Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday (7)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week my WoW is Stung by Bethany Wiggins. It sounds creepy and amazing! So excited for this one! I love the bug/needle cover. So creepy!

There is no cure for being stung.

Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered—her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right hand—a black oval with five marks on either side—that she doesn’t remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. She’s right.

Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded while a select few live protected inside a fortress-like wall, their lives devoted to rebuilding society and killing all who bear the mark.

Now Fiona has awakened branded, alone—and on the wrong side of the wall.

What are you waiting on this week?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Fang Girl Book Blitz

Fang Girl by Helen Keeble - September 11th 2012 / HarperTeen 

Things That Are Destroying Jane Greene’s Undead Social Life Before It Can Even Begin:

1) A twelve-year-old brother who’s convinced she’s a zombie.
2) Parents who are begging her to turn them into vampires.
3) The pet goldfish she accidentally turns instead.
4) Weird superpowers that let her rip the heads off of every other vampire she meets.(Sounds cool, but it doesn’t win you many friends.)
5) A pyschotic vampire creator who’s using her to carry out a plan for world domination.

And finally:
6) A seriously ripped vampire hunter who either wants to stake her or make out with her. Not sure which.

Being an undead, eternally pasty fifteen-year-old isn’t quite the sexy, brooding, angst-fest Jane always imagined....

Helen Keeble’s riotous debut novel combines the humor of Vladimir Tod with Ally Carter’s spot-on teen voice. With a one-of-a-kind vampire mythology and an irresistibly relatable undead heroine, this uproarious page-turner will leave readers bloodthirsty for more.



I'm excited to share with you an interview with author Helen Keeble!



What would you do if you woke up in a coffin and discovered you were a vampire?

Um, probably panic and cry in a very undignified fashion. I’m much less tough and resourceful than FANG GIRL’s Jane! But once I’d got a grip on myself, I’d do the same thing that Jane does – phone my family. Who wants to be a solitary creature of the night when you can go back home where there’s bed, broadband, and people who love you?

Do you work with an outline, or just write and go with the flow?

When I first started writing FANG GIRL, I was definitely just going with the flow. The first draft was actually written in just thirty days, as part of NaNoWriMo 2008 (National Novel Writing Month – a yearly challenge where people try to write a whole novel in a month). But given that it took me at least five drafts and an entire year to turn that rough manuscript into something coherent (let alone publishable), I’m now a firm convert to outlining.

Plus, of course, these days I have to outline, because my editor wants to know what I’m going to write before I write it, so she can decide whether or not to buy it! So my second book, NO ANGEL, had a fairly detailed outline… not that I stuck to it.

Which came first – the story or the characters? 

I always get a couple of characters first (in this case, Jane and her family), and then have to figure out what story to tell with them. Then it’s an iterative development – I create new characters to meet the demands of that story, but those characters in turn alter the shape of the story so I have to change that, which may mean I have to tweak the characters again… and round it goes!

If you could go to lunch with any author, who would you pick?

I can only have one? Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn, which I have probably read more than any other book in my life. I, uh, may also have watched the animated film version every single week between the ages of six and eight.

If I could have lunch with more than one, then I’d want Peter S. Beagle, Steph Swainston, China Mieville, Dan Abnett, Sarah Rees Brennan, Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin, Jacqueline Carey, and Cassandra Claire. Now that would be a literary party to remember!

Is there anything about you that would surprise your readers?

I may be a writer by night, but in the day I’m a professional engineer, developing software for industrial controllers. The cool (and terrifying) way of saying this is: “I design stuff that controls nuclear power plants!” The more accurate way of describing it is “I sit in a lot of meetings where people argue about tiny details in C++ code.” But either way, it’s an awesome job!

Can you give us any hints about book 2?

My next book (out in Fall 2013) is not actually a sequel to FANG GIRL – it’s another YA paranormal comedy with the same style of humour, but it’s not about vampires. It’s called NO ANGEL, so you can probably guess what romantic subgenre I’m poking fun at this time…



I’m working on a sequel to FANG GIRL at the moment, though can’t yet say when (or if) it’ll be released – whether or not my publisher, HarperTeen, decide to buy it will depend on how well FANG GIRL does! But I can tell you that the working title is THANK DOG, and in it Jane meets the inevitable hot shirtless werewolf… who is not quite what she’s expecting.


AUTHOR BIO
Helen Keeble:
Helen Keeble is not, and never has been, a vampire. She has however been a teenager. She grew up partly in America and partly in England, which has left her with an unidentifiable accent and a fondness for peanut butter crackers washed   down with a nice cup of tea. She now lives in West Sussex, England, with her husband, daughter, two cats, and a variable number of fish. To the best of her knowledge, none of the fish are undead.

Her first novel, a YA vampire comedy called FANG GIRL, is out 11th Sept 2012, from HarperTeen.

She also has another YA paranormal comedy novel (provisionally titled NO ANGEL) scheduled for Sept 2013.

Author Links:
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Monday, December 10, 2012

Blog Tour: Shadow Slayer Promo





Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) :
Shadows will do anything to become human. You see their influence everyday. You say things you don’t mean or do things that aren’t like you. You look, different. Friends you’ve known forever suddenly never call.

As a freshman, Roxie just wants to fit in which is impossible because she barely runs into her friends at her huge high school. Adrianne’s disappearance and Hayden’s attention rock Roxie’s world. But nothing rocks it like the most gorgeous guy at school, Drew. And nothing is more important to Roxie than astral projecting back to Planet Popular to solve the mystery of the map. But that changes when Drew invites Roxie to Homecoming. Hayden warns her that something’s wrong. Why would a guy like Drew like Roxie anyway? Drew must want something. Hayden’s right. Drew is...different. Planet Popular was just the beginning. Part of a bigger world, the Shadow World. There’s a war brewing between the world of humans and the world of shadows. When the shadow invasion begins at Roxie’s high school, she’ll not only fight for her life but the lives of her family and friends, when she discovers she’s the Shadow Slayer, the one human who can save Earth from the shadow onslaught. But, Roxie can’t even kill a spider. Oh yeah, there’s an evil English teacher, an enchanted play, a sword of Sandonian steel, a homecoming of horrors, and seven magic words too.

13 on Halloween (Shadow Series #1) :
Roxie has the best night of her life until the popular kids decide they want to celebrate her birthday in a way Roxie never expects––in her attic, with a gift that’s out of this world, and a pact to never tell a living soul what happens next.

Twelve-year-old Roxie wants to be like Adrianne, the popular girl who gets everything she wants––a flock to prowl around the mall with; invitations to parties; and for Hayden, the cutest guy in the eighth grade to, you know, notice her. When Roxie invites all the eighth grade peacocks (code word : popular kids) to her first ever thirteenth birthday party on Halloween, they all come and give her a gift that’s literally out of this world. Roxie astral projects to Planet Popular where she becomes seventeen instantly and gets everything she’s always wanted, but nothing is as it seems. Being a high school peacock is complicated and Roxie will risk everything to be who she thinks she wants to be. Oh yeah, there’s Prom, doppelgangers, a mysterious map, and lots of bad peacocks too.
13 on Halloween, (Shadow Series #1) is now available as an audiobook on iTunes, Audible or Amazon.

Laura A. H. Elliott BIO:
I love writing about enchanted road trips, shadow worlds, and alien romance while eating lots of popcorn. I live with my hubby and Oso, our aussie shepherd, in our tree house on the central California coast. After twenty-plus years as a freelance graphic designer/animator with clients including E! Entertainment Television and The Los Angeles Times, I crossed over into the world of publishing non-fiction and followed my heart to the world of fiction. Check out my other books at Laurasmagicday.wordpress.com or find me on Facebook or @Laurawriting!

Here's an excerpt from Shadow Slayer!

I turn another corner in the labyrinth. Every leaf, every twig, and the grass changes colors. Unnatural colors. I startle at a huge rustle beside me and bite my nails.

Two disembodied arms stick out of the bush next to me. My heart beats hard against my chest. I try to wriggle out of his grip but whoeveritis clamps down on my arms making it hard for me to get any leverage.

“AAAAAHhhhhh!” I scream, writhing back and forth. I fight to free my arms but he’s already wrestled them to my sides. I can’t move. He lifts me a few inches off the ground. I kick and stare at my useless hands and spot the long nails with black nail polish that begin to dig into my skin. There’s a tattoo on each finger. All the same. Stars, I think.

“I want to suck your blood!” he says laughing, lowering me to the ground. As soon as my feet get a little traction I kick and try to run away.

“Ouch! Drew, control your woman!” One of the guys says, a familiar voice. A football player steps out of the bushes. He loosens his grip and places an arm, the size of my thigh, over my shoulders. He marches us out of the labyrinth. I twist around, searching the maze. There’s no sign of the sword, my sword.

Drew doubles over, laughing and the prankster takes my hand and places it in Drew’s.

My gaze falls on the spot of fabric where Drew’s boutonniere isn’t. We’re surrounded by a bunch of homecoming zombies. Sixteen-year-old zombies. Their tuxedo coats all ripped and fake-aged with chalk or something. The black make-up around their eyes smudge into their white make up, their faces so pale they kind of glow in the moonlight.

“Zombies don’t suck blood!” Drew says between laughs.

“I know it just sounds so much better than I’d like to eat your brains,” the guy says. “Who’s this tasty morsel?”

“Roxie, this is everyone,” Drew says. In the middle of a circle of homecoming zombies, I immediately breathe easier. “Everyone, this is Roxie,” Drew gives my hand a little squeeze. I sink into his hug, floating my fingers over the spot where his boutonniere should be.

“Finally. Hey, I’m Franklin.” A large guy, the guy who had me in his grip and the size of a line backer, exactly the size of a line backer, pulls me away from Drew and buries me in a bear hug.

“That’s enough,” Drew says, taking a hand to Franklin’s shoulder, separating us.

“This is the one, huh?” another guy, smaller than the rest, says. “I’m CeCe.” He kind of scowls as he puts his hands in his pockets and rubs his chin with his shoulder. A little of his undead makeup rubs off on his brown suit coat.

“Hey,” I say. “What’s with the whole Halloween homecoming get up?” It’s all I can manage. I get super shy when I’m around people I don’t know, let alone football players who are years older than me who I barely know. Guys who just tricked me.

“She totally fell for it guys!” Another of the guys says.

“This is Randy,” Drew says, using his whole arm to point him out.

Randy makes like he’s going to run into me and dodges me at the last minute. “May I have this dance?” he says in a made-up English accent. He doesn’t wait for an answer and twirls me around then dips me and says, “I am you know... randy....” with a mischievous smile.

I turn to face Drew. “So what? All that was a joke?”

Drew gazes at the ground before he walks over and wraps me in his arms. His lips meet mine in a forceful kiss. “All of that,” he says. It’s like the best date ever, aside from the fact he made me believe I’m a Shadow Slayer and have to save the world.

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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Megan Likes (New) Books (11) / Reading Through My Bookshelf (9)

Megan Likes (New) Books

Megan Likes (New) Books is a personalize weekly meme inspired by In My Mailbox, Stacking the Shelves and Book Haul where I show off the new books and bookish items I've received lately.



For Review:

Model Spy (The Specialists #1) - Shannon Greenland
Midwinterblood - Marcus Sedgwick
Shadowhunters and Downworlders - edited by Cassandra Clare
The Seven Markets - David Hoffman
If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch
Arcania (Trial by Fire #1) - Liz Maverick
Dark Fuel (Trial by Fire #2) - Liz Maverick


Bought:

Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi

Free on Amazon:
Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft - edited by Rayne Hall
The Sin Collector- Jessica Fortunato
Scary Mary - S. A. Hunter


*  *  *

Reading Through My Bookshelf

Last Weeks Status: 68
Incoming Books: 2
Books Complete: 1
Books Removed from Shelf: 2 (Horrid Henry books being gifted to my niece)
Current Status: 67

Even though my number dropped this week, I kind of feel like it was cheating.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Review: The Pineville Heist

Info: 

Title: The Pineville Heist
Author: Lee Chambers
Publisher: MISFP
Publication Date: March 28, 2012 (first published July 20, 2011)

Blurb:

Seventeen year old Aaron stumbles into the aftermath of a five million dollar bank heist gone wrong. Hiding under a canoe, Aaron partially catches the murder of one of the robbers. In the chaos he sneaks away with the money and heads straight for the closest place of safety, his high school. Terrified, Aaron tells his shocking tale to Amanda Becker, his drama teacher, but it doesn't take long for one of the psychotic robbers to show up. In the locked down school the pair are relentlessly pursued in a quest to get the money back and wipe out the evidence.

My Thoughts: 

 The Pineville Heist was a bit of a departure for me. I'll be the first to admit that I don't read many thrillers. In fact, I think the only thriller I've ever read was The Davinci Code.

The Pineville Heist reads like a Jason Statham movie. It's seriously non-stop action. I think this high action level comes at the cost of character development, but I think that goes with the genre. I think readers got a pretty good understanding of the main character Aaron and a decent view of Miss Becker, but beyond that the other characters didn't stand out much.

Another thing that struck me as a non-thriller-reader is the level of violence. I seriously lost track of the number of people who got shot! But it's a lot. So while our hero is 17, I wouldn't recommend this one for younger teens unless they already watch a lot of violent movies and aren't too sensitive.


To heighten the sense of action and suspense, Lee Chambers used a lot of short sentences to keep reads on high alert. However, sometimes these short sentences would break down into fragments, just as a warning to those of you who get a bit hung up on grammar. Something that weirded me out a bit was that a couple times Chambers described how cute or beautiful Miss Becker was, while her life was in danger. "Her eyes were beautiful when they were frightened." It kind of reminded me of T-Bag from Prison Break. I think that's just me though.


Photobucket

This book is so twisty! Just when I thought I had everything figured out, BAM, wrong again!

The Pineville Heist was written as a screenplay first, then adapted to a novel. This comes through in the book and I think The Pineville Heist will definitely work well as an action movie! Plus the book is short (only 190 pages), so very little will need to be cut, which is always the worst part about book-to-movie adaptations.

Overall, The Pineville Heist is an action-packed thriller. Edge-of-your-seat action outweighs a lack of character-building and it was an interesting change for a non-thriller reader like me. I'll definitely see the movie when it comes out (plus it stars Booboo Stewart, which should be exciting for a lot of people).

On the Cover:

 The cover is very simple, but I like it. It lets you draw your own conclusions.

Rating: 3 Hearts
Source: I received a copy from Smith Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository

Find the Author: Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Website

Don't Just Take My Word for It: Falling Books | Bookish | Karen's Choice - Books

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