. Today Gina is doing a guest post for all you fan girls and boys! For those who have been following the tour, thanks for stopping by and good luck finding the clues!

Take it away Gina!

Hey hey Croak fans! Welcome to my blog tour / photo hunt / Roguestravaganza!

From now until ROGUE’s release on September 10th, each stop on the tour will reveal an image that represents a chapter in the book – could refer to setting, plot, an important object, mood, or whatever other diabolical visualizations with which I feel like tormenting my dear readers. Each image also contains a hidden letter…though really, they’re not that well hidden. (If you have eyes, you should be able to spot them.) Collect the letters every day, and at the end of the tour I’ll hold a contest, the winner of which will receive signed and annotated copies of the complete trilogy. (For a complete description of the contest, tour schedule, and links to the stops you might have missed, check out the blog tour page on my website.)

This photo is for Chapter 15. I will let the image do the talking.

Thanks for having me! Good luck everyone!

Giveaway

• 3 signed bookmarks
• 3 signed bookplates
• 3 magnets
• Scythe pendant

Fill out the form below to enter for your chance to win!

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The Wysard by Deborah J. Lightfoot (Waterspell #2)

Author Spotlight

Castles in the cornfield provided the setting for Deborah J. Lightfoot’s earliest flights of fancy. On her father’s farm in Texas, she grew up reading tales of adventure and reenacting them behind ramparts of sun-drenched grain. She left the farm to earn a degree in journalism and write award-winning books of history and biography. High on her Bucket List was the desire to try her hand at the genre she most admired. The result is WATERSPELL, a multi-layered fantasy trilogy about a girl and the wizard who suspects her of being so dangerous to his world, he believes he’ll have to kill her … which troubles him, since he’s fallen in love with her. Waterspell Book 1: The Warlock; Book 2: The Wysard; and Book 3: The Wisewoman.

Links

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Synopsis

After blundering into the last stronghold of magic, Carin discovers that she is right to fear the wizard Verek. He is using her to seal the ruptures in the void, and she may be nothing more to him than an expendable weapon. What will he do with her—or to her—when his world is again secure? Or has he erred in believing that the last bridge has been broken? The quest may not, in fact, be over … and Lord Verek may find himself not quite as willing to dispose of his fiery water-sylph, Carin, as he once believed himself to be.

 

Excerpt Prologue The Path Between The heartbeat couldn’t be hers. She was dead. Maddeningly, however, the sound persisted—a strong, steady whump, whump in Carin’s left ear. Through the blackness within her mind, half-formed impressions drifted like moonmist. They teased her with sensations to which she struggled to attach meaning. Her body lay sprawled across a surface that was hard enough to bruise her corpse. But her head and one shoulder rested on matter more yielding. Had her drowned remains come to rest on a rocky ledge in a supernatural ocean? Was this a pillow of seaweed cushioning her skull? No, a thought whispered from a corner of her torpid brain. Seaweed and rock have no heart beating in them. The rhythmic pounding in Carin’s ear hammered at her until a crack opened to admit a sliver of comprehension: She lived. If the heart-sounds were hers, then she wasn’t dead. If the heart beat in another’s chest and she heard it, then she was not only alive, but also pressing very near some other undead being. Her eyes jerked open. They beheld what might have been a rumpled snowdrift bathed in the light of a blood-red sunset. She stared. Whump, whump in her ear deepened the crack, penetrated to the core of her cold-shocked mind— Lucidity flashed through the breach, and abruptly Carin knew: the rumpled whiteness that pressed against her face was Lord Verek’s linen shirt. The reddish tinge on it was no natural light from a setting sun, but the glow from the walls of Verek’s vault of sorcery. The wizard lay on the cavern’s floor of polished stone. Carin lay atop him, her head pillowed on his chest, her ear to his heart, and her slowly focusing eyes inventing wind-drifted snow from the wrinkles of his shirt. She gave a violent start, put both hands to the floor, and heaved herself off Verek’s unconscious body—so forcefully that she nearly toppled back into the ensorcelled pool behind her. She teetered on the pool’s rim, waging a brief, desperate struggle for life. To fall again into those glacial depths would kill her. The intense cold had cast her faculties into an abyss that must have no rival but death itself. Without the sorcerer to drag her up from that oblivion, Carin stood no chance of surviving a second dunking. And her rescuer was in no condition now to extract her from the unnatural waters of his wizards’ well. Verek lay like a corpse. Carin’s sudden movement hadn’t roused him to consciousness. He appeared as lost in the abyss as she had been. She kept her balance. Carin stumbled to safety, treading between Verek’s body and the enchanted pool that imperiled all living flesh, whether mortal or magian. She reached the nearest of the four stone benches that ringed the wizards’ well. Upon that seat carved with the symbol of a fish she collapsed, but she took care to avoid the shape that was cut into the stone. The symbol, precisely centered and deeply carved, might be nothing but decoration. Like its fellows on the other benches in the cave—the image of a key chiseled into the seat across the pool from this one, a radiant sun on the bench to Carin’s left, a crescent moon to her right—the fish might be only a token of magical art. Maybe the four symbols were a wizard’s badge of office, as a king’s crown and scepter were emblems of his royal authority. Or, Carin thought, maybe there’s magic in every line and curve. The events of her three weeks’ imprisonment in Lord Verek’s house had led her to suspect sorcery in all elements of his domain. She distrusted the blighted woodland outside his manor walls and the shape-shifting books in his library. But here in the cave below the library rose the undoubted wellspring of magic. Power flowed in the waters of the enchanted pool and in the lifeblood of the sorcerer who had submitted himself to it. Purchase Kindle Editions $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman NOOK Books $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman Other Formats & Devices $2.99 each Book 1: The Warlock Book 2: The Wysard Book 3: The Wisewoman

Fable by Chanda Hahn (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #3) Blitz + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

Pronunciation: Sh-and-uh   H-ah-n

Chanda is the  author of the popular YA Unfortunate Fairy Tale Series which includes UnEnchanted and Fairest.  Both books have topped the ebook charts in 5 countries. She also pens YA epic Fantasy.
She was born in Seattle, Washington, raised in Nebraska, has lived in MN, IL and currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and twin children. She’s a former children’s librarian and children’s pastor. Currently she spends her free time penning new novels and a daytime taxi driver for her kids.

Links

• Website
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Synopsis

Book 3 in the UnEnchanted Series.

All that glitters is not gold.

When something precious is stolen from sixteen-year-old Mina Grime, she will do anything in her power to get it back, even if it means traveling to the dangerous Fae plane and battling one of the strongest fairy-tale villains yet.

However, nothing can prepare Mina for the dangerous obstacles she will face in the Fae world, or the choices she must make when love and life are on the line.

 

Excerpt Mina stopped and parted the long weeping willow’s branches, and could see the rose resting against Jared’s black boot. Wait…not Jared—Teague. Teague reached down to pick up the rose and brought it to his nose to breathe in its scent. His hair was a lighter shade of brown than Jared’s, and his eyes were a deep blue, while Jared’s were a haunting gray. They both had similar angular jaws and drop-dead gorgeous looks. Teague once again was dressed in black, and Mina had a mind to joke about whether he was going to a funeral, but he was, so the words died on her lips before she even spoke them. Instead, she glared at him and held out her hand, demanding the rose without saying a word. Teague’s eyes widened and looked her over, never once dropping his Cheshire Cat smile. “I only came to pay my respects.” “What respect? You don’t respect me or my family. Otherwise, your kind never would have cursed us.” “You’re wrong—it’s always wise to respect your enemies.” “Well, I don’t respect you.” “You should, Mina. Do you see what happens when you ignore your duty—when you ignore me?” He pointed to Charlie’s grave, and his voice became threatening. “I don’t like to be ignored, and now you have one less distraction in your life, so you can focus more of your time on me.” Teague’s words confirmed her worst fears. Her actions had led Teague to strike out against her family and kill her brother. Her stomach dropped, bile rose in her throat, and every inch of her was sick with the guilt his words layered on her. It was her fault, and she knew it. But she couldn’t show him how weak she was, and how much his words had affected her. She had one more person to protect: her mother, and she would not be negligent again. “You’re not welcome here. So please leave.” Mina snatched the rose out of Teague’s hand and felt a sting in her palm. She winced in pain but refused to acknowledge it. Teague reached for her hand, and Mina let him open up her palm to inspect her wound from the thorn. She was still reeling, and her whole body shook with anger. Teague leaned forward and blew on the small cut in her palm, and it healed itself. She ripped her hand from his grasp and took two steps away from him, almost falling on the ground. She needed to keep better control of herself. She needed Jared. “How is my dear brother?” he asked, as if reading her mind. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” His eyes darkened. “We are not exactly on speaking terms.” “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you keep trying to kill me, would it?” “Now, sweet Mina, our fight goes back long before you were born. But you can’t hold it against me that I’m only doing my job. I’m supposed to throw quests your way, and you are supposed to try to stop me. It’s as simple as that. I can’t help it if we have a casualty or so in the process. That’s what makes the stories so good.” He smirked. “That’s what makes them popular. That’s what makes me powerful.” He was so close to her now that he ran the back of his finger across her cheek, and she flinched and smacked it away. “I see that you are as disgusting as ever.” “I see that you’re getting your fight back. You know, Mina, out of all the Grimms over the years who died at the hands of my fables, you are by far my favorite to toy with. I wonder why that is?” he asked, appearing to ponder the question. “Maybe because you picked the wrong girl to mess with.” “I don’t think so. I’ve finally found the perfect Grimm. I think you will be the most challenging. Which means your ending, the tale that finishes you off, will make us both famous.” Mina’s lip trembled, and she steeled herself to not show fear. She stood her ground and looked Teague right in the eye. “A thousand sweet words can never disguise the rattle of a viper about to strike. I will not drop my guard ever again. And I will end this curse…by doing whatever…or killing whoever…I have to.” Teague’s face turned furious, and his lips pressed into an angry thin line. “Then be prepared, my dear Mina, for you won’t be able to ignore this next tale. I’ve made sure of that.” He stepped away from her. A crack of thunder rattled the earth and she jumped, turning in surprise. A second later, pouring rain followed, soaking everyone within minutes. Mina turned back toward Teague, but he was gone.

Giveaway

• $25 Amazon Gift Card
• A paperback of any of Chanda’s books – winner’s choice

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d04251203/

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Life, Love, & Lemons by Magan Vernon

Author Spotlight

Magan Vernon is a Young Adult and New Adult writer who lives with her family in the insurance capital of the world. She is in a very serious, fake relationship with Adam Lambert and constantly asks her husband to wear guyliner. He still refuses. She also believes her husband is secretly an alien, disguised as a southern gentleman.

 

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Synopsis

When life hands you lemons, sometimes you have to say screw the lemons and bail.

Seventeen-year-old Bentley Evans had it all. Then her Dad got laid off.
Now she has to move across town to a small apartment and leave her life of luxury for public school and a job at the local burger place. Just when her world seems like it’s crumbling she finds solace in the unlikely punk boy next door, Kai Stone. But as their relationship blossoms, a jealous ex-girlfriend and a secret to tell that threatens to bring disaster back into Bentley’s life.

Excerpt

"You know I’m pretty sure that all that’s involved in high school dancing is just dry humping and swaying back and forth," I said as Kai helped me move my parent’s couch back.

"Well, I don’t want to dry hump or just sway back and forth," he said with a big grin on his face before setting the couch down.

"We don’t have to do this right now either. It’s a Sunday morning and all." I walked over to the front of the couch, not taking my eyes off of him.

"Homecoming is Saturday, and the only dance I know is the Hokey Pokey." He shrugged. "Besides Mom and my sisters are at small group and your parents can sleep through anything, so why not now?"

"Okay." I let out a deep breath and opened my computer. "But you really didn’t take any kind of dance classes? I had ballroom dancing freshman year in gym."

"Bentley, I’ve gone to public school all of my life. The only dance we ever learned was line dancing when I was in grade school up in Wisconsin, and I’m not doing that at Homecoming." He laughed.

I started up the song and set my laptop down and stepped in front of Kai, putting my right hand up toward him. “I definitely don’t think there will be line dancing at Homecoming,” I said, putting my hand in his.

“And you make fun of my music?” Kai asked as the song crooned through the speakers on my laptop. I put Kai’s right hand on my hip, and then placed my left hand on his upper arm.

“This is Sinatra, I really don’t think there is anything to be making fun of, and besides I don’t think we could really do ballroom dancing to punk rock.”

“I’m sure we could try." He smiled and kissed my forehead.

I rolled my eyes. “Okay, now that we have the arm position it’s time to move our feet, and if you step on my bare feet I am going to punch you.”

He playfully hovered his foot over mine, so I pinched his arm. “If you don’t behave then I’m switching the music to country.”

He let out a big sarcastic sigh. “Fine.”

“Okay, so left foot then right foot then together,” I said as we moved in unison.

“Then right foot goes back and then the left foot meets it.”

We moved together doing a few box steps. It felt kind of silly to be dancing in my pajamas in the living room.

“You know, I really don’t think that anyone is going to be doing the waltz at Homecoming,” I muttered

I looked up to see him mouthing ‘left, right, together’.

“Well what do people usually do then?" He looked down at me and stopped mouthing the words.

The Sinatra song ended and a slower punk rock song played, one that Kai had actually put on my computer.

“Usually…" I put both my arms around his neck. “It’s kind of more of a close, swaying motion.”

“Oh." He wrapped his long arms around my waist and pulled me as close as I think two people can get when one was over six foot and the other was barely over five foot three.

“Like this?" He swayed slowly back and forth.

“Usually it’s not some sort of a giant dancing with a midget.” I laughed.

“Fine then." He bent at his knees and picked me up off of the ground, so that my legs were dangling in the air while he continued to sway back and forth. “Is that better, shorty?”

I wrapped my bare legs around his waist. “Now it is."

I leaned in and ran my tongue along his bottom lip, tracing the lines of his lip ring.

“I don’t think that’s part of the waltz." He smiled and pressed his forehead to mine.

“It is now." I kissed him, pretty hard, since he fell back into the couch with me still in his arms.

Maybe I should have taken him up on the night alone instead of Homecoming. It felt so good to just be in his arms, and the kissing wasn’t so bad either. I could forget about the world every time that Kai kissed me. It was like his lip piercing had some kind of magical powers that just made all my problems disappear as long as we were kissing.

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Wings of Memory by Anna Kyss (The Underground Trilogy #2) Cover Reveal

Author Spotlight

When Anna Kyss is not writing new adventures, she can often be found exploring magical places. If she wanders into the right destination, stories are whispered by the wind or mumbled through the cracks of ancient buildings.

 

 

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Synopsis

Kiernan leaves his homeland, hoping to unlock the secrets that could save his people from extinction. But the path to answers is fraught with danger. He never imagines what lay hidden in the Costa Rican rainforest.

Shortly after arriving, Kiernan encounters the human girl that he spent months yearning for. Kiernan must decide between his love for Meghan and his budding loyalty to his brother, Avery. He tries to place his brother first, until faced with an impossible decision.

Kiernan must tap into magic to save his people. The only problem: unleashing his magic involves breaking his vow to his brother. What if the only way to help Avery is to choose Meghan?
Wings of Memory is a young adult, urban fantasy that weaves together supernatural lore, romance, magic, and an interesting take on Mesoamerican history. It is the second novel in The Underground Trilogy.

Other Books by Anna Kyss:

Peacemaker by Eva Gerald (Peacemaker #1)

Author Spotlight

Eva Gerald is a mother of two beautiful, active boys and an in-house attorney for a small software company. Needing to fill her endless hours of free time, Eva decided to write a novel. Three short years later, Peacemaker was ready for publication. Just in case she was tempted to go to bed at a decent hour on a regular basis, she decided to make it a series and is diligently working on the next book.

Eva lives in upstate New York with her supremely tolerant and supportive husband and two boys.

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Synopsis

Maya Voland doesn’t want to spend her senior year in the cold, isolated town of Shine, Vermont. Reeling from the death of her father and the discovery that her life is a carefully constructed set of lies, Maya wants to escape to a place where she can be invisible.

The residents of Shine can’t let Maya leave. She’s too important to their cause. A manipulator by nature, Maya was born with an extraordinary ability to influence the emotions and actions of others. Shiners will go to great lengths to train her to use those gifts to further their agenda, before other, more sinister forces intercede.

Shea Knightly has been waiting most of his life for Maya to come back home to Shine. He, too, has powers of persuasion and he’s never encountered a girl who can say no to his stunning looks and overwhelming charm. He’ll pull out all the stops to bring Maya into the fold.

Now Maya must decide—is the intense attraction she feels for Shea reciprocated, or is he just feeding her more lies to draw her into the dangerous world of the Shiners? Even if there is something real between them, what price is she willing to pay to make his cause her own?

Review

Peacemaker is a captivating story about a girl named Maya that has a special set of powers. She can manipulate how people feel and persuade them to do things. When she moves back to Shine, she just wants to be left alone and she wants answers to the lies that she has been told. What she gets is Shea.

Shea has been waiting for Maya to come back to Shine for a long time. There is just something about her that he can resist. Like her he is has the powers of persuasion, and she is the only girl who has ever told him no.

Together Shea and Maya look for the answers that she seeks. The bond that forms between is something that builds a little more each time that they are together. I loved the dynamics of their characters and their reactions to one another. Their banter, sarcasm, and quiet acceptance of each other is riveting.

This is a must read that will have you eagerly awaiting the second installment!

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Hold Tight by Cherie Colyer (Embrace #2) + Giveaway

Author Spotlight

Cherie Colyer is the author of YA paranormal thriller/romance, EMBRACE (available now), and HOLD TIGHT (August 2013), from Omnific Publishing. Check out her website and blog for news on her books and bonus material. Follow Cherie on Twitter and/or Facebook for updates on writing, book and special offers.

 

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Synopsis

What’s one little spell?

When you’re new to magic, one spell can be the difference between getting what you want…and ruining the lives of everyone you love.

Sixteen-year-old Madison has just embraced her magical powers. The trick now is learning how to control them. She and her boyfriend -and fellow witch- can’t even enjoy a simple kiss without getting shocked when their powers collide. Instead of mastering her new skills, though, Madison is stuck watching her kid brother and doing chores.

But being a witch does have its benefits. With a simple spell, Madison instantly conjures the help she needs around the house. Or so she thinks. Her idea of “help” invites trouble of its own as a pair of dangerous yet enticing beings enter her life. When a classmate disappears soon afterwards, Madison discovers she’s the next victim of a threat she’s powerless to resist…and there’s nothing it won’t kill to make her surrender.

Caught in the crossfire between two dashing but deadly creatures, Madison must figure out which one to trust and how to rid her world of the other—before one of them destroys her and everyone she cares about.

Giveaway

• (2) Print Copies of Embrace and Hold Tight– US/Canada

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f6237f315/

• (10) eBooks of Embrace (emailed in PDF, mobi and epub ePack) – International

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f6237f316/

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Catch up with Madison and her friends in Embrace, book one in the series.

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Ward Against Darkness by Melanie Card (Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer #2)

Author Spotlight

Melanie has always been drawn to story telling. In fact, she can’t remember a time when she wasn’t telling a story in her head or on paper. In grade school, they had journal writing time which she turned into story telling time, weaving tales of magic and adventure that mimicked the fairy tales and myths that she loved to read. It was there, with the help of two very special teachers, that she nurtured this love and started her journey as a writer.

She writes fantasy, paranormal romance, and everything in between, seasoned with a good dash of adventure and mystery. Join her on my tales of magic, adventure, and romance.

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Synopsis

The last thing Ward de’Ath wants is more trouble. On the run from both the law and the criminal underworld, Ward and Celia flee Brawenal City only to stumble into the mansion of a powerful evil necromancer. And when Ward discovers the man possesses a dangerous grimoire, his duty leaves him no choice. He can’t allow the necromancer to keep the grimoire. But the mansion is filled with monsters–human and undead–and Ward has no way of telling who’s friend or foe. The only person he can trust is Celia who dominates more of his thoughts and feelings everyday. But there are still laws in the way of anything but friendship. She’s still dead and he’s still alive . . . for now.

Review

Ward Against Darkness takes the reader back into the world of the Necromancers. Ward and Celia have fled the city only to fall right into the hands of an evil Necromancer. After everything that has happened Ward and Celia are not about to give up without a fight. Especially when Ward realizes that this man has a grimore that is really dangerous.

The romantic tension is slowly building between these two. They both have trouble trusting and self confidence issues. You really just want them to work through their issues and just get together already, but the build up is delicious and pure torture which is really realistic in this case.

Celia is really confronted with her past and how she has lived her life. Ward is such an honorable and noble guy who is compassionate and kind. Celia sees herself reflected back in his eyes and realizes that her life needs to change. They both seem to learn from each other and bring out the best in one another. When they finally do get to be together the collision is just going to be amazing!

This story is dark, edgy, and full of danger. Ward and Celia are really developed further in this story and the reader really comes to care more for who they were and who they have become.

Melanie Card has laid some fantastic background and character development in this series so far it will be agonizing to wait to see where she takes Ward and Celia next!

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