Friday, May 24, 2013

FFT: Surgery

Good morning, peeps!

As I'm writing this*, I'm in my bed with ice packs to my cheeks and feeling quite dizzy. Why, you ask? (Well, I'm assuming you're asking this :D) Because I've gotten my wisdom teeth taken out.

I swear to you, I planned on finishing a book yesterday and writing a review but with the pain and the nausea and the drowsy-ness it did not happen. All I ate yesterday was yogurt and soup. Soup and yogurt. Oh, and Ensure. So needless to say, I didn't feel all that amazing.

Hopefully by the time you're reading this, I'm feeling better. The pain medication has been a God-send, helping me not feel in horrible pain. And my mom took some time off from work to help me out, since I wasn't able to drive myself home.

My mom has been a God-send too. Seriously. I don't know what I would have done without her.

I'm glad I'm off of school for the summer, because I could not imagine going somewhere for these few days.

So anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend (for those of you who live in the United States), and a happy Friday.

Have you had any surgeries? If not, what are you planning on doing this weekend?

Yours,




*I'm currently writing this 5/23/13, so yesterday.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Cover Reveal: Ruby's Fire

Welcome to the cover reveal for Ruby's Fire! This book is a YA Sci-Fi novel designed by Jay Montgomery. It's set to come out June 26, 2013!
Ruby's Fire by Catherine Stine
Blurb:
If everything about you changes, what remains? Seventeen year-old Ruby, long-pledged to the much older Stiles from the Fireseed desert cult, escapes with only a change of clothes, a pouch of Oblivion Powder and her mute little brother, Thorn. Arriving at The Greening, a boarding school for orphaned teens, she can finally stop running. Or can she? The Greening is not what it seems. Students are rampaging out of control and as she cares for the secret Fireseed crop, she experiences frightening physical changes. She’s ashamed of her attraction to burly, hard-talking Blane, the resident bodyguard, and wonders why she can’t be happy with the gentler Armonk. She’s long considered her great beauty a liability, a thing she’s misused in order to survive. And how is she to stop her dependence on Oblivion to find a real beauty within, using her talent as a maker of salves, when she has nightmares of Stiles without it?

When George Axiom, wealthy mogul of Vegas-by-the-Sea offers a huge cash prize for the winner of a student contest, Ruby is hopeful she might collect the prize to rescue her family and friends from what she now knows is a dangerous cult. But when Stiles comes to reclaim her, and Thorn sickens after creating the most astonishing contest project of all, the world Ruby knows is changed forever. This romantic fantasy set in 2099 on earth has a crafty heroine in Ruby, and a swoonworthy cast, which will surely appeal to the YA and new adult audience.
This book is the second of the Fireseed series, but can be read as a stand-alone.
Age: 16 years and up


About the Author

Catherine Stine writes YA, New Adult and middle grade fiction. Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One, illustrated by the author was granted a Bronze Wishing Shelf Book Award and an Indie Reader Approved notable stamp. Her YA Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book. Middle grade novels include A Girl’s Best Friend. More and more, she’s enjoying writing speculative tales. She teaches literature at the School of Visual Arts and creative writing at the Philadelphia Writing Conference and in her own ongoing NYC writing workshop. Catherine earned a double focus MFA in Creative Writing at the New School. Visit her at www.catherinestine.blogspot.com and at www.catherinestine.com.

Yours,




This cover reveal was organized by Xpresso Book Tours. There will be a book tour for this book at the end of July through August, you can sign up here.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Book Tour: Surviving Raine (Giveaway)

WARNING: This post and the links from it contain adult content. If you are under 18 years of age or if such content offends you, please EXIT now.
Hello and welcome to the book tour for Surviving Raine by Shay Savage!! Surviving Raine is an adult romance novel that came out just yesterday!

Surviving Raine by Shay Savage
Blurb:
As the captain of a schooner catering to the elite on the Caribbean Seas, Sebastian Stark does his best to avoid any human encounters. Interacting with people isn’t his thing, and he prefers the company of a bottle of vodka, a shot glass, and maybe a whore. There’s no doubt he’s hiding from a checkered past, but he does well keeping everything to himself…
…until the night his schooner capsizes, and he’s stuck on a life raft with one of the passengers.
Raine’s young, she’s cute, and Bastian would probably be into her if he wasn’t suffering from alcohol withdrawal. As the days pass, DTs, starvation, and dehydration become the norm. Even the most closed person starts to open up when he thinks he’s going to die, but when she realizes their traumatic pasts are connected, it’s no longer the elements that have Bastian concerned.
He has no idea how he’s going to Survive Raine.
***
Bastian isn’t the most pleasant guy Raine could have ended up with in the middle of the ocean with no chance of rescue, but he has an uncanny knack for survival. As she digs through the walls surrounding the stubborn and challenging man, she finds something surprisingly different buried inside…
…and he can answer the question she’s asked for years.
As she learns more about what has brought him to this fate, Raine is determined to drag this self-destructive man back from the edge of the wave. Isolation is her only chance to tear the man out from inside of the animal, but this one has been abused for a long time.
She also has to live long enough to get through to him.
Age: 18 years and up

Excerpt

“What’s your problem?” I snapped again. I hadn’t really meant to, I was just tense and pissy.

The smoke was helping, but what I really wanted was a drink. I didn’t suppose anyone packed any of those little tiny airplane-sized booze bottles in the survival kits.

“I…um…” she stumbled over her words and looked away. Even under her darkened skin, I could see red creeping into her cheeks.

“What?” I was annoyed now. If she was going to complain about my smoking, I was going to lose it.

“I…have to go to the bathroom.”

I laughed. I took one last long drag, getting it all the way up to the filter before I tossed the butt out onto the waves.

“Then fucking go!”

“Where?”

“Didn’t you notice the en suite bath?” I laughed again, and then took a smidgen of pity on her. “Over the side, where do you think?”

“Well…how?”

All right, she did have a point there. Or rather, she didn’t have a point. Or a pointer. I had to laugh again at my internal joke.

“Just…I don’t know…hang your ass out over the edge. Or get in the water.

Whatever.”

“I’d have to take off my suit.”

“So?”

She blushed again.

“What? You want me to hang out in the next room for a few minutes? I promise I won’t gawk at you.”

She didn’t move. Well, actually, she was still fidgeting around; she just didn’t make a move to actually solve her dilemma. If she kept this up, she was going to pee in the fucking raft.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve already checked you out front and back, had my mouth on yours and my hand on your tit, so it’s not like…”

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. I realized how what I had said sounded, considering she had been unconscious the entire time. I shook my head.

“I didn’t mean…ah, fuck.” I grabbed my shirt and flopped down on my back, covering my whole face up with the garment. I lay there for a moment but didn’t hear her moving at all, so I yelled at her again. “Get on with it!”

She moved. I could hear her shuffle over to the front of the raft and then move around in one place, presumably taking off her shorts and her bathing suit.

“If you are going to get in the water, put the life preserver around your waist first and hold on to the fucking ladder. I don’t want to have to dive in after your ass again.”

“Okay,” she said. “Um…where is it?”

“Right outside the opening – on the left.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Whatever.”

I listened to her move around a bit more and then felt her move closer to the opening and off to the side. There was a soft splash, and a minute later I heard her pulling herself back up onto the raft.

“There’s something similar to a towel over there,” I said – flinging my arm out in the direction of the back of the raft and waving my hand around. “Make sure you dry off the floor, too.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Whatever.”

I listened to her move around some more, getting pretty fed up with just lying there, baking, with my fucking shirt over my head.

“Are you done yet?”

“Almost,” she said quietly. Her voice still sounded scratchy. “Okay, I’m done.”

I grabbed the shirt off my face and sat up, looking over at her. She was adjusting the straps on her suit and still blushing.

“Do you know why my…um…throat hurts?”

“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t elaborate. After a minute she finally asked.

“Why does my throat hurt?”

“Because you inhaled a shitload of salt water,” I stated. “It fucks up your throat and your vocal cords. Give it a day; it’ll be better.”

“Thank you,” she said, again.

“Whatever,” I replied, again.

I shoved my hand down into the sealed up container for rations and pulled out a carb bar. I tore it in half and threw one of the pieces at her.

“Eat it,” I instructed. “You can have the other half in six hours.”

“Six hours?” she repeated.

“Are you a fucking recorder? Yes, six hours.”

I knew I was being a bastard, but my brain was working overtime trying to figure out what our best course of action might be. Having her here made it ten times more difficult. If it was just me, I was pretty sure I would be fine. There was plenty of food and water for just me. I could fish, I could take care of myself, and I could stay alive under pretty extreme circumstances.

Having her here with me just…complicated everything.

About the Author


Shay Savage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, two children, and a variety of household pets. She is an accomplished public speaker, and holds the rank of Distinguished Toastmaster from Toastmasters International. When not writing, she enjoys science fiction movies, and loves soccer in any and all forms. During the fall, she coaches her daughter’s soccer team. Though she currently works in the technology field, her school background is in psychology, and she brings a lot of that knowledge into the characters within her stories.

3 x ebook copies (INT)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Yours,




This book tour was organized by CBL Book Tours and the giveaway is sponsored by the author.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

FFT: Sorries and Stories

Im so very sorry for not posting a review last week. Last weeks been crazy in my personal life and Ive been going through some huge changes. I know thats not really an excuse, but I promise to be better.

Now that (hopefully) all is settled, I should be reading more and able to have many reviews for you all—especially since Ive gotten ten new YA books that are just waiting for me to read them (plus the ARCs and review requests).

Many good things coming this summer so be on the lookout!

What is your favorite TV series? 

Ive recently gotten addicted to a TV show called Merlin. Theres five seasons (or series as theyre called in the UK :D) total and its completely amazing. If you love magic and adventure, I highly (HIGHLY) recommend you watch this show. Its on BBC One in the UK and Syfy in the United States.

Yours,

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sad news: Until I Break

Michelle Leighton has just announced on her blog that she is pulling Until I Break from publishing. Today is the last day that you will be able to buy this book.


I haven’t read this book, but I’ve heard amazing things from many of my book blogger friends and sincerely hope you guys get this book. I’ve gotten it and will read it very soon.

Michelle wrote on her blog:

“When I wrote Until I Break, I could’ve watered down the story, made it more palatable, easier to accept. But as an artist, I didn’t want to cheat Sam and Alec out of their story. As I’ve said before, life isn’t always pretty, but I had hoped that the majority of people would be able to see beyond the ugly to the wonderful story of love and acceptance and healing that was embedded in Until I Break. Sadly, that hasn’t turned out to be the case.

So, rather than risking people misunderstanding Sam and Alec and, therefore, me as a person and author, I’m pulling the book from publication. It will no longer be available in any format from any source after tomorrow. Yes, I could leave it out there to earn money, but every cent would be bitter, knowing that there are some who not only don’t “get” the story, but who are misunderstanding it in a disheartening way.

I would like to say a big ol’ THANK YOU to everyone who read, loved and understood the twisted lives and beautiful love of Sam and Alec. You gave me so much happiness with your outpouring of amazingly supportive words. I’m truly, truly grateful.”

Please, if you ever thought of getting this book, get it now before it’s gone.

Links:

Yours,

Friday, May 17, 2013

Cover Reveal: Embrace Me (Giveaway)

Welcome to the cover reveal of Embrace Me! This book is to come out August 1, 2014 and the cover was designed by Mayhem Cover Creations.
Embrace Me by Rebecca Turley
Blurb:
What will happen to the girl who has everything?

After a rough start to life, Shannon Downing finally has it all. She has her Mr. Notice Me, she has reconnected with her long-lost mother, and she is the sole heiress to a multi-billion dollar company. The only problem is going public with that information.

Hidden away at a ranch in Texas at her mother’s insistence, Shannon’s world starts to crumble. Not only does she learn of Maisy Field’s kidnapping, but she hears a secret that could destroy everything and everyone she loves.

What will happen when news comes out that she is the missing heiress to Downing International? Will she become the next target for the elusive kidnappers? And what about the secret she overheard? Will the love that she and Mr. Notice Me share be enough to hold them together?
This is the sequel to Notice Me.
Age: 17 years and up

About the Author

Rebecca Turley lives in the captivating town of Malvern in Worcestershire in the UK with her husband Jon and cat Millie. A hopeless romantic like most women, she enjoys becoming lost in a love story almost as much as writing one.

Embrace Me is the sequel to her debut novel Notice Me.

Tour Wide Giveaway: 2x ebooks of Notice Me (INT)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Yours,




This cover reveal was organized by CBL Book Tours and the giveaway is sponsored by the author.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

FFT: New FTC Guidelines

As most of you know, I am a guest reviewer for Novel Reflections. Tanya from there has pointed out that there are new FTC guidelines that require for bloggers and websites to disclose sponsored content or free product samples in exchange for free reviews (you can find a summary of the new guidelines here). The latter applies to me, since I get quite a few of free books in exchange for honest reviews.

The guidelines are not laws, merely guidelines, but the FTC does have the power to take action on me as the blogger. These new guidelines will make a few changes to my posts, which isn't much but you will notice some changes.

Anywho, I hope you all have a great day!

What do you think of the new FTC guidelines?

Yours,