Friday Finds 3/7/14

This is another one hosted over at Should be Reading

Just found one this week that perked my interest.

Savor

When Claire Miller turned eighteen all she wanted to do was celebrate her birthday, but after a night on the town with her best friend she awakes to a visitor she never expected. The rulers of her region, a vampire royal family, have chosen her to be turned as their new heir and vampire princess. In a world fueled by the power of blood, Claire quickly discovers the vampire royal family is not what they seem and that she has secrets in her past, she never knew existed.

Blog Tour Review: Must love Otters by Eliza Gordon

Hollie Porter is the chairwoman of Generation Disillusioned: at twenty-five years old, she’s saddled with a job she hates, a boyfriend who’s all wrong for her, and a vexing inability to say no. She’s already near her breaking point, so when one caller too many kicks the bucket during Hollie’s 911 shift, she cashes in the Sweethearts’ Spa & Stay gift certificate from her dad and heads to Revelation Cove, British Columbia. One caveat: she’s going solo. Any sweethearts will have to be found on site.

Hollie hopes to find her beloved otters in the wilds of the Great White North, but instead she’s providing comic relief for staff and guests alike. Even Concierge Ryan, a former NHL star with bad knees and broken dreams, can’t stop her from stumbling from one (mis)adventure to another. Just when Hollie starts to think that a change of venue doesn’t mean a change in circumstances, the island works its charm and she starts to think she might have found the rejuvenation she so desperately desires. But then an uninvited guest crashes the party, forcing her to step out of the discomfort zone where she dwells and save the day … and maybe even herself in the process.

This book made me laugh out loud and cry too it made me run the gamete of emotions and I enjoyed every page. Hollie is a woman that could easily be me, or anyone I know really and I love a character that I can latch into and feel a connection with. Some of the thing that she gets into I could totally see myself getting into, like spraining an ankle while on vacation, or having to run naked through the lobby of the resort!

Must Love Otters is really a book that I think just about anyone will enjoy. If you like humor and a dash of romance with a little drama, this one is for you.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Booking through Thursday 3/6/14


This one is Hosted at the Booking through Thursday Blog.

I read an interesting blog post from the YA author A.S. King the other day that touched on censorship—especially as it pertains to young adult books.

Here’s an excerpt, but really, you should go read the whole thing because it’s fascinating:

I don’t know about you, but quiet censorship freaks me out. It’s the censorship that’s spoken over tea, over lunch, at random times when we are not prepared to answer because we are caught so off-guard that we really only think about what was said on the plane home. Last year I was asked to be on a censorship panel as an “expert.” I had to reply and say I was not an expert at official challenges. So far, my books haven’t had an official challenge as far as I know. Instead, I get embarrassed looks from dedicated librarians who whisper, “My principal won’t let me have that one in the stacks.” I have quiet un-invitations. I have quiet conversations with saddened teachers who tell me that a colleague said, “But you’re not going to actually give that book to students, are you?” I get quiet letters from devoted teachers who apologize for not being able to share my book with a student who needs it because of a fear of losing their job. Ah quiet. It is usually an indication that something really important is being withheld. Like the way we whisper cancer.

I think most of us are probably against censorship on principle, but … do you think it should vary depending on the impressionable age of the readers? Or is it always wrong? How about the difference between ‘official’ censorship by a government or a school system, as opposed to a parent saying No to a specific book for their child?

 

I am against censorship in every sense of it, whether it be for adults or children. Now that does not mean I think children need to see everything and anything out there in the world. However it is up to the parents to make sure the children are reading/seeing/watching age appropriate things. Censorship to me is wrong no matter what way you slice it.

WWW Wednesday 3/5/14

This is another one hosted over at Should be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What are you reading next?

I am currently reading:

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In this epic new work, the award-winning Kenyon creates an alternate 19th century with two warring continents on an alternate earth: the scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India). Emboldened by her grandfather’s final whispered secret of a magical lotus, Tori Harding, a young Victorian woman and aspiring botanist, must journey to Bharata, with its magics, intrigues and ghosts, to claim her fate. There she will face a choice between two suitors and two irreconcilable realms.

In a magic-infused world of silver tigers, demon birds and enduring gods, as a great native mutiny sweeps up the continent, Tori will find the thing she most desires, less perfect than she had hoped and stranger than she could have dreamed.

I just finished two books:

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And what is up next is going to be the book I was going to read previously up next..(hopefully anyways)

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Posted in WWW

Book Review: After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After marked the end of the Sookie Stackhouse novels—a series that garnered millions of fans and spawned the hit HBO television show True Blood. It also stoked a hunger that will never die…a hunger to know what happened next.

With characters arranged alphabetically—from the Ancient Pythoness to Bethany Zanelli—bestselling author Charlaine Harris takes fans into the future of their favorite residents of Bon Temps and environs. You’ll learn how Michele and Jason’s marriage fared, what happened to Sookie’s cousin Hunter, and whether Tara and JB’s twins grew up to be solid citizens.

This coda provides the answers to your lingering questions—including details of Sookie’s own happily-ever-after…

The book will feature extensive interior art by acclaimed Sookie artist Lisa Desimini, including a Sookieverse Alphabet, color endpapers, and several full-page black and white interior illustrations

I am going to add some warnings to this review. First take heed:

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Second, I am not one of the masses who is angry that Sookie ended up with Sam. I thought it was a bit, well okay whatever. I do however hate when authors betray characters and readers. Yes I know they are the author they can do what they want, but still. So there are the warnings.

First this book is WAY over prices. Do not waste your money on it. I am sure there will be plenty of copies in the give away bin soon enough.

So the round up:

Sookie ends up having a hum drum life. Kids. work you know normal person. well good for her.

Bunch of random people we don’t care about have humdrum lives too.

Bill becomes the King of Louisiana (this made me laugh) book Bill never had interest in it was more of a loner, but hey lets make something like the shows right?

Now Eric, yes my favorite character from Day one. I was angry when she sold him off into slavery in the last book, but I thought okay okay so now he will get a good ending. She wouldn’t make it worse… WRONG.
She tries to make us postively sure that because Eric is a survivalist and his nature is strong , Eric is able to find happiness in slavery with Freyda…except WTF? The chilling parallels to Eric’s early years with his domineering, abusive maker, Appius Livius Ocella, hang over his life with Freyda can’t be missed by ANYONE. Despite CH taking pains to characterize Freyda as ‘strong but fair’, the fact that Eric spends the first years of his marriage pining for Sookie and his old life (just as he once pined for his children and his human life when he was turned by Ocella) merely hammers home how much his own will has been denied in this situation. CH tells us that as with Ocella, Eric learned to care for the one who had taken everything from him, and eventually he will be happy. So much so that when offered his freedom, he decided to stay with her. REALLY?! He comes off as an abuse victim falling into familiar patterns, not the Alpha Male we know and love. I am sorry but she did say he was a VIKING right? I mean seriously VIKING….there is no way the Eric we were lead into loving would be steam rolled like this. NO WAY.

So guess what this book gets a NEGATIVE Gemstone rating. Yes I hate it that much on all levels. Way to betray all of the people who have spent years and lots of money on your books CH. WAY TO GO. Seriously.

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Teaser Tuesday 3/4/14

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Just wrapping up with my audio book so I thought i would give another teaser from it.

“Have you ever felt despair? Absolute hopelessness? Have you ever stood in the darkness and known, deep in your heart, in your spirit, that it was never, ever going to get better? That something had been lost, forever, and that it wasn’t coming back?”
― Jim Butcher, Storm Front

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Book Blast: A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon

Thousand perfect thingsA Thousand Perfect Things

In this epic new work, the award-winning Kenyon, whose work has be compared to Larry Nivens and Stephen R. Donaldson, creates an alternate Earth in the 19th century. This Earth is ruled by two warring factions—scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India).

Tori Harding, a Victorian woman, whose heart aches to claim the legendary powers of the golden lotus, must leave her reasoned world behind and journey to Bharata. In pursuit of the golden lotus, Tori will be forced to brave its magics, intrigues, deadly secrets and haunted places, to claim her destiny and choose between two lovers in two irreconcilable realms.

As a great native insurrection sweeps the continent of Bharata—Tori will find the thing she most desires, beautifully flawed and more wonderfully strange than she could have ever dreamed.

 

Praise for A Thousand Perfect Things

“This has become my favorite of all Kay Kenyon’s books. The science-driven men of Anglica have constructed a marvel of engineering-a bridge that crosses the ocean-but they don’t understand the mystical forces they’re facing in the dangerously seductive country of Bharata. As usual, Kenyon offers flawless world-building and a diverse cast of characters driven by conflicting and wholly believable desires. This is a rich, gorgeous, and marvelously detailed tapestry of a book.”
— Sharon Shinn, Author of Troubled Waters and Royal Airs

“Kay Kenyon has once again created a world into which one blissfully disappears, replete with magic and monsters, romance and reigning dynasties, set upon the fragile social scaffolding of mid-nineteenth century England. The story is, literally and figuratively, a bridge between the mystical and the very real, with a young heroine who a delivers a deliciously vicarious ride. Brilliantly told with elegant yet occasionally jarring prose, A Thousand Perfect Things is a masterwork from the mind of one of our best authors of compelling alternate realities.”
— Larry Brooks, Author of Story Engineering

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Book Depository

Excerpt from A Thousand Perfect Things

Tori’s stomach clenched as she now saw before her a woman in a green sari facing away. Streaming out from the woman’s head, her long hair was writhing in an impossible way, as though alive. The sight both sickened and fascinated her. The woman walked slowly away in a disconcerting gliding motion. Afraid yet intrigued, Tori followed the woman to the garden wall.

“Come, beti,” the woman whispered, though the whisper was in Tori’s ear, not fifteen yards away.

Tori approached. The woman’s long hair was shot with gray, her face deeply lined.

They stood regarding one another. Slowly, and to Tori’s relief, the long hair came to rest around the woman’s shoulders. It seemed to Tori that the frantic hair warned of discontent, and must put Tori on warning that the apparition could do violence. Suddenly, alarming noises issued from behind the zenana wall–squealing almost at the limits of hearing. Filaments of the woman’s hair rose again.

Tori backed up.

“They cannot hurt you, or even see you, beti.” The voice was a breath in Tori’s ear, but the woman’s lips were not moving.

“Why are you trying to scare me?” she managed to say, her voice gone pinched and high. The squealing behind the door grew louder. At that, the woman slammed a fist against the wooden door, all but shattering Tori’s resolve to stay.

The noise stopped.

“They do not wish for me to be long gone.” Bits of dust fell off the door.

Tori looked down to find that the woman’s feet were not actually touching the ground. Merciful God. Tori could not move, nor swallow, nor keep from staring.

The whisper again: “Jai will be showing you where to go. You should be trusting only him, beti.”

The squealing resumed, louder now. The woman placed her hand on the latch of the door, and as she did so, her hair swept in that direction.

Tori did not want to see what was on the other side of that door.

She looked desperately behind herself for her companions, but she was alone. As she turned back to locate the woman in green, all that remained of her was a shred of forest-colored sari sliding through a crack in the door.

 

A thousand tour

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kay kenyonAuthor Kay Kenyon

Kay Kenyon is the author of eleven science fiction and fantasy novels, including A Thousand Perfect Things. She is the author of the critically acclaimed science fiction quartet, The Entire and The Rose. Bright of the Sky was among PW’s top 150 books of 2007. The series has twice been shortlisted for the ALA Reading List awards and three times for the Endeavour Award. Four of her novels have been translated into French, Spanish and Czech. Along with her novels Tropic of Creation and Maximum Ice, two of the works in the quartet received starred reviews from PW.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Pinterest * Goodreads * Google +

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Blast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 3/31/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

 

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Musing Monday 3/3/14

Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My muse today is to show of the off the Dresden book I am listening too because my Friend Anah has been trying to get me into Dresden for a while and I just did not get to it. Not that I didn’t want to I just have a huge TBR well glad I got to it now!

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Harry Dresden — Wizard

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or
Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things — and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a — well, whatever.

There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get… interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

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Musing Monday 3/3/14

Musing Monday is hosted over at Should Be Reading.

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My muse today is to show of the off the Dresden book I am listening too because my Friend Anah has been trying to get me into Dresden for a while and I just did not get to it. Not that I didn’t want to I just have a huge TBR well glad I got to it now!

47212

Harry Dresden — Wizard

Lost items found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or
Other Entertainment.

Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he’s the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the “everyday” world is actually full of strange and magical things — and most of them don’t play well with humans. That’s where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a — well, whatever.

There’s just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry’s seeing dollar signs. But where there’s black magic, there’s a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry’s name. And that’s when things start to get… interesting.

Magic. It can get a guy killed.

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Cover Reveal: Mine to Spell by Janeal Falor


Today we have something different for you.  Instead of just revealing a cover we are asking YOU to help us choose WHICH cover to use!   Mine to Spell by Janeal Falor is the second book in the Mine series. This is a YA fantasy and it is scheduled to release May 5th, 2014.

Do you like cover choice #1:

Or do you like cover choice #2:
Cast your vote here:

Cover #1 or cover #2?

  
pollcode.com free polls 
Be sure to stop by the authors website on March 6th for the final reveal of which cover was chosen!

MINE TO SPELL Description:

Cynthia has always hidden from her father’s hexes behind her older
sister. When her family gains independence unheard of for women,
she’s relieved that her days of harsh punishments are over. But as
her seventeenth birthday approaches—the typical age to be sold to a
new master—death threats endanger her sisters. She now faces two
options: run or meet society’s expectations.
For once, Cynthia isn’t going to let her older sister shield her
from the problem. She’s going to prove to herself, her sisters, and
society that her family isn’t a threat to their traditions. She
willingly chooses to be purchased by a new master. A bold step that
takes her somewhere she never thought she would go and to a man she
might possibly fall in love with. With his help, she may
just
find a way to save her sisters while discovering how to
stand up for herself. If she lives long enough.

 


About the author:
Amazon bestselling author Janeal Falor lives in Utah with her husband and three children. In her non-writing time she teaches her kids to make silly faces, cooks whatever strikes her fancy, and attempts to cultivate a garden even when half the things she plants die. When it’s time for a break she can be found taking a scenic drive with her family or drinking hot chocolate.

Giveaway:

 Ten Giveaway Combo Packs: ebooks of YOU ARE MINE and prequel, MINE TO TARNISH
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This event was put together by CBB Book Promotions.

 

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