Friday, September 6, 2013

Blog Tour: Fifteen Minutes




Title: 15 Minutes

Author: Jill Cooper

Release date: June 15, 2013

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Thriller, Scifi

Tour organized by: AToMR Tours

Find the Book: Goodreads | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble

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.


Excerpt:


My breath echoes in my ear. Mom is there, taking me by the shoulder. Her lips are moving, but I hear nothing. There are tears in her eyes and mine, too. I fall forward, my head cushioned by her lap. Unable to blink, I can only stare ahead at a red fire hydrant on the sidewalk. Everything grows dim, and my breath rumbles.
I swear I see a shadow leaping over my body, but when I turn my head, no one is there. I don’t understand. There was no mugging, so why was I shot? Mom was supposed to be mugged.
Beep.
Time’s up. Everything goes dark as when a curtain closes on a stage, but I don’t think it’s from time travel.
            I think I’m dead.   

About the Author


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.



Trailer:



Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see other stops on the tour for reviews, guest posts, and excerpts click here or the tour button below.



 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Review: Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl



Info:

Title: Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl
Author: David Barnett
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
Source: I received an eARC in exchange for an honest review



Synopsis:

Nineteenth century London is the center of a vast British Empire. Airships ply the skies and Queen Victoria presides over three-quarters of the known world—including the East Coast of America, following the failed revolution of 1775.

London might as well be a world away from Sandsend, a tiny village on the Yorkshire coast. Gideon Smith dreams of the adventure promised him by the lurid tales of Captain Lucian Trigger, the Hero of the Empire, told in Gideon’s favorite “penny dreadful.” When Gideon’s father is lost at sea in highly mysterious circumstances Gideon is convinced that supernatural forces are at work. Deciding only Captain Lucian Trigger himself can aid him, Gideon sets off for London. On the way he rescues the mysterious mechanical girl Maria from a tumbledown house of shadows and iniquities. Together they make for London, where Gideon finally meets Captain Trigger.

But Trigger is little more than an aging fraud, providing cover for the covert activities of his lover, Dr. John Reed, a privateer and sometime agent of the British Crown. Looking for heroes but finding only frauds and crooks, it falls to Gideon to step up to the plate and attempt to save the day...but can a humble fisherman really become the true Hero of the Empire?

David Barnett's Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl is a fantastical steampunk fable set against an alternate historical backdrop: the ultimate Victoriana/steampunk mash-up!




Review:

Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl is riotous steampunk adventure, complete with a dashing young hero, airship battles and clockwork creations.

Gideon Smith starts off slow. I'll admit, the first 10% or so, I was a bit bored. Initially, I found Gideon to be lazy, naive and very immature. He was 24, but he acted like a little boy. However, this is one case where I'm so happy I stuck with a book! Get past the 10% mark and that's where the fun really starts! Despite the slow start, Gideon Smith is full of adventures involving mythical creatures (a fun surprise), foreign locations and, naturally, dirigibles (it is steampunk, after all).

While I wasn't a huge fan of Gideon in the beginning, he definitely comes into his own throughout the course of the novel and I was really quite proud of him by the end. The supporting cast was great as well. My favourite was Rowena Fanshawe. She was so badass! She knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to go for it, which is great in a era where women were so often restrained by what was proper. She embodies one of the things I love about steampunk and that is the opportunity for authors to include more strong female characters than traditional historical fiction allows. I also really felt for Maria. She was having such an identity crisis throughout the book, I really just wanted to give her a big hug. I loved the appearance of Bram Stoker. I'm still not sure how I feel about Elizabeth Bathory. She seems like a bit of a loose cannon in more ways than one. Even icky Mr. Bent started to grow on me (yep, like a disease or a fungus).

What I really loved about Gideon Smith was that it didn't take itself too seriously. It was written in the vein of slightly cheesy adventure stories, but I felt it was conscious of being a bit cheesy and played around with the idea by including similar stories with it's world, in the form of Gideon's beloved Captain Trigger's heroic tales.

I'm glad I didn't read the full synopsis on this one before I read it, as I think it contains a few pieces of information I preferred finding out about as I read, rather than up-front. As well, my only other complaint on this one is one loose end that was lost somewhere along the way and left me wondering what was going on with it. I do really hope there will be a sequel, as the ending was definitely left open for one and I'd love to read more of Gideon's adventures.

Overall, once I got through the first few chapters, I really enjoyed Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl. It includes all the things I love about steampunk combined with high adventure stories I often enjoy. I would actually love to see this one made into a graphic novel; I think it would work really well in that format. I'd definitely recommend this one to fans of steampunk, adventures and stories of regular people growing into heroes.




Find the Book:

Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository



Find the Author:

Goodreads | Web | Twitter